Alphonse looked out the window, getting a view of Central. This was the first night he'd ever been in the city, Ed having been there a few weeks ago for his State Alchemist exam. The view was a nice change of pace. He liked Resembool, but if he looked outside at the Rockbell's house at night all he really ever saw was grass and sheep. There had also been stars, something largely missing here. Here there were street lights. In fact, many of the buildings still had lights on in them and people were still on the street. Of course many of them had their heads down and were hurrying . . . somewhere at this time of night. Even here, it would probably quiet down eventually.
Al turned away, back towards the room. It was a small room. Al sat on a cushioned chair. There was a desk in the corner, and Ed was sleeping on the only bed. Al sighed, but softly. He didn't want to wake Ed up, make him feel guilty. It was impressive enough Ed had actually gone to sleep in a bed with Al there. He always wanted to stay awake as long as possible for Al.
Al turned to the stack of books they'd left by the door when they came in. The books were from the Central library. Most of them were about Alchemy, but there was a also a history book, and Al might have slipped a book about cats into the pile.
For the moment, Al took an Alchemy book off the top. He opened it, started reading, and promptly did a double take. He checked the table of contents. This was new information. There was a lot of it in this book, if the table was anything to go by. Al . . . kind of wanted to laugh. This was great! He'd read something new tonight, and something new he was actually interested in. In the morning maybe he'd have a new idea on how to get their bodies back, or at least surprise Ed by casually mentioning things about alchemy he didn't know. He settled in reading.
By the end of the night, Al knew some new things about Alchemy, the history of central, and how to take care of cats.