Alphonse Elric leaned over the unconscious form of his once older brother with a wet rag in hand. His expression one of absolute concentration as he gently wiped at the crimson staining the soft skin at the corner of the girl's mouth, chin and throat hoping to erase the evidence of her illness before morning while simutaneously monitoring the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest to make sure that she was breathing okay.

Once assured that the petite figure was breathing alright, amber eyes shifted back to his current task as small white teeth bit down on his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood.

This was so frustrating!

And how could it not be? Ever since the day he and his brother had tried to bring their mother back to life- everything had changed for them. And not neccessarily for the better. He had come out of the encounter with the entity claiming to be the 'god' of the gate relatively intact. But his brother Ed however...had paid every toll that the beast had demanded of him.

Losing an arm.

Losing a leg.

And then had his gender changed from male to female while some of his memories had been erased by the experience. Supposedly, their Granny Pinako, had said that it may have been to keep himself sane as the painful changes in his body had occurred. It made sense, Alphonse supposed, that his brother's mind would suffer from some of the strain that he had suffered physically.

So perhaps it made sense.

On top of coming out of the other side of the gate a girl and missing some of his memories, Ed had also been branded on her stomach by a transmutation circle which was meant to be part of the toll paid so that Alphonse wouldn't suffer.

Which was another thing that Alphonse found so frustrating at the moment. His brother had suffered far more than one heavy price partially to save him. And now even four years after the event had gone down- he was sitting by his broth-er sister's? bedside. Carefully scrubbing the blood from her sensitive skin while she slept somewhat fitfully on the bed.

He rubbed some of the blood caked on her chin and neck for a second and must have applied too much pressure because his charge twitched in her sleep and then twisted her head around a little bit as she cracked her eyes open to look at him for a moment.

Those eyes- Alphonse thought sadly, Those eyes that had once been so like his own now looked as if they were the eyes of a stranger. Sure the shape was still the same. The lashes length and color. The shape and color of the eye brows... But the eyes themselves were a green color.

Nothing at all like his gold colored ones. And yet, the fire that they usually held- even now when she was in so much pain that he wondered how she managed to keep from screaming her head off for hours... That- That was entirely his brother.

"Al?" She said his name like his brother too. Al concluded as he sat back on his heels for a moment- taking the rag away from her skin for a moment and setting the bloodied piece of fabric across one of his legs so that he could reach out and push her long pale blond hair back away from her sweaty face.

"Hey, did I wake you?" Al asked in an apologetic tone as she reached up to grasp his hand weakly in one of her own and gave him a small, forced smile.

"Not really," She lied as she took a shuddering breath. "I kind of feel like I need a shower." She said as his fingertips played with her bangs a little. The motion of his fingers must have been lulling her back to sleep. Either that or she was simply too weak at the moment to bother going through with her desire to get up and move into the bathroom.

Damn gate and it's god- Alphonse thought darkly even as he gave her a small smile and promised her that she could take a shower later on. In a few more hours. But only as long as she got some more sleep. She barely moved her head to nod before her eyes slid closed and she was once again asleep.

Heaving a sigh, Alphonse picked the rag back up and then quickly stood up and walked into the bathroom to re wet it and paused in the doorway when he noticed the faint traces of blood on the counter of the sink and a small puddle of it on the floor where he had found her on her knees vomiting several hours ago. And scowled.

He would have to clean the room using alchemy to keep it from being seen by others who came here sometimes to speak to him and his sister.

Working quickly, he re wet the rag and then wrung it out a bit- and then shut off the tap and making his way back to his sister's side where he would repeat the process of trying to clean the blood off of her while she slept for another hour before he would then clean the bathroom and use alchemy to incinerate the rag that he'd used before returning to the bedroom where he would spend the remainder of his time stretched out on the bed next to his sister, just holding her hand while she slept.