Hello all. It seems time for another update.

Disclaimer- Don't own FMA

Chapter 4

Selim couldn't remember falling asleep, but Al attempting to wake him up spoke otherwise.

"Huh? Wha…?" He asked groggily, looking around in confusion. Al was standing in front of him, chuckling to himself, and the train wasn't moving anymore.

"It's time to wake up, sleepyhead, we're here," the blonde explained, Selim was almost instantly to his feet. Looking out the window, it wasn't anything like the towns or cities he was used to. There was green everywhere, and it seemed to stretch forever. The sky was the same way, only with blue, the few clouds doing almost nothing to distract from the length of it.

"Whoa…" he mumbled to himself, causing Al to chuckle again.

"Sure is different from the city, huh?" the young adult asked, and Selim nodded excitedly. Moving away from the window, the two headed off of the train. The black haired boy stayed close to Alphonse, getting a bit nervous now that he was actually there. "We'll go to my house first so you can unpack your things, and then maybe we can go visit Ed, or I'll show you around town or something, how does that sound?" Al asked, and Selim agreed quickly. Sure, he didn't really want to visit Mr. Edward, but seeing the town did seem like fun, even if there didn't really look like there was much to see.

The house wasn't small, although it wasn't very big either. It had a little deck in the front and a bunch of windows. Al had pointed out that you could see his brother's house a little down the way. Selim had to admit that the other house looked nice, from a distance, at least. It was yellow, and looked a bit bigger then Mr. Al's. There was also a sigh out front, although the black haired boy couldn't read it from this distance.

The inside of the young adult's house was just as nice as the outside. Everything was pleasantly colored and inviting. Selim couldn't help but be distracted by all the little nicnacs and other items that Alphonse had picked up whenever he traveled east.

He was poking at one of these, a little glass cat, when the blond man started to move him along again.

"C'mon now, you can stay in the spare room. It's not as big as your room back home, but I think you'll like it," He said, heading down a hallway, and Selim ran to catch up. Despite the house not being that big, he didn't want to get lost.

"I don't mind if it's not big, I already like it here," that was true. His nervousness was already starting to fade and it was just starting to dawn on his that he entire time he was here there would be no guards. This would be the longest time in his life he'd go without the looming figures and he would definitely enjoy it.

The spare room was a lot like the rest of the house, inviting and bright, just like it's owner. The bed was a little big for him, but so was his bed at home, and although it was smaller then his room back home like Al said, he didn't care.

"Thank you for letting me stay here, Mr. Alphonse!" the black haired boy said, putting the bag he was carrying down on the bed. The older man smiled and shook his head.

"It's no problem, I'm glad to have you," just as he had finished saying that came a knock at the door. "Oh, that's probably Ed coming to see if we made it okay. I'll be right back," Selim nodded and the blond left the room.

Taking his clothes out of the bags and placing them into the drawer, the boy began to unpack. It didn't really take that long, but he made sure everything was nice and neat. He wasn't looking forward to going out and seeing Mr. Ed all that much. It was strange. While he'd never once actually yelled at him, and he did try to play nice a few times, there was still this underlying unease.

Closing the drawer with a sigh, he couldn't hide forever. Maybe Mr. Edward just wasn't very good with kids. It seemed he wasn't good with animals, with the way he acted around Shadow and everything.

"-an't shake the feeling you invited the enemy into your house," oh no, here it was again. He really, really shouldn't be ease dropping, but it was so hard when the people said such strange things.

"He's a good kid now Ed and you know that," Now? What did he mean by now? Wasn't he always a good kid? Shaking his head, Selim couldn't come out anymore, not if he was ever going to have his questions answered.

"I know, I know! It's just old feelings coming up," Ed said, and after that it was quiet. The black haired boy considered coming out, but right before he was about to, Al began to speak again.

"I think he's afraid of you Ed," Selim froze. He'd never actually told the younger brother he had problems with the golden eyed man, but then again Al was excellent at reading people it seemed. He'd have to get better at acting if he was going to fool him.

"What do you mean? I never did anything to him. Well, sure there were those things back then, but he shouldn't remember that, and if he did I don't think it would be fear he was feeling," Ed said, a very confused tone to his voice. He could hear Al sigh. It wasn't exactly one of frustration, Selim wasn't quite sure what it was.

"It's not something you did, it's those old feelings. Kid's are able to tell when something's up, and I think it's the way you are always hesitant and are closed around him that's making him scared," the younger brother explained, and the black haired boy wished he could go out and see what the two looked like, and what these old feelings they kept talking about were. What didn't he remember?

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Dang Al, when'd you become the expert on kids?" Ed asked jokingly. Selim had to hold back a sigh, he probably wouldn't be finding out what they meant now.

"What do you mean, I've always been an expert. Now, I should probably go see if he's okay. He's been in there a while," Selim quickly ran back to the spare room, careful not to make any noise, and pretended to be zippering up the suitcase when Al walked in. He didn't seem to suspect anything as he smiled down at the black haired boy.

"Hey there, finished unpacking?" He asked kindly, and Selim nodded smiling.

"Yep, is Mr. Edward still here?" he knew the answer, of course, but it would be less suspicious if he asked. Although maybe that wasn't the best subject, seeing as Al already thought he was afraid of the older man. If that was true though, he didn't let on any, just nodding happily.

"He is, want to go see him?" He asked, and Selim said sure. Walking back down the hallway he'd just ran down, the black eyed boy tried to keep the thoughts of the now numbering two overheard conversations from takeing over his mind. It'd be obvious something was wrong with him, and he didn't want to lie, but he couldn't tell them what he'd over heard either. It'd be best if they thought everything to be fine.

"Hey kid," Ed said casually when the two walked in. It was obvious he was trying his brother's advise. He'd usually greet him with something like, hello Selim, or some other formal thing. He tried to blame it on who his dad was, or some other social stance thing like that, but couldn't for some reason. It was some old feeling, like the brother's had been talking about.

"Hello," he said back, trying his best not to hide behind Mr. Alphonse. What had the older brother done to him that he couldn't remember? A million different scenarios ran though his head, none of them good and at least two involving witch craft.

"So, how do you like Resembool so far?" Ed asked as Al gently pushed him into the room and had him sit in a chair. Apparently they were going to talk for a while.

"It's really nice… clean…" yeah, that was a good way to describe it. It was a lot cleaner then the city or even bordering neighborhood he lived in. Ed laughed, just a tiny bit forced, and agreed.

"Yeah, it doesn't have any of the dust and fumes you find in cities, huh," Selim nodded, not really sure what to say. It felt wrong to talk to Mr. Edward all friendly. Ed didn't seem to notice though, although he probably felt the same way. Whatever these old feeling were, and whatever he'd done to the boy, wasn't apparently a good thing. Or maybe it was whatever Selim had done to him. After all, he did say it felt like inviting an enemy into his house.

"Well, it's getting kind of late, I promised Winry I wouldn't be gone long," Ed said, standing up and stretching a bit. Al nodded and stood as well.

"Maybe we could come over tomorrow or something, I'm sure Selim would like to meet your kids. They're about his age, right?" the younger of the two suggested. Selim saw the flicker of uncertainty go across his face before Ed answered.

"Yeah, I'll talk to Winry about it. Well, see ya," He said before waving slightly and heading out the door. The black haired boy decided to pretend to occupy himself by looking at photos on a table while Al watched his brother leave the yard.

"So, who's hungry?" The blonde man asked as he turned away from the window, a joyful expression once again on his face. Selim nodded, not turning fully away from the pictures on the table. "Good, I'll go make us something to eat. You look around, amuse yourself. I'm sure their's something here that'll be able to do that," Al said, heading to what the boy assumed was the kitchen. He didn't need to ask him what he liked, the young adult had watched him enough times to already know. "After we're done, we can go look around Resembool like I said before," Al called from the other room.

"Okay," The black haired boy called back, walking around the living room slowly, trying to take everything in. There was, of course, a bunch of things he'd never seen before. Stopping at another side table, he saw it also had pictures on it. These were much older though. The ones he'd been looking at before, although not too recent, were of things like, Mr. Edwards wedding, an old family portrait from after they had kids, a picture of that May lady that Al always visited I n Xing and vise versa.

These were from when Mr. Alphonse had been a kid though. The oldest was worn, kind of dirty and it looked like it'd even been burnt a little on the edges. It was a family portrait, he guessed. The two kids were probably Mr. Ed and Mr. Al. The older was definitely Mr. Ed, anyway, they had the same exact eyes. The man, Hoenheim, he think Al said his dad's name was, was crying for some reason, but the mother looked happy. She was pretty too, real nice looking.

That was the only picture with the crying man though, although the mother was in a few more. The newer pictures still had Mr. Edward in them, wearing a bright red coat and looking just like in his dreams, which was very unnerving, although Al wasn't in them at all. The next time he showed up, it was when he was maybe seventeen or eighteen. There wasn't really many pictures from in between actually, but he still wasn't there. Who was their though was the armor. The same one from his nightmares and the same one that Mr. Al must of modeled the stuffed animal after.

"Mr. Al," He called, still staring at the pictures. It was worth a shot to ask. Nothing wrong with talking about old photos, normal kids did that all the time.

"Yes, something wrong?" He asked, sticking his head through the doorway. He was holding a whisk, and Selim just noticed that something smelt pretty good. That was another thing he'd like about staying here. Not that his mother wasn't a great cook, but Mr. Al's food was amazing.

"No, I was just looking at these pictures," He answered, and the blonde came father into the room, staring at the photos from over his shoulder. "Why do you disappear?" might as well get straight to the point.

"What do you mean? I don't disappear," Al said, still looking over the old photos. Selim shook his head though, and pointed at the ones with the armor man.

"After you turn like ten or something there isn't any more photos of you until you're eighteen, but there's pictures of Mr. Edward," He explained. Al made a soft, oh sound, and seemed to be trying to think of a way to explain it to him.

"Well, you see, around that time we were traveling quite a bit, even more then we are now a days, so we didn't get many pictures taken to begin with, I must have just not been there when these were taken, I'm sure there's some with me around here somewhere," the older man explained. Selim frowned though, and didn't stop staring at the old snapshots. It was now or never. He might actually get an answer to one of the mysteries of his dreams.

"Who's Mr. Armor?" He heard Al try to stifle a gasps, and wasn't too surprised. He knew it was something strange. Something he wasn't suppose to know. The young adult quickly recovered though and answered.

"Just an old friend," he said, although that didn't really answer his question at all.

"Where's he now?" he pressed a bit, but trying to come off as nothing more then childish curiosity.

"Gone. But that's nothing for you to worry about. C'mon, why don't you help me finish the food, that'll be fun, right?" Al suggested, already leading his away from the photos. He couldn't help but glance back at them as he walked away though.

Al said that the Mr. Armored Man was gone, but usually when people say an old friend is gone, they sound sad. Especially since gone usually meant dead. He'd sounded almost happy though, it was very strange.

"Right…" He said absently, and decided to try not to thing too much about it as the two cooked. He'd figure it out. It was starting to feel like a puzzle, and he'd always been good at puzzles.


There you have it everybody. By the by, I'll be using the English name May for Mei Chang, just because there's a smaller chance that I'll accidentally misspell it. Also, Ed and Winry's kids should be coming in the next chapter. Ah, I'm scared, I don't want to butcher them. Any-who, please review. Hey, that rhythms…