It took a few days for Alphonse to be able to get out of bed. He still had a cough, but Al was never one who liked to stay still so Edward allowed him out of bed if he promised to stay by his older brother at all times.

"I want to go out big brother," Alphonse said suddenly while they sat at the dining table having soup.

"You're still sick," Edward said skeptically.

"It's just a cough," Alphonse whined even as he let out a rather harsh cough.

"Well," Edward sighed. It wouldn't really hurt to let the boy have a little bit of exercise. "I do have to go see about getting a new skin to go over this hand."

"What?" Alphonse asked. "You are going to hide it."

"In this world," Edward responded, "people aren't as accepting of those who have lost limbs as they are in the other one. Besides, people aren't used to seeing such advanced technology as this one. It's better to hide it."

"I guess," Alphonse pouted.

"Don't worry little brother," Ed laughed. "I'm not ashamed of it. I just don't want other people trying to take it from me like they always used to."

"Okay," Alphonse brightened up.

The doctor's office was about a ten minutes walk from their house, but it was made longer by the fact that Edward walked deliberately slowly so as not to overtask his sick younger brother. It didn't really matter, though. Alphonse was too excited about taking in all the sights to even bother with trying to walk faster. Ed didn't realize this would be their first time walking in the city together without having anything else to worry about.

Then it took them five more minutes to be let into the doctor's office.

"Mr. Elric?" the man raised a brow. "I see in your records that you just came for a check up on your prosthetic limbs about two weeks ago."

"I got new ones," Ed responded. "I just came here in the hopes of getting a fake skin to cover it up."

"Very well," the doctor responded as he gestured to the seat in front of him. "Let me see."

Edward handed his coat to Al before sitting where he was told. He handed his fake arm over and allowed the doctor to examine it.

"This is amazing!" the man gasped with wide eyes. The limb was the most advanced thing that he had ever seen. Their technology was nowhere near this advanced. "Where in the world did you get this?"

"It's in testing," Edward answered immediately. "I'm one of the test subjects to see if it works."

"This is amazing!" the doctor said again. "This will revolutionize the world of prosthetic limbs."

"Only if it works," Edward took his hand back and buttoned his cuff before shoving the metal hand into his trouser pocket. "Come on Al, we have to go. This was a bad idea."

"But what about your skin?" Alphonse eyes widened.

"I'll just wear gloves like I used to," Edward responded.

"Wait!" the doctor blocked their path. "At least let me examine it."

"We have to go," Edward responded. Before the man could say anything more, he grabbed Alphonse and pulled the two of them outside.

"What's wrong big brother?" Al asked.

"I should never have let that man look at my arm," Ed sighed.

"Why not?"

"Now he's going to tell all of his peers about the new advanced limb that I have and one of them might not exactly be very professional," Ed responded. "It'll put us both in danger."

"Oh," Alphonse frowned, but then his smile returned almost immediately. "I'm sure we'll be fine brother." Ed just had to smile at that because that was his stupidly optimistic little brother Al. Edward was never able to believe that so easily, but he never let Al stop believing. They needed that optimism in their life and Edward needed that innocence in his little brother.

"Yea," Ed nodded distractedly as he stared at his younger brother. He didn't realize how much he missed the boy until now. Al was everything to him.

"And," Alphonse continued, "if anything happens, you'll protect us won't you?"

"Of course," Ed agreed. "I won't let anything happen to you. Not anymore."

Alphonse grinned up at him.

They walked in silence back to the house and only when they were comfortably sitting inside did Alphonse speak again. "So now what are we going to do?" he asked.

"I think," Edward responded, "that we should go on an adventure once you feel better."

"An adventure?" Alphonse asked.

"Yea," Edward nodded.

Al was better by the next day, but they chose to wait to go on their adventure for a week so that they could get all of their affairs in order before hand. They wanted to sell the house that they were living in for a decent price so that they would actually have some money for their travels. Unfortunately, because they chose to wait, trouble had the chance to strike them.

It happened late at night after both Al and Ed had gone to sleep. People wanted Ed's new arm and any other type of the same things. They could gain a huge profit if they could figure out how to make these advanced prosthetics, but first they had to find the correct sample. They slipped through the front door after picking the lock and then they made a horrible mistake. They went to the wrong room. They went to Alphonse's room. What they found in there was like the mother load. The boy's room didn't have any samples, but it did contain the blue prints of the project. Unfortunately, they didn't understand any of the blueprints. There were markings on the papers that and one of them recognized so they decided to just take someone who might be able to translate.

Alphonse never stood a chance.