The Ties That Bind
Chapter Ten:
One Year Later
"...I can't believe it's already been a year..." Alphonse muttered under his breath as he stood on the upper balcony of the Rockbell home, leaning against the railing. It had been a year since the Gun-Factory incident, as Alphonse called it, and he was still waiting.
After Wrath killed Envy, Izumi helped Edward bring Alphonse back to Dublith where he was fixed up. He then proceeded to tell his brother about what they had done. They lived with Izumi for a little while, but when Alphonse told Edward that they were going to go home, Edward refused. He had told Alphonse that 'I'll come home when I remember where it is.' His memories were slowly coming back to him, and Alphonse was helping as much as he could, but he understood his brother's wish. He needed to get away from everyone and everything he did know so he could focus more on remembering, as crazy as that sounded. Al had smiled and replied 'If you had said that a year ago, I wouldn't let you go, but I understand now.'
Edward left the next day without a word to anyone except for a single scrap of paper with 'Thanks. See you later.' written in his horrible handwriting. Al traveled back to Resembool alone, and told Winy and Pinako what had happened. Of course, Winry hadn't understood why Alphonse had let Edward run off on his own, and she raved about that for a week before Alphonse was finally able to make her understand. 'He wants to remember us, Winry, and he can't do that if we're here telling him what happened. He wouldn't listen when I told him stuff about what had happened to us. He only wanted to know about the world and how to take care of his automail. After that, he left, so he could find out everything on his own. He doesn't want us to be a crutch for him. He wants to be able to stand on his own!'
Afterwards, Winry became just as friendly as she was before, and Alphonse asked if they would teach him how to make and maintain automail. He had become quite talented, actually, and he, Pinako, and Winry now split the customers coming in. Pinako was the doctor, of course, and did everything involved with surgery and the like while Winry and Alphonse designed the limbs and repaired them. It was a very effective system.
The room with the balcony off the front upstairs was now the workshop, and held all of their equipment and such. Winry had moved into one of the smaller rooms upstairs, next door to Alphonse's room.
"...When are you coming back?" He asked the wind as it picked up a bit in the early morning light. Alphonse, since the return of his memories, had become a morning person. He was nearly always up as the sun rose, and loved watching sunrise off the balcony when he could. So, he was standing up there now, watching the late October sunrise. Resembool's winter was dramatically different from that of Central's, and even though it was October, it was still fairly warm. It never dropped under freezing, even in the winter, so they didn't get snow here, and this winter was turning out even more mild. He looked down the road stretching out into the countryside and saw a person walking toward the house. Alphonse figured it was just one of the regular customers. Everyone but Winry in Resembool seemed to enjoy getting up early, and thus many started their day long before the sun had fully risen.
Alphonse went inside and down the stairs quietly, passing Pinako, who was on her way to the kitchen, where she would fix breakfast like always. He went out to the front porch and leaned against the railing there, waiting on the customer. However, as the customer drew nearer, Alphonse stared to make out who the person was.
He stood in shock as the person gave a short wave and flashed a big goofy grin as he entered the small patch of dirt surrounding the house. The breeze was back, and Alphonse unconsciously lifted a hand to push his bangs out of his face while the person made no attempt to control his long gold hair in the wind.
For several minutes only the sound of the person's red coat snapping in the wind was heard and then Alphonse smiled.
"Welcome home, Brother."
The End!
That's it! Hope everyone's enjoyed it! Review and tell me if you want the bonus posted! I won't post it unless someone asks me to.
IF anyone wants it, the bonus The Brother Who Came Home will be posted next Wednesday, May 28th, 2008.
Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed, and my weekly thanks to those who've reviewed/alerted me: mrawgirl09, Emma Oakwood, and Calmar Iowa!
Thank you for sticking with me! There is the posibility of a sequel, but I don't know if it'll ever get written.
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Shadow Kat-Lyn