Summary:You rolled your eyes. "I said, if I had to pick one of you to marry, I'd pick Al." Edward threw his arms up in victory and Al went a shade of crimson not usually found in nature. "I knew it!" The elder cried triumphantly. You threw your shoe at him.

Pairing: Alphonse Elric/Reader

Warning:Spoilers for series end.

Do you remember when we were just kids
And cardboard boxes took us miles from what we would miss
Schoolyard conversations taken to heart
And laughter took the place of everything we knew we were not...

You sat in the sunshine, laughing into the blue sky above you, and thinking of anything but the future. Your you were free and happy and loved and nothing could ever possibly go wrong on a day like today, because it was beautiful and wonderful and you were with the people you loved.

"Hey!"

You turned at the unceremonious summons, trying to bite back a giggle at the serious look on Edward's face as he looked over at you. "Yeah?"

"If you had to pick one of us to marry, who would it be? Me or Al?"

"Brother!" Alphonse sputtered, going vibrantly pink in the face. "Don't ask things like that!"

"Oh come on, Al, you know you wanna know!" He teased, nudging his brother in the ribs. "I see the way you look at her. And don't think I missed you giving her those flowers yesterday!"

You and Winry lost yourselves in giggles as Al merely got redder and redder until he resembled a ripe strawberry in complexion.

"That- that's not fair, Brother! That was private!"

Edward grinned like the evil little mastermind he was. "Oh it was, huh, then I guess you shouldn't have stayed out in the open." He nudged his brother meaningfully in the ribs again, waggling his eyebrows up and down. "You shoulda pulled her into the shadows back behind the shed, and then you coulda…"

He was silenced by a shoe to the face and toppled like a domino from the force of Winry's throw. "Edward, don't dirty your brother's ears with stuff like that! You're supposed to be a good model!"

You couldn't stop laughing at their antics, actually feeling your stomach start to ache with the force of your giggles. "Ed, you're terrible! So terrible, in fact, that I wouldn't marry you! I'd pick Al over you any day!"

The brothers froze in their prospective movements, Ed poised to throw the shoe back at Winry and Al about to stop him.

"What?" They asked in unison.

You rolled your eyes. "I said, if I had to pick one of you to marry, I'd pick Al."

Edward threw his arms up in victory and Al went a shade of crimson not usually found in nature.

"I knew it!" The elder cried triumphantly.

You threw your own shoe at him and had just as much success as Winry had, making him topple all over again.

You laughed as he and Winry started to chase each other back towards the house, and Al looked at you guiltily from where he sat.

"Did you mean that?" He asked in a tiny voice. "What you said to Edward?"

You smiled at him, leaning over to kiss his cheek. "Every word."

He went scarlet again.

I wanna break every clock
The hands of time could never move again
We could stay in this moment
For the rest of our lives
Is it over now hey, hey, is it over now...

You were staring up at the moon from the Rockbell's roof, a blanket over your shoulders to keep away the night air and a cup of cocoa clutched in your hands.

Alphonse sat next to you, trying not to stare at you instead of the moon, and you had to giggle when he jerked his head away from you so fast his neck popped.

"You okay, Al? You've been all jumpy ever since Ed went back inside."

He looked down into his own mug of cocoa and tried to find the words he wanted to say. "Ah… There… There's something I wanted to ask you."

You turned to look at him, an encouraging smile in evidence. "What is it?"

"You…" He cleared his throat and tried again. "Remember when you said you'd pick me over Edward, when we were sitting under that tree, and when he and Winry left you kissed my cheek?"

You blinked. "Yeah, I remember…"

He looked over at you and even in the pale light of the moon you could see his blush. "Could you do it again?"

You laughed, leaning in to press your lips to his cheek, but he turned his head at the last second, and your lips met his in a kiss.

You pulled away quickly, surprised, and he started apologizing before you leaned over and rested your head on his shoulder. "I thought I told you," you muttered softly, "I'd pick you over your brother any day."

He put an arm gently and cautiously over your shoulders and pulled you a little closer, shifting so that you could lean against him as you looked up into the midnight sky and watched the stars drift by.

It was the silent moments like these that made you so fond of Alphonse. Because he knew the importance of taking in the world around you and just enjoying it for what it was.

You sat like that until your cocoa got cold and Pinako told you it was time to come down and go to bed, but Alphonse held your hand all the way up to your room, and when he left you by your door and slipped off to his own room, it was almost in a reluctant way.

And you told Winry about it the second you were inside, because otherwise you would have burst.

Amazing how life turns out the way that it does
We end up hurting the worst, the only ones we really love...

You stared at the suit of armor sitting on the steps of Winry's house and tried to think through what a soft voice had just explained from the expanse of that suit.

He was gone.

No. You reprimanded yourself harshly. He was still here. He was sitting in front of you. He was…

"Al?"

"Yeah?"

"Are… Are you ever going to get your body back?"

"…I… I don't know."

You heard the sadness in his voice and moved forward, finding a way to wrap him in a hug and pull him close, feeling comforted by the sun-warmed metal. "You'd better. Because if you don't I'm gonna be really mad at you for not hugging me goodbye."

You heard him chuckle, and knew that no matter what happened it was going to be alright, because it was Al and Ed and if anyone could figure this out it was them.

"I know it's going to take you two time, but you'll come back to me, won't you?"

One of his hands tentatively splayed against your back, acutely aware of how much bigger he was now than you. "I promise."

You held onto him a little tighter and told yourself not to cry, because everything would be alright.

And you just kept telling yourself that over and over to keep the tears at bay.

I wanna be your last, first kiss
That you'll ever have
I wanna be your last, first kiss…

You stayed in that house with Winry and Pinako, and jumped every time the telephone rang, because maybe it was them. And when Winry rolled her eyes and yelled at a certain blond you both knew, you'd grin and get your gear together, because you'd be going with her to fix him up.

Winry usually didn't need you to hold Ed down while she reconnected the Automail, so basically you were just there to tease him and keep Al company while he waited for the repairs to be done.

You tried to never ask him how the search was going, instead talking about what had been happening back home, no matter how mundane it might be, and he always laughed and told you he appreciated the update, and somehow you knew he really meant it.

You hugged him whenever possible, remembering one whispered conversation you'd had over the phone when he admitted to missing people treating him normally.

You held his hand, punched his shoulder, tried to make him feel as human as possible with only a soul to occupy all that empty space.

And once, when it had been a particularly stormy night and you knew he would be lonely in his own room, you'd curled up inside his armor and kept him company until you'd fallen asleep in there.

You made sure you never told anyone about that particular episode.

The time you spent together was yours and yours alone, and whatever happened between the two of you stayed between you two. Edward never heard about what you talked about when you went to the roof of whatever building you were in, or what Al transmuted for you to take home to remember him by.

It was the little things like that that made the whole situation just a bit more bearable, and you could almost remember how it felt to hold his real hand when he grabbed yours in his armor one.

I wanna be your last, first kiss
That you'll ever have
I wanna be your last, first love
Till you're lying here beside me with arms and eyes open wide
I wanna be your last, first kiss for all time...

You were at home, washing dishes and loving how dull the day had been thus far, when a pair of hands landed on your waste and a soft kiss was pressed to your shoulder.

You jumped a mile in the air and brandished a frying pan at the boy behind you as he started to laugh, holding his hands up in surrender.

And then you recognized his hair and his smile and his laugh and you forgot everything you'd been about to say in favor of pulling him into the tightest hug possible and crying into his shoulder.

He held you just as tightly and whispered softly into your ear, telling you not to cry because everything was alright now, and he was finally home.

When you finally stopped crying you pulled away and took in every detail of his appearance because he'd grown up while he'd been wherever it was.

And once you had his smile recommitted to memory and the color of his eyes memorized, you tugged him into another hug and kissed him soundly.

He laughed against your lips and you tried not to melt, because metal might be warm in the sun but nothing beat the heat of his arms holding you tightly.

You couldn't hold him close enough; couldn't run your fingers through his hair enough; couldn't get enough of him, because it was finally him again.

All flesh and bone and bright eyes and gentle smiles.

Everything that made him Alphonse Elric, that made him everything you wanted and everything you'd missed. Everything you could possibly want.

And when you'd finally found your voice again, you whispered the two words you'd been waiting to say for so long that it almost hurt to let them slip past your lips.

"Welcome home."

I wanna be your last, first kiss
That you'll ever have
I wanna be your last, first kiss…

One of my most favorite characters of all time. X3

The song "Inevitable" belongs to: Anberlin

Fullmetal Alchemist and its related characters belong to: Hiromu Arakawa