Chapter 10:
Alphonse watched as Granny Pinako packed the last of Ed's things that he had decided to keep in a box, then looked at the guests in his room. Teacher, her husband (who Al had never really talked to but got the impression that he, like Izumi, considered them part of the family), the Colonel, and Lieutenant Hawkeye all stood, looking at him with gazes of pity, sorrow, and happiness at his recovery.
"Lieutenant Hawkeye?" he asked, handing over a little trinket that he was sure Ed would want to have given away.
"Alphonse I couldn't possibly-" she protested, hands in the air until he glared her down.
"Take it. What am I going to do with it?" he smiled sadly and pressed it into her palm. "I'm sure brother would want you to have it." With a nod of thanks she glanced over to the Colonel, who had been strangely silent the entire time.
"Colonel?" Al pulled the business book out and debated whether or not to actually divulge Ed's …. Ramblings. "I don't know if brother intended for you to actually read this, but I don't know what to do with it…" Al felt a blush come up as he thought about the lie. He'd struggled with himself to get rid of it. Something so personal that Ed had written, whether in anger or just joking around, it was all he had now. In the end he'd thought about the mental image of Edward being offended that he had given something that wasn't supposed to be given, and how irate he would've become.
"Al?" Mustang asked, glancing down at the book that lay obscured in Al's hands.
"See… I don't know why Ed bought this, but all I can think of is the picture of him giving it to you." Al tried to suppress the bittersweet grin that blossomed on his face, but to no avail.
Roy Mustangs eye widened for a moment as he held the book, then he groaned as he opened it up and saw the scribbles on the margins. "Why Edward? Why?" Hawkeye, looking up from the gift looked at her commanders and chuckled inwardly. Even dead and gone Ed still managed to get the last laugh. "Thank you Alphonse." He gave a short smile to him. "I appreciate this a lot." Al returned the smile.
"Well Al, are you ready?" Pinako hated to tear him away from the moment, but things needed to get done on the home front. That and Wrath had to be moved soon and put on exorcise regimes and that could not be done in a city where his kind was wanted.
"Yeah." Al smiled, "Thank you." Al kept eye contact with the military dogs and then looked down, his face easing into a passive look.
"Don't mention it kid." Mustang and Hawkeye looked at him for a few more moments, then stepped out of the room with the rest of the adults, realizing that this might be one of the final times they would see Alphonse Elric.
"Make sure to stop by soon." The small voice of Pinako Rockbell interrupted their lament. "You too." She looked at Teacher and Sig.
"We couldn't possible intrude like that-" Hawkeye was interrupted as Pinako huffed.
"Far as I'm concerned all of the people in this room helped Ed and Al." She smiled, "It's not in my nature to let friends of the boys who've helped them simply go without dinner." She thought back to the Major Armstrong, and to all the people Ed and Al had told her about over the years. "And plus there's the funeral." Pinako sighed, scratching her head and looking each one square in the eye. "I didn't even let the man from the military come and talk Al into letting a grave stone be set up for Ed here, and don't tell me after all this time you all spent with those boys that now you're going to forget decency. There's the funeral and then we'll celebrate."
"Celebrate what exactly?" Izumi asked morbidly.
"A life spent doing some good and the return of a life." Pinako smiled and dodged back into the room with the call of, "I'll see you all in one week." It was a comment that left no room for not showing up on her doorstep in one week.
Winry smiled as she saw her grandmother and Al come on to the train platform. Al's face was paler, but healthier looking than it had been before. Winry smiled sadly as she saw how thin he was.
They really had been lucky, she knew, that the trains were still running after all that had happened, but then again; the country had to keep moving forward.
"Hey Al," Winry greeted, smiling down at him. "You've grown."
"Hopefully more around the middle." He smiled back, but to any eye it was half hearted.
"Here Winry," Pinako loaded the young girl with the box and gestured back to the train, "Let's go home, huh?"
"K grandma…" she winced at the awkward position of the box and then continued on, eager to show them where they were sitting. "Grandma, I need you to look at the boy."
"Wrath?" Al supplied, eyes widening as he recalled Teacher distantly yelling about a boy called Wrath being hurt and in the care of Pinako, who had verified the whole incident.
"Yeah…" it seemed to Al that even saying the name was a personal injury to his childhood friend.
"What's the matter with him?" Pinako noticed the pace sped up and kept her voice quiet.
"He's burning up and the port…" she winced as she recalled bending over, looking at it and then sniffing for signs of rot and decay, "The port looks bent." Winry kept walking, her long hair whipping around her as she looked back at Al experimentally.
"I'll have a look. You have the arm and leg with you?" Pinako put the pipe in her apron pocket and sighed. "It'll be a hack job, but we can make little adjustments when we get home." The quicker the better. Pinako thought, thinking of Ed's upcoming funeral, Lest Al gets any ideas about human transmutation.
Wrath was shaking as Winry pressed a cloth to his mouth.
"No." he growled feral, making her retract a half step.
"Yes." She growled back, firmly placing it by his mouth until he bit down. "We can't put you under so it's either this or we force it on you and get arrested for torture." Pinako smiled at her granddaughters choice of words. At least she hadn't raised a whimpering doctor of a child.
Wrath breathed heavily as Pinako sat him up, taking position at the leg for once and letting Winry do the shoulder. Get it on fast, Pinako chided herself, Get it on and leave it till we can make adjustments at home.
"On the count of three," she began, "One, two, three!" with a flick of a switch the gears were connected to the artificial nerves and the limbs were semi functional. "Good enough for now." She laid the boy down on the seat and put a coat down as a pillow.
"So Al," Winry asked, sitting by him, "Are you excited to go home?" she couldn't bring herself to think about how he was going back without Ed, and how he had no memory.
"It'll be good to see everyone again." But to hear them ask about Ed… he couldn't finish the thought.
"We might just have a celebration for your return." Winry smiled gently. And a funeral for Ed…
"I'll invite everyone you want." Pinako smiled at Al and patted his arm, taking a seat across from him by Wrath's trembling feet.
Al looked at her for a moment, then his eyes closed and his chest constricted.
"Get some sleep Alphonse… we'll wake you up when we get there." She didn't have to tell him twice as his eyes closed, his head lolled and he collapsed into sleep.