Hey everyone, I promised an update this weekend, so that's what you're getting! Hope you're having a wonderful spring holiday, and thanks for all the reviews for last chapter.

Dobby's Polka-Dotted Sock

Chapter Nine

Roy could not help but feel like he had been abruptly plunged into a bucket of ice. The change was so sudden, and yet so wrong. He had come with Hughes expecting to be greeted by the same down-trodden, but genial boy that Madeline had essentially raised.

Yet here was furious, hackles raised, eyes and nostrils flaring…not Edward. This fierce, burning anger was familiar, but not all of Edward was the blazing sun. Even stars couldn't keep that up forever.

The book in his hand…Roy stared for a moment, but then his eyes widened. Fullmetal's alchemic journal, the one belonging of his that had still been missing. It must have been lying out in the back somewhere and the young boy had stumbled upon it.

"Fullmetal," he started, and gold eyes narrowed further at him. Not good; he was sure Edward had not written of his superior officer in the best of lights, and so now he was not to be trusted. Perhaps Hughes would be better for this if he could get over his shock. "Alphonse is safe and staying in the hotel you rented. There's no reason to worry."

"I know that. But I also know that he can't possibly know I've been found. The Alphonse I've read about would be here otherwise. You've lied to him. And you lied to me."

"You didn't remember him, why—"

"I have family, Mustang! A brother you kept from me! All this time I thought I was alone, like it didn't matter to anyone if my memory came back or not. Now I find out there's someone waiting for me, who actually gives a damn."

They were cutting words, and he couldn't seem to find his own voice to respond. But Hughes finally snapped out of his stupor.

"Edward, just think for a minute. You don't really remember Alphonse, aside from what you've written down. Don't you think it'd just upset him to come here and be a total stranger to you?"

The boy paused, clearly considering everything in his mind. When he looked up, his eyes were still shining bright.

"He'd still want to see me. I just know it."

OoO

Edward proved right about his brother. When Roy and Hughes went to finally tell Alphonse the news, the young boy sat quietly for a long moment. Then he looked up at them and said, in a voice firmer than Roy had yet to hear from him, "Take me to him."

OoO

As the appointed time drew nearer, he felt more and more on edge. Something would happen today, something was waiting for him. And yet all he could do was pace back and forth in the small one-window bedroom like a caged animal and count the minutes until he would be reunited with his brother.

If he could trust his own written word, he should be looking forward to this occasion. Alphonse sounded like the perfect brother; kind, caring, dependable. He found nary a negative comment written about his little brother. But still there was the feeling that something lurked behind it all.

Maybe it was just a feeling of nervousness. After all, Mr. Hughes had been right. It would be odd, and a little painful on Alphonse's part he was sure, to re-meet his own brother. He tried his best to bring up some kind of image in his mind, anything. What did his brother look like? Were they at all similar in appearance? Did one look more like their mother than the other, or like their father instead?

It was like a rendezvous with a long-term pen pal for the first time. There was always the chance that you'd find someone unexpected. This only made his stomach clench. He clenched and released his hands a couple times, took a deep breath—

But damnit, this stupid bow tie was just too tight. He loosened and then simply tore it away from his throat, tossing it on the bed. That was better. He continued to pace.

And then, checking the dusty clock on the wall, he saw it was time. Before he could impatiently stride to the door and move down into the barroom to wait, he heard something on the stairs.

It sounded like they were trying to move the whole oven and stovetop up the stairs by lifting it and then dropping it every step, slowly up and up. And now his feet were absolutely planted, so that he could not even check for the source of this commotion. Each clang, bump, and scrape came louder and closer, and the floor was shaking to the rhythm of the…steps?

"Fullmetal? It's us."

Mustang. Mustang was outside with that monstrous noise. "Come in," he heard himself say, though his mouth felt far too dry for speech to be possible.

The door swung open and he was faced with his nightmare.

A gray head ducked to clear the doorframe, though a deadly spike scratched a line, and the heavy footfalls thudded twice more. Enormous gloved hands agitatedly smoothed a blue loincloth.

"Brother?" No. "Ed?" It couldn't. "Um, I'm—"

"You're not really. You can't be."

"Wha- what?"

He could hear the hurt in the tone, and he forced his eyes to move up, past the unchanging mouth line and chin, all the way to the eyes. The glowing eyes that pierced through him completely to his wings and melted them all over again with the sheer sparking, burning, red hot intensity. His vision tunneled, but he forced himself to stand on his borrowed leg and look his forgotten creation in the eye.

"Let me see it." Don't forget. He'd forgotten. He needed to be reminded.

Alphonse hesitated for a worried minute, but reached up and lifted off the helmet to reveal the inside of the cold shell, his blood a horrific splash of color staining the neck.

Allen would have cried and run for Madeline. Edward Elric would have grimly nodded and continued on with his work.

He finally knew what Edward would do.

Edward crumpled to the floor, shrouded in his reawakened torment.

Sorry, really short! But, I really wanted to get this out and see what you thought. Also, I have an important question for you all.

I purposefully left Hughes' name out of the last scene. What I want you to decided is whether or not he is there. If he is, that makes this story slightly AU, as Hughes doesn't actually learn about the Elrics performing human transmutation until early in the manga and this is a preseries story. So, do you want Hughes to learn about that now or for me to keep things as they are in the manga?

Again, happy spring holiday, thanks for reading, and please review!