Hallo again all dear readers!
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Disclaimers: see chapter 1.
Chapter 11 Younger Brother
He knew something was going to happen, that something was going to change and he knew it was going to happen soon. He just didn't know what exactly it would be. This feeling had been following him for a couple of days now and it was just getting stronger and closer.
No matter how hard he had tried, Alphonse Elric was unable to remember the years between when he and Edward tried to resurrect their mother and when he woke up in Dante's lair. He remembered how he and Ed had drawn to circle in their home cellar and how something had gone terrible wrong. The last thing he remembered was that something was pulling him somewhere and Ed had desperately tried to reach him.
The next thing Alphonse remembered was waking up naked in an empty theatre. A young woman, whom he later came to know as Rosé Thomas, with a baby had found him and taken him to a hospital. Not long after, people from military came to see him and ask some questions. Although Al couldn't remember anyone of them by name or face, some of them gave him a familiar feeling. Especially the man named Mustang. It was he who explained that Al was in fact 15 years old already, though didn't look like it at all. Later Izumi had explained that since the Gate never gives anything without taking something, Al's years with Ed were probably the price to regain his body.
Three years had passed and no one knew what had happened to Ed. Mustang and his crew had ventured to underground city, but had found nothing. The only thing left of Ed was his trademark red jacket. Al refused to believe his brother was death. Just as his body had disappeared for years then maybe Ed also had just disappeared. Not long after Al returned to Dublith to be re-trained in alchemy.
And now he was in Lior, the dessert city that had been practically wiped out of the map and was now being rebuilt. Al was helping of course, his alchemical skills had improved greatly. Although he still couldn't figure out how Ed had been able to do alchemy without any circles, Al didn't let that put him down. He had simply sewed the circles in his gloves. Al didn't mind helping. Rosé was a nice person to have around, with her three year old son Kain. Also Denny Brosh and Maria Ross told him stories of Ed and their journeys.
But few days ago then, on one afternoon, a strange feeling had come to him. He still couldn't explain what it had been, but it had excited, scared, thrilled and relieved him all at once. It felt like something he had lost had been returned. But after that day there hadn't been a similar scene, only growing expectation that something was bound to happen.
And now it finally did. He had been helping Rosé take care of Kain and some other children, since Rosé had become a worker in a day care, when he had spotted the familiar figure of Winry Rockbell. Al had first been surprised to see his childhood friend around in Lior, when she hadn't even called beforehand. He was just about to call her when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Al turned around and saw a boy of 19 years old, with golden eyes and blonde hair.
"Al…" Ed said, his throat dry of relief and happiness.
"B-Brother?" Al asked, his eyes wide. The same feeling came again and he knew, somehow he just knew, that it had signalled Ed's return earlier.
"Brother!" Al shouted and all but jumped to embrace Ed. Al was laughing, a rich laugh of happiness. "I knew it! I knew you're alive! I knew it!" he told over and over again.
Ed went still and awkward. Al had always been better one to express him emotions whereas Ed usually kept them bottled up. Yet everyone eventually have to reach some breaking point. It wasn't enough for Ed to hear that Al had regained his body, he had to see it himself. He…he really is back to himself. He has a body of flesh and blood, a body that can feel and sleep. And he doesn't remember all those things: the deaths, homunculi, terrors. It wasn't all for nothing! A huge relief washed over Ed.
"Have you always been this tall?" Al asked when letting go. Just as with Winry, it made Al feel strange to his year older brother now five years older.
Ed laughed, still clinging to the wonderful feeling of joy. "Al, you're really back. You're really yourself again" he said. Then Al's words clicked in his head. "Wait! Did you think I was still going to be a shrimp when I'm 19?!"
From a short distance Winry watched the scene. She couldn't have been happier. The look on Ed's face when he confirmed that Al did indeed have his body back, the relief and rare happiness that he showed, made her feel warm inside. She was happy for them. Maybe, just maybe now, the long journey of the two brothers had come to an end.
"Edward? Dear Leto, it really is you!"
Edward barely had time to register the words when Rosé was suddenly hugging him also. Ed was surprised and embarrassed suddenly, remembering how Rosé had tried to seduce him while being manipulated by Dante.
"Um, hey Rosé…nice to see you" he said lamely. Edward noticed that a rather lot of people were watching them. If he had looked a little closer he might have noticed a dark cloud over Winry's head. He wished something would come to take this attention away.
One should be careful of what they wish.
"Edward Elric!" a sudden booming voice shouted. "I have missed you! Come, allow me to give you special kind of manly reunion hug that has been passed down in Armstrong family for generations!"
Only very fast reflexes saved Ed from the bone crushing hug of Strong Arm Alchemist: Alex Louis Armstrong. Armstrong was, as usual, without a shirt, showing his muscles to any poor soul that crossed his path. Ed convinced himself that all the pink stars he saw around Armstrong were his imagination.
Armstrong's appearing had caused even more people to look on their direction. Armstrong turned to them. "Don't you people have anything better to do? Give these two brothers some privacy for their long awaited reunion. If you must stare then stare here: see this beautiful body, so flawlessly sculpted! See how my muscles pulse with joy for the return of my long lost alchemist colleague!" Armstrong shouted, posing his body for the people of Lior, who awkwardly started to move along.
"You better move along, this might take some time" Maria said.
30 minutes later:
The gang had managed to escape Armstrong to the day care centre where Rosé worked. Ed sat on a couch conversing with Al, who was sitting on a floor, playing with a little child.
"If you think Armstrong is bad, brother, you should see his family. They're all here to help rebuilding. His father is a little man but extremely wide who goes on an on about different things that the Armstrong family has done. His mother is as long as a lamppost" Al told enthusiastically.
"Really?" Ed laughed. He wasn't really interested of subject, but just seeing Al so happy and laughing made him feel easy. He felt like he had been relieved of some great obligation. My promise to help him have his body back has been fulfilled.
"He also has two sisters, did you know? The younger one is here too. She seems pretty normal and shy, but can lift tons of bricks up without breaking a sweat. I've heard that the elder sister is working for military in North. What did they call her again…ah, Ice Queen!" Al told and laughed.
"Edward?"
Ed raised his head to see Rosé smiling to him. "I have some free time and I was wondering if you'd like to walk with me?" she asked.
"Walk?" Ed could only repeat. This is a first.
"There's also something I would like to talk to you" she added, something in her gaze asking him to come.
"Go ahead, we'll be waiting here" Al said, while adjusting some building blocks with a little girl.
"Um, I guess then" Ed said and stood up.
Al stayed in day care centre after the two had left. After some time he saw a boy running from another room, laughing and holding a screwdriver. Moment later Winry ran after him.
"Not fair, that's mine! You don't see me taking your toys, do you?" she playfully whined. She then noticed that the oldest person in the room was Al. "Where's Ed?"
"Rosé asked him to go on a walk with her and they left" Al said.
Winry couldn't remember even one time when Ed would have wanted to go on a walk with anybody. "Is…is that so?" she asked, feeling somewhat irritated.
"Yes, Rosé had something she wanted to tell him. I wonder if it's about that" Al mussed.
"That?"
"Rosé once told me that if Ed would ever come back there was something she wanted to talk with him. Something about the last time they had met. She didn't tell me what, said it's too private and personal" Al explained. "Um, Winry? Why do you look so…rejected?"
To be continued…
Ps. The elder Armstrong sister working in North, the Ice Queen, is not my invention. She appears in FMA manga but not in anime. I though mentioning her would be fun.
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