Hi everyone!

Um... sorry about the ridicoulous wait for this chapter but school's been killing me lately. Seriously, one week I had like, four tests, three quizes and a 100-point paper to work on along with marching band practice. But I'm going to try and get my updates under control now. I have put up a stury-status on my profile that will tell you my guess on the next updates.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter and thanks to my beta Dani.

Enjoy

"So you're finally going to be coming home brother?" Alphonse asked on the phone one evening, over two months later.

"Yeah," Edward said into the receiver, trying his best to sound cheerful about it all because Edward defiantly was not happy about leaving Boot Camp.

Yes, he was pleased and relieved it was finally over, but when compared to be forced from one Hell into an even worse Hell, there was not that much to celebrate. But Edward had to be at least a little happy because he would be able to see his brother and friends for a week before shipping out to the battle fields.

"I'm going to be taking a train home tonight so I should be home in a day."

"Good."

Edward could clearly picture Alphonse's smile of relief and happiness in his head.

"I'll make sure we're stocked up on all of your favorites."

"Al…" Ed said quietly, trying his best to keep his voice even. "I'm… I'm not going to be home for long you know."

"I know…" Al mumbled and Edward knew that he too was trying to keep his emotions from overtaking his voice. "I-I just want to make you comfortable. And you've got to admit, you do eat a ton brother."

Edward laughed lightly into the receiver, causing a small crackle.

"You're right there Al. But it's not like you're a light eater either."

"Heh, I know. I really need to go shopping anyways. I've been so busy with school work lately that I keep forgetting to go out and get some groceries."

"Al!"

"I'm fine brother."

"Alright…" Ed muttered before he let out sigh. "But, I'll be home soon so tell Russ and Fletcher. Hell, I guess you could even tell Rose so she won't freak when she doesn't get told."

"Brother," Al scolded. "She's been getting a lot better ever since you left. Even Russell admits it!"

"Well I'll just have to see it with my own eyes now won't I? But I got to go now; there's a line for the phone."

"Oh… alright. But-wait!"

"What?"

"Do you want any sort of party-?"

"No," Edward said flatly. "No celebration. No spontaneous party. Nothing, alright?"

"Sure," Al said, sounding a little disappointed.

"But, I really got to go now."

"Okay."

"And no party," Edward stressed again.

"I got it! Bye brother; see you soon."

"Yeah, bye Al."

Ed hung the phone back onto the cradle before he walked away from the phone and pressed his head against the cool wall. He was exhausted and had a pounding headache that had been bothering him since yesterday morning.

He wanted to leave this place and never be forced to shoot a gun or stab a dummy or carry out another mock mission ever again. Edward just wanted to go home, sleep in his own bed, and work at the crummy drug store for the rest of his life.

I just wish this fucking war never happened…Edward thought. Maybe then I could have been happy.

Both Edward and Jean left East City the next day. Breighden and Estelle came with them to the train station to see them off.

"I hope to see you two men again," Breighden said with a smile as he shook their hands through the train window.

"Come back to East and you can have a drink on me," Estelle said with a kind smile as she leaned closer to her fiancé.

"You bet on it," Jean said with a winning smile.

"See ya Ed, Jean."

"Bye," Ed said with a small smile.

Breighden opened his mouth to say something else but was cut off by the loud roar of the train whistle. He closed his mouth a decided to smile at the two as the train began to lurch forwards. Within minutes, the train was a shrinking sight in the distance.

"…I hope they make it," Estelle whispered into Breighden's shirt. "They're too nice to go off killing men."

"Yeah," he sighed heavily. "But the wars already taken too many good men; it's not going to stop just for them."

"If only it would." she whispered. "If only this dreadful war would just stop. I can't stand to see all of those young men come into my bar, bright eyed and in their prime, just preparing to kill or be killed. I don't know how you stand to do it, year after year, seeing all those faces go; most of them never to come back alive."

In a loss for words, Breighden tightly hugged Estelle before they turned around and began walking out of the train station.

Edward sat alone in the train car that night. Jean had left the train an hour or so ago and now it was just him. As Ed stared out the window at all the tiny pinpricks of light in the dark sky and wondered what it would take to make it out of this war alive. Or at least, alive in the general sense with his body in working order; he doubted that he'd be able to feel alive for some time after the war with so much blood on his hands.

His eyelids continued to try and tug over his eyes but Edward did not feel up to sleeping. For the last few weeks, he had been tormented by dreams. He knew that once he was home, in his familiar bed with all of its comforting smells, he would be able to sleep, at least, relatively peacefully.

He drifted into a fitful sleep soon after this only to be woken up by another dream.

"Brother!" Al exclaimed as Edward disembarked from the train.

"Hey Al," Ed said with a sincere smile.

Al ran forth to embrace his brother tightly. Ed returned the hug before he ruffled his sandy bangs. He had missed his brother more than he wished to admit; they had never been apart for such a long time ever before in their lives. Edward then turned to the other people who had also come to greet him. Russell, Fletcher, and Rose had all come and were smiling lightly at him; Rose looked close to a complete break down.

"Glad to have you back, runt," Russell said with a cocky grin. "And here I thought the point of Boot Camp was to strengthen you up a bit. You look just as scrawny as you used to be."

"Looks can be deceiving," Edward said with a grin. "I could beat the shit out of you right now."

"Hmm… but you could still do that before you went so I still don't see how they changed you at all."

Edward grinned at him before he gave him a tight, one-armed hug. After their initial greetings, they all agreed to go back to Ed and Al's house for a lunch and some drinks.

Back at the house, no one wanted Ed to act as host no matter what he said. Al took care of all of the drinks and Rose helped with some snacks while Russell and Fletcher sat with him on one of their couches in the living room.

"Did you know that Rose is dating?" Russell asked casually before he took a sip of his drink.

"No," Ed answered, mildly surprised. "Who's the guy?"

"His name is Cain," Fletcher answered quietly. "He lives a few towns over. He seems nice."

Edward shrugged at this before taking a sip of his own drink. Truthfully, he was glad that she had found someone else and was relieved in the fact that she appeared to be finally over him.

"Good for her."

Lunch felt odd to Edward. It was most likely due to the forced air of happiness from his friends. None of them wanted to even mention Boot Camp or any minor comments of the war status; Edward assumed that meant that the war was not letting up anytime soon. It was rather annoying after a while; especially an hour in when they had run out of interesting things to talk about. If there was anything relatively important that had happened while Ed was away, Al had already called and told him about it.

Al seemed to realize that the little get-together was going no where and ask Edward if he had met anyone interesting in East City. Ed had told Al a little bit about Jean and his barrack leader Breighden but not much. There was an odd bit of tension in the room when Ed had begun to talk about them but Ed continued; it was if they wanted to pretend the last few months had not happened. That was all good for Ed but the only thing to really talk about in the tiny town was the war, and without it small talk was horribly dull.

They left after an unhealthy dinner of take out and beer around dusk. Edward retired upstairs to his bedroom and stared out the window. The sunsets were always beautiful in the summer months in Resembool but for some reason, they just didn't look or feel like they used to anymore. Maybe it was because the bright red look almost like blood and the yellows and oranges reminded Ed horribly of explosions. After shaking his head quickly to rid him of the images, Edward let himself collapse onto his bed. It was as comfortable as it always was. The nights of restless sleep in East City seemed to be piling up on him until he could not take it any longer, and he feel asleep.

"Don't you have school to go to?" Edward asked groggily the next day when he saw Al sitting at the kitchen table, reading the paper.

"Yes I do. And I already went to it."

"Huh?" Ed yawned as he stretched.

"It's one in the afternoon," Al said with a smile at his brother.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Edward asked crankily.

"I tried," Al answered with another smile. "But you were sleeping like you were in a coma! It was like you haven't slept for days!"

"Ehh…well, the beds at the barracks weren't that comfortable," Ed mumbled as he sat down next to his brother.

"Ed."

"Huh?" he mumbled as he rubbed on of his eyes.

"How was it… I mean, how were you at, um…"

"Boot Camp?" Ed finished, pale eyebrow quirking upwards slightly.

"Yeah… How was it?"

Edward pressed his lips into a thin line as he tried to put his experience at Boot Camp into something positive so that he would not scare his brother. After several minutes of uncomfortable silence, Edward finally spoke.

"It was… different."

"Different?"

"Yeah. I mean, you learned things you didn't know before. It was a learning experience for everyone there."

"Oh."

"Yeah. We would learn different strategies and… and we'd work out a lot to get us all into top shape and we would learn how to best protect ourselves."

Al nodded before he got up and began to reward some leftovers for his brother. Ed was relieved that Al chose not to pry more; he didn't know if he would have been able to spin his shooting lessons and the stabbing of the dummies into something positive.

And he didn't want them to be something positive. Killing another human being was not a god thing. Killing a stranger served little purpose and made even less sense to Edward.

He did not want to do it. He did not know what would happen when he would have to make that first kill. What would they do to him if he refused to kill someone? Would they send him home? Would they kill him? These were things he should have had the guts to ask Breighden before he had left.

The next few days came and went without anything eventful happening. Edward constantly found himself at the old drug store, talking to Russell and Rose like he would do when they working. Ed was even tempted to go into the back room, grab an old smock, and start working like it was just another day.

Russell and Al would take him out for drinks a few times, sometimes Fletcher would accompany and sometimes Rose would come with them. Ed only assumed that they were doing this because they wanted to keep their minds off the shrinking amount of time he had left there.

None of the townspeople spoke as they used to about the war, now that their boys were being forced into battle. Sure, people from Resembool had enlisted and went to war and most of them had been sent back in small wooden boxes or sent back in a mere shell of the man they used to be, but they had all went on free will.

On one of Edward's last days of visitation, he had forced the three runaway's and Rose to go over their escape plan several times. He made them show him brochures of the hotel they were going to be staying at and made them give him full details on the escape once Rose had left. She still did not know that their real plan was to run to Xing. The plan still felt so random and full-hardy that it made Ed feel like he was going to puke. It was still their only plan and it was much too late to try and come up with another.

"You sure you don't want any sort of party?" Russell asked on Edward's last full day of leave.

The two boys were hanging around the empty drug store while Rose leaned against the counter, quietly listening to their conversation.

"Yes," Edward said annoyed. "I don't want a party. It'd be weird to celebrate me being sent to my death."

"Don't say that," Russell said severely.

Ed looked at his friend for a moment before he let out a deep breath. He knew he should not have said that to him but he couldn't stop the words form coming out of his mouth.

"I'm sorry… I know I shouldn't have said it," Edward muttered as he leaned against one of the coolers.

"Can we still come over for drinks tonight?" Russell asked.

"Of course," Ed said with small smile.

"Hey Rose," Russell called over his shoulder, knowing the women was listening in on their conversation.

"Yeah?" she answered after a moment.

"Are you coming over tonight?"

"Uh-huh."

It was not a festive or happy evening that night. Drinks were passed around and the only laughs and smiles were half-hearted and forced. Edward wanted to just yell and tell them to stop all of their bullshit. He wanted to tell them that this could be there last night together alive and he didn't want it to be fake. But he didn't tell them his thoughts. He didn't want to ruin the small and weak idea that they were all happy. He didn't want to make them sad because he didn't want to spend the last night with them being sad either.

It was a horrible catch.

They were all reluctant to leave later in the night; even when it passed three in the morning. He said that he needed his rest; everyone knew that that was a lie but everyone was too tactful to point it out.

Rose gave him a tight hug and kissed him on the cheek as she tried to suppress her sobs. Russell gave him a grin before putting him in a quick head lock. Fletcher smiled at him uncertainly before he said a quiet goodnight. Al insisted that he'd clean up the mess that their friends had created and made Ed go lay down. Ed did as told, knowing that his brother probably was close to a complete break down and did not want to be seen or heard when it happened.

So Ed went up to his bed, laid on his back, and stared at the ceiling, only ever moving to turn on the small radio that rested on the bedside table so that he could drowned out the noises of his younger brother's muffles sobs. When he felt he could not take it anymore, Edward snuck down the stairs quietly until he found him, sitting at the table where he had broken the news to him.

Alphonse sat quietly with his head in his hands, elbows resting on the table, and sobs shaking his thin shoulders. Edward felt his heart breaking at the sight but he continued forwards until he was only a foot behind the young man, who appeared to be unaware of his brother's presence.

"Hey," he whispered, placing a gentle hand on top of his head.

Al jumped at his voice and touch. Ed grabbed his wrists when he quickly tried to wipe away his tears. Edward got onto a bended knee and moved so that he was at Al's side.

"You should go lay down Al…" Edward whispered in the dark, still clutching his brother's hands. "You won't feel well if you don't get a good night sleep."

Al opened his mouth to say something but decided against it and merely nodded as he pressed his lips tightly together in hopes of stopping the sobs that were shaking his shoulders.

"…It'll be okay Al," Ed whispered after several painful minutes of silence passed between the two.

Al did not say anything as a sob finally broke free and he began to cry again.

"Don't… don't cry Al," Ed said as he let go of one of his brother's hands so that he could wipe away some of his tears.

"I'm sorry," Al whispered.

"Don't apologize. I just don't want to see you crying like that."

"I…"

"Alphonse."

"H-huh?"

"Don't try and change the plan."

"Huh?"

"Don't try and do something stupid to try and save me. No matter what you hear. Alright?"

"Ed-."

"Just promise me," Edward pleaded. "I don't want you to get hurt or caught or killed because you wanted to go back for me. It's my job to protect my little brother and I won't do a good job if you go and get yourself killed."

"I know," Al sniffed. "I know. It's just… It's just hard."

"I know Alphonse. But you have to be strong."

Al nodded again before he was taken over by a new wave of unstoppable sobs and tears. Edward got up and embraced him tightly as he rubbed his back soothingly and whispered words of encouragement to him.

Poor Eddy. :( Poor Al. I had a hard time deciding how to depict Al in this chapter.

Again, I'll try and update this sooner next time. :)

Please send a review my way.

-FSK