Hallo, my dear, patient, lovely, more-than-I-deserve readers!

So sorry that the update took this long. This chapter was a real biach and I'm still not happy about it. I promise the next update won't take that long.

All the reviews are, as always, highly appreciated.

And just so you know, since so many asked, this will NOT be Ed/Rosé fic.

Disclaimers: see chapter 1.

Chapter 13 Snapping

"What the hell were you thinking?!"

"But…"

"You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"You would have done the same!"

"Exactly! I am a warning example! Don't become like me!"

"I thought I heard voices from the cellar, that's why…"

"You got yourself trapped there!"

"I didn't know it was going to collapse like that. I had strengthened the structure with alchemy…"

"And when doing that you burned your transmutation circles in your gloves useless. Which was even more reason not to go to the cellar".

"I didn't notice that they had been burned!"

"You should have been more careful!"

"And take the chance that someone else might burn to death?!"

Ed was about to shout back to his challenging younger brother but shut his mouth. He wasn't really angry for Al for what he had tried to do. He of all people knew how good intentions may cause disasters. Yet he couldn't help but not being angry. The anger inside of him was caused by the shock that still hadn't worn off. For a moment he had thought he would loose his brother.

Ed had jumped inside the firing building the moment he learned his brother was in there. Not that there was much of a danger anymore. Both Al and Armstrong had used their alchemy to put out fire and securing the structures wouldn't collapse. Most of the people had got out safely. However, Al had been trapped in cellar and the circles in his gloves had become useless. When Ed found him he had been coughing badly and was near fainting because of the smoke. In a hurry to get Al out Ed had nearly transmuted a whole wall of the house to allow them access out.

The fear Edward had felt on the moment he thought Al might be in danger had shook him up, and the only way he knew how to deal with it was to shout to someone's face.

Now Edward took a deep breath to calm himself. Snapping wasn't helping much and Al was already feeling miserable. Although most people in the building seem to be safe, the accident had claimed one victim. A woman who it seemed had stood closest to the heating system when it had exploded, had died almost instantly.

"Brother?"

Ed snapped out of his thoughts and looked over Al. He seemed to be calm, which didn't surprise him. Al had always been the more calm headed of two of them.

Ed sighed. "Of course you did what you felt was a right thing to do. And I would have done so also. I just…I just don't want to loose you" he muttered.

Al smiled. "You think I'm going to go somewhere away of you, now that you're finally back? And they call you genius!" he said.

Ed had a small smiled. "Yeah…"

"Mother! Mother!"

Ed and Al turned their heads to source of voice and saw a small child, no more than five or six, crying, trying to get to men who were carrying away the body of the woman who died. Rosé was trying to hold the child back.

"Mother! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to break the vase! Come back! Mother!" the child cried.

Edward stiffed when a cold sensation took him. He knew all too well how painful it was to loose a mother. He wanted to go to the child, to somehow tell that one day things wouldn't hurt so much…but he didn't know how. Talking had never been his field. Pleadingly he turned to Al who was one step ahead of him, already walking to help Rosé.

"Are you alright?"

Edward turned to see Winry looking at him. He felt a bang of guilt. She had followed him to Lior because, just as he, she didn't want to be seperated again so soon. And here he had hardly given her a time of day. Plus he was still visibly shaken and feared he might now take it out on her. I really don't need her screwdrivers now.

"Yeah, of course I am" he muttered, not looking at her straight.

Winry had long time ago then become expert in reading Elric. "No, you're not. Why are you lying to me, Edward?"

Edward kept his mouth shut before snapping. "Let's just get back" he said, starting to walk.

"Get back where? We haven't exactly asked anyone where we can spend the night. Do we even know where Al has been staying while here? With Rosé or, God help us, with Armstrong?"

Edward didn't answer but just started to walk to a random direction. Winry sighed before starting to follow him.

"You haven't changed really at all, have you Edward?"

"What are you on about?"

"You're still keeping everything to yourself, refusing to open up to people" Winry said.

"And what exactly should I tell to people then?" he snapped, still walking ahead of her.

"What you think, what goes through your head, what you've had to endure, what you want? Those kinds of things" Winry challenged.

"And I suppose you'd be the person I'd talk to?" he said, more harshly than intended.

Winry halted for a moment, before continuing more determination than ever. She ran right next to Edward and punched him to his flesh-and-blood arm.

"WHAT?!" Edward barked.

"You still won't trust people! Don't you get it that there are people who care for you, who support you, who would be ready to do a lot of things for you, if you'd only work some guts to speak to them! Why can't you open to us? To me?" Winry demanded.

Something said SNAP in Ed's head.

"Alright then. What shall I tell you? Let's see. You did know there was homunculus who looked like my mother, right? Well guess what: I great that monsters and I also had to kill it. I had to kill a thing that looked and sounded just like my mother. But wait, that's hardly all. Turned out the old man Hohenheim was centuries older than you'd think and more or less responsible for all the bad things that has been going on. Führer of this country was nothing more than a backstabbing puppy controlled by this incredibly insane woman who also was centuries old. I've seen how corrupted the military is, I've met people who seem as loving fathers but go and turn their children into monsters. I know true reasons behind latest wars and how the Philosopher's Stone is made. And you know what? If I could I'd just want to forget all of this. And you ask why I don't tell these things? Maybe I don't want to bring these things to Risembool. Maybe I don't want you to know all of these shitty things!" he exploded.

"Well, are you happy now? Does knowing all this make you happy?" Ed asked, panting and his shoulders slightly trembling.

There was a moment of silence and then Winry had her arms around him, very much as she had them the day he came back to Risembool. God, was it only yesterday?

"You dummy, of course I want to know those things. I want to know what goes on with you, so I can help you better, not just fixing your limbs whenever you bust them again. I want you to share things with me, good and bad. They make me feel important to you" she said quietly.

Edward was very stiff and motionless. His face was terribly hot. "But…you are…important that is" he muttered weakly.

"Well, now that you're back you could show it a little more".

Neither knew how long it took before, very hesitantly and embarrassingly, put his own hands around her.

Winry laughed. "Oh Ed, you are truly hopeless sometimes".

To be continued…