Al couldn't help but think about how many times he had walked up this road. Hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands? A lot. Not all of the time he had walked up he could recognize the smell of the clean grass and sheep. The first time he had walked up this road as armor, he hadn't been focused on the fact that he couldn't smell the wet wool, or feel the rain as it hit his skin… except it wasn't skin anymore. He couldn't feel the weight of his big brother in his arms or feel the blood that was still flowing freely from the stump of his arm or leg.

He remembered the first time he had walked down this road after getting his body back. How pronounced the smells had been. The warm sun on his skin. The fatigue of his muscles. The sharp edge of his brace biting into his arm. The crunching of the dirt under his feet.

He had had his body back for a while now. So long it was almost hard to remember just exactly how tall he had been. How much he had had to duck. How long the night had seemed. How it felt to see the rain hit him, but not feel it. He could remember the hopelessness. The aloneness.

He could remember those alright.

It was different this time. Completely different.

Ed was not by his side.

He didn't have trouble walking, and he could feel and smell.

He had only been away for a few days.

He was just as anxious to return though.

"Mei!" he cried when he was close enough to the Rockbell house that she would hear him. "I'm home!"

"Al?" he heard her voice say from inside the house. Sure enough, a few moments later she appeared, Liwu clutching her pants. Mei had flat out rejected Al's suggestion of buying more Amestrian's style clothes, instead sticking to her colorful shirts and loose pants. Al couldn't blame her much. Excluding the multi-layered robes, he found that Xingese clothing was much more comfortable than most of his Amestrian clothes.

"Mei!"

Forgetting that it really had only been a few days since they had been together, he abandoned his suitcase in the dirt and hurried over to his wife. He first swept Liwu up in his arms and spun the toddler around to his delight, before hooking one arm around Mei's waist and kissing her soundly on the lips.

"Daddy back! Daddy back!" Liwu cheered, clapping his hands together. "Daddy back!"

"That's right Liwu," Al said, separating from Mei and smiling at his son. "Daddy's back."

"Liwu made a very pretty picture for his Daddy while he was gone, didn't you, Liwu?"

"Picture for Daddy!" Liwu agreed, nodding.

"Oh yeah? Will you show it to me?"

"Uh-huh!" Al set Liwu down on the ground and the toddler immediately began to pull his father towards the dining room where they had a smaller scaled table there for Liwu to draw and play at. He held the drawing up proudly to his father and Al smiled.

If one was to be completely honest with oneself and their children's accomplishments… it was a bunch of wax scribbles on a page. There was no rhyme or reason to the image, just a multi-colored mess.

Al however, still loved it.

"I love it!" he said, taking the picture from his son. "It's so colorful!"

The boy grinned. "What do you say, Liwu?"

"Thank you!"

"You're very welcome," Al said, grinning. "Do you want to do the honors of putting it on the corkboard, Liwu?"

"Uh-huh!"

The boy loved adding pictures to the corkboard. Whether it was his own artwork, a photo that they had taken, or a photo that Ed and Winry had sent them, he loved being able to put them up.

"How were things in Central?" Mei asked as he carried Liwu and the picture down the hall to the second and larger cork board that they had bought Winry for her birthday.

"They went fine. Mustang was afraid we would face some opposition from the nobles, particularly the Elders, but they only wanted to make sure they would get a cut of the profits, which was easy enough to arrange. Ling's not happy with the arrangement, but he agreed that getting the railroad built is more important than giving them a lesson."

"The people won't be very happy about that."

"Ling knows. But he's convinced that the increased trade after it's built will be able to placate the situation."

Mei nodded. It was a dangerous game that Ling played. He had been perhaps one of the most radical Emperors Xing had yet to see. From the moment he was named heir to the throne, he had begun making a legacy of a revolutionary Emperor. The radical actions had earned him the support of the majority of the people, at the price of the support of the most powerful. Had it not been for his hereditary position as Emperor, he would have been removed through any method possible. As it was, Mei was sure he had some of the highest rates of attempted assassination of any of the Emperors.

It helped when your wife was one of Xing's best guards though. Apparently, parties had tried to kill Ling in his sleep at least twice. Both times, they were quickly apprehended with an automail arm knife at their necks. He was also far too loyal to his wife for them to be able to make the same attempt while he was in another's bed.

He still played a dangerous game. He had already angered the majority of the powerfuls in the Xingese government. And while they could not directly remove him from position short of a successful assassination attempt, they could do everything within their power to halt or delay his projects and changes.

This power forced him to play the political puppet and try to appeal to them in all the different ways that he could. It often included the very corruption that he was trying to avoid or expunge, but there was no other way to accomplish the things that were needed.

The commoners didn't always see it that way. Mei knew that there were many people walking the streets of Xing that felt that Ling's concessions made him no better than his predecessors. No matter what gains he had made for the common man, he did so by strengthening the power and wealth of the nobles. That was a sin that many of them would never forgive.

"Thank you for drawing me that picture, Liwu," Al said, bringing Mei out of her thoughts.

"Welcome!"

Al turned to face Mei and she saw the picture stuck firmly to the board with a colorful pin.

"So… what's for dinner?"

Mei smirked.

"What are you cooking?"

"…Al?"

"Huh? Yes Mei?" Al looked up from the thick book he was bent over the table to read. It was one of the texts that Ed had found in the West. The author had some very interesting ideas about turning organic matter into inorganic substances. Almost like decomposition in fast forward. It was fascinating in a morbid sort of way. He was sure that the author and his original intentions were completely academic and pure, but as he was reading it Al could only think of the possible way it could be used against people.

It also reminded him a tad too much of Scar's right arm.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You were bent over that book like something was wrong. I was wondering if you were in pain or something."

"No, I was just reading it."

"Uh… okay."

Al smiled at her, before returning to his reading.

"And the hero swept his princess up in his a—" Al had to pause for a loud yawn, "arms and they rode off into the sunset. The end."

"Thank you, Daddy," Liwu said, snuggling into the pillow of his big boy bed.

"Of course," Al responded, kissing his son on the forehead. "I love you."

"Love you Daddy."

Al pulled the blankets over his son's prone form and turned off the lights, making his way upstairs to the room he and Mei had been using for the past year or so.

Mei was already up there, finishing changing into her sleeping clothes. Al briefly considered trying to sneak up on her, but dismissed it almost immediately. She no doubt already knew he was here.

Instead he flopped down on the bed with a loud dramatic sigh.

"I'm so tired the words on the pages were starting to blur before my eyes."

"Oh dear, I guess I should let you go right to sleep," Mei said calmly beginning to release her hair from its long braid. "I'll just go to bed disappointed."

"Well. I don't need to read fine print to brush hair."

"… Mei?"

"What is it Al?" Mei asked, walking into the room. Al was frowning at the book he was reading, like it had someone insisted that pigs could fly.

"I… could you please read this sentence for me?"

"What?"

"Read this sentence for me, I have to be reading it wrong." Mei frowned and took a look at the spot in the thick book that Al was staring at.

"'The one road curves west, the other head straight into the horizon, where the sun had now dipped low.' Why? What is this?"

"It's an alchemic code. It's disguised as a guidebook. Roads are arrays. The sun dipped low represents that that's the end of the circle. It represents the transmutation."

"Why did you want me to read it?"

"I thought it said 'one road serves we, the other reads right.'"

"… I imagine that would be confusing."

"Yeah," he grinned sheepishly.

"I put Liwu to bed," Mei said, slipping her arms around her husband's shoulders.

"Oh did you already? I would have done that for you."

"No, it's alright. I enjoyed it. Besides, since you claim to get so sleepy the letters start to blur…"

"I make do," he said, scooting his chair out so that he was facing out instead of at the table. Mei took the liberty of sitting on his lap and kissing him soundly. Al didn't exactly mind.

"Oh... and Al," Mei said, pulling herself up so she was whispering in his ear. "I have a surprise for you."

"And what's that?" he asked, a small grin on his face.

She pulled away and smiled at him before finally getting up. He raised his eyebrows, not sure if he was supposed to follow her or not. That was answered for him, however, when she walked back and sat on his lap once again with a small box in her hand.

"What's this?"

"Open it."

He did so. It wasn't wrapped or ribboned, so it was easy to open.

His jaw dropped upon seeing what was in them.

"I…"

"Yes, Al?"

"I do not…"

"Yes. You do need them, old man," Mei said slyly, pulling the glasses out of the box and putting them on Al's face.

"… old man?"

I thought I'd mention this just because someone was confused last week. The reason that Ed and Winry aren't living in their house in Resembool is because they're living in Rushvalley for most of the year. Winry's working on her automail apprenticeship and business most of the year. During the summer though, Ed can't handle the heat so they move back to Resembool and Winry continues her grandmother's business.

Also, Liwu is about 2 in this one. Time is moving a lot faster. The further along we get, the faster the time is going.

Anyways, PLEASE REVIEW! And THANK YOU!