34. Masquerade.

T: Insert witty commentary here…urgh I'm beet…still I'm making the effort to get the chapter out on time so go me!! Warnings and disclaimer remain the same.

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"Someone rang for Ed while you both in the cellar." Winry remarks after a moment of silence.

"Really?"

"I told him that Ed wasn't here and he began to cry…'tell him it's shou-chan, that it's very important. I don't mind if he hears this a year later I just need him to know that I called.' I thought that was an odd sort of a thing to say, especially when he was clearly so very desperate to talk to Ed."

"Shou-chan…Shou-chan…oh!"

"You know who it was?" Winry enquires.

"Possibly, but that's not really important right at this moment." He allows her a moment to register the serious note in his voice and then he says, "For the moment, Winry-chan, I am stuck like this."

"Oh." She looks a little shell shocked and when Edward steps back into the house all but a moment later she simply registers her presence with a numb hello.

"Something is the matter." His brother remarks.

"I have told her the truth of my current state."

"I see." Ed approaches Winry's side and, bending a little, he places a comforting hand to her face and says, "I'll do whatever I can to return him, Winry-'nee, to make everything alright again."

"I know you will Edward." She responds before hugging first his brother and then leaning over to hug him. "How is your apatite now, ototo?" She enquires after a moment.

"Much better for the walk." Edward responds.

"Where did you go anyway? You're covered in dirt."

Edward looks a little uncertain a moment and then he says,

"I decided to lay a false trail to the north, let a few people see me heading in that direction and generally cause a stir. On the way back my gimpy leg gave up on me and I tumbled."

"You know if that leg's really that bad I can always create some form of a support for it."

I appreciate the kindness of the offer, neesan, but I'll stick with what I have."

"Suit yourself."

…………………………………………………………………………………

"Ed, are you up?" Winry enquires as she gently taps the door.

"Come on in, Winry-nee." He responds. She is sat at the foot of his bed but a moment later, a gentle smile clear on her lips. "Thanks for letting us stay here last night, neesan."

"It seemed wrong to make you go back to an 'empty' house."

"Still…" Donning his gloves he strikes his hands together and then sets them against a bowl of clear water. Once the reaction is completed he dips his hair into the bowl and watches, with a self satisfied smirk, as it turns black.

"That's rather impressive," Winry remarks.

"It's actually a very simple reaction. Al's disguise is much more complex." He remarks as he gestures towards the far corner of the room.

Winry examines the giant bronze statute for a great while and then she says,

"You are leaving again."

"There is something that we need to do."

"You mean that thing we were talking about last night? You can carry on researching here in safety, can't you?"

"We can't risk staying in one place, especially when it places you in danger. Also both Al and I wish to see tousan again and ask him why he left us again."

"I see…you'll come back to us won't you, Edward, Al?"

"We can't promise anything but we'll try our hardest, right Al?"

"Right!"

…………………………………………………………………………………..

The train had carried them to within a mile of their destination before the soldiers had boarded it and the situation had become uncomfortable.

He'd weathered the borage of comments about his size with as much grace as possible and it'd only been when the soldiers had found his brother that he'd chosen to interfere.

There are too many of them to allow a simple escape and one they have broken free from the train he says,

"Go on ahead, Al, I'm going to create something to slow them down a little."

"I can help, 'niichan."

"Don't even think about it!" He remarks before he strikes his palms together.

It takes them an hour to reach the edge of Dubalith, by which point he is so exhausted that he simply books a room in the first hotel that they come across and flops into bed.

It is dark still when he is woken by a hand upon his shoulder and, without thought, he says,

"Get some sleep, ototo, we can talk in the morning."

"This body can't sleep, 'niichan." Al responds, the other's tone so very despondent that he is pushing himself up in bed not a moment later.

"I am sorry, I forgot for a moment."

"It's alright, 'niichan, I understand." There is a moment of silence and then Al enquires,

"Why wouldn't you let me perform alchemy?"

"We have no idea what would happen if you did such a thing and so it's better you do not try. We'll do some research, learn how the stone works and we'll take it from there, okay?"

"Is that why we've come back here, 'niichan?"

"Dante knew a great deal of the stone and it is possible that she left something behind that could be of use to us. Also this seems like the best place to begin the search for the one leading the homunculus."

"You plan to fight them?"

"That is correct."

"Because they have led this country to so many pointless wars?"

"And because they have manipulated desperate people for their own ends."

"You will want me to stay away from them, will you not?"

"We can not let them have the stone and yet that does not mean you can not be of aid to me. You were always better at the theoretical side of alchemy than myself."

"I would rather be at your side, 'niichan, but I understand why such a thing is, for the moment at least, impossible."

"Then you will not fight me on this?"

"No, not this time at least."

"We'll be fine, ototo."

"I hope so."

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T: There we go. Next chapter shall be Wednesday as I'm going to be bogged down in other things Tuesday! Review?