Entering the building, the foursome was greeted by a black-haired man with a serious look on his face. A jacket just like General Armstrong's was draped over his arm, and the three upper buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned.

On his right side, a taller blond man with an unlit cigarette hanging limply between his lips was hunched over, talking to a receptionist with a sly grin. He turned around as he saw the darker man move towards the new arrivals.

None of them looked as groomed as Alphonse had expected military officials to be. The stubbles on the stern man's cheek looked to be more than a day old, and both of them looked worn out.

General Armstrong saluted the dark man, straightening his back. "Sir!"
The black-haired waved Armstrong's gesture off, shaking his head.

"That's okay, general. Thank you for your help. You are dismissed," he mumbled.

Armstrong lowered his hand but didn't leave. Instead, he took a seat next to a bespeckled man and proceeded to talk quietly.

Roy smiled weakly when he looked at Alphonse. If there had been any doubt, there was none anymore. This was the son of Van Hoenheim and the brother of Edward Elric. He looked like the missing link between the two.

Roy recognized Edwards' intense stare and golden hair in the young man standing before him. His eyes were a slightly greener shade, but still bright and woke like his brother's. He had his father's bone structure with a defined jaw-line and strong shoulders.

Hoenheim's work in the military had been kept secret, but Roy remembered his intimidating presence as clear as day. The young man in front of him was far from frightening though. His facial features were soft and kind.

"I'm Colonel Roy Mustang," he said and met Alphons' firm handshake.

"Alphonse Rockbell... Uh, Elric."

Roy turned towards the two women and greeted them with handshakes as well.

"This is Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc," his hand gestured towards the tall blonde.

"T'sure, is. Nice to meet you," Havoc greeted the small family with the same sly smile, winking and flipping an imaginary hat towards Winry. Which earned him an insulted "hmph" from the receptionist and several smacks in the arm by Pinako.

"She's sixteen years old you pig-faced grunt!" she scolded angrily, as the man shrank down to her size, muttering apologies as he tried to protect himself from the old lady's surprisingly heavy blows.

Ignoring (or perhaps just being used to) the situation, Roy turned his attention back to Al.

"I apologize for my appearance. I'm afraid I haven't been able to clean up since yesterday," he explained, sounding more professional than he felt.

"No worries," Al assured hurriedly. "Have you been here all night?"

"Yes. Edward has been staying with me during his time in Central. I'll explain everything later. I'm sure you are anxious to meet your brother."

Alphonse nodded energetically, but Pinako seemed hesitant. Roy noticed it and looked over her shoulder to a female officer.

"I believe you have spoken to Second Lieutenant Hawkeye," he said, waving her over. She approached with a warm smile, looking much more rested than her superior officer.

"I'm glad to finally meet you. I'm sure you have a lot of questions. We'll try our best to answer any of them, but I'm afraid we don't know much. This whole situation developed rather quickly."

"I just want to meet Edward," Alphonse said, looking pleadingly at Riza. She looked at Roy, and he nodded.

"You can come with me, Alphonse. I'm afraid only one person can visit at the time. Doctor's orders." Al followed obediently, glancing back at Winry and Pinako as they disappeared down a long, plain corridor.

Winry looked at the taller blonde woman with a frown. All of the blue uniforms were triggering, but Pinako's reassuring hand met her back, sensing the tension.

"Please tell me how you came about young Edward," she said firmly and Riza told the story, starting with how they had met at the train, and the following events that led them all here. The only part she slightly edited was her superior officer's irrational behavior at the beginning.

"Mr. Mustang?" Alphonse asked as they left the three women talking in the reception. Roy managed to suppress the need to correct his title.

"Yes?" he answered, and pressed the button to an elevator.

"What happened to him? I mean, Granny said he was sick from sleeping out in the snow, but you said he had been staying with you."

His concerned expression was met with what looked like a guilty smile.

"I'm not sure I know how to answer that," Roy said humbly.

"A lot of bad things have happened to your brother, Alphonse," he explained. The door of the elevator opened, and they stepped inside. Roy pushed the button for the second floor, and the elevator started to move from the ground floor which they were currently on.

"At the orphanage?" Al asked, looking guilty and not being able to meet the colonel's eyes.

"Yes. But, that's not your fault," he added quickly. "Somebody screwed you over, and we're going to find out who is responsible for that. This kind of mistake is inexcusable."

Al nodded, still not looking up.

"Anyway. Sometime last night he left my residence. He was already in bad shape. I can't claim that I understand exactly how his mind works, but he didn't think he deserved to stay with me as long as he couldn't do much to help out."

To Roy's surprise, this made Alphonse smile.

"Yeah, that's just how I remember him. He never wanted to accept help from anyone. Even as a small kid. Our mom used to joke about him demanding to changing his own diapers," Al chuckled at the memory.

"Sounds about right," Roy mumbled, but couldn't help the smile on his lips, as he stopped and turned around to face a door with the number 215 on it. Al took a couple of more steps before realizing that they were there.

"Is this it?" he asked silently, receiving an encouraging nod from the colonel.

"He knows that you are coming, do you want me to go in first to prepare him anyway?"

Al didn't know. Now that he was there, he froze. His reunion with his brother had played out time and time again in his mind on the long train ride, every probable scenario, but now that he was here, he felt paralyzed and scared.

"N-no," he finally stuttered and reached for the doorknob. Mustang took a step back to let the younger man through.

Entering the room, the first thing Al registered was the steady beeping from the heart monitor. The hospital bed was placed in the middle of the average-sized room, and in it laid his older brother's sleeping form. A breath was caught in Alphonse' throat at the sight of the battered and malnourished body. The missing arm was the most disturbing part of the picture. If Al hadn't known better, he would have thought that the person in front of him was several years younger than himself. But, no. This was Edward. His best friend and brother.

Alphonse swallowed, trying to get rid of the heavy lump that had appeared in his chest as he walked over to the bed. A chair was already set beside it, and he settled down on it. Again, he looked his brother over, in the disturbingly similar condition as the last time he had seen him. The bandages and wires... But this time, Al wouldn't let anyone take him away from him. He would never, ever, part from his brother's side again.

Another hour went by before Edward started to wake up. The lights in the room had been turned on while he had been out, and the bright rays from the fluorescent lighting felt like it tried to cut through his cornea.

He tried to move a bit, confirming that, yep, his body is still non-functioning, as he let out a small moan. As a movement registered in his peripheral vision. He suddenly stiffened, remembering yesterday's talk with Roy, about...

"Alphonse!" Ed shut up from the bed, not caring about the pain that violently warned him not to move, and threw himself at the startled teen at his side.

It all happened so sudden, that Al didn't have time to register before the bandaged pocket-rocket threw itself at him. It took a couple of seconds before he realized what was happening, but once it did, he grabbed around his brother's narrow shoulders and returned the hug as tightly as he dared, not wanting to inflict him any more pain.

"I knew you were alive, brother! I did!" Alphonse finally released the tensioned tears he had wanted to release for hours, and couldn't help himself from grasping tightly at his hospital gown, not being able to get close enough to his beloved older brother.

"I had no idea," Ed's hoarse voice admitted, breaking in the middle of his sentence. "They, they said that..." Ed finally let go of his brother, needing to look him in the eyes. Al helped him back onto the bed with gentle hands, getting the tangled wires back in place, hoping they hadn't broken anything.

Glossy gleaming eyes met Al's, and they both took the sight of the other in.

"Jesus Christ," Ed shuttered. "We look like a couple of bawling lunatics." A bandaged hand wiped at the tears that had been streaming down his face just a couple of seconds ago.

"I'm so happy to see you, Edward," Alphonse smiled warmly, not bothering to try and hide the trails from his own tears.

"You too, Al... Listen, I-"

"You don't have to say anything. We were both lied to. Why, doesn't matter right now. I just want to catch up, tell you everything that has happened and learn everything about you."

The smile on Ed's lip weakened a bit. He wanted to know how his little brother had been, but he really didn't want to tell Alphonse about Drachma. It would crush him to know how Ed had it there, and knowing his brother, he would probably blame himself. If anyone was to blame for everything that happened, it certainly wasn't Alphonse. It was Ed.

There would never even have been a fire if it wasn't for Ed...

"Brother!"

Ed was startled out of his thoughts and looked in surprise on his brother that was now standing with his hands on Ed's shoulders, shaking him gently.

"Are you feeling okay? Do you want me to get someone?"

At the realization that Alphonse was touching his scarred shoulder, Ed flinched a little. Al retracted his arms fast, looking at his hands in disbelief.

He had hurt Edward.

"I'm so, so sorry brother, I didn't think, I-I.. you looked so lost, I didn't mean to..."

"Relax," Edward reassured. "It's fine. I'm okay. Don't worry. I guess I'm just not used to... it being touched."

Al looked doubtfully at Ed, reluctantly sitting back down.

"Can I see it?" he finally asked.

"M-my shoulder?"

Alphonse nodded. Ed looked like he had to consider it for a short while, before he carefully pulled at the collar of the hospital gown, revealing a large scar covering most of if right chest area, continuing over his shoulder and under where his armpit should have been. A thin layer of skin covered the hollow pit that was where his arm had been amputated.

"Gangrene," Ed explained and shifted his gaze from his shoulder to his heavily bandaged leg-stump, even smaller now than it had already been.

Edward didn't actually know how he had expected Alphonse to react. Previous experiences had involved overwhelming pity, horror, disgust, and loud mocking laughter. He couldn't remember anyone looking this numb when first seeing his scars.

"It looks really bad," Al said in a flat voice as if all his energy suddenly had been drained. Ed decided not to answer and let Al process.

"I only got this," Al stated, rolling up the sleeve on his light blue shirt, revealing his pale scar. Ed couldn't help but think that it almost looked like a flaming hand had grabbed his small arm and left the mark.

"And you..." Al couldn't finish the sentence, his head bowing down as his hands went through his hair. "It's not fair," he uttered weakly while trying to strangle a sob.

Edward looked with concern at his distraught younger brother. Carefully leaning over, Ed tried to put his left hand on Alphonse, but he couldn't quite reach. The IV tugged slightly when his arm stretched out completely, and he had to give up.

"Al..."

"Stop it, Ed, I could have done something!" Al stood up, making the chair slide back a couple of inches. Edward looked at his brother with wide eyes.

"I saw you in the hospital room that day, Ed! Even if they told me that you were dead, I saw you and I knew it wasn't true! I tried to tell them, I did! They told me it was just wishful thinking, and so, I started to believe them! I should have made someone listen!" Al sobbed into his hands, hiding the shameful look on his face.

"But no one did," he managed to squeeze out in a frail, distressed voice.

"Look at me," Edward's voice was calm and steady. Alphonse wiped his nose on his sleeve and looked with red eyes at him.

"You're not to blame for this. You were just 3 years old, that's... insane. You can't beat yourself up for something you had no control over. Promise me that, Alphonse, that you'll never entertain that kind of thoughts again."

Al couldn't continue to hold the tears back. Everything needed to be let out and today he apparently was a bottomless pit. Ed gave him an encouraging wave to come over, and Alphonse complied with no hesitation. He crawled carefully onto the bed and buried his face in his brother's chest and cried his heart out, shaking uncontrollably and clutching at the fabric of the hospital gown. Edward's hand stroke reassuring circles on his back, whispering that everything was going to be okay now into his ear.

How Al had missed that voice.

Edward's heart was a puzzle that was much harder to solve with only one hand. The pieces were scattered all over, and he had dragged it along carelessly all of his 16 years on this earth. The clutter of pieces facing the wrong way, pieced together with an incompatrable piece, many missing completely, only seemed to scatter about more and more, making it harder to find the pieces that were supposed to go together. The box had disappeared so early that he never got a good look at what it was supposed to look like.

But then Alphonse came along. The most prominent corner-piece he thought was lost, essensial to connect the framework.

Al carefully placed it down, right where it was supposed to be.

Now Ed finally knew he could assemble the rest of the picture, no matter how many pieces were lost, however long it would take. One of the missing pieces of his broken heart, was found.

I fluffed it up!

Thank you guys so much for reading this. Despite fear for this story overstaying it's welcome, I am planning two more chapters (including an epilogue). Really hope everyone is enjoying the story!

I'm also thinking about making a sequel to this, based on something from the epilogue, if anyone wants that (I'm also taking suggestions, if anyone have something they would like to happen)!

Staaay awesome!