Title: Goodnight, Moon

Chapter: 6/?

Pairing: Ed/AlRoy

Rating: PG-13

Even though the name "Fullmetal Alchemist" was quite well known throughout the country, there weren't that many people who knew exactly what Edward Elric looked like. Sure, there were some who knew him because of coming in direct contact with him, but most of the population had only heard of his deeds (many of them quite gaudy) and prompted rumours to spring up. But, rumours or no, Roy still felt it unsafe to let Alphonse run about with that name attached to him, since the boy was using it to seek out rare alchemy documents—which is why he had assigned him a bodyguard. At first Alphonse protested to the idea, but figured that he couldn't do much to waver Roy's decision and so let the bodyguard follow him about. He didn't know the woman, and didn't know why she always looked at him with such a pitiful look. He couldn't say he hated it; he didn't like it, to say the least, but either because he was too polite or the woman was extremely nice to him, Alphonse didn't choose to dismiss her. On occasions, when he is feeling in a good mood, he would even chitchat with her and her partner on small, trivial things. She was careful about who he saw, and he wondered, sometimes, how she knew of the people he would like to see and the people he wouldn't like to see (mostly because he didn't know them).

But usually, he just let that sort of thought stay in the back of his mind while he read his books and researched in the confinement of the small studying room tucked in the back of the library.

"A—Edward," Maria Ross whispered, a peek of her face showing through the small crack she opened in the door. "You have visitors."

Alphonse looked up from his stack of notes and stared at her blankly. He'd never had visitors before, usually not for himself. Maria knew how to screen his visitors, so why did she allow some to come in now?

Seeing his puzzled face, Maria opened the door more to show who exactly she was talking about. For a moment, Alphonse's confused expression turned into a facade that held no expression—looking on blankly at the two girls who entered the room. Only after a few seconds did his face finally break into a huge grin, and only then did he get up from his chair.

"Winry!" he shouted in greeting. Winry beamed at him and strolled towards him in huge strides; she hadn't seen him for almost a year, and she had missed him.

But when she opened her arms to embrace him, Alphonse took a small couple of steps back, suddenly timid. Even though she looked like Winry, and definitely sounded like Winry, it still shocked Alphonse sometimes that the girl he grew up with, the girl next door, all of a sudden grew some four, five years older without him knowing it. He felt as though she was a five-year-old stranger sometimes, and his body would move subconsciously to that thought—that they were actually quite far apart. The distance between them was the four years he had missed, and yet had somehow lived, as she had told him many times before when he would scream at the sight of her. He knew that she was telling him the truth, but how was he to know anything when he couldn't recall a single adventure she had described to him that she had experience with them?

Winry, however, did not let that move deter her. Sure, it hurt to see Alphonse act this way, but she couldn't blame him, and she just decided that it was because of Scheska's presence. That was the excuse that Alphonse usually gave her when she was in the room with someone else he didn't know—that he was shocked by I their /I presence, not Winry's. So, now, she put her fists on her hips and shook her head, forcing a smile at Alphonse's lack of improvement on part of his memory.

"Oh, come on, Al," she scolded lightly, "you know who this is, it's Scheska! It's not like you to have such a horrible memory." She smiled to emphasize that she wasn't hurt by the small, subtle action that Al made, and then turned her head to wink at Scheska. It was a silent apology that she had used her as a way to calm Al down. Al shifted in his place, looking guilty, and then tried his best to smile at Winry as though what he had done really wasn't that bad, that it wasn't like he had some sort of strange disease. He'd seen that Scheska girl enough times to know her quite well, and he knew that she was a good friend of Winry's. In fact, by the complete unfamiliarity of their first meeting, he actually felt more comfortable that she was someone else who entered into his life rather than an old friend who just suddenly transformed. He nodded courteously and motioned for the two girls to sit while he tried to clear the table off of papers.

"So what are you guys doing here?" Al asked, stacking his papers to one side of the table, and the books to the other.

"Oh, Scheska's coming back to Central City to continue her job," Winry explained. "She said that she couldn't stay in the countryside for forever."

"It's very nice there," Scheska protested lightly, "but I just couldn't keep bothering all of you." She shrunk back in her seat and squirmed, either from nervousness or itchiness to flip through some of the books Alphonse had stacked up. Alphonse smiled palely at her, his eyes squinting a bit when he did that. She almost reminded him of his brother when he walked into a bookstore when they were little but was told to "not touch anything." He looked away at that thought, and somewhere deep inside himself, he scolded himself for having compared his brother to a girl. Edward would have probably taken it the wrong way and shouted something like "who are you saying is so short that he looks like a girl" or something of the sort. Alphonse tapped his finger on the table with a nostalgic look, almost ignoring the two girls for the briefest moment.

"Well, I wish you good luck," he said to Scheska, looking back up at her. He must have not been in that small daydream for long, since the two of them didn't mention anything about it. Either that, or they were too accustomed to his spells to really say anything about it anymore. Scheska nodded with a small, hunched-up bow, and tried her best Winry-like grin, which she failed. But the smile still looked nice.

"So would you like to come and stay with me when you're in the city, Winry?" Alphonse suggested, not wanting to ignore Winry even though her strange presence distressed him.

She shook her head and held up a hand of polite refusal.

"You live with that Mustang guy, right?" she said, her voice very obviously trying to hide whatever resentment (which Alphonse never quite understood, and she never told him) she had towards the man. "I don't know…sounds like his house would have tons of rules I can't take. Besides, I have to help Scheska move her luggage back into her house. The villagers gave her a bunch of crops to eat here, telling her that she won't get vegetables any fresher in the city."

At that, Alphonse gave a small ring of laughter, which Winry smiled at. It was nice to hear him laugh, and it was comforting for Alphonse to hear these things about the village. It was familiar to him, and it didn't feel like he had missed out on anything as long as these things didn't change. He was pretty sure that if he had heard from Winry that everyone in the village had gone off and joined the army, he would go insane from the sheer shock. For a good minute, the three of them just enjoyed the sort of laughter that came from sharing homeland stories (though Scheska just tittered). When it was finally over, Winry sighed and glanced at Al, glad that he was at least still laughing. She wanted to comment and question about how Roy Mustang was taking care of Al, but decided against it with a mental wave of her hand. Instead, she reached into a shopping bag that she had brought with her and produced a small potted cactus.

"What's this?" Al asked as she slid the object across the table towards him.

"It's a potted cactus," she stated as-a-matter-of-factly.

"I can see that…" Al muttered, giving her something like a playful glare.

"It's for you, since you don't seem to have anything else to do other than read. Besides, there aren't that many plants here in the city. So it's low-maintenance, and you can enjoy something green!" Winry explained excitedly, proud of herself.

"Well…" Alphonse squeezed out of his throat, looking down sheepishly at the cactus. "I don't think I'll really be needing this…when I achieve my goal, I'll return to Resembool." He took the pot, though, and felt the coarse clay pot it nestled in within his cupped hands. The look from Winry was sending chills of guilt down his spine, and he pulled the pot towards him.

"I'll keep it," he said, finally, getting up. "I guess I should take this home, then…I don't think the library staff would be too happy with me keeping a plant in here." He cradled the small plant within his arms as he stood up, looking down at it with small bits of fascination at how something so small could hold life as well. He had to fight the urge to go and feel the prickly surface of the thing to figure out how the thing was structured. But he really couldn't see himself taking care of this thing, as fascinating as it was; he hardly had time to go to sleep at night, with his researching.

From across the room, Maria Ross glanced at his movements and got up from the chair she was seated upon by the door.

"Are you going home now, 'Edward?'" she asked, getting ready to open the door for him.

"Yes, I'm just going to put this plant back at the house, I'll come back later, please don't remove my books," Al said softly. He then turned to face Winry and Scheska, who were also getting up from their seats. "Are you guys sure that you don't want to come sit for a while?"

They both declined politely, shaking their heads with a warm smile. Al cocked his head to one side, slightly disappointed, but also somewhat relieved. Sometimes he just didn't know how to face Winry, and where to look when he was speaking to her. He blamed that latter part on the fact that he was getting to "that age," too.

"Then I guess I'll see you around," he murmured as he walked out, hoping that he didn't sound too cold.

The walk from the library back to the Mustang Estates was rather long, and even though Maria had offered to drive him home, Alphonse turned the offer down on the accounts that the walk would be good for him. The worried look Maria gave him only made him all the more desperate to walk alone—he hated to be taken as some sort of fragile creature just because he had, according to him, lost his memory. He had managed to learn the streets and alleys of the city well enough to get home by himself, and he was old enough. Thus, he gave Maria the next hour or so off while he strolled home to put the plant in the house. He promised that yes, he'll be back, and no, he won't get into any trouble.

When he stepped into the house, he went to his room and set the cactus by a small corner, hoping that he would be able to forget about it soon and not feel guilty if it died. But already he felt guilty at his own mentality, at how much it was like people who deserted pets. Sighing, Alphonse went to grab for the cloak he hung on his bedpost, hoping that the memory of his brother would at least give him some comfort. When they were little, Edward had always been the one who would tell him to get over losing something, or get over breaking something, because not everything lasted forever.

But when his hand caught nothing, Alphonse got worried and stood up to find that the cloak was no longer in his room.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small flutter of something red, beckoning him to turn his head and look out the window.

That afternoon, he never returned to the library.

"Furher," Hawkeye called out on the other side of the office door as she knocked on it. "Your guests are here to see you."

"Send them in," Roy ordered. He reached into his desk drawer and leafed through several sheets of paper before pulling out the letter he had taken from Edward's belongings.

The door was opened, and Roy's guest came stomping in, apparently quite impatient and unhappy about being called here. She threw herself onto the large couch in the room without even being offered a seat, and glared up at Roy.

" I Furher /I ," she said, grinding out the word as though it were a nasty curse word.

"Mrs. Curtis," Roy answered smoothly, not letting her discontent freeze him in his steps. He'd heard about her from the Elric brothers, and he wouldn't like to be in the path of her wrath—not that he was afraid of her—but because he wouldn't really be able to do anything about it. "Thank you so much for coming."

"So what is this about?" Izumi asked.

Roy walked across from where she sat so that there was at least a coffee table between the two of them, and offered the letter across the table. She glimpsed at the piece of paper questioningly and then picked it up between her two fingers, flipping it open to read it. As she did, Roy noticed that her eyes (perhaps like his when he had read it) grew steadily wider. When she finished, she peeked over the rim of the letter and her brows furrowed, but no longer with anger.

"Is this true?" she asked, her tone grave.

"That's why I called you over," Roy explained. "Has he…been able to retain anything you've taught him?"

"He's absorbed it better than he did the first time, actually," Izumi admitted with a tinge of pride in her voice.

"Then…this letter…" Roy motioned with his gloved hand at the letter, which Izumi had let fall back onto the tabletop.

"I wouldn't dismiss it right away," Izumi advised. "I know the handwriting…it's their father's. I don't think he would lie about something like this."

Roy clasped his hands together and leaned over to place his chin against the top of his joined hands, contemplating the situation.

"Also…I wouldn't let him see it unless we find out some things, either," Izumi said over the cranking gears of Roy's thoughts.

Roy nodded in agreement and leaned over to take the piece of paper, folding it up and placing it into his uniform pocket. Just then, Hawkeye knocked on the door outside and let herself in, indicating that whatever she had to say was rather urgent. Roy turned his attention over to her while making sure that the letter was secure inside his coat pocket.

"What is it?"

"First Lieutenant Ross just came in, sir," Hawkeye reported, "she said that Alphonse-kun has not returned to the library for hours. She's been to the residence and found that the doors and the windows have been completely bolted by alchemy."

Upon hearing that, Roy sighed and stood up, pulling his long overcoat to step out of the office, most likely for the rest of the night.

"Thank you for coming, Mrs. Curtis," Roy said before he left. "My assistant will escort you to the station." His dismissive tone told Izumi that he wished to handle the situation himself, and that she should go and research the strange issue mentioned in the letter. Figuring that this was probably not her place to really stick her nose in, even though she worried about Alphonse, she allowed herself to be escorted out by Hawkeye. On the whole way to the train station, she hoped that Alphonse was going to be all right.

What she didn't know, however, was that when Roy went home, not only was he faced with an utterly plant-insulated house but also raised stone spikes on the walkway up to the doors.

When Roy finally got through those things and managed to get into the house, the first thing that greeted him was a hand on his throat.

To be continued.