Maes shouldn't have died, so he's alive in this. No flames about my ignoring his death. Thank you.

The casket being lowered into the ground was gorgeous. The military had noted how much work the Lieutenant had done, and had definitely helped with the funeral arrangements. Looking through her own tears, Winry was shocked at how many people were crying as she was. The Colonel, the Sergeant and Second Lieutenant…Edward next to her….Hawkeye probably had no idea how many people cared this much about her.

Alphonse looked at the ground, shaky sounds emitting from his armor. Someone that he knew had died, and by their own hand. If you think about it, it's really scary.

Al looked sideways toward Ed, who was standing next to him. He hadn't expected Ed to cry…It scared him to think that Ed was shaken by this. Their mother's "little man"… Except their mother was gone, and soon they would be too.

Winry, Ed and Al walked forward and lay some carnations on the new mound of dirt by the headstone. Someone had found out that they were her favorites…Somehow Winry suspected Mustang of having something to do with it.

Ed blinked away more tears, trying to stop crying. His only consolation was that practically everyone else was, including the Colonel, who never cries. He was sure his pride was safe.

It was just a hard thought to stomach, the Lieutenant actually killing herself. Like Mustang before him, Ed had thought carefully about the possibilities of her being murdered while he lay awake at night. The world was falling around his feet, and the ledge he was hanging on crumbling away. Winry and Al's mental health was slowly deteriorating. Win was never without long sleeves, and Al had stopped calling him brother a long time ago. He was Edward now, and he hated it.

All Ed wanted was his pseudo family back. He wanted the happy ever after story where he said, "To hell with the military" and left with Al and Winry and they lived in happiness.

But it wasn't going to happen, and Ed had come to terms with that. He figured that they may not be the happiest a long time ago, but he never pictured Al and Winry this way.

Despite what he had told Al, he really wasn't sure about what to do with Winry. The fact that she would even consider cutting herself scared him shitless.

Because, of course, it had been a clear and sunny day yesterday the sky suddenly started down pouring, thankfully hiding Roy's tears. He bowed his head again, thinking furiously about how Riza hadn't deserved this. She didn't deserve anything she got, and deserved everything she could have. He knew it was the circle of life, but it was such a bitch.

Roy couldn't pull the trigger. He was a coward in his mind, always have and always will be. He was selfish, a selfish coward and he hated himself. He lived by telling himself that Riza wouldn't have wanted him to die in her name and he didn't.

"Come on," Ed muttered. "Let's go home, I can't stay here." Winry nodded silently and Al followed the two of them as they walked the short distance.

After the funeral Roy didn't know what to do with himself. He stood there as people left around him, nodding their heads in pity as they looked at him. After everybody had left, someone clapped a hand on his shoulder. Looking up, Roy felt a spark of hope ignite in him. Maes smiled sadly.

"Maes," Mustang said thickly. Hughes shook his head.

"C'mon, Roy, you're soaking wet." He said simply, and led Roy to his house where Elysia greeted him with a huge hug, making Roy feel hopeful again. Somebody didn't care that he practically killed the Lieutenant.

Leaving the Hughes' house later that night, Roy felt a huge cloud of sorrow over his head again, almost as if it had waited for him outside their home. Again unsure with what to do, he walked back to his apartment, his feet dragging as the rain spilled overhead.

"This is stupid! We have to get out of Central!" Ed whispered hoarsely to Winry so Al wouldn't overhear in his room. Her cloudy eyes glanced downward.

"I don't know, Ed…" She trailed off, still staring at the ground.

"C'mon, Win!" He said desperately. "Al and you are going downhill! Humor me, will you!" A solitary tear fell from Winry's eye.

"Don't you ever just want to stay in one place!" She asked, glaring at him now. "Besides, Mustang'll slit your throat if you don't finish that Ice Alchemist case."

"Mustang's too busy crying his eyes out."

"Insensitive," She muttered. Ed glared at her.

"Not insensitive, just pointing something out! Stop avoiding the subject and tell me if you'll come with me and Al or not!" Winry looked up, surprised.

"Al already said he'll come?" Ed paused.

"Well, if I come, he'll come."

"You expect that to always be the case? Ed," She interrupted him as he opened his mouth. "Al may be your little brother, but he still has a mind of his own."

"I'll ask him later," Ed muttered from the corner of his mouth, Winry sighed, and walked to her room, slamming the door.

Opening the door to his apartment, Roy dropped his coat on the floor and walked to the kitchen. He pulled a chair away from the table, sat in it, and lay his head in his hands, doing nothing but think.

The funeral had been hard to get through, watching everyone cry and feeling his own tears. He was Colonel Roy Mustang, dammit. He shouldn't be crying!

He thought back to a week ago when he found out she had died. He had almost pulled the trigger… Did he still want to?

Roy shook his head. "Stupid," He muttered, pushing away a glass of water. "She wouldn't have wanted me to die…"

"But what do I know…?" He mused. "Maybe she did!" He laughed hollowly. "Conniving little… No, that's not true… Hawkeye wouldn't have wished death on anyone, asides from our enemies… Why did she kill herself? Oh, hell…" Tears were falling again, and Mustang hurriedly wiped them away, as if afraid to be seen.

"This is stupid…" He spoke loudly, like a child trying to convince themselves that the monster under the bed wouldn't hurt them. "No use crying over what's gone." He pushed his chair away from the table and went to bed. His eyes never closed though, as he thought of what's lost.

Ed didn't go to sleep either that night. He lay awake thinking about his brother in the other room. He had pledged to protect him…And he was sure his mother wanted him to as well. He didn't want to disappoint her at all. And he would feel like he was failing Al and Winry as well if this continued.

Ed rolled over again, finally starting to sleep when he heard the sound of glass shattering. He shrugged it off as something outside and closed his eyes, sleep overtaking him.

Roy was pissed off the next morning that he was expected in work. Surely they didn't expect him to get over Riza's death that fast… Military bastards.

Nonetheless, Mustang went to work, albeit a few minutes late, where Fuery and Havoc looked half-dead, working to replace the last two files. For a second, Mustang wondered where Ed was, but he probably had taken off with Winry and Al that day…

"Ed? Do you know where Al is? I haven't seen him all day." Winry walked down the last few stairs to get to the room where Ed was reading.

"He's in his room; he's been acting funny lately, so I think it's just best if we leave him alone." Winry sat down on a chair across from Ed.

"Ed?"

"Yeah?"

"Your book's upside down."

"Uh, this is one of those books that alchemists wrote notes on I got from Central."

"Oh..."

I don't want to bother Al, Edward thought, eyes looking through the upside down book. I'm worried though…Winry's right, I manipulate him too much. Some brother I am. I'll leave him alone, but if he doesn't come out by nine I'm going to go talk to him.

Winry excused herself awhile later, and disappeared to her own room, leaving Ed with something else to worry about. He couldn't be sure whether or not she was still cutting. He didn't think she would, in these conditions, what with the Lieutenant and the fact that he knew.

But, then again, what made her cut in the first place? Was it his fault?

In her room, Winry took off her black jacket and winced when she saw the scars running up and down her arm. She knew she didn't have any reason to cut, but she was addicted on the automatic high it gave her, and even though she really should stop, she wasn't sure if she could, or even if she wanted to. This, of course, made her feel unbelievably guilty, and she pulled out the knife without thinking.

For the rest of the day, really, Ed stared at the upside down book in his hands, thinking about how he had ruined Winry and Alphonse, because of course it was all his fault. He shouldn't have gotten them tangled up in the military, and he shouldn't have still been with the military. They're just a bunch of dogs, anyway.

One eye looking over his book at the grandfather clock in the room told him it was eight-thirty at night. A miracle. It had been seven hours since Winry had left… And he was starving.

Figuring that if Winry was/had been hungry she would have gotten food herself, Ed walked over to the kitchen and found a bowl of left-over stew, which he ate quickly standing up, savoring the fact that no milk was in site. After lazily putting the bowl in the sink for someone else to clean, Ed stretched his arms over his head. "Well… Eight-thirty is just as good as nine…" He told himself, and headed upstairs.

"Hey, Win?" He asked, knocking on her door softly in case she was asleep. "You awake?" She was either asleep or pretending to be… Ed sighed. He really didn't want to deal with Alphonse, as sad as that may sound…

Ed slowly walked down the hall to Al's room, then knocked on the door louder then he did for Winry. "Alphonse? You in there?" Al didn't open the door, or react at all.

Since Al wasn't sleeping or changing, or anything like that, Ed opened the door and walked right in. He wasn't on the bed or the chair in the corner. Something underneath Ed's boot crunched, and he looked down to see a piece of metal with a dot of red on it. His pupils grew smaller as his eyes slid up, showing him the lifeless metal armor of Alphonse.

"You…Little…Fucker!" Ed whispered hoarsely. "I told you not to die before me!" He leaned over and kicked the armor, watching as the tears from his eyes flew and landed on the cold metal.

Edward started crying harder then before, harder then when his mother had died, harder then when Nina died, harder then he ever thought he could. He couldn't breathe, and the lack of oxygen made him feel dizzy. The tears made the world swirl before him, and he fell on top of the broken armor, cutting himself. He shook his head violently, sending the tears flying everywhere.

"I can't believe you! I know I was a shitty brother, but you didn't have to kill yourself! That's fucked. Up, Al." Ed wiped away his tears quickly so he could see clearly before clapping his hands together and placing them on his own chest. "I can't live without you, Alphonse, you're my little brother…"

Epilogue:

It's been the second and third funeral in a week. People drop like flies around here.

I don't know why Ed felt that he had to kill himself. He could have lived without Al… But then again, maybe he couldn't. I'm not sure if I can.

I'm leaving for Resembool tomorrow to properly bury Ed and Al. I know they wanted to be buried with their mother; the funeral in Central was really only a memorial.

And I'm getting the hell out of here. Central's a hellhole, and if anyone wants to move here, a word of advice from a saying that people have been talking about:

"When you move to Central, it's all downhill from here."

How many people think I should have left out the Epilogue? The Epilogue WAS originally going to be Winry finding the bodies… But that was stupid. XP This could be too, though...

Thoughts, comments, flames, all accepted. Please do, though, tell me if the Epilogue fit or not. I'd love to know.

Reviewers: I love you all! Thank you so much, without you I would have deleted this story a long time ago! I still hate it, I hate it hate it hate it… But at least now you guys know how it ended. Special thanks to Mearii, Ace, and Glutts, you guys motivate me the most, but please, don't hold me at gunpoint anymore.

Flamers: I got a SHITLOAD of flames on here. Jesus… Oh well… You'll get what you deserve.