A/N: This belongs absolutely nowhere in the storyline, and makes no sense. So don't think too hard about it. As impossible as it is with the plot and all, I just wanted to make a toddler Al and Wrath interaction. Friendship fluff rawks!

At first, Al thought it was a rabbit. A very large mangy black rabbit, with messy fur and a very un-rabbit-like wobble to his hop. Ever curious, he had edged further over the grassy hill to instead discover that it was not an animal, but was, in fact, a boy. A messy looking wild ruffian of a boy, but still, more or less human. He was springing in a manner that was not all that much unlike one of the small long-eared rodent, except it seemed he was after something.

"What are you doing?" Al asked tentativley.

"Playin'," The boy responded, not looking up as he pounced intently once again. Al thought he saw something rather small move, and the small hunter bounced once again.

"Are you chasing something?" The young Elric boy asked, cocking his head inquisitively, as the strange child jumped again, further away, managing something that sounded like an "Mmhmm," just before freezing where he'd landed and gawking disgustedly at the squashed grasshopper guts he'd just managed to spread on his palm.

"Did you catch it?" Al asked, drawing nearer, giving the kid time to wipe his hand off and make use of the unlucky earthworm who had just poked it's head (or what an earthworm has that might pass for a head) out of the soil for a breath of fresh air, and held it up trimphantly.

"Got it!" He said, donning a jubilantly boastful grin on his dirtied up face.

"Ooooh. So that's what you were chasing?"

"Yup. It was hard getting this one too!"

"I didn't know that worms hopped."

"Well, this one did." The wild boy pouted at the hint that his story was doubted.

"Is that right?" Al remarked, "So... what are you going to do with it now?"

The rugrat hunter paused. He hadn't really thought that far ahead. He scrunched his features in debate, and finally decided to make a projectile, anf a free-bug out of his captive. Slightly better luck for the worm, although he did wind up with something of a what-passes-for-an-earthworm's-head-ache upon impact. The ex captor sighed and formed a pout, flopping backwards into the grass, and declared,

"I'm bored! There's nothing to do in this dumb place." Al took this statement into consideration, and yanked up a pair of cottony flowers.

"Here. Dandelions." He said plainly. The strange boy looked skeptically at the ball of fuzz in front of his nose, as he took it and asked,

"What do you do with it?"

"You blow on it. See?" Al took a deep breath as if to blow, and turned his head to see if his student was properly mimicking. Well, to be fair, he was, but just a bit too enthusiastically, and he rolled over choking, after inhaling a sizeable chunk of the puffy seeds. Al gasped and patted him on the back, worriedly, as the boy spluttered, spit out seeds, and hastily made the declaration that he definitely did not like 'Dandy lines'. As he finally settled his coughing, and turned his beet red face back at Al to grin dumbly, Alphonse decided that he liked this strange funny person, and made up his mind that they should be friends.

"Do you live by here?" Al asked, "What's your na-"

"Al!" A familiar voice called, "Al! It's time for lunch!."

"Ah! Brother!" Al piped, turning to see his brother appear over the grassy hillside, and swiveled back to where his new hopeful friend was sitting, "Hey, do you want to come ea-"

The spot beside him was empty.

"Hey, Al. Come on! Mom made pie for dessert. What are you waiting for?"

"There was a... wierd boy." Al muttered, dumbstruck. Edward raised an eyebrow and shook his head, grabbing his little brother's wrist and leading him back home.

For years, Al wasn't sure what exactly had happened then, only that it logically couldn't happen. Strange little boys just don't appear and disappear in the middle of open fields.

Then again, worms don't hop either.