AN: Yeah, still don't own them…

BTW, thank you guys yet again for all those lovely reviews. And no, this is NOT, and I repeat NOT, an Al x Winry fic! They're just friends who love one another like siblings.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He wanted to escape. Oh how he just wanted to get away. He was a monster, an abomination that had slipped through the fingers of God's grace. What right did he have to be here, around real people? People who were not created in sin…

This whole mission was a lie!

He swiftly made his way out of the hospital. His metal suit clanked against the marble floors, echoing in the empty hallways as a painful reminder of what he was. Winry was calling after him but he didn't hear her. Inanimate objects can't hear. Nor can they see, talk, feel or love. He was no longer Alfonse Elric. The metallic giant exited the hospital…

… only to find it raining cats and dogs outside.

Darn…

He couldn't walk through the rain. A single drop can smear his seal out of existence (and he wasn't exactly waterproof where his joints were). Luckily there was a shelter over the entrance to the hospital. Otherwise he would've ceased to exist before he had time to come to terms with his situation. He didn't want his soul to disappear. Not just yet. He wanted to understand before he destroyed himself.

He stared up at the clouded heavens crying tears that he himself could not. It was raining very hard indeed. He needed to be careful. Summer showers were always the most lethal to him…

Summer showers…Oh my God!

Something in him snapped… something he had forgotten about… It sent chills down his imaginary spine.

He took a step backwards, nearly bumping into Winry, who was standing right behind him. They both startled each other. She had caught up with him whilst he had stood outside contemplating the weather. She didn't expect him to move so suddenly and he didn't even realise that she had followed him. This brief form of contact made him acknowledge her presence. However, after the initial shock passed he recoiled within his thoughts once more. As if she was but a mere fly on the wall.

The tin man sat down on the floor with a loud crash, as if some one had dropped a load of pots and pans. He curled into as small of a ball as a piece of metal like him could possibly be rolled into. He was shaking. His limbs rattled along with the symphony of the falling rain outside.

The summer showers... the summer showers…

Winry remained silent. She knew that nothing she said could make her dear friend feel better. Something had scared him but she was wise enough not to ask what. News like this can awaken anything within someone. May it be a whimpering child or a hideous raging monster, she didn't want to be the person to spark it off. But she didn't want her childhood friend to suffer alone so she stood behind him, leaning against the slightly dampened wall. Even under the shelter some raindrops managed to stray…

She was invisible to Alfonse. He was in a world of his own. She couldn't help him right now. The young girl watched helplessly as the metallic boy started rocking to and fro, whispering the same words that only he could hear…

the summer showers… the summer showers…

o

O

-------

"Mother! The summer showers! The summer showers!" An excited little boy pointed out of the window at the dark summer sky. "It's going to rain today!" he cried out.

His mother gave him a warm smile. His slightly older brother smirked casually from the seat next to their mother (it SO wasn't cool to overreact like little Alfonse did… even if Ed loved this time of year just as much).

"Can I go outside already, Mom? Please?"

"Al, the rain hasn't even begun to fall. Besides, you'll catch your death playing outside in the rain," his pretty mother replied sternly, yet a little weakly. She had been quite under the weather for the past couple of months. But she didn't let on how seriously ill she actually was.

If only I had listened…

He had snuck out. His mother was napping and his brother was busy transmuting the kitchen table into an over-sized toothpick (sometimes their mom got a little ticked off with some of their antics…this trick surely would be one of them). No one even realised he was gone.

The young boy ran on the grass in the rain. No umbrella, no coat, not even shoes. Mother always told him that the rain was his friend. It nurtures the world, bringing it new life. What his dear mother forgot to tell insinuate was that the rain took lives as well.

He stood in the middle of the field, both arms stretched outward so that the rain could touch every part of his soul. He closed his eyes and twirled as he felt the rain falling harder against his skin, then stopped when he got too dizzy. He opened his wet eyelids again to a day of darkness, yet a day of life.

The child called out to his weathery companion as if the tip tap of the drops were a reply to his calls. He laughed. He smiled. Then he laughed again. The rain was his friend. The rain was his ally.

He looked down and cupped his hands, collecting water from the raindrops and the stream water dripping from the tip of his nose and the tips of his clumped-up, wet bangs. The little boy watched with amusement as his hand filled with the true elixir of life… followed almost directly by a confused frown.

Why was the water pink?

The child shrugged it off, believing that his eyes were too wet to be seeing clearly. Besides, what sounds more absurd than pink rain? And without a second thought, he lifted his cupped hands above his head, opened his mouth and trickled the cool, slightly salty liquid down his throat.

------

O

o

The summer showers… the summer showers…

It had deceived him. Like everyone around him, the rain had deceived him. Ever since he had attained this body the rain had been his mortal enemy. He looked up and watched the droplets slowly die down and eventually stop altogether. He watched as the clouds cleared into a crystal clear night and he watched as dawn broke over the cleansed earth. He watched as the new rays danced upon puddles, turning everything the rain had touched into gold. The Midas touch: the touch that had turned him into what he is now.

He heard Winry snoring. The sound was a strange, yet effective way in which to bring him back to Earth. She had fallen asleep in a seated position against the wall behind him hours ago. Alfonse understood that his brother was still too injured to follow him so Winry must've decided to pursue him instead.

Was she watching over me all night?

The tin man was too lost in thought to notice that she hadn't left at all. He turned to look at her for the first time since he nearly bumped into her. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully (but snoring quite loudly). Alfonse Elric felt his non-existent heart warm up again. The truth struck him right then and there.

They still care about me… As if I was real.

The suit of armour watched her sleep for a little while longer. He knew that his brother would've been right here too if he was mobile. The thought was welcoming and uplifting.

Alfonse sighed and got up as silently as his hollow metal pieces could allow him to, then turned and picked her up and carried her back to Edward's room. He had to face his brother sooner or later. This fight is gonna be hell.

But at least I know one thing…

Even if his heart isn't real, his mind didn't exist and his soul is but a mere illusion, the love that Edward and Winry shared for him, Alfonse the suit of armour, is all but fake.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nest Chapter up soon...