Disclaimer: I don't own any of them. Not making any money of this. Love the idea of Ed and Roy.

This idea just popped into my head and wouldn't leave until I started typing it up. It's leaving another one of my fics (for Shaman King) stranded, so please, please, please review if you enjoy it so that I can feel as though poor Yoh & Co. are being left hanging for a good reason.



Chapter 2: Don't You Know Me?

It had been four years.

Four years since Alphonse Elric had been returned to his body at the age of 15. He was now 19. An alchemist. A pillar of the community of Risembool. Married to the talented mechanic Winry Rockbell. He was even father to an adorable one-year-old girl.

And yet he still felt alone. And he knew he always would. For his brother was dead and never coming back.

Edward Elric, Full Metal Alchemist, legendary prodigy, military Major, friend and brother, had sacrificed his life to bring his brother back from death and keep the promise he had made when they were children. He always did have an unshakable moral code about that sort of thing.

Bastard.

Al sighed and kicked a piece of rubble. He had returned to the ruins of their childhood home, as he always did on this day. Winry understood his need to see where everything had all began. Where two talented brothers had been born and where they had been forced to grow up all too quickly. Where events had been set in motion that had led one of them to death and another to life. The man scowled, an uncharacteristic expression for his normally pleasant face, his grey eyes hooded and dark.

"Brother, if you can hear me, you had no right – no right! – to make that choice," he said out loud. He could almost hear his brother scoffing and pointing out that not three minutes prior to said choice being made, Al had done exactly the same thing. And that he was the older brother, shorter or not, and therefore had more of a say in the matter. And that he'd obviously succeeded at making his alchemy stick over his brother's, youngest-ever State Alchemist that he was, so what was the point of dragging all this up now? Move forwards, not backwards. Al sighed heavily, running a hand through his short sandy locks. "I can be just as stubborn as you, brother. And you're not going to make me feel any better."

The sun was setting by the time he decided he was ready to face his life again. As he walked out – or over – what had been the front door, he turned to give the place one last look. And stiffened. Something was wrong…he could feel a strange heaviness in the air. It fairly crackled with what felt like alchemic energy. Al tensed, ready for…well, he wasn't entirely sure yet. But if nothing else, his brother had taught him to trust his instincts. And something very weird was happening right now.

Before he had time to do anything concrete, however, a huge boom shook the foundations and toppled a few of the more haphazardly tilted beams. Al coughed and waved a hand about to clear the dust from his field of vision. He could see something moving in the darkness of a pile of rubble, and his caution turned to concern. "Hello? Is someone there?" Upon receiving no reply, he started to make his way carefully over the loose rubble. A groan made him quicken his pace. "Hang on! I'm coming. Just stay put. Are you hurt badly?" He had to transmute a couple of large chunks of plaster to clear a path. As the last piece fell into dust under his hand, Al covered his nose with his handkerchief and stepped forward. "Hello?" And then his grey eyes fell on the prone body lying there and he gasped, before rushing forward and cradling it in his arms, babbling incoherently.


Winry Rockbell Elric closed the guest room door softly but didn't leave immediately. On the other side of the door, she could hear her husband rocking himself back and forth nervously in a chair by the bedside of their new – and so far, unconscious – guest. She bit back tears and put a hand over her mouth to suppress the sobs that had threatened to burst forth the moment she had gotten a good look at the person her husband was carrying carefully in his arms, head lolling back, face obscured by a fall of golden hair.

Edward Elric had evidently done some growing in the years he had been away from his family. His hair was still the colour of sun-ripened wheat, and she was certain that, when Granny Pinako had pulled up his eyelids to check his pupils for signs of concussion, she had caught a glint of gold in the lamplight. But he was considerably taller for Ed, making him just a hair's breadth below average height for anyone else. His face was gaunter with the loss of its puppy fat, revealing a set of cheekbones sharp enough to cut yourself on, and his skin so pale as to be nearly translucent, against which his dark lashes stood out in a sooty shadowed sweep. There were fine lines of weariness eched around his eyes, making him look older than his twenty years. Most changed of all was the fact that he was whole. Two good arms and two good legs, no automail anywhere in sight. How that had happened was beyond her, but then this was the Full Metal Alchemist who had essentially raised her husband from the dead. She hiccupped. Nothing, it seemed, was beyond Ed.

"Winry?" She turned in surprise as Al stepped out of the room as quietly as she had. He shut the door behind him, then put his arms around her as she leaned into his bulk, grateful for the warm, comforting touch.

"I was just thinking…it's him, Al. After all these years. He's come back to us, and whole. How?"

Al shook his head slowly. "I don't know. He just seemed to appear. But it's brother…I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised." He hugged her tight. "Just grateful. Oh Winry…he's come back. I missed him so much…." She could feel her husband shaking, and she reached up and rubbed the back of his neck gently.

"Come on. I'll sit with him while you put Winnie down for bed."

A slight smile rose in Al's eyes. "Winnie…Edwina will get to meet her namesake. Oh, this is like the most wonderful dream…I don't want to wake up, Winry."

She hugged him again, fiercely. "You won't. Because this is real. Ed's done it again. He's come home."


So the afterlife smelled like frying bacon and eggs, the blonde man though. Interesting. His eyes were still shut, but he was giving serious consideration to opening them and seeking out the source of those heavenly aromas. And then he smelled fresh coffee and his eyes snapped open, a move he regretted almost immediately since the sunlight was streaming directly into his eyes. He squinted against the glare, confused. Where was he? These certainly weren't the cramped quarters he shared with Alp. His eyes roved about the sunlit, whitewashed, tidy little room decorated with cheerful pictures on the walls. Not a hospital either then…too homey, and the cold smell of metal, antiseptic and blood was noticeably absent. He wiggled his fingers and toes experimentally. Yup, all there, although his chest was aching for some reason.

A child giggled what sounded like downstairs, and the unmistakable tones of a mother's scolding floated up, although he couldn't quite make out the specifics. He was in someone's home then? It was common practice for families to take Gatekeepers in when the latter needed nursing...and all at once the memory of what had happened came rushing back to him. His Aleph Day. The Gate. Alp being blown up before his eyes. He squeezed his eyes shut again against the hot prickling of tears. Yet another part of his life ripped away from him because he had survived something that should have killed him. He was starting to think of it as some kind of curse. Footsteps could be heard walking up the stairs, which creaked slightly, and then the door to his room opened. Not wanting to face anyone at this point, he allowed himself to relax and feigned sleep.

"Is he awake?" a hushed female voice asked.

"Doesn't look like it," came the soft murmur of a male voice. There was something almost familiar about it though, a voice he'd heard before.

"I was hoping he might be able to eat something, he's looking so thin. What do you think he did to himself that caused all that bruising?"

"I don't know, but knowing his temper, I wouldn't want to see the other guy," was the half-rueful, half-amused reply. "Remember how I used to have to hold him off the Colonel…oh, I mean General?"

The man twitched in surprise. General? He hadn't come into contact with any military personnel of late. Gatekeepers operated as their own guild and while the war had required coordination with the military, he certainly didn't go out of his way to run into military personnel. For one thing, their obsession with rules was at odds with the maverick nature of most Gatekeepers. There was an exclamation and he felt the male of the pair pad over to his bedside. "Brother, are you awake?"

Busted. Nothing for it, he supposed, and sat upright abruptly, regretting it almost immediately when a flash of pain shot through his skull from one side to the other. A gentle arm slipped behind him, and he leaned gratefully into the support. Forcing himself to ignore the pain, he willed his eyes to focus on the source of the voice. The face wavered and finally resolved itself into…. "Alp! You're alive!" He gasped in disbelief. Denial warred with hope, and the latter won as he latched on to his partner gratefully. "How did you survive the explosion? The Gate? Oh it doesn't matter. I'm just so glad you're all right."

Confusion warred with relief in those familiar grey eyes as the man holding him pulled back to study his face carefully. "Brother, what are you talking about? It's Al, remember? You brought me back four years ago. We thought you were…dead."

He froze, his mind finally processing the man's earlier words. "Brother?" Four years ago?...

The eyes flickered. "Don't you remember me?"

Slowly, bewilderedly, Auric shook his head.

And Alphonse Elric's world came crashing down about him once more.