Chapter 7 "Are you Winry?"
Alphonse got off the train and caught a ride to Rizenbul. He found his way to the river where he and his brother first saw Winry.
With every lady that he passed that had blonde hair, blue eyes and a outgoing personality he asked if she was Winry, they all said no. He made his way to the river again and sat on the beach, hoping the children would come back and play with Winry. It was getting dark and cold and still no Winry.
There was a noise behind him after a while, and when he looked it was the door of the nearest house being opened. A tall happy girl came out and was saying good bye to the other people in the house. Alphonse ran up to her, numb with cold. He tugged on her sleeve.
"Are you Winry?" he asked, hoping this was her. She looked down at him and smiled.
"How long have you looked for her?" she asked.
"All day, ma'am..." Al said, shivering.
"Well, I'm sorry to say I'm not Winry. My name is Nellie, but I do know a girl who works as a mechanic named Winry who lives just down the road. But I think she's out for the day. She didn't tell me where she was going. I'm sorry, young man." she said with a smile, patting Al's head and making her way down the road.
He walked back to the river and after a few hours he heard another noise. He sat up stark still because it sounded like a big something that was running down the road towards the river. Al stared for a moment and after seeing nothing, he relaxed somewhat, still not deaf to the sound of running feet.
Then he heard it. He heard the best thing in the world, even if it was a paniced voice. It was his brother running down the road towards him.
"AL! Alphonse! Alphonse! Where are you!" the voice screamed as if using the last breath in it's lungs.
"BROTHER! I'm here! I'm here, Brother!" Alphonse shouted back, stumbling to his numb feet and running into his brothers arms.
"Don't ever do that again, you hear me, Al?" Edward said, shaking his brother's shoulders.
"I'm sorry, Brother! I'm so, so sorry!" Al said, grasping his brother as if he might slip away.
"What if I couldn't find you?" Ed looked at Al in the eyes and repeated himself. "You're my family, Al! You're all I've got!" They both cried and hugged in the street for a long time.
After a while, Ed stood up and help Al walk down the road.
"We're going to stay in a hotel, alright, Al?" Ed said. "It's too late to stay on a train all night. We'll leave in the morning, okay?"
"Yeah...Brother, I'm really tired..." Al whispered, stumbling along.
"I know you are, Al. You've had a really long day, just come with me." Ed had to give Alphonse a piggy-back ride to the hotel from where they stood because Al fell asleep on his feet.
:Next Morning:
"Hurry up, Al!" Ed yelled, grabbing his jacket and buckling his boots. "The train leaves in ten minutes!"
"I'm coming, Brother!" Al said from the other side of the room. He stood up fully dressed and holding his brother's suitcase. Grabbing the room key and dashing out the door he yelled, "I'm ahead of you!"
They chased eachother all the way down to the counter, where there was a long line at the counter. Edward threw the key over the heads of all the people.
"Here's the key for Room #106! Under the name Edward Elric!" he shouted.
"Thanks! Have a good trip!" the Hotel Clerk said, catching the key.
"You, too!" Ed shouted.
:On the train:
"Um, Brother, you know what you said back there at the hotel?" Alphonse said. Edward didn't look up from his newspaper.
"What did I say?" he said, twiching his head.
"You told the Clerk 'You, too!' after he wished you a good trip."
Edward looked up.
"Sure, I did." he rolled his eyes.
"Yep, you did, Brother." Alphonse was starting to laugh. They laughed together after Edward realised that he did say that.
:Central:
"YES! We're back again!" Ed said, stretching and walking around in little circles.
"Yep!" Alphonse said, doing jumping jacks.
A/N: I had to rewrite this one because I accedently saved the next chapter as chap. 7, so I had to redo it. I remembered a lot of what I had in there, so the only thing different is the conversation in the morning when they realise they have ten mins. to catch the train. Please R&R