Hey, everyone! Finally I write up another chapter, heh. I was pretty tired while writing this (nightshift is a killer, even when you're used to it), so forgive me if it's not as good. I really don't know what it is, because I'm still tired, hehe.

Did you know that someone is actually writing a fanfic of one of my fanfics? Yeah, and I even started helping her write it, so now I'm co-authoring a fanfic of my fanfic. Yeah, weird, I know, but it's interesting. If you liked "My Body, Your Soul", go and check out Alchemy Otaku's profile (she's in my favorites) and read "Failure". Heh, instead of Ed possessing an old friend, he possesses an old enemy. Quite a twist! Hehe.

Disclaimer: I don't own FMA. I don't have time to come up with anything witty either, so you'll just have to suffer. Ha!

Ed and Al trudged up the stone filled path that led to the Rockbells' house. They stopped a few yards from the door. Ed took a deep breath. "Well, here goes." He walked up to the house and knocked on the door.

Within moments, a small woman opened the door. Smiles came to the two boys' faces. "Auntie!" they both cried at once. The woman just stared them up and down for a few moments, puffing on her pipe, without giving any obvious signs of emotion, though the boys could tell she was overjoyed.

She took the pipe out of her mouth and poked it into Ed's stomach. "Hey, Chibi," she said, "You're still awfully short. Don't tell me you still refuse to grow up and drink your milk!"

"Don't you tell me what to do you rotten old hag!" Ed yelled back. Al shrugged and stepped away from the two for a few moments while they continued their shouting match. For some reason, they looked forward to insulting each other whenever they came to meet each other again for the first time, and he wasn't about to interfere. He didn't particularly care to stick around and hear it though.

Al wondered around to the back, where he saw Winry hanging up the laundry on the clothesline. She was still standing behind the sheet she was hanging up, so she wasn't aware of his presence just yet. Al thought it best to let her see him first, rather than announce his presence to her. Just a silly little preference he had. Besides, it would give him a chance to get a good look at how she'd changed in the past few years. She was indeed becoming a beautiful woman.

Winry finished pinning her sheet up, and then stepped around to it pull another item from the laundry basket, when her glance happened to fall on Al. She stopped in her tracks and stared without a word for several moments. Al broke the silence. "Uh, hi, Winry."

"Al? What are you doing here? Is Ed here too? Why didn't you call us and tell us you were coming? We would have come out to meet you! Frankly, you guys don't call at all, so what have you been up to? Why did you…"

Al waved his hands in front of his chest to silence the onslaught of questions she was hurtling at him. He could only answer one at a time, after all. "It's a long story, Winry, and we couldn't call. We didn't want anyone overhearing Brother."

"Don't tell me he's in trouble again!" Winry practically yelled.

Al grimaced and sighed. "He's in trouble."

A few minutes later, the four individuals were inside the house, trying to catch up with each other. It had been so long since any of them had talked, that they were all excitedly talking. Oh, wait…that was just all Winry's talk. Everyone else was just rolling their eyes, wondering when she was going to shut up.

"Ed," said Winry, placing herself right in front of Ed so that he couldn't ignore her, "Al told me you were in trouble. What did you do this time?"

Ed flinched nervously. Not only had he not wanted this to come out just yet, but Winry was standing a little bit too close for comfort. He glanced pleadingly over at Al. "What did you tell her?"

"Nothing!" Al said, putting his hands up, "All I said was that you were in trouble, which was the reason we didn't call ahead."

Ed turned back to Winry and gulped. She was holding one of her wrenches a little bit too close for comfort, and casually reminding him that she was still very proficient in its use as a weapon. Ed gulped again, and then said, "Could we at least sit down first?"

Winry relaxed her arm, and dropped the wrench to her side. "Alright, fine, let's sit down, but you're not getting out of telling me what's going on!"

Ed laughed uneasily, and then turned to go into the living room, but Winry reached out and grabbed his coat. "Hey, silly, why don't you take off your coat and stay awhile?" She pulled at the collar of the coat, making it start to slip off. Ed's eyes widened as he knew what was about to happen. He was about to be exposed.

With a clean gesture, Winry had wrenched Ed's coat off of his back, and then froze, dropping his coat on the floor in shock. Were those wings real? What was going on?

Ed rubbed his face nervously, and responded to the look on her face. "Yes, Winry, these wings are real. This is my big secret. I didn't want this to come out this soon, but I guess that it had to happen. I'm a chimera."

"You're a…a…?" Winry couldn't seem to even form words anymore, but Ed understood what she was saying regardless, and he just nodded.

"I was crossed with a dove. That's why I have wings." He reached down, picked up his coat, and proceeded to hang it up in the coat closet with Winry continuing to stare on in surprise, still mute.

Suddenly, she grew angry. "So, do you mean to tell me that you wanted wings so bad that you attempted human transmutation when you very well knew the consequences of such an act?" She had raised her wrench over Ed's head again, and he was once again starting to feel uneasy.

"No, no, no, nothing like that!" Ed shouted, waving his hands defensively in front of him. Winry dropped her hand, much to Ed's relief, so he continued. "I didn't have much of a choice. Someone did this to me, and now they're trying to find me again so that they can continue with their experiments."

Winry crossed her arms. "I don't believe you. You wouldn't just allow someone to abduct you and perform a transmutation on you. I know you too well…you must've wanted it for some reason."

Ed sighed and looked down at the ground, not saying anything. Winry continued to glare at him. Al walked up to Ed nervously, and said, "Brother, is that true? Did you want this done to you for some reason?"

Ed looked up at Al with tears in his eyes, and then quickly looked away, so that he could wipe the tears without either Al or Winry noticing, hopefully. "There…There was one good reason to allow the man to do this."

"WHAT WAS IT?" Winry yelled, obviously quite angered by now. She couldn't believe that Ed would tap into something like this when he had already been through it, and supposedly had already learned his lesson.

Ed wiped his tears one more time, and then fixed Winry with a steady gaze. "You're right, I could have escaped from that man, being a state alchemist and all, but…" he choked, not being able to finish his sentence. Winry prodded him on, so he continued. "The man showed me a picture he had just taken of me and Al walking together on the streets of Central, and told me that he had spies watching the two of us everywhere. He told me exactly where Al was at the moment, and he was right. I was informed that if I didn't comply with his demands, that he was going to make sure that Al wound up dead."

Both Winry and Al gasped. They had never anticipated such a thing as this. Ed had chosen to face the uncertain effects of human transmutation over harm coming to Al? It made sense, actually, knowing Ed, but something still didn't ring right.

"Ed, if there were spies all over the place, how is it that you were able to escape from them and get here?" asked Winry.

"While I was still at that lab, I managed to figure out the man's system, and so I learned how to avoid getting caught by him. That's why he has to go directly to the authorities of various towns and lie to them, telling them I'm dangerous, in order to try and get me back."

Ed sat down on the floor, and Winry soon followed suit. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Ed, I didn't know." He looked over at her, and smiled, though he didn't actually say anything. Winry understood what he meant regardless.

She began rubbing her hand on his shoulder, and soon found herself running her hand along his wings. Ed chuckled and said, "What are you doing?"

Winry blushed, "Oh, well, I, uh…it's just…I've never seen a person with wings before…and, uh…"

He laughed and waved his hand at her. "Don't worry about it, I understand. I know that I'm an unusual sight right now. It's alright if you look a little bit, just don't poke and prod too much. You know how that would get on my nerves." Winry nodded her understanding. She understood that alright.

The four individuals chatted for sometime, catching up on the events of the past few years, when Ed decided that he needed to turn in for the night, so he stood up and stretched, said good night to everyone, and then headed up to his room.

After he was gone, Winry turned to Al. "So, Al, now that he's gone, tell us how he's REALLY doing." Ed had a bad reputation for watering down the truth, or even outright lying, about his well-being. Winry wanted to hear the truth, and she knew that Al wasn't the type to lie to anyone.

"Well…" Al sighed, and then continued, "He's having a pretty hard time of it at times. He keeps trying to be cheerful, and he asks me to be cheerful for his sake, but it's so hard. And now, I find out that this all happened because of me…" He buried his head in his hands and started to cry. Winry reached over and pulled his face up by his chin to look into his eyes.

"Al, it was not your fault that this happened to him. This was the fault of an evil man. Ed just didn't want any harm to come to you. Had you wound up dead, he wouldn't have wanted to live either. He made the choice that would be easier on the both of you. Don't punish yourself for that."

Al smiled a weak smile, and said, "Thanks, Winry. I'll try to continue to be cheerful for Brother."

Winry smiled too. "Yes, he needs as much encouragement as he can get."

Just then, Pinako walked into the room. "You two had better get off to bed tomorrow. There's work to be done, you know."

Al looked at Winry, and then back at Pinako. "You mean that I have to work too?"

Pinako smiled a mischievous smile as she puffed at her pipe. "As long as you're under my roof, there's work for you to do."

Winry snickered and slapped Al on the back. "Yeah, Al, you knew that. Come on, let's get to bed." Before Al had a chance to react, Winry had grabbed Al's hand and led him down the hall towards their bedrooms. Pinako looked on longingly after them.

"Those brothers are strong," she muttered to herself, "I've never witnessed such a strong bond anywhere else. I hope that it holds up to what lies ahead."