"Miaow." Ed gave Al a beatific smile, curled up in his arms. Al sighed and continued to scratch behind his ears.

"Oh, nii-san…" he gazed down at his brother, who lay on his back in Al's lap, his tail curled around himself, his cheek pressed into Al's metal torso. Al stopped the scratching and starting stroking Ed's hair, and was rewarded with a low rumbling.

"I just don't know how bad this change is. It's not that I don't like the way you look now, nii-san, you look cute…" Here Ed looked up at Al, a question in his eyes. "…it's just that I don't know how much you understand. How much is Ed and how much is the cat?"

The purring stopped, and Ed pressed his face against Al again, looking saddened. Al gave his head a few more strokes, then stopped, his hand settling on Ed's shoulder.

"How can we ever know?" he whispered.

Ed continued to be sorrowful for a few moments, then decided other things in life were more important.

"Rowr!"

He leapt out of Al's arms and planted himself on all fours in front of Al.

"Rowr." He said, insistently.

"What is it? You can't have to go again, it's only been a few hours after last time, and you haven't had anything to drink….or…eat…"

He paused thoughtfully, and Ed waited, watching him.

"Well…" he said, slowly. "Cats are supposed to like milk, aren't they? But Riza said some cats get sick drinking it, so you shouldn't have any," he added hastily, as Ed puffed up and started to hiss.

He dug through the cupboards. "You don't go grocery shopping very often. None of these things look very good for you."

He walked over to Ed and stood over him, looking as stern as he could. "Now, nii-san, since you can't cook for yourself anymore, I'll have to decide what you eat. And that means that you have to eat more healthily from now on!"

Ed looked doubtful.

"Miaow?"

-…-

"Nii-san! Stop shifting that way! It feels weird!"

Al resisted the urge to squirm. He had decided that he couldn't shop for Ed without Ed, but that he couldn't bring Ed out in public. The logical solution, therefore, was to do with Ed what he had done with other cats in the past.

Not that Ed liked being shut up inside a large metal box. He kept sliding down to Al's legs, clawing his way up his head, peeking out the eye-holes, trying to climb into the arms, and sliding back down again. Al felt like he had an itch he just couldn't scratch.

"Nii-san!" he hissed, desperate.

The clawing and climbing continued. Al jumped up in the air as high as he could, then came down. Hard.

There was a loud thump, and an indignant yowl from somewhere in his insides, but Al ignored it and started walking again.

Inside, Ed was still and Al smiled to himself.

Al stopped at the fish market and began to debate between trout and salmon. The trout was cheaper, but the salmon looked tastier. A loud sigh huffed from within him, which he ignored.

He bought the trout and made his way over to the butcher's. He paused outside the shop, struck with a fit of nostalgia. Ed climbed up enough to see out Al's eyes.

"What will we tell sensei?" whispered Al, horrified. Ed slid back down again and didn't move for the remainder of the shopping trip, and had to be coaxed out once they got home with the promise of tempura.

-…-

Al was very good at making tempura. He rolled another prawn in the batter, dunked it into a bowl of ice-cold water, then popped it into the batter. He waited for it to float to the top, then snatched it up with a pair of tongs, setting it down on a plate covered in a paper towel.

Ed pawed at his leg, impatient.

"Rowr."

"You'll just have to wait, nii-san."

"Rowr."

"I said WAIT!" thundered Al, his voice echoing inside the armor. Ed pulled back for a moment, cowed, but Al couldn't hold back his giggles and Ed was soon pawing at him again.

"I'll yell at you again, I will." Threatened Al.

Ed obviously didn't believe him. Al sighed.

"Here, it's done anyway. Will you eat with a fork, chopsticks, or nothing?"

Ed looked at the ground for a moment, then hopped up onto his plate and looked at Al expectantly.

"Well, I guess that means nothing. At least we won't have to worry about our mismatching silverware anymore." He said the plate down in front of Ed, who lifted pieces of tempura in a delicate manner with his teeth, then flipped his head back and caught them in his mouth as Al watched admiringly.

"I could never do that trick when we were kids."

"Miaow."