Alfons ran his fingertips over the latest model of the rocket he'd been working to reconstruct. "It got all burnt up after its initial test run," he said, while Edward stood off to one side and tried his best not to appear interested.

"Yeah, well, a flying piece of machinery gets roasted in the atmosphere and falls to the ground… What did you expect?"

"Take it easy, Ed. If you think what we're doing here is so pointless, why do you come along with me every day?" Alfons fought back a smile when the Elric boy grimaced and fixed his face with a glare of indifference. "You want to learn about it just as badly as the rest of us." His voice rang in the silence that ensued around them.

"Science instead of alchemy, huh?" Edward brought his hands together slowly and clapped once, his vision glazed over at some inner thought, and Alfons wondered yet again what so much nostalgia was good for.

"Let's work on that arm, Edward."

The blonde alchemist extracted himself from his memories and flailed his hands wildly. "Now hold on a minute! I didn't give you permission to do anything! I have a mechanic in Resembool – she's really good at fixing automail, and besides, nothing's wrong with these limbs yet, so can't we just—"

He fell silent at Al's hand on his shoulder.

Alfons went still and toyed with the idea of running his fingers through Ed's hair again; the alchemist had left it unbraided when they'd exited for the workshop in such a hurry. The strands were long and gilded – no one in Munich styled their locks that way. It made Edward look exotic, and for a moment, Al almost allowed himself to believe that the Elric boy truly did hail from another place. An alternate universe where people did alchemy with magic circles, created things from nothing but piles of ingredients and a stick of white chalk. Where the military was called the State, and people had faces like the people in his world, but with different souls. Where boys like Edward Elric carried pocket watches and fought homunculi and performed forbidden rites on humans that resulted in the loss of limbs.

Alfons Heiderich lifted his hand when Ed drew away. "Gah! Are you even listening to me, Heiderich?"

And then Alfons couldn't help himself. He frowned. There were so many things he wanted to know. So much Ed hadn't told him, and Al had never asked because he'd cared too much from the very start. There'd been something about the boy who'd knocked on his door less than a year ago, looking sheepish as his father explained why they had come. They wanted to learn about rockets, Hohenheim of Light had said, and Ed wanted to study Goddard's theories about flying to the moon. It'd been such an odd request. Take Edward in and teach him everything you know, Hohemheim had pleaded, despite the fact that the Elric boy openly protested. Ed had wanted to learn science on his own.

Alfons had agreed to take him in anyway. Hohenheim of Light disappeared soon after, leaving Edward with nowhere else to go. Al ignored the way Edward looked at him in the days that followed – sidelong glances that held a hint of regret and affection, along with some strange familiarity he couldn't place. Al hadn't asked a thing. He'd seen fire in Edward Elric's eyes, something that smoldered and waited for its time to burst forth great and terrible. A fire that would make him more successful than any of Alfons Heiderich's team had ever dreamed to become themselves. Edward had seen things, done things, that no other man had. A curious spark had seemed to pass from Ed to Alfons that lit a flame in Alfons's own heart, and so Al had quietly accepted the boy that dropped in from nowhere.

Now Edward sat on a stray work stool and snarled his objection. Alfons felt his emotions rising like a rocket to the outer atmosphere.

"Just listen to me, will you Ed?" he cried, raising his voice to a level that wasn't fit for one of mild temper like himself. "I'm only trying to help you! I understand that machinery from my world is different than you're used to, but try to see my point. The Treaty of Versailles caused an uproar, Ed, and Germany is in a state of political unrest. What if something happens? What if we have a second World War and everyone is dragged in? Don't you want the power to fight back if it's possible?"

Ed put his hands on his hips and his golden eyes narrowed. "Except you're forgetting one thing: I'm not part of your world, and I don't have to fight for you! Another war here won't mean anything to me. I'm not involved. I only want to go home and find my brother again!"

The words pierced Alfons like an assault of tiny blades, and he bit his lip until it stung. When Ed searched his face, he refused to meet the smaller boy's gaze.

Edward huffed quietly and muttered under his breath. "Why are you so gung-ho about all this, anyway? Making me an arm in case there's a war. Building as many rockets as you can as fast as you can, and giving them all sorts of uses. The world is the all and you're the one! You're caught up in a universal flow you can't stop, Al. Anything you do will make an impact on the world, especially if some sort of Equivalency still exists. So shouldn't you slow down and make sure you know what you're doing?" Alfons glanced up, stricken. "I mean, before your rockets get turned into weapons and a bunch of people are k—"

"Be quiet! You don't understand a thing, Edward," Alfons intercepted, his voice going hoarse with his heightened rage. He wanted to strike the boy across from him, but he knew better. "You're too busy thinking about some other place, telling stories and living a fantasy! If you'd only focus on what's happening here, you'd see. Maybe you're right. I don't know the future and perhaps I'll pay for guessing wrong. But either way," he coughed violently, but held his chest and ploughed on. "Either way, a human life is short! I haven't got the time to be indecisive!"

Al shuddered. He was breaking out in a cold sweat. He could feel the thin material of his shirt growing saturated with moisture as the heat made him dizzy and he fought to draw breath. There was no blood this time – it had likely drained from him in his fury – but still, it was difficult to keep steady.

Edward was at his side within seconds. The alchemist guided him to the stool he had previously occupied. "You're right, Alfons. I'm sorry. I've seen my share of horrible things. Our time alive is too short, and maybe we waste it hesitating." His words were bitter. "Hughes would have—" But he choked on his sentence and changed the subject, though Al sensed grief in Edward's posture; there was something painful he'd remembered.

"I'm sorry I upset you, Al. It's all right – you can work on my automail."

Al's breathing came ragged, but he found he could speak again. He swiped a hand across his mouth and did so cautiously. "I'll be careful. I promise."

Edward Elric grinned. "Heh, no worries. If I can trust a violent mechanic and her old lady side-kick, I'm sure I can trust my brother's grown up look-alike."

Alfons stood and averted his gaze. Ed had done it again, compared him to another person that didn't exist in the same space or time. It made his insides curl with a kind of helplessness. He wanted Ed to accept him for him, Alfons Heiderich, not merely the incarnation of one Alphonse Elric that he simply resembled.

"Why don't you have a seat?" Al tried to wipe the awful yearning from his mind.

It wasn't long before Ed was positioned on his stomach, shirtless and fidgety up on the worktable.

"Why do I feel like a meat slab about to be chopped into sirloin?" he whined, and Alfons laughed.

"Relax. I won't hurt you." He brandished his tools and leaned over Ed's arm.

"Yeah. Easy for you to sa—AAHHRRGHH!" There was a static crackle and the Elric boy gritted his teeth.

"Ed? Ed!"

"YAAAHHHH… You didn't even ask how the automail was connected, you idiot! All my nerves are attached. I can feel that, you know! Wait'll I get my hands on you…" He caught a glimpse of Alfons stifling another chuckle, and the tabletop lurched as Ed struggled to spring upward. "YOU'RE DOING IT ON PURPOSE, YOU ROCKET-OBSESSED DOPPELGANGER MURDERER!"

"Haha, sorry Ed, but I think you earned that one for being so smug. Relax. I'll go easy now."

"Stop jerking me around!" Edward was breathing hard, his face pale with agony that he masked with a death-glare. Al paused. He hadn't realized the attachment of automail was such an excruciating process. He'd caused Edward more pain than he'd meant to.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, taking care to shift the parts gently after that. To his surprise, Ed stiffened and buried his face in the crook of his human arm, but not before Alfons caught the brilliant shade of red on his features.

He worked silently, enjoying the tick and clatter of mechanical parts. Ed kept his head down, and Alfons fiddled and tinkered in reflection. They only spoke when necessary. Edward handed over an item when asked, but otherwise conversation remained minimal. Alfons didn't mind; it gave him time to observe the prone body before him. Edward was well-built. The scars marring the skin where his arm had been torn away retracted nothing from the contoured torso that was already there. Al watched the movement of Ed's back as the alchemist inhaled and exhaled. Perfect lines and chiseled muscles rose and fell - likely the trophies of hard training and discipline.

"You and your brother Alphonse must have been through a lot," Al whispered, barely moving his lips as he unscrewed a section of metal and removed the clump of wires behind it.

"Yeah," Ed murmured, sighing slowly and lifting his head. His mane of golden hair brushed against Al's forearm. "But I don't doubt you could say the same. How'd you get here, Alfons? Everyone here is a genius twice your age."

"I studied as hard as I could."

"Don't be naïve. You must have sacrificed something bigger than that to come this far."

"Does that comment mean you still believe in Equivalent Exchange? That you have to give something up before your effort is repaid?"

Edward jerked, and Al wasn't sure whether it was out of anger or a reaction to the cord he'd just pulled.

"Have you been talking to my father?" Ed asked testily.

"Your father, Hohenheim… he explained the law to me when I asked. He's better at answering questions than you are, Ed." Alfons bent lower over the tiny bolt he was attaching.

"Maybe so," Ed countered, "But the bastard never sticks around to answer enough of 'em." Then he stayed quiet until Alfons lost his sense of calm once more - the result of Ed's snide remark.

Al put down the sandpaper he'd been gripping with white-knuckled intensity. "You know, you aren't much better at enlightening people." When he'd closed his fist, the rough surface had scraped a layer off his palm. He stared at the spot he'd unwittingly rubbed raw, then back at Edward Elric.

"How am I supposed to enlighten you when you think I'm only feeding you lies and fantasies?" the alchemist growled.

Alfons gave a sad smile. "I don't know, Ed. It's kind of stupid, isn't it? I don't know why I bother to find out at all, when I've got rockets to build and a hypothesis to test that will surpass even Robert Hutchins Goddard if I get it right."

"Al…"

"Maybe the reason I push myself is because I have given up something to come this far, whether I knew it at the time or not, and I don't want my efforts to be in vain." He clutched at his chest instinctively.

Edward's eyes flickered, and Alfons knew the sharp boy had read his mind. "My teacher," Ed began, "She had a cough like yours—"

"I thought you said your teacher was sick because she used alchemy to sacrifice her internal organs, Edward," Alfons interrupted. "There's no alchemy here. I didn't make an exchange."

Ed looked momentarily stunned. "Y-You were actually listening when I talked about my teacher?"

"You'd be surprised how much I can't help listening to you sometimes."

"Hey! What does that mean?"

"It means I care, Ed. That's all." At once, Al felt his cheeks growing hot with embarrassment, and he turned his head away quickly. Alfons feared Edward would sense meaning that he himself wasn't sure was clear yet. "You can get up," he said. "It's done. You'll have to go to a place in town to have the skin put on, though. And I'll do your leg tomorrow."

Edward climbed to his feet. "I even get fake skin? Heh, I feel like a zombie that's been pieced together."

Al moved aside as Ed flexed his fingers experimentally, then rotated his shoulder.

"Not bad, Alfons Heiderich. If Winry could see this, she'd have a fit."

Alfons stacked the spare parts in one corner and began collecting his tools from the worktable. He tucked them away one by one, steadily monitoring the movement of the Elric boy in his peripheral vision. Ed stretched lazily, and Al had the sudden urge to run his hands over the ripples that traversed the boy's torso.

Alfons faltered and shook his head to clear it.

"So what kind of defense mechanism did you give me?" Edward asked, and Al was brought hurtling back to the present just in time to duck a mock punch.

"You'll see," he said. "Wait until you're outside to test it. Snap it back at the elbow and pull the ignition cord on the inside. But make sure to aim." Edward shot him a dissatisfied look, but Al didn't say any more. He wanted to witness the raw reaction when Ed finally experienced his prime engineering skills.

"Do I owe you anything for this?"

Al's mouth slipped open in astonishment. "No, of course not."

Edward raised a wary eyebrow. "Okay – your mistake. Equivalent Exchange, you know." He closed one eye and stuck out his tongue. "Besides, if I was at home I would have been charged a fortune."

"You aren't at home, Ed." Alfons wished he hadn't said it the moment the words fell from his lips. He didn't miss the second of hesitation in Edward's experimental movements.

"I know, Alfons," the alchemist replied quietly, resuming his warm up routine with only a little less enthusiasm. "I know."

A/N: Well, this chapter ended up a little heavier than I thought. To think I had planned to keep it light and then all these deeper themes sprung up. Might as well go with them – Alfons is, after all, a character with depth and potential, and this story is his. I'll do it justice!

On another note, can anyone recommend any good fics already out there that revolve around Alfons Heiderich?