Chapter 2 : The Arrival

"Gran! Den!" Winry called out happily at the sight of her elderly grandmother, Pinako, shuffling into the entrance hallway with her dog, Den. At hearing her name being mentioned, Den bounced up to Winry and jumped on her in excitement. Winry fell over and laughed as she felt Den's tongue licking her face.

"Den! Den! Ek! Please girl! Off! It tickles!" Winry laughed as she tried to gently push the big dog off. Den barked and jumped off as she felt Gran's cane tap her bottom gently as a warming. Winry sat up and breathed a small sigh of relief as she cleaned the dog's saliva off with her jacket sleeve.

"Thanks, Gran…I would have suffocated there!" Winry exclaimed.

"You should be more careful," Pinako said quietly as she turned around and motioned for Den to follow. The large dog happily bounced after her elder master and Winry was left alone in the hallway.

"What did she mean by that?" she mumbled as she stood up and dusted herself. Winry picked up her bag and dropped it off on her way to the living room. There, she found her grandmother sitting on the couch calmly petting and scratching Den.

"Gran? Is…something wrong….?" Winry asked her grandmother worriedly as she approached and sat down beside her grandmother. She saw that her grandmother was secretly crying and trying to hide the tears rolling down her face. She gasped as she asked why her grandmother was crying.

"It's because…I'm glad you're back…I'm getting old…and I don't know how much life I have left and …," Pinako mumbled quietly as she stared at her granddaughter's face, "I'm glad you're here…I'm glad you didn't end like your parents. Since you're the only person I have left."

Winry gave her a small smiled and patted her grandmother's back.

"I'm sorry I'm acting up like this. I promised myself that for as long as I lived, I would never cry in front of you…."

"It's alright…I cry all the time," Winry told Pinako. They both smiled at each other and the room was quiet for a second as Den stared at the two women in confusion and went to lay down in front of the fireplace. Winry decided just then to stand up, and stretch as she claimed to be going to her room.

'I guess I'll go and take a bath.' Winry thought as she went through some clothes in her bag and accidentally grabbed a [very] skimpy light blue nightgown Gracia had made for her during Winry's stay. She rushed to the bathroom and undressed as she waited for the water to warm up. Winry pulled off her hair tie and got into the tub, and let the warm water ease and sooth her.

'This is so relaxing…!'

"Gulp…," Winry said as she realized that she accidentally brought the [very] skimpy nightgown with her. Winry had just exited the tub after a very satisfying bath and realized the big mistake she made. She sighed and put it on, and decided to wear a robe to cover it up.

'Why did I pick this super skimpy dress to wear?!' Winry thought to herself in frustration and left the bathroom. Winry tried to sneak to her bedroom on the second floor but was caught by Pinako who saw her exiting the bathroom and called her out. Winry turned around in embarrassment and Pinako saw the skimpy nightgown and laughed.

"Wouldn't one of the Elrics sure love to see you in that?" Pinako laughed at the mention of the elder Elric brother. Winry's face darkened as she blushed and cried, "No, it's not like that!" as she stormed off to her room in blind fury. She shut the door behind her, sat on her too familiar bed and laid her head on the pillow, and silently cried without realizing it.

"Stupid…those jerks have been gone for 2 years…why would they want to see me in this ugly thing…? Ed would just laugh and say it makes me look fat…," Winry whispered sadly to herself as the tears made her pillow wet.

'Will he ever notice my feelings for him…?' Winry thought sadly as she let tears and sadness turn into sleepiness and let it overwhelm her.

"Ruff! Ruff!" Den barked as she barged into Winry's room and tried to wake Winry up by licking her hand, which was over the edge of the bed. The barking and ticklish sensation of the licking made Winry stir and she lifted her head to see who dared to wake her. After realizing that it was her dog, she sighed and shooed the dog away and rolled over in her bed. She was half-awake and saw that it was indeed, morning and her stomach grumbled. She sat up, yawned and went to the kitchen to find some food. The fridge was nearly empty.

"Gran! Why isn't there any food…?" Winry called out.

"I was going to do the shopping later today. If you want breakfast, go do some grocery shopping for me, will you? I have a customer!" Pinako called back and Winry closed the fridge door with a slight sigh. She rushed back to her room and got dressed for an outing and grabbed her purse on her way out of her room. She went to the front entrance and cried that she was leaving for the market. Den ran up to her and barked. Winry smiled and petted the dog's head before putting on her shoes.

"Bye Den! Tell Gran I said bye okay, girl?" Winry asked. Den barked again and Winry had no choice but to laugh.

"To the Market!" Winry cried as she left the comfort of her sunny yellow home.

In another part of Central, Roy Mustang, Riza Mustang and Alex Armstrong, were in the middle of the city and Roy was busy drawing a transmutation circle with paint. Riza and Armstrong were just watching him from afar in a crowd who was watching their leader paint this circle in the middle of their city for unknown reasons.

"Sir. Are you certain that you do not need assistance on this kind of job?" Riza asked her husband.

"Colonel Mustang, you should do your own preparations for their return," Roy said as he addressed the Colonel.

"But Sir, all of the preparations are done. All that's left is the transmutation circle, which should have been done a while ago by one of the Lieutenants," Alex told Roy.

"Sheesh! Being Führer sure isn't an easy task huh?" Roy sighed and he finished off the last bits of the circle.

"There! It's done!" Roy exclaimed happily as she stood up and dusted himself as Riza and Alex came up to him.

"Will they really come back?" Riza asked quietly.

"If we do what they told us too in their messages, then yes, they should come back to us" Roy replied.

"I hope this works…," Alex said.

Roy activated the circle and it flashed blue. All of a sudden, the drawings in the circle disappeared and turned portal-like as the ground began to rumble.

"See? It's working!" Roy said as two body like figures merged out of the circle.

"It's true…they're coming!" Alex said in surprise as two bodies stumbled out of the portal and rushed to them in happiness, clearly not noticing the ruins of their surroundings.

"Führer Mustang! Mrs. Mustang! Major General Armstrong!" the younger person, a boy called out as the two figures ran to greet Roy, Riza and Alex.

"Welcome back, Elric Brothers," said Riza with a smile.

"It's good to see you again, Colonel Mustang, Führer, and Major General," The younger boy said with a sheepish smile. Everyone laughed and they all began walking towards a building close by.

"It's so good to see you boys again...your faces sure do bring back a lot of old memories," said Roy, as his eyes clouded with grief.

"None-the-less, Führer, it's still good to have them back," said Alex.

"It's good to be back," The older person, another man said as they all reached the building.

"As Colonel Mustang said, Welcome back, Edward, Alphonse," Roy said with a smile.

"Apple…apple…apple. Oh boy! Don't they sell apples here at this market?" Winry wondered to herself as she wandered around the store, looking for some apples. She wandered into the vegetable aisle and found the apples lying near some oranges. After leafing through and picking out some non-rotten apples, she went through the oranges and went to the bakery area and went up to a clerk.

"Would you have any fresh loaves of bread?"

"Yes, ma'am! We do! You are actually quite lucky, because a new batch of fresh bread loaves should have come out of the stove a few minutes ago and should be cooling by now," the bakery clerk replied.

"That's great!" Winry replied happily.

"Well then, if you wish for bread, please follow me," the clerk said and motioned for Winry to follow as he went towards an open door. Winry followed him and found herself in a room filled with a wonderful smell. She realized the smell was bread and the clerk was wrapping up a fresh loaf of bread that was sitting on a cooling rack.

"That'll be one-hundred and twenty-five Amestries please, ma'am," The clerk said as he handed Winry the wrapped bag. Winry fished around in her purse, paid for the bread and left the bakery area. After picking up a few more needed items, Winry found herself waiting in line at cash register. She waited for her turn, paid for her groceries, left the market and walked home to the yellow building she knew and loved so much.

"So. Ed and Al? What took you so long to return to Amestris?" Roy asked as he stared cruelly at the two brothers sitting in front of him. They were at his office in Central's military building. One of the boys sitting in front of him was around twenty, had golden hair and eyes five to six shades darker than Winry's hair, was around 5'10" and was known as "Ed". The younger boy, around fifteen, had even darker golden hair and eyes, was around 5'6" and was commonly known as "Al". The two boys looked at each other nervously and shivered.

"Al and I were trying to find a way to travel between the gates harmlessly…and we think we found it," said the 20-year-old known as Ed.

"Really…? No wonder you didn't want to destroy the gate right away" Roy exclaimed in a bored tone, although he was getting interested in the topic but trying his best not to show it.

"Brother wanted to study the world on the other side. But it got too dangerous and we had to destroy the gates anyway," said the 15-year-old Al.

"Well, it was certainly dangerous. Most of the middle of Central got destroyed by that transmutation circle!" Roy mumbled sadly as he thought of all the paperwork and press he would have to deal with.

'Maybe I can get Riza to deal with the press for me…,' Roy thought happily and snapped back to reality, where he heard Ed trying to get his attention.

"Oh! Sorry! I was…thinking…about something," Roy said meekly as he nervously smiled at the two boys. Ed sighed and continued to explain about his findings, saying that he found a bomb built on the other side that was necessary to destroy the gate and get them back but a sacrifice was needed. They stayed at the office of nearly half an hour talking and catching up before Ed stood up and said that he was going to return to Resembool and wanted a vacation.

"A vacation huh? Since all of the military's past feuds have been solved, I guess I could approve of that. But you get a week only. After that you must come back," Roy said as Riza entered the room.

"Sir. You have a meeting in five minutes," Riza told Roy.

"Ah. Good timing. Seems like I've got to go. The Elrics were just about to leave for their one week vacation anyways, so please lock up Colonel," Roy said as he stood up, said his good byes to the brothers and left his office.

"Oh? You boys are just about to go back to Resembool?" Riza asked.

"Yeah. We've been gone for two years, so maybe we should go and say hi to a few old friends of ours, shouldn't we?" Al said.

"Well, we'll see you later, then, Colonel!" Ed said as he waved and continued to walk down the hall.

"Looks like I'd better get going too," Al said as he politely bowed to the Colonel.

"Stay safe out there now," Riza told Al.

"We will! Bye now!" Al replied as he ran after his brother. He caught up to Ed and asked him if he wanted to visit Gracia and Elicia.

"Yeah, sure. It's been a while since I saw the face of a Hughes...might as well stop by and give Elicia's old man an offering," Ed said as he and his brother left the building and went into a nearby floral shop, and bought a small mourning bouquet, left and walked down the street into a nearby apartment building. Al looked sadly at the debris they caused.

"Brother...we caused all of this mess...we should fix this!" Al said pleadingly to his brother. Ed sighed, said okay and both brothers went to see the destruction they caused.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! We're here to help so please make way!" Al called as he tried to make his way into the middle of a distraught crowd. He and Ed each touched a piece of the debris and a blue electric spark came out of no where as in a blinding flash, everything that was destroyed was restored and everything was back to normal. The people of Central began to calm down and thank the brothers for fixing the damage as they tried to sneak away before anyone said the damage was their doing.

"Anyways time to go to Gracia's!"

Ring! Ring! Ring!

"Winry! Pick up the phone will you?" Pinako shouted and Winry rushed to the phone, picked it up and put it to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Winry? Is that you?" asked a [very] familiar female voice on the other side of the phone.

"Mrs. Hughes?!" Winry exclaimed in surprise. It had been nearly two days since she left Central and since it was getting late, she had just gotten out of the shower and was wearing the [very] skimpy light blue nightgown again. By accident.

"I'm sorry for calling so late! I hade to wait until Elicia fell alseep...because they told me not to call and tell you...but I couldn't help myself! It's really good news!" Gracia said excitedly. Winry began to feel a growing suspicion inside her.

"What is it? Is the dress you wanted to buy for Elicia finally on sale?" Winry asked.

"No! Even better! THEY are finally back! After all these years!" Gracia rushed happily.

'I think my suspicion is right...' Winry thought as she asked, "What do you mean? Who's back?"

"You'll see! I'm sorry, I'd tell you but I said too much. Please expect a call from Colonel Mustang in a few minutes, okay? She told me she would call you," Gracia told her.

"Well...okay. I'll wait for her call. Thanks, Mrs. Hughes,"

"I'd better go check up on Elicia now, so bye,"

"Bye," Winry said as she hung up and waited beside the phone. As expected, two minutes later, the phone rang once again.

Ring! Ring!

"Hello?!"

"Well, well. Don't you sound excited," said Riza.

"I just got a call from Mrs. Hughes! She told me there was good news! Is your baby here?!"

"Well. Yes there is good news, but it's not that. A couple of people who have been missing are finally back and Mrs. Hughes told me today that she wasn't allowed to tell anyone they were, but they never told me or my husband that when we saw them earlier yesterday," Riza explained to

"Who's back?" Winry asked in frustration. She wanted to confirm her growing suspicion.

"I'll let Roy tell you that," Riza said as Winry heard Riza talking to him and she heard his voice a minute later.

"Hello, Miss. Rockbell," Roy said.

"Führer Mustang. It's an honour to get a call from you," She said to Amestris' military head.

"Please, just call me Roy. Anyways, do you want to know who's back, or not?" Roy asked impatiently.

"Yes! Tell me, please?! It's...not them is it...?" Winry asked nervously.

"If you mean the Elrics...," Roy said as he paused dramatically.

"Then yes. They're finally back,"

BAM!

"Anyone Home?!"

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I'm back with Chapter 2! YAY!

By the way, I forgot to mention that I DON'T OWN FULL METAL ALCHEMIST!

NOT THE ANIMES, MANGA, MOVIES, DVDs, E.T.C!!

SO NO SUEING PLEASE BECAUSE THIS IS PURELY FAN-MADE! : )

I do admit to owning this plot...and something else. Haha.

It's a little surprise you'll see come up later in this story. : P

Anyways...FINALLY! CHAPTER 2!!!

I hope you like it!

FOR YOUR INFORMATION: I found a few mistakes in the Prologue, so for those of you who began reading this BEFORE Chapter 2 came out, please read it again, to clear things up.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Anyways: Ed and Al have finally appeared! Yay!

I realized that maybe chapter 1 was too short, so I expanded it a little in Chapter 2. I'll try and make my chapters this length, unless you readers would like to make it a bit longer? If so, please tell me so through a message, in your review or how ever you wish to contact me!

Well...I have nothing else to say...So see you in Chapter 3!

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW THIS STORY AND HELP ME IMPROVE SO THAT I CAN GIVE YOU READERS BETTER CHAPTERS IN THE FUTURE!

THANKS!

-J. U. T. H. L

TEXT GRAMMAR EDIT: MARCH 13th. 2010

EXTRA BONUS:

Ed: Sigh! That chapter was long! =_=

Author: Oh, Shut it Ed! This is a Fan-Fic. Winry had more parts that you and she's not tired!

*Both look at Winry, who's prancing and dancing around like crazy*

Author: See what I mean?