They got off the train and took the not-yet familiar streets home. There was so much violence in their neighborhood that it was amazing they hadn't been mugged yet. Ed was still half asleep as he put the key into their lock and turned it slowly. Al looked at his brother and sensed how much his job made him a mess of skin stretched over nerves stretched over bone. He came home from work worn-out and still stayed up to read the newspaper and cook. Al felt like he should help his older brother but he wasn't sure how. Maybe he should help around the house, to share the load. Ed wasn't meant to live alone though he would never admit it.
Ed started on dinner and Al sat at the small, slightly broken table. "Is there something I can help you with, brother?" He asked, in an attempt to be useful.
"No, Al. It's okay, I can handle it." Ed replied, not even looking at his younger brother. Al didn't need to see his face. He could hear the tension in his voice.
"No, really brother, I haven't been helping you enough lately. I should do something-"
"I said no okay?! I don't need your help. All I need you to do is to concentrate on adjusting to your new surroundings and work." Ed said sounding more than a little annoyed, bordering on the edge of yelling. His job gave him so much stress and he didn't really mean to be rude to Al. It's just whenever…
"Brother?" Al looked at Ed like Ed had just hit him.
Ed took a breath and let it out slowly. "I'm sorry. It's just it's been pretty hard trying to make ends meet and I want you to be able to live a normal life. Most boys your age don't have to work to help pay for where they live. If we were home…"Ed stumbled for words for a few seconds. "Well, we're not home so I guess it doesn't really matter then."
Awkward silence followed until finally Al couldn't take it anymore. "Brother, I miss home too. I still believe that we can make it back. If we could just find a way to-"
"Al, I've told you. We can't go home. We can't risk opening the gate again. What if someone else tries to attack our home? What then? Both you and I know that we would feel guilty as shit if that happened. Someone still has to close the gate on this side which means we'll be split up again. I don't think I could handle losing you again…but if that's really what you want. I'll find a way to send you home."
"I don't want to go back without you, though. We can go back. Together. What if we brought back the Edward from this world back to life? You wouldn't be allowed here anymore and so you'd have to go somewhere… we could open the gate then and he could shut it."
"Didn't you learn anything from our failure with mom?! That's human transmutation! Besides, alchemy doesn't exist in this world. Dinner's ready." Ed said with a relieved tone. He could eat and then go to sleep.

Al had the most restless night in a long time. He and Ed shared a room. Al looked over at Ed and saw him fidgeting around. Ed had dreams that he told Al sometimes. They didn't let him rest very easily. Some of the dreams were about home and about what might've happened if he would've stayed in Amestris instead of coming back. Most of these dreams were about their past which was exactly why he couldn't sleep. He might not admit it, but Al knew that Ed still blamed himself for Al getting stuck in the armor.
Al remembered when he had first gotten there. He was extremely sick, (home sickness is what Ed called it) the first week. When they got back, something was different. Ed said that when he left it was the year 1929. A day after Al had arrived, the calendar had skipped and it was 1951. They had been there for almost a year now. Edward figured that the gate was not only a portal between universes, but also between times. Around the changing of the year (or New Years as these people called it), Ed and Al decided they should come to America to escape the final bit of what was called WWII by the Americans. It was what had been started before Ed left to go to Amestris.
Al finally got tired of staring at the ceiling so he took his journal (a birthday present from Ed when he himself rejected any present at all.) and went to the kitchen. The bare bulb provided more than enough light and shouting could be heard outside. He heard a few gunshots and the running of feet. It was amazing how easily someone could kill another person.
Al opened to the first clean page he could find and started writing about his day. He then became conscious that it was a complete waste of paper to write about his day that absolutely no one was going to read, and so he began writing what he had thought about on the train.

A few days later Ed picked Al up in an even more putrid mood than usual. He didn't talk to Al the entire way home. They had stopped taking the train because it became too expensive to take everyday. Anyway, with the warm spring air and their home only a 30 minute walk away, Ed and Al could use the exercise. Ed carried a gun with him, just in case. New York wasn't a place to be dealt with lightly.
"What's wrong, brother?" Al asked as they reached the final block before their apartment.
"Nothing, Al. Don't worry about it." Ed mumbled. He seemed worried about something and the way he didn't give a detailed and very anger filled answer meant that something really bad had happened. If it was just an annoying customer, Ed would've just called them every name in the book behind their backs and been better in half an hour.
"Brother, you have to trust me. What's wrong?"
"I lost my job okay?! The boss said he had to get rid of someone or else his restaurant would go bankrupt and since I had the least experience and seniority, I was elected the first to go." Ed said in a rush of bottled up anger and hopelessness.
Al couldn't say anything at first. The fact that Ed hadn't wanted him to worry about it in the first place made him feel like a piece of dirt. His brother worried about him too much and not enough about himself.
"Brother… You'll find another job. This is a big city with lots of restaurants in it-" Al looked over at his older brother and his heart sank. Ed was almost in tears.
"We're getting evicted. The notice came three weeks ago. I couldn't pay the rent for the last 5 months with buying food and the train tickets. I have to find another job and soon or else we'll be living on the streets." Ed choked the words out. Being here had taken such a toll on Ed that he seemed to be in total depression. Ed didn't show it very well and Al hadn't noticed until recently.
They arrived to their apartment and Ed sat in a kitchen chair, his head buried in his hands. Al stood beside him, not exactly sure what to do. He looked at his brother and felt utterly frightened. Not for himself, but for his brother. He had never seen Ed like this before. Ed had always been so strong but right now, he needed something. A familiar face, a familiar hobby, a familiar home.
Al got on his knees and gave his brother a hug. Ed needed it. Ed sobbed that he was sorry. Al couldn't say it but he was the one that was sorry. He should've helped his brother when he first noticed that things were changing. He shouldn't have eaten so much. He shouldn't have done this, and done that. He blamed himself so much until he convinced himself that he was the reason they were getting evicted.