I wasn't quite sure whether to post Apple Pie (see below) in here or in The Cost of Living, 'cause it's both cute and sad with just the tiniest touch of humor, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to send out some A/N's to Shoushin and The Arctic Tumbleweed, so it's here for now.

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To S and AC, I just want you to know that I AM keeping your stories in mind, OK? I will write them someday, I just can't say when. I'm waiting for inspiration to strike, and making no promises as I am especially busy right now, OK? But seriously, I haven't forgotten you guys!

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Apple Pie

"Hey, Ed?" Al caught his brother's attention, Ed's gaze swinging to his brother in the seat opposite him, away from the window he'd been staring out.

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember what Winry said back at the station?"

"Um...'Be safe, take care of yourselves, don't break your automail'...Oh yeah, and 'Eat apple pie'." Ed suddenly realized that last phrase that he'd ignored back at the station didn't really make any sense to him.

"Yeah, that one. I think I've heard it before. When we were little."

"Do you think she picked it up from Hughes or something?"

"No, not really. 'Cause I could've sworn I remembered hearing it before then. What about you, Brother?"

Ed thought back. Usually when he thought of being little he thought of his father leaving, which always stirred up resentment, but now the anger took on a new light as Ed fit the phrase in question into a forgotten bit of the memory.

"Ohh yeahh." He said. "Dad used to say it, Al. Whenever he went away, he'd tell us 'eat apple pie'." Ed thought for a moment. "But then he didn't...when he left for good, all he said was 'goodbye'. ...And you got mad at him for it. Asked him why he didn't say it." Ed spoke slowly, the memories flooding his mind. "And he slammed the door in your face."

"And didn't we both run to find Mom, but she wasn't in the house?" Al filled in.

"Yeah. And you thought Dad had taken her with him. You looked so funny, like an owl your eyes were so big."

"You got scared too." Al said indignantly.

"And Mom came back in the house and said it would all be OK and he would come back again soon."

"Yeah." Both Al and Ed were silent for a while before Al spoke again:

"I got it! I remember where I've heard that before in Winry's family. Do you remember, the night we burned the house down, how Winry was crying? And you said something about how she'd always been a crybaby?"

"Yeah." Ed felt a little guilty at the memory. The whole thing had just been so awkward.

"But she wasn't just crying for us, Ed. I saw her dump out a box of papers on the back step before she came around front to watch with us, and then she started crying."

"Really? What were they?"

"It took me awhile to figure it out. They were all the letters she got from her parents while they were in Ishbal."

Edward was silent. He'd never even suspected...

"But remember, one day when she was showing off that she could read by reading her parents' letters and I was just starting to learn? I remember every one of them ended like 'Love, Mom and Dad. P.S. Eat apple pie!'."

"Wow... I don't remember that..." Ed and Al looked at eachother for a while, reveling in the wonders of old memories.

"Hey..." Again it was Alphonse who spoke first. "I think I know why you thought Winry got it from Hughes. That time he came to visit you in the hospital, he said it when he left."

"Oh, yeah! I thought he might have said something like that." Ed agreed.

"Hey, Colonel Bastard."

"Come in, FullMetal. Where's your report this time? Written on your stomach?" Roy sarcastically referred to the time Ed had written a report on his arm, not to mention countless times it had been turned in on postcards, scrap paper, newspaper margins and occasionally on a series of Post-It notes.

"Right here." Ed handed him the damn, crumpled piece of paper he'd torn out of his notebook.

"Would it kill you to use a typewriter?" Roy half-groaned, looking at the damp scribbles.

"Shut up! You're lucky I even bother to write this stuff down for you!"

"That's not what I asked, Edward. Would it, or would it not, kill you to use a typewriter like every other State Alchemist in this military?"

"No." Ed said stiffly. He then raised his automail arm and grinned, "But it might kill the typewriter."

Roy sighed loudly and waved Ed out of his office. The blond disappeared, then suddenly reappeared in the doorway, leaning over so his braid hung down sideways.

"Um, Roy?"

Roy twitched at the use of his first name. "Yes, FullMetal?"

"Just. Uh, eat apple pie, OK?" Ed was gone in a flash, boots thumping in the hallway.

Roy stared out the door after Ed. 'Eat apple pie...Hughes used to say that, didn't he?'

Roy suddenly wondered if Gracia still made those wonderful pies without Maes around to gobble them up and if she would mind him coming over for a slice sometime.

"Thank you, FullMetal." He murmured.

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