Dinner was a quiet affair. Ed had made up with Al –stew mellowed everybody, but no one seemed to want to talk. What was normally a boisterous affair had become something tiresome, a dinner nobody wanted to be at. When the last fork was laid down the group thanked Al for dinner and set about doing dishes. Ed washed the dishes in the sink while Al dried them and Winry and Gracia put them away. Elysia watched them as she ate her bowl of ice cream.

She offered her spoon to her mother who smiled and tasted the ice cream. Gracia made a face and laughed, "I never really liked sweets, I enjoy baking them but eating them is a different story."

Ed was now munching on his own bowl and tilted his head surprised. "Really?"

"Really, Maes would always taste them for me. Or Roy."

Ed grinned. "Mustang has a sweet tooth?" he cackled and wiggled his eyebrows. "I think I now have blackmail."

Al shook his head. "You're so ridiculous sometimes Brother. Now, tell me, how did the apartment hunting go?"

Ed's face lit up. "I move into the place at the end of this week. Of course I'll need to have my stuff shipped from Risembool and we have to divide up whose books are whose…"

"There's no way I'm letting you make off with my books! You're a fiend when it comes to that!"

Ed laughed gaily and slurped the last of his ice creams before sticking the bowl in the sink and stretching. "I think I'm going to head to bed now. I'm exhausted."

Al hugged his brother tightly and Ed hesitated before putting his arms around Al. Ed heard Al whisper into his ear, "I'll talk to Winry, okay? Don't worry about her. I think she's just stressed about going to medical school."

Ed didn't respond but when he pulled away he said, "Thanks."

Lying in his bed that night he wondered what would happen between his brother, his best friend and himself.

He gazed out the window into the dark street and fell asleep dreaming about childhood.

"Brother! Brother! Brother! Look what I found!" Al held up a container that held a…fish?

"Where'd you get that Al?"

"I caught him!" Al declared proudly.

"So?" Winry pouted, "I have Den, Den's cooler than a fish!"

"Hey Brother, d'you think Mom'll let us keep him?"

Ed knew he was thinking about the cat incident and he responded as such – "You still have to care for it so no. And besides it's a fish. Winry's right, fish are lame."

Al's eyes started tearing up.

"Jeeze Al, don't be such a baby!" Ed snapped. Before Ed or Winry could say anymore Al ran away carrying the jar under his arm.

When Ed returned later home that evening his mother didn't say anything to him. She didn't have to. Al's fish was in the jar sitting on a counter.

Trisha turned to her eldest son and asked, "Isn't our new pet pretty? Al what did you decide to call him?"

Al's face lit up. "His name is Sun. Because he's bright yellow and orange like the sun!"

Trisha smiled and pressed a kiss to her son's head. "That's a good name. Now both of you go wash up and let's have dinner."

Ed sat up in bed staring out the still dark window. Thinking back he remembered they'd had the fish at most a month before it died. He remembered Al crying for hours and their mother saying that they could give Sun a proper burial. Their mother had dug a little hole in the ground and set up a stone with the word sun roughly carved into it. They put on their best clothes and stood around the grave as their mother said the last rites over the fish. Al had carefully laid Sun who was in a wooden box into the hole and poured a handful of dirt over it. He himself had just finished refilling the hole when Trisha had handed them each a lilac from her garden which they placed on the recently overturned soil.

He fell back asleep and didn't dream the rest of the night. Morning had come and gone by the time Ed got up the next day. He found that Gracia and Elysia were having some mother daughter time – playing dress-up he gathered – and Al and Winry had gone out on a date.

He knew that his brother was probably bribing Winry to lay off him some. He munched on the corner of a piece of toast with jelly that had been located at the back of the ice box. He had his coffee with sugar (no milk) in his other hand which was resting casually on the table. His hair was tied back in a lose ponytail however stands were already starting to come out from where he had run his hand through it. He washed the stickiness from the jelly off his hands and quickly redid his hair before knocking on the door to Gracia's room. The door opened and Gracia asked if he'd had any breakfast and was there anything he needed and when she was satisfied Ed was well fed she asked him what he needed. "I just wanted to let you know that I was going to go out for a jog in the park. I wanted to know if you and Elysia wanted to come along so she could play in the park while I run."

Gracia turned to her daughter. "Well, Elysia, what do you think of Ed's offer!"

Elysia happily confirmed that yes she really wanted to go to the park and play with Ed there. Gracia shooed her daughter off to get dressed and Ed himself moved back to his room with Al to finish dressing.

The run was invigorating, he thought. It helped release all the stress that had been building up over the past month or so. From his position on the outside of the park he could see everything going on.

"Elysia!" he called as he approached. "I have something for you. But you have to be quiet and look closely!"

Very, very carefully Ed opened his hands and a butterfly emerged. Elysia's breath caught as her eye's widened. The emerald green and blue butterfly fluttered in place for a moment before spiraling up towards the sky. Elysia clasped his hands and breathed, "Can you teach me?"

Edward smiled down at her. "Yes, just hold your hands just so…"