"Wow," muttered Al after a few moments. "I can't imagine how scared you must've been."

"Here," said Granny, and she handed Finn a mug of thick, steaming orange liquid. "It's pumpkin soup. Winry made it tonight, so you'd better appreciate it."

Finn gratefully accepted the mug and took a sip. It was hot and sweet and warmed him to the core.

"Thank you," he said. "It's really good."

Granny smiled proudly.

"I hope you're not angry at Ed for this," said Al. "I know it was his suggestion that brought you here."

"Nah, it's okay," said Finn. "He didn't know."

"You would think that with such a well-calculated attack," said Granny, "those thugs could have come up with a better slur than 'sky scum'. I've personally never thought 'scum' worked particularly well as an insult."

"It's still bad," Al pointed out. "It still means people don't trust Atmos and its people, and somebody's leaking information somehow. These people were either waiting for Finn or they found him and then decided to chase him down, but either way I doubt this is going to be good for diplomacy. If word gets out that Amestrian citizens attacked someone from Atmos, let alone a squadron member-"

"I've lived through enough wars to know what it means, Alphonse," Granny pointed out. "You and Edward should both know that, especially since one of them happened within your lifetime."

Al nodded, then looked up as Winry entered, dusting off her hands on her trousers.

"I moved your skimmer round to the back of the house," she reported. "If you like I could probably tweak it a little to give you more speed, since I know this world is heavier than Atmos."

"Thanks," Finn said, "but you should probably talk to Junko and Stork about that first."

Winry's face fell in disappointment.

"Okay," she said in sad resignation, "if I ever see them again."

"I hope you weren't planning on trying to go back home," said Al. "I'm sorry, but it'll be safer if you stay here, at least for the night. Leave in the morning if you want to, but you can stay for as long as you need."

"And since when was that your decision to make, young man?" asked Granny.

Al bowed his head and muttered a quiet apology, to which the little old lady responded with a smile.

"It's alright," she said. "He can stay."

"Thank you," said Finn.

"You can use Ed's room for the night," Winry offered. "I doubt he'll mind much, being literally a whole world away and all. I have a bit of work to finish off, so I'll get back to that. Enjoy your soup!"

She left the room with a friendly smile, and Finn spent quite some time gazing at the door she had left through.

"I'd better let Den out to use the bathroom," said Granny. "She always gets a little nervous if it's left too late."

She departed as well.

Finn swallowed another mouthful of soup. Winry was definitely a good cook.

"Finn," said Al, "are you okay?"

The marksman stared at him in confusion.

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I'm fine. I didn't get hit, right? And I managed to get away. I'm fine."

"That's not what I mean," said Al. "There isn't anything wrong with being scared. I spent a lot of time leading up to the Promised Day utterly terrified."

"Huh? But you're so cool!"

Al smiled bashfully.

"I don't know about that," he said. "You don't have to be in a dangerous situation to be scared. I spent most of that time in Liore with my dad, helping with construction work, and for the whole time, I was scared to death!"

"But you had a good reason," Finn pointed out. "For all you knew, the end of the world was coming up, but for me… for me, it's over… I'm not being chased anymore… and I'm still scared."

He stared down into the bright orange surface of his soup. The mug was so hot that it felt as if it was burning his fingers, even though he knew it wasn't. He was grateful for the heat.

"Finn," Al said, "can you please… would you remove your glasses?"

Finn felt his body freeze.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Al continued. "If it makes you uncomfortable, but I want to see. I want to try to understand, because you're acting so different to when I last saw you."

The Storm Hawk had known that he'd have to explain what had happened eventually, but he'd never have thought Al would ask about it so soon. He should've known; Alphonse was smart and observant enough to see the scars poking out from under his shades' frames.

"Okay," the marksman muttered.

He pulled off his glasses and looked up at the alchemist, hoping for understanding.

"Oh my gosh," Al muttered, and he pressed his fingers to his mouth in shock. "How did… what happened to you?"

"I don't like talking about it," said Finn. "I'll just say that it wasn't a fight, it wasn't an accident and it definitely wasn't a choice."

Al looked as if he was about to cry.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have-"

"It's fine," said Finn. "I knew you were going to ask sooner or later. I don't blame you for it."

It didn't do much to change Al's apologetic expression.

"Did they catch the person who did it?" he asked. "Are they locked away?"

Finn nodded.

"They didn't have any companions, did they?"

Finn shook his head.

"But you don't know if they might've been working for somebody."

Finn nodded again.

"Might've been Cyclonia," he said. "It's been six weeks and I'm still not sure. None of us are."

Silent, Al picked up the shades and looked them over.

"Have you considered-?" he started.

"I tried a patch," Finn interjected. "It got sweaty and it made the scabs soft and gross. I know the shades don't do a great job of hiding the wounds, but they're more noticeable than these."

He pointed at the dark lines that stretched upwards and downwards from where his eye had been.

"I think Winry has some more medical-type patches," Al suggested. "They're looser than leather patches and they're lighter too. You probably won't be able to wear one while flying, since they're kinda fragile, but they'd do a good job outside combat. I'm sure she'll be happy to lend you some."

Finn couldn't bear to look him in the eye.

"Thank you," he said softly.

Something somewhat heavy became present on his knee. He looked down and saw Den standing there, gazing imploringly up at him with pleading in her eyes. Al giggled at the sight.

"I think you should finish your soup before she tries to steal it from you!" he said in amusement.

Finn rubbed her head affectionately and she wagged her tail, her face still conveying expectation and hope.

"Sorry," he said, "but this soup's mine."

He gratefully finished off the mugful, even though it burned his throat. It was delicious, so he didn't really care all that much, and Den let out a quiet little whine of disappointment.

Ed's bed was surprisingly soft. Finn had expected that a hardass person would have a hardass bed, but it was very cosy. It was almost like lying on a sheep.

So he lay there, more comfortable than he had expected, staring up at the darkness where the ceiling should have been, once again unable to sleep for the mess inside his head.

He'd deliberately avoided telling Al about the Dark Ace's intervention. He hadn't even mentioned that someone else had come to help him, merely stating that he had escaped, thankfully unhurt, and that the drivers attacking him had lost control and crashed.

How much trouble would arise when he inevitably did have to explain how he'd escaped?

And why, of all people who could have helped him, would it have been the Dark Freakin' Ace?!

He rolled onto his side hoping maybe a change of position would help to clear his head.

How had the guy even found him? Had he been following him? Had he been lying in wait in the trees for him to pass by? If so, how had he known he was there? How did he- no, it was plain how he'd got there. He had a glider of his own, after all, and unlike Aerrows' it had an engine.

And he'd been dressed in an Amestrian military uniform.

That couldn't be good. If he'd been feeding information to Cyclonia, there was no telling what they could do. It was likely they knew about the Promised Day and Father and the homunculi and all that crap, and about what had happened to Aerrow several months ago…

…and about Major Blitz…

This was bad. This was really, really bad.

Or was it? After all, the guy had saved Finn's life.

Ugh, why did this have to be so confusing?

Now, surprisingly, he genuinely did feel tired. All this thinking had worn him out.

Aerrow would be angry at him the next time they saw one another. He'd broken a rule explicitly instated for his safety and left the Condor by himself.

Never mind. He'd worry about that when the time came. Right now he felt exhausted. Maybe he had been before now and just hadn't realised it; fleeing for your life could take a lot out of you after all.

He felt a shiver of terror shoot down his spine as his door slowly creaked open. Reaching back, he twitched the drapes aside to let in a little moonlight and see who had come to visit.

Den stood in the doorway, eyeing him curiously.

He heaved a sigh of relief. For the briefest of moments he had feared one of his attackers had found him, even though he now knew it was pretty much impossible. Or at least, he hoped it was pretty much impossible.

"You scared me," he chastised the dog. "What do you want?"

Den padded over to the bed, her metal paw clacking on the floorboards, and rested her chin on the mattress near Finn's face.

"You want to come up?" asked Finn. "What, you need an invite?"

He shifted to one side so that there would be room for her and patted on the mattress. She didn't move much.

"Come on," he said emphatically and patted again. "Come on, come up."

Still she didn't move.

"Den…"

Then she leapt up onto the bed and, after checking that there was room for her, she made herself comfortable by his side, resting her head on his hip. He had been feeling a little cold before, but not anymore.

He rubbed her head and she heaved a heavy and contented sigh.

"Thought you'd be with Winry," he muttered. "Goodnight, I guess."

He hugged the pillow closer to his head, closed his eyes and tried his hardest to clear his mind.

A shrill scream cut through the morning air and shocked Winry into the waking world. Instantly sober, she leapt out of bed and hurried to find the source.

"Finn?" she said, forcing herself not to panic. "Is everything alright?"

She found him sitting up in bed, panting and sweating and staring ahead in horror, with Den licking at his face.

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I-I'm okay. Nightmare. Just a nightmare, that's all."

He gave Den's head a grateful rub.

"Are you sure?" asked Winry. "That was a pretty loud scream."

"It was a pretty horrible dream," Finn said simply, and his hand moved to the right side of his face.

Winry felt a lump rise to her throat.

"So long as you're sure," she said, "I might make a start on some coffee. Come down when you're ready."

Still wearing the clothes she used as pyjamas, she descended the stairs to the kitchen and filled up the kettle.

It felt a little odd to have Finn in the house again, and even odder that he seemed almost as much in need of help now as he had been on the day they met. The biggest difference seemed to be that he'd gotten to keep his clothes on this time.

She switched the stove on and used a match to light the flame, and put the kettle on to boil.

Was this going to be a thing? Was Finn showing up terrified and helpless in Resembool going to become a common occurrence?

Not that she minded much. He was a nice guy, if a little obnoxious at times, though something appeared to have happened that had toned down his attitude by rather a worrying degree. She would've been able to tell even without the obvious scarring on his face, and judging by how dark it still was it had been quite recent.

She took several mugs from a cupboard, along with the coffee pot and the sugar bowl. She preferred liquid milk to the powdered creamer. The powdered creamer just felt odd on her tongue. It was like drinking flour. Which was odd, because Edward always seemed to prefer the powder. Would he ever get over his strange hatred of milk? He was fine with cheese.

A yawn from the doorway informed her that Alphonse was now up as well.

"Good morning, Winry," he said.

"Morning," Winry replied. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Yes please," said Al.

"I'm guessing it was Finn who woke you up," Winry said as she spooned brown grains into a mug.

"Yeah," Al confirmed. "Never would've thought he could scream so loud."

"If he lives in a high altitude region, then odds are he and a lot of the people in Atmos developed lungs much larger than yours or mine," Winry said conversationally. "I guess the time he's spent in Amestris has caused him to adapt though."

Al nodded. He liked it when Winry reminded him of her medical knowledge. She always sounded so proud and confident.

"Do you know if Granny wants some coffee?" she asked.

"I think she will," Al said. "Though I think she wanted to sleep in today."

Winry nodded in acknowledgement, and then her gaze wandered to the window. The sun was higher in the sky than she had expected; evidently she had overslept a little. Maybe she should start setting an alarm-

Before she could finish that thought, there was a knock on the front door.

Both of them of them turned to look in its direction.

"Winry, were you expecting anybody?" asked Al.

"What?" Winry exclaimed. "At this time in the morning? No!"

Nearby, the kettle started to whistle.

"Can you start on the coffee while I see who it is?" she asked.

"Sure," Al said, and Winry left the room.

Who on earth could be calling on them? She didn't have any appointments booked for today and as far as she knew, neither did Granny. So unless it was an emergency call…

She opened the door and was met by two teenage boys and a blue furry something.

"Hey, Winry!" Aerrow said happily. "Long time no see!"

"You're looking in a very pleasant, non-violent mood this morning!" Ed said, equally as happy, while behind them Radarr gave a pleased thumbs-up.

Winry didn't buy it.

"Alright," she said bitterly, "what did you do this time?"

Still grinning, Radarr held up a torn-off automail arm.

Also still grinning, Ed held up a torn-off automail leg.

Winry felt her blood begin to boil.

Finn cautiously entered the kitchen with Den on his heels.

"Hey, Finn," Al said pleasantly. "You want some coffee?"

"Sure," Finn replied, and his voice sounded empty. "Milk and two sugars."

"Got it," said Al, and he prepared a mug. "You know, I'm a little surprised Brother didn't come with you. I thought he'd want to come home for his birthday, at least."

"Ed's birthday's soon?" asked Finn.

"Mm-hm," Al said. "It's hard to believe he'll be seventeen already."

But before the conversation could go any further, they were cut off by a demonic scream from the front door:

"YOU MORONS!"

Quickly followed by a deafening crash.

Several seconds of silence passed, during which the two blonds could only stare blankly in the direction of the house's main entrance.

Surprisingly, Finn was the first to come to his senses.

"Al, listen," he said. "There's something I want to do."

"Seriously," Winry said as Ed lay dazed and Radarr rubbed Aerrow's head with a cold, damp cloth, "it's almost like you guys deliberately try to make more work for us."

Radarr squawked indignantly.

"Yes, I know that's not the case," Winry responded, "but that's what it feels like!"

"We didn't mean for it to happen," Aerrow explained as Ed finally started to come round. "We just… ow."

"We were sparring," Ed said weakly, "and we… got a bit over-excited."

The door opened and a familiar little old lady walked into the room.

"Of course," she said, half-amused and half-annoyed. "What week would be complete without a visit from our two most dedicated customers?"

"Sorry," Aerrow said bashfully. "If it's any consolation, they're mostly in one piece."

"That doesn't do us a whole lot of good when they're still broken!" Winry pointed out as Granny examined the broken limbs.

"They're not just broken," she reported. "The cables have been almost completely severed in both of them. What in the world were you two doing?"

"We figured we could go one-on-one with Aerrow's energy blades," said Ed. "You know, since he duel wields and all, and people we fight aren't going to be using cardboard or wood."

"Unfortunately," said Aerrow, "we didn't really factor in the, uh…"

He glanced at Radarr for help, and the co-pilot mimed a chop with his paw.

"…cutting power," Aerrow finished with a nervous smile. "Striker crystals and all."

Granny sighed in exasperation while Winry slapped her forehead.

"That explains the melting," said Granny as she examined the torn-off end of Ed's leg. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was cut halfway and the rest fell off by itself. I'd be curious to know just how much heat those weapons of yours can generate, young man."

"Well, they glow blue," Aerrow pointed out, "so that probably means a lot. I think that might just be the crystal I use though."

Winry let out a growl of frustration.

"You're ridiculous," she snarled, and she seized Aerrow's arm and turned on Ed. "Both of you are completely and utterly RIDICULOUS-!"

"LOOK! WE BROUGHT A GIFT! FOR YOU!" Ed interjected, and before Winry had a chance to hit him, he held up a small, velvet coated box between them.

For several tense seconds, Winry stared at it.

Then she sighed and took the box.

"You're lucky I'm nice," she said, thankfully less angry than she had been.

Granny cast a suspicious look in Aerrow's direction, and he and Radarr shrugged to say 'What were we meant to do?'

Winry opened the box and made a noise somewhere between a yelp and a scream. Whatever it was, it was excited.

"Ed, these are beautiful!" she cried. "Are these real sapphires? However much did these cost?"

"Cost?" Aerrow said, baffled. "They barely cost anything. But yeah, they're genuine."

Winry squealed in delight and spun around and around on one foot, clutching the little box to her cheek as if trying to embrace it.

"How was a scrappy little thing like you able to afford genuine sapphires?" Granny asked as Ed seemed to deflate from relief.

"I already said they barely cost anything," said Aerrow, ignoring the comment on his appearance (though he probably did look rather scrappy without his arm). "If a crystal can't be used to power something or fight, it's not really worth much. Same goes for metals; bronze is strong, but it's not as strong as iron and you have to make it rather than just digging it up, so it's used for jewellery more than anything else."

"This is amazing!" shouted Winry. "Thank you, both of you! Thank you so, so much!"

She hugged Ed and kissed him on the cheek.

There was a knock on the already-open door.

"Is this a private conversation or can anybody join?" asked the boy who stood there.

"Al!" Ed exclaimed happily.

"Ed!" Al cried just as happily, and he hurried over and hugged his brother. "You're back!"

"Yeah, I'm here," Ed said as he awkwardly tried to return the embrace. "Not by choice, but-"

"Finn?"

The room fell silent when Aerrow spoke the name, as he had caught sight of a third blond boy looking nervously into the room.

"Finn, what're you doing here?" asked the redhead, and he didn't sound happy.

Finn stepped out of sight.

"What's the matter?" asked Winry, having finally snapped out of her over-excited delirium. "Is he not supposed to be here?"

"No," Aerrow said solidly. "When did he arrive?"

"Last night," said Al. "He came in shouting that somebody was after him and he was terrified. He told us people had chased him and-"

"Hold that thought," said Aerrow, and he got up and walked out of the room with Radarr still clinging to his shoulder.

Ed slapped himself on the head.

"Goddammit," he muttered, "can't believe I forgot..."

"Forgot what?" asked Winry.

"The new rule," said Ed. "No Storm Hawk is to leave the Condor alone anymore. Not after what happened to Finn."

"And I suppose you won't be able to tell us exactly what it was that happened to Finn?" asked Granny.

Ed shook his head.

"No," he said. "No, it would be best if he told you himself. Although…"

He looked to the door.

"…something tells me he doesn't plan on doing that any time soon."

"Finn," Aerrow said sternly while Radarr glared down at the blond with crossed arms, "you knew about the rule."

Nervous, Finn nodded.

"The rule that no-one is to leave the Condor unaccompanied."

Another nod.

"Which also applies to entering Amestris. You're not to do that alone."

More nodding.

"But you still decided you would leave and come to Amestris without telling anybody, and now I hear that you were attacked and chased? That you arrived here terrified? Even though you knew about this rule?"

Finn hesitated before nodding again.

"And you know it's a rule that was instated for your safety."

Finn didn't nod.

"I know," he said. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again. Not after last night."

Aerrow didn't reply. He and Radarr were too busy gaping in shock.

"I know you're angry," said Finn. "I'm… I'm sorry."

"Finn," Aerrow said weakly, "Finn, you- since when did you start talking again?"

Finn shrugged.

"Since last night, I guess," he said. "Captain Hawkeye was nice to me. I felt like it would be weird if I just hugged her, so I asked her. It… it kinda feels good. To talk again, I mean."

Aerrow seemed to forget about his anger and disappointment and pulled his wingman into a one-armed hug, which Finn returned (with two arms, of course). Radarr joined in, hugging as much of Finn as he could reach.

"This is so good for you," Aerrow said. "It means you're getting better. Don't get me wrong, I'm still angry at you for breaking the rule, but I'm proud of you."

"So then…" Finn said hesitantly, "you won't mind if…"

Aerrow and Radarr pulled away.

"If what?" asked Aerrow. "Finn, what's wrong?"

Finn gulped. He was obviously still nervous.

"How did you even get here so fast?" he asked. "It should've taken you ages."

"We flew," said Aerrow, "on my ride. Finn, what is it you were going to mention? What won't I mind? Whatever it is you want to tell me, I promise you I'll listen. You only just started talking again, so I owe you that much."

Finn ran a hand through his hair.

"O-okay," he said. "I already told Al, so I guess it'll be cool to tell you too, so listen up."