There was another knock at the front door and Den started barking enthusiastically.

"Alphonse!" Winry called, looking up briefly from her measuring. "Do you think you could see who that is?"

"Sure thing!" Al responded, and he could be heard walking in the direction of the front door and telling Den to calm down.

"It's probably Gramps with the parts I ordered," Winry explained to nobody in particular as she examined the tape. "Your arm was mostly in good condition, Flyboy, but it needs adjusting for your growth and the cut-off region was half-melted, so it'll need replacements."

"Flyboy?" Aerrow raised an eyebrow in her direction.

"That's what Ed calls you, right?" Winry asked cheerfully.

"Sometimes," Aerrow replied, "but it seems kinda weird to hear you saying it."

"Don't baby him, Winry," Ed said bitterly as he sipped his even more bitter coffee. "It's his fault we're in this goddamn mess."

"You're the one that suggested we use my blades for sparring," Aerrow pointed out.

"But you're the one who stabbed at my leg!" cried Ed.

"So you thought it would be a good idea to cut my arm, did you?!" Aerrow asked angrily.

"Now, now, ladies," said Granny. "You're both pretty so there's no need to bicker."

She rolled up her measuring tape while Ed gave her an annoyed glare from behind his mug.

"Believe it or not, Edward, you do appear to have grown slightly during your absence," she said. "I don't know if you were having a little trouble walking properly before you so foolishly lost your leg yet again, but it looks like I'll have to give you a bit of an extension."

"I guess the lower gravity's stretching him," Aerrow said with amusement. "Pretty soon we'll have to weigh him to the ground."

"Perhaps," said Granny. "Or he finally started drinking his milk like good boys should."

"Milk is gross," Ed said emphatically.

"Grow up, Edward," Winry chastised. "It's only milk, it's not like there's any way it could hurt you. And Granny, you're always working so hard. Why don't you let me handle Ed's leg for once? Take a bit of time off."

"Hmm," Granny hummed, tapping on her chin with one finger. "I'm not too certain about that, Winry. I wouldn't want to put you under too much pressure."

"There's no hurry," said Aerrow. "Home's been pretty quiet lately, and I'm sure the rest of my team can handle it if something comes up while the three- four of us are here. It's not like we want you to stay up all night for us."

"Please don't," Ed begged.

"Granny, it's nothing I can't handle," Winry said confidently. "You did all the most recent orders. Don't you think you deserve a bit of a break?"

Several silent seconds passed as Granny thought over the possibilities. The only sounds were muffled thumping footsteps from the other room and a slurp from Ed with his coffee.

"Alright," she said eventually. "I suppose I could take some time off to do some gardening. Winry, if you think you're up to the job, then feel free to do as you please."

"Thank you, Granny!" Winry said happily. "I promise I'll do a good job and I'll make you proud!"

"Of course you will," Granny said with a smile. "You're a Rockbell, after all. It's in our nature to do a fantastic job."

Aerrow shared a glance with Ed, who seemed more than a little amused at the current events. Whether or not Winry really was up to the job was something they were going to have to wait and see.

"So you get it?" asked Finn.

Radarr nodded.

"And you can't tell him, understand?" Finn requested. "Don't even hint at it."

Radarr saluted proudly.

"Good," Finn said, though he didn't sound massively excited. "Nice to know I can still trust you, big guy."

"Hey, Finn?"

When Finn looked up, Al was holding a large, heavy-looking package, wrapped in brown paper and tied with string.

"Can you give me a hand?" he asked. "I'm afraid I'm still not strong enough to carry all of these on my own."

"Sure," Finn said, while Radarr scampered away to find Aerrow.

He got up and took the package from Al's arms and discovered that it really was rather heavy.

"Whoa," he groaned, and he couldn't avoid staggering a little. "Dude, what's in here?"

"It's mostly plating," said a feminine voice from the front doorway, "but there's cables and wires in there as well, plus some extra gears Winry asked for."

Caught off-guard by the unfamiliar voice, Finn looked to the doorway and saw a girl around Ed's age with dark, sharp-looking eyes and dark hair tied into a loose bun. She wiped sweat away from her forehead and her bangs after passing another package to Al.

"Never seen you here before," she said pleasantly to the Storm Hawk. "My name's Azian. My grandfather owns the smithy that makes most of the Rockbells' parts."

She held out a hand to shake, but quickly withdrew it when she realised shaking wasn't possible.

"I…" Finn said numbly, trying his best not to stare at her. "I… I'm…"

"Is it just these two?" asked Al, trying to save the other blond from humiliation.

"Right now, it's only two," Azian said. "Unless I forgot something again."

"Well, thanks for dropping them off," Al replied.

"No problem," said Azian. "Tell Winry I said hi!"

She turned and walked away, and Finn couldn't avoid watching after her.

"She has a boyfriend, you know," Al said.

"Oh?" said Finn, and failed to hide the disappointment in his voice.

"Yeah," Al replied. "And they've been together for quite a while now. Pretty much the whole town is hoping they'll get married."

Finn was quiet.

"There's already rumours that he bought her a ring while he was helping with a delivery in the West last year," Al added to further his point.

"Do you think…?" Finn said unsteadily.

"Think what?" asked Al.

"…she would mind?" said Finn. "If we… you know, our plan."

"Maybe," said Al. "Depends on who would find out. I think I should go and suggest it to her. Could you hold this for me?"

He dropped the package he had been carrying on top of the one Finn already held and the poor marksman almost collapsed under the weight.

"Thank you!" Al called as he ran out and away from the house.

With a groan of effort, Finn carried the packages further into the house and put them down near a doorway, unable to carry them any more than that. He definitely needed to work out when he got home; seclusion in his room was causing him to lose his muscle.

"Alphonse!" called Granny from the other room. "Can either you or Finn bring us the wheelchair from the basement?"

"I'm on it," Finn replied.

He quickly found the door that led down into a dark, musty room that looked so dingy that he made sure to leave the door open to let the light in. Knowing his luck, it would probably close while he was down there and he wouldn't be able to get it open again.

At least he still had good night vision. That hadn't been lost with his eye.

The wheelchair was propped against the wall in a corner. He trotted down the steps and seized it by the handle, and heaved it up the stairs as quickly as he could. The sooner he could get to a point where he could drop this thing, the better.

He emerged from the basement with his forehead dripping with sweat already, even though he hadn't been doing a whole lot of physical activity, and dropped the dusty wheelchair on the floor. He fell to his knees next to it and tried to catch his breath.

'Damn,' he thought. 'I must really be out of shape.'

"Don't tell me you're exhausted already, young man."

He looked up and saw Granny Rockbell looking down at him, sucking casually on her pipe.

"You're welcome," Finn said bitterly, and he dragged himself to his feet. "Why do you need this thing anyway?"

"We need it because we gave way our last complete prosthetic leg yesterday," Granny replied as she took hold of the chair's handle, "and Edward's too damn impatient to just wait for his own to be repaired. The silly boy will need some way of getting around, though he'll need us to help him when it comes to the stairs."

She pulled the chair into the other room while Finn sat there, feeling grumpy.

He really liked being here in Resembool, but he could have down without the patronising.

"Oh for heaven's sake, cheer up!" Winry complained.

Ed glared at her. He honestly looked more like a frog than anything else and the sight of his face was borderline hilarious.

"You've got your chair," Winry pointed out. "So now you can move around again! What's with the face?"

"No legs left?" asked Ed. "Really?"

"You didn't think we had an infinite supply of prosthetic legs, did you?" asked Granny. "Really, Edward, we're only human. We can't be constantly churning out spare parts whenever you need one."

"If it's any consolation," said Aerrow as Radarr tied his coat's sleeve into a knot, "we're in the same boat."

"Yeah," Ed said bitterly, "'coz you really need your arms to walk."

"I need them to fight!" Aerrow pointed out. "I dual wield, remember?"

"And whose stupid idea was that?" Ed demanded.

"Ugh, both of you shut up before you give me a headache," said Winry. "Ed, I think you need some time out. I'm taking you up to your room and I refuse to hear any objections!"

She took hold of the handles on Ed's chair and wheeled him out of the room.

"I'm not about to apologise for not being the happiest person in the world," he said, still as bitter as a rotten apple. "I haven't been in a wheelchair since I was eleven and I don't really want to be treated like a child again, let alone an invalid."

"You're not an invalid, Ed," said Winry as she started pushing him up the stairs. "You're just unable to walk at the moment and taking it as an opportunity to be annoying."

Ed felt his body jolt violently as he crested the steps.

"Uh, Win?" he said. "You sure you can handle this? 'Coz if I fall-"

"It's nothing you need to worry about!" Winry insisted angrily, and she didn't sound even slightly out of breath. "You were the Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward! Fullmetal! Surely someone with a code name like that would understand how if you're working around heavy machinery, it doesn't exactly leave you weak and useless. At least not for very long!"

She didn't stop pushing until they were halfway up the stairs, at which point she looked to her patient with a bright smile.

"You want to keep going or shall we stop here for a break?" she asked.

Ed stared at her in alarm.

"Jeez," he muttered. "You haven't even broken a sweat!"

Winry giggled bashfully.

"It's just one of those things!" she said, and flexed her arms for him to see. "I hadn't even noticed until I came home at least from the North, but my arms have gotten really thick. I doubt I'll ever be as resilient as you, but I'm exactly not what you could call a weakling."

As he watched the muscles flexing in her arms, a sly smile crossed Ed's face, and Winry frowned.

"I guess you could say you're…"

"Don't."

"…Winripped?"

"Oh, hey Winry!" Al said cheerfully as he closed the front door. "How's Brother doing?"

"He hit his head," Winry snapped, and she stormed away before the baffled alchemist had a chance to ask for explanation.

The first thing Ed felt upon awakening was a throbbing pain in his head, and when he blearily reached up to feel it, he found a welt at least the size of an egg.

"Damn," he muttered. "Winry has not gotten rusty."

She hadn't been kidding about the manual labour increasing her muscle mass. Her strikes with her wrench had clearly grown stronger over the years and Ed considered himself thankful that he didn't have permanent brain damage by now.

Hopefully those new earrings would sate her somewhat, so long as she didn't go poking more holes in herself to accommodate them.

'We do everything to avoid injury unless it's to make us look good,' Ed thought, 'at which point we'll happily stick a needle through ourselves to make a hole to store pretty stones in. Jeez, humans are weird.'

He rubbed his head again. Even the thought of needles being stuck into him was disturbing.

It was only when he opened his eyes once more that he finally realised where he was: his bedroom. At least Winry had been courteous enough to wheel his unconscious body to somewhere he could be comfortable while he was in pain and likely to grow increasingly impatient over the next few days. He wouldn't be surprised if she decided to spin out the work on his leg for the rest of the month purely out of spite. And finish Aerrow's arm within a day, fine-tuned and smoother in the joints than ever, just to rub it in even more.

She'd probably give him her best possible oil, too.

Dammit. Wasn't there anything else he could think about?

Apparently somebody had planned for this, as there was a pair of binoculars sitting on his windowsill.

Next to his bed…

Okay, he could do this. He'd accomplished far more difficult tasks in the past, so moving from a wheelchair to a bed should be pretty damn easy. If he could defeat an eldritch abomination from beyond the realms of accepted existence with nothing more than his bare hands, he could sure as hell move from here onto his bed.

He rested his foot on the ground and pressed down on the chair's arms, easing himself upwards, and the chair promptly span out from under him and he crashed down to the ground and landed on his backside.

"Ow…" he groaned. "Crap, Winry, if I've got a broken coccyx because of this…"

He grabbed the side of his bed, pulled his body up and flopped onto the mattress. The pain at the bottom of his spine shot up through his body.

'Well, something got hurt,' he decided. 'Best not tell Win. She'd probably try to charge me for it.'

He tried to get comfy, which wasn't easy when he was aching in a rather personal place. Eventually he settled for pulling his pillows closer and sitting on them.

With nothing left to do, he looked out the window.

It was still a clear and sunny day, but the lack of leaves on all the trees he could see from here was rather unsettling. Not as unsettling as it would have been if it was half past eleven at night and wind was howling past the house with a full moon and thunder rumbling in the distance, but still a little eerie to look at. Hopefully there would be buds sprouting before the month was out.

Why had someone left binoculars for him?

With nothing better to do, he picked them up and looked out to the horizon. He saw a small flock of birds flying out to the distant mountains and when he looked down, he could see the citizens of his town doing something in the fields. Probably preparing it for growing crops in a few weeks.

His gaze wandered further down and he saw the road, which was unsurprisingly bare given the time of year. Nobody would want to be outside for too long today. In spite of the bright sun, it was bitterly cold out there. It hadn't been nice to what was left of his leg.

'Good thing I got my old arm back,' he considered. 'Don't even want to know what kind of hell the cold would…'

His train of thought drew to a halt as he noticed Aerrow – or rather, the back of Aerrow – jogging to catch up with a dark-haired girl who was walking away from the building he sat in.

'Guess that was Gramps' kid with the parts Winry ordered,' he realised. 'What the heck are you doing, Flyboy?'

He watched as Aerrow passed her a bag, which he guessed contained the payment for the parts. Even for the people who made it, automail wasn't free.

And his jaw hit the floor as Azian – that was her name, right? – leaned forward and gave the redheaded Sky Knight a peck on the cheek.

Aerrow turned back to face the house, looking surprised, before running his fingers over where her lips had touched them and smiling, faintly but obviously pleased.

'What the hell is going on down there?' wondered Ed. 'Last I heard she already had a boyfriend. Why would she…'

He looked from the approaching Aerrow to the retreating Azian, who was hurrying down the road, occasionally glancing back at the house. Or was it the people who were residing there who had her interest?

Moreover, Aerrow had allowed her to kiss him.

On the face.

This was a guy who was still on-edge about unwarranted touching and tended to need a few moments to compose himself after automail adjustments and if he needed to be pulled up off a ledge, and he had just allowed a girl he didn't know – or at least, a girl Ed had assumed he didn't know – to kiss him on the cheek.

'What is going on here?' he wondered.

He looked over at the door. He wanted to go downstairs and ask, but to do so would be extremely uncomfortable. He'd either have to crawl down pathetically or try to ride down in his wheelchair, and if he somehow avoided tumbling head over heels, it would be hell on his already-sore backbone.

And he didn't want to call for Winry. With the way she had warned him not to make that pun, there was no chance she'd be happy to dote on him again.

God dammit…

Having returned inside, Aerrow slumped against the now-closed door and slid down to the floor.

It had already felt a little awkward to act familiar with a girl he'd never even met before today, but to have her kiss him like that, even if it was on the cheek, was bringing back certain feelings he would rather have remained dead and buried.

He rubbed his face and sighed. This was exhausting. Never being able to escape from his own recurring terror, even when he was in the company of people he knew for a fact he could trust, was exhausting. He felt sorry for all the failed Sky Knights and their squadron members who hadn't been able to mentally recover from conflicts on a similar or worse level to what he had experienced over the past couple of years.

"Aerrow?"

He looked up. His oldest friend was standing over him, looking down at him with worry in his eye.

"Are you alright?" asked Finn.

"Are you alright?" Aerrow responded. "You're the one cooking up this scheme. You sure it'll work?"

Finn shook his head.

"Where did you get that patch?" asked the redhead.

"Wh- this?" Finn felt the papery square that was now tied to his face with thin, flimsy-looking string. "Al suggested- Winry leant me a few. I mean, they're pretty weak, but they'll last until I can get a proper one. Less awkward than shades."

Even though his scars now seemed even more prominent.

Trying to ignore this, Aerrow stood up.

"Finn," he said, "I want you to go back to the Condor."

"What?!"

"Tell the rest of the squad everything about what's going on. If you're anxious about taking the trip to Central by yourself, I'm sure Al will accompany you if you ask him. If anything, the two of you being gone will help make my part easier to do."

Resigned, Finn nodded.

"And you might want to wear your shades for the ride," Aerrow pointed out. "I don't think that papery thing blowing off while you're driving would be very fun."

"Yeah," said Finn, and he obediently pressed his sunglasses onto his face. "Yeah, o-okay."

When he had disappeared in search of the younger Elric brother, Aerrow slumped back against the door and slid back down to the floor.

In silence, he prayed to whatever gods might have been able to hear him that he would be able to pull this off.

At the sound of the door downstairs slamming shut, Ed snatched up his binoculars again. He didn't care if it was wrong to snoop. He was going to go insane if he was just stuck here staring up at his ceiling for the whole time Winry worked on his leg.

He saw nothing.

'What the hell?' he thought. 'I definitely heard the front door closing. What's going on?'

He lowered the binoculars and leaned as far as the glass would allow him to see down below his window. If he strained both his neck and eyes, he could just about make out the combed gold of Alphonse's hair shining in the sunlight. It didn't help that he was standing pretty much right below the window.

'Al?' Ed was baffled. 'Where are you going?'

He watched and waited, wondering what his younger brother was doing out there, and his unasked question was answered when Finn came into view, wheeling his skimmer out and saying something to Al that was muffled by walls and window panes.

While Ed watched, frowning, the two blonds climbed onto the skimmer – Al hanging on for dear life – and drove away from the house, taking to the air once they had enough speed and clearance.

"Wonder where they're headed," Ed pondered aloud.

"Back to Atrmos."

"GYA!" Ed almost jumped out of his skin. "Aerrow, couldn't you knock! Knocking is a thing, you know!"

"I know," Aerrow said smugly, "but making you freak out is also a thing."

Ed just growled.

"I told Finn to head back to Atmos and let the rest of the squadron know what was happening," Aerrow explained. "I don't want them to worry about us for no reason. Especially Finn, since we've found that him being away from the Condor by himself doesn't always have the best results."

Still annoyed, Ed just grunted in agreement.

"How're those binoculars suiting you?" asked Aerrow. "We figured you'd get bored if you were just stuck up here until your leg's done, so we figured you could do some birdwatching or something. Or I could bring you some books from downstairs if you need them."

"Nah," Ed said simply, "I'm fine."

Aerrow shrugged.

"Fair enough," he said. "You just yell if there's anything you need, alright?"

"Alright," said Ed, and the Sky Knight departed to who knows where.

Alone again, the disgruntled tutor raised the binoculars once more and saw that even with their enhancement, the skimmer was already little more than a speck retreating into the distance.

"Finn," he said quietly, "if you don't bring back my brother in one piece…"

By now, the sun had long since set. Ed had spent almost a whole hour sitting there, gazing out at the sky and searching for any signs of a crash, before eventually giving up and having a short nap. After that, he had resorted to birdwatching, and had seen a good number – ironically enough – of sparrows and finches that seemed to have returned early from their winter migration.

It still seemed like an odd, unsuitable name. Finchley. It was the sort of name reserved for the pampered, wimpy sons of butlers in fancy mansions who would no doubt grow up to be nothing more than downtrodden footmen. Not a cocky sniper who never seemed to realise what he was getting himself into until it was too late.

At least it was a clear, peaceful night, so hopefully the stars could provide him with some distraction.

He looked around at them, trying to get a better focus on their twinkle, but even with the enhancement they were never larger than tiny white specks. Occasionally he would see one with a tint, such as yellow or red or even blue, but way too many where white for him to count.

Damn. He must've been crazy bored if he was even finding stargazing dull.

There was a clanking noise from near his foot, and he moved his dinner plate off his bed to the floor. At least his family had been kind enough to provide him with food in this most annoying of times.

Frustrated still, he raised the binoculars again and found his gaze drawn further down than it had been, to the lights emanating from the town rather than above it. From here he had a rather nice vantage point of a majority of Resembool's buildings. So what if he was snooping? He was going to go crazy if he didn't figure out something to do.

Somewhere downstairs, a door opened and closed.

Ed's head was turned by the flash of light from below his window as somebody left the house. Looking down, he saw a figure walking away, the back of his coat illuminated by the light from the house.

'Where the hell are you off to, Flyboy?' the ex-alchemist wondered.

He returned his eyes to the binoculars again and followed the redhead as he walked confidently down the road, surprisingly steady considering he was missing one arm, and Ed had no idea how long it took him to go all that way to one of the houses that was only barely in view.

The house right next to a forge.

"What…?" Ed muttered. "What's he doing visiting Gramps at this time of night?"

No. No, it wasn't Gramps. From his vantage point, Ed had a clear view through the open drapes of the house, and he could make out Aerrow now inside and holding some kind of awkward conversation with Azian. It was obvious she was pleased to see him, but Aerrow still seemed rather nervous.

'Guess this is about what happened earlier,' Ed theorised. 'Don't know what the hell you were thinking, girly, but it wasn't a very good…'

His train of thought derailed.

The conversation inside the little house was becoming heated. Aerrow was pacing, and even from this distance Ed could see a wild glint in his eyes. Azian was talking fast, trying desperately to reason with him by the looks of things, but to no avail.

'Wow,' Ed internally muttered. 'That got ugly fast.'

By now Aerrow was standing right at one side of the window, his back to the girl, who came up behind him and wrapped him in a tight hug.

'Oh god, no,' thought Ed. 'He- is he having another panic attack? Bad idea; get away from him or-'

Before his thought could finish, Aerrow threw Azian off and out of sight, and the following few seconds were a blur of punches as, beyond the border of the window, the sky knight mercilessly pounded the girl into the floor with his fist.

When he stood up, panting heavily after what felt like an eternity, he was covered in splatters of red.

Then he looked down, seemed to realise what he had done, and he sat down, rubbing his head.

The binoculars slipped from Ed's numb fingers and thumped uselessly onto his bedsheet.