"First day of school," Johan groaned. "Why, Selim? Why do we have to go back?"

Selim raised his eye in wry amusement at his friend. They were walking down the old, familiar road that would lead them to their school building, taking in the warm, morning weather of late summer as their last glimpse of the holiday freedom vanished with the rising sun.

"Because you have to become a more productive member of society and I have to learn how to be a human."

"You're already more human than you think," Johan muttered with a roll of his eyes. Then he turned to face Selim as they walked. "Why are we going to school to do all of that? We could do just as well at home!"

Selim scoffed. "With everyone in the military breathing down my neck? No, thank you. It will be difficult enough as it is."

"But it's school!" Johan moaned.

Selim reached over and whacked his friend on the back of the head. "Stop whining. It's annoying."

"Ouch!" Johan yelped, rubbing the back of his head and backing away from Selim, only to have his heel catch on a depression in the road. With another shout, he fell onto his backside, eyes wide in surprise.

Selim couldn't help it. He laughed. The picture of his slightly over-weight friend thumping onto the ground like that would make anyone laugh. Well, anyone but the one who had fallen.

"Ha, ha, very funny," Johan muttered as he got to his feet and began dusting himself off. "It's nice to know you can still laugh," he grumbled.

Selim's merriment calmed, but he allowed the smile to remain on his face. "It is, actually. Pride didn't laugh a lot. Selim did."

"Yeah, yeah," Johan said as he started off down the road again, allowing Selim to fall into step beside him for the second time that day. "I've been hearing stuff like that all summer."

"And if you continue to remain in my presence, you will continue to hear it."

Johan paused for a moment, head turned up in thought. "That'll be awkward to explain at school," he finally said just as the building in question came into view.

Selim saw it and for a moment he froze. There it stood, the same structure with the same students—the same humans—running around inside of it. It almost seemed surreal and out of date—like it wasn't pertinent to anything in Selim's life anymore.

The questions rose in the back of his mind as he continued to stare it down. He'd come so far since he'd last seen it. He'd regained three hundred years of memories, had two separate personalities in his head merge, learned alchemy, relearned how to use shadows, visited Xing, gone on the run, been captured by the military and risked his life to rescue his friends. Everything else seemed like it had been a lifetime ago, and in a way, it had been.

"Selim? What's wrong?" Johan asked. The dark-haired boy looked over at his friend, almost having forgotten he was there.

"What am I doing?" he asked Johan.

The boy looked confused. "What?"

Selim's eyes were drawn back to the school. "Perhaps you are right. I don't belong there. Coming here was a mistake." Not to mention the idea of facing everyone knowing that he had changed so much…

A loud thump and pain at the back of his head had him stumbling forward in surprise.

"Oh, shut up," Johan said, irritated. "You belong there just as much as anyone else, so don't you even start going off on me like that."

Selim put a hand to the back of his head, staring at his friend. "You…just hit me."

"Yeah, and I'll do it again if you start talking like that again," the other boy threatened.

The homunculus blinked at his friend. "You know, Pride would have killed you for that."

"Yeah, but as you keep saying, you're not Pride."

Selim continued to stare, wondering why his mind couldn't seem to wrap around the concept of his friend's words. After a moment, Johan's expression softened.

"Look, it's not like I know you can't kill me if you wanted to, I just know you won't. That's what I told my parents and it's what I'll always believe."

Selim felt a soft smile touch his lips at the heart-felt words. No matter how many times he heard Johan say them, he still felt like he didn't deserve them.

"Thank you," he said quietly.

"Yeah, yeah," Johan said, waving the appreciation away with a slight blush on his cheeks. He wasn't the only one unused to heart-felt expressions from his peers. "Come on, we'd better not be late for class or Mustang'll send Mandy after us."

He took off down the road again.

"Oh, the horror," Selim said sarcastically as he followed.

"It is horrible! That girl has no concept of personal space or when to shut the heck up or anything! How you could stand to be around her for so long it a mystery to me."

Selim shrugged, despite knowing that Johan wouldn't see it. "I put up with you, don't I?"

And, with all the maturity and wisdom of a three year old, Johan turned and stuck his tongue out.

Yes, going back would be strange, but this normalcy—this was worth everything.

xXx

Sorry this wasn't posted sooner. I have no excuses.