Death 21 Good Samaritan

Stalking was not an act Edward Elric practiced regularly; in fact he found it rather revolting how someone would violate another individual's personal space and privacy all for a little fancy they had.

Alfons Heindrich was everything but a little fancy.

It had been almost a month since Edward had set eyes on the blonde rocket scientist who greatly resembled a grown up version of his lost little brother Alphonse, precisely two whole years after he was forcibly thrown into this cold, lonely world where he had no friends, alchemy, or family. His father had once again just up and disappeared one early Wednesday morning and the sixteen year old was not surprised. He had taken it upon himself to use the money his father had left him and enroll within a nearby university. He had hopes that with the knowledge of the sciences that governed this realm he might find a clue to lead him home.

Instead he found Alfons, oh…how it pained him to see that memorable visage in which was imprinted upon his soul as if it were a part of it, and that achingly beautiful smile that he had longed to see for the good of eight years. Now, Edward was not fooled. He knew all too well that Alfons was not nor could ever be his Alphonse, but that did not stop him from wanting to speak to him, to know him, and to protect him in any way he could. Perhaps it was years of being the shielding older brother or maybe it had to do with the throbbing loneliness within his heart, nevertheless he desperately yearned to be a part of that young man's life. He now knew what obsession was and resolved to speak to Alfons as soon as possible.

Their initial meeting had not gone so well…what with the setting fire to that one woman's dress and the cussing and the stories of other worlds and missing little brothers...

…it turned out that this worlds Alphonse had quite a way with colorful words and a temper that almost mirrored Edwards completely…

The former young alchemist thought it was secure enough to assume that it was safer to simply stay away from Mr. Heindrich for the rest of his God given life. And for awhile that was exactly what he did, even after he took on a job with the university's rocket engineering group which forced the two volatile teens to see each other every day (not that Edward had thought of that at all) and he found that they happened to live in the same apartment building owned by this worlds parallel of Gracia Hughes (Funny that, eh?) he kept his distance.

That was until the incident.

It was a Friday afternoon and both Edward and Alfons had left the University for Home. Alfons had to pick up some groceries from the market and Edward suddenly realized he was out of milk. No, he was not following the boy, he was buying milk, and why was he buying milk when he couldn't even stand the look of the vile, putrid cow juice?

…the world may never know…

After an hour of searching through the market, and moving from stand to stand Edward saw Alfons exit from the corner of his eye and decided that he was done himself (No milk, unfortunately, he did however find some fresh oranges) and he followed suit. While navigating through a crushing rush hour crowd the young man spotted his brothers parallel standing off to the side of the road, being harassed by a taller, older looking man who had him gripped him by the wrist. The boy's bags were strewn around the floor and he yelled at his attacker too let him go with a determined yet obviously frightened look on his face. Without thinking Edward rushed forward and plowed into the man with his elbow, knocking him to the ground with a satisfying crash. Smiling in success, he turned to help Alfons up with a sheepish smile, hope beyond all hope that the young rocketeer thought Edward was simply passing through and not following him. As he turned however, he felt a light tap on his shoulder and pivoted to come face to face with the assailant and his six inch hand blade.

Edward felt himself tumble to the cement as the attacker fled and blood pooled from the wound in his chest. At some point Alfons had gotten to his feet and run to his side. He was calling for help, begging for someone to stop and assist him as he removed his outer coat and applied pressure to the injury, but the people moved on their way as if there wasn't anybody bleeding to death on the street corner. Alfons was speaking, asking Edward to answer him, demanding to know why had he stopped to help him, and apologizing for being cruel and spiteful to him earlier…but Edward couldn't answer and it didn't matter much to him anyway. Alfons was there with him and to his fading mind the boy did not appear as the hot tempered scientist he met only weeks prior here in Munich, but the young sliver eyed boy whom Edward had grown up with. In his drowning ears were the sounds of his brother calling for him and he smiled.

"…Alphonse…"

At least he wouldn't die alone.

Hi peeps, thank you for all your loving reviews you make me feel special. This chapter is really just an excuse to introduce Alfons to this story, since he is one of my all time favorite FMA characters' but I just can't seem to fit him into any of my fanfics. I do really love him though. I thought long and hard on what to write in this chapter, opposed to my usual just start typing and it will all come to you attitude. I think the idea of Edward stalking Alfons appealed to me the greatest because that is probably what I would do if I were lost and thought I saw my baby brother around. Most writers portray Alfons to have a temper just like Edward and I agree with that mostly, because he is supposed to be a grown up version of Alphonse who lost his family and lived through World War I.

I have decided to post the story my friends and I are writing (more accurately put I write they spew out random ideas at a minutes' notice:[ ) it will be titled "Hero's circumstance" and it is a fantasy \ adventure based FMA fic in which Alphonse was born in prophecy the savior of the world and he and Edward join a band of pirates in order to cross the sea to reach the gates of purgatory to complete their destiny. It is actually better than it sounds and to tell you the truth the only reason I said yes to my friends was that the idea of having Roy as a pirate Captain killed me. So if you are interested watch out for the posting of that in a week or so (depending on when I can get internet access) also if you have been keeping up with my story "Flying dreams" and my Alice in Wonderland crossover the next chapters for those will also be up around the same time.

Once again I thank you, hope you enjoy and don't forget to drop by and say hi.

-Faith