Dusty Road

This is my first real fanfic for FMA. The only real hard smut is at the very end of the story. But I'm still doing editing and all that--so you never know. :)

By the by, I don't own Full Metal Alchemist. If I did, I'd have had the anime follow the manga.

Where to the what now? I wish I knew where that came from.


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Edward Elric stood on the dusty road in front her home.

Her home. The one he had fought to…come back to. Alphonse stood next to him, excited and pleased in Ed’s old black and red ensemble. It suited him, Ed thought—much more than it had him. Although they looked so much alike that sometimes it was hard to tell them apart. Almost indistinguishable hair color (although not the same style any longer), Ed’s old clothes—refitted, patched and hemmed several times as they were—(which meant that, even over a year ago, Al had still been mistaken for the Full Metal Alchemist) and mischievous grins.

The only thing that distinctly separated them were their eyes. Al’s eyes were that muddy gold-brown-blue; Ed’s, amber gold. Al’s eyes were wide, open as a book, happy and more vulnerable. Ed’s had become sadder, darker, and unreadable.

Ed had to allow a little smile. He glanced sidelong at his brother. Al was nearly of height with him. Surprise of the year, Ed had grown a bit. He wasn’t a whole lot taller than his fourteen-year-old brother (Or was he fifteen? Ed had a hard time remembering that his brother wasn’t a year under him anymore—he’d been sent back in the body of a ten-year-old so he’d had to grown up…again) but at least he had it for right now. “What d’ya think?”

Al’s smile was wide when he looked back. “I think I can’t wait to see the look on her face.” And although Al seemed so excited, his voice was calm and thoughtful. Lost in nostalgia, probably. It had been a little over a year since he’d been gone, off in that mysterious land of Europe with his older brother.

Ed looked up at the house. “I have to admit. It felt good to be able to do alchemy again.”

Al laughed. “That was the very first thing you did.”

Ed chuckled a little. “I’ve missed it. It’s nice to be able to transmute. Even though….”

Al lost his smile and his face was solemn. “Altec and Mariah…”

“They gave everything for us.”

Al nodded. Ed could see how his brother’s jaw tightened and that miserable, guilt-laden glance settled in his eyes.

“Al…”

“I know,” murmured Al, giving him a sad smile. “They wanted it for us.”

“We can’t ever forget them.”

“We won’t.”

“Anyway, that place is sealed forever now. We can’t tell anyone how we did it…”

Al nodded silently. Then he said, “What about Winry?”

Ed looked at the dirt. “No…I don’t think we should.”

“We’ve hidden so many things from her.”

Ed felt his shoulders tense. “Well…we’ll have to add just one more.”

He heard Al sigh and could envision the way his face would harden when he resolved himself to something.

“Yeah…you’re right.”

Ed had to smile again. His brother had certainly changed. Retraining under Izumi, Izumi’s death, and he was a famous alchemist—although whether or not he had become a State Alchemist was unclear…for some reason, Al avoided the subject, and his seeing Ed and returning to Europe with him had made him different. Living without alchemy had already made Ed more resourceful and Al had had to get used to the same. The camaraderie between them was more pronounced than ever, although in some ways it seemed they were growing farther apart. Over a year ago, Ed had had to get used to treating Al like he was sixteen instead of fourteen. (Or, rather, thirteen instead of…fourteen? He only would be sixteen if he’d kept his body…er, right? Ed had been so confused on how to treat Al when he’d come back to this place with him a year ago, because his brother had regained his memories, he acted much older than his thirteen-[or fourteen? Or fifteen?]-year-old body.) The protective older brother had had to step aside and get used to the fact that Al was approaching to being his equal in prowess (at least in normal fighting) and cunning and, of course, was nearly an adult (or…maybe not?). It had felt strange, at first, but eventually he had settled into looking at Al as his friend, advanced by his connection as his brother.

Al, on the other hand, had had to get used to Ed not being so reckless and temperamental as he remembered. Gone was the happy boy that Ed had been, so full of dreams and ambitions. He had been replaced by this person; this young man who was full of sadness and experience. He could still tell a joke, but they didn’t have the same ring that they had once possessed. There was still a tinge of playful rivalry between them but it just…didn’t quite have the same feel that it had used to.


And now, these two brothers, shadows of each other—stood in front of their old friend’s house in the world they had known through their childhood.

Ed squared his shoulders and he sighed. “Well, let’s go.”

Each brother silently prepared himself in his own way. Ed felt his throat tighten and he swallowed hard, the lump barely receding. He took a deep, shaky breath and pulled his lips into a firm line. He had no idea what Winry would do when she saw him.

Probably throw something.

That made him smile; drawing away the almost painful clench in his chest.

Al pushed down all his reservations. He thought of Winry, how happy she would surely be and it drew a smile to his face. He forced away the thoughts of Altec and Mariah and what they had given for them to come this far.

I’ll never forget you.

Ed led him up to the porch. He stood in front of the door, silently for a moment, seeming to rally himself up. He raised his hand.

Al heard him take a shaky breath and felt a stab of pity for him. He was more nervous then he had let on. Perhaps he was afraid? Al saw the strange look in his eyes. He watched Ed lick his lips and then he stilled his face. His older brother closed his eyes and took a deep breath, bringing his shoulders up and easing them down, trying to turn back the tension that Al sensed in him. His eyes hardened. Now was the moment of truth.

Ed knocked.




It was a cold and rainy afternoon. Al and Ed bent their heads to the chilly onslaught, wrapping their coats more snuggly about themselves.

“Kinda wish I could make an umbrella,” Al muttered, only half-joking.

Ed merely glanced at him, almost forcing the smile on his face.

Al looked away, uncomfortable. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“But I—“

“I said don’t worry about it.”

The bite in his brother’s voice silenced Al. There was quiet for a moment, the only sound the pat-pat of the water hitting the dirt.

“You’re homesick, aren’t you?”

Al stared off into the heavy rain. He was, truth be told. But he could deal with that, he didn’t mind all that much. He wanted to be with his brother more than he wanted to do alchemy. Still, the guilt-burdened tone in Ed’s voice made him feel ashamed of it. He couldn’t answer.

Ed glanced at him. “I told you you shouldn’t have come.”

“I wanted to come. I’d rather be with you than do alchemy.”

Ed went strangely quiet, looking out of his mop of wet hair into the downpour. “Hard to get used to, isn’t it?”

Al noted how Ed’s tone had changed. He’d felt guilty and now he was changing the mood to friendly again; the tone of voice one of mutual agreement.

Al matched it. “Yeah. But it’s kinda fun. I’m glad sensei always told us to learn to do things without alchemy.”

Ed grinned. “Yeah, me too, else we’d be in a helluva lot of trouble.”

They were quiet for a minute.

“We should find some place to sleep,” Al muttered. “It’s getting dark.” The younger brother lifted the hood off his face and looked up through the rain into the east. “Looks like a storm is coming in.”

“Good thing you’re not metal anymore.” Ed smiled at him.

Al grinned back. “You can’t even imagine how amazing it was to feel rain the very first time after I got out of that thing.”

Ed looked at him. Al didn’t much talk about the experience of his human transmutation. It seemed it only brought up bad memories for the two of them. “Really?”

“Yeah, after years in an artificial body…it was amazing.”

The two of them started walking again, side-by-side, and natural friendliness returned. Al didn’t put his hood back up.

“What was it like?”

Al breathed in the musty scent of the rain, closing his eyes and putting his face towards the sky. “It was…just…wonderful. Refreshing.” He laughed then, opening his eyes and bounding ahead. He stuck his arms out and spun around in the rain, his small suitcase whipping about awkwardly. “It was like getting water in the desert. It was…rejuvenating! It was…” He stopped, facing Ed with his arms spread wide. “It was just amazing. I couldn’t believe it. Winry tried to get me to go inside and I wouldn’t. I just ran around in the rain. I couldn’t believe how much I’d missed it. I realize that I took a lot of it for granted before I’d been bound to the armor.” He laughed a carefree sort of laugh. “You should have seen the food I ate. I couldn’t wait to try everything again.”

“You must have been expensive.”

“Winry and Izumi said I was that first year. I had to touch and smell everything. They said I was like a dog. I wanted to eat anything they set in front of me—just so I could remember how it tasted. Chocolate chip mint ice cream was just the best. It was a little awkward at first.” He grinned. Ed smiled fondly. The words were just suddenly gushing out of his brother, as if he’d wanted to tell him this all along. “But then suddenly I could just move however I wanted. I could play with Den and everything. I could ride a bike and Winry taught me to swim.”

“Bet that was fun.”

Al stopped and looked at him, cocking his head to the side, ironically, like a dog might. Ed chuckled and waved the sentence away. “Don’t worry about it. What was the first thing you did when you woke up?”

Al looked thoughtful and fell in step with Ed again. “I woke up in a bed (I found out later it was Winry’s). And the first thing I looked at was the ceiling. And then I realized how warm it was. Not the ceiling, me, I mean. I lifted my hand, fully expecting to see well…I wasn’t sure exactly because, you know, I couldn’t remember anything except basically getting dissolved and seeing the Gate. And I couldn’t remember what feeling something even meant. My body just felt weird…and I saw my hand.”

“You must have been amazed.”

“Actually, I started screaming.” Al looked a bit sheepish about that. “I jumped up and looked at the mirror over Winry’s dresser. I couldn’t believe it. I scrambled off the bed, fell off the foot and smacked my head on the floor. Then I got up and stared at the mirror. I touched my face and my eyes, my hair and my ears—because all I remembered was the Gate, y’know? By then Winry had burst in, wanting to know what was wrong.” Al started to laugh.

“What?” Ed asked, ducking his head a little to look at Al’s face, grinning.

“I was amazed by Winry. I didn’t know who she was. She was just this tall, pretty blond. Because, you know, she was just a little girl back then. I asked her who she was and she just stared at me for a second. And then,” Al paused, looking a little solemn. “She got down on her knees and said, I’m Winry.”

“My eyes must have gotten as big as saucers. I said, that’s not possible because Winry is old as my brother--and that’s when it hit me. I suddenly recalled what I thought was the night before—when we’d transmuted Mom. I started yelling at her, Where’s Ed! Where’s Ed! Ed! What happened to him? Where is he?! I ran out of the room to look for you.”

Ed looked away, sweeping rain from his eyes and feeling uneasy. “Who broke the news?”

Al smiled, a little bitter. “When I ran downstairs, only Pinako was there. I started yelling at her too, asking where you were. Winry came downstairs and made me sit down. She asked me if I remembered anything from yesterday. I told her yes, we’d tried to transmute Mom. She got really quiet again. Then she just laid it all out for me. The last four years of my life. She didn’t cover it up at all.”

“That’s good,” Ed muttered, and he meant it. Better that she just be straightforward with him. He was glad Winry had such sound common sense.

Whether Al heard him or not, he continued, “I couldn’t believe it, of course. Then they showed me photographs of you…in these clothes.” He shook the damp little suitcase that held Ed’s old clothes and a few odds and ends of Al’s in it. “They showed them to me. I could hardly believe I’d spent the last four years as a suit of armor.” He paused again. When he went on, Ed got the feeling he was speaking to the rain. “But when Winry told me everything, I just sat there for a minute and absorbed it. And then I looked down at the chair…because I could feel the wood grain under my hand. I was so astonished that I just stared at my fingers. I was never really sure if it was because I’d had an artificial body or if it was because my body had been within the Gate for four years.” Al stared out into the rain, eyes far away, lost in his memories, it seemed. To the east, thunder cracked. Al jumped, tensing, almost unconsciously bringing his hands up, ready to clap them together. Then he stopped and looked down. He lowered his hands to his sides and laughed rather awkwardly, glancing to the east. “Sorry.”

Ed chuckled. “It’s okay. Even I do that every once in a while.” He looked up ahead. Ed narrowed his eyes, putting a hand over his brow, spotting a tiny pinpoint of light. Thunder rumbled again, accompanied by a joining flash of white lightening. “Looks like there’s a house up head. Maybe we could ask ‘em if we could spend the night.”

Al nodded.


They sloshed through the mud in the pouring rain to the little wooden house. It was modest affair, very modest; in fact, it was quite nearly a dilapidated shack. The boards were old and rickety, and the roof looked about ready to collapse. The outer walls seemed warped with age and rot. Water sluiced out of the gutters like dirty waterfalls.

Al and Ed stopped for a moment and stared at it, putting their hands up to shield their eyes.

“Er…s’not so well maintained…huh?”

“Yeah…,” Ed murmured. “Maybe it’s abandoned?”

Al snorted, blowing a raindrop off his nose. “I thought you saw a light?”

“Well….I did,” Ed mumbled. Feeling annoyed, he kept a fair distance from the house and edged along the side of it.

Ah, there, in the window. There was a cheerful oil lamp, gleaming out into the rain like a winking star.

“Ed, why don’t we just knock on the door like regular people?”

Ed glared at the oil lamp, scowled and shrugged. He went back to the front of the house, shaking his sopping wet hair away from his eyes. He went onto the porch, tripped on a nail that was sticking out of the wood but still somehow managed to barely sidestep the plank that nearly gave out under him.

Al was already at the door. He looked exasperated. He rolled his eyes at Ed, but he smiled. “You need to be more careful, you know. I mean, I understand that someone of your stature has a hard time avoiding nails—“

“Shut up,” Ed snapped, mock-severely, but still grinning. “Just knock on the damn door. You’re shorter than me, y’know.”

“Only for now,” Al said. He smirked and gave Ed a terrible wink. Then he snapped himself around, put on his ‘this-is-how-I-meet-people-face’ (Ed sarcastically called it his Innocent Suck-up Face—because for some reason, people always trusted Al. His younger brother could charm anything from anyone, it seemed. For some reason, people thought he was pure gold, while people were always suspicious of Ed. He’d heard it was the difference in their eyes…but he couldn’t be certain of that.) and knocked on the door.

No one answered.

Ed wiped his eyes and ran his hands through his hair, flipping it out of his face. Al turned about to look at him. Ed shrugged, communicating something along the lines of, that figures, in return.

Al turned back to the door and knocked again, louder this time.

The door fairly flew open. “I was wondering when you boys were gonna knock. Took ya forever.”

“Oh, stop it now. They just didn’t know if anyone was home.”

“Heh, I saw that boy come stalking around the house.”

An older couple stood before them in the doorway. The man was thin, skinny in a manner that suggested he’d been lean and muscular once, but now he was past his prime—just a shadow of what he was. The woman was thin as well, and short. She had a blanket wrapped around her little shoulders, which, when she moved, looked as if she were wearing a tent.

The old woman coughed and blinked at them. “Well, aren’t you going to say anything?”

Al straightened. “Uh, yes, sorry, ma’am. Well, see, my name is Alphonse and this is my brother Edward. We’re traveling cross-country and…well…,” Here, Al gave one of his sweet, golden, boyish smiles. “There’s a storm moving in from the east.” He pointed off the porch.

As if on cue, a rumble of thunder rattled the panes of glass in the windows.

“And we were curious to if we might be able to rest a night here.”

“Where you heading?” asked the old man. Ed could practically see how the man and woman softened towards his disarming brother. He rolled his eyes.

“Well, nowhere really. We’re travelers.”

“Ahhh,” said the older woman, nodding with an air of great wisdom on this subject. “I see. I was a traveler once too. Once, when I was staying in a hostel outside of—“

“Aw, these young men don’t wanna hear about no hostel!”

The old woman scowled. “You don’t know that. Maybe they do!”

“Oh, really,” said the old man, raising his eyebrows. He turned to Al. “You wanna hear about some hostel, boy?”

Al floundered for a moment, looking a trifle uncertain. “Ah…well…I…uh…”

Ed sighed, feeling a smile turn up the corners of his mouth. He stepped forward to his brother’s rescue. “Sir, ma’am—we didn’t mean to bother you so late in the evening. If it’s a problem, we’ll just continue on. It’s not a big deal—“

“Now, now, now,” said the old man, waving a hand. “There’s no reason to think we don’t take in travelers.”

“Just make sure you keep your shoes on when you come in.”

Al did something like a double take. “Keep our shoes…on?”

The old woman smiled and cleared her throat. Something changed on her face; the smile was warmer but sadder. “We take in travelers on rainy nights…but I’m afraid it’s nearly as wet in here. The floor is very damp. The roof, if you’ll see, is slowly caving in.”

The old man and woman stepped out of the way to let the Elric brothers into their home. They both looked at ceiling. The water did not trickle down like a leak. It soaked into the wood and spread. The walls and floor were moist, almost springy, with water.

If I could use my alchemy, I could fix this.

Ed brushed the thought away almost as soon as he had it. No use in thinking about what he couldn’t do.

The woman smiled again. “It is home for us.”

Al straightened again. “Oh, we didn’t mean to stare. I’m sorry. We are both very grateful to have come across such kind people.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers,” the old man put in.

Al floundered again. “I…wasn’t…”

“Oh, don’t listen to him,” said the woman, her face crinkling up, hiding her eyes in a grin. “Come now. Follow me. You and your silent brother.”

Al nodded and turned to Ed.

Ed nodded to the old man and followed the woman in her carnival tent of a blanket.



“We’ll have you sleep in the basement, if you don’t mind. It’s the driest area of the house.”

“We’re very grateful,” Al said, lifting his mouth in that golden smile. “But where will you sleep?”

“In our bed, obviously.”

“Er, well, we just don’t want you to get wet.”

“There are two rooms down here, young man. We have one. You and your brother can have the other.”

“Ah, yes ma’am,” said Al, very politely.

The woman, carrying a little oil lamp, opened an old, chipped door, the paint peeling off.

The room was bare. There were no windows. It reminded Ed of a prison cell. Grey and cold. But, it was better than wet and cold. So he followed Al and the woman into the room.

“If you’d like, I can give you some twine. There are some nails in the walls if you wanted to hang up your clothes to dry.”

“That would be very generous of you, ma’am.”

“Generous nothing, it’s just common sense. No one wants their clothes moldy.”

Ed smiled behind his wet hair as he pulled off his gloves. He heard Al mutter a thank you. The woman disappeared. Ed shook out his dark brown coat, watching little rivers pooling on the stone floor. Following his example, Al peeled off his own dark blue coat and straightened it. He went over to the little suitcase and opened it.

“Everything in here is soaked,” Al informed him, taking items out and checking them over. “Well, I take that back. Ha. This bag of chalk is dry but that’s it.”

Ed crossed the room, running a hand through his bangs. He stared down at the red coat and smiled softly. There were a lot of memories in that suitcase. He rubbed an eye, turning away so Al couldn’t see his smile. “We’ll just hang it up with the other stuff.”

“Hey, Ed—“

By that point, the old woman returned.

“Oh, you were lucky you didn’t come up with me. Altec’s upstairs talking about makin’ you borrow some of his clothes.” She shook her head as if this were ridiculous. “You young men don’t like old people clothes. I did bring you some towels though and Altec suggested blankets. He’s bringing them down for you.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that, ma’am. We’re fine just—“

The woman rolled her eyes. “Call me Mariah, young man. Alphonse, wasn’t it? I told you I was a traveler once too, you remember? You young men forget things so easily. I remember what it’s like being stuck in a rainstorm. It’s damn cold.” Abruptly, she moved her gaze away from Al to Ed. Her eyes took him in, studying him. “Are you going to say anything, or will you let your brother do all the talking.”

Ed folded his wet coat over his arm. He summoned a smile to his face but couldn’t force it into his eyes. “Al has always been better at talking. I’m sorry. Thank you for this. I’m grateful.”

The woman’s gaze held for a moment and then she was turning around and intercepting Altec, who was carrying the before promised blankets and small oil lamp. He dropped the blankets in a pile next to the towels, set the little lamp on the floor and Mariah handed over a ball of twine.

“Will you be staying for breakfast?” Altec asked cheerfully, crinkling brown eyes at them. “We’d love to have you.”

Have us for breakfast.--the thought popped uncontrollably into Ed’s mind. It made him smirk inwardly. Mmm. Elric Omletes. The House Special. Served with fresh orange juice and toast.

Al turned about to Ed, who was hanging his coat on the line he’d just strung up. “What do you say, Ed?”

He nodded, forcing away the thought of himself as an omelet, and shrugging at the same time. “Sure, if it’s no problem. We’re not in any sort of hurry, after all.”

“Wonderful!” Altec exclaimed, grinning toothily and throwing his arms up. “Well, if you need anything, you boys just holler. My name is Altec Vandermark, and this is my wife, Mariah. Now, there’s no need to yell, of course. I may be old, but I ain’t deaf. Any sort of—“

“C’mon Altec. Let’s go to bed and leave them alone.”

Altec seemed to consider that and then he must have decided that that was a damn fine plan because he nodded, very seriously, turned on his heel and strode off.

Mariah gave them a nod, bid them goodnight, lit the other lamp, and shut the door behind her.

Al smiled. “They seemed like nice people.”

“Yeah,” Ed murmured. He shed his vest and unbuttoned his shirt. Peeling it off, he hung it on the twine. He picked up one of the towels, pulled his hair out of its customary ponytail and rubbed the cloth all over his head and torso. Al followed his example, only sitting on the cold stone floor to remove his shoes.

“The floor wet?” Ed asked him, not turning around as he stretched and rotated his metal arm.

“Nope. Just cold as ice.”

“That’s fine then.”

Shirtless, and now barefoot, Al grabbed a few blankets and laid them on the floor. Ed removed his boots and socks and grabbed the rest of the blankets, making a sort of nest on the floor for himself.

Ed blew out the lamp. “G’night, Al.”

“Good night, Ed.”


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