Equivalent exchange

Chapter 3

A knock on the door woke Ed as the sun was peeking in the window. He grumbled and rolled over. Then realized what had happened the night before. Scrambling he attempted to warn Roy before the door was thrown wide.
"Edward, it is time to run before breakfast." Armstrong declared, behind him Alphonse waved to as he passed by the door. Looking towards the tall man Ed realized he wasn't staring in at him in disbelief. He looked to his side and found the "Colonel" missing. He sighed in relief before addressing Armstrong.
"I'll be right down."
"All right then."
The man left, Ed could hear him bellowing at William "To rise and greet the sun!". Ed got up muttering as he grabbed fresh clothes. Still no black, apparently his other self quite liked tans and blues. It reminded him the things he'd worn before...before. He sighed and grabbed a pair of pants. Jamming a foot into a pants leg, he hopped around tugging on his pants. Grabbing a shirt he dashed for the stairs.
He'd discovered, with help of earlier diary entries that he and William were extremely competitive, and that vein of competition carried over to nearly everything they did. Will hit the landing first, which was a surprise since he was definitely not a morning person. Edward dogged his heels as he rushed out the door.
All the alchemy students students were lined up on along the wall, it was easily the safest place out of the brothers' way. William hit the wall first and Ed was half a second behind him. Cheering, he caught his brother in a headlock and ruffled his hair as Alphonse and Fletcher joined them. Fletcher smiled shyly at Edward, wishing him a good morning, before going to rescue his brother. Russell was sleepily talking with Lyra, the girl was smiling as he yawned between words. Edward finally escaped his brother's grasp and waved at Alphonse. Al smiled and hugged Ed as soon as he'd been freed. Will on the other hand muttered something that might have been good morning and leaned back on Al who had sat down again.
"Good morning." Ed greeted.
"Nice to see you've decided to join us, Edward." Lyra greeted
"Of course, I would have earlier but I though it would be fair to give Will a chance" he grinned.
Will's only answer was low growl as most of them laughed. Once everyone was down, they began laps around perimeter of the house and workshop. Winded Fletcher stopped running after a few laps, content to take the rest of the course with a walk. Ed and William however were unrelenting. Each vying for the lead, until Michael passed them both. Russell taunted them as he dashed past the tiring pair. Alphonse slowed to check on Fletcher, after sending a warning to the reckless pair. Unfortunately neither heeded his words. By the last lap, William was panting and Edward was curled up hands resting on his thighs fighting to catch his breath.
"Good job, everyone hit the showers." Armstrong didn't even look slightly out of breath. Everyone struggled towards the shower. One of the rooms downstairs had been a normal bathroom, but had been converted to a larger set of stalls. The boys piled into it striping the few clothes they'd worn. William however had no qualms about coating his sibling with soap flakes. Sputtering in frustration the middle Elric made his way into an empty stall. Twisting the knob he was rewarded with a blast of cold water. Trying again he found the right combination to a comfortable temperature. His right arm twinged as it was doused in the warm water. Phantom Limb Syndrome or something like that, he'd read the symptoms while he was recovering from the automail surgery; oh so long ago. His arm felt light, too thin; like it would break. It was as if his body was missing the automail. Rubbing the tender flesh, he wondered if he would ever get used to it. He'd wondered that about the automail too. Russell tossed him a towel and he hurriedly dried his hair. Dressing the troop, then headed for breakfast.
Hoenhiem was absent from the table that morning along with someone else, Ed nudged Al to get his attention.
"Where's Dad and Izumi?"
"They left this morning to go to a town a few miles away; dad got a letter yesterday, you missed the conversation because you slept though dinner."
"You could have tried to wake me up."
"We did, you muttered something about a circle and rolled over." Will smirked.
"Oh." he smiled a little. "Hey, I was tired."
"I'm surprised your stomach didn't wake you up, you're such a black hole brother."
"Hey!"
"Behave you two." Trisha told them.
"Yes mother."
"Yes mom."
"See they know when to behave." she told Sieg.
"Except when you are not looking, then they are little hellions." the large man told her.
"No way! Ed and Will are hellions, I am the good one." Al told him taking a drink of milk.
His brothers kicked and elbowed him respectively. Despite the pain he simply smirked at them.

"Can we go into town?" Michael asked.
"Russell and I can't, we have to finish the array we were planning." Fletcher said.
"Yeah, my little brother's a slave driver."
"I can't go either, I have plans." Roy said.
"The three of us can go, can't we mother?" Will asked.
"I don't see why not, William, Edward watch out for you brother and Michael alright?" Trisha told them.
"Yes mom."
+
The four took off after breakfast, once they made a dent in the dishes. Ed had to admit, dribbling the soapy water down William's back was adequate revenge. It was at that point the were reassigned to towel duty with the treat of potato duty hanging over their heads. Things had continued on without incident after that. They took the old dirt road down to the small town. It was the same old Resembool. .It looked like a typical hick town, just a collection of houses and farms with only one tavern. Most of the town's commerce was farming and the small timber yard a few miles away. The quartet spent most of the afternoon talking with the local kids and practicing alchemy. Ducking in and out of the familiar shops, they spent the money they had on household goods junk food and trinkets for their mothers. Sitting on the fence chewing the old fashioned candy sticks, the were met by even more locals. The few girls flirted outrageously with them, one even claiming an interest in their skills. Most of them were worried about Ed's recent accident. It took a few acrobatic displays to convince them he was fine. By the time they escaped Ed and Al were blushing furiously
"Al you look like a tomato." Michael teased.
" I don't like all that attention."
"Though at least you get usually attention our poor Ed is so short that most never notice him."
"Who are you calling so short he can't get laid!?" Ed growled at his brother.
"Why you my dear brother." her said leaning on Ed's head which spawned yet another tantrum.
Michael and Al sighed and leaned against a building and waited until Ed and Will were done.
"We should probably head home, it's getting late." Al called over to them.
"Yeah, we should mom said to be home before dinner."

As they walked back towards the house, Ed felt awkward. Like the pit of his stomach as missing, helpless. He could get along with the others, but he still wasn't their Ed. He was an impostor, no better than someone like Envy. Today had really shown that to him. The worse part was they didn't even seem to notice he was. It was almost like they didn't want to. He couldn't keep this up forever, he would have to tell them eventually.
Will noticed Ed had fallen behind and let the others march ahead. Dropping back he matched Edward's pace but his brother failed to notice. Ed had a unusual frown on his face and looked petulant.
"Hey, Shrimp you okay?"
When the name did not bring the normal tantrum. He stopped and pulled Ed over to the side. Edward looked up, confused as William hauled him off the path.
"All right, little brother what is going on? you've been weird since you woke up and Al's worried about the nightmares.
"I've had a major trauma..." he muttered almost as if he didn't believe it "Of course i'm going to act weird."
"Not this different, and what about the nightmare?"
"I've only had them for the past two nights."
"Al's really worried, if his room wasn't right next to yours mother and father would know by now." He frowned. "Especially the fact you keep yelling for Al or mother like they aren't there."
Had he really been that obvious? Was he so uneasy that his in his sleep he gave everything away?
Shaking his head he muttered to his "brother".
It's complicated Will, I don't belong here."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"I'm not your Ed, I'm from the other side of the gate."
"Gate?" He cocked one eyebrow and checked Ed's head for a temperature. "Well, you don't feel like you have a fever."
"I don't." He snapped, slapping Will's hand away.
Will looked at Ed in surprise he never hit him, they had tussled on occasion but had rarely actually come to blows.
"What's wrong?" Al had fallen back telling Michael to go ahead in case Ed was having a relapse.
"I think Ed needs a nap, Al." Will said not wanting to worry his brother after what had happened over a week before. or let him know what had just happened.
"Okay." Al said having the feeling his brother was hiding something.
Ed took the cue form Will and frowned. "I do not need a nap, I'm fine."
"Right little brother come on." Al dragged Ed behind him and Will followed frowning. Not from their world? Had they done something wrong with the array?

When they got home Will dragged Ed to his room and sat him down on his bed. The room wasn't that different except for the lack pictures on the walls. Bookshelves were filled with mostly hand written accounts by various alchemists. He frowned at Ed.
"Tell me what you mean."
"I came from the other side of the gate like I said, I saved my Al and ended up on this side."
He looked at him, it sounded crazy but Ed had been acting odd, more like he had a year ago before he'd learned of Will's mother, and what she'd been trying to do. It had had taken hours to clean up after making sure Ed was not dead, they had hidden the evidence from their parents after all. He turned to his desk and pulled out a few papers that looked like they had been torn from a book, he handed them to Ed. Edward realized that they were part of the journal.
"What is this?"
"Your journal the entries from the week prior to the accident."
"Oh."

We are close, we still have no clue if this will work and tell us what happened to Will before or what that witch was planning for him. I hope this works we need to find out, I refuse to believe that she was just experimenting. This will work I'm sure of it.

"Why do you have these?"
"I pulled them out of your journal. It was open in the study when Al and I found you there, nearly dead on top of an array drawn in blood. You were holding one of dad's books,one he took with us when he left." William was nearly yelling, his eyes were narrowed, only golden slits in the darkened room.
"I never told Al what you were planning, but I should have, it was a damn fool thing to do...I hope you are lying about being from the other side of this gate of yours."
"No, I'm sorry Will."Ed looked away, too ashamed to tell his brother anymore.
"Fine, but don't say anything...not to Al or anyone, we need to figure his out."
"Alright...but that means you believe me right?"
"...Yes..." He sighed before hugging Edward.

TBC.....

Sorry it's so short but it's building up to the next chapter I promise the next one will be longer.