The Phoenix and His Demons

First of all, I should like to warn everyone that since I\'m writing this chapter on my birthday, I\'m being too lazy to run it through spell check tonight. I feel bad that it\'s taken me three days to update, so I figured just this once my readers might forgive me a few errors until I can get them properly edited. Anyway, let the story continue....

Standard disclaimers...and all that jazz.

To my faithful reviers, thank you ever so much for your continued support. This note would be longer but as I said, it\'s my birthday and I\'m being lazy so when I edit the chapter for errors I\'ll add more here too, or to the next chapter note...something for you guys, I promise.

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Surprise

The train came to a halt at the station; it\'s loss of momentum shaking the young alchemist from his nap. It had truly been a hellish week. The nightmares that were memories had kept him from sleeping much at all, though he did have to admit there were some lovely memories in there, just not many. He gave a long yawn as he stood and stretched for a good minute before picking up his bag and quietly exiting the train. His mission had been an utter failure; he had gained no more information and was no closer to any answers than when he\'d started on it. Shuffled steps carried him from the station and back towards his room. He wasn\'t going to bother reporting in until he\'d gotten sleep, a shower and food, in that order. When he reached his door he wasn\'t surprised to find it locked, but he was surprised to find the state the room was in when he opened it. Books were strewn about everywhere, a bag with some clothes trying to escape from it was half kicked under the other bed and there were food wrappers all over the cot.

\"Great, I come back to find a new roommate and they\'ve put me with a slob.\" He sighed shaking his head, oh well; he supposed he\'d just have to deal with it. There were certainly worse things in life. \"A slob that outranks me at that.\" This was added after he noticed the other uniform hanging from the hook on the wall. So much for getting his nap, he felt compelled to at least straighten up the mess before he kicked off his boots and crawled into bed. The military beds weren\'t fancy but they beat the hell out of a moving train.

He wasn\'t sure what time he was woken by voices approaching, but thankfully they didn\'t last long. Then came the door opening and shutting. Even worse, his new roommate was a night owl. He let out a low whimper of frustration. Why him? Hadn\'t he been through enough already? He lost his train of thought as he felt extra weight on his bed; someone had just sat down next to him and was tucking him in? What the hell? His instincts kicked in and he rolled at the same time he grabbed for the offender\'s wrist, slinging him across the room and into the wall while he climbed out of bed. As he made it to his feet, he heard a satisfying grunt of pain and a loud ‘thunk’ as someone hit the wall, though it wasn\'t who he was expecting.

\"Ow, damn...I guess I should\'ve known better than to think I could sneak up on you, huh?\" Edward gave a soft chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head, he wasn\'t upset; mostly just amused as he tried to mask the overwhelming joy of finally seeing his brother again.

Getting to his feet in front of him was a taller version of his brother, but the eyes and the hair were the same as he remembered. Even his laugh was so familiar. Alphonse found that he couldn\'t speak and his mouth just hung open in complete shock. He could\'ve sworn for a moment there his heart stopped beating and his lungs refused to work. Edward was alive and in his room and... His brain shut down completely then as tears clouded his vision and ran freely down his cheeks, yet he was still frozen in place.

\"Al?\" Edward rushed over and wrapped the weeping boy in his arms, clinging to him for dear life and within seconds arms of flesh had come to wrap tightly about him as well. Flesh, his brother was flesh and those were real tears staining his shirt. It wasn\'t long before both of them had sunk to the floor in a mutual embrace sobbing uncontrollably, though this time their tears were anything but sorrowful. For the first time in what must have seemed like forever, they were tears of absolute joy and neither felt the least bit of shame about shedding them. It would be a long time before either would speak, but they didn\'t need words, not right now, not when they had each other.

How long had passed when they finally dared to pull from each other’s arms? It was probably only minutes but it had felt like hours. Ed reached up to brush the remnants of his brother’s tears from his cheeks with a smile. “Man you look good, I wasn’t sure when I did it, if it would work, or how it would work. Looks like it paid off though.”

“Oh brother. It really is you, isn’t it? This isn’t another dream?” He reached to take Ed’s hands into his own, he had to feel, and to make sure that it wasn’t some cruel joke.

“Nah, it’s really me all right, Al. No dream. I’m sorry it took so long to get back.”

“I missed you, I really did…and I’ve been,” he stopped there as he noticed something that shouldn’t have been. He’d been squeezing Ed’s hand and found the one still automail. “Edward? What’s going on? How come you don’t have your arm back?”

“Well, I’m not really sure, Al. See, I did on the other side but when I got back here…it was gone again, yet I kept my leg.” He blinked as he processed exactly what the question he’d been asked implied. “Hey, wait a minute, I thought they said you couldn’t remember those years?”

Now it was Al’s turn to blush and stutter. “Well, um…I didn’t ‘used’ to remember, and I haven’t told anyone yet but, I …I’ve been having these dreams and things are coming back. Slowly, but they are.”

“Really? That’s great, Al! Um, I mean, well …you know what I mean.” It was wonderful that his brother remembered and now he had a fairly good idea about the price of Al’s memories but he sure as hell wasn’t complaining. He just hated for him to have to get them back so painfully and he knew not too many of those memories were very pleasant.

“Yeah. I know what you mean.” Now that they’d finally calmed a bit, he got to his feet, pulling Ed with him and took a seat on the bed, wiping his face on his sleeves. “So where have you been? When did you get back? How come you’ve got a uniform? Are you going to be staying here?”

“Whoa, slow down, Al. One at a time, okay? Um, let’s see…Yes I’m staying here, about a week ago and that’s a long story. You sure you want to hear it tonight?”

“Are you nuts? Of course I want to hear it tonight. Do you really think I could sleep after this?”

“Okay, dumb question.” He took a deep breath and started talking, basically reiterating what he’d put in the report, though it was a lot harder to say it than it had been to write it. He had to stop a number of times and recollect himself. Al for the most part sat and listened quietly with a thoughtful expression on his face. He wasn’t disgusted or angry with his brother, or at least he didn’t show it, but his eyes certainly registered the true weight of Ed’s words. When Edward was finished, Al pulled him into another hug.

“I’m so sorry brother, but it’s all over now, right? Well, almost. We still have to find a way to fix your…”

“No! We’re not going to do that Al. I can live with this, it’s my penance, a price I’ll pay for all that’s happened. Hell, in the end we got off pretty easy for doing something that stupid and I’ll gladly keep it to remind me never to do that again, or anything else that dumb.”

“But, brother…”

“I said no, Al. You’ve got your body back and I’m home. I am not going to risk losing anything else. Please Al…let’s just be happy now. Let’s just live and do all the things we missed out on searching for that stupid rock.”

To his surprise, Al smiled. “All right, brother. I’m proud of you, you’ve finally learned some common sense.” Maybe he shouldn’t have added a snicker to the end of that.

“Say what?! Why you little…”

“Calm down brother, it was just a joke.”

“Ugh, you’re just lucky I missed you so much.” He tried to stay angry and had even turned to face the other bed with his hands across his chest and a pout firmly affixed to his face, but it didn’t last long. Al tackled him and the two ended up wrestling on the floor like overgrown kids for the better part of ten minutes before Al had him pinned with a triumphant smile. “Damn it,” the older blonde whined. “I never win any of our fights. It’s just not fair. First Mustang and now you…someone really must hate me up there.”

He laughed as he let him up, and then sobered when he heard the General’s name mentioned. “Oh, so you’ve seen him already? I’m afraid to say he’s nowhere near as lively as I’m starting to remember. It’s rather disheartening now that I think about it.”

“Hmmph. I wouldn’t worry about it. I think he’s got his fire back, no pun intended. Jerk spent the better part of the first morning I was back here threatening to court martial me, made me write up a six year report in one night and then had the nerve to be so disturbed about it he came here to apologize thinking I’d be some blubbering mess. Idiot. Though at least I got dinner out of it.” He froze. He did not just tell his brother he had dinner with Mustang, did he? A glance at Al’s face answered that easily; the younger Elric’s face was covered with a huge grin.

“Oh really? So he took you out on a date, huh? Spill it.”

“It was ‘not’ a date you idiot. It was an apology.”

“Uh huh, sure. Whatever you say Ed. So spill it.”

“No. There’s nothing to talk about. I just got a lovely thrill out of making him spend way too much money.”

“And what else?”

“That’s it. God, I can’t believe you. My own brother a traitor.”

“Edward, you’re pouting.”

“I am not!”

“Okay, fine. I’ll just ask around the office when I go turn in my report tomorrow. I’m sure they’ll know something about it.”

You wouldn’t think Edward’s face could get any paler, but it did. “You wouldn’t dare…”

“Oh yes I would.”

“Damn it, you’re evil.” He sighed in defeat and flopped back on his bed. He didn’t know why Al was making such a big deal over it, it’s not like it was anything special. At least he certainly didn’t think so and he knew damn well that bastard was of the same mind. Finally, they agreed on something. However, that didn’t matter as he was going to have to tell Al all about it, or there would be hell to pay tomorrow.