Finished! I definitely don't like pantsing anymore. It wasn't as fun to write, and I'm not nearly as happy about how it turned out. Still, it was an interesting experience.

A New Study

The wizards changed out the sheets in the guest bedroom bed and tucked Al in it. "This is his real body?" asked the surviving twin, George, I think.

I nodded, hanging my head. "Yeah. It's been trapped at the Gate for years." I gazed at my brother's too-thin face and the small bulge Al made in the covers. "I wish I could stay to see him recover."

Silence lingered in the room moments longer. "You know, he got you some things to help you in your country's war. Why don't I show you how to use them?"

But, shaking my head, I knelt down on the floor. "I want to make sure Al's taken care of first."

"The hospitals should be safe enough soon. I'll see what I can do to get him a room."

I smiled and insisted on paying. It was my little brother we were talking about here, and George had done enough for him already. "His school should be safe enough by the time he recovers with that Lord Noseless guy gone, right? I think it would be good for him to keep going when he's up for it."

I still didn't know if I could believe that anything could be as easy and costless as magic, not after what the failed human transmutation had cost us, but there had been a time after the accident when I didn't believe something as good as hope could exist again either.

Magic was my brother's hope that he could do something like the alchemy he loved, and Granny was right when she told me that I should let my brother explore the phenomenon called magic, the unknown power that he could actually use, back on the day that Al's teacher first told us that he's a wizard.

I stood up and met George's eyes. "I don't know when I'll be able to write again, but if I'm alive after everything, I'll be sure to tell him when it's safe to come home for breaks and everything again. Should be pretty soon."

The surviving twin took me downstairs, and ignoring the loud old hag who apparently owned the house, took me into a study with wooden furniture and magicked the door shut. He summoned a small box from inside a drawer in the writing desk and showed me the clothing and powders that didn't look like they all fit inside.

I had no luck in figuring out how it could all fit in a box as large as a pocket-sized book, but at least the clothing wasn't too weird: there were just hats and socks and stuff, no robes. And it was all red or black too, my colors.

The box was small enough that I was able to bring it back to Amestris, hiding curled up as small as I could inside an oversized packaged addressed to the colonel, with only microscopic air holes transmuted into the box to allow me to breathe.

The contents came in very useful months later on the Promised Day: some powder Al hooked up for me made it pitch-black enough to prevent Pride's shadows from forming and the red hat turned me into a human chameleon as long as I kept it on. The socks just bit my toes when I put them on, another one of George's jokes I guess.

I could barely believe how many of us made it out alive, but none of the people I knew well were killed. Still, the colonel lost his sight when he was forced to open his Gate to become the fourth sacrifice, and Armstrong lost an arm much the same way. I was injured too, and all of us were hospitalized.

In the following weeks, I turned in my pocket watch, and Mustang was able to have my former hostages sent for. Granny and Winry arrived just in time to help me bury my dad.

My old man went out, sitting by Mom's grave. It was a sunny day, and he passed with a smile on his face. He actually looked the part of an old man when he went, one whose time to die should already have been long past.

We buried him next to Mom. We covered his freshly-dug grave with flowers and did the same for Mom's older grave, arranging the flowers all in the shape of a heart.

I didn't know what to feel as I looked at the graves, but Winry stayed with me to support me. "Mom died waiting for him to come back to her. I guess he finally did."

Winry and I stood there for awhile. The shadows grew longer and the sun started to sink before she took my hand. "Come get dinner. It's been a long day."

Granny and Winry put me up for a couple of days, trying to let me mourn or something I guess. In that time, I helped them clean the dust of their house and fix things up a bit after their absence. It was when I was covered in black soot in the Rockbells' chimney that Granny broached the subject of what I was going to do now that I'd gotten Al's body back, had quit the military, and no longer had my alchemy.

"I'm going to rebuild the house. Al's going to want someplace to come home to."

"By yourself?" I couldn't see Granny's face while looking up at the blackened bricks, but she sounded incredulous.

"I'll manage."

Granny had a better idea. "A British engineering professor went through Rush Valley shortly before that commanding officer of yours had us shooed off to France to learn about automail. He was impressed by Winry's work and talked to her about entering his university as an international student. I'm sure you could get in as an international student too and live closer to your brother and his school. I'd love to see the two of you be close again."

I considered it. Living close to Al's school would mean something if they allowed visitors, but it wasn't like I wouldn't see him during breaks.

"He cares about people here. It's been years since he's been home in Amestris."

"But do you really think he'd stay here? There aren't many of his type in this country." Granny said no more and went off, her footsteps a quiet pitter-patter. But when I'd finished cleaning the chimney, I came out and saw that she'd left a thin stack of papers behind. There were pictures of imposing buildings with green lawns, labelled with the names of universities throughout the British Isles. Each of the ones Granny left me at least mentioned some sort of science program in the brochure.

I took them with me when I washed off and they ultimately ended up by the guest bed. "Other sciences, huh?" I asked myself that night as I sat on the bed's red comforter, looking toward the brochures. "Well, I guess if I can't do alchemy anymore, studying something similar might not be so bad."

Picking up the brochures, I examined them more carefully. But what to study?

One of the programs caught my eye: biochemistry. "Al and I studied this when we were trying to get Mom back." But that wasn't all it was good for, was it? "Al's trying to figure out what the difference is between a wizard's Gate and a normal person's Gate is anyway. We don't know of a physical part of the body associated with it. What if...?"

I slept fairly well that night. I don't think my nightmares will ever leave me for good, but they didn't really bother me that night. Instead, I was able to sleep on where to go from there and the option Granny gave me.

So I started applying for English language school in Britain and was accepted to one in London. I went to London in late August. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to see Al off to his school as I was getting an apartment and all set for my own classes. It would just have to be a surprise for Al and his Christmas break.

That December, Granny and Winry came to visit. The three of us picked Al up from Platform 9¾, the previously solid barrier having been opened with the platform that day. It was weird walking through a solid wall without even being able to feel any cold or rough stone texture, but it was even weirder seeing Al with his wizarding stuff again – with his trunk and (when had he gotten one?) his owl.

We'd called a taxi to help us get around London with none of us being able to drive, even on Amestrain roads. The cabbie gave Al's owl a funny look, but I brushed it off with an explanation of "my brother really likes birds."

What Granny had said about Al not staying in Amestris niggled at my mind. "What are your plans after Hogwarts, Al? There's not much of a wizarding world back in Amestris – that's why you had to travel all the way out here for school. You're probably staying in England, right?"

He was. Apparently he wasn't allowed to use his magic to help normal people, or at least not openly, and he wanted to fix that.

I'd noticed that about the wizarding world in Amestris – they weren't open about their magic at all. In fact, every time I encountered something magical, be it werewolves, wizards, or something else, they wiped the memory of everyone around me. It wasn't like alchemy at all.

It looked like not only did my brother remember the laws of alchemy, but he still had the motto "be thou for the people" written on his heart. He'd changed, yes, but he hadn't betrayed me – he hadn't even really betrayed our lifestyle.

I didn't say anything to Al the rest of the day until the two of us were getting into the bunk beds in our small apartment. "Al, it really is great having you back. Even if you're different now."

We had a little chat, a line or two back and forth really, just clearing the air a bit. The last thing Al said was "You've always been trying to do what's best for me. I can appreciate that."

"Yeah," I said, a smile breaking over my face as I stared at the light popcorn on the ceiling. "Good night, Al." Once I heard him lightly snoring, I added, "You really don't hate me, do you? For anything."

From the next day onward, we were research partners again, and I defended what my brother thought about magic.