Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Still hooked. I know. Then this idea popped into my head. I couldn't get it out of my head, so I decided to give it a go. It's... slightly crack!humor, but I've (hopefully) written it so that it's not completely ridiculous. Here's to hoping.

Enjoy!

A Little Hope

It had been a normal day.

Past tense.

The boys had finished their mission, Ed ate enough food for three, reported back to Mustang, bantered on Ed's height, or lack thereof, and now Ed was currently slouching on the couch, huffing in annoyance. Alphonse and Riza were standing in the background quietly, and now that the (undeniably fond) bantering had ended, Riza went back to filing her paperwork, and Al, armor clanking, sat on the opposite couch from his brother.

And that's when it happened.

There was a sudden crack of thunder, despite the bright afternoon sun shining in from the window, and a flash of bright blue light, in the shape of a perfect circle, appeared in front of Roy's desk

Two figures fell from that circle, shouting cries of surprise, before landing in an undignified heap of clothes and tangled limbs. Needless to say, Riza had her gun aimed and cocked, and Roy had pulled his ignition gloves on before Edward and Alphonse had even registered the event.

Breda, Falman, Havoc, and Fuery burst through the door, practically falling over themselves in their hurry.

"What was that, boss?" Fuery shouted,

And then when the four saw the figures on the floor, they drew their own guns, though the confusion on their face was plain.

The two figures stirred, grumbling under their breaths.

They were both blonde, one with a ponytail at the back of his head, the other's cut short. One wore a long white coat, with the flamel sign on the back of it, the other, wore dark pants and a light blue overshirt over a dark blue shirt.

"The heck...?" one grumbled.

...everyone froze at that voice.

All but the other man who'd fallen with him.

He jerked around, blue eyes shining. "Brother?!"

"Al?!"

The two untangled themselves, wincing as they stood and tightly embraced.

"Al, what the heck happened?"

"I don't know, Brother, May and I were just traveling through Xerxes when-"

Alphonse words froze in his throat, and he tensed in his brother's arms. They separated, but Ed's eyes stayed on his brother.

"Alphonse?"

"Um... Brother..."

The young man was looking past his older brother, and Ed had to turn all the way around to see just what had to captured Al's attention.

He turned to see all seven of the others staring at the pair of them. "Oh..." And then his eyes found the other Ed. Wearing his a bright red coat. With a braid. Whose right arm was made of metal. He raised his own right arm... Which was made of flesh and bone.

"Oh." He turned right back around. "Alphonse! What did you do?"

"Me?! I didn't do anything!"

"Well it wasn't me!"

"Alphonse?"

The voice was a small. Quiet. But still, it broke through the brothers' shouting. All eyes turned towards the younger version of Edward. His eyes were locked on older Al's form, filled with awe and wonder and disbelief and... hope.

He walked cautiously towards him, dazed. He looked... like everything the younger Ed had dreamed he would be at... whatever age he was currently at. Slim, narrow shouldered, straw colored hair, bright golden eyes, shining with laughter, and a smile plastered on his face. Though, right now, he looked as confused as the rest of them. Alphonse stood nearly a foot taller than him, and Ed had to look up at him. Not that he wasn't used to looking up at Al's suit of armor.

"Is... is that really you?"

The room was silent. All watching the boys. Not even Roy had the audacity to break the silence. The elder version of Ed looked between his brother and, well, himself. And then to the younger version of Alphonse. Who stood only a few feet away, next to the couch. In a suit of armor.

The new Al's lips pulled into a soft smile as he looked down at Ed. "Yes, Brother. It's me." His voice was a little deeper than the armored version, and it didn't echo; but it was still...

He wasn't expecting Edward, who had never really been one to show affection, to jump and throw his arms tightly around his neck, tears leaking from his eyes. "ALPHONSE! It worked! We did it!"

Then the metal Alphonse was there, examining his future body and Ed was hugging him, too, and shouting about how it worked and how they'd done it.

And like that the spell was broken.

Riza and the guys holstered their guns; Roy took off his gloves. The older version of Edward smiled as he walked towards them, shaking hands with each of them and smiling deviously when he ended up a few inches taller than Roy.

Finally, Ed and Ed stood before each other, the younger version looking up with a full-toothed grin before the older version greeted him with a "Hey, pipsqueak."

The smile was gone in an instant. "Are you kidding me?! Really?! I do that to myself, too!"

"Don't worry," he replied, tousling the youth's hair, "you'll hit your growth spurt in a few years."

"Years?!"

"Months? I'm not sure where-or when-we are."

"Maybe we shouldn't yet," the older Alphonse added. "This is all wrong. This shouldn't even be possible."

Young Ed, who still couldn't stop staring at Al's new body, started, "So... how?"

"Hey, what happened to your red coat, Ed?" Fuery asked.

It was something they hadn't really noticed yet, what with two older versions of themselves appearing out of thin air and Al's new-ish body confirming that they would one day actually succeed.

Ed's red coat was indeed gone, replaced by an old overshirt. Alphonse was the one who wore the long white coat with the flamel on the back of it.

"I..." He rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously, glancing over at Alphonse. "Turned it in. I don't do alchemy anymore."

"WHAT?!" where the responding shouts, from almost everyone.

"Yep," he sighed, but with a contented smile on his face. He jerked his thumb towards Al. "Gave it up to get him his body back. After he gave his own soul to get my arm back."

"It was an emergency. You'll see eventually."

"You... Oh," the younger Ed whispered. "You didn't need a Philosopher's Stone?"

"Nope. Brother found another way," Alphonse smiled proudly.

"I don't need alchemy," he continued. "I have them." Ed nodded towards the Colonel and his team. "And a whole slew of other people. Including a Xingese Emperor. And a princess."

"Oh, man!" Al suddenly exclaimed, running a nervous hand through his hair. "May must be freaking out!"

Younger Ed's eyebrows drew together. "Wait, May? The little Xingese girl with the cat?"

"Panda," Al corrected. "And yes."

"Winry, too. She's expecting me home soon."

"Wait!" Ed butted in. "You're in Resembool," he pointed at Ed, and then at Al, "and you're in Xerxes? You're not together?"

The two older boys smiled at each other, letting out a small laugh before Ed replied. "I can't go galavanting off on adventures when I have a wife at home."

"WHAT?!"

"Again, I called it, Brother," older Al giggled.

"WAIT," Edward shouted. "EXPLAIN."

"Yes, please do," Roy said. He looked as though he might burst into laughter. "Ed? Married? To whom?"

"A woman smarter, wiser, more capable, and more beautiful than you'll ever met, General," Ed snapped. "Oops! I mean Colonel! No offense, Riza."

"He's married to Winry."

The bright red flush that filled the younger Edward's face was almost ridiculous. "Win.. Win... ry... What..."

"Oh, please, Brother, it's so obvious," the younger Al said, echoing voice betraying his smile.

"See, Brother? I knew it even back then. Whenever this is."

"Oh, yeah?" older Ed turned back to his brother, wrapping an arm around his neck and pulling him into a headlock. "And when are you finally going to pop the question to May, huh?"

The older Alphonse flushed almost as brightly as young Ed had. "Brother!"

Young Ed looked at his own brother with the same bewilderment he'd expressed when he heard about Winry. "Oh my god, Alphonse. We actually... We're going to... Wow."

"This is all so weird," Al responded breathlessly.

"But don't worry!" older Ed said, finally releasing his brother, "You're all invited to the weddings. All three of them."

"Three?" Breda repeated.

"Yes. Three." His devilish smile reappeared as he looked between Roy and Riza. "Why, the Flame Alchemist and the Hawk's Eye, of course."

Roy and Riza both gasped in unison, staring at each other with a blush crawling along their cheeks.

"Brother, you've got to stop giving things away," older Alphonse said between his peeling laughs. A sound both Edward's had missed for so long.

And then... Something shifted.

"Did you feel that, Al?" Ed said.

"Hm." He nodded.

"What?"

"The same feeling before the portal opened," Alphonse explained. "I think that means it's time to go."

"Only after we completely messed up the timelline?"

"I'm sure Truth will fix it all. Unless he's the one that did this in the first place. That sounds like him."

"Truth?" Ed nearly shouted. "That bastard?"

"Oh, he's not so bad. He's a good guy in the end. You'll see."

A blue circle of light appeared underneath the two older boys, encircling them and sending a gust of wind to ruffle their hair.

"Wait!" Ed shouted. "I still have so many questions!"

Surprisingly, it was the older Alphonse who answered him, a calm wisdom shining in his eyes. "Everything will be okay, Brother. You get me my body back. Everyone has their happy ending, I promise. Thank you."

The light flared, the wind gusts increased, encasing the whole room, and then, in a flash, both boys were gone.

And everyone forgot.

Except for the bright ray of hope, and joy, that had been renewed within them.

And they kept moving forward.