Chapter Nineteen

Scar would admit that he was mildly impressed and rather annoyed when as they went back outside to inspect the roof, it took Alphonse all of two leaps and a somersault to reach the roof. It was no wonder to him now that a hulking suit of armor would have moved with such ease when the soul of the person imbued into it was apparently a fucking gymnast.

Now Scar had always considered himself a quite mobile warrior, but his sheer size and build had never leant to such feats of acrobatics. So not wanting to give Alphonse anything else to be amused about today, he instead scaled one of the nearby trees to get himself up onto the roof.

Alphonse darted a glance over as he saw Scar emerge onto the roof, but he turned back to his observations of the roof just as quickly and without comment. Through the rebuild of Central Headquarters after a combined effort of he, his brother, and Roy, had nearly destroyed it to the foundation, he had learned rather a lot about structural damage and repair.

So far, from what he was seeing as he walked carefully about the roof, the structural integrity of the roof support structure was sound, but there were places he was seeing where the wooden beams that formed the roof itself were beginning to show signs of weakening from weather damage or age.

"You have that look again, when you're concentrating too hard on something. What is it?" Scar grumbled as he finally reached Alphonse's side, looking down at the roof as well appraisingly.

"Just being thorough." Alphonse muttered distractedly and continued forward along the roof.

Scar followed after him dutifully, the idea of the roof suddenly splintering beneath Alphonse keeping him close to the alchemist's side. The knowledge that Alphonse could handle something like that had no bearing, it was solely a matter of pride for him that Alphonse shouldn't have to. Not with him around.

After a long time spent in relative silence broken only by Alphonse's hums of thoughtful noise as they traversed the rooftop, the inspection was finally done.

Alphonse abruptly whipped around to face Scar, who merely looked at him with something akin to indulgence… and he wasn't sure whether or not to feel irritated by that. "It shouldn't take me long to secure everything. I will need all the boards though."

Scar gave a jerk of a nod in understanding and began to turn to go fetch the required items, "stay put."

Alphonse watched him go to the edge of the roof where the tree overhung so that he could begin climbing down, and gave a faint smile. He was actually pretty certain that Scar would notice if he'd moved even a step to the side, so he moved four more until he was in the shade and then sat down. Reaching into the special pocket he'd sewn into all of his trousers, he pulled out a slim piece of chalk and leaning forward on his hands and knees, drew a large, sweeping outer circle to begin his array.

By the time Scar had emerged with the required mahogany boards, Alphonse was working on drawing several smaller transmutation circles around the main massive one. The alchemist was carefully balanced inside the massive circle, his knees and balancing hand placed so as not to smudge the chalk, as he leaned out with his other hand to sketch rapidly with a chunk of caramel-colored hair between his lips.

"Why do you need more than one?" Scar asked as he rejoined Alphonse, letting the boards clatter down out of the way of the alchemist's work.

"The main one is for the ingredient transfer," Alphonse explained, his hair falling from his mouth, "the one to my left is for the binding of the different molecular structure of two different woods, and the one I'm doing now is to waterproof it all. It rains a lot here about five months out of the year."

Scar looked at the transmutation circles and felt his learned aversion to them snake up his spine, but he kept his mouth shut tightly. He was the one who chose to have the tattoos put back on his arm, he was the one who'd accepted such things as part of himself. Even if they weren't entirely similar practices, he could try for a little admiration that Alphonse knew so much about this heathen alchemy. All he knew was how to disassemble things, or in the case of one miraculous moment, assemble one thing into something else to save a life. But Alphonse knew so much more.

"Pass me the boards?" Alphonse asked as he nimbly scrambled out of the largest transmutation circle and slipped his chalk away.

Scar knelt and one at a time, passed the mahogany boards into Alphonse's waiting hands so the alchemist could arrange them carefully over the main transmutation circle.

"There we go." Alphonse smiled and lightly slapped his hands together to brush away the white chalk powder that was clinging to his skin. "This is going to be much easier than assembling an entire new roof, especially since brother isn't here to try and make some of his decorative alterations."

Scar never got an explanation on that as he watched Alphonse lean forward again, this time to place his fingers gently over the outer edge of the main transmutation circle. Instantly, bluish-white light flared up like fire around all three circles, dancing and sparking inward within the space of a second to consume the wooden boards. Then the light shot out like tidal waves of water in every direction, until the entire roof shimmered like a star, and he whipped his gaze back to look at Alphonse.

Alphonse was still leaning forward, almost overtaken by glittering bluish-white light, and glowing. The light of the transmutation swamped nearly up to Alphonse's hips, and reflected off his caramel-colored hair and in his golden eyes.

Somehow, the sight of it not only rendered Scar speechless, but caused an utter blanking of his mind. He could only stare.

Alphonse knew he'd been under observation, but he not once looked up. It wasn't that he needed whole focus on this, it was solely the fact that he hadn't done a large-scale transmutation like this in a long time and he was enjoying himself. So he happily watched the effects of his work, felt the molecular structure of the roof altering underneath his fingers as the mahogany boards were fed into the roof, and only when the transmutation was complete and the light receded back until it vanished beneath his fingertips, did he sit back with a pleased noise.

Looking up at Scar after several moments of silence from the Ishvallan, he quirked a questioning eyebrow at the look he was getting from the man. He'd been privy to quite a few looks from the man, it was actually impressive how wide a range of emotion Scar had, given his usual default emotion was something along the lines of surly growling… but he'd never seen this one before. To be quite honest, he couldn't entirely place it. "What is it?"

Scar jolted back to himself, and equal parts annoyed at being questioned, and annoyed for why he was being questioned, he shook his head and immediately deflected. He'd not wanted to have been caught staring, and he was angry at himself for losing himself so completely to see Alphonse like that. "Is that all then?"

Alphonse bit down on the sigh that wanted to escape him, but he couldn't quite help the look of frustrated acceptance as he looked away. "That's all. You can go back down now." He said dismissively, already reaching forward again to brush chalk away into clouds of white powder that were soon carried away in the air by the slight breeze.

Scar didn't move; nerves gripping at him that he couldn't explain save for he knew it had been the wrong thing to say. Hadn't been what he wanted to say, and truthfully he wasn't even sure what he'd wanted to say. Because how did a man who had once tried to kill every alchemist, this alchemist, admit that the sight of Alphonse just then had rendered him not just speechless, but apparently dumb as well. "It's not… no. That's not what I meant."

"It's fine." Alphonse brushed the matter aside quietly, finishing his clean up just then and sitting back on his heels to finally rest his eyes on the man again. "By this point I'm nearly immune to your views on alchemy. It's not like I was expecting applause."

A tightness overcame Scar's jaw as he said quietly, "but you do deserve my gratitude."

Alphonse blinked in surprise, a surreal feeling settling over him, and a smile slowly beginning to slip onto his lips. "You… really?"

Scar hated himself for taking such relief in the surprised pleasure of Alphonse's expression. Hated that it had come at the expense of his, yet again, saying or doing the wrong thing the first time. But he was learning. It hadn't taken near so long this time to correct his actions and hope for that olive branch between them. To hope that Alphonse would be happy with him. And he hated that Alphonse brought this out in him. "Yes. This wasn't something I could have done, and I am grateful for your assistance."

"There you go again with those lovely apologies." Alphonse couldn't help but grin. "No one does it like you."

Another thing to hate, that he so often needed to amend himself to Alphonse, but if he was wrong than he was wrong, and he hated more to see Alphonse anything less than the joyful burst of sunshine that he was. His pride meant nothing if it meant not owning up to Alphonse when he was wrong. "What would you like to work on next, little one?"

Alphonse immediately walked for the edge of the roof, unsurprised when Scar was swiftly there at his side with one hand slightly extended towards him in a cautionary move to be able to snatch him quicker from harm should he tumble. "I was thinking we should do the rest of the inside. The storage rooms, office. Those things. I'd prefer to work on the gardening tonight."

Scar frowned slightly, "you're not going to work tonight?"

"I'll call them later and let them know I'm not coming in. You need my help more than they do right now." Alphonse told him with a note of finality, not wanting to argue it and not about to either. He then somersaulted off the edge of the roof, landing gracefully on the overgrown grass below.

Scar tried not to notice that his heart had leapt somewhere in the vicinity of his throat when Alphonse had suddenly jumped off the roof. He followed the little terror down at a far more reasonable rate of speed, a glower stamped firmly on his face. If the rules of biology wouldn't be able to conclusively prove him otherwise, he'd claim that there was a rabbit somewhere in the genetic makeup of the Elric brothers.

He found Alphonse already back inside, and attempting to scramble up a shelving unit in an effort to reach the hand dusters that were on a top shelf.

"Stop, stop," he growled as he rapidly closed the distance between them, and snatched Alphonse around the waist.

Alphonse yelped in an admittedly undignified manner as he was suddenly airborne, with strong hands caging the span of his waist with an iron grip. "Scar, I can manage!" He protested, his legs kicking through the air stubbornly as he was swung around.

Scar pivoted to set Alphonse down on the floor behind him, but didn't release his hold on the troublemaker's waist. "My dojo, my rules. No climbing the shelving units."

Alphonse glared up at him through a narrow-eyed gaze, and would have put his hands on his hips if Scar's weren't there already and spanning practically the entire breadth of his waist. "I can climb them better than you."

"I," Scar began in a still-firm voice as he released his grip on Alphonse, "don't need to climb them." And to prove just that, he turned and reached his hand up to effortlessly grab down the dusters.

"Now I'm starting to understand brother's annoyance when people call him short." Alphonse declared as he swiped one of the dusters from Scar's hand. "I do know my limits, you know. Climbing shelves are well within them."

"I think you'll find I'm going to protect you all the same." Scar told him flatly, but not unkindly.

Alphonse huffed in annoyance that honestly wasn't as potent as it should be. He was beginning to grow accustomed to Scar being like this, and he was finding that he actually relished in the attentive care the man was showing him. Scar had promised to treat him better, and he was. Scar was practically treating him as if he was made of glass, and while he knew that should annoy him more, it didn't. At least, not as much as it would have in the days before Scar had accidentally hurt him.

"If you came to harm and I could have prevented it, I'll have broken my promise to you." Scar continued in a tone that was beginning at last to gentle. "And monks take promises very seriously."

Alphonse found himself smiling faintly, "but you're not a monk anymore."

"No," Scar agreed and began to turn away so that he could go in search of the cleaning supplies they'd already pulled out and get to work, "but I'm still a man who will keep the promises I make."

Alphonse twisted around to watch as Scar walked off, before shaking his head with that same faint smile and heading down the hallway that he knew led to the office.

Together they got to work on thoroughly cleaning the remainder of the dojo, top to bottom, in every nook and cranny. The windows had all been opened to air the place out, and all too often thin clouds of dust wafted out through them as a new layer of the stuff was attacked.

They cleaned relentlessly for hours on end, until Alphonse decided that he was hungry and it was time for lunch. He took a moment to dial out to a local eatery that he knew would deliver to him once he dropped the name for the order, proceeded to order enough food for a small feast, and after finishing up cleaning the bookcase he'd been in the middle of working on when his stomach had started growling, went to find Scar to tell him of the coming delivery.

He didn't need the Ishvallan getting suspicious at someone showing up unannounced looking for Alphonse Elric. He could only imagine how that would go over, and he wanted the food.

He found Scar elbow-deep in a bucket of sudsy water, cleaning the bathroom.

"Hey, I ordered us food. It should be here in less than an hour." Alphonse said as he leaned against the doorway, enjoying the admittedly humorous image of the fierce warrior elbow-deep in bubbles.

Scar sat back on his heels, in doing so pulling his arms from the water. "Thank you, I hadn't realized it had gotten so late."

Alphonse tried not to smirk, he really, truly did… but when faced with the sight of the neon pink rubber gloves that Scar was wearing to protect his hands – likely his not-entirely-healed tattoos – from the bucket of water mixed with detergent, all bets at his self-control were off. "Mhmm," it was all he could manage to reply, all he trusted himself to reply with. He certainly didn't trust himself to open his mouth, knowing he'd just end up dissolving into laughter.

"What is it?" Scar frowned as he peered suspiciously at the caramel-blonde in the doorway.

Alphonse knew even as he darted a look down at the gloves in question, that it was the wrong thing to do.

Because Scar noticed, and the man was quick to put it all together. "It was the only color I could find," he defended in a low growl.

"They look good on you," Alphonse spluttered out before he could help himself, the barest of giggles a background to his words as a wide grin cemented onto his face. And then figuring the damage was done anyway, added gleefully, "you mind holding that pose while I run back home to grab my camera?"

Alphonse had no idea who moved first, but all he knew was that suddenly Scar was lunging for him, and he was running for it with a cry of laughter.

The chase led them out into the main room of the dojo, where Alphonse made a beeline for the door in an attempt to either flee, or go get his camera. He honestly thought it might be a bit of both. However, Scar was hardly about to let Alphonse escape. He knew if Alphonse got out that door, he'd have little to no hope of catching him.

Alphonse was snatched around his waist mere seconds from reaching freedom, and he shrieked with laughter as he was seized firmly against the hard planes of Scar's body behind him. "Oh come on, one little picture!" He pleaded in delight, trying to squirm free of the arm around his waist that pinned him back against Scar.

"Oh no, little one." Scar denied in a low tone as he bent his head closer towards Alphonse, unrelenting in his seizure of the alchemist. "I don't think so."

Alphonse blew out a huffy breath and tilted his head back against Scar's chest to meet the dark crimson of Scar's eyes. "I'd only have it developed into a life-size portrait to hang in my house." He tried to bargain, wicked grin still in place.

Scar's grip on Alphonse's side tightened a fraction in response. "You will have to be content with memories only, Alphonse Elric."

Alphonse gave him a reproachful look, and something rather close to a pout as well as he found himself relaxing back into Scar, into the hold the hulking man had on him. An idle realization that anyone else would find this a terrifying position to find themselves in flitted through his mind, but he paid it little further thought. "A small picture then? For my personal photo album?"

"Certainly not." Scar denied as he felt one of Alphonse's hands move up to rest against his own gloved one, but that was all it did, rest there against him. Alphonse wasn't fighting to get free, and that knowledge caused something hot and protective to flare within him. This little alchemist, despite still being afraid of him at times, trusted him.

Alphonse eyed him narrowly, and suddenly understood why Maes had carried his camera nearly everywhere. Perhaps it was time he started doing similar, for the rare opportunities that presented themselves when it came to capturing a side of Scar that wasn't the deadly warrior so many had feared back then… and still feared now. "No one will ever believe me without proof, you know." He offered out as a last ditch effort, his fingers tracing mindless little circles on the pink rubber covering Scar's hand.

"For the best, little one." Scar replied as he kept Alphonse caged up against him, his other hand coming up now to cover Alphonse's in order to quiet the touches that were dangerously close to causing his grip to slacken against his own will.

"For you." Alphonse grumbled, his hand going still and quiet underneath Scar's gentle, but commanding touch. Letting out a groan of disappointment he let the desire to go grab his camera flow out of him, knowing that if he managed to escape and somehow managed to still get the picture, that it would come at the cost of going against Scar's clear wishes.

"And for you," Scar corrected as he took Alphonse's hand in his to lower it back down. "If I started murdering people again because they'd seen such a photograph, you wouldn't be happy with me."

Alphonse had to concede that as the truth, and his expression as he looked back and up at Scar now was one of mild interest. "You're not feeling murderous thoughts lately, are you?"

"A few times, because of you." Scar admitted gruffly, but at Alphonse's look of clear surprise, he gently released the cage of his arm around Alphonse. "Not towards you, little one. But because of you. I do not say lightly that I will protect you, and the piece of my soul you contain."

"I'm fairly sure that your inability to kill me all those years ago means it is quite safe with me." Alphonse felt he should point out in reminder as he stepped away from Scar slowly. Not too far, but enough to escape the sheltering heat and solidity of Scar's body, and turned to face the Ishvallan. "Don't kill anyone on my account. Please."

"I haven't so far." Scar again made clear before looking past Alphonse's shoulder towards the door. "I believe your food delivery is here, little one."

Alphonse blinked, twisted at the waist to look at the door, then turned back to give Scar a look of pleased assessment. "Stay here? I'll need help carrying the bags."

"How much food did you order?" The incredulous words were out of Scar's mouth before he could remind himself that Alphonse, for all he didn't share his brother's appetite, was in possession of a healthy appetite.

Scar quickly pulled off the neon pink rubber gloves and stuffed them into the back of his waistband before moving after Alphonse to be of help.

Alphonse opened the door just as the delivery person reached it, and after slipping the man enough money for both the food and a generous tip, he began handing off the bags of food from the delivery person and back to Scar. Once they had all their food, Alphonse shut the door and padded over to the center of the room and a patch of sunlight that warmed the wooden floor. There he sat down as Scar, who had diligently followed him, began to lay out the food.

"Ooo yes!" Alphonse immediately made grabby motions for one of the boxes that Scar had pulled free.

Scar snorted and set the box off to his side, smirking at Alphonse's noise of affront. "I'm sorry, did you want that?"

"Scar, you will give me my eggrolls, or I will put a whole flock of chickens into the room you're staying in." Alphonse threatened, and grinned as the box was thrown his way in the space of a second. "Thank you!"

Soon thereafter they both fell silent as they ate hungrily. For his part, Scar hadn't realized just how hungry he was until he started eating. The feast that Alphonse had purchased for them was eaten entirely, without even really a grain of rice left to show that there had ever been food in those boxes at all. The empty boxes were bagged back up once more and set off to the side to be thrown away later along with all the other trash they were collecting.

Satisfied with a full stomach, Alphonse lowered himself to lie down on the floor with a soft noise of blissful content as he basked in the sunlight with eyes that were slowly slipping closed in relaxation.

Scar eyed him closely, "are you planning on sleeping, little one?"

"No," Alphonse denied and blindly reached a hand back to where Scar was, "come lay down in the sun. It's wonderful."

"Ishvallans do not bask in the sun like overgrown lizards." Scar denied, and ignored the hand that was reaching for him.

Alphonse snorted, "just get down here and bask with me, you overgrown lizard."

Scar dubiously eyed the grabby motions that Alphonse was now making at him, instead of a box of eggrolls. "I should keep cleaning." And he got to his feet to do so. "Don't leave to get your camera."

Alphonse kept his eyes closed as he listened to Scar's barely-there footfalls as the man left him, only turning his head at the last second to watch as Scar vanished around the corner without looking back. A disappointed sigh escaped him as he shut his eyes again. He didn't know what he'd honestly expected to happen, didn't honestly know why he'd tried to get Scar to lay down with him, but it didn't matter now. He put it from his mind as he enjoyed the warmth of the sun on his skin.

Even all these years later, he couldn't take the feel of sunshine for granted. He'd spent years not feeling the sun or its warmth, and right now all he wanted to do was let its heat seep into his sated body.

He didn't fall asleep, but it was a near thing regardless.

Slowly he stirred himself from his indulgence and got to his feet. After a full body stretch that felt wonderful in his sun-warmed muscles, he made his way back into the office to continue his cleaning. He didn't make an attempt to go find Scar, knowing the man was around somewhere was enough for him at the moment.

By the time Scar came searching for him, he'd finished cleaning the office out. It was now as empty and clean as if it had never been utilized before.

"I believe we have finally gotten everything clean." Scar stated in his low rumble of a voice, stepping further into the office. "I'm afraid you'll need to instruct me on how to deal with the overgrown mess that is the current landscaping."

Alphonse nodded and turned as he wiped a sweaty streak of dust across his forehead, "it won't take too long for you to get it. And you can always have the children help you out, I've no doubt you can find some bullshit reason to tie it in with martial arts."

"Any reason I give them will not be bullshit." Scar denied and turned to follow Alphonse from the office. "If they do something, they'll be doing it because I told them to and trusting it is for a reason they'll come to learn through experience and time. That is how a proper relationship between master and student works."

"Yeah, I knew you'd have a bullshit reason." Alphonse grinned teasingly as he made his way down the corridor to return his cleaning supplies to their designated closet.

Scar was quick to swipe the hand duster from Alphonse, not wanting to see any attempts at climbing the shelves to put it back. "Amestrians." He breathed the word like a curse as he put away his own supplies, including the neon pink rubber gloves.

"Elrics." Alphonse corrected with a smile, far from offended.

Scar didn't bother trying to argue that one, and instead walked back outside with Alphonse so they could begin their last task. Once they had finished, the dojo would be ready. And by next week, if Alphonse was correct in his assumptions, the students would come trickling back.

"So we need to get this grass mowed down." Alphonse explained as he walked around the side of the dojo to where he knew the little outside storage shed was. "Do you know how to use a lawn mower? Or should I put you in charge of cutting back the hedges to a proper breadth instead?"

Scar, upon seeing what a lawn mower was – they didn't have such things in Ishval, they didn't even really have grass – and upon seeing the wicked gleaming blades of the hedge trimmers, decided that this whole gardening business was dangerous and filled with sharp pieces of metal. "You mow, that seems safest. At least it has guards around the blades."

Alphonse smiled in amusement at the reasoning, but didn't fight it. Instead he just thrust the hedge trimmers at Scar. "Trim all the hedges to about the height of your waist, and bring in the sides to oh…" he cast a look around, "about the size of me?"

Scar cast an assessing look up and down Alphonse's lithe figure, then nodded. "Delicate sized." He determined, and turned on his heel to leave, leaving Alphonse glowering after him.

"Delicate…" Alphonse muttered the word under his breath indignantly, and pulled the lawn mower free of the gardening shed. "He's the one who's the size of a tank." He continued to grumble as he plugged in the power cord and started the lawn mower.

He was definitely beginning to understand his brother's annoyance with people calling him short.

Their respective projects took them several hours, considering the unattended state of the grounds. Yet by the time they were done, even if it was hardly everything that needed doing, the landscape looked infinitely improved.

Together they finished bagging what yard trash they'd accumulated, filling the trash bins out back to near overflowing status. They returned their equipment to the garden shed, and then Alphonse took Scar around to the side of the dojo where the various flowers and fruit bushes and vegetables were grown.

There'd been a time where the former master of the dojo had given each student a section along the side of the exterior wall to plant something and care for it. But since his departure the garden patch had become overgrown with weeds.

Scar listened to all of this closely, and so when Alphonse and he split to opposite sides of the garden patch, he was quite careful to pull only the weeds and do his best not to harm any of the plants that were supposed to be there. Something that was made difficult for him, given the size of his hands in relation to a stringy weed, but he managed.

After all, he had been able to grab Alphonse earlier and on other occasions, and the little one was about the breadth of a stringy weed.

Although he doubted that Alphonse would delight in that comparison.

Bit by bit though, and weed by weed, the garden patch improved until there was little at all to show that it had once been left to its own devices. The weeds were bagged and thrown away, the task done just as the sun was beginning to head down into the horizon.

"I think I owe us dinner out." Alphonse declared with a weary groan as he stretched his muscles out. "I'm too tired to cook."

Scar took one look at the dusty, sweat streaked alchemist who was splattered with bits of mud and grass and smears of green, and reached out to grip him lightly by the arm. "I will cook." He decided as he began to lead them from the trash bins they had just packed precariously high with bags of weeds. "You will take a shower."

Alphonse swept a judging eye over Scar as he let the man lead them back towards the dojo so that they could close the place up for the night. "You're not exactly a fresh meadow flower yourself right now. I think you're growing a weed behind your ear at the moment, actually."

"We will both have showers," Scar amended in a firm voice, "and then you will sit and rest while I cook us dinner."

Alphonse looked away with a faintly happy smile, grateful and content warmth suffusing him. He hadn't thought that Scar would cook for him again so soon, and certainly not because he was too tired to do it himself. "Okay." He gave in quietly, but happily, and tried not to feel too pleased when Scar squeezed his arm lightly as he was guided along.