Edward watched as Ritsuka picked out various supplies from the mind-boggling array of brightly colored bottles on the shelves of the small store. He was really glad they had decided to go together, because Ed had no idea what any of this stuff was, never mind how it might help their Fighters. Food shopping had been even worse. Everything seemed to come in funny little wrapped packages: how were you supposed to tell what anything was? Ed was very skeptical of meat that didn't come from a butcher or fish that didn't come from a fisherman. I mean, where did the store get all this stuff? And how could you trust a place with all these buzzing, flashing lights and signs, anyhow? He'd seen some pretty weird stuff on his journeys with Al, but this was just too weird.

Sighing, he continued to follow Ritsuka down the aisle, trying to think of the best way to bring up… what they had to talk about, without making things worse. Ed wasn't very skilled in this arena, but he was at least aware enough to know that Hey, kid, remember that time you tried to kill yourself because of me? was perhaps not the best possible way to go about it.

Problem was, he had no clue how to go about it otherwise. Despite the intimate experiences the two boys had shared in the past few days, Ed still felt like Ritsuka was a complete mystery to him. They were just so fundamentally different on so many levels. When Ed was angry, he lashed out at the whole world, defying everyone, and if he pissed people off, too bad. Ritsuka seemed to turn inward, blaming himself for everything. Ed could understand that to a certain extent: he knew he blamed himself for what happened to Al, for instance. But that was honestly his fault. Ritsuka didn't seem to be at fault for anything that had happened to him, yet just to look at him, it was like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Ed didn't know how to even begin to alleviate that burden. Metal blades were useless when it came to this sort of thing. What else was he supposed to do?

Still, Ed wasn't content to just keep quiet about it. He had to say something, even if it was just a simple apology. Something had changed in Edward; he was done with leaving a legacy of guilt 50 feet wide everywhere he went. He had to talk to Ritsuka about this before it got worse, he just had to.

As they left the store and started on the path that would lead them back into the woods, Ed stopped and put down the bags he was carrying. "Ritsuka."

Ritsuka turned around. Ed avoided his gaze, his hand nervously scratching the back of his neck. "Um. I just wanted to… before we get back, I mean… I just wanted to say I'm… I'm sorry."

"For what?" Ritsuka asked.

Ed's face flushed. He was unconsciously drilling a fairly deep hole in the ground with his automail foot, twisting it back and forth. "You know, for… pushing you to the edge, like that. I mean, with… with what I said."

"What you said when?" Ritsuka was staring at him in wide-eyed confusion.

"What I said… I mean before you tried to… I mean, before you went into the hospital." Ed wasn't sure how much more he could stand of this. He went to start pacing back and forth and almost tripped right over himself since the tip of his left foot was now lodged in a six inch hole in the ground. Damn it…

"Ed… Do you mean that… you think I had that accident because of what you said?"

"That… accident?" Ed knew he was treading on thin ice, here. He didn't want to push Ritsuka too far, but he had to make sure he had all the facts straight. What does he mean, accident?

"Yes, that accident, when I fell, in the alleyway, after I ran away from you. I'm… I'm sorry. It didn't have to do with you, it really didn't. I… I have these… times… when I'm not… I'm not really here. I just sort of… freak out. I'm sorry to have made you feel like it was your fault. It really wasn't."

"I… Ritsuka, I thought…" Ed was trying hard to find a nice way to say this, but there just wasn't one. "Look, you don't have to talk about it with me if you don't want to, but… the doctors, they said you… they said it was a suicide attempt."

Ritsuka dropped the bags he was holding. Several colored bottles rolled out onto the ground. He immediately closed his eyes and got very, very quiet. Ed noticed that he seemed to be concentrating on his breathing.

"Ritsuka? Are you all right?" Ed was afraid to touch him, for fear of frightening him to death.

Ritsuka put his hands to his temples. His voice shook when he finally spoke. "The doctors… thought I tried to kill myself."

"So… you… you didn't?"

"NO! No, of course I - Edward!" His dark eyes suddenly opened, huge and round. "Ed, is that what the doctors told Soubi? Is that what they said?"

"Er… well, yeah, that was the general consensus – "

"Ed, we've got to get back to the house NOW!" He picked up his bags, shoved the fallen bottles back inside and started to run.

"Ritsuka, wait! RITSUKA!" Ed barreled after him, worried he had screwed everything up. Again.

They came flying into the house, and Ed had barely re-locked the door with alchemy when he heard Ritsuka scream. Hurrying into the living room, he braced himself for the worst. Had Ritsu come back? Or Seimei? What had frightened him so badly?

Ritsuka had dropped all of his groceries onto the floor once again, then turned and ran straight back out of the room. Ed looked to find out why, and his eyes were met with the absolute last scene he might have expected.

There on the bed in the corner was his very own Colonel Mustang, sucking face with Agatsuma Soubi, both of them clearly very drunk, very naked, in a position that Ed could only describe as compromising.

And sitting up next to the bed on a futon with curious eyes and twitching brown kitty ears was his brother Alphonse, his young and innocent little brother, grinning from ear to ear.

"Brother!" Al's face lit up when he saw Ed, but he noticed his brother's wrathful expression and immediately looked down, cheeks reddening. Then he quickly glanced back up again, a smile of irrepressible joy spreading over his face. "You have kitty ears, too!"

Ed smacked his head with the palm of his automail hand. I'm going to kill him. This time, I'm really going to kill him.

But fuck Roy. Al was awake! He ran to his brother and pounced, pulling him into his arms for the first time since they were little, little boys.