Disclaimer: Edward Elric belongs to me least of all.

A/N: We've reached the final chapter. Thanks everyone who read! I hope you liked the story! ;)

Lilia's arms wrapped tight around Edward's body. There was so much she wanted to ask him.

"Oh, sweetie, do you promise me you'll come visit me at the hospital?"

Edward's own arms, one flesh and one prosthetic, came hesitantly around her back to return her sudden embrace. He stumbled back a few steps and laughed quickly with the momentum that was thrown at him. They stood outside the door to Roy's small house, the entrance wide open behind them, with a bemused Roy looking on.

He thought about this for a long moment. She was so kind, to take care of him while he had been here. To act so selflessly when she knew nothing about him, and he provided nothing in return. All he could give her was his gratitude. He was sure they would be friends for a long time, after all, he presumed he happen upon the hospital once in a while. He laughed aloud at this thought, and with a genuine smile, he let her go and held onto her arm with his left hand, answering pleasantly, "I think we'll be seeing each other there quite often."

Although this answer did cause quite a bit of worry on Lilia's part, she returned his grin anyway. Patting him on the shoulder, she shook her head, "Just try not to get hurt too bad now, you hear? And no more raging fevers and brotherly fights, or punching holes through walls," she winked at him, "I don't particularly like making house calls."

"Especially considering who's house you had to come to," Edward said, acknowledging Roy with the offhand comment. The man stalked over the threshold of his home, a mock look of offense plastered across his features.

"I'm hurt Edward, I'm sure Lilia loved it here," after which he proceeded to raise his eyebrows suggestively in her direction.

"Whatever, bastard..." Ed said quietly, his countenance became contemplative there on, and his tone grew deeper and more serious, "I want to seriously thank you though, Roy. I don't know where I would be right now if you hadn't found me. You too Lilia. You two helped me a lot, and I'm indebted to you. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask..."

His eyebrows pulled together and he looked past her for a second, while she waved her hand in a wild gesture through the air before her, "You don't need –"

"...actually, you know what," he interrupted her as if he had not even heard her begin speaking, "wait a second,"

His hand dove into the pockets of his red jacket, and he pulled out a small journal and pen. Ripping off the corner of a piece of paper, he moved against the side of the door and used it to lean against as he scribbled something hastily in the black ink. He folded it quickly and grabbed Lilia's hand, placing it in her palm and closing her fingers over it.

"There," he said with finality, placing his hands on his hips, "go to the Central Military Vault and give them that information, then tell them the amount I wrote there," he leaned up and whispered in her ear, "let's not mention how much exactly to Roy, he'll think I'm not responsible with my funding." and he returned her wink.

"See ya shorty," Roy muttered, shoving the boy hard in the back so that he stumbled down the bottom stair.

"Bastard!" the word shot out of Edward's mouth like a reflex, "You'd better shut your mouth!"

"You'd better go find your brother,"

"Yeah, I suppose I should."

And then he was gone, walking down the street and turning around the corner. Lilia unfolded the piece of paper and only half-listened to Roy and his "How much did he give you?" that came from behind her. The number on the paper started with an eight and had way too many zeros after it to be what he was paying her for this, surely.

"What a brat!" Roy sighed, running his hands through his tousled bed-head.

"Holy shit," Lilia folded the paper up once more, feeling like it was some secret that she needed to keep safe, "is he serious?"

"I'm afraid so," Roy muttered, rolling his eyes. He looked at her for a few seconds, the paper clutched fast in her hand, her eyes trained to the corner around which the boy had recently vanished, "Do... You want to come inside? I know you might want to get back, but you could stay for dinner."

"Alright," she answered with a shrug, "sounds good to me. I'm terribly hungry."

Edward frowned as he turned around the corner. He would have to find Alphonse first. He was anxious and nervous about seeing his brother again. Sure, still, even after reading the letter, that Al must hate him. But, he needed to do this, to apologize, because if he didn't they would never be able to move on. And that was what they had decided they would do, keep on moving forward, and never look back. He needed to put this behind them. So that he could fix things, fix all the mistakes that had been made, make his brother whole again.

So when Al wasn't in the dorm, he didn't quite know what to do.

He had spent quite a bit of time outside the doorway, what he figured to be the better part of an hour in fact, preparing himself to enter the room. When he finally had, he found the room entirely in shambles, and Alphonse nowhere to be found.

Like he's been looking for me under the pillows and the mattresses, Edward thought, a sad little smile becoming his countenance.

He spent a long time in the room, waiting, and reveling in everything around him, around the room. It had such an air of Alphonse, and he hadn't realized how much he would miss everything about this in a such a short amount of time. He just wanted to see his brother again. So much.

He realized then that couldn't just wait around. What if Alphonse was out there looking for him? What if he was doing something else entirely? Something stupid? What if he got himself hurt? There were millions of possibilities, and not one of them held endings that Edward thought were particularly favorable. In fact, he had to find his brother right fucking now.

This would be easier if there was a river in Central, because there would be a good sixty-five percent chance that a melancholy Alphonse would be there, watching the current drift lazily by.

With thoughts of his brother and the past fresh in his mind, he flew from the dorm room, slamming the door in his wake. He needed to hurry. Because he had screwed everything over and he didn't have enough time to fix everything, and he wouldn't have enough time to fix everything if he kept screwing over all the little things in between. This was all silly, so very silly, he discovered, thinking back to all of it. All the time he had spent lying cold and alone in the middle of a Central street, the time he had spent feverish and delirious, the time he had spent mending under the care of Lilia and Roy. This time was time he could have been using to help Alphonse get his body back. To comfort him. To help him. To be a brother to him. Instead he had been off gallivanting around and getting himself sick. If something had happened to him... What would Alphonse do?

He knew what it felt like to be all alone.

His bloody stump of a leg had been pouring out his life's liquid, sending fiery jolts of electric pain shooting through his entire body again and again. There was a monster in the corner, trying to reach out with broken, twisted, sprained, warped limbs toward him. It's creator. He'd been nothing then. And there had been no one there for him.

All is one, one is all.

He had been the little tiny speck of an ant that was left behind by the rest of the colony, half crushed under the boot of some passerby who liked to crush those smaller and more ignorant than themselves. Destroyed, but not quite dead yet, body twitching and pulling and dying, and he had been all alone.

He had just wanted his brother back.

That was all he had wanted. All he could think about. Alphonse. Alphonse. Alphonse.

And it had been all his fault Alphonse was gone.

But he had brought him back. Almost selfishly, banishing him to the despair of a metal prison, barred from all the pleasures of the sensory world. But he would fix that too. He would fix it all. But he had to make up for the time he lost. The time he had made Alphonse face alone. He had to find him. And he had to find him now.

Where else could he possibly be? There was no river in Central, and sadly, that was his only lead. But... What was similar to that? Close to a river? Somewhere where Al would go for comfort, to calm down, because of the sorrow that his older brother had just forced him to endure.

Ah! This was all his fault!

The fountain! The huge fountain in the middle of Central bordering the edge of the military Headquarters!

Edward ran.

He ran until his lungs burst into flames, searing, burning fire. He ran until his heart beat its way out of his chest one painful inch at a time. He ran until he felt as if he were bleeding to death from every pore and orifice, as sweat rolled down his body in swift beads of moisture. He ran until he felt his metal limbs would become too heavy to even keep above the ground. He ran until his flesh, every single ounce of it, felt just as heavy. And then he ran faster.

It was all his fault.

And then he ran harder.

Everything, and it always had been.

And then he ran faster.

But that didn't matter. Because he'd move forward.

He ran and ran and ran.

It was all his fault.

And Edward Ran.

But he would fix it. All of it.

And then there was Alphonse, and he looked upon his younger brother with the most relieved expression to ever grace his golden face. His breath coming in short, panting gasps from his mouth and his hands reaching out and trying to assist him where his words had failed.

Al looked up at him, not rising from where he sat on the edge of the fountain, a single finger twirling patterns that only he could see in the clear blue water. And he felt happier than he every had before.

There were so many things that Edward wanted to say, to apologize for, to explain.

"Hey," Edward said, trying his hardest to catch his breath, he held out his right hand, "Come on."

And Al took it.

"Brother,"

A/N: That's how Ed used to apologize to Al when they were little :) he'd just find him at the river and help him up, he wouldn't even say he was sorry. But I always knew that it was understood. And that's actually how I planned on ending this the entire time! It feels so strange to be done with it! This is the first long fic, let alone story, that I've finished in my entire life! I hope you guys reading liked it! And I'd appreciate it if you'd leave a review, telling me so, because I love you guys and I'm really sad that its over now that I'm done being happy about it. :)

Invective: a railing accusation, vituperation. An insulting or abusive word or expression. Vehement or violent denunciation, censure, or reproach. (ptp. of Invehi, "to attack with words", inveigh.)