The List

Summary: Over the course of four years, Al had accumulated a list of exactly 1,352 things he wanted to do when he got his body back. These are just a few.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. I just sort of borrow the characters and twist them into my own plots for my, and others', amusement.

1: The Very First Thing

To say that it had been somewhat of a shock to be suddenly thrust into his body, and from there, waking up next-to-naked on a battlefield in a much larger, thinner, weaker, all-around weirder body than he had last remembered, would have been an understatement. He sudden sensations of sunlight passing through his sensitive corneas blinded him and made him dizzy, the feel of warm sunlight, the passing wind, the cold stone, and the thick, heavy fabric of his brother's coat all pressed down and forced sensation onto his skin at once—almost painfully. He tried to ignore the hypersensitivity of his body and honestly did try to hear what his brother and father was saying, and may have even responded to one of their questions, but couldn't remember.

The little bit of attention his mind could spare to focus on something other than sensory overload sat hunched just in front of him, smiling warmly and reaching his fingers out palm-up and fanning widely towards him almost in greeting. Alphonse hadn't even realized that his arm moved to meet his father's outstretched hand until he saw them wrap around each other in greeting—and was immediately met with the warm, tingling sensation of skin-to-skin contact with another human being. It felt as though electricity jolted through him from each microscopic point of contact, and he couldn't hide the grin that formed—sensation. Touch. Oh, how he had missed it.

Al must have looked ready to swoon, because the next thing he knew, his brother was grabbing his shoulder and holding him steady. He turned his head to face his brother, both fascinated to once again have to look up to see him, and trying to remember the exact mechanics of maneuvering his neck and skull. It was almost like snapping awake in the middle of the night, too quickly for the body to adjust, and having to sit or lay in bed for a few seconds in a semi-paralyzed moment of confusion while the brain's control solidified and anchored itself throughout the body. He saw Ed's face contort into a stony mask of hidden concern—though his effort to hide his fear was completely undone by the look in his eyes—and with a gentle squeeze to Alphonse's much-too-bony shoulder, relaxed when the younger Elric stretched the skin of his mouth and offered a brilliant smile in return.

I'm back, he relayed. It'll take some getting used to, but I'm back.

I'm okay.

When Ed took just one more extra second to be sure, then released his brother and stood back, Al was greeted with a wave of friends, acquaintances and mentors alike, congratulating him on achieving the impossible. After everyone had crowded around to see his face (a majority having not actually seeing any of the old family photos or knowing him before the failed human transmutation) and he had been given a bit of air, his first attempts to stand had been both hilarious and worrisome.

His muscles were eaten away, barely more than sheets of meet to rest between his skin and bones, connecting the tissues of his joints and tendons—housing veins and what little nutrients were coursing through his body. It must have been adrenaline alone that had actually let him move and speak to a few eager friends, checking in on his mental well-being and trying not to let the effect of the state of his body show too much on their faces.

The shift in his suddenly out-of-whack weight, the sudden realization that his muscles were horrendously atrophied, and absolute lack of balance had his attempt to get up be little more than a curl of his legs, a shocked grunt, and the immediate wave of near hysteric panic that filled everyone's already addled nerves when he crashed back rather harshly against the ragged stone rubble of Central, and fell unconscious.

Later, when Alphonse woke up in a clean (though noisy) hospital room, he couldn't keep the grin from his face when he realized that he could at least check off one of the things on his long list of 'Things I Want to Do'.

He'd finally, for the first time in four years, been able to sleep.