As soon as Alphonse started to regain the memories of the four years inside the armor body, he developed an insatiable desire to travel. He wanted to see everyone and everything that he had known in the armor body. Edward had been happy to agree to take Al all around Amestris, and even parts of Ishbar. They were on a train from East City when Alphonse remembered a couple friendly faces that he hadn't seen in a while.

"Niisan," Alphonse said sweetly as he put on his best persuasively cute face, "Do you think that we can stop by Central?" Alphonse pouted slightly when Edward looked over at him to give an extra boost to his chances of a positive reply.

Edward raised one eyebrow when he looked up from his newspaper. Al wanted something, he could tell. He sighed a little and folded the newspaper carefully, setting it on his lap. "What are you planning to do in Central?"

Alphonse grinned sheepishly, "Well, I wanted to look something up." Al stood so he could take a seat at Ed's side instead of opposite him. "Please?"

Edward's eyes followed the manipulative switch of seats half-warily. He narrowed his eyebrows slightly, "And what is it that you're going to look up?"

Alphonse put his hands over one of Edward's, stroking the soft skin gently. "I just wanted to see if I could find an address." Al was worried that Edward was getting a little tired of traveling around so much when they could be sitting in one place. Ed had been working on an outline for a book and he was almost done with it. It wouldn't be long before Edward would want to start writing the actual book.

"So, you have someone else that you want to go visit then? Hmm, who is it?" Edward tossed the folded newspaper across the seat and into the space Alphonse had been taking up moments before. He turned his body so he could look at Alphonse as they talked.

"Yeah. I wanted to visit Fletcher and Russel. I know they've been moving around a lot lately, and I'd like to see how they're doing." Alphonse lifted Ed's hand a little, holding it in his own warm palms. He stroked Ed's fingers between his own, massaging between each finger.

Edward looked at their mingled hands, smiling a little inwardly. He shifted his eyes back up to Al and gave a half-hearted, but heavy sigh. "Yeah, I would like to warn them not to use our names anymore, considering I've been unhonerably discharged from the military."

Alphonse smiled and squeazed Edward's hand a little bit. He pulled it up to his mouth and kissed the top of his knuckles. "Thank you, Niisan!" He kissed Edward's hand over and over and then wrapped his arms around his neck to give him a hug, "You're always so good to me."

Edward blushed at the sudden displays of affection, unsure how to take them. In the end, he accepted both the continued kisses and the embrace with a smile. He even snaked one arm around Al to hug him back. "Naw, I'm mean sometimes. I promised we'd travel and visit everyone you wanted to, and I don't like broken promises."

Alphonse nodded, kissing Edward on the cheek before he got up to give Edward his space. He sat back down on his own seat, handing the disgarded newspaper back to his brother. Edward took the paper and opened it up to start reading it again, smiling a little more to himself.

It took over a week to finally find out the most recent Tringham residence, but they finally did. Once the location was discovered, the Elrics boarded the first train towards Xenotime; it seemed that the Tringham brothers had returned to their hometown after a period of travel. The train ride wasn't incredibly long, and it only took Edward and Alphonse a couple hours before they found the Tringham residence.

Edward was so busy staring at the map that when Alphonse stopped at the address, he continued walking for many meters. "It should be one of the houses on this street, keep an eye out for it..." He mumbled to Al, even though Al was already out of hearing range. "Aru, are you even listen-" Edward cut off when he looked up and saw that his brother wasn't at his side like he was before. "Aru? Aru, where'd he go..." Edward grumbled and turned to see Alphonse staring towards a house that Edward couldn't see from where he stood.

Edward sighed and folded the paper map, shoving it messily in his pants pocket. He walked over to Al's side, following Al's gaze at the house. It was a small home, and it looked a little unkempt to say the least. The grass in the yard was at least a half foot tall and it was covering most of the sidewalk. The paint was chipping, the window screens were torn, and the roof was in obvious disrepare. Edward cast his younger brother with a nervous side-glance and a lopsided half-smile, "Let's see if anyone's home?"

Alphonse didn't look happy, he was frowning and looked a little worried. He nodded his head and they walked single-file through the concrete valley between the two sides of offending vegetation. Edward was in the front, so he was the one that knocked on the floor. They could hear the sound of someone inside, then the door opened.

It was Russel, his hair was a little unorderly and he looked tired. He seemed surprised to see the Elrics standing there. He stepped back, opening the door farther. "Edward, it's been a while, who's your friend? Sorry about my appearance, come in." Russel smiled a little.

Edward grinned slightly, taking a step inside. "Oh, I guess you don't recognize him..." The grin changed to a smirk as he glanced back over at Al. It wasn't a surprise that Russel hadn't recognized Al, no one did at first.

"Hello, Russel. It has been a while," Alphonse smiled because he was used to it, then gave a slight bow before he followed his brother into the house.

As soon as Russel heard the voice, he immediately realized who it was. He stared in mild disbelief, then grinned. "You guys must have succeeded then?" There was a strange glint in Russel's eyes upon his realization; Ed hadn't noticed it, but Al did.

"Yep!" Edward grinned more and looked around the house. The lighting was dim and there was clutter everywhere. Edward had to step around piles of papers and books to get through the front hall.

"Russel, is Fletcher home?" Alphonse shut the door behind him, then approached the eldest Tringham, looking up at him.

"Yeah, he's home. He's in his room right now. He's been a little sick lately, so he hasn't been getting out much. Do you want to visit him? He'd be glad to see you." Russel smiled a little, but it was the kind of empty smile that Alphonse had seen on his own brother and the Colonel.

Alphonse nodded his head, following Russel as he walked passed Edward. He could hear his brother's footsteps behind him as they walked over towards Fletcher's bedroom. Russel's voice broke the awkward silence between the three of them. "He might be sleeping, if he is, I don't want to wake him up. You can stay in there with him if you want to, I was in there when you knocked." Russel stopped infront of a closed door, and he opened it slowly.

Edward and Alphonse followed him into the bedroom. Unlike the rest of the house, Fletcher's room was the pinnacle of cleanliness. Fletcher was laying in the bed on his back, and he was breathing in slow, struggling breaths that came in little wheezes. Russel walked over to the bedside first, kneeled down and reached one hand over to stroke Fletcher's hair out of his face. "He's been like this for a few months," Russel whispered to the Elrics who finally stepped into the middle of the room. "It's why we came back home, if you're wondering. He's always been frail, especially after we worked with the red water."

Alphonse stepped over next to Russel, resting a hand on his shoulder lightly. "Poor thing... you must be spending all your time taking care of him," Alphonse whispered back to him. "You should go get a little rest, I can take over for a little bit." Al offered a reassuring smile to him.

Russel looked up at Al and smiled back at him slightly. "Yeah, I guess I should. You always seemed like the nurturing type, and you might even be able to do a better job than me." Russel stood again, stepping away from the bed a little.

Edward watched from a distance, frowning a little to himself. It was hard to see a child suffer like that. He felt that the best thing he could do was to keep that distance, the fear of doing something to worsen the situation was an after effect of his years of guilt and angst.

Russel approached Edward, "Edward, there's something I want to talk to you about, okay?"

Edward looked up at the taller boy and nodded his head, turning to leave Fletcher's room. It was Russel that closed the door behind them. Edward knew what was going to come next, and he still couldn't think of any easy way of replying.

"Edward, since Al's normal now... that means you have the stone, right?"

Edward shifted in his position a little, frowning more. "No, we don't have the stone anymore. It was used up."

Edward stepped back when Russel came towards him, but he didn't move in time to evade Russel's hands on his shoulders. Edward looked up to see Russel's determined expression, and he could feel the tightness of Russel's grip. He could hear the desperation in Russel's voice. "Edward, please... don't you have any of it left?"

Edward knew what Russel was feeling, he'd felt the same way for four years. It was the anguish of guilt and the ferventness to reach retribution. Edward frowned and shook his head, looking down. He couldn't take looking at that expression any longer. "I'm sorry. It disappeared with the transmutation." The grip on Edward's shoulders let up slightly. When Edward looked up again, Russel was the one that was looking down.

"I see." Russel's voice was quiet, he removed his hands from Edward's shoulders and dropped down to his sides. After a moment, Russel had pulled himself together with that cocky smirk he was familiar with. "I'll just have to keep going from where I am in my research then."

"Russel," Edward started, thinking back to all the things that he and Al had undergone through their search for the Philosopher's Stone. He shook his head, he couldn't allow someone else to go through that. He couldn't allow for this madness to continue. "Sometimes alchemy isn't the answer. Why don't you just take him to the hospital...?"

"Don't you think I've already tried that?" Russel snapped, then gave his own head a shake. "The doctors can't do anything, the only thing left is alchemy." Russel walked past Edward, going to the living room with the stacks and stacks of notes and books.

Edward followed him slowly, swallowing down a lump that grew in his throat. "Maybe I can help then?" Edward crossed his arms as he stopped a couple feet infront of the kneeling Tringham.

Russel looked up at Edward, then shook his head again. "No, nevermind. This is my fault, and it's my duty to find a way to resolve it."

Edward's eyebrows knitted slightly, "How can something like this be your fault? You said yourself that he's always been weak..."

"He's not weak. He's just delicate," Russel snapped again, picking up a book and starting to flip through it.

"Well, you said that he has always been delicate then. So how is it your fault that he got sick?" Edward frowned inwardly... part of him wondering if he seemed like this... he shook that thought out of his head, there was no way he was going to let himself even consider that it wasn't his own fault for Al's condition. That would be belittling Alphonse, and blowing it off as being all okay.

"Because I pushed him. I made him come with me to research the red water, and I was the one that put him through prolonged exposure to it. I let him do alchemy, even though alchemy always damaged his body." Russel didn't even look up at Edward as he spoke, he just continued flipping through the book in his hand. He kept turning the pages, even after the script ended and the pages blank.

Edward shifted his weight again. He was at a loss as to how to deal with situations like this. Whenever someone tried to comfort him, he'd just push them away. How did someone comfort someone else anyway? He let out a heavy breath before he walked closer to Russel. He put his left hand on Russel's shoulder lightly as he knelt down next to him. "Let me see some of this research of yours..."

Russen glanced up slightly as Ed approached. In the edges of his eyes were stubborn tears that refused to fall. He smiled when Edward asked for his notes and he handed them over willingly.

In the next room, Alphonse was holding Fletcher's tiny hand in his own, stroking the bony knuckles softly. Al watched the peaceful sleeping face as it twisted into pain from some unseen torment. Al was worried, but didn't know what to do, so he squeezed Fletcher's hand a little bit.

The pain ebbed as soon as it came. Fletcher's grey-blue eyes opened to a dim bedroom and an unfamiliar face. He pulled his hand away, sitting up and runbbing his eyes with the fleshy part of his fist, then opened them up to look at the "stranger" again. "Who're you?" he asked, his voice was neither scared nor shocked, instead it was full of childish curiousity.

Alphonse laughed a little, sitting up straighter now that he wasn't leaning over to hold Fletcher's hand. "Let's just say that the last time we met, I looked very different."

"Hmm," the boy's face was full of concentration as he traced through his memories. After a moment, Fletcher's face lit up into a big grin. "Alphonse! I'm right, aren't I? You got your body back! I'm so happy!" Al's hand was immediately seized by Fletcher's.

"You got it! Niisan's in the other room talking to Russel right now. I'm sad to hear that you've gotten sick." Alphonse reached over with his free hand to put in on Fletcher's forehead to test the temperature. Al always took the opportunity to do this with Edward, whether he was ill or not. Things such as temperature fascinated his adjusting senses. Fletcher's skin under his palm was warm and slightly moist.

"Don't worry about me, Alphonse. I'll be better again in a few weeks, it's always been like this. I'm more worried about my Niisan. He keeps forgetting to eat 'cause he has to take care of me..." Fletcher's eyes drifted downward and he was frowning.

Alphonse smiled again, this time it was more of a sad smile. He pushed Fletcher's bangs out of his face and eyes, then cupped Fletcher's cheek and tilted his head up. "I'll worry about you all I want. You don't go worrying about your brother. Niisan and I will take care of him until you get better, okay?"

Fletcher smiled again and nodded his head enthusiastically. "Okay, it's a deal! It's equivalent trade, right?"

"Right!" Alphonse moved his hand back and smiled more. "Are you hungry, or do you want to rest some more?"

Fletcher weighted his options mentally, then made a decision. "I want to get something to eat. I want some soup, Niisan says soup's good for me and it;ll make me get better faster."

Alphonse stood up, nodding to Fletcher. "Then I'll go get you some soup, so your brother can finish talking to mine. Just call if you need anything at all, okay?"

"Okay." Fletcher watched as Al left, calling out "Leave the door open a little but, it's stuffy," before Al could shut the door.