Familiar Faces

[armoredboy]

Al had gone to the compound to get some things for the cart residents' dinner, and hand come away with a slew of instructions from Duo to be delivered in as firm a tone as he could manage (so Duo had specified) to Ed. He stretched, holding his bag over his shoulder, as he walked, breathing in the afternoon air. It was a great day, and warm enough

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[burninghorse]

Roy's evening walks around the island had become almost tradition by this point. He wasn't so much looking for anyone as he was hoping that Someone would find him. He hadn't, of course, because things like that just didn't happen to Roy Mustang.

He glanced up at the approaching figure and the familiar voice. For half a heartbeat, Roy faltered. A moment of weakness as his memories flashed bright as life behind his eyes. How long ago had it been now since he'd held that blonde body to him? How long since he'd let him go and made promises that he'd been unable to keep? One week? Two? Three? Roy was shit at time without a calender right in front of him.

The moment passed though and without missing more than that solitary beat, Roy drew himself up to his full height and gave the alchemist coming his way a weak salute.

[armoredboy]

Al lost the grip on his bag, though he caught it back again before it could hit the ground.

He was gaping.

It was the salute, really, only one person saluted with that sort of maddening combination of superiority and casual ease.

"Colonel-?" Al started, then broke into a run. He stopped short before the older man, practically beaming.

"Colonel! When did you- Hi!"

[burninghorse]

Roy couldn't help but smile coolly at Alphonse. He hadn't expected this sort of reaction from the boy, but then again, Al had always been a bit more level headed than his brother.

"Two weeks ago, I think." It wouldn't make sense for Al to have been here any longer than that, of course. And Roy, being the marginally self-centered man he was, naturally assumed so.

"Though I'm told that this isn't where the gate leads after all." It was the closest he had ever come to admitting that he was in any way out of his element.

[armoredboy]

"No," Al said, expression sinking into what was probably a very familiar one of studious contemplation.

"It doesn't appear to be, though alchemy doesn't work here, either. There are other kinds of sciences, mostly that work with magnetic fields, and its' interesting, but it isn't alchemy." He flashed the colonel a slightly pained smile.

"It could be worse though." He belated noticed the eyepatch. That meant that...

"You're from that time," he breathed, feeling a lot less crazy. "Brother arrived here from two years before. The chronological inconsistencies can be sort of confusing. I've been here for more than four months. Almost five, I think, now."