fossilised | For Stephanie Brown

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For Stephanie Brown

He still isn't quite sure how they managed to make it home.

All he knows is that one moment he was standing in the snow, listening to his tablet blare out a warning about being in a 'RESTRICTED ZONE', and the next thing-- he's standing at the bottom of the dirt path in Resembool that leads up to Winry's home. He would have thought this another hallucination, a cruel trick of Norfinbury such as they had dealt with in the past, if it weren't for the person standing next to him who definitely doesn't fit the scene.

"S-Steph--?!"

She looks ridiculous in her thick coat and scarf out here in the summer sun, and he can't stop staring at her. This doesn't seem real, it can't be real.

Can it?

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"A--Ah!"

He wasn't expecting the hug and it nearly knocks him over in surprise, though his arms instinctively come up and around her to catch her so that she doesn't fall.

"Is it really?" He sounds awed, a bittersweet revelation that he can't tell. Somehow he had been able to feel the cold in Snowhell, but there wasn't anything here. It was as it had been before, just another indication that this might just be real. "It always was warm in the spring, even though Resembool is so high in the mountains."

"It really is," she confirms, still pretty gleeful. If this is a trick she'll take it, just for the temporary warmth.

"You don't feel that?"

"No."

The word is soft, and a little sad. That's the biggest clue that this is truly real, his inability to feel even the smallest bit of warmth. It tears through his heart, making it ache for even the pervasive cold of Norfinbury, but he doesn't allow it to colour his voice.

"I couldn't feel it before either, it's because I don't have my real body. Do you-- do you think this is real? It seems impossible that we'd both see the same hallucination, especially since you've never even seen Resembool before."

Right. That hadn't even occurred to her, since it wasn't a problem in Norfinbury. Rather, it wasn't a solution he had in Norfinbury, since it would have been useful not to be able to feel cold.

"It could be something the town did, but I don't think they'd mess with your senses like that. It doesn't really fit, you know?"

"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean."

Norfinbury wasn't the kindest of places. It had messed with his head more than once, all of them, but never to show him something so comforting. And never to return the lack of feeling to his body.

Which left the growing realisation that this was... must be... real.

"Stephanie, do you know what this means? We're-- I promised I'd bring you home with me, and we're here!"

It means that she doesn't have to go back to Gotham. She doesn't have to face the fear that her mother or anyone else will come after her, or being homeless in a city where crime is as common as dirt. It means she doesn't have to leave the best friend she's had since Becky died.

Her knees go weak with relief.

"Is it really over?"

"No."

He knows it's probably not the answer that she wants to hear, but Al has never been one to ignore the hard truths. Especially not when it meant turning his back on people in need.

"We're here now, and that's-- it's amazing, but we don't know what happened to everyone else. We have to try and figure out a way to get everyone home, or find out what happened to them."

"The beginning of the end," she agrees, turning serious. But there's a light in her eyes that hasn't been there for a long time.

"We're going to find them, Al. Then we'll find who took them, and we'll destroy them."

It's so wonderful to see the fire inside her again, she's looked so defeated for so long. But now they know there is definitely a way out, a way they've somehow stumbled across. And now they'll have all the resources of Amestris to help them in getting the others back.

"I know."

He might have argued against destruction before, but he knows sometimes the fight is necessary and he never wants to let what happened to them happen to anyone else in the future.

"But I swear to you, even when we find them, you never have to go back there. You never have to go back to your home world either. I promised you'd always have a family and a place with me, and I meant that."

Stephanie knew from the start that the people responsible for this couldn't be allowed to continue, and she never doubted that. Whether or not she would be able to play a role in dismantling the whole operation had been up for grabs. Now she's in a position to do something real, and she's ready to pull out all of the stops.

But then Al tells her she has a home with him, and her world turns a little sideways. She doesn't doubt him, either, though she might have in the past. She had always been prepared for the worst case scenario. Now that the best case is coming to fruition she feels a little giddy.

"I-- yeah." She nods, unable to restrain her smile or the slightest hint of tears in her eyes.

"Yeah."

When he had made those promises, he had intended to keep every one of them. He wanted to give Steph the life she deserved, with a family beside her to love her and not betray her any further than she already had. But he had also known that those promises would be hard to keep without any real way of knowing how to keep them.

Now that they've come true, he couldn't be happier.

"I can't wait to show you everywhere, to introduce you to everyone. They're going to love you! Granny, and Winry, and everyone!"

No matter what, Steph might as well consider herself an Elric now.

She was only just now starting to get a sense of what that actually meant. What exactly was she supposed to do now? What did her new family expect from her? Would any of her skills even be useful in this new place?

Well, there was plenty to worry about, and just the one thing that really needed serious doing.

"Hmm. This is going to be tough without any computers..."

"We have telephones, and the wireless radio, I bet you could do something with those?"

Because all technology is the same, right? And 1900s telephones and radios are exactly the same as computers, Steph should have no problem fitting right into this world where everything is backwards as far as she's concerned.

"Or, if you want, I bet Winry would teach you about automail engineering. That's probably the most advanced thing we have here."

She huffs a disbelieving chuckle. It turns into a real laugh. Radio was something, at least. Recording equipment meant a record, archives, something for her to look through. Automail was just plain useless to her.

"I'll manage, I'll just complain a lot about it first. Alright, take me to your libraries." Wait, he probably wouldn't get that joke... Oh god, would she ever have relevant pop culture references again?

"Or, uh, a shower. Shower first, I think."

Al can't help but laugh.

Stephanie has been pulled into a whole new world, a new reality, and she's worried about a shower? It started off as a little chuckle, but it soon builds into a gut-wrenching laughter that he can't control.

"Y-You're something else..."

He might just be sinking to the ground now, pounding a fist on the earth.

Her eyebrows rise. She wasn't trying to be funny, she just hasn't had a proper shower in a very, very long time. Finally she shrugs.

"But there are showers, right?"

He just can't stop laughing, even though he knows it wasn't that funny and she might start getting annoyed at him if he doesn't. It's just that she is so strong, and so amazing, she reminds him of his brother.

"Yeah, yeah... come on, I'll get you to a shower."

Still sniggering, he gestures for her to follow him up the dirt road and towards a picturesque white house with a sign outside reading ROCKBELL AUTOMAIL.

"I bet Winry will have some clothes you can borrow too, since it's a little bit warm for those here."

"Warm," she agrees giddily, following him up the road. She was sort of hoping that she could shower before introductions, but she would take whatever she could get.

As long as it involved a shower, at some point.

Al was feeling pretty giddy himself, as if he were sinking into a perfect dream. The grass was so green either side of the road, and everything looked just as if he had never been away. Like home.

He pushed open the heavy wooden door and gestured Steph to follow him inside to the traditional looking household. "Granny? Winry? I'm home! Hello--?"

Lucky for Steph's want not to be introduced, nobody replied. Winry was in Rush Valley with her customers and Granny had travelled down there herself to lend a hand in the busy season, leaving the house empty. So Al led Winry through to the bathroom, big porcelain tub with hot and cold taps and an old iron shower overhead.

"I'll be in the room next door when you're done, okay?"

Steph looked around curiously at everything in the house. It was a little weird, entering a house with the owners out, but she's pretty accustomed to feeling out of place by now. She grins like an idiot when she sees the very normal looking (if old-fashioned) shower and tub. There will be hot water. Running, consistent hot water.

She might not ever leave this room again.

"Yeah, sure. I won't take too long. Probably."

Her delight is contagious and he can't help a happy chuckle as he heads out of the room. After all that they've been through over the past few months, Steph deserves the longest and hottest shower she could possibly get. There's no way Al will begrudge her such a little thing.

He retires into the other room and fetches a pot of lubricant to start giving himself a clean too.

When Steph did come out she would find him with his head in his lap, polishing the faceplate carefully.

She spends a long time luxuriating in the warmth, getting her hair really properly clean and taking the time to scrub herself everywhere within her reach. When she finally steps out of the shower, wringing her hair and toweling herself dry, she shudders. But it's not because of the cool (not cold) air on her back. Being clean she feels like a new person, and it's still hard to believe that all of this is real.

She finds and puts on a clean set of clothes before going to see Al. When she does, she has to do a double-take. She's never seen him take his head off before. She considers asking him how he does that if he can't see what he's doing, but decides against it.

"So, what's the plan?"

Even though it was a stupid thing, being able to take his helmet off again seemed to be the final point that cemented this as real for him. He could never do that in Norfinbury, they had altered him somehow so that he was one solid piece, so that he had to eat, so that he had to feel the cold.

Now he felt nothing again, now he had his head on his lap. It was a different kind of ache, a more familiar and natural one.

"I'm not really sure, maybe we should head to Central. That's where Brother and I were when we first got to Norfinbury, there could be some clues there."

"Is that where he would go?" She runs a hand through her wet hair a few times, letting air into the middle layers so it might dry faster.

"It's possible Ed came through whatever and just ended up someplace else in the same world. Or the same place, but later or earlier."

"Yeah, I think so. I know so."

He hesitated. It seemed wrong to have to spoil this pleasant surprise of warmth and safety, but she deserved to know what was going on in Amestris. She already knew some of it, but it was different from living it.

"We were fighting in Central, a lot of our friends were too. I know if he got back here then that's where he'd go, and it's where I have to go too. We owe them our help in this fight, if-- if we're not too late."

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