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There wasn't time to write a letter. Certainly, there was no way he could have known that the day's events would bring him back face to face with the man Fullmetal had become.
Calling out to him would serve no purpose, his words would certainly be heard and rejected. Turn around! You can't leave him behind again. He wants to shout at him. You can't leave me behind again.
Instead, he keeps his eye on Edward's back as he retreats into the great steel airship, and knows that Alphonse is torn, shaking in disbelief at Roy's side. Risk his brother's wrath, or be left alone again? From the failed resurrection of their mother, to being suddenly isolated in a world where time had left him long behind. Eleven years old again, a lifetime in four years lost in the void, and the world has changed so much between then and now. Two years of desperate searching with an unwaivering conviction in his older brother; Alphonse's faith had bolstered his own whenever he nearly gave up hope. What was left for him, save finding Edward? And now to have finally found him, such a short reunion could never be enough. There really is only one path for Alphonse now.
He squeezes the boy's shoulder, and speaks before he loses his resolve.
"Only one of us needs to stay here." His chest is too tight, the words nearly stick in his throat. He hates himself for the flashpan desire to tell this boy to be the one to stay behind, that he would be the one to retrieve Edward. Bereft of the memory of his time in the armor, how could Alphonse know how devoted Edward was to him, four years with his brother being the center of his world? That by sheer stubborn force of will, Edward had achieved the impossible, all for the sake of this boy at his side.
Edward surely had been just as adrift as his little brother had been, alone in a strange land that he was now returning to for their sake. "He needs you, no matter what he says."
Alphonse is already pulling away and falling to his knees, hands steepled. "I know." A flash of blue light, and his brother's coat billows out behind him as Al sprints across the fragile earthen bridge. For just a moment their eyes meet over his shoulder. The determination in his voice is an echo of the tinny voice he remembers from too long ago. Even lacking his memory, this boy and the one from years before are identical. "I'll bring him home, sir."
The words left his mouth before he could choke them back. "Please do."