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Fort Briggs was unreachable either by train or by any other means except on foot. “It’s called fort for a reason,” Edward thought gloomily. He and Alphonse stepped out from the carriage at the mountain foot where the road ended.
The best deal he could get at the train station was a cart with an old horse at a ridiculous price. The cart owner must have wanted to rip as much money as he could off the fools who were heading to the mountains in such weather, but they had no choice.
“Don’t step away from the main path,” the man advised before leaving. “Or they won’t even find your bones”.
“Have a good day too,” Edward replied sarcastically.
Al made a concerned noise when he heard it. He didn’t even have bones.
Ed covered his head with a hood to protect his face from the wind, then observed the mountain that stood as tall as the sky before them.
“So now we have to walk, nii-san?” Al asked about the obvious.
“Yeah, drag your ass after me,” Ed nodded. “Just keep close to me and don’t yell. The last thing we need is an avalanche”.
His brother followed him obediently, and Ed noted that the feet of his armour didn’t make as much noise as usual when he walked on snow.
The mountain only seemed close, while in reality, they had to reach it by walking through the snow-covered hills. Once they climbed a hill and descended into a valley, another hill awaited them, and it made their journey exhausting.
The heavy suitcase, which hit Ed’s leg with every step, irritated him terribly. He couldn’t leave it at the train station because he was carrying important tools and notebooks.
The wind became heavier, piercing his body even through his thick coat, and whooshing so loudly that he wouldn’t hear anything even if Al was yelling right into his ear. It started snowing with large flakes soon, making the visibility close to none. Edward wasn’t the one to panic easily, but he admitted that they went from bad to worse.
They couldn’t even see the sun behind the thick layer of clouds. Once it got dark, he guessed that it was already evening. They ended up in a tight spot: walking at night was dangerous, but he couldn’t see any place where they could rest. The area around them was a snowy desert with rarely occurring pines and rocks.
At that point, Edward was so cold that his teeth were clinking no matter how hard he clenched them. The further he went, the harder it became to walk. It wasn’t only because his feet dropped through the snow up to his ankle at every step. He was used to pain in his leg where the flesh was connected to the automail. Still, the ache became so bad that he couldn’t ignore it anymore. His shoulder hurt as much, which made him pass the suitcase from one hand to another every now and then.
“Nii-san, let me carry it,” Alphonse broke the silence.
Ed told him not to shout, but it was difficult to hear each other otherwise.
“I’m fine,” he replied stubbornly.
“You can't carry it, I can see it. Should we have a rest?”
“Don’t tell me you’re tired and cold”.
“I don’t get cold,” Al said in an odd voice. “But I think I’m freezing”.
Edward stopped walking at once. His brother’s complaint made his heart freeze with terror that had nothing to do with cold weather. Should the joints in Al’s armour freeze, he wouldn’t be able to move, and he would be snowed in very soon. Ed wasn’t strong enough to drag the armour along. He wiggled his automail fingers nervously: they moved with struggle, as if he had forgotten to oil them. He moved his metal leg as well and realised that he couldn’t bend it anymore.
“Fucking frost,” he cursed under his breath. “Fucking mountains and the fucking fort”.
Al seemed to be looking at him in anticipation, and Ed knew that he would obey his decision, whatever it would be.
“Let’s try reaching those pines,” he suggested and pointed at the scarce trees nearby. “And making a fire”.
The risk of freezing Alphonse rushed him forward more than if someone had poked his back with a spear. Every step made Ed’s vision go dark from pain for a moment, but he had to drag his sorry ass to those pines no matter what. Al was doing his best to follow him despite moving clumsily. At some point, Ed stepped onto something hard underneath the snow and couldn’t keep his leverage because of his stiff knee. He fell on the ground and struggled to rise, to no avail. His frozen automail became much heavier than usual, pulling him down.
“Nii-san!” Alphonse cried out and picked him up from the snowdrift carefully.
“Sorry,” Edward said weakly and spat out the snow from his mouth. “I can’t walk anymore. My leg is frozen. That’s gonna be a ridiculous death”.
“I won’t let you die!” Al exclaimed, offended by the mere thought.
With much effort, he moved his limbs and handed Ed his suitcase, then carried him further, walking through the snow. The pines seemed very close, and at the same time, it felt as if they were walking towards them for a few hours already.
Once they finally reached their destination, Alphonse put his brother on a big rock and went to collect the branches he could reach from the nearby pines. Those weren’t especially suitable for making a fire, but it was impossible to find the dry ones among all this snow. Edward wasn’t as skilful at making a fire as Colonel Mustang was, but he should be able to make the wood catch fire.
It darkened abruptly in the land of endless winter. Ed lost sight of Al at some point and looked around nervously. There was only snow everywhere he looked. The blizzard ended and turned into occasional wet snowfall. It was unusually quiet around them, and it made Ed feel uneasy and scared. He might freeze to death there for real.
“Hey!” he called loudly.
He couldn't lose faith, and he forbade himself from thinking about it.
“I’m here,” his brother responded from nearby. “I’m just trying to collect some bark”.
Ed heard the ear-tearing screeching sound of the armour limbs moving, but it was more pleasant than music to him at that moment. Al appeared from the shadow of the trees, carrying a pile of branches and tree bark.
“Well done!” Ed praised him when his brother put the stuff on the ground where they rested and stomped on the snow, flattening the surface. “You saved us. Now let’s get to the work”.
He helped Al with making a fire because his armour hands weren’t made for such delicate work. Ed picked a lighter from his inner pocket - he bought it in Central - and made a seal with his nearly immobile fingers. He managed to create a decent fire, and Alphonse yelped with happiness.
“It’s you who saved us,” he said. “Make yourself warm quickly, nii-san”.
Edward sighed with relief and reached out to the fire. He was afraid of his clothes catching fire accidentally, so he didn’t dare to sit too close to it. His back was still cold, but it was more important to unfreeze his automail and the limbs.
Alphonse stood closer to the fire, motionless, waiting for his armour to unfreeze. Ed could see the water running down the metal surface when the pieces of ice and snow began to melt. He shifted his look to his real hand and realised with relief that it wasn’t seriously frozen thanks to his glove. He didn’t dare to take off his boots to check the condition of his toes.
“This fire won’t last long,” Al noted. “Try to sleep while it’s burning, and then we’ll go further”.
“I wish I could sleep in this frozen hell,” Ed groaned and hugged himself to keep at least some warmth.
He frowned as he realised that Al was right. He wouldn’t be able to walk without rest, regardless of his automail's state. The heat from the fire eased the pain in his shoulder and leg, but he still wasn’t ready to go anywhere. Ed was sure that Al picked every branch he could for their fire, and neither of them could climb the trees to pick more. Either way, they had to walk further, making occasional stops to unfreeze themselves.
“Well, it was easier on the island,” Al noted with a tone of regret in his voice. “I’d like to hug you, nii-san, but it’ll only make it worse if you freeze to my body…”
Ed got embarrassed by his words. It was always easier for Alphonse to express his feelings than it was for him. He remembered their island trial well.
There wasn't any escape from the island where they endured Izumi-sensei's challenge. There wasn't any place to hide, so they hugged each other in their sleep in order not to freeze to death.
Ed remembered it a lot whenever he thought about whether he would ever be able to hug his brother again. He desired it more than anything in the world, but he couldn't find the right words to explain his wish to Al. Edward didn't let himself dwell on his usual self-loathing. The only thing that mattered at that moment was their survival. He had caused too many woes to his little brother to make him grieve over his frozen, dead body in the middle of nowhere.
"I think I found the way out!" Alphonse exclaimed, and it brought Ed back from his gloomy thoughts. "I'll heat myself, and you can sleep inside my armour. It's like a cabin but… a fullmetal one".
Edward couldn't quite figure out what his brother was saying at once. Without saying a word, Al removed the head of his armour and pointed inside himself. Ed finally understood what his brother was driving at: he suggested making his metal body some kind of sauna.
"I just remembered how I carried a cat inside," Alphonse explained. "I don't have to sleep, so I can keep the temperature inside the armour and keep watch at the same time".
"I'm not a cat," Ed commented with doubt. "Do you think I'll fit?"
"You will," Al assured him. "You're small".
Throughout the years his brother had spent inside the armour, Edward learned to distinguish his mood depending on his voice tone. He could tell that Alphonse was smirking.
"Shut up," Ed pouted.
He considered it for a moment, then asked timidly: "Do you think it'll be okay if I… if I'll be inside you?"
It sounded weird.
"I won't feel it anyway," Al's voice expressed regret. "So no problem here".
He put his hands together as a ladder, helping Edward to climb inside his armour. Despite his concerns, he squeezed himself through the entrance without much effort. The space inside the armour was still very cramped, so he could lie down only by pressing his knees and elbows to his body in a fetal pose. It was much better than sleeping on the ground anyway. Al put his head back in place, and Ed ended up in total darkness.
“How’re you doing there?” his brother asked.
“Better than ever,” Edward replied.
He was used to hearing Alphonse’s voice beside himself, but now the sound was coming as if from nowhere, and from everywhere at the same time. It felt like a voice inside his head, but not exactly the same.
Most importantly, it was warm inside the armour, and he realised that his brother was heating himself up from the fire. Ed became sleepy very soon despite the uncomfortable pose and the hard metal he was lying on.
His brother was truly amazing. He managed to create a comfortable environment for Ed even in a frozen desert. Even after a century, he wouldn't be able to deserve his virtue.
Edward didn’t have a person who was closer to him than Alphonse. Even though he existed as an empty armour, Edward couldn’t imagine his life without him. They were bound by blood, and that bond existed beyond a human body. Al remained his dear brother despite living as an inanimate object.
Ever since Ed had lost the opportunity to feel the warmth of his brother’s body, the closest thing to a human hug was his current state. He couldn’t explain it even to himself, but being inside the armour possessed by Alphonse’s soul felt very intimate.
His nap got interrupted by the heat burning his side and butt.
“Al, you’re gonna bake me here!” Ed yelled and tried to kick him from the inside.
“Sorry, sorry,” Al said guiltily and removed his arms from the fire. “I’ll be more careful”.
The burning heat eased almost immediately. Edward sighed with relief and tried to make himself comfortable. He yawned tiredly and closed his eyes.
“It feels so good in here,” he murmured, drifting into sleep. “Why didn’t we try it earlier?”
“It's like I’m hugging you,” Alphonse said after a pause, and his voice sounded so soft as if he was trying to lull his brother into sleep. “Good night, nii-san”.
“Good night, Al,” Ed repeated after him and stroked the armour's inner surface.
His brother couldn’t feel it anyway.