Visiting Home...

Tobi looked up at the house in front of him. It was falling apart. Last he remembered it was pretty well kept, but now it didn't even look like a house anymore. Tobi found it hard to believe that anyone had ever lived in this house... Much less himself. He swallowed. It had been so many years since he'd been here, and to be truthful, he didn't know why he was even here now. When he'd left, he'd had no intention of ever coming back, but now here he was. He swallowed. He almost wanted to go inside, but he couldn't find it in himself to do it. He knew how it would look. No one would have bothered to go clear it out after his father had been found. That is, if he had been found. They had never been a neighborly family. Drawing in a shaky breath, he closed his eyes and sat down.

Long navy hair, left out for the world to see, sat loosely on the boy's back and he walker through the lesser, more abandoned streets of his home town. He was on the way to the cemetery to visit Chamille's grave, after all, she was -in a sense- his sister.
that was when he saw no one other than Colonel Mustang sitting outside an old house, making the boy blink in confusion as he pushed a tad of hair out of his currently golden eye. The boy was wearing a black t-shirt and his sister's old jeans as well, and it was not surprising to see him walking around bare-foot. He was the Dublith Prodigy, after all, or at least, he used to be. Most people still thought he was dead, so he just went with the flow.
He knelt down in front of his friend and shook him slightly by the shoulder, a serious expression on his face. He hadn't smiled since he entered this town, and he wasn't going to start now for the sake of seeing someone who was not supposed to be there. So, his expression was quite stoic, which made it all the more frightening to someone who knew him.
Alexander/Envy was never stoic.
"What're you doing in Dublith, Tobi?"

Tobi glanced up. At first, he was confused. He didn't know this person, but they knew his name. Maybe it's an old neighbor, he thought, but that didn't make any sense. A neighbor wouldn't remember him, or recognize him.The last time any of his neighbors saw him, he was two. After his mother died, he always wondered what they thought had become of him. The probably assumed he moved away. Ruling all else out, Tobi wondered if it might be Al in some other form. Deciding to play it safe in case it wasn't, he said cautiously, "I grew up here."

A smirk would've slipped onto the boy's face on every other occasion that Tobi might've been weary of his identity, but not this time, he just nodded his head in response. He never let himself get into his non-serious demeanor in this town, and especially not on the days he went to the graveyard, since as much as he claims he's 'already gotten over it', Envy goes to that grave every time he's in Dublith, and he's been frequently coming to Dublith since the incident. This was his second visit in the month.
This town had an wary, depressing feel to it, the boy supposed, since it would explain why both he and his best work friend were in sucky moods. Funny, since Dublith was supposed to be a tourist attraction thanks to it's heat.
"Grew up here? As did I. You never told me that, Colonel, otherwise I would've invited you when I confirmed last week I was taking my vacation." The boy said as his hair shifted itself into a high ponytail, so to confirm his identity to the man, "I'm going to the cemetery right now, would you be interested in accompanying me? I need to pay my respects to Chamille."

Tobi shrugged. "I don't exactly have fond memories of this place. This is my first visit since I left. I was about 12 then." He was pretty sure it was Al, now, as he remembered his friend mentioning his sister Camille in the past. He considered Al's offer. Amaya would most likely be buried in that graveyard, as would his father. He knew he should visit the graveyard. He owed his sister that much but...he couldn't bring himself to do it. In all the years since the incident, Tobi had convinced himself that somehow, he could get his sister back. Visiting her grave would mean accepting that she was gone, and he wasn't ready for that. "I...I have no reason to visit the graveyard," He said finally, shaking his head, "Maybe...some other time."

A puzzled frown appeared on the boy's face before he went and sat next to the man with crossed legs. He'd been visiting the grave five times a day since he arrived, so Chamille could wait a little bit longer for her loathed copy of her beloved brother to come and say hello. She'd probably beat Al senseless with a wrench if she found out what he was doing, since she'd probably say 'I don't want no filthy copy anywhere near my grave!' or something like that. The boy didn't even know why he went, she was never that nice to him anyway... but she was still family in his eyes, anyway.
"You hesitated." Was all the boy said before he let out a sigh, "I guess it was stupid of me to ask, after all, who'd want to accompany a homunculus to a graveyard of all places, I know I wouldn't -if I weren't me, that is-. Is there... anyone you want me to visit for you?"

Tobi wrinkled his forehead thoughtfully. "It's not that," He muttered, "I just...I don't like graveyards." He swallowed and looked down at his feet. "I don't get...the point of them, really. If someone is...you know....dead...you want to see them, in person. Not some rock with their name on it that represents their death more than it does their life." He took a deep breath and sighed. "But I guess I don't see any reason why I shouldn't go with you. After all, you're the one visiting people. I wouldn't want you to have to go alone." Because if it were me, I wouldn't want to go alone, either.

"Coimetrophobia." Alexander muttered under his breath, before he turned and offered the first smile he'd offered to anyone since he got here, and it was a small, genuine smile; the one that hardly ever showed up, "I know what you mean, Tobi, but it is a of closure in a sense. I hope you don't mind me visiting my parents either... After all, I wouldn't be alive it weren't for them and they would be alive if it weren't for me... Funny how one can't exist with the other..."
The smile then dropped as he leaned back on the step.
"You don't have to come, I don't want you have to deal with something you don't want to. After all, I may be a cruel person, but I'm not that bad."

"Whataphobia?" Tobi asked suspiciously. Shaking his head, he blinked once. "No, really, Al. I'll go with you." I'll just avoid the other graves, he decided, then I won't have to come to peace with anything. Win/win situation. He smiled slightly. "So...uh....which way is the graveyard?"

"Coimetrophobia. It's a fear of cemeteries." Al said with a small smile as he stood and offered his hand to Tobi, while his hair shifted out of the tie and fell loose against his back again -after all, he was wearing it out today-, "Once upon a time I read a big book on phobias and I memorized the most of them, also, the graveyard's to the left -you can see it at the end of the road-."

"That's stupid," Tobi chuckled, "Who's afraid of cemeteries?" He walked towards the graveyard, stopping when he saw the gate. "See? I'm not afraid of a bunch of stupid rocks?" He said matter-of-factly as he stepped into the gate.

"Alot of people are scared of cemeteries and all of the ghoulies they hold." He then did a 'creepy finger' movement before beginning to walk up the path -after all, Chamille was right up the back, and it was a pretty damn big cemetery.

Tobi rolled his eyes. "What can the dead do to you?" He asked with a chuckle.

"Spirit rape you..." Al said with a smirk forming on his lips as they began their slow ascent towards the graves near the far back.

Tobi rolled his eyes again. "Boy, I sure am scared." He sighed, looking at the graves as they walked past them. "Honestly, I'd rather talk to a ghost than a living person. It's be a lot less complicated."

"Ne, you don't wanna talk to the gate, believe me, he's rude and sarcastic and those black things in the ate try and rape you... it's creepy as." Al could help but shudder at the memory as they began to pass the cheaper graves in the lot.

Tobi sighed. "I suppose so," He said. He looked away from the tombstones now. He didn't want to know if they passed his family.

"Truth gives a new meaning to gate-rape." Al said a-matter-of-factly before a small tombstone caught his eye as they went past, it was a girl with 'Mustang' as her last name... it looked like Amaya was her first. He didn't point it out though, since he had a hunch that was why Mustang didn't want to come, so they just kept walking.

Tobi didn't notice the tombstone. "That's nice, Al," He said, rolling his eyes, "Real appropriate."

"Hey, it's true!" Al protested with a grin as they managed to be half-way through the cemetery, when suddenly a bleak look came on Al's face and he paled, before crashing to the ground and holding his throat as if someone was choking him.
He then in a very jerked set of motions twisted to his left and stared in horror at the tombstone that he was currently next to.
"Shi- it... T- Tobi... g- get... me... out... of... h-h-here..." Al forced out as he suddenly froze in place, a wild look of horror in his eyes as they stared at the stone while his body didn't move at all. He was completely vulnerable, especially since he was sitting right above the remains of his original.
Now he remembered why he always took the back-route to get into the cemetery...

Tobi blinked. It was obvious that Al was in pain, and he wasn't sure why. Shrugging, he picked up the younger boy and slung him easily over his shoulder, walking back towards the gate. Because of the extra weight, he was forced to look at the tombstones. It wasn't like he didn't know it was there, but he closed his eyes when he knew they were getting close to his sisters grave, as if he could pretend it all never happened and she was still here. He exhaled deeply.

When they were a fair distance away from Alexander's original's grave, the boy's body slowly moved back into motion until he finally slid himself off of his friends shoulder, a haunted look in his purple eyes.
"Thank you... and if you want to know, the reason that happened was because I accidentally got to close to my original... want to take the back route?"

Tobi grinned and nodded. "Yeah. So, who's afraid of graveyards now?"

"It's just the one grave..." Al said with a roll of his eyes before beginning to lead the way around the cemetery to the back, expecting the other colonel to follow him.

Tobi followed. "Yeah, yeah. Who's afraid of a...grave, anyways?"