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It had been a couple months since that strange day of the eclipse. People still talked about it, how could they not? An entire country had just shared the experience of having their souls stolen from them, and safe a few, not many knew why. Yet somehow, despite that experience, all that lingered now for most was curiosity and bewilderment. Rose herself was surprised by how quickly she'd picked herself up and gone on with her life. No matter what happened, the world continued to spin around you and you had to continue on with it.

A small smile played on her lips as she recalled the person who had taught her that.

It was true, despite the tumultuous state the country was still in, picking up the pieces of whatever had happened in Central, Liore itself was actually doing quite well. It had been some time since the riots had broken out in the city, and it had come some ways in that time. There were still a lot of repairs to be done, but the city-wide effort to clean things up had brought its citizen close together in a way they hadn't been before.

She had come to grow very fond of her position as a cook for the construction workers, so she was at her usual spot behind the small food stand, working away at the oven to prepare the next meal.

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Ed had wanted to see Liore for himself, and it was still strange to him in some ways that he could. Not that he couldn't have while still traveling, of course, though they usually didn't go to revisit places unless they were headed that way for something anyway. It wasn't even that he'd settled back into being at home, not really. It was nice to be traveling again, he couldn't deny, even if he was alone this time. He loved being at home, of course, but it was still strange to be so - well, settled.

...Still, Liore was a lot more broken than he'd been expecting. Gone were the perfectly paved streets and ordered buildings that he remembered, replaced instead with rubble and general destruction. Central's military had done this, had caused this, all according to the homunculi's plans -

- but hadn't he been the one to make a mess of things and leave? 'Get up and walk,' he'd said, like that was such a simple matter.

He swallowed, looking around, and his eyes lighted upon a very familiar looking food stand. Out of curiosity more than anything else, he approached it, wondering if the same old guy still worked there.

Rose had her back turned and was just turning down the fires of the stove and cover the food when she heard footsteps. That would either be the first of the workers--though it was a bit early for that, or a customer. She turned to greet them eagerly, but when she saw who it was her expression widened into one of surprise.

"Edward?" Funny that she should have thought of him only moments ago, and here he was.

Her face split into a smile. "How long has it been? Hi!"

"Rose?" he asked, doing a double-take. He'd admittedly wondered if he'd run into her at all, but he hadn't expected her to be the first person he'd run into.

Or to be so happy to see him.

"You work here now?"

She nodded "Did Alphonse not tell you?" Then again, from the bit she knew of what he was up to when he last came around the town, things hadn't sounded like they were going so great for him. Remembering that caused her smile to falter a bit, Edward hadn't been with him at the time.

"You two did manage to meet up again, right?" There was genuine concern there. In fact, thinking on it she had to wonder how he and Winry were too. That they had been on the run from the military, and then to have the riots in Central seemed too much to be coincidence, especially knowing first hand the trouble that seemed to trail behind those two.

"Al?" he repeated, surprised.

Meet up again - and, right, he remembered now, Winry's explanation of how they'd stopped in Liore and run into...

"Yeah, we did," he said, making sure to smile bracingly. "Thanks for the help you gave him and Winry...and my dad."

That smile was thoroughly unexpected. It looked different. In fact--Rose stepped around the bar table so that she could get a full look at him. He just looked different over all. The year had been good to Edward, it seemed like he had finally gotten those inches that he had always wanted, yet there was something more and she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

For now she pushed it out of mind, certain that it would come up as they talked.

"Of course, it was the least I could do after all you've done. In fact, could I get you something to eat? I was just about finished cooking."

He raised his eyebrows a bit at the first thing she said, surprised, but waved her off at her question. "Nah, you should keep it. I ate before coming into town, anyway."

Despite saying that, he approached the food stand, looking around curiously. "I didn't know you cooked."

Her eyes followed his and she returned to behind the food stand, peeling back some of the alluminum foil covering the food to keep it warm and safe. When she did the air was full of all sorts of mouth-watering smells. It was mostly healthy looking soups but there was some rice, chicken and beef as well.

"I've had too, I've lived pretty much on my own for a long time. Been getting a lot of practice as of late, however, since I've been keeping the people helping with reconstruction fed." Once she felt that hadn't been enough, but after the kind words of Edward's father she was proud of her work and worked especially hard to make sure that everyone had warm and delicious food.

The food smelled wonderful, and damn if he wasn't a sucker for homemade food. He couldn't help but smile at both the aroma and her words.

"Is that right? Sounds like you've been doing a lot."

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