This story is fantastically brilliant. Makes me cry every time.
This story, what you've written here, is really what happened after the series. In my mind, Conquerer of Shamballa never happened. After they met on this train, Hughes and Ed found a way back to Amestris and they lived happily ever after. This story is BETTER than the movie, more fulfilling, at least for me. Then again, I've always been a Hughes fangirl.
I keep trying to pin down just what's so good about this fic, and all I can come up with is the way you handled Equivalent Exchange. Gracia and Elycia dying because Ed wasn't there to help with the delivery, and Roy dying instead of Ed. I guess just something about the power of that, that this Hughes has losses too, really hit me.
(On a side note, that was one thing that irked me about the movie. German Hughes, but no German Roy as his best friend)
I also loved Ed's stream of consciousness. You kept him in character SO WELL, made his reactions to seeing Hughes adn such very realistic.
So yeah, I'll quit babbling now. Thank you so much for this fic, it means a lot to me.