I think the way it would happen is alphonse initiating, leaning in to kiss edward who’s immediate reaction is like a piece clicking into place the relief at being able to materialize an unknown feeling into phsyciql sensation, like ohhh this is what I’ve been needing to satisfy a feeling I didn’t even know I had, and he’d really let himself surrender to it and then a cold panic would grip him and the shame and guilt would kick in immediately and he’d feel so terrible sick and self-loathing and hate himself for kissing Al as if he’s the one that started it :)
And then, concealed by both the blanket and the excuse of getting warm, Ed pressed his sunburned face into Stede's chest. "Oh my God," he whispered, voice breaking on exhaustion, "oh my God, oh my God."
Oh!! Love the character hiding injury until they can't trope! Would love to read our beloved not-short(!!) Ed trying to hide a gunshot/stab wound or something like that! Love your stories ❤❤
Ye yee. Gotcha. This got a little longer than a drabble, i wanted to put in too much context. Thanks for requesting! Hopefully its enjoyable to read c:
"'Scuse me," Ed slid between the chair of another officer and the wall. He squeezed and sidled his way to the seat saved for him by Mustang and the group.
He noticed the second seat with a placard saved for Al on Riza's side. The third empty seat by his for Winry made him flush to the tips of his ears. He pulled out his seat and lowered himself down carefully.
"Jeeze, you're still really gunning to get me back huh?" Ed whispered. His breath hitched on the end as he repositioned himself.
"Just like last year, and the year before, the answer behind the snark is 'yes'-" Havoc leaned across Winry's empty chair to give Ed's shoulder a shove.
"Quiet you two. Speaches are starting soon- where are your brother and finaceé anyway?" Roy cut in with a side glance.
"Ah-" Ed shifted again, "That is what I was trying to call about. We ran into one of your naysayers and Al overdid it a little. Alchemy still causes him some sensory overload, Winry is taking him back to the hotel."
"I want the full story after this. I hope he is well, though-" Roy was cut off by the first clang of cutlery on glass as the military gala's flourish of ass-kissing began.
----
By the end of the dinner Ed had paled considerably, and was leaning into the arm of his chair rather heavily. Roy watched Winry slide Ed's glass of wine away with a roll of her eyes and a hand on the back of his neck.
The soldiers began to mingle, and the music started up in earnest as the last of the dishes were cleared away.
"Can you manage a twenty minute cycle of the room before the wine gets the best of you?" Roy asked as he and Winry supported Ed to standing.
"Not the wine. Just- probably just a pulled muscle."
"Right," Roy's eyes flicked to Winry's as Ed straightened and took a breath. "What happened anyway?"
Riza intercepted one of the higher ranking officers who was circling over to speak to the Flame and former Fullmetal alchemists. She redirected him a little ways away into the crowd, leaving the other three in their own pocket of privacy.
"Someone unhappy with the reforms and revisions you're putting forward. Trying to sneak in or cause a riot or something," Winry shrugged.
"He was trying to start shit, I wanted to grab his shoulder and tell him to f- Tell him off. But there was that memorial vigil still going on." Ed winced.
"Ed?"
"Al was pulling the sidewalk, discreetly. He did really good, honestly. But, well, I guess I still have the same baby face or something, 'cause he knew who I was and was pissed about it. We got him away from the crowd and- nnngh"
Ed's legs buckled and he clamped his hands over his side.
Roy reached out, but Winry had already caught him and lowered her wonderful, stupid, fiance to the floor.
"Seriously?!" Winry whisper shouted as Roy ducked down as well. He waved Riza over and she quickly weaved her way through to them.
"Ed? What happened?" Riza took to her knee beside the three of them.
"He did hit you! Oh, Ed!" Winry moved to give Ed's arm a shove like she did when they were younger, but stopped short.
He pulled open his waistcoat and hissed as the air hit the darker stained wet patch above his hip.
Without hesitation, the other three sprung. Winry pressed her hand over the wound, her ivory dinner gloves soaking up the stain immediately. Roy worked himself under Ed's other shoulder and worked with her to haul him up. Riza worked on parting the crowd.
"Al's gonna be pissed," Ed chuckled as they limped into the hallway.
"I'm gonna be pissed once you're okay, you goof!" Winry's voice was tight and strained.
"Come on, its just a little one. I've- hhn- definitely had worse. And waited longer." Ed was still getting paler, no doubt the thick wool was absorbing blood still.
"He has, but thats no point of pride. You're too old for this shit. I'm too old for this shit." Roy groaned out.
"I'm getting the car." Riza grabbed Ed's chin in her hand and gave him a quick once over. His stubble scraped her hand and she let go, "No passing out or dying in my car. Thats an order, Ed."
A story for my girlfriend @whump-dump! She finished FMAB not too long ago and we were talking about scenarios, and she came up with this great one where Ed gets kicked really hard and breaks an arm, so I added that he takes the hit for Roy and then whines about how it wasn’t worth it, and honestly this is why whumpers should date each other
Anyway I hope you like it, sweets! <3
Ed hadn’t thought about it--not really. It wasn’t a “I value your life over mine” decision, or one of self-deprecation or even of respect.
In fact, the reason Edward Elric had jumped in front of a metal foot seconds before it made contact with Roy’s skin was on instinct.
“Fullmetal!” Roy cried, using the opportunity to subdue the criminal. “You alive?” he called. Ed hadn’t gotten up.
He groaned, and Roy smirked. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes,’” he accepted.
Once the rogue alchemist was tied up, Roy turned his attention to Ed and paled. His flesh arm was bent at an unnatural angle, bruised already, and he was cradling it to his chest.
“Damn, Fullmetal,” he cursed, “that looks broken.”
Ed glared. “No shit!” he yelled, wincing deeply. “That’s the last time I take a bullet for you...”
“A foot is hardly a bullet,” Roy rolled his eyes. “The hospital will be able to patch that up in no time.”
“I can’t do anything with it,” he whined.
“I’m sure any weightlifting training you had scheduled can wait.”
Ed seethed. “I meant that I can’t do any alchemy,” he bit.
Oh. Yeah, that made sense.
“Well, that’s not a concern,” Roy said flippantly. “The car is parked barely a mile away. Help me with him,” he gestured to the handcuffed and unconscious criminal on the ground, and Ed looked almost fearful for a moment.
“I--uh, I can’t--”
“Can’t what?” Roy snapped. “I need help carrying him; he’s too heavy for me to get on my own.”
Ed nodded reluctantly, slipping his metal arm under the unconscious man with a pained expression. Roy paid it no mind--if the kid wanted to be dramatic, the worst thing he could do was respond to it.
However, it got harder to ignore a few minutes later, when Ed’s pace had slowed far beyond tolerable. It was clear the adrenaline of the broken arm was wearing off, and he had to be in a lot of pain, but they didn’t have time to deal with that, now.
“Keep up,” Roy barked, glancing to Ed and noticing for the first time the gleam of sweat that had broken out over his features, the pained look not having gone away with a lack of attention. “You hanging in there?”
Ed’s breathing was heavy and unsteady, coming in loud pants that didn’t have a defined rhythm. A few steps later, he crashed into the ground, sending Roy stumbling under the weight on the man in his arms.
“What the hell, Fullmetal?!” he yelped, nearly dropping the man. Ed didn’t reply. Instead, when Roy looked back at him, he was on one knee, using his metal arm to clutch the opposite side of his torso. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
Ed rolled up his shirt with gritted teeth, exposing bruised, mangled ribs. Roy’s eyes widened.
“Oh, hell,” he breathed. Ed had carried this guy half a mile with those? He eased the criminal to the ground and stooped down next to Edward. “Broken?”
Ed nodded tursely. “Most likely,” he said with a strained voice.
“Think they punctured anything?”
Ed shook his head, then shrugged. “I don’t think so,” he admitted, “but I feel a lot worse than when we started.” That could just be exertion, but with Ed’s reluctance to ever admit pain to anyone, it could also be a collapsed lung or lacerated organ.
Roy nodded. “You shouldn’t have put all that weight on it.”
“Ungrateful bastard,” Ed growled, “never again. Not worth it.” Roy smiled just a little at the rush of energy--it was a good sign, after all.
“Yeah, yeah. I’‘ll go get the car; you wait here. You’ll be fine.”
Ed nodded, then gestured to the unconscious criminal. “What about him?”
Roy shrugged. “If he tries to move, take care of it.”
“You absolute asshole,” Ed said, watching Roy run off toward the military car.
“Hey if you’re still cool for getting prompts,,,, If you think this is interesting, I used to follow an FMMA RP blog who headcannoned that Ed was major allergic to peonies and they were like,,, All around the capitol. Would you do a small fic with this theme,, or like share some ideas on it or something? Thanks!”
Anon prompt
Oh my lord I love this. Like. Okay. I totally am down with Ed having allergies headcanons, and of course, he avoids doctors so its great because like, he could totally be clueless to it since he won’t go to a doctor about why he has this shitty cold for like a month. And, genius or not, hes a stubborn ass teenager. Let me tell you, dude would probably try to power through it. So I am all for this.
Also, FIC! (titled’ fuckin peonies’ in my writing folder. but i feel like it needs a proper title eventually)
It has kinda graphic snot desciptions. Allergies are an awful mess and I want characters to suffer as much as I have.
—————-
“Brother?” Alphonse had to stall to wait for Ed again. He was slowing and stopping so frequently today. It was one of the days they could take their time and enjoy what they wanted to, no jobs to do, paperwork caught up, and no strong leads that they could work off for the moment. It was springtime too, so Alphonse was excited to see the storefronts as they opened up for the new season, putting out tables covered in new items and the general upswing in activity after the cold winter.
Ed glared at Al over his gloved hand. He had stopped to massage at the pressure in his sinuses this time, it was starting to really bother him. Al had been so excited to go out, he hadn’t thought about the time of year, or the planting festivities from the week prior. Some national pride crap, everyone decked out their front gardens and window boxes in Central with fresh sprouts and seeds and ribbons in the national colors. Al was so excited to see the stupid blossoms and ribbons he almost yanked Ed’s arm out of its socket. He barely had time to grab his jacket as they left, let alone any handkerchiefs.
Amestrian spring time was something Ed wasn’t the most fond of. The weather changing really helped decrease the aches he got, but the first few weeks were hell. He always seemed to catch a lingering cold, or ended up with his eyes irritated. He wondered if it had been allergies, but back in Resembool they never lasted that long, something about the city just added misery to the start of spring.
His nose hitched again as he stomped to catch up. It was too early for this, he didn’t have work, and the market would be open all day. He had a headache, and was just over it today.
“Okay, lets go.” Ed sniffled hard, his nose was going to start running and he had nothing with him.
“Do you want to get breakfast? The cafes are opening now,” Alphonse offered. He felt bad dragging Ed out so early, but he heard the city starting to bloom was a really lovely sight, and even in this body sight was one of the few senses he had left to enjoy.
“Yeah.” Ed shoved his hands in his pocket and pulled ahead. There was a place they’d been to before not far up the street, Ed liked the parfait desserts there.
As the walked up to it, Alphonse trailing behind now, a familiar voice rang out through the early morning air.
“Alphonse! Edward!” They turned to see Hawkeye with modest civilian clothes on, and Hayate at her side obediently trotting attached to his leash. “Good morning! Its rare to see you two in town so early outside of work.”
“We came out to see the blooms! A really nice lady at the train station told us about it the other day.” Alphonse crouched down to pat Hayate as he spoke to Hawkeye, his whole stature and way of holding himself seeming to float lighter than it seemed possible.
“We were just going to stop in here for a minute. Al’s really excited about it,” Ed’s voice was thick with congestion and he had to wipe under his nose with his sleeve at the end of his sentence.
“Ah, you’ve never been in Central when the peonies bloomed? She was very right, its quite lovely. Just down the hill there, theres a large garden, and the sunlight is making it sparkle with the morning dew.” Riza looked back where she came from, “If you don’t mind holding off on breakfast for a moment, it would be a good time to look before the sun gets much higher.”
“Brother! Would that be okay? It sounds beautiful!” Ed nodded, and Alphonse turned back to Riza, “Do you mind showing us where?”
“No problem,” She gave Hayate’s leash a gentle pull and the little pup started off. Leading the group of his humans to the spot his master loved to spend her mornings made him the proudest little dog in the city.
Ed slowed and fell behind as he felt a sneeze coming on. His face pinched inwards trying to fight it off, and he took a few steps blindly, nearly tripping himself. It passed, thankfully, and he jogged to catch back up with an audible sniffle. He coughed a little at the end of it as he choked back on some of the mucus. Grimacing at how disgusting it was he ran his sleeve under his nose again.
“Any plans for the day?” Hawkeye tried to start some friendly conversation. It was rare to see the boys outside of the office on a good day, like today. Hospitals, soaked alleyways, standing in the dark of night at a train station after begging for a ride- those she was used to. On a sunny spring morning, with the two of them able to act like the boys they were was rare.
“Nah,” Ed sniffled again. His voice was thick and a little hard to understand at times, “Al was really excited to see the flowers, so we woke up early. After this, breakfast and I’d love to go back to sleep for a bit.”
“Not feeling well?” Riza pried, but Ed shook his head.
“Allergies. First week or two of spring is always kind of rough. In Resembool it was mostly the grass starting again, it’d make my eyes burn like crazy. When Al was little, too, he got it just as bad,” Ed pinched his nose to stifle a sneeze, “Something about the city here makes it worse.”
“Brother look! Oh wow, its like a field of stars on the ground!” Alphonse crouched down by the wrought iron fence surrounding the modest garden. He held on to the posts and pressed his helmet close to get a better look. He took in every ray of light, the sparkling dew drops on the bundle of petals. “I wonder if Teacher would like peonies. We were thinking of going down, I wonder if we could take her some.”
Ed was too busy pinching the bridge of his nose to answer. A little gust of wind swept by, and Alphonse gasped as the little droplets of water were shaken free. Dancing in freefall for a second before darkening the dirt beneath, and the fresh blooms bent to the wind. A few petals were lost here and there, but it was such a gentle breeze none of the flowers were worse for wear. Alphonse felt breathless, even in his metal shell of a body. He drank up the sight, feeling the distant sensation of his heart racing.
“Hehh-!” Ed hitched, he tried to sniff back the itch. His sinuses gurgled and he felt a brief stab of pain before he jackknifed forward in a harsh sneeze, “HehtCHUU! Ugh.” He coughed, feeling the thickness of it in his throat. He blinked for a second, shaking off his momentary daze before realizing what happened.
“Uh!” He moved his hand away a fraction before slamming it back to his face. The move left a smarting pain as the automail collided with his nose. He hoped Hawkeye hadn’t seen, if Roy found out he’d never live it down.
“Bless you, brother!” Alphonse started to turn, and Ed could feel his ears burning as he found himself wishing his little brother would go back to being entranced by the stupid flowers. ‘Nonononono! Al don’t turn around!’
“Thangks,” He scrunched his face up again. He could feel the snot on his glove, and he had to sneeze again! No! Not fair! Stop it!
“Here, Ed,” Hawkeye prodded his arm with a package of disposable tissues. He grabbed a handful of them in a rush before pressing the wad to his face with his flesh hand too. He wormed his one glove off before he started sneezing again.
“DAMB IT!” He stomped as he finished the fit. Hawkeye blinked, startled at the outburst, and Alphonse turned to scold his older brother for cursing.
“Well, you’re just as cheery in the mornings on your days off as when working, aren’t you?”
“Stubf it, asshold.” Ed sniffed, loudly and with little success. The tissues barely helped, and his flesh hand was attached to them with a thick string of mucus. He sniffed again, choking on it. His eyes stung and his headache boomed behind his eyes again. His face was on fire with embarrassment.
“Al, we need to go,” Ed kept his hand over his face, not sure how to recover from this. “I-I feel sick.” He lied lamely before turning abruptly and stomping off with both hands clamped firmly over his lower face.
“Well. I hope he’ll be back in the office tomorrow.” Mustang watched Alphonse chase after his retreating brother with mild amusement. “Eventful morning, Hawkeye?”
Fma whump idea; ed getting chicken pox and needing his automail arm slinged because he has spots under the casing. They need to get him to minimize movement to minimize accidental scratching and infection. It is hell.
