Ed groaned as he walked into Central Command. He was slowly beginning to despise Mustang's pompous ass. He was mostly grumpy because his automail had been irritating him that morning too. It hadn't been too long since he finished his rehabilitation, coming straight to Central after it was over and taking the State Alchemy exam. Al had told him to stay at the military dorm they were staying in and rest his leg, but Ed continued on anyway.
By the time Ed had reached the outer office Mustang's team worked in, Ed was rubbing at the port on his leg furiously.
"Something wrong with your leg, chief?" Havoc asked, moving toward the kid.
"No," Ed fibbed. Something was wrong, but he wasn't going to let anyone in on it. No one besides Hawkeye and Mustang had the opportunity to find out that he had automail yet, and Ed wanted to keep it that way.
Ed continued to rub at the port for another minute before limping his way into the inner office Mustang used.
"I've been expecting you, Fullmetal," the Colonel began before looking up from his paperwork. He could see something was wrong with Ed's leg. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Ed managed out. He handed his report over to the Colonel, proceeding to stand in front of his desk and watch as the man read it.
"Edward, if you're going to stand there with your knees buckling, go sit down on the couch," Mustang finally said when he couldn't take seeing the pained look in the boy's eyes any longer.
Ed turned to walk to the couch in Mustang's office, but his knee finally gave out on him and he fell to the ground. Mustang yanked himself from his desk when he heard the loud thump of Ed hitting the ground.
"Are you all right?" Mustang asked as he helped Ed off the ground. The others ran in at the sound as Mustang helped Ed onto the couch.
"My leg isn't working," Ed answered, his hand moving to the port on his knee that was undetectable through his clothing.
"Shouldn't you take him to the infirmary?" Breda asked when he saw no move to do so.
"They can't help him," Mustang said. "Hawkeye, get his brother on the phone and tell him what's going on. Havoc, help me get the kid's pants off."
"No!" Ed exclaimed at the order of removing his pants. Automail aside; he was a young pre-teen that was shy about being so exposed in front of others.
"Fullmetal," Mustang barked. "We need to see what's going on, and if taking your pants off is gonna do that, we're taking them off."
Ed looked down at his pants with a groan.
"At least let me take them down myself," Ed said with a sigh. He unbuckled his belt and shimmied the leather down his legs until the port on his thigh was visible. Thankfully he didn't need to pull them down all the way.
"Automail?" Havoc asked with widened eyes as he saw the port slowly become visible.
"This doesn't look good, Fullmetal," Mustang said as he eyed the red puffy flesh around the port.
"It's just irritated, I think," Ed said. "I've been walking on it constantly for a while and need to rest it."
"How recent was the surgery?" Mustang asked. The last time he saw the kid before he arrived in Central was when he was missing limbs.
"It was a year ago, but I just finished rehabilitation before coming here," Ed answered.
"Doesn't the surgery for that take three years?" Falman asked suddenly. He knew quite a bit about automail, but then again, he knew quite a bit about a lot of things.
"I'm a special case," Ed said. "But it's fine. I just need to put some lotion on it and rest it. You didn't have to get me half naked in front of everyone to see that."
"If you can't take care of your automail yourself, I obviously do need to get you half naked in front of everyone," Mustang said. "Is this the only one you've been neglecting to care for? How about the arm?"
"The arm's fine," Ed said with a groan. He already didn't want the team knowing he had one automail limb, but about two? "Listen, you don't have to get like this, okay? I can take care of myself. I know how to take care of myself."
"Obviously you don't," Mustang responded. "You ran your leg ragged and now it's gotten like this. Call your mechanic and tell her what happened. Then I'm having Havoc take you back to the dorms."
"I can walk back to the dorms," Ed said. "It's not that far; it's literally attached to the building."
"Havoc is taking you and that is final." The Colonel stated. "If you fall on your way and you can't get up, someone needs to help you. Havoc is going."
Ed bit back an insult when Mustang rammed a phone in his hand.
"So..." Havoc trailed off as he walked beside the pre-teen, who was limping along the hall. "Automail, huh?"
"Yep," Ed said, keeping it brief. He didn't like to talk about it.
"How'd it happen?" the Lieutenant asked.
"During the Eastern rebellion," Ed fibbed. It was the story Mustang had told to the higher ups, so he was sticking with it.
"That must've been hard," Havoc commented. "You're so young."
"I'm not that young," Ed said. "Can we not talk about it? I don't like to talk about it."
"Sure thing, chief," Havoc responded. The two walked in silence back to the dorms.
"Brother!" Alphonse called when he saw the two. He had been waiting outside the dorm for his brother to return. Hawkeye told him over the phone that Havoc was walking him back. "I told you that you should stay home and rest."
"I know, Al," Ed said. "That's all I wanna do right now." He felt...defeated for not being able to keep this a secret.
"The lotion is on the bedside table," Alphonse said. He was always willing to help his brother with this routine, but Ed preferred to do it by himself. Al knew his big brother was independent about everything he did, but the younger couldn't help but remember the days after Ed had the surgery, when he was still recovering. Ed had needed so much help back then that Al sometimes still found himself stuck in that routine.
"Thank you for bringing brother back, Lieutenant Havoc," Alphonse thanked. He was just glad his brother's leg hadn't given out when he was by himself and didn't have the support system of Mustang and his team.
"No problem," Havoc said. "But make sure he takes better care of that leg. Next time you think he should stay home and rest, keep him home."
"Sure thing, Lieutenant!"
"Sure thing, Lieutenant," Ed mocked in a high pitched voice.
So, I really wrote this because I have Scoliosis, and it causes my legs to go numb all the time. I'll lose a leg and have to stay in one spot until it comes back to me. It happens in completely random spots and there's nothing I can do to stop it. I figured Ed would probably go through something like that. I want to do a fic about him recovering from surgery so bad!