Hello fellow ficcers! It's been a while....about 2 months....yeah....
Here's something that should've been something else, but mutated into what is here.....hmm, that makes little sense. I blame it on being ill (my nose is running and doesn't seem to have any intention of stopping).
Anyway, it's kinda an excerice in getting back into writing fics. Enjoy though! I had surprising fun writing it.
Pillow Fight
The darkness of night was battled by the light as Al reclined nervously on the Rockbell sofa, flinching since he still wasn't used to a body that didn't weigh as much as a small car and was still weary of breaking the springs. When his back hit the cushions and nothing broke or creaked with strain, he allowed a small smile to filter onto his face. He was up because he couldn't sleep, even though he was tired and midnight had passed him by a while ago. He still had trouble since he hadn't slept for nearly five years, but at the moment, he didn't care.
It had been just about a month now since the transmutation, and he was still amazed at what a human body could feel and do compared his old seven-foot suit of armour. The feeling of the moon on his face as he stared at it through the window, or the cold chill of the mountain wind that occasionally blew past in the evenings were like a miracle each time he felt them.
He could pick up small things now as well! It was amazing! He could thread a needle now (not that he ever had or would, but if he wanted to...) and could touch people without fear of crushing them into the floor. The grin on his face widened.
"You still up?" Grumbled the surly voice of Ed as he climbed weakly down the stairs. He was tired and still drained from the effects of the transmutation to get Al's body back, even after a month.
Al had been saddened when he awoke to see he had his body back, but his brother still had the automail.
"It was you or me, Al." His brother had rasped through joyous tears as he wrapped his infamous cloak around Al's new and naked shoulders. "And you know how selfish I am."
Al shook his head to clear it and grinned at his brother.
"Yep, haven't been able to get to sleep. What are you doing up? You really should be sleeping you know."
His brother grumbled something nonsensical before his eyes focused on Al's grinning face again. "What are you so happy about?"
"I'm happy about lots of things brother." Al chirped in reply, scooting over the sofa to allow his older brother to collapse next to him. Ed scoffed lightly and ran his eyes quickly over Al as he'd done every time since the transmutation. Al patiently let his brother stare at him, allowing Ed to alleviate any of the silly fears he still held about the body rejecting him.
"You've changed from the depressed little Al I knew" Ed joked after his inspection, lightly ruffling Al's hair. Alphonse squirmed out from his brother's assault and pounced on him, messing up Ed's hair from its neat braid and earning Al a one-way ticket to doom. "That's it!" Ed yelled quietly as he jumped up from Al's attack, a smile creeping it's way onto his face. "You're going down!"
"You've never defeated me brother, what makes you think you'll start now?" Al quipped back, easily settling into a mock battle stance, mimicking his brother, their grins getting wider with every second.
Al moved first.
He grabbed one of the tasselled pillows from the sofa and charged at his brother. Ed's eyes grew wide as he ducked under Al and snatched up the other pillow. "So, this is how it's going to be eh?" Ed growled as he set his pillow up into a shield. Al held his pillow like a sword, pointing one non-threatening corner at his smirking brother. Neither brother bothered to remember that the rest of the Rockbell residence was still fast asleep.
"Surrender now brother, and you won't have to face humiliation by pillow."
"I'll never surrender!" Shouted Ed, and the two boys leapt at each other.
Winry had been sleeping peacefully, dreaming her favourite dream where a certain boy with golden eyes came and swept her off her feet when she was rudely woken by something banging about downstairs. She groaned into her pillow. "I swear," she threatened, "I'm going to sweep him off his feet and out the door!" There were a few more bangs and finally a shout. "What the hell are they doing down there?"
She crawled out of bed and slipped her feet into plain sandals and pulled a cardigan over her shoulders. She stumbled blearily towards the door, grumbling loudly all the while and wondering how the noise hadn't woken her grandmother yet. "They're lucky she's a heavy sleeper." She muttered as she made her way down the stairs.
When she got to the bottom, she decided that finding out what was going on was probably a bad idea.
Al sat atop Ed, bashing his brother in the head with one of the pillows that used to reside on the sofa as Ed valiantly tried to defend himself with a similar pillow. "Say uncle!" Al laughed as his 'weapon' hit its mark yet again. Ed peeked around his pillow long enough to stick out his tongue at Al, who puffed up and renewed his attack with vigour.
Winry sighed and rolled her eyes, wondering if she should break up their little fight before anything got broken…
"AAL!" Ed shouted.
....Too late.
She sauntered into the room as Al began to hurredly stuff feathers back into the ripped pillow.
"What are you up to?" She asked nonchalantly, watching with the slightest hint of smugness as both boys jumped and tried to cover up the feathery mess from her.
"Nothing! Everything's fine. Nothing to see here." Ed gushed as he pushed the ruined pillow into Al's unsuspecting hands. Al blanched at the pillow and hid it behind his back as fast as he could. "Just like brother said." The younger boy stammered. "N-nothing to see."
Winry placed a hand to her chin and looked thoughtful for a second and delighted in the frightened looks in both boy's eyes. They could take down entire evil organisations filled with bloodthirsty beasts and not look once inch frightened, but make them face a girl who just knows they'd been having an immature pillow fight and the deer-in-the-headlights look suddenly becomes fashionable.
It was only a matter of seconds before dear, sweet Al caved.
"It was brother's fault! He started it!"
"Me?!" Shouted Ed, staring open mouthed at his brother. "You grabbed the pillow!"
"So? You challenged me!"
"What?!"
"Yeah! So it's your fault!"
"Nu uh!"
"Uh huh!"
"Nu uh!"
"Uh huh-"
"GUYS!" Winry shouted as loudly as she dared. Her grandmother was still sleeping after all. The two boys childishly stuck their tongues out at each other and tuned away sheepishly. Winry sighed, even though a small smile threatened her face.
It felt so nice to see the brothers fighting playfully again. None of that sparring stuff the boys had to do when Al's armour meant anything playful carried the risk of injuring Ed. She walked up to the two of them and took the ruined pillow from Al's hands, scanning the damage to the poor defenceless object.
"It's totally ruined you know?" She said matter of factly, and was rewarded by similar 'Eep's' of fear from the brothers.
"We can fix it!" Ed suddenly announced when the light bulb of ideas finally lit up. He snatched the pillow from Winry's hands and placed it on the floor. "Help me gather up the feathers." He ordered as he scrabbled around the floor, dusting up wayward down. Al hurredly jumped to his brother's aid and Winry smiled and got down onto her knees to help. Eventually, the pillow and all it's stuffing were gathered together in a neat little pile.
"Okay then, this'll be a piece of cake." Ed muttered as he clapped his hands together. Al grabbed his brothers shoulder before Ed could touch the pile. "Brother, are you sure you're okay to do this?" He asked. Ed snorted and gave Al his cockiest grin. "Of course I am! You guys haven't let me do anything but sleep for the last month. I'm perfectly fine now." Winry and Al gave Ed a dubious stare, but the blond paid no notice to them. "Here goes." He muttered, and placed his hands on the pile.
The flash of blue light that heralded a transmutation lit up the darkened room, and Winry had to hold a hand up to block it out. After a few seconds the glow faded and there on the floor was a perfectly fixed cushion, though Winry could've sworn there weren't any of those creative swirls on it before. Trust Ed to add a bit of artistic flair to something so trivial.
"T-there we go. All fixed." He said, and sat back down on the sofa with that smirk still on his face. Winry hmm'd and picked up the cushion, Al coming over to check it with her. "I guess it's fine now." She grumbled good naturedly. "What do you think, Al?" She looked up at the younger brother, and was surprised to see Al staring at Ed, with a wry smile on his face. "What?" She asked, but Al put a finger to his lips and pointed.
Winry turned her head to see Ed, who just moments ago was wide-awake, now fast asleep, his head resting on the back of the sofa. She giggled and walked over to sit next to the slumbering boy. "He's such a liar." She said softly, poking Ed in his side. The boy in question grunted and turned his head towards her but didn't wake up.
"Yeah, that's Ed." Al laughed, rolling his eyes and sitting down on the other side of his brother. "But he's got the right idea I guess. What time is it?" he asked, looking around the room for a clock. Winry spied the clock above the stairs.
"Almost..." She was interrupted by a yawn escaping her mouth, " 5 am." She settled down and snuggled into Ed's torso, laying her head on his chest. Al yawned too. "Oh, I feel tired now." He said excitedly. Falling asleep always made him feel excited. "I didn't before Ed came down." Winry gave a sleepy grumble of acknowledgement, but soon trailed off as her breathing deepened.
Al cast an eye over the sleeping two, and decided that he couldn't let them have all the fun. He allowed his head to rest against his brother's shoulder, and marvelled at the feeling of Ed's heartbeat as it travelled through his ears. He'd missed this so much, but now he had all the time in the world to enjoy it. With one last yawn, he mumbled "Night brother, Winry..." And let his eyes close.
Heh, ta daa!
As said, this was just something to get me back into writing fanfics. It was a lot of fun though, and has surprisingly little about automail in it (i've noticed that in my fics, they're usually about Ed and his automail. It was fun writing a human Al though). Heh, anyways...
REVIEW ELSE I'LL GIVE YOU MY COLD VIA THE POWER OF SHEER VINDICTIVENESS!!!! (hmm...is that the right word to use? Meh. Too ill to find a dictionary.)
Inuchron