A/N: Little one-shot that shows some of the disadvantages of being tall after being short for a long while. This is the first one I've actually posted.
Disclaimer: I do not own FMA
"Ah dammit. It hurts." Edward Elric limped through the halls of Central. He had somehow managed to get himself stuck in a hospital for two months after another (dangerous) fight and had somehow also acquired a broken leg during that time (courtesy of Armstrong). And then he had to endure getting whacked with a wrench once every few days. And now this! He had miraculously grew quite a bit during a month, enough to make his automail leg considerably shorter. He was rather pleased that he had grown, without drinking even the slightest bit of milk, but this really hurt.
"Ow!" Ed had tripped over his own feet. Literally. "Dammit!" Just as Ed had managed to get up, he lost his balance and collapsed again, crashing into someone coming around the corner. "Shit! What the hell?" He looked up to see a dark haired man staring down at him with a smirk on his face.
"Hey Fullmetal shrimp, you look a lot shorter than usual." Colonel Mustang had come out of his office to see what the commotion was. "Nice to see you're not glued to the bed anymore."
"WHO DID YOU SAY WAS TOO SMALL TO SEE IN THE BLANKETS?"
"By the way, where's Al?" Mustang cut Ed off.
"Winry. He's keeping her away and that damn wrench of hers away. She's staying in a hotel here in Central so Al's out taking her shopping." Ed picked himself up from the floor. "But I'll probably need to have her come to my room for adjustments. My leg seems to have gotten half a foot shorter." Ed began to painfully make his way towards the exit. "I'll be back for my mission tomorrow."
"Whatever Fullmetal."
"Haha. So you finally grew." Winry had taken Ed's leg off and was making adjustments to it. "No doubt I'll need to adjust your arm too. I'd say you grew almost a foot in the past 2 months and maybe another half a foot or so since the last check up."
Ed was sitting on the edge of his bed swinging his foot looking pretty much bored. "Sheesh. It's not my fault I didn't notice that I finally grew. All I did was-"
"Get yourself into another dangerous fight after I told you not to!" Winry looked up angrily and chucked the wrench at Ed.
"Ow! What was that for?" Ed sat up now sporting a rather nice bump.
"For not listening. Again. Maybe if you told me...But even if I ask you brothers never tell me anything." Winry retrieved her wrench and continued working.
Ed looked down at his hands and started fidgeting. "Well, I guess I'm stuck here for a while doing nothing. Might as well go to sleep."
A few hours later, Ed was woken by the sound of metal hitting the floor. He sat up and noticed Al carrying a tray laden with food. "I thought you'd be hungry and I had a feeling you might have had a hard time coming to get food." Al deposited the tray on Ed's lap.
"Argh. This reminds me of the hospital. Just watch. When we get our real bodies back we won't have to do this." Ed started digging into his meal.
Winry walked in carrying his leg. "All finished! I'll attach it after you finish eating and then I'll take that arm." She sat down on the edge of the bed. "Seriously though, it's great you grew taller. Maybe this will stop your explosions. You're rather loud for someone so small."
For once, Ed didn't react too much; he didn't even bother looking up from his meal. "I wasn't short in the first place," he mumbled around a mouthful of food. Ed didn't take long to finish. Within ten minutes, he was done and was preparing himself for the pain of the nerves connecting in his leg.
"Don't worry. It won't be any worse than it normally is." Winry was making a few final adjustments while preparing to insert his leg.
"I know, I know. You'd think I'd have gotten use to it by now...I'm ready any time." Ed bit his lip in anticipation and gripped the sides of the chair tightly. "Ergggghhhhh." Ed gritted his teeth as the nerves connected.
"There. All done." Winry stood up and brushed hair out of her eyes. "I'll take that arm now and try not to do anything dangerous while I adjust it."
"Yeah, yeah, sure whatever Winry." Ed stood up. "Ow. It still hurts. But it's nice being taller."
"Argh!" Ed bumped his head on a low door that he had always passed through without any difficulty. "When did the door shrink? Dammit. That hurt."
"I see you finally grew, Fullmetal." Mustang had come out and watched in amusement as the boy straightened up. "If you're going to use shortcuts, try not to hurt yourself. Shorty." Mustang smirked. "I'll be waiting for you in the office." Mustang turned and strode briskly towards the direction of his office.
"WHO'S SHORT? MIDGETY? LITTLE? Damn you Colonel Bastard, I GREW if you haven't noticed. Now how to get to his office fast..." Ed backed out of the door and looked around trying to remember a particular shortcut.
"What the hell? When did this shrink?" Ed was crawling through a small "tunnel" which was in fact an unused ventilation pipe. His back hurt from being confined in the tunnel. It took three anguished minutes to get through until he finally reached Mustang's office. Ed crawled out and stretched his back. That pipe had definitely shrunk.
After Ed had received his mission from the Colonel, he returned to the room where he and Al were staying along with Winry. He was hunched over the table attempting to eat dinner. "Hey Al, is it just me, or did this chair get taller?" Ed was looking rather uncomfortable bending his back over.
" No nii-san, I think it's just that you've grown." Al sat by looking on as his brother grew frustrated and in the end removed a bit of each of the legs of each chair.
"You know, it wasn't that bad being short" Ed grumbled to himself.
When Ed returned to military headquarters the next day, he found he had evened up to Hawkeye's height. Just barely, but he was slightly taller. "Yes! I'm taller than someone!" Ed crowed in delight.
Bang. "Edward-kun, if you don't calm down, I may be forced to take some drastic actions." Hawkeye had drawn her gun and fired a shot directly above Ed's head.
"Errr...Yes First Lieutenant." Ed quickly backed down and retreated.
A week later
Mustang sat behind his desk looking amused at the not-so-short alchemist sitting on the couch before him. Ed seemed to have had some difficulty as he looked a mess: his clothes was torn in quite a few places and he was covered in dirt. "So what happened Fullmetal? Easy assignment take its toll?"
"Damn you Colonel. It was hard adjusting to my new HEIGHT." Ed stood. "So you want your report or not?"
"Go ahead. Tell me what happened."
"Yeah it was an easy mission although the stupid anti-military extremists had to choose a bloody PLAYGROUND to pick their fight. Not only that, it was 5 against one and I was being consistently forced under the play structures. I never knew that they could be so short and small. This..." Ed gestured down at his clothes and appearance, "is due mostly to that blasted thing. I put it back together afterwards though. But mission was completed successfully, the culprits have been retained. Oh, and for your information, people actually said I was 16. And not one SINGLE mention of being short." Ed stormed out of the office.
"So enjoying your new height are you, Fullmetal shorty." Mustang chuckled quietly to himself.
It's not that bad being short. Even being called "shrimp", "shorty", or "runt" is worth it.
A/N: This was a little fic I wrote up while procrastinating on the one I'm working on. I wrote this after I got really annoyed that following my little brother around the playground was rather painful and deciding that being short wasn't all that bad. Considering I was once the shortest person in the grade…and now I'm on the high end of average. Anyways, hope you enjoyed. Feedback/reviews are much appreciated! (Btw, I have a whole list of grievances of going from shorty to being taller than all your friends.)