Nightmares
Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction
by The Cinderninja
There was a snowstorm outside, shaking the entire house and making the window's rattle in their panes. The boys payed it no mind. Al was curled up sleeping on the floor, swathed in blankets in front of the fire. Ed was sitting cross legged on the floor across from him, a bit further away from the fire, with a large pile of books beside him, and one in his hands. There was an odd ache in his arm and leg, but he payed it no mind.
"Boys!" Their mother singsonged as she came into the room holding a tray of steaming cocoa. She always made it with boiling water instead of milk. Al's head poked up from the floor, bronze eyes blinking blearily.
"Huh?" Ed cuffed him over the head, putting his book down.
"Wake up, you moron." He laughed, grinning.
The phantom pain in his limbs kept increasing as he sat with with his mom and his brother around the fire, and the snow started falling harder, until the wind outside rose to a shrill shrieking. Abruptly he sat up, grabbing at his shoulder.
"Aagh!"
"Brother! Are you alright?" A clank of armor later and his brother was there, standing over his bed as Ed hissed quietly. The howling of the wind outside hadn't stopped when he woke up, and the snow was still falling just as thickly. "Did you have a nightmare?"
"No..." He muttered, trying to rub his shoulder with his spare hand. It had been a while since it had snowed this hard, and the pain in his stumps was almost unbearable, but he wasn't going to say anything.
His brother was still there.
A soul stuck in an empty suit of armor.
No dark blond hair.
No bronze eyes.
No sleeping on the floor buried in blankets.
No sleeping at all.
He'd put him there. It was his fault.
No fire, no cocoa and no boiled water.
No mother.
Did you have a nightmare?
Ed wished he had. At least when he had nightmares, waking up provided relief.