The Restaurant at the End of Adventures
-Set post-manga, spoilers for anywhere up to chapter 62-
Disclaimer – FMA is perhaps one of the few manga where I like the artist's work better than the fanartists', most of the time. But that doesn't mean I'm egotistical, 'cause it ain't mine.
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Ed could think of more than ten dozen situations similar to the one he was in right now, but at the same time, none of them came anywhere near close.
Because, yet again, he was in hospital, with Al nearby, and Winry somewhere out there in the city, possibly with Hawkeye, but probably just making friends and giving them a bit of space. She'd already given them her own version of congratulations – not complete with wrench to the head, he was in hospital still but that'd probably happen later – so she would be back in a while. Mustang – the bastard that he was – had taken charge of all of the important things, but Ed had been told the Colonel had visited them while he and Al had still been sleeping.
The bed over from his, Al stretched and made a contented noise. Ed smiled and echoed his brother, but started when his younger brother made a pained and disgruntled groan. Immediately, he was trying to get up, wincing at the pain the movement caused his new – old, really, but it'd been so long since he'd had it that it felt more new than old – leg, shifting most of his upper body weight onto his remaining automail limb as he did so.
"Al – Al, what is it? Is something wrong?"
Al groaned again, but this time with a little embarrassment, too.
"I forgot to ask Winry," he said.
"Ask her what?"
Al looked at him with half a smile.
"Don't you remember, big brother? When you asked me what I wanted to do once we got our bodies back." Al glanced guiltily at Ed's left arm, still automail. They'd promised – rather, he'd promised Al – that when they got their bodies back, it would be for both of them. . . yet for Edward, a part of him was still missing.
"We've been over this, Al. You're not to blame for that. I'm happy enough just to have you back to normal. What's one arm to having both of us still alive, really?"
Al smiled, a little wider this time. The first time he'd said anything like that, it'd been while they'd both been recovering and Ed was having to explain to his brother how an arm was a small price to pay for having them together still; the last time had been as they had been waiting for Mustang and the others to find them after the transmutation and everything else.
"Well," Al said, continuing, "You said you thought you'd just try and go back to places and say 'We're back' to everyone..."
Ed snorted.
"Yeah, about that. I think Winry's going to be getting to everyone before I get a chance, at this rate."
Al laughed, but then sobered up.
"But I wanted the – the first thing I ate . . . to be Winry's apple pie! But I missed her! And now she's going out everywhere and she probably won't be back for ages, and-"
"Whoa, hold it, Al!" Ed said, laughing. "You do know she's probably going to be back soon, don't you? You can ask her then..." He trailed off in a melancholy remembrance.
"Hey, what is it, big brother?"
"Hm? Oh, nothing. You should probably say something about Mrs. Hughes, if it comes to that." Shoving himself back down the bed, Ed let his head fall back onto his pillows, arms resting just beyond his head, one falling off the pillow it was on. "Last time she made it with her recipe, and it was really good."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Heh. If you want messy apple pie, you can get Elicia to join in."
Al's eyes widened.
"I. . . I can, can't I? There is going to be a next time, and a time after that, and..." he stopped short from a poorly thrown pillow to the head, chuckling.
"I get the picture already. Geez..."
Even so, Ed couldn't help grinning. What his brother said was true. They had their lives ahead of them to eat apple pie.
"But this first time, brother, I want it to be just us. You, me and Winry."
"Sure, Al. Whatever you say. Just us."
Just the three of them, like it had been so long ago. . . yet even if there were still people missing or people added to their group. . . there would still be Edward, Al and Winry.
It was that thought that made him smile as he drifted back off to sleep filled with visions of everyone back together again and eating apple pie. Really, one arm wasn't much of an equivalent exchange if this was what he got in return.
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AN: Just a little oneshot (which may or may not become a twoshot, explaining how things got this way a little more) which popped in my mind a short while back. Ed's in hospital because he's been in fights and because he's got his normal leg back somehow, and it takes a while to get used to again. Al's in hospital because . . . well, in chapter 45ish, it shows spoilers. Mucho spoilers. If you've read that far – and you should, the manga's that good – you'll understand what's wrong with him. I hope.
I think perhaps the first fic I've done for a series that I didn't have to read loads and loads of story and loads and loads of fic to get the characters sorted in my head, though I think the story itself could have been better. But never mind that.
My first FMA fic, so be nice. The title's from Douglass Adams, btw.