Sometimes, Alphonse's love and Edward's great dislike for cats goes a bit overboard. Today is one of those times.
"Come on, Brother! We have to keep them! They're scared and lonely and hungry, and they've got nowhere to go."
"There's fifteen of them, Al! Where are we going to keep FIFTEEN kittens exactly?"
"In our hotel room, of course! Where else would they go?" Alphonse said as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. Edward gave an exasperated sigh as he sat on a bench, five of these fifteen kittens crawling and clawing all over him.
"NO, ALPHONSE. We've been over this before. We don't have the means to care for even one kitten with all the traveling we do- not to mention all the enemies we've made…" Ed muttered the last part sheepishly, and if Al could have facial expression, he would be glaring.
"The enemies you've made, Brother. Plus, we can get someone to take care of them while we're traveling-"
"We're ALWAYS traveling, Al! Remember, we don't have a permanent home to go to, which means-" Ed was interrupted by a gasp from Alphonse, realization dawning upon the younger Elric.
"Oh, I see, Ed. You're brilliant! This means that we're going to get a permanent home, settle down, and spend the rest of our lives caring for kittens! Let's get started!" Alphonse shouted, leaping from his seat (and knocking several indignantly squealing kittens off his lap), but Edward grabbed his arm.
"For the last time, Al, NO. We can't keep any kittens, okay? And you know as well as I do that neither of us will be settling down until I get your body back, and who knows how long that'll be."
Alphonse fell silent at this, just staring at his big brother with those soulfire eyes, silently imploring Edward. Said older brother knew that, if Al had his body, he'd be on the verge of tears- on purpose.
This knowledge didn't help as Edward tried to figure out a way out of this, because Alphonse had a way of guilting Ed into giving in to things like this.
Edward began to think of some sort of reasonable compromise when-
Rrrip.
Ed looked at his right arm. A kitten was clawing all over his coat that he'd just fixed that day, tearing it to shreds.
That. Was. it.
Alphonse was hard to say no to, but that didn't change how hideous cats could be. Edward made up his mind: they were not keeping even one of these monsters.
And then an idea struck him.
"Hey, Al?"
"Yeah?"
"When's the Colonel's birthday again?"
So, that's that. I know something fairly similar happens in the 2003 anime, but my fics are (unless otherwise noted) for Brotherhood. Plus, something tells me that the Elric brothers had multiple instances like this haha.
Fun Fact number 397342691: I love cats. I'd have one if not for this thing called allergies.
Have a great day!