Roy Mustang was sitting at his desk, waiting for a certain blonde-haired alchemist to come by and re-do his report.
Normally Roy was used to Ed's short, sloppily written reports, but the last one the pip-squeak had anded in was so messily written that the Colonel couldn't even read it. Not to mention that he hadn't even written a full paragraph.
While Roy was thinking of what to expect from the short alchemist's new report, he heard a light knock on his door. The door opened to reveal Alphonse Elric.
"Hello, Al, what can I do for you? Where's Ed?" Roy asked in one of his nicer voices.
"Hello, Colonel. Brother's sick today, So I told him to stay in the dorms and rest. He's not too happy about it. He'd rather be looking for clues on the Philosopher's Stone than be stuck in bed. I do have his report, though."
Roy accepted the report, nodding his head in thanks. "I'm sorry to hear that. I did notice that he wasn't looking too well yesterday when he handed in his report for the first time. How long has he been under the weather?"
"Umm, two days I think, and today. He was acting more tired than usual and sleeping a lot oner the past few days. Yesterday he started coughing and sneezing like crazy, and it was even worse today. He's already gone through a full box of tissues between last night and today. And from the looks of it, I think he was getting a fever." Al explained.
"Sounds like he's caught himself a pretty bad cold. Well, you should probably get back to the dorms and check on him. Make sure he gets plenty of rest and drinks lots of orange juice. It should help. Thank you for dropping off his report, Al."
"You're welcome, and thank you for your advice on taking care of Brother. He'll be back as soon as he's feeling better and not contagious!" Al said in his never-fail happy voice. The suit of armor left Headquarters and returned to the dorms.
Once Al was, gone, the Flame returned to his dreaded paperwork. As he was about to sign a document, something that the youngest Elric said to him clicked into his mind.
'He'll be back as soon as he's feeling better and not contagious!'
'Ed was in my office yesterday,' the raven-haired man thought to himself. 'When I called him short, he got up and my face and yelled at me. And he was coughing a bit, and if I remember correctly he didn't cover his mouth most of the time. I've been feeling run down all day, so chances are I've caught Ed's cold. I guess all I can do is hope this cold isn't as bad as Al described it...'
- 3 Days Later -
Ed walked into Central Headquarters feeling completely better. He headed straight to Roy's office to receive his next mission.
"Hey Colonal Butt-Wipe, what's my next mission-" Ed had opened the door to Roy's office but was stopped by what he saw in front of him.
Roy was sitting at his desk, harshly coughing into a tissue. Once his coughing subsided, he blew his nose forcefully and threw the tissue in the general direction of his trash can.
Roy sniffled pathetically, and looked up to see Ed. "Fullmetal, what do you want?"
"Well, I came here to get my new mission from this Colonel Mustang guy, but all I see is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!" Ed said, laughing.
"Yes, thank you for that, Fullmetal. You gave me this damn cold. Now I feel like crap and I can't get any work done. Fullmetal, you're about to go on the hardest mission of your life for this-" Roy was cut off by several sneezes that forced him forward in his seat.
Ed took this distraction as an opportunity to escape. "If you want to give me that mission, you'll have to catch me first" the pipsqueak yelled as he darted out of the older man's office.
Roy just sighed and put his head in his hands.
'Fullmetal, once I shake this God-forsaken cold, you are so dead.'
