Chapter 4

Over the next few days, the feeling of weakness lingered. Ed found himself dropping off if he was still longer than a few minutes, and the major problem was that he was too tired to do anything at all.

Alphonse wasn't much better. His usually perky personality had taken a turn for someone who was tired all the time, and more than once he would fall asleep in the middle of a conversation with Ed, and that was just wrong. Al didn't need to sleep, and he didn't' get tired. With his armor body, that was impossible, but it was happening and neither brother could figure out why.

Fed up with this feeling, Ed and Al returned to the doctor after a week of impromptu naps.

"What can I do for you boys?" he asked as they came into his office.

"We keep falling asleep," Ed complained. "I mean, yeah, a nap every once in a while is okay, but we keep having them every few hours, and we sleep all night. Sleeping like this is not normal."

"Well, we've done all the tests we can on you, Ed, and you said that Alphonse doesn't need tests, so you know all that we know," the doctor said, inviting them both to sit down. The brothers sank into chairs. "Sometimes, illnesses have a way of lingering, and most of the time your body's natural defense against it is to make you rest so it can focus on the job of healing you. That's why people who have a serious illness or injury sleep so much."

"Yeah, but you said yourself that you couldn't find anything wrong with us," Ed pointed out. "If there's nothing wrong, then why are we sleeping?"

The doctor considered this. "You two are State alchemists, am I right?"

Al nodded, too sleepy to say anything.

"Well, how often do you get to sleep all you need?" the doctor wanted to know. "Sometimes, when you lack sleep, your body will say, 'That's it!' and make you sleep in order to make up for the sleep you've missed."

"That sounds like it could be what's wrong with us," Al said thoughtfully. "But that still doesn't explain why I keep falling asleep, though," he said, sounding doubtful. "I rest, too, but I don't need to sleep as much as Ed does." Al didn't want the doctor to know he was just a suit of armor and not a person inside at all.

"Well, have you also been short on rest?" the doctor asked.

"Oh. Yes."

"There you are, then," the doctor said cheerfully. "I'm sure that once you've had enough rest, your body will stop making you sleep all the time, and you'll feel much more like yourself." With that, he showed them out of his office and wished them a good day.

The brothers went outside, determined to walk around to keep themselves from falling back to sleep.

"Do you think he was truthful, brother?" Al asked, watching Ed kick a stone along.

"I don't know," Ed admitted. "I mean, what he was saying made sense, but why isn't he more worried? We may be lacking rest, but we're also young and healthy. It sounds like that should be enough to cancel out."

Both of them were thoughtful as they walked along the lake, and it was Al's request that they stop for a few minutes that brought them to rest under a tree. That was where they were found few hours later by the lodge staff, asleep and dead to the world.

Space

Ed and Al began to notice something else that was going on in the lodge. Most of the older guests were being replaced with younger guests, and soon, there was hardly a person over forty at the resort. The Elrics and Astra, Rob, Luna, and Avery were still the only kids, though. They often visited the Elrics in their room, and they played games that didn't require much moving around since the brothers were still tired.

Ed was playing chess with Al one afternoon when the four redheads showed up.

"How are you guys feeling?" Luna asked, sitting down on a bench across from Ed.

"Still tired," Ed admitted, "But at least we're out of bed."

"It's good to see that," Avery said, flopping into a chair at the table. "Still sleeping a lot?"

"Every few hours," Al said, sounding frustrated.

"Like clockwork," Ed muttered. "We've tried waking ourselves up with coffee and tea and things like that, but they really aren't working."

"That's too bad," Rob said, sounding sympathetic. "It's no fun to be cooped up all the time because you're sick."

"I don't feel sick at all," Al said. "Just tired."

"I think that would be bad enough," Astra said, giving both of them pats on the shoulders.

Soon after that, Ed found his head dropping, so both brothers bid goodbye to their friends and turned back to their beds.

"This doesn't feel like the other times," Al commented.

"I know," Ed said, dropping onto his bed. "I don't underst—"

Both brothers fell asleep at the same time.