Author's Note: You guys know that one side comic Arakawa drew where Ed and Al's roles were reversed? Yeah. This stemmed from a prompt of Ling and Ed talking about something weird, and this was the first thing that popped to mind for that.
Role Swap
"I'm sorry if this sounds weird, but—"
"First of all, half the stuff you say sounds weird. Second, this better not be about food again."
Ling huffed. "Excuse me, rude. But, you know, I was just wondering: what do you think you'd do if you and Al were switched? And it was you who was in the armor?"
Ed stared at him, mouth agape, and shook his head before replying. "Okay, wow, yeah. That goes beyond weird, and just... I don't even know."
He paused and mulled it over nonetheless. If he was a suit of armor... well, he knew how lonely Al found it most of the time, so that'd be unpleasant, to put it mildly. (And on a more "minor" scale, he'd probably get annoyed over the "Fullmetal Alchemist" title a lot more often, too, provided he still had that title.)
But, on the other hand... Ed grinned as it occurred to him that then he'd be the larger one. No one would call him a tiny little beansprout anymore, that was for sure. And if anyone tried to push him around, he'd be able to push back even harder.
"You know what, no, I don't think I mind that question after all," he said smugly. "In fact, I think it might be kinda fun."
Ling paused before replying, "I'm not sure if I want to know your reasoning behind that."
"Well, then, maybe you shouldn't have asked!"
Yeah... Ed wasn't going to say the idea was worth it to pursue, but somehow he thought it wouldn't be so bad on a temporary basis.