Hello again! It's EdWin week 2020 and I'm hoping to do my best to get something out for each day! This fic is going to be a series of one-shots about the EdWin kids in their teenage years. Chapters may or may not be in chronological order, I'm writing this as I go without any planning. This one is basically "the kids do dumb tiktok challenges, but its like 1930-something".

Post series (several years in). Ratings for language, some violence/injury.

Sometimes, Ed didn't have the highest of hopes for his kids. It wasn't like he had never done anything stupid in his life, but he liked to think that the kids had inherited the Rockbell common sense. Or at least enough of it to counter the Elric recklessness.

But after sitting in the waiting room for nearly an hour, he was starting to see that that might have been too much to hope for.

Winry sighed and slouched down in her seat, resting her head on his shoulder. The initial panic had died down and the two of them were definitely feeling the draining after-effects of being told their two oldest had been found out behind the general store with burns and were being brought to the hospital.

Ed had really thought he was past the era of possibly dying of stress, but the run to the hospital had proved that to be false. At least the nurses had been ready to talk to them the second they got there- the burns were nasty and painful, but not life threatening. Once they were done getting cleaned up, they'd be good to go. And apparently they weren't the only ones- a whole pack of teenagers had been brought in, all with burns on their hands and arms.

One of the kids had admitted they had all dared each other to pour oil on their hands and light it. Last one standing won.

Except it had ended with a lot of screaming and Mrs. Jerring had come running out of her shop to see what the hell had happened. Several phone calls later, the kids were all on the way to Rush Valley's hospital with their parents not far behind.

Ed recognized several of the others in the waiting room as parents of the kids' classmates. The fear had abated and given way to anger and disappointment. There would be plenty of groundings to go around.

"The shop floor could use a good scrub," Winry muttered. She sounded exhausted, relieved, and mildly infuriated. It wasn't all that dissimilar to the tone she had when they were teenagers and he had showed up unannounced with half his arm blown off.

He snorted. "So could the windows."

"And the bathrooms."

"The roof needs some new shingles."

"Nice try, that's your job." Winry shifted to sit up, finger-combing her hair back into place. They'd both run straight out of the shop and both of them smelled strongly of hot metal. There was a smudge across Winry's cheek and Ed didn't doubt he looked just as rough. But really, anyone who expected them to clean up after getting the "your children have been admitted to the hospital" call could stuff it.

Finally, they were called back. They were given another run down on the injuries (burns, but didn't look like anything would scar), how long it would all take to heal, and what sort of treatment the kids would need for everything to heal up well. The nurse left them at the door and after a quick look, Winry led the way into the exam room.

The two of them were squashed next to each other on the exam table. Their fingers were bandaged and both of them suddenly found the floor interesting when their parents walked in.

The door clicked shut. "It was Ruth's idea," Sarah blurted before anyone could say anything. "She said her pen-pal in Central was doing it and-"

"And you went along with it because?" Winry asked, arms crossed. Now that they had visual evidence that the kids were alive and more embarrassed than anything, the parental anger was starting to come back.

Sarah huffed. "She's having that big party at the end of the month. I wanted to get an invite."

"And you?" The question was aimed at Alexander, their oldest, and up until now, was the pinnacle of responsibility and common sense in the family.

He scratched at his nose, looking embarrassed. "I wasn't going to let my little sister show me up."

"I'm only a year younger than you!" Sarah shouted, scowling. "You did it because you wanted to impress Doris!"

"That's not true!" Xander shot back. He pointed a bandaged finger at his sister. "She doesn't like dogs- you think I'd go after someone who didn't like dogs?"

Winry glanced over at him; Ed shrugged. Sarah accused Xander of a new crush every week, just to rile him up. "Alright, that's enough! You're both in trouble." He kept going over the chorus of groans. "Doctor said you need to rest your hands for next week before coming in for a follow up. "You're grounded till then, and once the bandages come off, we've got plenty of chores that need doing."

Xander slid off the table, smart enough to know when a fight was lost, but Sarah was every bit as stubborn as her parentage implied. "Come on! It's not like you didn't do stupid things when you were our age. Mom staged her own kidnapping!"

"Okay, that was different, and you know it." Winry clasped Sarah's elbow and steered her towards the door. "When you get involved in a national coup, you get a license to make stupid decisions." Ed snorted but didn't comment.

The kids slouched out of the room ahead of them, passing several of their classmates (including the now-infamous Ruth) as they made their way down the hall. The hunched shoulders and frowns made it apparent that everyone was being handed their just rewards. Ed wanted to think that this was the last time something this extreme would happen, but given his own experience as a teenager, he doubted it. Maybe they'd at least get through the month without another crisis.

He hoped.

If you're sitting there going "hey wait, isn't Alexander the name of Nina's dog?"- yes. Yes it is. I forgot and didn't connect the dots until like a month ago but I'm too sold on the name to change it. C'est la vie and all that.

Other notes- this is all in my own personal headcanon for post-series. Ed and Winry live in Rush Valley and they've got a total of 5 kids at this point, with Xander and Sarah being the two oldest. Hopefully all the kids will get some screentime in this fic.