Flowers for You
Author: Chaos Valkyrie
First Conceptualized: July 5, 2009
Posted Chapter 02: July 30, 2009
Disclaimer: Ditto Chapter One.
Author's Note: Ed's turn. And Roy is very evil. Enjoy.
Part Two: Edward
Edward Elric was Bored (note the capital 'B'). And when Edward Elric was Bored, capital 'B', Bad Things tended to happen to good buildings…
His mission reports were proof of that.
However, Bad Things were only guaranteed to happen when he had two working legs. And seeing as he was rather… lacking in that area currently…
"Geez Al, you're such a mother hen," Ed griped as his brother stood over the hospital bed, adjusting the tray just-so for his older brother's comfort.
"Well, maybe if I could trust you to look after yourself…" Al trailed off, his voice definitely smirking, even if the cool armor remained impassive.
"I can't help it if that building was in the way!" Ed snarled, fingers curling at the reminder.
"Well, you'll be happy to know that the building will no longer be in anyone's way, Brother."
"Good riddance."
Alphonse sighed with long suffering, waiting for the inevitable…
"So, when's lunch?" Ed asked eagerly.
"Not for another hour, brother. Five minutes less than the last time you asked. Try to be patient…"
"I'm bored! I've got two cracked ribs, a nasty gash across my forehead, miscellaneous abrasions, and my leg's busted!" he exclaimed, pointing at the wreckage of his automail leg.
"At least you still have your arm," Al reminded him.
"Only until Winry gets here." Ed sulked while Al giggled. "Least you could do is go get me a magazine or something!"
"The magazines are all the same ones you read the last time you were here. And the time before that."
"…Damn."
The brothers sat in long silence, Al patiently waiting while Ed picked at his sheets and wondered if anyone would notice if he alchemized the side table…
"Don't even think about it, Brother."
"What?!" Ed exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air in a gesture of implied innocence.
"The side table. Alchemy." Alphonse would've rolled his eyes if he could've.
"You're no fun, Al."
"Mail call!" A volunteer pushed a cart into the room, smiling at Edward. The smile faltered slightly as it took in the large suit of armor hovering over the bed. The man turned to the cart and rooted through the various flowers and packages.
"Is this your first time in the hospital, kiddo?" he asked nicely.
"WHO'RE YOU…" the rest was muffled under a large armored hand.
"Now brother, you know what the doctors said the last time you yelled at the volunteers…" Al turned to the very confused candy-striper. "You might just want to leave the mail on the table and go."
The man took one look at the furious (and quite possibly insane) kid with the automail arm on the bed, nodded quickly and fled.
"Brother…"
"What?!" Ed shrugged. "He's still alive… now pass that stuff over," he added eagerly.
Al sighed. Which turned to a choked laugh as he reached for the first of several packages next to the door.
"What's so funny?"
"This," Al said, setting the first gift on the tray table before ripping open a letter with his own name on it. Al laughed fully as he scanned the contents. Meanwhile…
"What the hell is a carton of milk doing in this room?!" Ed screeched, trying to push the table as far away from himself as possible.
"Major Armstrong," Al started, waving the letter in his hand, "wishes you a speedy recovery, and has tried to impress upon me the importance of me making you drink your milk. Something about how drinking milk has been a long-standing tradition for building strong bones in the Armstrong family…"
"That sparkly, bare-chested… bastard!" Ed snarled. Alphonse continued to laugh as he grabbed the next item from beside the door… this time, a bouquet of…
"Are those… wrenches?" Ed asked, as both brothers stared at the arrangement of several sprigs of light pink flowers mixed with wrenches. "Those have to be from Winry."
"But Brother, there's no card…"
"They're wrenches, Al. Who else would've sent it?"
Alphonse couldn't argue with that.
"What kind of flowers are these?" Ed asked as Al set the bouquet on the table next to Ed.
"Almond blossoms, I think," Al stated. Ed stared at him in disbelief.
"How do you know that?"
"Read it in a book once," the younger brother shrugged as he walked back to the door. "A gift box from the office."
"Oo! Give it, give it!" Ed nearly fell off the bed in his impatience to receive the box from his brother. Al sighed, but willingly handed it over. Ed tore into the box with glee.
"Yes!" he cried, popping a piece of candy in his mouth as he sorted through the junk the other officers – Havoc, Breda, Fuery, and Falman – had sent him. "We'll play cards later," he told his brother, tossing the new deck onto the sheets as he rooted through the box.
"Only if you refrain from eating all the candy today, brother," Al warned. Ed snorted.
"Lieutenant Hawkeye sent you a book of puzzles and some pencils," Al stated, passing the bag over to his brother.
"'A thousand mind benders'!" Ed read off the cover, "How long does she think I'm gonna be in here?"
"She handles the paperwork, remember brother? She probably remembers the last time you got Bored in the hospital."
"…I put everything back to normal before we left."
Alphonse chose not to comment. "And finally a bouquet and package…" Al chuckled in glee.
"What?" Ed looked up from the puzzle book. Al shook his head, setting the flowers and package next to the bed.
"Who're those from?" Ed asked, tilting his head in confusion. He recognized the red carnations, but he had no idea what the frilly white things were, nor the little blue and yellow flowers either.
"Flowers… from the Colonel," Al said in a sing-song voice.
"Why would that bastard send me flowers?!" Ed yelped, his face glowing red. Alphonse enjoyed the tell-tale look on his brother's face, but decided to show him a little mercy.
"Probably because we sent him flowers last month when he was in the hospital… remember?"
"Oh, yeah," Ed replied, the color fading from his cheeks. Only to have it promptly return as he read the attached card, only this time, it was from anger. "That BASTARD!"
"Brother! Hush!" Al stated, looking at the card himself. He wisely held back his laughter as he read the inscription:
Be a good little puppy and 'heel'.
Meanwhile, Ed continued to rant and rave, albeit in a quieter tone of voice.
"…Call me a puppy, will he! Tell me to heel! When I get a hold of that bastard I'll shove my blade so far up his…"
"Brother!" Al reprimanded. Ed ignored him. He tried again. "I'm going to tell the doctor to lower the dosage on your painkillers," Al warned. Ed blinked.
"You're no fun, Al," Ed sighed. Al inwardly grinned.
"I'll go see how soon they're bringing your lunch," Al said, earning a smile from his brother before he left the room, shutting the door softly behind him.
Ed sighed happily as he glanced about the bleak little room. As much as he hated being in the hospital, especially with Winry's impending visit looming over him, he was actually kind of enjoying himself this time.
He'd never say it out loud, but he was always touched by the fact that someone other than his brother would try to make sure that his hospital stays were as comfortable as possible. The contraband from the 'guys', Hawkeye's little time-wasters, the visits from whoever happened to be in the area… it made him feel like he had a family again.
His hand flesh hand brushed something, and he looked down at the package on the table and frowned.
"This from the bastard too?" he muttered, his eyes automatically drifting to the flowers. He felt his face burn again in pleased embarrassment.
"Why these flowers, anyway?" he asked sniffing them lightly. He wasn't an expert, but from his brief foray into the florist shop last month, he knew that this was not a pre-arranged bouquet – the bastard had to have put this together himself.
"They were probably the cheapest or something…" he muttered, his stomach dropping a little at the thought. He turned back to the package to distract himself.
"What is this…" he said, picking it up. It felt like… "A book?" He brightened, ripping through the paper in glee. "Maybe it'll be on alchemy! About the Stone! Or… What the hell?" he asked, almost dropping the now unveiled book.
"The Language of Flowers?" he read aloud. He looked at the lurid cover and flinched, tearing off the dust jacket and tossing it away from the bed. "Well, maybe it'll at least tell me what those things are," he shrugged, flipping through the pages.
A page of pinkish blooms caught his eye. "Almond blossoms?" he looked at the bouquet from Winry and grinned. "Yep. Definitely almond blossoms. Which mean… 'promise'." He looked again at the flowers, then the wrenches, and gulped. Hard.
"Add another head injury to the list," he said with a weary shudder. He continued to flip through the book.
"Carnations… blue… pink… red carnations… 'my heart aches for you'… what?" he did drop the book this time, fortunately only to his lap. He blinked in shock at the book, then the flowers, then the book again.
"Wait, does that mean… he… he couldn't have known… but then why send the book…" Ed's heart leapt, and he looked at the bouquet with new eyes. "He sent these on purpose, then…" A slow smile formed. "Dunno why, but…" He frantically grabbed the book again, flipping through the pages to find the next flower.
"It's like a code! A flower code! So carnations are 'my heart aches for you'…" he whispered to himself, tearing through the pages until he spotted a familiar blue flower. "Forget-me-nots! Those mean…" his eyes widened, "'true love'." He grinned. "He loves me?"
Ed sat in a pleasant haze for a few moments, smiling foolishly. He turned back to the book, going slower as he combed the pages for the final flower, chanting 'he loves me' softly to himself.
"Hm… those lacy things are jonquils… 'return my affection'." Ed grinned, smiling over at the flowers beside his bed. "So his 'heart aches for me', with 'true love', and he asks me to 'return his affection'?!" Ed suppressed the urge to squeal like a lovesick schoolgirl as he sat in a pleasant haze for several minutes. But eventually, a tiny thought began to nag at him.
"What brought this up, anyway? Al said it was because of the flowers… last month…" The flowers. The tulips that Al had taken one look at and had declared 'perfect'. Ed flipped through the book suspiciously.
"Tulips… red… 'a declaration of affection'? My own brother set me up?!" he yelped.
And suddenly, the whole last month took on a new sense of clarity.
The jokes.
The looks.
The teasing.
The innuendo.
Had he been that fucking obvious?!
"Brother, lunch'll be ready…" Al took one look at his brother as he reentered the room and stuck his head back out into the hall.
"Doctor? Is it time for more painkillers? I think my brother is hyperventilating."
End Notes: Alphonse will be next. And no, I do not support OD-ing on painkillers. Despite what my family may think now that I've managed to throw my back out. Drugs are bad, m'kay. 'Til next time!