Al was a criminal now.
The very second he'd agreed to go along with Ed's plan, he'd officially began his life of crime, never to return to his life before.
He hadn't wanted to.
He really didn't.
But Ed made it sound so appealing!
Even though doubts arose in Al's head about stealing extra cookies from the jar in the dead hours of the night, Ed had reminded him how good they tasted. He also mentioned how many their mother had made, so she surely wouldn't notice six or seven missing cookies. Alphonse had his doubts, yet even through his anxieties, and the thought of the fact that they'd have to brush their teeth again, he'd agreed.
Anxiety spiked in Al's chest as they avoided creaky floorboards in the complete darkness, checking doorways, and freezing at the smallest noises.
The kitchen seemed miles away in the dark, and slightly eerie house at this time of night. Alphonse filled his mind with thoughts of kittens and the cookies waiting in the jar as they moved along through the living room. Anything of comfort was of use to him right now.
After what felt like years, they had finally reached the kitchen, Al squinted in the dark, scanning in the dark for the jar, "No need." Ed whispered to him, "I spied on mom a little after she told us to go brush our teeth." he pointed to the top of a high shelf.
"So that's what took you so long…" Al muttered as Ed moved over to a chair at the table.
"Come on, help me move this." Ed called as quietly as possible. Al nodded in response, picking up one side of the chair and walking backwards as Ed pushed it forward. The four year old almost stumbled when the pushing came to a sudden stop. "Here's good." Ed whispered.
They carefully placed the chair down in front of their target as Ed climbed on as quietly as possible and reached upwards. However, a certain obstacle appeared.
Al anxiously glanced towards the doorway, "What's taking so long brother?" he whispered with urgency.
"I can't reach it…" Ed trailed off.
"Maybe I can, I am a bit taller than you-"
"Nah." Ed interrupted without a second thought, you probably couldn't either. We just need some extra leverage."
"Should we stack another chair on?" Al suggested.
Ed shook his head, "No, that could cause them to fall down and alert mom…" he glanced towards Al in thought, "Though, there is another thing we can stack."
Al was immediately on board, until he heard Ed's plan at least.
"Just a lil' higher up Al." Ed strained as he reached for the jar, balancing on Al's shoulders while the younger brother was just trying to keep from falling off of the chair.
"I'm trying-" Al sharply exhaled in focus.
"Try standing on your toes." Ed pushed himself forwards, reaching further, so close.
Al moved his heels upward, as Ed finally got his grasp on the jar, "YES!"
However, Al did not feel like celebrating as Gravity decided to bring everything toppling down. Ed clung to the jar as they let out two screams before landing on the floor, the sound of breaking glass as an instrumental.
They sat there disoriented, and in pain for the shards of the broken jar weren't too kind where they had landed. A light shone in through the kitchen and the two boys winced at their shocked looking mother in her nightgown. The shock however, quickly wore off and was replaced with disappointment as the situation was fully realized.
"Boys, what have I told you about taking sweets without asking?"
The brothers sheepishly looked at each other before responding,"You told us not to…"
"Yes I did, so can you tell me why you decided to disobey your mother?"
Ed stumbled over words, "Well, I just… well-we, we thought that-er…" he hadn't thought out an answer.
"You thought you weren't going to get caught?" Trisha pursed her lips as she turned to Al, "Do you have anything to say young man?"
"It-it, it-"
"It what?"
"It was-it was brother's idea!" Ed gaped at his brother who had practically thrown him under the bus.
"Hey! You went along with it!" the older blonde defended quickly as Al kept stumbling through sentences.
"I didn't want to! Not at first! But Ed convinced me! Your cookies are just so good, how could we not want more!? I promised the only crime we were gonna commit was stealing cookies! We were gonna brush our teeth again after and everything!" he pleaded.
"Al-"
Tears filled his golden eyes, "We're criminals! We committed our first crime! We are gonna go to jail, where all the criminals go. I'm not ready for jail, I regret it all!"
"Alphonse calm down." a comforting hand came to his face, "People don't go to jail for stealing cookies." she chuckled.
Al visibly relaxed, "Really?"
"Of course they don't, but what people do get for stealing cookies is being sent back to bed and no dessert tomorrow." The brothers sighed and nodded in defeat as Trisha removed her hand from Al's face to see a bit of blood which awakened her to their small cuts. "Okay, I'll help you both up carefully, then go right to the bathroom, the broken pot gave you some boo boos, so I'll need to patch you up in the bathroom."
The boys nodded obediently as their mother helped them away from the sharp remains of the pot. A few moments later she had met them in the bathroom. She cleaned the cuts on Al's face and leg, applying bandages along with a kiss to make it get better faster. She sent Al up to bed as she turned to Ed.
"Time for me to fix up your boo boos now Ed."
Ed huffed, "MOOOOooooooom, they aren't boo boos anymore once you're six, they're cuts. I can use the real word now, I'm old enough."
Trisha smiled, "Alright then, let's get those cuts fixed up." she tended to Ed's injuries as she had done with Al's before sending Ed up to bed too.
She went to tend to the shattered pot as the boys retired to bed once again. Ed climbed into their shared bed as Al sniffed a little. "What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry for blaming you so much back there, I was just so scared about being a criminal…"
Ed sighed and hugged his brother close to him, "You're such a doofus Al." the younger boy sniffled a bit more, "The biggest doofus ever, let's just get to sleep so we can suffer our day without dessert and get it over with, okay?"
"Alright brother, goodnight."
"Goodnight ya' doofus."
Some little Elric Brothers for a little plot bunny drabble, cookie thieves they are. I would really appreciate a review if you care to leave one! Thanks for reading!