I got no wise words for this second chapter, other than I enjoyed writing it, so hope you enjoy reading it!
They sat there in silence, staring at what seemed to be endless piles of books, clothes, art supplies, finished paintings and drawings and other smaller, but equally valuable, objects that Ed seemingly couldn't live without when he was going to move into his dorm room tomorrow. It was the last evening in the room that had been Ed and Al's room the last 13 years since they were adopted into the Rockbell family at the age of only 4 and 5.
They had been pretty lucky, escaping the orphanage so soon and preventing being adopted into separate families, when grandma Pinako had decided to adopt them both, having known them since they were born. If she did it out of pity for the boys, or because she had known their mom before she died, or because Winry needed some family members her own age to overcome her own loss of both her parents, they didn't know. And they didn't feel the need to ask, but both had a feeling of utter gratitude towards the small lady that had taken care of them and given them a stable childhood. They could've ended up in all sorts of unfortunate things, but thanks to her, sometimes strict but always annoyingly better knowing, parental skills, they had grown up in what they assumed to be a good and normal life. Sure they weren't the richest but it was just enough for the four of them, and the boys had always tried their best to help out, taking small jobs as paperboys or washing dishes at restaurants and when Ed got older he started selling his paintings and doing commissions for whoever wanted to pay him for his works.
And now, he was moving out.
It was a weird feeling for everyone in the household, but especially for the two brothers, since they had always been together. But they both knew that this was a rare opportunity for Edward, he had applied and gotten into one of the fine art schools, and he had to move to the dorms of the school, since it was cheaper than travelling back and forth every day. Also because it would mean Ed had to get up very early to catch a train every morning, and they all knew he wouldn't be able to keep that up for 4 years. So this was it.
They both continued their work in silence. It wasn't exactly an uncomfortable silence, but it had a heavy and a bit sad feeling to it. They had continued for an hour or more, the only sound being the muffled voices from the girls and the television next door, when suddenly Ed had had enough of it, getting tired of the, what he saw it as, depressing look on Al's face. He got up, stretched and broke the silence between the two.
''Nnngh.. This should be all for now! If I have forgotten anything I can bring it with me when I visit in a weekend.''
Al looked up at his brother who walked towards him while carefully stepping over the boxes standing in the way. Ed sat down beside him, handing him the bag of potato-chips that was thrown at him earlier; ''Here, take a snack, you've done enough. Now quit sulking.''
''I'm not sulking...''
''Yeah you are, what else is that look for?''
''What look? Okay stop it I'm not sulking, it's just...''
Ed looked at Al questioning until he continued.
''It's just, I hope you'll be okay.'' Still with the questioning look! Al got frustrated as he explained himself further; ''I hope you'll be okay, I mean you'll have to cook for yourself and everything, how do I know you won't end up starving because you forget to go shopping?''
Ed broke into a loud laughter; ''Hahaha! Really? That's what that look was about? Come on Al, I thought it was something serious, you had me worried!''
''I am serious brother! You forget to eat and take care of yourself if I don't remind you! You kick your blanket off while sleeping and then you catch a cold! I swear sometimes I'm the older one of us!'', Alphonse pouted and began eating the chips in protest. Now he really was sulking. He reminded Ed of a hamster. A really adorable one. Wait what? Ed shook his head, now it was Al's turn to question him.
''Ah nothing Al, just don't worry so much, I'll be fine. And I'll just order a pizza if I have no food home, at least I know how to do that. I'm not helpless you know.'' He ruffled Al's hair with a gently laugh, he didn't know why, normally Ed wasn't a very touchy-person, but the physical touch seemed in place right now. At least if it could make Al brighten up a bit, and it looked like it worked. At least Al gave him a tiny smile telling him that he would try not to worry too much.
''Alright, but if I find out you're starving I'm gonna throw away everything I'm doing and head straight home to your apartment to feed you!'', Al said jokingly, though Ed was pretty sure he was serious about the ''threat''.
''Right right, but I'm not a baby, you don't need to ''feed me''. You'll end up choking me instead.''
''Really? Then I better practise that right now!'', Al said and grabbed the bag of snacks and tried to force some of them in Ed's mouth. They both laughed and it developed into a smaller food-fight, but suddenly Ed fell backwards when he tried to fight Al off, and Al ended laying flat on his stomach on top of Ed, hips straddled between Ed's legs. They found it funny for a mere second but then they noticed Winry standing in the door again, and suddenly they felt very self conscious about the awkward pose they were ended up in. The younger of the two quickly sat up and looked down on the floor with a blush on his face. Ed lifted himself up in a halfway sitting position, resting on both his elbows. He looked at Winry.
''Could you knock?''
''The door was open so it's not like I wouldn't catch you guys in your little wrestling. I see Al is still winning over you.''
''Tsch, so what if I've never been able to beat him, what do you want anyways, I was about to win here.''
''Suuure keep dreaming... Well we just finished our movie and started playing truth or dare and I'm here to make you two join us.''
Ed lifted an eyebrow at that; ''What makes you think we want to?''
Winry's expression then changed to a mix of irritation, desperation and pleading, as she whispered with a hissing; ''Come on you have to help me out here, it was either that or I have to be sexting that Roy guy from school! Pleaaase!''
Ed sat up immediately, angry-whispering back at her, as if her friends next door weren't supposed to hear it; ''This is why I don't play those stupid games, dammit Winry why do you have to involve us?!''
''I had no choice! Would you rather have me doing the other dare?''
Ed couldn't answer that right away, as he had mixed feelings about this. He didn't want to be among all those girls and their stupid games, who knew what he and Al would be thrown out in. On the other hand, he sure as hell didn't want Roy to think Winry had a thing for him too as he surely had enough girls throughout the school already. Also it would get Winry in trouble with Riza, Roy's babysitter. He wasn't really sure about how to tackle this, but he didn't have to, 'cause before he had a chance to decide, Al put a hand on his arm and said; ''Alright Winry, we'll do it!''
''A-what? Okay yes, but only for one round each!'', Ed added.
As soon as they sat down on the blankets on the floor in the room that was filled with pillows and plushes and stored away computer parts and other mechanic things, they felt the uncomfortable feeling of four girls besides Winry staring at them. The room smelled of perfume-candles and Ed suddenly wished he didn't have such a grudge against Roy. Then they might not have been sitting in this situation now. But they did, and there was no way out of it.
''Alright, since you only agreed to one round each, we've decided that one of you have to choose dare. You can decide on that by yourself.'', an asian looking girl with long black hair in a lot of small braids explained to them.
The brothers looked at each other, neither of them wanted the dare. Al spoke first; ''rock, paper, scissor, best out of three?'' Ed nodded in agreement.
He shouldn't have, 'cause he lost and Al was now going to tell the girls a truth about himself.
''Not just any truth!'', the girl with glasses and short brown hair said, ''tell us... Who was your first kiss!''
Al blinked, then he blushed, and Ed had to agree it was quite an entertaining view.
''Well.. The truth is...'', Al started, ''I actually haven't kissed anyone before. Not besides family.''
The girls were in shock, no way such a good looking boy had never had a girlfriend or his first kiss at the age of 17! One of the girls who had long wavy black hair, offered him jokingly to fix the ''problem'', but he politely declined with a nervous laugh.
''Alright then it's you Edward. We have already agreed to this while Winry was out getting you guys, so the dare is to kiss someone on the mouth. And not just a quick peck, it has be for at least 10 seconds and with tongue.'', the girl with glasses stated, to both Ed, Al and Winry's surprise. Ed threw a death glare at Winry who gave him an apologetic look in response. Sorry, I didn't know. Ed sighed, it was just a dumb kiss anyways. It's not like it meant anything, it was just a game.
''Alright who?'', he groaned annoyed.
''Whoever the bottle points to. It doesn't count if it points at yourself, then you'll have to spin it again.''
Ed was given the empty bottle, and he lazily stretched his arm into the middle of the circle to spin it. It started spinning, and he didn't care about the outcome, he just looked at it until it stopped and pointed to the seat next to him. It wasn't until he actually remembered who was sitting next to him that he actually snapped out of his uncaring trance, because next to him sat;
''A-Al...''
A shared ''Oooh...'' was heard from the girls, one or two seeming a bit disappointed but besides that they seemed pretty interested in how the brothers were going to react to this. A few giggled in their oh so girly way.
''I don't get a second choice?'', Ed tried, but got a no in response.
He didn't know what to do, for some reason it bugged him that he was supposed to kiss Al, but it wasn't because he thought it was weird in that way, he was more concerned about how Al felt about it. It was HIS first kiss after all.
As if he had read his mind Al said; ''Brother it's alright, it's just like a family kiss, just longer. And maybe a bit wetter.'' He gave a nervous smile as if saying he was really okay with this.
Ed nodded and turned to face Al. They sat there staring at each other for a while, the room filled with an intense atmosphere from both the brothers and the girls.
Then Ed slowly leaned in for the kiss.
End of chapter 2
Ahaha please don't kill me now, I will upload next chapter as soon as possible! I'm actually working on it already. ;)
And again, please write a comment on your thoughts about the story so far, my writing, chapter length, way I do the characters, anything.
It's appreciated since this is the first I've ever written, so constructive feedback would be nice. :3