Chapter Nine
It was Ed's seventh week of pregnancy. He was still in his first trimester, but that didn't stop him from feeling incredibly anxious. He kept going to work like everything was normal, and only he and Roy knew his secret. Ed had told him that it wasn't a secret they could keep forever, he was bound to start showing eventually, and so they might as well tell everyone and be done with it. Sometimes he felt like Roy was more afraid than he himself was. And that's a lot.
Roy hadn't been sending him on any more missions lately. He actually felt insulted by that. He felt insulted because he knew that just because he was pregnant that didn't mean he was incapable of handling things, and it also made him feel useless. Most of the time he didn't even know why he bothered with coming in to work in the first place.
He was in his office. It was a few minutes past noon. His head was killing him, and it had been all day. He let out a pained groan, lowering his head so his chin rested on the edge of his desk, closing his eyes and placing his hands on the back of his head. He was drained. If this was what pregnancy felt like, he didn't know how much longer he could take it.
Quietly, the door to his office opened, "GOOD MORNING, EDWARD ELRIC!!!"
Ed squeezed his eyes shut tighter, letting out a loud, disapproving moan in reply. It was Armstrong, of course. He happily charged his way to the blonde teen's desk, "YOU DON'T LOOK SO GOOD!"
"Please lower your voice, Major!"
"What's the matter?"
"My head hurts." Ed quietly, helplessly, and miserably replied, dull golden eyes looking up at the older alchemist.
Tears formed in Armstrong's eyes. Those crazy, pink sparkles intensified a thousand times over. He clapped his hands together and lifted his right leg in a very girlish way. Ed sighed. The Major was ready to go into one of his crazed rants about something or other, most likely about how dedicated he was to come in to work while he was sick or something about brotherly love.
"Stop." He murmured before he could get carried away.
Automatically, everything faded, and Armstrong mournfully slouched forward. "Fine."
"I'll be fine, anyway, I think I just need to go home and get some sleep. Tell the Colonel I left work early today. I'll use one of my sick days or whatever."
"Do you need help? Someone to escort you home? I COULD DO IT!"
"No, thank you," Ed answered, slowly standing up, "Just, please, tell Mustang not to worry about me."