Hey, my name's Eve Nightingale, I'm sure you've heard of me, I'm the one writing this fic...you know, the one who'd been missing for...oh, I don't know, A MONTH! Really sorry for not posting sooner, first it was the Sims 2 and then Silent Hill 4 and then FF 12 and everything just kept my free time pre-occupied I just totally lost my muse. (Of course, the baby boo got the rest of my time. (-: )

Things are back on track now and I'm here to update at least once a week like I did before!

Thanks for sticking with me! And once more, sorry for the late update. I hope you guys still like my fic:)

Chapter 27 - Coming down

"It's a little late to start gardening now...I'll get up in the morning and do it." Aria smiled as she sorted throguh her seeds in the middle of the living room floor. It was supper time and it wasn't busy in the living room, so she didn't need to worry about getting in the way.

Al crouched down across the pile of seeds and looked at them all with curiosity. "Are you really going to plant so many?" He questioned. She had to have bought two hundred seeds.

"Yup!" She said proudly as she stacked some of the packages on top of one another. "You'd be surprised how quickly seeds go. I'll be done this in no time."

He smiled. "Are you going to use alchemy to make the garden?"

Aria shook her head. "Nah, I find it's more rewarding growing them myself...they taste better too." She searched through the pile. "Now where did that go..." She seemed to be looking for a certain one. She bent over the pile and continued searching. "Ah." She sat back down. "These ones are important, I need to plant them in the four corners." She flashed the package to Al.

He looked at the little picture on the front of it carefully. It seemed to have an odd little green symbol on the front that looked like an accumulation of leaves. It looked oddly familiar, though he couldn't quite plac it. "Wait a sec." He thought about it. "That's hemp isn't it?"

Aria nodded and placed the package in the little pile. "Yeah. But as I've said before, it won't be abused. Strictly for medicinal purposes only." Al smiled at her again. "That and cat's hate the smell of the stuff, it dangerous for them, so they know not to come into the garden. I love kitties, but I don't want them eating all the leaves to my root vegetables, that's where half their nutrients come from." She held up another pack of seeds. "Also...I don't want them eating the Cat-Mint until it's flowered. I wanted to send a little to central for Kale to enjoy."

"Cat-Mint...isn't that kind of like a drug for cats." He questioned.

Aria thought about it for a moment. "Actually...It's an aphrodisiac. That's why only mature cats, one's who hit puberty, enjoy it so much...makes them go crazy."

"Good to know." They laughed. It was nice to see that Aria too shared his love of cats, maybe someday they could get a female cat and let her have kittens. Al's mind squee'd at the thought of kittens.

"Hey Al?" Aria snapped him out of his little kitty fantasy. "Do you have a place I can keep these till morning?"

He nodded and stood up, just then, from no where, his head began to ache. He placed his hand up to his forehead.

"What's wrong?" She questioned.

Al shrugged. "I don't know...I just got hit with this headache. I'll be fine." He smiled and went over by the door and opened the cubby beneath the coat hangers. He pulled out a little wooden crate and brought it over to Aria. "This ok?"

She nodded and picked up the stack.

Later on, Al stood in the kitchen, next to Pinako, helping her cut up the vegetables for supper. Lots of carrots and turnips and some potatoes; she was making a roast, so all kinds of yummy things were going into the pot to cook along side it. Al slowed down in cutting and lowered his head again.

Pinako, catching him in her perefrial vision, saw that he seemed uneasy. "Al, you seem troubled."

He placed the knife down and rubbed his eyes. "I'm ok, I just have no energy...and a headache."

She leaned over and examined his face; Al seemed to be a great deal paler than normal. "You don't really look all that well...I'll finish up here, you go and sit down. The last thing I need is you fainting." She knew that he was indeed trying to regain the weight he had lost, but she also knew that he was having a hard time doing it. He had fainted on numerous occasions before.

There would be the odd time where Al would just forget to eat for almost a whole day straight. Apparently his body became acustomed to just plain ol' 'not eating', all in all, it just wasn't good for him. Pinako figured this was one of those days where he hadn't had much to eat.

"Here, take this and go sit down." She chopped off a piece of raw turnip and poked it with a knife till it stuck to the tip. She extended the vegetable piece to him.

"Oh." He smiled. "Thanks." He always confused his brother when he ate raw vegetables, but Al always thought it was delicious. He took a bite of the turnip and headed for the kitchen door. He paused and turned around. "Actually...I hate to ask..." He hesitated. "But, is it ok if I take a nap before supper?" He hated sleeping during the day, it threw off his night time sleep. He had just gotten acustomed to sleeping again, and it was in his best not to mess around with it.

Pinako gave him a look of concern but nodded. "Call me if you need anything." She turned and continued chopping her vegetables while standing on her booster stool, it was the only way to reach the top of the counter for her.

"Thanks." With that being said, Al headed off to his room to sleep. On the way up the stairs, he held on tightly to the railing. His head was throbbing and now his stomach was beginning to bother him. Managing to finish the turnip piece though, he laid down on his bed, curled up in his blankets and went to sleep.

"Edward, did you see your brother anywhere?" Hohenheim looked around the living room. He hadn't seen Al a whole lot since they got home.

He shook his head. "No, I haven't."

Aria poked her head in from the kitchen. "He went upstairs to lay down about an hour ago. Supper's ready actually, would you mind going to get him?"

Ed stood up. "Sure." He walked up the stairs and rounded the railing to Al's door. Their room was on the side of the house opposite the Balcony, witch was Winry's room. He looked past the spare room Aria was staying in on the right side and the other spare room that his father was staying in on the other, right next to Pinako's. He found it amazing that this house could hold so many people. Even so, it still was a little crowded. He approached Al's door and knocked lightly, knowing how lightly his brother slept, he he knocked loudly, it would probably scared him half to death.

"Al?" He questioned quietly through the door. Upon hearing no answer, he turned the knob lightly and peeked in. He saw his own bed against the wall, the one witch he had not been sleeping in the last night or so, and Al's was on the other side. "You in here?"

Al stirred and sat up quickly and kept his head lowered. "What?" Still half asleep, he didn't quite know what was going on.

"Supper's done." Ed walked over to Al's bed and saw his little brother rubbing his head.

"I'm not hungry." He said with a grimace.

The older boy raised an eyebrow. "Al, you know you should eat something. You weigh little or nothing, come on, you can nap later."

He shook his head. "I really don't feel all that good actually...my stomch is killing me..." He rubbed his face as he tried to sit up a little more.

"Do you feel sick or something?" Ed knelt down and placed his left hand on Al's forehead. His eyes immedatly widened. "You're boiling hot...I'm going to get a termometer." With that he stood up and left the room.

Al laid back down. It had been so long since he last felt this bad, even when he was a lot younger he was rarely sick. His head pounded and his stomach ached a considerable amount, and to make things worse, he was cold, very cold. Chalking it up to the fever, he closed his eyes and almost immedatly fell back to sleep.

Soon after, Ed entered the room with Aria following close behind. "No, he just feels really warm...it might be a fever." He shook the mercury in the thermometer down to the bottom. "Al? Huh...Did he fall asleep again?"

She looked at Al, laying there, he seemed lifeless. "Looks like it." She went over and sat on the bed next to him and placed her hand on his forehead and then his cheek. "He does feel really warm." Al's eyes fluttered open. "Oh good, you're awake. We need to check your temperature."

Ed checked to make sure all the silver liquid was in the bottom of the little glass stick. "Here, keep this under your tongue." Ed held it out and Al took it in his mouth.

Closing his eyes again, he made a kind of sour looking face. "I feel terrible...and this thing isn't making it any better." He wiggled the termometer around. "I feel nausous..." He grunted.

"Just two minutes and it'll be over." Aria smiled and placed a hand on his chest. "I wonder what it could be." She turned to Ed who was standing next to her. "He was fine right up until we got home."

The elder of the two brother's shrugged. "I have no clue. It hit pretty fast, whatever it was."

They sat there quietly for the rest of the two minutes. Aria then extended her hand and took hold of the thermometer. "Ok, let it go." She gently removed it form his mouth and peered at the tiny writing on the side. "...101 degrees, you do have a bit of a fever."

"What's the normal temperature?" Ed questioned.

"Uh...97 to 98 is regular, 99.5 and up is considered a fever." She tugged his blankets up to his shoulders. "You should get something in your stomach. If you're sick, you'll need something to fight it."

Al rolled on his side and curled up into a ball. "I don't think I can eat."

Ed piped up. "You should try, or at the very least drink something."

He nodded. "I guess...water, maybe."

"I saw apple juice in the fridge, would that be ok?" The red haired girl asked quietly.

He hesitated and then nodded.

"I'll also bring you up a pill to help with the headache too." Aria smiled and stood up next to Edward. With that done, they both left the room. She quietly closed the door behind herself and turned to Edward. "I wonder what it could be."

Ed shrugged. "No clue. I'm hoping it's not contagious; the last thing I need is to be sick." They both shuffled off downstairs. Aria returned briefly to Al to make sure he drank the juice and take a pill. No sooner had she left the room when Al drifted back off to sleep.

She leaned against his door and thought about what happened throughout the day. 'Possibly when we went up to that corw's nest on the ship he might have caught a chill...or maybe something in the closet that he might have been sensitive to. Hmm...' She thought to herself.

"Do you think he's going to be ok?" Winry laid down on her bed, staring up at her celing.

Ed reached under her dresser and pulled out the little box that drove him crazy the whole trip home that day. "He's just a little sick, he'll be fine." He walked over to her bed with the box in his hands. Sitting down on the edge of the bed he openend the end of the box and peeked inside.

Winry sat up and knelt on the bed next to him. "So...how do these things work anyway?"

Ed took one out and examined the package. "Not too sure..." It looked as though is was a circle. "Looks like there's a ring in there...maybe it's like cereal, you get a little free gift in the bottom." He snickerd.

"I don't think so Ed." She giggled. "Are there instructions?"

He looked inside the box to see if there was indeed anything to inform you how to use such an apparatas. But to his dismay, there was nothing. "Uh...there's none...at all." He looked inside the box to see if the directions were printed there. "Why wouldn't they put instructions on something like this?! This isn't common everyday knoledge!"

Winry sighed. "Maybe it is for adults..."

Ed laid back on the bed. "Are you saying we should wait then?" He seemed a little disapointed.

Winry shook her head. "No...I just think we might have to ask an adult."

He blushed. "Who could we ask?"

Winry thought about it for a moment. "What about your dad?"

"No!" He answered without a hitch.

"Didn't think so..." She thougth for a few more seconds. "Maybe Aria might know...I mean, she seems to know about lots of stuff. Maybe we'll luck out and she'll know something about this."

Ed thought about it for a second. "Well...she know a lot about what she does...and from what I gathered, a lot about medicine too. It doens't mean she would have any idea about this."

Winry rested her chin on Ed's shoulder. "Maybe we could ask our family doctor. He's bound to know."

Ed stood up and began walking toward Winry's dresser. "Yeah, that sound like a good idea. And the 'Doctor, patient confidentially' thing is a plus." She smiled as she watched Ed stash the contraban under her dresser once again.

He stood and folded his arms. "Great. Now you can just make an appointment and we'll be set."

She raised an eyebrow. "There's nothing wrong with me though."

Ed thought about it for a moment. "Hmm...maybe this will be a little more difficult than I thought. Let's just sleep on it." He headed over to Winry's bed and sat down, and immedatly locked her lips with his own. Tugging her down into a laying position on the bed he kissed her softly.

"In your own bedroom Edward." Pinko's voice echoed form the other side of the door.

Ed shot up the second the shrill voice resonated in his ears. "Of course!" He said with feigned 'non-surprise'. He listened carefully till he heard the footsteps move away from the door. He blushed. "I wonder how much of that conversation she heard."

Winry shrugged, also blushing. "I hope not all that much...I guess you have to go into your own room tonight."

Ed seemed a little upset. "Al's sick...I'd rather not. I'll just keep him up all night with all my tossing and turning. I'll jsut stay on the coach downstairs." Ed stood up and headed to the bedroom door. Then he turned on his heel and smiled. "Unless I can sneak in later." He opened the door and left the room. Winry smiled and flopped back on her bed.

There you have it...it sucks...but oh well, just wait till I get going again, all shall be well!

Cute fact! When writing this chapter, when I got to the part about the turnip, I had to get up and make myself turnip and sweet potatoe! Try it! Just mix equal parts of cooked turnip and cooke sweet potatoe! It's so yummy! Don't forget, add margerine!

Remember, your reviews help a lot!
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