Here's a Get-Well chapter for a certain CK who went and got some very strange icky illness recently. And, as of the moment this goes up on the sight, the free fanart offer for guessing what happens is nullified.
I guess that ought to go without saying, but I thought I'd just put it up there...
Enjoy and I am sorry for the long wait!
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A jolt of pain in his ankle woke Ed suddenly, followed by a very sharp slicing sensation in his cheek. Opening his eyes and jerking upward, Ed found himself pinned by a tall blond Second Lieutenant.
"Aww, damn. We were hoping you'd sleep for a little longer." He drawled around his cigarette.
"I would have-What are you doing?" Ed struggled to sit up further to see who was pulling his boot off.
"Roy's gonna wrap your ankle. We don't know if it's broken or just sprained. I was going to pull that glass out of your cheek, but if you want to sit up I'll leave it for now."
"No, go ahead." Ed took a deep breath and Jean shrugged, taking hold of the shard with his glove and starting to carefully slide it out. After a moment, Ed reached up, grabbing Jean's hand tightly and yanking it to the side, the glass ripping out of his cheek.
"Hey! Yikes, Ed." Jean pressed a soft cloth to Ed's cheek to stem the blood flow.
"You were being too slow." Ed growled, lifting a hand to take the cloth and rearranging it before reapplying pressure to his cheek. "Let me up."
"Hang on, we can't move you too much until Roy's done with your ankle." Havoc turned back to look at Roy, who was grimacing at Ed's swollen joint. Ed turned his head, spitting blood and tiny glass shards into the hay. After a moment, Roy looked up.
"Let him up. Once he's comfortable, I'll wrap this."
Jean nodded, kneeling next to Ed and helping to pull his stiff little body up against a hay bale. Ed stayed quiet while Roy wrapped his ankle tightly in some white tape he had in his jacket pocket. Once this was done, Roy came and sat next to Ed, across from Havoc.
"I know you don't like it, but I need you to take off your shirt. We have to take inventory of all your other injuries and how serious they are. OK? And to start-where does it hurt the most?"
"I'm fine. It'll take a lot more than some kicks from one of those monsters to do me in." Ed sneered. Roy growled in response. "Not funny, Ed. You could be hurt very badly and not know it. So unless you want me to put you on a nutritious diet of straight porridge when we get home, I suggest you let us take a look." Roy grinned evilly.
"You can't do that-"
"Brother, let them see." Al hauled himself up from where he'd been sitting across the train car. He reached down and snapped the clasp on Ed's black jacket despite Ed's surprised cry of protest.
"Al! What are you doing?!"
"Taking advantage of the only really good thing this body has to offer-I'm strong enough to make you cooperate. We all saw how badly Envy was beating you."
"He wasn't-"
"Oh shut up." Al snapped. "Do you realize you might be uninjured right now if you'd thought ahead? Here I was thinking you had an actual PLAN, because you said you were READY, and then we get to the station and you realize none of your boneheaded plans will work and then to top it off, Mustang shows up and you JUMP OUT THE TRAIN WINDOW. Brilliant. I can see why they call you a kid genius."
"Jeez, Al. Someone's cranky. You sound like Roy after he's had eight hours of paperwork to do tat the office." Ed complained while remaining strangely placid about Al pulling his jacket over his automail arm.
"Maybe it's got more to do with dealing with YOU." Roy retorted.
Ed stuck his tongue out, leaning gingerly forward so Jean could pull his tank top over his head. Which was when Ed became suddenly and acutely, very embarrassed. He started to blush as he crossed both battered arms over his chest and Jean amused himself by comparing all of Ed's bruises with the shapes of countries until Al told him to shut up too.
Roy leaned forward and pushed Ed's arms away, running his hands down the blond's sides and feeling his ribs to see if they were broken. Ed tensed at Roy's touch, but allowed him to continue looking him over until the older man sighed and stepped back.
"I think you're fine. Your ankle is the worst thing, you really can't put any weight on it, OK?"
Ed nodded, pulling his shirt back on and tugging on Al's arm for his jacket. Once relinquished, the jacket was donned and Ed sat back against the hay bale looking bored. He watched Havoc light a cigarette, absently running one finger through the loose hay on the floor. A moment later, a strange little chain of loose hay stalks began to grow out of the floor next to Jean (who had his eyes closed) and eventually crept up to his eye level before delicately leaning forward and wrapping suddenly around the dozing blond's cigarette, pulling it out of his mouth. Havoc's eyes shot open and he jumped into the air as his cigarette waved back and forth in the air like a pond reed, startling Roy who sat bolt upright and snapped his fingers, searing Al's leg which scared the younger Elric who stood quickly, tripped and sat on Jean's waving cigarette.
Ed was now holding his sides, laughing so hard he couldn't breathe while Havoc, Roy and Alphonse all stood over him, glaring down angrily and still Ed continued to laugh. Roy gave up after a moment, snarling something about obnoxious teenage boys almost causing a whole trainer to catch fire and laying back down in the hay. Al rolled his eyes and plopped back down, and Havoc continued to glare. In truth, he was as bored as Ed was and getting Ed to notice that someone was glaring down at him seemed like more fun than lying back down in poky hay.
Finally, Ed sighed and wiped his eyes on his sleeve before smirking up at Jean.
"You should have seen your face."
"I can't wait to see the look on yours." Jean retorted.
"Huh?"
"when I light your little tail on fire!" Jean grabbed Ed's braid up over his head, holding a lighter to the end of it. Ed panicked, flailing and swatting at Jean's hand.
"Noo! And it's not a tail-NO!!"
Jean grinned and let go. "Alright, c'mere. If you're so bored, I'll tell you boys a story." He sat down next to Ed. "Once upon a time," he began, causing Al to perk up and listen, "Our neighbor had a cow who rejected a calf because it was the weaker of two twins. At the time, I was about ten years old, and the man who's calf it was decided to give it to me to nurse and raise. So for two whole months, I went out every morning and evening to feed my little bull from a bottle. One day, I heard about a fair coming up and decided I was going to show my calf in the livestock show. So I went and bought a brand-new calf-halter, a black one with silver rings. But then when I got home and tried to lead him by it, " Havoc paused. "He dragged me on my face through a muddy field until my mother ran out of the house and caught him." Jean started laughing, Ed and Al joining and Roy sitting up.
"That reminds me of the one time I made my little brother feed the billy goat. It was my responsibility, but I blackmailed him, so he went out to feed. Not thirty seconds later, he was back crying because the goat had chased him out of the pen and gotten loose and was eating grain from our shed. Our father was so mad later-!..." He shook his head ruefully, black locks swinging. Al piped, ignoring Ed's groans of protest as he began.
"Once, Ed told me that if I was really nice and carried the firewood he was supposed to bring in for him, he would do me a favor and teach me how to chop wood with the big hatchet. I fell for it, of course, and I think that was the first time I actually saw anyone get dragged by their ear. Mom was furious." He laughed. Roy and Havoc both grinned, Jean tugging on Ed's ear.
"Cut it out! That wasn't funny!" Ed sulked.
"You never told me what she did to you." Al said thoughtfully. Ed turned away, ears red. Jean laughed and easily lifted Ed sideways into his lap where the alchemist settled himself comfortably, acting as if it were nothing. Ed was just touchy enough that no one pushed the subject, allowing the boy to stew in his own thoughts, Alphonse also retiring to a world of his own. It was just a little while later that a piercing train whistle interrupted all four from their thoughts and they felt the brakes kick in. Ed sat bolt upright.
"Crap! How are we gonna sneak off?" Ed was almost vibrating with the surge of adrenaline preparing his body for a quick getaway.
"The same way we got on. Quickly and without drawing attention to ourselves." Roy snapped. "You'll have to be carried, Ed." He looked at the somber face of the blond. "That'll make it harder to blend in, but maybe if we just act like you're a little kid and uh...be casual about...it." Roy knew his plan needed some work.
"I'll carry him since we're both blond. If we're lucky we can pass as related." Jean and Ed stared at each other for a moment, each studying the other's face. A wide face with a slightly shorter jawline, along face with a sharp chin. A small pert nose and a lone chiseled proboscis. Wide sharp eyes, easy symmetrical ones and startling gold hair to the two different shades of light, dirty blond.
The station man could be heard faintly from inside the train car and Roy leaned forward, pulling Ed's hood over his head before standing and helping to hold Ed while Jean stood. Al, ever a bright boy, began chalking an array onto the side of the car. Jean pulled Ed up onto one hip and then to his waist and Ed put his arms around Jean's neck to keep from falling. Al slipped out of the side of the car where he'd made a hole and Jean followed, Roy sealing the "door" behind them.
"Pretend to be asleep." Jean grumbled to Ed. He regretted it when the boy went limp and seemingly doubled in weight. Staggering into a frozen Alphonse standing in front of him, Havoc ground his teeth in irritation.
"Hey kid, this is no time for pondering the universe's most profound questions."
"T-t-TEACHER!"
Ed "woke up", abruptly smashing the top of his head into Jean's jaw. None other than Mrs. Izumi Curtis was standing not ten feet from Alphonse, clipboard in hand as she ticked off items on her list. Sig was carrying a huge box that said "Frozen Meat" on the side of it on his shoulder, stopping to look at what Izumi was staring, or more like glaring, at.
The tall woman narrowed her eyes and Roy was instantly on guard.
"What are you doing with those boys? You military dogs stop at nothing short of torture to get what you want." She spat suddenly and Roy was immediately furious. Yes they were military and yes they had a really bad reputation but was it really necessary to accuse them of who-knows-what upon first sight?
"Edward! What are you doing?" She snapped, redirecting her fury at Havoc. "Put the boy down!"
Jean jumped at the order, lowering out of habit to responding to commands.
"No! Lieutenant Havoc!" Roy snapped and Jean froze. Roy glared at Ed's teacher. "He sprained his ankle badly. He shouldn't put weight on it." He growled.
"And how did that happen?" Izumi was clearly accusing Roy of having something to do with Ed's injury. Guilty as Roy had ended up being over keeping information from Ed, he couldn't retort and simply glowered at the woman.
"No, Teacher it's OK!" Ed looked sheepish and nervous as he leaned slightly away from Jean to address Izumi.
"Is it really OK for you to let yourself be carried around by some strange older man?" She snapped.
"I-I-Jean-." Ed began to vibrate at a very high frequency in Jean's arms as Izumi came toward them. Roy remembered suddenly the report he'd ground out of Ed after the boy's encounter with Greed in Dublith...
"Why are you limping? I thought you said you weren't injured."
"Not in the fight." Ed grinned. "It was my Teacher afterward."
"Wait a minute." Roy suddenly interrupted. "We're in Dublith."
"Duhhhh." Ed and Al provided. Roy blushed irritably. Not like he'd ever been here before.
"So you're on first-name terms with...Jean." Izumi said quietly. Ed was starting to look anxious, still shaking in Havoc's arms.
"Brother was an idiot and jumped out of a train window trying to get away from..." Al was trying to help.
"And you landed on your feet?! Didn't you learn anything during your training? You should have rolled!" She yelled.
"Sorry, Teacher." Ed whined softly.
"Hmph. I'm not the one who won't be able to walk for a month." She snapped. "But at least I know you're capable of explaning this," She said as she gestured to Jean holding Ed.
"Well...Roy..." Ed bit his tongue. Why didn't he say MUSTANG?
"Perhaps somewhere less...public." Roy suggested icily.
"Perhaps you're right." Izumi snarled back. "Mason. Take care of the rest of the shipments!" Izumi yelled. "You four follow me." She turned and headed to her house.
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So there! The correct answer to "what happens in chap 25" should have been along the lines of "They end up in Dublith and meet up with their Sensei!!"
But no one guessed that.
And it was weird. Lots of people thought the train was going to get attacked or derailed or something, so much so that I almost thought "Well maybe it should..." But then decided to stick with my original plan.
By the way, just for the record the stories Roy and Jean have told about their childhood are both mixes of my own stories. So I totally own them...although the thing about the incredibly mean billy goats chasing little boys out of their pens actually happened to someone else I knew and not me.
Anyway, R&R please! The more you review, the faster the next chapter will be up (seriously, this time).