Hey, hey, hey! What if Ed was in pain?

If you're an Ed fan like me, surely that's what you want? Today I bring you the pain with a dash of endless guilt hidden by the fact that Ed likes to be in denial that things could ever be going badly.

Al,

I'm so tired but I can't sleep – is this how you feel? I hope you aren't in any pain like me. I just can't get comfortable no matter how hard I try. My head is swimming.

Have you ever heard of seven-sided arrays? Seven simultaneous processes all working in tandem to transmute a vast amount of different material in one cohesive complex organism or structure. It would be more stable if you could visualise the entire transmutation at once despite the vast quantity of information. That would require… nevermind I can't even make sense of what I'm thinking right now. I'm full of these ideas but nothing is coherent enough to write down. And I don't want to think! I just want to sleep.

Ed

Dear Alphonse,

Hey, I'm a bit better now – I swear. I was a little feverish the other day but I think it's almost passed. You've gotten so overprotective. I'm finally starting to think ahead to the next operation. You are looking forward to it as well – I can tell. You want me to be able to walk again too and you're tired of being stuck here, same as me. I know you don't want to be trapped either.

I've been trying to hide my pain from you and Winry and Granny. If I convince them I'm okay then we can move on. And I don't want to worry you. I'm alright, honest. I get why some people need to take this sort of thing slow – but we're not those kinds of people. I can bear a little pain if we can finally move forward. That means I need to have automail so we're strong enough to be independent. And I don't want to keep you waiting for much longer. I know you miss being human. I miss you too.

With Love,
Ed

Dear Alphonse,
How the hell did you do that? No seriously – you talk to Granny for a while and suddenly she's agreeing to the next surgery? I didn't think it was possible. Actually, I thought you would be arguing that I needed more time. But you know what's best for us!

Yesterday, you brought up the military again. I don't know if it's because you're in a suit of armour and certain people have been mistaking you for a soldier (yes, I've heard about that - Winry told me,) but I'm worried you're actually getting serious about joining. I know that Mustang spoke about it – and it's probably our best option if we don't want to worry about resources – but I never imagined you joining. I always thought it would be just me. I think you'd be angry if I said so for real though. I've been horrible at trying to protect you but… I think I'd hate it if you joined the Military.
Well anyway, another surgery to look forward to. Yay. Soon, not sure exactly when. It's supposed to be the worst one. But how bad can it really be?

Ed

Al,

I think I'm going to die. Have you seen Winry gathering supplies? So many wires and needles and they're all going to be poking into my shoulder. They're going to attach them directly to my nerves. Directly to my nerves! My shoulder's already aching and they haven't even started yet. (That's mostly from the installation of the initial port I think. Oh god, I haven't waited long enough! But I've waited too long…)

Earlier you said I seemed so brave – biggest lie ever – I'm terrified. It's going to hurt and it's going to continue hurting and it won't stop ever. I was reading another automail manual – people claim that they feel regular pain from their limbs even years after! But Granny's supposed to be good at this.

I just need to push through – I'm not going to start crying. I'm not some weakling that's gonna make his little brother worry. It'll happen and, in a few hours, the worst will be over. Then I just need to worry about the much easier surgery of actually attaching the arm to the fully prepared port. Then I'll have an arm and leg again and will just need to learn how to use them again. Then we can leave and find a way to get our bodies back.

Ed

Thanks for reading! Please do leave a review. There will be even more Ed suffering to come! (This is following FMA canon after all xD). Oh and more humour.