InsaneJournal

“Brother…”

“No! There is no way in hell you’re getting me to go in there!”

It had all started just a couple days ago. Edward (or Brother, as his younger sibling called him) had woken up with a cough and a slight fever. Concerned for his brother’s health, the younger of the two, Alphonse, had insisted he stay in bed for the day, and that he would take the report to the Colonel instead.

Never in the mood to see Colonel Roy Mustang (‘stupid Colonel Bastard,” he had grumbled at one point or another), the golden blond had simply waved his brother away, rolling over and curling back into his blankets while telling him to be careful. Everyone who knew Edward (this being the majority of Amestris) knew his temper was explosive when he was well also knew that it was extremely volatile when he was not. Should any harm were to come to Alphonse, they would surely find a furious, blade-arm wielding alchemist hunting down the one who had caused it.

So Alphonse had taken the hastily written report to the Central Military Base and delivered it, as well as informing his brother’s higher ups of his illness. Once finished, he had returned home after a stop to a nearby pharmacy for some cough medicine for his older brother.

That had been three days ago.

Since then, the cough had worsened to a rib-cracking one, and the fever had shot up considerably, leaving Edward in pain and restless. When he managed to get a break from caring for his sick sibling, Alphonse wondered how he himself had not yet come down with whatever his brother had; after all, his body had spent nearly five years in a completely sterile area, and his immune system was nothing like it had been originally.

Nonetheless, he had kept up his vigil, day and night, until the Colonel himself had come and forced him to go rest, lest he come down with whatever his brother had. However, it would do him little good, Alphonse informed him, due to the small size of their home and the fact the two slept in the same room.

The sandy blond had promptly found his bed temporarily relocated to the living room couch with an order to rest for the day.
Later in the day he had snuck back into their room, finding Edward awake and irritated, Roy off in the kitchen making dinner for the two. In a great huff and his usual overdramatic way, his brother told him how the older man was going to take him to see a doctor the next day if his health did not improve by morning. Alphonse thought this was a good idea, whereas Edward did not, simply because most encounters he had ever had with doctors usually involved shots. Hence their current argument.

The Colonel must have heard them, for he appeared at the open door; however, he said nothing, simply listening in with a smirk. Alphonse had long sensed him standing there; Edward had yet to notice, far to panicked by the mere possibility that he would have to get a shot.

Roy had finally stepped him when the older teen’s face began to appear flushed, arms crossed. “You should listen to your brother, Fullmetal,” he said coolly, smirk growing marginally wider when he saw Edward visibly jump in surprise.

“Shut up, Colonel Bastard,” the small blond snarled, completely ignoring Alphonse’s reprimand for addressed the man as such. Ignoring his younger brother proved to be a bad thing, as after several minutes of being completely ignored, Alphonse seemed to have finally had enough and lost his temper.

“Edward!” he snapped, one hand whipping out to cuff his brother on the side of the head. Edward jerked, shock clear on his face as he stared at his upset sibling. It was one thing for Alphonse to actually address him by name, but another thing completely for him to strike him. “You’re going to the doctor’s tomorrow, and that’s final! If you keep acting like this I’m going to call Winry and have her come to here!”

Edward had been about to protest, but his objection had stopped in his throat at the mentioning of their childhood friend. It had been several weeks since the two had last contacted her, mainly due to his not wanting her to know he had once again damaged his automail. The fact that he was ill would not stop the easily angered mechanic from beating him over the head with her fearsome wrench.

So it was with a scowl that he hunched back into his blankets, aurum hair spilling across the white pillow. “Fine,” he grumbled, shifting around so his automail arm and leg had none of his weight on them. Alphonse noticed this, and frowned.

“Brother, are your ports hurting you?” he asked softly. Edward paused for a moment, before he turned his face into the pillow.

“Weather’s changing. It’s gonna rain today.” The pillow muffled his voice, but his brother easily heard, and looked back at Roy.

“Colonel, could you-”

Before he could finish Roy had nodded, and stepped silently out of the room to retrieve not only their dinner, but also painkillers for Edward. He returned shortly balancing a tray with two bowls and glasses, one filled with milk (at which Edward nearly hissed), the other with a tinted liquid of some sort.

“Apple juice,” he said, seeing their curious expressions as he set the tray down on the nightstand. “For the shorty that hates milk.”

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHOR-” Alphonse sighed as Edward’s outburst was cut short by a sudden coughing fit, rolling his eyes as the Colonel chuckled lightly. The sandy blond picked up the pills on the tray, pushing them onto his brother with the glass of juice.

“Just take your medicine and eat dinner, brother,” he said, sighing softly. Edward scowled, but did as he was told, flopping back down onto the pillow with a huff. Alphonse sighed again as he shook his head, looking back at Roy. “I’ll make sure he eats. Thanks for everything, Colonel.”

The man nodded, one hand on the doorframe. “I already called in and got an appointment with the military doctor here in Central. I’ll be back in the morning to take Edward to see the doctor-” he dutifully ignored the angry hiss from under the blankets “-so just have him eat dinner and both of you get some rest. I’d hate to see you come down with whatever your brother has, Alphonse.”

“I’m not going to the damn doc-ow!”

“Alright,” the younger Elric said, ignoring the winded stream of curses spewing at him from under the blanket that Edward was currently hiding beneath, acting as though he had not just elbowed his brother sharply. Roy hid his grin behind his hand. “We’ll see you in the morning then?”

“Be up and ready around eight,” the raven-haired man said, chuckling softly as he left the room. “See you then, you two.”

“Bye, Colonel,” Alphonse called in response, waiting until he heard the front door close before turning to his brother. “Brother, are you going to eat or am I going to have to force you to?” Edward grumbled something under his breath, wiggling around under the blankets. “Ed…” he warned, having easily picked up his brother’s words. “Knock it off and just eat the soup the Colonel made.”

With a huff, Edward sat up, grumbling. “You didn’t have to elbow me so hard,” the blond grumbled, taking the bowl his sibling passed him.

“Don’t be a baby, Brother,” Alphonse sighed, shaking his head. “Honestly, I feel like the older brother half the time.”

Edward paused mid-sip, glancing up at his brother, something similar to guilt visible in his expression. “Really?”

The sandy blond laughed. “You’re such a kid sometimes, Ed. Haven’t you ever noticed?” Seeing the petulant expression the older boy was wearing, he shook his head. “Don’t give me that look; it’s true. Like all those nights when you pushed and shoved at me until I let you sleep on me when I was still in the armor? And when you get angry when someone calls you small-”

“DON’T CALL ME SMALL!”

“-and you refuse to go to the doctor and even though you had that huge surgery for your automail you’re still afraid of needles!”

Edward flinched at the mere mentioning of needles, before snorting and deciding to eat his soup in silence before it became cold. Alphonse sighed, shaking his head as he proceeded to eat his own dinner as well. Edward was going to the doctors in the 
morning, one way or another.

“Come on Fullmetal, you’re going to make us late.”

“Good! Why don’t we just head home then? I already feel bette-”

Alphonse sighed as a coughing fit cut off his brother, Roy taking the moment of distraction to shove the blond through the door into the doctor’s office. The elder Elric hissed viciously as the Colonel blocked his way back out through the door, looking ready to simply transmute a hole in the nearby wall to escape. While Roy might have missed this, there was, thankfully, an expert at reading Edward on hand.

“Don’t do it, Brother,” Alphonse warned, an unspoken threat of a phone call to Winry hanging in the air.

“Who’s side are you on anyway, Al?!”

Alphonse sighed, muttering apologies to those few other people in the waiting room with them, his quiet voice all but lost beneath Edward’s angry screeches as Roy threw him over his shoulder, marching him into the examination room. Seeing the doctor already in the room, he told the younger of the two to seal the door closed, if to only slow Edward down, under his breath as he dropped the raging teenager onto the table.

The elderly doctor looked somewhat bewildered at the sudden entrance of the three; Roy moved to both apologize for the noise, leaving Alphonse to alchemically seal the door closed and keep his brother in check with veiled threats. By the time the doctor was ready to proceed with the basic check up Alphonse had somehow managed to calm Edward down considerably, so the blond was now simply seething silently.

“So, Major Elric,” the man said, pushing his glasses up further onto his nose, “Colonel Mustang tells me you’ve developed a cough and fever, is that right?” When Edward simply made a noncommittal noise in response, he looked down at the chart in his hands, a slight frown appearing. “I understand that you’re…sixteen, correct? Small for your age-”

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT HE COULD HOLD ONTO A DUST MOTE AND GET BLOWN AWAY?!”

The poor doctor seemed as though he had nearly had a heart attack on the spot at Edward’s violent reaction, while his brother sighed, shaking his head; across the room, Roy was trying his hardest to hold back his laughter.

“He didn’t say that, Fullmetal, he was just making an innocent observation,” the fire-wielder said, hiding his smirk behind his hand. “Now calm down and let the good doctor do his job, and then you can go home, alright?” The blond snarled at him, but slouched where he sat, scowling.

Once he recovered, the doctor went about the usual poking and proddings, taking the teens temperature, all while scribbling down notes on the clipboard he was carrying. “Well, Major, it seems to be as though you’ve just caught a particularly bad cold,” he said, scratching his head. “However, it would seem that you’re behind on your immunizations…”

There was a long pause, during which Alphonse instinctively moved to guard the door, Roy blocking the only window in the room.

“…What?” Edward managed after a minute, a slightly frantic note in his voice. However, the doctor failed to notice, rummaging about in the cabinets in the room, setting several bottles down onto the counters.

“Oh, it’s not a big deal; happens a lot with you military folk, especially when you’re always traveling,” the doctor said, seeming to be unconcerned, completely oblivious to the fact that Edward had gone from slouching to completely tense. “I’ll just have to give you a couple shots, and you’ll be all caught up."

“Oh, hell no, there is no way I am getting a shot,” the blond hissed, scooting away from the doctor, who was now brandishing a syringe and a disinfectant pad. “Get that thing the hell away from me!” he exclaimed, now absolutely rigid as he scooted further back, looking for a means of escape.

“Edward…” Roy said, sharing a brief glance with the younger Elric. “It’s just a shot. I think you can handle something that small, yes?”

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING SMA-AAAAAAOWWWWW!”

In the brief moment Edward had been distracted, the doctor had leapt forward, swiping the alcohol pad across the teen’s fleshy arm and sticking the needle under his skin in what had to be record speed. Not at all happy to have been caught off guard, he whipped his head around to let loose a glare on the doctor; this, however, was before he had noticed the glint of silver sticking out his arm…and promptly fainted upon seeing it.

Silence reigned for several moments, before Roy scratched at his head, moving away from the window. “Well, I guess that takes care of that,” he said. “You can change the door back now, Al.” As the young alchemist did as he was told, the Colonel watched as the doctor gave Edward the second of the shots. “Oh, and for the record,” he said casually. “You might want to make sure to make a note about this shrimp’s fear of needles. I’d hate for someone to get hurt the next time.”

“Will do,” the doctor muttered, already scribbling a note onto the file on the counter. “Great, another aichmophobe…”