Ed's pov

"Brother, it's time to get up, you have a report to turn into colonel." Al says shaking Ed lightly to jostle him.

"mmm" Ed mumbles in protest to the rude awakening. He rubs his eyes, looking at the offending limb on his shoulder, "Whas up?" he says, slurring heavily.

"you have to get up now. The colonel is going to be mad, and I'm not going to apologize for you this time." Al lightly scolds.

"Yeah yeah…I'll get up in a bit, at least lemme wake up after my dream was ruined." Ed says.

Alphonse nods, his armored head lightly clinking against his body.

Alphonse walks out, and leave Ed to his solace. He sighs once alone, and leans back on the wall, trying to ignore his pounding headache. He'd been having random symptoms of whatever the hell he had for about a week, and it got harder to wake himself up everyday.

But he managed, slipping on his slippers to protect his feet from the cold floor, suppressing a shiver.

Ed slowly slinked out of his room slowly, trying to keep warm in the frigid morning.

When he gets into the kitchen, he's met by the smell of eggs and bacon, a smell that would normally have him drooling out the mouth, but this morning, he just wasn't feeling it.

"Morning Al." Ed greets his brother lazily sitting in the chair across from him.

"Good morning brother, we don't have any pancake mix, but I can pick some up later while you're at headquarters. I think you can live off this for now." Al giggles a little, making his armor shake a bit.

"Nah, it's fine, you should just relax this morning, you do enough." Ed mumbles.

Al stares at him pointedly, his robotic eyes narrowing dangerously, "What are you up to, brother?" he asks suspiciously.

Ed holds up his hands in defense, "I'm not up to anything, just feel like appreciating my little bro this morning."

Al's eyes grow more worried than suspicious, but if he suspects anything, he doesn't say anything about it.

But about half way through breakfast, in which normally at this time, Ed was already done. Alphonse speaks up, "Brother, are you feeling okay this morning?" he asks.

Ed nods, "Yeah, just up earlier than I'm used to." He replies simply.

Al again accepts the response, but stays eerily silent. As long as Ed has known him, a silent Al isn't normally good for anyone, because he knows something.

"Thanks for the breakfast Al, I'm gonna head out now, maybe make the colonel wait an extra thirty minutes though." Ed says waving goodbye to his still silent brother.

Al only gives a wave, shooing him off, before turning back to whatever he was doing.

Ed walks out of the house, and starts his hour trek to HQ. though that didn't mean he couldn't take a few pit stops on the way, which included food.

Ed kept walking absentmindedly, considering going to the doctors for a bit of a checkup, but he hated hospitals and checkups and anything to do with health care outside of his family.

But maybe he should, just to put Al's mind at ease, even though if Ed wasn't alarmed, Al wasn't likely to be either.

Ed hummed in thought before looking around at his surroundings, breathing in the toxic and early morning mist filled air.

He sees a familiar building, it was a shelter he enjoyed visiting in his spare time. Sure, he was a badass, but he liked puppies.

He walked inside the building and was greeted by the girl at the front desk-who he never knew the name of, and she just let him pass without a second thought.

In the back, there were kennels and cages filled with dogs and puppies, and on the other wall, grumpy cats and fluffy kittens.

But there was one dog he always comes to see, and every time, he wishes the poor thing had been adopted.

But yet again, the old dog was still there, and perked up seeing him.

Ed kneels next to the cage, petting the auburn dog with a slouchy face. He quickly opens the cage and sits completely on the floor, scratching the dog behind his ears.

He's never given the old fart a name, never wanted to get too attached, but he kept paying for him to stay until he got adopted, or time got the better of him.

"How ya doin boy?" he asks, as if he would reply, "Good? Good." He says, replying to his own question.

Ed checks my watch, he'd already wasted around ten minutes with his little detour and it was time for his next one.

He put the dog back into his cage thing, a small whine of regret coming from his furry lips.

Ed walks back into the front and was about to walk out before the lady at the desk stops him, "You should just adopt him ya' know. No point in paying for him if he doesn't live with you." She says, a knowing smile dancing on her red lips.

He shakes my head, "Naw, my job has me out weeks at time, he wouldn't get the life he deserves." He replies, walking out of the shelter.

"Now," he says to himself, "Onto cake~ My favorite way to pass time." Ed whispers to himself, happily walking. He slowly comes to a stop, "I probably should've gone there first, coulda brought it to the people who work at the shelter." He says.

Ed continue his walk, which would only be about 5 minutes before he comes to a stop in front of the petite and brightly colored store.

Ed pushes open the baby blue door, a bell alerting the people inside of hispresence.

"Hi, how may I help you today?" a guy says smiling politely at him.

Ed hums in thought, "I'll have some coffee cake, actually make that four." Ed adds in an afterthought of how the guys would probably like to have some cake this morning.

He goes and sits down to wait until they have fresh coffee cake, since they didn't already have one made.

It takes around 5 minutes of people walking in and out before the guy comes back, "Edward." He says.

Ed gets up, noticing a dull pain in his left leg, at the port. But he shakes it off, thinking nothing of it at ne grabs his cake, leaving his money at the table.

"Thank you for buying cake." The guy at the counter says, Ed can't help but laugh, what a thing to say.

Ed steps out of the door, the bell chiming his leave.

He steps out into the sunshine, and checks his watch. He should've been in the office a while ago, not that Ed minded though.

He continues walking down the street, actually thinking about going to the office now.

But he just couldn't ignore the nagging pain in his ports. He stops quickly on a wall to rub his left leg.

It was a bit sore, but it would probably just rain later, that was probably what the pain was.

So he continues walking, stopping occasionally to look at birds or weird plants the Reeling Bark Alchemist puts around town to spice it up.

Ed starts humming a small song in his head, spacing out until he gets to the alleyway he always has to walk through to get to HQ.

He knows to be aware here, because of how many times he'd been attacked in the spot he was standing.

He walks carefully, feeling flippant yet alert.

He takes a step, and another, and at the next, he doubles over in pain.

His metal limbs were on fire, he swore. He grasps his leg and arm, clenching his teeth while willing the pain to go away.

But alas, the gate wasn't done with him yet, as another wave of pain jolts him from his hopeful mental phrasing.

"Ack!" he muffles a scream, the fire was just growing and growing, no sign of going away any time soon.

It was like having the nerves connected on both limbs at the same time. It was pure hell, and he did everything he could not to scream and make a scene. He could take this, he was the Fullmetal Alchemist.

Finally, Ed's muscles give out on him, and he lays in the alley way, trying to ignore the blistering pain, 'I'm already late, what's a little more time?' he thinks, and with only a few more seconds to spare, his world turns black.

Ed slowly opens his eyes, once again joining the realm of the living.

He groans, his limbs still throbbing in pain, but not as bad as it was before.

And then he notices something, it's pitch black outside. "Shit. Al must be worried. Should probably get up right about now." He whispers to himself, struggling to get up with his left arm and right leg. He took extra care not putting weight or strain on his automail.

He slowly makes his way out of the alley, limping and clutching his teeth together as he grasps the wall for support.

He continues limping and gets stopped multiple times, "Young man, do you need help?" "Do you need help getting somewhere?" "Are you okay?" he politely turned them all down, saying he was fine even though he was definitely not fine, his automail shouldn't be acting up like it had been.

But alas, his suffering was reasonably short as HQ came into sight.

Again, soldiers asked if he was alright, the only exception was them using his title properly. He waved them off as they came, limping himself up the stairs, and through the halls.

Still more people offered assistance, for them to call the hospital, call his brother, they offered everything. But Ed turned them all down, he didn't want to go and trouble his brother, and he was definitely not going to a hospital for some port pain. Ha! That almost rhymes.

But finally, Ed steps in front of his superior officer's door, and knocks on it lightly, using all the energy left in him.

Roy pov

Roy watched curiously as Ed walked into his office, no loud bang, or screaming, he hardly made a sound. He just seemed tired. Hmph, maybe actually starting to gain a little respect? Letting the military finally break him maybe?

Roy then watched with smug satisfaction as the boy, limped? Into his office completely, throwing him a pitiful at best glare.

"Want to enlighten us on why you're so late?" Roy asks.

"What the hell do you care?" Ed growls.

"Seeing as Al called in panicking that you didn't seem well this morning, but went to work anyway, and yet here you are, over 14 hours after you left the house, and 2 hours late to go home, according to Alphonse. With Scar on the loose, we had a search party go out a while ago, hoping not to find your body with an exploded head. Now, let me ask again. Where have you been, Fullmetal?" he asks again.

Ed's eyes widen, "Is it already that late?" he asks Roy.

Roy in turn nods, "As a matter of fact it is. What? You're brain as small as your body?" he says, trying to get a rise out of the younger.

But none came, he just waved him off, throwing the chicken scratch report onto his desk with a small yawn.

Roy looks away from the small boy and looks down at his report lazily.

It was just a bunch of blah blah blah fought blah blah and then Al and blah blah licked whatever. But yet, It was his job to reas this crap, and read it he did. Albeit with a grudge.

About thirty minutes pass before Roy is done and he looks at the couch where the lithe figure of the boy slept soundly.

He sure looked tired when he came in, maybe the lack of milk is starting to catch up to him. Roy couldn't help but laugh at his own smart joke.

But yet he forgot one important detail, a search party was still out, looking for a missing alchemist. The same alchemist sitting on his couch.

"I guess I better call them off, and alert Alphonse of his brother's state of safety." He says to himself

And so he did, but he actually didn't alert Alphonse, just in case Edward had something else in mind. Not that his Brother didn't deserve the solace of knowing Ed was okay, but he didn't want to get in the middle. And they definitely weren't having that fight in his office.

But he wasn't going to wake himself. And the papers Werner't going to be signed by themselves. So Roy shook the boy lightly, "Edward."

The boy jostled awake slowly, his eyes focusing on him, "Mustang?" he says, bleary.

"I need you to sign some stuff, and right now is not the time to be sleeping, nor is this the place." Roy growls with authority.

Ed nods, getting up and doing as Roy asked. While the man himself just watched him, confused.

Not a single fight about how he needs his sleep, or that this damn paperwork isn't that important. None of it, he just got up, and did it.

Roy sits back in his seat with odd discomfort at knowing his young charge was silently signing the few papers he gave him.

But as Roy was sitting stupefied, Ed finishes, "Hey, bastard. I'm done." He says slamming the papers down on the desk, shaking the Flame Alchemist from his stupor.\

He shakes his head, getting himself to focus. "of course. Just wait here for a bit, you have to sign a few more things in a minute. Also, you might want to inform your bother about where you are."

Ed shakes his head, sitting back onto the couch, "Nah, worrying is good for the health sometimes. He won't go psycho because I go missing for a bit." He says yawning.

Roy accepts this answer and continues his work, allowing the young alchemist to do what he pleases.

Ed slowly drifts to sleep, becoming more and more comfortable. Until he falls into a deep sleep, and little did they know, sleep was mighty deadly.

First chapter rewritten. finally, after 3 years. for those of you reading this for the first time, you should just act like this is the only chapter up, because the rest are simply shameful. honestly this whole story is, but people like it so why not? Anyway, drop a review on how you like the edit. Thanks!