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Edward had nightmares.
There was no disputing that.
They started after he witnessed the horror of a man named Shou Tucker. A man who put more store into his fucking state alchemist certification, and the grants it brought, than his own daughter. His flesh and blood transmuted into a chimera joined with her beloved dog.
It was Edward who saw that flesh and blood splattered and smeared on a wall of despair.
It was understandable that Ed had nightmares. Nightmares that woke him screaming, drenched in sweat, and often sobbing. He had them often throughout his adolescence. It was hard to fall back asleep after them sometimes.
A military doc had given him pills to help him relax, to help him fall into a deep peaceful sleep.
He never took them.
There was something else he needed to be alert for.
Something more disturbing than simple nightmares.
Alphonse had night terrors.
He had witnessed the same horrors as his brother, it was true. Al also had nightmares that left him shaking and upset.
This was different.
Al's terror stemmed from having lived for years, years, encased in a suit of armor. During those years he was incapable of feeling the touch of another human. Al remembered this at night, this being trapped in a cold, confined, dark place. He remembered and would wake up screaming.
Screaming, calling for Edward. Screaming and crying in abject terror, panicking, afraid of being torn apart again.
And Edward would be there, not realizing himself how he had gotten to his brother's side so quickly. Alphonse would scream, and fight and struggle against Ed's gentle grasp. Sometimes, more often it seemed that they'd been home, it took more.
Al would not settle, his screams fading only into gut wrenching sobs. He clung to Ed, pulling at their night clothes, demanding more, more, more.
“Brother? Ed?....” Al would cry, thrashing in Ed's arms.
“Shh.” Ed would whisper, “I'm here, Al, I'm right here. You can feel me close to you, right?”
“Brother! Help me! I can't, I can't...” Al would gasp out, "I need you..please.”
And Ed, maybe without thinking twice about it, would cover his baby brothers trembling lips with his own. Not just once, because that would have been borderline respectable, one brother comforting another with a chaste kiss. It would have been, in the Elric's case, totally understandable.
But, Edward didn't stop and leave it at that. He coaxed Al's mouth open with a practiced swipe of the tongue, and Al surrendered gratefully. The more of Ed he could feel, the more of himself he could remember.
Kisses, busy hands, clothes dis-guarded on the floor. Until Alphonse could finally shake off the terrors and cling to hot flesh and cold metal. Realizing, at last, that he was human, he loved and was loved in return. Given this blazing gift of new life, andbeing made whole.
Body, mind, soul.
They kept voices now to low moans and soft gasps as bed springs creaked and groaned.
Neither noticed when the bedroom door clicked quietly closed.