Work Text:
Roy Mustang sighed heavily as he scribbled his signature onto yet another document, reaching for the next one from the top of a seemingly endless stack of papers on his desk. The office was hard at work. Only the scratch of nibs against paper kept the room from total silence.
Hm. Suspicious.
Roy dragged his fingers through his hair and squinted at the others in the office. The eye-catching bright red coat and golden hair marked Edward Elric as present, so where were the usual grumbling and muttered curses that accompanied him? Had he finally gained a little maturity? Roy huffed a laugh through his nose at the thought. Not likely.
Ed visibly bristled. Without looking up from his work, he muttered, “Take a picture, Colonel, it’ll last longer.” His voice cracked in the middle of his sentence.
Roy smirked. “Finally hitting puberty, Fullmetal?”
“Oh shut up!” The hissed response somehow lacked Ed’s usual vitriol.
Hawkeye must have noticed, too. Her brow furrowed with... concern? “Are you alright, Ed?”
“I’m fine! I just have a lot of work to do.” Hawkeye didn’t look quite convinced, but she nodded and resumed her work.
Soon after, a knock on the door broke the silence. The metallic clang of the visitor’s fist made it easy to guess who it was. “Come in, Alphonse,” Roy called. Ed looked up at the door in surprise.
“Al? What are you doing here? I’m almost done, I would’a been home soon.”
Al waved a greeting Roy and Hawkeye before turning to his older brother. “I came to walk you home. I was worried about you walking home alone while you’re not feeling well. You haven’t gotten worse, have you? Your voice doesn’t sound so good.” Ed tensed, eyes darting in the direction of his superior officers.
Oh. So that’s why Ed was so quiet. Now that he mentioned it, Ed didn’t look very well. Roy had chalked his silence up to fatigue, but now he could see the subtle flush across the boy’s face.
So could Al. “Oh, brother, you’re not running a fever are you?” He reached out to press his hand against Ed’s forehead. Ed flinched back, but there was no need. Al seemed to realize what he was doing and let his hand fall back down.
“Al, I’m fine, I promise. I told you that this morning. I’m just tired from that last mission. Geez, you don’t need to fuss so much.”
Before he had time to notice, a flesh hand slid onto his forehead. He swatted it off, glaring at Havoc’s concerned frown. “I dunno, chief, I think your brother’s right. You’re a bit warm.”
Ed gritted his teeth. “For the last time. I’m. Fine. Al, why don’t you wait on the couch. I still have some work to finish up.”
Havoc and Al exchanged a glance over his head. Hawkeye stepped in with a gentle touch of her own, which Ed ducked out of. Laying a hand on Al’s arm to calm him, she said, “You are running a bit hot, Ed. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off? This paperwork isn’t urgent.”
She received an irritated huff in response. Ed’s grip tightened on his pen. “Let me just get this done. If you’re mad I’m here you can thank Colonel Bastard and his mountains of paperwork.”
“Not my fault you procrastinated.”
“Yeah, well, whatever.” Roy almost cringed. Ed must really be feeling awful if he was that off his game. Finally deciding to take action, Roy stood from his desk and strolled over to Ed’s desk. Up close, Ed looked a lot worse, which stirred some small flutters of concern in Roy. Picking up a discarded paper on Ed’s desk, Roy looked over his work, noting the shakier than usual handwriting and the borderline incomprehensible train of thought. Taking another look at the kid, he suddenly wondered how he was even here and sitting up straight.
The subject in question was pointedly ignoring Roy, scribbling nonsense onto the paper in front of him. A droplet of sweat rolled down his temple. “Ed…”
Ed tensed, grinding his teeth. “What.”
“Go home,” Roy commanded. As an afterthought, he tacked on, “You’re not of any use here in your current state.” To his surprise, Roy found his fingers twitching towards Ed’s forehead, itching to gauge just how sick he was.
Ed groaned and slammed his pen down, pressing his flesh hand into his temples. “Fine! Fine. If it’ll get all of you off my back, I’ll be happy to escape from this stupid office. Let’s go, Al.” Leaving his work on a messy pile on his desk, he stood and stomped out of the room. Al gave a grateful nod to the three of them, pushing in Ed’s chair on his way out.
Havoc chuckled good-naturedly. “It’s a good thing he has a brother like Al or else he’d have run himself to death by now.” Hawkeye sighed in agreement.
From the hallway, there came the sound of a harsh coughing fit, followed by Al squeaking and fussing over his brother. All three adults visibly stiffened, only relaxing again when the coughing died down and Ed’s hoarse voice reassured his brother.
As Roy returned to business, he wondered when the hot-tempered young alchemist started to mean so much to all of them.