Work Text:
Just a little time
Just a little something else instead
Just a little time
Just a little something up ahead
I'm dreaming of
Being...
Being...
Being...
Being human
- Being Human, Emily King (Steven Universe Future OST)
He’s back, and he feels everything. The weight and safety of a blanket contrasting the chillness of the hospital room, his lungs breathing in and out, his heart beating and his tired and heavy eyes.
Yet despite it all, Alphonse can’t sleep.
Even though his body is weak and heavy with exhaustion, Al is wide awake. Maybe, overwhelmed by the plenitude of sensations, the fact his body is no longer a walking empty shell. Even so, he hasn’t slept for years; well, he has passed out earlier, but he hasn’t actually gone to sleep and dream.
Al blinks his golden eyes time and time again. For the life of him, he can’t close them. His chest might feel a little tight. It’s nothing serious, he hopes… but it bothers him greatly, and he doesn’t know how to soothe it.
He eventually sighs in defeat and looks to his side. The other bed has been quiet all this time. The last thing Al wants is to disturb it, but…
“... Brother?” he calls, as quietly as he can.
There’s some quick shuffling.
“Al? You’re awake?” Ed asks, not sounding tired at all.
“Yes… I didn’t wake you, right?”
“No, but this isn’t about me. What’s up?”
Even in the dark, Al can sense his brother’s worried frown trying to look through him; to protect him from anything at all.
“I can’t sleep,” Al admits. “I mean, I am tired, but…” he doesn’t finish the sentence, though he doesn’t need to.
“Oh.”
A thoughtful pause follows.
“I can’t really sleep, either,” Ed whispers.
Al hums, “I guess it’s because you don’t need to sleep for us both anymore.”
“Yeah.”
They both smile in understanding. It’s a relieved smile but a quite tense one as well.
Al taps his fingers on the blanket, the action more comforting than he’d admit.
“Ed?”
“Yes, Al?” Ed’s voice is softer than before.
Al unconsciously bites his lip.
“Could you… um…”
“You want me to sleep with you?”
Al’s eyes widen once he realizes, “O-Only if you can stand up, brother, it’s fine if you—”
“Al, I’m okay,” Ed replies with fond annoyance, his smile clear in the dark.
His brother’s steps guide through the dark, until Ed squeezes himself in Al’s bed, still taking the attention to cover the latter properly. Al freezes at his brother’s closeness before he realizes, not prepared for the warmth and aliveness that has arrived. Nor was he really expecting the tender hand that touches his long, golden hair.
Al has human skin now. He doesn’t hear the metal clanking every time someone touched him or bumped his chest. He’s horribly thin and starved, sure, but he’s here, he can sense, feel and absorb. He’s had the realization before, of course – when his father held his hand, when Mei hugged him tightly. But it’s now, with his brother touching him with the most care and pained knowledge of all, that Al knows that they’re finally home.
The younger boy – god, he’s a boy – trembles. He aches, and he feels the ache a lot stronger than before. Al senses the tears rolling down his face, wetting the soft pillow, making a mess in his face. Crying has never felt this good.
Then Ed is pulling him close and tight, yet with the most care in the world – because Al is so small right now, and it’s the oddest sensation.
Al’s skinny arms reach his brother’s back, fingers curling in his shirt, holding as tight as his body allows it. Their legs tangled up together, Ed’s metal leg serving as a reminder. If Al is not imagining it, Ed might as well be crying. He only remembers his older brother crying when they were still young, yet now Ed is allowed to breathe and let it out, too.
Al cries in his brother’s chest, his heart loud. Ed rubs circles in his bony back, and Al only trembles more, only clings harder. It might not seem that way, but it’s all out of relief.
The relief of safety. Of aching certainty. Of stability.
They’ve reached the sun, at last. After years of clouded uncertainty, of the few sunlight rays penetrating. Right now, it rains, but the sun comes out as well.