Chapter Text
It was three days before Al was scheduled to be discharged. His recovery had taken awhile—not surprising considering the state of his body after being in the Gate for four years straight—but it was a lot shorter than it could have been. The original projected recovery time before Al would be well enough to leave the hospital and finish his recovery at home had ranged anywhere between six weeks and six months. Compared to the high end of that spectrum, both Ed and Al were grateful that it had only taken two months for the doctors to agree to let him go. Patient he may be for a fifteen-year-old, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t starting to get antsy three or four weeks in.
His life had settled into a routine over these last nine weeks, and one of Al’s favorite parts of that routine was waking up. It was special to him, because it meant he had been asleep.
That was another favored part of Al’s routine. Going to sleep. The doctors were often astonished at how readily he acquiesced to their requests that he rest, but it wouldn’t have been strange to them if they had known his circumstances.
Not that Ed or Al were planning on telling them anything, of course.
In any case, it was currently early morning three days before the doctors’ projected discharge date, and Al was enjoying the feeling of the morning sunshine, as he waited for his brother to wake up.
A soft groan sounded from the second bed in the room, as Edward began to stir, and he stretched as Al glanced over.
A moment later, his eyes blinked open, and he gazed up at the ceiling, only to freeze in place, his eyes catching on something. He stared at the ceiling in confusion—wait…no, based on where his eyes were tracking, he was staring at something directly in front of him.
Ed shot up in bed in surprise. “What the—” he continued to stare into the air in front of him, as if something was floating there. “What the hell is this?!”
Al blinked. “What the hell is what, Brother?”
Ed turned to look at him. “You mean you can’t see it?”
Al tilted his head. “See what? I don’t see anything unusual in here—except you, perhaps.”
Ed rolled his eyes. “Ha ha, very funny.” But his lips twitched briefly into a grin before he turned back to face forward. “I’m serious, though. There’s some weird…thing in the air in front of me. You’re saying you can’t see it?”
Al studied the area surrounding his brother for a moment, but shook his head. “I can’t see anything. Sorry.”
Ed grimaced. “Figures. Maybe I’m hallucinating or something.”
Al frowned. “Do you think you need to talk to the doctors about it?”
“And have them keep us here longer for no real reason? I’m sure ‘patient is seeing strange things floating in the air’ isn’t anything these doctors would know how to deal with. Besides, it’s not like I’ve lost my sense of reality or anything-I’m perfectly aware of what’s going on around me, there’s just a little…extra.”
Al shrugged. “Alright, we’ll leave it alone then, I guess.” Ed relaxed minutely and peered into the air again, poking his finger at whatever he was seeing.
There was a pause. “So…what is it?” Al asked.
“Hm?”
“Whatever you’re hallucinating, it seems to have caught your attention, so what is it? What does it look like?”
“Well, it’s a…it’s a…” Ed sighed. “It’s a sign of some kind, like a- a…miniature, glowing billboard floating in the air in front of my face.”
Al snickered. “A floating billboard that glows? That’s the best your mind could come up with?”
Ed reached over and gently shoved his shoulder. “Shut up!”
Al grinned. “So, what does it say? I mean, if you’ve got an invisible billboard floating in your face then it ought to say something.”
Ed turned back to the billboard that only he could see. “It says, uh… ‘Player System is ready for use,’ and asks if I want to activate it at this time. Then there’s two smaller signs underneath it saying ‘YES’ or ‘NO’”
Al’s eyebrows rose. Player system? What was that supposed to mean? “Huh. Did you answer it?”
Ed stared at him like he’d just said the man in the moon was square dancing in the hospital cafe wearing a top hat. “Did I answer the weird glowing hallucinated sign box?”
Al shrugged. “I mean, you might as well, right? You should see if this hallucination is going to be interactive.”
Ed opened his mouth as if to reply, paused in thought, and made a face. He glanced at his invisible billboard, then back to Al. “You promise you won’t tell anyone I did this?”
“I promise that if I do, I’ll tell them I’m the one who suggested it.”
“Eh…Good enough.” Ed furrowed his eyebrows at the air in front of him. “Should I say yes or no?”
“Well, if it does do something, then ‘yes’ would probably be more interesting.”
Ed snickered. “I like the way you think. ‘Yes’ it is, then.” Reaching out, he brushed his fingers over a spot in the air.
To Al’s surprise, an odd, fluorescent green light suddenly appeared just above Edward’s head, and spread its way down and over him, until his body was completely coated in soft light. It settled around Ed, flared brightly for a moment, and then seemed to sink into him.
Meanwhile, Ed himself was gazing into the air in bewilderment, scrambling backwards on the bed a bit. As the light flared around him, he must have seen something else going on, otherwise he would have noticed the light himself, billboard or no billboard.
Al’s gasp of surprise must have caught his attention, however, as he looked to the side just in time to see Al’s mouth gaping open.
Ed cast him an odd look. “What’s the matter, Al?” He smirked wryly. “Did you see something after all?”
Al shook himself of his shock and looked away from Edward to study the far wall, deep in thought.
A couple moments later, Ed spoke again. “C’mon, Al. You’re starting to worry me. What, did something actually happen?”
Al cleared his throat. “Brother?”
“Yeah?”
“The glowing billboard you mentioned…did it happen to be green?”
Ed blinked. “Yeah, it did. Why?”
“I think we should go talk to the Colonel.”
Al looked back at Edward, face oddly serious. He took a deep breath. “You see, I did see something. And I think we might not actually be dealing with a hallucination.”