Housework sides

A little Roy helping Al. I realized there wasn't alot of that in the original and this is the place for it. It happens when Ed is 16, Al 15, around chapter 18 I suppose is a good place for it.

Growing up with flowers

“Al? Are you here?” Ed peeked into the dark conservatory. His brother hadn't come back to class and wasn't there to meet him to go to the library either. “Hello?” He'd been looking for two hours now, he was starting to really worry. If Al wasn't here, he was going to have to go tell Roy.

“Go away, Brother.” Al's voice came from the back and Ed followed it quickly. It felt eerie in the dark, almost like a jungle.

“What are you doing back there? Why didn't you come to class? The professor said he was gonna call Roy, he's gonna be mad.” The blond peered around, trying to pinpoint his younger sibling's whereabouts. “Come on, we should go. I bet if you go say you're sorry, he won't ground you for more than a few days.” Roy's favorite punishment, grounding, was more an annoyance than anything, but it was easier to just avoid it.

“Brother, go away. I need to think.” Al's larger form was just visible sitting beside a table, but something looked, weird.

“Why? What happened?” Ed edged closer, trying to see what was wrong. He finally clapped his hands and lit a small fire between them, illuminating the scene. He immediately dropped his concentration in shock, allowing the flame to go out. Al was covered in rose buds, sprouting from his armor. “What did you do?”

“I was trying to make it grow faster, it's been sickly. I'm not sure what went wrong, I'm working on the array right now. Please go away, I need to concentrate.” Ed shook his head and plopped down beside his brother.

“Nope. I'll help, let me see what you used.” He grabbed the paper out of the other boy's hands, examining it closely in the dim lighting. “What about that line? If you moved it over there, it might work. And erase that one, that's what made it join with you. See?” Al leaned over him and nodded, penciling the changes in. They drew it up and tried it on another plant. It promptly changed from red to blue. “Guess not. Well, maybe if we exchanged these runes here and added this one...” They kept at it for an hour, finally getting a small pansy to grow a few inches. Not perfect, but it would do.

Ed looked out the window and noticed it was starting to get a bit dark, Roy would be waiting for them to show up at the office. “We better go, we'll be late. If he finds out we weren't at the library, we'll both be stuck on office duty for a week.” Another favorite punishment, office duty meant being anyone's bitch; fetching coffee or snacks, sorting papers, filing, cleaning, anything the staff could find for them to do.

“Brother, I can't. I have to fix this.” Oh, right. They'd gotten so distracted by their other project, Ed had forgotten about the armor.

“Let me see. Is it inside?” Al nodded and the older brother undid his chest plate and opened it up. The roots of the flower were climbing along the inside, woven into the armor itself. “I don't think we can get it out without killing it. It's woven in pretty well.” Al sighed and nodded for him to start. The blond started riping the roots out, pulling them through the armor. It wasn't long before it was all out. Ed clapped and fixed the holes quickly. “Come on, we're late.”

They ran to the office, waving at the secretaries a the front door on the way by. The women giggled and waved back. Fuery choked when he saw them and bent over in a coughing fit while Havoc laughed. When they stopped to see what was funny, he just waved them on.

Roy was tapping his pen against the desk when they walked in, glaring at the phone. “Well? Where were you? Al? You missed class today, two of them. Edward, you weren't at the library like you said you would be. And you're both late getting back here.”

Al spoke up, “We were in the greenhouse, sir. I had an accident and Brother was helping me fix it.”

Roy looked up. “What kind of accident?” He looked them over, neither looked any worse for wear and he hadn't had any complaints today. Yet. “I'm not getting a phone call later, am I?”

“A small one, sir. I don't think so, we didn't wreck anything. I was trying to make my plant grow, it hasn't been doing well lately. It fused with my armor, but we fixed it. We even got a pansy to grow a bit.” His voice perked up and he sounded proud of their accomplishment.

“You were doing experiments, unsupervised, in a greenhouse where no one knew where you were. And they didn't work.” Roy's voice was rising, he was already tired and this was just extra. “I have TOLD you not to do experiments away from home, I have TOLD you I wish to know where you are, and I have TOLD you you must go to class. Which of these things did you not understand?” Black eyes focused on a point behind Al's ear. “What is that? Is that a rose?”

Ed looked up quickly to see a bright red rose peeking around Al's ear. Oops, missed one. He reached up and grabbed it, pulling it away. It was cut where the armor had fused together and had stuck on the ear. Al answered again. “We're sorry sir, we just got carried away with the idea. It wasn't Brother's fault, I did it first, he was just trying to help me. I'm very sorry about missing class, but I couldn't go covered in flowers, I needed time to fix it. Brother went to his classes.” He offered his brother's accomplishments.

Roy rubbed his head, trying to stay calm. “It is assumed that you will both go to classes, all of them. Obviously I've been too lenient with you both. Al, three weeks of office duty and you are grounded until I say so. This is for experimenting away from home, not telling anyone where you were and skipping. Edward, you are grounded for a week for not calling and telling me Al was missing or where you were. Also, one week of office duty for experimenting. I am very disappointed in both of you, you deliberately ignored my rules, lax though they are.” He sat back and examined the two in front of him, heads down. He sighed. “Sit. I have to stay late today and I'm not sending you home. You can just sit there until I'm done. Quietly.”

They sat, staring at the floor for almost half an hour before fidgeting. It seemed like a good time to go, work was almost done. He drove them all home and made supper, leaving them to their own devices. They played chess most of the evening and Roy asked Al to stay behind before they went to bed.

“Al, why were you experimenting alone? That's not like you.” Al sat on the couch, looking intently at the floor.

He shrugged and fiddled with his hands. “I just wanted to do something by myself. Brother isn't interested in horticulture, but he likes to play and I knew he'd want to help if he found out. Not that I don't appreciate his help, I like to work with him, it's just...”

“You wanted to do something he couldn't. That's alright, Al. I think all siblings feel that way, especially younger ones. I was pretty excited when I found out I could do alchemy and my older sister couldn't. She was really mad, she'd always wanted to be able to. You can do a lot of things better than Edward.” Al tilted his head, “Like chess, you're much better at tactics than he is, your hand to hand combat is considerably more advanced, you understand plants and animals much better, and your attention to detail, in everything, is considerably more developed than his.” Roy smiled. “You have a wide range of abilities while Edward specializes more. Don't worry about it. You understand why I don't want you experimenting alone?”

The boy nodded, “It's dangerous. I could have been hurt or not able to fix it. I could have hurt someone if they had happened along at the wrong moment. I'm sorry, I knew I shouldn't, I just wanted to, I don't know.” He sounded absolutely miserable.

“It's alright. You're supposed to feel that way, you're fifteen, you want to stand out, away from your brother, away from your friends. Just try to remember, it's not a competition. You are unique, so there's no one to compete against.” Al nodded.

He looked up, “Sir? What did you do, to stand out?”

Roy blushed a bit, “Uh, well, I did some dumb things. I fought a lot, dated older girls, drank, even smoked a bit, mostly so I could light them with alchemy. Pretty stupid really. Thankfully, my sister dragged me out and beat it out of me before it went too far. The other thing was choose a specialty, I wasn't much older than you two when I decided to learn flame alchemy. There aren't many people who use it anymore, it's a bit flashy.”

Al thought for a bit. “Are you sorry you did those things?”

“Some of them, mostly I learned from them. Because now, I know things to tell you two, so you don't make the same mistakes I did.” He smiled easily. “Feel better?” Al nodded quickly, his eyes brighter than usual. “Alright, off to bed then. And next time, come see me, we'll find somewhere safe for you to work without Edward. Good night.

“Yes, sir. Good night. Thank you, sir.” Roy grinned and waved. He leaned back in his chair, considering. This wasn't so bad, he could do it. He just had to remember being that age himself. 'I wonder if I was this much of a pain for my sister? And my poor parents, wish I could say sorry to them now.' He was interrupted by soft footsteps.

“Yes?” The older man leaned forward and twisted to see gold eyes watching him from the door. “Come in, I thought you were asleep.”

“Does Al, Is he mad at me?” The boy bit his lip. “He didn't want me to help this afternoon, he kept telling me to go away.”

Ah, the other side of the problem. “Of course not. Edward, Al is going through a hard time right now, he needs to do things for himself a little. He doesn't need you to do everything for him. He loves you and likes to work with you and likes your help, he just needs some room. Don't worry, it'll pass.”

“Oh. But, I like to help him.” The blond wandered over to stand in front of Roy, looking down. “I don't understand, I want to help.”

“I know you do, and he likes it when you do too. He just wants to help himself first. He's growing up, Edward, just like you are. He's not delicate or incompetent, as you know. Just give him some space, let him try things for himself. You can always help if he can't do it, then you both learn how. Alright?” The young man still looked confused, but nodded anyways. “Now it's really getting late, go to bed or you won't get up tomorrow. And don't forget to come by for office duty in the afternoon.” Edward smiled at him and nodded before turning to go to bed. 'Damn I'm good' Roy gloated to himself all the way to bed.