Furry Madness

Part 9


The rest of the night was quiet, if you excluded the mixed growl and moans from the felines. Hughes checked on Alicia a last time and found Havoc sleeping against the bed, head and arm onto the mattress, looking properly exhausted. That was his little girl, exhausting a grown man without a sweat. Figuring the Elric brothers would not need their room any time soon, Hughes dragged himself to it for a few hours of sleep.

Farman and Breda also went to sleep, but on the couch, as they did not have the heart to climb up the stairs. Fury was the only one awake for the better part of the next hour, hiding in a closet. As the feline’s nosy activities finally stopped, his mouse instincts left him alone and he was able to curl up to sleep, snuggling into clothes he had snagged off their support to make a nest.

At the moment Fury went to sleep, Hawkeye woke up to the dim light of the rising sun, shaking herself and stretching her wings large. She’d slept crouched on the roof, wings curled around her shoulders for warmth, and it had been much more comfortable than she would have thought sleeping out here could possibly be.

She wondered, briefly, if she could fly with these large wings that stretched five feet on each side. The answer was no, she was still too heavy for them, but she allowed herself to stand there wings open as the wing ruffled her feathers and pretend she could actually have jumped off the roof and flown away. It was a nice thought.

Mn, all right, she couldn’t fly, but these wings were real and solid. They would probably be enough to parachute herself to the ground. Did she dare?

Hawkeye wasn’t a woman to be afraid of anything. She stood on the edge of the roof, stretched her wings as large as possible, calculated the height at which she stood over the ground, evaluated the injuries she could earn from this fall, and deemed the risk worth it. She jumped. And was slightly surprise when she did not dive straight for several broken bones but descended at an angle, the air pushing against her wings to slow her down. She missed her landing, falling to her knees, but it did not take away any of the wonders of this short flight. She’d just flown down a rooftop with her own wings. She’d be damned if anybody else in this town could say the same!

She gave herself the time to recover, heartbeat slowing back to normal and stood, nervously glancing around for any witnesses. That had been childish, unprofessional, and could be dangerous if civilians had seen her. But at four am, there was nobody up to spy on the bird lady. If Hawkeye spent the next hour climbing on the roof to jump down repeatedly, that was her business. And if she happened to sing with all the other damn morning birds while doing so, that was also her business.

-

Seven am. It was seven in the morning and he was awake. That did not please Edward at all. It was that damn sun, its light rays hitting his eyes. He turned away, but it was too late. He wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. Yawning, he pulled himself to a sitting position and began to groom himself sleepily. Alphonse stirred, having felt the removal of the warm body against which he’d been sleeping.

“Mm, Niisan?”

“Damn sun. Keeping me from sleeping.”

Out of solidarity, Alphonse forced himself to sit up and join the morning grooming. He kept yawning every few seconds, so much that his grooming only made his fur look worst. Edward snickered at him and nudged his shoulder with his nose.

“Let me do it, you’re making yourself look like a street cat.” Al sat still, mind slowly awakening under the insistent laps of Edward’s raspy tongue.

“Do I get a grooming too?” inquired Roy, looking at them through his lashes. It was hard to tell if he was sleepy or did it on purpose. Either way, he was sexy, curled on the carpet with his tail curling around his hip and against his stomach, his cheek on his forearm and lazily peeking at them.

“Don’t get too friendly, Mustang,” snarled Edward. “We’re not on drugs anymore.”

“A pity.” Silence, then, “Equivalent trade then? I’m the one with the tuna.”

“You wouldn’t dare to hog it.” Edward was indignant.

“Why not? You two can have cat food. I’m a wild creature so I require real food.”

“That’s not fair!” Alphonse was just as dismayed as his brother. Mustang wouldn’t actually keep the tuna to himself, would he? That would be mean!

“Equivalent trade?” repeated Roy, and Al could swear he heard hope in there.

Trying not to smile, the sandy kitten crawled over and pawed at Roy to uncurl his body and stretch on his back. He planted his paws on the man’s chest and started to lick at his face dutifully.

“Oh please, Al,” said Edward, but he was already beside him, looking down at a very naked Roy. It occurred to him he was also naked. He just hadn’t paid attention to it because he did not really feel naked, what with the fur covering most of his body. “Um, what happened to our clothes?”

“I think we shredded them,” said Al.

“So all those little black pieces on the ground used to be my pants?”

“I think so.”

“It’s going to take forever to gather them,” whined Edward.

With a moody grumble, Edward joined his efforts to Al’s to give Roy a tongue bath. It was mildly amusing. Or, at least, by the time they were done, he was in a better mood. Picking up the tissue pieces wasn’t as annoying as he had thought. To their kitty side, it was a game. Soon, there was a pile of black material gathered in the middle and Edward was able to transmute back their pants. Strangely, only Edward’s and Alphonse’s pants had been played with. Roy safely recovered his own uniform bottom from under a piece of furniture. But, as he had been nice enough to help them gather the parts for their pants, they did not complain. At least their shirts had survived, also hidden under the furniture.

“We’re still missing some pieces,” sighed Al, eying his pants. There were a few gaps in the legs.

“We probably swallowed those bits,” grumbled Ed, examining his own. “They’re still wearable.”

They wiggled in under Roy’s affected bored gaze. They left their pants riding rather low, forgetting the belts, so their tails weren’t too restrained by it.

“I’m hungry. I want tuna,” demanded Edward.

The boys looked expentantly at Roy. “I agree tuna sounds good.”

It was the first time any of them had fish for breakfast and it felt like an absolutely brilliant idea. Instead of the usual coffee, Roy poured himself a glass of milk. And a second. And a third.

“Can I have some too, please?”

After a second’s reflection, Roy decided he could stand sharing. Instead of a glass, he handed Alphonse a bowl; the boys seemed fond of crouching on the floor to eat and drink. Roy was barely behaving more human, sitting on the floor with his back against the counter and the milk container in hand.

Edward looked up from his empty can of tuna. “I’m thirsty too.”

Roy smirked. “Would you like some milk, Edward? I hear it does wonders for growth.”

“You know what? Shut up.” Edward inspected his can a last time and – reassured he hadn’t left anything behind – he paced across the kitchen floor and climbed on Roy’s shoulders to reach the sink. He pawed the handle and lapped at the rushing water.

“I’m not a stool,” remarked Roy.

“Your fault, you’re in the way.”

Roy watched Edward’s yellow tail flick back and forth in front of his face. He resisted maybe half a minute. Afterward, Roy couldn’t make up his mind; was it worse or better if he’d meant to bite Edward’s tail? One thing he was certain of, Edward didn’t care if he’d meant to or not; the boy fell down and twisted around, trying to get a hold of the hurting limb.

“Niisan, you’re putting your tail in my milk!” Alphonse retreated with his precious bowl.

Edward was busy ranting at Roy. “What’s wrong with you? Do you get off biting people’s tails or what? Ow, ow, ow!”

“Only when they wave it in my face it seems.”

Catching his tail, Edward licked it desperately in hope that it would dull the pain. Within seconds, he’d forgotten about the pain part, instead focusing on the strange taste in his fur.

“Mm, nice.”

“You’re aware that’s milk?”

Edward glared. “You, shut up and share.” He disliked Roy’s smirk. “Tell anyone and I’ll kill you.”

“They wouldn’t believe me.”