Freelancer New York (freelancer_york) wrote in knowhereic, @ 2017-09-25 23:28:00 |
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Entry tags: | fullmetal alchemist: au: alphonse elric, fullmetal alchemist: canon: edward elric, haloverse: canon: york |
Who: Edward & Alphonse Elric and York
What: The aftermath of a long day.
When: Evening, after this.
Where: Elric & Spartan Apartment
Rating: PG
Status: Log - Complete
It had been a long, rough day. Mustang and Hawkeye had been out killing tribbles. Edward and Alphonse had been reading books, looking for something. It’d been Ed who found it, figured it out, and put the plan into motion. And Al would do whatever was necessary to help his brother. There wasn’t much food and Alphonse had figured out people were eating tribbles, so trying to feed him those was out of the question. Thus, York had taken rations for four people, but had given the boys all four. Well, more like Al had gotten two and a half and Ed had gotten one and a half. Canned meat, canned veggies, and some bread. It wasn’t gourmet by any means, but it was food and Al’s rumbling tummy had been sated. For now. York and North had sat on the couch and chatted while the boys ate, then North had excused himself to shower (there was no power, the light in the room had come from candles placed around) and head off to bed. York wouldn’t be far behind, but for now he lingered to make sure Ed and Al were okay. “You both get enough to eat?” Not as much as they were used to, but enough to ensure they didn’t starve. “Yes, thanks, York.” Al assured him with a smile. “Good.” A hand came out to ruffle up the darker blonde’s loose hair, causing the young man to smooth it back down, raking his fingers through it to comb out the new tangles (thanks, York). “I’m really proud of you, Ed.” He’d said it once already, but it could stand to be repeated a few more times. “You really came through, man.” --- Ed had been distracted by what the dog had said on the network through most of what their pathetic dinner looked like. He’d been troubled by it. He’d only accounted for the ones brought there by...whatever force had brought them to knowhere and not it’s other civilians. There were people who had built lives there beyond them and he hadn’t even given them a second thought. He’d spent most of what was passing as dinner drawing on a napkin and probably would until someone told him to put it down, but he had to make sure the calculations and arrays were correct. Dozens of other lives would have been affected by this, but he didn’t think big enough. He’d barely touched his food in spite of the growing migraine he was feeling staring down at his napkin and design. It was a complex array that looked a great deal like a murdering psychopath from Ishval to the best of his knowledge-but reverse. Thank god for nearly photographic memory, but he wondered if those they recruited were going to be able to reproduce this? It needed to be large and accurate or it would have severe complications. He chewed at the inside of his lip while York and Al talked in the background. The pencil he’d been messing with between his fingers was the next victim of his teeth when York was looking at him and words were happening, but they didn’t connect with the older Elric at first. “...Huh?” --- “I said you did a good job, Ed.” His hand found the elder Elric’s shoulder. “And that I’m proud of you.” Leaning down, he pressed a lingering kiss to the top of that golden head. “I told you that you could do it.” Straightening up again, he took the empty plate from in front of Ed (thankfully, he hadn’t needed much prodding to eat all of it, they were all pretty hungry) and moved next to take the younger brother’s plate. Al’s eyes had settled onto Ed, though, and he was frowning slightly. It was clear his brother had been in deep thought. “I can help.” He offered, even though he didn’t know the issue. Whatever Ed needed, Alphonse could help with. He was an accomplished State Alchemist. Hell, he’d been one for longer than Edward had, considering he’d started when he was a year younger. Sure, they only had months between them, but months were still months! --- Roy’s project was decidedly put aside for the moment as this was far more pressing or they might die choking on Tribbles. Ed glanced over at York, he’d been a little unamused at first with him but he understood it all at least. It was now just a matter of the adult in him comprehending and compartmentalizing. It would be childish to be annoyed forever. York and Roy were soldiers, naturally they’d come up with genocide first..he’d placed down the pencil finally of his own free will this time. “Heh, just barely in time. I think maybe you have too much faith in me...” He responded as he lowered his head down to rest on his knuckles for a moment, arms propped up on the table. Ed was hungry, but he couldn’t eat as much as he wanted even with having the rations involved. When he got into a project he became pretty obsessed until it was finished. Glancing up at Al, he shook his head. “It’s nearly done, only thing it needs now is the blood seal.” He explained, but that wasn’t going on the napkin. He handed it over to Al to see. It was quite possibly of equal complexity to the one in the 5th lab. “I just had to flip these elements here and connect them to their blood.”He pointed to the line that indicated to where the blood would need to be spilled for the arrays to activate properly. There was a high chance that this would also sterilize him, but Ed was unphased. He glanced over at York though. “You’re not staying are you?” He hadn’t seen the message boards since his post. He hadn’t had the time with this many lives to consider. There were reasons he was considered a prodigy...the array he’d come up with was nearly diving into taboo things he probably shouldn’t have known. --- “I’m putting just the right amount of faith in you.” York reassured him, rinsing off the dishes and setting them aside. “You both need to get some rest. I’m going to go in and lay down, but I’ll be awake if you need me.” The amount of time York spend sleeping was shockingly small. Anywhere from two to five hours a day, sometimes less but never more. There were days he only took a half an hour nap on the couch before he was up again. Delta was both the cause of it and the reason he was able to maintain himself while doing it. “Thank you, York.” Alphonse said with a smile back at him, looking rather tired. “No problem, Phonsy.” He gave a wink of his good eye. “I’ll leave room if you want to join us tonight.” Al hadn’t slept in his own bed since a few days before all of this had started. “Phonsy?” The youngest asked with a blink. “I’m trying it out-- and yeah, Ed, I’m staying.” The golden soldier made it to the door of his bedroom and looked back at the two of them. “I’m not leaving you. Not for anything.” Take that into consideration, Ed. --- Ed was exhausted. Mentally and physically he was just drained. The blonde got a bit of tunnel vision when it came to things like this and would work until there was nothing left except a solution, and that was exactly what he’d done. He yelled at Elodin and some of the stupid internet people until an idea happened. He was an asshole, but an effective one. Get him angry enough and a solution might just happen, but that was sort of pathetic. Ed needed to be stronger, but he didn’t know how just then. Part of him wished Izumi was around, even though if she was there was a high risk he’d be dead before he could implement his plan considering the array he’d chosen. In the end he’d done it for Al. He didn’t want to see Al upset anymore then he had been already. First his brothers death, and then the potential mass genocide of the tribbles, no. Ed didn’t want to see him crushed again. Ed would literally do anything for Al...except maybe call him Phonsy. Looking up at York he gave him a slight roll of his eyes. “That sounds like a villain.” He said with a faint smirk before nodding. “Yeah, if I can turn off my brain I’ll try to sleep soon.” Right then he couldn’t. It was going a million miles an hour. “Night” And then his attention slid back toward Al. “You might not be able to have kids in the future.You know that right?” --- With York disappearing into the bedroom, Al could focus his full attention onto his brother again. “I know that.” The younger Elric said with all seriousness. He let a long moment of silence settle between them before he made up his mind on the words he wanted to say next. “You should let me do this, Brother.” He sounded so much older when he wasn’t excited. When he was calm and focused, Alphonse Elric could have passed off as an eighteen or nineteen year old. It was just how he was. He’d always been a little adult, unless he was excited over something (which happened often..). “When you get home, you’re going to want to have children you can share with your brother. He’s going to want nieces and nephews.” How did he know? Because he’d always wanted nieces and nephews. He wanted a girlfriend. A wife. A family. But more than any of those things, he’d wanted his brother to have them. He wanted to be an uncle more than anything else in the world. “I’m strong enough to do this.” Ed could teach him. He could let him. Alphonse was an accomplished Alchemist. --- Glancing up at Al he only frowned and shook his head. “No. Even there I’d already decided.” It was probably a hard thing for anyone to understand who hadn’t grown up the way they had, but Ed had problems getting attached to people. He didn’t want to put a child of his own through that. He didn’t want a child. “Al..I’m doing this. I’m doing it for us.” He stood and made his way toward the sink for a moment to splash some cold water over his face. It wasn’t the alchemy that had tired him out, it was the people. “Besides that, if I ever had a kid? I’d adopt one. One like us who needs someone so they don’t have to figure out all this stupid shit on their own like we did.” Ed had decided that long ago when their dad walked out on them that he wanted to give another kid that chance some day. A chance they didn’t have. “Don’t...this is all I can do for you.” Ed responded quietly after a moment. Not quite looking at him. He couldn’t fix everything that’d happened to his Edward, but just maybe he could show him “I want to do this..I need to.” He needed to show Al that he could be relied on, just because he wasn’t hisofficial brother. It was important to him that he be the one to activate the arrays. It was so important that he had trouble trusting himself to not break down. His tone was a little rough, but in that room it was almost like looking in on a pair of adults. Ed too was growing from this. He wouldn’t stop, even with how hard it was on him. “Stronger than anyone I know. That’s why I need to do this, to be stronger.” He hadn’t turned back yet, he didn’t trust himself. “Just trust in me.” --- Alphonse had gotten up from the table slowly as his brother splashed his face with water. He made his way quietly across the room and when Ed asked that he trust him, thin arms wound about his waist and the younger man’s chest came to rest against his back, his cheek to shoulder, and Al held on tightly. “I do trust you.” He assured him quietly, his voice having lost some of its volume due to the proximity between them. “I just want to help. I know you’re doing all of this for me. You don’t have to.” Al wanted him to know that. He didn’t have to go through with any of this if he didn’t want to. He could stop. He could let it go. He could allow his little brother to take on the burden-- this was all because of him, after all. “I’m sorry.” For everything. For putting Ed in this position. For not being the brother Ed had wanted to find here. For being so needy. And so young. And so stupid. For causing all of this trouble for someone he loved. --- Ed hadn’t been expecting that. He probably should always expect Al to want to touch him when he was near by, but it was still new. His Alphonse couldn’t touch him this way and hadn’t been able to in years. He wondered if he had the body if he would be this clingy, but he didn’t move. His flesh hand had been shaking a little. The entire time he’d been typing all that public stuff it had been actually. “For what?” Ed didn’t see anything Al needed to apologize for. “You don’t need to apologize for anything. “ Ed wanted Al to be who he was, young and naive as it were, troublesome as it could be sometimes. He wanted Al to be Al. “You are helping. I need someone to make sure nobody fucks up the arrays. I wouldn’t trust anyone but you with it. I can’t check on them once this starts.” Ed frowned a bit at the thought. If someone screwed up, there would be consequences and none of them good. He needed all the alchemists for different things, but Al was the one he wanted making sure nothing went fucky with the others. People liked Al so they’d be fine with it. “Stop apologizing, dork.” Ed let his hand rest on one of Al’s, and the shaking stopped. -- Al’s arms tightened slightly when that hand came to rest on his own. “I love you, Brother. You know that, don’t you?” Had he ever said it to Ed? He hadn’t said it to his own brother enough. A handful of times, at best. It wasn’t exactly something pre-teen or teen boys told one another. But now the youngest regretted it. He should have told him. Maybe he should have done it more often, or louder, or.. With different words? Somehow. He should have done something different. Something more to make his brother believe it. Maybe if he’d done that, his brother would still be around. Al often wondered what Ed would look like if he were here now. Would he be taller yet? Surely. A bit more broad. A bit more muscled. Without any of these automail bits that this version had. His Ed would be whole-- and angry. So angry that Al had done what he’d done. He let out a soft breath, squeezing his eyes shut. “I’d do anything for you.” Those words were softer, but Ed deserved to hear them. All he’d ever wanted was to be like his big brother, because Ed was amazing. He was, understandably, Alphonse’s idol. --- No, it wasn’t something often said. Especially not by the eldest of the pair. Ed struggled with the word at the best of times, but hearing it from Al made him feel stronger somehow. Gave him a warmth that was missing. Tex had said this was ‘incesty’ but Ed didn’t really know the term. York and North slept together all the time. They called eachother brothers, was that incesty? Ed didn’t feel bad with doing this. It’d been a long time since he’d been able to touch Al in any capacity much less feel warmth from him. “I know.” He responded, equally quiet. They didn’t need to be loud this close. Ed was glad for that. The world had gotten loud after he’d announced his intentions with the arrays. It felt like it was pressing down on him. “It’ll be okay you know.” Al had to be worrying about this to react this way. “I’ll be fine, and those little things will live. It’ll work out. That array is perfect.” He’d stayed up overnight to work on it since said announcement and had straight through dinner. Al’s breath was warm, and Ed’s eyes closed. If he pictured it properly it was like this Al was no different than his, and so he’d treat him like that. Al was Al. Different universe or whatever or otherwise. It’d taken some adjustment but Ed would treat him like his own brother. Ed didn’t even have to pretend all that much. When he imagined Alphonse, he imagined him much like this even if he didn’t officially love him becoming a State Alchemist. “I love you too...and I’m proud of you. I think you’re an idiot, but I’m still proud.” --- Of the two of them, Ed had always been more stoic. He kept his feelings to himself if he could help it. He didn’t hand out praise easily and he didn’t talk about emotions. He didn’t really show them as often, either. Alphonse had always been the emotional one, though. He wasn’t a crybaby (well.. Maybe he could be, at times, but sometimes it was warranted!) but he shed tears more often than the average man his age. He’d cried as a boy, when hurt, or frustrated, or scared-- when their mother had died and when left alone in the wilderness. He didn’t think anything of it, no one had ever scolded him for the tears, and he’d never tried to hide his emotions because of it. And hearing his brother say those words? They made him turn his face and rub it slightly against Ed’s shoulder, sniffing once. He didn’t bawl like a child, but he was definitely wiping tears off on the older boy. For once, however, he didn’t say anything. What needed to be said? This moment was perfect. So he just held on tight, standing there quietly, pressed in close. Ed was proud of him. He loved him. And even though this wasn’t his brother, he could imagine it was. He could imagine those words coming out of Ed’s mouth-- his Ed. The words that had always been there in his eyes but never quite made it past his lips. It was amazing. After a long silence, he finally released him. “Thanks.” The word was muttered quietly, and now Al felt a little silly. “You should get to sleep.. We’ve got a lot of work tomorrow.” --- He probably should have said those things to Al more often, but Ed was a bit detatched from emotion at the best of times, and at the worst? He didn’t think it was even slightly appropriate. He didn’t want to hand out meaningless praise, he wanted Al to know it was there and solid when he said it. To feel it. He got the feeling Al was used to people pandering to him a bit because of the things that happened, but Ed wasn’t the pandering sort. The blonde haired boy would tell him if he didn’t want to be touched or call him an idiot when he was one. He had no filter for better or worse. “...Maybe we should sleep with York.” He really hadn’t tried alchemy this large since the 5th lab, and wasn’t interested in experiencing nightmares. Maybe if York was around they wouldn’t be as prominent. Maybe for once they’d even shut up, but he wasn’t counting on it. For once he didn’t fight the idea of sleep, he was damn tired. --- “Okay.Let’s sleep with York.” His hand came down to take up Ed’s, linking their fingers and tugging the slightly older boy closer. Then, he went to blow out the few candles they were using a light, and tugged Ed all the way towards York’s bedroom. He knew he was welcome there, he was sure Ed would be, too. The door was gently nudged open and Al led the way into the dark room-- dark save a single candle. North was on his side in the bed, slipped down low in the bed with his forehead pressed against York’s shoulder. York was on his back, a book open on his chest, his eyes closed and one hand tucked behind his head. His eyes opened as he heard the door, though, and that blue one focused on Ed and Al, a little smile curling his lips. “C’mon in.” Urged quietly, his hand moving out from behind his head and patting the bed. Alphonse tugged his brother forward, he himself was already in his sleep clothes and was moving all the way to the bed, where he finally released Edward’s hand and York held up one, which Al took to be able to climb over the shorter of the two Spartans. He fit easily between North and York as if the space were made for him. It left plenty of room on York’s other side. “Why don’t you sleep here tonight, Ed?” His voice was quiet, so as not to wake North. The two Spartans were used to sleeping in a pile, so both Elrics were welcome. Al obviously lapped it up. --- Ed didn’t often curl up with York like Al did apparently judging how easily he slipped into bed with the two men.It was kind of strange after all the fact that Al had actually told him he’d wanted a wife when he was so comfortable with those two. Ed wasn’t really comfortable with anyone save this strange little group but even still his touches and ideas of closeness were far more reserved than Al’s. Often spoken in soft actions that didn’t involve much by way of actual physical touch. “I think we should get you a bigger bed.” Ed wasn’t exactly dressed for bed, but he didn’t care. He was too tired to change into regular pajamas and just climbed in next to York, burrowed in a corner like a small bean sprout that he was. Just don’t call him that to his face, but sometimes there were advantages to being small. His small form easily fit in that spot. He didn’t voice his worry, but it was probably pretty obvious. His mind was still calculating even as he touched the soft bed. --- If Al wasn’t sleeping with Ed, it was a pretty safe bet he was in this room. And on nights where both Ed and York were working? He slept with North, who didn’t mind the company at all. He was fine sleeping on the couch using anyone as a pillow, and had surprised Roy when he’d fallen asleep against him last week. Al trusted people pretty easily, it was something Roy and Riza had been trying to get him to stop doing for years. It clearly hadn’t worked. He didn’t trust everyone, of course.. Just people he had good feelings about. He hadn’t trusted that Grey guy. He was just creepy. But if his gut said it was okay? Well, he went with his gut. It hadn’t steered him wrong yet. So tucking himself in between these two soldiers was comfortable.. Even if he was a bit angry at them for killing tribbles. He understood why they thought they had to, and after some glaring (and bribery in the way of food), he’d forgiven them. With Ed finally slid into the bed, York wrapped an arm around him and dragged him in closer, until that small back impacted with the Spartan’s sturdy side, held there easily. Al had already set his head against York’s chest to use as a pillow, those round eyes watching his brother in the dim light, over the curve of the book open flat against that same chest. “I’m gonna finish this chapter.” He told them both. “Try and get some sleep.” And with one arm tucked between Al’s body and North’s body (Al was lying on it-- sorry, not sorry) and the other curled around Ed to keep him there where he belonged, that blue eye was closing up again. He only had another page or two. Delta went back to reading to him-- silence left in the room, because the words were meant only for York. It wouldn’t take long for Al to fall asleep like that. He felt safe. --- “Kay.” He responded quietly to York’s comment about the book and sleeping. Ed wasn’t tired at all until he was pulled in. His mind had been spiraling with calculations and potential for error and consequences to doing all this alchemy. His eyes still were open, but his mind was slowly starting to wind down and that alone was a blessing. He was wondering various things, if he’d done something like this back home would he have earned his next commission? Even Roy seemed to think his idea was good and solid. York had praised him, and the people of Knowhere accepted what he was going to do without too much fight in spite of the potential for severe consequences should something go wrong. Why did he care, it wasn’t like the military for him was his lifestyle unlike Alphonse but being recognized for something like this still gave him a certain sense of pride. He also couldn’t help but eye York’s arm so close by, wondering if he should bite it. But he was tired, and so was his mind so his thoughts were a little random and probably a little weird from over exertion. He looked up at York’s book and shuffled a bit to see the words instead of actually listening to the advice to try to sleep. He was far too wired. He’d probably sleep for three years once this was said and done, but for the time being? Nope. Nothing. Much like a cat bothering it’s human for attention, he tried to paw a bit at the book to see what he was reading. He doubted it’d be anything as interesting as advanced chemistry but whatever. --- Ed might actually enjoy it once he saw the title scrawled in bold font across the top of each page. Advanced Theorem and Ingenuity in Quantitative Chemical Analysis, by E.H. Arkham. Well, York had warned him when they’d first met that he read all sorts of strange things. The Spartan hadn’t always enjoyed books like this, but they had grown on him. Delta enjoyed reading through them, he enjoyed finding information (he couldn’t come up with theories, after all) and filing it away, as well as finding mistakes in books and having York correct them in pen. It was something the two had done to bond. Weird pair that they were. That one blue eye cracked open and he peered over at Ed as the young man pawed at his book and turned it on his chest so he could get a look at the words. “We ate up a small portion of your Alchemy books last week.” Delta had been ravenous over them, he wanted to know how everything worked. York had finally been able to talk him into something else. They’d read this book before-- twice-- but it was easier for York to try and sleep that way, as if being read a bedtime story. What a crappy bedtime story. --- Okay so that book wasn’t a bad thing to read. Ed leaned up a bit more on York’s chest in the darkness there to try to see better. “And you understood them?” The alchemy books. He was curious what other people thought of alchemy. Granted he didn’t have as many in this world as he did back home, but he had a nice sized collection from Earth run requests and the internet. Ianto had showed him internet reading and it had opened up an entire new world for him. Still, there was something about holding a book in his arms that he liked. Something like a security blanket when the world started falling apart he could rely on them. Ed’s eye twitched a little at some of the pen work York had done in the past, which brought him to his next question. “You didn’t write in them did you?” He looked over at him with worried eyes. Ed liked his books in tact. “The seal I designed isn’t from any of those.” He mentioned off handedly. “The books only teach you foundation.” --- “Yeah, to a point. Delta understands them better than I do, but that’s not unusual.” The AI was made for that, he was pure logic, pure brilliance, and he could do any math, any equations, and anything that required order and structure. Alchemy had been easy for him to understand. Equivalent exchange was understandable. You couldn’t make something from nothing. The rest of it was just explaining ingredients and formulas. The basics were all easy. It was the creative part Delta couldn’t do. However, it was something York could do, if he ever decided he had the mind to do it. “Not in your books, I wouldn’t do it.” They couldn’t write in Alchemy books anyway, they didn’t know enough about it. That blue eye closed again, comfortable with Ed lounged there. “And we figured out pretty quickly that it was all foundation work. Delta wanted to continue for a bit longer, but after a while he decided it was best to go back to something we both knew. Turn the page, would you?” Delta was ready for a page flip. “Why do you hide your automail?” The question came out of seemingly nowhere. --- “Mustang is making me create a teachable alchemy..” He mentioned after that, if York understood it maybe he would test it on him and Delta then. “I haven’t had time to finish it though.” With the impending alteration alchemy all his focus had gone into that. It was a complicated seal he’d created and he worried if normal people would be able to copy it. Maybe he’d have to hold some kind of meeting before they were all meant to scatter off and copy the things down someplace, ugh so many people. “...But maybe Theta and Delta will like it.” He knew he hadn’t really instantly clicked with Theta, but he hadn’t instantly clicked with Delta either. It took him a solid week to warm up to Delta too. Sometimes at first glance Ed could be seen as kinda cold and by all descriptions it wasn’t wrong. “Good.” If he wasn’t a State Alchemist he probably would have made a scary librarian in another lifetime the way he cared about the condition of books, but that job sounded dull as a bag of rocks and he was content with his currently. “...Why? Partially because what I did to earn it is illegal.” And the other part, he was uncomfortable with. He reached up to turn the page as a distraction from answering the other part. --- “Teachable alchemy sounds pretty exciting. If there’s anything D or I can do, just let us know. We’re happy to help, and Delta understands it all. I understand a lot of it, too. He read the books enough times.” While Ed made himself comfortable there, partly on the Spartan’s chest, York reached up with his now-free hand and tugged at the end of that braid, pulling the tie loose deftly and looping it around one of his fingers for safe keeping (he was sure if he lost the tie, Ed would kill him) while that blonde hair spilled loose. It made York grin. “I’ve done some illegal things in my time.” More than some. The Spartan had done some pretty horrific things, in fact. Not anything like Ed had, but a whole different brand of bad. Of course, he hadn’t done them with all the facts. He’d just been following orders. Like Hawkeye. Like Mustang. “Come on. Tell me the other part.” It was partly because he’d done something illegal, and partly.. What? York had two massive scars and a glass eye-- they were things he couldn’t hide, not the way Ed could hide his arm and leg. But if York had a mechanical body part, he wasn’t sure he’d hide it. He’d never been ashamed of what he was, or unsure about the way he looked. He was what he was. --- “It’s annoying that the bastard colonel came up with it...but...I guess it is kinda yeah.” But if anyone told Roy that Ed basically devoured the project at first he would deny it. He and Roy were polar opposites and yet they both worked on the same basic principle. So maybe they connected after all. “I haven’t even had time to think about it but if I do, I will.” Ed had just begun to relax a little when York pulled apart his hair, and he looked up in the dark at him with a steely glare that could cut right through the inky blackness. “What the hell? You’re fixing it tomorrow.” He scoffed a bit before settling back down on York’s chest and letting his eyes close tiredly for a moment. “People ask questions I’m not interested in answering….and I don’t want the attention.” Ed frowned a bit. He didn’t like that many eyes on him. It was unnerving even now with knowhere watching him it made his skin crawl. --- “Me? I don’t know how to braid.” He could loop it all together, but not in that neat braid that Edward had been wearing. “Do I look like a teenage girl? Have your brother do it for you.” Lazily, he let his fingers stroke through that longer hair, working out the few tangles left from the braid. And with Al sound asleep on one side, using part of his chest as a pillow, and Ed taking up the rest of the rather large space, he found himself perfectly contented-- North’s soft breathing closer to his ear topped it all off. York wouldn’t sleep tonight. Not with all three of them here to watch over. Delta would help keep him awake. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s strange. I think it’s just another part that adds up to the amazing Edward Elric.” He moved his hand up to press his fingers through Ed’s bangs and pull them a bit out of his face. “Get some sleep.” He needed it. --- “Tch, neither do I. “ That was annoying. His hair was getting stupidly long, it might be time to cut it. It went past his shoulder blades now in length. “You keep pulling it out, you learn how.” He said in annoyance but didn’t actually do anything except rest his cheek tiredly on York’s chest. York was warm, sue him. Golden eyes watched him quietly in the darkness. This was a place he never expected to end up. Resting there against York it really wasn’t that hard to fall asleep anymore. He’d found someplace safe even among the chaos that was his ridiculous brain. York’s even breathing and the sounds of North and Al near by finally caused Ed’s exhaustion to catch up with him. |