Who: Al and Ed What: Ed surprises his little bro with a kitten When: Monday Where: Ed's room Warnings: Nah
Getting a pet hadn’t been on Edward’s list of priorities and had it been a month ago, he wouldn’t have looked twice at the post giving away kittens. But Al’s arrival had changed things and looking at those kittens reminded him how good his little brother was with animals and how much it might cheer him up to have one of his own. Salem was a shit show, sooner rather than later things would go wrong again and although Al had been through hell with him, Ed’s protective instincts were fully intact and he wanted to give Al a slice of happiness. If he had the power to give Al a normal childhood, he would have done it already but he could give Al this. It wasn’t much but the small things were what made Salem bearable so he picked up a small striped kitten to surprise Al with.
Artie was impossibly tiny and after buying a whole bunch of stuff from the nearest pet shop for him, Ed had set up the kitten with its own space in his room and left him eating from a dish in the corner. He hopped up on his bed and busied himself with his alchemy research until Al came to his place sometime before he fell asleep. Al couldn’t actually sleep but his little brother was still settling in Salem and didn’t feel comfortable spending the night anywhere else and that suited Ed just fine. It meant he could sleep without worrying he was going to wake up with Al in trouble.
He spent the next few hours putting together transmutation circles that were supposed to stitch skin together. It wasn’t a huge leap in his research, it wouldn’t mend bones or stop organs from failing but it was a start. Flesh wounds were common and if Ed had a dollar for every time he wished he could fix a slash on his arm as easily as he fixed his coat, he would be filthy rich.
He put the finishing touches on a circle when the small tinkle of the bell on Artie’s collar got closer and closer. Ed glanced away from his notes and down at the small kitten. Artie let out a soft meow and Ed sighed. He reached down and picked up the small kitten and placed him on his lap. “I’m only petting you until Al gets here, so don’t get used to it,” Ed said as he scratched the top of Artie’s head with one hand and wrote with the other.