Cold Comfort - Gen - FMA
Cold Comfort
Fandom - Fullmetal Alchemist
Characters - Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric
Disclaimer - I do not own these characters, I make no money off this. Its all for fun.
Warnings - no Elric-sest
Summary - Its cold and Alphonse warms up his older brother.
A/N - I was trying to writ Ling/Edward, but it didn’t turn out that way. But I am happy with the result.
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Edward hated the deep, soul-cold winter of Northern Amestris. For once he and Al had traveled by train to a small town on the edges of the countries boundaries for nothing more than a wayward Alchemist making Chimera. The town was otherwise boring. Edward had hoped that they’d get the job done before the first snow fall of the season, but alas, his hopes were dashed carelessly by Nature like a wave of water crashing against a rocky cliff.
He didn’t want to stay in the town though, it’d take too long to wait for the snow to melt and so he decided that they’d walk to the next town over, which was three hundred miles away. Alphonse was so tall that the snow wasn’t dangerous to the blood seal held within the otherwise empty armor.
Edward was having a bit of a go of it, however. The snow drifts measure three feet above his blond head and Alphonse had to walk before his older brother so that Edward could actually walk. The shorter boy muttered about how unfair the world was. First was the dumb Alchemist that kept them so long, second was the fact that he knew nothing about the Philosophers Stone, the third was that the first snow of the season had to be a literal blizzard and fourthly….that he had to walk in a Alphonse sized path when he was the older brother and should be going before his younger brother. After all, he was older.
“Damn,” he cursed. The one thing he didn’t list in the things that was unfair with the world right at that moment; was his Automail. The cold seeped from metal to body and he was beginning to wonder if he’d ever be warm again. Probably not, he decided. He’d probably have to spend the night in Alphonse’s armor to get any sort of shelter if it began to snow again.
He couldn’t see above the snow drifts, but the sky above him was an eye-hurting gray that didn’t bode well for future weather, or travelers for that matter.
“Edward,” Alphonse clang-ie voice echoed around the emptiness, “are you cold?”
“Kinda, but I’m fine, Al, that’s normal. You’ll feel it when we get your body back,” Edward said, he hoped that by turning Al’s thoughts to regaining their bodies that his brother wouldn’t mother-hen him. Edward pulled his hood about his face to try and kept something warm-ish. It wasn’t working.
“Maybe we should have stayed at that town,” Al said. Edward sighed, they’d been through this same conversation three different times since that morning. It was only late afternoon.
“Al, for the last time, I refuse to turn back, we’re all ready this far anyway,” Edward replied, trying not to be too angry with Al for worrying about him. That was what helped Al remember the most - his worry and helpfulness towards others helped Al to keep his humanity.
“But Ed, my armor is frosting,” Al turned in his progress and held out an arm for Edward to contemplate. Golden eyes alighted on grey-sky armor and he could see the slight lines of front decorating Al’s body.
“And that’s normal, Al,” Ed sighed and rolled his eyes.
“But what about your Automail?” Al wasn’t going to drop it but at least he wasn’t going on about turning back.
“Its fine Al, it always feels cold to the touch anyway,” Edward shook his head. Al crossed his arms and Edward new that they wouldn’t be moving on till Al had said his piece.
“So you’re always cold?” he questioned.
“Nope, in fact my blood is pumping, I’m feeling good,” Edward grinned cheekily up at Al.
Alphonse sighed. Edward really didn’t want to talk about it, or be smart and go back to the town and stay the week out - of course, there were no garantees that the snow would melt. There could always be another blizzard.
“But if I stand here all day, I can get cold, now start moving!” Edward demanded and stomped his left leg in the snow, making a deep impression with his Automail.
“Okay,” Al didn’t sigh, it was a huge effort on his part. He turned and they started tunneling once more.
Hours passed, light waned and night befell them.
Edward and Alphonse did not gain shelter by that evening and Edward did indeed end up inside Alphonse metal body. He was careful of the blood seal he’d put there himself. It was the only thing keeping Alphonse with him. He didn’t say anything, however, he didn’t want to talk about the day they’d eventually regain their bodies. It was still just a tunnel dream.
“Edward,” Al’s clang-ie voice filled Ed’s ears.
“Yeah?”
“You’re going to get cold,” Al replied. Edward shrugged. He didn’t really care since he’d been freezing since that morning and nothing was going to change it.
Alphonse, however, was just as proficient at Alchemy as Edward was. People just kept forgetting that fact; included Edward. He only noticed the heat when he felt himself start sweating.
“A heating array,” Edward mumbled sleepily.
“It’s pretty close to the arrays Colonel Mustang uses for his fire Alchemy but not quite,” Alphonse replied.
“Nifty,” and Edward was asleep seconds later.
Morning seemed to come in an instant. Alphonse didn’t actually want to wake his older brother, but there was just no use for it.
“Edward…?”
“Hmmmm…?” the sleep addled teenager managed, barely, to fall out of Alphonse. Edward stretched and took a long, deep breath of country, chilled air. He sighed and turned to Alphonse with a huge grin.
“Lets get going so we can get on that train, I don’t think we’ll be another night out here,” Edward patted Al on the arm.
“Okay,” Alphonse nodded and sounded much happier than he’d been the day before. Edward caught a look at the heating array. It’d been in one of the more advanced Alchemy books heir Teach, Izumi Curtis, had handed them for some extra reading.
It was a really neat array and Edward was knocked in the head by the idea - why hadn’t he thought of it yesterday? He took out some chalk and was able to scrawl it neatly on the inside of his red coat. He touched it briefly with a finger and the heat was instant. He sighed. He wouldn’t be as warm as he liked, but at least he would be as coldly, uncomfortable as the day before either.
THE END