Chapter 1: Meeting the Elric Brothers

Edward Elric sat in a hospital room chair, impatiently tapping the foot of his crossed leg. His arms were folded as he looked out the window, sighing to himself. How long was this going to take? It felt like hours since someone had given him any sort of information concerning his brother's health. He glanced over at Alphonse, who carefully tried to eat a spoonful of jello. He watched as Al struggled with keeping his snack on the spoon, nearly dropping it on his hospital gown. The jello didn't really look all that appetizing to Ed, but he was just glad his brother was finally able to eat something. It had been a long time since he was able to. He deserved that much, at least.

It had only been a few weeks since his body was returned to him, so Al's muscles still shook with the effort it took to do basic things. To Edward's knowledge, or as much as the doctors would update him on, Al's progress on healing was normal. He showed no signs of excess struggle. Alphonse just slept a lot and was on a special dietary plan to insure his recovery would continue going upward. Which meant frequent small meals. Ed hoped that was a good sign. 

Snapping out of his thoughts, Edward noticed the tiny room he was in. The walls were stale, muted off white in color.  The drapes on the windows seemed to be the only thing adding vibrancy to the room. He watched the navy blue fabric blow softly in the wind coming through the open window he sat by. It didn't take a lot of looking around to know the hospital was old. There were small signs everywhere, cracks in the corners of the walls, dust on the ceiling fan and other things that suggested the place needed a remodel; or at least better care.

'How's anyone supposed to feel better in a place like this? It looks dreadful in here'

As Ed glanced more at his surroundings, the hallway grew louder with footsteps and whispered conversations. Doctors and nurses alike busied themselves with their patients' care, however it was a little too slow for Edward's taste. He had been waiting for what seemed an eternity for information about his brother's condition. Edward was desperate for good results, hoping Al would be deemed healthy enough to be discharged soon. He wanted to make sure his brother was okay first and foremost, but he was itching to get on the road back to Resembool. Maybe there Al would recover at a steadier pace, in the comfort of his hometown.

Edward sighed, tired of waiting. He pulled himself from his chair and stretched his arms and gave a small yawn. Looking over at Alphonse, he saw his brother was finished with his food and was now content with reading a magazine. Ed smiled to himself. Man, was he happy to have his brother back in the flesh.

"Hey Al, I'm gonna run to the cafeteria real quick. You need anything while I'm out?"

Alphonse looked up from the magazine to his brother and gave a soft smile. He shook his head.

"Nope. I'm good." His voice came out slightly horse, his vocal cords still reviving after years of not being used. Other than that he sounded like Al. 

Edward watched as his brother glanced back at what he was reading. As he did, Al's expression perked up. He carefully grabbed the empty cup that sat on the nightstand beside him and gestured his hand toward Edward.

"Actually, could you get me another cup of water? And some ice? I want to chew on something, but I'm not hungry."

Ed walked over to his brother and took the cup, and gave his brother a thumbs up. "Sure thing. Order of H20 and ice chips coming right up." Al laughed softly and looked down to continue reading.

Edward jogged down the hallway. Luckily Al's room was only a floor up from the cafeteria so he didn't have to look for very long.

  As he made his way back to Al's room, water in tow, he noticed someone was walking towards Alphonse's room. Someone who looked like a female doctor, with (h/c) hair was pushing a cart of supplies in that direction.

'Finally, I can get some answers now!'

Edward jogged up to the girl who was standing outside his brother's room door, writing on a clipboard. Her back faced his direction. As he came close to her, Edward cleared his throat hoping to get her attention. When that didn't work, he sighed to himself and spoke.

"So.. what's the verdict, doc?" Edward peered over her shoulder and watched her take notes. The girl mumbled to herself as she wrote, though Ed couldn't hear what she was saying. He decided to ignore it and persisted with his question.

"Is my little brother gonna be okay?". 

The girl only turned towards the blonde when she was finished with her task. She gave a soft smile and nodded.

"Hi, sorry I didn't see you there. I was just taking some notes for the nurses." the girl chuckled.

Edward, slightly impatient, sighed. " I can see that. The question still stands though. Is my brother good to go?"

The girl, who looked to be around his or Al's age, clicked her pen and connected it to her clipboard as she spoke, keeping a calm demeanor. "Alphonse is progressing steadily, which is a good sign. I think the Dr. Is still needing to do a few more tests before he'll be ready to go home though."

"So you're not the doctor?" Ed asked and leaned against the wall. He tried to distract himself from his growing impatience by swishing Al's cup of water in his hand. The ice clinked in the glass. 

As he thought back on it, her not being a doctor did make sense. She wasn't wearing a white lab coat, nor scrubs, for starters. All he could see that even remotely gave a clue to who was standing in front of him was the lanyard that rested around her neck. Inside the lanyard, a photograph of the girl could be seen, along with other important information, like date of birth, etc. In bold lettering underneath the picture, the word 'Volunteer' could be seen.

"No, unfortunately. I'm just volunteering. The nurses told me to bring these supplies by the room and to check on Mr. Alphonse's condition. They said I could give you an update. Sorry to say it's not much information though. Your name's Mr. Edward, right?"

"It's just Edward, but yes, that's me."

"Right, of course. Sorry about that. Sometimes I forget to switch off my manners. Gotta be polite to the higher ups and other patients, am I right?" she chuckled trying to lighten the mood. She could see the young man was visibly irritated, or getting close to that point.

"Thank you for your patience with us.  I'm sure you've been waiting for a while, but the nurses said the doctor would be with you in a few minutes" 

"Yeah, yeah it's fine. If I've waited for this long, then I  can wait a few more minutes. Not a big deal. Thanks for letting me know'' Edward relented, opening the door to Alphonse's room. Once he entered, he held open the door with his foot. 

"...You coming in or are you just gonna stand there?"

The girl nodded and thanked him for opening the door. She walked quickly into the room, pushing the cart of medical supplies as she went.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alphonse was sitting in his hospital bed, skimming through the book he was reading. It wasn't really interesting, but it was all the hospital had. It was one of those health magazines that the hospital staff would leave out for their patients; nothing really to write home about. It did have some good tips on eating right and getting back into exercising, though. The doctor had previously told him it might be a beneficial read, so if the doctor thought it best he was going to at least look at it. Anything to get his body back to a normal weight.

  As Alphonse read, a few strands of hair fell in his eyes, obscuring his vision for a few seconds. Blowing them away, he licked his thumb and turned to the next page. Despite how annoying it was to have hair in his eyes, he had to admit  he really missed having to deal with the slight inconveniences that came with having hair.

Speaking of which, he was in desperate need of a haircut. Al grabbed a few strands of his hair and pinched the locks between his fingers, eying them to the best of his ability.

'I should've asked Ed for a hair tie before he left.. eh, it's fine. I'll just ask him when he gets back..'

As Alphonse busied himself with finding tangles in his hair and trying to smooth them out, he heard the door open softly. Ed's voice could be heard as he stepped into the room.

"Hey Al. I'm back. Here's the water you wanted."

Turning his head to acknowledge Edward, he smiled sweetly "Thanks, brother."

As Al reached out for the cup of water that was offered to him, he heard the sound of wheels swiftly rolling into the room. 

Taking a sip of his water, Alphonse turned his head to notice a big cart of medical supplies being pushed into the room. As he noticed the individual who rolled the cart, his cheeks flushed. He'd never seen the young girl before.. or had he. She looked familiar. The girl had (length/ color) hair, with a (accessory) keeping her hair from her face. The style was cute. She looked different than a nurse, though, wearing a (outfit of choice).

"Hello.." Al greeted and calmly waved.

Noticing he had been staring in the girl's direction for quite a while, his cheeks gained an even brighter shade. He flitted his gaze back to his brother. Hopefully she didn't think he was staring at her.. but he was curious who she was. Where had he seen her before? If he had met her previously, then it had been a long time since then. She probably wouldn't recognise him if they had met before. Maybe she was someone they had helped along their journey? He couldn't recall.

"Ed, who's this?"

"Oh yeah. Al this is…. Wait…actually, who are you, again?" Confused, Edward pointed a finger in the girl's direction. 

"You didn't even bother asking what her name was?! How rude can you get?"  Alphonse winced, rubbing his throat. Even after a few weeks his vocal cords still weren't used to talking, let alone shouting. Clearing his throat,  he reached down to slide the magazine he held, along with the cup of water, back on the nightstand. He softly grunted with the effort. " Brother, you're hopeless."

He wasn't going to admit he didn't remember her either. That was for Al to know and for Ed not to find out.

"What? It's not like I forgot, I just wasn't thinking about it." Ed pouted, folding his arms loosely above his abdomen. He leaned his back against the wall beside Alphonse, and sheepishly gave a side glance to his brother.

"So, you forgot." Al sighed and placed his hands on top of his lap. He gripped the sheets and pulled them closer to his body. He was cold and the hospital gown he wore did very little to warm him up. The blanket wasn't great either.

"I'm sorry about him, ma'am. Please excuse him."

The girl, who watched the dispute with a nervous expression, looked over to Alphonse. She shook her head and smiled softly, walking closer to the two boys.

"Please don't worry about it. I should've introduced myself to begin with, that was on me. My name's (y/n) (l/n). But everyone just calls me (Nickname/ (n/n)."

"Ah, okay. Well it's nice to meet you (y/n). My name's Alphonse Elric.. but you probably already knew that, since you work here. You can call me Al though." He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. With his opposite hand, He pointed a thumb in Edward's direction.

  "If he hasn't introduced himself yet, that's my older brother Edward. You met him in the hallway."

Ed sighed. "Yeah Al, I introduced myself. She knows my name already. But, since it seems we're on a nickname basis.." Ed points to himself with his thumb. His smile was slightly smug, but calm ,"Just call me Ed. Don't wear it out." 

Al curved his hand around his mouth and whispered loudly, " He's not always this prickly. Once you get to know him, he's generally a good guy."

"Al, you know I can still hear you.."

"Yeah, I know," Alphonse laughed with an amused grin.

The girl watched the brothers continue their light hearted dispute. She cleared her throat to call them back to the previous conversation. Al made sure to give his whole attention to her as she spoke. He was a gentleman, after all.

"In any case, it's really nice to officially meet both of you." After she spoke, she turned to Alphonse. " I was just telling Ed that the doctor wanted me to let you know he'd be by in a few minutes. The nurses mentioned he needed to run a few more tests. I was just dropping off the equipment he'd need by the room." Giving a gentle pat to the cart, she turned her head towards the door.

She took a few steps back and craned her neck to see if anyone was about to enter the room. When she was satisfied that no one would be coming in, she looked to the boys again. Al was slightly confused at what she was doing, and Ed had a bewildered expression. Taking note of their confusion, (y/n) spoke, whispering in a light but hushed tone. 

"I'm not really supposed to tell you this, but there's a possibility the doctor will talk to you about starting physical therapy soon. Since I'm just a volunteer, I usually don't get access to that type of info. The nurses mentioned it to me earlier, though, so I thought I should pass the message along."  (y/n) smiled warmly, giving a wink to Al, "You didn't hear it from me. Okay?" 

Alphonse softly blushed at the direct interaction, but still kept a gentle smile on his face. He wordlessly nodded, causing (y/n) to chuckle.

Ed noticed the exchange between them and smiled to himself. However, he wasn't worried about that for now. He was more interested in the information (y/n) had given them. Edward beamed at his brother and placed a hand on Alphonse's shoulder. Al could see he was obviously excited.

"Al, that's great news! At this rate, we'll get to go home in no time!"

Al nodded and smiled. Finally after so long he'd be able to go home, fully himself. Their journey had finally come to an end. He could hardly wait.

"Yeah. I can't wait to try that apple pie Winry promised to make," he chuckled, "You two have been saying nothing but good things about it, so I'm very hopeful about the experience."

Ed laughed and ruffled his brother's hair jovially. "Yeah, it'll be good. Just you wait."

Once Ed was done with his hair, Al looked over to (y/n), dipping his head in a small bow. A few pieces of misplaced hair fell in his face as he looked up at her with a cheerful glance. He softly blew the hair away before his mouth curved into a thankful smile.

"Thank you for the update, (y/n). We both really appreciate it."

Al noticed a blush appear on the girl's features as she waved her hands in front of her, seemingly embarrassed. The bashful smile she gave next was the icing on the cake for Al. She was utterly adorable.

"N-No need to thank me. I'm just doing what I can to help. I'm happy I was able to deliver some good news to you both." (Y/n) calmed down slightly and looked down at the wristwatch she was wearing. She then looked up and tapped her wrist with her opposite index finger.

"Well, it's about that time. I should probably be on my way to greet and deliver some updates to a few more patients. It was so great to meet the both of you. I really enjoyed our chat." By now (y/n) had made her way to the door. Before she left, she turned to face the brothers, her hand resting on the door frame. With her other hand she gave a gentle wave goodbye.

"Until next time! Oh, and Al?"

Al perked up, intently listening for what she would say next.

"Y-yes?"

"I hope you get to really enjoy that apple pie you mentioned." 

With that being said, (y/n) smiled and gave a final wave before leaving the room completely; leaving a mesmerized Alphonse in her wake. He smiled tenderly, and found himself giving a small wave to the memory of her in the doorway.

Little did (y/n) know she left a few extra flutters in Al's heart as she left.