Spirit Animals

Chapter 4

Al had taken Ed's warning from the previous night to heart and didn't wake Ayala or Ed by jumping on them the next morning. However, Al was devious and took advantage of a loophole Ed had overlooked. He couldn't wake the two up by throwing himself bodily on them but there was nothing stopping him from throwing Ed's door open violently as he squealed in uncontainable delight and nerves, which is exactly what he did.

At the sound of the door slamming into the wall, Ed and Ayala were awake and in defensive positions in record time. In the time it took for the two to register there was no immediate threat, Al had the thought that their teacher would be very proud of their response. However, judging from the expressions on his brother and Ayala's faces, they weren't thinking the same thing as Al. There was a heartbeat of time where Ed and Ayala just stared at Alphonse before Ed twitched in his direction and Al took off running. Ed and Ayala were nice and waited two full seconds before they tore after him.

Although he got a head start, Alphonse soon found himself begging for mercy as Ed tried to merge his face with the kitchen floorboards. Ayala made her displeasure known by using her body weight to stop Al from using his legs to dislodge his brother. He finally managed to bargain for his life and offered to make pancakes for breakfast if he was allowed to live. Ed and Ayala graciously accepted his bribe and let him up so he could start making good on his promise.

Half an hour later, Ed was polishing off the last of his pancakes while Ayala was licking the maple syrup residue still on her bowl off. Even though he hadn't eaten much the night before, Al didn't eat as much as Ed had and Ed had noticed. As he chewed on the last of his pancakes, Ed leaned back in his chair and watched the way Al half-heartedly push some pancake around on his plate before stabbing it onto his fork and nibbling slowly at it. Ed could hazard a guess at what was causing Al's lack of appetite so, once he finished his mouthful, he decided to see if he was right.

"Al, stressing about when your Animal will turn will do nothing except make you sick and annoy me." Al's guilty look showed he'd hit the nail on the head.

"I know, Brother, but I can't help it," Al said sheepishly and Ed gave him an understanding look.

"Look, like I said, stressing isn't helping you at all. Your Animal will turn up today so stop worrying about that. Ayala has assured me that you and it will get along just as well as we do so you've no need to worry there. Stressing over the exact time it turns up is only going to make you crazy which means you'll drive me crazy and that'll make me hit you," Ed told him and Al found himself nodding in agreement. "The best solution is to just keep busy, distract yourself until it turns up. So let's go get some more research done. We can leave the front door open in case it turns up while we're in the study, okay?" Al's grateful smile shone on his face.

"You're right, Brother. Let's go keep me busy!" Al said with renewed enthusiasm as he leapt from the table and dragged Ed with him to the study, ignoring Edward's surprised curses. Ayala lifted her head to watch the scene unfold in front of her and let out an amused huff as she went back to her post-breakfast nap. Ed mentally cursed her as he managed to pry himself from his brother's iron grip.

"I'm gonna get changed first. You can do the same, little brother. We are expecting Winry over sometime today, remember?" Ed said in response to Al's questioning look which, to Ed's immense amusement, soon turned into one of embarrassment, complete with the deep red flush.

Cackling madly as he watched Alphonse make his mad dash to his room, Edward followed suit. He made his way up the stairs to the upper level of the house with Ayala's soft laughter at Alphonse's reaction ringing in his head. Once he'd gotten changed into day clothes, Ed made his way back downstairs where he found Alphonse waiting for him and soon enough, they were in the study and immersing themselves in the books spread in front of them.