FMA Short
Title: Little Kiss
Author: Kallianah apocryphal_muse
Rating: PG
Pairing: Ed/Al
Warnings: Underage, chaste kiss, unimaginative title, etc.
Notes: Just a quick thing. I'm such a sucker for filling in the Elric brothers' backgrounds with stuff like this. Set sometime right after their mother dies.



“I saw Mr. Rockbell kissing Mrs. Rockbell one time,” Al says to Ed, remembering. Winry’s off in town with Granny Pinako getting fresh vegetables, and they’re sitting under the tree behind the house with Den. Al is bored, and it's the kind of sticky-hot outside that reminds Al of old candy left out in the sun, so he talks.

Ed wrinkles his nose, but whether it’s at the thought of Winry’s parents kissing, or just kissing in general, Al isn’t sure. “You did?”

“Yeah,” Al says, because he thinks the story is boring, and Ed hates listening to boring stories.

Ed's hair is long and braided, like little wires of sunlight even in the shade, and Al wants to reach out and tug on it to see if it's really his hair.

Ed surprises him by asking, “Do you think that when one of us gets married to Winry, we’ll have to kiss her?” He looks intensely worried, and he has that thin wrinkle of skin between his brows that tells Al that his brother is debating something he thinks is important.

“Probably,” Al says. Married people kiss each other, and hug each other, and sleep in the same bed. It isn’t like when he creeps into Ed’s bed in the middle of the night when he gets too cold in his own room. Not that kind of sleeping. Serious sleeping, adult sleeping. He’s not sure how it’s different, but it is.

Al is only nine, so he figures it's okay not to know.

Ed is quiet for a long time, and Al is about to doze off when Ed asks, “Do you think we should practice?" He still looks upset, and his cheeks are red, but his jaw is tight and his lips are pressed together so hard that they’re pale. "I mean, I don't want to get it wrong. Winry teases us enough anyways."

Al scratches his neck and looks at Ed until Ed looks away. "Okay."

"What?" Ed asks. He looks surprised, like he didn't think Al would agree. Al thinks that Ed should have known better -- he always gives in to Ed in the end. Ed's his big brother and Al pretty much thinks he's the best thing in the world other than kittens.

He misses their mother, but he thinks he'll be okay with Ed there to watch out for him. Ed's the best.

“Okay,” Al repeats.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

They lean in, a few inches at a time, and Al keeps his eyes open even though he saw the Rockbells close theirs. Ed’s got dirt on the side of his nose, and his lips are scrunched up in a tiny pink pucker.

They squish their mouths together awkwardly for a moment, and Ed’s breathing comes in little puffs out his nose. It’s warm and he always liked being close to Ed, but Al’s neck would hurt holding it at that angle very long.

Ed pulls back and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, giving Al a dubious look.

“I don’t think I’ll ever kiss a girl,” Ed says with great authority, his slim shoulders hunched.

“Yeah,” Al says.