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"Mummy said daddy isn't allowed out of bed yet, and his voice is still sleepy," Elicia answered solemnly.
"His voice is sleepy?"
"Yeah! Winry said it must be the medicine, and that he can't talk because his voice won't wake up yet, and I asked daddy if that meant his neck was all prickly like when your leg falls asleep without the rest of you but he shook his head so I don't know what it feels like, but he can't talk yet. So since he can't read me a bedtime story I'm gonna read one to him!"
"That's very sweet of you, Elicia. And how is your daddy, other than strangely silent?"
"Mummy said it's like being sick, that's why she's in there feeding him soup. Did you know Ed can make soup? It's really tasty, Uncle Roy."
"...I did not know that, no."
"Ed's been doing lots of cooking! He said Al left his sense of taste on a gate and then he and Al started fighting over the salt shaker and Granny Pinako started shouting at both of them. She's scary. She shouts almost as good as Miss Riza! But she also took the salt away from Al and gave it back to Ed. Mummy said it’s nice having someone else making food.”
“That… that does sound nice for her.” A snicker came down the phone line. “But I never heard Ed cooking while he lived here.”
“Maybe he didn’t have a kitchen?” Elicia suggested. “Daddy said the food in the dorms is terrible and that was another reason to love mummy so much, and mummy says you can’t make good things without good tools, so maybe the dorms don’t have a kitchen he can borrow like he’s borrowing the Rockbell’s. Al said they haven’t finished building a proper kitchen yet, so when we stayed at their house he made a fire outside and we had sausages.”
The snickers turned to outright laughter. “You should ask Ed to suggest the dorms get some place to cook then.”
“Okay! I’ll… Ed! Ed, Uncle Roy says you need to talk to them about a kitchen. Uncle Roy, do you want to tell Ed? I’ve got to go read daddy his story!”
“What’s this about a kitchen?” Ed asked as he moved beside the girl.
“If Ed wants to talk to me I’ll ask him,” Roy promised. “You go tell your daddy to call me when he’s feeling better. Good night, sweety.”
“Good night Uncle Roy!”
“No seriously, what’s this about a kitchen, bas- uh...” Ed repeated as the phone was fumbled.
“Already experienced Gracia’s wrath at teaching her daughter bad words, Fullmetal?”
“Oh hah hah. Are you making fun of me?”
“Would I do that? I was just hearing Elicia praise your soup. And other culinary skills.”
“Before you start, Gracia tipped us off about your stress baking.”
There was a prolonged pause on the other end of the line. “Touche. So what is this about Maes’ ‘sleepy voice’? Have you found a drug to silence him?”
“Hah!” Ed laughed without humour behind it. “No, that’s us not wanting to tell Elicia the reason her father can’t talk is because he screamed himself hoarse.”
“Oh. That… had not occurred to me.”
“Yeah. So to update you properly: the surgery went well, no complications, just the usual lack of voice and abraded wrists - well, wrist - and a few bruises. Winry thinks he’ll be able to move around the house without help by next week.”