Disclaimer: I don't own FullMetal Alchemist, or any of the characters used in this fic. They all belong to Hiromu Arakawa. I only own any of my original characters that I choose to include, as well as any of my own original plot ideas.
Broken Little Thing
A/N: Alternate events.
Losing half of what made one whole had torn them both. A father long gone, and a mother stolen away by an unknown illness. Her last wish had been what any mother would ask of her children at the end. That they take care of each other, for each was all the other had left.
Waking to find a monster, something that wasn't what they hoped for, had been one thing. Not the desired result by any means, but bearable, to say the least.
But the murder of one's only remaining family, which it was in his mind, was entirely different.
He hadn't the nerve to cry as they laid the body in the ground, wrapped in a clean white sheet. Respect, tradition, they could call it whatever they wished. To him, it was a relief, though it pained him to admit this to his heart. Those who paid their respects ought not be subjected to the torment of seeing those lifeless green eyes.
Such a little thing, not quite as tall as himself yet, no chance of ever going through life and its harships and wonders. Just a loving little boy, taken by his brother's own foolishness.
He should have listened to his beloved little brother. Should have thought more carefully about what they were planning, rather than to charge into the depths of the ocean without even a boat beneath their feet. Emotion had been his guide, his deceiver, not logic or truth. It had not been an angel on his shoulder, encouraging him. Just a devil.
His trades, though great, had been for naught. A leg for a disfigured beast, and an arm for an empty corpse. How could he ever forget that cry, his name bursting forth in hope and fear from his baby brother's mouth?
They had been given a chance, a wish by their mother, to live their lives together, to make something grand of the people they were and could be.
But he'd been the fool in this, and he'd turned his baby brother's chances into dwindling dust.
He would live the rest of his life by his brother's stone.