Edward never thought there was another person in the world like himself. He felt as if he was the only one who had committed such terrible sin at a young age. Maybe Izumi and his father had done the same act as him, but it was totally different if you had only been a child desperate to once again have his family.

Mom...

The alarm clock rang with intensity and shocked him from another restless sleep. Mustang had said for him to be at East HQ at 0900 hours on the dot. The alarm screamed 0800. He had an hour or else he'd be chewed out from top to bottom for being late. Today was the day of the State Alchemist Exams and he was needed there for some reason or another. Maybe the Colonel wanted to show off one of the youngest alchemists in history. Yeah, right. He probably just wanted to piss him off and make him be at an event where he wasn't needed. Ed had better things to do than this.

He rolled out of bed with a clank. "Damn automail..." he grumbled and slammed on the alarm clock. It busted -again- and now he would have to fix it -again-. Alphonse was constantly on him about how destructive he was to hotel property. Wait...where was his little brother?

Ed,

Went to get some breakfast. Stop being cranky and try not to smash the clock again.

-Al

Alright, that explained it. His stomach growled angrily but he for once shut it off and hopped into the shower. Just as he was stepping out Al was coming through the door with a bag of tasty smelling food. First he eyed the still broken alarm clock and then his damp and grumpy brother.

"Here, I got some breakfast." Al said, trying to make the mood lighter. It didn't seem to work. He would have told him to fix the clock but considering his big brother's mood he let that go. "You better hurry. The clock downstairs said it was 8:45."

Ed almost spat out his bacon. "What!?" He quickly gulped the rest down and forgot about the orange juice. He scrambled to put on his boots and almost forgot his black jacket that went over his shirt. He couldn't see his favorite red one but had no time to look for it. "Why didn't you tell me!?"

"Well, if you hadn't broken the clock AGAIN..." he retorted but was interrupted.

"No time to argue Al, I gotta go." Before his little brother could respond he had slammed out the door and was running towards the headquarters. Roy had also threatned that if he wasn't there on time he wouldn't deliver them the next rumor or report of the Philospher's Stone.

Crap!