Brief Commentary:
Revised! Yes, I'll be revising a lot of these chapters, seeing as I found some of them to be incredibly cheesy and just plain dumb, besides. I figured I'd start with the prologue and see what I could do here – I expect it to be at least a little better! At least there's a lot more detail, not to mention it's longer. Maybe some of you oldies familiar with the story could PM me/send a review and tell me how I did? Ha ha...

Side Note: This stemmed from my realization that in all of the AU fics, Ed and Al still share a brotherly bond. So, I asked myself, what if they hated each other? So deeply they were willing to kill each other? This is the result.

Reasons Not For Your Ears
Prologue

"I wish you had never been born."

Edward Elric, at the naïve age of four, stared up at his mother in confusion and befuddlement. She towered over him, cradling his younger sibling, who was either two or three (he had forgotten). Her eyes, which he had witnessed before as being warm and affectionate when she spoke to or saw Alphonse Elric, were now frighteningly cold, and her posture showed all possible signs of rejection. Rejection for him. Although he understood the words she had spoken, he didn't know what to make of them.

Stiffly, Trisha Elric passed him, gently patting Alphonse's back as he let out a quiet gurgle. Edward knew he should be quiet; his brother was almost asleep, and he would be harshly scolded if he disturbed him. Like any obedient child reluctant to anger his mother, the small golden-haired boy shuffled down the long hall way to his room, opened the door, went inside, and quietly shut it. Sitting on his bed, soft as it was, did nothing to comfort him or calm the thoughts battering at his mind.

His mother never seemed happy. When he was around her, anyway. When he would stay up late and spy on his parents and the sleeping Alphonse, Edward would find a kindly, happy smile dancing across his mother's lips, and a genuine joy in the eyes of his father. His father…he had hardly ever spoken to him in his life. Perhaps a 'Good morning, chichi-ue,' or a 'Good night, chichi-ue,' but other wise, there had been no dialogue between them. In return, the small boy would be greeted with a severe glare, a low grunt, or a haughty turn of his father's head, before one of them would disappear around a corner or down a hall, or through a door. Edward found he could not understand his parent's behavior.

It confused him even more when he witnessed Alphonse being treated so differently. His mother would hold his younger brother tenderly and carefully, placing soft kisses on his forehead and humming comforting, unfamiliar songs at night to lull him to sleep. His father would smile quietly and ruffle his second son's hair, muttering words of pride, such as "You'll be so successful when you grow up" or "You'll make me and your mother so proud." He couldn't recall any of this happening to him.

At four, Edward did not know what jealousy was, so he couldn't envy Alphonse for receiving their parents' attention. In fact, he felt little-to-nothing for him. Alphonse seemed to behave a bit like the china dolls their mother kept in a high shelf in her closet. Always, the infant would remain quiet (with the exception of when he was hungry or needed a change), still, and stupid-looking. And from the tenderness he received from their parents, they certainly treated Alphonse similar to such. Often times Edward would sneak into his brother's room (which was much, much larger than his) and whisper,
"You're like a doll. Aren't you? Are you a baby? Or are you a doll?"

That was the Elric family.

That was how they lived.

Over the passing of years, Trisha Elric died when her two sons were at the ages of ten and nine. The brothers and their father were dressed in their finest, although Edward had been, literally, segregated from his only two familiar relatives. While Alphonse and their father stood solemnly up right in front of their mother's coffin, he had been forced to the very back of the crowd, where he couldn't even see the grass a meter in front of him. Edward Elric did not witness the burial of his mother, nor the movement of his father's lips as he announced that his sons would no longer be under his care. Instead, they would remain in the mansion, but an associate of his would move in and attend to their "needs." Their father was to move to some distant city. He wouldn't return from that city for many, many years.

Most had considered Trisha Elric's sudden death suicide after she had been killed in a freak car accident. The man driving the truck had evidently gotten away. The cause of the alleged suicide was, predictably, placed on the shoulders on none other than Edward Elric. The public had often seen displays of Trisha's behavior towards her sons, and the great diversity of it, and found that it would only be appropriate to treat them in the same way.

It was not uncommon for the older Elric to hear the way they spoke of him or directly to him.

"You despicable, ungrateful child! Your mother cared so dearly for you, and yet you drive her to suicide!"

"I hate brats like him; he acts like he hasn't ever done anything bad in his life. I wonder if he thinks that his mother's death was just an accident? Stupid brat."

"Your mother loved you more than anyone! You damn child, why did you kill her?"

"Trisha hated Edward, and I can see why; after all, he-"
"Quiet, you know we can't say anything about that!"
"Right, sorry, I forgot…"

After a while, Edward lost interest in what 'that' could possibly be; it was probably as unpleasant as everything else he had heard. Unfortunately, that wasn't all outsiders would have to say to him.

"My, look at Alphonse's marks! Such a perfect child…but look at Edward's. The boy must be utterly stupid."

"See how well Alphonse has done on his exams! Did you hear? He received the highest score in his grade! But Edward…"

"Why can't you be more like Alphonse?"

Eventually the brothers grew in separate directions, diverging in paths they had some how come to know they would follow. Edward avoided going home when he could, and preferred to stay out on the streets. Besides his extreme habits of smoking, cursing, getting injured or injuring other people on a fairly regular biases, the word 'school' had long since disappeared from the boy's vocabulary. Widely regarded as dangerous, Edward was avoided at all costs by those who saw him. Alphonse, meanwhile, had grown into the role of the 'ideal son.' He was studious, strong, quiet, and obedient, received top marks, and was kind and courageous. Adults, adolescents, and children alike all had great respect for him, and would often turn to the younger Elric to ask for advice or help. As Alphonse preferred to stay inside the mansion when he was not at school, the brothers rarely saw each other. Perhaps it was better that way.

After all, they shared a mutual, dark hatred. Hatred was the only thing they shared, besides the vibrant golden color of their eyes. Their similar feelings would often lead to conflict whenever they saw each other, so their distinctive separation prevented such an undesirable situation for the majority of the time.

But they were the Elric brothers.

And that was how they lived.

But that way of living would begin change. For better or for worse.