Disclaimer: I don't own. Enjoy. :)
I watched as Edward, Alphonse, Winry, and Pinako stood just outside the fence of the Elric's home, as it crumbled down, burning all the sweet images I once saw in those windows. I rarely went to that house but I have come to love it all the same. I coughed violently due to smoke, ducking behind the huge oak tree I used to climb to watch my "brothers"; Dad had told me that they left him when the younger boy was around 4 years old (I was probably 3 at the time).
They always seemed so happy, unlike me, and when I saw that they could do "magic" (I would later learn that it was called alchemy) like Dad, I only got more jealous, at the same time made me want to meet them even more. I saw how they were sad and scared when their kind mom died, and I witnessed the flash of lights that were too bright to be lightning moments before a huge armor carried Ed out of the house and I followed them to Winry's house. I saw how painful it must've been to attach Ed's automail, and how guilty he felt for Alphonse' fate. They were all in a happy mood just that afternoon because Ed had just got back from Central, on a leave to celebrate with the Rockbells for a while. He had passed his Alchemy State Examination more than half a year ago and he's now the youngest State Alchemist at age 12, a dog of the military, according to Pinako (I don't know if that's good or bad, but they're happy so I think it's good).
The smoke thickened as the house was being reduced to ashes, the windows shattering. I coughed louder, my asthma getting worse the longer I stayed. "Hey Al, you hear that?" my ears picked up from afar. Damn, that was Ed, the elder of the two brothers. I can't stop coughing enough to run far, and the crackle of dry leaves made my head snap up, to find a 7 foot tall armor (Alphonse?) looming over me. Fatigue and hunger finally caught up, and I coughed roughly (pressing my ears down flat to my head in a desperate attempt to hide them under my hooded coat) and retched what little food I had before passing out.
The last thing I felt was cold metal (good thing it hadn't heated up) and the last thing I heard was Alphonse' voice: "Hey Nii-san, there's someone here!"