Hi!

This is my first story – after reading tons of other awesome fanfics, I decided that I give a little contribution of my own.

I got plenty of inspirations, and I hope that people will read and review it to help me improve!

(Cuz I suck at writing)

So let's start off, shall we?

It was another day saved by Edward Elric, the heroic Fullmetal Alchemist.

He was the courageous, caring young man with his charming manners, kind heart, and unbelievable alchemy skills. He was famous across the country for being the one to pass the state alchemist exam with the youngest age in history. Everyone loved him.

But only him.

They never noticed the young boy standing beside him, his brother. He was always shadowed by his older brother's overwhelming spotlight; people probably never even knew that he existed. They probably never saw the difference that Al now had a full body instead of being stuck to a suit of armor. No, they were too impressed by Ed's "heroic deeds" to notice the small being in the background – he was often pushed out of the way and usually got little scratches from the rough crowds.

Today, he got a far worse injury.

That peaceful afternoon, Ed and Al were peacefully having a peaceful lunch at a peaceful café in the peaceful weather - and the "peacefulness" was broken by a piercing scream that echoed throughout the peaceful streets. The boys immediately stood up and ran towards the source of the panic.

It was a bunch of robbers trying to rob a bank – that's what they do. The usual. So Ed and Al goes into the bank, beats up the robbers, brings them to the police station, and walk out.

If only it was that easy.

They, the famous Elric brothers, couldn't walk out after committing themselves to such a "heroic deed". They had to be washed over by overjoyed crowds who just couldn't stop their gratefulness from pouring out to these young men who saved their lives by stopping the evil villains.

People, they were robbers. No big deal. But of course, they couldn't say that. They had to accept all the thank-yous and the hugs and the gifts and whatever. But only one person had to get all the credit.

Duh, who do you think? The Fullmetal Alchemist, of course. He was the smart, intelligent, kind, brave, strong one. So he must have done it all, right?

Not in Ed's mind, no.

Yes, he was a humble one – he never liked to be too proud of himself of doing whatever he did. But he was sick of getting all the credit, because he didn't deserve them. At all.

Every time they helped someone, Ed would be the one always getting the thank-yous and Al would just be brushed aside as a helper boy or whatever people liked to call him.

But Al wasn't a helper boy. He was actually the one doing all the work. He was the one running to the trouble first, making sure that everyone gets outs safely, always putting the others before himself, and asking each person to see if they were all right. Ed was just beating the crap out of the bad people, and the passers-by would just see him do that, suppose that he did all the work, and run over to him to thank him for saving them, despite Al standing in the background, helping the actual people in danger, while Ed grabbed the spotlight, although he wasn't trying to. It just always ended up that way.

And he was sick of it.

Ed felt so frustrated every time he got all the credit because inside, he knew that his brother was the one who deserved it all, the thank-yous.

And that's not all. While Ed gets all the credit, Al would often be pushed out by the amazed people who were desperate to thank Ed, and getting scratches and gashes all over him.

Today, he got hurt much worse.

When Ed finally chased all of these grateful people away, he sighed.

"Gee, they never know when to stop, do they-"

And he was cut off mid-sentence, when he set his eyes on an unexpected sight.

That particular day had been quite rough - there were lots of females in the crowd, and they said they heard about the "Legendary Alchemist", who saved people every day. And they probably got excited, and didn't notice the tired boy whose legs were already weak from running everywhere to help. Yes, the crowds were quite rough that day. And Ed noticed it, too, and tried to keep a close eye on his brother.

But not close enough.

Ed saw a crowd in the middle of a busy road, and got through the crowd after a few hard squeezes. What he saw caught him by surprise.

His brother was lying on the ground, with blood pouring down his face and his body still. He had scratches all over his hands and legs, and his eyes were shut firmly.

"Al!"