A/N: This is a pretty little prize I've been working on for a while. And by working on, I mean starting to write and then resetting because it was crap, or because I needed a new plot and the intro no longer worked, or other such things. BUT, I feel that the FMA fandom needs a story along these lines. (All of my other favorite ones do!) So please enjoy!

Title: Foundations

Author: liketolaugh

Rating: T

Pairings: None

Genre: Angst/Adventure

Warnings: AU

Summary: If Edward was one thing, he was fire. But if he wasn't careful, he was going to burn himself out. Or, Edward Elric is a mutant, Mustang disapproves of him almost burning down the office, and the Xavier Institute is wary of military operatives no matter how old they are.

Disclaimer: If I owned Fullmetal Alchemist or the X-Men, would I really be here right now?

Heat.

Fever heat pulsed through Ed's body, suffocating him and shortening his breath as pain shot through him, razor sharp, huge, all-consuming spikes of pain, agony, hislegwasgoneithurtnonono.

Edward screamed, long and loud, clutching at the bleeding stump of his leg. Heat pulsed, reverberated, building, building. Ed screamed, the sound harsh and grating and nerve-wracking, terrified and hurt, senses overwhelmed by the unforgiving sensations, too much for him to take all at once.

There wasn't enough air.

Edward started to gasp for breath, chest heaving, and he forced his eyes wide open, jerking his head to the side, where Al's clothes lay abandoned. The heat built higher and his blood rushed, moving, moving, heatheatheat. Horror and terror competed for his attention; both lost to denial.

"Dammit!" Ed gasped, turning over, bloodstained hands releasing his stump to drag him forward. Heat built and swarmed in his chest, contesting the pain, which seared his mind, nerves screaming, shrieking at his leg's sudden absence. "This can't be happening! It can't be!" He gasped for breath. There wasn't enough air. It hurt. It hurt. "This wasn't supposed to-" Nothing went right, they were supposed to have their mother back, and just- "He's gone, what've I done?"

This was supposed to bring their family back together, dammit! Not make everything, everything- Al. Al! Al!

Ed collapsed onto his side, breathing hard and harsh, biting back the pain, the heat. "Somebody help me," he whimpered. Too hot. It overwhelmed even the pain now, building, too much, stop it, stop it, stop it. He was blind with it, the pain, the heat. It hurt. "Please, Mom. Mom, please." Please stopstopstop… Anything to stop it, please…

Ed opened his eyes again, trying to focus, focus on where their Mom should be, intact and alive.

Instead, there was a monster, nowhere near human, mouth gaping open, lying in a pool of blood, staring. Staring at Ed.

Suddenly, it all spilled over. Ed threw his head back and screamed, loud, long, and haunting. The heat spilled over, and suddenly, there was fire.

"No!" he screamed. "No, this is wrong! This isn't what we wanted!" It didn't matter anymore. Fire swarmed around him, burning up the wooden floor, approaching the creature, the thing they'd made. It didn't matter anymore. It didn't matter that he couldn't feel the fire, just the pain, no more heat but his own. It didn't matter, because… "Al! Alphonse! Alphonse!"

Around Edward, the world burned, but all that mattered was Alphonse.

Alphonse had never expected to wake up, but he did, slowly.

He took in his surroundings uncertainly, eyes widening. No.

Firelight was all that lit the room now, but it was everywhere; the room was burning, consuming everything. Already, it was collapsing around them, fiery beams falling and crashing against the floor, and panic filtered into Al's slowed mind. They had to get out of there.

He turned his head one way, then another. There wasn't a spot in the room that wasn't covered in flame, but-

Al didn't feel hot. Not even a little.

Wait, no, Ed! Where was Ed?

Before he could start to panic too much, Al looked down, and his eyes widened again. At his feet (too far down, what was going on, was that armor-) Ed was staring up at him with tearstained eyes burning with determined fire, a bloody bandage around a stump of a left leg, hand clutching at his right shoulder, and he was saying something, what-

"I'm sorry, Al. All I could get for an arm was your soul."

Fire swirled around him, but he didn't seem to notice. Even as Al watched, stunned, struggling to understand what Ed's words meant (even if it was clear, it couldn't really, Ed didn't really- it couldn't really mean-) fire licked over his remaining leg and he only screwed up his face, the color draining away.

He was still bleeding.

Wait- he was still bleeding!

"Ed!"

Curiosity and confusion could wait. Al had to get Ed out, now, or he would bleed to death right in front of him.

Al couldn't feel the fire, either.

Al picked up his panting brother, who was struggling to keep a hold on consciousness, wide gold eyes fixed on Al, pain shining clear, biting his lip hard enough to bleed. Al wasn't even sure Ed could still see him.

"Al," Ed rasped, hand squeezing his shoulder.

"Hold on, Brother," Al cried, worried his brother might not even be able to hear him at this point, and smashed his way out of the burning out, which was coming down behind him.

He shouldn't be able to do that…

It didn't matter. Ed mattered.

"Al," Ed repeated, quiet, almost inaudible. Then gold eyes slid shut, and Al tried not to scream.

"Brother!"

He ran toward the Rockbells, the first place that came to his mind, and their childhood home collapsed behind them, firelight flickering in the night.

So that's that beginning. By the way, this is probably going to be, like, the only shortish chapter, because the next one is a solid 7k and I don't want to have one 7k chapter and a whole mess of 1-2k ones. Also, in case anyone was curious, the fanfics that made me so obsessive over making one of these (and were therefore my main inspiration) were Wolverines, Wendigos, and Winchesters by SciFiNutTX (Supernatural, Dean), the It's All in the Mind series by inukagome15 (Avengers, Tony), and Mutant Storm by Bobmin356 (Harry Potter, Harry). If anyone knows any others along those lines, I'd love to hear it. (They're some of the best stories EVER.)

Also, I know that in canon, they burned the house down deliberately, but this fits better with this universe. Please bear with it! (And the stolen dialogue!)

Anyway, please review!