Chapter One: it all begins with a sigh

"Al? Where are you going?"

Ed watched Al freeze in place and turn slowly towards him. The papers in Al's hand, the fake glasses, the height change...

"You're going to try to enlist again, aren't you?" he said with a sigh. Al stayed silent, but Ed knew his brother enough to tell his body language.

"Al. We've talked about this," he muttered, a hand rubbing between his eyebrows. "You can't enlist with that body."

"I don't care. I'm going to be old enough, and I will go with you."

Ed sighed again. "Al," he started. "You know you can't."

Why did his brother try so hard to follow him into war? Didn't he know that his body wouldn't hold out a week on the battlefield?

"I am going with you." Al insisted.

"No, you're not."

"Mom said -"

"Mom said I had to protect you. You're staying."

"No, Mom said we had to be there for each other and to protect each other. How'm I supposed to do that when you go somewhere where I can't follow?"

"Al -"

"No, brother. I will pass the tests, and I will fight."

Ed recognized that stubborn look, which caused half of the headache-inducing situations that Al would get into. He breathed out a resigned sigh.

"...Alright, fine." Ed let Al grin and bask in his victory for a moment, then added on his compromise. "But I can't help you get into my battalion; you have to be approved by the enlisting officers and make it on your own merit."

Ed watched his brother's face morph from glee to disappointment, hesitation, then determination, wondering if Al would ever grow out of being an open book of emotions. He could only hope that the continual rejections were going to be enough to keep his sickly brother away from the battlefields and safe home at Amestris.

"Just you wait Ed. I'll pass." Al replied, and turned towards the front door again.

Grabbing Al back and taking his hat, Ed chuckled resignedly. "Whatever you say, li'l bro. Go back to bed and go to the enlistment center tomorrow," Glancing outside the window at the dark skies and checking the clock, Ed snorted. "No one in their right minds will let anyone this early... morning... to enlist anyway."

Ed had delayed his deployment as long as he possibly could, but Al's birthday had come around, and with the birthday, Ed was asked politely to get to the front lines already, which he had delayed for nearly a year - one of the many perks that came from graduating with top marks from a naval officer academy.

The government had allowed him to stay back this long only because there was no one left in their family. When the war broke out and most of the naval academy students were recruited, there was only a half year left until Ed's graduation, then another half year until Al's 18th; the faceless government had decided waiting a year instead of taking an unwilling soldier to war.

And now that the year was up, nothing other than the end of the war was going to stop them from recruiting the promising Edward Elric, valedictorian of the Academy.

"Al?" Ed called out to the house, shouldering his pack and taking up the shiny badges from the dresser. "Al, I'm ready."

He trudged down the stairs and towards the closet near the front door, taking out his military boots and putting them on. He heard Al shuffling some things in the kitchen, and thought back to the paperwork that he had handed over to his lawyer the day before.

'I, Edward Elric, of Central, Amestris, being of sound mind, declare this to be my Last Will and Testament...'

Shaking his morbid thoughts away, Ed stood up as he heard Al approaching from the kitchen, brushing off his hands and rechecking his laces. Al came in, looking haggard and weary, carrying several packages in his arms. His brother reached over and placed a wrapped sandwich into the pocket of his coat, then opened the satchel and began packing away the other packages.

"There're biscuits, jerky, and Ms. Martha's dried dates. To remind you of home." Al said without inflection.

Ed fidgeted with his badges in his hands, not sure what to say. They only had each other ever since their mother's death, but their neighbors had always helped them out, the whole community coming together to help raise young Trisha's two boys. And while the Elric brothers had been alone, they had been alone together. This was the first time they would be spending a lengthy time apart.

Al finished putting away the packages and walked up to check over Ed's appearance. In the silence, Ed silently handed over his badges and watched as Al carefully pinned them onto his chest.

"...Promise me you won't get hurt." Al said quietly, as he finished pinning the last badge.

"I promise."

Al looked up with a knowing and severe look. "Actually, promise that when you get hurt, you'll go to the nearest doctor immediately."

Raising an eyebrow, Ed complied easily. "...I promise."

Al frowned a little before wordlessly turning back to the coat and brushed off some lint from the coat. "I'm going to get to where you are as fast as I can."

Ed easily agreed, voice light. "Yeah."

Al glared again at his older brother. "I'm serious."

"And I'm Ed."

Al lightly punched Ed on his chest. "Brother."

"Ow, that hurt." Ed joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Al didn't respond with a comeback, instead drinking in Ed's face. He was silent before desperately clutching at Ed's coat lapels, pulling him closer. "Brother... You have to come back. You have to."

"Of course I will," Ed said with a grin, patting Al's gaunt face. "I promised."

Slowly letting go of the lapels, Al looked down at the coat again and began straightening out the wrinkles he caused, trying to hide the wetness from his eyes and the shaking from his voice. "And you better keep that promise, or I'm coming to get you."

"Yup, you'll drag me from hell to kill me again for breaking the promise." Ed deadpanned, smiling. He pretended he didn't see the tear on the corner of Al's eye.

"Yeah, you've got that right," Al chuckled wetly. "...Come back safe, brother."

"...I will."

It has been almost a month since Ed has left for the front lines, and Al sighed as he sat in front of yet another enlisting center, looking down at his results.

4F. The lowest anyone could score on the test. Again, not a passing grade to get enlisted.

He had done his best to look for other places, places where he had heard rumors of being much more lax in letting in boys who wanted to enlist, but with his abysmal physical score...

With a sigh, Al stood from the bench and began to tuck away his results. Try again, he told himself. There's got to be something I can do to get to the front lines...

"Wait here."

Al stiffened. "Is there a problem, doctor?"

"Just wait here."

Al glanced around, but the one sign kept bothering him: 'It is Illegal to Falsify Your Enlistment Form'.

He quickly began to gather up his coat and belongings when another man in a lab coat walked in, cutting off the way to the exit.

Before Al had a chance to begin explaining himself, the man glanced up from the file he was reading. "So, you want to go kill some Nazis, Mr. Elric?"

Al started, as he was not expecting that question at all. After a few moments of tense staring, Al answered slowly and carefully, looking warily at the doctor. "I don't want to kill anyone, but I think the Nazis are being no better than bullies, and I don't like bullies telling me what to do."

"Hm." The doctor looked back down at the paperwork, flipping through the pages.

When the man didn't say anything else, Al tacked on his real reason. "And I need to find Ed and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid out there."

"Ed?" The doctor looked a little more interested, and glanced back up at Al.

"Lieutenant Edward Elric. Of the 103 squad. My older brother."

"A brother..." The man looked a little conflicted at the newer information, and was deep in thought, leaving Al to fidget. After a long period of silence, the man looked back up with a sigh, rubbing at his eyebrows. "Well. Mr. Elric. Though a large part of me rebels against this idea, I can offer you a chance to go to the front lines -"

"I'll take it." Al agreed immediately. Anything to get to the front lines. "Please."

The doctor hesitated once again and handed a stack of papers to Al. "... I'll see you at boot camp, Mr. Elric."