Ah, it feels so nice to post something again. -inhales-

So this is just a themes fic and nothing more. Themes will be somewhere between 100-500 (600 when I can't stop myself) words and will, for the most part, be unrelated, with no general pairing. (If I do stick a pairing in there it means that all my willpower crumbled, and I'll post a warning/notice at the top of the chapter as a... courtesy? I don't know, stop asking me hard questions.)

I'm going to be doing 104 themes so that, posting once a week (most often on Fridays unless, of course, I don't have computer access) the whole thing will span out over two years.

And, yeah. If you can't tell, I didn't know if this was supposed to be an introduction to the themes, or if I was just supposed to build off of the prompt, so I kind of combined them and did both.

Hopefully this is the last time the a/n is so long.

So, yep. Without further ado...

Title: Introduction
Fiction Rating: K
Characters: The Elric Brothers
Word Count: 214


I - Introdution


Edward and Alphonse had never seen simply facts and stats and data in the countless books and guides that their father had left behind for their prying hands, like most others did. Beyond the words and facts and instructions, the Elrics didn't just see information. They saw potential.

Though young and small, the brothers were far from little in the nature of intelligence, a trait they had inherited from their absent father. And with the combination of intellect, information, and potential, their actions, their lives would be limitless.

It was not the life they lead as children, studying and learning and growing, or the love they were shown from birth, nor was it the happiness or memories or power that they harbored at such youth that allowed them to see life's true meaning, it's potential. It was not in life itself that they were introduced to the world.

It was in death.

For it was in death that they were taught, by no kind means, that there were indeed things in the world for which there was no sacrifice in existence, equivalent exchange or no, that could surmount such barriers.

In a world where equivalent exchange ruled, after all, it only made sense that they could only be introduced to true life through death.