"Mummy, daddy?"
A small child, who could not possibly be more than three stood in the doorway to his bedroom, too scared to leave and too scared to stay alone.
"What is it William?" Asked the female voice, belonging to his mother.
"I... had a nightmare." He said with tears in his eyes.
"And?" Asked his father.
"I hoped that one of you could tell me a story..." He waited for a response, but receiving none, he added "or sit with me until I fall asleep."
Angrily his father replied: "No William, you are old enough to manage by yourself, go back to sleep!"
So William went back into his room and did his best to get back to sleep by himself.
"Mummy?"
A small, blonde boy of about five stood in the doorway to a dimly lit room where his mother sat studying from a large book.
"What is it William?" The woman said, rather unkindly without looking up from her work.
"I-I found this and I thought you would like it..." He said, holding out a small, pink flower.
The woman still did not look up from the book, so he moved a little closer.
"My friend said that you should give your mother flowers to..."
But then she cut him off saying: "William, I am busy, go away."
He moved closer to her desk and left the flower for her, then left quickly.
After a few hours more of studying the woman finally noticed the flower, which by this time, had lost much of its beauty. "Is this what William was ranting about?" She then discarded the small flower into a bin she had for useless notes. "Hm, foolish child."
A boy of about seven years old enters a dimly lit room where his father is studying various transmutation circles.
"Dad!" The boy said, nervous, but also a little excited.
The older man then replied: "What is it William?"
"Look what I made!" He said holding out a rather well made cute, small bird made of wood.
The man ignored him.
"I made it for you." He said moving a little closer to his father's desk.
His father still did not look up, "Move out of the way William, you are blocking my light!"
"But daddy, I made it using alchemy, don't you want to see?" He said, sadly now, moving closer again.
This gained his father's interest "Alchemy? Well, let me see..." He examined the bird for a moment and then said: "Well, what is so impressive about this?"
With this William ran from the room, leaving the toy bird behind but his father didn't even notice.
As he was leaving all he could think of was his father's last words to him, the child had worked on it for a long time to make sure that it was perfect; it had been his first try at alchemy and he had done quite well. After this he would try more alchemy, always trying to gain his parents' love and attention, like the other children he knew had, but all they ever did was ignore his attempts, or even worse, find any small flaw and point it out, ruthlessly.