When they were younger, the three used to sit out on a fence, watching the sunset, a sky of multicolored facination, with innocence-painted on their eyes. All three unaware of events that would change their lives forever in times ahead. The three would sit, and gaze for hours. Sometimes they would talk a lot, and sometimes a healthy medium, but most of the time, it was silence. The trio would stare off into the space before them, wondering what the rest of the world was like and what it held for them.
"Edward!" the girl, the middle of the three. She was younger than Edward, the oldest. But older than Alphonse, the youngest and shortest. With her long lemon-colored hair, she sprinted towards the two brothers with glee on her face. "Ed! Guess what?" the young girl stated innocently, looking up to the boy who was right next to his brother, on the branch of the tree near the fence. He held a twig in his hands and looked down to the girl, cluelessly as to what information she held. "What? Can't you see we're a little busy here? We're trying to gather firewood for Mom!"
She quickly dismissed his rudeness, for she knew he was doing it for a well reason. He wanted to help his mother do tasks so that when she got back on her feet again, she wouldn't have to do an assortment of things and tire herself out. "We're having a really yummy dinner tonight! Do you wanna come over?" Ed glared down at her once again, with an assortment of twigs in hand and was handing them to Alphonse, who quickly spoke up, "I'd like to come over..."
"Sorry, Winry, we can't. Mom's still in bed and she needs us to help her get better. Right, Al?"
Winry sulked to the response, her lips curling downwards while she still looked to the tree. "Well, can I help then? Maybe I can help you break some branches off or.."
"No, we don't need help. Thanks anyways."
The boys were the ones who wanted to take their mother's responsibilities into their own hands. They weren't related to her, so they saw no need to bring her into such things. Ed, why won't you let me help you? The girl mused to herself while she leaned against the bark of the tree. "Ed, why won't you let anyone help you? It's not like it would hurt anyone or any.." her words were cut short by Edward jumping from the tree branch and startling her into silence.
"We don't need anyone's help. And it's not really your place. You're not family, and we see no need to get you involved with our problems. Come on, Al, let's go home." He turned his back to her and began moving away, while the smaller boy seemingly dropped out of the tree with tons of twigs in hands. He turned to her quickly, after regaining his balance enough to stand up, "I'm sorry Winry. He's just been really irritable since Mom's been sick. I'd like to come over, but I think he's right. It was nice seeing you, bye!" he chided to her before running off to join his brother. But not before tripping and scattering the twigs all over the road that they walked.
"Ed, you're a jerk! Don't you know those twigs will never make good firewood!" she screamed out to him. Unfortunately, he never heard those words. He was too far away from her to hear her howls of bitter hurt. "Just because your mom is sick doesn't mean you have to take it out on people that love you, you know." she mused to herself, before walking away in that sunset that times ago they used to sit and watch together. Times were changing and she didn't like it.
A/N: This was my first FMA fic and I hope I didn't butcher the characterizations too badly. FMA isn't mine either. Not sure stillif I'm going to make this into just a one-shot or a multi-chapter fic.
