Chapter 1

The boy, who was much younger than he should have been, stared in bewilderment at the young man beside him as the sleep, which he had just momentarily been awakened from, slowly fled his newly retrieved body. The young man had features startlingly similar to that of his older brother's, including the long golden hair held in a loose braid behind his head and the beautiful amber eyes that had seen too much, but his older brother had only been one year older than him, which would make him eleven now. The young man sitting in a chair at the boy's bedside looked to be much older than that, probably around thirteen or fourteen; however, he was rather small for his age, just as Edward had always been. Awakening to a strange place with various startling beeps and foreign machinery had the boy uneasy, and he desperately longed for knowledge of his situation, craved the reassurance of his beloved older brother, and burned with the desire to be told the results of the attempt of their human transmutation to resurrect their late mother. Had they succeeded? Had they brought their mother back? "E-excuse me, but… Who are you, and… Where am I," Alphonse croaked hoarsely, his throat stinging from sudden use after being stagnant for four long years.

A look of hurt and shock clearly etched itself onto the golden-haired boy's familiar features, his eyes sorrowfully cradling pain to their glossy breasts. "C'mon, Al. Don't be stupid," he chuckled out nervously, a sheepish grin pulling at the corners of his pale lips. Even the adolescent's voice sounded similar to Alphonse' older brother's, sending a surge of loneliness coursing through his veins, and, distracted by that loneliness, he did not recognize the fact that the young man had already known his name, although they had not previously been introduced. The young boy was tempted to reach out from his bed and embrace the teenager beside him, the resemblance to his older brother making the desire to be with him stronger, but he restrained himself. Instead, the younger Elric asked, "Where's my older brother? His name is Edward. Can I see him? Where am I?" The questions, which had been chaotically bombarding his mind, spilled out frantically, his weak voice beginning to shake with anxiety and uncertainty, and as they spurted from his tiny mouth like blood from a severed artery. The unsure smile immediately left the young man at the bedside's face to be replaced by a concoction of confusion and horror. "You don't remember anything? You don't recognize me," he choked out weakly, silencing the river of questions that rapidly poured from the young boy.

Alphonse took a long moment to carefully study the figure beside him in confusion, a wild desperation to know anyone, anything, turning his veins to burning icicles. His eyes swept quickly, yet very absorbingly, over the young man's silken gold locks of blond hair, his deep golden eyes, his clothing, his shoes, and even his hands, and the more he investigated the features, the more he reminded Alphonse of Edward. "No… I don't remember," he whispered apologetically, shaking his head. "You really do look awfully familiar, though. You know, actually, you look exactly like my older brother would if he were your age. You have the same hair and the same eyes, and even the same voice as him too. I wish he were here with me. Do you, by any chance, know where he is?" He paused, sadly giggling to himself as he remembered his elder sibling, dropping his gaze to the plain white sheets that fell lightly over his legs. "I want to know that he's all right, and I want to know if our transmutation was successful."

"We... We failed, Al." Came the adolescent's voice, and if the younger Elric had not known that it belonged to an unknown gentleman, he would have instantly mistaken it for Edward's. Upon those words meeting his small ears, Alphonse' head shot up to stare, wide-eyed, at the young man who, in response, adverted his own gaze to the floor, avoiding eye contact as if the boy's eyes were a corrosive acid. It was only then that the young alchemist came to realize that the stranger had said his name, and had chosen a rather odd, and chilling, way to phrase the response to Alphonse's babbling. We failed, Al we, we, we. Confusion spun the young boy's mind, and he absently stared at the elder person, attempting to come up with of a means by which he could have possibly known his name and why he had chosen to word his statement the way he did. "My brother and I… My brother and I did the transmutation… I'm sorry, but I really don't know who you are. Please… Please tell me where my brother is."

The young man's beautiful amber eyes seemed to grow wetter, and he dropped his head to look at his hands as he fiddled with his fingers. At this, a horrible feeling of dread burned at Alphonse' stomach. Why did the boy seem so sad at the mention of the older Elric? Did something happen to him? The steady beating of his heart quickly morphed into rapid fluttering and his breathing grew irregular. "What? What happened to Ed? Is he okay? Please! Tell me where he is," he yelled in a panic, his hand grabbing a fistful of the young man's black shirt to forcefully pull him up to his face, their noses only millimeters apart. "Please, tell me! I'm scared! What happened to my big brother? Why aren't you-" Alphonse stopped as soon as he heard a choked sob resonate from the teenager, whose arms snaked around him and whose head rested upon his shoulder. "Oh, Alphonse… I'm right here… I'm okay," he murmured into his ear, causing Alphonse to stiffen, startled by his words. The younger boy was about to croak out another question, but the stranger continued, his arms tightening around his shoulders. "Al… We failed to bring our mom back. We didn't appreciate Equivalent Exchange as much as we should, and as payment for our attempt at human transmutation, my left leg got taken, and you lost your whole body. I had to do something to save you... I couldn't lose my little brother... I mean, you're all I have. So, I sacrificed my right arm to attach your soul to a suit of armor. We spent four years trying to find a Philosopher's Stone to restore our original bodies, and now... You're finally flesh and blood and whole again, but it seems like you don't remember... It's me, Al, my sweet baby brother... It's me, Ed..."

A stinging sensation made itself evident behind Alphonse' obsidian eyes as he listened to the teenager's monologue, and, although he was confused and shocked, to say the least, the teenager's desperate voice, along with his own instincts, was enough to convince him that this young man was telling the truth. "B-brother," he asked, blinking rapidly in an attempt to rid his vision of the tears settling on his lower lids, and he felt the stranger nod into the crook of his neck. "I'm here, Al. I'm right here. Your big brother is here..." Edward sobbed, which crumbled Alphonse, who quickly threw his arms up to return his brother's tight hug, his own weeping mixing with his older brother's. "Please... P-please, don't cry," he begged, his heart breaking for his elder sibling. He knew Edward was never one to cry very often; that was usually Alphonse' job, but now his brother was openly sobbing into his shoulder, which frightened him. "I'm sorry I don't remember, but please, don't cry..." He began to rub circles on Edward's back, trying to soothe him, and squeezed him tighter. "I'm sorry..."

A soft chuckle met Alphonse' ears and he could feel Edward shake his head. "What the hell are you sorry for, Al? It's not your fault. I'm guessing Equivalent Exchange took your memories as payment for getting your body back." The oldest Elric pulled away from the embrace reluctantly and Alphonse' watched as he lifted his hand and felt the warm skin if his palm against his damp cheek, his thumbs wiping away the tears. Olive eyes traveled down to Edward's other hand, having remembered that he had said that his right arm was taken by Equivalent Exchange, and sure enough, five metal digits protruded from an artificial hand, which connected to an artificial wrist. His jacket blocked Alphonse' view of the whole limb, but he guessed it continued up to at least the elbow, maybe even the shoulder, and he felt his heart rip in two. "Your arm... You lost it to save me? It's because of me? It's my-" His voice caught as he choked back a sob that was begging for release. "…My fault?"

Alphonse dropped his gaze from his older brother and blinked out a few hot tears, his shoulders shaking as he wept quietly. In an instant, he felt arms around him and unconsciously leaned into the warm embrace. "No, Alphonse! It is not your fault, you hear me? I did what I did because I love you! You're my little bother... I would be happy to lose every single one of my limbs if it meant that I could save you from disappearing," came Edward's thick voice, and Alphonse could feel that his body was shaking as if he were trying to contain his grief. The strawberry blonde's chest squeezed, and his veins constricted, heart seeming to stop as his elder sibling, his only family left, broke down as he held him in his arms. Pain... The thought of his older brother hurting, being in pain, tore at him, ripped what minuscule scar tissue he had as a heart to shreds. It choked him, suffocated him, burned inside of his little chest. Why was he causing his beloved sibling so much pain? Even if the boy couldn't remember what had happened, he knew a reunion should be joyous, and from what he understood, this was the first time Edward had seen him in his human body for some time. This should be an ecstatic moment for him, not a moment full of pain and tears. His lack of memory and his guilt was hurting his brother, causing him pain, and what hurt his brother hurt him as well. Edward's pain was Alphonse' pain. They were one in the same, tied together by the love strings that connected the two, bonded their close relationship. How long they held each other, Alphonse wasn't entirely certain, nor did he care. In that time that passed, Edward needed him, and he would always be there for him; that, he was sure of.

"Brother, where are we now? This doesn't look like home…" Alphonse muttered quietly into Edward's ear, and, almost immediately, another sob tore itself from the elder boy's being, injecting a rush of guilt into the little alchemist's poor, scarred heart. "Oh, Al… We're at the hospital in central city... We um... We don't have a home to go to anymore... We burned it down on October third, nineteen-eleven... We didn't want to have somewhere to go back to, so that we could push forward with our journey and never stop," came the golden blonde's strangled voice, blatantly shaking with what Alphonse guessed was grief. Why was he causing so much pain to his brother? Alphonse' felt his heart tighten and push tears into his eyes. What was left now? His mother was gone, he burned down his home and couldn't even remember, and his brother, who he never wanted to hurt, was missing two of his limbs and was sobbing into his shoulder. The poor boy felt sick, his head spinning with questions and thoughts. There was a strangling sensation in Alphonse' throat, but whether it was vomit or pure emotion, he wasn't sure. He didn't want to take the risk of getting sick down his brother's back, and he only nodded in response.

The two were quiet for quite a long time, the only sounds coming from an occasional sob. It was hard for Alphonse to digest it all. He and his brother had failed to bring their mom back, and as a result, Edward lost his left leg, while he had lost his whole body. On top of that, his big brother had even sacrificed his arm for him, putting a heavy, icy blanket of guilt over Alphonse' shoulders. His home, everything he had known for the ten, or fourteen in actuality, years of his life had vanished, seemingly instantaneously. How was he expected to react? He was confused to say the least, but he wanted to be strong for Edward, who needed him now more than ever. What should he do? He wished he could break down in tears and relieve the pressure building up in his tiny chest, or scream, or block out the whole world, ignoring everything, pretending it never happened, but what would that do to his sibling? Certainly, it would cause him more pain than he was already in at the present. Alphonse, having too pure of a heart, as scarred and hurt as it was, could not do that to him. "…I feel sick," he stated softly, simply, swallowing hard to push back his overwhelming emotions as they continued to boil inside him with increasing brutality.

He felt Edward's hand begin to massage his back gently and hold him firmly to his chest, which convulsed with his silent weeping. "That's okay, Al…You're all right… And… I'm sorry… I know this must be so hard on you..." Hard was an understatement. "But, I promise you… I promise you that you'll always be taken care of, no matter what. I'll always be there for you, just like mom was… If you have a nightmare, I'll comfort you and let you sleep in my bed. If you get hurt, I'll bandage it and make it all better. If you're sick, I'll make you as much chicken noodle soup as you need. I'll take care of you, Al… I'm your older brother, and I love you… I love you so much." Alphonse couldn't help but chuckle at his brother's softer side, which was very rarely seen, and sniffled, burying his face into Edward's warm chest. He took in the scent, the familiar, sweet, comforting scent that gave him a sense of security, and he calmed dramatically, feeling safe in his sibling's arms.

Please note that this chapter takes place much BEFORE the prologue.

That's all really. .

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