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He hates the night.
He’s never quite liked the dark, but at least Mother would sing him to sleep. At least Father would check everywhere to find bad spirits.
And then his parents were gone. They’d said they would be back home soon.
It’s been weeks.
Brother said they got lost, simple as that. But the young boy knows he’s hiding the truth.
Every night as of late, the red-eyed child cries himself to sleep in his lonely bedroom, aching for his mother’s mellow voice, his father’s protection. Wondering every minute why they left. What took them away. He whispers to Ishbala and hopes for an answer.
Tonight though, he can’t sleep at all. The night is colder than anything else, biting ice against his skin. Not even the many blankets he has grabbed with him help much. The young Ishbalan sits on his bed, pained, eyes burning with so many tears…
And finally, the boy leaves his room and searches for another.
Some nights he checks on it to make sure he’s not actually alone at home, but he never actually entered the room. He never wanted to alarm the peaceful, sleepy breaths despite his grief. But now he can’t take it anymore.
He sneaks inside the room and hesitates. Brother sleeps facing the wall, breathing in and out, in and out… the boy quietly climbs on the bed and lies down by the corner. Desperately wanting to wake his older brother up, but fearing the worst, for some reason. Brother would never hurt him… he would never leave him, right?
The confusion makes him sob again, even as he tries to swallow it, as silently as possible. But he’s very much unlucky, as Brother turns around.
“Mm… huh?” The young man says in relative alarm.
At that, the boy clings to the other. Brother doesn’t reject him like he feared. He doesn’t hold him the same way Mother did… but he soothes the younger’s hair with calmness; the solitude they are now facing.
Brother covers him with his blankets, the latter only then realizing he’s shaking.
“You couldn’t sleep?” Brother wonders.
The other shakes his head under his chin.
“It’s alright, now… it’s alright. You can stay.”
The crying boy sobs until there’s nothing more he can let go; for Brother seems to take the pain for himself to give care.
Still, the questions persist.
“Why did they leave us?”
He almost expects Brother to use the same excuse as before… and yet…
“Sometimes… there might be no answer to our questions. Not even He knows.”
“Why then?! It’s not fair, brother! I-It’s not…”
Brother gently hushes him. “I know. Oh, do I know...” he sighs.
The boy still mourns, mourns all the moments, when the sun could be seen even at night. Now there is none. There is no guiding star for him, for either sibling, in this cold place.
“Y-You’re…” the younger sniffs. “You’re not going to leave me too, right?”
“No,”— Brother pulls him even closer —“absolutely not.”
“Do you promise?”
“I promise, in Ishbala’s name, that I will look after you the best I can.”
The boy lets out a deep, relieved breath.
“Now, you can close your eyes,” Brother instructs him. “I’ll be right here.”
Even though it hurts, the young Ishbalan finally falls asleep at peace.
Years later, he still dreads the night.
All he has now is Ishbala by his side. Because something terrible, out of his reach, has come down to him and his people. The military. The Amestrian men, with the sinful alchemy. The same his right arm uses to destroy all around.
Scar… Truly, it is his name.
Maybe given by Amestrians themselves, yet Scar is forced to commit the same crime, to learn their path to stop them with their own power. Because Amestris will not stop if no one interferes. It does not matter what they do, if Ishbalans run and avoid conflict. Man will destroy them. Man will destroy whoever differs even from their skin and eye. Man will even go lengths to destroy families.
Alchemy, the weapon of man. Scar’s only resource.
(And what had him lose his brother.)
(His everything.)
Even now, Scar lies alone.
He looks up at the sky.
(The promise...)
(The promise was not kept. And yet it was somehow?)
(Does he hate his brother for it? For leaving? For betraying Ishbala? For saving the younger man despite everything?)
At this point, Scar knows nothing.
Nothing but that he needs to ensure justice.
(Perhaps, make Brother’s wish come true.)