DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.
A/N: Alright, this is the first of the one-shots. More will be up next week. So...I've been planning some TheoxMaes one-shots in my head, but I'm pretty burnt out on it at the moment. So, a little idea just came into my head of writing one with Theo and Sarah, because we don't touch upon their relationship enough, honestly. It's a prequel that takes place a few years before the beginning of WWTC. So...just enjoy Theo and Sarah. I know I have. :)
AT THE END OF THE DAY
(THEO)
"Honesty, Winry, I don't have time for this. I have places to be--"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I know how busy you are in your study," Mother spat the word. "So busy, can't be around me, or the kids, just your precious alc--"
"Oh, come off it! Sometimes you're just..."
"Just what, Edward?"
"I'm going to--"
"Your study, I know!!" Mother screamed, and I heard stomping. Sarah looked up from her homework, rubbing her eyes as she threw her pencil on the ground. I reached out to touch her arm, but she just pushed me away. For an eight year old girl, she was strong.
I'm not exactly sure when the fighting started. Sometime after Grandmother Pinako starting getting sick at intervels. She'd always come back from it, but it was getting to where it was almost every other month now.
Sarah and I didn't have many other realitives. Dead grandparents, both paternal and maternal. One Uncle, Alphonse. I hadn't seen him since I was one or two. I could hardly remember, honestly. All we really had was Pinako, Mother, and Father. We'd never left Resembool. School Monday through Friday, coming home every afternoon to the house, listening to a silent study and tinkering from the automail shop. The same routine since I was born.
"Look, Winry--"
"Don't even start with me, Edward! You don't do anything! I'm the only one that provides--"
"Provides? Provides? Winry, since when did I ask you to provide? If you hadn't gotten pregnant--"
"That was after we were married!" Mom said, but stopped. "What are you..."
"I wouldn't have to be here all the time, if we didn't have them." It was quiet, but we heard it. Sarah stared hard at the ground before wailing, running out the screen door, brown combat boots clanking along the wood. Den perked up, automail clanking, staring after my sister.
Mom came in, Dad halfway down the hall behind her. Mom looked from the open door to me.
"Oh, Theo...you're home..."
"Not that either one of you noticed," I said, throwing down my books and glared back at Dad. "Or cared."
"Theo--"
But I was running before either of them could speak. I couldn't process anything right now but tears. He...wouldn't have stayed with Mom if I wasn't born? He thinks it's mine and Sarah's fault he's here? Of course Dad didn't want to stay here...he wasn't the kind of guy that belonged in Resembool.
Dad had been distant, espeically after I turned nine-ish or so. He didn't play catch with me in the front yard, or smile everytime I asked a question. It was more like he had to deal with me and my presence, like I was some kind of road block. Sarah, his little girl, was also getting pushed away. Slowly, but true. I didn't doubt deep down he loved us, but he was burying it very deep.
I found Sarah under a tree on the dirt road into town. She was sobbing, but no shock there. She saw me, then ducked her head again.
"Go away!" she screamed.
"Don't do that," I told her, coming to sit next to her. I wiped my own wet eyes, letting Sarah collapse on me in a sobbing heap.
"Why doesn't he want us anymore? Why doesn't he want to stay?"
I didn't have an answer for her. "He's just..upse--"
"I hate him!" she screamed, pounding her small, pale fists on the ground.
"Sarah..."
Her look softened as she saw my tears.
"What does he want from us?" she whispered.
I still didn't know. I wiped her tears, and soon enough Mom and Dad caught up to us, panting. Dad saw our tears.
"Sarah, honey, I didn't mean it--"
"I'm sorry, Daddy!" Sarah sobbed, her face contorted with fear and hysteria. Tears ran down her splotchy red face. "I'll do better in school and I won't fight with Theo and I'll take Den for walks!! I be a better girl, I promise!" She pushed her head into her hands, rocking in a ball. I just stared, numb. They had reduced her to this.
"Sarah, sweetheart, it's not about that--" Dad didn't sound like he was apologizing, more like he was resigned and taxed at the moment.
"Don't yell at her!" Mom screamed. They got into it again, right here in public, not that anyone was around to see....
I helped Sarah to her feet, and we set off again down the road, she quietly crying into my shoulder. Eight years old. She shouldn't be in the middle of this.
"It's my fault, isn't it?" she whispered.
"'Course not, Sar." I said, nudging her shoulder, wiping her big blue eyes again. Those eyes always pulled at you. Scary or happy or mad or sad. Sarah could pull anything with those big blue eyes.
She shook her head. "It has to be. It started after I was born, not you."
I laughed, but it was dry. "Sarah, it started way after you were born. It's not your fault..." I looked up at Resembool's endless blue sky. "It's theirs. And I promise I'll protect you from this...from them."
She looked up at me from where she was tucked under my arm, and gave me a weak smile.
"Thanks, Theo."
"Anytime," I sighed. Sarah and I may fight, but we needed to pick our stupid battles when we had bigger problems going on.
I loved Sarah, and at the end of the day, she was still someone I cared about.
At the end of the day, she was still my sister.
A/N: Wow, I make Ed sound like a huge jerk. I blame it on being pent up with Winry for what? 12 years at that point? Geesh. I put Den in, since neither he or Black Hyate are mentioned in WWTC. I assume five years more and they'd both be dead. And Resembool isn't exactly swimming with mate choices for Den.
