Springen

Prologue: Warsaw, Poland, March, 1939

The weather was unusually hot for the beginning of spring. All the snow had turned to slush and was slowly evaporating off of the streets. I was glad to see that spring had come with such a force; it meant, to me, that summer would be full of good weather that year. It was, as far as I can remember.

In 1939, as a thirteen year old boy, I really had no idea of what could possibly be waiting for us in the years to come. I was growing up in a perfectly normal Jewish family. My father died when I was three years old. Mother said he had something called consumption, but when she told me that, I was too young to understand what it was. Any memories I have of him are blurry and incredibly difficult to recall.

My mother was as strong a woman as there ever was. Her name was Izumi Jarogniew. Without her guidance, our family would have fallen apart. As a child, I did not know or understand the grief she felt for the loss of my father. Of course, I was not the only child in the Jarogniew family. In fact, I was the youngest of three. My sister, the eldest of the siblings, was, according to many, "the most beautiful woman in Warsaw." Her name was Lust and even I thought she was beautiful. While Mother did not have much in the way of feminine grace, Lust made up for her lack. The middle sibling, my brother, Envy, was the only one who seemed to look anything like our father. Despite the fact that he was fairly short, he was a strong, handsome man. Envy ended up getting me into a number of troublesome situations during our childhood. And then there was me, Wrath. At thirteen, it was hard for anyone, including myself, to tell which parent I would end up resembling. Lust had always teased me and said that I would probably look more like Mother. Envy used to say I was probably adopted.

Either way, our little family got along incredibly well. There were times when we would have squabbles, but what family doesn't?

I had a friend, my best friend, who was the same age as me. His name was Alfonse Elric, but most people just called him Al. We had known each other ever since we first entered school. Although his parents did not seem to like me or my family, they would let me come to their home for dinner occasionally. Even though our religions were different, we hardly saw that to be a reason to stop being friends. Unfortunately, Al's brother, Edward, didn't seem to think so. I didn't understand what Edward had against our friendship. The couple of times I asked Al about it, he simply said he did not know either.

The true beginning of my story is the beginning of spring in my thirteenth year. Envy and I were going to the library that had been built next to the Great Synagogue at Tlomackie Square. Usually, I didn't go to the library with Envy. He was about to graduate high school, so he went there often to get books for school projects. We traipsed down the sidewalk, toward the library. For some reason, Envy was unusually silent. I kept glancing at him, as if I could read his thoughts just by looking at him. I was glad that we were almost exactly the same height, even though he was five years older than me. It made things slightly easier on me.

"Envy, why are you going to the library today?" I asked, trying to start some kind of conversation. I hated this thick silence that had formed between us. Normally, Envy talked so much it was hard to get him to stay quiet.

My brother gave me a sideways look before returning his attention to what was ahead of him. "Because I told a girl I'd meet her there," he said matter-of-factly, "You're going to stay at the library until I come get you later." Even I knew who the girl was; Winry Rockbell. She was at the same school as Envy, but I think she was in a lower year. The way I knew her name was obvious; Envy constantly talked about her at home. If something or someone reminded him of Winry, he would say so. Lust and I thought it was annoying, but Mother seemed to think it was funny.

I wondered what she really thought of Envy, but if she had agreed to meet him, then she could not possibly have any bad feelings toward him. "Oh," was all I said to that. The library was a very dull place to me; it was stuffed full with a bunch of books that I would never want to read. If I could avoid going there, I would, but that day, Mother and Lust had gone out. I was not allowed to stay at home alone, so I had to go with my brother. Envy did not seem to like the situation either.

On the steps that led to the doors of the library was a young woman I could only assume was Winry. She had an impatient look on her pretty face. I couldn't help but compare her to my sister. Lust was much more beautiful than her, even though Winry had blonde hair, which was considered "perfect" during that time. Really, I had no idea what Envy saw in her. But, then again, I was only thirteen. What did I know about love?

"You're late," Winry announced. Her air of superiority was a little irritating. She seemed to be looking down the end of her nose at Envy and I.

Envy nodded quickly as he walked up the steps to her. She was a few inches taller than him. "I know, I had to bring my kid-brother along," he said, taking a second to glare back at me. I followed him up the steps.

Winry gave me a disdainful look before turning her attention back to my brother. "He's not going to come with us, is he?" she asked, her voice a whine. She reminded me of a girl in my class who would complain until she had her way with just about everything.

"Nah, he's going to stay here until I come to get him…Aren't you, Wrath?" Envy replied. His last few words were said with a slight intensity. At home, he was barely ever like this. I wondered if this was how he was with all girls. I didn't see how they could like someone who was so obnoxious to his own brother…But girls were a species I had yet to even comprehend.

This made a big smile spread across Winry's face. "Good!" she exclaimed, "Because little kids aren't allowed where we're going." I was about to argue that I wasn't a little kid, but I knew that if I did, then Envy would just get mad at me.

Before they could say anything more, I tugged at Envy's shirt sleeve to get his attention. "I'll just go in now. No point in staying out here any longer," I stated and went inside without a chance for them to argue.

The library was huge and slightly intimidating. I did not know how long Envy would be gone, so I thought maybe I could find a book to entertain myself with…But the problem was that I had no idea where to start looking. As I walked between the huge shelves, skimming the titles, I heard someone coming toward me. I looked over my shoulder, to see a young woman with mousy brown hair carrying a huge pile of books in her arms.

"Um…Do you need any help?" I asked, approaching her a little hesitantly. I had seen her the few times I had been at the library before. According to Envy, her name was Sciezka. She was a little older than him, but she seemed to also be on his list of women he was attracted to. Lust told me once that Envy was attracted to anything female. I hoped he never came across a female dog…

Sciezka halted. The books at the top of her pile wavered slightly, as if they might fall at any moment. "Yes, please, thanks," she said, exasperated. Slowly, she lowered the pile so I could take half of it in my arms. A few moments ago, the books had been blocking her face from view. But now I saw that she had a fairly normal look to her. The thick glasses she wore did not really help anything either.

I followed her to a slightly empty shelf, where I assumed we would be putting all the books we were carrying. We did just that. Sciezka explained to me that they had to be in a certain order, so once I figured out what it was; it only took a few minutes to get them where they needed to be. After that, she said that she had other things that needed to be taken care of and thanked me for my help. I barely had time to say 'you're welcome' before she ran off to do whatever it was.

It took me a while to find a book that looked even slightly interesting. The title was "Treasure Island." I'd remembered Al talking about it recently, so I wanted to see what it was about. I took the book and sat down at one of the tables near the back of the first floor.

Hours passed. The book was all right, but I had never been a very good reader. It was about six o'clock when a tall, dark haired man approached me. Like Sciezka, he wore glasses, but they were not quite as thick. "Are you Wrath Jarogniew?" he asked me, concern laced into his voice. I had seen him at the Great Synagogue before with his wife and their little daughter. Mother said his name was Maes Hughes.

"Yes, sir," I said, glad to finally have someone to talk to. Something seemed wrong, though. The expression on Mr. Hughes's face gave me the feeling that whatever he had come to say was not going to be good news.

Mr. Hughes glanced over his shoulder for a moment before turning back to face me. "Your brother, Envy," he began slowly, "He's been taken to the hospital." He spoke quickly and softly, as though he did not want anyone to overhear. Of course, he might have been speaking that way simply because we were in a library.

His words made my entire body go numb. Envy was in the hospital? That hardly made any sense to me; he was perfectly healthy the last time I saw him, which was only hours ago. "Wha…What happened?" I asked, trying to stay as calm as I could. Mother had always told me never to panic in bad situations. But to stay calm after hearing news like that was a little difficult.

"Come with me, I'll explain on the way," said Mr. Hughes. Although I did not know him very well, he was a highly respected man in the Jewish community, so I knew he could be trusted. I quickly got up and followed him out of the library. Only after we were well on our way did I remember that I had just left the book on the table. I made up my mind to apologize to Sciezka later, because I figured she would be the one to have to put it away.

It turned out that a group of Socialists attacked Envy and Winry while they were out. Winry was all right, but since Envy was Jewish, they beat him hard. When Mr. Hughes and I arrived, I saw that Mother and Lust were already there. Even Winry had stuck around, which was a surprise. She seemed just as worried as the rest of us.

In the end, Envy turned out all right. He had a broken arm and some pretty bad cuts and bruises, but he was back on his feet in a week.

To the adults, this represented something bad, something terrible. I had no idea what this meant, but I began to realize it would not be the last time a Jew was hurt for no reason at all.

(Author's Note: So…Obviously this is really, really AU. This isn't just their lives beyond the Gate. This is a completely different story. I've had a lot of problems with people not understanding AU in the past so I hope everyone reading this knows what it is. :D Anyway, chapter one should be up soon! Thank you for reading 3)