Ah, this story. I was inspired to write this after reading on that was quite similar some time ago. It's been sitting around for years gathering dust while I worked on other things. And finally, I got the inspiration to finish it.

I admit though, that I feel just about every character in here is acting at least somewhat out of character.

Takes place during the brotherhood episode 7.

I do not own FMA.

Ed tapped his fingers lightly against the widow still feeling irritable. It was Father's day yet again, and like almost all Father's days before, his wasn't around to visit. Ed sighed loudly for the third time, before glancing absentmindedly at the front door. His brother had left promptly after their argument. Al had continued the annual tradition of trying to convince Ed to forgive their father. Usually, Al would ask Ed once and give him a few reasons. But Ed would always have the perfect counter arguments for why their father shouldn't be forgiven.

But this time, Al had learned from their previous 'discussions' and countered with his own reasons. He had also pushed harder, pleaded more, and persisted longer. Ed could still remember the way Al's eyes had glowed brighter than usual as he insisted that their father must have had a reason for leaving them. That they should give him a second chance.

Ed sighed again, it wasn't like he didn't want to forgive his father, one of his deepest and most detested secrets was that he did want to forgive Hohenhiem. But he was just was too distrustful and angry to try. It was so much easier to hate Hohenheim than to forgive him. But after that argument earlier in the morning, Ed actually felt vaguely willing to try for once. He snorted briefly, even if he was willing, forgiving Hohenhiem seemed strange.

Ed stood, and stretched, he might not ever get the chance to ever forgive his father, but he had to go for a walk. Cabin fever was driving him mad, whether or not Scar might be around. Ed looked briefly over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching, before he walked outside.

Taking a deep breath of the cold air, he grinned to himself and headed toward one of the parks he liked to visit. The park was mostly empty, but still pleasant despite the grey clouds up above. The grass was green, and Ed was contemplating lying down in it for a while when he caught sight of a familiar figure.

Ed could feel his mouth drop as he recognized the familiar face of Van Hohenheim a few feet away. The man was standing peacefully a few paces away from Ed. He stood across from Ed, and was turned sideways with his face uplifted. Hohenheim's eyes were closed, and he showed no sign of noticing Ed's presence.

Ed swallowed after a minute and called over, "Hey, you." Hohenheim turned toward Ed who shuffled his feet before he got out the words, "Dad, come over here. I need to talk to you." Ed continued to shuffle his feet awkwardly as Hohenheim hesitated before he walked in Ed's direction. One his father was in front of him, Ed looked up and said, "I didn't expect to see you, especially not on Father's day." Ed held back a grimace at the way his voice shook slightly as he admitted, "Honestly, I never thought I'd ever see you again. But I guess you can't always be right."

Ed shrugged before he said, "Look, dad, I know it's been years since I last saw you, and I've I despised you for a long time ... " He paused, before he added, "But it's still Father's day, and you actually did come for once, so I think I should forgive you for leaving Al and me."

Hohenheim was silent for a minute before he said, "Your forgiveness isn't necessary." Ed actually smiled as he shook his head and said, "I still need to give you it to accept you as my father."

Hohenheim shook his head emphatically before he said, "What I meant is I don't want your forgiveness, Edward. Your forgiveness means absolutely nothing to me. You, Edward, mean nothing to me."

Edward jerked back under his father's cold glare as he asked, "Why?" He knew the question sounded childish, but it was the only thing he could force out of his mouth.

Hohenhiem shrugged as he answered, "Why not? You have always been nothing more than mistake. From infancy, you have always been a nuisance. You kept trying to waste my time with one thing or another, and refused to do as you were told. You wouldn't even drink your milk without causing trouble. And when Trisha died, you forced you brother to try to bring her back with you, but you failed to try hard enough and turned her into a pitiful beast. And know you say you're trying to get you bodies back with Al. Such a foolish notion, the only thing you are capable of is letting people down, failing them. Think of Nina, she died because of you. And all that danger you put Al through. You can't protect yourself, so why do you think you can protect him?"

Hohenheim turned away from Ed whose eyes had widened with surprise. Before the effects of his words could sink in, Hohenhein had added, "It would have been better if you had never been born, or had died because of the transmutation, or because of some sort of injury. It's a shame I can't bring myself to kill you. However, perhaps everyone will get lucky, and Scar will kill you soon. Until that day comes, the world will have to put up with you pitiful existence."

Hohenheim walked away briskly. He hadn't even bothered to say goodbye. Ed continued to stare at his retreating back, until the trees finally hid it from view. Learning his father hated him had been more devastating than he had thought it could be. He briefly wondered to himself if Isaac the freezer somehow came back to life, and shoved an ice-spear into his heart. But, considering the lack of blood on his clothes, and the inability for dead people to come back, that was clearly both impossible and absurd.

To be honest, Ed hadn't actually considered the possibility of Hohenheim hating him. Sure, he had left when they were kids. But Ed had always thought that he had done that for reasons that weren't directly related to him. Ed swallowed as his stomach slowly tied itself in knots. Even after hearing his father hated him, he couldn't hate him back in return. His own apology had wiped out all of his hate for Hohenheim, and left him feeling unusually hopeful about the future. However, his hope, and what seemed to be Ed's heart, seemed to have been crushed in his father's hand.

Ed shivered suddenly. It seemed like the temperature had dropped suddenly, and Ed had foolishly forgotten to bring his coat. Still distracted, Ed started to walk away from the park. Al would have undoubtedly returned home by now. But, Ed couldn't go back to see Al yet, he would want to tell Al about what their father had said. But Ed couldn't tell Al about Hohenheim had said, it would hurt his little brother too much.

A couple drops of water fell onto Ed's head as it began to rain. Ed looked up as the rain began to fall harder. Finally looking around himself, he saw that he had walked up to an abandoned house. To his frustration, he couldn't recognize anything around him. However, the rain was getting bad, and Ed had to dry off. He sighed, and tried the door, which opened to his relief.

Stepping inside quickly, Ed shivered from cold. Unfortunately, the room lacked a fireplace or candles. A heavy layer of dust lay on the threadbare furniture, and Ed seriously doubted whether there was anything edible in the broken cupboards. Without anything else to do, Ed sat down heavily on a partially dusty chair.

As he sat and waited for the rain to stop, Ed's mind wandered back to his father's words. As harsh as they had been, there had been some truth to his statements. He had failed his mother and Nina. Not matter how hard he tried to help people, everything always seemed to backfire on him.

Ed shivered with cold, and stood to walk a few steps only to remember he didn't know which way military headquarters were. As he hung his head, Ed spotted the gun Riza had given him in case Scar had found him, and he couldn't use his alchemy to defend himself. However, Ed doubted he would or could ever use it on Scar. A fact that further proved his uselessness. It was Ed's unwillingness to use lethal force to win which put Al's life in danger.

Mesmerized by the guns appearance, Ed grabbed it and studied it carefully. The gun glinted menacingly in his hand. It seemed dangerous to him even when it was not in use. Ed swallowed lightly, if Ed couldn't do what he had to so he could save Al, it meant he was a hindrance. And sometimes hindrances were just as deadly as enemies.

Suddenly, the gun seemed less like a menace than it had before. If Ed were to use it on himself, then he would cease to be a danger to Al, and he wouldn't have to worry about shooting anyone again. The thought calmed him, Mustang could help Al to get his body back. In fact, Al would be safer around someone like Roy, someone who could do what had to be done in order to progress further.

He almost smiled at the thought. Roy would watch over Al who would get his body back and spend his life with a father who loved him without Ed there to hold him back. Ed shivered slightly, he was still cold and wet, but that didn't matter anymore. He held the gun in tenderly his right hand, and raised it slowly so that it pointed at his temple. Thinking back to what Riza had told him about guns, he removed the safety, and placed his finger on the trigger.

Scar stirred slightly at the sound of the door to the safe house opening. He frowned, he'd picked the abandoned house as his living quarters because no one would go there. The door closed, and he heard footsteps come from the other room, until the person sat heavily on a chair. Scar stood slowly, the person's feet had dragged slightly, as though the person was unwilling or unable to lift them higher. But, whoever it was in there could still be dangerous.

Scar walked slowly to the doorway and peeked it. He stiffened slightly when he saw the Fullmetal Alchemist slumped in a chair a few feet away. Scar waited for a moment, but the alchemist made no effort to recognize Scar's presence. A minute passed by and Fullmetal still had made no attempt to attack Scar. The only possible reason that the boy had walked in, was to escape the rain which was falling furiously outside.

Scar tensed, and silently thanked Ishvala for the opportunity to take the life of one of his greatest adversaries, when the boy stood and walked forward. Fullmetal's steps were halting, and his feet dragged heavily across the ground before he stopped only two feet from where he was standing before.

Scar's brow furrowed deeper as he noticed the boy's change from what Scar's research and experience had told him was the boy's customary mood. The boy's shoulders slumped, arms hung motionless at his sides, and his head was bowed so his hair hid his expression. A second later, Fullmetal had taken out a gun, and Scar positioned himself for combat. But the boy didn't turn the gun toward him, but stared at it.

The motion disturbed Scar further, his enemy had never moved at such a slow pace, a fact that had impressed Scar when he had previously fought with him. Finally the boy moved, and raised the gun ... and pointed it at his own head. Scar stepped back, briefly wondering if he was caught in some bizarre dream. He pinched his arm lightly, an action he hadn't done since he was little. But Scar didn't wake up, and Fullmetal still had a gun pointed toward his own head.

Scar tensed, while it was true that he wanted to the Fullmetal alchemist dead, the thought of the boy killing himself seemed appalling. As he watched the boy remove the gun's safety, He imagined he heard his elder brother whisper in his ear that the boy shouldn't die like that. It wa in that moment Scar made the choice to stop him. As backward as it seemed to save a state alchemist, it was absolutely immoral to allow a fifteen year-old boy to kill himself. Not to mention that it went against his Ishvalan beliefs. And while Scar hadn't been the best picture of devotion to Ishvala, there were some principles that even he wouldn't give up.

With that in mind, Scar raced forward, suddenly thankful for the boy's sluggish actions. Before Fullmetal could pull the trigger, Scar had grabbed his forearm and started to pull it away when Fullmetal turned to look into his eyes. The fire that had always been in Fullmetal's eyes had been unexpectedly extinguished. Instead of the angry golden eyes Scar had expected were two flat, lifeless yellow orbs which mildly reflected anguish and fear. Fullmetal's eyes traveled from Scar's face to the gun, before he twisted his hand around abruptly so the gun pointed at his head again as his finger began to depress the trigger.

With little time to react, Scar did the first thing he thought of. Destroy the abhorrent automail arm which now threatened the boy's life. The metal shattered in his hand, and the dismembered hand fell to the floor where Scar kicked it into the far corner. Fullmetal blinked before he lowered his head and stated, "You should have let me die."

Scar tensed further at the deadened tone in his voice before Edward continued, "All I do is get in the way, Al would be better off without me." Scar shook his head before the boy continued, "Yeah, I do. I fail at everything I try and put everyone in danger. Dad's right, it would be better if I just died."

That time, Scar did flinch at the boy's words. the idea of a father telling his son he was better off dead was roughly as bad as a boy committing suicide. At least it was in his mind. In Ishaval, a father was expected to protect his son until they got to the point where they could protect themselves. He also knew for certain that some fathers would still protect their sons even after that point and their sons didn't need help. A few minutes passed before Edward muttered weakly, "Go ahead, kill me. I won't fight back."

Scar's teeth clenched, and he moved his right arm slightly. Edward glanced at it, then reached over with his left hand to grab Scar's right hand and rest it on his forehead with a half-hearted smile. It would be so easy to kill Fullmetal right then. Just one little transmutation and one of his greatest adversaries would be gone. However, this wasn't how Scar wanted to do things. A second later, Scar lowered his hand as he said, "No. You do not need to die today, Edward Elric."

Edward shook his head, but seeing how Scar refused to listen, his head bowed and his legs collapsed from under him. Without fully thinking, Scar reached forward and caught Edward's shoulders as he fell. He was unnerved by how limp the boy was in his grasp. Edward didn't bother to raise his head or move.

Scar frowned, and knelt as he lowered Edward to his knees. The boy, however collapsed further so that he was sitting. Scar cringed and asked, "What did your father tell you?" Edward raised his head and his voice was hollow as he said, "Dad told me that I am a failure. I couldn't bring mom back, I couldn't change Nina back, I couldn't fix Al ..."

Scar was silent, why was the boy upset that he couldn't convince his mom to go back home? Scar understood the other two, changing a chimera back to two beings was impossible. And Scar could only guess that the loss of his brother body had been attributed to breaking the taboo, thus starting their journey to get their bodies back. Scar's brow furrowed further, Edward hadn't said that he had failed to bring his mom back home, but that he failed to bring her back. Scar cringed, it was likely that Edward and Alphonse had tried to bring their mother back from the dead. But they failed and payed a heavy price for trying.

Ed's expression was pained, hurt. If Scar had ever felt like that at fifteen, he would have had a pair of loving parents and a concerned older brother to help. But Edward's mother was likely dead, and his Father was clearly not willing or capable of helping his eldest son. And there was also the fact that Edward was technically a state military officer. As such, his superior officers would expect him to act like an adult despite his youth. It was extremely doubtful that Edward would receive any sort of parental affection from his superior officers.

Scar studied the boys expression and made a choice to do what his older brother or his parents would do if they were in Scar's position. After a second, Scar pulled the boy forward, and into his arms. Edward twitched lightly, and Scar gently pressed the boy's head into his shoulder. Edward blinked lightly, then leaned in a bit. Now that he was holding the boy, Scar noticed that was soaking wet, and shivering from intense cold.

With he was still feeling what he could only call 'paternal concern', Scar stood carefully and told Edward, "There is a fireplace in the other room. You can warm up in there." The boy glanced up, and Scar was relieved to see that he had mostly recovered from what had happened. Ed wavered on his feet, but he stood and, with Scar's help, he walked into the other room. Once inside, Scar helped him into a chair near the fireplace and got a fire going.

Edward visibly relaxed and leaned forward as heat began to penetrate the cold room. After a minute, Scar asked him, "How did it start?" For a few seconds, Edward said nothing, he just stared at the fire. Then he turned to Scar and said, "It's a long story." Scar nodded and Edward looked directly at Scar as he said, "Well ... when I little, I used to love my father." Ed paused for several minutes before he continued, "But then he became ... distant. He started spending less time with Al and me, and more time studying in his office. Then one night when I was five, he left. My mother really missed him."

Edward hesitated before he continued, "A little while later, Al and I discovered our father's alchemy books and started studying them. And when our mom found out she just smiled like we had done something truly amazing. So after that, Al and I immersed ourselves in the world of alchemy. Each smile my mom gave us after a successful transmutation was worth the work it took to learn everything we did."

Edwards head lowered as he said, "But there was this sickness that was going around, and one day our mom caught it. Unfortunately my Mom missed my father so much that it weakened her, and one day, she died. Afterwards, Al and I decided that we would bring her back some day, no matter what. So when I was nine, we got an alchemy teacher. Izumi Curtis taught us for six months before we went home. Then Al and I worked hard until we were finally ready. At the time Al was ten, and I was eleven. We thought we had prepared fully, that we would succeed. But then the rebound happened, and Al lost his body, and I lost part of my leg. So I bound Al's soul to his suit of armor and sacrificed my arm in the process."

Edward glanced up as he said, "My brother rushed me to our friend Winry's grandma, Pinako. She's a surgeon and an automail mechanic, and she did an emergency surgery to save my life. A couple of weeks later, Colonel mustang arrived, and he said that as a state alchemist I could use the resources set aside for state alchemists to get Al and I our bodies back." Edward raised his head, and his expression looked stronger as he added, "But I won't kill for them. Not even once."

Scar nodded lightly, with the resources now available to them, the brothers would have an easier time if they joined the state military. It seemed strange, but after the short conversation, he had lost his desire to kill either of the Elrics.

Edward raised waved his head as a sarcastic note in his voice as he said, "And here we are, without much to show for our efforts." He eyed Scar as he questioned, "Why did I tell you all that? This … isn't like me." Scar grunted in response, he wasn't acting like himself either. Both of them were silent before Scar uttered, "There are worse ambitions than yours". Ed nodded once and seemed to refrain from mentioning that Scar's own goal could be added to that list.

Finally Ed stood, eyes bright with determination as he said, "I won't give up on Al, not again. Scar nodded as he stood and explained, "If you go due east, you'll find Fifth street." Ed nodded and attempted to retrieve what remained of his arm before he grimaced and complained, "How am I going to explain this?" Scar wordlessly walked to the west wall witch he destroyed before he turned back and replied, "You survived an attack from the Scared man and lost only your automail arm. Most would say it was lucky." Ed smirked and waved his hand in what Scar assumed was a goodbye before he left the building. Scar left through the hole he created and began to walk away. He was certain that Ed would get back safely considering the weren't that far from the military headquarters. And with his own attacks, they would be on high alert for any sign of his activity. Like things exploding for example.

There was a pause, and Scar turned to look in the direction he'd come from. He had no regrets in allowing Edward to escape. Not a single one.

It may seem like I hate Hohenhiem, but I don't actually. I kinda like the guy in spite of everything, and I doubt he would actually behave in the manner I portrayed him.

In any case, this will be a one shot for the time being unless there is a great enough desire for it to become a full length fan fic.

Please leave review.