Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal alchemist. I make no money from this. If only I did.

Not a ray of light.

Room so black he couldn't see his hand waving in front of his face.

A pin drop would have been deafening in the silence.

The bed was washed clean and comfortable.

Out from under the duvet the room was freezing, if any part of his body had been poking out it would have developed severe frost bite. As it was every part of him was securely wrapped in cotton.

The duvet cover wasn't appealing, they were changed ever two weeks but the cover was always an off white, usually worn through in the corners and with the words "fashiritei no itawaru no renkinjutsushi tane (toshigoro)" printed in large kaki almost heavy letters.

Apparently 'they' wrote using a different alphabet, but most of the people living in the state had been slightly moronic and hadn't realised that it was writing and not some pretty drawing so they ended up using the recognised characters in order to lord the fact the state had been so easily conquered.

When he first arrived, burning with hurt and anger, the printed words had annoyed him.

But now he casually used their words every time he said the nickname for the so called facility 'renkinjutsu'.

He supposed that was a slight rebellion apparently renkinjutsu meant alchemy.

But in the pitch black he couldn't see the duvet and he had slept for three years with the damned things now so it couldn't be that.

Alphonse shifted under the blankets. He already knew why he couldn't sleep but he was ignoring that annoying fact until he absolutely had to face it.

He was getting a roommate. Which at the best of times can be nerve wracking.

But when you're sharing a tiny cell that he, since he had been moved at the age of thirteen, had been able to reach the right and left wall with hardly any need to stretch. And that you can walk from the door too the apposing wall in five small steps. His anxiety was through the roof. And that was forgetting the worst part of this room sharing.

Every room in renkinjutsu was a single room. But they crammed as many into the building as they could and everyone had to share. But the rooms couldn't fit two beds in or even a double bed in. So everyone there had to share the bed with their roommate.

Which meant if you didn't get on with your roommate life was hard, even if you did get on with your roommate it was awkward.

And there was always the humiliating possibility that as a teenage boy you could feel… somewhat amorous during your sleep and have a subsequent dream.

And usually your roommate told everyone they saw the next day with a look of horror a lost of gestures and mocking sound effects.

And you spent the next few weeks walking around with a red faced while everyone went right into your face and babbled about pornography and the female guards.

Al hadn't had to share since he was moved from the child's renkinjutsu to the teenaged one and he wasn't looking forward to starting. He sat up and ran his hands through his short brown locks. Not for the first rime he wished his room had a window. Instead he fumbled around and managed to find a lamp and have some dismal light. He wrapped himself up in the duvet and listened.

The guards had told him this one was completely new. Which didn't make things easier, if they had recently been caught they were always sour about it. Plus a lot of the newest knew at least a little alchemy and they weren't keen on giving it up. Which meant their shared rooms were raided and their roommate was expected to rat them out or be punished with them.

Al couldn't bear the idea of giving somebody over to torture and had no wish to be tortured himself. Plus if any of them found out he could use alchemy better then many of the state alchemists they were still hunting and killing, his death would be public and humiliating.

He was lucky that neither he nor Ed used alchemy when he had been caught.

Ed had been fast enough to run away and ruthless enough to bury a knife in somebody's hand when they made a grab at him. He also had the added bonus of his little brother putting up such a fight at getting caught he was bought plenty of time to run. Al glared and shook his head. He tried to forget that, he hated remembering that day.

He could never make up his mind whether or not he wanted Edward to be captured. His old loyalty was still there.

For the little boy with short blonde hair and inquisitive golden eyes, who studied alchemy with him, who teased him when he hurt himself but picked him up and made it better as he did so.

As well as for the young boy with unkempt, long blonde hair and hardened golden eyes, who fought alongside him every time they were attacked, who killed the first animal on their first hunt together, who went into the town in spite of the danger and got some really good food.

But the anger was for the young teen who kept running when he was caught, who turned when he let out that single scream as he was caught, who looked him straight in the eyes, who looked at the ten men who were pinning him and who then span on his heels and ran away as fast as he could.

It wasn't even like he could think of an excuse for his brother's actions, he had tried. It was undeniable. Al had been eleven and Ed had just turned thirteen. And he just ran away. He didn't even look like he cared in the slightest.

Al sharply hit himself across the face. "Don't get caught up in memories." He smiled the ultimate irony would be his roommate being his brother. If they'd been caught together…they would still have been separated. Ed would have gone too this place straight away and he would have to wait a year and a bit to turn thirteen.

He let out a growl of irritation thoughts of the outside world always ended up on the last day of freedom, the same way thoughts of life before the invasion turned to the day it was all ripped away from them.

Al shook himself again and sighed lightly. He was being stupid.

A high pitched screech of metal being dragged over metal echoed from down the corridor, he worried his lip and then pulled his jacket and some socks on. The floor was still freezing when he put his feet down but he could just bear it through the thin cotton.

He stood up near the opposing wall to the door and pressed his back to it. He could already feel the hatred for whoever it was on the other side of that door

A/N:Review if I should keep this up

A/N2: Think we can probably guess who the cellmate shall be.
Okay I know this kinda seems like a random idea, but I'm writing an original with a kinda similar concept and this just popped in and wouldn't bugger off.

A/N3: I do know it's annoying when somebody uses another language for no apparent reason but I used Japanese to emphasise the fact it's different culture And it seemed right to use Japanese as I know a little and FMA is Japanese. Also I know the Japanese grammar I used is appalling I only know a little and for some reason the basics don't cover words like Alchemist and facility, so I had to do an Internet search and in order to make it easier for me, I kept the thing ordered like English.
Rough Translation
Fashiritei- Facility No-of Itawaru- caring No- of Renkinjutsushi-Alchemist Tane-offspring Toshigoro- teenager(age of puberty) (Facility of caring of alchemist offspring, teenagers,)