Author's Note: Ok, so they're a little out of character. I've toned them down a little, because frankly if somebody was as much of a jerk to me as Roy is to Ed, there would be no romance, just my bony fist in his face. I included the automail, but not the alchemy, and I enjoy seeing them in a modern setting so that's where they are. There is some romance there, but there's also a plot. I promise, it's there, and you don't even have to squint . . . much. I also shortened the age gap just a smidge. Basically, I took a lot of liberties and offer a thousand sincere apologies for it.

Disclaimer: I am not cool enough to own FMA or any of its characters (curse the cruel fates *grumble, grumble*). But that doesn't mean I can't write a lovely (eh?) little (noooot so little) fic that shamelessly uses the characters and remolds them according to my own evil whims mwahahahahahaaaaa!

Chapter 1

Meetings, Coincidences, and Kismet

Roy Mustang stood leaning against the wall, breathing the fresh fall air for the first time in what felt like days. Actually, it probably really had been days. There was no way to be sure, since the labs had no windows and the battery in the wall clock had been dead for nearly a year. They'd been so close to a breakthrough earlier in the week, but before they could even get excited about it they'd discovered a flaw in the data that had forced them to wipe out everything they'd done that week and start from scratch. Frustrating wasn't the word for it – more like infuriating.

He reached up and brushed straight black hair out of obsidian almond-shaped eyes and realized with a grimace that however long he had been in the lab was however long he'd gone without a shower. For that matter when was the last time he'd eaten something that didn't come out of the vending machine? Really, he figured that if it had been long enough ago that he couldn't remember then it had been too damn long.

With a heavy sigh, he decided that it was past time to send everybody home for a day of rest and real food – and, heaven willing, a hot shower. He turned and pulled the door open, but at the same time he was pulling the door someone else was pushing it from the other side. Before he knew it, Roy was getting a chest-full of short blonde as the other person ran into him. His first thought, given the height and the long golden hair pulled back into a scruffy braid, was that he'd collided with a girl, but when the victim in question took a hasty step back he had to correct himself. Instantly he was caught by the most mesmerizing honey gold eyes set within a pale gold face and framed by messy golden bangs and stray wisps of hair. He was like a living embodiment of the sun, and although he wasn't a girl, he was at least the prettiest man Roy had ever seen. Realizing that he was staring like an idiot, Roy quickly reined in his wandering thoughts and sputtered something vaguely apology-like.

"Nah. No problem. It's cool. We ran into each other," said the shorter man with a dismissive wave of his hand. His tone was cavalier, but there was a sort of nervousness in his eyes.

"You don't look familiar. Are you new to the lab? Or is it possible you're just here to visit a student?" asked Roy, because frankly the guy didn't even look legal. "I would say undergrad, but you don't look old enough." It was a measure of how tired he was that he didn't realize his mistake until it was too late.

"Get some glasses, ass hat! I'm twenty-fucking-two and a PhD candidate, not that it's any of your fucking business. I've been in this lab for three damn years, since I was an undergrad student," snarled the blonde, his eyes flashing dangerously.

"Sorry, it's just, your height makes you look younger," said Roy, realizing in the next instant that he'd stepped on another landmine. The shorter man's face darkened further even as gold eyes burned with a promise of violence. Roy tensed, preparing for whatever might come next. But he may as well not have bothered. The blonde just let out a wordless growl and brushed past him, his shoulder hitting Roy in passing and knocking him out of the way. Shaking his head to himself, Roy returned to his lab as he'd originally planned.

The whole team was still right where he'd left them – Heymans Breda crunching data at the computer, Fuery trying futilely to repair one of the handheld testing instruments, Vato Falman standing at the whiteboard going over their faulty calculations to identify where they went wrong, and Sheska Douglas their lab assistant reading through recent research notes. They greeted him listlessly, all but Fuery who was passed out at his desk with his head on his arms, his glasses pushed up onto the top of his head like a nerdy headband. Breda was staring at the computer monitor, leaning close and squinting blearily as he watched the numbers slowly creeping upwards as the data continued to collate.

"What's up Roy? You look sort of . . . grrr, I guess," said Sheska, the mousy bookworm whose photographic memory had been the team's saving grace. She had dark auburn hair, kept mostly short, and wore glasses that made her fit neatly into the bookworm stereotype. It didn't help that she was so small and shy – her image fit her disposition eerily well. She wasn't actually a part of their department, but she worked with them part-time when she wasn't working at the library. Her main job was to keep the records of their experiments and findings reasonably organized. Her help had ended the reign of chaos that had been their previous record-keeping efforts.

"Oh, it's nothing, I just had an unpleasant encounter outside," replied Roy dismissively.

"Hard to imagine somebody that the great Roy Mustang couldn't charm," snickered Breda and Roy threw a scowl at his old friend. "So, who was this Mustang-hater? Guy whose girl you stole? Girl whose guy you stole? One of the guys or girls that were stolen?"

"Now you sound like Jean," muttered Roy, and Breda batted his eyelashes innocently. Breda was a heavyset guy who looked like he'd be more at home on a football field than in a thermodynamics lab. His red hair was darker at the roots, and with it cut so short on the sides and at the back, he looked like he'd dyed the top red. "And anyway, he wasn't anybody I know. He says he works in a lab in this building, but he looks like a high schooler, and I've never seen him before."

"You say he was just a kid, eh? What did he look like?" asked Falman, his eyes narrowing. Since his eyes were already so narrow in his stark-boned, perpetually serious face, the effect was a little disturbing – the prematurely gray hair hanging in his face only made the seriousness of his expression more pronounced. Roy would have expected Breda to be curious – he had a thing for secrets and gossip – but he never would have expected it of Falman. Usually, Falman wasn't interested in anything but facts and data. He'd never shown much interest in Roy's many flings or in the gossip surrounding him. It was one of the reasons Roy liked having him around.

"He has long golden-blonde hair with eyes that are almost the same color, and he's about as short as his temper," described Roy, caught for a moment in his memory of those eyes. Those golden orbs held all the fascination of a cobra's eyes, and were probably just as dangerous.

"Holy shit!" spat Falman, and everybody whipped around to look at him in blatant shock. Falman never cursed. Fuery even lifted his head, his eyes wide though still sleepy, and the quickness with which he'd sat up caused his glasses to fall back onto his face crookedly. "That was Edward Elric."

"And . . . that's important why exactly?" said Roy, gesturing for him to explain because it wasn't a name Roy recognized. Breda seemed to recognize the name though, and he was quick enough to rattle off what information he had.

"Edward Elric is one of two brothers, both prodigies. Edward, the older brother, has been going here since he was sixteen and already has two degrees. He's currently working on his doctorate. From what I've heard he's antisocial, but totally brilliant. He's supposedly one of the, like, smartest people alive. His little brother, Alphonse, is almost on the same level, started here at seventeen, but after he finished his Masters he headed off to another school to study medicine. The both of them are known for the breakthroughs they've made in the fields of physics, medicine, biomechanical research – you know, like automail and stuff – and biochemistry. Nobody knows what they're working on now, but everybody's got ears perked in their direction just in case they come up with something else that's groundbreaking." Breda paused and made a face to show a moment of distaste. "I get the impression that nobody likes the older Elric much. He's pretty wrapped up in his studies and doesn't like people getting close, so he's rude to just about everybody including professors. He teaches some classes here, and as a teacher he's both popular and super scary. Everybody loves his classes, but they're terrified of his assignments and his tests are merciless. Plus, all of his students know not to bother trying to approach him outside of office hours or class because he reverts to being uber rude and standoffish. He made a bit of a name for himself a couple years back when he cussed out the dean in front of everybody in the parking lot. I heard he's got a pretty face though. Almost prettier than most girls, is what I was told, but I've only seen one picture of him in a magazine and it didn't show much of his face. Some of the girls say he never lets anybody take pictures of his face."

"Um, actually," interjected Sheska shyly. "We went to the same high school, so I used to know him and his brother . . . a little bit, at least. Al is really sweet and friendly, but Ed kept to himself a lot, and I think he got bullied a bit – you know, because he was so young and skipped grades. He spent most of his time in the library, and that's where I met him. We'd talk about books sometimes, and we'd tell each other when we spotted something good. But that's it. We never talked outside of the library or hung out or anything. But, if I'd known he was in one of the labs here, I would have said hello already. He seems really rough, but he's actually really nice. You just have get past the foul language and bad temper. Mostly, just don't mention his height or his age."

"Oops," said Roy and Sheska let out a little gasp then gave him a pitying shake of her head. "I sort of hit a two-for on sore spots I guess."

"Honestly, you're lucky he didn't break your jaw," she said, clicking her tongue at him. "Ed and Al may be nice, but they're both really scary in a fight. I saw them fight once, and I hope I never see it again. They took apart half of the football team, just the two of them. It was nuts."

Their conversation was interrupted when they heard a loud voice further down the hall. That the one doing the shouting happened to be none other than the topic of the conversation was nothing short of kismet. "Winry, move your ass damn it! We're going to be late!" he hollered.

A pretty blonde girl dressed in daisy dukes over a pair capri tights with a tight black tank top and denim jacket barreled down the hallway from the direction of the front door. "Don't give me any shit Mr. Refuses-to-Drive-Himself-Anywhere," she shot back. "I'll only be a minute!"

"It better be less than that or we'll miss the fucking bus!" he shouted back, his voice getting closer. He paused in the hallway just in view of the section of glass wall facing the corridor that let in extra light and kept the lab from feeling like the tomb it was.

"That's him," muttered Roy, covering his mouth with one hand and trying to surreptitiously point with the other one. The other members of his team tried their best, each in their own way, to get a good look at the guy in the hallway without looking like they were staring. Unfortunately, Sheska ruined it by calling out his name.

"Edward! Long time no see!" she cried happily. Edward looked around for a minute, trying to find who had called him, and when his eyes finally fell on Sheska, his face brightened in a grin that softened his features into something downright angelic. In anger he was breathtaking, but in simple joy he was devastating. Edward entered the lab a little ways and offered Sheska an awkward sort of hug.

"I didn't know you were planning on going into science," said Edward warmly. "I'd have thought you'd be more interested in linguistics or something. I mean, think of how many more books you could read if you could read more languages, right?"

"I've picked up a few languages here and there, but that's just for fun," said Sheska, ducking her head as her cheeks flared bright red. "And I'm not really studying science either. I just help out different departments with keeping their records and stuff. Oh, and I do a couple shifts in the library too!"

"I haven't seen you there. How long have you been there?" asked Edward, frowning a bit as if in thought.

"I only started working there last semester," said Sheska with a soft giggle. "I was working at a bookstore before that, but they fired me for spending too much time reading the books." Edward let out a full-bellied laugh that absolutely banished all the gloom and fatigue from the room and its occupants. Never had such a carefree, uplifting sound been heard in their dismal cell. Heavenly choirs couldn't have been a more welcome sound.

"That's so like you! But they don't know what they're missing out on," Edward reassured her with conviction. "There's nobody who knows more about books than you, and I'm sure the place went to hell the day after you left. I bet if we walked in there now, it would look like a war zone or something."

Sheska giggled again, and Edward grinned at her. "Well, Roy got me the job at the library just in time to save me from getting evicted," said Sheska pointing to Roy who raised a hand with a somewhat sheepish expression.

"Oh," said Edward, his expression instantly darkening.

"Ed! Shit! I think we already missed the bus!" called the voice of "Winry" from further down the hall.

"Shit!" Spat Edward, jumping back out into the hallway. "You can't be serious! Do you have enough cash for a cab?"

"Doesn't matter, it wouldn't get here in time," she called back, both of them sounding panicked.

"Well, I was just about to send everybody home for a couple days' rest, I could give you a ride," offered Roy, shocked by his own audacity. The guy already hated him and was apparently a notably dangerous character. Did Roy really want such a bad-tempered potentially homicidal guy sitting less than a foot away from him in an enclosed space?

"Are you sure you would want to be seen with me in your car? Aren't you worried people would think you're a fucking pedophile?" asked Edward nastily. Then something metallic flashed through the air, connecting with Edward's head hard enough that he curled forward, lurching a couple involuntary steps into the lab. "What the actual fuck?! Why always the wrenches?!"

"Edward Elric! You're being a dick!" retorted Winry while everybody in the lab could only stare, frozen in blatant shock. Winry came into view again, planting a hand on the back of Edward's neck and marching him further into the lab, looking like she was carrying an angry cat by the scruff. She forced Edward to bow. "He's sorry for being a dick, whoever it was that made the kind offer of a ride. We'd be really grateful for the help."

"Get off of me, gorilla!" shouted Edward hotly.

"Shut your pie hole nerd boy!" she shrieked just as hotly.

"Fuck off machine junkie!"

"Obsessive science freak!" She gave Edward a hard shake, eliciting an angry squawk.

"Winry! Leg! Leg damn it!" protested Edward, sounding pained

"Oh hush, you big baby," said Winry, her words entirely contradicting the concern that flashed briefly in her eyes.

"Well then, I guess we should get going," said Roy, pocketing his wallet and cell phone. He gave Winry a charming, if tired, smile and gestured gallantly toward the door. Turning back to his team, he told them, "Just save what you've got for when we come back. We're just spinning our wheels right now anyway. Get some sleep."

"Hey, Mustang, I'll call you later and maybe we can all go pick up some food that doesn't come in a convenient carry-pouch," suggested Breda, and Roy laughed and waved, neither confirming nor denying. In all honesty, he wasn't sure which one he wanted first – sleep, shower, or food. Maybe all three?

"I'm Winry Rockbell, by the way," said girl cheerfully as they walked down the hallway toward the door. She turned back a little to offer him her hand, and when he took it, a soft blush colored her cheeks.

"Roy Mustang," offered Roy in return. It didn't look like Edward was going to say anything, but Winry pulled a wrench out of nowhere and held it up with a threatening gleam in her eye. Edward held up his hands in surrender.

"It's not like he couldn't hear you harpy-shriek my name earlier, jeez!" countered Edward but then he sighed and offered his left hand. "Ed Elric." Roy shook his hand with a wry lift to his smile and was surprised that Edward's cheeks actually flared bright red. "Yo! Phil! Coming through," called Edward amicably as they approached the security desk and the metal detectors that were meant to keep people from sneaking off with the equipment.

The security guard waved to Edward then flipped a switch under his desk, holding a hand out to keep back Winry and Roy until Edward had passed through one of the two metal detectors. Edward gave him an "all clear" sort of wave and a smile of gratitude, and the security guard once again flipped the switch then waited patiently for Winry and Roy to empty their pockets. Edward made idle conversation with the man while Winry emptied a frightening number of tools, all of which just seemed to materialize from nowhere (where in those tight-ass clothes was she keeping all that?).

After they'd passed through the detectors and collected their belongings, the three of them headed out to Mustang's crappy little ancient Buick. She wasn't much, but as long Roy took care of her, she'd outlive even the cockroaches. Edward seemed to hesitate before getting into the car then he took a deep breath, as if steeling himself, and all but dove into the back of the car to sit among the empty paper coffee cups and the discarded fast food bags. Roy wouldn't have put it past the guy to comment on the state of his car, but he seemed too lost in his own thoughts to even notice.

"So, where are headed?" asked Roy as he started the car.

"We need to go to the Expo Hall on 9th," replied Winry, throwing a quick worried frown over her shoulder at her friend in the backseat. "Ed, you going to make it, or would you rather just skip?"

"No chance! Izumi would fucking kill me!" answered Ed quickly. "I'm fine, Win." He sank further down in his seat and pulled up the hood of his red zip-up hoodie. "Have you heard from Al yet? He said he'd meet us there, but he wasn't sure if he was going to be late."

"He texted me around lunchtime," answered Winry. "He said it looks like he'll make it just in time."

"Oh good," said Edward distractedly.

"So, what's going on at Expo Hall? Anything interesting?" asked Roy conversationally, trying to catch Ed's eyes in the rearview mirror. However, the kid was looking distinctly pale and his gaze was turned downward to his hands which were clenched in his lap.

"Don't bother asking him. Getting him to tell you anything is like pulling teeth," said Winry with an exasperated sigh. "There's some kind of Science Exhibition for kids going on all week. Izumi, Ed and Al's foster mom, is going to have a booth today and tomorrow. She was sort of the boy's mentor, and she was the one who homeschooled them until high school, so they owe her a lot. That's how she roped them into helping with the booth. I'm just going to play gopher and help with the rugrat wrangling."

"It's supposed to get kids interested in science," muttered Ed from the backseat. Roy looked up at Ed's reflection. The diminutive scientist was looking a little green now and had his hands fisted in the legs of his pants. "Plus it tells kids who already have interest where to get more info."

"Do you think it would be all right if I came in and took a quick look around?" asked Roy. He wasn't always all that comfortable with kids – the exception being his best friend's daughter who he'd known since her birth – but he thought the exhibition sounded intriguing. Ed finally looked up and locked gazes with Roy in the mirror, the young man's eyes narrowing skeptically. "My best friend has a little girl. I want to see if there's anything she might think is cool. She's only five, but she's pretty smart, like her dad."

"They've got a scaled down model of the first space shuttle. All the kids dig that thing because they can climb in it and play with the controls," offered Edward grudgingly. "And they have a lot of interactive displays too. I think they said something about movie screenings, but I don't know which movies."

"What's your foster mom's booth about?" asked Roy, trying to keep the conversation rolling until they could roll right into more friendly territory. Roy would prefer not to make an enemy of somebody with Ed's reputation.

"It's about the history of science, starting with Rome and up through alchemy and on down the line," explained Edward, but when they hit a sudden bump in the road he let out a tiny whimper and clammed up.

"We're almost there Ed," Winry reassured him gently. "Sorry, Roy, Ed really hates riding in cars. He usually takes the bus or walks when he has to go somewhere. To tell the truth, if the Expo Hall wasn't so close to the school we'd have been screwed. He couldn't have handled a longer trip."

"I told you I'm fine," growled Edward, but the speed bump they hit upon entering the parking lot of the Expo Hall destroyed all pretense of bravado. The poor guy was actually panting now, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. Roy didn't waste time parking, he pulled up to the door so Edward could get out as soon as possible. Ed all but flew out of the car almost before it had fully stopped. He huffed in several deep breaths before turning back and bending down to look at Roy through the open passenger door. It seemed as if he knew why Roy had stopped at the door and was offering silent gratitude in acknowledgement. "We'll leave a free pass at the door for you . . . you know, as thanks or whatever . . . for the ride." With that he turned and hurried away.