Soooo extremely happy to be posting this one. Soooo happy. I've been working on it the whole four weeks I've been in Spain (my home's USA) and I'm posting this first chapter just a few hours after my flight back home. Mostly just Roy, Ed, and Al in the beginning, although Maes will work his way here too by the end. Because, like probably everyone else, I simply LOVE him, and unless there's some plot reason he has to be dead for, anything I write will have him alive. This'll be a relatively short fic, only a few chapters, and it's already complete, minus the final scene. Because this chapter is so short, I hope to update tomorrow. Hopefully should keep to a relatively good update schedule overall, as well. Hope you enjoy!

Prologue

The first time Roy broke Master Berthold's law against what was forbidden and set fire without his express permission, his master found out, because his master always did.

The first time was the only time, because his master then beat him for an hour.

"You think fire is a game, Mustang?! You think you've earned the right to play with fire?!"

Steel-toed boot smashing against fragile ribs. Walking stick whirling to shatter against his shoulder, splinters of the remains digging into his flesh and the remains thrown against his face.

"No one has the right to play with fire! Fire is not your toy, Mustang! You play with fire, and you will get burnt!"

Foot crushing against his wrist until it broke.

"You will respect fire! You will respect its power, and you will respect that it does not exist to serve you!"

Crawling on his hands and knees... coughing to taste blood...

"Get the fuck back on the ground! Did I say you could get up?!"

Blow against his spine, and a mouthful of mud to his face.

"You want to watch something burn so bad, Mustang?! Watch!"

Snap.

Woosh- crackle crack- woosh- crackle crack...

"AAAAAGHHH!"

Fire burned, and flesh smoked.

"You want to control fire?! You think this is something you can take lightly?! Then put it out, Mustang! Put out the fire!"

"Ahhhh- ahhhhhhh- AHHHHHH-!"

"Put it out, Mustang!"

But he couldn't, he realized at last, rolling in the mud and screaming until his throat was raw.

He couldn't, because he'd never been taught how to put out a fire.

"Put it out!"

His master's hand grabbed at his shirt again and yanked him up off the ground, eyes boring into his own. Hot gold flickered, reflected in an unforgiving stare, and Roy bucked and gasped, the heat of agony choking him until he could not even think.

Fire roared.

"You can't put it out, Mustang," his master hissed, and when his head started to fall a hand grabbed him by the chin and forced him to look. "We are Flame Alchemists. We can create fire, but once we've made it, we can not control it, and we can not put it out. So I'm telling you right now to realize that every time you create a flame, you be prepared for it to turn around and bite you, or turn on another and bite them."

Fire hissed and crackled, licking over flesh and eagerly devouring sanity.

His master never put it out. He was left to scramble and try to control the blaze himself, screeching in agony until the rain came, and he passed out in the mud.

We can not put it out.

The lesson was learned.

Chapter 1

Roy knew from the moment the minuscule nuisance appeared on the train platform that his trip to the east was destined for misery.

He'd pulled on the blinds when he'd seen the kid and his brother on the platform and sunk down lower into his seat, inwardly hoping that it was just a coincidence, and they were only seeing someone off, not headed on their next assignment. When he'd heard Ed loudly complaining that his next mission was taking him out to the slums of East City, he'd groaned but quickly recovered hope. Same train? Fine; that didn't mean the brothers had to know he was there. He would just keep his silence, avoid any notice by Ed, and take the train ride in peace.

"I knew we shouldn't have waited until the last train of the week; all the seats are full!"

"Brother, you were the one who wanted to wait!"

"Because I thought Winry was coming to Central! Agh! Where are we supposed to sit?!"

Roy groaned and slid even further down in his seat. And, here it comes...

The screech of recognition was just as loud, tortuous, and impossibly annoying as he'd expected it to be.

"You! What are you doing here?!"

Roy cracked an eye open, glaring at the nuisance from between his fingers. "Same thing as you, I imagine. ...Midget."

Alphonse had to hold his brother back from chucking his suitcase right at his head.

A crackly voice called out over the intercom system for all the passengers to take their seats, and Ed and his brother looked around again before, with a very loud groan from the older one, the pair dropped down in the seat across from him.

A vein throbbed in his forehead.

"What, pray tell, do you think you are doing?"

Ed scowled deeply and folded his arms, and oh, if looks could kill, Roy got the feeling he'd be on a skewer right now. "Look, I'm not happy about it either, Colonel Bastard. But there aren't any other seats open. The train's full."

He'd already known that, of course. Just held out some small bit of hope that he would be able to get the Elrics out of his hair, hope that had just died a very sad death.

Although... If he was going to be miserable, Roy decided, grinning, then might as well commit all the way. He lowered his hand to loosen his collar, barely managing to hide a small smirk, then gestured around the train. "Really? I understand Al's problem, but there's a dog just a few seats ahead. Why don't you jump on to his collar for the ride?"

Once again, Al was the only thing keeping Ed in his seat. Even then, the flailing legs caught him once in the knee- he was quite sure it had been Fullmetal's automail that was the culprit, given the way it stung- and he nursed the swelling in silence for the rest of the trip.

Definitely worth it.

The train to East City was a good five hours of travel, with a stopover in Nowheresville midway through that wasted another hour. The Elrics- though he'd been worried only about one in particular- mercifully understood that a train ride was not the time to be the incessant pests that usually plagued his office, and were quiet.

...Even though it wasn't really their fault they were usually so annoying, as Roy quite purposefully antagonized Fullmetal into being said pest as often as he could get the chance.

However, six hours was a long time to sit silently, even for Roy; Ed lost his patience somewhere during the climb up the mountain pass and stood to stretch, yawning hugely. "I'm going for a walk," he announced, and Roy raised an eyebrow, bemused.

Ed scowled at him. "Don't look at me like that, Colonel Bastard. These long rides make my joints hurt, all right?"

"Aren't you a little too young for arthritis?"

Ed shrugged, looking just this side of sticking his tongue out at him. "Sure, and you're a little too old to be an unmarried pervert-slut that has no shame when flirting while drunk, but we all do what we gotta do."

"Brother!"

Ed snickered under his breath, waving to his brother before starting off on his trek up the train car, still smirking. Roy rolled his eyes; dammed kid, but he wasn't about to get up and chase after him for that, so it did appear that the midget had won this round.

"Er, sorry about that, Colonel," Al ventured nervously, when Ed had made it out of earshot and headed into the next train car. "He's just... it's complicated."

Roy glanced at soulfire eyes and shook his head, telling him without words the apology was unnecessary. He looked again after where his youngest subordinate had disappeared to and dropped his voice, carefully ensuring any curious passengers listening in would get the hint to stop. "It's his automail, isn't it?"

Al shifted with a loud clunk of armor, looking over his shoulder after his brother as well. "Yes. It's been a while since he's been back for Winry to service it- he's outgrowing it again. His shoulder's worse than his leg, I think, but he won't really tell me. How'd you know?"

Roy smiled faintly. He tried to hide it behind his hand for a moment before he just shrugged to himself and gave up; Al wasn't his subordinate and never would be, if Ed had anything to say about it. No reason to try and hide it. "Never tell him I said this, Al, but I did notice that he..." He paused, searching around the train car again to absolutely ensure the boy was nowhere even close to being in earshot. "...he's grown."

"But you still called him shrimp the second you saw him!"

Roy waved off the comment unconcernedly. "If you recall, Al, that was only after he had said hello with nice to see you again, Colonel Bastard."

"Only because you keep calling him short!"

"Yes, yes," Roy murmured, smile widening, and he shook his head fondly before allowing the levity to fade. "My point being, I took a look at his recent missions that night; none of them have been near Risembool at all. I figured he was having some problems with his automail." That was why he had given the brothers this mission to the east at all, actually. The lead on the stone wasn't very solid, but it would bring them close enough to their home that Fullmetal would be able to make a stop.

Not that he could ever tell either brother that, of course.

Al sighed sadly, leaning back in his seat. "I've tried telling him before to go to get it serviced whenever he thinks he needs it. But, you know him, Colonel; won't listen to anybody but himself. Following leads on the Stone is most important to him- even his own health, he neglects..."

Roy sighed as well. Of course he did. The Stone, Ed sought for his brother, and he'd have to blind to be oblivious to the fact that the devotion the two brothers had for one another went above and beyond any other commitment in their lives. Even if the Elrics had come to befriend the others in the unit- and Roy wasn't sure sometimes, but he had began to suspect Ed's friendship extended even to him as well, and that the warm feeling in his chest that grew every time he heard the pair was back in town wasn't just because his favorite object for teasing was back...

But, anything that Ed or Al felt towards him, Hawkeye, or the others, it would never even come close to rivaling the devotion they had towards each other. Roy was absolutely certain that one would die for the other with no hesitation. The idea that Ed would postpone his search for the Stone and his brother's body, just to ease a little physical discomfort... it was laughable.

Roy frowned a little, thinking of the foolish risks he'd begun to take on his own behalf, concerning the Elric brothers. Going after Scar- in the loathsome rain, no less... foolhardy was the only word to describe it, but at the time he'd thought nothing of the rain at all, or the fact that, as Ed so lovingly described it, he was one hundred percent useless when wet.

He'd just heard Scar was chasing the Elrics throughout the city and headed out into the rain without a second thought.

If Fullmetal had done something so stupid, I would NEVER let him live it down.

Not that Hawkeye had been particularly pleased with him that day, either...

But he hadn't been thinking. That was the problem- his pathetic thought process that day had just been Ed - Scar- in danger.

Tch. To think, he could chastise Fullmetal one day for taking a dammed stupid risk for his brother's behalf, and then the next take an even stupider one himself- again, for those two brothers. Ridiculous. Fullmetal's rash and reckless influence had to be wearing off on him.

Sighing, Roy reminded himself there was no use in rehashing that day's events and looked away from Alphonse, turning his gaze instead towards the window and blinking at the sky above. There wasn't a cloud in sight, and he grinned a little at the dry heat. "Perfect weather for a fire," he remarked quietly.

"...That's a little morbid, Colonel."

Roy grinned again, glancing back at the boy.

The train car exploded before he could reply.