AN: Hey guys! OK, first things first, I thought I should let you guys know that I am in fact, not ForgetMeNotViolet. I am her allegedly 'awesome' Beta Reader. So here's the deal as to why I'm posting on her account and not making my own: I am extremely self conscious. Especially when it comes to publishing my writing. So Violet is so awesome, that she said she'd be my beta for this story, and even allowed me to use her account for this little experiment of mine! So since this is an experiment there're some conditions to what I'm currently doing… but more about that later.

So, now, down to business. This is AU. I'm guessing you read the summary so you know what it's basically about. So let's have me stop my babbling, and get on with it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Full Metal Alchemist, or Brotherhood… yet…

Well I hope you all Enjoy!

Iron in the Fire

Opportunity

Ed could feel the heat from the roaring fire in front of him, as it wrap around him, and created an almost suffocating pressure. But he could do nothing but gape in shock at the site before him. Smoke began billowing towards him, and he felt his nostrils fill with it, and his eyes began to sting. He coughed violently from the stifling smoke. The heat was intensifying, and he knew he should probably leave; it would most likely become dangerous to stay so close to the horrific inferno. But he felt as if he were frozen in place, and he couldn't-

"Edward!"

Edward Elric was awoken from his dream with a jolt at the sound of his teacher's impatient voice. He didn't even need to look up to know that she was standing directly in front of him, tapping her foot, and looking down her nose disapprovingly at him.

"Nice of you to rejoin us, Edward," She drawled, "But I feel it's necessary to remind you, once again, that this is a class room, and not a nursery. This isn't nap time; please try to pay attention."

Ed sighed. Here we go again, he thought.

This hadn't been the first time he had fallen asleep in Mrs. McCord's class, and he knew he was already treading on thin ice. He was willing to bet that the prick ass woman had disliked him from the moment he walked in the room.

He actually wasn't even supposed to be in Physics yet, seeing as he was only a sophomore. So being put in an AP physics course was something extremely rare and (according to the bastards who had stuck him in this class) was to be considered "an honor". Ed figured he probably hadn't been what the teacher was expecting when he walked in dressed like someone pulled off the streets. The immediate mistrust and skeptical looks were proof enough of that.

He also wasn't known for being completely respectful towards authority, so that was another strike against him as well. He supposed it stood to reason that falling asleep multiple times in the class wasn't really helping the situation. But he really couldn't help it; the class was just so damn boring! It also didn't help that he rarely got enough sleep at home.

"Sorry Mrs. McCord. I just found that nothing in your lecture seemed worth listening too," Ed replied bluntly.

A few of the students around him snickered, looked at him in disbelief, or just shook their heads in exasperation.

He doubted that he had ever seen anyone go as red in the face, as Mrs. McCord did in that moment. "Well, Edward, maybe if you bothered to pay attention, then you'd realize that what we're currently learning is one of the most advanced types of science. I would believe that that would be something 'worth listening too.' And even if you think differently then may I remind you that you do need to pass this course. So it ought to be 'worth listening too' if it will help you get through this class," She retorted tightly.

Ed only shrugged.

Mrs. McCord pinched the bridge of her nose before turning away sharply and stating coldly, "Edward if you refuse to pay attention you will fail this course. If that's what you want then go right on ignoring my lessons. But I would suggest not being surprised when you receive your graded paper over quantum physics, which I must begin grading now, by the way."

Ed just rolled his eyes and didn't bother responding.

Luckily, the bell saved him from enduring the class too much longer.

"Alright Class! I'll hand back your reports Monday. And don't forget pages 245 through 248 for homework!" Mrs. McCord announced as they filed out.

Ed picked up his bag and started making his way towards the hall.

"Hold on a moment, Edward," Mrs. McCord called, beckoning him over to her desk.

Shit, he groaned to himself.

Ed walked over to her cautiously, already trying to find some way out of the trouble he knew he was currently in.

"Yes ?" He asked guardedly. He could practically hear the continued scolding this bitch was going to give him over falling asleep in class and his lack of 'discipline'.

"I thought I should inform you that I just read your report…"

Oh Great. Here it comes, Ed thought. This was actually their first out of class assignment of the year, so Ed truly had no idea what to expect her to say. But he did know from personal experience that when a teacher actually called you out to talk about a grade, it was rarely a good thing.

She sighed and leaned forward on her elbows while massaging her temples. "Edward, be honest, have you been listening any of the lessons I teach?"

"Honestly?" He asked feeling slightly amused, "Some, but not really."

Mrs. McCord let out a deep breath of air and shook her head, "I don't know how you did it then. Your paper was spot on, and somehow, I have no idea how though, you managed to touch on aspects that I have yet to even teach in this class. How on earth did you pull this off?" She asked, irritation lacing her words.

Ed looked at her in shock. That had not been what he had expected to hear. He stared at her. "… Ummmm… The internet, I guess," He replied uncertainly.

"Oh? So you plagiarized someone else's work?" She said haughtily.

Ed immediately bristled. Just who the hell did she think he was?

"No I didn't plagiarize someone else's work, damn it! I found information on it, when I looked into it on the computer! I wouldn't sink so low as to take credit from someone else!" He raged.

He saw Mrs. McCord raise her thinly penciled eyebrows at his word choice, but to his shock she didn't seem mad… only perplexed. "So you willingly looked up extra information?" She asked suspiciously.

Ed felt his cheeks heat a bit, knowing that this probably made him seem like some over achieving goodie- two shoes. But he nodded anyways.

"Why?" She asked, looking incredulous.

"Why not?" He countered.

"Edward, if you can't be bothered to pay even the slightest bit of attention in my class, it seems highly unlikely that you would take the initiative to look into any type of physics. So, is it truly odd that I wonder why you suddenly took some sort of interest in it?" She replied seemingly exasperated.

Ed's face reddened a bit more. "Well… Umm… I-uh… I guess I just…" He stammered out.

"Well?" Mrs. McCord demanded impatiently.

He took a breath and sighed, he supposed there was no shame to admitting it, "I… I just like science." He shrugged, "I've always found it interesting; especially certain aspects of chemistry and physics. I'd heard some of the stuff about physics from my previous classes, and I have heard some of the things in this class, and, well… it sounded pretty interesting."

Mrs. McCord scrutinized him for a moment, as if trying to discern how much truth was in his words, or trying to figure out if she had heard him correctly. In reality Ed knew exactly what she was doing. She was trying to pass some sort of official judgment on him; she was trying to figure out what type of person he really was. He was used to this. People seemed to judge him all the time, whether it was his attitude, his language, his attire, and from time to time even his knowledge. He was used to it, but that didn't prevent him from feeling slightly irked every time it happened.

Mrs. McCord looked down, sighing as she began massaging her temples again. She finally turned her gaze back up to him; her face composed once more. "You like science?"

"Certain aspects of it," Ed replied brusquely.

"Like?"

"Like chemical equations, and elements combining to make compounds, or changing a compounds structure to make it into something else, that type of stuff. And I figured that to help get a better understanding of all that I should probably know some of the stuff it revolves around too."

His teacher was silent again for a bit before speaking. "… Alright then. Thank you Edward, you may go," She said dismissively.

Ed only gave her a curt nod, before turning on heel and walking away, leaving the woman to her pondering.

When Ed got back, the only thing he wanted to do was eat and then sleep. He felt utterly exhausted. He was totally worn out from the long week he had suffered. So the last thing he wanted to do at the moment was Dante's stupid chores.

There was always a crap load of chores to do around the ranch, and she often stuck the kids with them instead of hiring ranch hands. Ed had confronted her about it once, asking her why they had to do all of the work. She told him that having many responsibilities and having to perform difficult tasks like these taught them responsibility and built character. "As is our job." She had finished curtly.

Ed figured the bitch probably just didn't want to do any of the work herself, or didn't want to pay money to have someone else do them. But honestly he wasn't going to contradict her, because if he did she would just add more to his unending list. And if he continued to complain she would probably call in Brasque to 'talk' to him, and he had no desire to deal with the man what so ever. So he looked at the list that was posted on the door, and then went to finish the tasks he had been assigned for the day.

Ed felt like he was about to collapse when he trudged back into the house after finally finishing the chores. He had been here for over a year and a half now, but he still felt as if he'd been worked to the bone every time he finished the everyday chore list.

"Ed?" Dante called from the kitchen, where she was sitting reading a novel. She was a short, thin woman, who had auburn hair with wisps of gray in it. Her nose was crooked almost like a bird's, and her eyes were narrow, as if she were part snake or something. "Have you finished everything?"

"Yes, Dante." Ed replied feeling exasperated.

"Alright then, you can go upstairs." She nodded to him once before returning to her novel.

He began climbing the stairs; wanting to do nothing more than crash onto his bed and pass out. But, as luck would have it, he ended up passing Vera on the stairs.

Vera was actually Dante and Brasque's niece, and since her dad had died and her mom had to travel around a lot because of her job, she had been sent here (to Edward's dire misfortune) to be looked after by her aunt and uncle. She was a spoiled rotten, prima donna, who couldn't seem to keep her head out of her ass.

To say that he and Vera didn't get along would be an understatement.

Her aunt and uncle seemed to absolutely adore her, so most of the kids in the house had either steered clear of her or sucked up to her as if she were royalty. Ed hadn't been so submissive. He treated her just like he treated everyone else in the house. Suffice to say, this had pissed her off. Majorly. The two had seemed to be at constant odds with each other for the first month that she had been there. Unsurprisingly, it hadn't taken her long to eventually go running to her dear "Auntie and Uncle", and tell them about how mean and 'terrible' he had been towards her.

It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the two wardens had been ticked off when they found out. This had earned him a 'talk' from Brasque and nearly twice as many chores from Dante. But even after all that, Ed's tone and posture around her still turned icy and vindictive. Although he no longer talked to her so brashly, this hadn't gone unnoticed by Vera. And she sure as hell wasn't shy about insulting him. But of course she couldn't just leave it at that.

A few weeks later, they had both been sent to get something from the top story of the barn. She was just standing there on the ladder giving him orders as he did all of the actual work. But without any warning the ladder Vera had been standing on gave way and began falling to the side.

When she screamed his hand reflexively shot out to grab hers. But when he grabbed it her body turned, causing her wrist to twist painfully in a different direction. He tried to grip her forearm tighter in order to pull her up, but her foot had caught in the falling ladder, and the momentum carried her down. The most he had been able to succeed in doing was slowing down the fall.

Afterwards, he had helped her back to the house, where Dante looked at her wounds and assessed that Vera had a bruised hip bone, a fractured ankle, a sprained wrist, and a few other bruises as well. When the wardens finally stopped being so worried over her injuries they asked her how this had happened; then everything went to hell.

The little bitch had blamed the whole thing on him! Claiming that he had pushed the ladder, causing her fall, and of course she couldn't leave out the part about him being the one to directly cause the injuries to her arm. He had tried to tell them that that had not been what had happened, but they refused to listen to him. He had never seen Dante so angry, but compared to Brasque, she had seemed tame.

He still did his best to suppress the rest of what had happened that night. It was not something he wanted to relive. Ever.

He shot Vera a glare as he passed her on the stairs. She seemed to catch the look out of the corner of her eye, and merely sneered at him in response. For the briefest of seconds he could have sworn he saw a bit of guilt cross her face, but looking at the smirk that was now there, he was sure it had just been his imagination. These days he and Vera typically avoided each other, but, needless to say, when they did cross paths it wasn't pretty.

Ed continued on up and eventually reached the cubbyhole that they called a room. A ranch house, while decently sized, was typically not built to have 7 or more kids living within the upstairs quarters. And sharing rooms really just didn't work out very well for people like them. So the wardens had had the walls of a lot of rooms knocked down, in order to make more of them. There were now 8 rooms upstairs, and there were even more in the basement.

The rooms were incredibly small and stark white. The room was really only big enough to hold a twin bed, a small nightstand, and a dresser. And that meant there wasn't much space to move around. They were allowed to decorate their rooms some, but they of course had to use their own money. To add to the discomfort, everyone upstairs shared one bathroom. Talk about a nightmare.

Ed walked into his room, nearly slamming the door, and flopped onto his bed before righting himself. Running into Vera had made his mood turn sour, and sleep was no longer on his mind. He didn't quite hate Dante and Brasque, they were actually trying to do their jobs, it was just their methods that were considered extremely unorthodox.

Dante and Brasque Grahn ran a clinic that was for 'troubled' orphans. Kid's who had never found a family to belong to, and had certain behavioral issues ended up here. That was the reason he was here.

He didn't remember much about his past, other than the fact that his dad had pretty much been a no show, and his mother had died when he was only four. He was pretty sure he had had a sibling or two… but he couldn't be certain. If he had, they must have been separated from him pretty early on.

He had always had issues controlling his anger, and also had an immense lack of respect for authority. His coarse attitude was often an immediate turn off for adults, and they were always very suspicious of his antics. Because of that his environment tended to be rather stifling, not quite as bad as this hellish clinic was granted, but that was still one of the things he hated most. Suffice to say, he had gotten into a fair amount of trouble throughout his life. That's what had landed him here.

The clinic often had their clients schedule monthly sessions with a councilor. Ed had been anything but thrilled to hear about this. And throughout the entire first session he had told the man with a nasal voice, a balding head, and a pathetic mustache, virtually nothing. But somehow when he came out, the idiot had declared that Ed had the same issue as most orphaned teenagers.

"He's only feeling angry because he doesn't have a home. He is converting his sorrow and frustration into rage, and using it negatively." The prick had announced.

Ed glared at the blank wall in front of him. His anger had nothing to do with his not having 'a home', as the man had put it. It was merely because he had a short fuse and was incredibly impatient; therefore a lot of things ticked him off easily.

And also, he didn't want 'a home', that phrase made him sound like he was some stray dog. What he wanted was a family. It didn't matter where they lived in his opinion. Hell they could even live in a cardboard box for all he cared! All he wanted was a family that was willing to take him as himself. People who would be willing to accept both his gifts and his flaws. He wanted a family that cared about him as he was. And not some jack ass people that wanted to mold him into someone different. But he wasn't going to fool himself. At 15 years old, he probably wouldn't find a family that would want to take him in.

Even though the therapist had been annoying to listen to, and incredibly inaccurate, Ed had to admit that the therapy sessions had their advantages. Since he had such an anger management problem the man had suggested that he take some type of boxing or martial arts class to help him work out his anger in a positive fashion. Ed wouldn't deny that he considered that a pretty sweet deal. He'd always wanted to learn a bit more about fighting than just the basic punches and kicks.

The therapist had also prescribed him a type of medication that would supposedly help him keep control of his anger. The way Ed saw it, they basically wanted to drug him up, and have him act like some mellowed out hippie. The wardens had truly believed he had been taking it. They rarely even noticed that he still got into a few fights at school, or that their pet Rottweiler, Barry (though most of the clinic kids called him 'chopper' because of the way he bit at people's legs), had suddenly become much calmer and less prone to snapping at people around the same time that Ed had begun to receive the medication.

He supposed it was a good thing that the prescription didn't have any harmful toxins in it, or else he might have had to be dealing with one sick dog.

Ed laughed to himself quietly, thinking about how even when people did everything they could think of to keep him in a box, they still didn't have near as much control over him as they believed they did.

The weekend was uneventful and passed by like usual. He had figured it to be another boring weekend of nothing but chores. That is until Sunday afternoon came around.

"Edward!" He heard Brasque's booming voice shout at him from downstairs. "Get down here! There's a man here who says he wants to talk to you about school!" A dangerous note crept into the man's voice.

Crap, Ed thought. He wondered if he had been kicked out of AP physics or something. He really hoped not. One of the wardens' strictest policies dealt with grades and school. If he had gotten into enough trouble to have someone visit the clinic personally, then he must really be in deep shit.

Ed came out of his room and walked down the stairs cautiously. As he walked into the room, he couldn't help but notice that he had never seen this guy before. If he was supposedly from the school wouldn't he have recognized him as one of the teachers or administrators there? He had already met them before. But he was pretty certain that he'd never seen the person who now sat on the couch in the living room.

He had rather shaggy short black hair, and eyes that were so dark blue that they looked like they were almost completely black. His face was young and Ed figured he was somewhere between his mid and late twenties.

When he entered the room, the man stood up.

"I suppose you're Edward Elric." The man phrased it as more of a statement than a question.

When Ed nodded the corners of his lips turned up in a smirk, as if he had just been delivered a piece of satisfying news.

"Well then it's very nice to meet you Edward." The man stuck out his hand, "My name is Roy Mustang."

AN: Wow… That was longer than I had expected it to be. Alright, so here's what the deal is. I have been wanting to post a fanfic for a while, but never got the nerve to do so until now. But if no one is going to read it, then I'm not sure I'm going to keep posting it. So if you guys like this, or even think you might remotely like this, please, please, please review! If you do I'll give you a virtual cookie. It will help kick up my self esteem and give me the strength to keep going with this. If I can't get reviewers after the first several chapters, I'll probably stop posting it. If I do get enough reviews to keep my self esteem up then we'll see where it goes from there… heck I might even make my own account! So once again, please review! If you have a friend that you think would like this please refer them to it! Reviewing actually doesn't take a whole lot of time(trust me I was shocked when I found this out for myself), and it will help keep the story going!=D

Hope you enjoyed!=D