Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, never have, probably never will, never stop wishing...

The general basis of this fic is that no one really knows how Roy's military faction has really known each other, so I thought: Maybe they knew each other when they were kids. So then...I started writing...this is one of those 'middle of the night when you can't sleep' ideas, so I hope you enjoy.

Also, just to help people out a bit, mostly because I didn't know all of the men's first names until I decided to write this fic, here is a legend:

Roy Mustang

Elizabeth "Riza" Hawkeye

Alex Louis Armstrong

John Havok

Maes Hughes

Hymans Breda

Cain Fury

Child's Play

-Chapter 1-

Put yourself back about 25 years, life was simple, and the idea of using Alchemy as a military weapon was still a few years from fully coming to light. In the city of central, life was good and peaceful, there was no real war in sight, and whatever the conflict in Ishbal was, it hadn't yet reached the common masses. People had open businesses that always seemed to be busy, and the general populous could walk the streets without fearing any sort of attack on their lives. Out of school early and near the opening of an alley were 4 boys.

"What is it?" said a light haired one, his bangs fell in his eyes, but he still continued to kneel down in front of the other children.

"I don't know." another one said, he was a little chubby with darker hair. He went on his hands and knees trying to peer deeper into the alley.

"I think we should leave..." a small boy with dark hair and glasses said, he looked a little younger than the others and took a half step away from the alley.

"No." a black haired boy said looking forward, "Not until Alex and Maes get here." the other three turned to look at him and nodded. The four boys had stumbled until the carcass of an animal that was unlike anything they had seen, it had the head and feet of a cat, but the rest of the body was that of a lizard. Whatever it was, it seemed to have simply fallen over and died.

"I wonder if it's still warm." the chubby boy said reaching a hand forward.

"Hymans no!" the smallest boy said moving to pull him back, they struggled a little, but eventually both lost their balance and fell to the side.

"Cain! What's your problem!" Hymans shouted, pushing the small boy away,

"What if it had something weird disease, you could have gotten really sick!" young Cain said readjusting his glasses. The other two boys watched them bicker for a short while, then looked at the dead creature.

"What is that thing." the light haired boy asked turning to look at the pale boy who was only looking forward towards the animal, "Hey...Roy!" hearing his name caused the boy to snap out of his daze and turn his attention to the still knowing boy that was now looking at him.

"What?" Roy asked

"What do you think it is?" the boy asked again, standing up to move next to Roy.

"I'm not sure...it looks almost like a monster out of my books." Roy explained, "what do you think John?"

"I have no idea...wonder where it came from though..." John said kneeling back down.

"I believe the proper term is 'chimera', if it's what you described to me that is," a voice came from behind the group. Even Cain and Hymans stopped fighting to look at the two older boys that had made it to the alley. One was tall and thin with slightly spiked hair and a small pair of glasses. The other boy was even taller with curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and a pile of books in each hand. Both of them were wearing black uniforms with an insignia on the shoulder of a mer-lion; the symbol of the military academy.

"Chimera?" the four boys asked at once.

"Yes." the blonde said.

"What's what?" Hymans asked sitting up and looking towards the other boys.

"Don't look at me," the black haired boy said holding up his arms, "they're his books."

"Not these." the blonde said holding out a stack of 6 text books in one hand towards the boy next to him.

"...heh...thanks Alex, you're just so much stronger than me..." the boy said taking the books, he seem to strain under the sudden addition of weight.

"This is true...but," the blond said managing to hold his own stack of books with one hand and flip through the pages of the top book with the other. The other boys except Roy seemed disturbed by watching and they turned and looked to one another.

"What did you find Alex?" Roy asked, the other boy just watched over the top of his text books as Alex flipped through the book.

"A book of Alchemy in the school's library, I asked my father about it and he said the information was accurate." Alex explained.

"I found the book." the other boy said.

"You were also looking for something that would make a good head rest during chemistry." Alex said giving the boy a side-long glance.

"but the important thing is that I found it." he winked to the group of 4 younger boys, who only gave him very disappointed looks.

"Here it is," Alex said, and quickly all of the boys crowded around his open book, "Chimera, a creature made from two or more other creatures by the process of matter transmutation, also known as Alchemy" Alex read.

"So...that thing was made?" Cain asked and with that, all the books looked to each other, then to the dead creature. The way it had fallen made it look as if it was in mid-step when the life sudden left its body. They all stood there and looked at it for a while, and they're attention seemed fully fixed on it until the older boy that had been given his books' knees finally gave out and he fell to the ground.

"Maes!"

Roy walked down the street carrying three of Maes' books. He didn't mind helping him carry his things, Roy just wished that Maes wouldn't try so hard to be a slacker.

"Hey, so what do you think about the chimera?" Maes asked looking over at Roy.

"Not sure..." Roy said looking over the stop of his friend's books towards the ground. Maes gave him an odd look through the corner of his glasses, then sighed.

"You know, you need to find a cut girl." Maes said looking up towards the sky. Roy felt the corner of his eyebrow twitch and he just ignored Maes' comment and continued to walk. He didn't look forward until the paved road became rocky and the two boys were making it to the outskirts of the Central City. Both boys lived about a mile outside the city, and because both their fathers were involved with the military the two had become good friends.

They walked in silence as they came to Maes' house. Roy walked up to the door with him and they were greeted by Maes' mother. She also had black hair, but her's was long and was mostly tied back, she had blue eyes, and always gave Roy a smile that could calm even the wildest of storms.

"Welcome home Maes." she said as her son took the books from Roy, then walked past her, dropping them on a chair. "Hello Roy." she said giving him that smile again.

"G-good afternoon M-mrs. Hughes." Roy said, he found himself stuttering over his words and felt his cheeks getting warm from embarrassment. He didn't notice Maes standing behind his mother, give Roy an odd look at first, then turn and start to snicker.

"Tell your mother and father we say 'hello'," she said.

"All right!" Roy said and with that he turned and quickly headed home.

His rushed walk home took Roy about 10 minutes, and he promptly slowed his pace when he saw his father talking to a man in uniform. From what he could see, the conversation was casual and as Roy moved closer he noticed a large van across the street from his house. Before he could make it through his front door, he took a glance over his shoulder and froze in place.

"Roy! Come over here!" his father called waving to his son. Quietly Roy complied and walked over. He looked up at the man in uniform and saw that he had brown hair and eyes. From his much lower angle he couldn't tell the man's rank in the military.

"Why hello there." the man said holding out his hand to the young boy.

"Roy, you remember me talking about Captain Hawkeye." Roy's father said looking down at him. With the recognition in his head, Roy shook the man's hand.

"He has a good grip for someone his age, I'm sure he'll make a strong leader." the Captain said looking at Roy's father.

"I'm honored Sir, and to think he's only a couple years older than your's." Roy's father said. Roy suddenly found himself in the middle of a conversation that he really didn't have a part of and was quickly becoming bored.

After a bit the Captain saluted and smiled, "I'm going to help get everyone settled in. I'll see you tomorrow Julius." and with that the man turned and left. Roy watched him go across the street and meet up with a blonde woman. As the van drove away and kicked up a lot of dust from the road, it was difficult to see them go into the house, but as it started to clear, he saw a brown dog come from around the back of the house and stop at a small figure.

He was about to go greet the child, but felt his whole body freeze once the dust had fully settled and the figure turned around to face hi. The dog stared by its owner as the child's eyes landed on Roy's face. He couldn't believe it, out of all the possibilities, not only had the Captain of the Military moved across the street, but the man had a daughter! Not a son! A daughter! She was blonde with her hair pulled back in a loose pony tail. She was wearing a red dress with while sleeves and had deep brown eyes that seemed to force themselves into he very depths of his eternal soul.

When he didn't move for almost a minute, the girl gave him an odd look, then turned her head down to the dog. She gestured her head in Roy's general direction and the dog began to run towards him. It was about three feet from him when Roy finally realized the dog was coming for him, and was unable to run as the dog jumped up and tackled him.

"Ow!" he called out, then coughed from the dust that had gone into his lungs. When he was able to open his eyes, they stopped on a pair of red shoes, moving his gaze up he saw they belonged to the captain's daughter. He tried to force himself up when she knelt down, placing her hands on her knees.

"Are you all right?" she asked, her voice was quiet and somewhat small, and judging by what his father had said, Roy figured her age to be about 8 or 9 years old.

"No!" he shouted at her, finally being able to set himself to his knees and into a sitting position. She looked a little taken back by his sudden outburst, and for many reasons that greatly confused Roy.

"I'm sorry...I thought for sure you would have run." she said, "but I guess you were really out of it." she said lowing her eyes, "It was the only thing I could think of to get you to step staring at me like that."

"Oh..." Roy rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry about that. It's just...I always heard about Captain Hawkeye's kid, and I guess I was surprised to see that it was a girl." Roy explained, and the girl listened for a bit then smiled. For some reason Roy was surprised by that smile, it made the girl seem so sweet and innocent, but after being warned, he was careful not to take too much notice.

"I'm sorry if you were disappointed." she said, "My name is Elizabeth, but everyone always calls me Riza." she said holding out her hand to him.

"Roy," he said taking her hand in his, "Roy Mustang.