Well now...here's chapter 2 of Leap of Faith (long time comming ne?)

Summer

It was the fourth day of the hottest summer Central had on record and Colonel Roy Mustang was once again stalking down the halls. "Damn weather" He muttered, swiping at a stray drop of sweat dangling piteously from the end of his nose.

A glass of rapidly melting ice was clutched greedily in an ungloved hand while the other pushed up a navy blue sleeve, discoloured slightly by moisture. Ordinarily, Roy would have been outraged at his state of dress but the sight of Generals sitting in stuffy offices, uniform in the same sorry state as his, was enough to satisfy his inner critic.

He continued to stalk down the corridors, keeping a watchful eye out for the distinctive blonde hair of the 2nd Lieutenant. He snuck into the hidden corridor and let out a sigh of relief, he'd escaped Hawkeye once again. Taking a well-deserved sip of his melted water, he let a smug grin fly onto his face. While the other men (and women) in HQ drowned in the heat, he was escaping to his private paradise of cool. Indeed, the roof was the only place to go on a day like this.

The grin flew away again when Roy realised his gateway to freedom was locked. "What the hell?" He whispered, worried that Riza had finally realised the roof was where he disappeared to during his frequent 'breaks'. He pushed the door one more time to check if it was really locked before he took a step back and glared, hoping the intensity of his gaze would somehow open the door.

After a minute of failure, Roy suddenly remembered something. "I'm an alchemist!" He quietly exclaimed, excited by this new revelation before feeling slightly stupid at not remembering that fact right away. "Damn heat." Yes, that was it; the heat was getting to him. Roy laughed at the irony as he pulled out a stick of chalk. There was no point adding to his discomfort by adding fire to the already heated air.

With a quick flash of blue light, a smaller door opened and Roy finally stepped onto the staircase to the roof. Already, he could feel a slight wind whispering through his hair, cooling him down. Another sigh, this time of contentment escaped him as he closed his eyes to feel the full effects of the wind.

He stopped at the top of the staircase and opened his eyes. As he did so, all feeling of contentment escaped him in one flying leap. Standing at the edge of the roof, elbows resting peacefully on the wall, was Edward Elric. What was even more disconcerting was that said Elric was wearing nothing more than a thin white t shirt and a pair of blue shorts.

For a second, Roy had no idea about what to do. He could sneak down the stairs and forget all about coming to the roof ever again, or he could reveal himself, cool down and hopefully leave before he got into a fight with the midget alchemist. Just as he turned to leave, Ed's voice came at him. "How the hell did you get up here?" He said in a fairly bored tone.

Roy sheepishly turned back, trying to regain any dignity he could at having been caught trying to sneak away. He plastered that condescending smirk on his face, the one Ed hated to see as he walked up to him. "It's called alchemy, Ed. I'd think someone of your stature would know."

"Argh, lay off it Colonel Bastard, it's too hot." Ed moaned, slowly sinking into a sitting position. Roy took the boy's comment as an invitation to stay, and leant on the wall as Ed had been, setting his glass down with a click.

It was silent for a moment, and Roy took the opportunity to look down at the boy. Ed's unusual attire was surprising to the colonel, as the boy generally tried so hard to keep himself and the automail covered up.

"What's up with the new gear Ed? Finally grow out of your old stuff?" Ed glared at him, too hot to even try to correct the Colonel on his comments about his height. "No, idiot." Ed finally growled back, "It's 'cause I'm hot."

"I wouldn't say you're hot, more like average." Roy replied, his tone deadpan. Ed stared up at him confusedly for a second before he realised.

"What the hell! You really are one perverted bastard." He scooted away from Roy, keeping a glare going from the corner of his eye.

"I'm not perverted, I'm hot." Roy smirked.

Ed rolled his eyes at the actions of the Colonel and rubbed at the connection between his neck and automail port. Roy noticed it looked a nasty red colour, like sunburn. The connection on the automail leg looked about the same. Ed noticed him staring and sighed. "Al should be back soon with some ice." It was Roy's turn to look confused.

After a long considering look, which made Roy feel as though Ed was sizing him up in his mind, Edward gave another sigh. "Automail is metal. Metal heats up in the sun. Metal heating up when attached to your body can lead to burning. That's why Al's gone to get some ice. We're trying to bring the temperature down before the burning gets any worse."

Roy looked at the young alchemist beside him with sympathy in his eyes. He knew what burns felt like. Suddenly, he remembered the glass of ice water he'd brought up. He grabbed it and offered it to Ed. "Here this should hold you till your brother gets back."

Ed was surprised by the softness in Roy's voice and cautiously took the glass, digging his biological fingers into the water before fishing out a mostly intact ice cube. He placed it on his shoulder and rubbed it around, before it melted and he repeated the action on his leg.

All through this, Roy watched with detached fascination and wondered why the boy had given him that piece of information on the automail. Normally Ed would've shouted at him to 'mind your own business bastard!' But today was different. Roy shrugged and looked away as Ed poured the melted water onto the arm and smiled as the metal cooled slightly.

After a minute, the sound of clanking caught both of their attention and a suit of armour appeared in the stairwell, a small bowl of ice clutched in heavy gauntlets. "Sorry I took so long brother, but the people at the ice machine wouldn't let me have any and…oh, hello Colonel!" Alphonse gave a quick, but polite bow to Roy and hurried to his brother, passing him the bowl of ice and passing a quick glance between the empty glass and the Colonel.

Roy swore he saw a smile light up Alphonse's face at that moment and he looked away, slightly worried about his mental state.

Ed made a happy sounding gurgle as he stuck his metal hand into the bowl and let it sit there, adding a few cubes to his metal leg every now and again. It was then it occurred to Roy how childish the Fullmetal Alchemist; Hero of the People was being at that moment and laughed loudly, starting to walk away.

"Hey, where you going?" Ed asked, a slight frown marking his face.

"I'm getting back to work. Hawkeye already has reason enough to shoot me today, I'm not letting her add 'lateness' to those reasons."

Ed scoffed. "Like you do any work." Roy let that comment slide and started to make his way down the stairs. A sudden thought occurred to him, and Roy grinned an evil grin. "Hope you kids have fun with your little ice party!" He called up, and dashed through the door before any harm could befall his person.

As he entered his office on the other side of the building, Roy would swear he could still hear the kid ranting about his parting shot.

Again, it's prolly not gonna go in any direction you thought it would to go (sorry about that!), but the direction i've taken it in should hopefully still make a good read.

Anyways, i've thought of a bunch more one shots to go with this, all to do with interactions between Ed and Roy over a period of time, all happening on the roof.

Hope you enjoy the strange, non-sensical direction i've taken the fic to, and i hope you continue to read!

Much loves

Inuchron