Warnings: Made up character backgrounds...

Spoilers: Hmmmm...some? But I'm not too sure, so sorry in advance if I spoil anything. Most of the background information is made up, but there may or may not be some canon background in there.

Feedback: Constructive feedback is very welcome

Notes: I had a little too much fun with this chapter...it was supposed to be the next battle scene, but I got very sidetracked and this chapter grew out of that...but I like it. I hope you all like it too! I felt that I needed to get more perspectives in there.

Felis Catus: Circle Fifteen
"Hey Edward!" Hughes greeted enthusiastically, as Edward and Roy entered the main level of Third District's clock tower. "Whoa, you're really early! Only me and Hawkeye are here so far." Hughes nodded towards where Hawkeye and Hayate were sitting on the floor, surrounded by weaponry. Hayate was curled up, dozing - although he did spare a quick bark of greeting for Edward and his little black shadow.

"Hey Hughes," Edward returned agreeably. "Yeah, I wasn't too sure where the Third District's clock tower was so I thought it would be safer to get here earlier."

Edward strolled over to where Hawkeye was once again calmly putting her weapons through a last minute inspection and sprawled onto a nearby bench, wincing as he did so. The bench was made of one long, flat stone placed across two smaller, thicker ones, and like everything else within the tower, they were made of an odd stone that glinted when it caught the light. Roy had lightly jumped down from Edward's shoulder to sit on the bench as well.

Edward ran a questioning hand over the smooth stone at he examined it up close. "It's beautiful..." he marveled. "What kind of stone is this? I've never seen anything like it! The tower outside isn't like this..."

Hughes grinned at the boy's enthusiasm. It was just so hard to resist! "That, Edward my friend, is..." Hughes paused.

"...Is...?" Edward prompted, eyes alive with interest.

"A secret," Hughes intoned with all the solemnity of a preacher.

"ARGH!" Edward clapped his hands irritably and transmuted the odd stone into a spear, waving it in Hughes' general direction threateningly. "I hate it when you do that!"

Hughes held up his hands laughingly and pretended to hide behind Hawkeye, who gave him an exasperated look.

"Hughes..." Hawkeye said warningly. "Stop baiting Edward...you know better."

"But it's SO much fuuuun!" Hughes pleaded with a grin. Roy wholeheartedly agreed.

"The stone is transmuted sand," Hawkeye said calmly, ignoring the pointed glares Edward was throwing at Hughes and the funny faces he was throwing back. "I'm not sure how it was done, but I'm sure you can figure it out and let us know. Hughes, if you stick out your tongue further, Edward's cat may pounce on it - so knock it off."

Oh, THERE was a good idea! Roy looked over at Hughes appraisingly. Hughes hurriedly retracted his tongue and sighed.

"You take the fun out of everything," he complained sorrowfully.

"We all get our kicks somewhere," Hawkeye replied piously, with a slight shrug. Her eyes however, twinkled with amusement. Years of practice at knocking the spokes out of Hughes' practical jokes had elevated the pastime to a true virtuoso performance on her part.

"Sand, huh..." Edward was turning the idea over in his mind, brow furrowed in concentration.

Roy grinned internally. It was brilliant, really - fire alchemy at its highest form, combining practicality, function and a beautiful appreciation of nature. Okay, so perhaps Roy was a bit prejudiced. So what?

Edward's eyes had begun to dawn with understanding. "Incredible..." he breathed, getting up and running his flesh hand over the walls. Roy was amused.

"Well, Edward?" Hawkeye asked, also looking amused at Ed's fascination with the walls. "Have you solved the mystery?"

"Sand is made up of tiny particles of rock," Edward explained absently, still preoccupied with the stone. "However, it has an oddly versatile property as well - if you heat it to really high temperatures, you can turn it into glass."

"That doesn't require alchemy though," Hughes noted. "Artisans can do the same thing."

"Ah, but look at the stone closely..." Edward instructed. "The alchemist who made this tower somehow made all those little particles of sand fuse together into solid rock, while at the same time, he heated tiny amounts to incredibly high temperatures, turning some grains of sand into glass and melding everything together cohesively to create this phenomenal effect!"

Hughes sighed, chuckling. "Trust me when I say this, Edward - the alchemist who created this tower wasn't after the phenomenal artistic effect."

"What do you mean? This is fire alchemy at its very, very height! Think of the utter control the alchemist would have to possess in order to create such a uniform effect in melding rock and glass without compromising the beauty or the integrity of the structure..."

Hughes held up one hand to halt Edward's burbling flow of words, simultaneously pushing his glasses up with his other hand to hide a smile. Roy also hid a smile, knowing exactly where Hughes was going with this and rather resigned to it.

"If I told you that the tower was created by the Inferno Alchemist, what would you say?"

"Wow! The guy who created the Black City out in the desert!" Edward's eyes went wide. "How can you say he wasn't after the artistic effect? The Black City is completely constructed out of lava from Mt. Fuji transmuted into obsidian! It's absolutely..."

Hughes held up his hand again to stem Edward's tirade, trying to stifle another smile.

"And if I told you that he did all of those things, not for artistic purposes, but because he had ulterior motives, let's say...what would you say then?"

Edward looked perplexed. "So? Even if he had ulterior motives, he didn't have to make it beautiful - that was something he chose to do, right?"

Roy was considering rolling around on the floor laughing, but didn't deem it appropriate. It looked as if Hughes was fighting a similar feeling. Even Hawkeye was hard pressed to contain a smile.

"Alright, leading from that statement...what would you say if I told you that the Inferno Alchemist was none other than Roy's mentor?" Hughes' eyes twinkled merrily.

"WHAT!" Edward howled. "He was the COLONEL'S mentor! You've got to be kidding me!"

Roy sighed. If only Hughes was kidding... Those years spent under Kai's tutelage were some of the most horrific and wonderful years of his life. It wasn't often a kid got to indulge in his more incendiary tendencies towards pyromania and be encouraged enthusiastically from the sidelines by an even more psychotically inclined mentor. It also wasn't every kid that got put through such a grueling regimen.

Well, to see Edward and Alphonse's reactions to any remote mention of their mentor, it was probably a coin toss over who got beat up the most. But Roy would gladly bet his gloves that the boys never had to climb an active volcano and look down its throat, dodge random fireballs and meditate upon a stone bench under which an insanely cackling mentor was cheerfully adding more and more wood to build up the roaring fire beneath, claiming that endurance was the real secret to fire alchemy and he wouldn't have a wimp as a student.

"Nope, I'm not!" Hughes smirked.

Edward looked appealingly at Hawkeye.

She shook her head ruefully. "I'm afraid he's not kidding you this time, Edward - Kai Ling was Colonel Mustang's mentor until his mysterious disappearance in Xing."

"Mysterious disappearance?" Edward looked intrigued. "I hadn't heard about that!"

Roy sighed, annoyed. Mysterious disappearance...hah! That loon was still somewhere in the world stirring up trouble. Roy periodically got odd packages and knickknacks in the mail that smacked of his mentor's twisted sense of humor. The journal subscription had to be the most normal, and hence, the most suspicious. Roy wouldn't put it past Kai to have done it just to drive Roy out of his mind wondering what the catch was every time one came in the mail. And his group wondered why Roy delighted in subterfuge and messing with their minds. Having a mentor and near father figure like Kai left vestiges behind, after all.

"Eh, all famous and infamous alchemists vanish after a while," Hughes was saying sagely, when Roy returned his attention to the conversation. "I think they get bored of their celebrity."

"Hmmm..." Edward mused. "Wait - so why do you say that it wasn't beauty that Kai Ling was after when he built the Black City and this tower?"

"...Roy's mentor, Edward. C'mon, use that clever mind of yours and think!" Hughes snickered.

"...He did it to show off, didn't he," Edward said flatly, sighing.

Roy sighed. Close, but not quite. True, though. No - it was because his former mentor was a sadist, Roy thought sourly. He had been present when Kai was creating most of his so-called "miraculous" architectural wonders, and had seen and heard first hand his mentor's evil chuckling at the thought of generations of state alchemists throwing away their whole lives trying to study and attempt to understand his structures - all created on a whim and having no meaning other than he felt like it.

Roy had to appreciate the artistry and sheer audaciousness, however. Kai Ling had made it his lifelong mission to thwart the alchemical society he was technically a part of. Rebellious and impish by nature, he delighted in confounding other alchemists.

Speaking of which, Kai would have absolutely loved to mess with Edward's mind, Roy thought with a small grin he kept in close check.

"Almost," Hawkeye said with a smile. "But remember, this is the Colonel's mentor we're discussing. Colonel Mustang was the Inferno Alchemist's protégé and very much like him in more ways than one."

Edward's answering smile was almost resigned, and just a tiny bit smug. "He did it just because he could then, huh? To mess with peoples' minds?"

"Excellent, Edward! We'll make an Intelligence agent out of you yet!" Hughes praised extravagantly.

Roy felt a bit insulted that Edward has surmised that so quickly. So Kai was a showoff. That didn't mean ROY was a showoff, now did it? DID IT?

"Shut up, Hughes," Ed said absently. "So how do you guys know all of this?" he asked, intrigued at hearing some of the Colonel's personal history. The man so usually so firmly entrenched in the present and in his planning of the future, that Edward really had never thought of asking about the Colonel's past. Trying to see it was like catching a glimpse of smoke, so ephemeral in its tenuous presence that it would vanish into thin air before Edward had time to note its color and shape, let alone feel its light touch before the Colonel shuttered it away again.

Hawkeye and Hughes exchanged almost rueful glances. Roy flinched. Why, of all people, did Edward have to ask THOSE two? His two oldest friends, in fact - who naturally knew all of his youthful follies and could be counted upon to relate them with great relish. Especially Hughes. He was doomed.

"We've known Roy for a very, very long time, Edward, " Hughes said seriously. "We grew up in the same town, much like you, Alphonse and Winry did. Kai wandered through our small town one day and well, once he caught Roy showing off playing with dancing fireballs, the rest was history. They'd come back to visit every now and then, so we got to know Kai pretty well between those times and the stories Roy told us. When his apprenticeship ended, we joined the military together, and well - you know the rest."

"That's a rather succinct summary," Hawkeye noted critically.

"I'm glad you liked it," Hughes snipped.

"Didn't the Colonel's parents say anything when he left with Kai?" Edward asked, curious.

Hawkeye and Hughes exchanged another glance. Maes gave a small, imperceptible nod.

Roy tensed momentarily, before allowing himself to relax slightly. It was all right. There was only the three of them here, four counting him, and he knew this conversation would never leave the tower.

"The Colonel is an orphan," Hawkeye said quietly, apparently coming to the same conclusion as Roy had. "A war orphan, to be more precise. Both of his parents were drafted into the military and died in battle. Everyone in our small town lost someone to the wars. Hughes lost his eldest brother. I lost one of my uncles. Roy lost his entire family," she stated matter-of-factly.

Edward looked stricken. "I'm sorry," he said softly.

Hawkeye smiled, a bit sadly. "Why? Where you there? Could you have stopped it? Did you kill them?" she asked calmly.

Edward shook his head vigorously. "No, but -"

"But nothing, Edward," Hughes cut it. "Don't blame yourself for what you don't have the power to change."

"Is that why the Colonel hates war so much? Why he wants to be the Fuhrer, so he can stop it all?" Edward asked in a very small voice. Roy stilled. So Edward had noticed.

They both smiled and nodded, pleased at Edward's perceptiveness.

"Roy had a tougher time than others," Hughes said, leaning back against the tower's walls. "He was angry, angry at the world, angry at himself for not being able to do anything, angry at the military, angry at everyone around him."

"Ironically, that was how we met," Hawkeye said with a wry smile as Hughes laughed. Roy cringed slightly. Oh no, not THIS story!

"Hughes and I were next door neighbors and lived on the other side of town so we didn't meet Roy until we all started school together, as there was only one school in our town," Hawkeye continued. "Roy was a bitter, sullen child - if the town mayor hadn't forced him to go to school, then I'm sure he wouldn't have. As it were, he immediately picked a fight with us on the way home from school that first day, because Hughes had laughed at him for making a mistake in class."

"Yeah, we beat the hell out of each other," Hughes grinned, running his hand through his hair, making it stand up on end, a gesture Roy had always found hysterically funny. "I probably shouldn't have laughed at him, but he sounded so funny! I mean, he practically growled at the teacher for calling on him!"

Edward's eyes were wide. "Who won the fight?"

Roy really wished Edward hadn't asked that question.

Hawkeye grinned, the first time Edward had seen such an expression on her normally serene face. "I did."

Edward burst out laughing, the sound echoing throughout the tower. Roy hid his face in his paws.

"Roy managed to beat me up," Hughes said mournfully. "Riza just stood there impassively because she heartlessly said I deserved it for laughing at him earlier. But as Roy was leaving, Riza got spitting mad at him for pulling her hair. That's why she either keeps it short or clips it up now, or else Roy will pull it for old time's sake when no one's looking."

"He pulled your hair?" Edward exclaimed, delightedly. "What did you do to him?"

Roy really, really wished someone would change the subject.

Hawkeye chuckled, a surprisingly evil sound. "I very calmly picked up a rock and cracked him on the back of the head with it at thirty paces. My father taught me to aim very well."

Hughes laughed uproariously. "Then she walked up to him and without batting an eye, hauled back and nailed him with a right hook smack dead center in his face. They were the same height back then, so it was a perfect shot!"

Edward gasped in awe and admiration. "And then? And then?" he prompted, eyes dancing with glee.

"Roy stood there in shock for a good five minutes," Hawkeye smiled. "I just looked at him impassively and told him if he wanted to pull my hair once more he was welcome to try it and I'd punch him again."

"And then? And then?"

Hughes chuckled. "Roy suddenly grinned - and then he threw back his head and started to laugh."

"He laughed!" Edward looked stupefied. "Why?"

Roy couldn't really explain it. It was that sure look on Riza's small face and how perfectly calmly she had delivered her threat. It had tickled him silly because here, for the first time, was someone he couldn't intimidate, bully or scare as he had done almost every child on the playground. Here was someone whose respect he had to earn. It didn't hurt that she had a mean right hook and he wanted to prudently stay on her good side.

"I think it was because he was challenged. Roy never could back down from a challenge," Riza said dryly. "He was already impressed by Hughes' stubbornness not to back down. Roy kept telling him to stop getting back up because he was just going to knock him down again, but Hughes just kept getting back up and grinning."

"Figures," Edward grinned at Hughes. "Nothing's changed."

"Not one thing. But that was probably what made him pull Riza's hair to let off some of that annoyance he was feeling from being unable to keep me on the ground," Hughes snorted. "I may have been beat, but I sure wasn't broken."

"He promptly declared that he liked us, and because he liked us, he would kindly let us be his vassals," Hawkeye sighed.

Roy had, by now, covered up his ears so he wouldn't have to hear any more. So he had been an obnoxious kid. What? Was the world never going to let him forget it? Well, as long as Riza and Maes were around, probably not, Roy thought mournfully. Kai had managed to channel Roy's more self-destructive urges into a love of alchemy and turned him from a wild child into a respectable individual, but he still winced to remember himself as such a bratty little kid.

Edward by now was laughing so hard he had to sit down. "Vassals?" he gasped. "How did you guys take that?"

"We mounted an insurrection," Hughes informed him, wiping away a tear of laughter from his eye. "We looked at each other, rolled our eyes and left. Dereliction of duty to our 'feudal lord' I think Roy called it later. He was just such a little bastard back then, I swear! It was great. We never let him forget about it."

"Then how did you guys become friends?" Edward wondered. "That doesn't sound like a very good start!"

"He wouldn't stop bothering us," Hawkeye said with a warm smile. "We finally realized why, but by the time we did, it wasn't important anymore; he'd already become our friend before we knew it."

"So why did he keep bothering you?"

Oh Edward...Roy bemoaned. Why do you always see to the question I never want you to ask?

"He was lonely, Edward," Hawkeye said quietly. "Have you ever been alone?"

Edward looked thoughtful. "No...I always had Al. And Granny Pinako and Winry..."

"Well, Roy is desperately afraid of being alone," Hughes said somberly.

How did Riza and Maes know that? Roy supposed that was a stupid question. All right. If ever there was a chance for Edward to laugh at him, this was it, Roy thought morosely. The big, bad bastard Colonel is afraid to be alone. Being alone made one think. Thinking made one contemplate too many things, leading, inevitably, down to a precipice whose edge Roy had found himself many times walking too closely for comfort.

"So he surrounds himself with people," Edward said softly. "His inner circle."

Roy let out a sigh he hadn't realized he was holding. Edward hadn't laughed. He had understood. By all that was holy in this war torn, crazy world, Edward had understood. Roy wasn't sure why he was so relieved and thankful. He of all people should have known that Edward would understand. Hadn't a part of him counted on that? Some small, unacknowledged part of himself that reached out to be understood and accepted by another person who walked the same edge he did?

"Not just any people, Edward," Hawkeye replied seriously. "People who can protect themselves. Who won't give up. Who will fight to the death to stay alive and not leave him alone again. It may sound a bit selfish, until you realize how much he cares and how much that care cripples him. You don't get to the top by caring."

"That's why he pushes people away," Ed guessed wonderingly. "Now I get it."

"You're a sharp kid, Ed," Hughes said, ruffling Edward's hair affectionately. "We can see why Roy keeps you around." He winked at Riza, who gave him a warning glance.

Roy tried to make himself into a small ball of black fur. His little white paws peeked out, however.

"You mean it's not for all the entertainment he derives?" Ed snorted disbelievingly.

"That too," Hughes admitted candidly. "But there are probably other reasons. Roy's a very complex individual, as I'm sure you've noticed." Hughes' eyes twinkled as he set out the lure.

"I've noticed," Edward groaned feelingly. They laughed. "So, tell me more?" he entreated, eyes almost as bright as a kid at Christmas. "I want to hear more stories about what he was like as a child!"

Roy groaned internally as Riza and Maes shared identical evil smiles.

"You could always ask him yourself, Ed," Hughes suggested innocently. "The others will be arriving soon and there's not enough time to get into all of that right now. There are a LOT of stories," he cackled. Roy cringed and made a mental note to himself to tape Hughes' mouth shut one day.

Edward scowled. "He wouldn't ever tell me. He'd say something like, 'children shouldn't question their elders, nor soldiers their superiors'."

Hughes started to laugh at Edward's imitation while Hawkeye tried, unsuccessfully, to stifle a snicker.

"You might be surprised at what he'd be willing to tell you, Edward," Hawkeye said, in a surprisingly gentle voice. "It all depends on how you ask."

Riza didn't bear the name of "Hawkeye" for nothing - other than being a crack shot, she was just as perceptive as Maes, if not more so - and if Maes had noticed Roy's apparent protectiveness of and regard for Fullmetal, then she would have to be blind to miss it, although it was equally apparent that Roy himself hadn't yet noticed or chose not to acknowledge it.

As long as she could remember, she and Maes had made a pact to watch out for Roy, whose idealism, fiery personality and temper had never failed to get him into trouble in their small town. Although his idealism had eventually become resolve and Kai's mentorship had taught Roy control over his flame and inner nature, thus curbing his more impulsive tendencies to jump headfirst into the nearest mess at the soonest opportunity, Riza and Maes nevertheless silently upheld their pact to watch over him and support him, whether or not he knew it - although Riza was sure he did, and quietly appreciated their unspoken loyalty and friendship.

It was easier to protect his person than it was to protect his mind and heart, however. Riza couldn't begin to count the number of times she and Maes had had to pull Roy back from the brink of some inner hell. For all of his strength and apparent ruthlessness, at the core of the man was a great tenderness and care for the people around him, which was truly his utmost weakness. He was desperately afraid of losing the people he loved; the more he loved them the greater the danger, and so he kept everyone at a distance, ostensibly for their sake and not his own.

Hence, Riza and Maes allowed Roy that illusion of professional distance although all three knew full well it was an illusion. Their holy triumvirate was silent, but inviolate, bound by friendship and love - any fool messing with one of them messed with all of them, as they had proven time and time again. If called upon, any of them would gladly die for the others, though if Roy was the last one standing, Riza feared he would finally leap off that precipice in his inner mind.

At the time though, Riza was slightly more hopeful. For the first time in her life, she had seen Roy slowly begin to open up to someone outside their little trinity. It may have been that first glance of Fullmetal as an utter wreck of humanity, completely undone by his failure and its ultimate cost that had reached directly into Roy's soul and found an answering echo. It may have been the fiery resolve to conquer and surpass the past that Roy read in those golden eyes at that fateful meeting between the two, which reflected the iron resolve in his own. It may have even been the first sight of the boy, standing and walking again, having overcome what would have destroyed most fully grown men.

Whatever it was, something about Edward Elric was slowly but surely bringing down those carefully constructed walls Roy had built around him over the long years, to Riza's secret delight and Maes' apparent glee. It was only a matter of time, Riza was certain - even Roy could only stay bull-headed and stubborn for so long before he had to face up to the truth. What would happen from there all rested upon Edward.

Who was looking absolutely confused right now, she noted. Riza sighed, wondering if she was hoping for too much. It really was a case of the blind leading the blind. Roy with all of his denial and illogical logic, and Edward with his adolescent confusion of the emotions he was slowly beginning to confront. It was really quite painful to have to watch the two wary alchemists try and dance around each other and ignore the affection between them that was obvious to those around them.

"How I ask? Isn't there only one way to ask a question?"

Riza sighed again. "You'll learn, Edward - you'll learn." She fervently hoped.

"Learn fast though," Hughes advised. "Before Roy wises up and perfects a new evasive technique."

Edward laughed. "That's true; he's good at those."

Roy preened. Impossible odds, Fullmetal, he smirked. I have years of experience at evasion. There's no question out there I can't dodge.

"Good luck, Edward. We're rooting for you," Hawkeye smiled, returning to her professional demeanor as the sounds of the rest of the group entering the tower came filtering up the stairs. Hughes nodded in agreement, giving Edward a small salute.

Roy felt sourly that his friends ought to be rooting for HIM, not Edward. He wasn't quite sure what they were rooting for, come to think of it, but he suspected that he didn't want to know and that it had something to do with those thoughts he was having earlier.

Edward still looked rather mystified, but gave a sharp little salute back. "I'll give it my best shot," he said solemnly.

"We'll leave Roy up to you then," Hawkeye smiled, snapping a cartridge into a gun as Havoc and Fury entered, bickering inanely. Farman and Breda followed closely behind, moaning about the sheer number of stairs in the tower. Bringing up the rear was Major Armstrong, looking his usual self, despite his arm being out of commission.

"Huh?" Edward said, bewildered at Hawkeye's choice of words. Roy was feeling rather bewildered too. Why was he being left up to Edward?

"Never mind, Edward," Hughes said, smiling wisely. Poor Roy. He almost felt sorry for him. Once Edward realized a few things, Roy was going to be in for a very bad time, he was sure. Oh well. It was about time Roy got back some of that teasing Hughes had endured from him when he'd first begun to court Gracia.

Payback was going to be SUCH fun! Hughes could hardly wait. He'd save the "break his heart and I'll break your legs" talk for when the two stubborn alchemists finally faced up to it though. He'd had it planned for years. He could wait just a bit longer.

To be con't...