Disclaimer: I don't own it. Leave me in peace.
A/N: This drabble is set in the Brothers-verse, Brothers being one of my other fanfics if you didn't already know that. This is stand-alone; all you really need to know about Brothers to be able to understand this drabble is that Scar was arrested and sentenced to one year of serving under a State Alchemist (aka the Elric brothers), and that the three of them are, in fact, friends.

Drabble the Twenty-sixth: Ice Cream

East City, being so near to the Great Desert as it was, was always swelteringly hot during the summer months. Not many people were out on the streets at midday, preferring to stay inside or at least under some shade; those who were out went about their business in a slow, almost sluggish manner. However, there was one person in the city who not only didn't mind the heat, but enjoyed it immensely.

The tall man called Scar strode calmly down the sidewalk, head tilted slightly upwards and almost basking in the sun's rays. Not even the coat he wore seemed to give him any discomfort. His desert origins allowed him to thrive in heat like this; his companion, however, was not so fortunate.

"Hey…slow down, you great bastard…"

The Ishbalan stopped and turned his head back, his crimson eyes holding a slight glint of something akin to amusement behind the dark sunglasses he wore to hide them. Nearly ten feet behind him trudged Edward Elric, the young alchemist looking absolutely miserable and even more temperamental than usual in the heat; he was made yet more uncomfortable by the red cloak and gloves he had refused to shed even in the heat. A bit farther ahead of his brother stood Alphonse Elric, the animated suit of armor not bothered at all by the weather for obvious reasons.

Ed continued to rant as he caught up to Scar, "Not everyone's a heat-lover like you, you know…damn I hate coming here in the summer!"

"Perhaps if you were to dress more appropriately for the weather, you would be able to walk faster and keep up without my having to keep stopping to wait for you," Scar replied calmly to Ed's mutterings, resuming his pace as soon as the alchemist drew up alongside him.

"Yeah, I'll take off my coat in public when you take off yours," Ed countered, the subject a familiar joke between them.

"Hey, don't start a fight, you two," Alphonse put a hand on each of their shoulders and nudged them apart, putting himself in between them, "We're only a few blocks away from the hotel; you can hold out until then, niisan."

"I dunno; not if Desert Man over there doesn't slow down the pace a little."

"It is certainly not my fault that you cannot stand a little heat."

Al sighed as the two of them continued to trade half-insults; they were almost always like this. But there was no malice in it, so he didn't try to get involved. Instead, he cast his gaze around the not-so-busy streets, a small street stand surrounded by children catching his eye. So as to not really catch the attention of his intently dueling companions and yet still let them know that he was going elsewhere, he muttered quietly, "I'll be right back," and headed in the direction of the brightly painted stand.

When he once more caught up to the still-arguing pair, he had to raise his voice a little before they actually noticed that he was trying to get their attention.

"What is it…" Ed trailed off, eyes lighting up when he noticed the pair of ice cream cones his younger brother was holding out, "When did you get those?"

"There was an ice cream stand a little ways back; didn't you notice that I was missing at all?" Al shook his head, "Niisan, you're hopeless."

"Ice cream?" Scar's tone betrayed his confusion at the term, red eyes studying the frozen treats curiously.

Al ignored Ed, who was gaping at Scar as though the Ishbalan were crazy, and explained, "It's frozen cream with flavor added, for summer when it's hot out. I didn't know if you'd ever had any before, and I know niisan loves it, so I got some," he held out the cones for the pair to take.

Scar nodded in thanks, taking his cone gingerly and still staring at it as though he didn't quite know what to do with it. A few moments later, a thought occurred to him, and he looked over at Ed, who was about to start devouring his, "If it's made out of frozen cream, then that would be milk, you know."

Ed shrugged, "I make an exception for this stuff. Now eat, you poor, deprived soul."

Scar raised an eyebrow at this comment, but raised the cone and gave it a slightly tentative lick anyway. Crimson eyes widened; it was good. It took some restraint on his part to refrain from devouring it quite as quickly as Ed was, but it was still vanishing at a pretty steady pace as the trio continued walking.

Neither of the brothers told him about the large smear of ice cream that remained on the end of his nose for the rest of the day.

A/N: Gasp! An update! I'm horribly, horribly sorry that I haven't updated or anything in the last few months; a combination of sheer business and writer's block kind of slowed everything down considerably. I apologize. For those who have been waiting so patiently for the next chapter of Brothers, I swear I'm working on it! It's just…going really, really slowly. Gah. And I can't write all the time this summer, since I have a job now as well.