Author's Note: The plot of this short chapterfic is very heavily based on the movie The Fall (starring Lee Pace and Catinca Untaru), and as such, if you've seen the movie you can probably tell everything that's going to happen ahead of time. Still, I hope it will be an interesting read to everyone, since the FMA characters are all quite different from the ones you meet in The Fall. If you haven't seen the movie yet, please go see it once you've gotten to the end of this fic! It's one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen, but is tragically underrated.

When I finished watching The Fall for the first time (once I managed to reassemble myself from the awestruck pile of goo it had turned me into), the first thought in my head was: FMA fanfic. It was a pretty obvious leap, since Lee Pace's character was named Roy ;) But even beyond that similarity, I could see exactly how you could adapt the premise of The Fall to the FMA characters. It quickly became apparent that this would only work in an AU; this fic has a real-world, modern-day setting. I also realized that I needed to make Ed significantly younger for this to work. He isn't quite as young as Alexandria in The Fall, but he's about seven years old. At such a young age, and with everything he has to deal with, he's much more vulnerable than we're used to, but I think it's believable in this situation. Hopefully it won't throw you out of the story.

Enjoy! There will be five chapters total in this fic. (Also, I feel compelled to point out that it's technically still summer, so I haven't broken my promise to post this by the end of the summer :P)

White-hot, searing pain. Angry orange light flickering against his eyelids. A hungry, crackling roar like the rush of a waterfall gushing over his head to consume him. And the heat – that heavy, clinging heat that made it so hard to breathe. Hot everywhere. All around him. He couldn't get out. Couldn't escape. The roar surrounded him, the deadly orange tongues licking up his legs and his arms, tickling his cheeks with tiny blades of agony. It wrapped around him, pulling him down into an abyss of pain.

Fire.

Roy Mustang woke with a start, a cry escaping his lips as he jerked upright. He flung his hands out into the darkness, grasping desperately for something to save him...and his hands met cloth. A blanket. Sheets on his bed.

"Easy, now," said a familiar, gravely voice to his left, accompanied by the bright clinking of metal and glass. "You've had another nightmare, Mr. Mustang. Nothing to worry about."

As everything rushed back into place, Roy slowly sank back down onto his pillow. Of course. How could he have forgotten? For a moment, he was immobilized with the horror of knowing that his waking reality was hardly better than the nightmare. But with difficulty, he swallowed past the lump in his throat and gingerly touched the bandage around his eyes that locked him in this utter darkness. "Anything new to tell me, Dr. Marcoh?"

"It's still too soon to tell," Marcoh said kindly. "But it's too early to lose hope. For now, I think we just need to rest and stay optimistic, Mr. Mustang. All right?"

Roy nodded. Marcoh tended to talk as though he was suffering through his patients' ailments along with them, which Roy found slightly offensive. It was easy for him to be optimistic; he could still see his hand in front of his face.

"All right, I need to continue on my rounds," Marcoh said cheerfully. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Just as his footsteps faded away out the door, Roy became aware of a squeaking sound growing louder. He shifted his head to hear it better, trying to place it. It was almost like...a wheel?

"You don't look like a horse to me," an unfamiliar voice suddenly said as the squeaking sound came to a stop right next to his bed.

"What?"

"The doctor called you a mustang, right?" The voice was high pitched – a child? "That's a kinda horse."

"Oh...that's my name. Roy Mustang." With a tiny grunt of effort, he sat up again and shoved the pillows behind his back so he could lean against the headboard. "What's your name, kid?"

"Ed. Edward Elric."

"So what're you in here for, Ed?"

"I was in a fire."

Roy tried to raise his eyebrows, but the bandage wouldn't let him. If his eyebrows had even survived, for that matter. "Really? Me too."

"Did your house burn down too? Is that why you've gotta bandage around your head?"

"Actually, I'm a firefighter." He smirked bitterly. "Perfect irony, huh?"

"Were you one of the guys who came to my house when it burned down?" Ed asked, a frown obvious in his voice. "'Cause ya didn't do a very good job."

"No, I was putting out a fire at a school," Roy said. "Sorry about your house. Anyone else get hurt?"

"Yeah," Ed said quietly. "My mom and my little brother died. Mom got stuck and then we tried to go back and get her out, but..."

"I'm sorry," Roy said quietly, reaching a hand out in the direction of the boy's voice. He meant to grab Ed's hand or arm, but instead his knuckles knocked against something metal and his hand landed on a leg. Except that the leg ended abruptly, before it even reached the edge of the chair. Roy froze, feeling as though he'd violated the boy's privacy. Awkwardly, he drew his hand back. "You...You lost your leg?"

"And my right arm." To his horror, Roy realized that the boy was starting to sniffle. "I...I'm a cripple now. I can't do...anything. Everybody has to help me all the time..."

Roy knew exactly how he felt. Unable to see, he was confined to his bed most of the time, and he had to call a nurse any time he needed to use the bathroom. Without someone to guide him every step of the way, he'd get lost in a heartbeat in this bustling, crowded hospital. It was humiliating, demeaning in the worst possible way. He felt like less than a man. He could only imagine what it must be like, to not even be able to walk or use both hands...

"Hey," he spoke up, desperately trying to cover up Ed's sniffles, "did you know you're named after a king?"

Ed sniffed loudly, then quavered, "Nuh-uh."

"That's right," Roy said, casting about for ideas. "King Edward the Sixth. And the Fifth, and the Fourth, and so on, but the Sixth is the interesting one."

Ed giggled a little, still sniffling.

"How old are you?"

"Seven."

"What do you know – that's exactly how old Prince Edward the Sixth was when the most amazing thing of his life happened!" He had no idea how old Edward VI had been, but he dredged up every memory he had of that book he'd read back in elementary school, filling in the gaps with his own imagination. "Would you like to hear the story?"

"Yeah!" There was a squeaking sound as he inched his chair closer.

Roy smiled and leaned closer to Ed, even though he couldn't see him. "Well, Prince Edward was a good prince – minded his manners, learned his lessons, did everything his father told him so he could be a good king someday. But...Prince Edward was lonely. He didn't have any brothers or sisters his age. He had two sisters, but they were much, much older than him, and they only liked to do...you know...girl stuff." He scrunched his nose up in a scowl of disgust, and was rewarded with an understanding blehhh from his captive audience.

"And of course, because he was the royal prince, he couldn't just go running around playing with anyone. If he ever got a speck of dirt on his fine clothes, his servants would whisk him away to get them changed. If he ever fell down or decided he wanted to tussle with a dog or something, his bodyguards would rush to protect him!

"But one day, he looked out his window, and he saw a boy about his age – who looked exactly like him. And Prince Edward saw his chance. So he sneaked away from his servants and rushed outside to meet this other boy, who was named...um...Henry. And he said to Henry, 'We look so much like each other, we could fool anyone if we just changed clothes! You can be a prince for a day, and I can go play in the streets for a day.'

"Henry was a poor boy, and he'd always looked up at the castle and wondered what life must be like for the people who lived there, so he immediately said yes. So they switched clothes, and sure enough! No one could tell who was who. Prince Edward's servants came rushing to find him, and they shooed their own prince away, thinking he was a beggar! They took Henry into the castle, thinking that he was actually the prince."

"But didn't they see that they both looked the same?" Edward interrupted, all trace of tears gone from his voice.

"The servants never even thought that their prince might be wearing rags," Roy explained, feeling like he was adding some sort of moral to the story. "They were just looking at the outward appearance. It was the perfect disguise. So both boys happily went off, eager to see what such a different life was like. And they had fun that first day – Prince Edward got to play with boys his own age, and get as dirty as he could possibly please without anyone rushing after him, worrying that he would spoil his clothes. And Henry was dazzled with everything he saw – all of the prince's fine clothes, and the delicious food he got to eat, and a thousand servants rushing to appease his every whim.

"But as the sun started to go down, both boys were starting to get tired. Prince Edward was hungry and tired, and all of his new friends had to go home to their dinners. And Henry was starting to get tired of everyone treating him like he was made of glass. They did everything he told them to, but no one loved him. No one was his friend. But when Prince Edward tried to return to the castle, the guard at the gate wouldn't let him in. All he saw was a dirty street urchin. And Henry was hemmed in on all sides by his servants, unable to sneak out and escape the castle. They were stuck!

"And that night, something happened that made their situations even worse – the king died."

"Why was that worse?" Ed asked, his chair creaking as he leaned in to hear the story.

"Remember? Everyone thought Henry was the prince! So the next day, they started a parade to crown the prince as their new king. But no one knew that it was actually Henry, and Henry knew that no one would believe him. After all, he looked exactly like the prince!

"Meanwhile, Prince Edward had spent a miserable night, having to sleep in cold, hard doorways, chased by stray dogs... The next morning, he was grieved to hear that his father had died, but then he heard about the coronation ceremony, and he remembered that Henry was disguised as him. He had to stop it! So he rushed to the parade, and tried to get one of the guards to listen to him, but no one paid any attention to a dirty little boy claiming to be the real prince.

"Everyone in the city came out to watch the parade go past, cheering for the boy they thought would become their new king. Everyone...including Henry's mother. All of a sudden, Henry found himself face to face with his mother, who'd been dying of worry when Henry didn't come home that night. She, who'd been looking high and low for her son ever since, instantly recognized Henry for who he was. She screamed his name and rushed to him, and he tried to rush to her, and the whole parade came to a halt.

"In all the confusion, Prince Edward managed to fight his way to Henry, and then everyone could see how identical they looked. Eventually, they managed to explain to everyone what had happened and which of them was the real prince, and then Prince Edward was crowned as King Edward the Sixth. The new king gave Henry and his mother enough money so they could live comfortably for the rest of their lives, and invited them to come visit him at the castle whenever they wanted. And they all lived-"

"Wait," Edward broke in critically. "You mean they weren't twins?"

"What?" Roy, who'd been gesturing dramatically at the close of his story, let his hands droop back onto his lap.

"They looked exactly like each other! And nobody could tell the difference! They had to have been related somehow!"

"Er..." Roy hadn't thought about that part. Come to think of it, that was highly improbable...

"Would you two shut – up already!" a new voice suddenly spoke up from Roy's right. He recognized it as one of his roommates, in a bed in the opposite corner of the room. They hadn't had much conversation, since the other man had just gotten out of surgery today, but Roy had listened to him gripe at all of his nurses until he'd fallen asleep.

"Sorry to bother you, Kimbley," Roy said politely, trying to keep his dislike of the man from showing. "Just trying to pass the time."

"This isn't a bloody nursery," Kimbley spat.

Once curses and ugly oaths began to pepper the man's speech, Roy leaned over to Ed and touched his shoulder, trying not to flinch when he realized he'd reached for the boy's missing right arm. He said in an undertone, "Hey, why don't you come back tomorrow? I'll tell you another story – a really epic one."

"What's epic?" Ed asked in a stage whisper.

Roy grinned, the beginnings of a plan already forming in his mind. "It means a really cool one."