Chapter One
This idea came to me after reading an EdEnvy fic that has a Hunger Games setting. I thought:
This is really good, combining Fullmetal Alchemist and Hunger Games. The other characters of HG arent in it and neither were they in the other fanfiction. No wait, there's a couple of mentions of the 74th Games.
This one is also RoyEd, so just warning you. ;)
I am not used to writing First Person present, and this is the first time I'm writing like this. Bear with me please~! And my brain kinda went kappuuuutttt on it, so I betaed it and fixed the past tense to present tense.
-Shinji
The sun beats down on my district. Sure, it is the 73rd annual Hunger Games. And it is also the Reaping today. I hate the heat, but if I am still alive... I could bear it.
I run my hands over the berry bush.
My name is in the reaping as many times as I could get it in. My mom, and my brother... I have to leave them if I was chosen.
But I do have a chance.
Winry and I... we went out into the forest and fished and hunted everyday since her parents had died. Nowadays, her grandmother and herself look after one another, and I'm pretty sure if she is ever chosen... I'm pretty sure her grandmother, Pinako wouldn't last very long before she 'passed on'.
Winry is good with building prosthetics, and she replaced my left leg and right arm after the mining incident that cost the lives of so many workers of District 12. I was playing close to the mine when something happened at the mine, and it exploded.
I pick a couple round berries and pop them in my mouth. Sweetness bursts over my tongue, a luxury that Al, my brother, would have passed onto him if my name was picked from the Reaping.
The large aircraft soars overhead, only a couple of hours before the Reaping is to begin. I hear Al scream.
I run inside, bolting over to Al's side. My younger brother is twelve, his first reaping. Mom smiled.
"Edward, Alphonse." She guestured to the tub and two stacks of neatly folded clothes, "Time to take your baths and change."
I nodded. "Al, you take yours first." I look at my brother. He nods and removes his clothes, bathing. I sit on my chair by the window, looking out.
Al has his name in once. My name is in there as many times as I can get. It's his first time. He won't get chosen. The odds are against it. But me...
I laugh. "May the odds be ever in your favor." I mutter in the Capitol accent. God, I hate and always will the damned people who started the uprising, and the Capitol freaks who decided to run the Annual Hunger Games. It is cruel.
Twenty-four kids sent from the Districts, to an arena, where they will fight to the death, until one survives, and becomes the Victor.
Alphonse finishes with his bath and I get in, scrubbing my grubby prosthetics, time starting to run out. I rinse my hair with soap and squeeze the excess water from my hair.
I wonder how Al's friend, Prim, was doing. The lucky girl is only eleven, one more year until she is ready for her first Reaping.
I get out and pick up my clothing, pulling the clean cloth on. It is my best clothing I owned, and I take the luxury of slowly slipping my shirt on, feeling the cloth rasp gently over my left arm. I stand a chance in that arena if I was chosen. I can fight.
Al sported a couple bruises from when the two of us got into fist fights over little things.
"Mom... If I'm chosen..." I look at her in the mirror as I run the brush through my hair and braid it back. "Make sure Al's safe. Winry will come by with food for you guys." I smile.
Al sighs and looks over his clothing. He stands at the open door and stares out at the crowd of kids passing to sign in for the Reaping. My mom gives me a reassuring hug.
"Be safe." She murmurs. I nod and hug her back. I feel something pressing into my back that my mom has in her hand.
"What is that?" I ask. She pulls back and takes my automail hand and places a small pin.
"It's the symbol of our District. The mockingjay." She smiles at me. I smile back and pin it onto my shirt. I walk to Al.
"Bye, Mom." I smile and leave with Al.
Al stands at the front of the line, his hand out. He's seen this countless times when he follows me to the Reaping. His face is scrunched up as the woman pokes his finger and puts his finger on the page, a drop of blood on the space that says Elric, Alphonse, age : 12. The line continues, the kids in front repeating the same process Al just took.
I get to the front of the line and thrust out my left, flesh arm. She pokes my index and places it onto the square that says Elric, Edward, age: 16. I leave the table and let the line file on as I walk to Alphonse and Winry. Her blue eyes stared at me warily.
"Not much longer..." Winry stares at the front. I sigh as I turn and watch the announcer prance up to the stage. Her clothing is that of the Capitol's eccentric garb. I have always hated that clothing. "Yeah, I'm right."
I run my flesh fingers through my bangs, anxiety coursing through my body. I bite my lip and I wiggle in my good boots.
"Hello, girls and boys! Welcome to the Reaping of the 73rd Hunger Games!" Francesca smiles, her strange blue lips stretch in a grin. Her glasses are askew on her face, her foreign blue hair rippling in the gentle breeze. "I usually show the little video of the Hunger Games, but this year, I'll head straight..." She walks to the glass bowl holding the boy's names. "To the Reaping."
I bite my lip harder, tasting the metallic wash of my blood.
"I'll start with the boy first." She thrusts her hand in, pulling a single slip out. It has the name of one unfortunate boy on it. I pray it wasn't Al.
"The boy..." Francesca unfolds the slip of paper and smiles as she reads it. Then... She says the line. "Is Alphonse Elric."
I freeze, the blood draining from my face as Al stiffens beside me.
"NO!" I shriek as the Peacekeepers lead him away from me. I tear into the aisle. "NO! ALPHONSE!"
Peacekeepers try to hold me back, but I punch one before shrieking : "I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!"
