Welcome, all! This is my first excursion in the the FMA fanfiction world, so thank you for giving my story a chance. Enjoy!
Just Another Playing Piece
Chapter One:
"And You Are Who?"
"Well, this is certainly a new low for you, sir." Riza Hawkeye murmured as she approached her superior's desk.
Despite hearing his most trusted subordinate's chastising drawl, Roy Mustang continued his half-sided phone conversation with Maes Hughes as he stared broodingly out of the office window. Feeling the draft of the warm autumn air, Roy mused that he must have opened one of the windowpanes in a sub-conscience desire to escape.
Really, it was such a nice day outside, the first sun Eastern Command had seen in weeks, yet here he was stuck under an avalanche of transfer papers and listening to his close friend coo on about his wife and child in such a sickeningly sweet manner that Roy could almost literally feel his teeth begin to rot from the sugary doting coming from the other end of the line.
Blankly taking in the sight that was sprawled across Roy's desk, Riza shifted her eyes towards the empty cubicles that lined the far wall, and determined that the rest of her coworkers had not arrived to work yet. It was not unusual for her and the Colonel to be the first to arrive for work in the mornings, however, what was unusual was the curious sight perched upon the Colonel's desk, seemingly unbeknownst to said officer, and the fact that it was sending a dark glare in Riza's direction.
"I always knew you were partial to the exotic women of the East, sir, but if I may speak freely, to hire a prostitute, a foreign one at that, in the early morning hours, doesn't do much in favor of your image if you are serious about obtaining the office of Fuhrer in the near future. Much less one that appears to be underage."
Roy could barely make out the Lieutenant's words over Hughes' ramblings, but he was fairly certain he heard her use the phrase "exotic foreign prostitute." His eyes refocused to catch the deadpan expression of a stationary Riza reflected in the slightly ajar windowpane, but it was the sound of papers shuffling on his desk that caused Roy to slam the phone down on the receiver before whirling his chair around, his thumb and middle finger pressed together in the threat of a flame-producing snap.
Years of training in the Amestrian Military Academy and the time he spent on the frontlines of the Ishvalan Civil War did nothing to prepare Roy for the sight before him.
Sitting across his desk in what Roy and Riza could only describe as a provocative pose, was a young woman clad in the rich silken textiles of the Far East. The chin-length bob of inky black hair that framed her face and the dark hue of her eyes that rounded into the shape of almonds gave way to the fact that she was undeniably of Xingese descent. However, the most notable thing about the girl was the disgruntled look settled upon her face. The distortion didn't look like it belonged on such delicate features as her's.
"W-what the hell..." Roy sputtered as he lowered his gloved hand slightly and Riza tucked the pistol she had been aiming back into its holster precariously. "Who are you?!"
The girl shifted her glower away from Riza to give Roy an appraising sweep of her eyes. It appeared she found whatever she may have been searching him for, because suddenly her expression lightened and she offered him a sultry smile. "Who am I?"
The two Amestrian officers tensed as the Xingese girl adjusted her position, so that the small amount of cleavage she had puckered the front of her crimson cheongsam jacket. Despite her overtly sexual advances, her outfit was rather conservative. The only peek of skin came from the area of calf left uncovered between the cuff of her blousy pants and her flat shoes. Still facing Roy, she continued, "Take a closer look, and you might recognize me. Now, who am I?"
Fighting down the impulse to stare at the chest being pushed at his eyelevel, albeit however small it may be, along with the help of Riza clearing her throat in what was clearly a warning signal, he quipped, "Looks like jailbait."
The foreigner looked puzzled for a moment, perhaps not clear with the language, though the look was almost immediately replaced with a prideful grin. With the refined movements of someone who clearly belonged to a higher social strata than the other two occupying the room, the girl drew herself up to her full height, back straight and chin high, from her kneeling position. She looked down her thin nose at Roy, and raised a hand to place it flatly against her chest in a pompous gesture before she began to speak.
"Though I am quite a bit offended that you appear not to know who I am, I suppose, since you are merely military personnel in the country that shall be offering me solace, I can let it pass." Though her Amestrian was thickly accented to the point of near gibberish, the haughty inflection in her tone was unmistakable. "I am the two hundred and sixteenth heir to the illustrious Shi Clan, the forty-seventh royal concubine of the current Emperor of Xing. Now that you are aware that you are in the presence of royalty, you no longer will have to fight the urge to bow at my feet. My name is Tianxian Shi, but to make it more comfortable for you, you may call me Your Royal Highness, Lady Shi."
Once she was finished speaking the room began to feel cramped. The sheer size of Tianxian's ego threatening to push the two officers out of the room if the thick layer of pomposity she had just demonstrated didn't smother them first. Roy's ego that usually made the office room stifling, paled greatly in comparison to the girth of this foreigner's vanity.
Tianxian looked between Roy and Riza, an expectant look upon her face. When neither gave any indication of awe, other than clear repulsion, a frown marred her exotic features. Why weren't these peasants genuflecting at her feet with eyes filled with tears of admiration? Had she not spoken clearly enough? Did she overestimate the intelligence of the Amestrian common people?
Deciding that they were perhaps just dimwitted, Tianxian opened her mouth to give a more simple introduction of her paramount importance when the blonde woman interrupted her.
"So, you are a foreign prostitute."
"Concubine."
Roy chimed in, "Isn't concubine just the politically correct term for prostitute?"
Tianxian scoffed. How dare these plebeians assume she was a street walker! Her ears burned red with anger, but the years of social refinement ingrained into her for the last half of a decade restrained her desire to speak with her fists to a simple twitch of the pinky finger.
"No, but that is neither here nor there. Let us get down to business. I request an audience with the leader of this country. Take me to him at once."
Roy balked at the girl's demand before he thrust a reprimanding finger in her direction, to which she looked reproachfully at. "Listen, miss, you aren't exactly in the position to be making orders. How the hell did you get in here anyway?"
"The window." Tianxian said like it was the most obvious answer.
"We're on the fourth floor!"
"I climbed."
"Thirty feet?!"
"Fifty, actually. If you count the fact that I climbed to the fifth floor, but the window was locked, so I climbed back down to this one where the window conveniently had been opened."
"I was looking out of that window!"
"You are not very observant, then."
Realizing this conversation was quickly becoming derailed, Riza took the opportunity to address the younger woman. "Why are you here?"
"Hm?" Still sitting atop Roy's desk, Tianxian turned to glower once again at the woman with the audacity to label her as a prostitute twice. "Well, I am here to seek political asylum, of course."
Riza continued the conversation with, "Political asylum? Why would someone who clearly takes as much pride in her position as you need refuge from the government?"
"I came of age about three months ago." Though her voice never dipped from its obnoxiously regal tone, Tianxian nervously began to shred bits of paperwork between her fingers as Roy attempted to wrestle the important documents from her hands to no avail. "In Xing, the people are divided amongst fifty clans. Our ruler, the Emperor, presides at the top of that social stratum. The daughter of each clan's chief, or in my case, the daughter of a branch house when the mainline produces no female heir, becomes the representative of the clan through matrimony, and each becomes one of the Emperor's wives. Our singular duty is to please the Emperor and bare his children.
When a consort becomes of age, a ceremony of womanhood takes place. In this ceremony, the Emperor beds the concubine for the first time, cementing her womanhood and officiating the marriage. Now, a requirement for each consort is that her virginity remains intact until the ceremony. You would think it was made out of gold they way the elders harp on it."
Roy interrupted her story to question in a monotone voice, "Was that your way of telling us that you're not a virgin?"
"No! It most certainly is not!" Tianxian cried as her face turned a ruddy shade that almost perfectly matched the color of her outfit. From embarrassment, exasperation, anger, or a combination of all three, he was unsure. "What I am trying to say is that I split town before that sickly old man had the chance to do the down and dirty with me with all his cronies watching for blood to trickle down my thigh!"
Roy and Riza were at a loss of words after Tianxian's sudden outburst. They made eye contact, the small look saying more things in a glance than they could if they were to actually speak, before turning back to the escapee consort that was now openly ripping the documents she had pilfered off of the desk in a fit of anxiety. The two continued to watch as the girl seemed to realize her mistake, dropping the crumpled papers in her hands, and taking a few breaths to calm herself before beginning again.
"Um, what I meant to say is that I would like to pursue asylum in Amestris, so that I may obtain political immunity from my husband, who undoubtedly will punish not only myself, but my entire clan for my transgressions if I were to return alive."
Riza eyed Tianxian for a long moment before she questioned in a slightly softer voice than she had been using earlier, "How old are you?"
"I turned fifteen three months ago."
"The same age as Fullmetal." Roy remarked. "I hardly think he would be ready to go through with the deed either."
Tianxian finally crawled off of the desk, but reached back over it to grab the handkerchief hanging out of Roy's breast pocket. She dabbed at the tears beginning to blossom in her eyes as its owner twitched in annoyance at the foreigner's audacious behavior. However, a small strike of compassion bloomed in Riza as she caught sight of the waterworks that were just beginning.
As pragmatic and levelheaded as Riza may be, she still understood the trials of being a young woman in a highly patriarchal world. After all, she had once been a teenage girl herself.
"You are quite young." Riza said as she patted the distraught girl's shoulder.
Tianxian cooed along with her, "Oh, yes. So very young."
"It appears you travelled all this way alone as well."
"All by my lonesome self. The loneliness was especially stifling as I crossed the desert by foot." She left out the part that she had only been traveling alone for a week before she was saved by a strange entourage that she had split ways with just after crossing the border.
"You crossed the desert by foot?"
"Oh, indeed, just one step after another. It takes several months to make the trek from Xing to Amestris, you know?" Again, Tianxian failed to mention that nearly a third of those steps had occurred while she was carried unconscious by a girl who was younger than yet ten times as strong as her.
A sigh from Roy interrupted the two women, "I'm supposing that means you have no travel visa, right?"
"Is not my title and word enough?" Tianxian replied peeking around the stolen handkerchief.
"Hardly…" Roy muttered plainly unimpressed. "Honestly, I should detain you until the proper authorities can arrest you for illegally crossing the border."
In response to his statement Riza appeared ready to restrain the girl, her hands raised slightly and a brow quirked waiting for her superior's order. Tianxian, however, peered over at Roy with her face set in a miserable, defeated expression as more tears sprung to her eyes. Slowly, she raised the handkerchief closer to her face without breaking eye contact. It was this eye contact, however, that let Roy see passed her utterly distraught outer appearance to look at the real emotions that lay behind her pitiful façade.
Beneath the painfully obvious crocodile tears, Tianxian's eyes were alight with a haughty condescension. Her stance, though clearly trying to portray the image of a helpless and needy young woman, was taunt, ready to spring into action at whatever he would say next. Despite the fact that her hands were full with a handkerchief, they had balled into tight fists, the muscles along her knuckles were flexing ever so slightly. Had Tianxian not made the mistake of looking directly into his eyes, he would have probably written her off as just another overly emotional and fragile adolescent or perhaps just a fearful and desperate foreigner.
She was clearly well-versed in this flamboyant, conceited act, but the depths of her navy eyes revealed that this young girl might just be a bit something more than the character she has portraying. However, as per usual when it came to matters concerning the female psyche, Roy Mustang was wrong. Tianxian Shi was every bit of the arrogant and ostentatious brat that she appeared to be.
Additionally, it concerned him greatly that this seemingly inept and pigheaded girl was able to enter his office without him realizing. It took practiced skill for someone to slide by under his radar, especially if she had been truthful about entering the room through the window he had been directly facing without his notice. Had she been intent on assassinating the Great Hero of Ishval, then he would have been dead. Pushing aside his feelings of wariness and cataloguing his suspicions for later, Roy turned to the more pressing matters at hand.
Dealing with upset women had never been Roy's forte, and panic surged through him as Tianxian appeared to be about to break into full out sobs. Rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably, Roy applied his best fake charming smile, and said, "However, I could never deny the request of an attractive young lady!"
"Colonel!" Riza reproached.
"R-Really? Is that so…?" Tianxian sniffled.
Ignoring the remark of his subordinate, Roy continued on, "Of course! I admire a beautiful young woman who knows what she wants. In fact, I'll even give you a hand."
"Well, I am glad you have come to your senses." Tianxian scoffed, raising her head to reveal all traces of the tears and snot that had been running down her face suddenly gone.
Roy nearly got whiplash from the one eighty change in disposition. What a little actress. A master manipulator. She would make an excellent resource in a tough pinch, he mused.
"Well?"
"…right. See, I would gladly take you straight to the Fuhrer myself, but as you can tell," – he gestured to the crumpled paperwork that had been the causality of Tianxian's earlier anxious fit – "I am a very busy man."
"So?"
A vein throbbing in his forehead, Roy tried his best not to let his composure drop at the obnoxious inflection of the foreigner. Were all Xingese this outright rude? "So, if you don't mind a bit more travelling, I have a subordinate who could take you to Central."
Tianxian's blank face and condescending eyes stared back at him. She wondered why this Amestrian seemed to speak in riddles. She knew for a fact that the Fuhrer's name was Bradley, not Central. For all practical purposes, she was a well-educated foreign dignitary, not some common gutter rat that didn't know the name of the leader in the closest neighboring country to the west. How dare he ta-
"That's the capital. The Fuhrer, our leader, is there." The military man elaborated.
Oh. "…aaah, I see. Where is that escort? Will you call the palanquin or shall I? Four servants and a handmaiden should do for the trip, should it not? How should I dr-"
"Actually," Roy interrupted the younger girl's onslaught of questions. Had she really crossed that vast expanse of unpopulated desert alone? "When I said that I hoped you wouldn't mind a bit more travel, I meant that you needed to travel to meet with him. I'm not the only alchemist that is busy dealing with his own affairs. Once you have met up with him, I'm sure he will be overjoyed to escort you to Central and use his State Alchemist military clearance to get you an audience with Fuhrer Bradley."
"Excuse me?"
"I hate to make you travel further out than you already have, but honestly, other than myself, he is the only one I know of in reachable distance who has access to the Fuhrer." Tianxian scowled at the flippant tone the officer used that hardly sounded remorseful at her predicament at all before he lamely finished with, "My hands are tied."
Tianxian was utterly displeased with the turn of events, but considering the tight situation she was currently in, she gave a nod of begrudged compliance.
The Colonel leaned forward in his chair as he gave a triumphant look. "I'm glad we've come to an agreement. Lieutenant?"
"Sir?"
"Could you write down Fullmetal's information for our Lady Shi?"
"Of course, sir." Riza appeared hesitant for a moment, but crossed the room to fetch a paper and pen. She quickly scribbled down something on the paper before folding it and handing it warily to her superior.
Roy held the paper out for Tianxian to take as he spoke with undeniable mirth in his voice, "This is your key to the Fuhrer."
Greedily, Tianxian snatched her metaphorical "key to the kingdom" from Mustang's hand in a manner that was far too quick to be presumed polite. She hastily unfolded the paper, her eyes hungrily taking in the set of words and numbers written on it in a heavy, looping scrawl. She looked over the writing several times before dejectedly letting the paper dangle at her side. Slightly chagrinned, Tianxian came to a depressing conclusion. She couldn't read common Amestrian.
In fact, she was lucky to be skilled enough to be holding a conversation in a language that was not her own at all.
"That there," Roy leant forward with his elbows on his desk and his fingers steepled under his chin, "is the name and home phone number of the State Alchemist whom will take you to Central. Go to a phone booth, and give that number a ring. I'm sure whoever answers can give you his location. His code name is "Fullmetal." Oh, and when you meet up with him, read him that state identification number for verification and just tell him that the Colonel sent you."
Unwilling to admit that she was unable to read Amestrian lest it bruise her overly sensitive pride, Tianxian muttered in the clipped tone that only the exceedingly pigheaded were able to maintain. "Very well. Based on your lackadaisical approach to protocol and the overly informal address of someone as valuable as myself, I imagine that you also have the inane idea that I will be making this journey without aid..."
Lieutenant Hawkeye was the first to address the young concubine's concerns, "You have already travelled all this way alone. As long as you make contact with our associate alchemist, then I doubt a slight detour will be all that troubling."
"Besides, Amestris is a safe enough country for a young lady to travel without an entourage of otherwise engaged soldiers tailing her." The Colonel spoke up, a dark look passing briefly across his face as he added, "As long as you stay clear of the borderlands, that is."
"And, if I should be stopped, I show them this?" The ebony-haired foreigner held up the paper with the name and number she had been given earlier.
"If you're stopped, I wouldn't worry. You'll be taken to Central either way." He left out the fact that it would be to be tried as a law-breaking illegal immigrant with questionable intent and a flair for overly arrogant theatrics.
Seemingly oblivious to the apparent threat of being arrested for trespassing country lines, Tianxian stuffed what she believed to be a makeshift passport into the pocket of her gray chino cloth pants. Squaring her shoulders and again tilting her head to look condescendingly down her nose at the two officers, the girl took swift steps that brought her to stand in front of the window that she appeared to plan to make use of once more. She hoisted herself up upon the windowsill with an agility that contradicted her self-proclaimed aristocratic background.
As if remembering that she owed the people that she had carelessly dropped in on at least a simple courtesy for not arresting her, she had not even asked for their names, Tianxian balanced herself enough to offer a bob of a bow, "You have done a great service, Amestrians. I shall recall the help you offered when I undoubtedly am taken as the wife of a well-paid politician after gaining citizenship. Farewell."
With that she was gone. The Colonel and Lieutenant watched as their uninvited and extremely bizarre guest shimmed her way down the side of the wall with a practiced ease that belied the fact that this was not her first excursion scaling buildings. Neither said it aloud, but both wondered what mayhem they may have just unknowingly unleashed upon their unsuspecting countryside.
"Don't look so troubled, Lieutenant." Roy broke the stiff silence as he turned back to close the window. "I'm certain we will be seeing her again. I have a hunch that she is more than she appears."
"Undoubtedly. Then what was the point of letting her go to freely roam around the countryside, sir? Why fold against her demands? It is unlike you to let a criminal run loose." Riza pressed looking out of the window as the speck that was Tianxian disappeared into the winding rows of buildings that made up the inner city.
Roy smirked as he lost sight of the red and black dot rushing away from the Eastern Command Headquarters. "She poses no real threat, and if she does, then the Elrics can handle her. Just adding another playing piece to the chessboard, Lieutenant. You can never have too many pawns on the board, after all."
If Tianxian were to be completely honest, and she rarely was, then she would have admitted that she had no earthly idea how to read Amestrian, and that would have saved several people the headache of waiting for her to exit the telephone booth she had commandeered. She had entered the telephone booth not long after she had made her extravagant exit from Eastern Command, and had been standing in it for at least the last half hour attempting to decipher the difference between a number and a letter written on a piece of paper in a language foreign from her own. Ignoring the angered protests beginning to riot outside of the booth, the young consort picked up the mouthpiece to place her thirty-seventh collect call of the day.
Honestly, at this point, Tianxian was just spinning the teleoperating dial in random directions, asking for someone named "Fullmetal", and hoping for the best.
"Rockbell Automail and Repairs, how may I help you?" An aged voice came on the line.
Passed the point of pleasantries, Tianxian nearly shouted the purpose of her call into the receiver, "Fullmetal?"
"Yes, we provide full metal services. Do you need automail or a tune up?"
This was getting her nowhere. With an exasperated sigh, Tianxian almost slammed the phone on the receiver when the voice spoke up again with a dawn of recognition, "Fullmetal? Do you mean Edward?"
After a pregnant pause, the girl replied halfway between a statement and a question, "Fullmetal...he is a state alchemist?"
"All that little brat's known for now is being a dog of the military, huh? Well, if you're looking to speak with Ed, then you're sore out of luck. Hasn't been back here for a few months. Last I heard those boys where headed down to Dublith to train with some alchemy teacher of their's."
Without so much as a thanks, Tianxian hung up the phone feeling a new sense of elation. Dublith. Now she had a lead. A fiery passion gleamed in her navy-colored eyes at the prospect of being one step closer to gaining an audience with Fuhrer Bradley. It would only be a matter of time before her long-sought goal would be accomplished. Finally, asylum would soon be at hand.
Throwing open the door and hitting several disgruntled bystanders with the sudden flamboyant action, the foreign emissary stepped out of the booth taking in a satisfying breath of fresh air. With the even gait of someone who garnered all the secrets of the world, Tianxian made her way through the bustling early evening traffic. This was it! All she had to do was find this "Fullmetal" so-and-so, drop her title and perhaps flash a bit of leg, and then she would be swept off her feet to the Amestrian capital into the, surely accommodating, arms of Furher King Bradley.
However, Tianxian came to an abrupt halt and the deliriously elated grin on her face was washed away as one thought tumbled in harsh Xingese from her lips.
"WHERE IN THE HELL IS DUBLITH!?"
CUT! There you have it, the end of chapter one. I hope you all are entertained by Tianxian. There is certainly more than meets the eye with her story line. Hopefully, dearest Mustang and Hawkeye were in character. Our beloved and goofy Xingese prince will make his appearance in the next chapter. I extremely appreciate all follows, favorites, and ESPECIALLY REVIEWS! ;)
Please, let my know if there is anything I can improve on, whether it be OOC-ness, pacing, if you would prefer if this was 1st person point-of-view, etc...
Many thanks, lovely readers. ~
NEXT UPDATE TUESDAY- CHAPTER TWO: "THE FULLMETAL SO-AND-SO"!