"The Bounty Hunter"

~ Chapter One ~

~ AU ~

~ This is an AU, so don't expect the characters to be 100% in character ~


She leaned against the locker for support, her pained body shaking as she struggled to breathe. She looked up into the eyes of three, envious girls. They showed no remorse for what they had done to her body. They never concealed their smirks as the stared her down, eyes blazing with fury and jealousy. She wondered what had caused them to snap this time. Clenching her teeth, Winry slowly got to her feet, before receiving another kick to the stomach, sending her sprawling to the floor. She coughed and choked on her own saliva as they laughed at her pain. Winry shut her eyes, wishing she was anywhere but there.

"Don't even think about getting up, Rockbell." One of them sneered, stepping towards Winry. She then crouched down and grabbed a fist full of Winry's hair, dragging her head back to look at her. "I saw you, you know. Watching my boyfriend, giving him the eyes." She growled, her eyes wild and dangerous. "Just because you can't get a boyfriend doesn't mean you can go around stealing someone else's, especially mine, got it?" There was a loud bang as Winry's head made contact with the floor. The other girls laughed and whispered to each other. The girl stood up and walked to the door, her friend walking behind her like lost puppies. "We'll see you tomorrow, Winry." She smirked, before leaving. Winry could have sworn she heard one of the girls whisper, "What kind of a name is Winry, anyway? It's stupid if you ask me..."

Winry lay there for a while, unmoving. Her life wasn't always like this. There was a time when she actually could stick up for herself! ...But when her mother suddenly died, everything changed. She lost her strength and therefore lost a very important part of herself. Protection. As time progressed, people began to notice and began to bully her because she was an easy target. She hated herself because she felt as if she had betrayed her mother. She would have wanted her to be strong, but... but she just couldn't...

Winry let out a low sob. The only thing that was stopping her was fear.


Winry took off her shoes and entered the living room. "I'm home, Dad." Her Father looked up from the television and smiled.

"Welcome home, darling." His friendly face suddenly changed to concern, "Winry, are you alright? You look... rough." He sat up in his seat.

"I'm perfectly fine," she lied. "I'm going to go do my homework, so..." She trailed off, her eyes avoiding his. "...I'll see you in the morning." With that, she left the living room. He watched after her, a sad look on his face. She was always a bad liar.


Entering her bedroom, she shut the door behind her and took a deep breath. She hated lying to him, but at times it was necessary. She wasn't in the mood to talk about her problems, or what happened to her today. She just wanted to forget. But that was kind of hard since she was in pain every time she moved. She trudged over to her bed and got out her homework and began working on her math. As she was doing equations, her mind couldn't help but drift to earlier events. Was this all her life was going to be? Constantly being pushed around by other people who claim to be better than her?

Her anger began to flare as she thought about it. Why did it have to be this way? She was a nice girl. She was always polite. Always well behaved... so why did she have to get all the trouble?

She lay back against her pillow and stared at the ceiling. "If only I could stick up for myself... all of this would come to an end." She closed her eyes. One tear escaped and rolled down her face. Before she even knew it herself, she slowly slipped into unconciousness.


~ One Week Later ~


"Good Morning, Roy!"

Roy Mustang looked up from his desk only to see Maes Hughes standing in the doorway with a dorky grin on his face. "Good Morning, Maes." Roy smirked, leaning back in his chair. Maes walked in and handed Roy a clipboard which held a photograph of a young woman and her details below. Roy looked at the board and then at his best friend. "Would you mind telling me what this is?"

Maes smirked, "your new job." Roy's expression turned from curious to annoyed. Maes took a seat in front of Mustang's desk. "She never turned up for Court, so-"

"-I have to bring her to jail." Roy said dryly, rolling his eyes in annoyance. His eyes scanned the details, and he stifled a laugh. "She attacked three people at school?"

"I don't get what's funny here, Roy. Those three girls are in Hospital as we speak. Their injuries were pretty severe..."

Roy sighed. "Okay, whatever. Is there anybody else who can do this? I'm pretty busy and I'm not in the mood to hunt down some savage." His face was expressionless.

"Well... I'm sure I could ask Fury from the second floor."

"Yeah, go do that!" Roy picked up his coffee and began to drink.

Maes walked to the door, "I'm sure he'd be happy with an extra ¥871950..." Roy almost choked on his coffee. His eye twitched.

"...¥871950?" Maes smirked, then turned around.

"Yeah, that's the reward for handing her into jail. But never mind, you aren't interested, so I'll go ask-"

"Don't even think about asking him, Maes." Roy's voice darkened. He stared at the picture of the young woman and smirked. "I will be the one to bring Winry Rockbell into jail."


Your pretty confused, eh? ^^
That's the whole point.
Next Chapter coming soon!
~ Please Review ~