Those of you who already read this chapter, I've tampered mostly with the second part. You should reread it, and it won't take long.

Continued Summary: He was an ambitious prince, carefree, and held within no bounds. Maybe that was why she stalked him. Through her eyes he needed to be taught that some rules were meant to be followed. Through Ling's, she needed his passion to bring her alive. She was already bound by the loyalty as a retainer for her rightful prince, but manages to become entwined with this new squinty-eyed one.

Pairings: Ling x OC for sure. Depending on results of poll and my mood swings, this story will include a love triangle sort of scenario, but with Pride or Greed? Vote on poll.

A/N: If you'd like to see a drawing of my OC, be it terrible/laughable or well done/awesome, look on my profile for link. (Seriously, for you all who like me, keep up to date on my profile. I put serious stuff up there. Like hurricanes or the school lunch menu.)

So…long author's note short, this made me LOL:

"Ling appears to be sensitive about his eyes. So no one would mock him, he tries to keep up a smile all the time, because he wants them to seem authentic." – Fullmetal Alchemist Wiki

Disclaimer: I do not own FMA or FMA Brotherhood. If I did, Ling would be mocked for his squinty eyes and called ugly, which I know he totally isn't.


Bring Me to Life

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| Are you stalking me? Because that would be super. |

Chapter 1

Paparazzi

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In every fairy tale, there is always the story of a princess and her valiant knight. But this was no fairy tale, so it's safe to say that the genders are switched. (Prince and FEMININE knight)

Ling likes to be treated like a princess anyway, but he never imagined stalking was one of the perks of being royalty.

At least he thought she was stalking him. It was safe to proclaim so. Casting a glance over his shoulder every now and again wherever he was, he could catch a glimpse of her blue-black hair or her airy skirt. Perhaps, on rare occasion, her wide golden eyes would look slanted like any normal Xingese countrymen would.

Who squints all the time like that, anyway?

Ling, who was currently seated at a food shack, irritably stared straight ahead at the shelves of food displayed by the proprietor. He was irritated because he could bet twenty turkey legs that that weird girl was following him again. She was probably seated at a different food shack, holding a newspaper so that it shielded her face, but he and she both knew she would be peeking at him in some alternate way.

He had tried to get Lan Fan and Fu to sic her, but they explained to him she remain elusive or buried within the public eye so they would be unable to kidnap or interrogate her.

Ling had high expectations for a wild or tragic tale behind that smiling face she always bore.

"Um…excuse me, Sir. Can I help you?"

The thoughts of his stalker receded, and Ling enthusiastically greeted the shopkeeper, "Hey there! Got any Amestrian delights you'd want to share with me?"

The old man chuckled heartily, "I'll see what we've got in stock, " he crouched down, probably rummaging through the lower shelves that were a part of the main counter.

Ling watched him curiously until something hard hit him on the back of his head. He grunted in slight pain before rubbing the sore spot, and in his hand he found it was a cen [1] that was tossed at him. The Xingese Prince, vexed, flipped his torso around, displaying a pissed off visage as his squinty eyes darted around for the person he knew threw the money at him.

All of his questions were answered once he saw a newspaper at, oh someone totally owes him twenty turkey legs now—a different food shack giggle. Ling glared at her, as if she could actually receive his gesture, but then he saw this as an opportunity.

Forgetting about his order with the old shopkeeper, Ling stealthily slunk into the back of the two adjacent food shacks.

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Pinching her eyes shut in uncontainable laughter, the Xingese girl giggled from behind the large newspaper, her arms shaking in the ecstasy. In her mind she was chortling at the assumed idea that the Xingese boy didn't know that she had been stalking him for quite a while now, in fact, ever since they visited Xerxes, she had been following the party of three.

She didn't have a lot of Amestrian money at hand, but she found it appropriate to mess with the Xingese boy a little more. To have caught the irritable and dumbfounded look on his face like she had was apparently laughable to her.

Zhen Ji's fingers clenched the newspaper tightly, until the object had been wrenched out of her hands. The Xingese girl jumped up in alarm, bright yellow eyes desperately searching for a solution to the missing newspaper. When she turned around to have her face almost buried within the toned chest of the stalk-ee, her nerves tensed up.

"A little bird threw a cen at me a while ago. Was the little bird you?" The Xingese man raised an eyebrow over a squinty eye at her, and she stared back fearfully.

Her suspicions were deemed true.

Ling leered high above her seated figure, holding the newspaper behind him.

Zhen Ji kept her stance bold and defiant, looking back at Ling with a fire in her eyes, "…So the rumors are true…" she muttered, emotionless.

Ling's risen eyebrow rose even higher as he inquired, "…what rumors?"

"You really do keep your eyes shut like that all the time…" Zhen Ji's hand shot straight for Ling's face, and she pointed to the eye that was covered by his bangs.

As she turned to stifle a giggle, he couldn't stop the smirk from creeping on his face.

But then he realized something.

Wait. Wait. This girl is crazy! She's been stalking me for the past month! I can even summarize the schedule of our daily lives!

In the morning, Ling would wake up on a random rooftop, and when he opened his eyes he could see that on another rooftop, there she was.

In the afternoon, Ling would pass out on the street due to hunger, and when someone woke him up he could see that passed out on the other side of the street, there she was.

In the evening, Ling would mooch food off of a random victim or circumstance, and when he surveyed his surroundings he could see the Xingese girl getting quite touchy for the same motives.

Now that she was in front of him, subject to all of his questions, Ling thought he'd take it calm and gentle since the only harm she'd ever done was mentally scar him and toss a cen in his general direction.

Zhen Ji swallowed a knot in her throat as her hazel eyes looked up at the Xingese man—namely Ling Yao, another prince of the Emperor of Xing. There was a reason she had been his shadow for the past month.

"…So. Why have you been following me? You're obviously from Xing." Ling folded the newspaper within his hands, looking down at the girl almost like a parent would when chastising their child.

She stared back at his stern gaze for a few seconds before her flat expression contorted into a grin. She looked away from Ling, burying her head into her arms on the table as she bubbled away with laughter.

"…" Ling failed to see the humor she did. Maybe she was just naturally cheerful, but even more so than he was.

"I-I just can't take you seriously if you really do look like that!" Zhen Ji chortled with laughter, her slouched figure shivering with each squeak. Ling's expression looked hurt as he was sensitive about his eyes.

Blushing, he brushed his hand across her arms as he brought himself to the other side of the table, taking a seat opposite from her, "Let's make this easy, then. My name is Ling Yao, if you're from Xing, then you must have heard of me. What's your name?"

Zhen Ji's head lifted, and her mouth fell slightly agape as the information was given to her. She unfolded her arms from under her and set them on her lap, positioning herself more appropriately, "My name is Zhen Ji, and my family serves under the Cao clan. I too, am loyal to a prince who requires an edge in order to become the next emperor of Xing. I'm the only retainer of his that has actually entered Amestris in hopes of finding a way to immortality."

She had shut her own eyes; speaking in such a formality her fondness of her own prince was evident. But Ling would have no part in entwining himself with the affairs of others clans.

In fact, it would probably be best to get rid of a rival prince's retainer now…

Zhen Ji, smiling to herself, finally opened her eyes once the sounds of rustling emanated from behind her person. Hidden within the depths of her black two-piece skirt, a kunai was revealed, and its form conflicted against another kunai that was threatening to strike her.

A new face made itself known on her current expression, a face of passion, strength, and will to live. The suddenly appearing Lan Fan's kunai and Zhen Ji's kunai shook against one another, unable to overpower the other.

Ling watched the two females intently. He had to expect that other clans would pursue the same ambitions he did. He just wasn't expecting a single retainer to stalk him as vigorously as this one had.

She was interesting, nonetheless.

"You are making things difficult in following the young lord like this." Lan Fan muttered, sounding as composed and intimidating as she could.

Zhen Ji's hand began to feel sore as Lan Fan and her still bore knives against one another, but she kept up a stubborn smirk, "Oh, it's you again. You know, you really should do a better job guarding your Prince's body. Stalking him was a piece of cake!" A mocking giggle escaped her strained smile.

Lan Fan's black eyes rose to that of saucers, before she clenched her teeth and growled. Finding a new rush of adrenaline, she forced Zhen away from her, whose black flats skidded against the concrete ground of Rush Valley. People around took notice of their actions, and watched as Lan Fan and Zhen Ji stood on opposite ends of one another, both breathing heavily.

"You don't think I'll simply allow you to leech off of our struggles just so you can just reap the reward from us in the end."

Zhen crossed her arms over her chest, the hand containing her kunai pressed against her shoulder vertically, "...Oh, so you already know why I'm following you? I can't believe how sharp you guys are!" The Xingese girl pursed her lips and dropped her brows.

In the background, accompanied by another shady figure, Ling clapped enthusiastically. "At first I thought you were brave in pursuing us...but now I see you are just a fool," Lan Fan pressed her palm to her masked face while shaking her head disappointedly.

She hadn't responded at first. Instead, she smiled a wry smile, pressing her index finger to her lip as she leapt expertly from the ground. The growing crowd's eyes struggled to find the girl, but quickly found her on an elevated rooftop; leaning forward to watch them. There was a certain look in her eyes, sharp and fierce as a hawk's, yet somehow playful. "Tell you what: because I've been found out, if you're able to catch me in a game of tag, I'll oblige to one request. But death is not a liable choice. I can't die here, that would be bad."

As Lan Fan uttered a 'what', Fu, from beside Ling, stepped forward in answering her challenge. Though a bandaged hand was firmly placed before him.

"Young lord?" The old man, also disguised behind a mask, looked at the Xingese prince in question.

With a sinister smirk rivaling the pesky girl's, Ling pronounced, "Don't worry old man Fu, I'll handle this. I can't have you two doing all of the work, now can I?" Fu and Lan Fan tried to retort and persuade Ling from dabbling in trivial business, but he seemed to have his mind made up. His feet firmly square on the dusty ground, and with all eyes on him, Ling gripped the handle of his dao sword.

Noticing his gestures, Zhen hastily declared, waving her arms frantically before her, "Um, n-no weapons! I did say I'd rather keep my life, didn't I?"

One of Ling's brows rose, "Oh, you did? I'm sorry, I have trouble listening to people sometimes." He smiled at her, allowing his arms to rest idly by his sides. [2]

Zhen granted him a playful smile, studying him for a few moments. Reaching under one of her skirt flaps, Zhen pulled out a cylindric object, bringing it to her teeth and making an odd, biting gesture before thrusting said object at Ling, "Here, catch this!"

The crowd, his bodyguards, and Ling himself watched the grayish object launch towards him, and he only stared at it dumbfoundedly and emotionless as his hands instinctively rose to capture it. His squinted eyes slowly watched the small fuse on the mechanism grow shorter with a meaningless and strained smile.

"T-TEAR GAS!"

"Everybody scatter!"

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Creating a canopy over her hazel eyes, she cooed at the scene. Welcomed by the sudden outburst of smoke and screams containing words such as, 'my eyes' or 'I'm blind', she whistled as the girl propelled through the air farther away. She was gaining distance from them, and Zhen thought she was moving pretty fast too.

Her feet planted firmly on a final rooftop before she decided it was safe and Ling was nowhere to be found. If she was lucky, he was rolling on the ground, whining childishly about his eyes (not that they were much to look at anyway) and how he couldn't see. That was the type of person Zhen percieved the young prince to be after the time she spent stalking him and his persistent lackeys.

Zhen lingered over the edge of the building, crouching real low as her predatory and ninja skills kicked in.

Okay, so it had been almost two minutes already. The tear gas should have worn off long ago. Zhen pursed her lips, rather disappointed by the lack of challenge. Even if Lan Fan and Fu were able to evade the effects of the gas, the game required Ling to tag her, and not them. The girl quietly groaned, tapping her foot impatiently, "Hmmm..."

A sudden change in the wind caused her eyes to widen. Zhen jerked her head behind her, about to push herself off the ground by recoiling her bent knees, but the attacker surprised her by pressing his hand firmly against her back, pushing the literally dazzled girl over the edge. Her flats skidded across the concrete in an attempt to stop her forced movement, but to no avail.

Zhen sailed headlong through the air, until a tenacious hand wrapped around her ankles. Zhen's eyes were pinched closed, but opened once she realized she wasn't falling anymore. The two flaps of her skirt reached her chest thanks to gravity, but she ignored the clothing; stretching her upper body forward as much as she could, the Xingese girl wasn't surprised to see a certain squinty-eyed boy smirking coyly at her.

Blowing a strand of her blue-black hair out of her stubbornly defeated eyes, she pouted, "Crap."

Unhindered by the weight of the girl hoisted by his single hand, Ling calmly and teasingly replied, "Tag. You're it. So does this mean I can ask you to do whatever I want?"

She let her whole body dangle again, feeling not only strain but loss in her stomach. The blood rushed to her head, "As long as you don't kill me, a deal's a deal, and the Xingese always keep their promises."

Finally, something other than a smile occupied her face. In fact, her face was as red as a tomato—and it wasn't just the blood pooling at her brains.

Somehow Zhen had forgotten that Ling was above her, and her airy skirt was completely flipped over.

Seemingly ignorant of his nose-bleed worthy view, the poker-faced Ling Yao smiled as he demanded,

"Work for me."

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[1] - Cens are currency in Amestris. I'm assuming that Cen would be the singular noun.

[2] - Not so much that Ling doesn't listen, it's that he's ignorant.

A/N: Still working on the second chapter! And it won't be very long or detailed as Rapacious. I kinda want Bring Me to Life to help escape from the seriousness of fanfiction and FMA, since Rapacious is supposed to be implied serious business.

So, please tell me what you think. I know Zhen's purpose seems obvious (More than likely she will change later on), but if you know me very well as a fanfic author, you'd know that I LOVE to put my own twists into the story, without changing the actual plot though making sure you don't reread the same thing every story.

Hm, that felt like a run on sentence but whatever. You get the point. If you reviewed already and would like to review, drop an anonymous review, I don't mind. I think I like this revised prologue-thing better. And also, do you like Zhen's old look or the new one better? Picture on profile.

Thank you for reviewing and tell me what you think.

OH YEAH AND VOTE ON POLL FOR POSSIBLE PAIRING OPTIONS ON PROFILE