Hi, world of fanfiction dot net!!! My name is Mrs. Hayley Elric, and I'm sooo excited to post my first ever fanfiction on here! :D
My character is named Misako, but I usually just call her Misa. I hope you like her!! I put a lot of thought into her character and this story, I hope you enjoy it. 3
And sorry about the summary, I kinda suck at them, haha. ^_^
Read and enjoy! :)

Âme de Minuit
Chapter One
By Mrs. Hayley Elric
Misako's POV


"Mi… sa… ko…" His eyelids fluttered and his aurous orbs searched for a glimpse of my face.

"Don't strain yourself," I whispered. A tear rolled down my cheek as I watched him struggle to remain conscious. It was hard to believe it had come to this…. Was I going to be the one to hear Edward's last words? "I'm sorry, Edo-kun," I breathed. "There's… there's nothing else I can do…. This is all my fault… I'm so sorry."

"Misa… please… don't blame yourself."

"Who am I supposed to blame?" I choked in disbelief. "God? Luck? Fate?"

He gave a weak chuckle. "'Fate'… ha!"

"What? Don't you believe in fate?"

He attempted to sit up, and, failing to do so, lifted my right hand that was clutching his left and brought my knuckles to his lips, closing his eyes and exhaling slowly. "I don't need fate, Misa-chan, I just need your lovely face beside me. And…" He coughed wetly and slumped back into the pillows, closing his eyes again.

"And?" I prompted when he fell silent. "Ed… Edo? Ed?" Panicking, I shook his shoulder. "Edward? Ed? Wake up! Ed! Ed! Nooo!"


One year earlier…

The day that changed my life was sometime in mid-April. It was a Tuesday. I remember it was raining.

I awoke that morning to my clock radio playing "Underneath It All" by No Doubt. I really liked the song, so I turned up the volume as I threw the covers off my body (awakening my black, white, and gray calico Neko in the process), shed my ebony satin pajamas, shook out my long flaxen hair, and headed for the bathroom to shower.

I'd had no idea what a 'fateful' day was in store for me that morning, but if I had, I probably would have been more jazzed about going to work at Central HQ, where I was General Misako Tsukino, also known as "Misa Misa," or the Midnight Soul Alchemist. Then again, before that day, I had never believed in idealistic constructs such as 'fate.' If someone had walked up to me that morning and informed me that today was a day that would change my life, I would have laughed in their face.

I just wasn't the type to believe in that stuff.

My 'type' was about to change…

After my shower, I went to the mirror and rubbed away the steam that had collected there in order to stare at myself. My sandy hair looked darker due to the wetness, but when it was dry, people often told me it seemed to take on a red tinge in the sunlight. My amaranthine eyes, rosy lips, and luminous skin all appeared that way without the necessity of makeup—I didn't have any patience for those types of girly frivolities anyway.

However, the one thing that stood out to me every time I looked in the mirror was neither my face nor my hair, but my body—more specifically, my left arm and right leg of automail. Unfeeling, unyielding, unbeautiful symbols of my past… a constant reminder of my mistakes, and how far I still had to come.

I sighed heavily, and turned away from the mirror.

After drying my hair and putting it up in a pair of long blonde braids down my back, I headed into the bedroom again and went to my dresser. A glance over to my bed proved that Neko was going through her morning routine too, stretching out her paws in front of her as far as they would go, and as for the music on my radio, No Doubt was no longer playing, so I turned it off, scratched Neko behind the ears, then got dressed.

Technically, because of my rank, I was supposed to wear the Amestrian military uniform, but I was firmly set against wearing that stuffy thing, so my solution had been to shove the uniform in the back of my closet and have a seamstress craft me an outfit out of the same material as the Amestrian military uniforms were made, but with a few 'adjustments'—the jacket was sleeveless, cropped, and fitted around my bust, and those terrible pants had been replaced with a mini with two rows of decorative gold buttons down the front and some pleats in the back. I wore my stars on my shoulders and my name on my breast like I was supposed to, but I made a game out of accessorizing my 'altered' uniform with fishnets, belts, earrings, shoes, pins, arm warmers… pretty much anything went.

Today's outfit consisted of black lace-up boots with thigh-high fishnet stockings, the skirt and jacket (obviously), a thick black belt that rode low on my hips, and a long-sleeved white cotton shirt that was cut off so that when paired with the cropped jacket, my abdomen (and the gold stud in my bellybutton piercing) was bared for the world to see. I put on my usual gold dangling earrings and a set of gold studs in my cartilage piercing, then pulled on my black gloves just as I was grabbing my ever-useful satchel and heading for the door—those gloves also helped camouflage my automail hand.

Neko followed me out (she usually came to work with me—she was even more reliable than Mary's little lamb). As we entered the elevator to the lobby of my apartment complex, I picked up Neko and held her in anticipation of us heading out to the street.

My apartment wasn't big, wasn't expensive—nor was it in a particularly safe neighborhood. The second most terrifying part of the day for me was leaving my apartment in the mornings and walking these streets to get to work; the most terrifying part was coming home at night. (Not that I couldn't protect myself, if it came to that, but I would have rathered it never came to that.)

I walked briskly, as was my habit, and ignored to the best of my ability the wolf-whistles of some of the seedy-looking men I passed on the street. Juggling my umbrella to keep us both dry, I held Neko close to my chest, and she purred as if to comfort me.

I relaxed visibly when we got out of the rough part of town, and put Neko down to let her walk beside me while I brushed a few grayish-white hairs of hers from my clothes.

Sometimes, if I was running late, I would hail a taxi to Central HQ, but I had time today, so I decided to walk. The rain didn't bother me that much.

Neko and I bypassed most of security since everyone recognized me (I was quite popular in HQ). Most of the security guards were focused on some blond kid who looked to be a little younger than me; he was throwing a temper tantrum from the looks of it. Probably the brat of an officer, looking to visit Daddy in the middle of the day while he was skipping school. Nothing of interest to me, at any rate.

Before I got to the elevator, I was stopped by a woman whom I vaguely recognized: a lower-ranking officer by the name of Morgan, who handed me a note from the higher-ups and bid me good day.

After reading the note, I bypassed checking in at my own offices. I would have done it anyway: my subordinates were always on my case about this report or that authorization, and even when they weren't bugging me about work, they were all insufferably dull and liked to make a sport out of asking me out on dates, all of which I turned down. (That had been a source of guilt for me the first time I'd been asked out by my subordinates—every one of the male ones in turn had done it—but after the first couple times, they had accepted my rejection, realized it wasn't personal, and now made a hobby out of pulling my leg about it.)

Neko and I instead headed for the office of Colonel Roy Mustang, otherwise known to me as "Uncle Roy."

Uncle Roy was, as far as I was currently aware, my only surviving family member. I was the daughter of his older sister, who had been separated from him when they were kids in the foster care system. My real mom had been way too young when she had me, so she'd abandoned me at an orphanage. My adoptive parents hadn't told me I was adopted until I was nine, and that was only after Mom (aka my adopted mother) died of an illness. Even then, my 'father' hadn't told me I was adopted until three years after her death, and the only reason he really told me I was adopted was to justify…

Ah, but I didn't like thinking about that incident.

After Dad… er, went where we all are headed, I was put in the temporary foster care of an old woman who no more knew how to take care of a child than a dead squirrel. Two weeks later, there was a call and I found out that I actually did have living biological family left, and furthermore, that he'd agreed to take me in. That was Uncle Roy, of course.

He was young, only 24 at the time, and fresh from the horrors of Ishbal, but for some reason he still wanted to keep me. I was eternally grateful to him for that kindness, however, that hadn't stopped me from running away from him when I was 13, after I'd gotten my State Alchemist's license, much to his vexation.

Sometimes I caught a shadow of emotion on his face, a dark look somewhere between shame and concern, whenever I did or said something that reminded him of what I had done—talking about my apartment for example, or mentioning the past.

He was my only family left in the world, and I did feel bad for leaving him hanging... but it was too late for that now. I wasn't going to go back to living on someone else's paycheck under someone else's roof. Anyway, I wasn't in the habit of reneging, especially on a decision that big. What's done is done.

When I entered my uncle's office, I noticed immediately that his subordinates were behaving oddly. Havoc was leaning casually against his desk, lighting up a cigarette; Fuery had his head propped in his hands and was staring down the dilapidated radio; Breda was leaning back in his chair, feet on the desk; and Falman was looking at a piece of paper, but his eyes weren't moving.

"Hello," I said to draw attention to myself as I stared at them, wondering why nobody was doing any work.

Falman saluted vaguely without taking his eyes from the paper he was not reading. "General."

Fuery waved. "Hi, Misa-san! Looking stunning as always! And konnichiwa, Neko-chan!"

Havoc took a drag and nodded at me, smirking slightly around the cig, and Breda seemed to be asleep.

"Where's Hawkeye-chuui?" I asked suspiciously.

"Bathroom," said Falman. "Therefore, we're on break."

"Sneaky," I chided gently.

"So what brings you here, Jailbait-chan?" Havoc asked.

Fuery sniggered. "I can't believe you just called her that to her face. The Colonel would fry you if he heard!"

"Well, she is jailbait, just look at her!"

I felt my face heating up. "Uh, I'll just pass right on through, if it's all right with all of you…" I mumbled as I headed for the door on the opposite side of the room.

Uncle Roy jumped when I walked in, nearly choking on his coffee. "Oh my God!" he coughed. "You scared me for a second, Midnight; thought you were Hawkeye!"

"Uh, sorry?" I closed the door behind Neko. "I got a note this morning that I was to report to your office, oji-san. What's that about?"

"I've got a mission for you," he told me.

"Sweet. I'm sick of listening to Lt. Sauder and Sgt. Gray rambling about paperwork and deadlines, anyway. "

"Believe me," he said darkly, "you're not the only one having that problem."

I flopped onto his rather nice couch, the one that made me green with envy whenever I looked at the sparse set of scratchy blue chairs that furnished my own office. "So where is the military sending me this time?"

"Can't tell you yet."

"Why not?"

"Because you're not going alone on this one," he explained.

"I see. So right now we're…"

"Waiting for your partner to arrive, yes. He should be here soon. I must warn you, Misa-chan, he hates me. A lot. So when he comes in, he'll come in like—"

As if on cue, the door banged open with a louder crash than I'd previously thought possible of a door, and an irate blond boy in a red coat stomped to Uncle's desk and slammed his fists down on it.

"This had better be more important to you than your balls are, Colonel Shitface, and in case you were wondering, I know an excellent trick for making human flesh shrivel up and fall off, and I've been DYING for a chance to test it."

"Nice to see you too, Fullmetal. You're as short as ever, I see." He looked at me. "Midnight Soul, meet the Fullmetal Alchemist."


The songs featured for this chapter are "No Doubt: Underneath It All" and "Paramore: Miracle." I absolutely LOVE Paramore!! 3
Please leave a review, even if you didn't like it that much!!! But I'm new here, so please try not to be too mean!!!
I'm not going to post the next chapter until I get five reviews, so if you like it and want the next chapter, please leave a review FAST!
Peace!
-mrs-hayley-elric-24