FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: BROTHERHOOD

BUTTERFLY

By Kait

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, otherwise I would have kept my favourite characters alive (HINT: Greed).

CHAPTER ONE

"Hello? Can someone please let me out of here now?" the girl moaned, clinging to the metal bars of her cell. A guard was positioned to guard the lone cell, an honor that was questionable to the man. He had often wondered over the previous hours, What could one little girl do to me? And in a cell, for goodness sake! The girl was even set away from other prisoners, raising the question, What exactly had she done?

"Hellooo? Are you still awaaake?" the young woman, named Cho, sang, now banging her head against the bars, each gentle thump raising the man's impatience even more. If anything, the girl was going to annoy him to death; exactly how dangerous was she?

"Would you please shut up?" the guard finally answered, afraid that Cho was going to get a concussion from repeatedly banging her head against the metal. As the man glared at the lady, she grinned and stopped with her self-injury routine.

"Oh, so you are awake! I thought you had died out of boredom!" The girl grinned again, blinking strange golden eyes at him. Upon closer inspection, she also had chestnut hair with red streaks through it, which she frequently pushed out of her benevolent yellow-orange orbs. Cho looked only about seventeen, not the age of a criminal, the guard thought idly.

"I think that I'm dying, mister," the girl whined, clutching her stomach. She whimpered slightly, then started banging her head again. "I'm sooo hungry... and thirsty... Pleeease let me ooout...," She obviously liked to exagerate her Os, which had irritated the guard for the last few hours. "And I think I'm about to explooode..." The last comment grabbed the guard's attention; he did not need to be cleaning up another mess.

Muttering darkly to himself, the man quickly walked down the long hallway and asked for some backup, which was required in order to let the young lady out of her cell. Armed with three men, the guard returned to the girl, who looked like she had passed out on the floor.

"Is she still alive?" one of the men asked as he poked her with a gloved finger. Only a weak grumble was the response, but it seemed to be enough for the young guard. "Up-si-daisy - ARG-" Cho had brought her knee up and smashed it into the guard's face as he helped her up, and the guard lay moaning on the ground, clutching his nose as blood spurted out.

The girl quickly pushed through the three remaining shocked men and ran through the deserted hallway, prisoners either cheering her on or begging for her to let them out. One of the guards finally managed to understand what was happening and unholstered his gun, pointing it at the girl's back.

"Don't shoot, DON'T SHOOT-" the first guard yelled, tackling the guard with the gun. "What are you thinking! We don't want another Ishbal!"

When the guards looked up again, the strange girl was gone, and so was their chances at ever being promoted.

"I'm lost..." Cho muttered, pouting. Even though her break-out had gone successfully, she still had no idea where she was. Although she had gotten out of the prison without getting shot, she was running around the huge place like a chicken with its head chopped off. Not only was she confused, but she really was hungry and thirsty, the two not just a ploy she had set up to get out of her cell.

I'm going to starve to death, the girl thought faintly, leaning on a brick building as she walked, clutching her stomach. No one will remember me then. She sighed, imagining her grave: Cho Morrison: Died of Starvation - Not Mention Worthy. Cho finally stumbled onto a street with people on it, though they were all crowded around something in the middle. Even curious with her ravenous hunger, Cho cursed about how small she was and tried to push people out of the way to get a peek at what they were gaping at.

It looked like a body was laying on the street, mouth hanging open, saliva pooling around the face. It was more humorous than it was dramatic, but Cho felt a little sympathetic with the boy. This is what I'll be, she thought sadly, crouching by the stranger. She poked him, wondering if he was still alive.

"Food... I need...food..." he mumbled, making Cho jump. An idea suddenly lit her mind on fire, making her cast a devious grin on the boy in front of her. He gave her an odd look, then passed out again, which was fine by her.

"Somebody help! I think that he's dying!" she cried, making her voice sound frantic. She started shaking the boy. "Somebody get him some food! It looks like he hasn't eaten in weeks!"

Cho leaned back in her chair and sighed, content; the food she had eaten was delicious, and she didn't even have to pay for any of it. The boy she had "saved" was still eating, astounding the people they were mooching off of. He hadn't seemed to care that she was using him for her own benefit, but he still hadn't came up to breathe since food was set in front of him.

Now that Cho wasn't starving, she looked closer at the boy: he wore an open yellow shirt that showed a strap that hinted he was armed with a sword of some kind; he kept his eyes closed, especially while he smiled, which was frequently; he had black hair with which was held in a pony-tail by a white ribbon in the back; and he had the tanned complexion of no ordinary Amestrian. Perhaps he was from Xing, in the East, which would explain the strange clothes and the strange eyes, Cho mused idly.

The slurping of food suddenly stopped, and Cho realized that the boy must be done. Thank goodness, she thought, I thought that this would go on forever! The girl leaned forward again and put her hands in her lap as the onlookers hesitantly moved away, seeming almost disappointed that the entertainment had ended.

"Well, it seems like you are no stranger to charity, hmm?" the boy finally said after a moment of silence, and Cho looked up to the face that was smiling warmly at her.

She blinked then smirked, putting her arms behind her head and laughing. "That's what you call it, huh? 'Charity,'" She chuckled, narrowing her golden orbs at the strange boy. "I call it mooching off of complete strangers." Cho sighed happily; what complete fools people were.

"Whichever you call it, it is the same thing," the boy said, shrugging and putting his hands up. "But, the important question is," He leaned forward and put his elbows on the table, opening his eyelids just the tiniest bit so that Cho could see black eyes peering at her rather curiously. "what is such a pretty young lady doing running around in a big place like this and taking charity-" The girl coughed and glared at the boy. "-mooching, food off of kind people?"

Cho snorted. "Didn't look like you were complaining much." she chirped, grinning.

"Ah, but you see, I am a prince and must be accustomed to commoners throwing things at my feet."

There was a long silence while Cho thought about what the boy had declared, said boy looking proud and obviously expecting for her to bow down to him. As if.

The girl snickered into her hand, clutching her stomach and trying not to annoy the poor "prince" too much. "You, who passed out on the street and gladly mooched off of those kind people, a prince? Ha! And I'm the queen of Wonderland!"

"Heeey," the prince whined, his eyes closed once more. "It's not funny!" His wilting expression just made Cho laugh harder, and people sitting at other tables started to look strangely at the two teenagers.

Still chuckling, Cho got out of her chair and looked over at the boy again. "Well, Princey, I've got more interesting things to do, but thanks for the food!" The girl waved and grinned, turning away, but almost fell on her face when she felt a hand grab the back of her shirt roughly.

"Hey, hands off," she huffed, watching as the prince smiled at her sheepishly.

"I wanted to know the name of the person who fed me," the boy said simply, smiling at Cho.

The girl rolled her eyes and put her hands in the air, in a What the hell position and said, "It's Cho, and I'm currently 'Cho, the wanted criminal,' you should know." She gestured at the prince. "And what about you, Princey?"

The boy smiled brilliantly and stood up taller, looking proud. "Ling, the 12th prince of Xing-" Ling declared, but Cho was already walking away.

"Yeah, we've already covered that," she said, looking over her shoulder. "Well, bye, Princey!" she called, waving while she walked away. "I hope I never see you again!"

"Heeey, how rude!"

Cho slowly tiptoed out of a food store with food stored under her shirt, hoping that no one would notice when a disappointed voice made her jump. "Stealing isn't nice, Butterfly." Cho swore and glared at the boy who was leaning on the wall, the corners of his mouth tipped down in a frown. "I should turn you in."

"I saved your ass before," the guilty girl muttered, walking up to the prince. "And who are you calling Butterfly? And, why are you here?" Cho huffed, putting her hands on her hips, forgetting about the food stored underneath her clothing, which came flying out and landed at Ling's feet.

"...when I said commoners should throw things at my feet, I did not know you took it literally." Ling sighed as he pushed himself off of the wall, then grinned. "And your name means 'Butterfly,' does it not?"

Cho huffed and looked away. After a moment, she remembered her last question and faced the prince again. "Are you stalking me or something, Princey? Because I said pretty clearly that I didn't want to see you again." she snapped, crossing her arms.

Ling put a hand over his heart and looked hurt. "But I wanted to see you again, Butterfly," he whined, and hastily hugged the ticked off girl, rubbing his cheek against her own. "You were so nice to me, you-" Cho pushed the boy away and kicked him to where he lied, upside-down, on the wall he had been leaning on. "You kicked me!" he cried.

"For one," Cho began, holding up one finger as she glared at the boy. "I am not 'Butterfly'; it's Cho. Second, no hugs! You already cost me my dinner for tonight...," The girl pouted, glancing at the dirty food lying around her feet. "Whatever, I can deal with it." She shook off the pout and glared at the prince again. "And three, do not follow me. You see? I'm going to leave now, so don't, otherwise, I swear I'll come over there and-"

"Okay! I understand Butterfly! No following..." The prince pouted, and Cho grudgingly thought that he looked sort of cute, like a scolded puppy. The girl shook her head and began to leave. After a few steps, she looked behind her to look at Ling; he was still upside-down, where she had left him. A few more steps, and she looked again, to the same result. As she neared a corner and turned onto that street, she started running, then sprinting until she thought that she had lost the odd boy.

Cho sighed happily and leaned against a brick wall, sweat glistening on her forehead. "No strange foreign puppies following me around anymore... Phew...," As Cho began to walk again, she heard footsteps behind her and froze. When she spun around, she was only greeted with a lone shopping bag flitting around with the breeze. Cho realized she had been holding her breath, and let it out. She turned back around - only to find her face so close to someone else's that she could feel their breath on her cheeks.

"ARG - WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

I'm just going to try this out; writing an OC into the original plot. Well, whomever is reading, I hope that you like this! I love Ling; he's just so adorable! X3

I was trying make Cho as childish as I could, since I thought that if she was too mean, it wouldn't make Ling moments as funny.

I was originally going to make Cho's name something else, but then I saw that I written a documents with a bunch of Japanese names, and I thought that "Butterfly" fits her attitude! Please tell me what you think. X3

-Kait-chan