Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist

The Chosen One

He embraced me, with my head resting against his chest. I could feel his warmth around my body. He also smelled really good. It felt so good finally being out of danger, and being held in my true love's arms.

"I'll always be here to protect you," he whispered into my ear, making me feel all tingly inside.

"Winry…" I heard off in the distance. My name was repeated several times until I heard…

"Princess Winry! Wake up already!"

I opened my eyes, hoping to find him in front of me, but instead it was my best friend, Rose. What? That was all a dream? But if felt so real! I've been having many dreams lately, about that boy. I've never seen his face, though. He was always so nice to me and he was so pure inside. And for some reason I always called him my true love.

Well, I hope to find the meaning of these dreams soon, if there even is one.

"Hello Rose. A fair day it is," I spoke as I got up and opened the white silk curtains to reveal the outside's beauty. I love nature, especially flowers, so whenever I have free time, which is rarely, I like to go outside and work on my small garden.

"Not to be rude princess, but we don't have time to admire "the outside". We need you to get ready for the prince's presence."

To tell you the truth, I had no idea what she was talking about. No one informed me about the prince coming. Oh, how I hated him. He thinks he's so royal and superior, when he is actually a huge slob and a jerk! No manners, whatsoever, even around his fiancé, which unfortunately, is me, Winry Rockbell. Wow, how lucky am I?

Here is the way things work around here: You marry a prince, do as he wishes, order poor people around, have children, and then have them take your spot. Great, just great.

Not.

I mean, what kind of system is that? It wasn't fair at all! It's just the way things work around here, though. I wanted that to change. Little did I know that I would be the one to change it.

I sighed, "Ugh, do I have to see that slime?'

"Now, now princess, let's not be hasty," Rose said.

"How can I not?"

"I think he's a very good man."

All I could do was stare at her. I hope she wasn't sick because that's not something a normal human being would say. Well, at least in my book.

"You know he doesn't treat a lady with well, respected manners."

"I know, but he is still sweet in heart, princess."

"Bitter is more like it," I mumbled. I know Rose was trying to comfort me about the marriage thing, but it was actually making me feel worst.

"Well, shall we pick out your dress?" Rose insisted as she opened my closet doors. As she scrambled through all the hundreds of dresses, I couldn't help, but ponder over who that man was in my dream. Maybe he was really nice and sweet, but very ugly looking or maybe he didn't even have a face. I was thinking some pretty dumb thoughts, I know, but then another idea popped into my head. Maybe he was real, and it's a sign I will meet him someday and fall in love and…ok, I was pushing it, but who knew?

"How about this dress, princess?" Rose asked, catching my attention.

"I can care less about what I wear. The prince means nothing to me, as I despise him."

I could tell Rose was getting irritated. Well, I was just speaking the truth.

"We need to make you as beautiful as possible. We shall not embarrass you family. So let's put on a happy face as we move forward in life."

I just rolled my eyes at her since I couldn't come up with an answer to that. I went to take a look at the dress she chose out. It was quite beautiful. It was a light blue strapless dress with a white trim. I quickly slipped it on since I was running a bit late, not that I cared. I was just doing this for my mother and father, who are the king and queen. Disappointing them is not a smart thing to do, especially since they have the most power in this land.

Rose took forever doing my hair and make up. When she finished putting my long, blond hair into a tight bun, there was a knock on the door. Rose opened the door and greeted whoever it was with, "How may I help you, Madame?"

"I am here to inform you that the prince will be arriving shortly and that the king and queen want you to meet them in the main hall."

"Thank you, Madame. Will that be all?" I asked.

The woman nodded and left.

"Let's get going before the king and queen grow impatient," Rose insisted as she signaled me to walk out the door. Man, this was not cool. I bet we were going to announce the day of the wedding. I sighed as I walked out the door and glided through the halls. The castle was very fancy. You can see gold everywhere! The main colors here are red and gold. I guess people take those as royal colors. When I become queen, though, definite changes are happening. I want pure, light colors, like white, pink, and yellow. Light colors make me smile more. It gives you a happy mood.

I finally made my way towards the main hall where my parents awaited and my so called "prince charming". I smiled elegantly towards the three while holding one side of my dress. I curtsied, and greeted, "My Prince Jin, how nice to see you again." NOT! The prince gave me this wicked smile that scared the heck out of me.

"It's nice to see you too, Princess Winry. You look absolutely stunning! I see you dressed your best for my arrival," the prince said while kissing the top of my hand. You may seem like a gentleman, but you're actually an ugly, snob, despicable creature. I wanted to yell that to him so bad, but instead I giggled and said, "I always look my best when you're around." Sometimes I make myself want to puke.

"Thanks you for joining us today, Prince Jin, as we need to discuss the wedding plans, as well as the date," the queen said.

"Aw, yes, of course, the wedding! How I am honored to marry your beautiful daughter. I'm guessing she got her good looks from you."

He was frustrating me so much. I know exactly what he's doing. He's luring my parents into a trap, showing that he is good enough for me and then BAM! He's rich and has all the power. Of course, as gullible as my parents are, his plan was working. We all walked into the dining room; where we all sat down to discuss the wedding plans. You could tell how giddy I was.

Yeah right.

I really didn't want to marry this guy. I had to think up something and fast.

"I have already chosen where you two shall wed," my mother started, "and the decorations are also picked out. We just need to plan what day it shall be."

The prince blurted out, "As soon as possible!"

My parents laughed at this, even though I didn't find it funny at all.

"Well, my dear sir. We still have to make our retirement day and many other things."

The prince grunted and cursed under his breath. Now I found this funny. I laughed very lightly, but the prince heard me.

"What on earth are you laughing at?" he asked.

"Oh nothing," I said as innocently as possible, though the prince continued to glare at me. Go ahead, don't like me. Just go away! There was an intense silence until my father broke it moments later, "Well, I was thinking maybe four months." The prince, of course, started complaining about how that was too long. As my parents and he were debating, I was trying to come up with ideas to get the prince off my back. Then it hit me.

"I don't think he deserves me," I suddenly spoken up.

"I say, what are you talking about?" the king asked. The prince just stared blankly at me. I found this amusing.

I continued, "What I'm saying is I don't think he is man enough."

"Not man enough?" the prince infuriated.

"Well, not until you prove it to me."

"What exactly are you suggesting, daughter?" the queen asked.

I stood up and cleared my throat, just to make the moment seem more dramatic and said, "I am proposing a tournament. A tournament where men from all over the country compete in fighting matches and whoever wins will be worthy enough to be my husband." Now, I wasn't all that confident that this was going to work, since women don't have all that much power, so even though I'm the princess, it doesn't mean what I say will happen.

"Honey, you know you have to marry a prince," my mother reminded me.

"Well, things need to change. I mean, after all, I want to feel safe and protected," I retorted.

The prince protested, "I am strong enough to protect you! And I certainly do not need to prove it!"

"If you're so sure you'll be able to protect me, why don't you do the tournament? You scared your going to lose? You scared of a little competition?" I know, I'm pushing it, but it felt so good watching him squirm.

"What?" he asked, trying to sound all innocent. Well, it's not going to work on me buddy! "Of course I'm not scared! I just don't think it is necessary wasting our time on such a thing. I mean, I will obviously win."

I hate him, have I ever mentioned that?

"Well, I'm not going to marry you unless you win!" I yelled.

Then my dad clapped his hands together to grab our attention.

"It's settled then. We will have a tournament. Men from all over the country shall come and fight and whoever wins overall will marry my daughter!" he confirmed.

Oh my god. I can't believe it! It worked, it actually worked! I just hope whoever wins isn't as dopey as this loser. Speaking of the devil, you should have seen his face. He just stared at me like an idiot. My parents left the room, leaving me and the jerk here. You could tell he was mad, REAL mad. I started my way towards the door until a hand was placed on my shoulders. I should have known.

I gulped, "Excuse me, Prince Jin, but I have important business to attend to so…" but I stopped since I knew he wasn't buying it. Now his jerk side was about to unleash upon me.

"You stupid, little girl. I know what you're trying to pull."

"Gee, congratulations! Would you like an award for that?"

I knew he didn't like that remark, but hey, I didn't like him so, who cares?

"I want to make a deal with you," he suggested still trying to forget about my last comment.

Want to know what I did next? I spat on his shoe. Yeah, I know, not very lady-like of me to do, but it's not like he was being a gentleman to me, so why be polite to him?

The look on his face after I did that, it freaked me out. I mean, it looked like he was going to kill me or something.

"I'm growing very impatient with you," he calmly said, even though you could see these ugly veins popping out of his neck. Now only if they really did pop…

"You obviously know that I'm after your parents' power and money."

I yawned, "I know, so that's why I want a guy who actually cares."

"Not all the guys in the tournament are fighting for you. They want exactly what I want."

"At least they won't be a complete snob!" I was getting tired of his complaining. I mean, I have better things to do right now, like ponder about the boy in my dream.

"Fine," he said.

Finally.

"But when I win, I will make you sorry, VERY sorry," he threatened. Then he walked out of the room and headed towards the exit of the castle. Man, I hope he loses or I'm screwed.

I sighed of relief that he was gone. I mean, he's such a pain in the butt.

"Winry," I heard my mother call out, "please join me in the family room."

Man, when can I get some time for myself over there and lounged onto the couch. Then I sat up quickly into a straight posture. Sometimes I forget my mom's the queen.

"Yes mother?"

"I was quite surprised of the tournament idea you brought up. I mean, I never thought you felt so strongly about having a husband."

"Yes mother, I do. I want to be able to have a nice, caring husband, like, like…like what normal people have. I want my man to be strong and have courage in able to protect me. I know that you're probably mad at me and…"

"Mad at you? That's the furthest thing from my mind. I'm proud of you."

"Really? Oh, I mean, thank you mother for agreeing with my tactics."

"Well, run along now, my daughter. Oh, by the way, get plenty of rest tonight; we shall be having a busy day tomorrow."

"What exactly do you mean by that, if I may ask?"

"We are meeting with the other princesses outside our land. I also want you to be on your best behavior since I know you don't like them."

She was right, I didn't like them. Now I know I sound like a people hater, but I'm really not. I just happen to be stuck with stuck up people. Is that really my fault?

"Yes mother, I will try."

"Thank you dear."

I ran towards my room, hoping too dodge anybody else that might want to talk to me, because I was so not in the mood. Then when I got to the main hall, a man was sitting down at a small table talking to one of our servants. I don't recall the table being in here, though, the last time I entered this room. The nosey person that I am, I went towards the table and asked, "May I ask what is going on here?"

Our servant nodded, "This is the tournament table, Princess Winry. This is where we have people sign up." Wow, word got out pretty fast.

"Oh, I see, and is this gentleman here to join?"

The man nodded as he stood up and bowed.

"If I may ask, princess, but was this tournament really your idea?"

Of course it was!

"Yes it was. I want a strong man to be my husband and someone with a kind and caring heart. Good luck to you sir, I look forward to seeing you fight."

"I'll need it; there are thousands of fighters outside, waiting in line."

"You're serious?"

"Yes milady," the servant spoke, "we never expected so many to join."

I was shocked, as well. I mean, we just announced it 15 minutes ago! I hope these guys out there aren't complete dopes, because I had a feeling most of them will.

"I must be going now gentleman. Good day," I waved politely as I made my way towards the stairs. Wait, I want to see what these men look like and find out more about them. So I made my way back towards the table and ordered the servant, "Please go get me a chair. I want to meet these men." The servant nodded.

"What's with the change in mind, princess?" the gentleman asked.

"I am interested in seeing these men."

The servant came back and set the chair up for me. Then a massive load of guards came around me. Gee, can I get some personal space anywhere? Then Rose came over.

"Hello Princess Winry, I see that you're meeting the men joining the tournament."

"Yep, oh, and stop with the proper stuff, so just call me Winry."

"Cool, because I hate being proper. Hey, can I join you, you know, just to make sure these men are good enough for you?"

I chuckled, "Sure, please bring a chair for my kind friend."

The servant nodded and went to get another one.

The hours came and went as we signed up men. Many of them were kind, but it's probably because they want to act their best around me. I much rather them to be themselves, which I insisted to many, but they continued to give me the goody, goody act.

I met a few people who were quite interesting. A man name Roy Mustang seemed nice. He works for the military, trying his hardest to be on top of the ranks. I think he seems too power hungry, so I'm worried if he wins. He might use power in the wrong way.

Then there was a guy name Scar. He seemed to have a different motive in this tournament. We asked him where he was from and stuff, but he didn't answer. The two questions he answered were what his name was and a question I asked him.

"So Scar, what is your purpose in life?"

"I will soon find out." And with that he left.

"He's an odd fellow," I commented. Rose nodded in agreement.

"He's too quiet," Rose followed with my answer. I'm interested in seeing how he turns out.

Then a man walked up who caught my eye. He had long, blonde hair that was in a loose braid. He also had some gorgeous, amber eyes. It was weird, though. He seemed familiar, but I couldn't put my tongue on it.

"Hello sir, please tell me your name," James said. Oh yeah, the servant's name is James. We became quite good friends during the past few hours.

"Edward…Edward Elric," the man answered. He reached out his arm to shake James' hand. I saw it was made of automail. I wonder what happened to him. I couldn't help being nosy again and asked, "I see you have an arm made of automail."

He nodded and smiled at me. Man was he hot!

"May I take a look at it?" I asked.

"Uh, sure," he replied as he put him arm out in front of me. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I make and fix automail. You see, I occasionally sneak out of the castle to work at a small shop in the village. Well, I call it more of a hobby than work. I examined the automail carefully.

"OH MY, WHAT FINE WORK THIS IS! OH, HOW I WOULD LOVE TO TAKE THIS APART!"

Edward jumped back at my sudden outburst. So I get overly excited, I'm obsessed.

"Whoever made this has done a fair job, however, it could be made stronger, and a lighter piece would be easier during fighting," I started to explain.

"Wow, milady, you know a lot about automail."

I nodded, "I do make them after all. Please come back tomorrow, as I want to try out a new kind of automail on you."

He just stared at me. Ok, so I'm a girl. Girls can make automail, it not uncommon, right?

"Umm, not to be rude, but don't you have to ask permission first?"

"I'm the princess, so I don't have to ask permission all the time."

He gasped, "Wait, you're the princess?" He quickly bowed down. You know what's weird? He looked around my age. Usually older men want to marry me. By the way, I'm sixteen. I know it sounds like a young age, but that's another dumb thing the system has.

"How old are you?" I asked out of curiosity.

"I am seventeen, princess."

"Oh…aren't you a little short for your age?"

His eye started spazzing out. Was that a bad thing to say?

"Who are you calling pipsqueak, dinky little boy!" he exclaimed.

"Whoa, aren't you a feisty one," I said, putting my hands on his shoulders to calm down.

He blushed, "Oh, sorry princess."

"It's ok. You can call me Winry. So will you meet me here around, let's say, 8 P.M.?"

"Ok, I'll be here," Edward agreed. We finished signing him up and he left. I grew tired from this so I sat up and curtsied to James. "I must be going now, bye James!" He waved back at me.

Rose then came up by me and whispered, "We need to have some girl talk." I nodded. She'll probably want to talk about some of the men we met today. We went and took a seat on my bed and started the little "girl talk".

Rose started off, "Wow, there were many cute men that signed up, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess," I slowly responded. Actually, though, only a few people appealed to me, like Edward. I also met Al Elric, which I'm guessing they're brothers or something. I'm not attracted to him or anything; I just want to find out more about him. I mean, his whole body was made of armor, after all. I'm going to have to ask Edward what happened tomorrow night. This thought made me shiver. I mean, I never had a boy over (besides Prince Jin) so this is kind of a new experience to me. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

"Earth to Winry," Rose said while snapping her fingers in front of me.

I shook my head, trying to clear my mind and replied, "Sorry about that."

"It's cool. I know how you love to space out. Anyways, what about that Edward guy? He was so hot, and he seems like your type. I think you like him. I mean, after all, you did invite the guy to come over tomorrow night."

I sort of blushed at this. She was right, though. I had a crush on him. Ok, ok, a HUGE crush on him, but hey, I'm a girl. What do you expect? Ugh, this was so embarrassing that I felt like screaming in a pillow.

"So…like, do you like him or what?"

"Umm…well, uh, I guess."

Rose clapped her hands together. I can tell she just has the time of her life with these kinds of things.

"I knew it! We need to make you all pretty when he comes over and…"

"Actually," I cut her of, "I want to dress casually. Like a tank top and some sweat pants."

Rose looked at me like I was on something. I mean, there is nothing wrong with dressing casual and being comfortable. I just don't want him to have the impression that I'm all spoiled or something. I want to show him I'm like any other normal teenager. Though that might be hard because the fact is, I'm still the princess. Being a princess may seem really cool, but it seriously takes away your life. I mean, my schedule is always jam-packed with all this crap that half of it isn't even worth doing. Princess equals stressed-out teenage life.

"Why? Don't you want to impress the guy?" Rose asked.

"It will."

"Huh?" Rose questioned, scratching the back of her head since she was confused.

I laughed at this. I didn't exactly feel like explaining it to her, so I simply replied, "In ways you won't understand."

Rose seemed to ponder over my answer for a second, but shrugged it off, "Well, if you say so…"

Then I heard a little bell right, indicating that it was dinner time. Rose sighed, as well as me. I was too lazy to get up. Rose sighed for a different reason, though, "Aw, we're going to have to finish up this talk later."

I nodded as I sat up. Let me say, I'm having one of the worst headaches ever. Maybe eating would make me feel better. I started walking downstairs and towards the dining room. This room was quite different from the others. It was a very large room. In the middle was a long, dark-wooded table that could sit up to about sixty-people. It had a Roman theme to it. There were statues of people on the four corners of the room. The ceiling had a large painting of angels on it. It was a very elegant room. We particularly have this room the way it is because the chefs are from Rose so we wanted them to feel as comfortable as possible and make themselves feel at home.

I took a seat at one of the far sides of the table, while my parents both sat opposite of me. The annoying problem that this room has is that you have to practically yell at each other since you're pretty far away. I suggested for me to go sit by them, but no, we had to be proper. Oh yeah, yelling is proper.

Not.

Oh yeah, you can barely see them too. There was this huge flower vase in the middle of the table, so it pretty much covers them up. I never complained about this, though I should.

"Dinner is served," said one of our butlers as he set the food down in front of us, followed by a few others behind him. Unlike other royal families, we like getting our food all at once instead of a little entrée being served at a time. That takes too long.

It was surprisingly quiet tonight. I believe my parents were talking among themselves about the whole tournament thing. I didn't mind, though. I've been thinking a lot so it's not like it bothered me. I kept thinking about why Edward Elric seemed so familiar. It's like I've met him before, but then again I didn't. It was really weird. Now I couldn't wait until tomorrow night. I really needed some answers.

"Mother," I yelled, breaking the silence, "I'm having some company tomorrow night so my meeting with the princesses might have to be cut short."

"Oh, and who's coming over, dear?" my mother asked.

"I have invited a man named Edward Elric."

"A boy, huh?" my father said.

Oh no. I could tell they were taking this the wrong way.

"Why would you invite a boy, specifically tomorrow night when your mother and I are going to be away?"

"Away?" I asked.

"Don't act as if you don't know. You remember that when you have a meeting with the princesses, we meet up with there parents."

Oh yeah, now I remember. Great, now they're not going to trust me. I'm going to have to argue to get out of this are.

"I only invited him over so I could try on a new automail on him."

"Honey, you're still doing that stuff? I thought I told you to stop," my mother stated.

"Well, I didn't."

"Shouldn't you be doing more girly stuff, like dolls or something?"

I couldn't believe she just said that! I'm sixteen, sixteen! My mother can really annoy me, like she acts like I'm five.

"Mom, that's for little kids!"

"Well, it's certainly better than that…that dumb automail junk!"

This is where I draw the line.

"Junk? Do you even know what automail is? It's armor for people to wear when they are missing a part of their body. It helps people!" I exclaimed.

My mother was surprised by me. What does she expect?

"You should feel ashamed of yourself. While others may be playing dolls, I will be helping out the less fortunate with a hobby that I enjoy called automail. All I'm trying to do is make an arm and a leg that will help Edward. Yeah, that's right; he's missing an arm and a leg!"

I was so cherishing this moment. My mom just started dumbfound at me. You could so tell that she was trying to hide what she felt, which was terribly bad. It was written all over her face. I wanted her to feel this way. I wanted her to know what less fortunate people go through.

My mother looked as if she was going to explode after a few moments. Instead, though, she stood up and left the room quietly. I believe I accomplished my task.

"You may have this man come over if you're only going to do that, but I want to meet him first," my dad said.

I nodded, smiling in victory, "Will do."

Then he left to go find my mother, leaving me alone in this big, dim-lighted room. That went a lot better than I thought. I continued eating, wondering how tomorrow will be.

Author's Note
Hey everyone! Hope you liked this chapter. Please review! I'm interested in how you like the story so far. I'll try to update soon!