Disclaimer: Do not own. Title comes from a Robert Frost poem. Written for the fma fic contest - prompt "Exotic Food".

So in a strange w o r l d

.x.

The day he leaves for Xing it rains.

Jerso and Zampano huddle under the roof of the station, grumbling about poor weather and bad omens. He stands out in the open, though, and feels the rain dripping from the strands of his hair to his jacket where it soaks and crawls under to his skin.

His two companions stare at him like he is a madman, but he smiles and enjoys the way the water drips from the corner of his eyes to the corner of his mouth. It's wonderful, he considers, and wonders if the farther apart he is from his brother the closer he actually is to him.

It's wonderful, he considers, and that is a beginning.

.x.

Mei is small, but her tackle still makes him fumble a bit backwards as she launches herself full force into his arms.

'Sorry,' she says, but her eyes are bright as she smiles and she doesn't look remotely abashed. Her cheeks are flushed and her voice a little breathless; he knows she must've ran to meet him when she heard him approaching. The idea makes him happy, a little, and he almost laughs.

'You've grown taller,' he says instead, even though she barely reaches his shoulder. Still, her smile widens at the observation, causing her cheeks to stretch and her eyes to crinkle at the corners.

'So have you, Mr. Elric,' she says, and he remembers how weak he was the last time she had hugged him.

It's a marvel how much they've changed and he smiles again.

.x.

The sun burns strong in Xing, a fact that he constantly has to relearn with each red layer of skin.

'You must stick to the shade,' Mei admonishes him, but she giggles when she presses her fingers to his arm and leaves white marks on the red flesh.

'Only if you do, too,' he teases, causing her to flush and mumble.

Unlike him, her skin tans easily in the sun; a fact that makes her stand out among the women of the Xingese court. She confessed to him once that she was jealous of the other ladies pale, porcelain skin. 'That's beautiful in Xing,' she explained to him and was startled by his laughter.

He thinks of ghostly, weak limbs and the warmth of sunshine after being so long in the darkness and decides the Xingese have much to understand about beauty.

He and Mei do not stick to the shade at all.

.x.

What most surprises his Xingese hosts about him is the way he takes to the spiciest dishes Xing has to offer. The first time he ate with Ling he was given Ma Po Tofu in what Ling was sure to have been a great practical joke. When he asked for seconds, even Lan Fan looked shocked while Ling laughed uproariously.

'It must've been your time spent in the armor – it's given you a tongue of steel!' Ling theorizes and perhaps there is a bit of truth in that.

When he goes out to the markets he buys roasted cockroaches and scorpions, despite the chastisement of both Lan Fan and Mei.

'You shouldn't buy food from the street vendor; you fall for tourist traps too easily," Lan Fan warns and he remembers how he used to tell his brother the same things.

'I don't even like that food!' Mei giggles, but she is much worse at scolding him than Lan Fan is. She seems to find this trait of his more amusing than not.

'You get so happy by the oddest things,' she clucks and perhaps there is a bit of truth in that too.

But he still has so much left to make up for.

.x.

The stars in Xing are different from those in Amestris, but sometimes he can pretend they are the same. The stars in the countryside are just as numerous as those in Resembool and he likes to hear Mei make up constellations for him.

'See, don't those stars look like a dragon?' she asks him one night and he scrunches his face and squints.

'…Maybe? Hm, actually no. Sorry I don't see it,' he replies and has to smile as she exaggeratedly rolls her eyes.

'This is why you have so many problems with alkahestry, Mr. Alphonse! You have to open up your mind more, you see.'

'I am, I am! …My Xingese has improved at least, hasn't it?'

She scoffs, but gives him an indulgent smile all the same. Her exasperation, he finds, is actually a bit cute.

'It might be a little better,' she says, which is good enough for him to take her hand in his and smile at her.

'I still have time,' he says and this time the smile she gives him is genuine and true.

I still have time he thinks and wonders if the stars his brother is seeing are any like a dragon at all.

He hopes that someday he finds out.

(but that is for another beginning)

A/N: I've never actually travelled to China (which corresponds to Xing in my headcanon) nor do I know anything about cuisine so please tell me if I got something horribly wrong. I love Alphonse to tiny bits but I never really write him so I'm trying to change that. Hope it came out ok!