The idea had started out simple enough. She was going to bake a cake. That was the plan, plain and simple.
But somewhere between coming up with the idea and mixing together all the ingredients, the plan had gone horribly wrong.
Mei woke that Sunday morning with a cheery feeling inside of her. She had planned for this day for a month now, writing a letter to Winry Rockbell back in early March, asking her for the best cake recipes she knew of and for a copy of all-Amestrian cookbook. It had taken weeks for Mei to get Winry's reply, but the willingness of Winry's response made Mei cheer in delight.
Dear Mei,
I'll have to write you a longer letter sometime in the future. Things are pretty busy here in Rush Valley right now, and while I would love to write you a more thorough letter, I know you need this reply back in a timely manner.
I'm sending off the book the same time as I send this letter, but it will take much longer for a package to reach you than a letter, so I have taken the liberty of copying down a few of the recipes for you and including them here just in case! I know they're some of Al's absolute favorites (though that boy has such a sweet tooth that honestly he would eat anything you feed him). I hope they get to you in time for you to make them for his birthday!
Also sorry about the mess of my handwriting! I had to copy these from the cookbook, and despite my best attempts to make my handwriting legible, it's still a bit messy.
Tell Al happy birthday for me!
Lots of love,
Winry Rockbell
Mei was a beginner baker at best. In fact, her skills were non-existence, but the three recipes Winry enclosed seemed easy enough. Even though Mei had come from the poorest clan in Xing, as the princess of the Chang clan and potential heir to the Xingese throne, there had always been someone there to clean and cook for Mei when she needed it. This would be an experimental first attempt.
The first recipe was a caramel apple pie. Winry had doodled little pies on the border of the card along with the note this one is really good to eat in autumn if you ever have the chance to bake it again.
The second recipe was for strawberry cheesecake. The list of ingredients for this one was quite long compared to that of the first recipe and the steps more confusing.
Finally, the third recipe entailed details on how to make lemon squares. Giving it a glance through, Mei realized this one would definitely be the easiest of the three to prepare. There was also a lone note at the bottom scrawled by Winry detailing how much fun she and Al had had making these last summer before he left for Xing.
That settled it. For Al's birthday, Mei would make him lemon squares.
All of this had started a few weeks back when Mei and Al had snuck away to the market in town. They'd grabbed lunch from one of the chatty vendors and sat in the shadiest spots they could find in the field of cherry trees that ran parallel to the market street.
"Your birthday's coming up soon," Mei nudged, pulling apart the petals of one of the fallen cherry blossoms. "Anything in particular that you want?"
"It's not that soon, we've got two whole months until I turn eighteen," he replied, taking another bite of his lunch.
"Well, two months isn't very long! I need time to plan and you're not making it very easy for me by not giving me any hints on what you want."
The little princess crossed her arms, involuntarily making a pouty face, which only made him smile.
"To be honest," he started, and Mei already had a feeling she knew what he was going to say. "There isn't really anything I want, and you don't have to get me anything."
She knew it.
"Don't give me that, Alphonse. Of course I'm getting you a birthday present, don't be absurd. So, I'll ask again, what do you want?"
He paused what he was doing, looking at her and clearly pondering the question with care.
She wondered if he was aware of the way his eyebrows creased ever so slightly when he was deep in thought or of the way his mouth quirked a little to the side.
Eventually he gave up on trying to figure out what he wanted.
"Really, Mei. I don't know what I want for my birthday, but if I think of anything, I'll tell you. I promise." He held out his pinky in a childish gesture, pinky promising to her that the instant a gift idea came to mind, he would let her know.
So Mei found herself searching for clues in every minute detail that might have given her even the slightest inkling of something good to get him. A week later she had found her birthday present idea when she caught him in the royal library searching through the books.
He was in front of the shelves that faced the large wall of windows. It wasn't a section of books that Mei visited often, in fact she wasn't even sure what genre of books were shelved over here, but she found herself curious what he was looking for.
All the books on the shelf were blue. Not because the royal librarian had decided that all blue books should be kept together in one place, but rather that all that time in front of the window had bleached their spines of any color besides that of the sky.
Al stood out against them, the brown of his slacks and blazer and his honey beacon of hair. He stood flipping through the pages of one of the volumes, so concentrated that he didn't hear her walk up behind him.
"What are looking for?" she asked, sneaking up and making him jump. "This doesn't look like alkahestry."
"It isn't."
"Then what are you looking at?"
"I'm looking for a cookbook."
A cookbook? That was odd. Every time she caught him in the library, he was flipping through alkahestry books and teeming with questions for her.
"Is the palace food not suitable for you, Mr. Elric?" she mocked, knowing that was the farthest thing from the truth. After every meal they had together, Al would rave about how much he enjoyed that night's dinner and how the Xingese cuisine was exquisite.
He laughed nervously and scratched at the back of his head, clearly not picking up on the fact that she was only joking with him. "It's not that. The food here is amazing, Mei! I've never had such good food in my life!"
"So then why are you looking for a cookbook?" She hadn't meant to sound nosey or pushy, though she had a distinct feeling now that she was starting to.
"It's just," he paused for a second, straightening his back and looking up from the book. "I sort of miss the food from back home. And baking said food. I used to bake all the time, especially when I was in the armor. I would cook meals for Brother since I could never eat them myself. I also had the worst habit of stress breaking. It used to drive our neighbors on the military dorms up the wall. Well, it did until I started giving them some of the food I baked. That sure shut them up."
He chuckled, "and now I'm rambling. Sorry."
"It's okay, it's sweet you like baking so much." It was such a cute detail, and so Al too. Of course he liked to bake. "I'll help you look for a book."
They'd traced the spines of the books lining the shelves together, Mei ever so often pulling one out and handing it to Al for inspection. In the end, there weren't any Amestrian cookbooks in the entirety of the Xingese Royal Library. The different varieties of food across Xing was already so wide and expansive that there was no need for cookbooks for places other than those of the Xingese variety.
"I'm sorry," Mei said when it was clear their search was fruitless. "I'll see what we can do about getting more books."
"You don't have to worry, Mei. Some of these books here look promising for good things to make, you don't have to trouble yourself with that." He took her hand in hers, his skin always so warm to the touch. "But thank you for helping me look, I really appreciate it."
Mei felt like melted caramel. All warm and golden and gooey inside. How was his touch capable of doing that to her?
That night, as Mei fell into bed, the realization of what she would get him for his birthday came to her like a brick to the head and Mei fell asleep with a soft smile on her lips.
.oO0Oo.
The day of Alphonse's birthday, Mei woke early. She still needed to pick up the ingredients from the market that morning and she wanted to do so before he woke.
Stumbling into her closet, Mei changed out of her nightgown and into something a bit warmer, buttoning up her woolen pink jacket. She laced up her boots and tugged on her hat and grabbed her gloves off her dressing table.
Mei preoccupied herself with tugging on her gloves as she rushed down the hallway, not bothering to be very quiet. She wasn't looking where she was going as she collided into something that let out a yell as she— and whoever she ran into— went falling to the floor.
"Mei?" the voice questioned.
At that moment Mei wanted to slap herself. Of course Al was already awake.
Al stood first, straightening out and picking up his book from off the ground, then extending a hand to the fallen princess and helping her up.
"I should have been looking where I was going," he said sheepishly. "Sorry about knocking you over."
"No, the fault was mine, I was the one who ran into you."
"Where are you headed this early in the morning?"
"The market, there are a few things I need to pick up."
He smiled, "you mind if I join you?"
"No!" she shouted, a little too forcefully. "I mean of course you're always welcome to join me, but not today. I need to go alone this time."
She was afraid her outburst would be taken as rude, but Al only smiled, clearly privy to what she was implying.
Gosh, he totally knew she was going out to get him a birthday gift.
"Of course," Al said, picking up her forgotten other glove off the floor and handing it to her. "I wouldn't want to impose."
"Well then I guess that settles things," she said, completely aware that she must have been blushing at his sly response. "I'll see you later then. We still have a lesson this afternoon at four, don't be late."
"I wouldn't dream of it."
The two parted ways, and right before Mei turn into a different hallway, Mei stopped, turning back to look at Al.
"Oh, and Al?"
"Yeah?"
"Happy birthday," she called, flashing him a grin.
.oO0Oo.
In no time at all, Mei had found everything she had needed at the marketplace. She had been surprised by how easy it was to find everything, even the strange ingredients she was sure she would have to find substitutes for. The shop owners and vendors were unbelievably helpful, always pointing her in the right direction when she had questions about where she could find one thing or another, and the market hadn't been too crowded since it was so early.
She knew she had overbought on a lot of the stuff, but she figured if the lemon bars were a hit, then she could make them again.
But the same luck that Mei had found for herself at the market hadn't translated over to the process of actually baking these things. In fact, her luck had almost turned the opposite way, going completely sour.
Now she knew why there were no Amestrian cookbooks in Xing. All their measurements were wrong. Why did Amestris have to use a different system for measuring out ingredients than they used in Xing? It only served to make her life so much harder.
And not only that, but halfway through mixing together the ingredients and double checking her conversions did Mei realize she had added way too much flour and it was throwing off the entire mixture.
It's okay, Mei told herself, you can fix this, just scale up all the other ingredients to the same factor and you'll be fine.
Except things weren't fine because Mei had no idea to what factor she had over added the flour. By the time she finished adding what she estimated to be the right amount of everything else, the whole mixture was hopelessly dry.
Maybe it's supposed to be like that, Mei thought, but the recipe said nothing of the consistency so she wasn't sure.
Mei poured everything into a metal baking tray and slid it into the already preheated over and close the door.
She was glad that that was over. She had no idea how Al actually enjoyed this, it had done nothing but frustrated Mei.
The recipe said that the lemon bars needed to be left in the over to bake for twenty-five minutes before Mei could add in the lemon filling she had prepared.
But as the timer slowly ticked down, Mei found herself growing bored. There were so many other things she could be getting done right now instead of standing around in the kitchen waiting for the lemon squares to set. There was the book on her bedside table that she needed to finish reading or work she could be doing.
They did still have twenty minutes left, Mei could always go read her book and take the timer with her and rush back to take them out when the timer went off. Or she could bring the book back into the kitchen with her.
Yeah, that's what she would do.
But when Mei returned to her room, she found the book wasn't there where she'd left it. Could she have possibly misplaced it?
She opened all her drawers, combing through each one of them for the yellow novel, but none of them contained the volume.
Maybe she's taken it into her dressing room. Inside the dressing room, Mei searched through her dresses for the book, but it wasn't there either. She did, however, find one of her favorite necklaces that she hadn't even realized had gone missing.
Perhaps someone had taken the book back to the library for her. Sometimes that happened, when she would leave several alkahestry research volumes scattered around her room one of the palace maids would return them all for Mei.
If she ran down to the library, she could check if it had been reshelved and she could check it out again.
Forgetting the timer she had brought with her into her bedroom, Mei flew out of the room racing towards the library.
It was unfortunate the library was on the complete opposite side of the palace from her room. Besides her room and Al's room, the only other place she spent the majority of her time was the library, but it was quite a way away.
Mei pushed open the door noisily, startling everyone inside and causing the librarian to send her a nasty look.
Novels, novels, novels, Mei though, scooting around bookshelves until she found the section she was looking for.
Before she even reached the section, Mei spotted the book on the shelf, it's lemon yellow cover calling out to her.
Lemon yellow.
Oh god, the lemon squares!
Mei had no idea how long had passed since she stuck them in, only now realizing she no longer had the little timer with her.
Completely forgetting about the book, Mei sprung into action, racing out of the library while receiving an angry yell from the librarian who had long past grown tired of Mei's antics.
The halls of the palace had just been polished and were extra slippery, causing Mei to have to slow her pace in order not to trip over her feet. This day couldn't possibly get any worse.
As she approached the kitchen, Mei began to smell it. The distinct scent of something burning clung to the air, causing Mei to scrunch her face up in disgust. There was no way her lemon bars would be salvageable now. Based on the smell alone, Mei knew they were ruined.
When she turned the corner into the kitchen, Mei found a panicked Al standing in front of the oven, wafting smoke with his left hand and holding a blackened tray in his right. The air was murky with smoke and the smell of burnt lemons. Despite the smoke, Mei could still see the annoyed expression on Al's face.
Mei coughed involuntarily, alerting Al of her presence.
"Did they burn?" she asked meekly, very clearly knowing the answer, but not knowing how to approach the situation otherwise.
He flung her a look, one reserved only for the occasions when members of the court would say something nasty about him behind his back, thinking he wouldn't understand.
"Did you do this?" he asked. Her voice was level, but Mei didn't hear any of his endless patience behind it.
"I'm sorry," she started, trying not to shrink under his disappointed gaze.
"Why?"
"What?" Mei questioned, confused what he was trying to ask.
"Why did you leave the oven unattended? Don't you know what a safety hazard that is?"
"It had a while, I thought I had time to grab my book before they were done, but then my book wasn't in my room, so I went looking for it in the library and then I realized I needed to check on the oven. I'm sorry Al, it was dumb."
"Don't you know that you never leave an oven running on its own?"
She wished he would stop looking at her like that, his gaze like ice. Mei didn't even know why he looked so disappointed, all she knew was that she wanted the feeling that she had let him down to go away as soon as possible.
"What were you even baking?"
She swallowed. "Lemon bars."
"Lemon bars?"
"Yeah, like the ones you have in Amestris. I thought I could bake them for you as a surprise for your birthday" She pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and looked down at her feet. "For what it's worth though, I'm sorry."
When she looked back up at him, Mei saw Al's face had softened and a sad smile had replaced his disappointed look.
"These were for my birthday?"
"They were, they're ruined now."
Al set the black tray of burnt lemon bars on the counter and walked over to where Mei stood in the doorway, taking her hand in his.
"You don't know how to bake, do you?"
She looked away for a moment before meeting his eyes and laughing sheepishly. "Not really."
The stray lock of hair slipped forward again, and Al pushed it back for her.
"Then let me show you how."
Mei blinked up at him.
"Okay."
He led her over to the blackened tray and the fuming oven. They would first need to scrub the pan (if not throw it out altogether) and preheat the oven again, but if they worked together then they could probably get the treats made in a timely manner.
"Do you still have the recipe?" he asked, and Mei handed him Winry's note. He smiled, recognizing his childhood friend's handwriting. "Perfect."
They worked together in silence, Mei washing the tray and Al scrubbing out the smoke coated oven.
"Hey, Mei," he started when the silence became unbearable. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for getting mad earlier. That was uncalled for."
"You don't have to apologize, I should have been more responsible."
He chuckled, "maybe, but I still shouldn't have overreacted like that." He shoved the oven close and turned the knob to the temperature Winry had written. "You were only trying to do something nice for me."
It turned out Mei's overbuying of ingredients at that morning's market had ended up being a good thing. There would be just the perfect amount to make the recipe again.
Al had a better eye for the amount of each ingredient needed, being an expert baker and all, so she left the bulk of the measuring to him. While they worked, he told her about the time he and Winry had baked these over the summer, originally letting Edward help with the process too, but kicking him out of the kitchen when they realized he was eating the batter every time they weren't looking.
When they had mixed in the final ingredient and Mei had poured the batter into the freshly washed tray, Mei looked down and saw that it looked nothing like the dry concoction he had made earlier.
"Now we wait," Al said as he closed the lemon bars in the oven, "and we wait /here/."
Mei giggled.
They passed the time by talking and telling each other stories from when they were little. Mei found out that Al's love of baking started when he was eight and apprenticing with Izumi Curtis in Dublith. Her husband Sig was a butcher and each night Al would help him prepare dinner and in turn Sig would let Al bake whatever he wanted when he wasn't studying or training.
Mei jumped when the timer sounded, the wait for the lemon bars to be done coming so much quicker than it did the first time she had tried this. This time the wait was all too short.
Al slipped on the oven mitt and pulled out the tray and Mei was blasted with the sugar sweet smell of gooey lemon squares. Luckily, they were a pale-yellow color instead of crispy flakes of black.
"Oh Al, they look so good!"
"Just wait until you try them."
He sprinkled powder sugar over them before cutting them into sixteen neat little squares and arranging them expertly on a plate.
"Go ahead, try one," he urged, handing her the square from the top of the pile.
"They were supposed to be your birthday gift, you go first."
He shook his head, "I've tried these before, you're the one who should take the first bite. I want to see what you think of them."
Mei wasn't going to take that, though. She'd always had the pesky habit of being too stubborn, a trait that always got her in trouble as a young child.
"Open your mouth," she directed.
Rolling his eyes, he complied and let Mei feed him the first bite.
"They're amazing!" he said after he swallowed. "Now it's your turn," and he took the lemon bar from her, telling her to open her mouth and feeding her a piece.
Mei had had lemon flavored dishes before, plenty of them, but never anything like this. The blend of the sugar and the acidic taste of the lemon was a combination she didn't even realize she had been dying for until now, and the single bite left her wanting more.
Al grabbed his own from the stack, eating each bite slowly the way he usually did, savoring the flavor of each bite. Mei watched him from the corner of her eyes. Who knew baking could be so enjoyable? All her frustration had been completely worth it, seeing the smile the lemon bars brought to his face.
Mei's stomach started to hurt after her third slice, and she brushed her sugar-coated fingers off on a napkin. There were plenty of leftovers they could save for later and Mei placed the reminder in a tin and tucked it into the pantry.
"Mei?" Al asked, and his warm hand landed on her shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"I just wanted to thank you for making me the lemon bars, it was really sweet."
She blushed, looking away. "Don't thank me, you were the one who did most the baking. Besides, I was the one who burnt the first batch."
He took her hands between his.
"It doesn't matter who did what, you were the one who came up with the idea and I enjoyed being able to bake them with you. I think I enjoyed that the most."
Oh gosh her face must be bright red by now.
"I'm glad," was all she managed to squeak out.
He smiled and stepped away, turning to clean off the mess they'd left on the counter.
There was just one other thing. She's already told him about the cookbook that would arrive in the coming days, but there was still one more thing she needed to do.
Before she had time to think it over and change her mind, Mei jumped up on the counter where Al stood, not caring that she was coating the bottom of her skirt in powdered sugar. Her little legs dangled off the counter in front of her, her knees pressing against his stomach.
"Oh, and Al? One last thing."
"Yeah?" he breathed, his arms full of left-over ingredients.
"Happy birthday," she whispered and leaned forward to kiss him.