A/N: It's 1AM so forgive me if this doesn't make any sense

„What's in that box and why are you hiding it here?" The cheerful voice came out of nowhere and made Al jump. He turned and faced a familiar smile; he smiled back.

"H-how long have you been standing there?" He got up from his kneeling position and picked up a grey box with holes at the top. She eyed him curiously.

"I just got here, why? What do you have there?" Mei looked at her best friend pretending to be curious. She knew what was in the box – they both knew she did - but that wasn't going to stop him from trying to lie.

"I, umm…. It's a gift. For Ed, it was his birthday last week." Alphonse looked at his friend in anticipation – she looked like she believed his story, but then again, she always looked like it and he knew better than that. She wasn't going to let this slide so easily.

"That's nice. Your 'present' just meowed," she looked at him deviously, "What exactly is it that you're giving him? He doesn't really strike me as a cat-loving guy. Unlike his brother, though." She looked overly pleased with herself, Alphonse thought. He sighed and opened the box a little for her to see the content – a little black and white cat was in the middle, sleeping. He put a blanket inside on which the little thing was resting. She had to smile at the sight. Alphonse always had a soft spot for cats – that's one of the things she liked – loved – about him.

"Well, it looks like you're in trouble with this one, huh? Your dorm doesn't allow animals, Al. And you sure as hell can't hide it; the poor thing needs to go outside."

"It's a she," he interrupted her in the middle of her speech – a speech she was forced to give him every two weeks or so – and looked down at her with golden eyes. She could get lost in those eyes, but that's what he was going for so she snapped at him instead.

"What?"

"It's a girl, not an 'it'," he reached inside the box to pet the cat before closing the lid again. They stood like that for a moment, both trying to figure out what to do or say next. "I can't just abandon her, Mei. She's so helpless and little." And then he did it, the one thing she couldn't resist, not in a million years. Not from him, anyway. He gave her the puppy dog eyes.

"Now that's just not fair," she exclaimed, but soon threw her hands in the air in defeat. "Fine! She can stay at my place until you can find someone to take her, but only for two weeks. Tops." She pointed her index finger at him to show that she was being serious about this.

"Okay, two weeks tops. Thank you so much, Mei," he sounded like a little boy who got permission to eat sweets before dinner. She sighed and shook her head. Why did she have to fall for a cat-loving idiot?

Alphonse was grinning the whole way to her apartment. Now that the cat was out of the box – there was no need to hide it in there anymore – he was happily carrying her in his arms.

….

The door closed with a loud 'thud' that woke him. Next were the lights and, finally, Mei screaming at him. He looked at the digital clock on his night stand; it showed 7:30AM on a Saturday. He groaned loudly and turned to his side.

"It's been seventeen days, Alphonse," Mei's voice rang in the small dorm room, loud. "Seventeen days," she continued without bothering to look at him, "and what have you been doing?" – "Going to classes?" – "Nothing, that's what. That God forsaken cat is still in my apartment." She was really mad, he could tell by the way her eye twitched.

"I though you liked, Xiao Mei?" he grinned. She forbade him to name the cat – "You'll get too attached to her," – she had said, but he did it anyway. And just to piss her off a little bit more, he named her after his beloved friend.

"That's beside the point. You promised to get rid of her in two weeks! I need my apartment back!" She whined and looked at him. His hair was messy and he was shirtless, which she had only now noticed. She blushed - a deep shade of red spreading across her face - and tossed him a shirt. "Get dressed, you're taking her."

"What do you have against her? She's just a little cat; she can't be that much of a problem. And besides, where am I supposed to take her? Don't be like this, Mei. Pretty please?"

She chose to ignore his plea for several reasons: one – she knew he was giving her the puppy dog look, again and two – he was about to see just how big of a problem that damn cat really was.

Her whole apartment was a mess with the cat in the middle of the disarray. Al's jaw dropped when she opened the door. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief. "I… you're messing with me, right? There's no way that this little cat could do all of" he stopped in the middle of his sentence to make a dramatic gesture at her trashed apartment, "that. There's… no, not a chance."

"She's been a handful, alright. But whatever, she's your problem now," she walked to the couch where Xiao Mei has been resting and the cat growled at her as she approached. Mei picked her up nonetheless and carried her over to Al. "Here you go."

"No,Mei! What am I supposed to do with her? I can't take her and I can't leave her on the streets." His voice cracked at the end. Mei was pretty sure he faked it; at least that's what she wanted to believe. "Don't be so heartless, please. I'm gonna help you take care of her, okay? I'm sure that between the two of use it won't be much of a problem." And once again she made the mistake of looking at him. He sure was pulling that card more often than usual. She sighed and admitted defeat.

"Fine, but you're staying here tonight. And you're going to clean this mess. I'll be in the kitchen making tea." She stormed out of the room, leaving him alone with Xiao Mei. He looked down at her and she returned the look. She can't be so bad, he thought, Mei's just overreacting…

….

They both slept on the couch that night. Al told Mei that she could sleep in her own bed and he could take care of Xiao Mei by himself, but she insisted that she didn't want to leave him alone with her because that would do more damage than good. So now they were both on the stretched out couch – Mei in her pajamas and Al only in his boxers (this sleepover came as somewhat of a surprise that he wasn't exactly prepared for) – and they were cuddling with Xiao Mei in between them. She didn't cause any distress that night, which led Al to believe that Mei was, in fact, messing with him. He knew this little kitty couldn't do that much damage all on her own.

He woke up to the smell of breakfast and quickly got up to join Mei in the kitchen.

"Hey," she said, "did you sleep well?"

"I guess. Your couch is uncomfortable as hell, though, and you kept kicking me," she chuckled at his expression. "Well, it seems like Xiao Mei didn't make a mess of your apartment again last night." He gave her a meaningful look – meaningful as in "you were lying to me and it's time to fess up" kind of look.

"Are you accusing me of lying, Alphonse?" She put two plates on the table and looked up at him. "Because if you are–"

"Don't be silly, Mei. Of course I'm accusing you of lying," he smirked at her, "and not only that, but you dragged poor Xiao Mei into your dreadful lie."

"Well, if that's the case…" she looked at him dramatically while removing one of the plates – his plate, he assumed – from the table and putting it back in the cupboard "… then no breakfast for you, mister."

….

Alphonse spent the next three nights in Mei's apartment making sure that Xiao Mei behaved. She, of course, didn't do any damage while he was there – Mei was still claiming that the cat did trash her apartment – but eventually, Al had to leave.

"Sorry, Mei, but you're a dirty liar," he laughed at her pouting face, "I have to go now, I'm running out of things to wear."

It became sort of a tradition for him to come to her trashed apartment every Friday and spend the weekend at her place. Xiao Mei was at her best behavior all the while he was there so, naturally, he still didn't believe Mei's story; until she put up a surveillance camera to prove her point. After that, he began to think the cat was a bit too vicious for her own good - or theirs. After three weeks of the same agenda, Mei's bedroom was slowly turning into Xiao Mei's playground and the living room became her and Al's shared bedroom. Sort of.

"You should come here more often," Al lifted his gaze from the TV. Mei eyed him cautiously; Xiao Mei was curled up in his lap, nice and comfortable and he was, as usually, half naked. She grew to love the fact he walked around her apartment without a shirt. Honestly, it was beginning to feel like he was living there, which he was, actually; neither of them wanted to admit it, though.

"What are you talking about? I'm here every day," he smiled widely at his words and at her. "I know, what I mean is you should sleep over more often." Her cheeks turned bright red at that. "You saw it for yourself; she only behaves when you're here. And since you can't take her home with you, you should stay here." Al could only stare at her. Was she asking him to move in? He knew for a while now that he liked Mei – that he liked liked her – but he never thought of them kissing, let alone living together.

"Um… are you asking me to move in with you?"

"Yes? Eh, forget it, it's stupid,"

"No, I'd be glad to do it if you think things would be easier that way. With Xiao Mei, I mean." It was his turn to blush now.

"Yeah, well, that's why I was asking. Okay then." They both fell quiet after that and it just sort of happened naturally. He didn't move all of his stuff to her place – because they weren't actually living together – but he spent almost every night with her (and Xiao Mei, of course). Eventually, he had to admit to himself that they really were living together. But whether they were together or not, he didn't know. He supposed they weren't dating, but they were something. They often cuddled – which he only now realized, thinking about it – and they held hands all the time, but they never kissed or anything like that. Maybe she wouldn't mind if he kissed her? He decided against it in the end.

Things have been quite since he "moved in", regarding Xiao Mei. She was always playing in her little corner or sprawled out on the couch – necessarily on both of their laps – but she left them alone for the most part. Both he and Mei were enjoying the time they spent together and it seemed like Xiao Mei was enjoying Al's stay as well. At the end of each day Alphonse would stretch out the couch for him to sleep on, Mei would insist on staying there as well and eventually win the argument and they would fall asleep cuddling on the couch. If he was being completely honest with himself, it was in those moments that he realized how in love he was with her, and he loved it. He loved every moment they spent together and it made him want to kiss her that much more. He would often catch himself thinking about it, ever since he started sleeping over actually. She was constantly on his mind; it was getting distracting, really.

One night when he came home from his classes, she was already half asleep on the couch. He closed the door as quietly as he could, but Mei still jumped in surprise.

"Oh my God, Alphonse! What are you doing here?" she exclaimed upon standing up.

"Well, I live here. Sorry if I woke you, go back to sleep, okay?"

"No, I… I wasn't sleeping. I was waiting for you to get home and I dozed off," she walked over to him and took his cote. She hung it on a peg by the door and pulled him on the couch. He happily obliged and threw himself down with her. They sighed in unison and laughed. It all happened rather quickly and Alphonse wasn't sure how, why or what to think of it.

He just kissed her. And she kissed him back. And then they were kissing. They were sitting on Mei's couch and kissing. It was a peculiar feeling, he thought, to kiss her like that. It was odd and out of place for them to be kissing, yet it was exhilarating to do it. It was over too soon, he noted when she pulled away.

"I… "

"It's okay," she said, "I liked it." He smiled at her, still a little unsure of what had just happened or what it meant. "I think we should go to sleep now."

"It's only seven o'clock," he said. He looked at her with those big, golden eyes and that was the first time she realized how he looked at her. He was in love with her, and even worse, she was in love with him, too. And they've both been too blind to see it. That damn cat…

"Alphonse, I… well, I think I like you," I think I love you.

"Oh… I like you too," he sounded quite relived at that and he smiled a little wider. "You know I really do like that cat." That cat was the reason for all of this, after all. She leaned against his chest and smiled to herself.

"I do too."

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