Someone had asked me to do another LingFan oneshot and after taking forever to come up with an idea, I finally got one. Kind of based the idea of this fic off my other fic on here "Tears of a warrior". Hope you guys like this.
If you guys don't remember, I first introduced Li-Kiew, my version of Ling and Lan Fan's daughter, in my fic "A beauty to protect". I actually introduced more info of her on my DeviantArt account as well but Idk if many of you would be interested in that.
Disclaimer: Ling, Lan Fan, Fu, and Fullmetal Alchemist belong to Hiromu Arakawa Li-Kiew belongs to me.
Spelling errors in Li-Kiew's speech is intentional.
*Zengzufu is Chinese for great-grandfather. I figure, Xing is suppose to be like China in FMA so that's why I use some Chinese terms.*
Ling Yao; twelfth son of the previous Emperor of Xing, trained in sword-fighting, and having the stomach like a gorilla. Not much had changed for the young man in the eight years he had been Emperor of Xing himself. He had done just as he had planned to do with the position; changed some of the troublesome laws, met and discusses politics with the clan heads, done all he could and continued to do what was best for his country. Yes, things had gone just as planned over the long period of time since he had left Amestris with the Philosopher's stone. Well, okay; there had been a few changes since back then...
"Daddy! Daddy, where we goin'?" A little girl of about two cried out as she wobbled behind her parents down a mysterious and unfamiliar dirt path.
"Mommy and I told you before we left the palace, remember? We're going to your Zengzufu's grave." A young man with long black hair smiled warmly down at the small little figure that clung to his kimono with her tiny hands.
Indeed, there had been changes. The man in the kimono was none other then Ling Yao himself. In the eight years he had spent in his homeland, he had married his faithful bodyguard Lan Fan, only to make her his Empress in the end. And as a result of their marriage, the two had bore a daughter who had her mother's dark brown eyes and face and her father's silky black hair and cheerful personality.
It was true, the rulers of Xing didn't usually get a break like they had today, but it was the anniversary of Fu, Lan Fan's grandfather's, death. The couple of Xing had realized just that morning that they had never informed Li-Kiew of the man who would have been her great-grandfather and since he had been very important to both parents, Ling and Lan Fan believed it was a good opportunity to educate their beloved daughter on the man that had made it possible for both of them to continue on living to that very day.
"Daddy, feet huwt..." Li-Kiew moaned as she planted herself in front of her father's path and rose her arms towards him, "Up! Up up!" She cheered, flashed a big grin at Ling.
The Emperor laughed whole-heartily and picked up his daughter as she had requested. Ling grinned back at his daughter as he started to plant loving kisses all over her face, causing the toddler to giggle like crazy. Lan Fan, who stood beside the two, smiled at the site and shook her head slowly. Her husband and daughter were almost too alike in personality, it was scary at times. But, the Empress had to admit; she loved her new life with Ling and Li-Kiew.
After a few more minutes of kissing and snuggling his little princess, Ling continued down the path. Li-Kiew then rested her head on her father's chest, already bored with the walk they were on. It was then that both her parents started discussing something called "Fu". What was this "Fu"? And why did her mother seem to smile to brightly when she spoke of it? Eventually, curiosity took over the princess of Xing and she gave a yank on her father's ponytail so as to get his attention as she so often did,
"Ow! Li-Kiew, that hurt daddy. What is it?" Ling asked, opening his eyes down at his child.
"What's a 'Fu'? Is it a toy?" Li-Kiew asked, blinking her big, innocent eyes at her father.
Ling held back a laugh at the claim from his daughter and he shook his head,
"No, sweetie, Fu is-"
Li-Kiew began to bounce excitably in her father's arms now,
"Aminal? I like aminals, daddy!"
"I think you mean animal, Li-Kiew." Lan Fan corrected. The toddler nodded at her mother and looked back at her father for an answer.
Ling smiled again and shook his head,
"No, Fu is-"
But Ling was suddenly interrupted again, this time with more questions then before.
"OH, OH! Is a Fu-thingy yummy like food? What it look like, daddy? Is it pretty? Does it spawkle?"
At hearing the last word come out of his daughter's mouth, Ling placed his daughter on the ground and leaned over, laughing like a mad-man. Li-Kiew simply watched in wonder as her father continued with his "episode" and pondered as to what was so funny. After a moment of hysterics, Ling stood back up, wiping his eyes with a big smile on his face. Seeing that her father had recovered, Li-Kiew asked her questions once more,
"Daddy, tell me what a Fu-thingy is!"
Ling patted his daughter's head and then looked to Lan Fan who nodded. Both parents then grabbed the hand of their daughter that was closest to them and started down the path again.
"Fu isn't a thing or animal, nor food, Li-Kiew." Ling begun,
"Awww. But I like food..."
This time, Lan Fan was the one who had to hold back a laugh. Ling's smile grew in size as he shook his head,
"Fu is the name of your great-grandfather."
Li-Kiew's brown eyes widened in amazement as she released a knowing "Ooh" . Ling chuckled again but stopped when he noticed they had approached a field filled with marked stones sticking out of the ground. The Emperor noticed there were a few other families standing inside the fenced land, holding different sorts of thinks like flower bouquets in their hands as they lowered their heads in prayer. Yup, this was the place, alright. He thought to himself as he looked towards his wife with a knowing frown.
"We're here." Lan Fan stated obviously, so that her daughter would understand what their initial stopping had meant. The Empress then felt Li-Kiew slip her hand away from hers and the young princess took off into the cemetery without warning.
Suddenly alarmed by his daughter's actions, Ling called out to Li-Kiew but she ignored him and kept going. The Emperor cursed at the wind and then the Xingese couple went to give chase after their energized little one.
"What are these thingys?"Li-Kiew asked herself as she touched an oddly shaped stone that stuck up from the ground. Whatever the thing was; it felt weird. The sides felt hard but the front felt smooth and it shined with the reflecting sunlight bouncing off of it's center. Li-Kiew squinted her eyes a little bit more to see a face was carved into the stone as well as some Xing script below it; stating some sort of name or number; the princess couldn't figure out which. She was two and hadn't yet learned to write in script or read yet so how was she to know? Either way, the stone intrigued the girl and she soon left that one only to go over to another rock, still ignoring the calls from her parents who tried to catch up with her.
After exploring and analyzing a good number of gravestones, Li-Kiew fell to the ground with a light plump. Panting heavily, Ling Yao finally approached his daughter with his wife trailing behind him. If there had been one thing to go in the eight years he had been Emperor, it was his once-unlimited stamina.
"B...Bad girl, Li-Kiew..." Ling began tiredly, "You can't just...run off like that..."
Unable to stand up any longer, Ling dropped to the ground beside his daughter, "Geez...You had your mother and I run all over this cemetery, trying to-" Ling stopped in mid-sentence when he noticed his daughter was lying face-first in the grass before him. Concerned, he opened his eyes and reached out for her, "Li-Kiew...?"
"I think I know what's the matter," Lan Fan stated as she reached into the bag she and Ling had brought with them. After rummaging with her automail hand for a moment, the former bodyguard of Xing pulled out a rice cake and bent down to hand it to her daughter, "Here, sweetie."
Li-Kiew looked up, her face drained of it's usual bright color. However, the very color soon came back when she saw the food her mother held out. Sitting up quickly, the child snatched the rice cake away and began chowing down. After she was finished, the girl patted her tummy and smiled,
"All bettew now. Thank you, Mama!"
Ling scratched his head, smiling at the sight, "So you were hungry, hm? Maybe your aunt Mei is right; you are a bit TOO like me."
The Emperor thought for a moment, laughed to himself, and then rose up from the grass. Picking up his daughter in one arm, Ling extended his other towards a gravestone that was placed under a sakura tree, near the edge of the cemetery. He then looked to Lan Fan to confirm if he was right, and she nodded,
"Yes, that is grandfather's grave. It may have been a long time since we were last here but I'd know that tree beside it anywhere."
The royal family made their way over to the stone. Once they had arrived, Ling put his daughter in front of the grave and pointed to the name carved into the middle of the stone,
"See, Li-Kiew? 'FU'. That's what it says right there." Ling looked at his daughter to see her mimic his actions and point at the stone with a small finger,
"Fu. Wait...Daddy, you said Fu was my grandpa." Li-Kiew looked at her father with curious eyes,
"Yes," Ling said, tilting his head slightly, "Fu was your mother's grandfather and my former chief bodyguard. Which makes him your great-grandfather."
Li-Kiew nodded to confirm that she understood but something still bothered her. She looked back at the stone and the letters carved into it, still pointing a finger at the name written on the stone,
"So...my grandpa is a wock?" The princess asked, turning to her mother with raised brows, "Why is my grandpa a wock, Mama?"
And just like earlier, both parents had to cover their mouths in order to suppress a laugh from escaping. Lan Fan smiled at her daughter and bent down so she could look Li-Kiew in the eyes,
"No, Li-Kiew. This rock is his gravestone. It's something that marks where a person is buried after they pass away."
The girl scratched her head, confused by the words 'pass away'. Lan Fan noticed her daughter's puzzled look and went on with her explanation,
"Pass away means to die. You see, Li-Kiew; your great-grandfather Fu..." Lan Fan had to pause before she spoke the next thing, "...was killed eight years ago."
The child of Xing's eyes went from wide with wonder to being wide with horror in a mere second at hearing her mother's words. She may have been only two, but she did know what kill meant. She also knew what a bodyguard was, and that her mother used to be such. And according to her father, her great-grandfather was too. Then that meant...Fu was killed during his duty as a bodyguard.
"B...But Mama, you was a bodyguard," The child began, narrowing her eyes in worry, "And you didn't get killed...How did grandpa get killed?" Li-Kiew looked back up with sad eyes and turned to her father for an answer. At noticing her father's expression darken, the young princess suddenly felt sick to her stomach and wished she hadn't asked.
"Well..." Ling started, taking a seat beside Lan Fan in front of the grave followed by grasping Li-Kiew's small hands with his, "Fu was...Well, he was...trying to protect me from this really bad man. And...during the fight, things got out of hand and the man hurt Fu very badly. So, when he saw there was no way we'd be able to take the man down ourselves, your grandfather gave up his life so we could land a lethal blow on the bad man. "
A lethal blow. Talk of fighting. Death. This was the first time Li-Kiew had heard her father speak of such things. Usually she heard boring talk of something called politics or clans or some such nonsense but fighting and killing...she didn't like this topic so much. Maybe the topic even scared her a little.
Li-Kiew snatched her hands away from Ling's and clenched the front of her pink kimono. Looking over, she scanned the gravestone with her eyes again and felt a lump form in her throat,
"That's...sad." She stated, looking down at some flowers that grew towards the side of his grave. Without asking, the girl began to pick them.
Ling and Lan Fan didn't even notice their daughter's actions as thoughts from the past absorbed them. Ever since the old man had died, the two had felt this way on the anniversary of his death. Sure, they were married now and had each other as well as the friends they had made over time but...loneliness, emptiness, and depression were things they couldn't escape on this day; despite knowing that Fu wouldn't have wanted them to feel such things now. Even so, the Emperor and Empress stared at the gravestone and held each other close, like they had done the day of Fu's burial.
Just as more depressing thoughts had begun to take over the couple's minds, a loud cheer came from their daughter as she held flowers in the air,
"Yay, I pick them all!" Li-Kiew smiled happily as she waddled over to the grave and looked to her father, "Did grandpa like flowers?"
Ling and Lan Fan exchanged curious looks before looking back to their daughter and realized why she had asked what she did. The Emperor smiled and ruffled Li-Kiew's hair,
"Yes, he did. Very much so."
"Yay!" The toddler cheered again as she placed the flowers on the gravestone's head and then took a step back, "There. Now grandpa is all colorful and pretty."
"Pfft!" Ling immediately broke from Lan Fan's hold and stood up so he could let out another crazy laugh. Li-Kiew giggled along but she didn't quiet understand what was so funny. Then again, who cared as long as it made others laugh.
Lan Fan rose up too and took a place beside her daughter as she reached out and picked another flower from the ground, then placed it beside Li-Kiew's pile on Fu's grave,
"There." Lan Fan smiled, brushed her daughter's hair with her automail hand.
Ling then appeared behind his family and placed a flower of his own choosing on top of the grave as well. Li-Kiew clapped happily at seeing the many different flowers that now covered the top of the gravestone. At that moment, the princess' smile slowly faded and she ceased her clapping as her eyes turned sad at remembering what she had learned of her grandfather that day. Still, for him to have given up his own life for her mommy and daddy; he must have been a really amazing person, she thought to herself as she grasped her father's hand,
"Daddy," She greeted, as he looked down at her with his usual warm expression, "I wanna know more 'bout Grandpa Lu,"
"You mean Fu, Li-Kiew." Lan Fan corrected again,
"Yeah, him!" Li-Kiew pointed at her her mom and looked back at Ling who imitated a cough to cover up a chuckle, "I don't wanna know 'bout his death...that's too sad. Tell me 'bout him and what kind of flowers he liked and things like that."
Ling grinned from ear to ear at seeing how interested his daughter now was with her late grandfather. Lan Fan and him both resat themselves in front of the grave and pulled their daughter into the lap.
"Well, Fu was always very strict. Especially when it came to training your mother and tutoring me..." Ling began and soon Lan Fan joined in. Li-Kiew simply smiled and held onto every word her parents spoke of her grandfather. And after every thing she learned of him that day, the young princess of Xing had made a decision.
When she grows up, she's gonna be just like her grandpa Fu.
Authors comments: Hope the ending wasn't too bad. I'm always so bad at writing one-shots. This took me about two days to do. I apologize for any OOC-ness and mistakes. I'm only human so I'm sure I made a lot.
Please review and tell me what you think, guys!
