Disclaimer: I don't own FMA

Notes: HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIL!! This was written for Nilmiel (of Nilmiel and Kenya), as a birthday present. I've been working on it bit by bit all day so that it wasn't too far from the day itself by the time I finished! Sorry that I didn't get to include Mei-Chan, but I really couldn't think of a way of getting her in there while keeping to the theme I decided on. I know I said it'd be a oneshot, but each of the sections are so disconnected, that structurally it works better as a mini-series. Nevertheless, I'm posting it all at once, so you don't have to wait to read it all! I hope you're having a great time, and I hope that you like what I've produced for you!

"Protector and Protected" by Dailenna

At Five Years

As a child, Ran-Fan did not cut the most impressive figure in his Imperial Majesty's court. She was neither tall and beautiful, nor intelligent enough to gain the attention of the Emperor. Granted, she was no more than five years old, and the Emperor paid little enough attention to his rapidly growing numbers of children, let alone to the child of one of his faithful guards. Still, his attention would have made her life a lot easier.

Her father had died some four years ago, in the service of the Emperor himself, but she was still undoubtedly his daughter, and her grandfather was still on active duty as a guard to one of the royal princes – a great honour, indeed. Ran-Fan had been told that when she was adequate enough, she would join her grandfather in this duty. She looked forward to the day as one when she'd finally be able to show her worth and gain the attention of someone who saw her as more than just a useless child.

Now, as it was, she had little to recommend her. So little, in fact, that it seemed instead of liking her, people took a general dislike to her. This was the reason why several of the boys her age who usually loitered around the training yard had resorted to shoving and name-calling.

"Little miss is too good to hang out with us, is she?" one cried when she declined their offer. Her grandfather had told her to come meet him at the training yard directly after she had finished her chores at home, and she had no time to waste with these three right now.

"Naw, she's gotta go clean up her father's grave, doesn't she?" the tallest sneered.

The three boys sniggered, and Ran-Fan's face flushed red. She'd been to her father's grave many times with her mother, and a few times by herself. Usually it was clean, kept tidy to pay respect to the dead man who had done his duty to his Emperor without hesitation. Recently, however, someone had been desecrating the clean stone with paints that took hours to scrub off, and the stench of urine seemed to hang around the gravesite, as though someone could think of no better way to water the grass. Ran-Fan's mother had used what little money they had to buy perfumes to mask the smell, and hopefully to keep her husband's spirit at peace, and Ran-Fan's knuckles had been rubbed raw by the effort of cleaning the despoiled stone.

Her fists clenched, but Ran-Fan didn't speak. She didn't think that this sort of behaviour deserved acknowledgement. Whether these boys had been the ones to do such despicable acts or not, she didn't know, but that they took pleasure in the fact it had happened did little to give them respect, in her eyes.

"Ooh, you going to beat us up now?" one of the boys smirked, noting her feet slowly steadying into a stance her grandfather had taught her.

"Go on, I dare you," the tallest said, and he walked forwards to shove roughly at her shoulders.

The push unsettled her, but she didn't fall over as he expected. Instead she grabbed at one of his arms to stop him doing it again. A frown appeared on his face, as though to ask how she dared grab at him, and his other hand balled into a fist, colliding with the side of her head a moment later.

Ran-Fan let go of his arm in shock, and grabbed at the side of her face where she'd been hit, young eyes filling with tears at the shock.

"Hey, hey, what's going on here?" a new voice asked.

The three boys and Ran-Fan all froze, looking up to meet the eyes of the prince. He was the same age as them – maybe a year older, but not enough to make a difference, physically. Physical size didn't really matter when one was a prince, though, because one could easily have an offending party punished without laying a hand on them personally.

Each of the four fighters gave sloppy bows, as befitted their lack of practice. "Your Highness," was the mumble from each mouth.

The boy nodded as though their greeting would have to do, and stepped towards Ran-Fan and the boy who had hit her. "You shouldn't hit a girl," he said imperially to the boy, and then turned to Ran-Fan with a wide smile. He grabbed her hand and began to walk away, dragging her along behind him. "Come on, you can play with me instead. No one else interesting will."

It took her a moment to catch up with him, but he still kept a hold of her hand. She knew she wasn't supposed to backchat to royalty, but wasn't she supposed to be with her grandfather now? She looked at the boy nervously, and supposed that she might not get in trouble for this one time, if she told her grandfather exactly what had happened.