We've been having a tough time with getting ideas lately, but this one just JUMPED into Our head with ALL the details figured out! Wowies!

These are the mangaverse Elrics, which is why they both have blonde hair and yellow eyes, instead of Aru's normal anime coloration. -nod- Oh, and did We mention that Aru is GENDERSWITCHED? 8DDDDDDD We needed some form of a princess, and We were NOT going to put Winry as poor Edo's sister.

Oh, and, in case you review about the makeup, WE KNOW WHAT EYELINER IS LIKE. We know you don't get stuff on your hands. But who says they have to have an eyeliner pencil in a fictional world? What about an eyeliner stick?

xD You know, when We did this in Wordpad, it looked a lot longer than 2500 words...

Pairing: RoyEd

Disclaimer: Don't own it! If We did We wouldn't be sitting here writing this. 3 Each chapter is named after a Jumi rank (Legend of Mana fandom.) Dividers are Chicago is So Two Years Ago by Fall Out Boy. 8D

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THE PRINCESS DIARIES

clarius

/You want apologies? Girl you might hold your breath/

The Kingdom of Risembool is grand, but it is nothing compared to the country it occupies, the State of Amestris. It is filled with rolling plains, and few hills and trees. The soil is rich and many farms occupy its land, giving it a wonderful country feel that a lot of kingdoms don't possess.

Risembool Castle is an elegant building, with lofty spires covered in gold leaf shingles and stained glass windows that span the rooftop, spilling colored lights and shapes upon the Great Hall. The castle is surrounded by a cheerful commercial town, one that never seems to sleep and is always hustling and bustling.

The court is grand. King Hohenheim presides, alongside his queen, Trisha. They have only two children, both with long blonde hair and expressive golden eyes, and at the moment these two were chatting away in Princess Allie's bedchamber.

"Allie, did you even hear me?" asked her elder brother, scowling and folding his arms. Prince Edward Elric was fiery, hotheaded, and, well, short. His sister was actually taller than he was, even though he was a year older than her. He had suffered an accident years before, and lost two limbs. He'd been quickly outfitted with a pair of heavy metal prosthetics, which he had gotten used to swiftly.

His sister, the princess, was five-four, but she towered over poor Edward. "Shush," Allie snapped, usually-kind voice filled with irritation. "I need to think of a name."

"A name?" asked Edward, blinking stupidly as his sister stepped over to him and swiped his knife from the small sheath strapped to his leg. "Allie, what're you --" He was cut off as she lifted the blade and began hacking off lengths of beautiful straw-colored hair. "I'm not cleaning that up," he decided, stepping back.

Allie grinned as she finished cutting her hair, shortening it to a boyish cut and leaving fallen tresses discarded carelessly on the carpet. "I've got a name," she smiled, back to her gentle, non-irritated self. "Aruphonse."

Edward tilted his head. "Hold on," he said quickly, in case she was about to cut him off again. "Name for what? What'd you cut your hair off for, Allie? Mama's going to kill you." Trisha Elric loved the duo's long blonde hair, and even if Edward had wanted to cut his hair off, he wouldn't have been allowed. She would positively die when she found out about Allie.

Allie, or rather, Aru, grinned as she pulled out a jerken she'd obviously bartered from the shepherd boys, and stepped behind her changing screen to pull her dinner gown off and her jerkin on. Usually there were ladies-in-waiting to do such a thing for her, but she'd sent them out of the room. "I'm leaving," she said loftily. "Going to seek my fortune somewhere else. I don't want to be married off to some lord."

Edward stared. It wasn't like he didn't understand, definitely not. He would have done the same thing if he were a girl and in her place. But... Allie? She was like... obedient. She did what she was told with a smile and didn't talk back. And now she was running away? "What am I going to do if you're gone?" he asked desperately, attempting to make her change her mind. "You know Dad likes you best, and you're going to leave me with him?" He'd been the target for the flat of his father's blade several times, and he did not want to be beaten for Allie's departure when he could have stopped her.

"Take my place," she replied, rolling her eyes. "They'll think you're gone. Besides, you can kind of look like me if you put your hair up. Here, I'll show you." She stepped back out from behind the screen, in the jerkin and rabbit-hide leggings. She approached her brother, who blinked, caught offguard as she removed his braid, then twisted it expertly up into a messy bun, grinning. He looked quite like her. "You can pass," she decided. "Too short, though."

"I am not SHORT!"

/Until your breathings stops forever, forever/

"No, it goes like this," said Allie gently, though she was quite exasperated with her older brother already. Edward sat at her vanity, attempting to learn how she did her hair and makeup. Why did she have to be so secretly rebellious? And why did his life have to turn over and hang by its ankles over the side of the castle just because she didn't want to be married?

It was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard of.

He sighed, propping his chin on his hand. "Allie, do we have to do all this stuff?" he asked for the thirty-ninth time. She shut him up with a glare and a hiss of 'it's Aru', and he sat sullenly, cursing his sister's rash decisions. (He overlooked the fact that he was even more rash and she probably got it from him anyway.)

"Of course we do," she replied scornfully, picking up a small tub of some substance Edward didn't really trust. She started rubbing it into his face anyway. "If you're going to pass as me you're going to have to do it properly."

He sat miserably on the stool, shoulders slumpt and pride rather... shattered. He gazed into the mirror in front of him with disgust at the image he'd been forced to take up. All his reflection showed was a girl primping what seemed to be a monster covered in gritty goo. Wonderful. His sister lifted a wet cloth and began rubbing it off, and he was a little more satisfied. At least he didn't look anything like a monster anymore, just himself with a stupid-looking clip on his forehead. "Are we done yet?" he mumbled, earning a shaken head from his sister, who began to pick up different little sticks and show him their use.

"Here," she said, ignoring his question and lifting a stick of kohl and waving it at him. "You hold it between your fingers with a handkerchief so you don't get your fingers all black." She began to line the edges of his eyes with them, and grinned when he blinked obediently and looked at it curiously. "Oh, and don't rub it off," she added. "You'll smudge it all over your face."

"You know, Allie," began Edward, ignoring her hiss of 'Aru' and continuing to speak. "This is all well and fine, and good training, and all, but how are you going to hide my arm and leg?" It wasn't like they could pass as flesh or anything.

"We'll have to do something about them," she agreed, stepping to the vast closet. "Lucky I've got a section with longsleeved gowns," mused Allie, peering into the large walk-in closet for a moment before turning back to look at Edward. "But you're right, your arm and leg are problems. We're going to have to find a way to hide them, one that's better than just sleeves and petticoats."

Edward stared at her, still rather stunned. Just how were they going to pull this off? "Alli -- er, Aru," he corrected himself, as she pouted. "How am I going to keep this up? I mean, you're running away and I have to stay here and hold down the fort like some duchess? This is so unfair."

Allie smiled, patting her brother's head as she circled him to begin showing him how to put his hair up. "Mostly you'll just need to get dressed," she added. "The ladies-in-waiting do most of this stuff for you. But you'll want to keep them away while you get dressed, I think. Rose is head of my ladies-in-waiting, and she knows I'm leaving, so I'll tell her to help you out."

"Wait a sec, Rose knew before I did?"

"Of course she did, nii-san. You never asked." She finished with his hair, and he looked at it with mild interest. Edward did rather look like his sister, save for the hunting clothes he'd been wearing since the morning. "Kay, come pick out a gown. Remember, it has to be one with sleeves, kay?"

Nodding, Edward stood, feeling rather ridiculous with his bun and his kohl-rimmed eyes. He stepped into the closet, browsing the selection of beautiful gowns and finally selecting a crimson chiffon one from between a grasshopper-green silk dress and a pale yellow frock. "Hey," he said over his shoulder as he removed it from its hanger. "D'you think we could get some of that fake skin the Rockbells were experimenting with?" Those two were always doing something, and Ed bet anything that Winry and Pinako, the Royal Metalworkers, were hard at work making something he could hide his arm and leg with simply because they liked experimenting.

His sister blinked, then grinned and nodded. "Yes! And I heard they were doing different skin tones now, nii-san, I bet we could get one to match yours." She ushered him behind the screen where her blue gown lay, and began tugging at the buttons and clasps on his clothes, which he removed obediently and stood rather awkwardly in his boxers. "And you'll need a corset," she mused, picking up the one she'd discarded and fitting it around his middle.

This wasn't so bad, he began to think. What were girls always complaining about them for? And then she started tightening it, and he quickly found out, giving a small gasp. "Do girls wear these all the time?!" he managed to get out, attempting to get used to it.

"Yes, she replied, pulling it until Edward thought his insides might just explode. "It's fashionable. You forget about it after a while, though, luckily," she added, smiling apologetically as she finished with it, knotting it at the top and handing him the dress. "Put that on and I'll zip up the back."

Her brother sighed with difficulty as he tried to keep his breathing rather level and pull on the dress at the same time. Allie turned him around and did up the back, and she smiled. "See how cute you are, nii-san? You look just like a girl. No one will be able to tell the difference." Edward didn't really think that was such a good idea, but Allie seemed to, and she picked his clothes up from where they lay against the screen and brought them out, beginning to shove them into a small leather knapsack. "I'm borrowing these, kay, nii-san?"

The boy sighed. "I'm beyond caring. Go for it." He wasn't very glad to see that she looked elated at this and began tucking more things into the sack. He looked up as he heard the door creak open and slippered feet step into the room, and he was rather alarmed, but was relieved to see it was just a rosy-haired, blue-eyed girl that both of them knew rather well.

Rose grinned, removing something from the small pouch she'd made by picking up the bottom of her apron and handing the package to Allie. "Here you are," she said, stepping back to allow her friend some room. "Bread and cheese, like you asked. It's Havardi, by the way. I figured you'd like that better than cheddar."

"Either would have done," replied Allie, packing that away too. "Thanks, though, Rose."

The blue-eyed girl nodded with a smile, then turned to Edward, blinking confusedly. "Who's this and why does she look like you?"

The siblings blinked at each other for a moment, then began to roar with laughter, upon which Rose looked at both of them exasperatedly. "Well?" Edward's sniggers diminished as he lifted his right arm, letting Rose take it and examine it. She stared, mouth half-open. "No way," she muttered. "No way! You are not serious!"

"Course we are," replied the boy, scowling, before he was cut off by Allie.

"What my brother is trying to say," corrected the former princess, "is that he'd like to know if you want to help him pretend to be me."

A grin stretched across the lips of the young lady-in-waiting, and she nodded to Edward. "At your service, Princess!"

/The only thing you'll get is this curse on your lips/

The newest generation of Elric siblings, now completely outfitted in their disguises, left the castle through the aqueducts, the Royal Family's secret means of escape that would take them to beyond the outer gates. Edward was careful not to get his skirts wet, which he found rather bothersome, but Allie seemed to enjoy not having to worry about what she was wearing and simply skipped through the many puddles.

They arrived at the end of the tunnels, and Allie opened the hatch with less difficulty than she seemed to need. Obviously she'd done something to the door in preparation. She held it open for Edward, who was having problems with climbing up the short ladder in his skirts. He stood up haughtily, brushed the front of the dress off, and looked back up biting his lip. "Allie, you're seriously going through with this?"

"Yup," she replied, shouldering her little knapsack. At his sad gaze she smiled, shaking her head. "Don't worry, I'll come back," she assured him. "I'm just leaving till I find something I can really do, and not anything to do with princessy stuff."

Which seemed totally unfair to Edward. "So you have to shove it off on me?!" he barked, suddenly filled with a burst of rage. Allie looked shocked, and he bit his lip harder. "Sorry," he muttered, folding his arms and stepping back.

She shook her head, and dove at him, clinging and squishing his totally-fake cleavage. "No, I am. I'll come back," she repeated, and let him go, turning. He reached out, grabbing her wrist. She turned, blinking, and he gave her a proper hug, then placed both hands firmly on her shoulders and pushed. She laughed. "I'm going, I'm going!" She ran off, and Edward watched her go, red skirt dancing in the evening breeze. He shook his head, then decided to stroll around the town till nightfall. Maybe something interesting would happen tomorrow.

And maybe, just maybe, Allie would decide life as an outlaw wasn't for her and come back. What, it wasn't a law not to hope for someone to change their mind, was it?

/I hope they taste of me forever/