notes: unlike the last chapter, this fits into Brotherhood canon, and is not part of my Shamballa 'verse series. Not German stuff, so really no weird cultural notes that I need to list. setting
Xing, post-canon.
Al is around 17-18
Mei is 15-16

Day Two: Traditions

Xing was an old country, with a rich history and an incredibly interesting and varied culture. Al was surprised to find that many of the buildings in Xing predated even Amestris itself – which took him quite a while to get used to. Still, the buildings were beautiful, and the culture was so different from Amestris that Al couldn't help but be in awe. He'd read books, both while he was recovering and on the way over, but it didn't compare to seeing the country in person.

Unfortunately, Al wasn't able to spend all of his time in Xing wandering around the various cities. He had things to do.

First of these was learning Alkahestry from Mei. It was more difficult than he'd anticipated, but Mei managed not to lose her temper with him, and he was slowly beginning to get the hang of it.

Second, he was trying to learn Xingese. Again, for this he had Mei as a tutor, and she taught in a way that was easy for him to understand. He had difficulty working out the lack of articles in the language, and the intonation confused the hell out of him (how could a word said in a different pitch mean something totally different? It didn't make sense!), but he was making progress, albeit even more slowly than he had with Alkahestry.

And, of course, he had to make a point to visit Ling, who was now Emperor of Xing.

Between all of this, Al was very busy, and had little time to himself.

This was, really, quite a shame, because he couldn't help but notice how beautiful Mei had become in the years that she'd been gone. Oh, they'd kept in correspondence, of course, but he'd always pictured her as the tiny girl with the even tinier panda on her shoulder. He certainly hadn't expected to come to Xing to find a beautiful teenage girl waiting for him.

It had never really occurred to him to ask Mei's age. He'd assumed that she was much younger than he was, due to her height. But he realised, upon getting to know the girl on less pressing terms a bit better, Mei was only a little over two years younger than Al himself.

He had been unable to fathom how a twelve-year-old girl could be so tiny as Mei had been, but apparently she'd hit a growth spurt shortly after she'd returned, and, well... she'd left the admittedly adorable tiny girl behind in favour of a beautiful young woman. But then... Al didn't have much time to focus on that; he was too busy with other things.

However, Mei always made sure to make time for a cup of tea in the evening. Xing had amazing tea; Alphonse made a note in his travel journal to buy some to take home so that Ed and Winry and Pinako could try some.

Mei had made tea for Alphonse the first night that he'd been in Xing, and she continued with this for the duration of his stay. The type of tea varied – Al was sure that by the time he'd left, he'd had every type of tea in Xing, but when he'd voiced this thought to Mei, she'd laughed gently and shaken her head – but it was always delicious. He noted that Mei tended to favour lighter teas in the evening. She told him once that, while she did enjoy some more robust teas, it was more of a morning kind of tea for her. Still, Al was amazed by the taste.

In Amestris, he was lucky to get something that wasn't just plain black tea, but here... they made teas out of things that Alphonse hadn't been aware were suitable for the drink. He loved just about every type of tea that Mei offered him, and he tended to favour the ones with a floral or fruity flavour to them.

No matter what either of them had done that day, or what they still had to do later in the day, the tea became a tradition between the two of them. It was always around the same time, and always a very nice way to relax and chat.

Al had made sure to get a variety of tea leaves before he returned home, and, once he was back in Amestris, he found himself making tea in the evenings as well. Always a lighter tea, and no matter what they day held.

Traditions were traditions for a reason, after all.