Sorry about the shortness of this one guys; I went to my grandma's today and didn't have a lot of time to work on this. It's a cute on though; I promise. The information about the rain was found online and trust me it was hard to figure out which parts of actual China I want parts of Xing to correlate with. It sounds legit though; or at least I hope it does. As always, please tell.

The steady beat drummed on the roof and the windows of the small room. As the tempo increased the blond boy inside said room looked up at the clear pane of glass and smiled longingly. He was currently stuck inside, wishing for nothing more than to be able to go out there. The ancient scroll in his lap seemed to unroll without end and the symbols were swimming around in his head. Even though he was still mastering the written language which consisted of symbol rather than letters, Mei was adament that he needed to start reading as soon as possible, even if he only understood half of it.

"Beside, Alphonse," she told him as she added another book onto the pile in his arms, "How are you supposed to learn to read if you aren't reading?"

With a heavy sigh, he dropped his eyes back to the scroll. A few minutes later his teacher (and the cause of his current misery) walked into the room carrying a small pot of tea and two bowls of steaming rice. In the month or so Al had been in Xing, he had only recently begun to master the technique of eating with the chopsticks used over forks in this country. His progression towards using the thin sticks of woods like any other person in Xing amused Mei to no end.

"Thank you," he told her politely in Xingese before stating matter-of-factly his native language: "It's raining outside." Mei looked up at the window, grabbed her own bowl of rice, and prepared to eat before replying.

"So it is. I supposed I should have anticipated it. It is about time after all."

"About time?"

"For the rainy season. I've been waiting for the monsoon season. They get is at a different time then we usually do in Xianxun(1). I'm still used to it staring around April. Here it starts around June. I think this is actually fairly late."

"So this is normal?" Mei nodded before pouring herself a small cup of tea.

"It happens every year, almost across the entire country. The north Providences don't get his nearly as bad, probably only a slight increase of rainfall. To be honest, the Eastern countries get hit much worse than we do, especially as far north as the capital. It's the Southern Providences that get the worst of it because they're so close to the Gunxio Sea (2). The Chang providence avoids the worst of it, but damage done to crops not harvested early enough is still enough to damage the frail economy."

"It really gets that bad?" Al asked; his eyes wide with amazement. The going-ons in Xing never failed to amaze him, especially with all they had to overcome and work around. There always seemed to be one more problem that he thought would have brought Amestris to its knees that the Xingese gave no more thought to then making sure to slip on a jacket when going outside.

"Uh huh. Have you finished the scroll yet?" Al gave the window another longing look before shaking his head and resigning himself to the scroll once more. They sat like that for about an hour more, listening to the rain, occasionally taking sips of tea or eating from their rice bowls. Once her supply of food was gone, Mei picked up a small book he had seen her carrying around for the past few days and began to read.

When Al finally finished the long scroll, he stretched and turned to tell Mei only to find her fast asleep in the chair, the book on her lap. He smiled at her sleeping form. She seemed so innocent when she was sleeping. Not to say that she wasn't; in fact sometimes he marveled at her innocence. It was, however, hard to believe in that innocence when she was throwing knives, making you run laps to improve still shaky stamina, and carrying around four feet high stacks of books for you to read by the weekend. Al decided he liked it better when she slept.

Especially, he looked around furtively, when that meant she wouldn't be able to stop him.

He pushed the scroll off his lap and stood up as quietly as he could. Tip-toeing to the door, Al looked back to make sure the small girl still was asleep then closing the door and sprinting to the front doors. Like getting used to eating with chopsticks, it had likewise taken Al a long time to figure out how to make his way around the palace. To be honest he still got lost a lot, but he could manage to find the front door from most of the places he frequented.

The guards at the door nodded to him and opened the door when he approached. He smiled back then scurried out into the open.

He could feel the rain as it pounded down on his skin. Quickly shedding his coat, Al rolled up his sleeves so that the water could touch his skin directly. Every drop sent a shiver across his skin. In next to no time he had a huge smile on his face and was turning around with his arms outstretched, mouth open to catch the rain on his tongue.

"Alphonse, what are you doing out here?" a voice called. He turned and saw Mei standing under the slight cover provided by the overhang over the large doorways.

"Mei?"

"Yes, Mei Chang. What are you doing dancing around in the courtyard of the Imperial Palace in the rain?"

"Uh, dancing around in the courtyard of the Imperial Palace in the rain?" His hair was soaked and plastered to his face and his previously white shirt was soaked through and clinging to his skin, a fact which Mei was not unaware of, though she made no sign of it.

"You idiot, you're going to catch a cold, get back here." Al smiled mischievously.

"No I think I like it out here."

"Alphonse!"

"Mei." He smiled and she glared. Then, shaking his head and hands held high in surrender, he started to walk toward her. She beamed and stepped aside so that he could enter the palace. What she was not expecting however, was for him to pick her up by the waist, sling her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and run back out into the rain. He held her until she was completely soaked.

"Al, put me down!" she screeched, pounding on his shoulder. Instead, he laughed and spun her around a few time.

"Don't like getting wet, Princess?"

"AL!" Still laughing, he lowered her to the ground where she stood glaring at him. Al smiled and held out a hand.

"May I have this dance?" Mei stared at the hand, then at Al's face. Her thoughts were clearly traveling down the lines of "You're crazy" because he pushed his sopping hair out of his face and stared at her with the most heart-wrenching puppy-dog stare she had ever seen. Including on puppies. "Come on Mei. We've been studying since I got here. One dance?"

She sighed and he, smiling, grabbed her waist. Royal instincts kicking in, her hand was on his shoulder and as he stepped forward she did likewise. He took a step backward and then spun her around. Then they both took two long strides towards the open ground before twirling again.

When the next shift of guards came along half an hour later, the two were still giggling and running around in the similitude of dancing. Every once in a while Al would grab Mei by the waist and lift her up in the air before setting her down and taking another step. The new guards nudged each other and laughed at their apparent obliviousness to the change.

When he finally sneezed loudly, Al stopped what he was doing, which was twirling Mei in so many circles that it would have had any girl that did not possess extreme balance falling all over herself. She twirled around a few more times by herself before stopping and staring up at him.

"What is it?" she asked, breathless. He chuckled a bit.

"I think I've caught a cold."

"Ha! Serves you right for getting us into this mess!" Al stuck his tongue out at the Princess and she stuck hers out back. Then, breathless, cold, wet, and giddy with happiness, they stumbled under cover and into the palace. They only laughed harder when Al continued to sneeze.

(1) Chang Providence Capital; literally translated as 'humble'

(2) Xing is to China as the Gunxio Sea is to the Indian Ocean