A/N: Hey all, thanks again for your support throughout this series, today we have another new couple thanks to Resident-Asian. Enjoy the AlMay, excuse the American spelling.
Kissing Games:
Sweet Kids
"I guess I'm off," Al nodded happily, grabbing his bags as the train rolled into Risembool. Ed looked away, feigning indifference, but Al knew he was just hiding his emotions. The brothers had worked together for so long, to be separated willingly now wasn't appealing, exactly, but it was something that had to be done.
"Good luck out there Al," Ed muttered, scuffing the toe of his boots in the dirt of the train station. "If you see Ling, give him my regards. Hell, give that annoying Chang girl my regards too. Just…"
"Brother?"
"Be careful, all right?" he grouched. "I'm not spending any more of my life trying to hunt down another body for you." Al grinned as his brother kept his head turned away, probably feeling ashamed from the show of emotion. Typical Brother.
"Don't worry," Al comforted him, grinning himself despite the fact that he would be leaving for a potentially indefinite period of time. "I have my alchemy, I'm picking up some friends before I head out, and I'll be sure to call as often as I can."
"Friends?" Ed asked confused, finally turning towards his brother.
"It's a long story," Al chuckled nervously. The train pulled to a stop in front of them and he climbed on board. "I'm off!"
"See you around, little brother," Ed said, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "Don't get into any trouble in Xing."
"I won't, I won't" Al sighed, but his grin stayed in place. He would miss Brother and Winry and Pinako and even Den, but he needed to do this, without a doubt. Speaking of Winry… "Oh, and Brother, don't forget to confess to Winry before you leave—in fact, you can't leave until you do!"
"Wh-Al!" Ed screamed, looking like he would've attacked his brother if not for the fact that the train had started to roll off.
"Good luck! I expect to be her brother-in-law by time I get back—and an uncle!" Al called back mischievously. He watched an angry Ed until his brother disappeared in the distance. He faced forward in his seat and sunk into the cushions. He would make a few stops before heading to Xing…
…That had been a couple of weeks ago.
Now he, along with Jerso and Zampano, found themselves wandering through the streets of the biggest city in Xing. Supposedly the emperor himself resided within the palace here, but they hadn't quite made it that far yet. There was a small problem they had overlooked when traveling to Xing that delayed them now.
None of them really spoke the language.
Alphonse had read up on the language and knew the basics, but he was still far from fluent. Why hadn't Brother pointed this out to him before he left? Jerso and Zampano, though, were totally lost. As they had often griped since they arrived, they couldn't even order food.
Al decided the only way to solve this problem was to learn the language enough to find their way to May and Ling, or whoever they found first, because surely where one was, there was another. Marching up to the palace with his Xerxes heritage evident hadn't gone over so well, though.
"Back away foreigner," one of the guards had commanded, lowering his spear. He spoke in formal, broken Amestrian. "We will take your life." The odd group had backed away, not wanting to cause a fight—or at least, Al hadn't. His chimera companions were convinced they could take the entire Xing military.
"So what do we do now?" Jerso grouched, slouching against the nearby building while people walked by giving them odd looks.
"I hate to sound like Ed, but maybe we could sneak in and find Ling or May before the guards find us," Al answered hesitantly.
"Yeah! That's more like it!" Zampano cheered. "Let's do it!"
"I agree; we haven't seen any action in a long time!" Jerso growled in expectation. Al held up his hands, calming the two.
"We're sneaking in, meaning if we do everything right we won't be fighting," he explained, staring them both down until they muttered a bitter "Yes, Sir."
With that, they headed back over to the palace, careful not to seem suspicious as they cased the place. At first it seemed like there was no hope of getting in without at least fighting a few guards, but at the last minute—just as they were about to call it off—Al found the weak spot.
It was actually near the front of the building, a blind spot—a small one—that would be perfect for entering. Al even dared to jump over in broad daylight and, much to his delight, found that no one arrested him upon touching down on the other side. He shared his confirmation with his companions and they waited until nightfall.
Getting over the blind spot had been easy, of course, but they hadn't planned any further ahead.
Impulsiveness must run in the family, Al thought in slight depression. He shook the thought off and led the chimeras across the massive front yard. It was a long, slow process as they had to continuously dodge out of the way of guards. Then came a moat.
Just like Ling to have a moat in front of his palace. That didn't even make sense in a place like Xing.
"Well, at least we can all swim, right?" Zampano asked. The other two nodded, but Al pointed out the real problem.
"Even if we can swim across, that doesn't automatically lower the gate or open any doors for that matter." The three sat crouched in the bushes for a while, wondering what their next step would be. They couldn't go back now, but at the same time they couldn't necessarily wait until someone just happened to open the—.
Crash!
All three men jumped as the gate suddenly lowered, and to Al's infinite glee, who should be riding out but May Chang herself?
He ran out, not thinking about the fact that they were supposed to be covert.
"May!" he cried gleefully, jogging over to her. She smiled back at him, tears in her eyes.
"Al—!" Suddenly twenty guards piled on top of Al, holding their spears to his body at various points.
"It's okay, My Lady," one of the guards called, his spear pointed at Al's throat. "We've stopped the intruder."
"Hey! Get off him!" Jerso yelled as he and Zampano charged out of their hiding place to help Al. Several of the guards broke away from the boy to attack the new intruders, but the chimeras handled them easily. Just as it looked like a full-blown fight was about to break out, May screamed.
"Stop it right now!" The guards all froze. Zampano punched one of the frozen men "accidently." May hopped off her horse and marched over to the brawlers. "You men, let Alphonse go now."
"Th-thanks May," Al chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head where he'd made a personal acquaintance with the ground.
"Guards, leave us," May commanded. "Zampano and Jerso are you two okay?" she asked in a softer voice once the guards had left. When they nodded she sighed in relief and turned back to Al, an angry scowl on her face.
"Sorry about that May, but you wouldn't believe how hard it is to get in touch with you if you don't speak Xingese." Al smiled at her and her anger melted, replaced by tears as she flung herself at him.
"I've missed you so much!" she cried. "And you risked your life to see me!"
"I don't know about risk," Zampano muttered. "We had everything under—." Jerso elbowed him, holding up a finger to his lips.
"It was nothing really," Al shrugged off, blushing a bit. The two chimeras exchanged a glance. They had just come all this way to learn about alkahestry, right?
"You're so brave!" she squealed, leaning in and pecking him on the cheek, which did nothing to help the young man's blush. "Come inside! You have to see how funny Ling looks in his new emperor clothing! Oh and we should have a big feast to celebrate your safe journey…"
Well, at least they got free food out of it, whatever the real reason for coming to Xing was. The two chimeras followed the happy twosome inside, stomachs growling.
