Chapter eleven
It was now nearing winter. Mai and Xiao-mai had gone back to their clan to help prepare against the harsh weather. Lan fan had made friends with the boy who knocked her over. His name was Len and he was a body guard (only four years older than herself) plus they had a few in common.
Unfortunately for Lan Fan, every possible husband was to ask permission from a relative and since she had none, Ling as her boss, had the job and he turned them all down. The main reason this annoyed her was every time a new man came she had to spend a whole day getting ready and girly, but the fact no one was 'good enough' was also annoying. They argued over dinner about this allot as she was still able to eat with him because besides Len and Ran-lee (her former maid) none of the other servants liked her.
And every month they would meet in the secret place, and every month they would joke, mess around and be their old selves again. Every month they would relax, have fun, tell secrets and eat to their hearts content. However. One time it was Len's day off so Lan fan was training with him and they were messing around with the equipment in the dojo, she was too distracted to notice it was night, causing her to panic and show up late. And she hated herself for it. She apologised everyday about being three hours late to that one meeting until 4th December.
"What's your problem?!"
"What's yours?!"
They were both standing up arguing across the table.
"What do you mean? I don't have a problem!"
"yeah you do, you turn down every one of my suitors and say I deserve better, but when I say it it's a problem!-"
"I'm your emperor"
"and I'm your guard!"
"You're just a servant!"
"And your just an idiot!"
"Take that back!"
"When you give me my arm back!"
"I told you not to do it!"
"It saved your life!"
"And apparently ruined yours!"
"I'm just looking out for you!"
"I'm just looking out for my country!"
"So your marrying a stranger?!"
"That's how it works!" emphasising every word.
"You said you wanted your first wedding to be special!"
"You said you didn't want to get married!"
"You said you'd help me!"
"You said you'd protect me!"
"You said you'd do what's best!"
"That's what I'm doing!"
"Said who!"
"Peace between clans!"
"As if marrying someone in your own clan would help!"
"Well it's where I'm going to start!"
"That's a stupid start!"
"How would you know that!"
"How do you know anything!"
She through something at Ling and ran from the room. It was the yin half of necklace he bought her for doing her best on the match making day.
The house Lan Fan took Al to was now cleaned up, beside the blood stains. Whenever Lan fan was sad or fed up she would normally go there now and Alphonse could go get her if it was getting late and she hadn't returned.
This time she was only there for 30 minutes before he arrived. He held out a box. "I found a stray cat" he beamed sitting next to her. "I've called him Terry" (after Trisha – his mother) he said placing the kitten on the floor.
"I used to have a cat, the bed should be in the closet in my old room" she muttered making Alphonse run upstairs. As he came back down carrying a box of cat stuff she spoke happily "you've never mentioned your past before" and started to lay everything out.
"You never ask" she lifted her head up properly and turned to face him.
Silence fell between them as Alphonse played with his kitten before he broke the silence.
"How come you shown me the way here if you say no one else knows about it"
"because I don't want anyone else to know" then she turned and faced him with a soft smile. "And you can keep secrets"
"what where you doing in that part of the town at that time of night?"
This question made her freeze momentarily, "I had business"
"what business?"
"Not yours" she answered flatly to avoid another argument.
"So what about to your cat?"
"She was called lucky, She was completely black furred, and my dad used to call her 'little ninja' but she got hit by a carriage" she answered without any emotion and she twiddled her fingers.
"So tell me about your parents?" Alphonse asked uneasy, scared he might offend her.
"Well my dad was a ninja like the whole of his family, and my mum was a house wife, like I should have been. Because I'm a girl I shouldn't have been a ninja so my mum was teaching me chores and I think I was going to have a little brother, but I was always more interested in what my dad did than my mother, so he used to tell me stories about his job with grandfather." Her gaze dropped to the floor.
"He used to sneak me in the dojo as a boy and let me fight the other kids" a smile appeared but vanished almost immediately "unfortunately my family are known to be the heir to the Yao clans' bodyguards so we were attacked during the night. My farther had just come back from an assignment and wasn't very stable but he put up a good and my mother didn't know a thing about self-defence, she was always defenceless. That's why there's blood around the house" Her voice stayed strong but a few tears fell onto the floor
"my grandfather killed the men not long after both my parents died and were after me. I wasn't seen outside as a girl and there were no other hairs to my family, I was raised as a ninja and pretended to be a boy. The only people who ever knew I was a girl were the young lord and my grandfather. Until I went to Amestris that is"
and then she burst into tears.
Ling had finished making plans with his first wife - Yao clan and was fidgeting with the necklace Lan fan threw at him between his fingers.
"What's that?" a guard asked him in a curious and friendly voice. Without even thinking about how casual it was for a palace guard he answered with a dull plain voice "its half of the necklace I gave Lan fan for being good preparing for her match making day"
"half?"
"It's a two half necklace of yin and yang. I gave her both half's so she could decide who got the other"
Then it accured to him that guards should be formal and turned behind him to see no one there. He gave a deep sigh and continued with his fidgeting.
After about three hours Ling hand finished his paperwork and was in the middle of a stroll in the royal garden. It started to rain heavy.
Lan fan was slowly walking back to the palace. Alphonse he knew a storm was coming and it would scare the kitten so he had headed back to the palace an hour beforehand. But Lan fan still wanted time to think so she stayed awhile.
The cold damp atmosphere filled around her. Pain filling her left shoulder. (When it rained automail gets barometric pressure). She stopped walking and hunched over slightly holding her stomach with her flesh arm. The pain was making her feel sick. She lifted her head to look around her and ran down the road, stumbling on her dress a few times as she went.
The cobblestone flicked water up as she ran down it, making the dirty water cover the hem of her skirt. The rain started to come down heavier, now she was thick with water. Her dress clinging to her as she ran, and her hair becoming heavy with water. Quickly she ran into an alleyway to vomit out of sight.
Ling had snook out of the palace looking for his female friend, necklace gripped in his hand. Starting to shiver as the cold water fell. His spiky hair that normally stuck up at angels going flat, the water dripping off the end in-front of his face. 'What could she be doing?' he thought to himself as he searched.
Since no one had eyes like ling, he couldn't ask anyone if they'd seen her because they'd know it was him. And he didn't want that. All he could do is use his sight and sense of chi to find the missing girl. And hope for the best – that she was safe.
***
he had been out for two hours now, the rain now turned into a thunder storm making ling worry – thunder was attracted to metal. He froze and his heart hammered his chest, finally he could feel her chi. immediately, he ran in her direction, desperate to see her again.
She was hunched over on the floor, soaked through with water, mud all over her dress and hands and a pool of vomit infront of her. He face crumpled in pain. She didn't seem like she was willing to move so ling did the first thing that came to her. He carried her over his shoulder – like he did during their first encounter with King Bradley/wrath.
The pain was agonising. It felt like someone was twisting her nerves system, mussel tissues and flesh in her left shoulder. She was unfocused and didn't know what was going on besides the pain filling her body making her sick to her stomach. She could hear the lightning but couldn't think anything of it, and felt the familiar grip around her waist but couldn't see who it was. She felt disconnected and couldn't even bring herself to talk as her mind was going in circles. She really did feel like a doll at the moment. And before much longer she slipped into unconsciousness.
She could feel the warm soft fabric pressed against her face and the smooth silk over her. She was lying on something soft, the comfiest thing she had ever laid on. She felt like she was floating, everything was so peaceful. Letting herself melt into the moment.
Then she could feel warm lips pressed against her cheek for a second, without any thought she let out a low satisfied hum. After a second she realised what had happened. Someone had kissed her and she loudly announced she liked it-she didn't even know who did it.
She shot open her eyes and her face became flustered, she was in the emperor's room. 'Oh god' she thought as she slowly sat up, trying to think of an excuse to the hum she had made. When she was fully sat up she could see ling (wearing nothing but a robe over him- closed tightly) and Len (in his work gear) standing at the foot of the bed glaring at her, smiles on their faces. Making her go even redder.
"You're right. She does blush around you. Never thought I'd see her look like that" Len mussed. She wanted to shout 'shut up', but couldn't bring herself to speak.
Instead she tried to remember what had happened before she fell asleep. The memory coming back made her quickly pull the sheets up over her. She could see her arm but when she was out in the rain she had long sleeves, once the cover was up she looked down to check what she was wearing.
She had a red short sleeve silk shirt on with a black trim on it and white baggy trousers.
"That's Len's stuff" Ling explained, understanding her sudden actions of panic "all my stuffs in the wash" he added on as she looked up, embarrassment glistening in her eyes.
"Automail gets bad in the damp atmosphere right? So we thought if we got you dry and got you warm you might feel better. Looks like it worked" Ling added with his usually friendly smile.
She couldn't help but wonder who kissed her.
LOB note: so this chapter is longer than the others and i don't really know what else to say about it. i intended something else to happen but i decided that it be better later on without Ling/Len, i haven't decided yet.
Also, I've got too much idea's of Ling and Lan fan for this one story and they don't all fit, so i might starts another one after this ha-ha
So i wanted to know what you people think of Len? i know what happens but i wanted to know what all you guys think of him before i add him in more/less. please answer my question :) (i mean i always answer yours asap haha xxx)
thank you so much for reading :) i can't wait to here what you think of this chapter
Also, i named this chapter after a Randell quote from Monsters inc/uni because the next films coming out and my sisters obsessed with him so it's like a little shout out to her (not that she's reading it haha)
