I didn't start working on this one until a lot later than I should have, but it just did not want to be written. And I did work on a bunch of other things that I think were well worth the time.

She knew it was her fault. Her own stupid idiotic fault.

He wasn't supposed to run away!

They had been running desperately low on food in the house, and Mei really didn't have much of a choice but to go out to the market and pick up some food. And she had taken so many precautions. Liwu was strapped to her back despite his growing age so that she knew he wouldn't be able to run away. She even had some women stop to tell her that he son was adorable, to which she smiled and thanked them.

He wasn't going anywhere.

But then he had started crying. She didn't know exactly why. Maybe someone accidently bumped into and hurt him. Maybe he was starting to feel cramped. But she had to stop and shift the wrap so that he was in her front, facing her.

Then she had to bend over to load the food into the car.

Which was hard to do with a heavy baby knocking off your center of gravity. So she had put him down for a second so that she could get the groceries in the car so they could go home. She even had him hold onto the leg of her pants to make sure that he wouldn't be able to wander off.

But of course, Mei had never had a one year old that was learning how to walk before.

She underestimated how much fun he had walking.

Anywhere.

Disregarding how crazy his mother would go when she realized her little boy had wandered off into a crowded Xingese market and was essentially lost.

"Liwu! LIWU!" she screamed, pushing around and through people, desperate to find him. "LIWU!"

He wasn't anywhere!

"LIWU!" He could get stepped on or kicked or kidnapped or what if he fell and broke something? What if she couldn't find him at all? He would die out here! Who would be able to notice a boy as small as him in a crowd like this? He was in danger! She had to find him!

Mei searched for fifteen frantic minutes that felt more like fifteen hours before she finally heard the crying.

She immediately honed in on it, pushing past people in her way until she found him.

The boy was sitting down in the middle of the pavement sobbing. The moment she caught sight of him she felt the relief flood through her.

"Liwu!"

The boy looked up at the sound of his name and sniffled. "Mama!"

"Oh, Liwu," she breathed, picking him up in her arms and holding him tight to her chest. "Don't ever do that to me again."

He was slightly shell shocked the rest of the ride home, not doing his usual gurgling or gibber jab. Mei's hands gripped the steering wheel so hard she was surprised when getting out of the car that there weren't imprints from her small but strong hands.

Liwu lightened up slightly when they were home. Perhaps he just felt safer there but soon he was happy enough stumbling around the living room. Al had transmuted miniature walls in front of all the places they didn't want the boy to end up, so she didn't worry too greatly about him getting into trouble as she cooked dinner for when Al came home.

He came home shortly after she finished cooking and was more than happy to sweep in and give his son a huge kiss, then her, and then eat a hot meal.

"I don't care what you believe about God, this right here is Heaven," he said as he slipped into a chair and dug into his food. Mei smiled and ate her own food, periodically feeding Liwu his. They were starting to wean him, and so far the process hadn't been exactly smooth. It was very tricky trying to get him to eat the baby food, but it had gotten easier after they had started only feeding him the powdered milk.

She didn't tell Al about what had happened until after Liwu fell asleep. They were planning on moving him into his own room pretty soon, but for now he was still sleeping in theirs. But after she quietly closed the door to their room and playfully escaped Al's attempts to kiss her, she told him in a quiet hesitant voice about how close she had come to losing him today.

Al frowned, his arms bracing her against his chest. "But you got him back safely."

"Well he was just with us wasn't he?"

He ignored her comment, continuing to frown.

"Mei… I've been thinking about this for a while. And I think it'll be an answer to this problem."

"What is it Al?" she asked, pulling away from him so that she could look him in the face.

"I… I want to move to Amestris."

"What?"

"I want to move to Amestris. Resembool. It's… It's my home. It's where I was raised. I want him to know what it was like for me growing up. He can go to the same school that Ed and I went to. We can still teach him Xingese at home. And there will be plenty of space. He can run around and we won't have to worry about him getting hurt. It's a small enough town that even if he did wander too far off, everyone would know whose son he is and who to bring him back to. I'd still be able to do my job. Central is only a 5 hour train ride from Resembool, so I'd be able to do my job from there when they need me."

"Where would we live?"

"Ed and Winry only use their house during the summer. The rest of the year it's completely empty. I'm sure they wouldn't mind have someone around to keep it together. Think about how much Liwu would love to have his cousins around."

"What about his cousins here, Al? Quyi is only a few months younger than him. Ethan's three years older."

"I thought you liked it in Resembool."

"I do Al… but… it's not home."

"Xing's not my home. That doesn't mean I can't love it."

She pursed her lips and looked away. "It was just a suggestion," he said quickly when she didn't respond. "We don't exactly have to start packing the bags tonight. It was just… something I thought of and liked."

Mei picked at the rice in her bowl as she sat in his sister-in-laws private chambers. Not her bedroom, no, she shared that with Ling. These were her private entertaining chambers. Lan Fan never used it except for when Mei came over to visit. It was a good place to let the two boys play together while they ate or talked.

Lan Fan was smiling slightly as she watched her son try to put a block on his head. Mei smiled herself when she caught Liwu's expression as he stared at his cousin.

"Is there something bothering you Mei?" Lan Fan asked, rather abruptly.

"What?"

"Your qi seems… disturbed. Are you alright?"

"I suppose so…"

"Mei?" She didn't answer. "Tell me."

"Al wants us to move to Resembool."

"To Resembool?" Lan Fan asked, raising her eyebrows. "Why does he want to move there?"

"A couple of different reasons. It's where he grew up. There's lots of space there, so Liwu would be free to run about as much as he wanted. He misses it. He wants Liwu to go to the same school he did."

"Do you like Resembool?"

"Of course I do. It's a charming place. It's wide and open and... it reminds me of the Chang providence. I miss it there. But it's not Xing. I'll be the only Xingese woman there. He's asking Liwu to be the only Xingese boy in a class of Amestrians. He asking us to leave this wonderful home that you and Ling got for us…"

"The house is not going to disappear, Mei," Lan Fan said gently. "And Alphonse has been the only blond head in a nation of black hair for a long time."

Mei sighed heavily. "It seems like no matter where we go or what we do at least one of us is always going to stand out. I almost liked it back in the East when we were both outcasts."

"Do you want to go to Resembool?"

"What?"

"Could you be happy there?"

"In Resembool?"

"Yes. I've never been there myself, but Ling said it was lovely. He also mentioned that he and Greed liked Granny Pinako's chicken, but that is no longer there, is it?"

"… I'd be happy anywhere with Al and Liwu."

"We're going to miss you so much!" Mei said, squeezing her sister-in-law in a tight hug. Lan Fan hugged her back.

"Don't get into too much trouble, squirt," Ling said, smirking as he gave his sister a hug as well.

"Goodbye, Aunt Mei," Jun-li said solemnly. "Goodbye, Uncle Al."

"Goodbye, Jun-li," Mei said, smiling as her nephew. He was turning out to be just like his mother. If she hadn't known that Ling was his father, she would be expecting him to take his guard's oaths in a few months. Fu's farewell sounded more like he was blessing them than saying goodbye, but they both just smiled and accepted his pseudo blessing. Quyi shouted a happy "BYE-BYE" at them, and Liwu actually gave him a hug that melted the hearts of everyone watching.

"It's not like you've never coming back anyways," Ling said, giving Mei one last hug. "I've still got my hooks in your husband, so I can technically call him back anytime I need something from—" He coughed slightly. "I mean, I need his help with a particular issue."

"Uh-huh," Al said, unconvinced. "I'm still an Amestrian citizen."

"Yeah, but you married my sister. So, phooey."

Mei grinned. "Bye, idiot."

"Get out of here, bean girl," he said affectionately, putting his arm around Lan Fan's waist.

Al and Mei smiled and turned around, only to here this:

"Daddy, why did Auntie Mei call you an idiot? Isn't that a bad thing to say?"

"She said it cause she's jealous of my awesomeness, Jun-li. That's all."

"'—and Winry made a special trip over here to clean up for you guys, so you'd better not ruin my wife's hard work. Don't change the way things are organized in the cupboards, but feel free to add pictures to the cork board. You two can share the room across from ours. Stay out of our room. Don't do doing nothing nasty'… the rest of it is scratched out. Winry probably made him. This is the last bit. 'Liwu's can take Sara's room. She'll just have to share with Benny over the summer. Glad to have you back in Amestris, Al. From Ed.'"

"I feel terribly welcome," Mei remarked dryly.

"Who knew Ed could be so uptight about his house? You'd think he'd be more than happy to paint it red and hang skulls from the awnings, wouldn't you?"

"Winry's probably trained him well enough by now that he knows what would make her mad."

"Maybe," Al said, grinning.

Mei smiled and slipped her arms around his neck.

"So, this is home now?"

"This is home," he agreed, breathing in the smell of clean air and grass and sheep. No matter how many gardens he visited or how wonderful Xing smelled, this smell would always be his absolute favorite… next to maybe Mei's hair.

Who else read House of Hades? There's a lot to be said about that book (none of which I'm going to say here for people who don't want spoilers) but dude. That dedication was THE BEST.

Also, if anyone's interesting, I wrote a Trisha/Hohenheim piece. "Monster's Offspring". It explains a bit of my head canon regarding Trisha/Hoho. I really need to work on my story about that.

Please review!