I am so sorry guys. I am soooooo soorrrrryyyy! I didn't update late week and I don't really have an excuse for that. Really really sorry. I'm especially super duper sorry to Cold Flame96 who I promised to have this up by Wednesday and I totally fell through on that. I am so sorry.

If it makes up for it at all, I finally finished and uploaded that one AU from forever ago that was really horrible and I promised to redo. Chapter 12, The First Time They Met AU. It probably doesn't though...

She was tired of his behavior. For the back few weeks Al simply had not been himself. He had been moody, snapped a lot more, and had taken to scribbling furiously in his journal. Hieu had picked up on it too because she and Mei had already had a handful of discussions about his irregular behavior.

They had hoped that maybe it was just the foul weather, but the sun had shone long enough to not only melt, but dry the snow yesterday and he was still acting the same way. Finally Mei couldn't take it anymore.

"Okay, Al. What's wrong?" Mei said her hands on her hips in front of him.

"What?" He was avoiding even looking at her; just staring at the small notebook in his lap.

"What's wrong? You've been acting like a menstruating female for the past week or two. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he grunted. She frowned at him.

"Al."

"What?"

"Seriously." She sat down in front of him so he couldn't help but look at her. "Tell me what's wrong."

"It's nothing, Mei. I'm just… I'm just tired."

Mei frowned. He did look tired, but she was almost positive that this… mood of his was the cause and not the other way around. She just couldn't figure out what was causing the mood. It was anything to do with home, they hadn't had any news from Xing in months let along Amestris. A merchant had decided to take his wares further than ever into the country and was able to give them some two month old news. Now, more like six. Was it something she or Hieu said? Or maybe he was just missing his brother?

"Al, I want to help you, just tell me what's wrong."

"Mei, that's not the problem, so please, just let it go," he snapped. This was so out of character she pulled back a little. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I'm sorry. I just need to work through things, okay?"

She nodded after a short mental deliberation. "I'll send Hieu over with the soup." He mumbled a thanks before scribbling in the journal in front of him again. Mei bit her lip. She didn't even know what was bothering him, and that in turn was bothering her.

She didn't like seeing him like this. It was unsettling and off kilter. He never acted this way. More than anything she hoped he would be able to work through whatever was bothering him and continuing on being the man she knew—and loved

Al was staring, brows furrowed, at the paper in front of him. There were words scrawled over half of its surface, his normally nice handwriting slanted and cramped by frustration.

I don't know what to do.

I'm only writing this because I need to vent somewhat. I obviously can't do that to Mei and Hieu… You're the only person I can confide in which is ridiculous because you're a piece of paper bound with more just like you.

She said she didn't love me.

She said she didn't love me. Not just "I don't love him" she said "I'm not in love with Alphonse Elric." And I always knew that she probably didn't feel the same way about me that I feel about her, but it's completely different knowing this and then having her say that so directly. I don't know what she and Hieu were talking about but her tone said very clearly that what she said was the final word.

I don't know what to do.

"I know what you're upset about." Al's back stiffened and he looked up from his journal to look at the oriental girl. Hieu was standing there holding a bowl of steaming soup and innocent look on her face.

"What?"

"I know what you're upset about," she repeated, setting the bowl down in front of him. "You've been angry since the first day it snowed, when Mei said that she didn't love you."

"… I don't know what you're talking about."

She smiled sadly. "I'm ashamed to say that was partly my fault because I was teasing her about her loving you." Normally when Hieu said something was partly her fault, it was all her fault. That was one thing the Amestrian had learned well about the girl.

"You should totally keep trying though," she said happily. "And telling her how you feel wouldn't hurt. I don't think she would react as bad as you seem to think she would." He narrowed his eyes at her.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're in love with her. You're angry that you think she doesn't love you back."

Al didn't even bother denying it. At this point he didn't care too much if she knew because Mei had already made her feelings clear. Instead he contented himself to rubbing his temples.

"What do you want Hieu?"

"I'm bringing you your soup," she said brightly. He rolled his eyes but the corners of his mouth did twitch upward slightly.

"Goodnight, Hieu."

She smiled widely and turned to walk away from him when she turned around. "Actually I was hoping that you would join me and Mei for my alkahestry lesson. You haven't attended for a while…"

"I'm sorry, but I have to decline."

She pursed her lips and pouted but he just shook his head again. After mumbling a disappointed "Fine", she continued away from him and towards Mei who was sitting with her own bowl of soup.

I still don't know what to do.

He had no intention of coming joining his female companions, but when the lost the ability to feel the tips of his fingers, he also lost the ability to stay away from the fire they were huddled around. So he stood up and walked over to them, plopping himself down without ceremony or greeting.

Both turned to look at him, but Mei looked away almost immediately. At a previous time Al would have winced or something else but he couldn't bring himself to care much. Hieu however continued to stare at him until Mei captured her attention.

"There's very little difference between directing the energy to an object and through an object. For example, you have one circle inscribed on the ground in front of you. One circle is inscribed on a tree and you're trying to make a fist from the tree to… punch someone on the face. That is directing energy to an object instead of through an object. The differences seem subtle, but in the wrong situation they can be perilous.

"Normally with alkahestry, you don't need to know the exact chemical makeup of every item you're working with. Just the simple composition of the ground the energy is traveling through. But in the case of directing the energy to an object, you do need to know more specifics than just that. If you practice enough, it isn't much of a problem, but it is something that you should be aware of."

"Do you have any tips for me for how to do this?"

"Practice," both Mei and Al said at the same time. They glanced at each other, then glanced away.

"You have to practice a lot. It takes a lot of memorization and practice to be able to do it correctly and quickly. Al had the advantage of having been doing alchemy for years where you do need to know the composition of almost everything so that wasn't a problem for him. You however are going to have to work on that. My master told me to make it a game. Try to figure out what everything around you is made of. At first, don't try to do anything unless you're positive you're correct. As time goes on you can slowly—and I mean slowly—wean yourself off it."

Hieu was nodding rapidly and very obviously taking notes in her head.

"Any questions?"

There was a brief bout of clarifications then a quick test. After Hieu passed, Mei proclaimed her knowledgeable on the subject and started putting away her kunai. Al, who felt warm enough to brave the outskirts of camp, stood up to walk away when Hieu spoke up.

"I have something I need to say," she said shyly. Both turned to look at her and she smiled awkwardly. "Uh, well, I want to go home."

There was a brief silence.

"What?"

"I've been thinking about it for a while. I've been traveling with you for… eight, nine months? We never really got around to medical alkahestry, but I can make shapes in the ground five feet away. That was really all I ever wanted to learn. And you've both been really nice and I've loved traveling with you, but it's been a long time since I've gone home. I miss them. And, like you said, what I really need right now is just a lot of practice. That's all stuff I can do by myself."

Al and Mei stared at her for a few seconds before Al laughed. It was the first time either girls had heard him laugh in the past few weeks (very strange for Alphonse) and, though they weren't quite sure of the reason, they both smiled.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have laughed. It just reminded me about me and my brother. How much we used to miss home after months on the road."

"Are you sure, Hieu?" She nodded.

"It's been long enough. I even looked at a map last time where were in a town. It wasn't a very good one, not at all anything like the ones you've shown me from Amestris, but it was good enough to tell me that if I can make it through the Quanglie Mountain Pass, then I should be able to make it home in two or three weeks. Along the way I'll pass that one town that you guys saved from an avalanche. They said that if any of us ever came back they would gladly give us anything that we needed, so I can stop there about half way through and they'll give me supplies. That should be enough to get home."

They didn't answer her.

"I've thought this through…"

"You really want to go?" Mei asked, quieter than usual. Hieu simply nodded.

"In that case…" Al started, "we weren't able to stop you from coming with us, why on earth would we be able to stop you from leaving?

The planning and gathering took a day or two. Each of them individually made sure that the rout she was taking would indeed be the fastest and the easiest. They gathered various supplies and had to check and double check that she would have everything she needed.

The planning took up enough time that Al was forced to discontinue his self-depressing thoughts. He was still feeling rather awful about the whole ordeal, but it had taken a backseat to the flurry of action and planning.

Finally things were ready. Everything was loaded up into the cart which Hieu would be taking home with her. That would leave Al and Mei to return to their pervious pattern of walking and/or hitchhiking, but they had done it before easily enough.

Hieu hugged Mei tightly and Mei hugged back, smiling gently.

"You're like the big sister I've always wanted," Hieu said, smiling widely. Mei blushed slightly and gave her a second hug. Then Hieu threw her arms around Al. He patted her on the back and was about to give her some good last-minute advice when she started whispering in his own ear,

"Don't give up on Mei. You two are too cute together to not get together." Then she skipped away happily, hopping into the cart and waving to them. With a few practiced movements and words, the old horse that had dragged the cart for months started moving and pulled the oriental girl away.

And before she got out of view, she turned around and gave them one last comment:

"And I'd better get an invite to your wedding!"

Mei contemplated yelling something back at her but held her tongue. She might end up saying something she'd regret.

"I'm going to miss her," Al said, rolling his eyes and smiling, even though her comment made an uncomfortable twang in his chest.

"Really?"

"…eh... Yes. I will. I'll miss the cart at least."

"You are a jerk."

"You don't really mean that, do you?"

"Well you've been acting like it this week…" Al winced.

"Sorry. I can't believe it happened again."

"Again?"

"Well um. I've done something like this before," he admitted, staring at the horizon where Hieu's cart was disappearing. "It was while I was in the armor, before we met you. We had just scratched the surface of the homunculus' plot and Ed had gotten pretty beat up. Sergeant Brosh had to move him in a wheelchair for a lot of the time we were there." He was rambling and he knew it.

"But that's, uh, not important. Well Ed was the only one who could sneak into the building—before he got beat up and sent to the hospital—and I stayed outside and fought with the guard they sent, who was just like me. Soul bond to armor. Barry the Chopper, you've heard about him right?"

Mei nodded. "Yes."

"Well we were talking while we fought and he was trying to convince me that I didn't exist. That Alphonse Elric didn't exist. He told me that Ed created me after losing his mother because he was lonely."

"You didn't believe him did you?"

"Not at first." The look on his face was clearly pained. "But as we were stuck in the hospital, I couldn't help but think about a bunch of small stupid things that Ed had said and that I couldn't remember my seventh birthday. I eventually started to believe him. Thankfully, Winry was there to knock—literally, she threw her wench at me—some sense into me." He sighed heavily.

"But I've done it again. I've let a stupid comment... fester and I'm sorry. I've been a jerk."

Mei stared at him for a long time. For a moment Al was afraid that she was angry at him. Then she smiled and launched herself at him in one of her signature tackle-hugs.

"You're back!"

Al laughed a bit wrapping his arms around her. He was interested to see how things would go from here. It still hurt. It still hurt a lot. And it would probably continue to hurt for a very long time. But right now with her arms hugging him (very tightly), he felt like he could maybe manage to make it through.

And if she truly didn't love him… Al was a patient man. And just as determined as his brother.

So Al went into one of his Episode 9 episodes (XP), Mei got mad, Hieu tried to fix things, Hieu went home, Al's now determined to do whatever her can to either wait out/win Mei's heart, and ClosetFMAFan begs for your forgiveness once again! Hahaha!

Please give it.