Special thanks to Gwen and Hunter, the adorable little redheads I babysit who gave me ideas for this chapter, and for the lovely Lillie (Lily) lady who helped me conceptualize it.

"Where could they be?" Al wondered out loud as he searched around the house. "I don't know…" he mused before turning around the corner.

"Aha! I got you!"

Liwu shrieked and hurried away from his father, running down the hall. "Oh no you don't! I'm going to get you!" Al said, hurrying after him. The little boy was quick for his short legs, but Al caught up to him and swooped him up in his arms, dangling him upside down.

"I got you! I got you!" he cried to the giggling boy, all the while throwing him up in the air.

"Daddy!"

Al caught him and grinned, before dropping him on his feet. "You want to help me find Mommy?" Al asked, holding out his hand. Liwu nodded and took it, dragging Al into the living room and behind a chair that sure enough, his wife was hiding behind.

"I got you, I got you!" the boy chanted, grabbing onto Mei.

"Good job," Mei congratulated.

"Now it's your turn to count, Liwu. We're going to hide and then you have to try to find us."

"Kay!" The boy stumbled his way around the corner and put his hands over his eyes.

Al searched the room quickly with his eyes, trying to find a place that he would be able to hide that would allow Liwu to find him, but not so obvious that he wouldn't have to search.

He eventually decided for the space between the couch and the wall that wasn't entirely visible from the corner that Liwu would emerge from.

Mei went behind the same chair she had hidden behind before. "Six, Sev, eightnineten!"

The boy came hurrying around the corner and made a beeline right for the chair Mei was crouched behind.

"Found you! Found you!" he called out when he caught sight of her. Mei smiled and threw up her hands in defeat.

"You found me, Liwu. Do you know where Daddy is?"

The boy frowned, before searching the room with his eyes. He couldn't… Mei nudged him in the right direction, and the boy hurried over there, chanting "I found you!" when he caught sight of his cramped father.

It took Al nearly five minutes to pull himself out of the small area, and when he finally managed, he seemed rather grumpy about it all.

"You told me where to find me," he said sourly, mock glaring at Mei.

"I did not!" Mei protested. "Liwu did I tell you where to find Daddy?"

The toddler shook his head emphatically. "She didn't!"

"And it's your own fault for hiding there," she said, raising her chin at him.

"I was trying to make sure he wouldn't find me. And it was really hot, it wouldn't hurt to have some sympathy."

"It's been hot for the past couple of days, Al, you should have known better." Very true as it happened. The past few days had been oppressively hot, to the point where it seemed hard to breath around noon. Al should have known better than to hide in such a small area.

Al stared at her warningly, before finally shaking his head. "Fine. I give up! I give up! So… who wants to go again?"

"Goodnight Liwu," Al said fondly, kissing his son on the forehead. "Sleep well."

"Night Daddy," the three year old said as Mei tucked the blankets in around him.

"I love you."

"Love you Mommy," came the muffled voice as he turned over and face planted into the pillow.

Al smiled and closed the door behind them, leaving just a crack open so that Liwu wouldn't be lost in the darkness. He hated completely darkness. Al couldn't entirely blame him.

Mei was smiling as well as she hooked her arm through Al's and began walking towards their room. They walked in silence, not wanting to risk disturbing Liwu's sleep. The companionable silence carried into their room as well. Neither of them needed to communicate to complete their nightly rituals anymore. They both changed into sleeping clothes before Mei sat in front of a brush-armed Alphonse.

He pulled out the braid and began to brush her hair until it was smooth and slightly after. Then he brushed all of it offer her back and over her shoulder to signal that he was done. Mei didn't move though, and Al smiled, moving her into his lap and wrapping his arms around her.

"Is something on your mind?" he asked concernedly.

"Not really. A lot of things, but nothing in particular."

Al paused before grinning. "I think you've been reading too much Xingese poetry again, my dear."

"Al," Mei said, rolling her eyes. Al grinned before nuzzling his wife slightly and kissing her cheek.

"Come on, let's go to sleep."

They kissed once more before getting under the covers of the bed and Mei snuggled into Al's chest. He threw an arm over her and buried his nose in her hair.

Mei didn't exactly mind.

Sleep was easy to find.

Al looked around blearily. Something had woken him up, but he wasn't sure what. It was only when he heard the thunder and saw the light streak across the sky that he realized a storm had woken him up. It took him a few moments to try to figure out why there was a storm going on in the middle of the winter, when he realized that it was actually May.

Not one of his most brilliant moments.

Mei had obviously been likewise startled out of her sleep, and blinked at him, confused.

"Al?"

"It's a lightning storm," he said, yawning. "I guess we're not going to get as much sleep as we wanted tonight."

Mei groaned slightly and rolled over so her head was tucked in Al's chest. "Make it stop."

"I'm an alchemist, Mei, not a worker of natural." They saw the light streak across their windows once again, and both silently began counting. The thunder came along some thirty or so seconds later. They both relaxed.

"Are all the windows closed?"

"They should be," Mei answered.

"We should be fine then."

Al pulled Mei tight and tried to focus once again on sleeping.

Then the door creaked open.

"Daddy? Mo.. mommy?"

Both of them sat up straight.

"Liwu?"

The toddler burst into tears at their voices and came running over to their bed on wobbly legs. Mei reached underneath his arms and picked him up, and the boy curled up against her chest, sobbing.

"What's wrong?" she asked, alarmed. He didn't answer, just shook his head and tried to force his face further against her.

"Scared…" he whimpered when the noise came again.

"It's okay," Mei said soothingly. "We're not going to let anything happen to you."

"But… scared…"

"It's okay," she said again, stoking the back of his head. "You're perfectly safe. Daddy and I will protect you from the evil giants."

"Evil giants?" he asked, poking his head up.

"That's where the sound is coming from. Somewhere, really far away, there are a pair of giants that are really mad at each other. One of them probably stole the other's rock."

"Why… why he do that?" Liwu asked, not letting go of his mother, but looking quizzically at her.

"Probably because he wanted it to make his pile of rocks the biggest. The giants like to have competitions to see who can get the biggest pile of rocks. So one of the giants probably stole another's rock to make his pile bigger. But the second giant didn't like that and they started fighting over this rock."

"So… so the giants make the noise?"

"That's right," Mei said gently.

"The first giant shouldn't stole."

"Shouldn't steal," Al corrected gently.

"Shouldn't steal," Liwu said, nodding as if the grammatical correction had been his idea.

"No, he shouldn't," Mei said, smiling at her men.

"Why they so loud?"

"Because they're really, really angry with each other." The little boy frowned, before an alarming thought occurred to him.

"What if they step on us!"

Both Al and Mei chuckled. "They're too far away to step on us, Liwu. We're perfectly safe. By the morning they'll have stopped fighting and the first giant will give the other one his rock back. And then the sun will come out and everyone can be happy again."

"Why?"

"Because the fighting will be over. So everyone will be happy."

"Why?"

"Because no one likes fighting."

"Why?"

"Because it makes you feel icky inside and sometimes people get hurt really badly. Ask your Uncle Ed. He's gotten hurt really badly in fights before."

"Why he get hurt?"

"Because bad people don't like it when good people try to stop them," Al answered. Liwu stared at his father for a few moments and Al braced himself for the 'why?'. But it didn't come. Liwu just stared before nodding.

"Do I havta go back to bed?"

Mei glanced at Al and he smiled at her, all the sign that she needed.

"If you want you can stay here with Mommy and Daddy tonight."

Liwu nodded enthusiastically and Mei grinned, before lying the boy down between her and Al. His small arms found their way around Mei's neck and Al laid a comforting hand across the child's back.

The thunder didn't seem quite so loud after that.