things have changed for me,
and that's okay,
I feel the same
{p! at the disco}
•••
Ling ate. And ate. Then ate some more, before he finally chose to speak for himself. He wiped his messy hands on a napkin, while the waiter headed over to hand him the bill. Ling whistled, pointing to the three alchemists across the table. Edward looked dumbfounded but accepted it nonetheless as the man put the check in his hand.
"The people of Amestris are so generous," Ling says, smiling widely at them all. "I haven't had to pay for a single meal since I've been here."
"Who said I was paying?" Ed deadpanned, slamming the bill on the table, causing the rickety wooden table to shake, and the dishes atop it to rattle.
The prince ignored the question as he went onto further explanation.
"As Iris said, my name is Ling. I'm the twelfth son of the Emperor of Xing, which technically makes me a prince."
"Yeah," Iris jibed sarcastically, "I doubt that. Prince Charming can't even afford his own meals."
"It's true, but that's beside the point. I came to Amestris from the East, and also saw the ancient ruins of Xerxes."
"You walked?" Al asked, baffled.
He nodded. "Yep. It fortified my interest in some may call a legend." He pointed a finger up in the air. "Are you two alchemists, by any chance?"
"Yeah," Ed spoke. "We all are. Why?"
Ling gave Iris an odd look but kept talking anyway.
"There's something in particular I'm pursuing." His closed eyes opened in slits, giving the two brothers a heavy glare. "Do you have any information on where I can find a Philosopher's Stone?"
Edward and Alphonse shared wary glances before Ed hastily answered, "No, we don't know anything." He crossed his arms and looked at Iris, who grimaced at his transparent lie.
Ling reclined back into the cafe chair, giving a grin.
"Oh, really?" He snapped his fingers.
Before Edward could react, he felt a swift knife against the front of his throat, the sharpness of the dagger pushed to his neck. If he moved an inch, the blade would surely tear his skin. Next to him was a now standing Alphonse, a sword about to be impaled into his armor. Iris stood immediately, backing away from all of them to see the weapon wielders were her new friends.
"How about now?"
"Lan Fan! Fu!" Iris exclaimed in worry. "What are you doing?!" The two guardians didn't answer, their attention focused on their targets.
Edward finally reacted, pushing the blade away from his neck and turning around to meet his opponent.
"You, my two friends, are not very good liars," Ling pointed out, smirking as Edward and Alphonse gave him a glance.
"Friends?!" Ed growled. "That's how you treat your friends?!"
The foreigner only laughed before Lan Fan and Fu struck at them, pushing them back and initiating a fight.
"Don't worry about them," Ling said to Iris nonchalantly as he watched the fight that was sure to come, folding his hands and resting his elbows on the cafe table. "Take a seat. We have much to discuss."
Iris bit her lip, tearing her eyes away from her fighting friends and sitting across from the prince. She tried not to let her resolve slip as she pushed her bangs back away from her face.
"I'm a bit offended," he started, faking an innocent look. "Lying to a defenseless foreigner. I thought we were true friends." He pouted.
"Defenseless?" Iris questioned, glaring. "Maybe you are now, without your little friends."
"Oh? Would you like to really see how defenseless I am?"
There's a smirk playing on her lips. "I'd rather not," she turned down. "Wouldn't want to get blood on this lovely dress." She crossed her legs properly, running a hand through her dark tresses.
"So you lied to me then?" he asks, stating it more like an answer than a question.
"I had to," she replied coolly. "It's nothing personal, really. I'm still not sure of your motives; how can I trust you?"
Behind her in town, she could hear the frantic buzzing of the townspeople as Edward and Alphonse fought the two foreigners who were at Ling's command. Iris had to tap into all her willpower not to go out and help them. Her focus was toward the prince, and she would not give him the satisfaction of knowing she felt cornered.
"Well if you'd really like to know..." The look in his cunning eyes made Iris swallow harshly. "I wish to achieve immortality."
With those words, Iris's worry and fright vanished. She even almost laughed.
"Yeah," she shot back, "like that'll happen. Your chances of that are zero to... well, zero."
"How pessimistic of you," he countered. "But I will soon have a way to prove you wrong."
"Oh? How so?"
"Once I find the stone, I can show you."
The alchemist only laughed. Ling found no humor in her words, so he chose to keep his mouth shut for once and recline even further in his chair, tipping it so that the front legs were hovering above the concrete.
'If only he'd fall,' she mused to herself.
For a while the two stayed in relative silence - something she took for granted before she had ever met the Xingese man - and both had found themselves locked within their thoughts until two heavy explosions sent waves of heat and dust through the city in unison. The alchemist stood quickly, scanning the areas with worry.
"What the hell? Do your friends carry bombs with them or something?!" she exclaimed, holding her arm out to the city for Ling to follow, seeing as he didn't bother to notice the loud collisions.
"Yeah, they do, actually," he replied casually, giving a grin.
"Seriously?!"
She didn't wait for his response, dashing over to the nearest dust cloud, looking for one of her friends.
"Ed? Al?"
"Here, Iris!" she heard an armored voice call from above a tall transmuted pillar. Alphonse dropped down to the ground, Fu tied and captured in one hand, and his mask in the other.
"Nice work, Al!" she complimented, seeing Fu's expression of mild annoyance.
"Yeah, thanks! I wonder how things are going on Brother's side."
On the other side of town where the dust was still settling back onto the earth, a busted and broken automail arm stood straight up above the rubble of the city, wires and bolts hanging from it in defeat. The warrior Lan Fan, although looked to be the victor, had an expression of disappointment, even seen behind her thick black scarf.
"I seem to have overdone it," she remarked to herself, quiet enough so that none of the spectators who had gradually gathered could hear her.
Picking the arm from the debris, she suddenly flung into the air and was suspended by a rope, falling for the trap. Edward appeared below her, his prosthetic arm slung over his shoulder.
"You're as easy to catch as rabbits were when I was a kid," he points out, giving her a smirk as she glared at him. She remained silent, though, knowing she wasn't going anywhere. (At least, not without him looking.)
In the distance, Edward could spot his armored brother running towards him, Iris right behind him. He waved in pride, showing off that he'd caught the enemy. When they finally reached him they stopped, ignoring the crowd of townspeople that sounded riled up.
"Did you catch him, brother?" Al asked, wondering why his expression was so chipper.
"I sure did! It was actually a girl, too. She tried to outfox me, but look at the-" he cut off his own sentence when he turned and looked up to see the rope hanging there, but no 'rabbit'.
"Huh?! But she was just here!" he exclaimed, whipping his head back and forth frantically in search of her. "I just had her! Where did she go?"
"Sorry to say," Iris interrupted, making the two turn to her, "but I think the two of you have more pressing matters to fix." She gestured to the townsfolk that were now completely surrounding the small entourage.
At the realization that everyone was pissed, the brothers found the object of their anger: them.
"Have you noticed our town is in shambles because of you?!"
"My antique shop is ruined!"
"It's just like youngsters to destroy what's not theirs!"
Ed huffed at them in annoyance, putting a hand up to the ones he was facing. "Don't worry about it, I got it!"
"With one arm?" Iris countered, giving him a look that told him he was acting like an idiot.
His shoulders slumped. "Oh. Yeah."
"Don't worry, Brother," Al put a giant gloved hand on his shorter brother's back. "I've got this one." He put his hands parallel to each other and clapped before touching the remains of a pillar that fell apart. It built itself back up, but Edward deflated and sunk down to the ground.
"Ed, are you okay?" Iris asked.
He only groaned.
After dutifully fixing up the town much to the townspeople's demand, the three ventured back to Garfiel's shop.
"Looks like you're about to die a second time today, huh, Ed?" Iris jeered, motioning to the automail disconnected from his body. Wires hung from his shoulder port.
"Oh, shut up," he grumbles, looking at the front of the shop with dread and devastation.
"C'mon Brother," Al encouraged, "It won't be that bad."
He was hit with a tool before even walking in, the metal colliding with his temple and making his vision blurry, unfocused, then black.
"Nice aim, Winry," Iris complimented, giving her a high five. The mechanic chuckled.
"I've had some practice. But anyway, what did he do in the span of an hour to get my beautiful creation into pieces?"
"They kinda got into a fight..." she explains sheepishly, curling the dress in her hands. Winry only huffs, turning away and putting the leftover metal pieces on her messy desk.
"Oh, but it's none of my business, right?"
"Winry..." Al trails, unsure of what to say. Iris stays quiet, trying to revive Ed by shaking him.
"Don't even start, okay?" the engineer defuses, and the exhaustion is evident in her whole body. "I should have Ed's arm finished by tomorrow if I stay up late. He can thank me later."
Al almost says more but is interrupted when there's a knock on the garage door that opens the shop. Winry grunts in annoyance, stomping over to the door and opening it roughly.
"We're closed," she monotonically states.
"Oh, I'm aware!" a familiar voice chips back, making Iris and Alphonse turn their heads. Even Edward lifted his head up. Ling Yao presented himself with such a boisterous demeanor that could be spotted from a mile away. He let himself in past Winry, his two loyal guardians behind him.
"Uh, this is Ling, and his bodyguards," Iris tried to fill in for Winry. "They come from Xing, but they're here to research alchemy in Amestris. I don't really know why they're here right now."
"After our fight, I didn't get to explain any, so I'll do so now, yes?"
The girl alchemist plops herself on the couch next to a semi-conscious Ed, who is glaring daggers into Ling's skull. Lan Fan's glare on Edward is even deadlier.
"As said before, I really am a prince. It is both a shame and an opportunity that my father, the Emperor, has fallen ill. I want to become emperor of Xing. And my best chances are with the Philosopher's Stone. Which is why I need your help. First, we would need to search the central part of this country; I'm sure we can-"
"Woah, woah, woah, wait a second," Ed interrupts, "I did not sign up to help a freeloading foreigner travel across the country to find something I've been looking for my entire life!"
"Ah," Winry sighs. "I really miss Central."
"Me too, actually." Iris agrees, thinking of her step-brother and his team.
"Great!" Ling chimes, wrapping both arms around Iris and Edward's necks. "Let's all go!"
"I want to see the Hughes' again!"
"Oh, me too!"
"We'd get to check in with the Colonel, as well."
"I never agreed to this!" Ed shouts, squirming away from Ling's grasp.
"No one asked you, Ed!" Iris replies with joy. "We're headed to Central!"
