Chapter Eight

The Princess and the Colonel

Imperial Court

The next morning, far earlier than Edward wanted to get up after the long trip they'd just suffered, he joined Mustang and Hawkeye in getting ready to meet with Ling's father and current emperor of Xing. There was still two weeks until the coronation ceremony, and Ed had vowed to do nothing to upset any of Ling's careful planning. That included pretending not to notice a certain sister of Ling's who still owed him an apology.

Winry and Yuery were to join them when they were presented to the Imperial Court, but then she would be free to come back up to their rooms and spend the morning with her new step son, while the other three would be stuck meeting all the people who were deemed important enough to be involved in peace and trade talks.

Roy had just finished fixing all of the pins on Ed's jacket (Ed swore he would figure it out soon enough), when Winry appeared dressed in the same suit as yesterday, as was Yuery. Edward had used a cleaning array to press everyone's clothing last night and left it hanging for them all. Roy and Riza had been sure to thank him this morning.

Roy, Edward, and Yuery had shared one room, and Winry and Riza the other, as they had on the boat. Roy was ever watchful of appearances after all, and he had enemies who would make sure to get rumors back to Amestris long before Roy could stop them if they gave them anything to work with. Plus Roy would much rather Grumman and Madame learn about both the engagement and Roy and Riza from Roy rather than a tabloid. The others had agreed, when Ed and Winry felt the same way about Granny, Al, and Izumi.

Once they were all ready, they walked calmly out the door to be greeted by their guards, both Amestrian and Xingese. The trip to the throne room wasn't long, nor was the wait for them to be introduced. This time, instead of Winry leading the boy, Edward held his hand himself. He was not going to have anyone mistake his son for anyone else's this time if he could help it.

The Court was full, with Emperor Shi sitting high on the throne, with Prince Ling on his left, slightly lower, and the Princess Consort (Lan Fan) on Ling's left. Prince Huan and Prince Ping had been brought in for the occasion as well, and Ping had been set in an ornate cradle, while Huan sat in his new mother's lap. Princess Mei, Princess Chen, Princess Kenja, and Prince Naoko sat on their father's right, youngest to eldest, to indicate he approved of their treaties. Naoko's wives and daughter sat in the front just below the Dias along with his mother, as did Kenja's husband, Akira.

All of these would be introduced to Roy and Edward later, but for now they were to focus wholly on the Emperor and Crown Prince. Yuery was behaving remarkably well, much to Edward's relief. Sometimes the child was entirely too much like him. At times like that he almost wanted to apologize to his Dad and Mom about his behavior growing up. But never his father. His father didn't deserve anything from him.

The meeting officially began at this point, and Winry was able to slip away with the baby. She noticed that She wasn't the only one as she met Lan Fan in the hallway with Huan and Ping, and Naoko's wife and daughter. Lan Fan smiled at them both and invited them to join her and the boys in the garden.

Both Erity and Winry agreed, and followed the other woman outside. Winry was the only one of them not entirely used to being followed constantly, but after last winter she had a bit more experience with it than before. She supposed, as the future wife of one of the most famous men in Amestris, she would have to get used to the idea. After all at any given time a threat could be made that would put her back in the care of bodyguards.

Strangely the idea of it didn't scare her as much as it did when she was younger. Having spent so much time in the company of Roy and his team over the last year, she realized that she didn't hate them as much as she had when she was younger. For now though, she wanted to make a good impression on Ling's family.

The three women settled down to allow the babies the freedom to run around in a small fenced area Ling had ordered set up for the boys. It was still lavishly decorated, but it had a sand pit and several small climbing toys added to entertain them. Ling planned to update it as the boys grew. Winry knew as soon as Roy and Ed saw this, they would be adding something similar to their own yard.

Meanwhile, Shi had wasted no time picking apart the peace treaty Ling and the Mustang-Elrics had written. He was certain he would find fault in the boy's planning, but either Ling was better at this than Shi anticipated, or he was not the one who wrote it. Shi looked over the foreigners and decided the elder likely wrote it.

The treaty would run both communication lines and a railway across the desert connecting their countries for the first time. It would allow for easier trade and communication between them, and hopefully avoid any conflicts that may arise.

Aerugo and Xing already had a similar treaty, which was Shi's only concern. He would not want to lose an allay to gain one. Especially a historically chaotic one. Roy was quick to assure him that the peace talks between Aerugo and Amestris were going well, and a treaty for temporary alliance had been signed last month in preparation for a long term agreement.

With this out of the way, Shi turned the talks over to Ling to allow them to continue to work out the details. He had mostly tuned them out though was surprised to hear that they had agreed to trade alchemy secrets and that two of his daughters would be traveling abroad to begin the training.

Edward had not been informed of the second sister either, but managed to suppress his annoyed expression. He didn't care how much his brother whined. Chin was absolutely not staying with them. Ever. If that meant they had to arrange housing for both her and Mei so be it. Ed would be sure to talk to Roy about it later in private.

He could deal with a lot, the last few months had proven that, but he was not dealing with some spoiled little brat in his house. Ed apparently had brooded on the subject more than he had meant to, because the next thing he knew, Dad was elbowing him in the side to get his attention. Luckily it was not his bad side. He still offered a very frightening glare as he stood.

Roy rolled his eyes at his son's antics, before leading him out of the throne room, luckily no one had really noticed Ed's inattention aside from himself. He probably would have missed it as well, if he hadn't spent years lecturing the boy as Ed tuned him out. The expression shift was subtle but there for those who knew him well.

Imperial Garden

Edward had known, realistically, that he was not going to be able to avoid Chen Li forever. He had hoped it would take more than twenty minutes, and Ling dragging her along to meet up with Ed however.

Ling seemed completely oblivious to Edward's annoyance, though it was unlikely he hadn't seen it. Ling was extremely observant, he simply didn't care. Chen at least seemed as unhappy about being drug about as Ed was to see her. With a sigh, Ed decided to be the bigger person and stand to greet them. He took one last look at where his son was happily playing next to Ling's son and left the play area. "Your Majesty." Ed said with a bow toward Ling.

"You did NOT tell me we were meeting HIM, Brother." Chen said with a pout.

"I'm sorry, I didn't notice you there." Ed said with a smirk. "Perhaps it was the complete lack of manners."

"Surely not, since it is you who lacks manners." Chen replied.

Ling was impressed that they both managed to hold a diplomatic tone the entire time they were insulting each other. Unless someone spoke Amestrian they would be unaware of the argument taking place. Ling suspected that was the reasoning behind the false pleasantness. Still he couldn't risk it escalating, that would be taken as weakness by his father. "Alright guys, that's enough. Chen Dearest Sister of mine, did you not say that you wanted to tell Edward something for a long time now?"

"Oh yes, thank you." Chen said before standing as tall as possible, which still fell short of Ed by about three inches to his delight. "I deeply regret my rash statements that may have had you and your brother forcibly removed from the train when we were young. However, everything that happened after that was your fault."

"Oh wow, did you just almost apologize? Are you alright? Do you need to go lie down for a while, I know that must have been a strain" Edward replied. With that Ling relaxed. The matter had been resolved as best he could hope for with these two. At least until Edward found out about Chen being penpals with his brother, so hopefully well after they leave.

To insure they could avoid that knowledge coming out, at least for today, Ling quickly interrupted to say "Well, now that that's settled, Chen come meet Edward's son. Yuery Elric."

"Yuery Mustang-Elric." Ed said grumpily. He still wanted to argue but knew it was better to drop the matter. "Soon to be Yuery Mustang- Rockbell-Elric"

"Really?" Winry said from next to the boy with a beaming smile.

"Well, yeah. I mean I was kinda hoping you'd want to adopt him." Ed said scratching the back of his head as he often did when nervous. "I mean I meant to talk to you about it before saying anything to anyone but-"

"I would love to Ed." Winry said happily. "Besides he already decided I was his Mama, might as well make it legal."

Chen meanwhile had plopped down on the grass, uncaring of the stains to her dress, to play with the group of babies and toddlers surrounding her. Huan and Yuery toddled over, followed by a quickly crawling Emiyo. Ping waived an arm around briefly from his mother's arms after being left behind by the others before settling back into her chest.

Ed watched Chen playing with the three children who all seemed to adore her. At least children liked her, he decided. He would never count her among his friends, but he was no longer going to throw her in the enemy pile either. Not after the things he had seen and done.

She was a part of his childhood, probably one a the last parts. He didn't really want to know her, but he could accept that in the grand scheme of things…the truth was they had both been kids when it happened. His Dad was right, he had held this grudge too long.

That reminded him, Ed probably should swing by Resembool long enough to make amends with a couple of bullies from his childhood, provided they had grown up to be better people. If they were still thugs, then they could forget all about him being mature.

Winry decided not to ask what was going on inside Ed's head until they were in private because she knew that look well enough to know he was scheming but it had nothing to do with their current visit. Instead she sighed and distracted him by demanding to know if he had been oiling his leg.

Ed insisted he had, Winry didn't believe him, and Ling found the whole thing amusing. Chen asked politely if she could watch him oil the thing since she had never seen it done before. Surprisingly to everyone aside from Chen, Ed agreed. Chen knew from their trip before if she asked politely he usually said yes as long as something was possible…or she hadn't already pissed him off.