AN:

The return of Chen Li has been included by request

by CAB. Here you go, your favorite oc enjoy CAB :)

Chapter Six

The Li Princess

Monday

Chen Li arrived on time, and was joined by an exasperated looking guard fifteen minutes after her arrival. Apparently she made a habit of seeing how far she could push her body guards before they snapped and quit. Ling had heard about this when he was younger, but was unaware of her still being in the practice.

When the guard finally arrived Chen consented to entering the throne room, as she had decided to wait for the man in the garden to make it easier to find her. Ling had been receiving regular updates on the matter. As he was also in the habit of slipping away from his guards, he couldn't really blame his sister for her behavior. Though he had never considered pushing them to try to get them to quit.

Once they had exchanged greetings, and she had presented him with her gift, a red dragon, she got right to the point. "I have heard already that it is your intent to unite the clans, leaving their current leadership in tact. Is this correct?"

"Yes it is. I understand that some may take issue with my proposal as I managed to win the throne all of us were competing for, but I believe it is for the good of our country to unite the clans and end this war."

"I agree. I remain leader of my clan, tensions lower, maybe I can finally convince my advisors that I do not need constant guards. I'm fifteen, nearly sixteen years old and have been in charge of my clan for four years. I know how to defend myself." Chen said. "So, do we have papers already to sign or do they need to be written up? I of course want to read them over to be sure it is for the benefit of my clan as well as yours."

"I will have the papers delivered to your room, so that you may go over it before we sign." Ling said, before allowing himself a smile. "I am glad you are willing to consider the agreement."

"I had hoped whoever won the race would be willing to do something like this. I wasn't involved in the race myself. I rather thought Father was teasing us. I gave up on the idea that the philosophers stone being anything but a fairy tale a couple of years ago."

"The stone is real enough. It's what I gave him." Ling said, forgetting he had decided not to say anything in his surprise. He had no idea Chen hadn't been involved in the race.

"I went to Amestris a few years ago in search of more information and all I ever heard was rumor. Of course, I wasn't there very long, and my escort while I was there was rather hostile, still. I had assumed it just wasn't anything but a children's tale after my time there."

"It's a shame your escort was so hostel. If you ever wish to return, remind me to invite my friends to show you around. They had been a great help to me in my time there."

By now they had left the throne room, and had carried their conversation out into the garden. Chen nodded along, after all she had found the Amestrians overall to be helpful, even her escort was helpful. He just wasn't very nice, and seemed to blame all of the misfortunes the befell them on her. She made sure to point this out to Ling so he wouldn't think she disliked their neighbors, especially if he had friends over there.

"I think overall everyone was nice, I'm sure it was easy enough to find a helpful guide. Mu own guide was helpful enough, he just had a tendency to blame things on me and yell a lot. If you ever have a chance to visit again, I'd avoid asking for someone named Edward Elric as a guide. In fact, if I were you I'd ask for a different one if that's who they name."

Ling choked on air as he tripped when she said Ed's name. He recovered quickly before clearing his throat. "I found Ed to be a bit abrasive but overall helpful myself."

"You've met Edward?"

"Yes, he was the one I mentioned earlier. He's one of my closest friends actually. He can be a bit abrasive when you first meet him, but he grows on you quickly."

"Hmmph. Perhaps. We were twelve at the time, I'm sure he's matured by now."

"He does still yell a lot. Well when his son isn't around. It upsets the boy for people to yell so he tends to keep it to himself if the boy is in the room."

Chen can't imagine Edward as a father. Her memory of him was still frozen on the twelve year old who tackled her to prevent her from traveling the other direction. After blaming the entire fiasco on her. Repeatedly. She would love to see him again though, if only to tease him again about the whole thing.

Ling left her then to be escorted back to her room where the treaty was sitting for her to read and decide if she agreed to the terms. Ling had invited her to join him and his family for dinner that evening. She had arrived on time, without her guard for dinner later that evening. Lan Fan, Ling, and Mei met her for dinner, but the children had been left in their apartment with the nurse to feed them and get them settled in for the evening.

The evening started calmly and happily enough until she realized that she was talking to an alkahestry expert. Chen lit up immediately in a way that would scare most people. Team Mustang had been immune to it, and it was the one thing Edward seemed to be on the same page as her over, though he had told her it would take too long to teach her. Perhaps she could convince Mei though.

Wednesday

Chen had signed the treaty after carefully reading it and deciding it was in the best interest of her people. Ling was glad to learn that she was happy with it all. Chen came from one of the larger clans, with medium influence and money. She had come to an agreement with Mei on training, and would be staying in the palace for the next few months to begin her training.

As such, instead of the temporary guest suite she had started out in, she was now in an apartment on the same floor as Ling and Mei. The third apartment suite on this floor had been set aside at Ling's insistence, for the Amerstrian party that would be arriving in a few days. Chen had asked if Alphonse would be coming as well when Ling mentioned Edward was part of the party.

She had missed the glare sent her way from Mei, but was disappointed to learn that Alphonse would not be joining them because he was still recovering. She was happy to learn he had regained his body. A secret she had been privy to only because of their unplanned camping trip. She considered Al a friend, they had even exchanged letters for awhile, though they had piddled out over a year ago now. It was much her fault as Al's, she wasn't good at keeping up with correspondence. Edward also had not been informed of who Al's penpal was, or he probably would have written a few accusatory letters himself.

Mei had started her training this morning, beginning with testing Chen's knowledge of basic elements. After a couple hours of testing, Mei had said they were done for the day, and that Chen had a passing knowledge of the basics. Apparently, this was to be considered a compliment, but Chen was insulted. She'd studied every form of science she could find for years now.

Mei didn't seem to notice Chen's insult, though she did mention to their brother that they were going to need a second tutor to take over once Mei took up her new teaching post in a few months. Chen took that to mean she was an acceptable student and her irritation settled. There was no point in irritating another possible teacher and alienating them at this point. There was time enough for that later if Mei turned out to be a bad teacher.

Chen had learned one important fact from her time on holiday. Alchemists were high-strung. She was also pretty sure that Edward had been honest when he said he was refusing because it would take too long to teach her. After all, most complex disciplines take far longer than a week to learn. She planned to tease Edward when she got the chance though. He had been fun to rile up.

For today though, she was going to spend time with Ling and Huan and Ping. Ling was happy to learn she liked kids, since she was going to be around for awhile as Mei's student. He actually compared her to a hungry Mei to Lan Fan the other night. Lan Fan had since agreed that she saw a bit of Mei in her. As well as some Ling. She insisted that Chen was mostly just herself. Ling agreed, but it didn't stop him from thinking of her as 'Hungry Mei'.

The four of them were wandering around the garden, letting Huan run ahead slightly, before Ling would step forward and draw the boy back over to them if he went too far out. Chen had offered to carry Ping for awhile, to make it easier for Ling to chase Huan. It was a sign of trust that Ling allowed it, one that he wasn't entirely comfortable making, but he WAS going to be right there next to her, and he sensed no ill will from her. He reluctantly agreed.

He passed the baby carefully into her arms, and watched her closely as she adjusted her hold to shift the baby into a slightly more comfortable position. He suddenly regretted making fun of Edward's overprotective nature as he casually 'suggested' she would be more comfortable sitting with the baby rather than standing. She waived off his suggestion, and he cringed. He managed to hold off before quoting Edward.

To smooth any hurt feelings, Ling quickly changed the subject to what little he knew about Alchemy. This worked rather well, and soon they were wandering back toward the palace. Chen promised to join them for dinner, and then disappeared into the city to check in on her people. She would be staying in the palace as once again her guards had mysteriously quit on her. Ling had accepted this with a completely blank face that hid his humor.

She was happy to Be here, soon in the presence of two great alchemists, but she wasn't going to seem to eager and ruin her leverage on the treaty negotiations. The treaty had been fair enough, and was already signed, but it still was the principle of the thing.

Friday

Chen finally swallowed her pride on Friday after breakfast and asked Ling directly if he had Alphonse's current address. Admitting that she had fallen out of touch with him. Ling simply wrote the information down without comment. As he passed the paper off though a thought occurred to him. Chen had admitted to intentionally annoying Edward, so it was to Ling's benefit that Ed not find out Ling gave her the information. It was inevitable he would learn the pair of them had been in contact, but Ling's involvement needed to not become general knowledge. Chen agreed and was gone before he could change his mind.

Ling had no choice but to devote part of his day to preparations for his upcoming coronation. This, unfortunately, meant spending more time with his father. He remembered once, when he was very young, he had hoped his father would notice him. That he would somehow stand out in the crowd at least long enough to tell Ling he loved him.

Ling had long ago given up on this idea. Their father didn't love any of them. He had no idea what the man thought of them, but clearly he didn't love them or he wouldn't be in this situation. He had been given a track device, as had every member of his new family, just in case someone were to try to force the throne from Ling via blackmail.

About an hour after Chen had left the palace, the device he had insisted she take with her just in case sounded the alarm. He jumped in shock at the sound, not expecting to hear anything of the sort as it then changed tones to let them know the location of the tracked object.

Ling wanted nothing more than to go retrieve his sister himself , but as crown prince he simply was not allowed to track her down himself. Instead he was given a sad, knowing, look,which he had become immune to over the years ( though it was fun for him to pretend it had been a challenge ) and left behind so that they could retrieve his sister, who appeared to be on the move should anyone see them.

He had sent twenty of the best palace guards after them. It wasn't for another hour before Ling received an update, and the update was deemed an accident. It was another twelve and a half minutes at this point when the men he sent out to retrieve his siter returned, Chen with them completely uninjured though appearing as though she'd been in a struggle.

She then bragged that she had untied herself and was most of the way through her kidnappers when his men arrived. They confirmed her story, and Ling thanked them before letting them leave the room. As soon as they were gone, Ling came around the desk and enveloped Chen in a hug. She stiffened at first begore patting him awkwardly.

"You, dear sister, are precious to me. I do not wish to hear anything befall you. I reached out to our siblings who have agreed to the treaty, and they all expressed their concern. I should call them before the city is overrun with their men."

"I'm fine brother, it's hardly the first time something like this has happened."

"That does not make it any easier to learn someone took you, and the people in question were already wanted for war crimes. It made it a lot harder to get to them before it was too late. They are more likely to behave irrationally. I'm just glad everything worked out."

"I'm glad it worked out as well as did." Chen said. "The last six times I had to rescue myself. I decided not to wait to see if they came to check on you. "

Ling was once again reminded of Mei and her casual air for the realities of the violence of their people. This was a large part of the reason he wanted to make these changes. He never wanted his sons to be like this, his sisters and he himself were far too use to threats and violence. He'd joined into a foreign war as if it had been a casual game and never flinched! His sister who was so young did the same. He couldn't allow another generation to suffer as they had.