DISCLAIMER: Fullmetal Alchemist does not belong to me.

3

Duty

Edward studied and researched for several months in the West after declaring his feelings to Winry who, in turn, spent that period in Rush Valley to continue her training at Atelier Garfiel. They kept in touch by phone and, as their feelings strengthened and they found out what they wanted for the future, they started talking about marriage. Of course, Pinako and Alphonse had to be the first ones to learn about it.

Winry and Edward were young, practical and not interested in ostentation, so they planned something very simple only with close family and friends. They arranged a brief ceremony at the Resembool registry office and a small reception at the Rockbell house's garden. Besides not wanting too much attention to their private lives, the soon-to-be bride and groom were on a tight budget.

Prince Ling was definitely unable to attend due to his appointments in Palace, but asked Mei to go on his behalf and sent with her symbolic and luxurious presents for the couple. On the prince's request, Jerso and Zampano's new boss gave them special permission to go as the princess and her ladies' bodyguards. Alphonse and the Xing group arrived in Resembool few days before the wedding.

The reason why Mr. Yunan and other royal assistants didn't go with Mei and her Ladies-in-waiting was because Alphonse informed beforehand that there were no inns at Resembool, and the Rockbell house was not big enough to host a lot of people. Thus, upon arriving in town, Edward went to the station to pick them up in a borrowed horse cart.

The brothers smiled broadly when they saw each other for the first time in months.

—I'm sorry, I know this isn't a suitable carriage for a princess and distinguished ladies.—Edward stated after greeting everybody in the group—But that's all we've got here. Come, there's enough room for your luggage.

Once at home, received by the Rockbells, the former militaries and the Xingese royal visitors set themselves to be helpful with preparations for the wedding in return for the kindness of having them. Alphonse, Zampano and Jerso did a thorough cleaning of the whole house and, when the day came, they set up the tables and chairs in the garden. Mei, Shanshan and Wangli decided to help with the food and the attires.

Winry was not particularly interested in looking flamboyant and bought only a simple yet elegant dress. She had no veil nor bouquet, so Mei decided it was the time to give her some of the presents she chose for the bride. The Xingese girls embellished Winry with a fine embroidered fabric, used as a veil, and jewels matching her outfit and her eyes. The result was charming. They intended to dress Pinako up, too, but she insisted in wearing a simple dress and a brooch she received from the princess as a gift.

Paninya, Dominic LeCoulte, Garfiel, Heinkel, Darius, the Curtis family, the Hughes family, Sgt. Denny Brosh, 2nd Lt. Maria Ross and Master Sgt. Kain Fuery were some of the notorious friends who were able to attend the wedding. Major Alex Louis Armstrong couldn't be present, but sent with Ross and Brosh a check for a considerable sum attached to a lengthy and overly sentimental letter. Brigadier-General Roy Mustang sent a much smaller amount and a sarcastic note with Fuery.

Sitting near his friends, with a full stomach, clapping and laughing, Alphonse couldn't take his eyes off the newlyweds. Those two finally had the guts to accept the truth. He kept thinking of the life they had ahead of them. The younger Elric then sat still and shed a single tear, smiling silent. Mei put her hand on his shoulder after noticing the sheer joy of his expression. He reciprocated touching the back of her hand and holding it, the first physical contact they had since that day she cured his injuries at the house in Xing.

Since Alphonse offered his bedroom for Mei, Wangli and Shanshan to use it, he slept in the living room, as well as Zampano and Jerso. The morning after, before sunrise, the Elric brothers got up and, as quietly as possible to avoid waking everybody up, groomed themselves. Winry joined Edward minutes later. Drowsy, Mei left the bedroom to go to the bathroom and was spotted by Alphonse on her way back.

—Would you like to come with me?

Alphonse's invitation startled Mei. She rub her eye and squinted, questioning.

—We're paying a visit to my parents.

Her countenance changed and, with a gesture, she asked him to wait. The girl joined him few minutes later on the stairs, combed and dressed.

The newlyweds walked arm in arm towards the graveyard, Edward holding a bouquet. Beside them, the two young friends, Mei being followed by a curious Den.

oOo

Few months after Alphonse and friends' return to Xing, the Emperor's death flooded the national media and all aspects of society. Everything seemed to suddenly shut down, from small businesses to national institutions. The whole country declared the strictest mourning: all joyful decorations were taken down and nobody would be allowed to wear red, pink, yellow or any other bright colors for a year.

In this kind of situations, Alphonse would have stayed by a friend's side to give emotional support after the loss of a loved one, but Mei's case was a particular one. The Emperor had been an emotionally distant father to her and thus she was not fond of him. However, she and all of her siblings, along with their mothers, were required to be always present during the multiple funeral rituals, which included long periods of vigil, fasting and praying. Due to the constant pressure and vigilance she was under, there was no way he could support her. Besides, the first night he had to stand silent in the palace square, along with hundreds of people, all dressed in white.

Alphonse didn't see Mei nor heard of her for at least six weeks, during which he studied and trained mostly at the house until some activities were gradually resumed. Shaoshi Temple was still too silent when he and the other students went back to training. Near noon, when most went home and the temple seemed desert, the young alchemist sat in a bench next to the training yard. He then felt somebody approaching.

He received her facing the corridor she came through, watchful.

—I knew it was you.

The Princess was thinner and had dark circles under her eyes. She stood in front of him, tilting her head to the side.

—How so?

—Yeah! I mean… I felt you! I knew it was you coming minutes ago, I felt your chi feet away from here!

She opened her mouth gasping and smiling.

—You mean…? Do you feel it now? The Dragon's Pulse?!

—Yes!—He stood up quickly out of excitement—I don't know how I was unable to feel it before, it's everywhere!

—It's everywhere. It surrounds us, it's the very energy of earth.—She stated in a warm tone. Then, her voice changed to playful—So… I've heard that your position and breathing are much more stable and that your strikes are more precise now.

—That's what they told you? Oh, no, I've struggled a lot. You see, I try every day, I might not be as terrible as I was on day one.

—Care to show me?

Mei walked backwards to the yard, rolling up her sleeves, getting ready for sparring. Alphonse was puzzled.

—What? Wait, are you sure? It seems to me that you are in no condition to fight.

—Neither are you, yet here we are. Come on, show me.

Moving her finger, she prompted him to get close to her, but he didn't move. As a result, she approached him again and attacked.

—Now that was fast!—She said, proud of the speed of his blocking.

Kick after kick, he kept in a defensive position, dodging and blocking every strike she aimed at him according to the correct techniques. She stopped to protest.

—Are you trying to bore me?

Mei's attacks got faster and more aggressive, causing the young man to finally attack, just the way she wanted.

Panting, they looked at each other in the eyes and smiled defiant to continue forcefully. She pulled some of her tricks, although he was able to avoid most of them. Then, applying a new technique he was recently learning, he threw a swift side kick that bruised her fingers. He stopped immediately and approached her, worried.

—I'm sorry! Let me… oh, no, I shouldn't…

—It's okay, it was my fault, I was slow. I should have avoided it.

—Don't say that, I was too harsh.

He tried to rub her fingers in an effort to alleviate her pain, but that only made it worse. Alphonse then noticed the remains of a long, blurred scar crossing her right forearm.

—What happened here?

—Long story, you don't want to know.

He saw her with a concerned countenance, urging her to talk. She then sighed and spoke.

—This happened years ago, long before going to Amestris. One of the most favored concubines disliked me and my mother and targeted us whenever she had the chance. Well, she still does. That time she was missing a valuable hairpin and searched everybody's pockets and rooms and, not finding it, thought I was the one who stole it and hit me with a whip. It was just one stroke and I put my arm over my head as a defense reflex. Sage Liu stood up for me. At the end, turned out it was her dog that buried it in a garden.

Alphonse looked down and took a deep breath. He couldn't find a right answer to that story that showed him more of her life in palace, far from idyllic. Then, he drew a purification circle on the ground, holding the injured hand, and healed it.

Baffled, they stared at the circle and the cured fingers. Then, with both eyebrows raised and eyes wide open, looked at one another and laughed.

oOo

Following Alphonse's first minor healings with Alkahestry, Wei Liu had him perform increasingly complicated processes, both in animals and people, even his own patients. Sometimes the young Elric did the same on trees and other plants to try the effectiveness of adapting those techniques. Afterwards, he worked long hours to compile his alchemy and alkahestry notes on organic tissues and anatomical functions. Scar's brother's research was also important support material. He polished and redid some transmutation circles and, once he thought he was close to an answer, he showed his work to his professor.

Apologetic, Liu admitted never having thought nor heard about bringing a chimera back to its original form, since the very concept of merging two living beings was unknown in Xing. Both professor and student thought of doing a final search in the very roots of the sciences, the ruins of Xerxes. Alphonse contacted Edward in Amestris, now dedicated to research, a leader in his field. The older brother was planning a trip to the archaeological site, too, since he needed to gather more data. All they had to do was arrange an expedition with the right people, supplies and equipment, always having in mind Alphonse's general health and Edward's automail needs, and wait for the mourning period in Xing to end.

Ling Yao's enthronement ceremony took place early next year, near the end of the winter. He became officially Emperor and took on responsibilities as such right after his father's death, but no celebratory ceremony could be held during the mandatory mourning. Princess Mei Chang became his close adviser and, as a master of alkahestry nationwide, she took interest in Alphonse Elric's project and provided him with what he needed for his expedition to the desert.

The Elric brothers would have never imagined they would once reunite in the middle of a desert, in the ruins of what was once their father's homeland centuries ago. Yet there they were, the older with a leg prostheses specially created for extreme temperatures by his wife, the younger one escorted by his alkahestry professor and a physician to help him in such harsh conditions. Their crews were well aware of this situation, so both hurried to set up the tents and survey the area.

Alphonse kept the artifacts and photographs he needed and left the rest to Edward to take to Amestris, since he didn't want to go back to Xing too burdened. Besides, the younger brother had a royal benefactor that helped him lavishly, but the older one was required to give up part of the findings to the government, since the military provided him with his team and material.

Back in his studio, Alphonse scrutinized thoroughly all the documents he had gathered and the papers he wrote with his interpretations. He added the information drawn from the circles and murals of the ancient city and started doing his testing. Once he got a result he was satisfied with, he showed it to Wei Liu, along with his essays.

They needed an empty house, so the staff took the day off under Mei's command. Only the professor was waiting in the living room while Alphonse, Zampano and Jerso stayed at the basement. At first, the process didn't seem to work and the former militaries began to lose hope, but then the change started. The reaction grew progressively and became so aggressive it caused a tremble in the house that broke some windows and pieces of pottery. Liu ran downstairs to find the Amestrians lying on the floor fainted, Jerso and Zampano badly wounded. The animals they had been merged with were dead.

Not only the reverse transmutation affected the former militaries' bodies, but also took a toll on Alphonse who, after being unconscious for two days, woke up to a delusional state that brought him back to the terrifying nightmares and convulsions he suffered right after he got his body back. Mei and the professor stayed with the Amestrians in the hospital and confirmed that the transmutation had been successful, however gruesome it looked. Zampano and Jerso were human again.

oOo

He felt the house too big and silent for him since his friends returned to Amestris to rebuild their lives. He knew he had mastered the arts of alkahestry after helping them regain their original forms and his professor refused to continue teaching him. Emperor Ling offered him a position as royal tutor to teach Amestrian to his younger siblings, but Alphonse was uncomfortable in palace, surrounded by judging glances, stiff protocol and evil tongues that despised his appearance and his accent, reminding him that he could never be part of Xingese society. His answer to that offer was a subtle "let me think about it".

He started spending more time at Shaoshi Temple to train, meditate and talk to Mei at every opportunity. In the house, he locked himself to go over his alkahestry notes, write home and read. Since his first day in the country he got used to buy newspapers to practice his readings skills in Xingese and started cutting pictures and news that drew his attention, and glued them to a journal, sometimes adding his thoughts in neat cursive. He cut with special care and highlighted the news related to Princess Mei Chang, most of them informing of her public acts and social awareness speeches. Some shallow media scrutinized her outfits and displayed her as a stylish girl, one of the best dressed royals in the world. Some others, more insidious, implied a concern about her interest in a blonde young man that, however brilliant and being from an illustrious family, he was still a commoner and a foreigner. Of course, he did not cut those articles.

By that time, his combat skills were advanced and, as a proficient fighter, he was put under increasingly difficult examination at the temple. Near the end of summer he and his training partners were asked to hold a competition to show their swordsmanship skills and, indeed, as a form of assessment. No incidents were expected, since the students were already familiarized with swords by then. Nevertheless, Alphonse was uneasy due to his loss of sleep and constant nightmares after the event with Jerso and Zampano. During combat, he was unable to dodge an attack and his contender's sword cut him right under the ribcage. It was not a deep wound, the weapon only cut skin, but it was long and it bled profusely. The picture reminded him of Martel's blood running out of his armor. He fell on his knees with his palm on his forehead and the monks rushed to help him.

oOo

Both were aware of his achievements. He had already accomplished the goals that made him go to Xing in the first place: learn alkahestry and get his friends' original bodies back. On top of that, he received the best combat training and acquired a new language. Somehow, both of them refused to let go in hopes that they would be able to spend more time together, since they became such close friends. But that was one of the problems: she was his only friend in that country. Nobody else saw him worthy of being part of Xingese society. He had been welcome and a novelty two years and a half ago, when the highest ranks in palace wanted to receive the son of the Sage of the West and have a favorable relationship with Amestris. Afterwards, however, he became an exotic nuisance.

Alphonse decided that his time in Xing was over and remembered that he wanted to visit other eastern countries, too. After thinking it through he talked about his decision with Mei, who supported him and asked the staff to help him prepare for a long trip. The afternoon before his departure they sat at the garden of the house he had lived in all that time, observing the fish in the pond. She had just turned sixteen: he delayed his plans to celebrate with her.

—You changed two men's lives, Mr. Elric. All those sleepless nights and that journey to the desert paid off. You're a hero.

—I'm far from that. It was a promise I made to them, how could I break it? They have families and a life ahead.

—You have a life ahead of you, too. All those countries you'll get to know.

—I was going to say the same about you. Mei, the great princess of the Chang house. Years ago, when we first met, you were so worried about your people, and now you're their advocate. You are the real hero.

She threw a twig at his shoulder, as if she was saying "stop".

—If you ever go to Amestris, you know…

—Are you implying that you'll never come back to Xing?—She raised one eyebrow, teasing him.

—Oh, sorry, I didn't mean that! I might come back once in a while. But if you have a chance… you know, one of those public appearances, princess stuff.

Her expression turned to a half smile.

—Are you going back to Resembool?

—I'm not sure. There isn't much to do there. Maybe I'll spend some time at Central City, working and studying.

—You really are a bookworm.

They both laughed.

—Can I at least send you one or two pictures of my trips and my hometown?

—Please, do! Why become strangers after all this time?

—After all you did for me in this country.

Mei took a small notebook out of her purse and wrote an address. She tore the page, folded it neatly and put it in his hand.

—You may not be able to write directly to palace, but you can send correspondence here. This address belongs to my friend Yi. We've known each other since we were four, when we started training at Shaoshi Temple. She will give me your letters without risk of them getting lost or read by the wrong people.

Alphonse put the note in his pocket. He then noticed her hand touching his forearm and looked around to see if nobody was watching. They hugged tightly.

—Are you not coming to see me off at the station tomorrow?—Alphonse asked, trying to conceal his trembling voice with a smile.

—Of course! But I won't be able to hug you. You know, all those eyes watching.—The princess dried her watery eyes with her sleeve.

The morning after, the house staff put his luggage and gifts at the entrance and, one by one, bid farewell and wished him the best. Mr. Yunan got out of the limousine to help him load his suitcases and opened the door for him to sit next to Mei, Wangli and Shanshan. Upon arrival, they all entered the train station all the way to the platforms; the Ladies-in-waiting and the driver said goodbye in the most formal way. Alphonse and the princess smiled at each other and, when he got in the train, they waved according to the regal norm. He thought of her face while on the train and beholding new landscapes.

oOo

During four years they kept in touch, addressing topics such as ethics, the need for better applications of alchemy in human health, among others. First, their letters crossed the same path as Alphonse through Aerugo and the sea. Then, after General Mustang and Emperor Ling agreed on strengthening relationships between the two nations, their letters crossed the desert. Subsequently, they were able to talk by phone.

Alphonse had been working as a translator and interpreter for the government and continued researching alchemy and alkahestry, now a respected scholar. He rented a small apartment in Central City where he sometimes received his brother. Living in such a big city, it was easy for him to find foreign newspapers to keep up to date with the global developments. Thus, he kept his habit of reading the news and cutting the articles he was interested in.

During those days, he was informed at the office that a Xingese delegation would come to Central for a meeting with the Führer and the General and the inauguration of the first railroad connecting the countries, and his presence was required. Princess Mei Chang would be there.

Alphonse assumed she did not tell him about the visit herself because she wanted it to be a surprise. He convinced himself that it was not an important detail and, that afternoon, he went back to his apartment and took out of his suitcase the Xingese newspaper he bought during the day. He read it while having dinner and came across with a picture of Princess Mei Chang and Princess Olesya Feodorovna of Drachma outside of a majestic theatre. The note explained that the princess of the northern country invited the one from Xing to a performance of the Drachman ballet. Among other details of the Xingese princess public events, it was implied that she was recently engaged to a noble Lord.