It almost made Al sad that he couldn't see the stars very well out here.
It wasn't an issue with Xing, not at all, it was just a matter of being in the Capital. As a virtue of being situated on a mountain, the palace avoiding most of the air pollution of the city below. But the light pollution alone made the stars a far rarer sight than he enjoyed.
In Central you'd be lucky to see the brightest star even on a perfectly clear night, but on a clear night in Resembool you could see just about every star in the sky for miles in every direction. You could stare at the night sky and come up with shakes and patterns like you were cloud gazing.
"There it is."
Al snapped out of his musing trying to identify the star he was supposed to be looking at. "Which one?"
"That one." She pointed again, and he tried to follow her line of sight. "It's right above the two that look like they're about to high five each other."
"Okay," he responded, still not quite sure if he was looking at the right one.
"I used to stare at that star every single night while I was crossing the desert."
"Really?" he asked, turning his head so he could better see the Empress. They were lying side by side, staring up at the night sky. She had taken her crown off for the moment, lying on the blanket in between them. She was wearing an outfit reminiscent of her time in Amestris, on it was different shades of blue instead of pink.
"Every single night when I laid down to fall asleep I wasn't sure if I was going to wake up again. There were sandstorms, and wild creatures… if I slept at night there was the chance that I would freeze to death, but it was always too hot to sleep during the day and there was never any shade… I usually ended up falling asleep half way through the night and sleeping until a bit before midday. And that star was always at its apex at that time of night. So it would be the last thing I would see before I fell asleep – and some nights I thought it was the last thing I was ever going to see."
"And look at you now," he said, smiling at her. She turned her head so their eyes met and smiled.
"I was certainly hoping I'd end up here when I was making that journey."
"Lying outside the palace staring up at the stars with a handsome man next to you?" Mei laughed, and Al couldn't quite squish the triumphant smile on his face. He felt like every smile and laugh he managed to get out of her was a small victory. The more he could get, the better.
"Exactly."
"I'm glad to know you think I'm handsome, Empress."
"Well I'd have to be blind to not think so."
"Thank you," he responded with another grin. She didn't say anything in response, but all the same he didn't tear his eyes away from hers. They really were beautiful. She had the largest eyes he had ever seen, and they were so dark. He used to think they made her look even more like a little girl, but she certainly did not look like a little girl now.
"What about you?" she eventually asked in the silence.
"What about me?" he asked, caught off guard by the question.
"Do you have any deep emotional stories about staring at stars?"
Al chuckled, finally turning his head so he was looking at the stars again instead of her. "Well, yeah, actually. I used to spend a lot of time watching them back when I was in the armor. Sometimes I would read or work on research, but I liked to be with Ed while he slept and didn't usually like to have any lights on while he was trying to sleep. So I would stare at the stars through the window. I used to make up stories about them."
"Like what?" she asked, and he felt her fingers brush up against his, making his heart leap in his chest.
"Oh… like… take that star you used to stare at all the time. It has the two next to it that are really close. Those two are a married couple, they were happily married for many years before they were able to have a child. And when that child grew up, it told its parents that it hated them and never wanted to see them again. And the parents were heartbroken for many years. But then something happened to the parents, they started to get old and die, and then the child did everything in its ability to get back to its parents because even when we're mad at the people we love and we say things we don't mean… we love them."
There was a bit of silence after he finished during which Mei didn't say anything. Then finally: "That was beautiful, Al."
He shrugged. "I've had lots of practice. It's been a long time, though, I'm kind of rusty."
"If that was you rusty, Al, I'd love to hear some of your stories when you've been practicing."
He chuckled again, and this time it was his fingers that brushed up against hers. She didn't seem to make any response to the brief contact that when he glanced at her, panicked that she would be upset.
"Well… I do my best. That's all you can ask, right?"
"Well. That's all you can do at least. People sure like to ask for more though," she muttered, which pretty much instantly made everything more somber.
"Mei," he said quietly, reaching out to actually take her hand.
"I know," she said quickly. "I know Al. And it's been better, it has been."
"Good," he said, but couldn't help but notice the unspoken 'but'. "When are we signing the treaty?"
"Next week," Mei answered confidently. "Fuhrer Mustang will be coming in five days, spend two days here while we get the final touches finalized, and then we'll sign the contracts, and the railroads can start construction the very next day."
"That's wonderful."
"I couldn't have done it without you."
"No, no you couldn't have." She smiled again and he tallied up another victory point for himself.
"I used to try to sneak out of my room at night when I was a little girl to stare at the stars," she said after another short bout of silence. "Mother and grandmother would always get so mad – especially when I actually did it and was tired the next morning for an important function."
"Mom would always try to stop me and Ed from doing it too," Al said with a grin. "She eventually gave up though, because we did it all the time. So she would just stay up with us. We would make up stories all the time, just like what I did with the two stars. Only they were usually happy stories. Well," he said, retracting his last statement with his tone. "There was this one story Mom told us once."
Mei lifted herself up on one elbow so that she was facing him now. "What's that?"
"Well, the sun used to shine the whole day and all the animals were vegetarians. But then one day a bear ate a fish—"
"Your Majesty!"
Both they and two of the guards who were standing behind them looked towards the source of the sound.
"What is it?" she asked, sitting up. The dark made it hard for them to make out anything about who the approaching man was.
"There are people, people coming up the mountain My Liege!"
"What kind of people?" she demanded, grabbing her crown off the ground and standing all the way up. Al scrambled to his feet as well.
"We don't know, Your Majesty! There is a huge group of them, and they're all shouting!"
"Prepare all the guards!" she shouted, and one of the men who had been guarding them (well, guarding her, Al just happened to have been there) ran off. The other three congregated around her, forcing Al away. She pushed past them though to approach the man that had brought the news though. "When were they sighted? Who are they?"
"They were sighted coming up the mountain not a minute ago, Your Majesty."
"Are they Drachmans? Xiongnuese?"
"They seem to be Xingese, My Liege."
Mei seemed to freeze. "What?"
"We do not know for sure, Your Majesty, but we have to get you to safety! You are our priority!"
Mei hesitated, staring at the palace and then finally nodded. "Alright. Send the guards to protect the palace. If they are Xingese, do not attack unless you are provoked, and even then hold your fire as long as possible. If they're only trying to peacefully protest, let them. If they have some sort of clear demands or spokesperson, send them in to me."
"Yes, Your Majesty, now hurry!"
The guards almost practically picked Mei up and ran her out of there they all took off so quickly. Al had to hurry to keep up with them, especially since he stopped to pick up the blanket they had been laying on.
As he hurried through the halls though, not sure exactly where he was heading, maybe his room? They certainly weren't going to let anyone in to see Mei right now, probably afraid that anyone was about to assassinate her, but he also didn't want to just hide in his room.
"Alphonse! Do you know what's going on?"
Al spun around at the voice, frowning at who had yelled at him.
"Ling? What are you doing here? I thought you were in the Yao Providence with Lan Fan."
"I was. I just got back earlier today and now the whole palace seems to be thrown into riot. I'm not that exciting, so what's going on? Where's the Empress?"
"There's a group of people marching on the palace. We're not sure who they are or what their intentions are."
"Is it a large group?"
"I don't know," he responded, eyes narrowing at Ling's response. He seemed rather calm about it. "We were told that they're Xingese."
"Thank you for the information," was all the Yao Prince said in response though, bowing his head. "You should probably go keep your eyes on Rikui."
"… Rikui? Why should I go find her?"
"Don't you know?" Ling asked, not even quite looking at him. "The reason her father sent her here was because she was becoming too sympathetic with Revolutionary feelings."
"Revolutionary – what? Ling!"
"So if this is a uprising of some sort, best to keep an eye on her." Ling then swept off without even waiting for Al to respond. He could only stare after him for a few long moments before biting off a curse word and spinning around and racing towards Rikui's room. It was late, so she very well could be entirely asleep…
She was just emerging from her room when he approached it though. She was wearing a robe wrapped loosely around her with long pants, and he short hair was mussed.
"Al? What's going on? And why are you carrying around a blanket?"
"You don't know?"
"… No. Should I?" she asked, frowning now.
"There's a group of people approaching the palace. We're not sure what they're intentions are, but people are worried about an attempted uprising."
"What?"
"I don't know. The guards are all getting ready in case of an attack. Mei's— The Empress is probably surrounded by guards by now."
"When did this happen?"
"They were just sighted about ten minutes ago."
"What's going on? What are we supposed to be doing?"
"I don't know," Al admitted. "I was heading for my room when I ran into Ling and… something he said reminded me to come look for you."
"Thanks, Al." She smiled at him, and he gave her a tight smile in return. "So what should we do?"
"Is there anything to do but wait? If they are peaceful, there's nothing to worry about. If they're hostile, well… we protect ourselves don't we?"
"That doesn't mean we have to wait here like sitting ducks."
"We can't do anything that might make them angrier though. If they think we're getting ready for an attack they might be more easily provoked into attacking."
"The rest of the courtiers are probably cowering," Rikui suddenly said, almost spitting. Al started, staring at her.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"I was trying to think about what everyone else is doing in this situation. They're probably all cowering for their lives like the pathetic scum they are."
"Rikui…"
"What?" she snapped, staring up at him.
"… the library."
"What?"
"No one's protecting the library. That's thousands of years of Xingese history. We can't let anything happen to it."
Her eyes widened, and all traces of feelings about other courtiers seemed to disappear. "You're right! We have to help protect it if anything happens!"
He nodded, and they took off, her still in her sleep clothes and him still carrying around the blanket.