2 September 1924
"Tell me, how are things in Western Amestris?" Al asked the man sitting next to him eagerly. The man was rather tall with slightly greying brown hair that he had pulled away from his face in the slightest stump of a ponytail. He was wearing a suit that reminded Al of the kinds Fuhrer Mustang was fond of, though the effect was rather different from the one that Roy created when he was wearing it. Whereas Roy looked very polished and suave in a suit, this man looked solemn and reserved. "I haven't been there since years before the War. Are they rebuilding?"
"Rebuilding has been progressing fairly well. It's a huge effort, Ambassador Elric."
"I'm familiar with rebuilding, trust me," Al said with a small smile. "You forget who my brother is. I was always helping clean up after his messes. Do you have alchemists assisting with the efforts?"
"We have some, yes. They have been very helpful."
"I'm so glad. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't your company involved in building the train to Xing?" Al hoped he wasn't wrong in that fact. It was indeed one of the reasons that he had suggested Ralston Foyes as an investor in the Xingese infrastructure boom. He thought a man involved with building the railroad to Xing would be a little more trusted in a country that as a whole didn't trust Amestrians very much. "Did you have alchemists working on that project?"
"There weren't many alchemist to be spared with the War going on at the time," Foyes said in a voice that was starting to border on monoto"ne. "We managed to get our hands on one or two that were too injured to be in the line of battle.
"I wish I would have known about it; I would have been delighted to help in that particular effort. Instead I worked in a factory during the War."
"I'm sure you were much needed."
"I tried to be helpful," Al said simply. "But enough about the war. I'm so glad you could make it here to Xing."
"Well, after you literally knocked on my office door, Ambassador, I felt it was the least I could do." Al chuckled, even though the man hadn't seemed amused when he said it. Then again, Al was never entirely sure how this man was feeling since he was so dry all the time. When he had arranged to have a meeting between the Empress and the largest current and potential businessmen involved with her own infrastructure program, he had been very persistent in tracking down everyone he thought needed to attend. That included Foyes, but he had been reticent about meeting with Al, so instead Al simply walked into his office and knocked on the door.
The process of wrangling agreements out of all of the businessmen, however, had left Al away from Xing for almost two months now. He had been back a single day during which he had slept and then been thrown into getting ready for visiting forgieners. He still hadn't gotten around to seeing Mei what with helping the early arrivers get used to the idea of Xing and on some occasions serving as an interpreter.
"You're going to love it," Al offered. "The food prepared by the palace cooks is amazing. The rooms are all very tasteful and comfortable. And the gardens at the palace easily put anything in Amestris to shame."
"When will we meet the others?"
"Rasband is supposed to be arriving tomorrow. Packer and Nelson are already at the palace."
"Yes… shouldn't we have arrived by now?"
"Traffic in Xing is very slow; the cities just weren't designed with cars in mind and there's foot traffic everywhere."
"Well at the very least, roll down the window," he commanded imperiously, probably the first time the man had adopted any kind of tone around Al other than shock when he burst into his office. And he didn't mind the fact that he had been ordered to do something; it was the request itself that had him cringing. He had purposefully left the windows up and covered using the pretense of shade just on the off chance it happened again. The arrivals of the two other businessmen yesterday had been an affair he'd rather not relive.
"Are you sure, sir? The shade—"
"Shade won't do me much good, Elric, if I'm sweltering from lack of air circulation."
"… of course sir."
Al rolled down the window on his side and almost immediately something came flying into the car through the open window and smacked the businessman right in the face.
"Sir!"
"What was that?" he asked, but now he could hear the shouting and yelling of everyone watching and impeding the car's travel. Al looked out the window and was honestly impressed; there were more of them today than there had been yesterday.
"Protestors," Al responded apologetically. "They're not very fond of some of the Empress's policies, including the contracting of Amestrian businessmen."
"Where else do they propose to get the capital?" Foyes asked, actually expressing perplexity.
"I know, sir, but you can't blame them for being frightened at the prospect of being so financially dependent and indebted to another country."
"Amestris is still paying our own reparations."
"I know. Xing is too. Many of the citizens don't like adding Amestris onto the list of debtors. It will be worth it, though. I really believe that."
Something else hit the car very near to the window, enough so that some of the mud splattered inside the car and hit Al on the face.
"I hope for your own sake that it is, Ambassador."
After the third of the Amestrian businessmen arrived, she managed to come upon the three of them taking a walk around the grounds, accompanied by some of her own guards that had been repurposed when they realized the extent of the protests against their coming.
They seemed startled to see her, probably because they weren't anticipating her looking so young. They knew of course that she was female and probably knew that she was young, but new dignitaries were almost always surprised that she was the same age as most of their daughters. There was no way, however, that they would be able to misunderstand who she was, not with the way she was purposefully dressed.
"Welcome to Xing."
"Your Majesty," the all muttered, bending down into bows of various depths.
"I am grateful you all managed to make it here."
"Of course, Your Majesty," one of the said as the other two straightened. "We are delighted to be here."
Just then, Mei caught sight of something moving in the bushes, but dismissed it quickly and turned her attention back to the Amestrian businessmen. "We are delighted in turn to have you here. I only hope that you manage to enjoy yourselves."
"I think we will be fine here, Your Majesty," one of them, she believed Packer, said, bowing low enough to prove that he had listened to Alphonse's debriefing on proper Xingese manners.
"Then it is done. I'm glad we managed to come to an agreement."
"As am I, Empress," Nelson said, bowing low enough to prove that he had not listened to Al.
Mei smiled at him all the same. "Now, if you will excuse me I have other matters to attend to. I will see you at the feast tonight. Please, relax until then. Your quarters are ready to receive you at any time, and the palace is open for your exploration. The servants will direct you almost anywhere you wish to go."
"Thank you, Empress."
"Of course." She smiled once again before nodding her head (no small task with her crown) and leaving the men to be escorted away by the guards. Her own guards broke off to surround and follow her, which she allowed for a few paces, before asking them for a few moments of solitude.
"Your Majesty, with hosting this conference here it is not advisable—"
"Hosting this conference has quadrupled the security around the palace, Lein Ma. I will be safe. And I will remind you that I am by no means helpless myself."
"But I would feel far safer if you were to—"
"I will order you to leave me alone, Lein Ma."
The man pursed his lips.
"… Very well, Empress."
"I will return to you in an hour."
"Can I count on that, Empress?"
"… You may count on an hour, but you are not allowed to come searching for me until an hour and a half has passed."
Once again, the guard looked severely displeased, but nodded and stepped back as she entered the gardens alone.
She walked around the flowers and plants for a few moments alone, breathing in the smells. The gardens were magnificent at the palace. It was perhaps the one thing she enjoyed about being Empress the most. It was only once she had been wandering around in the gardens alone for a few minutes that she felt a hand latch onto her wrist and drag her off the path.
The grip was forceful and before she had time to react her arms were pinned to her sides and something covered her mouth so she couldn't scream.
Mei, however, was not alarmed in the slightest, and instead of attacking, wrapped her arms around her attacker, kissing him back. There were no words between them for a few moments before they finally broke apart.
"Al, you're ruining my makeup. Everyone's going to be able to tell."
He muttered a comment about not caring what anyone else thought, but after a final (and perhaps longer than it had to be) kiss, he let her lean her head against his shoulder. He ignored the heavy metal that also weighed down on his shoulder and held her tightly.
"I'm sorry I didn't contact you when you first got back," she breathed.
"You were busy," Al said understandingly. "I was busy too. Those businessmen are a lot needier than I thought they would be. I'm almost positive Packer was the only one that listened to my lecture about Xingese culture and manners."
Mei smiled. "I'm surprised you didn't tell everyone you ran into back in Amestirs about how to properly hold chop sticks; you were so excited when the prospect of this banquet became serious."
"I only told half of everyone. The people who were important. But Benny is completely convinced he wants to move here as soon as he's old enough to travel by himself and come live with me."
Mei laughed, hugging him even tighter.
"I'm glad you're back. It feels much better being together again."
He bent down and kissed the top of her head, narrowly missing the crown. "We're together again. That's all that matters."
Ling had demanded lunch with the Ambassador shortly after this exchange, and since it had been an uncommonly amount of time since Al had actually spoken with his old friend about anything other than politics, he agreed. He was not expecting some of the first words out of Ling's mouth after starting on his food, though.
"So Alphonse, are you having an affair with our Empress?" Ling asked calmly, taking a sip from his cup.
Al promptly started choking on the sip he had just taken.
Ling didn't seem overly alarmed by the sight of his friend struggling to free his windpipe and abandoned the tea in favor of stabbing his chopsticks into his bowl of rice, waiting for Al to regain his ability to breathe.
"What?"
"Are you having an affair with our Empress?" Ling repeated. "A blind man could tell you two love each other, though I suppose that says something unsavory about our Elders' eyesight."
"What, wha— why—" the poor Amestrian spluttered.
"Why would you have an affair with her?" Ling mused, taking a moment to slowly chew a mouthful of rice. "Well she is a fairly attractive woman, she is my half-sister after all — apparently my attractive charm comes from that side of the family — as well as very powerful. She's also highly intelligent. It's not that odd that you would be tempted to engage is such relationship with her—"
"We aren't having an affair!" Al finally managed to spit out.
Ling's only response to that statement was his eyebrow disappearing into his hairline. Al was slowly but surely progressing from a pink color to bright red.
"If you two aren't having an affair, then why do you always have trouble keeping your eyes off each other when you're in the same room?"
"I… well—"
"Or the fact that you two frequently disappear and no one, including the Imperial Guards, ever seem to be able to locate you."
"We're friends…. We don't like—"
"And I suppose my telling you I found you two in the gardens this morning during one of these moments when no one seems to be able to know where you are wouldn't change your answer at all?"
"I… Uh…"
"You two seemed to be a bit too engaged to notice my qi slinking around in the bushes," Ling continued, paying no attention at all to the alchemist, who at this point could have been strung up as part of the Palace's decorations at New Years. "How long has it been going on?"
"It's not an affair," Al said again firmly.
"You're really going to have a hard time explaining this one away, Al."
"It's… we've never… I mean… we've—"
"Yes?"
"Well… it's not really an affair if we've never… we've never had… We've only ever kissed."
"You've never had sex with my sister?"
Al flushed an even brighter shade of red, if that was even possible, but shook his head resolutely.
"I see," Ling said, returning once again to his food. "I suppose that is indeed wise. If you two never sleep together you'll never get her pregnant, which would certainly be the end of any chance she has at being Empress. Still, you are in a relationship, yes?"
"Well, yes. I love her. I love her more than anything."
"And she returns the feeling?"
"Yes," Al answered, honestly confident in the answer.
'Well I wish you two the best of happiness. The gods know I probably would have been in the same situation Mei is in only with Lan Fan if I had become Emperor. Though I don't know if I would be able to be as virtuous as you two seem to be."
"So you'll keep our secret?"
"Of course," Ling responded easily. Al actually chose to believe him. After all, if he couldn't trust Ling there really was no one among the court he could trust. "I will warn you though that secrets don't tend to last long in the palace. There are eyes and ears everywhere."
"We've been keeping it up for nearly three years now."
For the first time during the conversation, Ling actually seemed taken aback. He stared at Al with a much more interested (and shocked) expression. "Really?"
"Part of that time I have been in Amestris, but I told her that I loved her and she told me she loved me back about little more than three years ago."
Ling continued to stare at Al for a few more moment before closing his mouth and nodding slowly. "I have to say, Alphonse, I am honestly impressed. If it's taken me this long to figure it out, you two just might pull it off. I have to wonder though, what do you plan to do? You must know that you don't have any hope of marriage. Are you planning to simply continue loving each other in the shadows and kissing in the bushes for the rest of your lives?"
"I…" Al said hesitantly. "I don't know. I suppose for now. Until we can't stand it any longer. Who knows, maybe Xing will decide to switch to a democracy and she'll be free to move to Resembool with me and we can raise two kids."
Ling snorted. "The day Xing decides to switch to democracy is the day that I go a whole day without eating and don't faint."