This chapter took a lot longer to write than I thought it would. Hopefully I can get the rest hammered out pretty quickly because I actually have some more plans for them than I did for this one.

1 August 1925

Al was in the throne room waiting for a court meeting to start when they got news that the Wuli Capitol had fallen.

It wasn't announced, but when there was one thing that he knew the entire palace was waiting to hear news about and court was postponed because the Empress was detained with an emergency meeting with the Elders due to the emergence of recent news, well, he wasn't an idiot.

He wanted to go find her, but he knew that she wouldn't be taking audiences with an Amestrian Ambassador right now. In fact, he was starting to be excluded from more and more information these days in the palace. The Elders and several of the courtiers seemed to try to keep in the in the dark about what was going on, probably afraid that he would report the rebellion back to Amestris which would cause Amestrian creditors to lose faith in the nation's ability to pay back their loans. Or perhaps keep investment money away.

It wasn't an entirely unfounded fear. Al had in fact reported the rebellion back to Fuhrer Mustang; that was his job after all. But he had at the same time sworn Mustang to secrecy until he could figure out more about the things were playing out. He still had hope that they would be able to figure things out, and he didn't want capital to be flowing away from Xing. He had spent nearly a third of his career as Ambassador trying to convince Amestrian businessmen to invest in Xingese infrastructure, he wouldn't be the one to keep it away.

Mustang had however confessed to Al that he already had a number of operatives in Xing to keep an eye on the situation. He was annoyed that Al hadn't been forthwith about how bad the protests had been getting – Al had protested that he hadn't reported it because he hadn't thought it was as bad as it apparently was – but understood that he might have gotten… distracted.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Al had asked, realizing even as he said it that he sounded far too much like Ed, a point Mustang did not fail to point out.

"Careful, Alphonse, you're beginning to sound like your brother before one of his short rants. There's no one to blame, I figured it out myself. I know all about the crush the Empress had on you when she was still a Princess. When I came for the treaty signing, I saw how beautiful she had become and put how hard you were working together with the rest of it. Does she return your feelings?"

"Yes."

"Well congratulations. I hope for the both of you that this works out. But don't think I'm going to pull my spies out. I'd have to be a fool to keep only one operative in there, especially if he's bound to follow the rules of international cooperation. If you get kicked out, they can still there be keeping an eye on things."

"Kicked out? Why would you think I'd be kicked out?"

"The last thing I would want if there was a coup or a rebellion going on would be an Ambassador snooping around. It looks bad and it gives a bad impression to other countries. Actually, Al, I did want to warn you that… if things start to get bad, I am going to pull you out. Officially, you have no reason to be there other than being an Ambassador, and if I leave you in there when I know that the situation is precarious and you're hurt, I end up looking like I don't care about my men. Unless you have an official reason to stay there, I have to pull you out if things get bad."

"I understand." Mustang had given a brief farewell which Al had returned, whispering only once the operator thanked him for the call and he hung up the phone, "Hopefully… I'll have one soon."

8 August 1925

The news that the Imperial troops had been defeated in Wuli had further reaching consequences that Al had anticipated. It meant that all of the extra forces that had been sent immediately to the capital had been incapacitated. Not everyone was dead, but many of the men had been captured and held in the Wuli Palace's dungeons, apparently one of the last ones left in the country as a remnant from before the War of Unification.

The Palace had already been harboring many of the nation's nobles, but now even more of them were rushing to safety within the Palace walls. Many of them, however, were underwhelmed with the actual reinforcements provided by the Empress. Protecting the Palace, as of yet far away from any of the fighting, was a lower priority than that of trying to keep them from losing any more ground than they already had.

If anything though, the changing territory had only become more apparent. Not even a full day after receiving the news that the Rebels had officially taken possession of the Wuli Province they began to get reports about other clans declaring their support to the rebellion. Some of them were even starting to call it a full scale Revolution. The nobles that weren't fleeing their home territories for the Palace all seemed to be coming from those clans. The gossip among the courtiers was that they had declared their own allegiance to avoid being overthrown and killed themselves if their citizens were upset enough to overthrow them.

Some of the courtiers muttered that they would be executed for treason when this blew over.

Other courtiers wondered if it would blow over.

Apparently there wasn't a single train to Amestris these days that wasn't packed full of Xingese people trying to escape before things turned really ugly. In fact, several of the trains were packed past full capacity. Al wasn't sure if he would be able to get out of Xing even if Mustang did decide pull him out.

Things were getting bad.

Understandably, he hadn't been seeing much of his fiancé

Fiancé.

It seemed crazy that he could still smile and probably even crazier to think about it as such a viable reality with everything with all of this going on. But he had to keep hoping that it was a real future for him. For them.

After everything they had been through, it seemed like a light at the end of the tunnel. Their finally Happily Ever After.

Yes, he had read some of the novels that Mei had suggested – and yes, they were the ones that inspired her fantastical visions of Ed. They were very entertaining.

And he loved a happy ending.

Every time it looked like he got a happy ending in his life, things got worse. He and Ed learned enough alchemy to bring their mom back – Ed's leg and Al's body were stolen. Philosopher's Stone dead ends. Nina. Hughes. Even the Promised Day and getting his body back was quickly followed by the Great War. Confessing his love to Mei was followed by a year and a half of separation and then more years of hiding in bushes and under beds.

He didn't have any reason to believe that this would be any different. But he did still cling to the idea that the Happy Endings themselves were worth it. Even if they weren't actually endings and they were usually followed by something worse, at least he had those moments to look back on. He had the moments themselves. And things getting worse afterwards couldn't take them away.

So even if their odds weren't looking too great right now, he had to cling to the hope that it would end up alright. He had to.

That night was the first time he had actually been alone with Mei since the night they had agreed to get married, and as he had come to expect when stressful situations arose, she was tense and not saying much. He wanted to reach out to her, but he didn't know how to do it.

The worst part was the fact that he knew she didn't truly want to be there with him. That wasn't the best way to put it; it wasn't so much that she didn't want to be with him as much as he knew she would rather be working on the problem, trying to figure things out. But he had overheard Fuan talking to another one of the Elders that there wasn't much they could do right now except wait for more information.

So he had found Mei in her rooms and luckily enough for him the guards were fine with letting him in. Apparently they trusted him enough by now to be left alone with the Empress without much question. She had let him in and let him kiss her quickly, but she left him almost immediately to go stare at reports and maps. He tried to ask her a few questions and understand the exact situation, but she didn't respond much. He eventually resorted to just rubbing her shoulders to try to help relieve some of the stress.

It wasn't as if she didn't have a legion of servants that would perfectly willing to rub her shoulders and neck for her. But she was too proud to ask, and Al enjoyed doing it for her when she wasn't expecting it.

She had fallen silent for the past few minutes and Al took that as a good sign, before he noticed her hands clenching the side of the table with white knuckles.

"Mei?"

"Please stop, Alphonse." He blinked in surprised, but removed his hands from her shoulders.

"I'm sorry I just wanted to help. What do you want me to do?"

She silent for a few long moments before turning around to face him.

"How can you be so good?"

"What?"

"How, Al? How can you be so… kind?"

"I just want to help…" he said, still not entirely understanding what in particular she was trying to refer to.

"It seems like the entire world is falling apart and I'm doing nothing but stringing you along… and you're still here."

"I love you. It's not really much of a question."

"I know you do, which is why I don't understand why you're not mad at me." He gave her another blank look, making her look down at the ground. It gave him a better view of her crown than it did of her face. "Our marriage, Al."

"Oh." His heart twitched in his chest, but he quickly forced a smile onto his face. "Well, it's not like you could control these things. And I'm not going to lie and say I'm not a bit disappointed, but we've waited this long, right?"

She looked up slowly from the ground, and he noticed that she was frowning.

"Al… I don't think you… understand."

"No, I completely do. Now is not exactly the best time for us to try to go through with something like that after all. We can wait until after this whole Revolution thing has played itself out. But like I said, we made it this far, we can wait a few more months or even a year. Whatever it takes. Maybe it's not the way we imagined it happening, but something is better than nothing, rig—"

"Al. Stop." He was taken aback by her abrupt interrupting.

"Mei?"

"Al…. you don't get it."

"What am I not getting, Mei?"

"We can't get married."

Al stared at his fiancé… or at least that's what he thought that's what she was.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… Al." She bit her lip and then took a deep breath. "Al… We can't get married. It's not a matter of waiting a few years until the rebellion blows over. I'm not even sure if it will. And even if it does… Al, what started the rebellion was workers protesting how much power Amestrians have in my country. The famine and the corruption has given it all the support it needed, but the actual rebellion started because my people see me as the person that let Xing become a puppet of the Amestrians."

He opened his mouth to protest, but she kept talking and didn't even give him a chance to start.

"And you know and I know that I agreed to letting them have so much influence in our economy because I wanted to help Xing. But that's not what matters. And I love you. I love you so much. But after that… I can't marry an Amestrian. I just can't."

Al stared at her, somewhat blankly. He realized dumbly that the reason he might not be able to think correctly could be related to the fact that he had stopped breathing.

"Oh."

They… couldn't get married. At all. The words didn't quite make sense to him yet. He finally took a breath, and the oxygen gave him enough focus to hear Mei saying his name softly. He ignored her in favor of taking a step backwards, then turning around and walking to the couch where she had proposed to him.

"Al, I'm sorry. But that's the way it has to be."

He continued to ignore her, resting his forehead against one hand. They couldn't get married. Not at all. That entire happy ending… gone. The light at the end of the tunnel, extinguished. Just like that.

"Al, please talk to me."

He had been so sure that time that it was going to happen. She said she'd do whatever she needed to to make sure that they could get married. She'd fight whoever she needed to in court, give any of the Elders whatever boon they wanted. Then this rebellion happened and all of a sudden it all disappeared.

"Do you think this rebellion is going to end the Empire?"

Mei had sat down next to him while he had been trying to work through what her words meant. She seemed startled when he suddenly said something and stared intently at her.

"What?"

"Do you think the rebellion is going to be successful? Is it going to be a Revolution?"

"I… I don't know. I'm afraid I will. But Al—"

"Let's run away."

Now instead of just startled, she looked at him like he was crazy. Or from another planet. Or asked her to give up the crown sitting on her head. "What?"

"Let's just run away, Mei. What if they're successful? They might kill you! But we could run away. Go to Amestris. Get married there where no one will care if you favor or marry an Amestrian. We could do it. Let's just go," he plead, grabbing her hands. She pulled them out of his grasp, still looking aghast.

"Have you gone mad, Al? I can't just abandon my people!"

"Your people are abandoning you, Mei. I just want you to be safe." This apparently had the opposite effect of what he had intended because she pulled back even further from him, standing up.

"How dare you?"

"Mei?"

"How could you say something like that, Al?" He thought more carefully over what he just said and his immediate reaction was to smack his forehead and apologize profusely.

"Mei, I… I didn't mean—"

"Please leave."

"What?"

Her back was turned to him, but even more than just her back, he could tell that her chin was raised and shoulders back. He recognized that posture all too well. That was the posture she took when she was being the Empress. When she was cutting him out.

"Leave."

"Mei, don't do this to me. Not again."

"I said leave."

He stared at her back for several long moments, it felt like a good month or so, before he stood up stiffly. Al was not a person who got angry very easily. Unlike his brother's explosive temper, it took a lot to drive Al to the point of yelling and he was desperately trying to keep a lid on that emotion. She was doing it again. She was cutting herself off from her emotions and trying to separate herself from her own life. She did it every time she was stressed out instead of reaching out and it only ever hurt her and he hated to see her hurt, but he couldn't stop it when she wouldn't let him in!

"Fine, Empress. I will leave. But not before I finish what I want to say."

"I find your actions very impertinent, Ambassador," she said turning around to face him.

"It's Ambassador, now? Less than a week ago, you said you wanted to marry me, and now I'm 'Ambassador'." Once upon a time he would have found the way she straightened her spine to try to stand taller cute, especially since she was still several inches shorter than Al.

"I thought I told you to leave."

"I will, but not before I speak my mind. I regret what I said about running away. It was said in a moment of haste and I should have known better than to say it all. Because just like every other Emperor or Empress before you, you're so desperate to hold onto your position that you'll sacrifice anyone and everything in your path. I thought I could help you, be something for you to hold on to, but you consistently let me down. And I can handle that. I'm not going to say I enjoy it, because I hate every moment of it, but I'll let you mistreat me if it means I can be a support for you.

"But I cannot stand by and watch as you sacrifice yourself anymore. Your people are very important and you should want to do your best for them, but you are killing yourself. You have to stop."

"You don't understand," she spat back. "They are more important than I will ever be. If I kill myself in their service, it's a worthy sacrifice."

"I know a thing or two about sacrifices, Mei."

"Then you should understand this one!"

"I got lucky, Mei! I should have died when we tried to bring my mom back! I shouldn't even be here and it's only because of Ed and a lot of luck and kind people that I am! I don't think you'll be that lucky!"

"Then leave! If you can't stand to watch it, then leave!"

Al took a deep breath. Then, he bowed. "Very well, Empress. I said what I wanted to. I'll leave."

Then he spun on his heel and marched out of her room and straight to his own. He didn't even stop to think, just pulled out his suitcase and began to throw things in. He was already on a train heading to the Yao Province by the time he really stopped and thought that maybe he should have left a note so the servants would know not to clean his room the next morning.