Chapter 2! And this is actually the last chapter that I still had to write! The rest of it is already all written up, so it's basically just me deciding when to upload it :D YAY!

Mei was drawing alkahestry arrays with soap on the floor when her step-mother arrived back.

There was no use in using chalk if she was going to have to clean up that after having just used alkahestry to clean the floor.

Of course, she would never let her step-mother know that she often cleaned the floors thusly. As long as Daiyu thought that she actually took three hours to scrub the marble by hand, then she would get three hours to scrub the marble by hand. Then when Mei cleaned the floor in a grand total of a few minutes, she would get the rest of the hours to disappear into the library or her room to study the books.

Luckily, she hadn't activated the array when her step-mother came back. It wasn't quite distinguishable as an array yet. Mei hadn't placed her knives (a tricky business when working on marble, she could assure anyone who was curious) and a quick scrub made it look like the soap was all a part of her cleaning process.

"Lan Fan! Lan Fan!" Daiyu shrieked as she hurried right across the floor. If Mei had actually been cleaning the floor by hand, it would have ruined a good hour of work.

"Mother?" Lan Fan said, emerging from one of the rooms.

"Your chance. I have it! It's a miracle I found out about it in time!"

"What, Mother?"

"A ball! A ball celebrating the Prince's birthday!"

"A ball?"

"Yes, stupid girl," Daiyu snapped. "A ball. I cannot believe I haven't heard of this earlier! Only the finest of Xing will attend. I heard that there will even be visiting Princes from Amestris!"

Mei raised an eyebrow. That was interesting. Though she had heard rumors that the Prince had made friends with the Amestrian Princes on his diplomatic trip to their country a few months ago.

She wondered if they would know anything about alchemy. Apparently it was very similar to alkahestry.

"—and all the royal alkahestrists will be attending as well—"

"Wait, what?" Daiyu stiffened, probably not even having realized that Mei was in the room. She turned and gave Mei an intense glare.

"What?"

"What did you say about the royal alkahestrists attending?"

"They will also be there. Why does it matter to you?"

Mei stared back at her, quickly debating her options at this point. She could try to press for more information… but no. Not when she got that look in her eyes. Perhaps she'd be able to get some more information on her own.

"It doesn't, Step Mother. It merely caught my attention," she said eventually, bowing her head.

"That's right."

Mei Chang was jealous of her step-sister.

This had never happened in the history of their relationship! One might think that she would be jealous of her sister, considering that Lan Fan had every care cared for while Mei was reduced to servitude. But she really did not envy her in the slightest. What with all the pressure Daiyu put on her… and Mei thought she would go crazy trying to wed herself to the Prince of their nation. If Lan Fan's descriptions were correct, he was hardly the composed leader that everyone assumed he must be.

So no, Mei had never been jealous of Lan Fan.

But she was now.

Even if they wished to attend the ball for completely different reasons, Mei couldn't help but want to go as well. All the Royal Alkahestrists? She would kill for the opportunity to talk to them for any length of time. They were the best in the nation! The chance to talk to them…

Another dress was thrown her direction. Mei just quickly picked it up and added it to the pile of discards.

Daiyu was approving a dress for Lan Fan to wear to the ball.

"Try the blue one again."

"I have tried to blue one on three times already, Mother."

"It looks good on you. Perhaps with some adjustments… we could get an Amestrian brassiere and fill it to increase your bust size."

"Mother!"

"Do you want the Prince to be attracted to you or not?" she asked sharply, eyes flashing.

"… Yes."

"Then it is settled. I know someone who will be able to provide us one."

"Yes, Mother."

"Good. Now try the blue one again."

"Yes, Mother."

They eventually did not pick the blue one. They picked a black and red one that actually looked quite good on Lan Fan. It was a tasteful mix between old and newer styles that still managed to look formal. Lan Fan especially liked it because it had enough folds for her to hide a knife or two in.

After they picked a dress, Mei began to work on preparing Lan Fan for the ball. Even though it wasn't for another few hours, and Daiyu was very much in favor of Lan Fan arriving fashionably late, she demanded that Lan Fan begin her preparations now. Her hair was washed two or three times in different oils and then hung straight to dry. Her eyes were carefully lined with black and her eye lids shadowed with a red that matched the dress. Then Mei had to painstakingly pin up her hair with a dozen different dangling pendants.

She was thoroughly annoyed by the time she helped Lan Fan get into her dress. The ties in the back were impossible to tie. Luckily for Lan Fan, the dress was more closely fitted to her size, which ruined Daiyu's plan with the brassiere. Even so, she still had Mei pull the back of the dress as close together as possible to emphasize Lan Fan's slim but strong build.

Finally, Mei was done.

Lan Fan stared at herself in the mirror, laying a hand at her throat were a ruby on a chain rested at the hollow.

"I look so different from when I left… do you think he'll be able to recognize me?"

"How could he forget you?" Mei asked, trying hard not to sound annoyed.

"He deals with the courtiers and the finest ladies in all of Xing. How could he remember me?"

"You're a hard person to forget, Lan Fan."

Lan Fan paused and turned around to face Mei.

"Thank you…" Mei blinked. She hadn't exactly meant it as a compliment. In fact… the opposite. "For calling me Lan Fan."

"Oh. Right."

Mei shuffled awkwardly in the silence before reaching out to adjust one of the pendants in her hair.

"Well. You'd best be off, or you're going to be late. And we don't want that now do we?"

Lan Fan actually smiled before standing up and exiting the room.

"I think Lan Fan's been possessed by a spirit," Mei told Xiao Mei, who was curled in her pocket like usual.

The panda gave her a smile that was a little too… knowing for Mei's comfort.

Well, going through all those dresses didn't exactly come without a price.

A price that Mei was going to have to pay while they were off at the ball snagging a Prince.

Perhaps there was a reason Prince was only one letter off of Price.

Mei sighed heavily as she gathered up all of the dresses and placed them in a large basket that she would keep them in while she waiting to get to a point where she could wash them.

She really didn't care that much about the ball.

Sure it'd be nice to meet some handsome stranger there like in one of the fairy tales she used to read. Perhaps they'd even dance for a while and he'd ask for her kiss before she left. Then she would disappear and he would never hear from her again, but always remember her in his dreams and wonder about what could have been—

She really didn't care that much.

She really wanted to talk with the alkahestrists. That would be an opportunity she would never be able to get again!

"You don't have to stay behind."

Mei jumped when she heard the voice.

"Excuse me?" She asked out loud, looking up from her laundry and around in confusion. Where had that voice come from? "Who are you?"

"Me!" the small voice said. "Down here!" Mei looked all around but she couldn't find anyone or anything but Xiao Mei who was looking at her with an annoyed expression.

"…who?"

"Me!" Xiao Mei started chattering angrily and Mei frowned at her. Then she opened her mouth again and started yelling. "Come on, I finally get to the point where I'm contractually obligated to talk and you don't even realize it is me!"

Mei chose the appropriate response of squeaking and jumping back several feet, dropping the basket in the process. If anything this made the panda more irritable.

"Come on," she snapped, brushing down her fur and running over to Mei. "Are you going to pick me up or not?"

"Who… what are you?"

"I'm a fairy."

"A… a fairy?"

"Yes, I'm a fairy. Will you please just pick me up already?" Mei hesitantly reached down and picked the panda up, holding her in cupped hands. "I was assigned to you at birth. Most parents sign the contract without even knowing what they're signing. Usually fairies, or as you humans seem to call us, fairy godmothers, watch over our charges as small sentimental objects like baby blankets or an old stuffed animal. I was lucky enough to come to you in this animal form because of how late I got signed on. Your father didn't sign the contract until a little before his death."

"So you're… practically my fairy godmother?" A fairy godmother? Those only existed in stories, didn't they?

"I am your fairy godmother, sweetheart."

Mei frowned. "Then what did you mean by 'You don't have to stay behind'? Are you going to use magic to let me go to the ball?"

"Geez, you humans," Xiao Mei grumbled. "You're always trying to use magic to your own greedy advantage. Yes, I am here to make your dreams come true and right now that means and or includes making sure you get to that ball." Mei's ears almost visibly perked up and her eyes started shining.

"You mean you can—"

"Yes, yes, yes I can make it so you can go to the ball. Dress, shoes, carriage, the whole package. But as no one better than an alkhestrist would know, everything comes with a price. Fortunately for you, I get to choose the price you'll have to pay. Since I'm not planning on doing anything too fancy, probably pumpkin for a carriage or something like that, I content myself to two simple rules.

"Number one: It's all going away at midnight. And number two: you have to give me all the details. I know this one fairy godmother who did almost this same exact thing and the girl didn't tell her a thing! Just went around humming for days until her prince found her, I mean come on, manners!"

Mei understood about three parts of this speech. She was going to the ball as fine as anyone else, she would have to be back by midnight, and she had better hope her sister and mother would be too tired to boss her around too much tomorrow. From the looks of it she was going to have a very long night telling Xiao Mei about what had happened.

"You understand?" the fairy/panda said irritably. Mei nodded enthusiastically. "Good. You'd better prepare yourself cause this is gonna get wild."

Xiao Mei is a sassy fairy godmother XD I've always imagined that if Xiao Mei could talk she'd be really sassy