Mei jerked herself awake again as the smell of something burning reached her nostrils. Swearing under her breath in three different languages, she quickly turned off the fire and tried to pull the small biscuit bread out of the pan.

"She's going to kill me," Mei muttered under her breath as she set it on a plate next to some rice and some dumplings with eggs. Xiao Mei crawled into the pocket of Mei's apron and curled up as small as she could so that she wouldn't be noticed.

"I blame you," she told the panda viciously. It was her fault that Mei was so tired. Even though she had gotten home at 12:30 when she was finally sure that a) Alphonse hadn't followed her b) no one had noticed her ball attire disappear like magic and c) that she could sneak back into the house unnoticed, she still would have been exhausted. But she had honored her agreement with her 'fairy god mother' and told her everything that had happened. What with her yelling, whooping, and cheering, it was a miracle that the entire house didn't wake up let alone that she got a whole hour of sleep before she had to work.

"You agreed to it, sweetheart," Xiao Mei muttered just loud enough for Mei to hear. Smiling a little, Mei pushed the door open and made her way upstairs to Lan Fan's room. Normally her step-sister would already be up and running laps or something, but considering it was the ball last night, Mei wasn't surprised that she had sent a request for breakfast to be brought to her in her room that morning. It wasn't all that surprising to Mei that she had also requested (ordered) her to be the one to bring it.

"I hope you're decent," Mei said out loud when she reached the correct door and pushed it open. Lan Fan was, as Mei predicted, curled up in her large bed surrounded by cushions and blankets.

"Oh thank goodness, I'm starving."

"Dumplings, eggs, rice, and that biscuit bread we got from Amestris," Mei announced as she put the plate down in front of her. Amestris…

"Two Amestrain Princess were there at the ball last night," Lan Fan said matter-of-factly. "They were both very handsome, blond hair and golden eyes. I didn't know Amestrains had gold eyes."

"Only the royal family has gold eyes, most citizens have blue," Mei muttered under her breath. It was one of those small facts that she had only remembered after the fact. His golden eyes should have been a dead tip off to her at the beginning who the man she was dancing with was, but she had been too carried away by… him.

"Well neither of them danced much. Well, that's not true, the older one, Edward who's going to inherit the throne, only danced with one girl the entire time, and someone he had brought with him from Amestris too." Mei smiled slightly as she remembered the look on Alphonse's face when he had pointed his brother out.

"The other one, Alphonse—" Mei heart skipped a beat and she frowned again. She had only met him yesterday. They had known each other for less than three hours. Honestly what was she thinking when she kissed him last night? "—he danced with a few girls, not me, but after one dance he escaped to the garden with her and then disappeared for the rest of the night! I wonder what they were doing together and who she was. She's certainly lucky, I heard Prince Alphonse is a very intelligent and nice man."

He is.

"The Young Lord though, he was exactly how I remembered him. I was afraid that going away for so long would make him a different person and we wouldn't be able to connect any more but it was just like before. He was so nice and playful… Mei, be honest, do you think there's any chance of him actually wanting to marry me?"

"I don't know, Lan Fan," Mei answered tiredly. She wanted to go to bed so badly… "I've never really met him nor seen you around him."

"Yes but do you think that he could possibly—"

The door banged open so loudly both girls jumped almost a foot in the air and both raised their knives prepared to attack. Daiyu growled viciously.

"Put those knives away! I have amazing news!"

"What is it?" Lan Fan asked, slipping the knife back under the pillow as Mei tucked hers up her sleeves.

"Prince Alphonse of Amestris, the second Prince mind you, is looking for a Xingese bride! Last night he met a woman at the ball and he fell madly in love with her!" Mei thought her heart stopped. "She left one of her shoes behind and now he's traveling to every house with even the slightest connection to the royal family looking for her!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Lan Fan asked, frowning after a few seconds. Mei would have asked the question herself, but she was having a hard time getting her mouth to work. Or her eyes. Or her lungs. Or her heart for that matter.

"Idiot!" Daiyu chastised and Lan Fan lowered her head in shame. "It means that this is your opportunity! Lan Fan, if you can convince the prince that you are the woman he's looking for he will marry you! You will become the first Xingese woman to belong to the Amestrain royal family! It is what we have worked so long for! For you to rise to a position of power!"

"But Mother… what about Prince Ling?"

"That idiot Prince? He's long since moved on; you have no hope of a future as the Empress. It's time to give up there. This! This could be your future!"

"… I don't believe that the Prince in a lost cause. I could still try, Mother! Last night he was treating me the same way as he always has, is that not a good sign?"

"Stupid. How had he always treated you. A friend. Nothing more than an old playing partner and nothing more. You are nothing to him and it's time to move on to more likely opportunity!"

"But Moth—"

"That is enough. I am going to do all the digging I can and tell you exactly what to do. You will do this, Lan Fan." Daiyu glared at her daughter until Lan Fan finally bowed her head to the sheets.

"Yes, Mother."

"Good."

Daiyu stalked out of the room, back straight and nose held high. As soon as she was gone, Lan Fan screamed and threw the knife under her pillow at the door, where it stuck, quivering.

"Lan Fan…"

"Go away Chang!" she shouted, while small streams of liquid started to fall down her face. Mei felt the familiar anger well up inside of her and she nodded.

"Fine. I will."

And she walked out of the door and closed it behind her.

"So are you going to do it?"

"Do what?" Mei asked Xiao Mei later. Right now she was struggling to mix a large batch of batter for the expected royal visitors that were going to be stopping by to bring around a shoe. Mei was surprised that the slipper hadn't disappeared with the rest of her clothes last night. She even still had the other one. Xiao Mei couldn't come up with an explanation other than "It's magic, girly. The rules don't always apply to themselves," either.

"Claim your rightful place, of course! You're the one he's looking for. You spent a lot of time with him. You and him left for the garden and he never came back, probably because he was so upset about you running away. He has your shoe and he is looking for you! Come on! This is your chance to get out of this hole!"

"No, I'm not," she informed the disguised fairy firmly.

"What!"

"I have no intention whatsoever of trying to prove to Prince Alphonse that I am the girl he met last night."

"Why on earth not! You like him don't you?"

"Because," Mei grunted, as she tried to balance the giant bowl of dough and the measuring cup of oil she needed to add. "Last night he said point blank that half of the reason he was at the ball was so that he could find a Xingese woman to marry so that they could strengthen ties between the countries."

"So?"

"For one thing, I'm not nearly important enough to actually be of much use. Father was… what? A bastard fifth grandson of the Emperor? Stepmother didn't realize exactly how low he was when she married him. My position is even lower because I am his daughter. Offspring and female. Not to mention that I've never spent a day in court. For a second, he was charming, yes. But I want more in life than marrying a man I knew for a few hours."

"Then why did you kiss him?" If Xiao Mei were human, her eyebrows would have just shot into her hairline.

"I was going to a ball, I was wearing a mask, and I'm never going to see him again and to be honest, I'm almost twenty and I've never kissed anyone."

"Mhmm. Then why does your heartbeat either stop dead or start pumping at twice its normal rate whenever anyone mentions him? Speaking of which, it seems to be going a little faster than normal right now…"

"You're mistaken," Mei said, blushing as she measured out the oil.

"I've ate, slept, and frozen with you. I'm familiar with your heartbeat and this is much faster than normal. Why don't you want him?"

"I already told you!"

"I want the real reason!"

"No!"

"Please!"

"No!"

"Nice way to treat the person who made it happen…" Mei glared at the panda before pouring as much batter as she could fit into a round tin.

"I think I preferred it before you talked to me."

"Can it. Well, can what you're talking about, spill what I want to know."

Mei sighed heavily. "Fine."

She paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain it. "I don't think I described him properly last night. He is more than just what I said. He's handsome, and charming, and polite, and smart, and frustrating, and clueless, and cooperative, and so kind. And he wasn't even forcing it! You could tell he did it all without a second thought, it was completely natural to him!"

"Seems like a golden boy."

"In more than just that way!" Mei said, smiling widely. "His hair and his eyes, they aren't joking when they say they're gold! Alphonse's are slightly more browning that straight gold, but there's no denying that's their color. And his hair is so bright and styled and perfect and— I knew him for three hours. Probably even less. I walked in the door, he asked me to dance, and I had to run away from him to make sure he didn't see my clothes transform when I left. The entire time I was there I spent it with him and I can't think of a better way to have spent it."

"So tell me again why you don't want to step up and claim that shoe?"

"Because he doesn't care for me as much as I do for him right now. He's only looking for a bride for an alliance. I don't want to be treated like just another requirement. I never want that."

"What if he isn't? What if the rumors are true and he really did fall madly and deeply in love with that masked woman at the ball?" Mei bit her lip.

"I don't know. He probably isn't though, so I don't even have to worry about it."

"Honey, you really like this guy," Xiao Mei said, sounding every inch a concerned mother. "Are you sure you're actually going to be able to forget about him? Especially if he's determined to find you for whatever reason."

"Yes, but you see I'm—"

"Mei?"

Mei turned towards the door, almost spilling oil everywhere.

"What was that for, Oh Empress?"

Her half-sister looked down at her feet so it was hard for Mei to notice her cheeks turning bright red.

"I... I'm sorry."

This was her second sign that something was out of the ordinary. Lan Fan never said sorry for an insult, she would just hurl one back. And she most certainly didn't look at her feet; Daiyu had taught her quite well that she was too important to look down.

"Lan Fan, what are you doing in here? You never come by the kitchens if you can avoid it."

"I… I wanted to talk to you."

"… Why?" It wasn't possible that she could have figured out, could she? No, that wouldn't have happened. There wasn't any way.

"I have something I want — need — to ask you something. Please."

"Go ahead," Mei said, raising an eyebrow. She honestly had no idea what was going on here.

"While the Princes are here, fitting on the shoe, stay inside the kitchen." She would have responded with an "Okay, fine," but the look on her step-sister's face made her say something else.

"Why should I? Don't I have a chance to try it on?"

"Because… because… I don't want them to meet you."

This threw her for a loop.

"Why?"

"Because you're, you're … beautiful and intelligent and you're exactly… I don't want to… I…" Lan Fan looked miserable. Her hands were clenched by her side and her face was an odd blotchy red color. Mei blinked slowly as a thought occurred to her.

"Lan Fan… are you… scared that they would somehow like me better than you?"

The splotchy color turned full red. Her dark coloring when Mei called her "Empress", her constant attitude towards her…

"That's why all these years? You've been jealous of me?"

"… yes." Suddenly it was like a floodgate had opened. "Always. When Mother first married your father, you were like a perfect china doll and I thought there wasn't anything more perfect than you and I would never be able to be as wonderful as you.

"When your father died and Mother began to treat you like how you are now I didn't mind because I noticed that you weren't quite as pretty, but you were still smarter than I could ever be. And when Ling came here after one day of playing in the mud… he saw you and said 'Who's that maid, Lan Fan? She's really pretty.'"

"I remember that day. It was only a few weeks after I started working. I thought he was the nicest person I had ever met."

"He was. Is. He's ridiculous and nice and he can never seem to tell between what's proper and what's not, but he never has a problem with right and wrong." Lan Fan was wearing a small sad smile that Mei recognized. She recognized it from her own expressions.

"You… you love him. Prince Ling. You're in love with the future ruler. And all these years I just thought it was a play for power."

"Yes."

"So why are you doing this? Why are you trying to convince Prince Alphonse that you're—" she had to stop herself from saying "that you're me." "—the women he met. Shouldn't you be trying to convince Prince Ling that he loves you?"

"Mother doesn't feel that way…"

"Who cares?"

Lan Fan looked genuinely shocked. "What?"

"Who cares? I will make a promise with you right here and now, I will not stay in this room if you continue to just lie down and do something like this! What if he believes you?" He wouldn't. "You would be left with this man who you don't love when you could be with one you do!"

"Do you think?"

"Yes!"

Lan Fan stared at her step-sister for a few moments like she thought she was crazy. Then she nodded, squared her shoulders and turned on her heel. Mei didn't know whether to understand if that was her taking her advice or turning her back on her.

Her parting words gave the answer.

"Thank you, Mei."

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