It had been an hour since the meeting in the kitchen.

True to her word, Mei had stayed in the kitchen the entire time, even when she heard the bell ring and the hustle and bustle as the Princes were escorted through the home.

She even heard her step-mother greet them and tell them that her daughter was the only maiden in the household.

She almost laughed and wondered if Lan Fan would come through on her bargain.

The next thing she heard was much more alarming though.

"I will send a maid up from the kitchens for you."

Then even worse: Prince Ling's happy consent.

"Mei! Mei!" A maid came running through the kitchen at high speed. "They need—!"

"Food, yes I know," Mei said irritably, grabbing some ingredients and starting to throw together an acceptable sauce to add to this morning's batch of dumplings.

"No, Miss Mei! Miss Shitang requested you be the one to take them up."

"What?"

"She said you and no one else."

Mei swore in her head.

Mei made sure to keep her head down as she carried the tray of dumplings. She didn't want to betray her promise to Lan Fan but she didn't really have a choice; so she would keep her head down. That also had the effect of not allowing any of the Princes (specifically Alphonse) see her. She knew that her face had actually been covered by a mask during the dance, but she didn't want to take any risks. He could recognize her eyes or something. She also had to make sure she wouldn't have to talk. Just go in, place the tray on the table, curtsey to the Princes, leave.

"I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid I am not the maiden you were dancing with, Prince Alphonse. Prince Ling can even attest to that. I spent most of the night with him."

"That's true," another voice said. "We enjoyed quite a few dances."

"I hope you will still stay for a short period of time though," Diayu cut in slyly. She couldn't directly contradict Lan Fan, especially not when the Prince had already supported her statement, but she was still trying to salvage the situation. "There are refreshments coming and you are probably fatigued from so much searching."

"Quite. Not many have the integrity to be as honest as you," said a very familiar voice that forced her heart to skip a beat. Then she walked into the room and the occupants turned to look at her. Step mother was the only exception. She was too busy glaring at her daughter.

"Mei, please put them on the table," Lan Fan said, her voice clipped. Mei nodded and walked in, putting them down on the table in front of her.

"You can look up, you know," a cheerful voice said. It had to be Prince Ling, the Xingese was too natural to be either Amestrian. Not a direct order, but still something she had to obey. So she hesitantly lifted her face, teeth still firmly clamped on her bottom lip. They were all there.

Prince Ling looked very similar to how he had from her memory when Lan Fan would regularly visit him. Now he was dressed less formally then he had been at the ball, but much more formally then when he would be covered in mud and excrement.

Prince Edward looked a great deal like his brother, but his eyes were more pure gold and were much sharper, not as soft. His hair was much longer than Alphonse's, long enough that he had it pulled back in a braid. He was either honoring Xing's custom of wearing red when visiting or he simply liked the color because he was wearing a lot of it.

Alphonse looked a great deal how she remembered him. Gold hair fringing his face and soft golden eyes staring out. Last night he looked a little tired, but his eyes had lit up like lanterns when they had really started discussing alkahestry. Today though they were only tired. His clothing was more subdued than last night, but they still did a brilliant job of showing off his brilliant physique.

"Your Majesties," she said as quietly as she could. Barely loud enough for them to hear her.

All three of them nodded at her.

"You didn't happen to go to the ball last night, would you?" Prince Ling asked her in the same happy voice. She wondered if he was that happy at all the other houses, or if he was acting like that because of Lan Fan. She certainly hoped that was the reason.

"I'm afraid not, Young Lord," Lan Fan answered for her.

"Well, that stinks." Was it her imagination or was Alphonse staring at her?

"I will return to the kitchen," she said, curtseying again. As she turned to walk back though, she tripped and one of her small black shoes came off her foot. Blushing bright red, Mei got up off her knees and hurried over to grab the shoe, but someone beat her to it. A blond.

"Allow me," Alphonse said. Mei held out her hand for the shoe and he held out for her foot. A small feeling of dread began in her stomach.

"No, really, Prince Alphonse you don't have to—"

"Please, allow me."

She lifted her skirts just high enough for her bare foot to peak out from under them.

Instead of slipping on her black shoe, he put on her glass one.

It fit on perfectly, of course.

She heard all of the room's other occupants gasp.

Al didn't, just looked up at her.

"I knew it as soon as you bit your lip and blushed," he said, smiling. He stood up right in front of her. Mei wanted to run but her legs weren't working. He was right there in front of her.

"Why were you trying to hide?"

Mei bit her lip again and he laughed.

"I don't think you realize how cute you look when you bite your lip."

Mei looked around him at the rest of the people in the room. Daiyu was standing, mouth opened in almost uncontrolled rage. Lan Fan and Ling were staring in shock and surprise, while Edward just looked slightly bored.

Alphonse grabbed one of her hands and smiled. "I've been looking for you." Her heart couldn't seem to make up its mind, whether it would like to stop dead in fright or beat a thousand times a second of happiness.

"I've heard."

"Did you also hear why I was looking for you?" Mei swallowed.

"Your father wants you to marry a Xingese bride to strengthen ties between our countries. I'm the only person at the ball you could stand talking to for longer than five minutes. So, well I'm flattered, I don't want to be treated like just another goal to be taken care of, so if you'll excuse me."

Mei turned around to storm away into the kitchen, yelling at herself for having to hold back tears. Stop it! You knew him for only a few hours. He knew you for the same amount of time, there is no reason to be so effected by turning him down. But then she felt his hand shoot out and close around her arm, exactly how it had last night.

"Wait!"

His eyes were wide and almost pleading.

"Please don't go. I hadn't even thought about Father's orders. I could only think about you. I have never, ever, met a girl like you. You're smart and sharp. You're adorable when you bite your lip, that blush is the cutest I've ever seen. You light up when you talk about alkahestry and when you were yelling at me… I could only think about finding you when you ran off."

Would her heart please stop! They were pretty words designed to make her try to make her go along with what he wanted.

"Thanks for the pretty words, but—"

Her words were cut off when his lips met hers. It wasn't like last time when she had simply pressed hers against him and ran away. That had been a spur of the moment wish, something irrational and she hadn't even fully understood what she was doing until she had gotten home.

This was different though, she could feel his purpose and intent. She should pull away, she knew she should, he wasn't even stopping her doing so, but she just couldn't. He seemed to take that as a sign and put his hand behind her head.

He pulled away but didn't step back so their faces were still close together.

"You may not believe in true love, and you may not believe me when I say this, but I think I've found mine."

It was like he turned on a faucet.

"I cannot stand for this!" Daiyu shouted, finally regaining her voice. Mei looked over at her step mother and Al wrapped his arms protectively around her. "This girl is nothing but a servant in my household, a scullery maid! She will not be marrying anyone, I will not allow you—"

"Madam!" This time it was Ling who was speaking. "You are addressing the Prince Alphonse Elric of Amestris in the presence of the crown Princes of both Xing and Amestris. We will not stand for you to speak so. You may be this girl's guardian but that does not mean you get to make her decisions."

"But Your Highness—"

"I will not tolerate this behavior in my Kingdom. If it were not for the fact that you are Lan Fan's mother I would have you exiled on the spot for various causes of neglect and speaking badly to your Prince! I could also charge you with purposefully trying to destroy a long up-held alliance between Xing and Amestris. Only your daughter's good grace is saving you."

"I wouldn't mind," Lan Fan said, so quietly Mei thought she misheard her.

"What!" Daiyu screamed.

Lan Fan stared down at her hands. Everyone was staring at her, including Mei. Then she looked up directly at her mother.

"You've never loved me. You've never respected anything I did or said. I have never done anything for myself and this time I am stepping up and saying something. Even if Prince Alphonse had not just found his love in Mei, someone who I've always loved and respected but you've made me treat horribly, I would not sit here and try to pretend to be the woman he had met because I love Prince Ling and I have since we were children and I'm tired of you trying to always use me to further your own gain!"

Then she stopped and seemed to realize that she had just confessed love for the Prince of Xing in front of not only the whole room, but in front of the Prince of Xing.

"Well I think that settles it," Ling said in an odd voice. "Daiyu Shitang, you are hereby banished from the Xing Providence, never to come within five hundred yards of any of the royal family nor you daughter or step-daughter on pain of death. You will not be keeping your title, but you may keep enough of your current possessions to make a living elsewhere."

"You cannot do this!" she screamed. "I am a—"

"Newsflash: I don't care."

They had a silent glaring contest, but after thirty seconds Daiyu let out a strangled sob and ran over to an ornate vase that stood in the hallway and stuffed one of their silk curtains into it. Then she ran away upstairs.

"Despicable," Edward said, speaking for the first time. "She doesn't say anything to her daughters. I can't stand negligible parents."

"Thank you," Ling said, addressing Lan Fan, who was staring down at her hands again. "I've been wanting to do something horrible to that old hag for ages." When she didn't reply, the grin that had just graced his face fell away. "I'm sorry, that was improper, she is your mother."

"That's something new," she said quietly. "You admitting something is improper before me."

"That's the Lan Fan I know," he said, laughing. "She's the one I'm in love with." He only laughed harder when she lifted her head, eyes wide.

"Do you really mean that?"

"Heart and soul. That's why I never liked your mother, she was always trying to change you into someone that would be proper for a young Prince to like. I liked you the way you are. I've actually been wanting to say this for a while."

"But what about the Elders, and the peace treaty between the clans—"

Then he said told Elders to do something that was very impolite.

Lan Fan's mouth fell in shock and disbelief before clamping shut firmly.

"You cannot actually mean that…"

"Well, not exactly that, no. But if they don't like it, they can just deal with it. Even my father likes you! My father doesn't like anyone! I don't even think he likes me!"

"I suppose, as long as we already have two other people confessing, it's a good time for me to say that I've asked Winry to marry me," Edward said suddenly. Ling and Alphonse both stared at him, then had a mixed sort of reaction. Al just started laughing and Ling started asking him what he was thinking.

"I was thinking that I love her and Al's going to marry… uh… Mei? So I don't have to make any marital vows with a Xingese woman. There's no reason not to."

"When did I say I was going to marry him?" Mei said softly. Alphonse let go of her and took a step back.

"You won't?" He looked so heartbroken she surprised herself by not automatically saying "Psych! I will!"

"I don't know you… not really. Why should I?" There was silence in the room for a moment as everyone stared at her.

"Mei…" Lan Fan said quietly. Mei just shook her head at her step-sister.

"One year."

"What?" The Amestrian's words confused her. One year what?

"At the ball. I was asking you to try—" he put heavy emphasis on the 'try', "to teach my alkahestry. You said you wouldn't be able to get me to understand qi in a year. Try to. You spend one year teaching me everything you know about qi, about the Dragon's Pulse, about alkahestry… at the end of the year I will ask you to marry me again. If you say yes we'll be married and I'll be the happiest man you've ever met. If you say no, I'll give you everything you need to do whatever you want to do. Deal?"

There was silence for a few moments as she considered his proposition.

He shouted loudly and hugged her when she said yes.

So, this is basically the end. It's not one of those Cinderella stories where they get together and then more bad stuff happens... this is pretty much it. There is however an Epilogue that takes place little more than a year later. Instead of making you guys wait till next Sunday, I'm just going to upload that on Valentine's day and the first chapter of Refuge From Darkness can go up next Sunday.

I love you all! Please review :)