Part 5

Something very strange was going on.

From what I understood, a friend of the Elrics, Maes Hughes, was shot while the boys were in Rush Valley. Another friend, Maria Ross, was accused of the crime and, apparently found guilty. She escaped from imprisonment and was about to be free from the law when the commanding officer, Roy Mustang, used fire alchemy to burn her to death.

Ed and Al were extremely bitter towards him for doing this.

The next thing we knew, Ed was being taken back to his home town of Risembool by a man by the name of Alex Louis Armstrong.

I didn't like what was happening one bit.

But, I need to work on making a new glove. And, maybe, even a back up pair.

I managed to find many yards worth of Hydronet in central, which was a lucky break for me. But the difficult part was creating the array on the glove with out ruining it.

After hours of trying different threads, different needles, etc., I decided to take a break and grab some food.

I walked out of my room into the main room.

Al and Winry were just sitting around talking.

But that's not why I froze.

Ling was sitting right next to Winry.

We both looked at each other.

Ling threw himself into the air and landed right in front of me.

His flat hand was flying at me.

I caught it by the wrist and wrapped my arm around it.

"You wanna tell me what you thinking back there? Throwing me to the dogs like that? Lying through your little teeth?"

"I saw an opportunity and I took it."

"I'm a fugitive because of you."

"You would've been a fugitive anyway, even without my help. Only an idiot doesn't think to have a Visa with them."

He ripped out of my grasp and glared at me.

"Speaking of which, how do you have an entry Visa? You trip to Amestris was just as sudden as my own."

"None of your business."

I walked up to the phone and called room service for some food.

Once I was done calling, Al stood up and said that he need to help his friends find the Person who killed Hughes. Ling tried to make him stop so that he could hear the secret to immortality but Al was determined to go. After he left, Winry decided to go see the Hughes family again.

That left Ling and I… alone… in a hotel room…

Well, not completely alone; LanFan was watching from outside.

Strangely, Ling didn't try anything for a while.

He sat on one of the beds, looking out the window while I sat on the couch, continuing with my Hydronet expiraments.

We sat in piercing silence that was almost tangible, each of us still angry with the other.

I tried to ignore it and just calm myself while I did the needle work.

Suddenly, my sore, left index finger burst with pain.

I dropped my needle and the fabric, wincing at the pain.

I took a look at my finger.

After stabbing myself with the needle many times, my finger hand opened up and started bleeding.

'Great. I better go wash it before the blood gets onto the fabric.'

I stood up and started walking towards the bathroom.

Ling grabbed my wrist and pulled me back.

I tried to pull away from him, slamming my right fist onto his chest.

He took hold of that wrist too and pressed it against his chest.

He lifted my hand to his mouth and he stuck my bleeding finger into his mouth.

I froze, shocked by what he was doing.

He waited until the bleeding stopped. Then, he slipped his hand under mine and pulled his mouth away from my finger.

He lightly pressed his lips to my knuckles.

I realized that I was letting him do it.

I ripped my hands away from him and gave him one last glare.

I went to one of the night stand drawers and pulled out some thin bandages.

'Might as well make it so that I won't bleed again.'

I sat and started wrapping my finger.

But my fingers were to fumbling and shaky. It was impossible for me to wrap.

Ling stepped onto the little coffee table in front of me and sat cross legged in front of me.

I pulled away from him and gave him a glare.

He held out his hand, respectfully asking for the bandages.

I looked from his face to his hand, trying to decide whether he was gonna try anything again.

He looked at me very seriously.

I, hesitantly, gave him the bandages.

He took my hand and held it right in front of him.

He, gently, wrapped the bandages around it over and over again.

He tied off the bandages and lightly held my hand in both of his.

"Why are you being so nice?"

He looked me straight in the eye.

"One must always honor and worship his 小女神。"

"Stop calling me that and tell the truth."

He looked me straight in the eye again.

"I'm just doing what ever it takes to get you back to Xing."

"You're wasting your time."

I tried to pick up my needle work but Ling pressed his hand onto mine, making it impossible for me to pull it up.

"At least explain why you left and why you never want to go back."

"You wouldn't understand."

I looked up to find that his face was inches from mine.

"Try me."

I glared at his challenging face.

"You wouldn't understand. You're a man. What's more, you're a son of the Emperor of Xing. You can have what ever future you want. No one stops you from anything or makes decisions without your say in the matter. You are the master of your life."

I looked away from him.

"It's different for girls. It seems that the only thing were good for is bearing children. So, from the moment we're born, our parents decide who we are to marry. They don't ask if we want to marry the person they choose. They don't ask if we even want to get married."

"And you don't want to get married?"

I glared at him.

"See, even you don't listen. You just assume. I want to get married… but not to you… or any of your brothers, especially which ever one of you becomes Emperor."

Ling stood up on the table, angrily.

"And what's wrong with being the wife of the Emperor?"

I stood up myself and stepped onto the table, and glared up at him.

"You really need to ask? To be a wife to the Emperor of Xing is to be 1 of 50. 1 wife out of 50 wives, all married off so that they could bear the possible heir to the Emperor's throne. If they can't have children, they're deemed useless and shunned. The moment they give birth, they're ignored."

"But that's how things have always been done!"

"So, just because our ancestors did the same thing, that makes it the only way? The right way which should never be questioned, no matter how much times change? Is that what you're telling me?"

He looked at me for a second, trying to find a good, logical answer that I couldn't argue with, but he looked away when he couldn't find one.

"I don't just want be a way to have as many heirs as possible, Ling. I want to change the world and I want to change the world of the man I'll marry. I want to actually mean something to him."

Ling, suddenly, grabbed my shoulders and crashed his lips onto mine.

I stared, wide-eyed, not knowing what to do.

That voice in my head was yelling at me to get him off of me but I was frozen.

After a moment, which seemed like eternity, he slid from my lips to my chin. He kissed along my jaw line.

"Ling?"

He started pushed me back wards until I was sitting on the couch. He knelt beside me and started kissing my neck.

"Ling?"

He pushed me back until I was lying on my back. His hand gently lifted up my shirt and started rubbing my stomach.

"Ling. None of this is going to change anything."

He froze.

"I've made up my mind."

He pressed his forehead to mind.

"Isn't there anything I can do?"

I didn't say a word.

I just pushed him off me.

I stood up, grabbed my needle work and locked myself in my part of the hotel room.