Well I've survived one week at least! That's great news! It's gonna be the next two that'll really be the test. March is turning out to be a very very busy month. Very busy.

Now, I have to ask your forgiveness for this chapter cause... it kinda takes place three years from the last one... I do try to transition as best as I could, but in case you don't get it from the chapter, this is three years later. There really wasn't any ways I could space things differently so we didn't have that huge time jump. Sorry. But it's extra long! I hope that somewhat makes up for it!

When Al first heard the plan, his first reaction was pure shock. Ed had told him that it was something he had been considering, but he never thought… not in his lifetime. Certainly not with his help.

"I… are you sure?"

"I'm positive, Alphonse."

"But… but you know what will happen."

"I know exactly what will happen," the voice responded through the phone, voice firm. "This decision was made long before I ever met you, Alphonse."

"… Very well. What do you need my help with?"

The process took three whole years.

Three long years.

Liwu grown almost a whole foot, shooting up like a weed. He was already threatening to be taller than his mother. He worked relentlessly on studying alchemy and practicing with his mother. He learned how to transmute remotely, complex substances, complex structures and shapes… and he learned his father's story.

"This was you?" Liwu asked, glancing up at his father with wide dark eyes. Al glanced down at the picture of him and Ed, back when Ed was still the Fullmetal Alchemist and smiled a little at the memory.

"That's me."

"And… you didn't have a body?"

"Not underneath the armor, no. It was my body." Liwu looked almost sick.

"But how… how are you…?"

"How did I get my body back?" Al sighed heavily before rubbing the back of his neck. "A lot of sacrifice, Liwu. Uncle Ed and I spend years wandering around the country trying to find a way to get it back. Eventually we discovered about Father's plot to turn the country into a Philosopher's Stone—"

"You mean the stories you used to tell us are true?"

"Some of them are. We were hoping that telling you those stories to you would make it easier for you to understand once we told you the whole truth. During the final battle, Uncle Ed's automail arm got destroyed and he was pinned. Father wanted to try to absorb his soul for his Philosopher's Stone… and—"

"You sacrificed your soul for his arm. Like in the story."

Al nodded.

"But then how… Uncle Ed. He sacrificed his alchemy to get your body back. That's why he can't do alchemy anymore."

"Exactly. Everything turned out for us alright in the end. I met your mother when she came to Amestris looking for immortality. I decided to come to Xing after my body was strong enough. Uncle Ed got married to Aunt Winry and he's never regretted giving his alchemy out. But could have gone terribly wrong. We could have died. Millions of people could have died."

"And it didn't even work anyways."

"… exactly. Human transmutation is impossible. I've seen Truth, Liwu. And it's not worth it." Liwu bowed his head before nodding.

He told Nina a few months later when she demanded to know why Liwu had told her off for saying that Al's ability to transmute without a circle was cool.

After he explained the entire story to her she remarked that "Maybe transmuting without a circle isn't that cool after all."

Nina didn't really take much of an interest in alchemy, instead working more with her mother with alkahestry. Even then she wasn't the most dedicated of students, but she seemed to enjoy spending the time with her mother.

Emily on the other hand was already fully engaged in learning alchemy. It had been quite a surprise when the four year old had first toddled over to Al and Liwu during a lesson and sat down and started watching.

At the end of the lesson, she demanded to be taught how to make the pretty lights.

She absorbed it like a sponge.

It was like having to teach a younger version of himself.

She was already transmuting the simple shapes by the time he made the announcement.

The announcement that they were moving.

"What?" Liwu shouted, shooting to his feet.

Nina's eyes were wide as she stared at her father.

"What do you mean we're moving to Amestris?"

"I mean we're moving to Amestris," Al said gently, looking down at his lap. Mei was looking down to. She hadn't been very happy when he began discussing it with her, but she had agreed that it was what they needed to do.

"But why?" An almost pleading note entered Liwu's voice.

"You know about Amestis's government, don't you kids?"

"Yeah. It's a stratocracy, Quyi and I learned that a few months ago."

"Well, your Uncle Roy has been working with me for a very long time to change that."

"What?"

"Next week he's going to announce that in three months all power will be handed over to a democratically elected counsel to run the country."

"But why does that mean we have to move?" Nina asked, completely ignoring the gravity of the words Al had just told them.

"You know I'm employed by the government of Amestris, so this change directly affects me and because it directly affects me it affects all of you. I don't know what's going to happen with the change. Everything could change or things could go more or less the same way they always have. And it could take years to work out. I have to be there."

"But… but all of my friends are here," Nina protested. Emily watched the entire affair with wide eyes, not quite understanding what was going on except that everyone seemed to be agitated about it.

"You can make new friends."

"But I don't want to make new friends!" Liwu said. "I can't just leave Quyi!"

"It's not like you're never going to see him again. I'm going to come back to Xing a lot, you can come with me some times. And we'll be closer to your other cousins."

"But they don't like us!"

"That was a long time ago, kids. And you've never really gotten the chance to know each other before now. Now you can have that chance."

"But what about school and a house and and…"

"We've already found a house in Central with Uncle Roy's help. We're going to stay there until things settle down with the transition. You can go to school there. It will be a new experience for you both."

"What if we don't want to?"

"Liwu—"

"Dad, I'll be the only Xingese kid there! It'll be just like that time!"

There was silence in the room as they all frowned at Liwu. It was Mei that broke it. "What do you mean, sweetheart?"

He colored. "I… when we used to live in Resembool. The other kids all hated me because I was so different from them."

"Oh, sweetheart, it's not going to be like that—"

"No, Mom! How do you know that? It's going to be just like that!"

"I wish you had told me, I would have done something." Liwu shook his head at his father.

"I didn't want to. And I don't want to. I'm not going to go! I belong in Xing!"

"So do I," Nina said stubbornly.

"Yeah," Emily said, nodding her head.

Al sighed heavily and hunched his shoulders. "Kids, I understand that you want to stay here, but sometimes things happen and you have to roll with the punches."

"I'm not going."

"You're going."

"No—"

"Liwu Van Elric, you will be moving to Amestris with the rest of this family and that is final!"

Al's shout was almost as if he had punched his son. Liwu stared at his father with his jaw hanging slightly open before shutting it and running from the room. Al, who had stood up when he shouted, sank back down on the couch, burying his face in a hand.

Nina and Emily's eyes were both wide as they stared at him.

"Girls… I think it's time for bed," Mei said quietly. Nina nodded and grabbed Emily's hand, leading her to her room.

"I shouldn't have yelled."

"… no you probably shouldn't have. But he does need to accept the fact that we are moving."

"I know." They sat there for a few minutes in silence.

"Did it ever bother you?"

"What?"

"Being the only Xingese woman in Resembool."

"Al…"

"Did it?"

"I… sometimes. Most of the time I didn't care, Resembool is such a small town that once word got out that you were moving in with your Xingese wife most people didn't treat me that differently… but sometimes I would walk into one of the stores in town and the whispering would stop. I…"

"What?"

Mei shook her head. "No, Al, it's fine."

"Mei, tell me."

She pursed her lips. "I know for a fact that there was a nasty rumor going around that I was unfaithful to you, which is why Liwu doesn't look like you. One of the older women said that it wasn't that surprising since I am Xingese."

"Why didn't you tell me that?" Mei smiled at him affectionately.

"Because Al, I know you would have done something about it. And while I trust that you would have dealt with it much more tactfully that Ed would have, you didn't have to get involved. I didn't care. Except now that some of that seemed to have carried to Liwu."

"Do you think it'll happen?"

She pursed her lips again. "I don't know Al. I think that'll happen anywhere we go in Amestris. It hasn't been nearly long enough of positive relationships with Xing to get rid of feelings like that. You can't deny that people don't mistrust you here sometimes."

"Well… yes."

"I'm fine, Al. I'll have you and the children. It's them that I'm worried about."

"I'm not too worried about Nina," he responded. "She makes friends like breathing. She may not want to move now, but after a few months of going to school she'll already have a group of close friends. And Emily's too young to really understand what's happening. She'll be confused but she'll make friends as easily as any other child first going to school. It's Liwu that has me worried. He's so… cut off around people he doesn't know. And with this attitude he'll never make friends."

"I know… but there's not much we can do is there?"

Al sighed.

"Will you go talk to him?"

"Of course," Mei agreed instantly. "Go tuck Emily in."

"Okay."

The light was off in his room when Mei entered his room.

"I know you're still awake," she said, coming into the room and sitting down on the bed next to him.

"No, I'm not," he muttered into his pillow.

Mei smiled and stroked the hair on the back of his head. "You know, when we first moved to Amestris, to Resembool, I did not want to go."

He didn't respond, so she continued. "I love Xing. It's my home. It was the first time I had ever really moved outside of my country. I went to Amestris when I was a girl of course, and I traveled around the Easter countries with your father for a couple years, but I had only ever moved to the capitol where everyone was still Xingese."

"Yeah… so?"

"What I'm trying to tell you, Liwu, is that I understand. I know what you're going through. But I also know that I loved it in Resembool. And while I'll never consider it my home over Xing, I grew to love it as well. I liked living there. I'm just trying to say that… Central might not be too bad. You might come to like it."

"How can I?"

"I managed to make friends in Resembool. And you'll always have your family. We'll always be there for you. And who knows… you might end up meeting a girl you like there."

Liwu flushed red. Ever since beginning puberty, the boy couldn't even look at a girl who wasn't his sister without turning red.

Mei smiled and leaned down to kiss the top of his head. "We're not asking you to love the idea, Liwu, but we are asking that you don't hate us for making you move."

"But I don't want to leave Xing," he whimpered, rolling over to face her.

"I know," she responded, pulling him into a hug. "I know."

"This is where we live?" Emily asked, frowning.

"That's right, Em," Mei told her daughter before dropping her so she was on her feet. The four year old peered down the hall and crinkled her nose.

"It's cold."

"It'll warm up once we're more moved in," Al promised her, dropping some of the suitcases on the floor in the entrance way. Nina and Liwu shuffled in behind him dejectedly.

"What do you think?" he asked the, turning around.

"It's not bad…" Nina said, though the way she said it made it sound like she wasn't sure with her answer. Liwu didn't answer.

Ever since saying goodbye to his cousin with plenty of promises to call each other every day and Quyi always telling him all of his pranks and Liwu to tell Quyi everything that he was learning (the Prince didn't seem too upset when he learned that he wouldn't be able to continue alchemy lessons. He confessed that he took them more so that he could do something impressive that his siblings couldn't and he had learned enough to have done so) he hadn't said a word. Not the whole ride to Amestris or to Central.

"Well, that was a ringing endorsement," Al said after a few moments of quiet before clapping his hands. "Come on, offspring. Let's figure out whose rooms are whose."

"This is going to need some getting used to."

Al raised an eyebrow as he pulled his sleeping shirt over his head. "The house? Well, did you expect anything else—"

"No, the bed."

He raised an eyebrow and turned around. Mei was sitting on the bed bouncing up and down slightly.

"It's a different type of mattress than the one we have back home— at the other place," she clarified.

"Oh." He grinned slightly. "Well the best way to break in a new bed is to sleep on it," he proclaimed before jumping onto the bed and landing face first into the pillows. The action knocked Mei off the bed, and she got up off the floor only to hear him snoring loudly into the pillows.

"Al. Al!"

He lifted his face and grinned at her. "You're ridiculous."

"I love you too, Mei." She tried to keep an angry face on... but eventually had to smile and crawl under the blankets.

"I really do love you, though," he repeated facing her. "Thank you for allowing us to move here. I'm sure it won't be that bad."

"I hope so. I hope we love it here."

"So do I."

He kissed her once, before turning off the lights and crawling under the blankets with her.

Only to be woken up an hour or so later.

"Daddy?"

He blinked and opened his eyes to see his youngest daughter standing by his bed.

"Em?"

"I don't like my room," she half cried. "I can't sleep. Can I sleep with you?"

"What's going on?" Mei muttered, rolling over.

"Our daughter's going to be sleeping with us tonight," he told her, lifting Emily up and plopping her between the two of them.

"Oh. Alright."

Emily tucked her head against Al's chest and clung to his shirt. A few minutes later they were all once again asleep.

That is until there was the creak of their door being opened. Nina didn't bother asking if she could join her parents, perhaps fearing that she would be turned away, but crawled right in next to Al and snuggling up to his side.

"Nina?"

"… I couldn't sleep."

"… Well, I guess I get to sleep with all of my favorite girls tonight," he commented, grinning sleepily. Nina blushed slightly and Mei shoved him playfully.

A few minutes later, they were joined by someone who was not a girl though. Liwu entered the same way that Nina did, silently and hesitantly.

After a few stammered attempts at explaining himself and why he was here, Mei pulled him into the bed and under the covers.

"You don't… you don't mind?"

"I can't think of a better way to break in a new house."