So this chapter ended up being a lloooooottttt longer than I thought it would be. When I started writing it I was thinking that it'd be a fairly normal sized easy to write chapter so I didn't matter that I spend time working on next weeks chapter or reading other fics because it wouldn't be that hard to finish up... but then it was almost midnight, I was 3000 words in and still not close to resolving the chapter... yeah... so... It's a good thing it's Spring Break this week for me though because I could managed to finish it this morning!

Also, I mention something in this chapter that's a flashback to a chapter from GFTS so I went and reread that chapter... and wow. Let me tell you wow. In that chapter, Benny (EdWin's oldest) was four. At this point in the story, during this chapter... he's 22. That also prompted me to do that math. GFTS covered a span of about 4 years. ASOH covered about 14. RFD is going to cover 43.

... yeah. It also has the least amount of chapters. But the longest chapters per capita by far.

Liwu was understandably confused when he picked up the phone and the first words he heard were:

"The whole world has gone nuts."

He had had a rather uneventful day. Well, he supposed that his days had ceased to be truly uneventful ever since he managed to make some friends at school, Simon and Oliver Capria (a pair of twins) and Luke Ronan, who he was pretty sure were partially insane.

He hadn't done anything purposefully to befriend them, he had only noticed that Simon had to do a report on Amestrian-Xingese relations and offered to let him talk to his dad. There really wasn't anyone better to go to research about that. Not only was Alphonse Elric the current Ambassador and had been Ambassador for 20 years, but the research that he had done for the Elric Treaty had been so expansive, he literally knew more than any other person alive.

They had set up plans for Simon to come over and talk to Al sometimes, only Simon had invited his twin Oliver to come over as well. Then Liwu had spent the next few days at school trying to help Simon make sense of the notes and thereby met their friend Luke. By the time Simon handed in the paper and Liwu went back to eating lunch in his deserted corner of the grounds, the other three tracked him down and dragged him to where they ate lunch.

So since then his days had been far from uneventful, but it had been an ordinary day. Until this phone call.

"Excuse me?"

"The whole world's gone nuts. I'm going to die. This is it. This is the end. World's ending."

"… Quyi?"

"Who else would call you talking in rapid Xingese?"

"Zhou. Uncle Ling—"

"Wait, wait, wait. Who's Zhou?"

"One of Nina's friends. He moved here from Xing last year and Nina adopted him because she was the only person in her grade that spoke Xingese. I've told you about him before."

There was brief silence before recognition. "Oh. One of Nina's… "friends"," Quyi commented, and Liwu had to snort as his friend's insinuation.

"Nah, they're honestly just friends. Nina treats him more like a brother than anything like that."

"Oh. I wanted to tease her mercilessly."

"You can tease her about Johnathan Kenny. She has a huge crush on him."

"Jonathan Kenny? I'll keep that in mind. But that's not important right now, the world's ending!"

"How much money to you owe Vien?"

"No, it's not money this time!"

"How many favors then?"

"What? No, that's not what I mean, it's not Vien."

"Then what did you do to make Uncle Ling mad?"

"No, it's not him either! It's—"

"Did Prince Han finally send assassins after you?"

"He's been doing that for years. No, you don't understand."

"Then what?"

"Fu challenged Jun-li for the throne."

Liwu froze, phone clutched in his hand before pulling away and staring at it.

"What?"

"Fu challenged Jun-li for the throne."

"… can he do that?"

"I don't even know! That's the problem! Fu just marched into the throne room yesterday in the middle of court today and announced that he deserved the throne and it was his intention to challenge Jun-li for the right to rule. The whole palace has been in an uproar ever since! Dad started freaking out and Jun-li looked like someone who had been told they were going to die! All the courtiers started yelling and screaming at each other and at Dad and Fu and Jun-li and Vien started collecting bets! It was a mad house! Mom and the other guards had to move in to calm things down. You have to get over here as soon as possible!"

"But we're in the middle of the school year—"

"This is a political crisis, Liwu! If Jun-li doesn't step down from his claim to the throne, we could have a civil war! I don't… I can't have my brothers fighting each other. They've always had the most strained relationship I can't… You have to come! It's more than just politics, it's family! Get on a train right now!"

Liwu didn't even bother hanging up the phone.

It was probably one of the longest train rides Mei had taken in her entire life.

She had had some pretty long train rides in her life.

The train ride to Amestris when Al had been injured in an assassination attempt and they were taking him to Amestris to heal had taken forever. She had spent the whole ride by Al's side, begging, praying and hoping that he would be alright.

Every train she had ever had to take moving away from her home lasted hours longer than it should have.

But this was easily one of the longest.

Liwu and Nina were entertaining Emily a few benches down, which she only halfheartedly watched. She was mostly just chewing her lip and worrying though.

She felt Al's fingers intertwine with hers. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Mei looked away, which only prompted Al to lean forward and turn her head so that she looked him in the eye.

"Hey… You're worried."

"I am."

"What are you worried about?" She pursed her lips.

"This whole situation. No one knows… it's just… there's so much… I'm worried for Xing, Al. I'm worried for Ling and his family. In my entire life, the only sibling I've ever managed to get along with is Ling. I have 43 siblings, Al. We grew up hating each other and trying to come up with ways to sabotage and kill each other for the throne. And now with Fu challenging Jun-li for the throne… I don't want that to happen to them. They're my nephews, I care about them. Both of them. And I don't want them to hate each other like I used to hate my siblings."

"Used to hate?"

"Well… I don't hate my siblings anymore. I just find most of them distasteful." He smirked before nuzzling her slightly.

"I'm sure everything will be fine. Despite what it may look like sometimes, Ling's got a good head on him. And Jun-li and Fu may not be as close as Ed and I were, but I'm sure they'll be fine. It'll work out."

Mei smiled and let him pull her into a hug.

"How do you always manage to make me feel better about everything?"

"I just have that calming influence," he said, rubbing her back.

"You do though," Mei mumbled into his chest. "You always have. No matter what stress or complicated problem I'm dealing with you're always there to reassure me that everything will work out in the end. That we'll be able to figure it out. It gets annoying sometimes…" They both chuckled slightly remembering one instant in particular when Mei had screamed at him for trying to make everything alright on a day that she had been particularly… hormonal. "But I really do love you for it."

"I would always want to make everything all right for you, Mei. Especially because when things are going well for you, they're going well for me."

She snorted and pulled away, pushing him playfully. "Selfish intentions, I see."

"Naturally, Princess. You mistake me to assume I'm a charming knight all the time. I would have thought you'd know that by now."

"I guess I haven't wanted to shatter the rosy glass," she responded.

"Mom? Are you and Dad being cute together again?" Nina asked from a few benches down. Both Al and Mei turned to see their children watching them.

"Take a lesson from your mother, Nina," Al said, grinning at his daughter, "And make sure to marry someone that you can be cute with when you're as old as we are. Especially with three little monstrosities like you three running around pretending to be offspring."

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

"Daddy!"

"Your father's right, though," Mei said, smiling at her children. "I want the best for you kids, but I think I already took the best man of them all so you'll have to squabble over what's left."

"Mom!"

"Yes, darling?"

"Ew!" Nina said pointedly. "It's Dad."

"You mean you aren't you glad I managed to find the most amazing man on the planet to be your father?"

"Well, yeah, I mean but… ew."

They could tell that things were tense the moment they got off the train. Businesses that would normally open were closed and there were not as many citizens out as there should be. They hurried to the palace, not bothering to stop anywhere or do anything. Liwu and Nina were both excited to be back in Xing, but Nina couldn't remember much of it herself and it wasn't much like the Xing they had left behind.

If possible, the mood at the palace was worse. It was if everyone had just discovered that the foundation of the building was made on eggshells instead of solid rock. Every single step made seemed like it would set something off that would send them all plunging horribly to their deaths.

The first smile brought to anyone's faces was when a Xingese boy came hurtling down the entrance steps towards them.

"You're here!" he shouted, quickly hugging his cousin and best friend. Quyi had changed in the past three years quite a bit, Mei had to admit. He had gotten taller, and some of the baby fat around his face had left, leaving it more angular. He was looking more and more like his father. It didn't help much that he was wearing his hair in a ponytail just like Ling used to when he was younger. Or that he was wearing an identical outfit, only the jacket was red and longer.

"What happened to your hair?" was the second thing out of the Prince's mouth, something that Mei heartily agreed with. While Mei loved Chris Mustang almost like a second son, she could not stand his hair. It was long enough that it was constantly in his eyes and needing to be cut, but short enough that it couldn't be pulled back in a ponytail or braid. She had been relieved when he had joined the military and they made him cut it short… but then Liwu decided that he needed to take up the hairstyle as well. She had honestly considered cutting his hair in the middle of the night while he was asleep multiple times.

"I grew it out? What about yours it's as long as Nina's." Quyi looked around and seemed to recognize that the rest of them where there.

"Oh. Hello. Hi, Aunt Mei. Uncle Al." He blinked. "… huh. Nina. And…" his eyebrows rose. "Emily? Wow you've gotten big. But I guess you're the same age as Vien huh so… Weird."

"What's going on, Quyi?" Al asked, taking the lead. "What's happened since you called?"

Quyi swallowed, his smile gone. "Not much. After the court meeting Dad tried to reason with Fu and tell him that it wasn't his place to claim the throne, that it went to Jun-li and Fu reasoned right back that he wasn't the oldest son either. They've gone back and forth like that a few times… but Jun-li hasn't said practically anything since the challenge. We're all worried, we don't know what this might mean.

"We don't even know if Fu can challenge Jun-li like that and what it entails if he is allowed. Dad started something completely unprecedented when he disbanded the Imperial Harem and married Mom and only Mom. We've all just assumed that the throne went to Jun-li since he's the oldest, but Fu does bring up a good point about the throne never automatically going to the oldest before. But does that mean that Dad just picks who the heir is? Or does he have to prove himself somehow? We're all clueless."

"Why did you want us to come so quickly?"

"Well… you guys are the closest family we have. And since this is a family crisis as much as a political one, we need our family here to support us."

Mei smiled at her nephews comment and hugged him, despite the fact that he blushed and pushed her away.

"Aw, Aunt Mei don't get mushy on me."

She smiled before looking up the stairs to where she saw Fu march down the hall. He caught sight of them, before his eyes widened slightly and he marched towards them.

"Fu," she said when he came close. Fu bowed before smiling tightly.

"Aunt Mei. It's nice to see you again. Why are you here?"

"We heard about… the challenge." His face darkened slightly.

"You didn't need to come all the way from Amestris for that."

"We're family, Fu," Al said. "We care about what's going on with you. We don't want anything… bad to happen."

He paused before his narrowed eyes changed into another tight smile. "Of course not."

Then he glanced at everyone else and looked surprised.

"Liwu?"

"Hey Fu…"

"You've shot up like a weed!" Fu proclaimed. "You're taller than I am!" Liwu smiled genuinely.

"Yeah. Dad keeps saying I get it from him." Fu smiled before moving on to Nina… and promptly raising an eyebrow.

"Since when did you become such an attractive young lady, cousin?" Nina smiled and tossed her braid over her shoulder.

"Why, thank you for noticing."

"And this can't be Emily, can it?" he asked, finally stopping at the youngest Elric. "You've gotten so big! Last time I saw you, you could hardly talk!"

"I can talk fine," she responded, raising her chin in a manner very reminiscent of her mother. Fu smiled and it looked like he was going to say something but then—

"Al? Mei?" Ling came hurrying down the steps before stopping when he noticed Fu there. "Fu."

Fu turned around stiffly. "Father."

Ling's eyes were hard to understand. They seemed hurt, but hard around the edges. Serious, but sad.

"Fu, your mother wanted to talk to you."

Fu didn't respond for a few moments before nodding and mounting the stairs.

There was a frigid silence as Fu passed him, but once he disappeared down one of the halls, Ling finished his decent down the stairs.

"Thank goodness you're here. Maybe you'll be able to get through to him, we haven't been able to—"

"Get through to who?" Mei asked. "Jun-li or Fu?"

Ling's face was serious.

"Both."

Jun-li had disappeared, as he was so prone to do, and Fu was avoiding them all, so they had to settle with dinner together. It should have been happy and full of catching up, and there was plenty of catching up and some laughs, but there was the undercurrent that kept all of them from enjoying what they should have been.

As they were finishing the final course however, Fu walked into the quarters. He glanced around before bowing his head.

"I'm sorry for interrupting… and not attending in the first place. However, if I may I would like to talk with Uncle Al in private."

Al's eyebrows rose before standing up and following him out.

Fu rounded on him almost as soon as the door closed behind them.

"Uncle Al, I have to know, are you here to support Jun-li?"

"What?"

"Are you here to support Jun-li. I know you're close friends with Father and Father doesn't want me to have the throne… but you can't."

Al shifted awkwardly. "Well, he is the first born…"

"No, Uncle Al, you can't. You're the one person who can understand me."

"What do you mean by that?"

Fu opened his mouth as if searching for the words to say. "On the Promised day, you sacrificed your soul so that your brother could get his arm back. So that he could fight and live."

"Yes…"

"I'm doing the same thing."

"… I'm sorry, Fu, you're going to have to explain that to me." Fu took a deep breath, and Al imagined that if he didn't have such great control he might have started pacing or running his hands through his hair.

"You have to understand that I love my brother. I'm not doing this because I hate him or I want to take the throne from him. I love Jun-li. He's my older brother, I've looked up to him for years. But you also have to understand that as much as I love him… Jun-li is not an Emperor.

"He is intelligent, and kind, and he wants to do right by Xing. But he has no patience whatsoever for politics, he can't give a speech to the court, he's never even been able to last through an entire party… even ones where he's not required to talk. He doesn't command the attention and respect of a room. He makes more enemies than friends. He's close minded and set in his ways.

"I love my brother. But he is not an Emperor. Being an Emperor would destroy Xing as well as himself. His talents are much better suited elsewhere. Away from the politics and power ploys and attention. I'm doing this for him! For Xing! You of all people should be able to understand that sacrifice."

Al found himself unable to respond.

"Have you told your father this?"

"Father won't listen. He's thinks I'm trying to justify stealing the throne from his precious oldest son."

"Fu… your father loves you—"

"I know he loves me. And I know that I'll never be his Jun-li. But Jun-li doesn't want to be Emperor either!"

"… how do you know that?"

Fu stared him straight in the eye. "How did you know your brother blamed himself for your sins? This is why I come to you, Uncle Al. You understand my position better than anyone else could. Please, help me make Father understand. I think Mother knows something of it, but Father doesn't seem to be able to accept it…"

"I want to talk to Jun-li about it first."

Fu pursed his lips, but nodded.

Jun-li didn't reappear the whole night. No one could find him anywhere except Lan Fan, and she reported that he refused to talk to her, let alone come down and talk to all of them.

So he would just have to come to him.

"I'm not interested, Moth—" The heir said before he even fully pulled himself up onto the roof. "… what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see my cousin…" Liwu said cautiously trekking down the center beam.

"Last time you were up here though you almost—"

"Last time I was up here, I was five," Liwu responded, sitting down next to his cousin. "I think I'll be able to keep my balance better. And even if I do mess up, you're here."

"You're a lot heavier than you were when you were five."

"And you're a lot stronger than when you were twelve."

"… It's good to see you, Liwu. You've grown up a lot since I last saw you."

"Yeah. I really have."

"I love my sons, Al, both of them. But this sort of squabbling… it's beneath them!"

"I would point out that you were a part of the same squabbling. You came to Amestris after something that it was fully possible didn't even exist just to try to get an edge over the squabbling."

"Yes, but I thought I did something to stop this! I took all the clans under my wing. I ended the fifty wives, fifty children tradition. I wanted this to end. And now my own sons… I raised them so that something like this wouldn't happen."

"Jun-li do you think you deserve to be Emperor?"

"What?"

"Do you think you… deserve to be Emperor?"

"It's my birthright!"

"That's not an answer…"

"I don't want my family torn apart. I couldn't stand that."

"Do you have any idea what's prompted any of this?"

"No! I have no clue! If I had known that there was any of this tension going on I would have done something about it! I would have talked to either of them sooner, both. Before they refused to be in the same room as each other for sure."

"How is that not an answer?"

"It's a statement. It's your birthright. My… my birthright was to die. My biological mom was living on the street in extreme debt, I should have died. But it's not what I deserved. It's not what any child deserves."

"I've trained my whole life to be Emperor. I've spent twenty-two years learning everything there is about being Emperor. It's my entire life. How do I not deserve it?"

"Okay maybe that was a bad question," Liwu admitted sheepishly. "It's just… do you want to Emperor?"

"Of course!"

"So… why aren't you fighting Fu for it?"

"What would you do? If… if Liwu and Nina both wanted something that people had killed you over. That you had fought with your siblings over to the point where you would have killed someone to get it. They've never shown signs of hating each other. I guess Fu always has been a bit jealous of Jun-li but… I don't know what to do Al. This is completely unprecedented. I never even considered that the throne might possibly go to Fu. And so far there's been… nothing. Jun-li doesn't even seem to realize what's going on."

Jun-li opened his mouth to shoot back and answer, but it hung open without anything to say.

"Quyi told me that you haven't really said anything since he challenged you except to tell people that you don't want to talk. And I swear that's all this is. No one put me up to coming up here, I swear. I just wanted to talk because… I kept help but feel like you're doing what I used to."

Jun-li raised an eyebrow. "Prank courtiers?"

Liwu grinned. This was why Jun-li was his favorite cousin next to Quyi. "Okay, not that. But… I don't know, maybe I'm way off the mark. But I needed someone to snap me out of it and maybe you need the same. You remember when I was learning alchemy from Dad? Well… I didn't really care about learning alchemy."

"You didn't? But you were always the most eager of all of us when I would join in on lessons."

"Yeah. Because I didn't really care about alchemy as much as I cared about spending time with Dad. With making him want to care about me. I don't know, I just thought that maybe if I cared about alchemy as much as he did that he would love me more because of it."

"But Uncle Al loves you—"

"Yeah, I know. I learned that lesson. But all it did was make me frustrated when I didn't get it. It took Nina reminding me that I didn't need to prove anything to get me to stop it."

Jun-li blinked at his younger cousin before shifting position so that his chin was on his knee.

"Thanks for sharing, Liwu, but that's not it. It's not that I want to be Emperor to impress Father, or to feel closer to him… I just… It's all I've ever known. It's all I've ever had. I've been heir to the throne since I was born. I've been trained, taught, groomed to take the role. It's all I've ever had… And I hate it."

"What?"

"I hate it. I hate it. I hate the fact that because I was born first to my parents I have to be in charge of millions of lives. I have to lead them. I have to discuss policies that will change the lives of millions of people. I could end up starting a war that will kill all of them! Why did it have to be me? Why couldn't my parents have been farmers or some low ranking courtier? Why do the people I'm born to and the order in which I was born to them decide the rest of my life? The rest of the lives of… possibly the world!"

"So why don't you let Fu take the throne? If you don't want it…"

"But that's it. I hate it, but it's all I have. That's all my life is. Preparing to be Emperor. Being Emperor. It is everything. If I don't become Emperor, I am nothing. I can't give that up."

"Oh…"

They sat there in silence for a few moments move, watching as the stars began to come out and shine brighter and brighter.

"Well I'm not telling you what to do. But if your life was based solely on what your parents did, with my biological parents' track record, I'd be dead. It was a miracle that Dad saved me and my parents took me in. I don't think you should be forced to do something based on who your parents are if you're worried about it hurting more people in the end. Or, maybe if you can beat Fu for the throne it'll prove that you deserve it. I don't know. I really don't. But… if things don't work out, I'm sure you'd be great at saving little boys from falling off roofs."

Jun-li snorted as Liwu stood up and walked down the center beam… before turning around.

"Uh… Jun-li… I actually don't know how to get down. Getting up wasn't a problem but getting down…"

The heir snorted, before leading his cousin off the roof.

"Brother."

Everyone in the room stood when Jun-li and Liwu entered. Fu's eyes locked onto Jun-li's.

"Yes, Brother?"

"I would speak with you." Fu raised his chin. "Alone."

"Very well."

They left the room together.

"—and pronounce Fu Yao, second son of His Highness, Son of the Morning, Emperor Ling Yao, as Heir to the Imperial Throne of Xing."

Mei felt Al's fingers intertwine with hers as the words were said. The entire Imperial Family was arrayed in front of the throne room, Ling and Lan Fan in all their regalia, while Vien stood stoically in a red and gold dress and Quyi squirmed in the closed tunic they had forced him into for the occasion.

Fu and Jun-li stood shoulder to shoulder, both with their chins raised. Al was reminded very much so of the boy's father.

Fu bowed as the words as Ling pronounced the words, and didn't rise until Ling held out a hand and rose him, presenting him to the courtiers.

There was some cheering, some clapping, and silence from some, but it still took a few minutes for Fu to announce that his first act as heir was to, in conference and with approval from his father the Emperor, appoint his brother, Jun-li Yao as Head of Security of the palace, to replace the soon retiring Fie Lan.

Mei tightened her fingers around Al's. If there was ever a time for things to go wrong…

"I accept the position."

"Then let us be at peace, Brother."

The two hugged in front of the entire court.

No protests. No roars of outrage. No knives, no assassins in the shadows.

All was well.

"I guess sometimes children do learn from their parents' mistakes," Mei whispered.

Al squeezed her hand before looking at where their children were watching just as anxiously as they were. "I guess they do."

Hmm. Lots of throwbacks in this chapter. Sorry if you thought it got a little weird there at the end. I hit the 4000 word mark and decided I just really wanted to be done with the stupid chapter. And sorry it's late! Hope the length makes up for that.

Please review!