SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

AP tests and my friends birthday present and not knowing how I was going to do this chapter and other fics and homework and blegh :( SSSSSSSOOOOORRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYY!

"Thanks for coming with me Zhou."

"Of course, no problem," the Xingese boy said quickly, smiling at her. Nina blinked as her heart thumped slightly. She smiled back and started walking. "I'm just glad you asked. I've been meaning to give her a visit for a while myself."

"Thank you. Liwu's too busy with college and Em with alchemy…"

"What about James?" there was something sour in Zhou's voice that Nina almost didn't catch. All the same, her usually bright blue eyes darkened.

"We broke up two nights ago."

"You did?"

She nodded. "He told me that he wanted a sweet wife who would be his personal servant, not someone who wants to go off and help save people lives."

"Those exact words?"

"Okay not those words exactly," she corrected, rolling her eyes at him. "But yes, he's not interested in a nurse. He wants a sweet little housewife."

'If your stories about Mrs. Curtis are even half true, those two don't always go together you know."

Nina snorted. "I have to give you that point. But… I know it's unusual for a girl like me to be so dedicated to becoming a nurse, but it's not a bad thing to want to help other people. And it's not like I don't want kids or a family, I do!"

"Of course," Zhou said, nodding. He was used to Nina going off on rants like this. It was better to just nod and agree with her.

"But I can't date or marry someone who can't respect the fact that that's what I want to do."

"Of course."

"He just makes me so mad. I can't stand him!"

"Of course."

"So after he made that pretty clear, so he didn't exactly tell me that he had no interest in a girl with a head on her shoulders, but he was making fun of nurses and then I got mad at him because he knew that I wanted to be a nurse, and then he just looked and said "You mean you were serious about that?". Of course I was serious about that and he was acting like a pig! I gave him one more day and then he blew it so I told him I never wanted to see him again. It's been a wonderful two days without his face."

"Of course."

"I also think that we should try flying to the moon in a plane made of macaroni, and get married up there. Uncle Ling can perform the marriage and we'll have and raise six children on the moon."

"Of cour— Nina."

"Just checking to make sure you were listening."

"I was listening! James is a pig. I could have told you that when you first started dating him, though."

"Well then why didn't you?" she asked raising an eyebrow. Zhou very pointedly looked forward, avoiding her eyes. "You could have saved me a lot of time."

"Well… I thought you liked him."

"I did. I guess that shows how great my judgment it."

There was a pause of heavy silence as they entered the cemetery and had to wind their way around all of the tombstones to find the right one.

"Well. At least you have good judgment in friends."

They stopped in front of the tombstone baring the name Katie Holrin.

"Yeah… yeah I do."

It had been almost two years. Next month (and a day) and it would be two years. So much had happened, it seemed like an eternity ago. Liwu had graduated and started pursuing a culinary career (those hours in the kitchen with mom actually amounted to something, she supposed), Nina had decided she wanted to be a nurse and studying thusly, Emily was eleven, she was only two years away from being a teenager! Zhou had grown another two inches, so he was now an inch taller than her. Rachel had fallen head over heels in love with some boy in the grade above them.

Everything seemed to have changed.

Nina tried to say something, try to express something about what she felt, how much Katie had meant to her, how sorry she was that she hadn't been able to come more recently, how much good had been going on in their lives and how much she wished that she had been there for it.

But she couldn't say anything.

Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.

Eventually she just shut it and ran away. She made it to the street outside of the cemetery before Zhou managed to catch up to her.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked as he approached her. Nina turned to look at him and felt the familiar feeling swoop in her stomach. He was wrapped up in his coat with a scarf, which Nina almost had to smile at. He was such a wimp in the cold. It wasn't even cold enough to be snowing and he was dressed as if he was about to spend the next month in the Briggs mountains. It was windy though, so his black hair was messy and swept to one side.

"Yeah, I just…" She blinked rapidly before looking away and finishing lamely, "…wanted to get out of the cold."

"That I can heartily agree with," he said, smiling slightly, hesitantly. He was trying to let her safe face, and she loved— appreciated it. "Are we going back to your house or would you rather go home alone? That's totally okay if you don't want me to come along…"

"No, I'm sure my family would be happy to see you. Dad asked me the other night if we had had a fight or something because you haven't been over in too long."

"I was over two weeks ago."

"Apparently that's far too long ago to Dad," she said, snorting lightly. Zhou smiled back and they started walking. They didn't talk much for the few minutes before Zhou broke the silence.

"Your family has always been so kind to me. I never would have imagined six years ago that I ever would have ended up being welcomed in a Princess's home."

"Or being friends with the future Emperor's cousins."

"Yes, or being friends with the future Emperor's cousins. Or meeting the Emperor! I never would have thought… Much less be invited to help the Prince prank the courtiers!"

Nina grinned. Over the past summer, Nina and her family had invited Zhou to come with them on vacation back to Xing. His parents had allowed on the condition that he stay in Liwu's room which had been the plan the entire time. His parents had never quite been sure what to think of their only son's bubbly young friend. They were happy that he had found a friend, and a Xingese (at least by culture) one at that, but she knew for a fact that his mother had called her empty headed once. That had changed slightly after she announced her plans to become a nurse and began to study accordingly, but they obviously weren't quite ready to trust her.

The trip as a whole though had been quite fun. Zhou nearly died when they introduced them to Uncle Ling, to which Ling had just laughed and joked around (something he was good at) until the Yu finally felt at ease. Quyi had taken an almost instant liking to the usually quiet Xingese boy and invited him to join him and Liwu in their pranking enterprises (his predilection towards mischief had not changed in the slightest as he grew older)

"Well that's what you get for being my friend."

"I don't really think you gave me much of a choice in being your friend," he said, raising his eyebrows.

"No, No I didn't," she said as if thinking about it, before grinning and bumping him with her shoulder. He bumped her back, which she reciprocated by bumping into him with her whole body. He did likewise, now smiling.

Nina laughed before doing it again… only he had moved out of her way so that she went stumbling to the side.

"Ha!"

"Oh you're going to get it!" she yelled at him before running at him again. Zhou grinned and pulled his hands out of the pockets they had been deeply tucked in, grabbing her shoulders so that she wouldn't be able to hit him. Then she took the liberty of trying to knock his feet out from under him by trying to hook the inside of his knee with her foot. He yelled "Nina!" but it was too late, she had already managed to make his leg buckle.

With a wordless yell from Zhou and a screech from Nina, Zhou fell forward, knocked her down as he did so. She tried to brace herself with an arm, but her elbow buckled under the weight and she fell hard on her forearm. Zhou however tried to spin so that he wouldn't fall right on his face and ended up bracing most of the impact with his shoulder.

"Ow," he groaned, rolling onto his back and clutching his shoulder.

"What's wrong? Did you dislocate it?" she asked, propping herself up so that she could get a good look at him, ignoring the awful scrapes on her arm. Then she realized that he was laughing.

"If you're laughing it can't be that bad."

"It's not dislocated, I promise," he said, still chuckling. "It's just hurts. It might be sore for a few days, but I'll be fine."

"Mhmm," she said, lips pursed. He cracked open an eye to look at her before grinning.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize me getting hurt made you upset."

"That's not what makes me upset, what makes me upset is the fact that you—" He used his other arm to prop himself up and stare at her properly. Only that brought his face into far closer quarters with hers that she had realized. There were only inches between them.

"That I what?" he asked, his grin having faded into a slight smile. Nina found that whatever she was going to say had quite helpfully decided to leave her brain. Zhou had very long eyelashes for a boy. She had never noticed that before. She had never been so close to his eyes.

"That you…" Her heart started to pound in her chest and she swallowed hard. "Uh… you're… uh…" The smile had faded off of Zhou's face as he stared into her eyes.

"I'm… what?" he breathed, leaning forward slightly. Nina found herself leaning closer herself as if there was some powerful magnet pulled the two of them together. She almost couldn't control it… and almost didn't want to.

"I… uh… um…"

Their noses were maybe an inch apart when a car drove by, breaking the spell. Both of them simultaneously jerked away, breathing heavily. Nina had to hold her palm against her chest to try to get her heart to slow down.

Zhou pushed some of his hair out of his face and Nina cleared her throat.

"Um… I…" he started, trying to say something, but failing. His mouth opened and closed a few more times before Nina pushed herself to her feet.

"Uh, should we, uh, keep walking?"

"Do you… still want me to come over?" he asked, grimacing slightly. Nina flared red again.

"Uh… Well, yeah, I mean that wasn't… that was just… um."

"It didn't mean anything."

"Yes. Exactly. It didn't… mean anything." Even as she said it though, Nina felt the words ring hollow. He seemed to sense it too and stared at her, prompting her to turn red once again and look away.

"Come on, let's go. Or Dad will start thinking that something happened or something… And nothing did right?"

"Right. Nothing…"

"Exactly. Nothing."

"So what's going on between you and Zhou?" Mei asked, sitting down on her daughter's bed.

"What?" Nina said looking up from her homework and looking away quickly. "Nothing."

Mei's eyebrow rose. "Nothing?"

"Of course nothing, Mom, why would you think anything's going on? We're not fighting like Dad said, we had him over today."

"I know, I know," Mei said, holding up her palms in surrender. Nina was talking far too quickly to be honest. "You two were just acting very odd around each other. I was wondering if maybe something had happened."

Nina very pointedly stared at her homework.

"Maybe something… romantic?"

"What? No! Nothing like that…"

"Nina, always tell your patients the truth, because you're not a good liar and that will only make them more stressed." Nina flushed, but still didn't look at her mother. Mei leaned forward.

"So… I'll ask again. Is there something going on between you?"

"No… yes… I don't know. I don't think so," the blond finally admitted, looking up. "He's my friend, that's what he's always been. My best friend. But he's always been there for me. He's there to be my friend, he was there for me when Katie died, he was there when James broke up with me… he's been there for me through everything and the past couple of months every time I see him…"

"What?" Mei prompted.

"I don't even know! I just… every time I see him my heart starts beating faster and my stomach does this weird flip flop thing, but I can't be… in love with him, Mom, he's my best friend!"

"Why on earth does that mean you can't be in love with him?"

"Because what if he doesn't feel the same way back? And even if he does! I mean what then? We start dating? But what if we break up! We could end up hating each other! I can't lose him like that! Like I said, he's always been there for me. I can't stand the thought of him not being there for me."

"I don't know, Nina. I was afraid of losing my best friend when I found out I was in love with him and I stayed silent about it. I might have not said something forever, but thankfully my nosey brother told him to get a move on. We ended up married."

"So? That's you and Dad, you two were practically made for each other."

"Who's to say that you and Zhou weren't?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he was the only Xingese boy in an Amestrian school and who was it that talked to him and made him a friend?"

"… Me."

"And when you were feeling alone in school because there was no one who really understood Xing and where you came from except your brother, who was it that understood?"

"Him."

"It seems to me like that's pretty 'made for each other'."

Nina pursed her lips before sighing and falling backwards onto her bed. "But… oh…"

"I'm not going to tell you that you should go and find him at school and kiss him in front of everyone, but… I am going to tell you to be open to the possibility that there might be something more between the two of you than you might think."

"Do you really think there is?"

Mei smiled.

"If you want me to be honest, Nina, I think the boy's been helplessly in love with you since the day you took him under your wing."

"Really?"

"You never noticed how jealous he was when you were dating James? Or the way he always stares at you when he's supposed to be working with Liwu?"

"… he was jealous while I was dating James?"

"He was hopelessly jealous, Nina. I was surprised he didn't attack the poor boy every time he so much as held your hand. I guess that's just more testament to that fact that he loves you. He wants you to be happy, Nina."

"… So what am I supposed to do?"

"Be open to the idea. And show him that you'd be open to the idea."

"… And how do I do that?" Mei smiled before shaking her head.

"Now it's my turns to say I don't know. He's your friend. You know him better than I do."

"Mom, that's not helpful."

"Yes it is, you just don't want to admit it."

"Mr. Elric?"

Al blinked before looking up from the book he had been reading. He didn't get enough chances to read these day, he really didn't. It was getting to the point where his daughter was suggesting books for him to read faster than he could read them! His eleven year old daughter was out-reading him!

"Zhou?" Now what was the Xingese boy doing here? He hadn't seen him for what seemed like ages, not since Nina had brought him over and they had danced around each other awkwardly for hours. After Zhou went home that day Mei had gone to talk to Nina and had come back smiling conspiratorially, and Al had decided that it was probably something to do with being girls and that it wasn't his business.

"What are you doing here?" Even if the boy was here, it still didn't explain why he was here talking with Al.

"Um. Mr. Elric, I wanted to talk to you about… well. I didn't feel right asking without your permission."

"… what is it that you want to ask?"

"I want to court Nina." Al's eyebrows rose.

"You want to court Nina?"

"… Yes, sir."

"Why?"

"… What do you mean why, sir?"

"You don't have to call me sir, Zhou, I'm practically your father in law already." The boy flushed. "Why do you want to date her? What is it that makes you want to date her?"

"… Well… Because I… Well I feel… She's… Because I love her." Al blinked, before nodding.

"Yes, you do."

"Huh?"

"You love my daughter. I know you do. Would you do anything for her?"

"Anything," Zhou answered without hesitation. Al nodded again.

"Would you try to protect her from anything that would try to hurt her?"

"Yes."

"Even if it could kill you?"

"Yes."

"Why would you do that?"

Zhou paused, thinking about it for a moment. "Because… she's the most important thing in the world to me. The idea of something hurting her, or her getting seriously injured terrifies me. She's done so much for me, more than she'll ever know or understand, that I'll never be able to make up for it all. I love everything about her and the idea of that being taken away from me, from the world, scares me more than death."

"… Zhou you have my permission to marry her."

"What?!"

"I'm joking. You have to be more than willing to protect her bodily before I give you that permission. You have to be willing to protect her honor and her heart too. But yes, you can date her. If she'll have you."

"I hope she will."

"Well, let me let you in on a secret really fast, Zhou."

"What?"

"Don't ever try to interpret a woman's mind until you've been married to her for twenty five years, and even then have caution. But," he looked from side to side and gestured for Zhou to come closer, "coming from a man who's been married for twenty four years, I would say that from the look in Mei's expression, they had a little girl chat about you and it ended well."

"So… you think she will accept me?"

"I think they worked it out together what the reaction's going to be, and my wife looked happy about it. Figure that out yourself. It'll be good practice."

"… thank you?"

"You're welcome. She's in her room."

"You mean I should ask her now?"

"You made the effort of coming all the way here to ask me, and I said yes. You might as well finish the job."

"… I guess…"

"Do you have a first date in mind?"

"Well, my dad said that one of his employees is married to nurse and I talked to her, and she said she would love to talk to Nina. So I was going to arrange a day where we could go talk to her and then maybe get something to eat together afterwards."

Al paused. "That is actually incredibly thoughtful Zhou. She'll love it."

"I hope so."

"She will." Zhou grinned at him and Al smiled back. "… now go ask her."

"Oh. Yes. Yes… her room you said?"

"That's where she is, yes. Oh and Zhou?"

"Yes?"

"Just to give you a fair warning, if you break my little girl's heart I will personally ensure that you never step so much as a toe in Xing again and your life in Amestris will be like living in your own personal Hell. Understood?"

The boy might have squeaked. Al wasn't quite sure. But he did nod a few more times before swallowing and leaving the room.

Al leaned back in his chair and shook his head at the ceiling. Oh the boy was helpless. What was it with this younger generation?

He had to grin a few moments later when Nina and Zhou came downstairs holding hands.

Liwu nearly had a heart attack though.