... I got it uploaded before the first half of the week was over...

"I want you to be a part of the wedding party."

Al blinked.

"Really?"

Chris Mustang nodded. "I do. Liwu's one of my Groomsmen, but my dad can't actually be there to be a part of the wedding party. I've already tried to appeal to the courts, even some of my superiors and government officials, but they're not going to let him or Mom out for the wedding. I've introduced Victoria to both of them, and they both gave me their blessing to propose to her, but they can't be there. And I don't want Vicky's parents to be carrying the wedding all on their own… I didn't want to make Aunt Gracia do it, she's already so busy with her Veterans project…"

"I'm touched, Chris. Mei and I would love to do that."

Chris looked relieved. "Thanks Uncle Al."

"No problem. I was just talking to Mei the other day about how we need a good wedding to spruce things up around here. We need some new faces."

"Zhou's not a new face enough?"

"He's been treating our home like his own for years now. The only new thing about his face is how often it seems to be attached to my daughter's."

Chris laughed at the stormy expression on Al's face. "I thought you were going to start strangling him the first time you saw them kiss."

"I might have if that wouldn't have made both Nina and Liwu extremely upset with me. Not to mention Mei. And if there's any advice I can give to you getting married, Chris, it's to not do anything to make your wife terribly upset with you. It's not worth it. Life's better when she's happy with you. So no, I couldn't kill him."

"She is 19 now, Uncle Al," Chris reminded, still grinning. "And I might remind you that that's older than Aunt Mei was when you married her. And how old she was when you first got her pregnant."

"… that was different."

"Was it?"

"We had known each other since I was 14!"

"They've known each other since they were both 12."

"… She's my little girl."

"Uncle Al…"

"I'm not ready for her to go and get married. And I had a job that could support us!"

"Zhou's working for his father's company. He's actually doing pretty well I think."

"… but… I…"

"It's okay, Uncle Al. I'm not saying you have to let her go yet, but if he comes knocking on his door and asks for permission to marry her… My wedding won't be the only one you'll be helping planning..."

"Well let's hope for Zhou's knee caps that that won't be for a while."

"And then there's Liwu."

"What?"

"Oh, Liwu. He's 20 years old now, and I still haven't seen him have a conversation with a girl his own age that's not Victoria or Nina. Ever since that fan girl fiasco he's been terrified of anyone of the female gender."

"He'll get over it when he meets the right person, I'm sure."

"I'm not worried about that as much as I'm worried about him being able to meet the right person and not scare her away by the fact that he can hardly string a sentence together around her."

"Don't you think that's exaggerating a bit much?"

"No. No I don't."

"He's not that bad."

"He is! I've tried to get him to go out with a few friends of Victoria's, but he always stutters so much and turns so red around them that the dates are so awkward the girls never want to see him again."

"You've been setting him up on dates?"

"I have. And I have another one set up for him tonight. Not that he knows."

The first words out of Liwu's mouth when he met Chris at the café were "I know."

"… what are you talking about Liwu?"

The Xingese boy was wearing one of his favorite outfits. Despite his predilection towards Xingese styles clothing, one of his ultimate favorite outfits was one given to him by his Uncle Ed. A black T-shirt with a red jacket. Even though he had been so reluctant to cut his hair that time he had had to hide with Chris in the barracks, he had taken to wearing it short ever since.

"I know you're setting me up for another date."

"Come on! You're not getting any younger and the only way to get better at talking to women is to talk to women!"

"I'm not doing it!"

"Then why did you come?"

"Because I wanted to spite you, and the buns they sell here are really good. So I will be ordering one of those and leaving."

"You've been spending too much time with Nina."

"I actually haven't been spending that much time with Nina these days. Not since she and Zhou stopped avoiding kissing at home for fear of Dad killing him. Not that they're kissing all the time or anything, but stay in a room with them long enough and he'll be playing with her hair or kissing her check… they're as bad as you and Victoria."

"We have an excuse. We're going to be married in two weeks."

"Trust me, I know. You still haven't ordered the ties."

Chris swore and scribbled something on his hand to remind him. Liwu sat down in one of the chairs at the table and ordered one of the buns that he had been lauding earlier.

"I'm surprised she let you go from plans long enough to meet me here," Liwu admitted once Chris was done cursing under his breath.

"Yeah, I didn't really. She's meeting me here so that we can discuss something about flower girls."

"Isn't Elicia's little girl one of them?"

"Yeah, but Vicky's also got a cousin that's the right age who wants to do it and we're not sure if we're going to have both of them do it or give one of them another job… I cannot wait for this fiasco to be over."

"You're just waiting to say 'I do', right?"

"Exactly. That's all I care about, but apparently there are a lot of family members and brass that we have to keep happy and traditions to uphold. I like the way Mom and Dad got married. They just had a small ceremony with a few of the people they cared about, went to the court house, got the deed done."

"But they didn't have the Armstrongs treating them like they're a part of their own family."

"No," Chris sighed. "No they did not. And both of their families were also pretty much dead, other than Fuhrer Grumman and Madame Christmas."

The bun Liwu had ordered arrived and he tore it in half, handing one half to Chris, who thanked him for it.

"So when are you going to start up one of these?" Chris asked after a few moments of eating. Liwu glanced at the café.

"I'm working at a restaurant right now, trying to save up money for a down payment for the loan I'll need to start it up. If I get a raise sometime soon and I keep working really hard, maybe picking up another job… I might be able to start it up in five years? It depends on whether I can find a building for cheap, or if down payments shrink—"

"Or if you get married and have a kid."

"… that's not happening any time soon."

"Well you're getting some practice," Christ said calmly, popping another piece of bun into his mouth. "Because you're blind date just arrived with my fiancé."

"What—!"

Liwu turned at whiplash inducing speeds to see Victoria walking their way with a friend at her side. He turned back to his friend and glared murderously. Chris just kept chewing his food.

"I really think you'll like this one."

"You… you little—" Then Liwu said something in Xingese at his friend that his mother would not like to know he knew, let alone said out loud to someone. He had heard it from Quyi.

Therefore, his first response when he heard the Xingese reprimand of "Bite your tongue!" was to worry that his mother had heard him say it out loud and she would soon start yelling and embarrass him in front of the entire café.

He was surprised though, upon wincing and turning towards the sound of the voice, to find not his short Xingese mother, but an average height, very obviously Amestrian girl his age.

In fact, the girl standing next to Victoria.

He frowned. She was very blond, with brown eyes that were currently narrowed at him. Her hands were on her hips and she looked quite angry.

Then she proceeded to chew him out about swearing in front of a pair of ladies… in Xingese.

"Excuse me?" he answered back, still in Xingese.

"There are other people in this vicinity," she snapped. "We would like to go about our day without enduring obscenities from you. Using another language does not justify polluting the air. Just because you're the only obviously Xingese person in the area doesn't mean you're the only one who understands the language."

"… I… I'm sorry? That wasn't what I was… Xingese just has better insults… How do you…?"

"Uh… Amestrian please?" Victoria asked, having pulled over a chair so that she could sit next to Chris. Both Liwu and the girl who was yelling at him turned towards her and apologized in synch.

"I only know a few words in Xingese, most of them from spending time with your family, Liwu, but the few words I did catch didn't sound very polite. What was she saying?"

Liwu blushed slightly. "She was… ah… admonishing me for swearing at you in Xingese and assuming that I was the only one in the area that knew Xingese."

"Oh. Of course you weren't. I know a bunch of swear words in Xingese! They have great insults."

The girl didn't seem to like that.

"Do I have to be here, Vicky?" she asked, turning to Victoria. "I promise, I'll meet a guy on my own—"

"Wait, you're the girl they're trying to set me up with?"

"… yes?"

Victoria and Chris gave encouraging nods.

"Liwu, this is Vicky's friend April Brown. April, this is one of my best friends, Liwu."

"… Uh. Hi?" Liwu said, wincing. "I am… uh… sorry."

"No… it's… okay," she said hesitantly, smiling before looking away. Whereas before she had been spitfire angry, now she seemed almost too shy to look him in the eye.

The silence that fell after that could be described no other way than awkward.

"Well, you two should get your own table. Liwu already ordered a bun, but he did share half of it with me so…"

"Or they could go to another restaurant together. So they won't feel like we're hovering over them," Victoria suggested, holding onto Chris's arm and staring at them friendlily.

"But we want to be hovering over them or they'll never say a full sentence to each other."

Victoria's coughing was a none too subtle admonishing.

"I know there's a really great Xingese restaurant down the street—"

"No!" Both Liwu and April said in synch.

Victoria looked taken aback. "… you don't have to go to another restaurant…"

"No, it's not that," April said, looking slightly sheepish. "Amestrian Xingese food is awful. It's nothing like real Xingese food."

"It's more like someone heard a story about real Xingese food and decided to try to replicate what would happen if it's second cousin had a child with their own cuisine."

"Exactly. A true Xingesemen wouldn't feed it to their dog for offending their ancestors."

Liwu paused after this statement and turned towards the girl who he seemed to be tag teaming with.

"… where did you ever have real Xingese food?"

"What?"

He blushed a little. "Well, outside of my family I've never met anyone who's really hates Amestrian Xingese food as much as I do… even Amestrians who have had real Xingese food don't mind it."

"I spent two years in Xing with my step-father. My mother remarried four years ago, and I moved with her there. But once I finished school I came back here to find a job."

"What part of Xing?"

"The Han Providence."

Liwu grinned. "Han Providence. Prince Han doesn't like me."

"… Prince Han?"

"… oh, uh, yes. Prince Han. The Emperor's brother from the Han clan. He and I have always had a strained relationship. It's mostly Quyi's fault."

"Quyi? Prince Quyi?"

"Gee, Liwu, name dropping on a first date." Chris commented slyly, causing Liwu to blush.

"That's not what I meant—!"

"I know, I know," he said. "They're just the people you know."

"You know Prince Quyi?"

"He's my cousin."

"… Your cousin."

"Yeah… My mom is Princess Mei Chang."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Um. It's not that big of a deal—"

"So your parents are Princess Mei Chang and Ambassador Alphonse Elric?"

"Yup. That's Mom and Dad." She opened her mouth before blushing, closing it, and then opening it and blurting, "Can I meet them?"

"What?"

"… Uh… well, they are… well, my mom and my step-dad wouldn't have been able to get married if it wasn't for them. They're sort of my mom's role model. And while I loved my real dad, he was dead for a really long time and Hyun was the first man who had been able to make her smile in such a long time… If it wasn't for them she wouldn't have been able to be that happy again."

"Yeah, I'm sure they'd love to meet you. And maybe… maybe while we're there I can cook some real Xingese food…?"

She smiled widely at him. He found that he liked her smile. "I'd like that."

He coughed slightly before offering her his arm, which she accepted.

It wasn't until they were gone that Chris leaned over comment to his fiancé, "That was actually incredibly sweet. I'm so proud of him. I'd give them… three months?"

"Did you see her blush? At least six."

"That's generous. Five."

"Deal."

"Mom? Dad?"

"Liwu?" Al asked, and a few moments later he emerged from one of the room stretching his back. "What are you doing here?" He caught sight of the girl behind and to the side of him. "And who's this?"

"Dad, this is April Brown. She's a friend of Victoria's. She wanted to meet you… well you and Mom. Both of you."

"It's an honor to meet you, Ambassador," she said quickly, stepping forward hand outreached. Al smiled and shook the proffered hand.

"Why thank you. Is there a particular reason you wanted to meet me or…"

"The Elric Treaty."

He blinked.

"Goodness, is that what they're calling it now?"

"… well you did practically hand craft it…"

"They don't have to name it after me. There were plenty of other people who did a lot of hard work on it. Why not the Mustang-Yao treaty? Or we could name it after the Capitol. They don't need to go naming it after me."

April smiled. "Liwu said you would be humble about it. But my mother never would have been able to marry my step-father without your… the treaty or your example. And he's made her happier than she's been since my father died. So thank you."

"Of course," he said warmly. "I'm just glad that the family we've made here had been able to help anyone else. I like to think it has."

"It has."

He smiled again and Liwu was the one that eventually broke the silence.

"Do you want to head to the kitchen?" he asked, gesturing down the hall. She nodded and started down the hall.

"The kitchen?" Al asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Liwu said, turning around so that could look at his father. "I told her I could make her some real Xingese food, instead of the stuff they pass off as its half-brother. Unless you mind, I have the stuff back at my apartment…"

"No, it's fine. You know your mother and I will do anything to keep you around a little longer."

"Thank you, Dad."

"Of course."

The two entered the kitchen and Al went his own way… that one way being to his bedroom where Mei as reading a book in their bed. She looked up when he entered.

"How did Emily's lessons…" she trailed off when she saw the finger lifted to her lips. "What?" she mouthed. He grinned and gestured for her to follow him, which she did, taking care to be quiet.

They snuck down the hall until they could hear the voices discussing various spices and the way that they really make a difference. They waited there listening for a few moments as the conversation drifted from how the spices affected the food to the spices themselves, and then how they were procured.

"Who is that?" Mei mouthed.

"April," he mouthed back. "She's Victoria's friend. She wanted to meet us and decided to stay so Liwu could make her Xingese food."

Her eyebrows rose.

"He invited her?"

"I think so."

"Our boy?"

Al grinned.

"Our boy."

"Our babies are going up so fast…" she mouthed, frowning. He shot her a sympathetic look.

"It means we did our job…"

"I know… but they're our babies. What happened to the little boy who would run to the door when Daddy came home from Central? What happened to the little blond whirlwind that ate Winry's pie? They're both going to get married soon."

"I know," he said aloud, pulling her into his arms.

"Dad?" Liwu asked from the other room.

"Everything's alright," he answered, resting his chin on her head. "We're just out here talking about our grandchildren."

"DAD!"

AP US History test tomorrow. Whoooo!