Zhou had been incredibly reluctant to make the trip.

He didn't want to leave Nina's side for a second so close to the due date, let alone make the week-long trip to accompany all their belongings to Xing. His father's company was expanding so much that they were starting a branch of it in Xing, and Zhou had been promoted to a manager so that he could manage the branch in the Capitol. The two of them would be paying rent to live in Al and Mei's house, but Zhou needed to be there to begin work in a week, which just so happened to conflict with the due date of his first child.

Al and Mei had immediately volunteered to take Nina in while Zhou was in Xing finalizing the details of their move and the establishment of the company (Nina herself admitted that there was no way that she would be able to make the frequent trips back and forth with him and didn't want to be left alone in the apartment they were renting). Emily was relieved to not be an only child anymore, and the two sisters spent hours just talking and spending time with each other. Al even taught Emily a bit of his midwife alkahestry knowledge so that she could help her sister with some of her aches and pains.

This last trip was the hardest for both Nina and Zhou though. They were still a week from the due date, but the contractions were coming more and more frequently and staying far longer. It was also probably the longest that Zhou would have to be away from her, a week. He would be back in Amestris as quickly as he could if she went into labor while he was in Xing, but they were still reluctant to be away from each other.

It was a tearful goodbye at the train station. Well, tearful on Nina's part, who was dealing with the hormonal imbalances of pregnancy. When the whistle blew again and the conductor near yelled at Zhou to get on, he kissed his wife once again and said goodbye to his baby before getting on.

It took a few days after that to get Nina back to her normal bubbly self, and when they did, she was more subdued than usual, but Al mostly blamed the hormones. She was far more subdued that he was though, when she walked into his office, one hand braced one her massive stomach and the other on her back. Mei who was at his side (they were working on a project together) looked up as soon as their daughter entered and nudged Al.

"Daddy, call Zhou."

"What? What is it?"

"I think my water broke."

"What!"

"I think my water broke."

"Are you sure? Are you okay? Are the contractions coming—"

"Daddy, I'm fine, just call Zhou. He needs to get back here now."

"Al," Mei said sharply, and he snapped out of it enough to run out of the room and grab a telephone. She stood up and placed a hand on Nina's shoulder as the girl (not a girl anymore, Mei had to remind herself) gritted her teeth in pain.

"Emily!"

The 17 year old came hurrying down the hall. "Mom?" She stopped when she caught sight of her mother helping her sister down the hall though. "Is it time?"

"Yes," Mei informed her. Emily nodded sharply, but her eyes were sparkling with excitement as she hurried into the other room to grab a bag of supplies they were keeping handy for the hospital.

"Zhou's getting on the first train," Al informed them as he rejoined his family.

"Let's go," Mei commanded, opening the door and helping Nina out it.

Since Zhou wasn't there to be with her, Mei was allowed to go in the hospital room with Nina, but Al and Emily did have to stay outside. They made small chat while they waited, but both of them were too nervous and worried to really have a serious discussion.

"I hope everything goes alright," Emily eventually confessed after ten hours at the hospital. "This is the first birth I've ever been at, I want it to end well."

"Not because you love your sister and you want her to be happy, because you want your first birth to end well." Emily blushed slightly before smiling.

"What was the first birth you ever attended?" she asked after a few moments of silence.

"Hmm?"

"The first time you were there for a baby being born. What was it?"

"You don't know the story?" She shook her head, and her black braid swung around so it rest over her shoulder.

"I'm surprised, I would have though you would know it. Well… Uncle Ed and I were in Rushvalley with Aunt Winry. This was back when Ed was still a State Alchemist."

"That long ago?"

"That long ago. Well when we were walking around we noticed that Ed's pocket watch had been stolen. It was this thief that was apparently notorious for pickpocketing tourists. Paninya."

"… but… I though…"

"Let me finish the story," he said, smiling slightly. "We chased her all the way into the mountains where we found a family. A young couple and his father. The father had taken Paninya in and given her automail, and she pickpocketed travelers to try to pay him back for his kindness. But while we were there, trying to get Ed's watch back and while Winry tried to convince the grandfather to take her on as an apprentice, a storm started and we were mostly stuck there. Except that's when the wife went into labor. They were too far away to get her to help, not with the storm, so the grandfather rode out to try to get help from Rushvalley.

"None of us knew what to do except your Aunt Winry. Her parents were doctors, so she had read a lot of medical textbooks growing up. She more or less delivered the baby all on her own, while Ed and I cowered outside."

"Really?"

"Yes. It was probably one of the most terrifying moment of my life."

"More terrifying that when Mom was pregnant with me?"

"… well, no, not as terrifying as that," he confessed, looking down at his hands. "You know the circumstance. We were so afraid that we were going to lose you... and there was even the possibility that your mother could have died too. I was definitely more terrified then. But I don't know if I've ever been happier than when you were born," he finished, ruffling her hair.

"Dad! I just braided it!"

Al smiled at Emily who grumbled and with a few moves unbraided her hair. She moved to re-braid it, but Al stopped her with a word and took the strand of hair into his own hands.

"I used to do this for your mother every day," he said as his fingers twisted the hair into different shapes.

"I remember that," she said. "Why did you ever stop?"

"When she cut her hair, there wasn't much of a reason for me to. It was short enough that she could easily manage it in a minute or two. You should have seen her hair when we were just married, or even before that. When we first met, her hair all the way down could have reached her knees. She almost always kept it up, though. I didn't ever see her with her hair down until… I don't think I ever saw her with her hair all the way down until we were traveling the East together."

His fingers paused and he didn't speak for a few moments.

"Actually," Mei said nervously, fingering a long lock of hair. "Would you mind brushing it?" Al blinked a few times. It was a strange request; she should be capable of brushing her hair herself. He knew she was. She knew he knew she was. Winry had asked Ed to brush her hair before; it hadn't ended very well. Ed had refused and Winry had thrown the brush at him for being insensitive. Was Mei trying to get him to… then Al shook his head.

He was completely overthinking the entire situation.

"Sure." He picked up the brush and began to brush the bottom of her hair. "You have a lot of hair," he said without thinking. Luckily Mei didn't seem to think it was weird and just nodded.

"In Xing being born with a lot of hair is a sign of good luck. I obviously wasn't born with this much, but I had enough that the midwife was sure I'd have a good life."

Al stopped brushing.

"My life makes so much more sense now. I was born bald!" They both laughed and Al continued the brushes' movement.

"Come on, you must have been born with some hair!" Mei protested.

"Yeah, that's true. I did meet you after all." Once again, he spoke without thinking and it was only when the Xingese Princess froze that he realized exactly what he had said.

"A—and um, all of the other people I met on our journeys. And I got one of the best brother's in the world. And that things ended up so well for us in the end. So maybe I did have some," he stuttered.

"That was when I started brushing her hair every night. We still do that part at least."

"That's so romantic, Dad."

"I like to think so. But you tend to disagree when I'm trying to give my wife a well disserved kiss—"

"That's because you're old! Old people shouldn't kiss!"

"Why not? We've got more experience than you youngsters."

"… did you just say youngster, Dad?"

"… and if I did?"

"If you did it proves just how much you should not be kissing."

Al smiled at his daughter, but sat up straight when he saw a frazzled looking Xingese man running down the hall towards them.

Zhou didn't stop to ask any questions other than "Is she in there?", to which they nodded, before hurrying into her room.

Mei exited a few minutes later.

"Nina started crying when she saw him. She was telling me before he showed up how she wasn't ready to have this baby without him there."

"Well now he's here, so everything's alright, right?" Mei smiled at her daughter.

"Right."

Sydney Katie Yu was born at 4:01 on July 12, 1951. Her eyes were blue and didn't darken at all over the next few days. She surprisingly enough had an almost full head of fine black hair. Al commented on this to his wife when they were first introduced to the baby that she obviously had a lucky life in front of her. Mei had grinned and bumped her husband with her hip. She couldn't hit him because she was holding her granddaughter.

Sydney came home with her parents two days after her birth. She met her Uncle Liwu and Aunt April (who was five months pregnant herself) two days later as well. She spent her first day without her daddy around on her fifth day (he had to return to Xing to finalize the details he had run out on). In her first week, she was given so much attention that Emily was convinced she was going to grow up the most spoiled little girl on the planet.

At her two week mark, not much had changed. Zhou started making plans for her and her mother to make the move to Xing with the rest of their stuff the day after she turned one month old.

When she was three weeks old, she attended the funeral of former Fuhrer Roy Mustang.

Chris had been the one to call them and give them the news. He had just received it himself from the Prime Minister, who had called him personally. It was the first time that Emily could remember her father actually crying. She had seen him close to tears… but never actually break down.

"Oh… Al…" Mei had said, hugging him tightly. The sobs continued as he cried into her neck. Emily watched the entire affair with her eyes wide, not sure how to react.

It was front page news across the country the next morning. And despite the fact that he had spent the past 13 years in prison for war crimes, his funeral was even grander than the one held two decades previously for the late Fuhrer Grumman.

The whole country grieved. Al heard news that all of Ishval sent a prayer to Ishvala that he would be forgiven for the sins he had committed against their people. Every foreign dignitary that meant anything was invited to the funeral. The entire city was invited to the procession down the streets of Central. The Prime Minister himself presented the folded flag of Amestris to Riza Mustang, who had been released from prison for the one day to attend this funeral.

She was dressed simply in a skirt and blouse, and her hair was down. Despite the past years she had spent in prison, she held herself with the same dignity and poise as she always had. Her eyes were sharp and clear of any tears.

Chris had told Al that the prison guards had told him that she had cried for three days after hearing the news. He died the day after their weekly time together.

Her eyes were clear now. Chris's and Al's were not. Even Ed's weren't, though his tears were silent.

The only time he saw a tear shining on her cheek was after the funeral when she embraced her son. He was slightly shorter than her, so he buried his face in her shoulder while she wrapped her arms around his head. The light reflected off the single drop of liquid on her cheek for only a moment before it was lost in his dark hair.

The funeral was well attended by everyone who meant anything.

The meeting after at Al's house was well attended by everyone who meant anything to Roy.

Every single member of his team had managed to make it to the funeral and Al's. Havoc and his wife Rebecca, their two children and five grandchildren, Falman with his wife and two step children. Furey and his five and Breda. Armstrong, who had nearly drowned everyone at the funeral. Ross, Brosch, and their son with his wife. Gracia, and Elicia (her husband had passed away two years ago and none of her children bothered to make it). Ed and Winry, and their entire family, complete with eleven squabbling grandchildren. Al and his entire family. Chris and his. Riza and her security guards.

There was some halfhearted attempts at humor, and smiles all around at the sight of the children playing with each other and getting into trouble. Emily was having fun amusing them all with various alchemic tricks. But there was a subdued feeling to the affair, which aside from the circumstance bringing them all together should have been a joyous one.

Al finally flopped down on a couch half way through the night, letting his wife take over playing hostess. Only couch space was so limited with that many people in one house that he was wedged up against Chris, who was leaned over with his head in his mother's lap. Al didn't know where Victoria or Chris's two kids had ended up.

Riza was playing with her son's hair and looked up when Al sat down. Though out the entire night, everyone had been treating her like a queen. In fact that's what everyone was calling her. There was no "Lieutenant"s or "First Lady"s or "Hawkeye"s. Everyone was referring to her simply as "The Queen."

He looked back at her and opened his mouth to ask how she was, but she beat him to it.

"I'm… alright."

"It's amazing, Alphonse."

"What?"

"What you've managed to do. What you've done to create your family. What you've done to help people. I look at you and the man you've become and I can only think back and remember that suit of armor at his brother's side."

"It's been a long time since then. And… none of this could have happened without you or the Colonel. Without him, we might have never gotten our bodies back. We never would have been able to go one and do the things we've done today."

"Did you know that Chris would always bring us updates on what was going on with you and your family?"

"… really?"

"You and Ed's. Roy and I would talk about it and how proud we were of you two. How happy we were you had managed to get your happy ending."

"… I'm only sorry that you didn't get yours."

Riza turned her mahogany eyes towards Al and he all of a sudden got the feeling that he was terribly wrong.

"Don't be. When I decided that I was going to stay in the military after the Ishvalan War and joined Roy's command, I told him that it was our job to carry the bodies across a river of blood so that people like you didn't have to. I know what I signed up for, and I'm content with having done it. And… I did get a happy ending." Her fingers resumed their playing with Chris's hair.

"I saw Ishval rebuilt. I saw Roy as the head of our nation, protecting the people below him. I saw the day when I didn't have to wear a uniform. I got to raise a little boy into a man that's made me incredibly proud. I atoned for my sins. I got my happy ending, Al."

He blinked, swallowing heavily. Then smiled.

"Then I'm glad you did."

The night proceeded rather uneventfully from there. There was reminiscing and toasts and speeches. There was nothing more powerful to Al though, when every person in the room who had known him raised a glass to his memory.

"To the King."

I did my best to transition between the two pieces of this chapter. How do y'all think I did? (FUN FACT I LEARNED LAST NIGHT! I thought that the phrase "y'all" was the lazy way of saying "you all", but apparently it's actually a slur of the Scotts-Irish phrase "Ye all". They're not all that different, but still, fun to know! I also learned from the same show that we use some pretty nasty Yiddish words in American English as just common day words. Crazy.)

Prize for whoever gets review 100!