The Twelfth Prince

    “how ‘bout you just don’t barge into my room at all?” the nerve of this guy! was being annoying a required trait of princes? “yeah, well, you wanna become the emperor faster?” tone coated with sarcasm & disbelief. “i’m not made of money!”

    “i’m not your best——anything! & why should i give you a key to the room? especially after you’ve done nothing but empty my wallet?!”

Her hands instinctively went to where he had affectionately knocked her head with his fist and feigned a dramatic pout, suppressing a smile. 

                                     Yes, this felt right. 

                                                        Siblings.

                                     Her brother.

It felt so surreal (though, in all honesty, this whole experience up until this moment felt surreal. If she hadn’t actually experienced it, she would have thought she was dreaming).

Bringing her knees up closer to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, the girl focused again on the surrounding desert. It felt like only yesterday when she had traversed these same sandy dunes; dragging her feet to a land she had only heard about from the idle chatter of the elders in her clan. Her salvation - the solution (or so she had thought).

Instead of the airy, mystical city she had imagined, she had come face-to-face to a place on the brink of war. Only to then be in the middle of said war. Her “solution” did not come as easy as she had first thought and the girl witnessed things nightmares would be afraid of! Still… she had made so many friends, experienced so much, made memories she would forever hold dear and even…

                         [she looked at the older boy beside her and smiled]

She was going home with a brother - her  brother.

The mention of bringing Ling to her clan’s council, however, brought her mood down (along with repressed memories). She did not leave on the “greatest” of terms with the elders (let alone her mother)…

Frowning slightly, the girl replied with a steady and sombre voice:

“That would be my mother… She may not be very [she paused, mulling it over] happy to see us”.

                                 Or you in particular.

But she would not dare tell him that! At least… not yet.

Her mother did not take kindly to any of the Emperor’s other children - or the Emperor, to be exact - and became quite sour and bitter at anything to do with him and his affairs. Imagine her reaction to her (who again, did not leave the best way now that she thinks about it - but what other choice did she have??) returning home with her brother (the twelfth prince - oh boy) who would soon be Emperor???

                              She’s going to skin them both!!

     Seemingly blind to the girl’s sudden display of distress ( actually he’d just turned his eyes back towards the dying light on the horizon, the hand previously grinding affectionate knuckles against the top of her head moving instead to scratch idle fingers along the underside of his jaw, ) , the twelfth prince hummed, the sound a thoughtful vibration emanating from the back of his throat. 

     “Your mother, huh?” 

     He might have expected such a thing had he thought about it for more than a few seconds; Mei Chang’s clan was nothing short of a poor farming village. To think they’d actually have an appointed council was, he realized in retrospect, a rather foolish assumption for him to have made. This didn’t change much in the grand scheme of.....well, his scheme, but it did affect the manner in which he now had to approach the situation. He was not walking into a room of high-brow, well-bred noblemen and women, but a farming village with a council led by one of the emperor’s fifty wives. One, he could safely assume, who wouldn’t like him for his pedigree alone. 

     But! Luckily for him, he had the perfect person to aid him in his quest to ally himself with the outer farming regions! Surely the daughter of the woman he needed to impress would know the perfect way to get on her good side! 

     “I’m afraid I’m not terribly experienced when it comes to talking politics with mothers. You wouldn’t want to make this easy for me and tell me what to say to convince her to join my clan in our future endeavours, would you?” 

    “yeah, ‘cause no sane person would scale the walls & climb through the window of someone else’s hotel room.” & they called this guy a PRINCE back in his home country? “wouldn’t be surprised, considering you & your little ninja crew have probably eaten through the entire kitchen by now.”

     “Oh, your dog!” And that was all the warning the woman got before the teen was kneeling down before the aforementioned canine, one hand extended for the animal to sniff as an expression of utmost delight scrawled its way across his grinning face. 

    “We have a very similar breed of dog in Xing! Although, ours tend to be red, and larger too. Is your dog fully grown? And is he trained? These kinds of dogs are very smart! I used to have one when I lived with my mother that could fetch an ink well from your room if you told him to!”

— Relief washed over him as the emperor stepped back. Despite the battles he’s faced { those had been in armour to boot } he could not help feel intimidated when such official and delicate matters were concerned. Even so… He wanted to put his foot down and not be bullied into something he was not ready for. He liked Mei; she was fun and pretty and brave and kind and–. He quickly  pulled himself out of his swooning reverie, adjusting his tie with a small cough. 

   So Yes, he liked her, but he didn’t even know if they’d be a good match in that way. It wasn’t like with Ed and Winry who’d known each other all their lives, who’d known all each other’s secrets and bad habits before deciding to tie the knot…

   Ling’s words made him nervous though. The fear of missing out creeping up on him. He wasn’t at home in all the diplomatics of being royalty, but Ling himself had been married off with little choice, and though he had gotten to pick his wife he hadn’t known her beforehand. It’d be horrible for that to happen to Mei…

   “Well, she… Doesn’t have to say yes to them, does she?” The thought of Mei getting married to some stranger made him feel irrationally peeved. “She could uh.. Come to Amestris with me to study alchemy and stuff! She can’t get married if she’s away.”

     “Well, no, but you must understand the pressure that will be placed upon her to marry. My sister’s clan is a very rural farming village, you know. There will be much pressure from her council to accept a good match that will further the Chang clan’s relations and reputation, and though you don’t exactly have much to offer in the way of Xingese political power, you and your brother have become somewhat of a legend among my people as of late.” 

     He paused a moment, lips curling upwards into a smile that could have almost been sincere had there not been something sly behind the grey of his eyes. 

 “I have eyes, and I’m not finding what I want to see with them. Just a matter of a fact.”