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batsutousaiTitle: Pray the Sun Will Rise
Series: Paper Walls
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: Teen
Pairings: May Chang/Alphonse Elric, Lan Fan/Winry Rockbell, Edward Elric/Roy Mustang (mentioned)
Warnings: Modern AU, pre-fic character deaths, hot professor!Ed, hot TA!Al, loneliness, pre-relationship
Summary: Going to Amestris to study their 'alchemy' hadn't exactly been May's idea, but it might just turn out to the the best one she'd ever agreed to.
Disclaim Her: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Arakawa Hiromu and various publishers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N: For FMA Rarepair Week on tumblr. Today's prompts included Home and Highschool/University AU. The bonus prompt was subtext which, well, an argument could be made. XD
This is 100% the fault of yodepalma and Kairi-ou, who got talking about Al doodling cats in the margins of his school notes and May finding it adorable. And then yodepalma went and tagged me, and I realised that would work out weirdly well in this verse and–
Fuck everything, okay?
Timeline-wise, this takes place about a year after the end of Forgiveness is a Gift.
You can also read this at Archive of Our Own.
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Coming to Amestris had never been her idea. In fact, if it had been up to her, she would have remained in Xing, getting by as best as she and her clan could, as they always had done. Small farming villages weren't worth much, even when alkahestric talent ran in their blood, so no one ever paid them any mind, never tried to sabotage them. They survived the occasional clan wars through neutrality that concerned no one.
And then Ling Yao had sat across from her in her family's ramshackle hut, and asked, "Don't you want a better life for yourself? For your people?"
She did. Of course she did! What sort of person would she be if she didn't want a better life for her people? "And how," she'd asked quietly, "should I go about earning such a life? It's so easy for you, with your personal bodyguard–" she shot a quick glare at the masked figure standing by the door "–and your unending funds. If I show even a hint of ambition, I will be cut down."
Ling, if anything, smiled wider at that, leaning forward a bit. "The Yao clan has no alkahestrists," he said.
And May thought, 'Ah. So he's here to buy the favour of the only alkahestrist clan who might need a bit of a hand-up. How best to make him leave without resulting in his wrath?'
"Chang," Ling continued, apparently unaware – or uncaring – of the air of unwelcome that May was doing her best to exude, "births some of the most talented alkahestrists in all of Xing, but you're wasted, unable to reach your full potential due to a lack of means." His eyes glinted. "I have means, and I have connections; there is a brilliant alchemist in Amestris who teaches at one of their universities. At a word, I could have you installed there, as one of his students. Beyond the reach of any Xingan backlash."
May's breath caught, because the chance to learn the Amestrisan 'alchemy' – the other side of alkahestry's coin, it was often said – would be a dream for any alkahestrists. And to learn in Amestris, where their authorities would never allow the Xingan infighting to stain their hospitality, meant she might actually have a chance.
She might, but– "And leave my people defenceless?" she said flatly.
Ling hadn't stopped smiling, she noted with a vague feeling of irritation. "Oh, but Yao can protect Chang while you're gone."
Suspicion blew through her, turning her stomach. "At what price?" she demanded, pointing a shaking finger at him. "What do you get out of this? Chang will not allow ourselves to be swallowed up by some other clan! Not like others!"
Ling actually looked started for a moment, there and gone fast enough, May almost believed the surprise was honest. "Don't mistake me, Sister–"
"You don't have the right to call me that!" May shouted, jumping to her feet. "You're no sibling of mine, you–"
"Sister," a quiet voice called, and May turned to find her little sister, Lanying, hovering in the doorway next to Ling's bodyguard, "please. I– We asked for his help."
A boy who May had seen around the village peeked around Lanying's shoulder, looking a little bit terrified, but the hand on her shoulder was clearly intended to be protective. They were about the same age – marrying age, though it wasn't Chang custom to marry so young, as they knew a mother would be more likely to survive her first pregnancy if she was older, more settled in her body – and May wondered how she'd missed that her sister had found someone to love.
"This is Zhaohui, my brother," Ling offered tiredly, and May caught him shooting the two in the doorway an unimpressed stare.
Lanying, proving she had the same temper May had inherited from their mother, puffed up and snapped, "You don't know my sister! She wasn't going to listen to you any more."
"Lanying," Zhaohui whispered, tugging on her shoulder.
"As you can see," Ling said a bit tiredly, and May turned back to find that his smile had turned a bit strained, "I didn't come with any intention to bring Chang to ruin. Our extremely troublesome siblings have determined that they are in love, and they believed Yao would be more likely to forgive and protect a union than Chang. I informed them that an alliance would serve all of us better."
That...wasn't wrong. More for Chang than for Yao, of course, as they would be receiving one of Chang's precious few members, and an alkahestrist, at that, a talent that Yao had been lacking for generations. Chang, on the other hand, could only flourish under the banner of alliance with Yao. An alliance that could easily be ignored; Chang hardly had the strength to stand against Yao if they'd agreed to the match.
May settled slowly back down at her side of the table. "Why not simply give Lanying your protection?" she demanded. "Why make offers of protection to Chang? Why offer studying in Amestris to me? What do you get out of this?"
Ling's eyes fell closed and he looked, for a long moment, like he was far older than twenty-seven. And then opened his eyes and met her glare evenly. "A good friend of mine in Amestris lost her whole family without the chance to say good-bye; I would never wish that fate on anyone. Certainly not someone my brother loves."
Something in May's chest softened a bit, and she looked toward Lanying and Zhaohui, who had entered the room properly, holding hands so tightly, it was almost as though they thought they might be forced apart. "I see," she said quietly, looking back at Ling. "So you would offer Yao's protection so Lanying doesn't lose her family to any backlash from the other clans."
Ling shrugged and nodded. "Well, too, there's nothing wrong with forming a proper alliance with one of the remaining few neutral alkahestrist clans."
May snorted, but she couldn't seem to drudge up the proper level of disgust at that. "And Amestris?"
"Ah. That, I'm afraid, has a rather more personal objective. My bodyguard, you see–"
"Your Highness!" the bodyguard called, a hint of embarrassment in their – her, May was surprised to realise; Ling trusted a woman to protect him? How...unusual – voice.
Ling's smile just widened as he continued, "–has someone back in Amestris who she would very much like to see again. But she is my loyal bodyguard, and refuses to return to Amestris without me. Perhaps, I had thought, I might assign her to protect my sister for four years."
Four years in Amestris? Learning their 'alchemy'? And all so a bodyguard could visit a friend? (Boyfriend, perhaps, by the tone.)
Perhaps May had misjudged Ling Yao.
In the end, she'd agreed to the alliance. For the sake of Lanying, who she loved with all her heart and wished desperately to see happy, and for the sake of her whole clan, who could be so much more with Yao's protection. And, too, she did it for herself, because the lure of alchemy was simply too great, in the end.
May, it turned out, had misjudged Lan Fan, as well, for the person who met them at the station was a blonde woman with eyes as blue as the sky. Lan Fan, who had done away with her mask once they'd left Xing's borders, had been an immovable, stern figure for the whole trip, but the moment the Amestrisan woman called her name, her eyes lit up and pink shaded across her cheeks. They hugged, and then they kissed, and May had to look away herself, embarrassed.
Not...disgusted, as she probably should have been, as unnatural as two women was, but... Something. She wasn't certain what that feeling was, only that it wasn't disgust, which bode well for her four years having to see the two women together.
"Your Highness," Lan Fan called.
May straightened and turned back to her borrowed bodyguard. "Yes, sorry!" she called, and then flushed at the flat stare Lan Fan pinned her with.
But then the blonde woman stepped between them with a gentle smile. "I'm Winry Rockbell," she offered, her Xingan a little accented, but still understandable. "Ling and Lan Fan and I became friends while they were studying here, oh, goodness! It's been, what, six, seven years, now?" she asked, looking back at Lan Fan.
"Yes," Lan Fan agreed with a careless shrug.
May's chest...hurt. Ached. She hardly knew love, outside what was said of it in poetry and ancient tales, but the idea of being apart for so long... She couldn't imagine.
Her respect for Lan Fan – already rather high, after discovering she was fluent in Amestrisan and watching her school Chang's warriors during the winter – rose even further, and so, too, did her respect for this Winry Rockbell.
Winry turned back to her, still smiling. "He told me he was sending his little sister to study alchemy, and maybe medicine?"
Because May had admitted to some interest in learning Amestrisan medicine, as it was far more invasive than their own. And, since Ling had told her she was welcome to stay in Amestris a bit more than four years, if she felt like lengthening her studies a bit – for Lan Fan's sake, she expected – she'd thought it might be something to look into.
She swallowed and managed something that at least felt like a smile as she answered, "Yes. I'm May Chang. I'm an alkahestrist, which is not unlike your alchemists?"
Winry's smile took on a helpless turn. "So I've heard." Clearly reading May's confusion, she explained, "My brother's an alchemist. He likes to complain about alkahestry's 'mystical nonsense' to anyone dumb enough to let him get started on the topic."
"I...see."
Winry laughed, the sound bright and happy. "I'm sure you'll meet him soon enough," she promised, and May tried not to feel too nervous about that. "For now–" she turned toward Lan Fan "–I found you an apartment near campus. It's fairly close to where I'm working right now, so you're welcome to visit me, once May knows her way around and you stop being unnecessarily paranoid."
Lan Fan said something in Amestrisan that May couldn't quite catch, and Winry laughed again, catching one hand in hers and bringing the back up to kiss. Lan Fan went bright red and attempted and failed to free her hand from Winry's grip.
May tried not to feel too much like a third wheel.
The flat Winry had found them was so shiny and new, May had actually been afraid to touch anything. She eventually talked herself around, mostly because it was hard to eat or sleep without touching things. But still, she felt very much out of place.
The language barrier wasn't helping matters; while May's Amestrisan was passable, and Lan Fan was willing to help her translate things, when she found the courage to ask, classes were a little difficult, especially when her professors used images with writing projected on white boards to supplement their lectures. And they always talked so fast, she always ended up missing words, or getting things confused, or–
Lan Fan deciding she would be fine on her own during her second month of classes, just made matters worse. Because, suddenly, May was all alone in all of her classes. She hadn't made any friends, and it was too late, now.
One afternoon, as she was slumping her way out of the medicine basics class she was taking, a male voice called out, "May Gongzhu!"
May froze, shocked to hear Xingan in a male voice. She turned to find the class's teaching assistant, Mr Elric, hurrying up to her with a wide smile. He was a handsome man, a little older than her, with golden hair and eyes, and he was always friendly. In direct opposition of Professor Elric, the head of the alchemy department, who was almost always scowling, unless he was talking way too fast about something in class. The two were clearly related, probably brothers, but May wasn't aware enough of campus gossip to know for certain. (Though she did know that at least half the female population had a crush on Professor Elric, if the notes in the women's toilet stalls were anything to go by.)
"You–" she started in Amestrisan, before realising she didn't know what she wanted to say.
"I'm sorry," Mr Elric said in Xingan. Nearly perfect, just like Winry's had been. "I should have talked to you sooner, but when Lan Fan stopped attending with you, I assumed you were getting on fine on your own."
"You speak Xingan!" May shouted, pointing a finger at him.
And then she realised exactly what she'd said and flushed, because how stupid could she get?!
Mr Elric let out an embarrassed laugh and rubbed at the back of his head. "Yeah. I guess no one told you: Winry's my adopted sister. Ling and Lan Fan taught me your language at the same time as her."
May just sort of...stared. This was Winry's brother? But he didn't seem to be an alchemist. So...did that mean Professor Elric was the brother she'd been talking about?
Mr Elric's expression fell. "I noticed you're having some trouble in class, and it doesn't look like you have many friends?"
May sort of hunched in on herself a bit, even more embarrassed. "My Amestrisan isn't very good," she admitted quietly.
Mr Elric nodded. "I'd kind of expected it to be something like that," he admitted, offering her a reassuring smile. "We can work on that, if you're willing to put the effort into it, and I can help you go over things you're having trouble with in class, see where you're getting lost in the translation."
May caught herself blinking back tears and whispered, "Thank you."
Mr Elric smiled at her. "Of course. I know how confusing it can be to get thrust into a world that's rather unfamiliar."
Huh?
"Are you having trouble in any other classes?"
"I–" May took a deep breath and couldn't quite meet his eyes as she admitted, "My alchemy classes."
"Oh." Mr Elric sighed, and then there was a light touch on her shoulder, and she looked up in surprise to find him just barely touching her, a faintly apologetic look on his face. "I'm afraid I won't be much help, there, but I think I know someone who can help."
"R-Really?" May breathed, a sort of disbelieving sense of hope unfurling in her chest.
And then she caught sight of one of the sporadic clocks in the hallway and cursed. "I'm going to be late!"
Mr Elric pulled out his mobile and winced at the time. "Shit," he said in Amestrisan, before switching back to Xingan to offer, "I'll walk with you and apologise to your professor." He smiled again. "After all, it's my fault you're late."
"I– Th-thank you," May mumbled, still a bit shocked.
Mr Elric walked with her to her alchemy class, and while Professor Martin turned to glare when she tried to sneak in, his expression went blank when he saw her escort.
Well, it was nice to know that she had someone in her corner who had power in the alchemy department.
May's last class of the day was Professor Elric's, and she was probably more surprised than she should have been to see Mr Elric standing at the front of the room with him when she stepped inside.
(Behind her, a couple of young women made adoring noises, and one of them said, "My chances just doubled! Is this heaven?")
Professor Elric was scowling, as per usual, while Mr Elric had his hands clasped in front of him, his eyes ridiculously wide. After a moment of scowling, Professor Elric threw his hands up into the air and snapped, "Fuckin' fine! But don't make a fuckin' scene!"
Mr Elric smiled brightly. "You're managin' that fine without my help, Brother."
(Whispers from the female half of the room picked up at the relationship confirmation.)
And then Mr Elric turned toward the room, caught sight of May, and his smile widened, then made his way up to her seat, sliding in next to her with a quiet, "He wasn't happy about me sitting in."
May blinked at that, thrown. "Why not?" she whispered.
"Everyone shut the fuck up, or I'll transmute all your seats into fuckin' man-eatin' plants and walk out!" Professor Elric threatened, and the room fell silent.
Mr Elric, too, seemed unwilling to test his brother's threat – May wondered what that meant; could Professor Elric turn all their seats into plants? – for he didn't respond to her question. In fact, he pulled out a notebook from his bag and opened it to a blank page, just like any other student.
May sighed and pulled out her own notebook to take notes, slumping a bit, because Professor Elric almost always got over-excited and started talking too fast, and she never managed to keep up with him when he did that.
About the time he started speeding up, May chanced a glance over at Mr Elric's open notebook, only to start in surprise when she realised he was writing in Xingan, translating Professor Elric's every word with far more speed than she could manage.
When Professor Elric paused to trace an array on the white board, Mr Elric wrote, 'You might want to copy that down,' on one side of his notes, and she jerked her eyes up to the board, quickly sketching the unfamiliar array into her own forgotten notes.
When she looked back at Mr Elric's note again, once Professor Elric had started talking again, she discovered that he'd used the lull to sketch a surprisingly good cat, which was batting at the last character in his note to her.
It was...adorable. Unexpectedly so. Which, well, it actually sort of suited him, the way he was always smiling, that he'd sketch things in the margins of his notes. Cute things.
By the time Professor Elric dismissed them, Mr Elric had drawn three more cats, and turned four underlines into balls of yarn, one of which a cat was trying desperately to get at.
"You're good at that," May commented, motioning to one of the cats with the end of her pencil.
Mr Elric, surprisingly, flushed pink. "I, uhm, have some excellent life models. At home. Cats, I mean, not–"
"For fuck's sake, Al," Professor Elric interrupted, his Xingan even more perfect than Winry and Mr Elric's. "You're an embarrassment to the gene pool. And stop desecrating my class with your ridiculous fur balls!"
Mr Elric laughed, rather than taking offense, like May would have. "Thank you for letting me sit in, Brother," he said as he carefully ripped the notes he'd taken out of his notebook. "Here, May Gongzhu," he said as he offered them to her.
"Oh!" May flushed as she took them. "Th-thank you, Mr Elric."
"Al is fine," Mr Elric insisted. "Professor Smith is the one who insists on formality."
"Probably because he's afraid of pissin' me off again, the fuckin'–" Professor Elric muttered.
"Brother," Mr Elric interrupted, wearing a rather impressive unimpressed look.
Professor Elric rolled his eyes, then turned to stare at May. And, wow, his gaze was...a little terrifying and a little exhilarating, and May totally got why half the female population of the university had a massive crush on him. "Why didn't you let anyone know you were struggling to keep up with your classes?" he asked. And it didn't really sound like he was angry, or even disappointed, but May still slouched in her seat, feeling like she'd failed him somehow.
Professor Elric sighed and crouched down on the other side of the table, on her level, rather than towering over her. There was kindness in his eyes, she saw, and his voice was gentle when he said, "Your Highness, human beings don't live in a vacuum. I know it's a bit different, here, from being in Xing, but your professors are here to talk to when you have problems, or the teaching assistants, like Al. And, too, you could have said something to Lan Fan–"
"I didn't want to take her away from Winry!" May got out in a rush, before blushing again and looking away from his surprised look. "They said it had been six or seven years since they'd met, and I know Lan Fan only came as an excuse to see her again..."
"It's actually only been about three years," Mr Elric offered gently. When May frowned at him, confused, he smiled and explained, "Lan Fan came back a few summers ago, because Ling made her. I mean, yeah, it's been a while, but they talk on the phone every other night, so it hasn't been quite that lonely."
"So Winry says," Professor Elric muttered.
Mr Elric reached over and tugged on Professor Elric's bangs, earning him a glare, then said, "Giving them time together is a noble thought, but they can spend time together on weekends or in the evenings, and Lan Fan can keep attending classes with you. At least until your Amestrisan can keep up with your professors. Okay?"
"Oh," May whispered, because she hadn't really...thought of that.
Professor Elric huffed and stood. "Great. Now that's settled, Winry's expecting us at home for dinner. All of us," he added, looking pointedly at May.
May somehow managed to squeak out a, "Me?"
"Come on," Mr Elric coaxed, closing her notebook and holding it out to her. "Before he gets testy and starts threatening more implausible things with alchemy."
Professor Elric turned a flat look on Mr Elric. "You don't think I can turn a couple chairs into man-eating plants?"
Mr Elric let out a very put-upon sigh. "Brother, this it why the military kept trying to recruit you."
Professor Elric's return smile honestly made May fear for her safety for a moment, and then he turned away, calling, "I need to stop by my office to grab some really fucking shitty papers my master's students think are worth the paper they're typed on, then we can go."
Mr Elric sighed again, though it sounded a bit amused, that time. "Come on, May Gongzhu."
"Just–" May coughed and shoved her notebook into her bag as she stood, her face tellingly warm again. "Just 'May' is fine. Please."
"Only if you promise to call me 'Al'," Mr Elric returned with a cheerful smile. "And you should probably call Brother 'Ed'."
"I– I couldn't!" May gasped, horrified at the thought. Mr Elric – Al – was one thing, but Professor Elric was the head of the department!
Mr– Al sighed, then called, "Brother! Tell May to call you 'Ed'!"
Professor Elric shot them both an irritated scowl. "What the actual fuck?" he demanded, before turning away. "She can call me what she wants to call me. Stop being a pain in the arse, Al."
Al covered his face with his hand and muttered something in Amestrisan, too muffled for May to have any hope of making it out.
Al and Professor Elric's flat was a mess of books and scraps of metal, with a thin coating of cat fur. Professor Elric didn't seem bothered by the mess, striding right in and calling an insult in Amestrisan, which a voice that May recognised as Winry's, after a moment, insulted him right back.
Al, however, winced and quietly told her, "Sorry about the mess. I'm afraid we always let the place go during term, especially now Winry's distracted with Lan Fan."
"Winry lives here?" May couldn't help asking; even though she was the first person she'd met upon arriving in Amestris, and her own flatmate was dating her, she didn't actually know anything about the Amestrisan woman.
Al shot her an odd look, then waved at the nearest piece of metal. "She's an automail mechanic," he said. Not quite phrased like he'd expected her to know that, but still.
"Lan Fan doesn't speak about her much," she offered a bit helplessly.
"That...doesn't surprise me," Al said with a sort of helpless smile.
"Your Highness," Lan Fan said, announcing her appearance from the kitchen.
"Lan Fan," May returned, inclining her head a bit.
"Lan Fan!" Professor Elric called, popping up next to Lan Fan from nowhere. He dodged the elbow she swung at him and slung an arm around her shoulders, wearing that same grin that had made May fear for her safety back in his classroom. "So happy to see you've dumped that stuffy prince–"
"I will kill you," Lan Fan promised so seriously, May fully believed her.
Professor Elric, though, just laughed and quickly roughed up her hair, then stepped back, dodging her retaliatory swipes – with a kunai! She really did intend to kill him – without any apparent effort.
May was in turns impressed and horrified, and she blamed that on the reason she didn't try stepping in. Not that she really believed she had the authority to stop Lan Fan from killing her professor.
"I'd best not see any weapons when I walk out there!" Winry called, and Lan Fan quickly slipped her kunai away, while Professor Elric straightened and put on such a falsely innocent look, May had to choke back a laugh.
And then Professor Elric looked over at her and winked.
Al sighed and touched her shoulder lightly. "Let me have your bag?" he requested, and she obediently handed it over while Winry ordered Professor Elric and Lan Fan to help bring things out of the kitchen. (May wondered if that was wise.)
Winry spotted her once Professor Elric and Lan Fan had vanished into the kitchen with a surprising lack of violent overtures, and she put on that same bright smile she'd greeted May with at the station. "May. It's good to finally see you again," she said so kindly, May was thrown for a moment.
"Finally?" she repeated a bit uncertainly.
Winry's smile faltered for a moment, then she sang out, "Lan Fan!" in a sort of sweetly cheerful voice.
"Oh, hell," Al murmured.
Impossibly, Lan Fan looked decidedly nervous as she stepped out of the kitchen and set a steaming dish down on the table. "Yes?" she asked quietly.
Winry was smiling, but there was something about it that sent a shiver down May's spine, and she wondered, a bit, what sort of people Ling had sent her to. "Why is it," Winry said in Amestrisan, speaking so slowly, May had no trouble following her, "that this seems to be the first time May's been made aware that she's welcome over for dinner?"
Lan Fan sort of stared at her for a moment, then turned and shot May a pleading look.
May could have let her flail of her own, certainly, as punishment for the cold shoulder she'd apparently been getting since they'd first arrived in Amestris, but she didn't really want to make an enemy of the only other Xingan she knew of in Amestris, and she wasn't really that cruel, besides. So she offered, carefully sounding out the unfamiliar syllables, "I do not think she had wanted to disturb my studies. It is often I sit with my books and food, at night. It is...not so easy to do so much reading in your language."
Winry blinked, then huffed. "Oh," she said, and Lan Fan's shoulders relaxed. "Still," she continued in Xingan, "you could have brought your work here and we could have helped you. Goodness knows someone's always bringing his work to dinner with him."
"Oh, come on!" Professor Elric complained, stepping out of the kitchen and setting another steaming dish on the table, though he didn't have on a protective mitt, like Lan Fan did. "You lot get plenty of laughs out of the shit my students think are real alchemy."
"Of course I do," Winry returned in that sweet tone she'd used on Lan Fan. "I would never turn down the chance to laugh at how brainless the lot of you are."
"I'll brainless your–"
"No fighting at the table!" Al shouted, so loudly, May jumped. (She was a little soothed to see she hadn't been the only one.) "Sorry, May," Al offered quietly, before ordering, "Everyone sit down. Now."
Winry, Lan Fan, and Professor Elric all quickly took seats, and May wondered, a bit, at the power dynamics between all of them, while Al ushered her toward one of the two remaining chairs and held it out for her to sit, then pushed it in before taking the last chair.
It didn't take long for Winry and Professor Elric to start talking about troublesome patients or students, apparently trying to outdo each other for most difficult day. Al just sort of sighed at them and turned to May, saying, "So, I hear you grew up in a different sort of environment from Ling?"
May was a little uncertain about interrupting the rather loud argument across the table, but once she actually started telling him about her village, Winry and Professor Elric shut up, both clearly interested. Even Lan Fan appeared to be interested in what she had to say, which was...odd. Unfamiliar.
Kind of nice.
After dinner, Al retrieved a binder of notes written in Amestrisan, explaining, "These are the notes I took in my Introduction to Modern Medicine class. It was a different professor, but their curriculum is close enough. I don't know how much help these will be, since they're all in Amestrisan, but I can translate it all for you if you give me a couple weeks."
"Please don't let him do it," Professor Elric called from where he was playing a card game with Winry and Lan Fan, both of whom seemed determined to stare at him through the whole thing, rather than pay attention to their own cards. "It's bad enough he's running around playing teaching assistant–"
"Brother," Al interrupted, voice low and very clearly meant as a warning.
Professor Elric shot a sharp grin over his shoulder, and May wondered, a bit, if he always taunted people who threatened him. (Everything she'd seen that night said he absolutely did.)
"I'm happy to translate my notes for you, May," Al insisted with a kind smile for her.
May looked down at the opened binder, at the doodles in the margins. His cats hadn't been quite so good when he'd taken these notes, but there was a dog with what looked to be a fake leg that showed up fairly often, and a cross with a snake draped around it. "I need to learn Amestrisan eventually," she pointed out instead of explaining that she'd rather these notes because she liked his doodles. "At least, with these, I won't be rushing so much to get what Professor Smith is saying down on the page." She offered him a smile. "Thank you."
His return smile was so gorgeous, it sort of took her breath away, and May had to wonder, a bit dazedly, if this was how Lanying felt around Zhaohui, or how Lan Fan felt around Winry.
"As for alchemy..." Al said, his tone a little apologetic, before he turned and called, "Stop looking at Brother and look behind yourselves for a minute!"
Winry and Lan Fan both turned to look at a picture on the wall behind them, which was probably the cleanest thing in the entire flat, easily reflecting everything around it, and perfectly tilted, May realised, for Professor Elric to see their cards.
"Edward," Winry snarled, yanking out a spanner from...May had no idea.
Professor Elric cackled and tossed his cards onto the coffee table, then flipped deftly backwards, out of his chair, dodging the spanner Winry threw, and ducked down behind it, so the two kunai Lan Fan flung at him sailed harmlessly over his head.
And then he stood and, whistling a cheerful death march – May was only a little concerned about his mental health – walked over to sit across from her at the table. "Yeah, Al's a bit useless with alchemy. I'm afraid I don't have any notes for beginning level alchemy classes – I tested out of most of them, and binned the shit for what I didn't when I moved out here – but I should be able to get you a rough copy of my lecture notes. Probably get lecture notes from the rest of your professors, too, but you'll have to deal with them being in Amestrisan; too late in the semester for me to fuck about translating the drivel they teach at your level."
"Brother," Al interrupted, while May just sort of stared at Professor Elric in disbelief; had it really been so easy for her to get help? "You realise you're teaching one of those beginner classes, right?"
"Well, yeah. But I teach it right. None of this dumbing it down for the morons in the room bullshit. And there are a lot of morons in my class. I don't even know why half of them are taking it!"
"They probably have a crush on you," May said before she could stop herself, then clapped a hand over her mouth, vaguely horrified.
"You're shitting me," Professor Elric said flatly.
Al started laughing, while Winry loudly asked, "Are they drugging the food they're serving in the commons?"
"Shut the fuck up," Professor Elric snarled.
"I'm sorry, Brother," Al offered, though he didn't sound sorry, "but the whole scowling, angry-at-the-world thing is working against you."
"You could invite Roy in!" Winry called, then cackled.
"I would like you, for one moment, to envision what Roy would do if he discovered half my class was only in there to stare at my arse," Professor Elric returned flatly.
The room was completely silent for a beat, then Winry let out a nervous giggle, and Al said, "Ah. Perhaps it's best Roy's in Central until the new year."
Professor Elric raised his eyebrows at May and, apparently noticing her confused expression, flatly said, "Colonel Roy Mustang is my extremely stupid, irritatingly possessive lover."
"He specialises in fire alchemy," Al added helpfully.
May blinked, letting those statements assemble themselves into something that made sense of Winry and Al's reaction, then managed a slightly strangled, "Oh."
Professor Elric grunted and caught a partially used paper napkin, ripping off a clean corner and revealing a pen he'd apparently pulled from thin air. "Which classes are you in? And who's your academic advisor?"
May shook away images of an inferno in the classroom and listed everything out for him.
"Parker?" Professor Elric muttered, scowling at where he was writing everything on his napkin scrap. "The fuck did admissions send you to him for? He's useless. I'll get you transferred to me. Once your grades pick back up, we can discuss your class options for next term, see which professors I'll need to threaten for lecture notes." He pinned her with a way-too-intelligent stare while she was still trying to wrap her head around everything he was saying; he was going to make himself her advisor? And go out of his way to get notes for her future classes? "Is it just when people talk too fast that you have trouble?"
"I–" May swallowed, licked her lips, and shook her head. "No. The, uhm, when they have the, the light pictures, the slides?"
"Reading the projected slides," Professor Elric murmured as he made another note on his napkin. "That's easy to fix, just need the slides from everyone. Not hard to print those out. Fuck, half of them, that's probably the extent of their lecture notes." He waved a careless hand at her, not looking up from his napkin. "Lazy sods. I'll have everything for you on Monday morning. Come by my office– Fuck, when's your first class?" He looked up at her, then, both eyebrows raised expectantly for a moment, before his face twisted with horror and he shoved away from the table, shouting, "Win! Make her stop!"
"Oh, dear," Al murmured, handing a clean napkin over to her just as May realised she'd started crying without realising it.
"I'm sorry!" she sobbed, hiding her face in the offered napkin and trying to make it stop. Except, now she was aware that she was crying, that just made her cry harder. Because they were all being so nice to her, and it felt like ages since someone had smiled at her, and no one had ever gone out of their way to make her life a little bit easier.
Her chair was pulled back, then arms wrapped around her, and someone made gentle shushing noises, petting her hair like Mum always would when she'd got upset about how unfair everything was. Except, this time, it was exactly the opposite. But that didn't stop the familiar comfort from helping, and she finally managed to get her crying under control, pulling back a bit to look up and find that Winry had been the one hugging her, an understanding smile on her face.
"Better?" Winry asked quietly, accepting a proper tissue from someone behind May and using it to gently wipe under her eyes.
"I-I'm sorry," May breathed, embarrassed. "I don't know what came over me–"
"Ed's face always makes people cry if they have to look at it for too long," Winry offered with a wink.
"Hey!" Professor Elric complained.
"I think," Al interrupted, very likely saving them from another bickering match between Professor Elric and Winry, "that I get it."
"Feel free to fill in the rest of us," Professor Elric said drily, while May turned to look at Al's kind smile.
"When you live in a small community, you never really think you need to ask for help, because someone's already there, helping before you know you might need it. But it's different, here. Everyone cares more about their own problems than what you might need, especially when you're a foreigner."
"Oh," Winry breathed, while Professor Elric hummed quietly.
"Right?" Al asked May, his smile so gentle, so understanding.
And May nodded, because he was...right. It wasn't that no one had ever gone out of their way to help her, before, rather that they'd already been there when she'd needed them, because they knew she'd need the help. And she'd done the same thing, offering to help with chores because that got them done faster, or stepping forward to take on a task that one of her people would have struggled with, because that's just what you did in her clan.
"Where we grew up, it was the same way," Al explained. "No one really talked about it, but everyone always pitched in when you needed it. When we moved to a bigger city, it was a bit of a culture shock, but we still had people doing things for us, because we were kids, and kids need help. But you're an adult, so everyone assumes you know what you're doing, that you'll ask for help when you need it."
Professor Elric huffed and the table shifted slightly as he pulled himself back up to it. "Here's the thing, your academic advisor's kinda supposed to notice when you're having trouble, step in and ask what's going on. And, given, you don't actually have a class with Parker, which makes it harder, but I always send out notes about students that are having trouble, and I guess he hasn't contacted you at all?"
May shook her head, then quietly admitted, "I've never met him once."
Professor Elric stared at her for a moment, disbelieving, then started cursing in– May recognised Amestrisan and Xingan, but she really couldn't tell, for the rest of it, if there was more than two languages, or if he was just using words she didn't know. And then, not even pausing for breath, he snarled, "I'm gonna kick that shit so fuckin' hard, he's gonna be barfin' his intestines."
"Sounds messy," Al commented blandly, before looking at May again, leaving Professor Elric to mutter more profanities and dire-sounding threats. "How did you sort out your classes, then?"
"Electronic mail?" May offered uncertainly. "Ling did it for me."
"Of course Ling fucked it up," May was fairly certain was what Professor Elric had just muttered. Apparently quiet enough that Lan Fan hadn't heard.
Al sighed and nodded. "That makes a bit more sense. Still, I'd have expected Parker to want to meet with you at least once."
"I'll handle it," Professor Elric said so coldly, May actually felt a little bad for her absent advisor. "From now on, you get to deal with me. And I know where you live."
"Edward, don't be creepy," Winry ordered lightly squeezing May's shoulder. When she glanced up, Winry smiled down at her. "Sorry, May, but it sounds like you're stuck with us; welcome to the family."
May blinked, her throat feeling tight. "Thank you," she whispered.
"Please don't start crying again," Professor Elric pleaded to his napkin scrap, which was so covered with writing, May couldn't guess how he'd be able to read it later.
"Just because you have the emotional capacity of a teaspoon, Edward–"
"If you two start throwing things, fair warning, I will break the table over both your heads," Al said loudly.
Winry shut up and Professor Elric's shoulders hunched a bit.
Al was definitely the one in charge, May decided.
Professor Elric straightened after a moment and shot May a considering glance. "Monday. Your first class is..." He looked down at his napkin scrap. "Brett. Her class starts at eight?"
"Yes," May agreed, a little surprised that he'd known that.
Professor Elric looked up in thought for a moment, then grunted. "Fucking early morning classes. Fine. If I'm not there before her class starts, look for me in the hall after." He capped his pen and stood as she nodded. "Anything else? No? Good," he said, not giving anyone a chance to speak. "I need to go send emails to my staff." He waved his scrap of napkin, then started from the room, in the direction of the hall that May had found the bathroom on when she'd had to use it earlier. "And I'm not eating Lan Fan's cooking again tomorrow, she uses weird spices. Someone pick a fucking restaurant."
Al and Winry let out the exact same sighs, and May caught herself giggling.
"Perhaps," Lan Fan announced as she stood from where she'd still been sitting next to the coffee table, "it's time Her Highness and I returned to our flat for the night."
May moaned a bit as it occurred to her, "I have so much reading to do tonight."
Al offered her a sympathetic smile and lightly touched her shoulder. "Give us a week, and we'll have you feeling a little more prepared for classes, okay?"
May hugged his binder to her chest and nodded. "Okay."
Their goodbyes were fairly quick, then May was following Lan Fan out of the building the Amestrisans lived in. She didn't realise Lan Fan had her bag until they were out on the street, and just as she'd worked up the courage to ask for it back, Lan Fan said, "I'm sorry."
May blinked, her mind scattering a bit. "I– What?"
Lan Fan shot her a quick glance, something a bit uncertain in the turn of her mouth, and May sped up a bit more to walk next to her. "I haven't been treating you with the respect due your station."
May couldn't quite stop a sharp laugh, and Lan Fan shot her a startled look. "My station?" she repeated. "What station?"
"You are a princess–"
"Barely," May interrupted, shaking her head. "I'm not Ling, okay? I don't expect anyone following me around, waiting on me, or whatever you do for him when he's not being targeted for death. I know the only reason he sent you with me was so you could spend time with Winry."
Lan Fan was quiet for almost a full block, before saying, "Some things happened, to Winry, last year, and it distracted me. I messed up, and High Highness almost died. I thought, a bit, that he had sent me with you as punishment, and I've been taking it out on you. I shouldn't have. I apologise."
May reached out and caught Lan Fan's arm, and the other woman immediately stopped, turning to face her, head bowed. She remembered the months of feeling so lonely, of feeling maybe a bit abandoned, and it occurred to her that she hadn't been the only one feeling that.
Any one of her royal siblings would have struck Lan Fan, or sent her home in disgrace, but May wasn't like them, so she held out a hand, like the Amestrisans did, and said, "Hello. I'm May."
Lan Fan stared at he for a moment, looking thrown, before uncertainly taking her hand. "I'm...Lan Fan."
May managed a smile, and said, "It's a little lonely, here, so far from home. I'd really like a friend, if that's okay with you?"
Lan Fan blinked a couple of times, then managed a small smile that trembled just a bit, and agreed, "I think that would be okay, yes."
They started walking again, and it felt like, maybe, the air was a little easier between them. "Are they always like that?" May couldn't resist asking.
Lan Fan let out a loud snort. "Yes. They are the best of friends, and the worst of enemies."
May let out a laugh that sounded a little uncertain to her own ears, because that sounded about right; utterly terrifying.
Lan Fan glanced at her, a glint in her eyes that made May a little nervous, and commented, "You looked taken with Al."
"I–" May started, even as her face heated. "It's not– He's very...nice! And he doodles cats in his note margins! It's cute!"
Lan Fan let out a choked sounding noise, which May realised, after a moment, was a laugh. "If it helps, I think he's quite taken with you, too."
"Don't tell me that!" May complained. "I have class with him on Monday!"
"We have dinner with him tomorrow night," Lan Fan returned, merciless.
May moaned, covering her face with Al's binder and only avoiding walking into something when Lan Fan caught her elbow and tugged her to the side with another choked laugh.
On second thought, perhaps May'd been better off when Lan Fan was ignoring her.
Pieces of Me
Forgiveness is a Gift
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