bonding over apple pie | mei

[Winry Rockbell]

She'd had it up to here with that man!

It had only taken for her to come down the stairs and into the kitchen for her to become infuriated with Edward Elric. It was rather clear to see which brother had eaten what for breakfast, Alphonse's dish and glass clearly washed and on the draining rack but Edward it seemed, had eaten any food he could get his hands on and left plates scattered around the house. It was taking sometime adjusting to having the two males in the house again, but honestly had they been gone for so long that he had forgotten her basic rules.

Besides! It was basic for living with someone and she wasn't going to clear up after his mess! No ... he was a grown man and he could clean a few dishes, after all she wasn't the type to stand down. He would do them eventually ...

There was the sound of the front door opening as the young woman turned round, her eyes closing into a glare. "Edward Elric if that's you, you better get your sorry behind in here right now!" she shouted, her voice ringing out as she made her way into the hall, her face going bright red. "Mei ... sorry I thought you were ..." she mumbled, her memory now responding that Alphonse may have said something about the young woman coming over the previous night. "Sorry ... I forgot that you were in town! I only just got back myself" she added, her warmer and more calm aura coming back to her.

[Mei Chang]

x x

Mei had been out and about that morning, though not overly much, of course. She had always been an early riser, and so had gone outside to practice her martial arts with Xiao Mei, along with a little bit of alkahestry practice, but she made sure to not have it be too creative, as she still had fix it all back up again, before she had gone into town real quick, to buy some cookbooks (after all, Alphonse had gone on quite a bit about apple pie and other such foods in their letters, so maybe she could learn to make them?) As such, because there was no evidence she had actually been practicing outside, she was quite confused when she stepped inside the house and found yelling directed at her, courtesy of Winry.

Of course, after hearing it was for Edward, the princess nearly burst into giggles, at the fact that he was being yelled at, yet wasn’t even there, and traded a small smile with Xiao Mei. Before she could speak up and correct the older girl (or just wait for her to run out of things to yell about, that might work just as well), Winry actually came into the front hall, where Mei was currently taking off her shoes, and realized that she was most definitely not Edward. “Hi, Winry!” she ended up chirping, Xiao Mei mimicking her smile as the younger girl set her shoes down to the side of the front door. “What did Edward do?”

It wasn’t that she liked people getting into trouble, but… It was Edward. While she was a tad more reasonable now, over a year after he had ‘toyed with a young maiden’s heart’, she still found herself delighting in things like that. It was her own, very minor, way of a ‘revenge’ of sorts. Blinking in surprise at the other girl’s statement, though, Mei’s mouth formed an ‘o’ of understanding as comprehension dawned on her. “That’s right, you’ve been in… Rush Valley, right?” she asked, nearly a hundred percent positive that that was where the other had been, but unsure if it had changed in the wide range of time since Alphonse had told her that.

Holding the two cookbooks she had bought under one arm, the princess stepped fully into the hallway, smiling up at the older girl as she considered asking Winry for recommendations on which recipes to try first. After all, she was supposed to be good at cooking…

[Winry Rockbell]

"What did he do? Nothing ... it's just Edward being himself" she muttered, her tone becoming a slight growl. Why she was in love with a man who couldn't even be bothered to wash up after himself. It was strange how she could even love him in the first place. There were things she loved, adored even but half of his qualities irritated her to the core. Like how he could break auto mail doing day to day tasks, how he could find little ways to insult her, disguising them as nicknames. But he was kind ... sweet, brave and he cared. A little absent minded smile on her face, she walked into the kitchen, picking up assorted plates and throwing them into the washing up bowl, attempting to clear up somewhat.

"Yes" she called back, smiling at the mention of her new place of work "It's great down there! You should come down sometime. Edward just loves it there" she added, a light hint of sarcasm in her tone. Oh if she could sit down and tell the stories of what had happened in Rush Valley, it would keep her amused for hours. "Though I'm not sure if many people would be too happy to see them after what happened last time" she added, a little laugh at the memory. Well ... they did almost destroy half the city. People weren't very appreciative of that.

[Mei Chang]

x x

Just Edward being himself? While that could mean quite a few things, Mei didn’t bother to ask her to clarify, instead trading another smile with Xiao Mei and following Winry into the kitchen. Oh, so that was what she had meant! Catching the sight of the dishes that the older girl was picking up, the princess was quite quickly able to put two and two together. Ah, so he was sloppy, was he? Somehow, that struck her as inappropriate, and though there were more dishes than seemed normal for one person, Mei couldn’t help but be firm in the notion that Alphonse had definitely done his own dishes. After all, it was Alphonse!

The sarcasm flying right over her head, the younger girl beamed happily at Winry’s words. “From what I’ve heard of it, it does sound fun!” she told her excitedly. “I’d love to maybe come and check it out!” While it wasn’t like she was obsessed with automail, or anything, it was still quite cool, and it would definitely be a plus to both see a place dedicated to the work itself and to see more of Amestris. She liked to travel, too, so that just made it even better! Three birds with one stone, yes!

Setting her cookbooks on the table, Mei’s brow furrowed slightly as she tried to comprehend Winry’s last statement, before her eyes (and Xiao Mei’s, as well) lit up with understanding. “Are you talking about when he and Alphonse met Ling and Lan Fan there?” she asked, though she mentally added Fu to the list of people there. It was best to not invoke the names of those who had passed on in every day conversation. “They told me about it!” Ling had not been able to give much detail, as he was quite the busy person, but Lan Fan had told her the whole story in one of their frequent discussions as she often pestered the other for stories of Alphonse that she hadn’t heard yet.

[Winry Rockbell]

There was a smile on her face when Mei told her she wanted to come down someday. "Give me a ring if you do! I can set you up with somewhere to stay" she replied. There was a another room above the shop so Mei was welcome to come and visit anytime. "To be honest ... I'm thinking about setting up shop here too" she added. After all ... at least if she was here then the boys would have someone to come home too. They thought she didn't know what they were planning to do, but she knew they wouldn't stick around for too long. "I wish they'd stick around for longer" she muttered softly ... she was going to miss them. Al and his kindness, the way he was always there when she needed him and Ed ... she missed everything about him when he was gone, but soon remembered how irritating his little quirks were ... and how much she loved them.

"They did?" she replied with a laugh "How have those two been anyway? I haven't heard from them in a while" she added, it being strange that they were so far away. It was strange having life without them with them back in Xing. Slowly her eyes crossed over to the table, glancing at the books on the surface. "Your interested in cooking Mei? she asked, finally glad for some female company around. After all .... she was positive the boys wouldn't listen unless they compared it to alchemy ...

[Mei Chang]

x x

At the other’s clearly happy comment about a place to stay, Mei nodded enthusiastically, smiling. “Will do!” she told the older girl, delighted. Well, if she had a place to stay, it’d probably be more acceptable for her to go… Plus she kind of wanted some friends that were girls. Lan Fan didn’t really count, so maybe Winry could introduce her to some? Hm… At the very least, though, she could see the other work on automail, which could really be cool. She didn’t think they had any in Xing, or if they did, it was really rare and nothing like the booming industry they had in Amestris.

…Huh. Wonder what that said about a country when one of their biggest industries was replacing lost limbs.

At her next words, though, Mei frowned slightly, with Xiao Mei mimicking her, slightly confused. “You mean you don’t have a shop here? I always thought you did…” Maybe she was just overthinking it and confusing herself. Still, from what she had taken by the secondhand stories she had gathered, the princess had thought that Winry was learning more in Rush Valley, and had a shop here in Resembool… Maybe she was just confused. Probably.

The Xingese girl vaguely heard the other mutter something, but couldn’t understand it, unfortunately. Not that she tended to eavesdrop on other’s notes to themselves, no, but it was sort of instinct to try and gather all the information she could. Had Winry been speaking in Xingese, Mei probably would’ve been able to catch it, but considering Amestrian was not her first language, well… It didn’t really help with the whole process, at all.

Beaming happily at being asked about her Xingese relatives (though Lan Fan wasn’t one, until Ling got off his butt and asked her to marry him or something), Mei was delighted to fill the other in. “They’re doing great! Ling’s fulfilling all of his promises and is being a really good Emperor, and Lan Fan keeps him in hand!” Was that enough? “They’re kind of busy, right now, but I think they like it. They’re changing things, after all,” she added after a quick moment of thought, smiling. It was true, after all. Had Alphonse asked the question, she probably would’ve been able to chatter on much longer, but… Even though she liked Winry (once she had determined that she was after her Alphonse), she wasn’t as relaxed and chatter-happy than she was with the older boy. He was just… comfortable. Probably an Alphonse thing.

As the other noticed her recently acquired books, Mei pinked slightly. “W-Well, Alphonse is always going on about how he likes your apple pie, and other food, so…” she trailed off for a moment, before finishing her thought. “I kinda wanted to learn for him.” After all, she did know how to cook some Xingese recipes already, but that was probably not what Alphonse wanted. And when in Amestris, do as Amestrians do!