![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
malurette posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
glyficTitle: Princess of another Clan
Author:malurette
Fandom: FullMetal Alchemist, manga
Characters: Lan Fan & Mei Chang, Ling Yao
Rating: PG / K+
Disclaimer: Arakawa's
Prompt: "enemies" forladiesbingo
Note: fusion, reworking and translation of an older ficlet and bits from two drabbles
Word count: 700+
***
They chould never quite get along. One the bodyguard to Prince Yao--later the Emperor!--the other Princess Chang, were not exactly... they were not supposed to mingle. Their respectives duties left no place for that.
Lan Fan was common people and a warrior, devoted since her childhood to Ling and never once questioned that destiny.
For her, that Mei was a rival to her master. Another clan's princess could seldom become an ally. Then in the search for the Philosophal Stone she became an enemy.
Mei believed quite naïvely she would one day meet a Prince Charming. That, or she'd have to contract a political alliance.
Now that the quest is over with Clan Yao's victory, she has little prospects but as a potential bride. According to the ancestral custom, Lord Ling as new Emperor should marry a girl from each other clan, among them a niece of Mei, should she have any. A cousin, then. The Prince may affirm that he wants to abolish this custom and that his victory won't signify a loss for other clans.
Lan Fan was a warrior still, despite having suffered a mutilating injury. She'd never marry her prince, let alone the Emperor. Ling may be able to change laws but not minds. Not yet.
Mei Chang feels sorry for her. There might be a tad of lingering contempt along with pity, from their clans' past rivalry.
As princess to a small, second-rate clan, and having failed her mission, she proved unworthy of her own people's expectations--does she deserve contempt and pity too? or... understanding. Consolation?
Lan Fan fears that her Prince, her Emperor, is going to part with her; not because he found someone better to look over and protect him--never!!--but because, paradoxically, he's so content with her service, he'll want her to protect someone else now, a precious ally that others may consider a traitor to tradition in the big political upheaval he's planning.
Tensions rise again when the prospect looms of an arranged marriage between Ling and Mei, for political reasons, disregarding everyone's feelings on the whole thing? and how closely they're related, knowing they would likely never consumate it anyway?
Because they did get acquainted during that stint in Amestris, fighting common ennemies for a while instead of each other over their primary goal of seeing their respective clan succeed the current emperor.
Thankfully it turns out that her fears were in vain. Time goes on, Ling ist crowned Emperor, gets his government going but takes neither an official spouse nor any concubine. Mei is one of his advisors, nothing more nothing less, and Lan Fan keeps her place one pace behind her emperor's throne. Nobody will get between them.
And from this point she gets to watch the court and its subtle yet very real transformations. Among them, how Mei Chang herself changes. This lille princess has grown a lot.
A few years have eased their relationship along their clans' rivalry. As for Mei herself... technically she isn't that much taller; she might stay short and petite her whole life, but she did grow more mature, wiser, and also prettier.
Now Mei is all but an ally, after all. Despite Ling's efforts to encourage them to mingle, both she and Lan Fan kept the same ancestral point of view regarding the fifty Clans: that they should stay clear apart. That's for everyone else. As for each other... let's say they're friendly enemies? Beloved enemies. This one person they love to hate; no, wait, they don't even hate each other! but that one person they love to spar with, happily and with no ill intent, most of the time with verbal piques and on occasion with thrown weapons perfectly aimed for a narrow miss.
Years have gone, changing some things, keeping others all the same, and mostly for the better.
Lan Fan would rather say that not only she lost nothing of value--well, there's a the arm thing, but her automail's good--she even gained... whatever Mei is to her now. She's still not ready to put a final name on their relationship. They just enjoy it the way it is.
They should never, but they found each other in spite of all they held certain. From here they have to improvise their relationship and invent their own story.
Author:
maluretteFandom: FullMetal Alchemist, manga
Characters: Lan Fan & Mei Chang, Ling Yao
Rating: PG / K+
Disclaimer: Arakawa's
Prompt: "enemies" for
ladiesbingo Note: fusion, reworking and translation of an older ficlet and bits from two drabbles
Word count: 700+
They chould never quite get along. One the bodyguard to Prince Yao--later the Emperor!--the other Princess Chang, were not exactly... they were not supposed to mingle. Their respectives duties left no place for that.
Lan Fan was common people and a warrior, devoted since her childhood to Ling and never once questioned that destiny.
For her, that Mei was a rival to her master. Another clan's princess could seldom become an ally. Then in the search for the Philosophal Stone she became an enemy.
Mei believed quite naïvely she would one day meet a Prince Charming. That, or she'd have to contract a political alliance.
Now that the quest is over with Clan Yao's victory, she has little prospects but as a potential bride. According to the ancestral custom, Lord Ling as new Emperor should marry a girl from each other clan, among them a niece of Mei, should she have any. A cousin, then. The Prince may affirm that he wants to abolish this custom and that his victory won't signify a loss for other clans.
Lan Fan was a warrior still, despite having suffered a mutilating injury. She'd never marry her prince, let alone the Emperor. Ling may be able to change laws but not minds. Not yet.
Mei Chang feels sorry for her. There might be a tad of lingering contempt along with pity, from their clans' past rivalry.
As princess to a small, second-rate clan, and having failed her mission, she proved unworthy of her own people's expectations--does she deserve contempt and pity too? or... understanding. Consolation?
Lan Fan fears that her Prince, her Emperor, is going to part with her; not because he found someone better to look over and protect him--never!!--but because, paradoxically, he's so content with her service, he'll want her to protect someone else now, a precious ally that others may consider a traitor to tradition in the big political upheaval he's planning.
Tensions rise again when the prospect looms of an arranged marriage between Ling and Mei, for political reasons, disregarding everyone's feelings on the whole thing? and how closely they're related, knowing they would likely never consumate it anyway?
Because they did get acquainted during that stint in Amestris, fighting common ennemies for a while instead of each other over their primary goal of seeing their respective clan succeed the current emperor.
Thankfully it turns out that her fears were in vain. Time goes on, Ling ist crowned Emperor, gets his government going but takes neither an official spouse nor any concubine. Mei is one of his advisors, nothing more nothing less, and Lan Fan keeps her place one pace behind her emperor's throne. Nobody will get between them.
And from this point she gets to watch the court and its subtle yet very real transformations. Among them, how Mei Chang herself changes. This lille princess has grown a lot.
A few years have eased their relationship along their clans' rivalry. As for Mei herself... technically she isn't that much taller; she might stay short and petite her whole life, but she did grow more mature, wiser, and also prettier.
Now Mei is all but an ally, after all. Despite Ling's efforts to encourage them to mingle, both she and Lan Fan kept the same ancestral point of view regarding the fifty Clans: that they should stay clear apart. That's for everyone else. As for each other... let's say they're friendly enemies? Beloved enemies. This one person they love to hate; no, wait, they don't even hate each other! but that one person they love to spar with, happily and with no ill intent, most of the time with verbal piques and on occasion with thrown weapons perfectly aimed for a narrow miss.
Years have gone, changing some things, keeping others all the same, and mostly for the better.
Lan Fan would rather say that not only she lost nothing of value--well, there's a the arm thing, but her automail's good--she even gained... whatever Mei is to her now. She's still not ready to put a final name on their relationship. They just enjoy it the way it is.
They should never, but they found each other in spite of all they held certain. From here they have to improvise their relationship and invent their own story.
