halfamoon | Fic: Small Umbrella (Fullmetal Alchemist, Mei)

Title: Small Umbrella
Author:

tiamatschild
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Rating: K
Characters: Mei, Xiao Mei
Summary: A girl and her panda talk ethical philosophy.
Warnings: None.
Notes: Written for

cornerofmadness’s Impromptuthon prompt: Mei, “Means to an end”.

Small Umbrella

Sometimes Mei felt strange when she said to Xiao Mei, “People can’t be just the way you get something. People are people. They’re important because they’re themselves.” It was true. But Mei knew too that she was the means to an end. She might be the way her people gained the throne, maybe, perhaps, though no one expected it, not really. She wasn’t just that, she was a student and a daughter and she was loved, she knew that, she felt it, it surrounded her and held her and gave her strength and purpose.

“But you’re not the only one who depends on me,” she told Xiao Mei, who took offense at the idea that anyone could think this was how their relationship worked when it was clearly and completely the other way around. “Yes, that too,” Mei said, and slowly, slowly, twirled her umbrella between her open palms.