"Thanks, El. You've got good name sense."

"I try my best."

"You got a lot of bestness."

"Yep!"

"Awesomest bestest sister."

"And don't forget it."

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

"I won't, I promise!"

"I suppose that makes you an all right sister."

"Noooooo, I'm the best little sister!"

"Definitely emphasis on the 'little'."

She sticks her tongue out.

"Just you wait until I'm taller than you. Gonna pick you up and carry you around."

"That'll be the day."

Fighting in the kitchen would be mean to their host so she's just gonna make faces at her sister.

Which she can studiously ignore.

Breakfast does, eventually, end, and then it's time for lab introductions. Akira transitions smoothly to calling the younger Elric sister Bellona, alongside calling the elder Elizabeth, though she notes they can both request other names or nicknames.

She would prefer to be called El.

She likes full Bellona, for now! Unless you're El. El gets to call her other stuff.

El and Bellona it is, then. They can call her Akira-sensei, Miss Curtis, Professor Akira, or Professor Curtis. She would prefer formality generally in line with that, until she releases them from her tutelage.

Yes, Professor Curtis.

"What's sensei mean?"

"Something similar to 'Professor,' in the language of the island east of Xing, where my mother's family's from originally."

"I like Akira-sensei."

"How did you get all the way out here, professor?"

"My family actually lived in Xing when my mother was born -  her parents were mercenaries who had left their homeland in search of better pay - but a conflict broke out over the latest emperor's succession. My mother was an explorer at heart, and she decided to leave rather than be pressed into anyone's service. She traveled along the coast, chronicling the languages and peoples she met there - including their approaches to alchemy. Eventually she met my father and decided to settle on this continent for a time."

"There aren't many people from Xing here."