Equivalent Exchange
By Matoko Shizaki
Disclaimer: FMA ©… well, FUNimation now. So, I don't own it. Don't sue me. You won't get much anyway.
Notes: Just a fic I randomly came up with while bored shit-less in history. It all started with me looking at a doodle I made of Martel and thinking, "What would happen if they put Martel in a dress…?"
And no, I swear I'm not on drugs. Unless anime counts as a drug. Being a addicted to anime is worse and, in the long run, most expensive. At least that's how the saying goes. -;;
Oh, just a side note, I'm using the manga spellings/names for this. So Law's name is Roa, same as in the manga.
It was only ten— early for the misfits who dwelt at the Devil's Nest— and Martel had already gone through three drinks out of boredom alone. Need less to say, she'd always held her liquor well which was that least she could say for Dorchette. The dog chimera had had merely two drinks and, after running around the bar for some time chasing the tail he didn't have (much to the amusement of the rest of their freak show gang), finally fell asleep curled in a ball like a puppy.
With her major source of amusement having been in a alcohol induced coma for the past hour, Martel was left to her own thoughts sitting at the bar amongst the chatter of her scientifically altered comrades. Not only was she bored, but worried. It had been five hours since Greed set out for a "stroll" and he hadn't returned. As common as this was for him, it was a bad time for the homunculus to decide to go on one of his outings. The military was right at their heels having been searching for them since they'd escaped. As Roa had said in his deep, monotone rumble of a voice, it was only a matter of time until they were found.
With a heavy sigh, Martel said another silent prayer that their leader hadn't been found, and took a long gulp of her drink
Which was soon sprayed all over the bar as the door banged open.
Everyone went dead silent, the only noise that of nervous, shaky breaths, as they looked to the door. The rickety door was flapping in the gusts from outside, but no one was to be seen…
Until Greed stuck his head in with a mischievous grin.
"You're all too uptight." The homunculus laughed as he stepped in, slamming the door behind him. When no one moved, he grinned again. "You need another drink."
A cry of agreement rose up among the ranks of the homunculus' rag tag mob and the noise resumed.
"Where were you, Greed-san?" Martel asked, trying to mask her worry behind the usual expressionless gaze.
"Oh, just exploring." he replied as he took up a seat next to her at the bar and sat down a package he'd been carrying. He lowered his glasses and glanced over at her. "Don't worry, those military dumb asses have no idea where we are."
"Wh-who said I was worried!" she replied. Greed didn't acknowledge the retort, merely accepted his drink from the bar tender and downed half in one gulp.
"Ooooh Martel…!" A small, muscular arm slid around the snake chimera's shoulders as the body attached leaned into her. Apparently Dorchette was awake now.
"How cute." He sniffed the air a little and grinned. "Is there something you want to—"
Knowing very well how keen Dorchette's doggish sixth sense was, Martel cut him off with a swift elbow to the stomach. Those damn senses of his… he could also tell every time she was—
"Ow… that's cheap, Martel!" he wheezed, half whimpering.
"Then shut up." Martel hissed back.
Greed finished the rest of his drink as his shoulder's shook with a small chuckle. "They should call you guys the three stooges."
"Who's the third?" Dorchette said, having recovered from the assault on his diaphragm.
"Roa." Greed pointed a casual finger at the giant bull chimera who was standing behind Martel and Dorchette at the bar. He merely grunted it response, no change on expression on his face.
"A barrel o' laughs," Greed continued as he got up and tucked the package back under his arm. "And now, I need you to come with me, Martel. Gotta talk to you."
"Yes, sir." Martel replied automatically as she stood up. Greed waved her in the direction of the backroom and then disappeared behind the door. Martel began to follow but was stopped by one strong arm belonging to Roa.
"Learn to control your emotions, Martel." he advised.
"Yeah, you're too obvious." Dorchette added as he picked up Martel's unfinished drink and downing the rest.
"That's just because you have a god damn knack for understand emotions, Dorchette." Martel retorted angrily.
"He's not the only one who's guessed." Roa replied. "I have as well."
The snake chimera shrugged off the monstrous arm on her shoulder and headed for the door. "Thanks for the advice, but I don't need help. I know how to handle this." She opened the steel door that led to the quarters behind the bar and disappeared.
"…She's so going to spill it." Dorchette mumbled before slinking off to get another drink.
"This way," Greed said, motioning for her to follow him down the flight of stairs to the second level.
Martel hesitated a moment. The second level was only for storage… She shook her head and pushed all her doubts aside. Greed was her master, and she must obey.
The old wooden steps creaked under their combined weight as they descended into the depths of the Devil's Nest. Greed opened the steel door that met them at the end of the flight, opening to a completely dark storage room. Although her now part animal eyes aided with her night sight, it was still unsettling to be following Greed into a room where darkness consumed them.
"Greed-san?" she whispered, having lost sight of the homunculus as he disappeared behind a stack of boxes searching for the lantern.
"Hold that thought."
There was the sound of a match lighting as Greed scratched the match along a patch of skin changed to hardened diamond. He lit the lantern and stepped out, package still under his arm.
"Much better." He grinned, revealed two rows of glimmering sharp teeth. If Martel didn't know any better, she'd have thought he was a shark chimera.
"What is it you wanted to talk to me about, Greed-san?" Martel rested a hand on her hip as shifted her weight slightly, conscious that he was staring at her.
"This."
Greed sat the lantern on the floor between them and pulled the package out from under his arm. He extended it to her, the grin still plastered on his face.
It was a square, lumpy package, wrapped in brown paper. So plain, Martel thought, but why was it for her?
She took it from him, cautious as if it were poison that would seep into her skin the moment she made contact. As she retracted her arm, she stared at it. It was unusual for Greed to get anything for someone else. He was… well, Greed.
"Open it." Greed ordered, watching her for a reaction.
Obeying, Martel ripped open the paper and caught a glimpse of red. Red silk. "Greed-san…!" She pulled off the remaining paper and unfolded the heap of glossy material. It was a dress.
"Saw it and I figured it would look nice on you. You never wear dresses." Greed said with a casual shrug.
He had that damn right. Martel had hated being forced into dresses as a child. When she had been wearing a dress, none of the friends she had, all of whom were boys, with would accept her. She was "just a girl"; she couldn't do anything. Early on she had given up wearing girls cloths and, since joining the military, the thought of dressing like a woman hadn't crossed her mind.
"Put it on." came the next order from her master.
Martel looked back at him, eyes wide and expression confused. "Greed-san, this must've cost a fortune! Why'd you…?"
He smirked, tucked his hands into his pockets, and walked a small circle around her and the lantern. "I know. I'm Greed, right? Why should I be giving when I could be getting? But… there is something I want you to do for me."
"Hmm?"
Greed stopped, standing right behind her. "Put it on first."
Martel nodded, looking over her shoulder at him. After a moment of hesitation, she stepped behind the stack of boxes where Greed had found the lantern and began to change.
To her astonishment, she soon noticed that without her tank top, cargo pants, boots, and knife, she didn't quite feel like herself. Having worn coarse fabrics issued by the military for years, the silk was extremely foreign to her skin. Not to mention she was freezing. Being a merged with a snake had many disadvantages. Thankfully, because of the slippery nature of the fabric, it slid on right over her. After smoothing the wrinkles and adjusting the areas where the dress had bunched up at her curves, she stepped out.
As Greed removed his sunglasses and whistled, she could feel her face burn with embarrassment. It was one thing to be in a dress. It was another thing to be in a dress in front of him.
"A nice fit. I really hit the nail on the head with that one." Greed once again began to walk circles around her. Martel suddenly felt like defenseless prey to the hunter who prowled around her.
"Th-thank you…" came the quiet reply.
Greed stopped, having gone full circle and stood in front of her again. "Now, time for equivalent exchange."
"Equivalent exchange?"
"Yeah, it's the principle of alchemy or something like that. You know, 'an eye for an eye?'" Greed picked his ear to show his indifference. He was only interesting alchemy if it meant eternal life for him and, so far, it had produced no such results.
"'Eye for an eye?'" Martel smiled a little to lighten the mood. "Greed-san, does that mean you want a dress?"
He snorted and removed his finger from his ear. "Very funny," he retorted. "No, that's not what I had in mind."
"Then what—" The words caught in Martel's throat as Greed's arm encircled her waist.
"You."
Too stunned to reply, Martel watches as Greed put another well built arm around her, this time around her shoulders, and pulled her body into his.
"I can have anything I want. And hell, I'm greedy. So, I want you."
"G-Greed-san…" Martel could feel her heart skip a beat and her skin twitch at the sensation of his touch. For the first time, he was close enough to her that she could feel his breath hot upon her face.
"You dare object?" he asked. His words hinted at threat but his voice held no such malice.
"N-no! I wouldn't… ever…!" Martel replied breathlessly.
"Good." He grinned that sharp toothed smile of his and leaned in for the kill; without warning he planted his lips upon hers, stealing a kiss.
For a moment, Martel stood there, stunned. Hadn't this been what she had hoped for? She'd always been his, whether he knew it or not, but he had finally claimed her as such.
Automatically her body reacted; she places a delicate hand upon his chest underneath his vest and returned the kiss.
She couldn't disobey her master, could she?
Having found no entertainment in the bar, Dorchette had deciding to pick up the trail Greed and Martel had left. He, and only he of course, had noticed that they both had distinct scents. Martel smelled of oil and soap— she made it a point to keep clean even if the rest on them didn't— and Greed smelled noticeably of leather. With such individual scents, it was easy to pick up the trail.
"Dorchette, where are you going?" Roa had asked as the dog chimera sniffed his way around the bar and over to the steel door to the back rooms.
"Come if you want to know." had been the curt reply.
And Roa had followed. Not so much out of curiosity, but he wanted to make sure his canine companion didn't land himself in anymore trouble than usual.
"Dorchette, Greed-san wanted to talk to Martel, not you." the giant said for the fifth time since he'd followed Dorchette.
"Yeah, but he didn't say to stay." Dorchette sniffed along the walls and pointed to the stairs leading to the second level. "They went down there!" With a happy spring in his step, Dorchette took off down the stairs like a hound during a fox hunt.
"You aren't a very obedient dog…" Roa muttered as he followed at a slower pace. He caught up with Dorchette at the end of the stairs where the dog chimera had his ear pressed against the steel door to the storage room.
"Dorchette?"
"Ssh!" Dorchette turned away to silence the bull chimera and then went back to listening. "They're in there…" he muttered.
"Can you hear what they're saying?" Roa asked, leaning an ear against the door as well.
"No… hey watch it!" As Roa leaned over, he managed to shove Dorchette out of the way.
"Sorry…"
Dorchette continued listening, his ears cocked and alert. "They're… I can hear them saying each other's names…"
"What?" Roa shifted again, this time accidentally bringing a heavy arm down on Dorchette's back.
"R-Roa!" Dorchette, his balance thrown off, crashed head long into the door and knocked it open.
In the center of the room with a lantern next to them stood Greed and Martel, entangled in each other's arms. Greed's vest had slipped off his shoulders, his glasses forgotten and laying on the ground next to the lantern. Martel was in an equally disheveled state with her dress straps pulled down and her bra exposed over the top of the half off dress. And for a moment, no one spoke. Then:
"Hey!" Dorchette lifted his head and pointed. "Martel's in a dress!"
Roa, noticing the reaction of their master, looked down cautiously at Dorchette. "Dorchette…"
The dog chimera ignored him and staggered to his feet. "And it's half off too…" He paused and grinned. "Nice job, Martel!"
Greed, by this time, had released Martel and strolled casually over to Dorchette. "Oi, Dorchette." he said in a voice too sweet to be harmless.
"Yeah, Greed-san?" Dorchette turned to him, grinning from ear to ear.
WHAM!
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWW!"
The next morning the bar was packed. At the bar sat those chatting, drinking, and eating what ever food they happened to consider breakfast. Martel sat at the bar between Roa and Dorchette, quietly drinking her tea while listening to Dorchette whine and whimper.
"Why'd he have to hit me so hard!" Dorchette bemoaned, holding an icepack to his head where a huge lump had grown. "This and a hang over… it's just not fair…"
"You shouldn't have been spying, Dorchette." Roa chided.
"Damn right." Martel added, finishing her tea just as Greed walked in.
He grinned surveying the room before approaching the three chimera at the bar. "Enjoying your morning?" he asked, adding a little edge to the question as he looked over at Dorchette. There came no reply, only whimpers. Leaning in close, he whispered dangerously in Dorchette's ear.
"If you ever interrupt my nights again, you're dead."
"Y-yes, Greed-san…" Dorchette replied. Had he a tail, it would be firmly tucked between his legs. Nothing was worse than disobeying and being punished by your master.
"Good!" With that Greed turned to go back into the back rooms but paused just long enough to peck a quick kiss on Martel's cheek.
Dorchette smirked. "Martel's blushing…"
The snake chimera paused and realized the painful burning in her cheeks and then glared at Dorchette.
WHACK!
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWW!"
Well… that was… OOC… . ;; But, hey, first Fullmetal Alchemist fic. One shot. Came up with it in how long? Hope you enjoyed. -;; R&R. Comments enjoyed, flames extinguished.
