The bar was nearly empty when the square-jawed, dark brown haired man walked in. The four people left in the room stared at the newcomer with interested expressions. One, a short, stocky man with close-cut brown hair, hopped to his feet, his flowing white robe billowing as he moved, and walked over to greet the square-jawed man. The only woman in the group, a blonde with a purple line tattoo spanning from her right shoulder to her right cheek, set about making the man a drink.
"Hey, Greed!" the stocky man said ebulliently, falling into step with the homunculus.
Greed said nothing, but continued to the bar, where he took the half-full glass of lime green liquid from the blonde.
"What's wrong, boss?" The stocky man cocked his head slightly to the left, sensing the homunculus's depression.
"Dolcetto, quiet!" the blonde reprimanded. "Can't you see he's upset?"
"Sorry, Martel." Dolcetto hung his head. Noticing a patch of pink skin on his master's collar bone, Dolcetto perked up slightly. "Hey, boss, what'd you do there?" He pointed.
Greed rolled his eyes, and, determining that the dog-chimera would find out eventually, he sighed. "Tattoo," he stated simply, sipping his glass of absinthe. Sometimes the dog's ever loyal nature was his worst quality. Useful though it was when he needed him, he sometimes wished he had a cage for Dolcetto to lie down in.
Dolcetto was unsatisfied. "Of what?"
"Words."
"Well, what do they say?"
"You just don't know when to shut up, do you?" Greed spat moodily, taking another long sip of his drink. "Arwen. It says Arwen."
"Who's Arwen?" Dolcetto questioned Martel, who shrugged.
Greed wanted to tell Dolcetto to shut up again, but Dolcetto's confusion was understandable. Greed had never introduced Arwen to anyone at the Devil's Nest, she had been part of his life before meeting the hodgepodge of chimeras. Granted, she had been the best part of his life before meeting the chimeras, but they didn't need to know that. Greed found himself slipping into his memories, leaving Dolcetto in his confusion.
"You know, Arwen, you're too pretty to be in your line of work," Greed commented, wrapping his arm around the woman lying beside him. She was completely naked and still breathless from the night's activities, but her ravenous beauty practically radiated off her skin. She was a teenager, merely nineteen, yet she had taken to a line of work that diminished her beauty only slightly. Greed had picked her up at some whorehouse almost three weeks ago, and he couldn't seem to shake her.
She chuckled. "Pretty people need money, too." Her answer was the same as it always was when he brought up her work. He stopped talking then, and lay in beside the radiant creature, rubbing her arm gently.
The sun began to rise, casting lazy shadows across the bed. The girl stirred lightly, beginning to get up. She had to go back to her life now, back to her life at home, with her parents and siblings. She pulled her clothes on quickly, and, with one last seductive glance at the man still in bed, she left. He would come calling on her again, she knew. Since the first time he had been with her, he wasn't able to move on.
"Boss?" Dolcetto repeated sharply, pulling Greed from his thoughts. "I asked where you got the ink."
Greed shook his head, clearing his mind. "That place near the hospital," he answered warily. "I'm going out." He stood and walked back out of the bar, leaving the four chimeras staring in his wake.
Outside the bar, it was early morning. The sun hadn't risen yet, and the cool morning chill was just beginning to disappear. Aside from Greed, only one man was in the street, and he looked dingy and dirty. "Excuse me," the man croaked, approaching the homunculus. "Could you spare some change? I haven't eaten in days."
"Get a job, buddy," Greed responded coldly, walking past the beggar. At the turn of the next corner, Greed was struck with a memory. The reason why he had fallen in love with Arwen.
"Come on, Arwen!" Greed protested, attempting to deter the brunette. "I thought you needed money."
"I quit, didn't I?" she questioned over her shoulder, approaching the stranger sitting at the edge of the alley. The stranger was female and clearly poor. Peeking out from beside the woman were two small children. It was clear why Arwen had taken pity on these creatures; the children were starving, the mother no better off. Arwen pulled her wallet out of her pocket and crouched to the sitting woman's level, handing her a few hundred cens.
The woman stared at the money incredulously. "I-I couldn't possibly..."
Arwen smiled kindly. "Take it. You've more need of it than I do."
"Are you sure, Miss?" Arwen nodded gently and the woman accepted the money gratefully. "Thank you. So much."
Again, Arwen smiled. "Don't worry about it." As Arwen walked away, Greed couldn't help but to stare after her. She was the complete opposite of him-she was generous, while he was, by nature, greedy-yet he was drawn to her by a force more powerful than even Greed's avarice. He wanted her, he desired to have her, but not for the sake of merely possessing her. Greed didn't understand it, but this girl was different to him.
Back then, Greed hadn't known what was different about Arwen, he just knew that she was, in fact, different. But now, he knew: he had loved her. He had wanted to possess her because he didn't think he could stand watching her interact with anyone else. He had been bothered by her profession because he wanted her to be his and his alone. Father, however, had other plans. Father hadn't wanted Greed to become attached. In his father's eyes, Greed's relationship was doomed from the start, and Father was hellbent on keeping it that way.
Finally cooling off after his miniature explosion at Dolcetto, Greed decided to head back to the Devil's Nest, where the group of chimeras would undoubtedly be awaiting his return. He was right, of course, and when he entered the bar for the second time that morning, Martel pounced.
"Where did you go?" she questioned, concern in her voice.
"I had to clear my head."
"This Arwen chick. She a friend of yours, boss?" the biggest of the chimeras, Roa, questioned.
"You could say that. Look, I don't feel like talking about her, alright?" Greed felt his temper rise again, and he attempted to calm it again. "I'm going to my room." The homunculus walked out of the bar and through the maze of hallways to his personal sanctuary. It was here that he kept his most prized possessions.
Putting a hand in his pocket, Greed extracted a silver chain. Hanging from the chain was a silver ring, engraved with a black pattern similar to Martel's purple tattoo. In the center of the ring, three emeralds were held in place by small silver rivets. This ring had been Greed's gift to Arwen.
"We need to keep moving," Greed stated, urging Arwen along the alleyway. "He's coming, I can feel it."
"I can't," she replied, already out of breath. "I can't move as quickly as you can, Greed, and I can't run any longer." She slid down the brick wall of a building so that she was resting on the balls of her feet.
Greed relented. "Alright. You stay here and catch your breath. I'll go scout out the road ahead." He began to walk away, but Arwen caught his wrist in her grip.
"No, Greed, I don't think you understand. I'm sick of being chased out of cities by your mysterious father. I'm not even sure how you have a father! You're a homunculus!"
"I... you can't do this anymore, can you?" Arwen shook her head sadly. Greed sighed and sat down beside the brunette, looking into her blue-green eyes. "Who am I kidding? He'll keep following me-us-no matter where we go. You'll always be in danger. He won't stop until we're separated, and even then, he'd probably kill you."
"You can leave," Arwen whispered.
Greed's amethyst eyes grew wide in shock. "What?"
"He doesn't know what I look like. He's just tracking you. If you... if you left, I'd be safe." Her eyes filled with sadness. "I mean, I'd be a wreck inside, but I'd be alive."
Greed cradled her face in his hand. "I don't want to leave you. Not here. Not alone."
"If you help me get to Racine, then I won't be alone. I have an aunt that lives there."
Seeing that Arwen truly was tired of running from Father, he nodded. "Alright." He slipped his silver ring off his finger. "I want you to take this."
"But..."
"No. Take it, and whenever you look at it, I want you to think of me." The brunette nodded slowly.
Greed gingerly put the ring and chain back in his pocket, where it would be safe. He had helped Arwen to Racine and continued south to Dublith, where he established the Devil's Nest. He had helped to free the chimeras and they now followed him as glorified servants. But still, something was missing. Thirty years passed, yet here Greed stood, still missing something: Arwen.
Greed had travelled to Racine days ago on a whim. He doubted she was still in town, that she would remember him, that she was still the way he had left her. Like every other time, she blew his expectations out of the water. She was in the hospital, yes, due to a lung ailment caused by Racine's coal mines, but she remembered him, and she still had the ring he had given her.
"Greed," she breathed, coughing slightly as she tried to sit up in her hospital bed.
The homunculus couldn't help but smile. "Hey."
She continued to cough, but managed a short sentence. "You haven't changed at all."
"You have." He looked her over, his eyes coming to rest on her face. "You're still as gorgeous as ever, though."
She smiled. "I'm thirty years older, and this damn sickness makes me look almost ten years older than I am."
"Doesn't matter."
Arwen's smile widened, and she began to cough again, this time harder. Her entire body wracked as she gasped for air. The strength of her coughing fits grew until a small stream of blood appeared at the corner of her lips. Her eyes shut for a brief moment as she wiped away the crimson liquid.
"I'm sorry you have to see me like this," she rasped. "But I'm glad you came. A few days later, and you'd have had to visit my grave marker."
"Don't talk like that!" Greed protested. "You're not going to die."
"It's a part of life. Every human experiences death. Why should I be any different?" She coughed once and a thought, one single crazy thought, crossed Greed's mind.
"Use part of my stone," he suggested. "Better yet, I can make you part of my stone! Then, you'd be immortal, and we'd never need to worry about Father chasing us apart again."
A pained expression crossed Arwen's face as she touched her hand to his cheek gently. She was cold to the touch and her skin was ashen. "Pitiful creature. Your avarice consumes you, even now. I can't physically be with you forever, as much as I would like to. I'm afraid I can't use your stone; my lungs are too far gone. And if you were to absorb my spirit, I'm too weak to keep my individuality. I'm sorry, Greed. I'm not immortal." She reached behind her neck and undid the clasp, taking off her necklace. Immediately, the homunculus saw his ring dangling from the chain. "I want you to take this."
"What?"
"Take it, and whenever you look at it, think of me." Arwen's voice was fading quickly, and by now, she was speaking in a low whisper. Greed nodded and grasped the chain, slipping it into the pocket of his leather pants. He looked down at the frail woman lying before him and thought of the healthy girl he had met thirty years ago. How had she become this fragile being?
Arwen's coughing returned tenfold and she immediately began coughing up blood. Greed could almost feel her life force ebbing. The fit subsided slightly and he realized this was the time to say his goodbyes. He leaned down to her, his lips brushing hers slightly, before he remembered why he had come to this town in the first place.
"Arwen, I need to tell you something," he began, but it was too late. Her coughing had resumed at full force, and her body trembled as she gasped for the air she so desperately needed. It would not come, however, and after minutes of labored breathing, her coughing suddenly stopped. Greed hadn't realized he was clutching her hand until it went limp, the life drained from it. Greed sighed and leaned closer to the woman's ear. "I love you," he whispered, the words inaudible to everyone but himself. His lips brushed across Arwen's forehead gently and he stood, walking out of the hospital room.
Once outside the sterile, white walls of the hospital and into the calm of the forest, Greed let his emotions flow. His ultimate shield rose around his hand and he slashed at a boulder in anger. "I'm Greed the avaricious!" he stated bitterly. "And I want everything!" He clawed at a tree before collapsing to the forest floor. "I just wanted her." The homunculus sighed sadly and looked up at the sky. "I just wanted her." He repeated the phrase softly to himself.
Greed felt his eyes water, but held back the tears stubbornly. That was the last thing he wanted right now.
A knock at Greed's bedroom door interrupted his thoughts. "Boss?" Roa's voice floated through the door. "Boss, we found that kid you were looking for. Want us to bring him in?"
"Kid?" Greed questioned, slightly confused. "Oh, yeah, the armored kid with no body. Yeah. Don't kill him."
"Right." Roa's footsteps faded out of earshot.
Greed stood and pulled on his jacket, walking out of the room. He slipped one hand into his pocket and grasped Arwen's ring; with the other, he wiped his eyes. Tears were the last thing he wanted.