Gymnadenia Conopsea
by BridgitKiido
Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist.
Timeline: This takes place sometime after Fullmetal Alchemist chapter 55 or so. No specific spoilers exist, but they are very much implied.
Greed didn't quite understand it himself.
He wasn't really a big fan of flowers in general – they were so demanding, what with all of the water that they needed and all the plant food that was almost necessary for their care, and all they gave in return was a little bit of pretty-ness and a nice scent – but somehow, he just could not prevent himself from being attracted to a certain plant in a store window.
It was a tall stalk of flowers, sort of lilac in color, with a different shape from all of the other flowers in the store. While most of the other flowers were flat, these were more three-dimensional, sort of like little pitchers. The tag beneath the flowers said:
Fragrant Orchid
(Gymnadenia Conopsea)
Price: 100 cenz a stalk
He couldn't quite understand it himself, but Greed found himself purchasing a single stalk of these purple flowers as though his life depended on it.
Later that day, as he returned to the homunculi's hiding place, Greed brought the flowers with him. He first ran into Envy, who immediately noticed the youngest's acquisition and asked, "Hey, Greed, what's that?"
"A stalk of fragrant orchids," came the reply. "Got a problem with that?"
"Father won't like you bringing home useless flowers," Envy replied and proceeded to attempt to take the flowers from Greed. The Ultimate Shield, however, clung to the flowers for dear life.
"They're my flowers, Envy," Greed snarled. "Mine. Not yours. You have no right to take them."
"Well, there you go being all greedy again," Envy rebutted slyly, and the palm tree took a new approach – he grabbed the stalk of flowers itself and proceeded to attempt to yank it away.
Greed, however, fought back and managed to push Envy away. The palm tree merely sighed and stated, "Fine, suit yourself. I'm not the one who's going to get in trouble for bringing flowers home," before walking away.
Greed growled at Envy for a few seconds more before checking his flowers. When he saw the damage that had been done, even though he had no clue why he cared so much about a stalk of flowers, he nearly cried.
The entire upper-left side of the stalk had been stripped bare.
Author's Note: Why an orchid? Um… it's very easy to figure out if you are good with etymology…