I've been sitting on a pile of 50 Greedvy Themes for the last few years, and finally started on them! So here's the first one, and if they go really well I might do a full 100.
Notes: 2003 canon, pre-series
Trigger warnings: emotional/psychological abuse, teeth
1. Spite
It's a storm outside. Years later, Envy will wonder what it is about the Gate that summons thunderheads – brings the rain hissing down to tear up the ground and light up the sky.
She's going ahead with it. Just to spite him. William – no, you're not allowed to call yourself that now, he reminds himself, knocking himself on the head as a reminder – Envy tries to be more upset, more surprised, but that's just how she does things. He never liked the man, but what he likes doesn't matter. Envy was created – she knows it's possible, and what it costs. Now it's her turn to try.
From outside his open window, he can hear the groaning sound of the world bending. He isn't supposed to be spying. Dante gave him orders to stay out of the way. He must be well out of the way here, up in his room – but she'll find a way to blame him if anything goes wrong. He shrinks into his chair.
Did she really have to do it again? I'm not supposed to exist, he's reminded – as if the thought wasn't a constant drumbeat in the back of his head already! - and it's my fault he left. ...Maybe she'll leave this time. It's almost cheery, but Envy quails almost immediately afterwards. What would he do without her? No, it's not an option. Better the devil he knows.
He buries his nose in his book, pulling his spindly legs up onto his armchair and occasionally glancing outside. He's not sure what he's expecting – a companion, maybe. Or another torturer.
There's a yell from outside, and Envy drops his book, wincing at the sound. "Dammit," he mutters. "Lost my place." Still, his eyes are pulled towards the window. It's been a few hours now since he heard anything. He doesn't remember his own creation with enough clarity to know what to expect, but if he's right...
He swallows his nervousness and leans out of the window, bumping his head on the brass latch and scowling. Sure enough, there's movement just outside the warehouse on the grounds. He can hear voices. One of them is Dante's – the other is just a little familiar.
"Where the hell am I?"
"This is your home."
"No, this – this isn't right – I – I -"
Envy can't quite hear the rest of it. He leans a little further out the window – this is interesting – and suddenly he's windmilling his arms, there's a sickening crunch – and he's opening his eyes to blue sky.
"...Yo."
Envy glances backwards a little, arching his back. There's a vaguely familiar face looking down at him. It's him. Dante actually went through with it. And it worked, Envy thinks with a dawning sense of... he's not sure whether it's horror, wonder or a mix of both. "Hi."
"I think I'm lost," responds the man.
"Don't worry." Envy pulls himself upwards, dusts off his grubby clothes, tries not to meet the new homunculus's eyes. "You'll get yourself sorted soon enough." His leg clicks back into place, and he's aware that the man is staring at him. "...Stop that," he mutters quietly.
"Envy, go back inside," commands Dante, running up behind them. She looks a little panicked – good, he thinks spitefully, and hopes it doesn't show on his face. Instead, he nods.
The man grins at him, displaying a mouthful of razor-sharp, slightly overlarge teeth that his living self definitely had not possessed. "Envy, huh? Cute."
"Greed, don't talk to him."
"Greed? Is that my name?"
"It is now."
"Now?"
"Don't talk back."
"Or what? Lady, I don't know you."
"I created you!"
"Did you? News to me -"
Envy tries very hard to stifle his grin as their voices fade out behind him. And even though Dante has forbidden it – afraid, maybe, that he'll use it to slip out from her grasp, slip away like Hohenheim did – he uses just a fragment of his gift. His mouth bristles, and he smiles, and his teeth are sharp like razors.
She did it just to spite him, but maybe having someone else around won't be so bad after all.