My first try with a FMA fic! I'm little nervous about people in the fandom will react to this... ^^;
I was inspired to write this after stumbling upon a rather short but very cute story on Archive of Our Own.

This story takes place a while before the manga. Before Wrath is even created, actually. XD
Sorry if you find any of the characters OCC.

Thank you to SpeakWhenItRains for your review! I took your suggestions and edits have been made so hopefully things look a little bit better now. :)

Something wasn't right. Although she couldn't quite put her finger on it, Lust knew Gluttony wasn't quite his usual self that evening.

Maybe it was the way he seemed more quiet than usual, hardly saying a word unless he was spoken to. Maybe it was the way he didn't seem to be actively trying to sniff out a meal in the dark alleyway. Most likely it was his noticeable disinterest in the human he had just eaten. Lust had gone through so much trouble to kill the young man for her little brother to eat, so of course Gluttony ate to show his sister just how grateful he was to her, but yet…

Over the years, Lust had developed a bit of a morbid fascination over how fast and nearly effortlessly Gluttony could devour a human body. Even a fully grown adult could go from being freshly killed to resting in the younger Homunculus's belly in a mere matter of minutes. On this evening, however, the time it took for Gluttony to finish his meal seemed a little longer than normal.

Lust couldn't imagine what was wrong with him; it was almost like…he didn't want to eat.

The woman mentally scoffed at herself for having such a thought. Of course he wanted to eat. He was Gluttony; he always wanted to eat, be it a human, an animal, or really anything he could fit in his mouth to try and fill the void in his stomach.

Now he was asking if they could go home, but still she tried to convince herself he was fine. He was probably just tired. They all got tired once in a while, after all; it was nothing to be concerned about.

Lust agreed to go back even though he had barely eaten anything (one human was hardly a lot to Gluttony). If he was that tired, she would let him sleep. Besides, she was rather worn out herself.

They walked in silence, neither one saying anything. Although she wanted so desperately to ask her companion if everything was okay, the woman kept her mouth shut. Gluttony had the mentality of a child, and if he wasn't feeling well or if something was bothering him, she was sure he would have said something. That thought didn't stop Lust from worrying, though. She was his sister, but she couldn't help caring for him like a mother would.

She worried more and more with every step she took. Lust couldn't shake the feeling; something just wasn't right. Gluttony was being far too quiet. Any other night he would have been asking about her day, making sure she was keeping herself safe when he wasn't around. It seemed that wasn't very high on his list of concerns at the moment.

Why won't you just tell me what's wrong? Lust thought sadly. She sighed softly before realizing she was alone.

This was worrying, but she didn't panic. He was probably just following an interesting scent he had picked up on. He knew he was supposed to stay with her and he was content to do so, but when he smelled something intriguing, he sometimes wandered off without a second thought.

Slightly annoyed, Lust simply turned around and retraced her steps.

"Gluttony?" she called softly. She wanted to get her brother's attention, not that of a human. She had to speak quietly to avoid unwanted notice.

Where could he have gone?

As it turned out, he wasn't very far behind. She called again and this time got an answer.

"Lust…"

Good, he hadn't gone too far. She rounded a corner and found him sitting down in an especially dark part of the alley, staring down at the ground and quietly moaning. He didn't even look up when she approached him.

Concerned, Lust sat herself down in front of him.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Are you ill?"

Although it happened rarely, it wasn't unheard of for a Homunculus to fall ill with common human sicknesses like a cold. It would explain Gluttony's apparent lack of appetite, but it wasn't cold and flu season yet. Lust knew that sometimes people caught colds in the summer, but still…she saw no others signs that would suggest a cold.

A deep rumbling noise followed moaning snapped her out of her thoughts. Her concern grew as she realized the rumbling noise must have come from Gluttony's belly. She had heard his stomach growl from hunger many times before, but this didn't sounds like hunger.

It sounded like…distress.

Watching Gluttony gently rub his stomach, Lust's eyes widened as she figured out what the problem was.

No…it can't be possible. Gluttony has a…stomach ache?

"Gluttony," she said slowly, "do you...feel alright?"

"No," he admitted with a whimper. He hesitated before adding, "My tummy doesn't feel very good, Lust..."

"Does it hurt?"

"Yes…" Gluttony looked thoughtful for a moment. "But not like I'm hungry."

That was all she needed to know. With a sigh, Lust reached out and soothingly rubbed her brother's stomach. Usually Gluttony felt uncomfortable with people touching his stomach, but this time he didn't seem to mind as much.

"It seems to me you have a tummy ache."

Curious, Gluttony looked up at her. "What's a tummy ache?"

Of course, he's never known fullness. How can I expect him to know what a stomach ache is?

"Well…" How could she explain it so he would understand? "It's what happens when you eat too much or eat something that doesn't sit well with your stomach. Since you can't even eat enough to satisfy your hunger, I doubt this is because you ate too much. My guess is you ate something funny and that's why you're sick." She paused. "Does that all make sense to you?"

Gluttony put one finger in his mouth as he thought over this new information.

"I don't feel good...because I ate something bad?" At least he seemed to have a basic understand for the situation.

"Yes, that's right." Now that she knew what the problem was, it was time to determine the cause of the problem. "Gluttony, when did you start to not feel good? Was it after you ate that man back there?"

"No. Before you got home."

Before she got home… That must mean Envy hadn't done a very good job of babysitting while she was away earlier that day. She would have a nice long chat with him later. It did explain why Gluttony had eaten so slowly, though.

Trying to keep her anger from showing on her face, she said calmly, "I wish you would have told me you didn't feel well earlier. It isn't good to eat when you have a tummy ache."

Gluttony stared at the ground again. "I'm sorry…"

"It's okay, you didn't know better."

"I was afraid…you would be mad," Gluttony continued sheepishly.

So that was why he never mentioned not feeling good. But...

"Why would I be mad?" Lust frowned. "Where did you get that idea?"

"Big brother Pride…"

That made sense, but how had their oldest sibling—who didn't think very highly of his younger brothers and sister—gotten involved in this when Envy had been put charge of watching Gluttony?

Now Lust was eager to talk with Envy so she could get the full story on what had happened. Of course, a conversation with Pride was to be called for, as well. It was definitely time to go back.

"Come on, let's go home," she said, standing up.

"Lust…are you mad?" Gluttony asked, looking up uneasily.

The woman looked down and smiled comfortingly. "I'm not mad," she promised.

Gluttony looked reassured as he stood up, too.

No, I'm not mad, Lust thought coolly as they started walking. At least, not at you.

Back at home, Lust had found a quiet, comfortable place for Gluttony to rest while she hunted down Pride and Envy.

She found Envy first, reading a newspaper. She didn't care to ask where he had gotten it.

"Envy, can I talk to you?" she asked.

"What about?" he muttered, not bothering to look up.

"When you were watching Gluttony…was Pride around at all?"

"Uh…yeah. Father asked me to run out and do a couple of things so I put Pride in charge of babysitting. Why?"

Lust ignored his question and asked another of her own. "When you got back did Gluttony seem to be feeling okay? Was he acting unusual or anything?"

"He seemed fine to me… Sure, he was a bit quiet, but you were pretty late getting home so I figured he was just getting tired from waiting up for you." Now Envy looked up, wondering what his sister was getting at. "Did something happen?"

"Yes, something did happen, Envy. I discovered that even Gluttony is capable of getting a stomach ache."

Envy's jaw dropped opened in shock. Then he laughed. "Wow, seriously? How did you manage that one?"

Lust frowned at her younger brother's amusement, but said nothing about it.

"I didn't manage anything. I suspect Pride is to be blamed for it." She recounted what little she had learned about the cause of their younger brother's upset stomach.

"What are you going to do now?" Envy asked when she was finished talking.

"I'm going to find Pride and ask him about what happened. Is he around?"

"Yeah, I think so. I'll help you find him; I can't wait to hear what he has to say."

Lust waved for Envy to remain where he was.

"There will be no need for that; I can find him on my own. Besides, I want our conversation to be private."

"Aww…you're no fun," Envy grumbled, looking annoyed. Then he looked thoughtful. "How is Gluttony taking this? I mean, he's never known any kind of stomach pain beside never-ending hunger."

Lust thought carefully. "It's hard to say, but I would guess that he's both confused and scared. But I'm sure that by the time morning comes he'll be feeling better and will forget all about it before long."

With those words, she left to find their oldest brother, Pride.

He was a little bit harder to find, and Lust worried that he might not even be home, but she finally managed to track him down.

"Ah, there you are, Pride," she said, "I've been looking for you."

The oldest of the Homunculi siblings didn't appear to be very interested in this fact. "What for? Do you have something to report?"

"No. I just want to talk quick." Lust spoke casually, as if it were common for the siblings to stop and chat for no reason. In all honesty, though, it almost never happened.

"If it's not important, I don't have time to–"

"Oh no, it's quite important that we talk about this. Envy told me he had you watch Gluttony for a little while this evening so he could do a few things for Father."

Pride gave her a bored look. "It's true, but so what? Do you not believe that I could do something so easy?"

"Actually, that's exactly what I've been starting to think. But maybe you can prove otherwise to me. Tell me everything that happened while Envy was gone, and don't even think about leaving anything out."

Pride rolled his eyes. "What is there to tell? All he did was sit still and wait for you to come home. It was as boring and uneventful as this conversation."

The woman frowned. "You're forgetting about the part where you let Gluttony eat something that makes him sick."

"Gluttony... is sick?" Pride's usual arrogant attitude noticeably slipped into genuine concern. "I-is he okay?"

"I'm sure he will be fine, but I need to know what you let him eat."

Her oldest brother turned away and tried to hide his concern. "I...don't know any about why he's sick. He probably just ate something weird when your back was turned."

Lust tilted her head in mock curiosity. "That's funny; because Gluttony told me that you said I would be mad if I found out he didn't feel good."

Pride winced. "He said that?"

"Yes. He also said he felt sick before I even got home. So you can't say I was careless and pin this on me."

"Um..." He was getting nervous now, but Lust couldn't decide why; she hardly had the authority to punish her oldest brother. Putting her hands on her hips, the woman smirked and waited to see what her brother had to say now. "Are you...going to tell Father?" Pride asked in quiet voice.

So that was why Pride seemed so afraid of being found out. If there was one thing that scared him, it was the very thought of displeasing their father. Although...wasn't this something Father really should know about?

"Hmm...I hadn't even thought of that." Knowing he had just given away his weakness, Pride's eyes widened with fear. "But now that I think about it, I'm sure Father would be very interested to know about this. After all, I'm sure not even he thought Gluttony could ever get a stomach ache."

"Please don't tell him," Pride begged uncharacteristically. "He has a headache right now; we shouldn't bother him with anything tonight."

"Oh, what's wrong, Pride?" Lust asked teasingly. "Are you afraid Father won't pleased by this little discovery of yours?"

"Please don't, Lust! He'll be greatly upset, I just know it!"

How pathetic; he was actually shaking in fear. Lust dropped down onto her knees to match her older yet shorter brother's height.

"Don't look so frightened; I won't tell Father about this."

"You...won't?"

"No. I'll keep this a secret from him, but only if you tell me what happened to make Gluttony sick."

Pride fidgeted a bit and looked around before he said, "Okay, I'll tell you. But promise Father won't find out!"

"You have my word that the only ones who will know are me, you, Envy, and of course Gluttony."

Pride sighed. "When Envy left me in charge of Gluttony, he told me to stay here and just wait for you to come home. And even though I hate having to babysit, I still do my best to do a good job. But you were late, and he started to get so restless wondering where you were...I thought it would be a good idea to take Gluttony on a quick walk so he could calm down a little."

"And what happened on this little walk of yours?"

"Everything was fine until we started to go home. We tried to stay in quieter areas where there weren't any humans, but on the way back we ran into a human passed out in the middle of an alleyway. At first I thought he was sleeping, but I when I noticed flies around him I figured out the guy had been dead for a few days at least."

Lust, who had stood up again, folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow. "And?"

Pride shuffled his feet nervously. "I didn't see anything wrong with letting Gluttony have a little snack before we got home..."

"...you didn't see anything wrong with that?" Lust narrowed her eyes angrily. "Do you realize that would be like giving a human spoiled meat? You thought it would be a good idea?!"

Pride flinched at her tone of voice. "I'm sorry! But we all assumed he could eat anything without a problem. Why should I have thought that a human who had died a few days ago would be any different?"

Lust calmed down a little. He did have a point.

"I suppose you're right... Go on; what happened when you got home?"

"Well, I didn't notice that anything was wrong right away. Gluttony seemed content and no longer restless, so I decided I had done the right thing. But not ten minutes later he started complaining he didn't feel very well and I knew letting him eat that man had been a huge mistake."

"How did you keep Envy from finding out? ...why did you keep Envy from finding out?"

"Why? Because I'm Pride the Arrogant; I'll do whatever I can to be perfect, and if I make a stupid mistake I'll hide it so nobody knows about it. You should know that by now."

He hadn't been worried that Father would be displeased after all; what he really feared was being seen as imperfect because of one screw up.

"So...you put your sin before your brother's well being."

Pride gave her one of his "Why are you so stupid?" looks.

"We may have come from the same father, and we may be called siblings to each other, but we have no reason to act like a caring family."

"Just because we don't have to doesn't mean we can't," Lust shot back.

"Whatever. Getting back to the story, I simply suggested you would be upset and that was that."

Haughtiness was creeping back into his voice. What a shame; Lust was starting to enjoy the idea of her oldest brother being afraid of her.

"Well, you were right at least," she said, coming dangerously close to wanting to stab her brother. "I am upset. I'm upset that you're fine with Gluttony being sick so you don't have to admit that you messed up."

She didn't wait for him to reply before she walked away; there was no need for him to say anything more to her. She knew everything she needed to know, and besides; she had an ill little brother to attend to.

"It hurts..."

"Shh, try not to think about it."

When Lust went to check on Gluttony, she found him laying on his back sleeping. Unfortunately, even though she tried to be quiet, she had woken him up and now had trouble getting him back to sleep. Through gentle belly rubbing and soft-spoken words she had gotten him to the point of being sleepy again, but it seemed his stomach ache was keeping him up.

"I know you don't feel good," Lust whispered, "but you have to sleep now. I promise you'll feel better in the morning."

She put her hand on her brother's forehead and was relieved to find he didn't have a fever. At least he didn't have a variation of food poisoning; just an uncomfortable bellyache.

"Does your tummy feel better when I rub it like this?" Lust asked, wanting to be sure she was actually helping in some way.

"Not really. But..." Gluttony blushed slightly. "It feels nice."

Lust smiled and continued rubbing. Maybe she wasn't helping his bellyache to go away, but at the very least she was providing a welcome distraction. A distraction that, after some time, finally put him to sleep.

With a sigh, Lust sat back and let her arms fall to her side. The task of putting Gluttony to sleep had taken well over an hour, and by now her arms were quite sore from rubbing his belly the whole time.

"Is...is he okay?"

Lust looked up and narrowed her eyes when she saw Pride standing in the doorway.

"He's fine. He probably wouldn't even be sick anymore if you had just told someone he didn't feel good."

"What do you mean?"

"I have no doubt that eating while his stomach was upset only made things worse for him. Now what do you want?"

"I did some thinking." The boy timidly walked up to his sister and sat beside her. "Maybe we don't have to look out for each other all the time, but...in matters like this we really should." He sighed. "What I'm trying to say is...I'm sorry."

Lust raised an eyebrow. This kind of attitude was very unexpected coming from Pride.

"Are you just saying that to ensure I don't tell Father about what happened?"

"No! It's not–"

"Be quiet!" she hissed. "I had enough trouble getting Gluttony to fall asleep. If you wake him up so help me I'll–"

"I'm sorry," Pride said in a quieter voice. "I just wanted to say I know what I did wasn't right, and I'm sorry Gluttony is sick because of me. I really thought he would be fine..."

Now Lust sighed. "Pride, it's okay. You shouldn't have tried to cover up your mistake, but everything will fine in the end." She looked thoughtful. "I'm quite impressed, though; I know it must be hard for you to apologize for what you did."

"Just don't tell anyone," Pride muttered, looking annoyed. Thinking back on something his sister had said earlier and wanting to change the subject, he looked at his littler brother and asked, "Why did you have trouble getting him to sleep? He's no Sloth, but I've never known him to have problems sleeping when he's tired."

"It can be harder to do when one doesn't feel well, you know."

The boy stared at the ground. "...I'm sorry, Gluttony," he whispered.

"He knows you didn't mean for this happen," the female Homunculus said, trying to be comforting. "I doubt he'll have any hard feeling towards you."

"I know that. I feel bad, though..." The two siblings sat in silence for a while before Pride spoke again. "Lust, can I ask you something?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do you...bother to feed Gluttony when it isn't for the sake of a mission? It's pointless, you know."

Lust leaned her head back slightly and stared at the ceiling, thinking of the best way to answer. She always knew that someday one of her brothers might ask her that very question, but aside from maybe Envy, she didn't think any of them would really understand if she told them.

"That's a good question," she said finally. "I just think it's nice to feed him when he hasn't eaten in a long time. It would be problematic if he were to eat everyday–the humans would notice for sure–but he should at least get to eat every once in while."

Pride looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding, accepting what she had said without even mocking her for caring so much for their little brother. "I see. So tonight was just bad timing, huh?"

"It seems that way."

They grew quiet once more, listening to Gluttony's deep, peaceful breathing. By now his stomach wasn't growling quite as loudly nor quite so often as before, which Lust saw as a good sign.

Pride yawned, as–even though they weren't aware–it was after midnight.

"Maybe we should get some rest, too," he said. "You never know what we'll have to do tomorrow."

"You go ahead; I'm staying here."

"Aren't you even going to bed?"

Lust shook her head. "No. I don't want Gluttony to wake up and find himself alone. If I really need to sleep I'll do so right here, but for now I'm fine."

"Oh, alright." Pride stood up. "Good night then."

"Good night."

Truthfully, Lust was ready to fall asleep at any second. She had had a busy day, and the events of the evening had done nothing but add to her weariness. Although the idea of sleeping on the floor or leaning against the wall wasn't very appealing to her, she would make do.

A few minutes passed since Pride had left the room and she could fight back her fatigue no longer. She leaned back against the wall and after making herself as comfortable as was possible, she closed her eyes and sighed softly.

All was still and quiet in the room.

The woman had just started to doze off when her neck became sore and made her uncomfortable.

Great. It seems this won't work out quite as well as I had hoped. If only I had a pillow.

Wait. A pillow?

Lust opened her eyes and stared at Gluttony with a thoughtful look on her face.

She had used his shoulder as a chair quite a few times before and he never seemed to mind, but would he be bothered if she used him as pillow tonight?

I really don't know if he would like that, though, she thought. And it would feel wrong to do so without even asking first. Oh, he does look quite comfortable, though... Well, maybe it would okay just for tonight.

Reasoning with herself that it would probably be fine for just one night, Lust moved closer to her brother and rested her head on his belly. She found it to be every bit as comfortable as it looked. Gluttony's big, soft tummy made a wonderful pillow. And it was warm, which Lust found comforting.

She stretched out the rest of her body like she would in her bed before deciding she felt more comfortable curled up close to her brother. Only after she was snuggling close to him did she relax.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as she closed her eyes, "I hope you're okay with this... I know how you feel about people touching your stomach, so I can only imagine how you would feel about this. But I promise this is the only time we'll sleep like this." She yawned. "I hope you...feel better now..."

With those words, she fell into a peaceful slumber.

Honestly, I didn't really have a plan for the very end, so it's a tiny bit random. And just in case some people are thinking it, I was not trying to imply romance between Lust and Gluttony at the end there. I was going for more of a fluffy brother-sister love. :3

Just wanted to make that clear in case it wasn't.

...

I regret nothing! *Runs away*

~Dawn