No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

by BridgitKiido

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist does not belong to me. Although I own eight volumes of the manga (one of which is in French) and a copy of the first DVD… but that doesn't count. Besides, if I owned it, the events of episode 25 would not have occurred the way they did.

Chapter 1

Baby Maes thrived over the first few months of his life. Roy and Riza turned out to be excellent parents, although that alone could not completely explain how Maes was constantly smiling. He rarely ever cried (well, except for when he was hungry), and smiled especially brightly whenever both of his parents were together.

Just a few months after Maes Mustang's birth, Riza was doing some of her daily chores when the doorbell rang. It was Winry, there to deliver a message:

"Just last night, Ed took me to dinner and proposed to me. Miss Riza, I'm so excited – Ed and I are getting married!"

Riza immediately congratulated Winry happily and invited her inside to have a drink in celebration while they waited for Roy to return home from his errand so they could tell him the good news. No one in the house, however, seemed as excited as baby Maes, who began to happily laugh and squirm about in his crib without running out of energy for several minutes.

Envy was not happy.

Somehow, in the transmutation that had created a large gateway between Amestris and Germany, he had been transferred beyond the Gate yet again, back to Amestris where everything had begun. Except, he hadn't been transferred right away; he had sort of floated within the gate for a while; much as he hated to say it, he sort of felt how Wrath had felt for all of those years when he had been stuck beyond the gate. It was not a pleasant experience in the least.

However, just a couple months ago, the Gate had opened again, and Envy had been pulled back to Amestris. This had been the same phenomenon that had brought Edward and Alphonse Elric across the Gate, but Envy didn't know that.

Now, Envy had to live in Amestris amongst humans, whom he hated, all the while without a reason for living. At least while Hohenheim and the Elric brothers had been around, he'd made it his purpose to kill them. But without them around to make their lives a living nightmare… why did he exist? Yes, as cliché as it sounded, Envy envied the humans; after all, they had a purpose in life, even if they couldn't see it, while he had already completed his and still existed.

He was wandering randomly through the forested area outside Central when he came across a familiar figure. Said figure, apparently male, had slightly messy black hair that all pointed toward the back except for a single long cowlick, and his chin had a slight shadow of black hair. Deep green eyes hid behind a pair of rectangular glasses, showing a relatively blank expression on what might have been an otherwise wise face. His clothing consisted of black slacks, shoes, shirt, and jacket that, if it had been a different color, could have easily passed for one given out by the military.

All Envy could say as he noticed this figure, however, was, "Oh, it's you."

All the figure could say in reply was, in a tone somewhere between blank and annoyed, "Haven't seen you in a while."

"You're still upset about me not telling Dante about you?" Envy asked. "I told you at the time that there were already seven of us, and an eighth would not fit in." When the figure didn't reply, Envy continued, "However, as it's just you and me now… I think it's time you had a name, don't you?

"Let's see... Envy's taken by me, of course. You could be Greed… no, that name is fairly cursed. Well… I've got it, you can be the new Pride. I'm sure the late Fuhrer won't mind."

"Pride, hmm," the figure pondered as he scratched at the back of his neck, upon which a bright red Ouroboros tattoo was stamped. "That sounds like a good name."

Envy muttered to himself, "Yeah, Pride fits him. After all, the man he was modeled after… that troublemaker, Maes Hughes… in all my existence, I have never seen another man with more pride in his family."

As Maes continued to grow, he became a charming boy of four. He never lost the smile that he had always had as a baby, nor did he lose the particular shade of green that his eyes had turned out to be. It seemed unusual for a green-eyed child to be born to two parents with brown eyes, one's a shade or two darker than the other's, but both of them had at least one green-eyed relative, so the possibility for it certainly existed.

One day, however, it was determined that there were things that could cause Maes to stop smiling, at least for a few minutes.

"Papa," Maes asked as he walked alongside Roy through the graveyard, "where are we going?"

Roy smiled weakly and replied, "I'm going to introduce you to an old friend of mine."

They stopped in front of a grave stone that read, 'Maes Hughes'. Roy remained quiet for a few minutes before telling his son, "Maes, this is Maes Hughes. He was my best friend, as well as your name sake. He would have also been your godfather, except…"

Maes clutched his father's leg timidly. Tears welled in his eyes as he attempted to look away from the stone, saying, "Papa, I don't like it here. It feels sad and lonely here."

Roy looked at his son and replied, "I suppose we can go home, if you really don't feel comfortable here." He then placed the bouquet of white flowers that he had brought on the ground in front of the grave, absentmindedly rubbing his eye patch as he said, "I'll come back later, Hughes."

Roy and Maes then left the graveyard, the only proof of them ever having come being the flowers left behind.

Author's Note: My experiences in advanced placement biology strike again…I couldn't really tell what color Roy's eyes were, so I just assumed brown. If it's not really… please don't hurt me, but I'm not changing it. And no, Envy is not there to be anything other than a side villain. Do you really think that I would give this story over to that palm tree? And please don't hurt me for bringing in yet another instance of Maes!Pride… Anyway… sorry it took so long to update this, and for the lame ending of this chapter… I know how I want the story to end, but I'm sort of struggling with the middle. I'd ask for ideas, but that would require me revealing something important… oh well. Could you please leave me a small review, even if it says something along the lines of "you stink"? I would really appreciate it.