AN: My writing programs trial ran out near the end of this chapter and I don't have any other programs on my STUPID computer(that I love very much) that reads .rtf...so I've had to finish the chapter off roughly on HERE. This was going to be longer(probably), but as my flow was rudely disturbed I decided to end it where I did. I wonder if anyone actually figured out the meanings of those numbers from the last chapter...first one to guess both right gets to pick which of his other 'siblings' Greed encounters next!

Anyways, enjoy the chapter! Review, I do like to see what people think~ It gives me motivation!

-Rue


To Be Human

-Chapter Two-

An Unexpected Meeting


Greed awoke to the sound of someone knocking at his front door quite loudly. It took him a moment to remember where he was and what he was doing there. Then is all came back, the experiment he'd agreed to, the grinning bastard who'd sent him there and the burger place…Fu's Fast Food…just thinking about it made him frown. Another knock at the door spurred him out of bed (not that he'd been in it come to think of it) and out to the front door. Opening it Greed's heart nearly stopped.

"Sloth," he said stupidly. His mind went completely blank at this point. Sloth was outside his door, granted he was much more compact that he had been before, but it was Sloth nonetheless.

"Delivery for a Mr Greed Culus?" Sloth said slowly. He was looking at a clipboard and scratching his head lazily with a pen. He hadn't looked at Greed yet.

"Yeah, that's me," Greed answered hesitantly. Would Sloth attack him? He seemed pretty settled into the life of a human by the look of him, maybe he wanted this to work.

"Good, got the right place then," Sloth sighed. He looked down the hallway and called out to someone; "I found the place, it's over here," Greed peered around his door to see some other men carrying his new couch down the hallway toward them.

"Tch, I slept all day," Greed muttered to himself. He opened the door wider to allow the men to bring his furniture into the apartment. He offered to help them carry stuff up, but the delivery men wouldn't hear of it. Stating that between them and Sloth it wouldn't be a problem. Greed, not wanting to argue, left them to it, sitting on his plastic covered couch as he watched them work. Most of the smaller things he'd bought were in carefully packed boxes that he could open later. When all of Greed's new things were placed in the apartment the other men left, leaving Sloth behind to get Greed's signature to say he'd received the furniture.

"Just arrived, huh?" Sloth asked as he watched Greed sign the form. Greed glanced up at him warily, unsure of his 'brothers' motive.

"Yesterday," he answered. He finished with the form and handed it back to Sloth. "How long have you been here?" he asked. Sloth stared at him for a moment then shrugged lazily.

"About half a year, I was the first one to accept the offer," he told Greed. An eyebrow was raised in surprise and Sloth gave a half grin, "Lust and Gluttony procrastinated for ages, dunno about Wrath and Envy…I'm more human than the others are right now," he explained. He still seemed quite lazy, though there was an intelligence in his eyes that had never really been there before, he was certainly more friendly than Greed had been expecting.

"Have you seen the others here?" he asked. Worried about seeing any other members of his family before he'd really decided to do with this chance for a new start. Sloth scratched his head as he thought to himself. He was still slow in conversations, but it was hardly his fault, he was still Sloth after all.

"I've seen Lust here, Gluttony is with her as usual and I think Wrath is here somewhere, I've seen him, but I don't remember where," he replied slowly. Greed could almost see his mind ticking over, "haven't seen Envy," he added after a moment. Greed nodded agreeing;

"Yeah he was still there when I showed up in front of that grinning bastard," he folded his arms and scowled at the floor. Another memory that darkened his mood with considerable ease. Glancing back at Sloth, Greed considered him a moment before asking; "You want to be human I take it?" Sloth shrugged lazily again.

"I'm better like this I think," he answered simply. Looking at Greed a moment he smiled, amused by something, "you want to know if I know what the others will do?" Greed snorted.

"More or less, they don't exactly see eye to eye with me at the best of times," he answered grudgingly. Sloth chuckled suddenly and reached over to plant one of his huge hands on Greed's head, ruffling his hair roughly. The weight of his hand made Greed's knees buckle slightly under him, Sloth may not have been the monstrous being he had been as a full Homunculus, but he was still large for a human and very strong.

"Lust is Lust, she enjoys her powers too much for her to have become too human yet," Sloth began answering Greed's unasked question slowly. He was thinking carefully before answering, something he wouldn't have done six months earlier. His usual answer to most things had been 'what a drag', to see him now, like this made a huge impression on Greed's thoughts on his own plans. "She's only been here a month or two though, Gluttony is never far from her as usual, he's barely changed at all, though he doesn't eat people as often as it would be noticed here. Lust keeps him on a tight leash, when they first arrived it was business as usual. He ate whatever and whoever he wanted more or less, the police began taking notice of people disappearing, so she reigned him in," Greed stared at Sloth. That had been the longest he'd ever heard Sloth talk for, it was a strange thing, knowing someone as something else for so long and then seeing them changed so quickly was remarkable.

"You know Sloth, I think you're an alright dude now," he said amused after a minute. Then he laughed, unable to keep his amusement in. Sloth joined in, understanding what Greed was referring to.

"You're already a little different, yourself," Sloth answered when they'd settled down a bit. Greed raised an eyebrow and laughed some more.

"I don't think I'm going to change that quickly, like Lust, I like my power," Sloth shook his head.

"You've always done whatever you wanted, but you've never liked loosing a challenge put to you either, I think you'll change faster than you think, you've already changed on your own terms a lot since back then," Sloth told him certain of his words. Greed considered his words, it was true that Lin's presence had changed him as well as his interactions with the Elric Brothers. He'd just never thought about it, or more like he'd wanted to admit it. Then flashes of two deaths that had changed him. Bido and Fu's deaths had effected him, not that he'd ever admit it. He had wanted to avenge Fu's death as much as Lin had, he was just to stubborn to admit it to his partner at the time. He wasn't sure what he'd do if he saw Wrath again.

"Wrath?" he asked. Sloth shook his head and shrugged. Shrugging seemed to have become his new 'what a drag'.

"Who knows, he never was the most predictable of Homunculi," Greed had to agree with that. Wrath was an unknown, just like he was. Sloth was looking at him appraisingly now, as though he was trying to figure out whether or not to trust Greed. "What about you? What are you going to do with this year you've been given?" he asked finally. Greed's scowl returned as he considered the question.

"Tch, the hell do I know, personally I think I'd like to stay alive this time, being a martyr sucks ass," he said snorting at his own answer. Sloth smiled lazily at him, seeming pleased with the answer.

"Sounds like you alright, a martyr, huh? Sounds like I missed a bit after I died," Sloth chuckled at the thought. Greed rolled his eyes, he hated that he'd done it and at the same time was quietly proud of himself. No-one else could have done what he had after all.

"I helped defeat the old man, that's all," he looked away. This was a dangerous topic, memories of Lin and Edward Elric looking up at him as he disappeared threatened to get him all emotional. He didn't like that.

"If you want to live, don't fight it too much and don't ignore your new emotions, they'll help you get to the goal," Sloth told him. It was as if he'd read his mind, Greed stared at him in surprise for the second time. Unable to say anything. "People also help, you look like a teenager, so you should go to school and find someone worth hanging around for," Sloth nodded to himself. It seemed he'd said what he'd wanted to now. He pulled a small card out of his pocket and wrote something on the back before handing it to Greed. "If you need help or advice call that number, it's my mobile number so you can reach me anywhere," Greed blinked at the card and then looked up at Sloth.

"Why-?" was all he managed to get out. His face must have been amusing as Sloth chuckled again.

"We're family, no matter how you look at it, even have the same last name, besides, I think you're probably the only one other than me who actually wants to be here," Greed frowned at this.

"I don't know what I want anymore," he muttered. His shoulders fell a little as he allowed himself to feel the fear and confusion that had been plaguing his sleep. Sloth slapped his arm, the small amount of force he'd put into it nearly had Greed toppling to the ground if he hadn't grabbed hold of one of his new dinning chairs to steady himself.

"Neither did I, just find yourself a place in the world and go from there, you have a year to find your own purpose. Like I said, go to school, you never know what you'll find there," Sloth said knowingly. There was something in his tone of voice that made Greed suspicious; he eyed Sloth carefully, but the older man gave nothing away.

"Right, I guess I could give it a try…" he said slowly. Sloth nodded again.

"Good, call me if you need me, I'll be off, made those guys wait long enough I think," he laughed properly now as he walked out of the apartment. Sloth looked over his shoulder as he walked out of the door and smiled at Greed, "see ya later brother," he called. Greed raised a hand in response.

"Yeah, see ya," he said back. Sloth walked out the door, closing it behind him; leaving Greed with his thoughts and his not-so-empty apartment. "School, huh? Tch, doesn't sound like much fun at all," he said to himself. Just the thought of it annoyed him and he'd never been before. Something that Sloth had said niggled at him though so he resigned himself to attending school the next day. He made a face as his mind was made up to do something he really didn't want to do. Collapsing on the plastic covered couch Greed admitted defeat. Sloth was right, he should find somewhere to belong and school was the best place to start as he was in the form of a teenager thanks to the grinning bastard. "Little fucker is dead next time I see him," he decided.


Greed stayed on the couch for a long time lost in his own thoughts, he didn't know what the time was when his stomach growled, but he did know he was hungry and hadn't bought any groceries the day before due to his energy draining from him as soon as he'd gotten home from shopping. Deciding it was time to get moving Greed walked back into his room and fished some new clothes from his shopping spree out of their bags and pulled them on. Looking at himself in the mirror he felt more at home; the black sleeveless button up shirt, black pants and his new boots were very Greed. He glanced at his hair again and glared at it. It would have to go. He didn't want to look like Envy after all. He snickered at the thought of Envy showing up here. Now that would be amusing. Smarmy little bastard would probably get the crap beaten out of him for being a smart arse, that or everyone would be fooled into thinking he was cool. Snorting at that thought Greed left the room, grabbing his wallet and keys off the bench on his way out the door.

Greed hated himself for it, but he once again found himself ordering a burger, fries and a coke from Fu's Fast Food. The same bored-looking girl served him, at least he vaguely thought her to be the same person anyway. He wasn't sure, he also didn't care all that much so he didn't dwell on it. After filling his stomach Greed went in search of a good place to get his hair the way he wanted it. It didn't take long, maybe a few minutes before he came across a hairdresser with an open slot for him.

After getting him seated the hairdresser began asking him what kind of cut he was after, Greed frowned at his reflection as he eyed his hair off.

"Get rid of the ponytail for starters, if you don't mind," he told her. The words 'if you don't mind' were added as an after thought, they sounded strange coming from him. He didn't like them much either. It wasn't him.

"Right, not a problem honey," replied the hairdresser. Her name was Naomi if he remembered right. Though names weren't really something he remembered easily. That, and he didn't really care. After she'd removed the offending ponytail Greed went on to say she could leave the fringe, he didn't mind it after all, but he didn't want the rest of his hair very long at all...otherwise he'd look a little too nerdy...and that just wasn't happening. Naomi nattered away at him as she went about giving Greed his desired cut, he didn't listen really, but replied every now and then with a well timed 'yeah' or 'uh huh'. Though on more than one occasion he found himself wondering why he was bothering even that much. Sloth was right, he'd already changed. Bloody brats.