Empathy, Chapter 4
Greed's name is Lucien, I decided, but if you guys have a better name I should have went with, let me know. Also, Greed and Lust are NOT together, but Greed is flirtatious to her, only more as a joke, just to provoke her. So they are just friends that are really close, kind of like siblings. Though they might as well be siblings in this. I'm gonna have Greed be really protective over her and Envy eventually too, since he IS Greedy.

Also, I fixed the spelling of Willaim to William. I don't know why I keep doing that even though I know how it's spelled.

ALSO, please note that Lust is 16, but I'm using the term woman because it's the only term I could find. People do say "young lady".


William sat at the same place he had been sitting at for the past few hours.

He watched absentmindedly as some kids were horse-playing, and then noticed a family walking by.

"Mom, can you make stew tonight?" a child asked.

"Mommy's not feeling very good right now, honey, but I'm sure if you ask daddy nicely, he'll be glad to." the mother patted her head.

"Aww, but his cooking sucks." the girl looked down.

"That's not very nice." said the mother.

"He's fine. But my cooking isn't that bad, is it?" The father laughed.

Upon seeing the interaction, William didn't even want to hear the rest. A bitter expression sat on his face as it reminded him of the family he should have had. He was filled with envy for the little boy's happy life. As much as he hated his father, a nagging question lingered at the back of his mind. How would I have turned out if I had actually grown up in a normal family? Would I have been able to be truly happy? Why does that kid get to have a normal life?

She doesn't deserve it.

A sudden urge came over William to hurt the child for having what he couldn't have, what he wanted, and though he didn't act on it, he was reminded of something his mother had said to him when he was a child.

"This world is an unfair place. Some people are born into families that will give them everything while others often work hard their entire lives and get nothing in return even though they do deserve it. Your father abandoned you because he's a coward. But I provided you with the things you needed. You see, I'm the only one who has ever been there for you, so you needn't even think about him, okay?"

It was odd, though. No matter what Dante had done for or said to him, she had never once claimed to love him. Even when he tried to get close to his own mother, the woman had only ever pushed him away and dehumanized his emotions, unless it came to one matter - Van Hohenheim. She would only show compassion if she could understand it first hand, and even that "compassion" were words of negativity directed at the world around him, and just left William feeling more pessimistic than before. It was never to say that things would get better, or giving other options to deal with things. In Dante's mind, the world had no positives, and as such it rubbed off on her son.

Oddly enough, he somehow still wanted her attention. And a part of him still wanted to believe she cared for him. Maybe it was just human instinct to want your parents' approval and love, but he wasn't proud. And, unlike Hohenheim, Dante had at least stuck around, even if it was for her own selfish goals. If anything, he hated himself for wanting any kind of affection from anybody, let alone his parents.

William had lived under the belief that he had probably never been truly happy, but at this point, he was so used to it that it wouldn't be him if he was, so he couldn't care less, he just wished that, since he wasn't happy, that others weren't happy either.

"Hey, babe. I couldn't help but notice that you've been sitting there for quite a while now." A fairly deep voice knocked him out of his thoughts. He looked over and saw a guy, who was probably in his late teens or even early twenties, standing there. He had dark, short and slightly spiked hair. Round sunglasses covered his eyes. He wore a sleeveless jacket that had white fur lining the collar. He smirked, pointing at himself. "How's it going? The name's Lucien. But you can call me Luci if you want."

This wasn't the first time somebody had mistaken William as a female. It didn't particularly bother him, considering that even though he technically considered himself a guy, gender stereotypes were too much of pain to take serious. But it did kind of irritate him that the man was clearly flirting with him.

"Tch, you wouldn't know how long I've been here unless you were stalking me or something. Also, I'm not a girl."

"Leave the poor human alone, Lucien." Another voice joined in, scolding the man. Her voice was almost soothing, but threatening at the same time. Glancing over, William was slightly surprised to see that was the same female he'd seen before. Her gaze met his, as she used her left hand to comb through the ends of her flawless raven hair, the obsidian waves falling back into a perfect form as her fingers passed through. "You'll have to forgive him, he's a bit of a womanizer."

Upon closer inspection, William saw that her facial features were unbelievably beautiful. Her face looked practically porcelain and she favored a doll. In fact, if she weren't moving and this were elsewhere, William might have thought she was one. She wore a jacket that, like Lucien's, had white fur lining on the collar, though hers had long sleeves and and was ankle length. Whether it was coincidence or an actual trend he didn't know, but William didn't really care about fashion. He assumed they were together, and, for some reason, felt bitterness at that.

"Ah, come on, hun. That was a bit hypocritical of you, don't you think?..." Lucien said, teasingly. "But, really, I was just playing with..."

He looked back, pointing at William as if his statement had finally just sunk in. "so, wait,... Let me get this straight...You're a guy then?"

"Yeah, technically speaking... but I'd prefer to not buy into that gender nonsense. I am whatever I want to be." William said, with an edge to his voice. After a moment of looking dumbfounded, Lucien burst out laughing.

"Ha-ha-ha! I certainly didn't expect tha- OW!" he was cut short when the girl grabbed his ear, and squeezed it.

"Didn't I just say to leave them alone?" she said, with slight irritation. William couldn't help but be surprised when she called him a them. He supposed it was her being respectful, because his previous comments on his gender may have came off as contradictory.

"Geez, fine, I was just teasing him!" Lucien growled at her.

"Come on." she told him, ignoring his retort.

William wanted to say something, but he stopped upon hearing another voice. "Brother!"

It was Alphonse.

"What do you want? Don't tell me your precious mommy overworked herself or something again." William smirked sardonically and tiredly, before he glared at his younger half brother, noticing Lucien and the female walking off. He wished he had asked for her name. Alphonse seemed taken aback, by William's hostility and almost lost his resolve to confront him, but refused to back down. Alphonse knew that if he said anything about William's 'joke', William would be more than ready to try and provoke him, so he acted like William hadn't said anything, despite how much he wanted to slap his oldest brother for such a comment. Edward probably would have punched him.

"I came here because I wanted to talk to you." Alphonse said, averting his gaze. "May I sit down?"

"Fine, but hurry and spit it out. I don't have all day to talk about things." William muttered. Actually, he had been here all day because he didn't have anything to do, but that was just his way of saying he wasn't in a very sociable mood and had wanted to get away from the house.

"I wanted to know if you're feeling okay..." Alphonse started with uncertainty.

"I'm fine." William growled, rolling his eyes. "Is that all?"

He really didn't want to discuss his feelings.

"We're all hurting because of dad, you know-" and that was enough to set William off.

"Look, I don't give a shit about what you're feeling! I don't care what Edward is feeling, or even what my own mother is feeling! All I know is that that bastard doesn't care that he abandoned us, okay? So just drop it." William looked over to realize that several people were looking at them, including the girl and guy from before, who had moved over a ways, and were talking to somebody else now. Alphonse edged back a bit at his brothers harsh tone.

Shit, William mentally cursed. I probably look like a fool now. But screw them. I don't fucking care what they think.

"He doesn't love any of us," he decided to finish his thought, but more quieter, but no less irritably. However there was clearly pain in the older boy's eyes he spoke this time. "so we shouldn't even be upset over it, but yet here we are clinging to these bullshit feelings of attachment anyway without any reason... I don't get it, and I don't care to understand it either."

"I know it hurts, but you don't have to deal with it alone..." Alphonse said, noticing that they were being watched.

"I don't need you patronage, Alphonse." William said, but his voice didn't carry much weight behind it at this point.

"Do you know them?" He looked up when the question was thrown at him by his brother.

"Who?" William asked, confused for a second.

Alphonse pointed to Lucien and the woman. "I saw you talking with them and thought they might be your friends."

"Tch, they aren't my friends, and I barely know them. I kind passed by the girl earlier on the side-walk earlier, though. But only the guy gave me his name. And it's none of your business anyway."

William would be lying if he said he didn't want to get to know the woman at least.

"You like her, don't you?" Alphonse smiled after a moment, to tease him. Obviously, there was no proof of anything, but it was more Alphonse's way of encouraging his brother to make a friend if he could.

"Shut up!" William snapped, wanting to punch Alphonse in the face, when he once again caught her eye. Did she just smirk?! William turned away, nothing going unnoticed by Alphonse.

"It's not like that at all...!" He hissed at his brother, his face heating up when he noticed several other people were staring once again. "What the hell are you looking at?!"

They immediately turned away from him.

"You're going to make a scene if you keep shouting, you know." Alphonse told him.

"And it'll be your fault for talking to me in the first place." William deadpanned.

"I think you should go ask her for her name. I'm sure she won't mind."

"Nah, I'll pass." William said, trying to appear nonchalant. "If it's that important, I'll find it out sooner or later anyway.

"Well, I'll go and ask then if you want." Alphonse offered, irritating William.

"No, fine. I'll do it." The older grumbled. Stupid brother.

If Alphonse asked her, I'd only seem more desperate than otherwise.

So he approached her. "Out of curiosity, can I ask for your name?"

Lucien was laughing and talking to another guy at the moment, but the raven haired woman turned around at William's voice, giving a small smirk, as she folded her arms, scrutinizing him with a slightly amused expression, as the fur lining on her jacket, as well as her hair began to gently blow in the breeze, making her figure stand out even more.

"How funny. Isn't it only polite to give your own name first before asking for somebody else's?" She said, her eyes meeting his, practically staring through his very being. He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by her as she placed a hand on his shoulder with a smirk. "You shouldn't worry so much, William. I was only joking, after all..."

She leaned in a bit and told him, "And it's Solaris."

~ End of Chapter


A/N: What do you guys think? I hope this isn't too out of character. THERE WILL BE MORE GREED AND ENVY DEVELOPMENT EVENTUALLY TOO. :D