A/N I am finally done with studying for AP Euro, and all the stupid SOL tests too, so now I can focus again on this ongoing saga of Greed and Ed's tacky fashion sense!
So in the past couple of weeks the most exciting thing ever has happened- THERE IS LEGIT FANART OF GRED, Y'ALL. Not just bad sketches I've done in my free time, but legitimate, beautiful art, and I am crying. On Tumblr, thelightningbolt13 has drawn two (!) wonderful pieces, which everyone definitely needs to see: post/143586656834/ed-was-a-firm-believer-that-wearing-sunglasses and post/144045743094/fun-times-with-greed-and-ed-gomboc123-luxyray .
As usual, feel free to leave reviews and say what you love, hate, or just want to say about this story! All of you are wonderful, and thank you for sticking with me for 10 whole chapters so far. I'm also going to try and start replying to reviews, now that I have some time. Again, I hope you enjoy!
It was unbearably hot. Stifling. Standing in the Fuhrer's office with him was unbearable to Riza. She knew exactly who the man was; what he did, and all he was capable of doing. And Bradley- no, Wrath- seemed to relish that. Every time they were alone, he would smirk, and drink tea, and pretend to be a normal human being, making sure to shoot Riza a glance from his normal eye that told her he was enjoying himself.
All Riza could do was stand and take it, and pour him another small cup of tea on command.
Another thing Riza absolutely despised was the fact that that was all she could do. She wasn't meant to do such menial tasks and just look pretty. She should be by the Colonel's side, helping him get through this hellish situation, and helping Edward somehow. She would even settle for doing paperwork; just something that might even have the chance of accomplishing a task. Small talk, reading the Fuhrer's daily schedule, and getting him whatever he wanted to eat were the most boring things to do on the planet.
Then again- wasn't that the point? Riza had been relegated from her position as Mustang's queen to Bradley's useless pawn. What better way to hold someone hostage then to trap them in a meaningless cycle of tea and small talk? If the Fuhrer gave her any opening at all, Riza knew she'd try and take it. Making her days endlessly long and boring slowed things down, making the most recent weeks run together and demoralizing Riza.
But the single most contributing factor to the choking, oppressive heat in the room was Riza's back. The longer she went knowing her tattoo was whole and fully dangerous, the hotter it got. Riza's mind wandered to images of grenades, knowing that she too might as well be a time bomb. Any idiot could guess the large array on her back was for alchemy, and any genius could see the telltale red salamander of flame alchemy. While Riza knew that it was ridiculous for people to see the array in public, the more emotional, senseless part of her mind was churning. If anyone did somehow see it, and if they found the secrets to flame alchemy, Riza would never be able to forgive herself.
Every time she saw the angry red lines of the tattoo in the mirror at home, guilty grief flooded Riza's system. She needed to get rid of it again soon, before anyone else could use her knowledge to create another Ishval. She hated thinking about it, but she needed Roy to burn her again.
The process had left her with physical scars last time, but Roy had to bear the majority of the emotional scars left by the event. Riza had never regretted having her back burned, but she did regret hurting Roy. She knew that if she had to do the same to him, with Roy screaming out in pain and the smell of his blackened flesh permeating the air around them, Riza might never forgive herself.
Even with those grotesque images in her mind, Riza's burn scars had given her assurance and the slightest bit of comfort. Flame alchemy would be gone from the world forever, and she wouldn't be the death of thousands more people. And also, Roy had done this for her. Despite his vehement disapproval, and the obvious disgust of the idea Riza would even suggest he burn her, he had done it. He had gone out of his way to make her happy, and sacrificed his own happiness to do so. No, Riza wasn't proud of making him do that, but she was still glad he had.
And she needed him to do it again; if only she was allowed to see him.
Constant surveillance of her apartment and her daily activities was another "job perk" she had to put up with. Being reassigned from Roy's command was only the first step in their separation. Even though the two of them had never really interacted in their personal lives too much before, the spies certainly prevented them from ever starting to do so.
Going to Roy's apartment, baring her back to him, and letting him burn her was definitely something personal that needed time and privacy. Neither of which, Riza had. And she might not have in the foreseeable future, until she and Roy managed to find a private meeting place, and communicate with each other how to get there. While it certainly wouldn't be impossible for them, it would take an incredible amount of planning and effort to pull it off.
While Riza racked her brain to figure out ways to meet Roy in private, she also attempted to find as much out about homunculi as possible. She put as much of her conscious effort as she could spare into researching ways to get Edward back permanently.
In the back of the closet in her small apartment, Riza found a box of some of her father's old alchemy books she had originally intended to either sell or give to Roy. Of course, in all of her moving and insanely busy schedule, Riza had never gotten around to it. The books gave her some basic knowledge of the art, and even though a lot of it went over her head, all Riza really needed to do was skim the contents of each chapter until she found mention of homunculi.
So far, she had gotten through Alchemy For Beginners: a Basic Guide, an older tome titled Kennenworth's Power of Knowledge, and a short journal-type book called Alchemy; It's Not Just For Geniuses!. Only Kennenworth's had even mentioned creating artificial humans, however, Kennenworth also claimed that homunculi were brought to life when an alchemist brings a stone to life. Ed only became a homunculus once the philosopher's stone containing Greed had entered his body. There wasn't any new life being created, only a parasitic new soul taking control of Ed's little body. And parasites could always be removed.
Lately, Greed was becoming more and more irritable and trying to avoid Riza; she didn't know whether to be concerned or relieved. Watching some imposter walk around In Edward Elric's body, wearing his face and parading around in that red coat was almost too much. The similarities between Greed and Edward sometimes seemed to smack Riza in the face, rendering her unable to do anything except stare.
She understood how she must look at him sometimes, thinking about the time when he was just Edward and wishing that was back. And it made sense that he'd want to avoid her after that.
"Lieutenant," a voice shook Riza out of her thoughts, "Could you make me a cup of earl grey?"
Bradley leaned back in his chair and folded his arms as Riza made moves toward the cabinet holding her employer's fine china. Just like that, he was doing it again. Taunting her. Putting her through the motions of a mundane task, and she had to just take it.
But Riza wasn't going to just sit quietly on her own; she still had plenty of energy left to fight. She may be trapped in the dullest job of all time with a literal "boss from hell", but she could still research ways to get Edward back, gather information about the enemy. She was still in Central Command, so she could find ways to see the Colonel. And she still had ways to contact Fuery, Falman, Havoc, and Breda. Giving up had never been an option. Keeping her scheming a secret, Riza would just continue pouring tea, making calls, and being Bradley's personal shadow. Besides, following behind someone always gave Riza a better shot at their back.
The tables at the North City Library were made of much softer wood than the ones in Central. Alphonse had found that out after banging his head down in frustration and getting the spike on his forehead stuck.
Al had been at the library for almost eight hours straight, and had found nothing useful about alkahestry.
Sure, at first the wide variety of alchemy books and the fact that many of them looked like real research journals had first excited Al, but he soon realized that there was only a sparse collection of books that might be useful to him. Two thirds of those stupid journal-looking books were just about ice and snow alchemy, which, technically was a larger variety than it had been at Central's library, but not larger in a way that would actually be helpful for Alphonse.
Working hard on extricating his head from the table without accidentally taking it off, Al tried to think of a way to use ice alchemy in order to get his brother back. Maybe he could just freeze Greed until he was uncomfortable to come out. Or if Al made him a personal snow flurry, Greed might finally be happy and turn good. Thinking about such ridiculous plans made Al chuckle, and by the time he was able to sit up again, about three members of the library staff were looking at him strangely.
"Oh, sorry about that," Al gestured at the new hole in the table, "I'll fix it," he clapped his hands, and after a flash of blue light, the table was good as new.
One of the librarians' eyes widened, and Al rubbed the back of his head. Even if he didn't have any real hair to ruffle, it was a habit Al hadn't been completely able to kick since he lost his real body.
The oldest librarian, a stern looking woman, gave Al a look and walked away with one of the others by her side. The third librarian, a younger man than the others, was sensible enough to ask, "So why was your head stuck in the desk in the first place?"
"Oh, I'm uh, just a little frustrated," Al replied a bit sheepishly.
"Can I help you find anything?" The man asked. Al didn't know if it was out of obligation or genuine concern.
"Do you have any books on alkahestry?"
A confused look, "What was that?"
"Alkahestry. It's a Xingese variation of alchemy that I'm trying to research. The people at the Central Library told me there might be books on it here," Al explained, and gestured to the materials scattered over the table, "So far I've just found things about normal Amestrian Alchemy."
"Why are you researching that Xingese stuff?" This librarian was not being the most helpful at all.
"Well…" Crap. Al couldn't just say, 'Well my brother's a crazy homunculus now so I need a way to fix him. I don't suppose you know how to kill homunculi without killing the host body'. No. Al would need to come up with some sort of lie to tell, like the one about his armor. What could he say? Maybe something about helping people? But why would he be such a humanitarian as a civilian? Unless…
"Well, I'm trying to research Alkahestry to increase my knowledge and learn new ways to help people," That part technically wasn't a lie. The librarian looked a bit skeptical, and Al knew he had to come up with something a little better. Okay, a lot better, "It's very important that I do this, because, you see, uh, I'm kind of known as the hero of the people, the Fullmetal Alchemist."
The man's jaw dropped, and he stammered for a minute, "Oh- um- Fu-Fullmetal Alchemist, sir, I- I didn't know-" Al mentally cursed at himself for panicking and saying he was Ed because he realized that he didn't have a pocket watch to prove his claims. Meanwhile, the librarian kept talking, "I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you, sir. It was really dumb of me. Fullmetal Alchemist… The armor… I should have connected two and two in my head…"
Al laughed nervously, "No, it's alright," He reached into the small bag he had brought to carry books in and searched for something metal. If he was stealthy enough, he could transmute a pocketwatch for himself. Ed's watch was always laying around somewhere, so Al had had plenty of time to see how it looked and worked. Recreating one shouldn't be that hard.
He spied the leg of the table was made of some sort of metal, and took his chance to steal a little from there, "Oh, Mr. Librarian, The leg of this table looks a little wobbly. Let me fix it for you."
He bent down, and clapped his hands. Al quickly made the leg of the table a little thinner, and used some of the metal to transmute a pocketwatch. He'd never really seen the inside of Ed's watch well enough to recreate the clock face, so he only made the outward appearance accurate.
The librarian watched in awe, and Al had to be extra stealthy to stash the "watch" in his bag before anyone saw his transmutation.
"Wow, thank you, sir!" Al was glad he didn't have a face, because he honestly didn't know how he would have kept it straight throughout the entire ordeal.
"I'm only here to help," he attempted as cheerfully as possible.
It was a miracle that he and Ed had never come up north before, or else people would likely have recognized them. He knew that people always talked about the "Hero of the People" and his brother travelling around, but whenever they met anyone new, Edward was always assumed to be the civilian younger brother. So the only way anyone could call his bluff was if Ed was here to throw a tantrum.
"Can I see your watch? I've never met a real-life state alchemist before," Al thanked God, or whatever higher power that might have existed that he remembered to transmute the watch. He grabbed the shining object and held it up in front of him. Despite the rushed job, the pocketwatch still looked believable. Only one or two transmutation marks showed, and the color looked significantly different enough from the table leg he had taken it from.
The librarian looked slightly amazed, and asked, "So why do you wear the armor?" Shit.
"There is definitely a good reason for that…" Al thought about his usual 'alchemy training' excuse, but it wouldn't work if he was supposedly a full-fledged state alchemist. So his mouth blurted the next pre-made excuse, "It's a hobby!"
"Ooookay…" Was all the librarian could say.
"And I'm not going to take it off," Al quickly added. This was probably just making his situation worse. He was glad he didn't pick up that cat he saw on his way to the library. It would be even worse to have to explain meowing coming from inside him.
"I wasn't going to ask you to...:" The librarian, whose name Alphonse wanted to know at this point, trailed off. Al decided that the best to change the subject back to what he originally
"So would you happen to know if there are any alkahestry books? Or is there someone who could point me in the right direction if you can't?" Immediately the librarian stiffened and put a finger to his jaw to indicate he was thinking.
"Like I said before, I have no clue what alkahestry is. Heck, most alchemy even goes over my head so I don't really pay much attention to those books. But I guess Martha would know better than me."
"Great. Where's Martha?" Al pushed his chair out and stood up, immediately towering over the small librarian.
The man motioned for Al to follow him and the two made it up to the front desk where a short woman sat looking bored. When she spied the two coming over, her face brightened and she let out a cheerful, "Hello, Mike." So Mike was his name.
"Hi Martha. Do you know if we have any books on Xingese alkahestry?" The reply he got to that was a skeptical raised eyebrow, so Mike elaborated, "This man here, the Fullmetal Alchemist, came all the way up here from Central to learn this," Martha's eyes widened as she smiled nervously.
"We have one focused completely about alkahestry, I'm pretty sure nobody has it checked out right now," Martha suggested. She smiled, but seemed a little nervous.
Al's heart leapt at the thought of there being a whole book on alkahestry. And it was a miracle that nobody had checked it out, "That sounds great. Can you tell me where that is?"
Martha got out of her chair and led the two boys into the tallest section of bookshelves. She looked around for a little while, but soon bent down and plucked a thin blue book from the bottom row. She looked over the title once more and handed it back to Al.
"101 Yoga and Meditation Tips Based on Real Alkahestry Techniques," Al repeated the words on the cover. They had to be joking.
"Yes. The only book in the library written completely about alkahestry," Martha smiled, but not as brightly as before, "I'm sorry if it's not what you're looking for, but it's all we have."
"This is… This is fine," Al said. He didn't want either of the librarians to feel bad about something that was out of their control. They had both done the best that they could, "I'm sure I could still learn a lot form this. Thank you." If the best he could find here was meditation tips, he would need to find May. Or… he'd need to go to Briggs.
He thanked the librarians and sat back down at his own little table. Neither of his options for the future were particularly appealing, so Al tried to reason his way through the situation.
If he went looking for May, he had no idea where to start. The young girl had just left Central without giving any hints to anyone as to her future location. Al could probably wander around the whole Country and never run into her again.
Then there was Briggs. Even though Major Armstrong had graciously written Alphonse a letter of introduction that should be able to get him into the fort, he wasn't sure if he wanted to go in. All the stories he heard about Briggs were insane, such as how one fearsome General kept the entire northern border under the control of her iron fist. But then again… A powerful General could be a helpful ally in his search for information, or even in a search for May.
Besides, he'd been around military men ever since he was eleven, and Ed got his state alchemist certification. Surely he could handle this fort too.
Al shook his arm to hear Armstrong's letter of introduction rattle inside, and made up his mind. One more trip around the library to see if he missed anything, then it was off to Briggs.
Somewhere along the course of the day, Greed had bought more thrift shop clothes. Ed was tired out from his brief moment of control, so the entire thing had gone by in a blur for him. The afternoon sun had come out during that time, which had made Greed hot enough to take off that atrocious fur-collared vest.
Ed wasn't actually too mad at the new clothes Greed had bought while he was too tired to argue. The red leather pants had stayed, but the vest was replaced with a cooler one made of black leather and covered with all kinds of spikes and chains. Greed had also bought a couple loose black bracelets that hung around his left wrist. The sunglasses remained, much to Ed's chagrin, but at least now Greed had a second pair he could swap them out with sometime in the future.
Now that the shopping was done, and Greed was lounging on a couch he'd dragged down into Father's underground lair, Ed was finally beginning to feel rested enough to talk to the homunculus. Sure, he hated Greed's guts (figuratively, of course. Greed didn't have any real guts that actually belonged to him), and Greed seethed with anger for a solid hour after Ed's little stunt, but Ed needed to ask the homunculus a few important questions such as: Where is Alphonse right now? and When will I see my brother again?
Being separated for weeks from his little brother made Ed's skin crawl even worse than the ultimate shield did. Who knew what Al was doing at the moment? Where he was, and if he had gotten himself into any trouble. Probably not, since Ed's temper was much nastier, but Al had a penchant for picking up stray cats. Cats that they most definitely did not need.
Sure, Alphonse had always been the calmer, more responsible-seeming one, but he was just a fourteen year old kid who'd never been left alone this long before. And Ed, as the older brother, saw that it was his job to worry. He should be out there protecting Al from any trouble that may come to him, not leaving him out in the cold. Al's niceness might get him in just as much trouble as Ed's temper.
Shaking his worried thoughts out of his mind, Ed stood up straighter and addressed the homunculus, "Hey, Greed. I need to ask you something."
"I'm not answering you," Greed replied, scowling at Ed. Obviously he still wasn't over what happened earlier.
"Look, I'm not trying to cause any more trouble. I just want to know if you can find anything out about Alphonse," Ed tried his very best not to get angry. A screaming match with an immortal monster who could integrate him into the stone at any time did not sound fun.
"I don't care about your stupid brother," was Greed's curt reply. Ed had a feeling that it would keep getting progressively harder to contain his anger.
"Well I do care. And didn't Wrath tell you to keep an eye on Al anyway?" It was true. At the meeting between Wrath, Greed, and Mustang, the older homunculus had said to try and watch over Alphonse.
"Wrath is a dumbass and keeps sending me off places during the day. It's not like I even have time to babysit your little brother," Greed rolled his eyes. That statement was also true; if Wrath wanted Greed to watch Al, why was Greed stuck trying to recruit state alchemists?
"I know Wrath is a dumbass, but you really should be checking up on Alphonse," Ed crossed his arms and glared. He wasn't about to give up on talking to Greed so easily.
Greed sighed, "Look, kid, I told you, I don't give a shit about your brother. Besides, he's like what, 12? He can't cause that much trouble on his own."
"He's fourteen," Ed glared harder, "And you'd be surprised at what he could get himself into."
"Neither of those change my mind about how much I care," Greed was glaring back now.
"You've never had a brother before, Greed. You just don't understand."
Greed's face turned into an uglier grimace, and he replied loudly, "Have you forgotten about Envy? Or what about Wrath and Sloth? I have five brothers, you little shrimp."
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A SEAFOOD DISH SO TINY THAT IT WOULDN'T EVEN FILL AN ANT'S STOMACH?!" Ed shouted, but soon jerked himself back into control, "And you and your 'brothers' seem to hate each other. You say you're family, but those titles cover up the fact that you're all allied together. You don't have any of the real feelings right."
Greed tried to close his eyes, and let out a long, slow breath, "You need to realize that this family can be a little different than your dumb one. We're all brothers who belong together, united under Father's goals. Shouldn't that be enough emotion for you?" Ed was a little shocked to actually have solicited a decent answer from Greed, who was very clearly disregarding his previous statements about 'not talking to the lower life form'.
"Do you even want the same thing your Father does?"
Greed faltered for a moment, "I was literally born of his Greed. Of course I want the same thing."
"No," Ed reasoned, "He wants the power of God for himself, and you want the entire world for yourself. Those are two very different things."
"You forget that since we're a family, I'll also have some of that power," Greed quickly replied, perhaps too quickly. Based off of how Father acted, Ed wasn't so sure that he'd be willing to give Greed anything. Maybe Greed knew too, but was too far in denial at this point.
"Sure, Greed," Ed decided to play it safe for now.
"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" Apparently he wasn't safe enough, "Why am I even having this conversation with you? After that shit you pulled earlier, you should consider yourself lucky you're not part of the stone yet."
Greed crossed his arms and left Ed to wonder why wasn't he part of the stone yet? Not that he was complaining, but he seemed a little bit too lucky at this point. Obviously he'd done nothing but cause trouble and be obnoxious in general, so Greed would have been at least a little bit justified in killing Ed. But he hadn't… And even stranger, Greed actually talked to Ed sometimes. Sure, he was throwing a mini-temper tantrum right now about the shopping incident, but other times, Greed had gone out of his way to call Ed short and make rude comments to him. The two had even had a couple of conversations in the past. A demonic homunculus possessing a human's body definitely shouldn't be talking to its annoying host.
But maybe that was why Ed hadn't been integrated. Despite vehement Greed's claims that Envy, Father, and the rest of them were his family, they never acted like it. In fact, Father treated every single homunculus as if it were just a pawn to use in his sick game. But other than Ed, they were the only ones Greed had to talk to.
Back in Dublith, Greed had surrounded himself with others, and even though he called them his followers or minions. And their entire group had been so tight-knit that it was hard to believe they were anything less than a large, unconventional family. They had been truly loyal to each other, and it was more than likely that Greed conversed with them on a regular basis. Being stuck here in Central, with such an uncaring group of fellow homunculi must be extremely unfulfilling; that might be why Greed occasionally reached out to Ed.
That was what Greed was really like.
Beneath all that cocky exterior, the homunculus just needed friends, and after he realized that his "brothers" couldn't provide, Greed turned to Ed.
But that raised another question; why did Edward keep talking to Greed? Sure, there were times when he had to scream at the homunculus in order to ensure nothing bad happened, but other than that, he had had entire conversations with the monster possessing his body.
Ed had never had a ridiculously large group of people surrounding him. It had always been just him and Al, and sometimes Winry too. The two brothers were fine on their own. Although… Ed remembered that he hadn't seen Alphonse in weeks, and it was excruciatingly painful.
Was he as desperate as Greed was becoming; to reach out to the other entity in his mind? He couldn't be… And even if he was lonely, it wasn't like Ed had anyone else there for him. Greed could desert the others again and find new people on the outside to talk to. He was the only desperate one here… Right?