Marta leaned over the long bar that stretched parallel to the back wall of their hideaway. Everyone gathered on the uppermost floor, awaiting the return of their reptilian friend. Greed sat on the couch, legs crossed with an example of his very obvious taste in woman on each arm. They refilled his glass and rubbed his chest as Dolcetto sat across from them, studying a hand of cards closely. Roa leaned against the wall near-by.
"Want to know what move I'd make?" He offered his struggling friend.
"Not at all; you always lose." Dolcetto responded with a dismissive wave.
The large chimera looked crestfallen and Marta chuckled behind the bar. It was a normal scene for what she considered her small family. The only difference was the stark white contrast that sat quietly on the floor behind the couch. Children's toys and forgotten drawing also lay scattered about the room.
Marta watched the little girl with a protective fondness. She looked like something out of a dream or a fairy tail as she sat with her ghostly skin and long matching hair. Her pastel dress and locks pooled around her on the floor. A halo of lavender colored flowers sat on her head as she stacked blocks together in front of her.
Marta thought her outfits couldn't get anymore ridiculous than they were before she had "grown", but since the child had grown, she'd worn nothing less than ceremonial gowns and princess themed petticoats. Greed had expressed his interest in having her fit a certain image: Royalty. She was a homunculus. If Greed were the king of the underground, she'd be princess by default.
Dolcetto had teased Marta about being demoted by a toddler but the snake had only rolled her eyes. She couldn't deny that the outfits suited the mysterious looking child who spoke rarely...even if it were a pain to get her dressed every morning.
Surprisingly, Roa had been the only one downtrodden about her sudden regal wardrobe change. He'd quietly supplied all of her prior costumes, without being asked. It was probably his particular way of bonding with her considering they both rarely spoke. It was apparently something he really enjoyed...seeing a baby elephant (or some other miscellaneous animal) quietly crawling through a room of criminals. She was the innocence of the place.
Now she seemed like the purity. The only clean, untouched, untainted thing living within their den of murderers...and she dressed the part.
An angel in the Devil's nest.
Marta smiled at Bido's past description of the girl. She matched the aesthetic of an angel much more than any type of royalty, but regal clothing would be a close second for now. Maybe she could make her large friend's day by requesting he find her an intricate pair of wings.
There was still the occasional animal suit however. She'd been dressed as a killer whale the day before, much to Roa's delight.
"I think I want to call her Gabriel." Marta spoke aloud to no one in particular. She knew she wouldn't have to speak up for any of the superhuman ears in the room. "Like the angel."
"How original." Greed mocked, tossing a card onto the table. The blonde ignored him.
"A name? So late?" Dolcetto asked, with a furrowed brow. He was obviously still losing. "I figured we'd just let her pick her own name one day. Besides, that's a guys name."
"It is not." Marta protested. "It has a feminine ring to it. Besides, Martel isn't exactly a girly name either. I just let you guys call me Marta."
"That's true." Roa agreed, looking down into Dolcetto's hand. He pointed to a card on the far left. "I'd drop this one."
"Really?..." Dolcetto noted, before doing the opposite of what his large friend suggested.
Roa scoffed.
"You're a terrible gambler, my friend. I'm not taking advice from you. It's the principal of the matter." Dolcetto apologized. "Nothing personal."
Greed frowned into his hand. "Good move. Stop cheating. Go away Roa." The girls on his arm giggled drunkenly.
Dolcetto chuckled. "See?"
Roa huffed a large breath and went to join Marta and the small unnamed child at the bar. She'd managed to build a small fort around herself with wooden blocks and Roa was careful not to disturb it.
"What do you think big guy? If not Gabriel then Angel? Angelica?" Marta pitched.
Roa frowned at the latter.
"Ok so just Angel, then."
"I think we should wait for Bido. He should have a big say in this." He responded.
"Agreed." Dolcetto called from across the room.
"I have no say? Last I checked, I was in charge around here." Greed plucked a card, smirked, and tossed a winning hand onto the table.
"You'd just name her Brat." Dolcetto paused, realizing he'd lost. He tossed his cards to the floor. "Ahhg, Damnit! Roa, throw me something strong! I just got shedding cleanup for the month."
Marta winced. Shedding clean up was basically bathroom duty. When you had four people with animal traits however, it was on par with manual labor. That included cleaning up after molting, shedded skin and overwhelming amounts of hair loss. There were only 2 bathrooms and not all the messes made it to one.
"That makes my day a little brighter." A downtrodden voice entered the room.
"Bido! You finally made it back. We were just talking about you." Marta smirked, welcoming her comrade home.
"How'd it go?" Greed craned his neck to see the cloaked chimera slump into the room.
"Pretty good I guess. Got some info." Bido responded, his tone contradicting his words. He walked through the room and plopped on the floor next to a very intricate block fort. "The Elrics kids will be visiting Dante sometime soon. Since she lives in the woods, that should be a good spot to grab the armor boy."
The girl behind the blocks smiled at him wordlessly as he sat with her. A rare sight. He felt himself smile back.
"Good work, Bido." Greed acknowledged. "Roa, get the man a drink."
The ox nodded. "You okay? You seem distracted." Roa asked, tossing the gecko a bottle, only to be shocked when it smacked the distracted short man in the face. It rolled away, tumbling a section of the aforementioned block fort to the floor. The pale girl behind it paused. She looked to each inhabitant of the bar (passive aggressively) and then wordlessly began rebuilding the fallen architecture.
"What the hell?" Marta laughed.
Bido whined and rubbed at his nose. "Warn me next time. I usually catch with my tail…" He sighed heavily. "Don't be mad...I lost it again."
"What!?" Marta exclaimed. The room seemed to become excessively lively as everyone reacted at once.
"How the hell did you do that?" Greed put an exasperated hand to his forehead.
"Take it easy. You know how he gets about his tail." Marta warned. "What happened?"
"You stopped eating last time you lost it." Roa frowned sternly.
"You've got to be kidding me! I'm going to be cleaning nonstop." Dolcetto groaned.
"He gets useless and moody whenever this happens." Greed complained. "We'll have to leave him here when we go snatch the kid."
"Sorry." Bido impossibly found a way to slump further into himself. "I don't try to wallow. It's just..." Bido lifted his cloak to look back at the stump of muscle that sat on his lower back, right above the waist of his tattered shorts. He hung his head and didn't finish his sentence.
Greed leaned his head back onto the couch. "I just don't get how you keep accidentally losing a fucking limb. This is the fourth time. I've never misplaced my own leg."
"That's a little unfair boss. You're indestructible." Dolcetto pointed out.
"It just comes off sometimes, Greed. You know that." Marta reminded, kneeling to comfort her, now handicapped companion.
"It's a defense mechanism." Roa added.
Greed rolled his eyes at the lot of them.
"Was it those brats?" Dolcetto accused. He stood to walk over to the depressed acquaintance.
"Not really. I spooked them and they caught me by the tail...so I left it." He explained bluntly. The aura of postoperative depression was enough to drag the rest of the room down.
Marta sighed. "Well it can't be helped then. You're lucky shedding duty has just been addressed then." Marta smirked, elbowing Dolcetto as he stood by her. Noone shed more than Bido, especially after losing his tail. His back was constantly peeling as his fifth extremity regrew slowly over a few weeks. New skin would push old skin aside as his wound healed and his tail grew in length, beneath layers of scabs. It was a dead skin peeling cycle until a new tail emerged raw and tender. The process was a long, uncomfortable and messy one.
"I'm Sorry." Bido drooped his face into his hands. "It was risky but I had to check-...ah!" He stood, suddenly realizing he'd omitted the piece of information he'd sacrificed a body part for. He accidentally kicked a portion of the block fort and his small companion watched it warily as it wobbled. "The Elric boy is just a soul! He doesn't have a body. It's just like Number 48, from the lab."
"Number 48? The Slicer brothers?" Roa questioned, surprised. He hadn't thought of them in a long time.
Greed was on his feet.
"Those psychopaths." Marta commented with a frown.
"Who? There was something like this at the lab?" The sin questioned, squatting down in front of his underling and the child beside him. His foot was dangerously close to an importantly balanced wooden archway.
"Geed." The toddler acknowledged upon his arrival. There was no hint of warning in her voice but Marta picked up on the intent.
The sin ignored her. "I don't remember anything like that."
Dolcetto scoffed. "Of course you don't. You wouldn't remember us either if we hadn't followed you home, Boss."
"You don't pay attention to anything unless you feel it'll be of value to you." Roa added. "I used to be forced to spar against them to test my strength and endurance. You don't pay mind to our strifes too often."
Greed shrugged guiltlessly, feeling their complaints were a fairly accurate description of him. "Did this 48 guy escape with us?"
"I'm not sure." Marta answered. "I don't think any of us have seen or heard about him since the lab."
"They wouldn't speak to us much, but they were one of the first successful experiments, like me." Bido informed. "Two brothers had were stuffed into one armor. The scientists at the lab left them in charge of intruders. I don't think they wanted to escape."
"I doubt most of us even knew there were two occupants in the suit. They didn't correspond with us unless prompted by the military. They became stagnant." Roa speculated. "Unable to grow or feel, they most likely saw themselves as nothing more than an object created to fulfill a purpose."
Marta pulled a disapproving face. "So they just gave up just because someone fiddled with their bodies? They were still alive just like us and that's all that should've mattered. They were fine with having nothing to lose."
"I think it sounds exactly like what I'm looking for. Living to fulfill my purpose without worrying about risk." Greed rubbed his hand to his chin, twisting words to his benefit.
"Do you even have a set purpose at this point, boss?" Dolcetto laughed.
"To acquire." The sin answered, matter-of-factly.
"Acquire what?"
Greed smirked, sharp teeth and ambition on display. "Everything."