Chapter 28:

Hansel was standing in the entryway talking cordially to Mrs. Bradley when Pride finally made his way downstairs with Kage perched on his shoulder.

Hansel's nose wrinkled at the sight of the magpie. "I have a horrible allergy to birds. It has something to do with their feathers and the oils on it." He suddenly looked nervous as he glanced around, "Does that bird have free reign in this house?"

Mrs. Bradley shot a quick look at Selim, but he shrugged and walked over to open the window. Pride tried to hide his annoyance as he held his hand to his shoulder. Kage hopped on, giving Pride the opportunity to give the bird a simple command, "Track." Kage cawed and flew away, most likely to position himself outside so he could follow Hansel when he left.

Pride smiled at Hansel, "My apologies, mister detective. Kage is a surprisingly clean bird though, magpies are known for their intellect."

The man adjusted his glasses, frowning slightly at Pride's polite manner. "I'm just not a big fan of allergic reactions."

Pride nodded, filing the information away for use later. "I understand, should we keep peanuts out of the dishes for dinner?"

Hansel's eyes narrowed, but he played along with Pride's game. "Well, I'm sure your lovely mother has prepared a delicious meal for us already. It is fortunate that I don't have a peanut allergy."

Mrs. Bradley nodded quickly, trying to separate the two from their stand-off, "I've prepared a great dinner for us."

Pride bounced on his heels, hiding his anxiety with impressive skill. His mother was on the verge of a meltdown, he could already imagine the little puffs of steam erupting from her ears. "Let's not let dinner get cold then."

Mrs. Bradley's years of cooking classes and baking always shown through in her meals. She never left out one detail, taking care to be sure that the meals look just as good as they tasted. The wide spread contained a baked chicken as the center display, surrounded by smaller dishes of vegetables and pitchers of water and tea.

Hansel grabbed the pitcher of water and eyed Pride's glass. "Would you like some more water?"

Pride almost laughed, the man wasn't even trying to be subtle. "That would be nice."

He couldn't hide his smirk as he watched the powder - poison, probably - pour out of Hansel's sleeve into his glass with the water. He could easily switch the two glasses, but that would be no fun. Hansel must have gotten in contact with Mustang fully, but he thought that Mustang had not deemed him as a threat. He really was stupid for toying with the idea that he could live in peace. He took a long drink from the glass, whatever poison it was, it shouldn't have a major effect on him and the amount that Hansel had loaded his drink with wasn't a lot.

He vaguely wondered what it was that he had just ingested, but he wasn't too worried about it.

Hansel looked almost smug from his seat at the table as the night went on.

Pride felt the beginning pangs of pain start a few hours later, this was going to be a rough week.


Mother had insisted that they sit out in the living room and talk endlessly for hours after dinner. She was probably hoping that she could get Selim to at least be cordial to the man. As if that was possible.

Pride rolled his eyes as Hansel continued the story of his first foray into Amestris, explaining how he had trekked across the desert for almost a week and had stopped in the ruins littered throughout the path for shelter. He hadn't missed Hansel watching him carefully throughout the night either - the idiot must expect poisons to work instantaneously.

Mrs. Bradley listened politely and laughed when it was necessary. "So do you know which ruins that you stopped in?"

"I would assume some of them were Xerxian, but I was never good with languages outside of Amestrian and Xingese." Hansel replied with a grin, "There's a reason why I'm the dignitary for Amestris and Xing."

"Doesn't the emperor speak Amestrian as well though?" Selim asked, feigning ignorance.

Hansel nodded slowly, "He certainly can't be expected to travel back and forth between Xing and Amestris constantly though." He stood up, excusing himself to find a bathroom. "Excuse me for one moment."

Pride sat back; his limbs were beginning to feel slightly numb - probably from sitting for so long. He glanced around before standing up to search for his book.

A low creak echoed from above his head - the bathroom was only around the corner, definitely not up the stairs. He sighed, sometimes humans really were so simpleminded. He wasn't stupid enough to leave anything incriminating out in the open, not that he actually had many incriminating things. "I believe I left my book in my room." He said calmly, proceeding down the narrow hallway and up the dark stairwell.

Mrs. Bradley didn't move to stop him, she had no reason to. She was aware that something was completely off with this dinner visit, but she couldn't do anything without it seeming like she was paranoid.

Pride was careful to be as silent as possible as he proceeded up the stairs. His legs were still numb, but that only served to delay him - not stop him. Hansel wasn't even trying to be discreet now, openly bouncing his heel on the floorboards in a search for a loose board. Selim leaned into his room and fixed a look of confusion on his face, "The bathroom is downstairs, I didn't think it was that hard to find..."

Hansel straightened his glasses and laughed, "I knew something was off when I found a bed instead of a toilet."

"I'm sure it's a common mistake with you." Hansel was completely oblivious to the shadow growing behind him. Pride had had enough.

Dinner was over.

The shadow struck, knocking out Hansel with striking precision as the Xingese man slumped to the floor. Pride looked at the man, then at his door. It now seemed like a better idea to have had Hansel walk himself to a better place to knock him out. What was done was done though, and Pride easily manipulated his shadows to carry the man out of his room and partially down the stairs. He carried him the rest of the way for his mother's sake.

"I believe Hansel had too much to drink, Mother." Selim commented, "That must have been rice wine that he had tucked in that container in his sleeve. I found him passed out in my room of all places."

Mrs. Bradley looked disapproving, whether it was with him or Hansel was debatable. "I'll go call a taxi for him. And then I'll be calling Mustang, this cannot be happening again if he expects me to host guests!"

Selim felt a rush of relief hit him, she must not have figured it out. She truly was oblivious to it all despite her knowledge.

His mother paused as she walked out of the room to call Mustang, "And Selim, aiming for the neck is much easier than the back of the head."


Author's Note: Sorry this took me so long! And it really isn't long enough to justify the wait, but know that what you are seeing here is ten billion times better than what I originally had written. Really. One day I might post all the deleted scenes if I find them laying around somewhere. As always, a HUGE thank you to everyone who has reviewed/favorited/followed! And a huge thank you to Shocotate as well for beta-ing!

Left-to-die: You're not reading into it at all! It was a neat little thing I decided to do when I realized that I couldn't call him Pride all the time, but he wasn't Selim either anymore. So the odd character shift/role thing was born! He'll normally be acting in a kind way or more human when he's referred to as Selim and what not. Normally people don't notice it, or they just don't mention it, but either way congrats on being the second person to notice that!

Undeadmonkey8: Thank you! I love gray areas like that, you can sympathize with both sides so that makes it all the more difficult to decide who's in the right here. Pride just finds it annoying. Incredibly annoying. I'm sure Mustang feels the same way though.

Krazyfanfiction1: Heh, he has no moral quarrels with eating people for the sake of protecting his mother or a friend (as rare as those are for him). So he really has no need to attempt it. I feel like the souls aren't quite that substantial for him to be able to do that. It could be possible with an alchemic array but I feel that would be taboo for any of our known alchemists to test. And thank you!

Gamma Cavy: It's slowly thickening, slowly... And thank you!

The Keeper of Worlds: Fluff is always cute. But Pride won't give that flashlight to her for the sake of fluff. He's far too stubborn for me to get him to do that. He would find some way to rebel, like it turns out the flashlight that he gave her was broken or something. Huh... That's an idea... That's a very interesting idea that your review gave me, thank you!