Just Like Him

After Wrath loses his mother (Sloth), Envy tries his best to help him heal mentally and physically. But while acting the big brother the palm tree starts healing wounds of his own. (Slight spoilers. Will probably end up a 3-shot. The name will make sense later.)

Disclaimer: I don't own FMA. Yeaheaaah.

Wow. This is the first time I've been here as an author for a while. My other story... is... horrible! XP Wrote it a looong time ago...

Right now I'm trying to figure out how to update and load well (re-figure out) so bear with me, kay?

Ch. 1 – Why?

Envy walked into the room and sighed. He was still there. The poor kid had been there for hours. He ran a pale hand through his trademarked palm tree hair and looked down at the child. "Don't take it too hard, kid. She wasn't your real mom. There will be lots of other Sloths to take care of you."

Wrath screeched, tears running down his charred face. He covered his ears and fell face-first into the puddle that was the maternal homunculus, his face and raven locks sizzling as they were dissolved by the acid. "Shut up! Just... shut... up. She was mommy. They killed mommy!"

Envy walked over to him and put a hand on the child's shoulder. "Shh..." He eased the child out of the chemicals. "That won't bring her back."

Wrath glared at her. "I don't care. And you don't understand. Noone understands!" He cringed as Envy ran a hand through the messy black hair, his burnt flesh stretching and peeling with each movement. "They don't understand. She wasn't their mommy. So how could they understand?" His voice dropped to a barely audible whisper as he spoke.

"But you're wrong, Wrath. She was their mommy."

Wrath gasped, half in horror and half to keep in the sobbing noises. "But... how? Why did they kill her? Why?"

Envy laughed weakly. "Because they made her this way. A homunculus. A freak like us, who only survives to try and gain what they lost: life. So..." Envy sighed once again, anger and frustration replacing the pity he had shown a moment before. "They hunted her down and put her out of her misery. Just like a wild animal." He spat out the word 'animal' as if it were something foul tasting.

"Envy-san?" Wrath asked, sitting next to the homunculus and leaning his head against the elder's shoulder and ignoring the protests grumbled under his breath. "Tell me the story of how mommy became one of us."

Envy ruffled the boy's hair. "Alright, ni-chan." he gave a short, cold laugh as he used the affectionate name for Wrath. "I'll tell you."

"Once upon a time there was an okay housewife named Trisha. She was a bit plain, and human, but okay nonetheless. She was even sort of nice. She lived a peaceful, boring mortal life. Then she met a nasty old demonic man who whispered sweet lies in her ear and made her fall in love, though the feeling wasn't mutual. He was fat and ugly and blonde and greedy and power hungry and-" Wrath whimpered. Envy looked down and gasped softly. He had clamped down on Wrath's shoulder in fury as he spoke of the man. A pink handprint marked the already discolored flesh and blood trickled slowly from half-moon fingernail slices.

Envy gave a weak smile. "Here," he took out a white box and pulled a bottle of peroxide from it. "Even a homunculus's metabolism can't handle those burns. Let me help you."

Wrath stared at the bottle. "Will it hurt?"

Envy shook his head. "First aid helps, baka." Wrath nodded and sat in front of the palm tree as he put the healing fluid onto his 'little brother's' back. They stayed that way for some time, Wrath cringing at the stinging peroxide and Envy struggling to keep him still.

They did, that is, until Wrath dared to ask, "What was the mean man's name, ni-san?"

Envy froze for what seemed like forever. "Hohenheim."

"What? You mean the boss was daddy?"

Envy pounded his free hand on the cold cement as he yelled. "No! Never call him boss and never, ever call him your father! He is a monster!" He inhaled and exhaled deeply, shuddering in anger as he did.

"Yes. His name... was Hohenheim. He and Trisha created a pair of little demonlets together. After he was through with her, the bad man left. Without a father to guide them, the little devils Elric grew up to be just like him. And that's why I hate them." Envy shook his head as he patched the little one's side with gauze.

"And what happened to momm- Trisha?" Wrath inquired, correcting himself to avoid the rage of Envy.

"Trisha took care of her boys, who became alchemist prodigies. She loved them until she died. Murdered, actually. In a desperate but selfish and foolish attempt to bring her back, the Elric brothers learned advanced alchemy from someone called Isumi-sensei. Your birthmother." Wrath's mouth dropped open as he heard the word 'mother,' so suddenly that his skin cracked along the side of his face and began to bleed. Envy mopped it up before he continued. "Then they tried to ressurect Trisha. They, as every Philosopher stone-less man before them, failed. She became one of us, and worked for us. She took you in as her own child until... this." Envy gestured to the Sloth-puddle and turned Wrath around to repair his front.

"Thank you!" Wrath burst out as Envy wrapped up a nasty-looking bruise on the boy's forehead with a fresh roll of white cloth.

Envy's eyes went wide with surprise. "Why? What for?"

"For this."

"For healing you? Well, someone needed to do it, Squirt, and I just happen to be on clean-up duty today." He pushed a few ebony hairs from his new friend's face.

"Not just that." Wrath shook his head. "For telling me all this. You helped me understand my mom's past better. And now I know a little more about me, too." Wrath smiled. "But ni-san? I have just one question:"

"Why do you hate Ed and Al and Hohenheim so much?"

Envy paused a moment, trying to figure out how to react. Laughter suddenly flowed from his mouth, sounding hysterical this time instead of cold, sarcastic, or angry. A single tear slowly flowed from one of the violet orbs, running down his face to his chin.

"You really want to know why?"

Yeah... They're pretty angsty in this. But how else can I keep them in character in this situation, eh? I'll post the next chapter if I get... 5 reviews? Yeah. Flames are accepted. What do I care? XD

Till next time...

-Ducky

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