A/N: Officially ending the holiday arc with some form of angst; may return to the arc though if inspiration strikes...
Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist does not belong to me.
Drabble 19: Calm Before the Storm
They'd be leaving in the morning, and Greed wanted to take one last walk through Resembool.
That was what led him to pad up that snowy hill and find her, Ultimate Tsunami, staring blankly into the distance, looking positively miniscule in her ivy green coat. Just as blankly, Greed realized he never truly learned the name of this new Homunculus during her last threatening visit to the now non-existent bar back in Dublith. This time around though, she wasn't threatening at all; if she was, she wouldn't have bothered trying to start a normal conversation.
"You're standing where the bedroom used to be."
Well, a conversation bordering on normality.
"Was I?" Greed asked thoughtfully as he stepped forward, his thoughts rammed into overdrive; apparently, this hill once bore a house, a house in which Ultimate Tsunami used to live in, and the Elric boys said they had burned their house down, in which they had performed the taboo of human transmutation...it wasn't difficult for things to fall into place.
"Now you're in the hall."
"Where are you?"
"...Hell."
"Ah," began Greed as he stood next to his Homunculus sister, staring not into nothingness like her, but at the stars, which were warm and inviting. "The room where you died, I assume?"
"No, no, the room where I was reborn." He nodded, and finally she turned to him, her eyes no longer blank, but filled with something odd. Took him a minute to realize it was understanding, and another minute to realize he shared the same look.
"...A scream was the first thing I heard."
"Something to really test those new ears, eh?" She actually smiled a little.
"Me," Greed continued, deciding he should return the favor and share some of his own early memories. "Me, I was born in a mansion."
"How fortunate, born into a life of luxury and status." He just threw his head back and laughed, long and hard.
"...Why are we not fighting?" Greed never thought her voice could ever be so meek.
"Well, you haven't attacked."
"Then why haven't you?" She was glaring now, frustrated.
"Like I said, you haven't attacked."
"...It won't be the same next time." The glare was gone, replaced by the earlier blankness.
"Wasn't expecting it to be, Darling," he replied smoothly, his voice teasing.
"Please," she sneered, looking more like the Homunculus who had stepped so arrogantly into his bar that first time. "Call me Sloth."
"Well Sloth," Greed said in a mock-sneer, settling back into care-free when he finished with, "Merry Christmas to you." He began padding back down the hill, only freezing in solid shock when her voice commanded, "Wait. Don't go Greed. Not yet."
And so he returned to her, and they both nestled into the snow more comfortably, and he showed her constellations in the sky from where he laid, and she sat in rapt attention. How much time passed, they couldn't really say.
"...Your bones aren't in your grave, are they?"
"...Dante had them removed long ago."
That was their last exchange. Obliviously, both Greed and Sloth traveled on the same train the next morning, though each had their different drop-off points. Yet, both Homunculi were filled with confusion, but again that too was different; Greed's turmoil was no less than Sloth's, but he wasn't being slowly driven insane like she was.
A/N: More Sloth-Greed interaction, thus in continuity with drabble 8. I hope the scene didn't seem awkward, especially since I've been looking forward to writing it for a while, and in the end, I think it turned out well. Although, still on the fence thinking of Sloth/Greed, if there even be any, and if there is any, how far it will go...
