Chapter 46

[Well this site has been a mess for a while, so I'm going to try reposting this chapter. I'll probably be updating a little slow to make sure it's working.]

"I'm bored," Greed announced.

"You're easily bored," Pride countered.

"No, you guys were just boring."

Not that they didn't have their moments. Greed thought of one such moment and proceeded to start laughing. It wasn't super loud or hearty, but his shoulders shook and it was enough both Tourmaline and Pride could clearly tell he was laughing. Tourmaline studiously ignored him. Pride stared at him. A dig was probably coming.

"Well, okay, you're not always boring," Greed conceded. "Remember when Envy got his tongue stuck to a lamppost and instead of just cutting it off, he carried a lamp around everywhere?"

And Greed hadn't even goaded Envy into it, that time.

Pride's lips actually quirked up a bit. "I remember the first time you saw snow, and decided each individual flake was yours. Then you grabbed them with your warm hands."

"That was my snow!" Greed shouted. Even Tourmaline paused to give him a funny look at that. He lowered his voice. "Okay, I got a little carried away. But in fairness, I actually kept a lot of that snow until Envy came around and turned it into snow cones."

It was easier to keep things cool underground after all.

"You were both-" Pride stopped abruptly. "Never mind."

What had he been about to say? Did Greed want to know? Probably not.

It got quiet again, for a little while. And Greed had no intention of going back to boredom.

"So, you think the Doctor is going to save us?" Greed asked.

"Yes." He was using that voice where he sounded like he was humoring someone, like if he had to explain the sky was blue.

Greed let it go with some difficulty. That was probably Pride's default tone. "She does this kind of thing often?"

"Well, the death traps aren't usually so literal, but that is the general idea, yes."

"And you help her? With the traveling and the saving people?" Greed . . . couldn't possibly ask without large amounts of skepticism in this voice.

"Yes," Pride said, though he was staring out at the floor, instead of Greed. It was quiet for a moment. Greed might have been having trouble processing. "If it helps, I just wanted to get off Amestris. There are worse ways to do so. Helping the Doctor was a small price to pay."

Yes that did help, and seemed more in line with Pride. But something was still missing from the explanation.

"Right. . ." Greed said.

Pride turned to him, eyes narrowed, annoyance (at best) lacing his voice. "And why shouldn't I help the Doctor? She is a time traveling alien over two thousand years old who has never lost, from what I've seen. And she actually cares what happens to me. So yes, she's coming. And we're going to leave this mess."

"Oh?" Greed caught the implication almost immediately, even if Pride hadn't meant it that way, even if Greed hadn't fully processed what it meant. The mockery slipped into Greed's voice easily. "Did you finally notice dear old Dad doesn't?"

Pride held himself even stiffer, if that was possible, though based on his tone he recovered quickly. "He was different when it was just the two of us. You wouldn't understand. But yes, I noticed. Happy?"

Greed opened his mouth, and promptly kept it open, jaw hanging like a fish. "Not as much as I thought I'd be," he admitted. He wanted to be angry. (It took Pride this long to notice?) He wanted to be happy. At the very least, this should be good to mock. But it was just weird. He'd always known it was unlikely any of his siblings would realize how terrible Father was, and Pride was the least likely. Hearing Pride admit it was like . . . was like the sky turning red forever and the world stopping to spin in the opposite direction. "I don't get it."

Pride sighed. "No, I don't know why I would expect you to."

Greed was 90% sure that was a dig.

"Never mind about that, it would be a long story and your reactions are getting old. What about you? How are you in space? And alive?"

Greed wished Pride wouldn't pester him about that. He'd been trying not to think about it. He couldn't remember, but he was trying now that he thought about it. Visions drifted into his mind. A planet, that clearly wasn't where he was created. Tech he didn't really understand, but also didn't care to learn. There were people who were happy to see him, so that was nice. But they were strangers. What happened to the people Greed knew? The last thing he remembered before that was Father struggling to hold the power of God inside him, and Greed grabbing someone to stop them from flying away. Clearly something had happened between those two events. He remembered being worried for a brief time, wondering if the humans he knew were alright.

And the funny thing was, it was coming back to him now.

"Oh. Oh."

"What is it?" Pride asked.

He actually sounded concerned, but Pride was good at acting. And why did Greed care if he was sincere or not? Had he been getting along with Pride better than usual because he wanted to, or because he was sort of programed to? (He'd already wondered if it was because he was Greed, and wanting made him not inclined to turn down a less murderous sibling.) This was giving him a headache. This was why he'd wanted to forget. He'd been enjoying his existence as unquestionably Greed before all this thank you. Apparently he could will himself to forget, but that wasn't an option now.

"You were right," Greed said, so caught up in the situation he forgot what a horrible idea it was to tell Pride he was right about anything. "I am dead."

Pride smiled smugly, sitting up straighter. "Clearly." Then he deflated slightly. "Does this mean you're not Greed?"

"I am! Or, sort of. I'm not anyone else."

"Well that clears everything up," Pride said dryly. "Spit it out Greed."

Hadn't they just decided he wasn't Greed?

"I'm a glass person."

[He's one of those things from Twice Upon a Time, if you didn't get that. I was going to rewatch that entire episode as a reference, but I didn't have the episode on hand before we got here. So based off memory and the online explanations I'm going to say the glass people can erase any information about being a glass person, but if I made any egregious errors? Well, when does Doctor Who have consistence rules anyway?]