The 8th Sin
-Father, part 1-
Ah... So tired... When I was writing out the draft for chapter 9, 10 and 11 last night, there were a lot of things that I couldn't sort out and I ended up dumping all three chapter drafts down the drain... Hopefully so far this story hasn't been boring to all you readers out there.
Anyway, I'm suffering from a headache as I type this chapter down, but I'm feeling well enough to type down a really nice-looking scene in this chapter. :)
Please R&R!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Rin was working in his room, with John already half-asleep on his bed with a book over his face and his arms folded behind his head, he thought he saw something moving out of the corner of his eyes. Looking up from his papers and out of the window which wasn't too far away from his table, he only saw the dark night and the lights from the lamp posts outside looking back at him. He frowned and pushed a lock of his long bangs behind his ear, dismissing it as just a fragment of his imagination.
Melody had just finished sorting out a stack of papers that Rin had done and wiped the sweat off her brow with her handkerchief, "Hey Rin, are you sure it's safe to stick two homunculi in the same room? Since when have you trusted her anyway? You were all the rage to just kill her back in the HQ."
Rin put his pen down and stood up, walking towards his painting. He picked up a few brushes and his palette, sitting down in his favorite stool and started painting again, trying to relieve himself of some stress, "I don't know, Melody... I've never felt this way towards someone before. I mean, yeah, when I first met her, I felt like killing her. My father, according to a lot of people, was killed by a creature that was neither a human nor a chimera. Then, through more investigation, I found out about homunculi. Incomplete humans who were neither human nor chimera."
Melody just watched as her friend added a touch of red to the mouth of a lion, devouring its prey. His shoulders were trembling, as were his hands as he dropped his brush in defeat, "I don't know what to do... I feel like I'm hypnotized when I'm with her... But then, I can't deny my own feelings for her. I like her, Melody. Too much... too much that it's confusing me..." he said shakily, dropping his palette to the ground and covering his face with his hands guiltily.
The red-haired alchemist behind him had a pained look on her face. She had feelings for Rin for the longest time, but she wasn't brave enough to tell him anything. She stood up and walked over to him, wrapping her hands around him in an attempt to stop the trembling. A tear had slipped out of the corner of her eye as she whispered in his ear,
"It's alright... just do what your heart tells you to. No one will blame you for your judgment. I'll be cheering you on, no matter what. Just remember that," she stroked his hair gently, wiping her tears away with her fingers.
John, who was on the bed, saw the whole thing. He wasn't exactly asleep, but he just watched them in silence, still pretending to be sleeping. His mind wandered off to his late younger sister, and to the event that led to him losing his right eye, forcing him to replace it with an automail eye. He decided not to think it over too much and closed his eyes, letting the two other occupants of the room their privacy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Downstairs, Freesia had somehow managed to keep Greed in a conversation long enough for her to discover that there were all in all, seven homunculi excluding her and in a slip of tongue (was the grape juice kept too long that it became wine?), he mentioned that a woman named Dante would dispose of him as soon as she saw him for running away from her.
"Dante..." Freesia repeated, in a half-drunken state. Her cheeks were a shade of pink and her head was now on the table, resting on her arms. Well, naturally, being a homunculus, it took her a much shorter time to recover from her drunken state. Unfortunately for her, she learnt nothing from the name itself as her mind wasn't functioning properly at the time.
It didn't take the two long to stop drinking and go to the living room to cool off instead. It was rather stuffy in the kitchen, so the cooler living room was a good change. Both of them were extremely bored and a bit groggy from the little drinking binge, sitting on either ends of a long couch meant for three people, their situations worsened with the addition of a developing headache. Freesia wasn't in a particularly good shape, strong regenerative abilities or none she ended up falling sideways and resting her head in Greed's lap.
It was quite normal for him as countless drunken girls always seem to have the tendency of doing that when they couldn't take anymore alcohol in their systems and unconsciously, his hand had gone down to touch her head. He allowed a few strands of her hair to slip through his fingers, soft and smooth in his touch.
She sighed as he repeated the process, feeling that the little gesture made her feel warm and fuzzy inside and said without thinking, "You're nice, Greed... I don't think you... (Hic!) Deserve the name... I think that's why I like you..." he stopped stroking her hair at that point and as if reading his mind, she turned over so she'd be lying down on her back, looking up at the muscular homunculus with glazed over eyes and smiling at him, her cheeks still bright pink. Whether she was drunk or merely embarrassed by what she had just said, he wouldn't know.
He smiled at her little confession. Drunken or not, he knew she'd meant it and ruffled her hair affectionately, earning a little giggle from the younger homunculi in his lap, "Aren't you a little too young for romance," it was more of a statement than a question and Freesia just replied by getting into a more comfortable position, snuggling into him so her face was in his side.
Well, that was enough of an answer for him. As he sat there, doing particularly nothing but watch his companion slowly doze off, a sound from outside reached his ears. He may not be completely sober, but he knows an intruder when he hears one. He turned to look at the window over his shoulder and saw a pair of red, slitted eyes glaring back at him hungrily, the owner of those menacing eyes breathing raggedly, both clawed hands pressed onto the windowpane. It was clearly a chimera, even if its whole being couldn't be seen through the curtains.
Greed stared wide-eyed at the creature, wondering how a beast such as the one he was looking at could be out here in the open. The next few moves were completely by reflex. The beast had released an angry war cry and broke through the window with its claws extended, intending to rip Greed apart. Without actually thinking, the homunculus had put his shield up and jumped away from the couch with Freesia in his arms, who was sleeping like a log.
Looking down at where the chimera had scratched him, he saw three faint claw marks. Whatever this thing was, it wasn't one to be underestimated. The chimera had knocked a table over, getting up on all fours and growling at him. The creature held one hand out, eyes locked on the girl Greed held in his arms and rasped,
"Lilith...!"
Now this was freaky. A chimera that can mistaken Freesia for its own child? It advanced towards the Ultimate Shield, who was unfazed by its actions and was glaring at the creature as if daring it to take another step. When it came too close, Greed kicked it back forcefully and with a howl, it fell to the floor with a heavy thud.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rin heard a window break. HIS window, to be exact. Melody released him as she heard the noise too and John sat up almost immediately, tossing the book he had on his face carelessly aside, "That sounds like trouble," he said off-handedly, getting up and grabbing a rod from his belt.
"Oh? Sounds more like a chimera breaking into a house to me," said a slurred voice. The three State Alchemists turned and faced the window that was the closest to John and saw a young man perched up on the windowsill with a smug smirk on his face. If the situation wasn't so tense, John would have ended up laughing at the man's ridiculous hairdo, but he didn't.
"Who are you?" Rin asked, using a pencil to draw an alchemic circle and using it to create a jamadhar. The stranger stepped inside casually and leaned against the windowsill.
"Just someone coming out in search of some fun," he said with a smirk as he eyed Melody hiding behind Rin in amusement.
"'Fraid you got the wrong place," John growled, charging his rod with electricity and lunged forwards to hit the palm tree. Even with the lack of space, he managed to cartwheel out of the way, landing on Rin's table and ruining some of his work.
Rin stared wide-eyed as he saw his hard work being trampled on, "Get off of my table!" he cried, swinging his jamadhar at the flexible young man at an incredible speed. Their guest didn't evade the move completely though. There was a large cut on his arm as he stepped away from the alchemists' range of attack.
He looked mildly impressed, "I never expected you to be able to alter the speed in which your body moves. Applying alchemy on your own body so it would be more streamlined and would move faster," the olive-haired young man smirked as his wound closed before their very eyes.
"A homunculus..." Melody said, leaning on the wall closest to her as she was armless and probably the only alchemist in the room who can't use the alchemy she specializes in.
"I'll ask again; who are you?" Rin now hand two jamadhars, one on each hand and both were ready for battle. One of his arms felt a bit numb as a result of his alchemy. It was a price he had to pay for improving his body condition and at the rate this was going, his arm was going to be that way for at least fifteen minutes.
"Well, since you all are so interested, I may as well tell you. As that pretty face pointed out, I'm a homunculus. My name's Envy," he said smugly, smirking at the alchemists standing before him.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Downstairs, Greed had long put Freesia down to confront the angry chimera who was now fighting claw and tooth to get to her, calling her 'Lilith' throughout the fight. This chimera was no normal chimera as it could leave scratches on even Greed's shield. He could easily knock the beast down, but for some reason, it just keeps on coming back for more. At one point, Greed just had to stumble over a chair that 'conveniently' placed itself behind him and made him fall flat on his back and the creature wasted no time in attacking the temporarily 'defenseless' homunculus.
It brought down its paws to slash through Greed's face, but he was faster. He grabbed its slender forearms and kicked it off of him forcefully. It fell back with a yelp and Greed picked himself up, panting. Gosh, he'd forgotten the last time he'd fought this long and hard against a mere chimera. Oh wait, this was the first time. When Greed saw where the beast had landed, he cursed under his breath.
Freesia got up slowly, shaking her head as she did so and looked around. The living room was a total mess, "What the...?"
Standing mere inches away from her was the very same chimera that Greed had been fighting off and as soon as it saw her, it called out that unfamiliar name again, "Li-Lilith...!" It reached out one paw towards her, as if to touch her and she just sat there, frozen. The world around her seemed to be at a standstill at the mention of the name.
Flashes of her previous life appeared before her eyes in an instant. The face of the smiling man she had recalled once in Dublith, walking hand-in-hand with her parents, being bed-ridden due to a disease, all those childhood memories came to her before she recalled an important memory; the day she died.
/Flashback/
It may not have been possible for someone to recall the events on the day they die, nor does she know anyone who has ever done it before. She was about four or five then and was born as a very weak child.
She was cradled in her father's arms, her breathing coming in short gasps as her lungs were slowly failing her. Beads of sweat ran down the sides of her face as she fought to live on, but there was no hope. The doctor had left not too long ago, saying that there was nothing he could do for her. Freesia couldn't remember for the life of her if her mother was there at her side, but her father was there for her, crying. The father whom she thought would always be cheerful and never shed a tear.
Her eyesight was getting more blurred now as everything starting fading out, "I can't see you, father..." she breathed, her small hands gripping her father's loose shirt as he hugged her.
"It's alright Lilith... Father's still here... I won't let you go..." he whispered, his whole being shuddering at the knowledge that his only child was dying before his very eyes.
"Father...? Where... are you...?" she asked as her eyes fluttered close and she drew her last breath, a lone tear running down the side of her face, mingling with her sweat. Everything went blank.
/End of Flashback/
Freesia's eyes welled up with tears as she looked at the chimera in front of her, "Father..." she breathed, tears escaping from the corners of her eyes.
She held her hand up to touch the chimera, but before she did, Greed had rammed the beast into a wall, thinking that it meant to hurt her. She snapped out of her trance when she realized what was happening.
"What are you waiting for? Move it!" Greed shouted at her over his shoulder, holding the chimera off to give her some time to move out of his way while he fought it off. But what she did next was something totally unexpected. The small-framed homunculus walked up to him and hugged him from behind, burying her face in his back,
"Let him go..." she cried, her tears flowing freely now.
Greed looked at her in disbelief, "What? Are you out of your mind?" he growled.
She shook her head, "Greed, that creature... he... he's my father..."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hahaha! I felt good when I finished this chapter! (Laughs away like a maniac)
I hope you guys feel good to when you finish reading. Tell me what you think and I'll see what I can do to make you still feel good after reading chapter 10. )
Read and Review!