Central almost managed to look pretty from this up high.
The floodlights that lit up the massive walls of Central High Command in the distance were pillars of white against the overcast night sky, the dim street lamps that lined the streets looked as small as lanterns and the humans that scuttled like ants far below could just as well be non-existent.
To their mild surprise, Envy was having a good time. They leaned back in their chair, legs stretched out and propped in their big brother's lap, and let themselves enjoy the sensation of Greed's cool hands caressing their bare calves and massaging their small feet.
It had been an eventful evening. A little relaxation was in order.
"I must admit," they drawled at Greed, instantly capturing his attention, "I am a little impressed."
He flashed them a sharp smile, deft, strong fingers working their wonders.
"All in a day's work, sweet cheeks," he said, sounding awfully pleased with himself.
But, then again, he had earned that right. At least for tonight.
When they had left the lair the sun had still been high in sky, beating down on Central in a striking contrast with the dark mood that had gripped both of them.
Neither of them had liked being denied vengeance.
Neither of them had had a choice.
After they had emerged from below Central High Command, Greed had quickly appropriated a car. The sleek vehicle no doubt belonged to some human, likely one of the many big shots in the military, but such details meant little to their older brother. Forcing his way inside and taking off without the keys for the ignition had seemed like a child's play for him. And then the two Homunculi were out of there, leaving only a trail of smoke and the smell of burnt tires.
Greed had told them not to assume an entirely new disguise and so they had just modified their usual outfit. The skort and the cropped top had been melded into an elegant black dress that reached down to just above their knees and their feet had been tucked into fashionable heels. Envy had removed their headband and had styled their wild hair into something more manageable and inconspicuous, and had also added just a touch of feminine softness to their otherwise perfectly androgynous appearance, but they were still more or less recognizable in their favorite form.
Greed had leered at them unrepentantly as he drove them around Central.
Envy had tried not to enjoy feeling the weight of their brother's heated stare. They were still cross with him, and their mood was still sour because of Lust. Envy remembered what Greed had told them, how killing Hughes had been a mistake because it had shaken Mustang into action… and a part of them could not deny that this had turned out true.
Envy's attempt to clean up the mess and placate the Flame Alchemist by framing Maria Ross for the death of the posthumously promoted Brigadier General had backfired spectacularly and now Lust was dead.
Because of them.
And if that wasn't bad enough, Father and Pride had outright ordered them not to take any action. Just sit there, mind their own business and wait it out.
No wonder that Greed was riled up and wanted out of the stifling dark of the underground lair.
What was odd that they would have expected him to have some biting remark, something snippy and cruel to say that would remind them that he was right and they had been wrong, and that they were partly to blame for Lust's destruction.
Instead he was staring at them like he considered stopping the car somewhere away from prying eyes and having his way with them right there and then.
It was obscene and bizarre, and vexing, and it was making them all nice and hard under the silky dress.
It always felt good to be wanted.
But they still hadn't forgotten how he had humiliated them with his casual remark about his own infidelity. A century ago this had happened with disgusting regularity. He would seduce human women on the side, and Envy would inevitably find out and then those women turned up slaughtered… if they turned up at all. Murdering humans who Greed the Avaricious considered his possessions was almost as insulting to him as being on the receiving end of Greed's adultery was for Envy the Jealous. At the end nobody derived any pleasure from this. Greed was pissed off because Envy kept killing his whores, Envy was pissed off because by being with his whores Greed kept making a fool of them, and Greed's whores kept getting murdered so it had been no fun all around.
Envy knew on some level that it couldn't be helped. Greed was made a certain way, and so was Envy. It was in his nature to be sexually rapacious just like it was in Envy's to be effortlessly provoked into fits of jealousy and possessiveness.
That's how their Father had wanted them to be.
It didn't make it any easier but, again, there wasn't a whole lot they could do about it either. Greed couldn't change his ways any more than the wolf could swear off from devouring the sheep.
In a sick way, when Greed left, it had almost been like a vacation for Envy. Yes, it meant loneliness and for the most part they had missed him and had been angered… but it had also meant a century of relative emotional peace. At least, without Greed, when Envy killed humans they did it for their own amusement or on Father's orders, not out of the bitterness of a neglected lover.
Even with all that in mind, however, they still couldn't bring themselves to let him off the hook.
Not yet.
"Watch the road," they had reprimanded him with a smirk instead.
The sky had turned purple and the sun had set when Greed had finally stopped the car.
"I like this one," he had nodded to a building across the street.
Huh?
Envy had leaned over the driver's seat and Greed's broad chest to take a look.
They were looking at the "Crown" hotel. Envy knew it was a fancy place. Rich humans frequented it, and it was nicely built. In recent decades, even after Ishval, Amestris had amassed quite the wealth thanks to its tendency of annexing neighboring nations and winning wars. Wrath was willing to let some of it trickle down and make its way to the people of this country. Eventually, it made their operations smoother, or so he claimed. "Crown" was one of the places for those humans who had managed to take advantage of the trickle over the generations.
It was not a place for common riffraff, was what Envy could pretty much summarize.
But what had Greed wanted with it?
His violet eyes glinted predatorily in the dusk as he gazed at the colorful lights that graced the casino adjoined to the hotel.
They ended up having to transform their outfit once more, draping themselves into a black evening gown, not dissimilar to the one Lust had worn, but not nearly as revealing since Envy didn't see it fit to grow a pair of huge breasts, nor had Greed requested it.
He, on the other hand, simply strode into the casino with just his usual clothes, the sleeveless jacket with the lapels of white fur, the black leather pants and the elegant pointy shoes. His gait had been absurdly confident and one of his muscular arms lay draped across Envy's narrow waist.
The looks of shock on the faces of the dumb, heavily perfumed humans were priceless.
What happened after was still a blur of human gaudiness for Envy, even hours later.
The best analogy they could have come up with if asked was that the "Crown" casino was like a temple, and Greed was its god.
It was almost like he was everywhere at once, doing and saying things that Envy understood only tangentially. But what they knew was that he had been the very image of charisma that night, charisma strengthened by the absolute conviction that he knew exactly what he was doing… unlike anyone else there, be it Envy or the guests and staff alike.
By the time Greed had started to play an obnoxiously tedious card game against one of the dealers, a small crowd had formed around, ooh-ing and ahh-ing every time Greed managed to pull off something that apparently was considered impressive in those circles. Envy was not big on human proximity, especially in groups, but Greed was soaking it all in, lips curved in a crooked smile as he won round after round against the hapless bug of a human.
His ego must have been going through the roof.
This had been when Envy, as they stood there like a black-clad concubine on his arm, had realized that Greed had started to amass a tiny fortune.
Was that it? He was in a bad mood and so he had decided to come here and indulge in his love for money?
How… disappointingly mundane.
Only Greed didn't stop. He kept playing.
And he kept winning.
And didn't that mean that the casino kept losing?
When the humans finally decided to do something about it, Greed had already torn his way through the baccarat and the blackjack, and the roulette. Currently he was residing at the craps table, a mountain of brightly colored coin-like things the humans called "chips" piled before him. The buzzing murmur of the onlookers was nearly suffocating at this point.
He had shaken a palm full of dice in front of Envy's face.
"Here," he had said, "Blow on them for luck, sweetheart," his grin had been almost manic but his eyes, strangely, were so calm they seemed serene.
Envy had narrowed their purple gaze at him above the glass of martini he had ordered on their behalf.
Things weren't adding up. Greed was putting on a good front, and Envy did not doubt that he had the humans fooled, but he was not a shapeshifting master of disguise.
Envy was.
And they could tell that their big brother was playing a role. A cocky stranger who had an incredible stroke of luck and was soon lost in the warm haze of sudden gambling addiction. The question was… why? Their curiosity was piqued.
So they played along, leaning to gently do as they were bid, watching Greed right in the eyes.
The dice were rolled. Greed won. Again.
And then, as the dealer was busy shoveling another mound of chips towards Greed, a few tall humans dressed in dark suits elbowed their way in, surrounded them and demanded to be followed.
To Envy's surprise Greed had pretended to be confused and eagerly agreed, grabbing Envy's hand and dragging them along as he began asking the human thugs what the problem was.
The problem was clear even to Envy, with all their inexperience with casinos. Greed had won far too much for his own good. They either suspected some sort of foul play, or were just fed up with losing money, petty humans as they were. This was going to turn ugly soon. There was no way that Greed hadn't realized it.
Which meant that he wanted it to happen. And he wanted Envy to be with him when it did.
The humans led them out of the casino's inner entrance and into the hotel's lobby, and from there all of them promptly mounted a lift and ascended up, towards the last floor of the "Crown".
It was almost surreal for Envy. And a little funny. As if the humans and the Homunculi were acting out two completely different scripts whilst being on the same stage. The body language and the repulsive faces of the humans suggested that they expected fear and panic. Envy felt no worry about their own safety whatsoever. They could dispatch the five burly humans with one hand while suppressing a yawn with the other. Likewise, as soon as he had left the casino Greed had dropped the simpleton act and was now simply leaning casually against the wall of the lift. He seemed content.
If Envy was to guess, it was because those thugs were leading them exactly where he wanted to go.
Which, apparently, had been the personal office of the human who was in charge of the hotel and the casino below.
The guy was dressed in a dapper suit and elegant shoes, but in Envy's opinion he seemed just as sleazy and slimy as every other human.
The twin doors of the office had been shut behind them and the five thugs formed a loose half-circle around the two Homunculi. No doubt still expecting that intimidation was in order.
And it was. Just not in the ways they thought.
The rich human, still sitting behind his desk (Wrath's was bigger, Envy noticed with amusement), had opened his mouth, just itching to go into a threatening monologue against the man who had gotten too lucky for his own good and his pretty squeeze, but Greed had no patience for such nonsense.
"You the one who owns this joint?" he had interrupted him immediately, voice all smoothness and insolence.
"Better speak with more respect," one of the thugs had grumbled, "You're in deep enough shit alr-"
This was when Greed had vaulted over the desk, his Ultimate Shield kicking in, and grabbed the rich guy by the throat.
Envy had twirled around, their slender arms turning into curved steel blades and had started to carve their way through the five goons with inhuman speed.
It took less than a minute.
The last human managed to pull out a handgun and take a shot at Greed's back before Envy leapt over the corpse of his friend and skewered him through the ribs, their arm-blade pushing into flesh and bone and blood until they reached his heart. The bullet simply ricocheted off the Ultimate Shield with a metallic clang and shattered an expensive-looking vase.
"So," Greed had purred, the rich human whimpering in his hold. His back was against the wall and his legs kicked feebly and pitifully as he dangled in Greed's grip. "I believe I asked you a question, little man."
"What are you?!" Envy could see him shaking like a leaf, hands scratching uselessly against the Ultimate Shield. "What do you want?"
"I want everything," Greed's grin looked so sinister when his head was covered in the carbon armor that Envy, fingers wet with human blood, felt a wave of arousal washing inside. "But for now I'll settle for this nice hotel of yours."
"M-monsters... I'll... I'll tell everyone! I'll kill you! I'll go to the Führer, I'll..."
"Oh really?" Envy had cut into the conversation as they took a step towards Greed and the struggling human. A flash of red light sizzled all over their body and suddenly they looked like an identical twin of the last thug they killed. "And who, pray tell," they took another step and another face. This time of Wrath's, all stoic and regal in his uniform, "Who will ever believe you?" When they reached Greed they transformed again, and now the dumbass was staring at his own sleazy mug.
His body had decided that this was the best time to relieve its bladder and soil the expensive suit.
Detestable humans.
Greed let out a disgusted grunt and just dropped the shitstain on the floor.
From there it went easier.
It was really interesting how swiftly humans could act when the fear was savage enough. Envy and Greed had made a complete mockery of everything this creature knew about the world and the laws of nature. His mind had been numb with such utter confusion that he had been practically a vegetable at first, and so Envy had had to take a look around the office, and when they noticed a framed photograph of a woman with a trio of snotty children, they knew they had what they needed to snap the human out of it.
"You better do as we say," they drawled and took the appearance of the smallest child, just like she looked in the photo, "Or next time we'll meet you at your house."
That shocked him into action well enough and after a late night phone call and less than two hours, the three of them went into an adjacent room on the same floor where the human's solicitor had arrived to take care of all paperwork that transferred ownership of the "Crown" hotel to Greed.
And just like that, an evening in the casino and five dead humans later, Greed had simply taken this human's livelihood away. Almost as easily as snapping his fingers.
It reminded Envy of the times before he left and, despite themselves, they realized they wanted him tonight and screw everything else.
Especially Greed. Though not in the same way.
Envy didn't forget to make a quick call to Wrath's private line at his office – it was barely after midnight so he was still at work, pretending to be the industrious King Bradley, and had him send Gluttony over through the sewers so he could have a snack and get rid of the bodies of the humans they killed.
They were somewhat evasive on what had actually happened and just suggested it had been a way to blow off steam because of Lust.
It wasn't really a lie.
Wrath didn't sound terribly pleased, and Envy suspected that Greed was going to get an earful from Father eventually, but tonight life was fun.
And then, it was time for the two Hominculi to retire in the penthouse of Greed's new hotel.
Now they were sitting together on the outrageously big balcony overlooking the city below, sipping millions worth of cenz in expensive champagne, enjoying the sight and each other's company.
Central almost managed to look pretty from this up high.
I felt like this is something that Greed would do, both as a way to blow off some steam and as a subtle middle finger to his father and the more controlling siblings, demonstrating that he'll still do whatever he wants despite being ordered around. The world is his oyster, after all. Realistically speaking, Bradley would probably clean up the mess somehow in a day or two, but Greed has made his point and has had his fun.
Also, it's not based in any way of an already existing scene so that gave me some freedom.
Things will pick up next time when Envy and Greed will have to face Ed, Al and Ling as the heroes make their first appearance in this story!
Peace!