Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist, and this story is not for profit.

Author's Note: I would really like to thank everyone who favorited and followed the last chapter. I promise this chapter would not have been up so fast if it weren't for all of you, especially everybody who reviewed: GrumpyCatWriter101, Anonymous J, and Vorazlov28. You guys are amazing!

Three

It was a slow, lazy day at The Devil's nest. Greed hated these types of days. There wasn't really anything for him, or for anyone else in his crew for that matter, to do.

When he had worked for Father he had never really slept much on account of all the work he had to do, not to mention the fact that he didn't really need that much sleep. Ever since he had split apart from the other Homunculi, however, he made a little time for it every now and then just out of the sheer novelty of it. When he did rest he preferred to do so during the daytime, because he always was awake at night, but he know it wouldn't be any use trying to sleep now. He had too much on his mind.

Instead, he and some of his crew were laid back playing cards on the table. Looking down at his hand, he took one last drag off his cigarette and then drew three cards from the pile on the table. There were a few of his girls here today, some he recognized and some he didn't. One of the new girls came and poured him a glass of whiskey and he winked at her. When she blushed and smiled back, he decided to take his chances and pulled her down onto his lap.

"Whaddya say, sweetheart? Do you think I should fold?" He asked, nodding towards his hand. She giggled and put her arms around his neck, ignoring his question and opting instead to start kissing his neck.

The others at the table just ignored it. They were used to this by now. One member of the gang, a fox chimera named Grigio, was so focused on the game, hissing at his own losing hand that he appeared to not even notice at all. When another man, not a chimera but just someone who worked for him, laid out his hand, Greed sighed.

"I fold." He said, pushing his chair back from the table. It was a good thing they hadn't been playing with money this game. Greed never gambled with his own money unless he was sure that he would win.

As he and the woman who had been sitting on his lap walked away he put an arm around her shoulders. "Would you like to come downstairs with me?" He asked her.

In way of an answer she blushed and started pulling him towards the stairs. "You've been gone an awful lot lately," she said as she pulled him along, "the other girls and I wonder where you go."

Apparently she wasn't one of the new girls. She was right though, he had been gone a lot lately, more so than ever before. In fact, he made a point to meet Beth at the library and walk her home almost every night. Realizing for the first time how much he had been going there lately, he shrugged. "I've just had business to take care of, that's all." It wasn't like he had to go to Beth's, after all. It was just a habit. He had been bored so much around here lately that going over and talking to her was his biggest source of entertainment. Plus, he was still working on getting into her good graces. The path to seduction could be a painstakingly long process. But thinking back to the girls words, maybe he should make a point to stop meeting Beth so much. Maybe tonight he would stay at the Nest.

…..

That same night Beth came home and nearly had a heart attack when she saw him there, standing in the middle of her living room.

Immediately she bent down to pick up the pieces of the vase she had broken when she jumped at seeing him. "How did you get in here?" She screeched from the floor.

She thought he would turn around to answer her, but he stayed where he was, poking a finger through the bars of Timmy's cage and stroking his yellow wing.

"Have you fed this thing yet?"

"That's none of your concern, and I just asked you a question."

"Oh, please. There isn't a lock on this planet that I couldn't pick." He turned to her then to smile and wink suggestively before going back to stroking the bird that looked oddly contented.

Ugh.

"Don't come in here. Ever. At least not when I'm not here. Period."

"So have you fed him yet or what?"

She sighed. "Not yet. I was just about to do that."

"Can I do it?"

"You want to feed my bird?"

He turned to her and grinned. "Sure." Every time he smiled she was taken aback once more at how sharp his teeth were. She brought him the box of crackers that she saved for Tim, snatching her hand away quickly as he stroked her fingers with his own as the box changed hands.

Timmy started flapping his wings and chirping enthusiastically as he reached down to pull a cracker between two of his fingers and slide it gracefully between the bars of the cage.

The chirping stopped as Timmy bobbed for the cracker and tore it happily with his beak.

Beth couldn't help but notice the momentary warmth that spread over her as she watched him feed the bird. Watching him do something so mundane and domestic, even while he stood there over six feet tall and decked out in black leather, was oddly peaceful. If only he were like this all the time…

He interrupted her thoughts when he turned to ask another question. "Is that about enough?"

"Oh yeah, um, that's fine." She blushed at the knowing smirk he had on his face after he caught her looking at him. "You can let him out now if you want. I normally do at this time of the night."

He turned and flicked the lock up and stood aside as he pulled the door back. The happy Xingese bird fluttered down out of the cage, not to his usual spot on the counter, but onto his shoulder.

"Look at that! Bird's a good judge of character; I'll give him that." He reached down to stroke his feathers with his thumb.

"Traitor." Beth said, looking at Timmy, who chirped in defense.

"Don't be jealous, babe, there's plenty of me to go around I promise."

Her face flushed with anger, but he put a finger over her mouth before she could protest. "Before you give me a freakin' speech about how much you despise me, I want to ask you where you keep the matches at."

"What do you need my matches for?"

"It's pretty cold in here, and I thought I would start a fire."

"Oh. Thank you. I keep them under the counter." She said with a genuine smile as she watched him strike a flame against the wood after he had retrieved them.

"Thanks. And also, it's nice to know in case I need to burn the place down."

Her smile faded.

"Ah! Much better. And a better lighting, too." He said, pointing what was now a very soft lighting in a room that suddenly seemed very small.

"So…um…what were you here for again?"

He plopped down on the couch, in his signature nonchalant pose. "Why don't you come over here and I'll tell you."

"Why don't I go to bed and you leave my apartment?"

He sighed, made a big show of groaning as he got up, and then came over in about two steps with his long legs to where she was standing.

He ignored her exclamations as he wrapped his arms around her and forced her back down onto the couch next to him.

They were so close together now, his strong arms trapping her against him, that when she noticed her heart beating loudly she knew that he could hear it too. After a moment, she stopped struggling and just glared against the black sheen of his vest.

"So, how was your day?" He asked casually.

She tried to wiggle around a little, but his arms had her locked into position against his chest. After moments of struggling to no avail, she finally sighed and laid her cheek against his well-defined chest. "I hate you. And fine. How was yours?"

"It was ok."

"I would assume for someone who is basically the product of magic your day would be a little more interesting than 'ok'.

"Alchemy isn't exactly magic, doll. Magic doesn't exist."

She stiffened at that. "Magic does exist, actually. I've seen it with my own eyes."

"Well you might need to clean your eyes out a little, then. "

She didn't need to look in a mirror to know that her face had turned red with embarrassment. In the course of her life he was the only person that she had ever mentioned her belief in magic to, thinking that he of all people would understand, only to find that he was making fun of her.

Beth thought back to several years ago, when she had been just a child. She remembered a sorcerer standing above her, the horrifying deal she had made with him in exchange for what he gave her, and the great and terrible magic that she had seen him do with her own eyes.

"I was born and raised in Drachma. People there don't scorn magic or those who practice it. People there respect its power."

"So you're from Drachma, huh? I thought your voice sounded a little funny." He looked down at her, clearly happy to know something else about her. In return she just scowled at him.

"Well...uh…what magic have you seen, exactly?"

At first she opened her mouth to answer but then hesitated. Suddenly she was a child again, the young, white haired sorcerer laughing at her. "Another thing, he had said, "You are not allowed to tell, or even hint, to anyone about this deal that we have just made. If you do, then you will automatically lose. And I will come back for you." She shuddered involuntarily at the memory, not only of the ramifications of his words but of the terrible look he had had in his red eyes.

Her thoughts returning to the present, she looked over to see him waiting for her to go on. "I can't talk about it." She finally said.

"Exactly. That's what everyone who claims to have seen magic says." She started to argue, but he put up a finger to stop her, and went on. "Now, I'm not saying you didn't see something extraordinary. I personally believe that nothing is impossible. But what ever you've seen wasn't the product of magic. Magic is the lack of logic, alchemy is the essence of it. Understand?"

She ignored him, not wishing to argue any more, but in her head she thought, I have seen magic. I've paid a terrible price for it. No one can ever make me forget that.

He relaxed his arms just a little. "Look at me."

Still angry, she refused to meet his eyes, even when he turned her face up to his, opting instead to stare at his nose. "You're a stubborn thing, aren't you?" Laughing at the resolve he saw still in her eyes. But, after a moment, when he said, "Beth" in a voice more quiet than any she had heard him speak in before, she slowly raised her eyes up to his.

He smiled then, or smirked rather, because he rarely ever smiled in a way that wasn't a smirk, and he wrapped his arms around her again to bring her even closer to him, so close that he was practically crushing her now, and kissed her.

Although he was a homunculus, he smelled just like any normal man would, she found to her surprise. And his mouth tasted the same too, except with a slight hint of whiskey that he must have drunk earlier. His personality was far from soft, and that didn't change when he decided to kiss her. There was nothing gentle about the way his mouth was devouring hers, or the one hand that was tangled up in her thick auburn hair that had somehow come loose, or the other hand that had pushed her shirt up a little and was grasping the skin of her waist, or the way that the entire time he held her he crushed her so tightly that she thought their two bodies would merge into one.

He kissed her for a while, and because she was trapped at the moment, and because she had been lonely for several years, and because the kiss was so damn good, she kissed him back.

That made him happy.

He finally gave her a chance to breathe as he bit her neck and moved to take his shirt off.

"Wait, stop." She said, breathless, putting her hand over his.

"Well, I don't normally do this clothed, but if that's what you like then I'm game."

"No, I don't want to…do that. At all."

"Yeah, right. Look at me." He said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I know. I know. " He stopped at that, as she had expected he might, quirking an eyebrow at her agreement.

"Then what's the problem?"

"I don't like you."

"…Because you love me?"

"No. I don't think you're a good person."

There was a pause for a moment as that sunk in. His eyes were narrowed down at her now, and he seemed a whole lot less happy than he had been a minute ago.

"I see." He said slowly. "I never claimed to be a good person. So what is it that you want?"

"I don't want anything. You're the one who came in here. You're the one who kissed me. I just want you to leave me alone. I want to…be alone. As I've always been."

He took all of that in for a minute, and she shifted nervously, since the awkwardness of the exchange was compounded by the fact that he was still holding onto her very tightly.

Afterwards he never knew why he said it, but as they stared at each other, both of their faces still flushed a little from the kiss, suddenly he found himself saying, "You know, I've never wanted a person this badly before."

"I guess I'll just take that as a complement, then." She said softly.

"You can take anything you want, but if it's not me than I don't really care."

At her movements, he finally let her go.

He stood up, the fire casting his long shadow against the wall. He looked around for a moment, thinking, then made his way to the door where his coat was hanging. "You know," he said flinging the words at her over his shoulder, "I know I'm one of the bad ones, but if you really are waiting for someone who's 'good', you'll be waiting a hell of a long time. I only want one thing from you Beth. Give me that, and I'll leave you alone. I'm not trying to waste your time like every other guy in Dublith would do given the chance."

He slammed the door on his way out. Whether it was on purpose, or out of frustration, Beth couldn't have said.

She let out a long breath as she listened to his footsteps get quieter as he went down the stairs, farther and farther away. Running a hand through her hair in frustration, she sat back and thought what a mess this was. Beth thought back to her childhood in Drachma, to her struggles, and to the deal she had made with the sorcerer, all those years ago. Remembering the sorcerer, she remembered more than ever that there was only one man in Dublith that she would have to let into her life. It couldn't possibly the one who had just left her house, could it?