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

Author's Note: Sorry about the wait guys! I've been super busy, but if you think that even one day goes by that I don't think about this story, then you are mistaken! I want to thank everyone who favorited/reviewed/followed the last chapter. Reading your guys thoughts definitely helps me write faster!

Chapter 7

"But child, why do you want to leave so badly? You are fed, no? And Drachma is the land where you were born. Where you've lived your whole life…"

As if you could call it living. "You don't understand, do you? That place will kill me." Young Beth was trembling, and not just from the cold of wherever she was. The sorcerer that stood before her was a terrifying sight to behold. Something about his pale white hair and black eyes scared her. Scared her almost as much as what she was about to do. "A child dies there almost every week. There's not enough food and they are terribly cruel to all of us. I have to leave."

Beth waited for the sorcerer to say something, but instead he folded his arms and looked at her expectantly, apparently wanting more of an explanation. Beth struggled to say what was in her heart, not because she didn't know the reason why, but she knew that whenever you were haggling over something or making a bargain, she knew you should never let the other person know just how desperate you are. Looking into the dark, deep eyes of the man who stood before her, Beth realized that there was probably not much that he didn't already know or couldn't figure out for himself, so honesty was probably her best shot. "I must be able to dance so that the lady from Amestris and her children will take me back there so I can become a rich and famous dancer."

"Rich and famous, eh? What about the young boy?"

"What young boy?"

"Dimitri. The orphan boy who sleeps one bed over from you, who whispers stories to you at night. Who gives you his share of dinner. Who protects you from the other orphaned children who would hurt you."

She shivered. Where was he going with this? "What of him?"

The sorcerer laughed. "Would you leave him? This boy who you must know loves you with his entire heart? This pure, kind soul? Because if you went to Amestris, and became a dancer, he would have to stay here. And you would break his heart, this boy who loves you."

At this moment Beth stood up straight. She puffed up her chest and spoke from the bottom of her throat like a grown-up. "Dimitri does not love me. Men are not even capable of real love. When it comes to women, they care for us only for our beauty."

"You speak cynically for one so young, child."

"I have lived and I have learned."

"I see." He drawled. "Very well, let's strike a deal then shall we? Let's say that I give you a pair of dancing legs."

"…And what must I give you?"

"Nothing now, child. That is, nothing if you win. You see, I want to play a little game with you. And here is what you have to do." He held up a finger, and Beth held her breath as she waited for him to go on. "When you older, and indeed a famous dancer living in Amestris, you will have to sleep with a man. And after you do so, starting the very next moment after you make love together, you must keep him faithful to you for one year, you who do not believe in love."

She considered that for a long moment. It was a strange bet to make. After all, why should she do such a thing? She supposed it was some sort of lesson, a lesson she did not care to figure out. But it could be a problem. It may be possible, if she became beautiful when she grew older. But only if she was. If she wasn't beautiful, how would she keep a man faithful?

"Will I be beautiful?" Beth asked. "When I am older, I mean?"

"You need only look in a mirror now, child, to know that you will be." He said matter-of-factly, a shine in his eye that Beth did not care to consider.

For a long hard moment, she thought. Keep a man faithful to her for an entire year. Impossible. Men were completely incapable of fidelity… But she didn't really have a choice. It was a bet that, when the time came, she was sure she would lose. Beautiful or not. But she was even more sure that if she didn't find a way to Amestris now, she would die soon in the orphanage.

"…Alright. I will agree to this."

"I am not quite finished yet. If he does not stay faithful to you for the entire year, if he sleeps with just one other person, then you will lose the ability to dance and everything that you have. You will be in my power."

She shivered, but she knew she had no choice. "I agree."

He handed her a knife, and she cut her palm and dropped the blood onto his handkerchief, sealing the deal.

Seeing her blood seal the bet made her heart turn cold, but a part of her was already feeling better. Perhaps it could happen after all. Perhaps she could win the bet. If she could only pick a lonely, unattractive man. One who would be weak and would practically worship her…

As if reading her mind, the sorcerer laughed, and Beth's heart sank. "Of course," he said, "I will pick the man for you." He went over to his desk, where he picked up the hand mirror lying there. From where she was standing, she could see a swirl of faces appearing and disappearing, and realized they must be all the men who lived in Amestris. The sorcerer's brows were drawn, he seemed to be searching for a specific type of man in particular. Finally he must have found what he was looking for, for he suddenly laughed and put the mirror down.

"Greed." He said, laughing. "In Dublith, you must find a man named Greed."

….

The next morning he was the first one to wake up first for a change.

Beth's eyes fluttered open when she heard the sounds of him searching for his clothes on the floor and pulling them over his head.

Yawning, she sat up in bed, wearing nothing but a shirt that was much too long for her.

He grinned when he saw her sitting up, watching him. "You're awake."

She nodded, too tired to point out that it would be hard to sleep with all the noise he was making. Her auburn hair was curly and tangled over her shoulders, and she groaned internally when she thought about how she would have to take a shower shortly and then hurry to practice.

Thoughts of work and showers stopped abruptly when she felt his cold hands on her stomach suddenly.

"What are you..?" She half gasped as he pulled her shirt over her head.

"You're wearing my shirt." He explained, pulling it down over himself now gracefully. "Not that it doesn't look good on you, pigeon, but I need it back now."

She hadn't realized. But now she shivered and frowned at him and pulled the sheets around her for both warmth and modesty. It would do no good to let him see her naked this early, or she would never get him to leave.

"Pigeon?" She said, raising an eyebrow at him.

He winked at her. "I've seen them dance in the park before."

"When will you come back?" She asked him for what she realized was the first time. Not because she cared, but of course it was better to know when to mentally prepare herself for one of his visits.

"Hard to say," he said, zipping up his black pants, "but probably in the next few days, at least." Moving to sit on the edge of her bed, he pulled his boots on, but continued to speak, his back to her now. "I also wanted to tell you, I think that I've known you long enough now to tell you that Gifre isn't my real name, I just use it sometimes for cover."

She froze.

No.

Oh no. This can't be happening.

"Did you hear me?" He said.

"Yes." She said in a strangled voice.

Please don't let this be happening. It can't be him. Please don't let it be him. Please don't let it be…

"My real name is Greed."

Greed. Of course.

In her mind, she heard the sorcerer's voice as clear as if it had been yesterday when he had spoken them. "One year. Keep him faithful to you and only you for just one year. And if you do, then you will keep your dancing skills forever. If you lose, you will lose not only the ability to dance. You will lose everything."

Oblivious as always, he seemed not to notice how completely shocked she still she was when he made his way over to her.

Leaning down, he kissed her goodbye on the head. "See ya later, sweetheart," and he made his way out of her room.

She sat there for just a few seconds longer, watching him go, still completely in shock, before she bounded out of bed.

Sprinting across the apartment she made it to her front door right as he was reaching for the handle.

He had just started to open it when she threw herself against the door, her arms splayed over its expanse as she stood there looking at him, gasping for breath.

He musn't leave. She thought to herself. There's no way I can trust this man out there to not sleep with some other woman. He wouldn't last two hours, and then I would be done for.

For a minute he just gazed at her, surprised, before he smiled and leaned down to kiss her once more.

"Don't worry, doll. I'll be back soon."

There was only one thing she could do to stop him from leaving.

Standing on her toes, she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, and pulled him down to her.

She sucked on his lower lip, listening to him gasp in surprise, and rightly so. Up till now she had never been but mildly interested when they touched or kissed. She was still naked from where he had taken his shirt back, and she pressed her breasts against his chest and listened to him groan.

Her sudden passion took him completely unaware. Surrendering to her advances, he lifted her up against the door. Unzipping his pants just enough to do what he had to do, he had her against the door suddenly and violently. He only pushed into her a few times before he shuddered and she felt something warm spilling into her.

Breathing loudly, he let her go, and she slid back down to the floor while he zipped his pants back up.

"Huh." He said. There was a smile on his face that he couldn't seem to shake, and she knew that he had enjoyed their sudden tryst.

"Well," he said, "maybe I can come back sooner than a few days. Maybe I'll come back tonight."

He reached for the door again, but she still stood in his way, blocking it.

"Uh, pigeon, I really need to go now. I promise I'll be back soon…" he said as he gently tried to push her aside a little.

Panicking, she reached up a hand and slapped him.

There was a pause.

Completely wide-eyed, he stared at her in amazement.

"What the hell was that for?!"

She didn't answer.

He shook his head in wonder, muttering something about women, and once again reached for the door handle.

She slapped him again.

"Hey!" He growled.

This time he put his hands around her waist and tried to lift her away from the door.

Yelping from being suddenly lifted in the air, Beth slapped him so hard this time she could have sworn she heard something crack.

He dropped her, hissing from pain, and she watched as he wiped his lip and looked at his hand, blood on his fingers. Of course his lip healed in a few seconds, but he was mad now. They stood there for a moment, as Greed stared at her with fire in his eyes.

He took a step towards her, but she pushed him away, towards the kitchen.

She pushed him again, and then again, and then she pounced on him, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, crushing her face against his.

They fought with their lips and tongues, each one of them trying to gain the upper hand and neither one succeeding.

He pulled his head away from hers and bit her on the neck, hard. In return she pulled his hair so hard that clumps of it came out.

Shaking himself out of his vest, he carried her into the kitchen where he slammed her up against the wall. She cried out when she hit her head against one of the pans hanging there, and when he laughed she scratched his face.

To her surprise he laughed as blood starting running down his face and she couldn't help but smile. When he saw her face, he gathered both her wrists in one of his hands and squeezed her breast with the other. Her legs kicked out either side of his waist and she tossed her hair from side to side. Holding her wrists with one hand he undid his pants with the other. Taking advantage of his distractedness, she was able to free one of her wrists and take a pan off the wall and hit him with it.

He barely noticed when she did; by this time he had moved her down a little so that he could position himself against her and pushed himself into her, filling her to the core.

She gasped and squirmed, dropping the pan onto the ground and bit down onto his neck hard, although he didn't even seem to notice. With one hand around her waist pulling her tightly against him and the other hand against the wall, he started pushing in and out of her.

Nearly crying from the sensation, she covered her moans by biting into his neck every time she did so, and she kept her legs around his waist so tightly she knew they were going to be sore. They continued to scratch and pull at each other, and after of a few minutes of him thrusting in and out of her very vocally, he finally cried out and after a moment he let her slide to the floor.

His face was slightly flushed now, and there was sweat dripping from his hair as he gazed down at her quizzically. Pleasure, confusion, admiration, hunger. They were all there written on his face, feelings that were warring with each other to determine what his next words would be. Beth figured that confusion must have won out, because he smiled, but was clearly going to ask her a question before she reached up to cover his mouth with a finger.

He stopped, and waited for her to go on, but she said nothing. Instead she reached over and took one of his hands and led him to her small living room, and pushed him down on the floor. He watched her with surprisingly wide eyes as she pulled his pants off and climbed towards him.

They had each other on the floor, they had each other against the wall, on the kitchen table, on the counter, and on the couch. They never made it back to her bedroom, because Beth was too afraid to pause long enough for them to take a trip all the way in there.

The sun was setting when they were lying next to each other on the rug in her living room, panting from what they had just been doing, and Greed said "Wow."

Beth was sore all over. They had only taken a quick break for the restroom and for lunch, which consisted of them feeding each other strawberries and drinking alcohol. Beth could feel her eyes closing. She wanted to sleep, she wanted to rest. She thought maybe Greed was thinking the same thing, but she internally groaned when she heard him getting up.

Wrapping a blanket around her that she had grabbed off the couch, she stood up with him. "What are you doing?" She asked, not even her exhaustion masking the horror in her voice.

"I really have to leave now, Pigeon. And don't look at me like that, I'll see you soon, I swear. Today has been…" He shook his head back and forth, hands on his hips, and then gestured to her and to the room. "Well anyway, I have to head out now. I'll come back as soon as I can. "

He reached for her right before he left, picking her up and spinning her around in a kiss, and then suddenly he was gone.

Beth fell down on the couch.

That he was happy, that he would indeed come back, she had no doubts of. The smile on his face and the sparkle in his eyes let her know that he had indeed enjoyed their day together. But her memory of his joyful face faded all too quickly after he left.

How long would he remember her, out there in the city? How long until someone with that much stamina found someone else to spend the night with? It wasn't as if she was jealous at all, not even a little.

But she remembered what the sorcerer had said. If Greed were to sleep with even one other girl besides her in the next year, she would lose everything.

Leaning back, Beth closed her eyes. It was best to get some rest now. Because when she woke up, she would have to come up with a plan.