"It's not my problem your new 'kid' can't control himself!" Greed yelled, turning to leave only to find teeth-bearing shadows had covered the exit of their underground cave. "Oh, so that's how it's gonna' be- sounds like fun!" He shouted, making his hand into a steel claw.
"Enough!" Father's voice stopped him, and Pride retracted his darkness. "You're the one at fault, Greed, so you're being held responsible," Father glared at him, and Greed's shoulders slacked. "You can accept it now or later, but there's no choice outside of that."
Greed sneered, playing the delinquent, but straightened up. In the corner the newest homunculus, just a day old, sucked his thumb and rocked back and forth on his bottom.
"Fine, but what's up with this guy? I didn't do this baby crap when you formed me- none of us did!"
"That is his personality, formed around the sin of Gluttony. He's able to speak and understand orders as well as fulfill them, so it's fine," Father said.
"It's only for a few weeks, maybe a couple months if you're bad at it. Lighten up," Pride smiled, "I've been some rich politician's kid for over a year now, so this much is easy."
"Yeah, Greed," Envy joined in, "if you can't handle this much maybe you're the one who needs to be trained, not her."
"My hand's still carbon, ya' know."
"Oh, I'm well aware." The atmosphere spoke of more tension than had been present in that dark cavern, since many years past.
"Enough! None of that will further my plans, so it's a waste. Greed, you'll be responsible for instructing and training her and, that done, Lust's memories and body will be returned to her. You have a house above ground available, and should you choose to use it none of the others will enter it without permission- so long as you do your job."
"Oh, I'm using it- I mean, isolation from you freaks isn't something I can turn down!" He thought a moment, "but if she came back here a human might follow, and if she saw his death we'd have to start all this over..."
"I'll take care of that," Pride said, "just do what you're told."
Red sparks flashed on Father's chest, and a portion of the toga parted to reveal a young girl growing from of it as if slipping above water, clad in a flower-patterned sundress.
"Ooh, a flower girl- who's getting married, and why didn't I get invited? You all know how much I like large gatherings of humans!" Envy said, and laughed as he wasted part of a man's soul on the energy used to transform into a priest holding a book open in one hand and dagger in the other.
Lust fell to the ground, landing hard. Red transmutation sparks glowed on the ground behind her, healing the bruise as her eyelids twitched, her mind waking for the first time in this form.
They were distracted from that by Greed's protests that Envy should be locked up whenever he wasn't fulfilling a straight forward mission. Soon, though, they noticed she'd already awoke, and grew quiet as they watched to see what her first actions would be. They watched as she sat up and asked Father who he was, until Pride's shadows enveloped her.
Greed stepped back in surprise as the dangerous shadows rushed past him, before realizing Pride's intent. "Is it necessary to knock her out?" Greed asked, "something like this requires kindness..." He caught himself and added "probably."
Lust squirmed, readjusting how she sat on the couch not for the first time, and watched the door. She petted Lilly, who laid on the cushion next to her, but did so with mindless repetition and twice reached too far and stroked his face, creating a loud meow before finally the kitten got up and climbed the stairs, to curl on Lust's pillow.
"How much longer?" She asked Greed, whom was reading a satirical novel from Creta, published in his 'youth'.
"Selim should get here around ten," he said, and place a string between the pages before closing the book. "Why don't you go feed your cat? He gets hungry, you know."
"What time is it now?" She asked, leaning from side to side like a metronome while Greed read the clock on the wall, hanging above a flowering house plant.
"It's a quarter before."
After a few minutes of silence, Lust asked "a quarter?" and tilting her head.
"It means a fourth- one of four equal divisions. A quarter of an hour is fifteen minutes," Greed explained, and wondered 'I can understand making me train her- it toughens her mind and punishes me at the same time, at least in theory. But why would Father make her forget things like quarters? Just to punish me more? That sentence is worse than life!'
"You're so smart, Greed." Lust learned forward with her elbows on her knees and head on her hands. "Is that why your head's so big?"
Greed imagined how satisfying it would be to punch her, then said patiently "Do you mean compared to your head? My entire body is larger, so the head's nothing special."
"That isn't it, Greed; I mean your hair. Isn't it sticking up so much because your head's big, so it has nowhere else to go?"
'That isn't it, you little idiot.' He took a deep breath, "Nah, I stick it up like that because I think it looks cool."
"What's cool?"
'I wonder whether Father would be mad or not, if she uses a bit of her stone.' Greed stood up before dropping down, doing push-ups to relieve the annoyance in a peaceful manner. "It's... appealing. Like cuteness, but in a different way."
"Am I cool?" Lust asked with wonder.
'Not in any way, shape, or form are you cool. Oh well,' he thought, 'opinions aren't really lies unless you claim to hold them.' Greed nodded his head and forced a grin, "Mm! Yup, you're so cool, and cute too, there's no way Selim won't like you when he gets here!" Greed said, before pushing off the ground harder with one arm to flip himself over, and began doing sit-ups. 'Now feed the cat, you little...' He counted down from ten with a deep breath on every number.
"Yay, I got Greed to call me cool AND cute!" Lust cheered, jumping off the couch and running through the house with her arms outstretched like a bird.
'It was all a sham? That's... somehow less annoying.' Greed sighed, then smiled. 'Well, maybe she's alright?'
He heard a knock from the entrance, and got up to answer it. Opening the door he found Pride, pretending to be a little boy.
"We're finished with manipulation," Greed told him.
Pride nodded, then saw Lust stick her head through a doorway, and watch them. "Is that your daughter, mister?" He asked, enjoying the chance to tease Greed.
'I shouldn't have agreed to this,' he thought. "Shut up, or I throw you out- got it?" Greed forced another smile, knowing Lust would be able to see them but not hear from where she was, so long as he spoke softly.
"O-K." He leaned to the side and and waved. "Hel-lo, Lust!"
"Selim." She curtsied.
'How come she forgets what a quarter is, but knows that? Unless she did know... How far back does the scheme to get compliments from me go?!' Greed wondered, and gave up. 'Well, it's one less thing I need to teach her, anyway.'
"Let's go play!" Pride said, and Greed was impressed. 'His voice just keeps getting better as the decades go by; would I even be able to tell Pride and Selim are the same if I didn't know him? Maybe I should've spent the past century improving like that.'
"O-K!" Lust said, doing her best to imitate him.
Pride smiled, 'This will be easier than I thought, if she parrots others like that.' He put his coat on a hook in the hallway.
"Want to play in the basement? There's a lot of fun toys down there!" She said.
"Al-right!" He cheered, before turning back to Greed as Lust ran ahead. "You bought her enough toys to fill a basement?"
"Father gave me a budget."
"Spend it on something useful!"
They heard Lust calling from the stairs, and Pride ran to meet her while Greed shut the front door.
Lust stumbled into the way of the ball as it came her and kicked it. Pride bumped it with his foot, but let it pass and roll to the wall behind him.
"You win again!" he told Lust, "That's three for you and two for me." His eyes searched the room, 'Where is it? If he bought this many toys, he should have a... there!'
Through the tidy piles of sports equipment and board-games he spotted horseshoe stakes. "Want to see something really cool?"
Lust shrugged, "Mmh, what is it?"
'I'll have to build her trust in me to influence her.' Pride thought. "I'm gonna' slice off the very top of that short pole over there, with nothing but my shadow!"
"Wow, really?" She clasped her hands in wonder, and looked at him, excited.
"Yup, now watch close!" He moved his shadows slower than usual, not knowing if she would be able to keep up otherwise. The far end of it reached the stake and circled around the top before contracting, and meeting itself in the middle. A thin copper disc from the very top of it fell to the ground, and rolled towards Lust, before losing its balance and toppling onto the ground a foot away.
Lust gasped, "Whoa! Was that alchemy? Are you an alchemist, Selim?" she asked, feeling the disc's thinness.
'Alchemy? Is she stupid?' Pride wondered. "Almost- it's something like that. Do you wanna' try it?"
"Oh boy, can I?" Lust asked, shutting her eyes and holding her breath, while concentrating on moving her shadows.
'Greed really didn't start at all- this is worse than I expected.' Pride walked up to her and took her arm. "Only I can move my shadows like that, but I bet you could use your finger nails! Imagine them growing longer, and move 'em around a bit."
Lust did as instructed, and soon her nails began to lengthen and bend. "Look, I'm really doing it Selim!" she cried.
"Keep doing that, and you'll get even better!" he encouraged her, and noticed the spot where her nails connected to the skin writhing. 'Disgusting- is this why she always wore gloves back then? Thank you, past Lust.'
She extended them farther, and made them take a sharp turn towards the stake, missing by centimeters before swiping to the side and taking a jagged chunk off the side.
Pride picked up the chunk when it was done skidding and looked it over, inspecting the marks. 'This will take some time.' He ducked as Lust's nails went over his head, as she retracted them while running up the stairs.
"Greed, Greed!" Lust called. She found him in the kitchen feeding Lily, and beamed while she told him about her accomplishment.
'Pride managed to teach her? Hmm, before I didn't want to, but now...' Mild regret went through his mind for not teaching her himself. Then Greed clapped and put a flower petal on her nose. 'Well, it's not too late to be a part of it,' he thought. "Good job, but can you stick a nail through that without hurting your nose?"
Lust began to pout, but leaned her head back and held a hand above it. A nail crept forward until it just pierced the petal. She flinched and drew it back, revealing a tiny dot of blood, which he covered with his thumb as the skin regenerated.
"Ow, why'd that happen? I did it as slowly as I could..." her eyes began to water, and she sniffled.
"Don't worry, you'll improve soon enough," Greed comforted, patting her on the back.
Pride rushed up the stairs, feigning excitement about what Lust did. "It was like, whoosh- and then, it kinda' went swish!"
'Don't over do it, first child.' Greed faked a laugh, and opened the door. "Well, Sea-lime, I heard your father calling while you two were downstairs, and you don't want to keep him waiting!" He handed Pride his coat with a smile.
Pride nodded, "O-k. Bye bye, Lust!" He stepped out, and gave Greed a cold look to match the weather as the door closed.
"Father, I'm back!" Pride called as he entered the home of his victim, the legislator who adopted him early in the previous year.
"Ah, welcome back Selim! Did you have fun with your friend today?" The old man asked, putting down his newspaper.
"Yeah! We played soccer and horseshoes, and she had this huge basement!" He spread his arms for effect, and the politician chuckled.
"Well, I'm glad you had a good time. Supper will be ready soon, so wash up, alright?" He picked up his paper and continued from where he'd left off, in the political news.
Pride nodded, "O-k. By the way, father, have you changed your mind on that bill the papers are all talking about?"
The old man turned his head, befuddled. "Why, of course not! I could never allow them to pass a law allowing a single man to rule the nation through bypassing the parliament- he'd become a dictator in record time! Why do you ask, Selim? Have you taken an interest in politics?"
"No, but should you be replaced that bill would pass- next in line for your seat would vote for it." The child smiled as the eyes watching the old man glowed red.
"What in-" The politician had started up, when pure blackness impaled his heart. "Se... Lim..." His breathing grew shallow as his last thoughts of the devil's child passed, then ceased.
"Old fool. If you'd just accepted the bribe a few more happy years were ahead of you. Were your ideals worth this?" Pride left into the cold, late winter afternoon, not bothering to shut the door or grab his coat, and never appeared at that house again.
A week later, the bill passed the Amestrian parliament, and the sitting Chancellor was titled Fuhrer.
Lust spent most of the day after that practicing, before she got bored and watched out the window or played with Lily instead. When she went to sleep that night, Lust dreamt the same nightmare as she had for two weeks. A giant monster stood ahead of her, guarding the eye on it's chest with a dozen curved spikes, each reaching for her. As had happened every night, the spikes grew closer than any night in the past, until she awoke and curled up under the blanket, wondering how many more nights would pass before it finally reaches her.