Lust opened her eyes. Sunlight hit her through the curtains, waking her from the usual nightmare. She rubbed her eyes and blinked away the bad dreams, then sat up in bed. Her movements woke Lily, and after he jumped onto the floor she heard his paws on the hardwood dash out the door. By processes unknown to Lust, her floral print sundress never grew dirty. For convenience it doubled as a nightshirt, so she was already dressed. She turned, and hung her legs over the side of the mattress to feel for her slippers. After recoiling from touching the cold wood floor, she found one, and eased her foot into it. With her other foot Lust felt the second slipper, but accidentally kicked it away, to the doorway.
Lust sighed. She twisted and looked at the bed. If she'd twisted the other way, and seen the pillows, she might've spared herself some trouble. Instead Lust saw the comforter, and thought it too heavy. A lighter blanket she'd wrapped herself in, and held around her shoulders to keep warm. The pitiful homunculus could find nothing to use as a stepping stone. She sighed again, and realized the previous morning's events would have to be repeated.
Lust put down her right foot, snug in its slipper, and stood on it with a hand against the wall to balance. She slid her hand forward, and hopped, keeping her bare foot bent towards the ceiling. A second hop, and she was nearly halfway there. At the third the slipper was still out of reach, but a gas lamp on the wall placed at just the wrong height prevented her from sliding her hand again for a fourth hop. A precise leap might land her foot in the slipper, but the chance was poor. Lust tried to remember what she'd done yesterday morning, when the same situation occurred. She'd stood on something to continue, that was certain, but what? A third sigh escaped her as Lust remembered it was the chair to her right- the previous morning, Lust realized, it had been the other slipper she kicked.
She stretched, trying to reach the chair, but it was no use. Lust looked at the slipper, and felt it was mocking her, saying 'Come here, little girl- I'll keep your foot nice and warm, but first you'll have to step on the cold floor! Mwuhaha!' It was unacceptable. Then she thought of what Selim had taught her. Could she pick it up with her nails, without damaging it? With no other choices, she knew she had to try.
Lust extended her nails on one hand, slowing them as they approached, and inching them towards the slipper. Then she hesitated, and retracted them. What if she hurt the slipper? With her arm against the wall getting tired, Lust decided to take action, and before there was time to think about it made a rushed step on the floor.
As she put down her foot the coolness hit it, beginning with the heel and rushing with the step to her toes. As she moved forward Lust leaned forward, enough to pick up the slipper as she dashed out through the open doorway. As she stood on the carpeted hallway and took a deep breath, glad she made Greed leave the door open at night so it wouldn't be total darkness, Lust put on the slipper and smiled, thinking she'd done a selfless deed by not risking the slipper's safety for her own sake. She shivered though, and realized her blanket had fallen when she grabbed the slipper. Both her feet were snug though, so she ran downstairs to the kitchen without going back for it.
"Greed, Greed," He heard her call as she came down the stairs, "I want breakfast!"
"Breakfast? You want to eat?" Greed asked as he looked up from the table, and Lust nodded. 'Is this from Gluttony's influence?' He put down the paper he'd been reading and waved a hand at the pantry, "We don't have any food, and don't need any. We don't need to eat, so food's a luxury- and you haven't asked for any in the past. What brought this on?"
"I got hungry!" Lust declared, and walked to the pantry. She opened the door, and saw there was nothing on the bottom shelf. Nothing on the second shelf either, nor the third and fourth shelves. Her heels rose off the slippers as she stood on the balls and toes of her feet, to find the fifth shelf equally bare. "Why don't we have any food?" Lust asked as she sat down in the chair across from him, and rested her chin on the table.
"I just told you why we don't. Are you really hungry?" Greed asked, and she nodded. "What does it feel like?"
"It feels like my insides are trying to eat themselves," Lust said.
'What the heck'd Gluttony do?' Greed closed his eyes and tried to remember how to cook anything. "Alright, I'll make you breakfast, but it'll take awhile, okay?"
"O-k." Her stomach made a noise.
'Food... what can I make? Eggs, probably, and they sell bread from the ovens someplace in this city. I haven't made anything in... forty years?' Greed shook his head, 'I should focus on this, not memory lane.'
He stood up, and she watched him to find out where he kept hidden food. "Since there isn't any here, I'll have to go buy food. You coming?"
Lust rushed out of her chair and saluted, saying "Aye aye, sir!" Before Greed reached the hallway she was at the door, pulling it open. Her smile disappeared as she saw snow drifts against buildings, and slush in the streets. An icicle hung alone from the banister on their stoop, and dripped once every few heartbeats, and sent water falling straight down with no wind to push it.
Greed sensed her mood change, and saw why. 'She hasn't had time to learn to ignore temperatures even this mild yet, has she?' He put a hand on her shoulder, "Why don't you take a blanket from your bed, to stay warm?" Lust nodded, and ran upstairs. 'I should get her a jacket to go over that sundress,' he thought while waiting for her.
When she came back down wrapped in the blanket she'd dropped earlier, Greed picked her up. "If you walk, your slippers will get wet and your feet cold," he told her, wiping a corner of the blanket from his face. With Lust on his shoulders, Greed ducked through the doorway before turning to close the door, and they left.
The walk to the market was fascinating and educational for Lust, while for Greed it was tedious and littered with questions. "What's that," "Who's he," and most popularly, "Was that alchemy?" The answers he gave were from a limited pool made up of "I don't know," "What's it to you," and "No."
The marketplace itself was also an adventure, and several times Lust had to be asked "If I put you down, what'll happen to your feet?" If she'd made a list later that day of things learned at the market, it'd consist of "Don't touch that," "Don't touch him," and "No, you're not getting a whole roast pig for breakfast."
Greed decided on a basketful of a few fruits and vegetables, eggs, bread and butter, and a few small cuts of meat. 'That should be enough,' he thought, 'for at least a few days. Maybe I should start selling some of that sports paraphernalia- the pieces Pride and Lust haven't chopped up, anyway.'
They bought these things with the budget Father expected to be used for more relevant things and left, heading back towards the street they resided on. On the way Lust leaned forward on Greed's head and denied accusations of being tired. At an intersection of cobble and brick ways, puddles from the slush was a joyful meeting place of children from around the neighborhood. Lust watched them jump around and laugh at nothing as she wondered aloud what they were doing.
"Those kids? They're just splashing in the puddles. It's weird, but so are most kids their size, and it's pretty common a game," Greed explained, and lifted an arm to hand her the basket. "Can you hold this? It's hard carrying it and you without dropping either."
Lust took it and rested it on his hair. She held its curved handle proudly with one hand over the other, and imagined she was a heroic legend standing over a classical sword. Greed had no way of seeing this, only feeling the basket being placed, then pushed, onto his head. 'The heck's she doing up there, trying to brain me?' But he said nothing and kept going.
As the two neared the house, the building Lust called home and Greed thought of as just a building, they saw someone waiting by the door. It was someone with an average build, wearing average clothes and carrying a common briefcase; he looked like a business man. They reached the stairs going up to the door before he reacted to their presence, pulling his hat down over his eyes.
"Can I help you?" Greed asked, with a sullen expression. The man turned to them, and smiled with unnatural wideness.
"Oh hey there Greed, I was wondering why you didn't answer the door. Going out with Lust?"
"Oh hey there Envy, shut up and leave. I never said you could come, so get out of here before I shout for Gluttony and have him 'remove' you. He'll do it, believe me."
Lust stretched her back, trying to see the man from above, but Envy's hat block her view until he looked up. Startled and terrified by his face, she ducked. Something about it convinced her that he could harm her, or anyone else, without a shred of empathy.
"I only thought I'd drop by- acquaint myself with her. I mean, the two of us haven't even said a word to each since it happened," Envy said, and looked up again at the small homunculus hiding her face in the basket. "We still haven't, technically. Hello, my na-"
"Leave. Right now. Never return here." Greed glared at It, and held up a fist. "Technically, there's no reason for you to introduce yourself, 'cause she's never meeting you again. Now go!"
Envy smiled, "I'll be watching to make sure the house is safe. Yeah, Gluttony told us about the thief- lucky thing he was there. So if you should ever step out alone, Greed."
It left the threat open, and turned to leave. As It reached the street Envy looked back, and saw Greed looking over his shoulder, watching It. 'Funny, just a month ago we didn't have a single weakling homunculus- now there are three.' It let out a quiet chuckle, before forcing the laugh louder, until Its echoes reached blocks away. Then Envy went away, and Greed opened the door to go in.
"Greed, who was that?" Lust asked, opening her eyes after hearing the door close. "I don't like him. He's creepy, in a scary way."
"Forget about him, kid. Don't even think of him as a person, just an It." Greed crouched to let her down, "Here, put your blanket upstairs and all that's in the basket on the kitchen table. I'll worry about It, not you."
Lust balanced the food on Greed's head and climbed down before she grabbed the basket. She ran into the kitchen to put it on the table, then went up the stairs and back down before Greed had the food unpacked.
"Do I get to learn how to cook?" Lust asked, and stepped over a small puddle made of Greed's footprint.
"Sure, if you pay attention," Greed told her, and started making her a breakfast, as thoughts of Envy faded from their minds.