Number of words: 4,274
Published date: September 2, 2012
Began chapter: August 8, 2012
Finished chapter: August 14, 2012
Chapter 6: Home ~ A House on the Hill
"So… Still think Pride's tricking them?"
Lust paused in her perusal of the library's wall-length bookcase, leaving one finger resting lightly against the spine of The Secret Garden as she glanced at her younger brother.
They had spent the past hour wandering through the mansion, exploring the numerous rooms and spaces, familiarizing themselves with the layout and contents of this place that was now expected to be their new home. The task had been carried out up to that point in relative silence except for the few times she had told Gluttony not to eat something (which she'd said more out of habit than anything else). Envy had poked into things like he owned the place, rudely entering rooms and riffling through drawers as if Edward's words to "feel free" had been literal, but the distraction failed to remove the scowl from his face.
Despite the sheer absurdity of the situation, Lust thought she could enjoy living here. The mansion was huge. They had already passed two bathrooms, the dining room, the living room, the grand entrance, a storage room filled with gardening tools, and a large room with a piano.
They had also explored the numerous bedrooms. Lust discovered that she was the only one whose room had received a personalized touch. Sloth and Gluttony's rooms were completely bare and Greed and Envy's rooms were only a little better. Characteristically, Envy had looked in Lust's closet with a touch of jealousy, but it would have been silly for him to complain about her getting a new wardrobe when he only ever wore the same outfit anyway. Continuing on and ignoring Lust's hesitation over invading Pride's privacy, Envy had boldly entered their eldest brother's room and with a roll of her eyes, Lust followed suit. It was the only room they had seen that contained such clear evidence of being lived in: toys were arranged in a row on the top of a dresser, papers and crayons lay scattered on the floor, and a small pile of clothes had been thrown on the bed, presumably dirty. The only evidence that the room's owner might not be an ordinary boy was the title stamped on one of the books on the table: Nicholas Flamel's Alchemic Codex. As Envy poked through the shelf, Lust picked up the book from the pile and found several other alchemy tomes with titles like The Green Lion, The Sun and the Moon, and Dragons of the Mountains. Flipping one open, they were so advanced that they may as well have been written in another language.
Envy would have entered Ms. Bradley's room too but for the fact that the bedroom was right across from the dining room, where Pride had been animatedly chatting on the phone.
"Uh-huh, everything's fine, Mother. I'm fine. It worked exactly like we thought it would… No, they were a little… Yeah, a little upset, but it's okay… Um, happy's a strong… More like uncertain, but that's to be expected. I'm sure they'll get used to it… Yes, Big Brother and Teacher are taking good care of me… Oh, sorry. Can you wait a minute?" Pride looked up and placed his hand on the receiver. "Lust, Envy, that's Mother's room."
"So?" Envy replied sarcastically.
Pride gave him a level look. "So don't go in."
Envy shrugged, leaving his hand on the doorknob. "She's not even here, so what's the problem?"
Pride's look became annoyed. "The "problem" is that you're invading her privacy. Which is disrespectful. And I told you that you'd show Mother respect."
They stared at each other for a few moments, Envy apparently weighing whether the argument was worth it, but then he shrugged again and released the doorknob, waving his hand at the child to continue his conversation and leading the way down the hall. They could hear Pride resume chatting behind them.
"Sorry, Mother. I'm here again. No, it wasn't important. How are you doing at Mr. Garfiel's?... Uh-huh… Haha, that's what Big Brother says too! Yeah, a little strange… Oh, but that's good then… Um, I'm not sure. I'll have to ask Big Brother and Teacher. Maybe the day after tomorrow, but it depends on how everyone is feeling… No, I want you to come back as soon as possible too, but tomorrow might be…"
They had left his voice behind by the time they reached the library.
Envy was referring, obviously, to what Lust had said before in an effort to reassure him and get him up for breakfast: that it was possible Pride was tricking the Elric brothers somehow. He wasn't frowning anymore. Instead, he was smirking in that fake way of his that said he was really quite anxious to hear her answer, sitting back casually on the heavy desk that took up a large portion of the room. Gluttony, not being able to read but not wanting to leave her side now that he had his Lust back, sat down on the floor and listened to their conversation silently.
"Ready to admit that you weren't asleep after all?" she teased smoothly.
Envy's smile twitched only for a second before he recovered, but he refused to either acknowledge or deny that he'd been faking sleep.
She sighed to herself before turning back to the shelf to continue looking over the books. It looked like Ms. Bradley was an avid reader, so at least they would have something in common. Recent releases were sprinkled in among older classics, and Lust had already made a mental note of a few she wanted to read.
"I don't know, Envy," she admitted after a moment. "If it is an act, it's very convincing." The toys littering his room, the way he'd cried when they were fighting, the fact that he'd been happy and excited to see them again, the enthusiastic manner in which he'd spoken to the Elrics and his step-mother on the phone… "But if he is tricking them, I should hope he'd be convincing enough to fool us too."
Envy thought about that and then gave a grudging nod.
"It would be best not to talk about it while the Elrics are here. It wouldn't do to waste all of his efforts with a slip of the tongue," she warned.
"Yeah, yeah, Lust. I'm not stupid," he replied irritably. "… Do you think they're telling the truth?"
"About...?"
"Everything!" he exclaimed. "The plan! Father! Everything that's happened! I don't understand how you can be taking this so calmly!"
Lust straightened from the shelf, turning to face her younger brother directly. Envy had dropped the smile and she couldn't tell if his angry expression was directed at her calmness or the topic in general.
Why did he have to be so emotional all the time? Couldn't he be even a little bit rational?
"It's not that I'm taking this calmly," she said. "It's that there's no other appropriate way to act. Being upset won't solve anything or change anything."
"But-"
"I think they are telling the truth," she continued, disregarding his attempt to protest. "They told me the same things last night, and I doubt Pride could trick them about an event they lived through. What's happened is over and done with and cannot be changed, so we'll just have to accept it."
"Accept it? Accept it! Lust, you agree with them?! You think we should just take this and do what they say? We can't just-"
She held her hand up, fingers pointing at his chest, cutting him off.
"Weren't you listening to Pride at all? What else can we do except accept it?" Her full lips twisted wryly as she twitched her fingers at him in demonstration. No Ultimate Spear came shooting out at him and, for a second, Envy saw the same look of pain and loss that he was feeling flicker across his sister's face before being covered by her own mask. "We can't fight them. If we do, they can just kill us again, and far easier than last time. Can we recreate the Nationwide Transmutation Circle like this, without them finding out? Can we deal out revenge without the military dancing on our strings? Our only hope-" Her voice dropped in volume to little more than a whisper, mindful of potential eavesdropping. "-is that Pride is lying about not being able to bring Father back, or that he will be able to create more Philosopher's Stones using his alchemy. But until the Elrics are gone, we can't know for sure, so you will put up with it and play along."
Envy started to reply, "Yes, Mom," before deciding against it. He wasn't as close to her as Gluttony was and heaven forbid he show respect to anyone, but really, he did think highly of Lust. She was the only one he didn't mind saying was smarter than he was, and whereas his two other older siblings hadn't minded killing him a few times to put him in his place in the Homunculi's hierarchy, Lust had only ever stabbed him once: when he'd royally screwed up in Fisk in 1790-something, nearly jeopardizing the rebellion she'd spent ten years working on. It had been his first real mission using his powers to impersonate someone for the purpose of deception, so maybe that was why she'd even shown mercy by only injuring rather than killing him.
Instead, he nodded reluctantly.
Lust let her hand drop, satisfied that he'd do as she said, and turned to leave the room, but his next words stopped her.
"What if it's not a trick?"
What if Pride really has changed, and there's no way to bring Father back, and we're stuck like this, and we've got to live like this, and we're just ordinary, weak humans, and we'll never go back to being the way we were, and we can die, and…
"… I don't know," she answered quietly. For a second, her shoulders sagged.
But then she stood up straight again, strong and tall, and when she turned to look back at him, her eyes were as sharp and cold as they'd always been.
"If we do have to live as humans, at least we won't be the pathetic and foolish creatures that they are. I will not be manipulated. I am a Homunculus and I won't allow them to pull me down to their level." Her eyes clearly said that she expected the same from him as well.
It was definitely reassuring to hear those words and Envy didn't even consider the fact that she had made no mention of how they would pull that off, but Lust knew that the boast might very well end up being hollow, for she had the feeling that this wasn't something that could be fought.
While Envy and Lust explored the mansion from the inside, Greed sauntered around the grounds, exploring the mansion from the outside.
Pride had mentioned that they were located near Dublith and the name of the town nagged at the back of Greed's mind. He spent several minutes trying to remember where he'd heard the name before as he circled the mansion, skirting bushes and trees with his hands in his pockets.
The rest of what he'd just learned didn't particularly bother him. Granted, there was something disturbing about not having his Ultimate Shield, a certain vulnerability that he'd never had to experience before – for crying out loud, his jaw was still sore from where Envy had punched him! – and the fact that they might all die again if Pride died was definitely not good news, but they weren't unbearable things to put up with. The worst part would not be living as a human, but living with his siblings who also had to live as humans. Hell, he could barely remember anything from his first life, but he couldn't imagine trying to get along with Pride no matter how much the monster had changed. He could be the cutest child in the world, entirely non-homicidal, but Greed just didn't have any interest in hanging out with a kid. And upon his second birth, he and Envy had immediately butted heads. Turned out the giant green oozing-faces monster didn't like having his appearance commented on. Too bad for him; Greed didn't lie, especially not about how thankful he was to not be a repulsive freak of nature. Envy really hadn't taken that well and he seemed the type to hold on to grudges. And Gluttony and Sloth were downright boring to hang around with. They wouldn't be receiving any invitations to his parties, that was for sure.
Lust, on the other hand… She didn't seem so bad. He liked a woman with some fire, and she'd countered his jibes with ease, giving as good as she got. And she was certainly easy on the eyes! Yes, the others might be hard to get along with, but he wouldn't mind spending some time getting reacquainted with his sister.
Thinking about his second birth reminded Greed of that time, and he suddenly remembered where he had heard the name 'Dublith' before.
"Are you… that Greed?" Ed had asked.
"Huh? Which one do you mean?"
"You don't remember? The one from Dublith."
Ah, so that's where he'd heard it before. They had thought he was from Dublith, and Daddy had said something about the Greed before him. The First Greed must have been from Dublith.
So that's the place I used to live, huh? He paused and peered through the trees, trying to make out the town, but the forest was too thick and the ground didn't roll the right way for him to see anything from his current position. Nothing about the town had jogged his memory when he'd looked out on the balcony that morning, but maybe now that he knew, he'd remember something. But then he thought about what he'd experienced there – flashes of memory welled up of Wrath, of him and his friends being killed – and his heart clenched in his chest. Maybe it was better that he didn't remember. For now, anyway.
It did seem an odd coincidence, though, that they were located so close to his old stomping grounds.
Strolling along, Greed continued to be impressed with the mansion. The roof was bright red and the walls were of a light-coloured stone. It kind of resembled a castle. From a bird's eye view, the building was in the shape of a… Well, he didn't know the word for it, but it was like a pinched rectangle. The front wall was shorter and the back wall was longer and the two walls were parallel. Each corner had a turret with its own conical roof, and the front of the building contained more windows than wall. Geez, so what if Wrath had been loved by the populace as the greatest leader Amestris had ever known? Still didn't mean his widow deserved such a nice place. The military was really being too generous here! Not that he was complaining or anything.
At the back of the mansion was a fair-sized garden ringed by a white fence, and there wasn't a wall of the place that didn't have tidy, well-tended flowerbeds underneath it. The forest grew right up to the fence, and except for a clearing a few metres wide around the house, there was no yard to speak of. A rough dirt path, wide enough for a vehicle to drive up, led through the forest's dappled shadows down the hill, turning too quickly for Greed to tell if it connected to another road before reaching Dublith, and the back of the house had a nice view of the mountain range that continued to grow in the distance.
Bored, he went back inside and found Alphonse at the top of the basement stairs carrying a bucket of water.
"Whatcha' doin', kiddo?" he called casually to the younger Elric brother.
"'Kiddo'?" Al laughed. "I'm older than you now, Greed!"
"Tch! Just physically! And I bet people could still mistake me as older."
"I'm not so sure about that," Al responded. "I'm just going to clean up the basement a little bit. Would you like to help?"
Greed hesitated – Uh, physical labour's not really my thing... – then shrugged in agreement. It wasn't like he had anything better to do.
Everything was as they'd left it the previous night, but the sunlight filtering down the stairs helped to soften the space and make it less gloomy. The oil lamps had been left on the floor around the basement walls, the chalk marks still traced their intricate circles on the concrete, and the air was as dank and musty as ever.
Greed studied the transmutation circle curiously while Alphonse set the bucket of water down and left to get whatever tools they would need, though of course he had no idea what any of the symbols meant. There were five large circles that looked particularly important, and he guessed that one had been for each of them. Was it coincidence that the five circles matched the Philosopher's Stone array, or was that one of the keys to the transmutation? There was something downright weird about seeing the thing that had brought them back to life, an eerie feeling that accompanied the white lines on the floor. Not that he cared, really, but still, it was kind of creepy.
Alphonse returned with two mops and with the two of them sloshing water across the smooth floor, the chalk was washed away in a short period of time, erasing all evidence of the incriminating transmutation. The next thing to be done was to move the objects that had been kept in the basement back from the room where they were being temporarily stored, but that task was to wait until tomorrow, because just as they were finishing with the floor, Pride's voice came calling from the top of the stairs, indicating that supper was ready.
The meal was less impressive when compared to breakfast – it appeared that Edward was not a talented cook – but the atmosphere was at least not quite so antagonistic this time around. Everyone now understood what the situation was that they were in and they'd all had the time to digest the news. Whether or not they accepted it was another matter entirely, but Lust's reasoning made sense, so Envy tried to be a little less sullen.
'Tried' being the operative word.
The Homunculi naturally took the same seats they'd had that morning, so Envy was on the opposite end of the table as Greed and Alphonse. He could only catch snatches of their conversation, but it sounded like Greed was asking about some of the Central Chimeras, though not the ones that had tricked him in the North. Didn't matter, though. Hopefully Lust was listening closely enough to tell him where they were; the Chimeras were all the same to him, and if he could find that out, maybe he'd be able to get in a little revenge for the way they'd played him for a fool. If it hadn't been for Mustang, he would have torn the filthy creatures apart back underneath the 3rd Laboratory.
Pride and Edward, closer to Envy, spent a good bit of dinner talking about the boy's phone conversation with Ms. Bradley, and Envy idly eavesdropped while working on his plate.
"Mother says she's fine and Mr. Garfiel's being a good host. He's a bit strange, she said, but he's sort of a tea connoisseur, so they have something in common, and the people at the shop have been really nice to her."
"Strange doesn't even begin to describe him…" Ed muttered to himself before replying, "That's good to hear. I was a little worried that it'd be too loud and busy for her, you know, it being an automail shop and all, but that man owes me a favour and he was the closest person I could call on."
"Do you think Mother can come back tomorrow?" Pride asked hopefully.
"So soon? Do you think that's a good idea? I mean, I don't want to rush it and you said she's fine where she is…"
"No, Mother said she's fine, but she asked about how much longer she'd have to stay there. I think she wants to come back home as soon as she can. You know how worried she gets about me."
"Well, it doesn't matter to me when I go to get her, but wouldn't it be better to give everyone a chance to adjust first?"
Pride shrugged carelessly. "I don't think it really matters if we give them more time. Actually, sooner might be better so that they can start adjusting sooner. No reason to put off introductions."
Ed rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I suppose you have a point there. A big change all at once might be easier to handle than a bunch of little changes, and a day probably won't make that much of a difference… All right, if you think it's okay, you can call her and let her know that I can come pick her up tomorrow."
Envy studied his brother's reaction, hoping for some small hint that he was acting. Pride beamed and chirped out a happy "Thanks, Big Brother!", but Envy couldn't see anything in his behaviour that offered even the hint of a hint that he was putting on a performance. It was disgusting and he hated seeing it. Pride just wasn't supposed to be this way!
A glint of silver drew his eyes to Ed's hip as the blonde man stood up and leaned across the table for a dish.
"Huh? I thought you said you couldn't use alchemy anymore. What, did the military let you stay an honorary State Alchemist or something?"
Ed followed Envy's eyes to the silver chain trailing from his pocket.
"No, I'm not with the military anymore. I just never bothered to give the watch back and the general never asked for it when I handed in my papers. Guess he thought I could keep it as a memento."
"That so…" Envy drawled, already bored with the topic. Huh, keeping a memento of being a Dog of the Military? What a sentimental thing to do. But then, that's humans for you. Sappy worms.
Out of habit, he let his eyes run up and down Ed's body, studying the changes the young man had gone through since he'd aged. The first rule of a shape-shifter was to pay keen attention to the appearances of those one comes into contact with. Upon his birth, it had been hard enough for Envy to even tell the difference between men and women – he didn't have a human body, so why did they expect him to be able to tell the ugly creatures apart! – but as he'd trained and practiced over the years, physical features became something he noticed instinctively, soaking in the details necessary to make his disguises so deceptive and convincing.
The Fullmetal Pipsqueak was wearing boring black pants and a blue shirt that revealed just a peek of his automail scars around the collar. His hair was held back in a ponytail and was just as long, bright, and shiny as ever. His jaw had become more pronounced, his shoulders had broadened, and his limbs had gained the muscle mass to take him from a scrawny and scrappy teenager to a fine specimen of mankind just entering his prime. He was a bit leaner than Alphonse, who looked like he helped himself to one too many puddings when dessert came around (Making up for lost eating when in the armour, perhaps?), but he was still shorter than his younger brother, though the difference between them was far less than before. And they were both taller than Envy.
"Hey, Pride," he called down the table for the child's attention.
Pride looked up with a mildly annoyed expression. "It's Selim now," he corrected.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Envy said, waving his hand flippantly. "Couldn't you have made me taller or something? It goes against the natural order for the runt to be taller!"
"Huh?" Pride looked baffled. "But it was you who chose that height."
"Yeah, but I would have made myself taller if I'd known he was going to outgrow me!"
Pride didn't look in the least apologetic and Envy caught Lust hiding a smile behind her hand. What're you smiling at? he scowled at her, but she only rolled her eyes at him in return.
Edward made no effort to hide his pleasure over that particular change. Shedding his gracious host persona, he sat up straight in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest and smiling smugly at the shape-shifter.
His smugness was promptly swept away when Pride responded, "Well, if it really bothers you, we did give you a teenage body since that's what you liked, so maybe you'll grow taller than Big Brother and Teacher once you reach their age."
That's right: If we're human now, we'll be subject to aging just like them. An odd thing to consider for the nearly 200-year old Homunculus, but Envy shot a cheeky grin at Ed nonetheless and spent the rest of dinner wondering how old his body was in biological terms and how genetics would factor into his future height. Of course, it would have been better if he didn't have to wait to grow, but maybe that would make it all the sweeter when he became, once again, the taller of the two. Shape-shifting was kind of cheating, after all.
Author's Notes:
The Secret Garden: I just picked a random book from a list of popular 1910 novels. The Secret Garden was written in 1911 by Frances Hodgson Burnett, so in the timeline, it's been out for ten years. Even though the FMA universe doesn't completely coincide with our world, I want to pretend that they share as many things in common as possible. It really annoys me that there wasn't a solar eclipse in Europe in the spring of 1915. If there had been, I would have tried to pick a date for the lunar eclipse that was also real. But we can't have everything we want in life. Sigh…
Fisk: According to Falman, the incident in Fisk that resulted in the bloodshed that contributed to the Nationwide Transmutation Circle occurred in 1799. The FMA wiki gives Envy's age as around 175; therefore, he was born around 1740. This makes Fisk the first major event that Envy could have been involved in to create the Circle. No one knows what happened at that event, so I'm just making it up that Envy nearly screwed up his involvement in it somehow.
Greed's memory: I believe that Greed regains only fragments of his memories as the First Greed. I don't see any proof for the return of all of his memories after he goes psycho on Wrath; going with what Ling says about friendship being something that's permanently burned into your soul, the only things Greed can remember from his first life are his Chimera friends. However, it also seems that he can remember past things if his memory is jogged. Example: Episode 45, where Ed agrees to become one of Greed's henchmen because he can't very well pass up the chance to get Greed's information simply because he's caught up in his emotions. And upon seeing the vat of boiling oil/lava while fighting Father underground, Greed instantly recognizes it as the cause of his death from before.
