Number of words: 4,889

Published date: October 28, 2012

Began chapter: October 21, 2012

Finished chapter: October 24, 2012


Chapter 13: Hidden Truths

When Envy entered the room and stood for a moment in the doorway, Lust didn't look up from her work at the living room table. It was not their custom to greet each other every time they met; if Envy wanted something, he would speak up right away. And if not, he should be able to tell just by looking that she was busy and not open to being bothered by the inane chit-chat or gossip to which he was prone.

It was only when he crossed the space and threw himself down on the couch beside her – or perhaps 'collapsed' was a better word – that she looked up in irritation, ready to reprimand him for disturbing her. Envy didn't normally throw himself into furniture like that. He'd learned early on to curb the impulse to copy Greed in that regard; his finicky weight (which, even after mastering his human form, had still given him trouble) had immediately broken the legs on their couch when he'd tried it, sending him sprawling on the floor amidst shattered wood and ruined upholstery. It had only taken that one time to make him more cautious and gentle when sitting down even after figuring out the weight dilemma.

The reprimand died on her lips.

In all their years together, she had never seen him look so shaken. He wasn't looking at her. Red-purple eyes stared blankly at the wall. His face was drawn and pale – even paler than the light skin that he favoured. His right hand made a tight fist on his thigh; the other compulsively clawed at the couch arm. He was trembling, and a light sheen of perspiration stood out on his brow below the headband.

"What's the matter with you?" she asked, but he didn't blink, giving no indication that he'd even heard her.

Irked by how he was ignoring her, she tried his name, but when that also got no response, she repeated it while reaching over and poking his arm. And that finally elicited a reaction, though all he did was turn his head and look at her, still in a daze.

"I said, what's the matter with you? Is something wrong with your body?" she guessed, based on the way he was trembling and sweating. "Because if that's the case, we should get one of the brothers to-"

"No!" He snapped right out of his stupor at that, responding with a suspicious edge of panic in his voice, which he apparently heard as well, for he moderated his tone with his next words. "No, it's- it's nothing. I'm fine."

And why do I not believe that in the slightest?

Lust pondered for a moment, then smirked as another possibility occurred to her.

"Oh? Then perhaps they finally roughed you up for frightening Ms. Bradley?"

"Huh?" He started in surprise. "How'd you know about that?"

She sat back and crossed her legs, drawing tight the blue fabric of another new dress. It would still be several more days before she'd tried on everything in her wardrobe, and the dress was nice even if plainer than she liked. The hardest thing to get used to was having bare hands, for despite Pride and Lily's considerate preparations, gloves were the one thing they'd forgotten to provide. Lust wasn't sure she'd ever had bare hands before; her eyes kept catching on them, distracted by the soft skin, long fingers, and tapered nails. Nails that were sharp, but ordinary, lacking any use as a weapon. The reminder was annoying, but she wasn't willing to let that be known to the Elrics by asking that they create a pair of gloves for her.

"Please. You thought I wouldn't notice it?" she said stiffly. "It's true that Lily has been trying to hide it. I imagine she doesn't want to cause a stir so early, but it's clear she's scared of you. Women must be the only ones smart enough to sense the tension that men are too doltish to pick up on." Perhaps that didn't give men enough credit, but Lust had only ever been impressed by how much they missed when compared to how much they noticed. The subtle undercurrents of a woman's feelings were apparently incomprehensible to the other sex. That was, if they didn't go right over their heads.

Envy didn't protest at that, but he'd never considered himself a member of either gender, so he probably didn't think the insult applied to him. Maybe it didn't.

"So? What did you say to her?"

Envy grinned at the question, but he still seemed a little shaken and he didn't answer with the same enthusiasm that he ordinarily would have.

"Aw, I just asked her what she was thinking by letting Pride bring us back like this."

Lust merely raised an eyebrow, but it conveyed the same message as if she'd spoken aloud: That was it? I doubt that.

He chuckled lightly, lost a bit of the tension in his body.

"Well, I may have said something about how Pride told me to be nice, and I may have added that my version of being nice is not killing someone. But surely you don't think that was what scared her, do you?"

His wide-eyed look of innocence made Lust smile and give a small chuckle as well, though in the next breath, she was chastising him.

"You shouldn't have bothered her, Envy. You've just made things more difficult."

He shrugged, completely unapologetic, and Lust's tone took on a steely edge.

"It's your fault that I haven't been able to catch Pride alone. Lily practically refuses to leave his side now. If you had actually thought about it and not wasted your time trying to cause trouble, we'd know by now-" Her voice dropped in volume warily. "-if Pride is tricking them. And lucky for you, the Elrics haven't noticed anything, or they'd postpone leaving for fear that you'd do something to her and we'd be stuck with them even longer."

He winced at the accusation, and not just for Lust's unintentional reference to his confrontation with Ed. Lust was right. He hadn't thought it through. Scaring the old woman had been fun, but it had been a foolish thing to do.

In the next moment, he glared at her indignantly.

"Well, if I've been wasting so much time, what have you been doing that's so important, huh? Wasting all your time reading! And on those stupid newspapers no less!"

Lust gave him a very level look.

"Yes, Envy, I've just been wasting all of my time with these stupid newspapers," she replied frostily. "These newspapers that Pride hand-picked specifically to help us learn about the past that we've missed." She sat forward and plucked one of the article clippings from the table, waving it in his direction. "Would you like to hear what I've discovered, or are you so smart that you know all about it already? Like how, from these records and my reckoning, the humans never managed to round up all the chimeras from underneath Central? Or like how Pride sugar-coated Amestris's relations with the neighbouring countries? Tell me, did you know that the military is experiencing pressure over the Xingese railways and Ishval? So tell me again that I've been wasting my time."

He ignored the insults laden in her voice and tried to snatch the paper from her as she waved it under his nose.

"What? Really? Aw, don't be like that, Lust! Let me see!"

Rolling her eyes, she gave up the proffered paper and Envy gave it a quick perusal, muttering the headline under his breath.

"'Xing-Ishval trade policy linked to illegal trade, immigration'… I thought Pride said everyone was benefiting from the rails?"

"He did, but obviously there've been some unforeseen complications."

Envy read aloud from the article. "It says here that 'since the Amestrian-Xingese Railway opened two and a half years ago, police forces in the East and South have seen a sharp rise in illegal imports in the form of Xingese weapons and drugs, as well as increasing numbers of foreigners entering the country without passports. In addition, the military reports that Amestrian criminals, with the East now open as an easily accessible escape route, are fleeing to Ishval and Xing in order to escape justice'… How long ago was this written?" His eyes flicked to the top of the sheet. "'November 15, 1920'? What's the date now?"

Lust leaned across the table, which was covered with piles of carefully arranged papers, and tapped the top of one of the stacks.

"This is today's," she answered. "July 8, 1921."

"So about half a year ago…" This was a far more preferable topic to think about than Ed's threat. Or had it really been advice? Envy didn't want to think about it, would much have preferred to forget that it had even happened. He still felt ill, and not just from Ed's words; despite how well they had merged his human body with his true body, it was evident that his little parasitic form did not like pain and did not recover quickly. The feeling of raked nerves was still present even if it was fading. "If there've been problems, why didn't Pride mention it when he was on the topic earlier?"

Lust shrugged lightly, flicking a curl of wavy black hair back behind her shoulder.

"I can think of several reasons, but most likely he didn't want to mention it in front of the Elrics when they might take it as scheming. He had to paint a pretty picture for us in front of them. But there are other articles on the same subject. It is subtle, but if one reads between the lines, there appear to be quite a number of citizens who are dissatisfied with the government's new policies."

Envy stood up as Lust continued speaking, moving to crouch down on the other side of the table, now just as interested in the articles as Lust was.

"Many people – especially those in Central – are quite content with the negotiations with Creta, Aerugo, and Ishval. But there are many from towns on the borders that still bear grudges against the other nations for the blood they spilled. They seem to resent that Amestris has given up, as it were, halfway through the conflict. And despite the earlier disdain for State Alchemists, now that the program has been reformed, there are complaints against the State Alchemists' removal from combat. Funny how they're now feeling vulnerable without the cursed Dogs of the Military to protect them. Miserable creatures," she muttered under her breath. "They really are hopeless, aren't they? Although it's somewhat gratifying to know our work wasn't completely wasted."

Envy pulled one of the stacks into his lap. The date at the top was from June 1915. The headline read, Grumman officially instated as new Fuhrer. A quick flip through the papers showed that they were all from a few months after the Promised Day. Due to their age, they had a yellow and faded look when compared to the more recent pages.

"It doesn't matter anymore," he commented without looking up. "The crests of blood are already carved. It makes no difference if they're fighting or not."

He didn't realize she was staring at him until halfway through the article, when he happened to glance up.

"What?"

Lust shook her head, placing her arm on the couch arm and resting her chin in her hand.

"It's nothing. It's just… not like you to say something like that."

He blinked and played back his own words slowly in his head. She was right. Between the two of them, Lust was by far the more practical when it came to human death. She'd seen the fighting as the means to the end, and he'd enjoyed it without even thinking of the goal. Why in the world had he said that it didn't matter if the humans were still fighting? He should have been delighted by that knowledge. Instead, he felt oddly indifferent.

But there was no quick way to explain it, so he simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "Guess I'm out of practice. It's been six years, after all. Give me a break!" and she accepted the excuse without a word.

Lust didn't say anything else, allowing him to read without distraction, and the next time he glanced up, Envy saw that his sister had closed her eyes. Well, she had already read everything and it was fairly late in the evening. He didn't blame her for being tired.

Envy didn't know whether it had been Lust or Pride who had marked the articles that were most important. Little red ticks inconspicuously indicated where to focus his attention, but it took him several papers to figure out why they hadn't done more – highlight important phrases or make notes in the margins or something like that. It was because, if the Elric brothers examined the newspapers when they were obviously marked with topics of interest to the Homunculi, it could easily give away any situation that Pride hoped to exploit.

If Pride was planning anything.

He'd better be tricking them, Envy thought. He's got to be! He's Pride. And Pride wouldn't allow the humans to beat him like this. Of course not! I don't know about the alchemy bit, but if he brought us back, he obviously needs our help and we'd be a lot more useful with our powers, so he must not have had any choice on that front. And screw Ed for saying that stuff about not wanting me! I bet Pride just let him think that because I'm the most important to whatever he's planning! Yeah, that's it!

He nodded to himself confidently, squashing the hurt feeling that Ed had been right, that no one cared if he was alive or not, into the back of his mind.

No matter what Fullmetal says, Pride won't let them kill me. And he's just spouting that human garbage to get their defences down. He's probably got it all planned out: We'll make a new Stone, and there'll be some way to bring Father back, and we'll destroy them all and they won't even see it coming, and it'll all be the Elrics' fault!

That it would all be the Elrics' fault was like icing on the cake.

But then, what about what Ed had said?

If you're jealous of humans, then why not work at conquering that?

Could he really do it? Was there really some way for him to be rid of this feeling? What if Ed was right? If Ed was right, killing everyone in Amestris, no, everyone in the whole world wouldn't be enough to rid himself of his own particular sin.

Don't think about it. Just wait until the Elrics leave and Pride tells us the truth of what's going on, and then I can figure it out.

Envy turned his attention back to the oldest articles.

There were several more about Fuhrer Grumman, and although the old man was praised as a good and wise leader for the country during its troubled times and was eccentric on the same level as Wrath, the differences in their styles of leadership came across loud and clear. Wrath had run a tight ship; by comparison, Grumman was laid back and casual. It seemed even the reporters writing the articles had been thrown for a loop at the different direction intended for the country with Grumman at the helm. Military involvement in the parliament immediately went down. Treaties were sent out to the neighbouring nations. The State Alchemist program was changed. Democracy and peace were like catchwords sprinkled throughout the texts. Grumman really seemed to care about getting the populace on his side.

There were articles about construction in Central after the events of the Promised Day. Half of Central Command had apparently been blown clean away; the article didn't mention how. After Mustang and Armstrong's rebellion, the city had been left in shambles from the fighting. There were notices to avoid certain areas until the authorities could check the structural integrity, a few mentions of how citizens could report any damages to their property caused during the uprising, and invitations to the public to report to the nearest hospital if they had been injured or were experiencing prolonged symptoms from the "widespread lack of consciousness".

It was on the same topic that Envy found the reference to the chimeras that Lust had mentioned. Some of the damage had split the ground and opened up into the sewers where the chimeras lived. Without any of the Homunculi or their father to keep control over them, the remaining beasts had surged out to the surface when construction crews entered their domain to begin repairs. Many had been killed, but from the sounds of it, not all, for as Envy flipped through and compared the dates, reports of sightings of strange creatures around the forests outside Central lasted for months after. There were a few deaths associated with the alchemically-created monsters and citizens were warned to be extra cautious when traveling outside the city. The police only lifted the warnings when nothing had been sighted for several months. That in no way guaranteed that the chimeras were all dead, but the things could have died off naturally and they'd never had a case of one giving birth before, so Envy didn't get his hopes up that there were any still alive to regain control of.

With that pile done, he stood up and rooted through the other stacks, looking for something interesting.

"Hey Lust, where's the stuff on Ishval?" he asked.

Lust cracked an eye open and gave him a mild frown at having disturbed her before stretching, dragging it out to make him wait as punishment. He tapped his foot impatiently.

"Ishval?" she finally repeated, sitting forward on the couch to examine the papers. "Those are fairly scattered; it was a long project, over several years. I believe the first mention of it begins… around this time." She paused to draw one of the papers out and flip it open, searching for the proper page. "Here," she said, holding it out for him to take.

He waved his hand instead, affecting a pained expression.

"Aw, that's too much work. I don't wanna' read all of it. Just tell me the important stuff."

It wasn't very fun to have her irritated and unimpressed look levelled in his direction, but if there was one thing Envy had always been impressed by in his older sister, it was her patience. With him, with Gluttony, and with Greed before he ran away. It must come with age, he thought, for both she and Pride were the most patient of the Homunculi. Or maybe it had to do with her particular sin; she'd never managed to adequately explain to him exactly what 'lust' meant, though he understood the general idea, and it didn't sound like something that necessitated a lack of patience the way greed and gluttony did.

Either way, she gave him "the look" and sighed and reprimanded that 'she had had to put in the effort, so he should have to do the same' and insulted that this was why his plans were never thought through all the way, and he bore it and waited because he knew she would give in eventually.

"All right. The first mention is a few months after the Promised Day. The Fuhrer makes a statement about the military's reversal of the Ishvalan policy and his intention to "right the wrongs committed" to the Ishvalan people. And a week or two later there's an article discussing Mustang's role in the resettlement project. The focus is on the 'humanitarianism' of the 'Hero of Ishval'…"

Envy rested his elbows on the table, propped his chin in his hands, and listened with half a mind as his sister expounded on what she had discovered, but he kept getting distracted by his own thoughts.

Ishval was one of our greatest accomplishments, but it sounds like they've already recovered. Damn, but that really grinds on my nerves! We couldn't kill all the Amestrians, but we could have at least killed all the Ishvalans!

Lust is wrong: She thinks our work will last, but in a few years – maybe five or ten or more, but not long in the grand scheme of things – there'll be just as many Ishvalans as before and in a few generations they won't even remember the war. Humans live such short lives… and they forget things so quickly because of it. We lived way longer than they do, but if we die, eventually it'll be like we never existed too.

He could feel the familiar feeling starting to worm its way into his chest again. Damn it all, he wasn't even thinking about something that he could be jealous of! Was he? Not unless it was the capacity of humans to survive and remain optimistic in the face of mortality – but that was just because they were stupid, ignorant bugs! It was hardly praiseworthy! Or was that just jealousy talking again? Was he going to have to doubt his every thought now?

Disgusted with himself, Envy interrupted Lust with the first thing that popped into his head.

"Hey, Lust, would you miss me if I wasn't here?"

It was at times like this that he really wished he could learn to keep his big mouth shut. Sure, the question was loosely connected to what he'd just been thinking and Ed's words were still fresh in his mind, but at Lust's startled look, Envy desperately wished he could take the words back.

"What's this? Have you become sentimental so quickly?" she asked disdainfully.

He felt the blood rise to his face, embarrassed and angry at her tone of voice. She didn't have to sound so condescending!

"Besides," Lust continued coolly, "if anyone should be asking that question, it's me. From what I've heard, none of you did anything to Mustang after he killed me."

Envy stared at her with his mouth open.

"But that was-! Lust, we had to leave him alive! He was a candidate for sacrifice!"

"Of course he was," she scoffed. "And I'm glad you didn't waste him on something as petty as vengeance. But the fact that you just had the opportunity to tell me that you killed some of his subordinates and you didn't means that he was let off without any punishment. Isn't that so?"

"No, it wasn't- It wasn't like that! Gluttony was distraught over losing you, and I would have torn his spine out if Wrath hadn't gotten in the way-"

"It doesn't matter what you would have done," she interrupted brusquely. "What matters is that you did nothing. Why should I say that I'd miss you when you didn't miss me enough to do anything about it?"

"I-" His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, because there was no way he was going to admit to something so corny as having missed her. She shouldn't have turned the question around like that! It wasn't fair; they'd had no choice in the matter and she'd just said she was glad they hadn't wasted the bastard Colonel by killing him, so she didn't have the right to demand something like this!

"I'm not apologizing!" he bit out angrily, stubbornly.

"And I'm not going to admit to something so human as hypothetically missing you," she countered.

"Hey hey, here's the beautiful swan and the ugly duckling! Was wondering what you two were up to. What's going on? Am I interrupting something?"

Their stalemate broke off as Greed entered the room, and both would have been more thankful for the interruption if he hadn't been so boisterous and cheerful. Envy turned around and gave him a death glare, but Greed just laughed and grinned and didn't give Envy the chance to spit out a retort.

"What do ya think?" he asked, tugging his new clothing straight and standing taller to give them a better look.

He was wearing a black leather vest with a ruff of white fluff around the collar.

Both of them recognized it.

"You've remembered then?" Lust asked.

"Hmph, all you need is the dorky glasses and the wristbands and to get a haircut and you'll look just like your old ugly self," Envy commented dryly.

Greed paused and stared at them blankly.

"What're you two talking about? Remember what? This is pretty slick, isn't it! Alphonse just made it for me. Can you believe the kid has such good taste? Course, it's too warm to be wearing in summer, but it still looks pretty damn good! Which shouldn't be a surprise; I make everything look good!"

Envy and Lust glanced at each other. It appeared that Greed still had the same tastes, but he didn't remember having them. Envy made a disgusted face and abruptly stood up, heading for the doorway.

"Ugh, I'm not in the mood to deal with his crap, Lust," he called in a surly voice over his shoulder. "See you tomorrow."

"You should see Alphonse sometime before they leave too!" Greed called after him. "It won't kill you to get a new outfit! And even if you have the worst fashion sense ever, Al knows a thing or two about-"

"Screw you, Greed," Envy replied, waving his middle finger behind him without turning around.

Eager to have the last word, Greed called out, "You're hardly my type!" but Envy was already too far away to retort. "Well, I guess it's just the two of us, huh, toots?" he said, turning back to Lust and grinning.

Nostalgia forced her to respond with her own coy smile. Except for their brief reunion upon his capture at Wrath's hand, they hadn't seen each other in a hundred years. He had betrayed them and for that, Lust would have done the same as Wrath had done: attack mercilessly and, if she was lucky, catch him by surprise before he could get his Ultimate Shield up. But there was no denying that life in the Homunculi's lair had lost much of its energy and charm with his parting.

If he didn't remember her, then he also wouldn't remember this part of their game:

She was Lust the Lascivious and he was Greed the Avaricious, but denying him something he wanted was a thousand times more pleasurable.

Taking her smile as a good sign, Greed threw himself down on the couch beside her, started to throw his feet up on the table and then stopped because of the papers, and brought his arm onto the back of the couch and above her shoulder in a playful show of familiarity.

She didn't give him a chance to try for more.

Just as he began to sidle closer, she abruptly stood up and moved around the table, gathering up the papers Envy had left on the floor and asking in a neutral tone, "Do you know where everyone else is?"

He was thrown for a loop by her sudden change in mannerism but answered readily enough.

"Uh, Glutt's in the garden with the Missus. I think she's teaching him how to pick weeds or something like that. Ed and Al are starting to pack for tomorrow. And the kid and Sloth are upstairs in his study room. Can't you hear him? He's playing the piano."

She paused in rustling the papers, tilting her ear towards the door and listening.

He was right: It was faint, barely audible, and yet she could just make out the sound of music drifting down the nearby staircase.

Had Pride ever played an instrument before? She couldn't remember, couldn't recall a time when he'd ever told them about his child act under the Bradleys' care. His reports had focused solely on whatever information was important to their plans; if he'd been forced to learn an instrument in his classes, she didn't know about it. And shouldn't he think that music was just a frivolous human pastime, like dancing and singing and painting and practically every other form of human entertainment?

"Is he any good at it?" she asked curiously.

Greed shrugged. "I'm sure I've heard better, but for his age? Sounds alright to me."

"Wait. You said Sloth was with him?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"You're asking me to read that big galoot's mind?" Greed chuckled. "How'm I supposed to know? Maybe he's a music lover!"

Or maybe he's just confused by it, Lust thought. I doubt Sloth has even heard music before.

Ignoring Greed, she finished with her work and then headed for the garden to round up Gluttony.

She hadn't thought of it during their argument, but before Envy had shown up, she'd been feeling a little irked. The reason came to her that she wasn't happy that Gluttony was taking such a shining to Lily. The floor at her side had felt quite empty without him sitting there beside her.

She wouldn't admit to missing him any more than she would admit to missing Envy if he were gone. And being jealous over having competition for Gluttony's adoration was not her sin.

He just got distracted whenever food was involved. That was all.


Author's Notes:

Lust's opinion of men: As far as we know, Lust's largest role was manipulating men to divulge secrets and take actions that would result in bloodshed. I think it would be quite reasonable for her to think less of men, especially since she spent most of her time wrapping them around her fingers. Of course, she probably has a low opinion of women too, but for different reasons.