Number of words: 4,603

Published date: January 13, 2013

Began chapter: January 7, 2013

Finished chapter: January 13, 2013


Chapter 22: Beyond the Walls

With a yell, Selim threw himself at Greed, reminding the youngest Homunculus (in terms of memories, at least) of nothing more than a small, dark animal lunging from its trapped corner in the hopes of getting one more bite in before meeting its end.

With little concern, Greed braced his back leg, twisted, and snatched Selim out of the air, adding to the boy's own momentum and sending him roughly to the ground, sprawled on his back with a little gasped 'oomph'.

"Come on," Greed growled, turning and crossing his arms over his chest impatiently. "I told you you'd have to think of something else. You don't have a chance coming at me directly."

Selim lifted his head to glare at his brother indignantly, but they'd been going at it for a while now and the kid was obviously starting to tire. He stayed on the ground, taking a moment to catch his breath.

When they'd first started training, it had taken some time to get into the rhythm of what he was supposed to do. Fight a child? How was a person supposed to fight against a child? It was awkward and uncomfortable because he wasn't really sure what he was supposed to do, but apparently the Elric brothers had already laid out what they expected, for Selim told him that their lessons involved him attacking his teachers and they in turn deflecting his attacks. This, it turned out, had been the training method of their teacher, the one who had preached that 'to train the mind, you must first train the body.' Greed remembered the woman… or at least he remembered a trim waist and nice chest and he was pretty sure she'd had dark hair, but could he really be blamed for having more important things on his mind (God's power in dear old Daddy's possession, the thing he wanted so badly just within his reach) at the time?

So her training method was what they used. Simple and unstructured, Selim attacked and Greed deflected and in no time at all, he got used to it.

In fact, more than got used to it. Greed kind of enjoyed the training bouts, for there was something incredibly satisfying in taking Pride the Arrogant down a few notches. Okay, so yes, Selim had given him a second chance by bringing him back. And yes, there had also been that apology on the first morning for trying to kill Greed and his friends. It wasn't really fair for him to hold a grudge. Even so, putting Selim in his place when the boy didn't have any powers was an undeniable treat.

Speaking of which, Greed's concern over not having his powers affecting his fighting style turned out to be a non-issue. Not only because Selim could hardly be expected to hurt him. It seemed that Ling had rubbed off on him in more ways than just a Gluttony-size appetite, for Ling's martial arts style – a patient, fluid blend of attack and defend – snuck up on Greed, tempering his preferred method of diving in without any thought to the possibility of being hurt. He waited. He watched. And when the moment was right, he acted with whatever move expended the least energy for the greatest result.

Selim still hadn't gotten up. Greed, deciding to be nice by giving the kid another minute to recover, turned slightly to look up at the mansion.

Envy, he saw, was watching them from the balcony.

Greed smirked up at him. Was his little brother jealous that Greed was getting the chance to beat up on Pride and he wasn't? Was he envious of Greed's fighting skills? Or was he just bitter at being left out of the fun? They had told him he could join in – surely Envy wasn't so skilled that Greed would have to exert himself, for Ling had recounted their fight in the forest and his partner had had a fair degree of disdain for the shape-shifter's fighting ability – but Envy had rejected the very notion that he had anything to learn, scoffing and slinking off as if the invitation had insulted him.

It was a bit of a shame. Envy was the only one who could at least give Greed a bit of a workout. Gluttony was out of the question. Sloth would be like fighting a rock. And Lust was a woman, so she was out of the question too. He didn't fight women.

As if the thought had summoned her, his older sister joined Envy on the balcony, leaning casually on the railing and sending a smoky smile down at him. He grinned in return and opened his mouth to call up to her, but Lust suddenly straightened and stared down curiously at something past his shoulder. He watched her lips move and her elbow jab into Envy's side and, darting an annoyed glare at his sister, Envy perked up beside her at the rail, both of their gazes now fixed on the same point in anticipation of…

What? Greed wondered. What do they find so interesting?

Confused, he started to turn around to find out what had caught their attention, but before he could complete the turn, a fist of stone rose up from the ground and slammed into his gut.

Breath left him in a whoosh and he gasped and coughed and fell to his knees. From the balcony, he heard Envy cackling like he'd just killed someone and Lust giving a light titter at his expense. Through his watering eyes, he saw Selim standing and grinning at him, a simple transmutation circle etched into the dirt at his feet.

"How's that for thinking of something else?" the brat asked triumphantly.

Greed didn't answer, still trying to catch his breath. Damn, he thought, I forgot all about the kid being able to do alchemy. He must've drawn it when I wasn't looking. Crafty little-

With a playful shout, Selim launched forward, tackling him and sending him the rest of the way to the ground.

"Admit it!" he said, pummelling Greed's head with his tiny fists. "Admit it, Greed! I beat you! I beat you! Say uncle!"

He couldn't help but give a wheezing laugh even though he was on the losing side. The kid had won and hadn't he already thought that dirty moves were completely acceptable if they let the kid protect himself.

"Okay. Okay already! Uncle. Uncle! Now get off of me!"

Recovered as far as his stomach was concerned, he started to get up and tried to pry Selim off his back, but the child apparently wanted to prolong his victory for as long as possible. He grabbed Greed's ponytail and stubbornly refused to let go. Yanking at the boy only pulled his hair and his frustration mounted when Selim decided to cover his eyes with his hands from behind Greed's head, his fistfuls of hair tickling Greed's face and nose.

The low, gravelly rumble of a vehicle making its way up the long driveway thankfully ended their struggle before it could escalate into something serious.

"Mason's here!" Selim exclaimed. He released his grip on Greed's hair and jumped down from his back, exuberantly running to the front door and yelling into the bowels of the mansion, "Mother! Mason's here!"

"You're not going to trick me like that a second time!" Greed called after the boy, but Selim paid him no mind, either not hearing or choosing to ignore him.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Greed moved over to stand on the front landing, grumbling in annoyance at the mess Selim had made of his ponytail. The Missus had warned them the night before about the visitor and, though he affected an air of nonchalance, Greed was actually looking forward to some contact with the outside world. He was sick and tired of only having the other Homunculi to talk to.

Ms. Bradley and Selim joined him on the steps just as the vehicle pulled up to the front of the mansion. It was rather plain, a dark green, with the words CURTIS MEATS stamped on the side in a blocky, simple font.

The man who stepped out of the car matched the lettering exactly.

"Mason!" Selim chirped in greeting.

"Hey there, squirt!" the man replied, grinning broadly down at the child. "How're you doing?" Without waiting for a reply, he turned to greet Ms. Bradley, words tumbling from him in a rush. "Good morning, Ms. Bradley. I'm sorry I'm late; it took longer than I thought it would to get those extra things you asked for. Looks like you're doing well. How are things going way up here on the mountain?"

Ms. Bradley smiled and answered, "Everything is fine, Mason. Thank you so much for coming up. I hope it wasn't too much trouble-"

He quickly shook his head.

"Not at all, not at all. I keep telling you I don't mind. I couldn't leave Mrs. Curtis's pupils' apprentice and his mother to fend for themselves all alone up here, now could I!"

Mason turned then and without preamble stepped forward, grabbing Greed's hand and pumping it up and down enthusiastically, all while wearing a broad grin.

"And you must be one of the new residents Ms. Bradley mentioned! Nice to meet you! The name's Mason. I've got to tell you, I'm relieved to hear there's someone else up here now to keep an eye on things. We all worry about these two back in town."

With his arm being pumped off his shoulder, Greed didn't answer, instead stunned into silence by the man's immediate friendliness.

Mason wasn't especially tall, but he was definitely taller than Greed and he was built with a muscular stockiness that could have been threatening if the man weren't so busy smiling. The rest of his features were ordinary and unmemorable: short black hair, bushy eyebrows, and a round (but not soft) face. He wore a white headband around his forehead, but since his hair was so short, it was probably to keep sweat out of his eyes. Wristbands and a simple sleeveless top completed his image of being a person who worked with his body, not his mind.

"Sorry, but I didn't catch your name," Mason said, finally releasing Greed's arm.

"Greed," Greed managed, trying to shake his hand out without it being obvious. The man had a powerful grip!

"Can I offer you something to drink?" Ms. Bradley interrupted politely, but Mason shook his head.

"No, that's alright. Let's get this stuff unloaded first, work up a good sweat, and then we'll really appreciate it. Right?" he asked Greed with a grin and it was only then that Greed realized Ms. Bradley had promised the man that he'd have help in moving their delivery into the house. Looking past Mason's shoulder, Greed could see an impressive stack of boxes and crates taking up the back seat and passenger's side of the vehicle.

Ms. Bradley hesitated and then nodded. "I'll just leave you men to your work, then," she said, heading back inside.

"And I'll go get Sloth!" Selim declared, following after his mother. "He can help with the heavier stuff."

Mason didn't seem to mind being left alone with a virtual stranger. He opened the back doors of the car and explained the sorting method he'd used.

"The stuff in the back goes to the basement. Ms. Bradley just likes us to stack it at the bottom of the stairs; she'll sort it out later where she wants everything to go. And the stuff in the front seat is for the freezer, so we should move that first. I don't mind taking the heavier stuff, so just grab whatever you want."

Following his own words, the burly man heaved out one of the larger crates from the floor, lifted it onto his shoulder, and headed into the mansion. With a shrug, Greed pulled out a second smaller crate filled with packages wrapped in butcher's paper. Each package bore words scribbled in black pen; the top ones read 'pork', 'ground beef', and 'sirloin'.

Any thoughts of not helping disappeared when he realized that Ms. Bradley had been careful to remember his favourite foods and had specifically moved to accommodate him. They hadn't had a lot of meat yet and Greed had found that disappointing, but now here was a whole crateful of the stuff! She must just not have had much meat in the house because it wasn't something she liked and now she was rectifying that.

Truth be told, he was a little touched by the thoughtfulness.

As he headed for the door, Greed glanced up at the balcony and wasn't at all surprised to see that Lust and Envy had vanished, though he wasn't sure if the reason was to avoid helping or to avoid interacting with a human. Either way, it was probably for the better.

Mason had obviously made deliveries many times before and was perfectly familiar and comfortable with the mansion, for he made a beeline for the basement stairs and didn't seem at all bothered by the lack of lights when he got to the bottom.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, looking around after placing his burden down. "Was Ms. Bradley doing some cleaning or something? It's a lot cleaner down here."

Stumbling at the observation, Greed did his best to fudge the truth without outright lying.

"I'm not sure," he said, placing his crate on the floor. "It was like this when we got here, except that everything was upstairs." Other than the fact that the floor had been covered with transmutation circles, it was true.

Mason didn't seem suspicious (nor was there any reason for him to be) but instead, he latched onto a different topic.

"Oh? How long have you been here?"

"Ah, not very long. A few weeks, maybe. I don't pay a lot of attention to dates and stuff," Greed said, beginning the climb back up the stairs. He knew very well that it hadn't been that long – they'd probably only been there for a week and a half at the most – but 'few' wasn't specific and people rounded numbers all the time.

"Where were you living before you came here?"

"Uh…" Damn! How was he supposed to answer? Neither Pride nor Ms. Bradley had told him of any story he had to stick to, but that didn't mean there wasn't one. And the truth – that they had been dead for six years before coming to live here – was not going to fly no matter how much he disliked lying. Wary that thinking about it for too long would be a dead giveaway, he responded with the first answer that came to mind. "We were… in Xing."

"Xing! Wow, what a coincidence. That's where my boss and his wife are right now," the man chatted without a hitch. "The closest I've ever been to the East is East City and that was years ago! What's it like? I've heard the food there is amazing. And the scenery! It's mostly mountains, isn't it? Whereabouts were you? Xing is huge, isn't it? I hear there are some places where it rains all the time and that there are other places so high up that it's hard to breathe. And then there's the Eastern Desert! You must have taken the train, right?"

The onslaught at least meant that Greed only had to answer the last question.

"Yeah, of course. Crossing that desert on foot would be crazy."

"Definitely," Mason laughed in agreement. "But you know, my boss did just that."

"What? Seriously?"

"It's true, I swear! Mrs. Curtis said she didn't want to get to Xing with dull reflexes, so she and Sig crossed the desert by foot."

"That's crazy!"

"Yeah, but they made it in one piece and compared to a month on Mount Briggs, she said it was like a walk at a picnic."

"Your boss is one tough customer, huh?"

The two men got a good laugh out of that.

When they got back outside to grab a second load, Selim and Sloth were waiting for them.

Mason's reaction to Sloth was expected. He paused in surprise at the huge man who towered over them all by a head and a half, but rather than fear, there was instant respect. Greed remembered Mrs. Curtis's husband even less than he remembered her, but he knew the man was large and well-muscled. This Mason obviously had some pride in his muscles as well, so naturally he took an immediate liking to the fellow strong-man even though Sloth, as per his nature, said nothing more than a monotonous "What a bother" when Mason introduced himself.

Being honest, Greed was somewhat surprised that Selim had managed to wrangle Sloth into helping, but then his surprise dwindled when he reminded himself that Pride had been the one asking for help and Pride was the one Sloth had had to obey. The hulking man probably didn't realize that he didn't need to obey his brother anymore.


The rest of the job was handled in innocuous and inane chit-chat. Since they could load Sloth down with twice as much as what one of them alone could handle, it didn't take long to empty the vehicle and, in no time at all, the four gathered in the kitchen with Ms. Bradley for the promised drinks.

Which turned out to not be the cold beer Greed had been hoping for.

So much for being well rewarded, he grumbled internally, leaning back in his chair, throwing his feet up on the kitchen table, and studiously avoiding the glances Ms. Bradley kept sending at his boots, trying to make him put his feet down without saying anything. He'd be willing to do what she wanted, but only if she wanted it badly enough to ask. If a person wasn't willing to express their desires, they didn't deserve to get them fulfilled. Which was the whole reason why he made it a point to not lie.

At first, the old woman and Mason talked business. Mason pulled out a list and read aloud from it and Ms. Bradley compared with her own list, confirming that he'd brought everything she had requested. And once that was out of the way, Mason happily filled them in on the latest gossip.

"Renovations to the community centre are almost finished. I heard a rumour that they're planning a big concert for its re-opening. I wouldn't be surprised if Selim gets asked to play something again. You know, people are still talking about how amazing he was at the spring festival."

Selim blushed and looked down at the table, affecting humility, but at the same time, he couldn't hide his pleasure at the praise. Ms. Bradley smiled at him proudly, but when Mason pressed, the boy merely responded, "I'll think about it."

"Are the Hartleys still having trouble?" Ms. Bradley asked.

"That depends on how you look at it. They've split up now and I think Susan moved in with her boyfriend."

"Young people these days," the old woman tsked under her breath. "How about Emily? Has she had her baby yet?"

"Oh yeah! I'm sorry; I should have mentioned it right away. That was just two days ago. They had a boy, but I don't think they've decided on a name yet…"

I do not blame Envy and Lust one bit for sneaking off to avoid this, Greed pondered, quickly growing bored. I wonder if I can sneak off too… What would be a good excuse?

It wouldn't be hard to simply say that he needed to go to the washroom, but that lacked imagination and he'd be expected to come back, so he continued trying to think of something better while idly watching Sloth across the table.

For the first time he could remember, he thought he saw a flicker of emotion on Sloth's face. The great behemoth was cradling his cup of lemonade in his huge hands, staring down into the liquid as if it held the secrets of the universe before lifting it for a drink. And, so small as to maybe just be a trick of the light, Greed thought he saw Sloth's lips tug up at the corners, as if he was beginning to smile.

Wonder what that's about, Greed thought, but he couldn't fathom what was going through Sloth's head. Either he just really liked the juice, or he was happy to have been rewarded for helping out, which wasn't something that had ever happened before. There had been no thanks for their tunnel-digger upon finishing the Nationwide Transmutation Circle. Could it be so simple that being thanked by Ms. Bradley made him feel appreciated?

"So, Greed, how are you and the Bradleys related?" Mason asked, snapping Greed out of his reverie.

"Huh? Oh, um, it's confusing," he floundered. "I'm no good at family trees."

Selim rescued him, but in such an insulting way that it didn't feel like being rescued.

"It's not confusing at all, Greed," the child chided. "Your mother was Mother's older sister, so Mother is your aunt and you're her nephew."

Maybe he could have followed it better if they hadn't been making up the entire connection, but to Greed, it still sounded confusing.

Mason also looked confused, but for different reasons.

"I thought Selim was your sister's son?" he asked.

"Yes, he is," Ms. Bradley confirmed. "My younger sister... Margaret." The slight hesitation gave away the fact that this was a lie, but Mason didn't seem to notice. "Greed and Sloth are my older sister's sons… Um, Ellen." It was even clearer this time that she was making up the name on the spot.

"I didn't know you had two sisters. I thought you said you didn't have any living relatives after her."

Ms. Bradley began to blush in embarrassment.

"I- I can't have said that. I definitely had two sisters. If I said it, I must just not have been thinking clearly," she protested weakly.

Mason held up his hands in a soothing gesture.

"No, it's probably me. I'm just remembering wrong. I don't have the best memory for details like that." He turned to Greed again. "So what prompted this visit? How long are you staying here?"

Greed darted a glance at Selim, but his kid brother only gave a small shake of his head and, if there was some hidden hint in that, Greed didn't know what it was.

"Well, like I said, we were in Xing for a long time and it seemed like a good idea to come back to Amestris," Greed started. Selim was now widening his eyes and jerking his head in his mother's direction, and Greed tried again. "And when we heard that Auntie here was taking care of our nephew-"

"Cousin," Selim corrected.

"-our cousin," Greed continued with a grimace at the mistake, "all alone, it seemed like a good idea to stay for a while. Don't really know for how long."

He couldn't tell, but something about Selim's expression said he had scraped by, but just barely.

"You know," Mason said, "I'm curious: You didn't have any trouble getting back into the country?"

Selim's eyes widened in concern.

"Huh? What d'you mean?"

"You didn't have any problem at the borders?"

Greed hesitated. There was obviously something he was missing, something that he should have known about, but since he had no idea what it might be, he couldn't very well start making stuff up in the hopes of being right.

"No. Why?"

Mason seemed thrown off by the response, but at least he was too naïve to suspect that it was Greed who didn't know what he was talking about.

"I thought I'd heard that there was trouble with the rails. Trains are being attacked. The military's been tight-lipped about it and of course the Ishvalans aren't being chatty, so nobody really knows what's going on. You didn't notice anything out of the ordinary?"

"We must've just been lucky," Greed said weakly, sure now that he'd screwed up, but to his vast relief, Mason merely shrugged.

"Well, I guess that's just proof that you can't believe every rumour you hear, right?" The man laughed. After a moment, Greed joined in. Ms. Bradley tried to smile but only looked harried and stressed, and Selim's cute kid face held just enough bite to tell Greed that he was in for an earful later.


Mason finished his drink and in a profusion of thanks from Ms. Bradley for the delivery, they saw him off. True to his intuition, as soon as the vehicle disappeared through the trees, Selim turned to Greed with the haughty look of his former self.

"Whatever possessed you to tell him you were from Xing?" he hissed at Greed angrily.

The Sin could only respond in defensive indignation, "What was I supposed to say, huh? The question came out of nowhere! I had to say something and Xing was the first thing that popped into my head, okay? Give me a break!"

"It's not okay! Xing is probably the worst answer you could have given! Mrs. Curtis is in Xing! People here know more about Xing than they do about Creta and Aerugo. It's entirely likely that you'll be asked something and someone will catch that you don't have a clue what you're talking about."

"Well, I can't take it back now, can I?" he responded, exasperated. "It's not my fault; you should have warned me or something!"

"You were supposed to be smart enough to come up with a better answer! But you're right that it's my fault for overestimating you," the brat countered.

"Yeah, then I guess it is your fault, Pride."

Selim's mouth clicked shut at the name and, suddenly aware that Ms. Bradley was standing not too far away, he glanced at her guiltily and seemed to deflate somewhat.

"What I want to know," Greed said, changing the topic, "is what Mason was talking about. What did he mean, there's been trouble with the rails? You never told me about that."

Selim avoided his eyes and bit his lip, now clearly reluctant to answer.

"Well?" he demanded, growing annoyed.

The child sighed. "It's been in the newspapers. I don't really know much more than Mason. Nobody really knows what the problem is, but he's right: Trains have been attacked. It's a recent situation. The first attacks started about a month or two ago and travel to and from Xing has pretty much stopped."

"Then why were you keeping it from me? Why didn't Al tell me about it? That's kind of important to me, you know!"

"Yeah, I know," Selim said. "That's why we didn't tell you. We knew you'd get upset if you knew getting to Xing was going to be harder than you thought. Teacher probably said two months because he figured the problem would be solved by then."

"And if it's not?" Greed pressed.

Selim shrugged.

"That's up to Teacher," he said. "You promised you'd give him two months to figure it out. Don't worry. If worse comes to worst, there's always the desert."

That was pretty damn easy for the kid to say when it wasn't him who would be making the crossing!

But his older brother was right:

No reason to worry about it until the promised two months went by.

After all, he had promised. And even if he had to lie to protect his family, Greed didn't plan on doing any more of it than was absolutely necessary.


Author's Notes:

Mason: I'm hoping everyone had their memories refreshed enough in this chapter to remember who Mason is. He's not an important canon character as far as canon characters go, so it's understandable if you couldn't remember him right away. He makes more of an appearance in the 2003 series rather than in Brotherhood, but in both he is Sig and Izumi's meat shop assistant. In this story, since Izumi and Sig are currently in Xing teaching alchemy to Xingese students, Mason is left in Dublith to hold down their business while they're away.