Greed gazed through the hotel-room window, through which the sun was just beginning to rise. There was a human asleep on either side of him; a set of dark-haired twins, brother and sister. They were village people of humble origin, having arrived in Central only a few months ago with a mind to see the world raise their station. He had been glad to indoctrinate them to the joys and debaucheries of city life. He liked the way they were the female and male equivalent of one another. They had been relatively difficult to win over, and yet…

Not difficult enough. They saw what he wanted to show them, took what he wanted to give, accepted what he offered and never demanded more. They were toys. And ones he was tiring of. Oh, they were pretty enough, but they were nothing to what he wanted. He didn't have the advantage of deep and total denial. Greed knew exactly why he did what he did, and exactly what he wanted. In this case, it wasn't a pair of twins.

He grinned into the semi-darkness, showing a trace of sharp fangs. He was in the mood for a challenge.

.

A prime opportunity to undertake said challenge came sooner than he might have expected when, later that week, he discovered Envy once again lurking in the shadows near the back of Monique's tavern. He smirked into his tankard of beer. When he wanted something, things had a way of falling into place. He downed the rest of his drink leaned across the bar towards Monique.

"Two more for the back wall." He said, nodding in Envy's direction. He then stood and made his way through the crowd. Envy did it's best to look nonchalant as Greed approached.

"Kicked out again?" Greed said, and immediately regretted it. What kind of charming pickup line was that? Barbs and insults just came so naturally where Envy was concerned. He attributed this to habit, and the fact that Envy was so easily offended in the first place.

Envy glared, and replied in a chilly yet calm tone, "He's away on assignment. Still has to do his job, even though the lab stuff's suspended."

"I thought his job was doing you."

"Right, because dad would fund that."

In Greed's opinion, it would be well worth the money if it curbed Envy's temper. Then again, Father wasn't the one facing gratuitous damage to his person and property when Envy was in a bad mood. Greed realized, however, that stating this opinion wouldn't help his cause. He tried a different tactic.

"Why are you here then? Pride still giving you trouble?" When attempting to interact amicably with Envy, he decided a good first step would be to bring up the one person Envy hated more than himself – sort of a decoy situation.

"No, in fact." Envy's voice did soften slightly at that. "He's let up considerably. I don't know why, but I'm sure as hell not complaining."

There was a moment of silence.

"So, you came just to visit me then?" Blunt, but he couldn't think of anything else.

The truth was, Envy had been lonely. It had grown accustomed to companionship over the last several months, and it was much harder, now, for Envy to convince itself it didn't care whether it was alone. So it sought the presence of others to assuage the absence, or at least distract from it.

"Oh yes," Envy said sarcastically, not prepared to admit any of its inner motives in the present company. "Then I'm gonna treat Gluttony to as much food as he wants and ask Wrath to tell me all about how great his wife is."

"You two could compare notes."

"What, Kimblee's my wife now?" Said Envy with a snort.

"Spouse, I meant." Greed amused himself for a moment imagining Envy and Kimblee in a matrimonial situation. And do you, Zolf J. Kimblee, take this… thing…as your lawfully wedded…wi…hus…uh…fuck this, I give up.

"What are you ginning about?" Envy asked, eyes narrowed slightly.

"Nothing much." Greed shook his head.

"Liar."

"It wasn't a lie, it was an evasion."

Envy rolled it's eyes. "You should've been a damn lawyer."

And you should have been a one-act freak show.

Damn it, why could he think of nothing but insults?

He was saved by the awkward silence by Monique bringing their drinks. She cast a dark look at Envy.

"Don't fuckn' trash my place this time."

"Don't fucking shoot me this time."

"Won't shoot you if ya don't trash my place."

"I'll be civil if he is." Envy said, jerking its thumb at Greed.

"I'll be civil if you don't waste my money." Greed responded.

"As opposed to using it very wisely and prudently on whores, drugs and booze?"

"Exactly."

Envy rolled its eyes again. "Forget it, I'm outta this dive."

It made to leave, but Greed reached out and grabbed Envy's shoulder. Envy was indeed in a better mood than usual, as it did not sever his hand, merely slapped it away.

"What?" Envy snapped, turning back around and regarding Greed with irritation.

"We're all civil here tonight." Greed held out one tankard of beer. "At least try some of this. It's a good brew tonight."

Envy looked at the beverage as though suspecting it would bite. In truth, Envy was surprised the drink was meant for it, having assumed that they were both for Greed.

"Come on, just a sip, it's not poisoned." He pushed the cup against Envy's mouth.

Envy leaned back with a frown, but took the tankard from Greed's hand. "I can drink it myself, thanks."

It did so, although the quality of beer, like wine, was something Envy had little sense of. This particular drink sat uneasily in Envy's stomach, although it had nothing to do with the substance itself, and everything to do with where it came from. Envy resented it, how he could give so casually when he chose, as though it were nothing. It was a biting reminder of all Greed had, and all Envy didn't - and that wasn't in terms of material possessions. There was a time when a simple drink would have meant everything to Envy, if it had come from Greed. There had been a time when he was everything.

Envy had never and would never admit this, but the suppressed knowledge was certainly enough to turn it's stomach.

Monique sighed and headed back to the bar, hoping against hope to avoid copious violence in her establishment.

Envy licked a bit of froth of its lip, and then looked at Greed again. "So, what do you want?"

"Excuse me?"

"Don't play coy. Buying me a drink, being all chummy – what are you after?"

"You."

There was yet another moment of silence in which they both stared at one another, expressions guarded, unfathomable.

"That joke got old a long time ago." Envy said, showing no surprise or even anger. It was true that Greed, while honest, would make factually untrue statements in the spirit of sincere sarcasm. Referring to Envy as desirable or appealing had fallen into that category often enough. Until, as Envy had said, it had gotten old, and stopped eliciting any sort of reaction.

"What if I'm not joking?" He knew it wasn't enough, but he didn't know what 'enough' would be. Couldn't find the words. Even if he could convince Envy, it was clear the younger sin was anything but receptive.

"Forget it." Envy said, turning to leave again, shoving the tankard into the hands of the nearest person as it went without bothering to see who they were.

This time Greed did not attempt to stop Envy from leaving. As he watched his sibling walk away, he felt suddenly, strangely…powerless. Powerless to make Envy stay or, even more, to make any good come of it if Envy did.

He took another swig of beer, but it tasted sour in his mouth now.

"There's no way there's no way." He muttered his favorite adage under his breath. Even though he didn't lie, he didn't quite believe it.