Never before in her entire life as a homunculus did Lust ever feel so much anger. Being the type of woman that she was, she always prided herself in being calm and collected during a mission. That demeanor meant nothing anymore as even Gluttony found himself frightened by her sharp strides and piercing gaze.
It was five o'clock in the morning and Envy was nowhere to be found. After the first half hour since seeing him, Lust realized that finding a map had been the last thing on his mind. Now, after going through the city as much as possible, she was left with only one choice: tell Dante. Tell her that she and Gluttony had someone how managed to let Envy run away to god knows where.
"Lust," Gluttony mummed quietly "where's Envy?"
"I don't know," she growled. "I've searched this damn place twice and he's still missing." Stopping to lean against one of the buildings, Lust began to feel the effects of exhaustion mixed in with frustration. "I had always thought Envy was smarter than this. Surely he doesn't think Dante will let him go unpunished after deserting us."
Gluttony didn't want to answer that. The last thing he wanted to think of was the things his master would do, even if they weren't to him. In a way he liked Envy, at least when he wasn't like this.
"Don't look so sad," she said with a neutral tone "he deserves whatever he gets for putting us through this mess."
. . .
"Where's William?" At the voice of her lover, Dante slowly moved her gaze up to meet that of his. The book in hand slowly slipped out of her grasp and onto her lap.
"I'm not sure." She said plainly with a sly grin tugging at her lips. "Out for a walk maybe or studying in his room." Standing up from the velvet chair she began to make her way towards him. Mischief evident in her eyes. "Wherever he is I'm sure you can find him" without breaking eye contact, she reached behind him and shut the door ". . . later."
Without thinking, his hands began to move towards her waist as his expression began to match that of hers. He stopped, however, just as his fingertips brushed the softness of her dress. He came here for a reason and as much as he hated to admit it, this was not that reason.
Shaking his head he began to frown at her. "This is serious, Dante." Disappointed, she took a few steps away from him. "I need to have a talk with him."
"About what, exactly?" Crossing her arms over her chest, she slowly found herself back in her previous spot on the chair.
"About . . ." He hesitated, knowing full well what her reaction would be. "About our studies."
Any disappointment wiped off of her mouth completely as her lips pressed themselves into a straight, serious line. "We've done a lot of . . . studying over the years, darling." She narrowed her eyes towards him. "You're going to have to be a little more specific."
There was no avoiding this; he knew that. "Dante." He moved towards her, close enough to look deeply into her eyes and place a hand onto her shoulder. "I think it's time we told him about the stone."
If she had been shocked then she hid it rather well. "I thought we were going to wait until he was eighteen. What's changed?"
He didn't respond at first. "Do you ever hear it?"
Raising an eyebrow at him, she asked "hear what?"
"The stone." It was obvious that she had no clue of what he was talking about. Feeling somewhat ridiculous, he decided against ending the matter there. "I hear it sometimes." Sighing he continued, "And now William does too."
"You never told me you heard screaming coming from the stone," The hurt etched clearly on her face did a number on her lovers guilt. "I thought . . ." her tone quieted slightly to give it a hint of innocence and dejection "that you could tell me anything."
Tugging at his collar uncomfortably, Hohenheim took a second to collect his thoughts. "I'm sorry, at first I thought that it was just my imagination playing tricks on me." He looked down, "I had no clue that our son was hearing it too."
She thought it out for a moment. It wasn't as if their son was a great deal younger than they had hoped to reveal some of their more questionable discoveries. A little over the age of sixteen, William had already proven himself to be quite the capable alchemist. By no means was he dimwitted or immature.
"If you feel that it's time to tell him . . . then I shall have no objections." There was a pause as her lover smiled at her answer. "I am, however, curious." Blinking Hohenheim took a step closer. "Why is it that William can hear it but not me?"
It was obvious that he didn't have an answer. Hell, he didn't even have an answer for why an inanimate object could project sound in the first place. "I cannot say," there was a look of shame as his eyes stared down towards the floor. "I didn't think he would be connected to it." Dante's light hands reached and held reassuringly onto his clothed shoulders. Her expression could almost be described as pure in that moment, the concern for her lover hiding any evidence of twisted morals.
"Darling," she whispered in an airy tone. Slowly her hands caressed down the sides of his arms before intermingling with his own. Fingers stitched themselves together in a meshed up pattern as she brought both of their hands to rest delicately against her stomach. "He had only just been conceived at the time."
"He doesn't deserve to pay for my sins."
"Our sins," she corrected without any reluctance.
. . .
They were incompetent.
Absolutely useless when it came to the simplest of tasks. She expected little from Gluttony, of course. Lust's actions, though, were extremely disappointing. Most of all, however, Envy seemed to be the worst offender of the bunch.
"Apparently four-hundred years has taught you nothing." Alone in home, Dante had no words to describe the sheer anger she felt at the moment. As much as she wanted to have Pride take care of this, he seemed rather busy at the moment. The fuhrer of Amestris had better things to do than tracking down Envy anyway.
Besides, if her suspicions were correct then it was rather obvious where he might be. The problem with that, however, was the lasting implications that presented. If he knew where his sons where then surely he wouldn't stop at just one try. If one thing was for certain, Dante would make sure Envy would never dream of stepping foot near Resembool after he was found.
Taking a walk through her little garden, no one would have suspected the older women to be thinking of such vile thoughts. Then again, no one really knew how old she actually was. After so many years she had been a rather decent actor regarding her outward expressions.
Hopefully this time, she thought, the other two wont dare fail her. Everyone who worked for her knew that she was not the type of woman to tolerate failure.
. . .
William could tell there was something up.
His father had seemed rather distant in the past couple days. His mother wasn't all that social to him either, now that he thought about it. If he had done something wrong then surely they would have discussed it with him and not just flat out avoid him. There was always the possibility that it had nothing to do with him though. Maybe his father meant no ill will with this behavior.
After a few days of silence, he did indeed get his answer.
Dinner had been rather quiet that particular August night. Mother and Father had arrived to the table later than him, something they had never done before. They didn't say much, only mumbling a near inaudible 'amen' at the end of grace. Feeling dejected, William tried to scarf down the meal as soon as possible. Getting out of this uncomfortable situation was his main priority.
The fork grasped so tightly in his hand nearly fell back onto the plate as his mother made a sound of disgust. "Where's your table manners William?" Hesitantly, golden eyes looked up to see his mothers. "I thought we raised you better."
Looking down, it became clear that his attempts to leave only ended in a mess. His cheeks darkened lightly with embarrassment as his shirt resembled that of a messy toddler. "Sorry, mother." Looking like a downtrodden puppy, he made quick work of getting anything he could off with a dry napkin.
"Is something wrong?" It was his father who spoke this time.
Feeling somewhat bold, he responded with "I could ask you the same thing." There was flash of fear in his eyes after he said that, wondering if being so brash had crossed a line.
"You're right," Gasping at his fathers unexpected statement, the fork in his hand finally slipped out and dropped onto his plate with a screech; causing him to flinch.
"Pardon?" He asked with a slightly higher than normal volume.
"There is something wrong, William" his mother didn't look at him as she spoke.
There was silence and William felt his heart begin to speed up. His parents had never been like this before. Whatever worries they might have had in the past was something that never reached his attention. Now they up and decide that they want to tell him of their troubles! Something truly was wrong.
"Now's not the best time to talk about it." He could tell that his father was only delaying the conversation.
"On the contrary, I think it is." Dante nearly gasped as William looked pretty resolved in what he needed to do.
Neither of his parents said anything for a few minutes. Dante opted to glare at her son while Hohenheim looked away.
"William," he asked speaking lightly, "when you go out to the village, do people ever . . . talk about your mother and me?"
Staring at his father, even Envy knew the answer to this question. "Yes, sometimes." He hesitated a moment "They occasionally ask about you but they never discussed you in a negative way if that's what you're wondering." Part of that was a lie. They did talk about his parents and sometimes not even to his face.
"What sort of things do they tell you, exactly?"
Pausing, William briefly looked away from his parents and towards his plate. "Not much," he lied "just that you're Alchemists."
He wasn't fooling anyone, Hohenheim could see that. With a sigh, he looked straight as his son and realized that beating around the bush wasn't the best idea at the moment.
"There's something we need to tell you . . ."
Fading out to black, Envy never really got to see what his father wanted to tell him.