The newborn sin was not much to look at.

It yowled and wailed like an agitated cat, its 'head' peaking out from the pastel blue towel they'd found to swaddle it in.

Lust - as the one currently holding the mewling bundle of noise - perhaps looked the most murderous while glaring down at it, the narrowed disembodied eyes of Pride leering from the shadows coming in a close second but perhaps slightly less irked as at least he could leave the room.

As for Greed himself… well, he was laughing as loud as the squeaky tearful thing was caterwauling. This was it? This thing was their new sibling Father had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of? Hilarious!

"Jeeze. It doesn't even look like a homunculus" Greed stammered through his hysterics, wiping away an amused tear from forming in his left eye before continuing to guffaw at Lust's scandalized expression.

"Lust!" Pride hissed, his voice echoing from every direction as he remained resolutely spying from the shadows "Silence that thing now!"

"How?" Lust snapped back, apparently not in a rush to search herself for anything remotely resembling motherly instincts – perhaps even offended that she had been tasked with holding the hideous thing for just that reason by the rest of her decidedly male family.

"Shut it up, or I'll kill it! Then we'll see how homunculus it is!" Pride sneered with ferocity.

It was a subject of much debate what indeed 'it' was. Certainly it was not normal, and unlike the rest of homunculus who were born into developed bodies with their minds and education fully prepared, this thing seemed to lack both, behaving with startling similarity to a human infant.

"Find me something to plug it's mouth shut with then" Lust replied curtly, the patience and respect she would usually show her eldest sibling slipping under the duress of the enormous never-ending noise the tiny thing in the towel continued to make.

"y-you cant" Greed managed to gasp out between sniggers " It hasn't got a nose, it'll suffocate". Indeed it didn't. it had no nostrils, no ears, no neck even, it was just some weird little green blob with two bulbous teary eyes that had remained closed since its birth like a newborn puppy with far too many 'arms'.

"Good." Lust might have muttered under her breath. It was hard to tell over the sound of 'Envy's' bawling.

"Enough of this!" Pride announced from around them, their eldest sibling's short temper predictably being the first to snap. From the darkest corner of the room a spike of pure black lunged forward, impaling the green thing with savage enthusiasm before retracting into nothingness.

All noise in the room abruptly stopped. Even Greed's own laughter suddenly fell short as the previously sky blue towel nesting in the crook of Lust's arm became quickly over run with the color red.

A familiar red lightening flashed around the room: the illumination that mercifully accompanied the regeneration of a homunculus.

From beside him Greed heard Lust release a long exhale of bated breathe; even with Pride as the one to commit the murder, had their new sibling proven in-homunculus and stayed 'dead' Father would have brutally punished them all.

"Then it is one of us after all." Pride's echoing voice scoffed from all around them.

Greed shrugged, surprised by the revelation but not enough to really care.

"Even so, what use will it be to Father?" Lust questioned, an odd blend of curiosity and distain ripe in her tone as she gazed down at the restored lump of Envy. Though tears remained heavy in it's eyes from it's previous crying, it's eyelids were now open, staring upwards with tiny purple irises into her own with muted wide-eyed terror. Clearly the pain of death had given it a suitable incentive to learn silence. "-It cant even speak".

"Well it isn't like you really gave it a chance" Greed drawled lazily, stooping closer to get a better look at the new youngest homunculus. The being in question noticed something approaching it and flinched in fear, its body curling in on itself slightly as if fearing another attack… Which it probably was.

Greed groaned, straightening and scratching the back of his head "Pride, why'd you have to go and do that. Now its scared shitless…Not literally" He added, noticing the engaged expression cross Lust's face as she snapped her head around to glare at the thing.

"Hey?" Greed resumed, poking the green homunculus forcefully on the top of its head as it hid it's face further into the now scarlet towel as if attempting to burrow down into it. Gross. it felt sort of overly soft and squishy, like jabbing the waxy skin of a banana that had long since gone mushy and rotten on the inside.

It's only reaction was to shiver and begin to quake in Lust's arms, trembling as forcefully as it's tiny body could manage.

Greed tried again, his second poke eliciting a very different response as the head it had been trying to disguise suddenly reared up, its tiny yet apparently razor sharp teeth latching onto the invading finger and refusing to let go, even as said finger (and indeed Greed's whole hand) was retracted from the toweling and waved wildly around in the air in a hapless attempt to dislodge the attacker.

"-OW! Little shit!"

Pride laughed gleefully from the shadows as Lust took a step forward as if to help extract their new sibling from Greed before apparently thinking better of it and stalling. Rather Greed than her.

"Get Off!"

Releasing an exasperated sigh Greed's elder sister thought twice of simply letting Greed and Envy figure it out. Anything that made Pride laugh so joyfully was bound to end in tragedy.

Intervening swiftly, with a single graceful step as fluid as water and refined as ballet the Ultimate Spear swept into Greed's personal space, latched her claws around Envy and slipped away again – taking the parasitic homunculus and a large chunk of Greed's hand away with her.

In the background Greed swore repeatedly and healed as Lust deposited the little green Envy that she was now substantially more reluctant to touch on the top of a nearby table. It squirmed and writhed against the abruptly cold surface of the tabletop before stilling to gaze up at her blankly, its innocent expression somehow disturbing while the blood of the now-dissolved part of Greed's hand it had ripped off stained all around it's maw.

"You little bitch!" Greed declared, jabbing his finger aggressively into the air in Envy's direction. Pointing would apparently have to be a suitable substitute for poking.

"Hahaha! Now Greed," Pride jeered unseen "- Do try and get along with our new brother"

"Brother?! Just cos its damn ugly doesn't mean it cant be female!"

"Be quiet." Lust's sultry voice commanded from beside him, her gaze narrow and fixated on the little worm now sat atop the mantelpiece. Following her eye line, Greed too saw what it was that had attracted her attention.

Though he still remained pointing threateningly at the little runt he now had the pleasure of being related to, it had righted itself from the prone position it had been deposited in to sit back onto it's tail, as if upright, while the top left of its many hands had been extended forward, its finger pointing at Greed in an exact mirror of the elder homunculus's gesture.

"So?" Greed shrugged.

It shrugged too…. Sort of. It clearly couldn't rotate or move it's shoulders very well but it managed a sort of odd wiggle.

"Eh?" Greed questioned, his arm snaking up once more to scratch at his head.

Well it really couldn't do that one; its stumpy arms couldn't reach that far, but it tried as hard as it could to copy.

Momentarily amused with the predicament, Greed took on a variety of poses: arms crossed, hands on hips, even clapping; watching each time as the little worm wobbled unbalanced as it's top heavy body found it hard to stay sat upright on it's tail, but otherwise copied.

Lust tried too, snapping her claws in front of Envy's eyes to catch it's attention, then gesticulating demurely positions that would prove a little easier for the newborn homunculus to imitate in a rare show of mercy. After watching her for some minutes the little green thing seemed to conclude it would follow Greed, or no one at all. Dismissing Lust, it turned back to gaze up at the homunculus it now recognized as Greed and await his next action.

"Well that's all fun and all" the avaricious homunculus summarized, chortling somewhat after managing to get his little green sibling to slap itself in the face with it's apparently foolhardy attempt to replicate him as best it could "-But what's the old man thinking? He'll create the Ultimate Earthworm… and its special power is the ancient and mysterious art of mime?".

"Silence fool!" Pride barked from the walls "Father's plans are beyond your meager comprehension!"

"Do you know what it is meant to be then Pride? Has Father told you?" Lust questioned, genuine curiosity in her voice as she addressed her question to the ceiling right in front of her still somewhat taken aback by their new sibling's blatant favoritism.

"No" Pride replied, his unhesitant answer laced with defensive aggression, daring anyone to challenge his intellect or closeness to Father; topics both Lust and Greed had learnt long ago never to mention.

"But…" The first homunculus continued, a calmer and more insidious tone that sent shivers down the spines of any who heard it replacing the threat of his previous one "-As it seems to have taken a liking to Greed, I have suggested you take care of it, little Brother." A set of teeth held aloft in the dark corner of the room curled into a malevolent gin. "Father agrees".

"How wise" Lust echoed with a small seductive grin of her own, taking that moment to slink from the room before the allocation of responsibility could be reconsidered and potentially pinned on her.

Lingering a moment to soak up the fastidious expression that colored Greed's face, Pride also seemingly receded from the room… though it was always impossible to tell for sure when and where the arrogant homunculus chose to come and go.

"Damnit".

Father had expressed distaste at his recent activities. Spending every moment in which he was not assigned a task (and sometimes the moment's in-between) drinking, partying, laughing or sleeping with the more interesting human morsels that dotted the surface of Central's red light district was apparently shameful to the paternal homunculus. While Greed had taken entertaining his sin to the utmost extent he could while still appearing to be sat securely under Fathers thumb, both father and son understood a rebellion was growing inside the third-born homunculus. Yes, this particular shackle would prove effective in reining him in for a little while at least, but it was still only a matter of time…

And so it was.

...

When Envy was the size of his hand, Greed discovered it did not share many similarities to the rest of their family.

Having been silent from the time of it's first death it took a week for Greed to realize that the thing's fussiness, silent crying and attention-seeking wriggling was some vague attempt to communicate that it was hungry.

The idea was ludicrous of course.

Father, Lust, Pride and himself – though perfectly capable of partaking in on a whim – did not need food, water, sleep or even sexual gratification. After all, eating when one is on the brink of starving to death is not gluttony; sleeping when one's insomnia brings them to the brink of madness is not sloth and indulging in ones sexuality when the instinctive, animalistic need arises is not lust. No, to be gluttonous, one must eat when they do not physically need to, to be lusty one must wish to indulge in carnal desires even when they are already sated; it was the nature of the homunculi not to NEED anything. Being physically content but desiring their individual vices anyway was the very nature of sin.

But Envy was different… both as a concept and an individual.

As a concept, 'Envy' was more like 'Pride'; not characterized by a desire for something –food, sleep, sex, possessions, vengeance – but by a feeling that if not quickly squashed out by the good-wishes of the human mind would grow poisonous and detrimental to both the feeling's owner, and those around them.

As an individual, Envy was perhaps the most 'different' thing Greed had ever seen.

"You want me to steal a baby's what?"

"It's a lip-less leech. How else is anyone supposed to feed it?"

"It needs 'feeding?'"

"It keeps dying, then reviving, then dying again for no reason. Its the only idea I've got left."

"You believe it's starving?" Lust questioned

Greed shrugged.

"Dunno, but at the moment its dead then sparking alive then dead again so often it might as well be reclassified from being homunculus to a night-light."

The moment the nib of the milk-filled baby bottle had been pressed across it's maw it shied had away, gazing up at Greed as he brandished the bottle disorientated and confused. It took a moment of cursing the thing and jabbing the bottle in its 'face' before the notion that it may very well not possess the suckling instinct of a mammal dawned upon him.

Greed was no scientist or brainbox, but it occurred to him 'it' might not even BE a mammal.

Fortunately, by drawing the thing's attention and first enacting it himself, Envy's natural disposition towards imitation soon had it sucking enthusiastically like an eager calve at the bottle's literal tit.

Watching Greed demonstrate kept Pride in mockingly high-spirits for weeks afterwards; he had watched the whole thing.

It also slept – regularly. Not just relaxed or got bored and rested; it slept as if it needed to do so. Greed experimented with it, keeping it awake all night one evening by poking it whenever its bulbous eyes closed to do more than just blink.

Every time it had startled back awake, too tired to bother trying to bite Greed again but fixing him with a helpless look of confusion nevertheless.

Each time, within minutes, it's eyes would slowly begin to close again, its head nodding into it's 'chest' as it lost consciousness once more. Eventually, as dawn neared and the week-old homunculus had been denied rest for the first time, it's eyes actually began to water with tears as Greed jolted it awake, seeking his own out with a glassy pleading look of hurt.

At the night's beginning Greed's intention to keep it awake had been resolute. It was only fair after all. If he couldn't be out drinking and socializing the night away, the little shit sure as hell wasn't gonna get to sleep…

But that look.

"Fucking all those humans is turning me soft" The avaricious homunculus grinned to himself.

He gave in as the sun started to rise over Central; allowing the infant homunculus to fall into exhausted sleep. It awoke a day later irritable and dazed and stayed that way for many days afterward.

Envy did indeed physically need sleep, Greed concluded.

Perhaps reacting directly to the smallest sibling's maltreatment or possibly out of pure boredom, Greed soon after began receiving help from his elder sister where Envy was concerned.

In the beginning Lust had been quite adamant that the assignment was Greed's own and it was neither her place nor her intent to intervene. Though near overnight Envy's care and education became a sort of habitual way to pass the time for the older sins, the burden of teaching it the skills it would need as an agent of Father somehow without any formal communication ended up divided equally.

Though first only ever demonstrating the desire to copy it's avaricious elder brother the elders quickly recognized the younger homunculus's ability to learn went far beyond mere physical gesture.

Using the time-honored technique of flashcards and pointing, Lust demonstrated shapes, colors and numbers – the names, appearances and distinctions between each one quickly absorbed and demonstrated by the little Envy – who became even more eager to learn when its correct answer was praised.

Simple mathematics proved somewhat harder, the littlest sin managing to grasp the concept of additional and subtraction, but only turning to it's sister and staring up balefully when anything resembling a multiplication or division sign appeared in it's sum. As much as it loved answering correctly, it despised it's mistakes.

Greed meanwhile worked to teach Envy to read; it's arms too short to bother tormenting it with any attempt to actually write. Though it still steadfastly refused to utter a single syllable on pain of death - no matter how many times its older bother and sister assured it that it would not be stabbed for doing so –Envy's comprehension of both their own words and the written words of books increased with every passing lesson.

Even Pride (who when asked would expressly deny and ridicule the idea) had taken to secretly watching and occasionally 'helping' their littlest sibling in a morosely backward manner all of his own: stealing for Envy books detailing the human anatomy with which Pride could demonstrate his favorite – and therefore: the best – ways to murder human scum. More than once Greed also happened upon Pride feeding Envy bits of meat and scraps of dead rats "To give it a taste for flesh!" Pride had sneered maliciously.

Greed made a habit of not allowing Envy to be left alone from then on, the runty sin going everywhere his elder brother did sat upon Greed's broad shoulders.

It was perhaps because of its new day-to-day location atop the elder sin that Greed eventually noticed nearing a month after it's birth by far the strangest thing yet about his new little sibling.

"I swear this thing's getting heavier."

...

By the time Envy was the size of a dog,

The eight green paw-like stumps that had lined each side of its body had lengthened, grown stronger and developed hints of bone and muscle structure- the previously shapeless appendages forming into two pairs of arms and legs, leaving behind the baby fat of the chubby ill-defined limbs they had resembled at it's birth.

It had also begun to grow its own face: currently sort of squashed and lizard-like in appearance, like a gecko that had run face first into a wall at high speed.

Its preferred method of movement had altered somewhat too. Far from the ineffectual crawl of its first days, it now took to a sort of scurrying scuttle as it bounded happily after it's elder brother, Greed knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that wherever he went Envy would only be a maximum of ten paces behind.

From sleeping in a sock in Greed's room to dozing in his bed – as Greed himself rarely used it – the two had been near inseparable for far too long a time not to have left a significant imprint on the newest homunculus's developing mind. Often Greed would notice their littlest sibling still staring longingly at his shoulder – remembering the days when that was it's place but having since been disciplined that at it's current size and weight Envy was not to touch anyone without their permission. Greed was a rare exception.

It had also long been established that whenever Greed left Envy would sit at the entrance to their subterranean home motionless and dutifully wait.

Envy – understanding it was not allowed out of Father's underground domain – was always the first sight that greeted Greed as he returned home, the green sin's vivid violet eyes watching for him, staring after Greed's dark silhouette on the horizon of the hallway but unable to cross the invisible metaphorical barrier that represented how far Envy could explore without being punished. Thusly when the brother it would wait sometimes days on end for finally rematerialized Envy instead consigning itself to sitting very still and wagging its tail like an over excited Labrador as it's avaricious sibling came back into view before scrambling as high up the leg of Greed's trousers as it could manage when he was finally close enough to do so.

It was a sort of odd relationship to have with ones little sibling – all were aware that Envy was not yet developed enough to be seen as one of 'them', yet too intelligent and expressive to be dismissed as a mere pet.

So strange was it for Envy to not be either trotting by Greed's heels or lounging around Lust for attention when it's brother was otherwise occupied that on the rare occasion the green sin was not in the immediate vicinity, Greed actually felt himself grow anxious enough to go in search of it.

The feeling stumped Greed for a moment upon recognizing it.

It had only been three months since Envy's creation, why did he feel so worried over something he barely knew? He had known Lust for far longer – since his own creation in fact – and neither worried after her nor missed her when she was on assignment. Greed smirked to himself, his sharp teeth glinting in the half-light of Father's ever-dark lair as he arrived and knocked upon the hard wood of Lust's door. He must be going soft.

"Enter" beckoned the sin within, her voice colored with slight confusion… none of her family were known for their habit of knocking on doors.

Greed let himself in, tweaking the sunglasses at the bridge of his nose as he raised a hand half-mast in a gesture of greeting.

Lust looked up from the newspaper she had been reading –searching for a mention of her handy work in the homicide reports or the obituary's Greed was willing to guess – and glanced upon whomever dare enter her boudoir.

"Yes." Lust said curtly – not a question, but a statement - before returning to her reading thoroughly nonplussed. A discarded heart-shaped box lay disregarded at Lust's feet and a single long stem rose sat nodding sadly in the darkness of the underground; clearly Father had sent her on another 'date', no doubt with another malleable idiotic but somehow high-ranking military moron. The experience had obviously left her testy.

"I didn't even say an-"

"It's in here" she added, with such accuracy it made Greed pause for a moment.

"When did I get so predictable?" the avaricious sin settle for asking rhetorically, chuckling good naturedly as he did so before peering over the rims of his shades in search of his little sibling.

Envy did not remain at large for long, the familiar scraping of it's claws against the floor as it scrambled in his direction greeting him long before he actually laid eyes upon the green sin.

"Hey" he greeted, stooping down to tussle the strange coltish mane that had begun to haphazardly sprout up along the length of its reptilian neck as Envy practically leapt into him, sitting on its rear rather like a dog would (despite the awkwardness of it's additional limbs) and nudging itself as close as possible to the hand affectionately fussing over it.

Coming to rest on it's head as Greed's hand frequently did now that Envy was the perfect height to lean against Greed turned back to lust, a dark eyebrow cocking inquisitively at an unidentified brown substance smeared around Envy's mouth.

"Lust?"

"Yes, Greed?" his sister replied stoically, her gaze never leaving her newspaper.

"What's this around Envy's mouth?"

"hum?" the dark beauty hummed questioningly, sparing a glance in Envy's direction before crossing her legs, reclining back onto her bed and continuing to ignore either of them.

"Chocolate."

Oh thank god, Greed internally sighed. Envy was smart, but they still didn't really know how smart, and they did live in part of a sewer system, and who knows what Pride could have tried tricking the younger homunculus into eating. For a moment he'd feared the worse.

Pride's voice, as if summoned by Greed thinking about him (although it was more likely he'd been there all along and chose only now to coincidentally make himself known) scolded them from the shadows:

"You gave it Chocolate? Great. Now it'll be up all night, and fussy tomorrow morning!"

Lust sighed, accepting Pride's reprimand with patience, but abashedly unapologetic in her manner.

"Get off her Pride. Its fine -" Greed announced through a wide razor-sharp grin, cool as ever even under Pride's disembodied piercing gaze. His statement was more in defense of Envy than of Lust, who's lilac eyes stared adoringly up at him even while its pink tongue continued to lap at the remaining chocolate staining its jaws. – We'll go fight for a few hours, that'll tire it out."

Envy –much to Greed's chocolaty chagrin- licked his hand excitedly, the word 'fight' bringing a gleeful glint to it's eyes. It did seem to love the thrill of their play fights.

...

By the time Envy was the size of a monster, it had changed quite considerably.

No longer fearing the pain of death as it had grown larger –and far less terrified- of Pride it had decided of its own accord about the time it reached being the size of a large horse that though it still wouldn't speak it was now fully allowed to growl, snarl, roar and snap.

This of course had not helped in facilitating the somewhat abrupt turnaround of it's behavior.

While relatively docile and affectionate in it's infancy it seemed to have developed with every inch it grew a surprising lust for destruction, throwing inhuman tantrums and randomly attacking furniture when it broke in the monster's vicinity, even occasionally snapping at Greed. Shortly after doing so a shocked look would always clamber across it's now monstrous-features, an apologetic nuzzle to whatever appendage Envy had just attempted to rip off sure to follow, but the abrupt snapping between murderous leviathan and benevolent behemoth had begun to put Greed on edge.

"Envy's just nearing maturity" Father had explained crassly, dismissively waving off Greed's concerns on the one and only occasion he sought his father's council. What Envy's nearing maturity had to do with its suddenly erratic behavior stumped both Lust and Greed. Pride on the other-hand seemed quite overjoyed by the developing predicament.

Perhaps another factor to Envy's growing ferocity was it's sudden confinement. Once it had reached the size of a small cow it became rapidly apparent Greed's room simply wasn't big enough for the both of them anymore; the first few nights of being ejected from the room and brother it had slept in since it's birth creating quite a few days on unrest for the youngest homunculus.

Sleepless nights, fresh claw marks upon Greed's door as it scrapped to be allowed back in and having to sit quietly and be told it expressly was not allowed in any of it's siblings rooms anymore (as it was just 'too big' Lust had explained) did not placate Envy's growing mischievousness.

Finally, when Envy had reached the size of a bull elephant and it became clear it was STILL on the grow it was even disallowed from walking around freely anymore. Without knowing exactly how large Envy would become before finally stopping Father ordered Pride to confine it in the only other room from the throne-room large enough to safely house it.

Instructing his remaining children that while he appreciated their efforts to educate Envy, the youngest homunculus was to be sealed away and thusly off-limits to them for the time being, Father neatly packed the monstrous sin away. Nearly a whole years work had been slowed due to the restriction of keeping one of his children at home to watch Envy and it was simply time Father could no longer allow them to waste. Especially as Envy had now grown beyond any size remotely practical for deployment.

Neither Lust nor Greed himself reacted happily to the news. The little sibling who had once been intended as his shackle – despite having grown more unstable as of late – had somehow and without explanation become important. How it could possibly be important was immediately lost upon the emotionally dulled homunculi. It did not come with them on missions, nor did it serve them in any physical or practical way… and yet somehow the lack of its presence proved… disquieting.

Just like that, Envy was confined.

The chamber in question was a massive, dull affair – hollow and blank like the walls of a poorly lit insane asylum. With no electricity fed into it due to the hazard posed by the many leaking pipes that dripped from the ceiling and spat steam from the walls the chamber was half illuminated by candlelight…. And half not illuminated at all.

It was depressing, and it's inherent disposition to be depressing rubbed off on it's new occupant within hours as soon as it realized it was not allowed to leave with Lust and Greed as they walked out of the room and out of it's sight.

"No Envy, you know you can't come"

Even Pride did not visit the dank hole in the ground. Though tormenting Envy while it was isolated, miserable and completely at his mercy sounded wonderful to the eldest homunculus, Pride understood that what would make Envy suffer the most was to leave it totally alone. Envy had never known solitude before. It's short 8-month life was always filled with either it's brothers, sister or father. Pride would 'hate to disturb the poor thing's loneliness' as he cooed to Greed one day, the Ultimate shield's silver talons extending slightly with the near overwhelming urge to shut Pride's face up for once, no matter what cost it might come to himself.

That was the first time Greed died for Envy.

The day after he made sure to pay the green sin a visit, even under the ridiculous pretense of changing that room's candles. Pride leered at his explanation as he intercepted Greed on his way to the little sibling Father had deliberately placed 'out of sight and out of mind', but allowed it. After all, if all the candlelight went out Pride would no longer be able to spy on Envy from the shadows…

As Greed had suspected, Envy appeared totally forlorn – half it's body concealed in the deep dark of the unlit part of the chamber.

Even Greed's arrival did not seem to lighten its spirits, the doggish tail wagging the elder homunculus had come to expect from his little sibling disconcertingly absent.

It gazed back at Greed, listless and unmoving. Hardly the reception Greed had been expecting.

Then its eyes narrowed, pupils constricting into feral pinpricks and it growled, deep and threateningly before screwing its eyes up tight like it were in pain and whining quietly.

Not deterred from in the least by Envy's clear distress and concerning behavior Greed approached it with his usually sure, steady gait, his long leather-clad legs bringing him swiftly to the larger sin's muzzle. He rested his ouroboros-engraved hand against his little sibling's distended snout, just as he had when Envy was small.

Melting into the tiny contact on the vast expanse of it's flesh a large pink tongue snaked out to lick Greed, just as it always would have done, except-

"What the hell?" Greed shouted, leaping back away from Envy and the unexpected sight.

Envy's tongue… had human arms?

Not just arms –faces – legs – bodies. Sensing Greed's fear the monstrous sin quickly snapped its mouth shut and flinched backwards as best as its huge body could handle, reversing into the concealing shadows of the darkened part of the great hall.

Regaining his composure Greed shouted into the blackness of the room in a rare show of concerned temper; the feelings pelting through him ice cold with worry and red hot with uncharacteristic anger.

"PRIDE! What did you do to Envy!"

He saw one of Pride's eerie grins appear at his feet before he heard his reply, the older homunculus's eyes narrowed in mirth.

"Why, I did nothing to him. Why do you ask, Greed?" the echo purred.

"Why the hell is his mouth full of people?!"

Pride sniggered. "Oh, that" loving drawing out his answer – prolonging Greed's concerned agony for as long as possible – Pride waited a moment before continuing "-Its been like that for a while now. Souls keep trying to burst to the surface of its skin for some reason. Its disgusting really."

"Souls?" Greed repeated, glancing in Envy's direction to confirm its location in a strange subconscious instinct he had developed over the last few months. It remained firmly out of sight.

"Oh yesss" Pride drawled, hissing in pleasure "It keeps trying to hide them or ripping them off, but I guess it cant do that to the ones in it's mouth" he added softly, mocking sympathy richer than any aristocrat thick in his tone.

"I guess if you'd visited it more often since its incarceration you'd have known that though" Pride finished in his sickly sweet voice before erupting into manic hysterics – the unnaturally amplified booming laughter of the homicidal child echoing from every wall around him.

"Don't worry about it too much…" Pride added as his presence left the room, the words fading quieter and quieter as he did so "Father intends to melt Envy down and remake a new one in the morning. You wont have to see it like this for long…"

Words failed.

Thoughts failed.

Even anger failed.

Unable to coax Envy back out of the shadows – his attempts only making the obscured sin curl itself up tight and hide its face just as it had done the day it was born – Greed wandered away.

…

Pride could be lying just to get a rise from him of course. That was how Pride the arrogant operated. Or it could all be true, and the same time tomorrow evening he would be… envy-less.

Apparently his feet thought it was a good idea for him to indulge in a stiff drink, as they only conspired to stop walking only when he reached a small pokey tavern he had tended to frequent a lot before Envy's birth.

Yes, a small drink sounded good.

The desert-like feeling of the avaricious homunculus's throat and skull-deep ache pounding in-between his ears was the first clue Greed received to suggest he might have ended up having more than one drink.

Creeping his eyes open in case of a sudden attack of light, Greed's muddied mind silently rejoiced that wherever he had been, he had managed to end up deep underground in his own bed, where photophobia had no bearing on his condition and he could simply lie very very still until he stopped feeling so totally crap.

What the hell had he been thinking? Intoxicating a homunculus to the state of amnesia was an awardable achievement even he had only managed to accomplish a few times in his avaricious existence.

Maybe Envy bit him again and they got into another fight or some shit. That seemed to be happening a lot lately…

His mind jerked violently lucid.

Envy.

Sitting up as quickly as he could, Greed was surprised to find he was instantly buffeted back down onto his bed – his forehead slamming against something hard somewhere in the middle of the confusion, which only added to his headache.

Leaning up on his elbows to see what low hanging item of ceiling furniture Pride had thought it amusing to attach above his head he was somewhat taken aback. Beyond a shadow of a doubt Greed acknowledged he was still drunk, having entered into that unpleasant state of consciousness were one is indeed both hung-over and intoxicated simultaneously… and yet hallucinations even seemed a bit much for his drinking habit.

Resting squarely across his hips with a knee splayed on either side of him sat a… well… a someone… boy, Greed supposed… and it was…nuzzling him?

It was a homunculus from the looks of it, the defining dark hair, black clothing, violet eyes and red markings fixed firmly to whoever was sitting on him.

It looked a bit odd for one of Father's creations actually. The shinobi-esk headband, the ninja-like gloves and socks, shoeless feet and form fitting shorts appearing more like an ill conceived mishmash of whatever seemed cool to the mind of a young boy and the outfits described in the Xingese 'Ninja' novels Lust used to read Envy to get it to go to sleep on it's own once it had become too large to sleep in Greed's room anymore.

"Who the hell are you?" Greed questioned, his tone charming as ever as he socked the one on top of him hard in the eye. Homunculi were not to be trusted – a fact known all to well to other homunculi – the effect of waking up to see one sitting on you not too dissimilar from waking up with a highly venomous cobra stuffed down ones trousers. It was a situation that was best to remedy as hastily as possible.

Apparently his new brother hadn't been expecting it as he toppled gracelessly from the bed to the floor with a harsh thud. It defiantly did not seem to expect the boot pressing down on it's throat that swiftly followed.

"You the new Sloth?" Greed questioned.

The boy looked up at him with an expression of total confusion and creeping exhaustion; not the face one habitually wears with a boot to the throat but hell if Greed cared. Father had started planning Sloth recently, it wasn't too stupid an assumption to make that he would output one as soon as possible to make up for the time lost tending to Envy.

"Crap" Greed muttered to himself, remembering his initial reason for trying to get up in the first place.

This new brother could wait, but hell if he was gonna' let him out of his sight.

"Get up" he commanded, reaching to yank the little freak up from the floor and surprisingly managing to do very little to shift his apparently deceptive weight as it obligingly clambered to his feet with a look of wide eyed wonder.

Dragging it by the arm through the corridors that led to Father proved a similar experience, as the little homunculus sort of lolloped unsurely after Greed, wobbling a occasionally and clinging to the avaricious sin for support as he regained his balance before whatever appendage clutching to the elder homunculus was swatted forcefully away. Damn couldn't this thing walk on it's own? Even Envy had managed crawling shortly after birth and it had been born with only eight little stumps. This new brother on the other hand had the body of a child-athlete and the grace of a three-legged horse.

"Father" Greed greeted with his usual grin as he entered the throne room remarkably casually for a homunculus on a mission to save one sibling and towing along another.

"hum…Greed" Father took some time in replying, acknowledging his troublesome son with a sort of polite reluctance "What is it Greed, I'm terribly busy". Doing absolutely nothing Greed noted.

Was that a good sign that Envy had yet to be melted, or a bad sign that Envy had already been destroyed?

"Where's Envy?" He questioned, making sure to keep the casual lilt to his tone that seemed to placate Father into actually bothering to take the time to discuss something with him rather than dismiss him straight off.

"hum? Envy you say?" Father's slow voice inquired, staring down at Greed with mild amusement.

"Behind you…from the looks of it…".

A small tugging sensation at the back of his sleeve nagged Greed from behind.

Turning as slowly as he dared without giving his concern away, Greed eventually managed to bring himself to face the boy he had just spent the last five minutes pulling around Father's underground labyrinth.

"So-" Greed swallowed hard. His parched throat protested, but nonchalance somehow remained plausible as he forced the words out "- You've already remade him then?".

The boy stared utterly confused into Greed's eyes; his barefaced innocence of the fact that in being granted life he had murdered Greed's 'little' green sibling a naked insult to his Envy.

"Remade him?" Father repeated slowly, the words apparently lagging between being heard and being processed by the elder's 'busy' mind.

"No… he's right there." Staring down at him the father of the homunculi frowned a little "are you feeling quite right Greed?"

"Father, I mean what happened to the first En-" The sentence was never finished.

Gathering up Greed's unsuspecting hand in its own smaller one, the boy-homunculus coaxed the appendage upwards, only letting go when it has securely placed in it's rightful position atop the smaller sin's head.

The body was different, but both the feeling under Greed's hand and the feeling somewhere in his chest were familiar enough to stop the taller male mid-sentence.

In a rare show of utter disbelief, the normally laid back homunculus lifted upwards his sunglasses toward his forehead to see clearly the thing under his hand.

His Envy stared up at him with uncertainty.

Having just been punched, floor-stomped, grabbed and tugged along by it's older brother it was unsure if Greed was angry at it, or just having a bad day.

A long-missed ruffling of it's hair effectively laid such concerns to rest.

Pride would later reveal to all the story of how Envy –apparently understanding the threat of impending death – had gone to some lengths to shrink itself, practicing all night and outputting some of the most hideous lizard-man chimeras and malformed 'humans' the arrogant homunculus had ever seen.

Though nodding respectfully at Pride' sneering account of the evening, both Lust and Greed's attention stayed firmly focused on the humanoid monster dozing with obvious satisfaction on Greed's bed once more.

It's attachment to Greed proved an annoyance to Father now that he came to spend any extended amount of time in his youngest offspring's presence.

There was still much to understand about it's newly demonstrated ability. How long had it been aware of it's potential? How many times could it alter itself? It certainly seemed exhausted by its first few attempts, the odd little sin even going as far as to pass-out when it was pushed into shifting one time too many.

Not only that, but the youngest homunculus also seemed to exhibit no desire to explore its newfound power.

It made no attempts to alter itself beyond its new appearance of its own accord, no drive to develop its stamina, no ambition to better itself whatsoever. It even still refused to speak. It was too docile to muster the will to explore its new strength, too affectionate and admiring to desire anything other than the company of its siblings.

It became rapidly apparent that the shape shifting ability of his forth child was a skill Envy had developed not as a weapon for Father, but exclusively for reaffirming it's closeness to Greed. Only at Greed's request or Lust's prolonged 'encouragement' was it willing to undertake the energy-intensive procedure again, always glancing back to Greed for final confirmation before doing as Father bid it.

Never before this had Father noticed how it sought Greed, and even Lust's validation before his own.

It was unacceptable.

He was of course certainly not jealous of to whom Envy ran to first. Such an idea was ridiculous the oldest homunculus assured himself.

No, his concern was purely logical.

Greed was his problem child; his inevitable betrayer. The last thing he needed was Greed turning the sibling he had planned to use as his shackle into an accomplice.

How could he not have noticed this problem until it was this extensive?

Too busy with his plans for Sloth and the world beyond he mused to himself.

Or perhaps he had simply assumed that a frivolous young man like Greed would never bond with a burdensome infant sibling… it was so hard to remember exactly what ones motivation was a whole year later.

Well, Father settled for thinking to himself – perhaps bonding with Envy was exactly the punishment Greed deserved for his growing defiance.

It would be such a pain…

Of all the sins that had come from him thus far, Envy would be the most work to recalibrate.

Too little jealousy, and envy as an emotion was dulled to mere admiration… yet too much and it stood the risk of becoming uncontrollably destructive in its self-loathing and resentment. This current one had ended up almost serendipitously well balanced… possibly due to nurture rather than nature. In fact, it didn't seem envious of anything at all. How aggravating.

Perhaps that was part of the problem.

With the conclusion settled in his mind, the fickle and all-powerful God the father of the homunculi fancied himself was to visit his wrath down upon the heads of both Greed and Envy in a most unexpected manner.

So Greed feared Father remaking Envy did he? Was made angry enough to come storming into his Father's chamber with that ill-disguised benevolence of his to demand the younger's location? How DARE He! Envy was his child to command! His SIN to do with as he saw fit! Greed doubted Father's judgment of how to handle his own progeny?! His lack of faith would –neigh- HAD, to be reprimanded and Greed had obligingly dropped the means of his punishment into Father's patient hands.

Re-configuring innocent little Envy would be perfect in reminding it's avaricious older sibling who sat at the head of THIS family. Who held the life and death of each of them in his divine hands.

…

"Lust" Greed acknowledged as he strode through the corridors of Father's underground prison.

Thinking back on it, he should have been made instantly suspicious by the lack of Envy in its now boyish form waiting for him at the threshold of Father's domain as it always had done. As it was however, Greed was returning from a long, arduous and gloriously unsuccessful assignment.

Though he did not need sleep, there was a bone-deep tiredness about him that clouded his thoughts with nothing other than the warm embrace of his own bed.

"- I know the old mans probably pissed, but the whole thing turned out to be some wild goose chase" he added as he approached her, noticing her narrowed eyes, thick downturned lips and furrowed brow. Damn, why did she look so angry?

"Greed…" She began, her voice laced with barely repressed anger, and yet a sort of apologetic sadness that confused the 3rd-born homunculus. It seemed she was at least not angry with him.

"Pride on your case again?" Greed chanced, the invasive elder sibling having been known to ruffle up even Lust's well-adjusted feathers from time to time "-I'm telling you, all you need to do is stare lovingly into the darkest corner of your room, start masturbating and whisper 'This is for yoooooou'. Makes him piss right off."

"Father has re-made Envy." Announced the Ultimate Spear, cutting through the self-congratulatory sniggers of Greed's previous suggestion like a sharpened javelin.

"Envy?"

Greed could see it in the distance. It didn't LOOK any different. Surely if Father had succeeded in remaking it – it's past memories no longer there to give it's chosen form context – it would have taken a new appearance?

For a moment, Greed's mind buzzed with hope.

It turned, hearing it's name called and watched attentively as Greed grew ever closer.

"Howdy."

It spoke? Envy didn't speak. And even if it did Greed sure as hell wouldn't have thought it would sound like that.

"I'm Greed"

It raised it's brows curiously, glancing Greed once over with disinterested violet eyes. It sneered at him. Since when the hell did Envy sneer?

"… and?" It questioned, it's bored tone as abrasive as sandpaper to the skin.

Even as Greed dared to mutter his next words, he already knew the answer. He could barely bring himself to look at the Envy in front of him.

"You don't remember me?" the avaricious sin questioned somewhat rhetorically, pushing his sunglasses further up his nose to obscure his eyes from view.

"Pfffffft. Should I?"

A silence fell across the room.

"…I guess not"