Theme Five: Seeking Solace

Pride now had something to think about.

The blonde woman had called him Edward. He wondered who this "Edward" was. They must look fairly similar, or else she wouldn't have confused them. Then he remembered what Envy had said before.

"...thought the Fullmetal Pipsqueak would make a good homunculus."

This had been said just after he was created, so there couldn't be any other homunculus Envy had been talking about but him. Which would mean he had been... Fullmetal Pipsqueak. That sounded rather silly. But Fullmetal sounded like some kind of codename. The people they had just disposed of had been in the military, and the military used codenames, didn't they?

He remembered the blonde woman's disbelieving murmur. "E-Edward?"

Suddenly there was a series of images playing across the forefront of his mind.

Several kind faces, there and then gone in an instant: A set of familiar green eyes, then gold, the first dulled with time. A clear blue, a wise, but stern black, and another black that held too much of a smirk for his liking. Several others, too fast for him to place.

A glint of light off a metal helmet, a mechanical hand, a pocketwatch. A shout of red in the shape of a coat, a symbol – A snake twined around a cross, crown and wings floating overhead – on the coat, on an armored shoulder, on a woman's collarbone.

A name, more familiar than anything else in the world: Alphonse.

"Pride?" Lust inquired. Something must have shown on his face.

Pride thought a moment about what had happened. "I had a…" he frowned, trying to find a word. "Memory?"

He paused. "I am Pride… correct? Who… is Edward?"

Everyone tensed, and Pride heard Lust holding a quietly whispered conversation with Wrath and Envy, Gluttony looking on, a bit confused.

He waited.

Lust eventually paused, laying a hand on his head.

"Edward was, ah... The boy you were created from."

Pride paused, digesting this bit of information.

"Who is… Alphonse?" he ventured.

"Alphonse? Edward's younger brother."

That made sense, he decided. All the rest he could mull over later, he knew all he really needed to.

But then he started as he was struck by a mass of negative emotions – anger, sadness, pain, regret – accompanied by an image of Envy's face, expressions twisted in a dark sort of glee. Then everything was washed over with a sort of numbness, and faded to black.

"Eh? What's up, Blondie?" Envy asked, not sounding like he cared much.

"Big brother," he gasped. "Wh-I don't… You…?" he took a moment to calm himself, trying to organize his thought process.

"How… was I created?" Pride questioned.

"Well, Edward had just died," Lust frowned. "and I suppose Father combined his body with a Philosopher's stone. I don't know the details, myself."

"How… did Edward… die?" Pride asked slowly.

Lust looked over towards Envy, who rolled his eyes.

"I killed him," he announced.

Pride frowned, a bit upset, and unsure as to why this made him upset. Something in the back of his mind informed him what he really wanted to do was get up and punch Envy in the face. With the right hand, it added. He quickly squashed this part of his mind down; he didn't want to hurt Envy.

He considered it logically. He had killed people on the mission Father had sent them on. Envy had probably been sent on a mission to kill Edward. Besides, in the end it was good that Edward had died, because now Pride could be here with Envy and Lust and the others.

He nodded once, looking around. Lust, Wrath, and Envy were watching his reaction, Sloth was sleeping, and Gluttony was inspecting his feet.

"Okay," he offered, hoping to appease them. Luckily, it seemed to do it's job, and everyone stopped staring, though Lust gave him an extra glance before looking away.

Wrath pulled out a pocketwatch, checking the time. This simple motion triggered a flash of the several times the part of Pride that must have been Edward remembered seeing another person – …dark hair and eyes, an infuriating smirk set upon a pale face that was far more attractive than it should've been allowed to be, always in charge, he hardly remembered seeing him out of the blue uniform … – doing much the same thing, and it immediately supplied him with the last memory it had of him – …a shout, 'Fullmetal!', before the wet, heavy sound of something sliding through flesh and a pained grunt… – which of course pulled up the memory right before – …Al's back, thrown in front of him, a hand grotesquely jutting outwards, blood staining his coat in a morbidly beautiful pattern… – and suddenly he wasn't in control of his own body.

His fist was flying through the air towards Envy's face before he knew it, and it connected with a sickening crunch. There was a crackle of alchemical energy as Envy's new wound healed itself, and suddenly his hand was at Envy's throat, holding him in place while he punched him again.

"You monster!" he heard his own voice scream. His throat felt like it simultaneously was being torn to shreds and also had a golf ball lodged in it. A very spiky golf ball, perhaps? Then tears were rolling down his cheeks, hot and wet. "How could you–"

His voice cut off abruptly as Envy finally had enough and wrapped his own fingers around Pride's throat, pushing him out of reach. His fingers weakly scrabbled against Envy's arm for a while before falling limp, Pride deciding enough was enough and willing himself into control.

His eyes were wide, and he could still feel the tears streaked down his face. He looked from Envy's now severely irritated face down to the arm still holding him in place, and he slowly brought his hands up and pulled Envy's away from his throat, feeling everyone's eyes on him, even Sloth's, who he must have woken.

Envy snorted. "So I guess the Fullmetal Pipsqueak's still got a bit of fight in him, dead or not," he teasingly intoned.

Sloth rolled over and went back to sleep, and Gluttony whined in confusion.

"I… hurt you," Pride said carefully.

"Like hell you did, I'm fine," Envy waved him off, sitting down again and crossing his arms.

There was a pause in which no one knew what to say, before Wrath, his pocketwatch still in hand, awkwardly mumbled, "I witnessed something similar happen to Greed once… I was going to say it's about time I headed to work. I guess I'll inform Father of this… incident on my way out," and shuffled towards the door. "Lust, bring Gluttony by later for his snack, as promised," he called on his way out.

Pride felt a bit awkward just standing there, but he didn't want to sit so close to Envy just yet, feeling somewhat like he could hurt him again at any time. He didn't want that, so instead he sat down next to Lust. She leaned over and gave him a hug, and mumbled something about it being okay. He sniffed a bit, then realized his face was still covered in tears. They had dried halfway, so it was an unpleasantly sticky mess, which he easily dealt with by wiping it off onto the back of one glove.

He sniffed once more and leaned over into Lust, deciding he liked hugs.

-A/N- A few notes, as I noticed a few things some might find confusing: 1) The names to go with the list of faces – Trisha, Al, Winry, Izumi, and Roy. 2) Before anyone goes all anti-yaoi on me, I may or may not be implying Roy/Ed a bit here. Interpret it how you will, and remember that either way, Ed was an adult when he died, and most likely had at least grudgingly accepted that Roy is in fact dead sexy, if not only to be all jelly and whatnot. 3) I hadn't updated in so long because I am a lazy asshole. I was, however, suddenly inspired to write today by a new review, thank you. 4) This chapter is fucking long. (For me, at least.) I'm going to bed. -dies-