paixaorpg | Brothers [Closed]

Well this sucked. Envy was not expecting his guise to be seen through, not this quickly and not by some...some...what the hell was this kid anyways? Sure, he had the Ouroborous, but no way in hell was he a homonculus. Envy knew all of them, and the Fullmetal look-alike here sure wasn't one of 'em.

He scratched and clawed and kicked, hating every second of this cat form and knowing he couldn't afford to drop it so close to Fullmetal and his friends, and finally got out of the kid's grasp. The only thing that followed was to make a mad dash for it.

Which he promptly did.

Pride bled, but he was already on his way to healing as he flickered out of sight briefly, somehow managing to catch up to Envy and grab him just behind his front legs again, as they rounded a corner.

The little homunculus seemed prone to learning quickly, holding Envy against his chest so the cat's paws were trapped, and tilted his head to consider him again. Obviously, he wasn't much scared of Envy as he was.

Wriggle and struggle as Envy might, he couldn't get out of the kid's grip. Snarling in frustration, he finally dropped the cat shape and resumed his usual one, pushing against the kid and finaly managing to get out of his grasp. He landed angrily several feet away and turned to glare. "What the hell do you want?"

Pride tilted his head, considering, though he didn't face Envy with a smile as he had the rest of Paixao. Instead, his countenance remained blank and almost questioning.

"Brother," he repeated. "...Why are you here?"

Envy blinked, once in surprise, and once again in annoyance. There he went again with that family nonsense. On top of having no idea what he was going on about, Envy found himself irked at that title.

"Look," he said flatly. "I don't have a brother. Get you head outta the clouds and outta my sight while you're at it." Being a cat for so long had obviously done nothing for his mood.

Pride blinked. Finally, he settled on something the other homunculus would respond to... most likely.

"Envy."

His question hadn't been answered, not that he expected it to be. It seemed like everyone else liked having their own questions answered, but didn't much like answering anyone else's.

The shock only lasted for a second before it gave way to straight fury. Nobody here should know that. Nobody. Almost too fast to see, a hand snaked out, grabbing the blond boy by the neck and dragging him close, until his face was right up across from Envy's. "How did you know that," Envy snarled, every word threatening violence if the right answer wasn't given. "Who told you my name?"

It was obvious that Pride should have been scared. But he wasn't, having faced the other homunculus' fury before. Of course, he didn't remember much of it, but what he did remember was pain and death- except death wasn't scary.

So he stared right back, calm as he had been just standing in the circle of people that knew him and meant him no harm.

"Brother is Envy."

"That's not an answer," Envy snarled, dragging the kid closer and tightening his grip. If he didn't watch himself, he'd strangle the blond. About the only think that kept him from doing it now was his desire for a good answer to his question, which he hadn't gotten yet. "Who told you my name?" he demanded once again, patience running very short. "And who the hell are you anyway?"

Pride had to pause for a moment, one hand rising to take hold of Envy's wrist.

"Father," he answered after another second, then finished with the second question's response. "Pride."

Envy's shock at the kid knowing about Father as well up and died when the kid proclaimed what was supposedly his own name. After a few long seconds, he started to laugh. "You're not Pride, kid. I know Pride, and you sure as hell aren't him." It didn't last long, though. "So shut the hell up."

If he wasn't Pride, then who was? His voice sounded gravelly, now, when he spoke, a hushed tone. "Pride is... who?"

He wasn't scared of death, but he didn't really want to die, anyway, and the edges of his vision were beginning to get fuzzy. If Envy held him like this for much longer, he'd have to break free.

"Not you, kid." Envy's patience had run out, and the kid had never really amused him to begin with. Any occultist freak could get an Ouoborous tattoo, and anyways, all the seven sins were taken. This kid wasn't a homonculus, just a waste of time.

"Now beat it." Envy released his grip on the kid's neck and instead landed a hard kick in his abdomen before turning to go. There was nothing left to do here.

Pride felt bones break- and heard them, if the crack-crunch and sharp pain was anything to go by- and slumped, laying in the middle of the sidewalk, neck red from Envy's grip.

But it didn't take long for him to feel, just as easily, the bones mending themselves. He watched Envy go, and almost let him, but his curiosity got the better of him, and he flickered into invisibility. From there, he darted in front of the elder sin before reappearing, just a few feet in front of him, gold eyes still locked on the being he called his brother.

Envy was grinning as he walked away from the kid. He had to admit, that had felt pretty good. It had been a while since he'd dome something like that, and he'd missed it. Maybe he should go back, find the kid, do it again.

...Nah, he had better things to do with his time.

That was before the kid simply appeared before him, like something out of a really bad horror story. If it had been possible for Envy to jump out of his skin right then and there, he probably would have. Instead, he stared at the newly-appeared kid, looked over his shoulder at the street behind him because he was sure he'd just left him there bleeding, looked back at the kid, and finally spoke: "What the-" followed by a long string of words that generally were not to be repeated in polite company, finished with, "What the hell are you?, kid? And QUIT FOLLOWING ME!"

His head tilted, momentarily considering. His name, he supposed told what he was as much as who he was, and so it seemed easy enough to describe himself that way.

"Pride."

He reached out with one hand, perhaps considering 'learning' Envy's face as he had with Sasori and Edward. This Envy seemed different from the one he had bare memories of.

"Okay, fine," Envy said flatly, tired of going in circles. "So you're Pride." And delusional, but that went without saying. He crossed his arms, figuring going for a different question might work better. Might. "So why if you touch me I'm going to rip that arm off do you look like Fullmetal?"

Inches from Envy's face, Pride's fingers halted, and he stared down the length of his arm as Envy finished his sentence. He didn't move, only considered, though no sign of it crossed his features.

"Don't know," he answered truthfully.

"Well, that's great," Envy replied flatly, with just enough sarcasm to make the point that no, it wasn't. He eyed the fingers in front of his face momentarily, then decided the kid could keep his arm in the air all day so long as he didn't try to touch him with it. He had been serious in his threat - he had no qualms removing limbs from people who irked him. In that particular context, the head was also a limb so far as Envy was concerned.

"Fine then." Third question was a charm, right? "How the hell did you get in front of me?" The implication of I could have sworn I left you bleeding on the ground back there hung heavily in the words.

Oh, another hard question for words. This was getting difficult.

"Easy," he described flatly, not at all cocky, and proceeded to demonstrate.

His hand faded from the fingertips to halfway up his forearm- not completely, but enough to make it look as though he was a ghost. And his arm moved forward, but didn't touch, because there was nothing for the molecules Envy was made up of to feel- Pride's molecules were vibrating at a much higher rate.

Envy watched with very wide eyes as the kid's arm faded and came towards - oh hell no. He forced himself to stand still, waiting for the arm to touch him - except he never felt it. The arm was going straight through his head.

"Okay, that's enough creepy shit for one day," he said flatly, knocking the arm away at the elbow. The last thing he needed was the kid to be in his head in any sense of the word.

"Creepy shit," Pride parroted thoughtfully, watching his hand as it returned to its solid state. Then, he added, "Dood," and looked back up at Envy.

Envy stared blankly at the kid, not only because the kid's arm was returning to normal (which looked weird enough as it was), but also because he wasn't expecting to have his words repeated back at him. "You're telling me," he replied flatly, followed by "the hell?" The kid had gone from being just weird to making no sense at all.

Pride just stared right back, considering his 'brother,' before he replied.

"The hell. Envy."

Envy sighed, rubbing his forehead in exasperation. Not only was this conversation - if you could even call it a conversation - going absolutely nowhere, but now he'd taught the kid to swear. Great. Just great.

"Yeah. Right. Okay. Fine." He waved his other hand as if clearing the air of previous questions, going back to the matter that was really bothering him. "What the hell do you mean you're Pride?"

The other homunculus considered, head tilted in that nearly silly way.

He thought, for a few moments. Those he had met- Edward, and the others- had asked him who he was, too. Where he'd come from. So maybe who and where were connected, somehow. It didn't really make sense, but not much that anyone had said really did. So he spoke.

"...Pride." That seemed a good way to start, and he continued, carefully picking his words. "Dark... red, and blue. Everything. And... Home."

Envy blinked at that answer. Well, either the kid liked a good game of word association, or he was completely out of his mind. After a bit of prolonged conversation - if you could even call that conversation - Envy was starting to believe it was the latter.

"Well, that's great, kid." He turned to leave, fed up with the whole matter. "When you start making sense, you let me know. Until then, leave me the hell alone."

Pride watched him briefly, turning, too, to glance back to the corner they'd turned; no one had come looking, and it didn't really seem like anyone was going to.

...What had Edward called it?

"...Transmutation."

He wanted to cry again, remembering the pain and confusion- that was the most potent memory. But he blinked back whatever tears came, and tried again.

"Edward said... transmutation. Edward said... Envy lies."

Envy stopped short at that. So evidently there was a grain of truth in what the kid said...if you could even understand it, that was.

He turned slowly, meeting golden eyes. "Transmutation," he repeated slowly. A rather malicious grin split his face as the kid continued on. "Edward said, huh?" It wasn't a grin that said its wearer wanted to be friends; rather, it seemed to convey its wearer's desire to see what color the observer's insides were, and would it be alright if the wearer split him open to find out.

"Now you listen to me," he said smoothly, moving forward until his face was merely inches from the kid's. "Pride, if that's who you really are." If he did this right, he might be able to play this kid to his advantage. "You don't tell anybody~ I'm here, alright? You can do that much for your," he tried not to choke on the word and pulled it off rather smoothly, "brother, can't you?"

Pride's head canted again, just slightly, as he considered once more. It seemed he was quite determined to think.

In doing so, he raised his hand again, but hesitated when his fingers were just bare centimeters from Envy's face, and thought maybe that his brother really did mean his threat- even if Edward had said that he lied.

But before he answered, he wanted to know, and just barely, his fingers came in contact with Envy's skin, not incorporeal, but very solid, and very gentle.

That was it. The kid was just bound and determined to lose his damn arm, wasn't he. It took all of Envy's self-control not to make good on his threat and relieve the kid of that particular limb.

Instead he gave the kid a few seconds, hating every single one of them, then pushed the hand away from his face. "I thought I told you not to do that," he said flatly. No matter how much he couldn't stand this kid, he was determined not to blow this.

Pride didn't seem phased in the least, just blinking back at Envy blandly.

He thought over what the other homunculus said, and decided it didn't make much sense to tell 'anyone' that Envy wasn't there, when he clearly was.

"Envy is here," he offered.

"Yeah, no kidding," Envy replied flatly. "Thanks for pointing that out." It wasn't like he wanted to be here, at any rate.

"I didn't ask you if I was here," he continued on, doubting the kid would actually understand this and trying anyways. "I just to-asked you not to tell anybody else, that's all." He looked over to the kid, the slightest hint promised violence in an otherwise calm stare. "You can do that, right?"

Pride's head canted, but he seemed to understand that request more readily, and his head bowed forward once in a single nod.

"Envy is... not here."

Close enough. "Right," Envy nodded, turning to leave. There was somebody coming to claim the kid, and hell if he wanted anything more to do with him. "You just keep telling people that."

There was no answer that time; Pride just watched, and made no move to stop Envy from leaving. Obviously, the other sin had something to do that didn't include Pride, or didn't want to be around him right then.

Pride suspected it was the latter. Even though he called him 'brother,' he'd never been very genial toward the younger homunculus.

Envy is not here.

Sasori approached wearing his usual neutral expression, arrived to make that claim, as he'd said he would; after all this time, he had to recognize puppets of sorts on sight. The present wasn't any exception.

"Pride?"

Pride's eyes flicked to Sasori, and back to Envy- only to see that the elder sin had gone. So instead, he looked back at Sasori, and turned to face him.

"Sasori. Envy is-" He paused, and seemed to think for a moment. The way the other sin had said it-... Sasori did not need to know that Envy 'wasn't there.' He hadn't asked, and that was what Envy had seemed to be angry about.

"Envy is...?" Sasori followed the gaze, before looking back to Pride and raising an eyebrow. His expression was still neutral, if touched with some mild curiosity; the blonde had been about to say something, and almost anything was worth hearing under circumstances as strange as these---things that seemed trivial weren't always so, or weren't always such. Information, like puppets or poison, was a tool, and one he was inclined to hoard as often as any other.

Now, Sasori was asking after Envy. It probably didn't occur to Pride that he was the one who had offered the information to prompt such a question, and even if it did, he didn't seem inclined to be quiet. After all, Envy had asked him to tell.

"Envy is not here."

"...Alright." It was an interesting statement made; he'd keep it in mind in the future. Meanwhile, there was the moment to consider. "Well, Pride." The puppeteer tilted his head, an eyebrow raised again. "We ought to move." There was doubtless a great deal more to see and hear, and however odd it seemed to be without his partner or Hiruko, Sasori would look and listen.

Once more, Pride briefly looked the way Envy had gone, then glanced back to the corner, around which he assumed Edward, Alphonse, the Prinnies and the others that had been there before, still were.

Head tilted slightly, he looked back up at Sasori, and seemed to consider his words carefully. "Edward and Alphonse- stay?"

Sasori paused, considering what he'd said, and sighed at himself. "You can stay. It seems that I've spent too long traveling with company." Company of one sort or another; a partner or a puppet, and always at least the latter. "You'll have to excuse me. I probably should excuse myself, before leaving..." He followed Pride's gaze and approached the corner, stopping there at the absences---the others had gone.

Pride's head canted, and he considered the tables at which the Elrics had last been. They were gone, as were the Prinnes, and something unsettled in Pride's stomach, fluttering briefly.

Edward was gone again. Everyone was gone again.

He stopped, and watched, and seemed to think. "...Edward comes back?" he asked quietly, finally bringing his hollow eyes back to Sasori's.

"I don't know. I can't see him." Serious, Sasori looked to the homunculus. "You can stay, but you can come with me if you'd like. Perhaps we'll come across the others." After being lost, found, separated from the group and collected again, Pride might as well be allowed his options. "Will you stay, or come along?" It didn't matter that there was nowhere in particular to be, yet; there was little be learned loitering where they were.

It seemed to have happened again. Edward had gone, with the rest of his friends, and Sasori had once more found him.

Perhaps, if he stayed with the strange, but somehow still friendly, man, he would find Edward again. And in any case, he knew that being together, at least with one person, was better than being alone, with no one at all.

His decision was obvious, then, when his hand moved, and rose to take the edge of Sasori's robes' cuff in his fingers. "Stays with Sasori."

"Alright." Sasori smiled; while he usually preferred the company of puppets to people, Pride had agreeable qualities of both, and it seemed that he would be a suitable companion for exploring the city. "We'll move on, then."

Content to lead, the artist chose a direction and led.

Brothers [Closed]

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