Pride & Humility

XXIV

Beta: TaintedLetter

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

(Pride)

In the bowels of Central Command, a whirlwind of shadows circled around a pacing homunculus. The agitated homunculus that paced back and forth on the concrete floors glared mutinously up at the shadows that jeered, belittled, the pacing homunculus.

"Idiot," Pride, the shadows with dozens of narrowed scarlet red eyes, sneered.

"What's your issue, Pride?" snarled out Envy, his voice shrill and uneven, belaying his discomfort.

"Lust told me it was your idea to frame Ross. You moron, you've needlessly drawn suspicions towards the case, and Mustang now suspects the military!"

"Well that's hardly my fault, humans are such brain-dead creatures they're impossible to predict," Envy snapped back, raising his voice even further.

"You pathetic nitwit," Pride scolded, his shadows lashing out and forcing Envy to leap up and away from the deadly appendages. "You didn't have to frame anyone at all. You could have lied and lead the public on about an ongoing investigation. You could have declared it an issue of military security and closed off the case from anyone outside the higher ups. You could have given Mustang control of the investigation and fed him breadcrumbs to Xing! Doing nothing would have been better than your bumbling actions."

Envy's face paled with every venom-laced word Pride threw at him. "If your ideas are so much better, then why didn't you offer any help?"

Sheer disgust welled inside of Pride. He could not believe such a bratty snot-nosed cretin was created by Father. Not only was it too stupid to comprehend its failures, but it was daring to put the blame elsewhere. Pride retorted with contempt, "It's not my job to hold your hand, worm."

"What did you—"

"You have failed not once, but thrice now," Pride cut in, his tone laced with malicious disdain. "You are an embarrassment to us, a disgrace. A human child is outthinking you repeatedly, and all you can do is scream and flail about like an infant. You'd be infinitely more useful as a stone than what you are now. You're done trying to make decisions. You're done doing anything other than standing guard. Do not leave your post, do not say another word, do nothing but guard."

Pride could see the visible rage and hatred in Envy's eyes. His younger sibling was practically foaming at the mouth with anger, and quivering with bloodlust. If Pride were anything less than what he was, Envy would have already thrown himself at him in a violent frenzy.

Envy knew doing anything that could even be misconstrued as an act of disobedience toward Pride would result in his death, though.

So Envy swallowed back hard on his bile, and trudged off to his new duty.

Pride watched his fellow homunculus leave, and found himself thinking that Ellie would have made a far better homunculus than Envy ever could.

A pity that would never happen.

After all, even if she were to inherit Wrath's stone, she would still age. Her mind would go to waste in only a few decades.

That simply wouldn't do.

Pride had better plans for her... and now, so did Father.

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧