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The nameless boy stood in front of the staircase that led down below the street, hesitating. It was dark and smelled awful, and there was a dirty looking man slumped up against the wall next to it, dea–-asleep and snoring. Still, the boy hesitated--but when his companion tromped past him down the stairs without so much as a glance at the would-be guard, he followed. His companion-–his rescuer's name hadn't quite stuck in his mind. Even though it was short and it hadn't been very long since he'd introduced himself. The boy's situation had taken so many jarring turns in just the past few hours that his head felt like it was too full to take in anything more. He could barely even remember any of what he'd seen on the way to this place.
Being shouted at by the furious brothers, chased through this place's streets that were so strange and different to the island he'd had months to get used to, getting away by the skin of his teeth, slipping and tumbling from the top of that building…
He'd fallen almost halfway to the ground before he'd come to a sudden halt, grabbed both by a hand clutching around one arm and a thick, reptilian tail that had whipped out and curled around his middle. Not that he'd realized what the tail was right away; he'd twisted around and wrapped his other arm and his legs around it to cling, and the tail's owner had shouted really loud at the sudden extra weight yanking down on it. But instead of letting go in shock or pain, the catcher had steeled himself and in a chaotic scramble got the two of them down the brick side of the building and back to the ground.
The boy scuffed his foot against slightly damp, rough pavement, much more aware than he ever was before of the red mark on his sole. Tail-man had been so surprised by it...that was when he'd offered to bring the boy somewhere safer, a place he said was for people who didn't fit elsewhere. Where he could rest and nobody would chase him and he could meet somebody who was just like him. The boy didn't know what that meant, exactly, but Tail-man said that his leader would tell him all about it.
Greed.
Looking down the stairs, the boy wasn't so sure about this place being very safe. He wanted to go back to Miss Izumi and Miss Winry, but...they hadn't protected him after all. Maybe Greed could. He'd sure heard all about how strong and incredible the man was on the way here, and his guide seemed to really mean it. Unlike whatever Tail-man's actual name was, he'd heard Greed's name repeated so many times already that it would've been impossible not to remember it.
"Come on, what's wrong? It's just down here, you can't stay out in the open," sighed Tail-man when he noticed the boy hesitating on the first step, clearly trying to keep his voice down, "Sure, it's not fancy, but looks aren't everything!"
Nervously, the boy gripped his fingers in the hem of his new shirt, hastily created from the remains of the ripped up white one and some leaves from a bush.
Making the shirt had made Tail-man almost as excited as the red mark had, and he'd even said that being able to do it made the boy 'magnificent'. It had felt good to have someone be happy and impressed about what he could do, instead of angry. This whole time, Tail-man had only ever yelled a little bit when they first got down from the roof. Ever since then he'd been nice enough. The boy didn't have a tail for comparison, but he was pretty sure that having one pulled on was a good reason for being a little mad. Not like Edward, who'd gotten so angry and attacked him over and over for seemingly no reason at all, and never got nice afterwards.
And since they were supposedly the same, whatever that meant, maybe this Greed would know something about where he came from.
Maybe even his name.
At that tempting thought, the boy made up his mind. His voice seemed to be stuck in his throat, but he still shuffled forward after his rescuer with grim determination. One step at a time, that was all it was. It wasn't so bad, even if the smell did get worse and his heart thumped quicker with each one. At least he wasn't by himself. He stuck as close to Tail-man's side as he could manage, earning him a couple muttered warnings to back up and not trip them down the stairs. Warnings that only kept him at bay a few inches for a few steps at a time.
By the time they'd gotten to the bottom, Tail-man had given up, resigned to having a new wide eyed, child-shaped lump attached behind his left shoulder.
A little window opened up in the door after Tail-man knocked on it in a weird, complicated rhythm, and a pair of eyes on the other side narrowed down at the two, "All clear in here, it's just us and the girls–-Bido, who the hell...is that a kid?"
Tail-man-whose-name-was-Bido (Bee-doh...he wouldn’t forget it again) straightened his shoulders up with an accomplished grin, "Not just any kid! Greed needs to see him right away, this is big."
"If you're sure..."
The boy felt the eyes on him, and tried not to shrink down more. He still didn't understand what about the mark and the 'alchemy' he could do made him so important, and the person behind the door didn't even know about those yet, but Bido sounded so certain of it.
With the little window open, another voice could be heard from farther away behind the door, but couldn't quite make out the words, just that it was a question. That searching gaze finally left him as the door guard turned to call back in answer, "Nah, not him, this's a little kid and it's got black hair–-"
The window slid shut on the rest of the sentence, and Bido glanced back to him, still grinning, the perpetual nervousness with which he'd carried himself aboveground seemingly evaporated now that they'd arrived. "There! Once we're in, don't wander off. Just stick near me."
He planned to. The boy only got the chance to nod again before the door was opening for real and he found himself shuffling into a dimly lit room that was as different from Izumi's house–-the only other building he'd ever been inside of–-as a place could possibly be. No bright windows, only stone walls, and shelves full of strange bottles. In fact...the only thing that felt familiar at all was that it contained a whole crowd of people, all of them staring right at him. He shrunk a little more behind Bido's shoulder, kept moving by the simple fact that if he didn't he might fall behind. The stench from the stairs hung thick in the air inside, like a campfire that had something disgusting burned in it, and it made his eyes water as he walked into the wall of it.
In the middle of the room, sprawled on a green couch and with his long legs extended up onto a rickety table...he didn't need to ask if that was Greed. Because he could see the back of the man's hand, and the familiar bright red mark stamped there. Once he noticed it, it was practically the only thing he could see.
A winged snake wrapped around a star, chasing its own tail. It really was just like his. The fluttery, nervous hope for answers that had tempted him here came rushing back twice as strong.
"Well now, what have you gone and found for us?" The amused drawl caught the boy's attention, and drew it back to Greed's face. The leader hadn't moved to sit up any, still leaned back with his elbows over the back of the couch, but he'd tilted his head like he was trying to get a better look around Bido. Something looked...different about his teeth when he talked, "Not who you went out to find, but you wouldn't have run back here with any regular brat. So fill me in."
Bido took a step to the side, enough to get his arm behind the boy's back and nudge him a step forward, "Nothing regular about him! I did find the Elric brothers, and they were chasing him through the streets until he got away. With alchemy. I went to talk to them until the short one rudely attacked me, but the armored one's hollow just like Tucker said!"
The boy glanced back at him, startled. These people had been looking for the brothers? Ed had attacked Bido too? Did he just attack everyone he met? But before he could ask any questions, a large figure in the corner with a coat and a raspy voice muttered that he hadn't been lying.
Greed's smirk widened into a pleased grin, revealing that his teeth had looked strange because they were all sharp. "Ha! Good work, now we know for sure. We'll catch up with the Smellrics later. So, where does the junior alchemist here come back in?"
Bido looked thrilled at the praise, starting to gesture with his hands more and more as he kept going, "I got away from them and thought I ought to find a good high place to regroup. Guess he had the same idea, because I was halfway up the side of a three story building when I saw him fall off the edge of the roof. I managed to grab him and get him down, and that's when I saw it. Go on, kid, show him your foot."
It caught him off guard, being prompted to join in on the conversation so suddenly. His throat felt dry, his legs shaky. What if this went just as badly as it had on the beach? Or last night in the bedroom? What if Greed got angry too and started yelling questions at him? He hadn't yet, and Bido didn't look worried or scared of him at all, but nobody else had been afraid of Ed either. And he wanted, needed to know about why they had the same red mark. It felt just as important as finding out about the other people on the island had.
The boy swallowed hard, nodded, and managed to squeak out, "I d-don't remember what this is, but..."
He reached to hold onto Bido's arm for balance, not wanting to fall over in front of everybody, and with a decisive motion lifted his right leg straight out in front of him so Greed would be able to see. He didn't think his heart had ever gone this fast before ever.
Greed jerked upright and forward, no longer relaxed, eyes flown wide with shock. The motion of it was so fast that the boy couldn't help flinching and almost falling over anyway. It really was gonna happen again like before!
He'd squeezed his eyes shut when he braced himself. But there was no impact of a larger body tackling him to the ground, and no angry shouting. Instead, he heard a loud, crowing laugh, and when he cracked his eyes open again he could see that Greed hadn't even gotten all the way to his feet, and as the man's laughter died down he instead leaned forward with his hands on his knees. Before, he'd only really been talking to Bido, but now his full attention was on the boy who up until then had been just a presented curiosity.
"I wondered about you staring at the ol’ birthmark, but I never thought it was because you'd have your own. You really don't have a clue what it means? I'm the first one with this mark you've met? Don't go and lie, now, I'll know if you do."
Were there even more others, ones he could have met before? The way Bido had described it before echoed in his head again, 'just like him'. It seemed to mean even more than he'd thought it did. The boy shook his head, tried to get words out so quickly he stumbled over them, "N-no! I just...I w-woke up on the island and–-and then Edward and Alphonse were there, and I went back to Miss Izumi's house with h-her and Ed yelled and tore my shirt and I don't r-remember a-anythii-ing eh-else–-"
He cut off at the wobble in his voice, felt his throat get tight and his vision blur around the edges. Next to him, Bido winced, clearly alarmed, and raised his other hand in something awkwardly halfway between reassurance and self defense.
"Woah, uh," Greed's eyebrows rose higher, his grin ticking down a degree in intensity, and the same eyes that had widened in eager surprise a second earlier started to dart quickly around at the other people in the room, "Sure, sure, you don't remember anything! Hey, we don't cry around here, got it? We...got a rule here, no cryin' in the Devil's Nest!"
The boy didn't get why some of the other people gave Greed odd looks, but a wave of nods and murmurs of agreement swept around the room. One shorter man with pointy hair leaned down near Greed's ear and muttered something he probably thought the boy couldn't hear, "Careful, he's just a little kid. They can be real sensitive, y'know."
"He's still a..." Greed shook his head, a brief thoughtful frown overtaking the smile, before turning back to the boy, who was trying to sniffle quieter and scrub the water out of his eyes with one fist. This time, his voice was softer, albeit with the awkward, gruff note of a man who did not talk softly often, "Hey. Listen up, kid, you're something...real special. You're something just like me, and there's not a whole lot of us out there. You're lucky, damn lucky that Bido picked you up and brought you here, because turns out? This is exactly where you oughta be. Those Elric dipshits and whoever else didn't really understand you, did they?"
"N-no..." The boy shook his head (and in the background, the same pointy-haired man whispered, "Boss, language..."), although...Miss Izumi had known just what to say to help him get out of the bed...she'd seemed to understand something the others didn't. That made his chest hurt a little bit. But she still hadn't told him anything like this, hadn't told him that he was really different. "What...what are we? Do you know where I came from?"
Another strange expression crossed Greed's face like a cloud's shadow on a windy day, a sort of tight, sad one, before he was back to the grin, "Well, I'm not sure how you got on an island by yourself, all put together, but we, my new little friend, are called homunculi. And if you can do real alchemy? That's something incredible."
"Hom...hom-un-k–...kiiuu-lie..." the boy repeated to himself, sounding it out. So he really was different? Something that made Ed angry, and something Miss Izumi maybe hadn't wanted him to know. But Greed was telling him the truth, and Greed was like him. And Greed (who was like him) thought he was incredible. Greed (who was like him) smiled at the news of his alchemy, grinned like he was saying hello to someone he was really excited to meet instead of paling and tightening his whole face in consternation. Greed (who was like him! Just like him!!) thought he was supposed to be right here. Greed might not know just where he came from, but he might really be able to help figure it out! Something in the back of his head felt tight, like a bubble that wanted to burst but couldn't quite manage to, but he ignored it.
Greed continued, gesturing around him with both arms, "Right! We don't fit in with regular people, but neither does anyone else here! Devils and outcasts, every one of us. Since those regular folks don't want us in their places, we're making this into a place of our own."
A place for people who didn't fit in, just like Bido had told him before. Bido, looking a lot happier now that the boy wasn't about to cry, was nodding along with a distinct look of pride. The boy didn't know about being a devil, whatever that was, but maybe he really was one. Or he could try to be, if that meant he could stay. "Can...can I...?"
Greed laughed again, a big, booming sound, and slapped a shiny, leatherbound knee, "Can you stick around? Sure! We'll figure out how to fit you in. You got a name yet, kid?"
He shook his head, because no, he didn't remember...or maybe, from the way Greed had said it, he'd never had one in the first place. Somehow, that idea was a lot less scary than when he'd been supposed to remember what it should be and just couldn't.
"Sounds like we'll have to give you one, then. You could be..." Greed paused, mouth still a little open like he was realizing something, before a wide, satisfied smirk lit up his face. He snapped his fingers, and the sound made the boy startle in place. "Could be anything. Ha! Any name at all! You could be...Cash. Cash Money! Fancy. Sophisticated!"
"You can't name a kid Cash Money," a woman with short hair and her own set of marks up the side of her face interjected in a deadpan, arms crossed, "That's not a name."
Smile falling, Greed shot the woman a reproachful look, one hand splayed over his chest like the rejection had wounded him deeply. "Why the hell not, it's cool! All kids wanna be cool," Greed groaned, but several of the other members of the group were also ready with their own objections.
The pointy haired man shook his head, "No way, it's gotta be something better than that. How about we all make suggestions, and the kid gets to pick which one he likes."
The boy nodded, liking the sound of that. It hadn't occurred to him that a name was something he'd get a say in. Excitement began to bubble up inside him, starting at a hopeful flutter and growing into something he could scarcely contain, wanting to run or jump up and down or whoop and cheer. The dim room and its crowd of strangers kept him from actually doing any of that, but he couldn't suppress the first real smile to cross his face since he stood at the top of those stairs. He was going to get a name, and he was going to have a place! With Greed, a homunculus like him, and nice Bido with his tail, and these other people who surely also had interesting secrets of their own, and maybe it was dark and smelled bad but they wanted him to stay. Even Miss Izumi had said that she was going to look for his real family so he could go back to them, but she hadn't known he might not really have one. And maybe...maybe when he knew more and got more used to living here, he could go visit her, and tell her that he found where he was supposed to be after all. He didn't really like thinking about never seeing her again.
Suggestions started to roll in from around the room.
'Glen', from the pointy haired man.
The lady with the marks suggested 'Jack'.
A man who was as big as Izumi's husband thought of 'Ben'.
'Kerosene' was added in a snide tone from a man in a purple suit, who everyone glared at.
Before the purple suit man could say anything else, Bido hastily blurted out that he'd used to know a Martin, a long time ago. Although then a man with a scar down his face pointed out that they already had a Martel.
Martel, who turned out to be the lady, shrugged with an amused look and said she didn't mind sharing.
More kept coming: ‘Remy’, ‘George’, ‘Jim’...he wasn't sure how he was gonna pick.
"I...I think..." he mumbled, head spinning--both from trying to think over all of them one by one, and the way he'd been cocking it from side to side at each new suggestion, as though that would help. He had no idea how to tell what was a good name and what wasn't! What made 'Jack' or 'Remy' a name but 'Cashmoney' not? "Um..."
"No pressure, kid, you can always change your mind later," Greed waved a hand, nonchalant, although something about all the suggestions had seemed to make him happy even though they weren't Cash Money, so he must be approving of them.
The boy glanced around to all the others, and then back to Bido. He'd been the one to rescue him from falling, and bring him here, and that felt like...something. And Martel had said it was okay.
"I think I like Martin," he said, and even though it had come out timidly, he couldn't stop the little smile that grew wider and wider at the thought that picking meant he actually had a name! He had one!
Greed whistled, "Damn, Bido, you really won the kid over, didn't you? Well, Martin it is! A name for our newest member of the gang! Drinks all around, and...uh, yeah, sure, I see that look, nothing strong for the little guy. What can he have, beer? Light beer?"
As a good five or six voices burst out in unison to offer feedback on their leader's suggestion (mostly negative, with one single "Yeah, beer’s fine" from the man in the purple suit), the boy--Martin--just stood, not sure what else to do besides just grin from ear to ear. He could scarcely believe that meeting all these strangers had gone so well! Nobody had attacked him or shouted at him, not even once. And now he was really part of something, a 'member of a gang'! This was great!
He felt a light, open-handed pat on his shoulder blade, as Bido took the opportunity of everyone else's attention shifting to the baffling discussion of what he should drink to turn to him again.
"Well...Martin," and here he sounded a bit awkward and pleased, probably on account of it being his suggestion that got picked, "Guess you're one of us now. Good thing I caught you, right?"
Martin beamed, nodding fast enough that he could feel the hair on the top of his head flopping, "Yeah!"