tampered | (no subject)

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When; May 26, Day
Rating; PG-13
Characters; Greed

prof_wordsworth
Summary; Greed takes Wordsworth up on an offer of pool. He also sees a perfect opportunity to create a new drinking pal.
Log;

Greed stretched fitfully as he arrived at Wordsworth's apartment. Last night had been a hell of a lot rougher than he had wanted it to be. He supposed Rangiku would be safe enough at the temple and it would do him some good to take his mind off it.

"Oi," he barked, knocking on the door, "Will, open up."

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For a moment William thought he heard wrong but Greed's smirk proved that he hadn't. He blinked, looked at the pool table and then tried to hit a ball but things got a little blurry around the edges. He hadn't drank that much. Sighing, he leaned against the pool table and looked at Greed. So much for a fun, simple game.

"Why do you want to know?"

Greed readied more shots and grinned.

"Her sizes, her interests, things like that! Ya' can't tell me you've never thought about tappin' that!"

William felt a little sick. Oh dear.

"I have not, I've known her Eminence since she was 13!" He exclaimed.

Greed looked a bit perplexed.

"...Yeah. And?"

For a moment, William was lost for words and then he walked up to Greed until they were only two feet apart.

"I happen to think of Caterina as a great friend." Then his gaze narrowed, "And your too old for her." He snapped.

He needed a drink, he really needed a drink. Seeing the shot glasses lined up, he downed 4 in less then a minute.

Greed whistled and clapped in admiration.

"That's the way, Pops! Knock it back!" he said, pouring some more rounds, "Not on my level, but still good."

He cracked his neck and stared back at Will, unphased.

"I'm over 300. EVERY girl is too young. Please don't throw your human sense of morality onto a homunculus, thanks. I decide my own scruples. It's not like I'd treat her bad!"

William shook his head, "I know your a good man Greed."

A thoughtful look crossed his face, "Caterina has been doing her job for a long time. She believes in the fight for a better future."

"Makin' peace between the two races? Yeah, that sounds good. I never understood Radu's whole deal. He seems like a nice enough guy if he wasn't under Big D's thumb and wasn't a flamin' bigot."

He glanced at the table, confused, "Uh, I forgot, is it my turn?"

William glanced at the table as well. He wasn't in the mood to carry on with the game. Maybe talking to Greed would help him sort some things out.

"How about we forget about the game and talk some more. I can tell you some more things about just what is going on in my world."

He walked to the sofa and sat back, closing his eyes for a moment.

"Eh, works for me. You woulda' passed out anyway. I can't actually GET drunk. My body burns up foreign particles. That's why we don't get sick."

Greed jumped and landed on a couch in a relaxed position, kicking off his shoes and popping a bottle of champagne for himself.

"I like the way this stuff tickles my nose, though. So share. What's the story? Especially on that Caterina babe."

William winced at the *babe* and pour himself a glass of beer.

"You see, the Vatican and the Methuselah have been at war for 900 years. Countless have died and far too many people like Radu have made it impossible to settle matters between the two sides. Lady Caterina knew this and more when she joined the Vatican. She has made it her life's mission to find peace. Even though Methuselah killed her family."

"That's what I don't get. The two sides view each other as monsters, but ya' all smell like homo sapiens, to me. They're altered humans, but still humans. For instance, if I tore off Radu's head, I'm pretty sure he'd die. The same can't be said for me. I just immediately grow a new head. I'm more a "monster" than they are."

He downed half the bottle of champagne and stretched out on the seat.

"What started this war? Where did Methusaleh even come from? They're not really all that well suited for livin', anyway. Anything that can't come out in the sun isn't all that well-suited for survival or goin' to war, no matter the physical advantages."

William shook his head, "No one knows why the war started, no one can remember that far back. And I agree with you, they are still human, they still have weakness's, just like a normal human. But the war has been going on for so long that most people don't want to see sense."

He took a sip of his beer, warming to his subject, he went on, "Lady Caterina was 13 when I started to teach her and by the time she was 18 she became head of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Almost right away she set up AX, with the aim of subduing or eradicating rogue Methusaleh and finding a way towards peace with the New Human Empire."

"Hm...New human. I guess that's a way of puttin' it. 13, eh? That's a hell of a lot of responsibility for one chick to take. I love humans with strong wills. That's one of the things I like about 'em. No matter what happens, they always find a way to adapt to whatever nature is throwin' at them. Can't say the others feel the same way about 'em. They consider humans as unnecessary trash."

A thoughtful look crossed William's face as he listened to Greed, for a moment Greed had sounded so much like Abel when he talked about what he liked about humans, why he protected them.

"Humans are considered trash in your world?"

"No, they run things. Only humans on my world. WE'RE the aberrations. Only 7 of us, really. 6, with me gone. And the others had orders to capture me on sight. Homunculi consider themselves the superior life-form, for the most part. We have all the physical advantages. The major drawback is the lack of a soul and inability to breed."

"Why were they ordered to capture you?"

"Ain't it obvious? I wasn't obedient. I wanted to do my own things, away from them. So I fuckin' ran off and didn't look back. Unfortunately, the Old Man calls that treason."

William listened attentively and smiled. It made sense, really Greed didn't seem like the kind of person to take orders. Looking down, William saw that he had finished his beer. Might as well have another,it looked like their talk would take some time.

"I can understand that. Now I guess I should answer your questions about Caterina."

William sipped his beer and thought for a moment. He didn't want to tell Greed too much, up to this point William had told him things that a lot of people knew back in William's world.

"Caterina won't want a relationship with you or anyone else. Her faith and her job are everything, which I'm sure is something that you'll find hard to understand."

"Huh. Seems like a waste, to me. I don't get the whole "Devotion to God" thing, like ya' said."

Greed shrugged and kicked his legs up, grabbing up a bottle of rum and gulping down some of the contents.

"What about you? How do you serve her?"

Relieved that Greed moved off the subject of Caterina, William gave a goofy grin. "I'm an inventor, I fix up Tres when he overloads his system and sometimes, I do a little spying, mostly though I spend my time as a teacher."

"Teacher, eh? Never needed one of those, myself. Knowledge was pretty much built in. The rest was just trial and error."

"So, I thought you said you wouldn't take in alcohol?" he grinned, pointing to the bottles and shotglasses, "I haven't been drinking all this myself."

William's eyes went wide as he took in the sight of the bottles and glasses, "Oh dear, my head is really going to hurt in the morning."

"Heh. I guess so, Will," Greed said, standing up, "Weeeeeeell, I'd better head off soon. I've got a date soon. It was nice meetin' ya'."

William didn't look up, he was still staring at the mass of bottles. But after a moment Greed's words sunk in and he looked up. "Oh, all right...it was nice meeting you as well, though if we do this again, I'm not drinking that much again." He said morosely.

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