A Day in Red.

The date was May 1st, god how he hated this day. Riffel ruffled his hair as he walked into his storage shed towards a locker. The money he received from Flux after she passed away, was enough to store all of her belongings in this shed...including that certain gift she gave him. That...demonic...gift. He still remembered when he first received this monstrosity. It was the day Riffel finally learned how to transmute using alchemy. He heard a click as he opened the locker, and there it was, glaring back at him with it's overwhelming puffiness. His eye twitched, such a disgusting jacket...

He sighed as he clicked his tongue, looking at the outline of the jacket. "Well, let's get this over with already," he muttered to himself as he donned the jacket. Ugh, damn coat was getting too small for him, the sleeves were practically breaking at the seams. He stood awkwardly, with his arms pinned to his sides, looking like a mutant red penguin. Riffel walked out into the sunlight, dreading what the day would have in store for him on his way to the cemetery.

"Come on you stupid jacket, let's go visit Flux."

Greed groaned and rubbed the back of her neck. She had a flask in her hand, overturned as she slumped against a wall. She gave the silver container a shake and shuddered. "Useless piece of junk." she grumbled, then looked like she was going to throw it, however she instead shoved it into her pocket and glared at the ground. She could never get rid of anything, it was in her nature.

Iincognito, she walked up to the strange man, interested. She like flashy things, was that so bad? She couldn't help but grin at his far-too-tight coat. "Fits you well." she chuckled with a cheshire-like grin. "Can really see those muscles flex!" She ran her tongue along her lips and rummaged in both pockets. Damn she was out of smokes too, time for a grocery trip.. lovely! Spending money just what she enjoyed! She sighed and pulled out her wallet, opening it and counting out loud unintentionally. Good.. she had a good amount, she should be able to buy this week's dosage.

Huh? Someone was actually complimenting him on his jacket? Was that even possible? Was the world ending?! His shoulders ached, the jacket seemed to be constricting him the more he moved. Was this some sort of ghostly curse that Flux had cursed him with?!

"You're joking right?", he said exasperated from fighting with the small puffy jacket. That's it, when he got back from visiting her grave, he was going to burn this demonic thing.

He heard the crisp sound of paper as it was unfolded and heard the girl counting out loud. It didn't seem like the girl had a lot of money to him. But then again, neither did he, all of his money was spent on renting this place out for another month. He stuck his hands into the tiny pockets in his jacket. What...there was something in here? He pulled out the pieces of paper. What was it...? He'd felt this texture and shape before...Oh! It was money! Too bad he couldn't see the value of it. He sighed, wait an idea struck Riffel.

"Hey miss, it seems like you're low on money. In exchange for telling me how much this is, I'll help you out on buying whatever you need."

Greed looked up and blinked. Aaa he was blind? That must suck. She laughed "Well if I do say myself it looks kind of tight, but like I said it really shows your physique quite well." She folded her wallet and pocketed it. "Nah, don't worry about it, I got it, just need some sticks and a keg of somethin to wet my whiskers." She really didn't sound all that femin ine, but to look at her was simply confirming the matter.

She was kind of glad he couldn't see her. He would have run what with her, leather jacket zipped to her neck, then closing the remaining space with dark-brown fluff. Her leather pants constricted slightly beneath her five or so belts that just slumped around her waist as obvioulsy a fashion statement rather than keeping her pants up and her steel-toed boots that needed a good spit-shione all topped off with shades that blocked the light from her sensitive golden eyes.

She sighed and frowned, not sure what to do now, she felt kind of awkward. "Meh, If you hate the thing why keep it?" It was odd for a human to do this.. then again she was greed.. it made sense in a way. His keeping the jacket simply meant he wanted noone else to have it! Of course. She held back a snicker. Humans were so strange.

Riffel leaned his head back and brushed the hair out of his eyes. It seemed this woman really didn't care too much about his appearance. It surprised him that he was even getting a compliment, then again he had worked on his physique quite a lot. A smile split across his face, "Why thank you." She seemed like a nice person he wondered why she wanted the cigarettes and liquor. She certainly didn't smell of either, "Something the matter?"

His curiosity then kicked in, what did this girl look like? He clicked his tongue and the sound bounced off her revealing the outline of her figure. Eh, one, two, five belts huh? Wow she looked pretty damn awesome with that outfit. It was a shame that he couldn't see color. "Pretty cool outfit..." Oh? Had he just said that out loud? Damn his tongue, it betrayed him! Still if it wasn't for his tongue he probably wouldn't have this neat ability to see despite his blindness. Maybe this jacket wasn't so bad after all.

Greed looked dumbstruck. You know the way you look when someone suddenly slaps you across the face? Yeah that's probably what her face looked like at the moment. She could've sworn he was blind, but here he was... complimenting her outfit? It made no sense. She rubbed the back of her head and sighed. Well guess I was wrong.. maybe... She arched her neck and sighed. "Nah nothin's the matter I'm just frustrated because my brothers are such mooches. I swear every time my back's turned one of them has stolen something from my wallet!" She let off a small sort of chuckle and looked slightly confused.

"As for my outfit? Strange you should say it looks cool, most high-tail it outta here when I arrive." She shrugged her shoulders some and rolled her neck, cracking a couple joints, then leaning against the wall she eyed him curiously. Such a strange boy. "What's your name, hun?" she asked before she could even register her response. Her golden eyes set with an odd curiosity.

She looked at him in awe, and Riffel wondered what he had done to receive such an expression. What was it...what was it...Oh! He suddenly realized what it was, well it wasn't everyday someone sees a blind man that can see. Hah, yeah it must have surprised her though he wished he actually could really see color and not just the outlines of things. He thought it was strange that most people ran away from her because of her outfit. The outline of it seemed cooler than most of other peoples around here. They were all the same collared shirts and slacks.

"Aw that sucks, yeah I never had any siblings so I wouldn't know about that kind of thing. Why don't you confront them about it?" He felt bad for the poor girl. If that was happening to him he'd be pissed, since he almost never had any money in his wallet. "My name's Riffel by the way, yours?"

Greed chuckled "Oh I do daily, they just never listen nor learn." She sighed and pulled a hand through her hair. Such a strange human! It was almost like he wasn't human.. almost too nice.. kinda scary and the exact opposite of most of her 'brothers' "No siblings? You don't know how lucky you are! I got six of'em back home with father." Course this sounded normal but should it be a homunculus there, they would have been laughing. The seven sins, Greed, being nice to some stranger. But she couldn't be mean.. well not to anyone besides JD. She could be mean to him.

"The name's Zeeva." She replied, deciding that using her homunculus name wouldn't be very smart. "Pleasure to meet ya, Rif."

Riffel laughed it was nice to meet someone who wasn't mean and didn't try to baby him. "Rif huh? That's a new nickname. I kinda like it." His mouth formed into a grin, until he remembered that his jacket was strangling him. He sighed, and took it off, so much for paying a tribute to his mentor's grave. At least he had worn the jacket she gave him for a while. He felt strangely nice today, seeing as he expected to be tormented by the people on the street because of the puffy coat and instead received a compliment from a stranger.

"Hey Zeeva, I'd like you to have half of whatever is here. It'll help with whatever you need and I'm sure with six brothers that steal from you it would be nice to get a break now and then." With that he handed her half of the money he had well at least he thought it was half, he couldn't really read the amount on the bill because he could only see outlines. "I hope that's half." he said cautiously.

Greed practically stumbled back. Her eyes were wide with surprise and pure astoundment. Such generosity. She would've usually taken it without a word, seeing as she was greed and all, but something just told her not too. Was her evilness fading? Or was she truly never evil to begin with? She pondered a minute, "You sure, Rif? It's an awful lot of money. Don't you wanna use it on someone else rather than some strange ruffian on the street?" she couldn't help grinning as she called herself a ruffian. It was true though she always seemed to be causing trouble.

She thumbed the money thoughtfully, foe once not feeling greedy. Was she feeling kind? How odd. "I suppose a break sounds good, one of my brothers can be a real pain in the ass." She was of course referring to JD. "I swear that boy and I get in fights every other day." she chuckled "Kid broke my arm once." of course it healed in five minutes not even.

"Haha, yeah no it's alright, you don't really seem like a ruffian to me and I really don't mind at all! It would be my pleasure to help you out. Just tell me how much I have left is all. I really can't see color as I'm blind, I can only see the outlines of things by clicking my tongue. They really need to come up with some sort of braille for currency!" Riffel laughed, he hadn't had this much fun talking with someone in a while. Sure the man, Xan from the other day was interesting to talk to but that other man seemed to hate him. He shrugged off the feeling, it was weird he never spoke of his blindness to another person, he always tried to hide it. Was he that comfortable being around this girl?

"Broke your arm huh? Just how rough can your siblings get?! How can you call yourself a ruffian compared to them?" he said with a chuckle.

Greed laughed at his comment. "I suppose you're right, but I broke his nose with my other arm." She grinned, "His response was, 'You bitch that wasn't very lady like!' I just laughed." It was true. Envy and her got into tussles nearly all the time, it was almost protocol. Though sometimes it seemed that it was just for fun, lately had been more of competitions. "My other brother raids my room every week looking for blackmail." She sighed and shook her head. "Weirdo.. lucky I hde all my stuff." I'm like a rat in that way, everything is horded and hidden. Funny.

"Anyways, you got somewhere you need ta be? I'm sure I'd be happy to accompany you." A blind man that could see, what was the world coming to?! She chuckled inwardly. It was strange, but her existence was stranger. Wasn't she human at some point? She couldn't remember anymore.

"Haha, well at least you got him back, that's good" Riffel chuckled. This girl, she had such an interesting family. He wished that his family was as interesting as hers, then he probably wouldn't have minded being with them. Except....that whole breaking bones thing didn't really suit him too much. "I'd hide my stuff too, if things like that were happening to me. Well, I was going to visit my teacher's grave, it's the anniversary of her death but surely you don't want to come with to such a morbid place like a cemetery." Maybe, she was watching over him today, he was after all having a great day despite the puffy jacket. He ruffled his hair as it blew through the wind. Ah, it's getting cold out, maybe he should put that jacket on despite it's ugliness. Plus if Zeeva didn't mind him wearing it, then it would be alright since he wouldn't feel as uncomfortable in the eyes of other people.

Greed smiled, "Morbid today, huh? Meh it doesn't bother me. I'll come." She took off her jacket and placed it over his shoulders, "You don't seem to like that jacket, you can borrow mine, I don't get cold anyways, really." As she began walking, she paused to look and see if he was following. "I guess you should lead, not exactly sure where I'm going." She chuckled inwardly, waiting on the man. She came up with some strange nicknames, Rif, defionitely sounded like one of the more interesting ones. She yawned and sighed "Mind if we stop at a drugstore on the way, It's been three hours since I had a smoke and I swear I'm having withdrawal symptoms." She wondered if they'd sell beer there as well. That'd be good.. I need some alcohol.. maybe vodka.. I like vodka...

Riffel felt something warm envelop his shoulders and realized that Zeeva had put her jacket there. Sorry Flux, but just for this year, he was going to wear this girl's jacket instead of hers. He put his arms through the jacket and was surprised at how comfortable it was compared to his other one. It was a little tight on him but that was alright, anything would be better than the puffy jacket. "Yeah, that jacket was just too tight on me." He chuckled, "I felt like I was going to be strangled by it. Aw yeah it is pretty morbid but I feel obligated to go but it's not too far away. We can definitely stop by a drugstore though, if there's anything I can get you just ask" He did after all, have this mysterious amount of money in his possession. He wondered how much it was.

Greed laughed "Yewah I prefer my clothes a bit tight, except my jacket, I love being able to move my arms, specially when I'm in a fight with my bro." She sounded weird when she talked, almost like an accent hinting in her voice. "No worries Like I said, just need na pack of cigs or else I'mma flip my top." Chuckling, she hooked his arm some, laughing lightly. "Well which way are we going?" She wasn't sure exactly why she was being so nice to this stranger. He seemed so normal despite being blind. He had grown accustomed. In a way it was like she felt like she could learn a thing or two fro him. His selfless-ness. Harder than it looks... she winced. She needed to be more selfless and he was just the person to learn it from.

Riffel laughed, "That's alright with me, at least it's not as tight as this jacket," he said holding up the red puffy thing. "Oh, don't worry I know the way," he said with a smile. He started walking towards the local drug store that he knew wasn't too far away. Well, at least his not having a proper home was starting to come in handy since he ended up walking around almost all of Central. Funny how he was blind, but he could get around the city faster than most others and give pretty accurate directions. He hoped he wasn't going too fast, he had a slight tendency to walk a little faster when he moved from place to place. He slowed his pace, she was after all, holding onto his arm. "So do you live around here?" he asked curiously. There was something about her that made it so easy to talk to.

Greed laughed and followed. Her long legs allowed her a proud, long stride. She kept up with ease. Did she live here, good question. "Not really." she said coolly, pushing a bang behind her ear. "I actually live in Drachma, I was visiting my father for a bit on holiday." Shrugging her shoulders she laughed. That's what humans did, right? Visit on holidays? Ore was it something close to that. She could barely remember. It was ten years ago that she was human. Well remotely human. Her thoughts wandered to her own teacher, "I use to train under a teacher as well. I learned martial arts, but Something happened and I got kicked out." As they reached the drugstore, she opened the door, holding it for him. "It's no surprise, I wasn't exactly a well-behaved child.

"Ohh that's nice, your father must be a patient man to put up with all your brothers and their fighting all the time." Riffel's thoughts strayed to his own father, he wondered how his father was doing. It had been years since he had even spoken to him. He pushed the thought aside and continued to walk down the street. "Wow martial arts, that must have been fun while it lasted though. I've never taken any but I really wished I did when I was younger." He wondered what the reason was that she was kicked out for but decided it was better not to ask.

It wasn't long before the doors of the local drug store stood in front of them. He opened the door for Zeeva. "After you," he said putting out his hand and gesturing it inside the store. He laughed, "Always wanted to do that..."