victory_road | [closed catchall for Homeward Bound Boy Wrath]

Current Location: Goldenrod City

Entry tags:

[closed catchall for Homeward Bound Boy Wrath]

Who: Wrath, Lust, Envy, Scar, Henry
What: ~~LASSIE~~ WRATH COME HOME
Where: Shark House (ie, quiet suburban neighborhood in Goldenrod City)
Warnings: Later threads include graphic dialogue about subjects like child death/injury, suicide, etc.
Summary: Wrath can't avoid the inevitable any longer. After meandering in awkward emotional paralysis for a month, he finally arrives in Goldenrod City to find out if his family is still there or not.

The city streets haven't changed a single bit.

The same smells hang on the humid, seaside air. The same warm yellow lights blaze above the sidewalks. The same buzz and murmur of never-sleeping nightlife float along main roads and narrow alleys alike.

Wrath remembers all of them with startling clarity, and yet they don't feel familiar anymore. He shies away from all of it, slinking along like an awkward shadow and trying not to be noticed. Which is blessedly not difficult, at least in the heart of town where there's still enough bustle and activity that a short kid and his Cubone hardly stand out. But even with his memories intact... coming back to a bona fide city after the isolation he'd wrapped himself in back in Amestris is overwhelming in every way.

What he's looking for, however, isn't in the heart of town. No, his destination is down in the southern half of the city, in a much sleepier pocket of suburbia...

____

His feet remember the path there better than his brain does, and all too fast, their surroundings have shifted from broad bright streets to ones lined with houses, trees, and lamp-posts. Completely preoccupied with his own growing anxiety, Wrath barely even notices how fast they've arrived until he realizes that downtown's golden hum has been replaced with the soft, velvet drone of chirping insects and whirring fans. The clank of his automail foot on the pavement is painfully loud now that there's so much less background noise to drown it out.

He stops right there in the middle of the road like a statue as the realization hits him.

This is it. This is their street...

Down at his side, Son squeezes his hand. The Cubone had been keeping up with his trainer valiantly all night long, despite his stubby little legs. Keenly-attuned partner-Pokemon senses aside, it hadn't exactly been hard to notice that Wrath had been growing tenser and tenser the closer they got (even though escaping from the chaos of the inner city should have, would have been a relief for most people). Although Wrath doesn't look down, the squeeze tugs him back into reality enough to carry on.

It isn't long until he spots it.

There.

It's there.

It's still there.

The House... but that doesn't mean it has the same people in it. ~~Or that they would feel the same way they did once, even if they'd remained.~~ ... It's not too late. He could just keep walking. He could just head straight out of town and into Ilex Forest, never to be seen again. They would never know that he was here. ... And vice versa.

A shadow briefly passes in front of one of the windows, and Wrath stiffens, freezing again. He feels like throwing up.

But Son delivers a gentle headbutt to his automail leg. CLINK. Wrath grimaces, swallowing, and stumbles up the walk.

Approaching the house is ten times more difficult and painstaking than it had been with the cottage in Violet, but eventually, he finds himself standing on the doorstep, almost too tense to breathe. He lifts a hand several times, only to drop it again. Once, he manages to make contact with the door... but just scratches it timidly with his nails, too quiet to be heard.

"... I can't," he mumbles hoarsely after these failed attempts, more to himself than to his Pokemon... but Son responds anyway with a whispered but no-less-vehement "Bone!" Yes you can!

Wrath lets out a shaky, miserable sigh, but... he can't say no to his son.

Steeling himself and taking a deep breath, he raises his hand again... and knocks.

Thread Timeline because we're out of control:
1. Wrath arrives and is ushered in by Henry + Envy; Scar informs Lust about Wrath's return; Lust and Wrath reunite.
2. As Lust + Wrath Cry In The Living Room (tm), Henry re-enters with a failed hot cocoa attempt; Envy flees to the laundry room.
3. Heather receives distraught Envy phonecall.
4. Envy and Scar briefly discuss The Gluttony Thing in the hall.
5. Wrath and Envy catch up; Evil Brother Hug! at Kitchen Island.
6. Heather and Scar fail to communicate on the porch, but it's fine.
7. Hot Cocoa Attempt 2.0 by Henry; Evil Brothers + Henry quiet couch time.
8. Scar + Lust discuss personal growth and parenthood.
9. Heather gets home with ~~pizza~~ baked goods, gets caught up on the tea.
10. The following morning, Scar + Envy discretely get info from Wrath; also Don't Tell Mom About Gluttony.

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_{[For one terrible, thunderstruck moment when the door opens... Wrath does not recognize the long-haired, bearded man standing there. His eyes widen, his briefly-frozen heart starts to hammer, and he steps back (with a conspicuous clank from his metal foot). A stranger in the house would mean, must mean...]

[But then (because the first few seconds of being talked to don't even properly register, just go right in one ear and out the other) Henry says "ENVY", and that's when it clicks. The quiet, scruffy man-- previously short-haired and merely stubbled-- that had befriended Envy and lived there with them. One of the odd ones out in a house of escaped monsters, but he had always been nice. Nice for a human. Henry. His name was Henry.]

[Of course, he barely has time to register this before another meteor-impact of reality comes crashing in-- he's calling for Envy.]

[That means that Envy's still here.]

[Literally. Right here. Now. Standing in the doorway too, now. Next to his now-long-haired friend.]

[Wrath is frozen in the porchlight, weight still shifted on one foot as though about to dart back out into the darkness (although Son hasn't moved an inch, still holding steadfast to his leg). His eyes, though, snap from Henry's to Envy's when the other Homunculus appears.]

[He's being spoken to. The human said to come in. Envy asked, 'You're back?' But Wrath's throat feels as paralyzed as the rest of him, so even when he opens his mouth, nothing... happens. For a few seconds.]

[And then, finally...]}

... Hi...

[ Henry doesn't take his eyes off Wrath as he waits for Envy to come over. He doesn't want to look away in case Wrath disappears. He knows for certain it is not one of those weekends. ]

[When his friend joins him at the door, an awkward staring contest begins and Henry looks between the contestants as though he were watching an intense tennis game.]

[They're not...moving...]

[Henry draws in a breath and says somewhat loudly:]

Why don't we all come inside and I'll make some tea.

[Sorry Henry, Envy's brain is trapped in a contradictory loop of being really, really glad to see the kid who really had become like a real little brother BACK (and safe in this world) again and flinging an enormous number of horrific memories at him. Ones that, even worse, he knows Wrath shares now.]

[When Wrath finally speaks, Envy's response is unusually hesitant, like he's trying to feel the situation out. He's too shocked in the moment to pretend confidence.]

...hey.

[Although Henry's suggestion does finally get him to break the stare-off for at least a moment as he snaps his head up to give his friend an incredulous look that's a little more like himself. With the situation, his first thought is last year's Tea Fiasco.]

Wh--no! Not tea. [He shakes his head. The normal look doesn't stick around any longer, but he's less paralyzed. Yeah, Wrath should come inside. Right. He shuffles backwards to make room for Wrath to come in, gesturing at the other homunculus to follow. No matter how stricken he is and how unsure of how Wrath might be feeling about him at the moment, he does want to try and make sure that Wrath KNOWS he's welcome in by Envy specifically. He very nearly reaches out, to ruffle at Wrath's hair like he'd gotten used to doing before, but it doesn't feel like he should.]

But...yeah. Yeah, we should...come inside.

_{[It's... hard-- no, beyond impossible to put words to the storm of emotions happening in Wrath's head, behind his expression of wide-eyed shock and trepidation. For the entire time he's been back in this world, the memories of here have been colliding with the memories of Amestris with such an intensity that he'd had to actively quash it with literally anything else, just to maintain even the slightest grasp of composure (something Wrath's classically had very little of to begin with).]

[Well, now there is nothing else standing between him and that maelstrom, and he both wants to run away, fall to his knees and explode into ugly, snotty tears, and rush forward into the last place, the last company in which he'd ever been happy... all at the same time.]

[Which he can't do.]

[His eyes flick between Henry and Envy once more, and while he doesn't exactly relax... he does slowly center his weight again. They've both beckoned him into the house, now, and Envy looks... not like the Envy from his most recent memories. He looks, speaks like the one from here. His brother. So... while the urge is almost overpowering, Wrath will not sprint off into the summer night like a messed-up snaggle-limbed deer. He will come inside.]

[Taking in a shaky breath, he nods his head and starts to step forward. Once he's moving, the Cubone at his side lets go of his leg and grabs his hand again. Wrath almost seems to shrink as he crosses the threshold, hunching his shoulders and looking down like he's afraid of tripping some kind of trap or alarm... but he's done it! He is inside. Far enough inside for the door to be shut behind him, even!]

[Now it's time to stand awkwardly in the entry hall between two people that he wasn't even sure still existed a few moments ago.]}

... Your hair is longer.

_{[He says this very quietly, in Henry's direction, but he's broken the eye contact to gaze slowly around at the hallway. It's the same. It looks the same, smells the same...]}

[It's a minute, perhaps two or three, of triangular discomfort before the sound of feet on the stairs reaches the dumbstruck trio. But it isn't Lust who enters the fray.]

[Scar emerges in the periphery of The Standoff very much in his pajamas, an uncommon sighting in the main house even after hours. The pants have kitten patterns. His plain white undershirt is damp, like his hair. It's probably clear, that his words are hers and not his, but he is willing to cosign them...]

Unless it is a matter of life and death--

[Immediately upon reaching the bottom of the stairs and taking in the situation, Scar cuts himself off.]

[The boy. Wrath.]

[His absence in the last year has been tangible. The void left in his stead is a baffling silhouette that even Scar has not been able to place. Last he knew, Wrath had been here, adjusting to life outside of their wretched cult compound as well as any reasonable soul could expect of a displaced child. Now, he's been gone. And something is immeasurably different.]

[Scar offers Wrath a silent nod of greeting. Hi, kid.]

[He doesn't miss the limbs. Or the obvious fact that this homunculus has obviously aged. But they are cursory asides, for now. Scar's eyes dart to Henry.]

Do not give him tea.

[ When his friends both firmly remind him of His Sin, Henry's head retracts into his shoulders. He wasn't gonna give Wrath that tea!! Gosh!! You guys!! ]

[Still, now that the shock is wearing off, Henry can't help but feel a little excited. This is cause for a celebration, however small.]

Hot cocoa then.

[ He shuffles into the kitchen. ]

[It's a relief when Wrath does actually come into the house instead of sprinting off back into the night. The fact that he'd shown up at the house of his own volition at all after what Envy knows happened since the last time he'd seen them says a lot already, but he knows that conflicted fight or flight look well enough.]

[He also knows the difference between the sound of Scar coming down the stairs and Lust coming down the stairs, so he doesn't look up right away. She was probably in the shower or something, it was around the right time of night.]

[Scar had been right there to witness how aggressively Envy had reacted to Wrath arriving the first time. Right now, Envy is still awkwardly ensuring Wrath has a personal space bubble, but it's clearly not out of disdain or standoffishness. He's trying to make himself into as carefully unthreatening a presence as he can manage even as he hovers near. He does spare a quick, still-rattled glance in Scar's direction to nod.]

It is, she'll want to get down here.

[Envy has to assume that Wrath wants to see Lust too or he wouldn't have come to the house, right?]

Yeah, Henry, that's a better idea. Right, Wrath?

[As tentative and off balance as he's being otherwise, as unpleasantly heavy as the guilt is, at least some of how he's happy to see his long lost brother can peek through. Although he's back to looking at Wrath's new arm. And very plainly not confused at all about the missing limbs.]

_{[At the sound of weighty footsteps descending the stairs, Wrath's head snaps immediately in their direction-- ah! Scar. The one person he already knew for absolute sure was here... and in this very emotionally-fraught moment, that in and of itself is surprisingly comforting.]

[Especially on account of the clear recognition (and distinct lack of any follow-up displeasure or anger) in Scar's eyes, when they meet Wrath's. The nod of greeting.]

[For a second, the suggestion-- no, the palest ghost of a sheepish smile twitches at the corners of Wrath's mouth. While he may sometimes overestimate his own abilities in the art of subtle deception... Wrath isn't completely naiive anymore, and he knows that it's probably only a matter of minutes before Scar puts two and two together regarding their previous conversations. (If he hasn't already.)]

[Then the topic of hot cocoa.]

[Henry's already leaving by the time Wrath's focus has shifted gears enough to nod-- but he does nod, even if it's more at Envy's prompting than out of actual desire for a drink. He hasn't... wanted very much, since coming back. But, he won't turn it down. Since he and his Pokemon had entered the city, they hadn't stopped or slowed down once. And it had taken at least a few hours, to get all the way across town to here...]

[--ah!]

[He looks back up to Envy at last.]}

Can... can my son have some water?

_{[THE LONGEST SENTENCE HE'S UTTERED THUS FAR, and it betrays how rusty and raspy his voice is from disuse. In the event that it is not IMMEDIATELY obvious what he's talking about, he turns in place slightly to gently put his hands on Son's leathery little shoulders. (The automail's motion is perfectly smooth-- as awkward as it looks on him as opposed to the person it was originally made for, he's clearly had it long enough to grow used to it.)]

[He has not visibly reacted to the impending presence of Lust... not because he didn't hear Envy call for her and Scar speak in her stead, or understand their brief exchange... but because if he stops to think about it for even a second, he will fling that door back open and run. And he can't let that happen. He has to stand in front of her... no matter how much it hurts.]}

[Scar may be the odd one out as far as this house of undead people from Alchemy Land is concerned, but he isn't flying in the dark, either. He knows the painful, complex connections the homunculi share, rejected by all but the alchemist who collected and abused them. The antagonistic bonds they forged with one another as a result.]

[He knows that Wrath killed Lust. He knows that it happened not long after his own death. That it was... inevitable, in a grim, terrible way. And he knows, critically, that the last time Wrath was here, he didn't remember doing as much. But this boy is undeniably older. His mismatched limbs have been replaced with prosthetics. Given how quickly the entire sick operation had fallen apart... the boy must remember, now.]

[Among other things.]

[Envy is jumpier than an alchemist at prayer time. Scar is filing that into the mental bank for later.]

[Then, Wrath mentions his son, and Scar notes the Cubone, and a small mystery that's been prodding at his mind for the last several weeks clicks into place. He doesn't outwardly react to it. Those posts were anonymous for a reason. This is going to take a great deal of untangling, but now isn't the time.]

[Scar's eyes turn to Envy in a stare that clearly says get the Cubone some water. And with that, he turns back upstairs, stepping lightly toward his and Lust's room. He taps the door to their private bathroom, still unwilling to simply barge in, regardless of the details of their relationship, regardless of the fact that he was just in here two minutes ago.]

It's me.

[Lust is fresh from the bath, sitting at her bathroom vanity in a lavender robe. An open jar of night cream is on the table, and the room has that particular scent it always does after Lust has showered or bathed.]

You can just come in, it's your bathroom, too.

[She turns to the door, awaiting the report on what's happening in the lower half of the house.]

I assume, since I don't hear screams or smell smoke, that there's no crisis happening downstairs?

[Scar opens the door quietly, lingering halfway in it for a moment and watching her before closing it behind him. His freedom of access has been pointed out to him on multiple occasions, but knocking isn't a habit he intends to break. He has his reasons.]

[The stern set of his brow eases, now that their privacy bubble has been reestablished. He comes to stand behind her, his thumbs gently digging into the small muscles at the base of her neck.]

Nothing burning, as of yet.

[He takes in a lungful of scented steam, and he wonders. Another beat passes before he continues.]

I've been speaking over text with a boy who has recently arrived. He didn't know how to care for himself, and he seemed troubled.

[Not a word Scar uses lightly. Hell, he only knows to use he as of about three minutes ago.]

Wrath has just shown up at the door. Given the Pokemon with him, I'm certain he's the boy I've been speaking to. He's been here a month, maybe. He remembers.

[An assumption Scar is willing to make, based on what he saw of Wrath the first time he was here. His tone is quiet and even, a gentleness saved for moments like these. He may not be aware of the shape and extent of it, but he knows that this is important. That Wrath is important. There had been shades of it, even prior to the gap in his memory that still makes his stomach curdle.]

[She looks up and back at him, brows drawn in surprise and something akin to confusion.

Wrath.

She'd say that was impossible, but look who's talking to her at this very moment. Time means nothing. Sometimes people come back.]

Is he well?

[It's all she can manage to say in the moment. As calm an exterior as she's maintaining, there's a surge of emotion in her at this news. She sets her hands in her lap, fingers curling around one another and gripping tightly. She needs a moment to compose herself, prepare herself.

But it is the most important question.

A month. It probably shouldn't be surprising. It's been a long time he's been away, and he'd always been a skittish thing. Still, it stings a touch that it's taken him this long to return to the house. What has he been doing all this time?

She supposes the answers will be revealed soon enough, considering he's downstairs at the moment.]

[He eyes her reaction closely. Funny thing; this is the same exact question he asked Envy upon his own return. He circles more to her side so she isn't craning her neck. One of his hands remains close, cupping her face. She's particularly warm, just out of the bath. It's nice.]

He has an automail arm and leg. He's older than I remember. Twelve, maybe. I suspect some time has passed, back home.

[His voice is still low and steady. Scar's gentle delivery of he knows he killed you. He may not be privy to the exact chronological details, but he knows that Lust followed him by only a matter of days. The boy has to know, now.]

I see.

[Again she fears saying any more. The last thing she wants is to go downstairs visibly overwhelmed with emotion. Even with so little said, she can tell the situation downstairs is delicate. But so many questions drift through her mind, questions she knows Scar has no answers to.

That doesn't entirely answer her first question, either. How many years had it been for him? How did time effect something like Wrath? Arguably, it shouldn't change him at all, but he - somewhat like her - had always been different.]

He's well fed? Healthy?

[Lust only wants to be aware of what she's heading downstairs to.]

[For a moment, Scar says nothing. He saw the haunted tween lingering like a skittish animal at the door for himself. He frowns, considers, and decides to be far more direct.]

He isn't well.

[He's still studying her, eyes probing for any insight that she clearly isn't going to give up without a fight.]

Henry is getting him a warm drink.

Then all the better he's managed to find his way home.

[Her hands unclench and she gently pulls away from Scar to stand.]

He'll need something more nourishing than a warm drink, I'm sure. A bed will need to be made up, I'm certain he hasn't been taking his vitamins since returning....

[And a dozen other little things. It's easier to focus on the practical, to help settle her mind with the logical steps that needed to be taken now. Especially if Wrath is, as Scar says, not well. How not well...

She'll find out shortly.

God but the house is getting terribly full...she finds she doesn't mind that, though.]

[His... vitamins?]

[His vitamins.]

[Scar's tentative grasp for the situation is taking a more intimate shape than he had initially prepared for, and he can sniff out Lust's autopilot better than perhaps anyone. He's still peering down at her as she pushes herself upright. He gives her upper arm a gentle squeeze.]

And you?

[It's an appeal for understanding, and for what she wants of him.]

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a_sin_for_him - 2024-08-31 05:25 (UTC) - Expand

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[It's a good thing that Wrath clarified; right now, Envy's so caught up in the rest of this whole situation that he doesn't make the connection between 'son' and the Cubone right away. He'd almost forgotten about the quiet little Pokemon.]

[In the back of his mind, the thought crosses his mind that Wrath getting this particular starter on his return is a bit on the nose. And then, following that, is the question of whether the kid is still in Team Rocket. But he doesn't dwell on either. It's not important right now.]

[He takes note of both the raspiness and the ease with which Wrath moves the not-quite-the-right-size automail. He doesn't know a lot about the prosthetics, but he can guess it means they're probably not new.]

[He watches Scar go back up the stairs, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the silent instruction, then turns back to Wrath and nods.]

Yeah, I'll get him some. You can both sit on the couch too, if you want.

[He's not sure how long Lust will be, coming down.]

[One quick trip to the kitchen, where he definitely DOES give Henry a somewhat bug-eyed significant stare to communicate to his friend the sentiment of "aaaaaaaaaa holy shit this is happening aaaaa", he's back with a little glass of water to hand to Son. Carefully, carefully, no sudden movements.]

[~~He can remember flinging Wrath across the room like nothing, with barely any effort at all~~]

Here, Henry's still making the cocoa. He's your starter, right?

[Neutral question!]

_{[Once Envy departs into the kitchen, Wrath turns and wanders into the living room, almost in a daze. His fear has fled, but the sheer surreality that's replaced it is just as disorienting, in a way.]

[They can both sit on the couch... He remembers that couch. Is it the same one? Yes, it is.]

[Slowly, he lowers himself onto the couch, choosing the corner that hugs the arm. Son clambers up after him. And that's where Envy will find them when he returns-- Wrath staring straight ahead, seemingly a little struck-dumb by sitting here in the living room he remembers. The Cubone, however, looks up when Envy holds out the glass and takes it from him with a polite, appreciative "Bone!" Then he tips the end of his skull up with one little hand so that he can sip the water without clunking the glass on the helmet.]}

Yeah.

He's been with me since I woke up.

_{[He sounds a little distant, but he's... not angry! Or terrified! Now that he's officially waiting for Lust to arrive sitting down, apparently it's time to dissociate a little.]}

It was in a house this time...

[Yep, same couch. Some things are different, a few rearrangements, but overall it's much the same as it had been.]

[Once he's handed over Son's water, he's left...not quite knowing what to do with himself! His most recent muscle memories of interacting with Wrath are still sending conflicting signals, and he winds up with one hand resting on his hip the way he usually does instead of reaching out. But he does take note that Wrath doesn't look angry or scared of him, at least.]

[The dissociated look is almost worse; it's the aftermath of all that had happened.]

[But hey, what he says answers the Rocket question. The lack of fear is what has Envy finally move to sit down on the couch himself. Not right up next to Wrath, but a careful distance away. Next cushion over.]

Ah, probably a trainer this time, then. You had to walk a long way to get here, huh?

[It feels...something, that Wrath had gone to the trouble to travel all the way here. Under the shock, an additional lightbulb is starting to flicker on, about the particular timing of certain network posts. But Envy's a little too scattered to fully make the connection yet. He does mutter, awkwardly in that way that for Envy means he's saying something true.]

...welcome home.

_{[NO TEAM ROCKET THIS TIME... and it speaks to just how hard Wrath's entire world was rocked that he doesn't care. Like... at all. Even with the memories being re-introduced into the unstable ecosystem of his mind like rehabbed animals, the way that Dante's Sins had fallen apart was so spectacular that his fervent loyalty to Team Rocket feels... silly, childish in hindsight.]

[He nods, still staring ahead-- it's hard to look anywhere else, in the same way that getting out from under a weighted blanket is hard.]

[Home? He'd been so afraid that it wouldn't be... but that doesn't mean he'd really figured out what to do if it was.]

[With considerable effort, he turns his head to look at Envy. The Cubone (still dutifully finishing his water) is a serviceable space-taker-upper between them that relieves any of the potential awkwardness that sitting directly next to each other would bring, but Wrath's expression is... not afraid, but... timid. A little guilty, even. So Envy's not alone in the shame department.]}

... I wasn't... sure if anyone would be here.

_{[Or if he'd be let in, quite frankly. He trails off there, swallowing. There are words, surely... but they're locking up again. Envy's not angry, that much is clear, and a relief... but even so, what does he say? After a moment of clearly struggling to speak, he adds:]}

... Glad... that you are.

[The slow-motion turn and timid guilt in Wrath's expression hurts to see, as does the halting struggle of the kid trying to speak. And then hearing Wrath actually say that he's glad Envy's here adds a whole new conflicting surge of feeling, because he really hadn't been sure that was going to be the case until Wrath said so.]

[It's an overwhelming emotion on top of an already messy pile of them; he kind of wishes he at least had some of Henry's tea. He doesn't know what to say either, going quiet as his thoughts scatter.]

[His little brother came back, and is glad that he's here. In spite of everything.]

[Eventually, Envy finds words again, and manages a tentative half-grin.]

Glad you are too.

[He may not have connected the dots about that network post quite yet, but even without it, he does know how important for any homunculus to hear unequivocally that they're wanted. Especially Wrath, here and now.]

[Lust descends the stairs in her robe and slippers, knowing Scar is close behind. This is a possibility she hasn't accounted for, hasn't allowed herself to account for. It was too painful a 'what if?'. She isn't prepared for this - though perhaps it's not the sort of thing that can be prepared for.

Hearts were funny that way.

While she doesn't rush, she doesn't linger either. She needs to see for herself how he is, has a need to soothe and tend to him. Even after all this time, those feelings and impulses remain.

But she resists rushing to him when she reaches the living room, not wanting to startle or distress him. God only knows what he's been through, what must be on his mind. But she calls to him, trying to smile despite the shock of seeing him. Rather, the state of him.]

Wrath?

_{[At that, Wrath fully meets Envy's eyes (possibly for the first time since arriving), and that faint ghost of an almost-smile-- the one he'd had when Scar showed up on the stairs-- flickers across his face again.]

[And then a familiar voice calls his name and he whips around to face it, the brief calmness instantly morphing back into the skittish, about-to-bolt stare he'd had at the door. This is not in any way her fault, of course... there was simply never going to be any avoiding distress.]

[It's her... it's her.]

[Dissociation may have kept him from panicking while he waited, but... now she's right there, looking at him, looking simultaneously exactly the same and nothing at all like he remembers. Because what he remembers of her is both happy, healthy, here... and laying deathly still on the cold concrete floor, slowly liquefying into scarlet. And coming at him very very fast with cold fire in her eyes and claws whistling through the air, but that's not even entering his mind at the moment, not really. Despite the hollow horror in his own face as he looks at her, he is NOT afraid... he is ashamed.]

[Jerkily, with all the grace of a lame deer, Wrath lurches upright off the couch-- stumbling and nearly making Son spill his water in the process. (The Cubone lets out a startled noise, but manages not to drop his glass).]

[Once he's standing up, the... differences are probably immediately apparent. The automail where his stolen arm and leg used to be... some of the old roundness in his cheeks exchanged for a couple inches of height... and deep, deep shadows under his eyes. He's scrawny, covered in little scratches from the road, utterly exhausted, and he looks... like he has no idea what to do, or what to say.]

[He has NOT been taking his vitamins.]}

... L... Lust, I...

_{[... Is all he manages to get out at first.]}

[She stays where she is, Wrath's state of mind clear. She fears if she takes a step, he'll bolt.

But she keeps her body language friendly, open. Her distress at his current physical well fare is kept locked beneath the surface. The last thing she wants is for him to mistake what's upsetting her.]

I'm very glad you're home.

[There's no doubt, looking at him, that he's had many more years than previously. He's lived through things he hadn't before. God only knows what that's done to him, what he may think of her or feel about her now...

She couldn't even blame him, if his feelings have turned. She remembers well what had passed between them back in the world they came from.

Still. She hopes their time in this world is stronger.]