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“You know, Homunculus, it’s been a year since we first became friends.”
Homunculus twisted and turned within his flask. “Oh?”
“Don’t you remember? This afternoon, one year ago, you and I first met. We’ve come a long way since then, haven’t we?”
“That’s not what I meant, Hohenheim.” Homunculus opened his eye.
“I’m…your friend?”
Hohenheim laughed. “Of course you are!”
“Really?”
“Why not? You’ve given me practically everything I have now.” Hohenheim smiled at Homunculus. “Why wouldn’t we be friends?”
The Dwarf in the Flask’s tone turned strange. It smiled back: not its usual mischievous smile, but a warm one.
“…Thank you, Hohenheim.”
A brief silence followed.
“Don’t you have a floor to sweep?” Homunculus said.
The alchemist jumped. He immediately redoubled his efforts, sweeping the study even more thoroughly than before.
“We are friends, Hohenheim,” Homunculus whispered, so softly that Hohenheim couldn’t hear him over the sound of the sweeping. “And my greatest gift to you is yet to come...”
Hohenheim puked blood.
The spike retracted back into the ground and he was knocked flat on his belly. Through the cold, he could feel his organs knitting back together already – souls were burning within him, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
“How many souls did I waste, Hohenheim?” said Homunculus. The creature was standing above him: robed in white, his features were a dark mirror of Hohenheim’s own. “Two? Three?”
Hohenheim cringed and staggered up. He picked up his glasses and put them on, adjusting them to get a better look.
Homunculus was grinning. The creature hadn’t changed one bit – his taunts had taken on a far darker nature, of course, but he was as capricious as ever.
“All these years and that’s the first thing you say to me, Homunculus?” Hohenheim coughed out.
“You do seem to care about them a great deal. I don’t know why. Their minds have been obliterated now, haven’t they?”
Hohenheim didn’t give the creature the luxury of seeing him flinch at those words.
“And this is the site of our reunion? Quite dreary, if you ask me.” The homunculus motioned to the village the two were standing within. Not a single house was damaged, but corpses were strewn on the ground, as cold and devoid of life as the snow. Homunculus was always one to make a show of things.
“I think you only have yourself to blame for that, Homunculus.”
The creature smirked. “Perhaps.”
Hohenheim cleared his throat. “I get the feeling that you didn’t call me here for a fireside chat. What are you angling at?”
“It’s time to shed your childish preconceptions and face reality, Hohenheim. Join me. You and I are the only two beings in the world that can understand each other’s existences - you must realize that by now."
“That just shows how little you truly understand about me, you bastard!”
Homunculus responded by sending another spike through Hohenheim’s left arm. Hohenheim screamed and clutched at it in pain, blood dripping from the open wound.
“Why do you scorn me, Hohenheim? Is it for pity of human beings that have done nothing but regard you with contempt and treat you like a tool?” Homunculus retracted the spike and Hohenheim dropped down, crouching on the ground and holding the wound. As they watched, the flesh he had torn slowly re-knit itself.
Hohenheim was breathless. “You…really don’t understand us humans. Do you, Homunculus?”
The creature chuckled.
“You say that, but do you know how many of your kind would debase themselves to have what you’ve been given? You’ve lived as long as I have amongst them: you know the truth to my words.”
The creature stretched out his hand. “I’m only going to say this once more. Join me, Hohenheim.”
Hohenheim swatted the hand away and pulled himself up. “I’d rather burn in Hell,” he said, looking his double dead in the eye. He briefly considered his words – he probably would, if there was such a thing.
Energy coursed through the ground. Hohenheim stumbled back and almost slipped on a puddle, but nothing else happened.
“Fine, then. Have it your way,” said the creature, turning its back to him and walking away. “Enjoy the rest of your life: you’ve got a lot of that left, after all.”
His head turned back to Hohenheim. “I’m going to start an avalanche here soon. If you’re wise, you’ll leave now.”
“I’m going to find a way to stop you, you know.”
Homunculus turned around again. “I look forward to seeing your attempt,” he said, with an air of boredom.
Hohenheim stumbled his way down the mountain. As he heard the first sounds of the avalanche, he thought back to that afternoon in the study, and how differently things had gone since then…