Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, child prodigy extraordinare, was rushing through the storm, desperate to find shelter. He had been in a forest, working on a new (useless) lead on the philosopher's stone. He had gotten a week, but now his time had ended and he was on his way to the train station when the storm struck. Just his luck that the road to the station was far away from any kind of thing he could use as shelter to wait out the bad weather.
He was completly drenched, and his automail hurt his shoulder and leg. The freezing metal was certainly not good to have connected with his body right now.
The tired teen didn't dare to stop, he was to afraid he would fall down and not come up again, so instead he pushed himself to run farther and faster, but everyone has limits, and the little alchemist only came so far, before his legs gave out.
'So this is it,' he thought, 'Here it ends. I have survived so much, but I get defeated by rain. Colonel Bastard will probably be furious with me for dying and giving him more paperwork. The media's gonna have a field day. I can see the headlines; 'The Fullmetal Alchemist dead! Weather managed to do what no bad guy could!'. Winry... and Al... Al...' he stopped his thoughts. Al would be completly broken if he died there. He started to give himself reasons he couldn't die. His inner rantings was cut short by the sight of a dark shape standing a bit further down the road, turned away from him.
"Help!" his strangeled cry was drenched by the smattering rain. He didn't care who was standing there. To him, it could be anyone, it could be Scar, heck, it could even be one of the homunculi, Ed was to tired to care. "Please, help!"
The figure turned towards him and moved a bit closer before all went black.
_-_-_-_
To say Envy was confused was an understatement. He had walked out to enjoy a little rain and ended up on a route. Then he had heard a voice begging for help. He had turned around, looking for the voice's owner and seen a small shape on the ground. He had causally walked up to the figure when he stopped. Edward Elric was lying on the ground, wet, cold and half dead.
Envy's mind was in chaos. How the hell had the little shrimp managed to get so far into the middle of nowhere? He could only assume the chibi had been searching for the train station, but if that was the case he had been walking in the wrong direction the entire time. Envy felt he should just kill the annoying brat right there, since he would just cause trouble for Envy and the other homunculi when he woke up. But something woke inside of him as he looked at the unconsious alchemist on the ground. He felt protective over the little human, who, if things had turned out diffrently, maybe could have called Envy his brother.
But no, Envy would not let himself care for the alchemist. He had done fine without care for humans very long, and he could go even longer without it too.
Couldn't he?
Shouldn't he?
Then again, he hadn't been one to listen to 'couldn't' and 'shouldn't'. One last look at the boy was all he needed for his decision. He bent down and lifted the boy up, starting the walk towards his temporary home.
_-_-_-_
Envy laid Ed down on the matress before thinking of what he would need.
'Humans need warmth, right? He needs dry clothes. I should get something for him to eat too... argh, fuck, this is hard!' Envy stumbled over his thoughts, and decided to slow down. 'First thing's first,' he thought. 'He's cold, I probably need to make a fire. He'll die otherwise.'
Said and done, or rather; thought and done, a fire was soon sparkling in a fireplace Lust had so nicely insisted on that he should have. Envy made a mental note to thank her for it later. He took Ed in his arms and sat down by the fire. He caressed the boy's frozen cheek and stroke his golden hair. Envy was suddenly struck by the image of Ed being awake when he did that, and shuddered. Just because he couldn't die didn't mean it was comfortable to be stabbed numerous times.
Nevertheless, he continued to stroke the blond's hair, it was like silk. And drugs. In so little time Envy found himself addicted to playing with Ed's hair. He found himself unbraiding it so it would dry faster and be easier to play with. But he knew what he had to do, and he couldn't let Ed's hair stop him. Ed would probably still be wet when he woke up and wet clothes is not good unless you want a cold.
_-_-_-_
The first thing Ed became aware of was the warmth. It was no longer cold rain hitting his body, it was waves of heat, gently washing over him. The second thing he became aware of was the smell of food. A shy scent that reminded him of his mother's cooking. The third thing he became aware of was someone playing with his hair.
Ed listened.
The first thing he heard was a spraking fire. The sound of a flame eating away at a treebranch. The second thing he heard was of something boiling. The dampened popping sound. The third thing he heard was a steady breathing.
Ed opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw was a fire. The yellow-orange flames licking a piece of wood. The second thing he saw was a cauldron, which stood over the fire, a soup boiling inside. The third thing he saw made his blood freeze.
"Good morning, chibi-san."
_-_-_-_
"Good morning, chibi-san," Envy said, as he became aware of Edward waking up. "I trust you had a good sleep?"
Ed's reaction was expected. He screamed and tried to get away from the homunculus, but Envy held him down.
"Let me go!" Ed screamed.
Envy smirked down at the blond. "Is that a way to treat the one who saved your life?"
"What the fuck!? You? You were the one in the rain?"
"Got that right," Envy said, before softly adding "chibi."
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL HE COULD RIDE A FUCKIN' ANT!? SO DAMN SMALL HE COULD BE LOST BEHIND A SPECK OF DUST!? HUH!?" Ed yelled. Envy smirked for himself.
"You of course. Oh, well, not in so many words, but you get..." Longer did he not come before Ed punched him. He rolled over and pushed Ed down on the matress. "You lie there until you get better. Oh, and chibi, the soup's for you", Envy said without any malice. He smirked and muttered to himself before he left. "Hell, he is fun to tease."
Ed looked stunned after the homunculus for a long while. After he regained his senses he saw a bowl and a spoon. He hurried over to the cauldron and poured some soup in the bowl. While he ate Envy entered silently. He watched the blond eat with an amused expression.
_-_-_-_
"Why did you help me?"
Envy looked away for a moment. Why did he help him? Because the boy was his brother? Probably. He answered Ed with a smile. "I just couldn't leave you there. Belive it or not, but I couldn't."
Ed raised an eybrow. "Why?" he asked, stirring the soup.
"Why what?"
"Why couldn't you leave me?"
"I..." Envy wasn't sure if he should tell Ed the truth. Would he accept it? Or would he resent it, call Envy a liar? Envy decided truth was better. "I couldn't leave you because..." Damn, truth was hard. "...because you're my brother." It was said. Good God, it was said. Envy could almost taste the tension in the air. Actually, he wished for Gluttony to be there and eat the tension away.
Ed was stunned. There was no other word for it. He just sat there. 'Envy? My... my brother? I... it can't be... Does that mean...? Dammit, Edward, breathe! Breathe for God's sake!' He drew a shaky breath.
"What?" Ed asked. 'Oh, great thing to say, Elric.'
That was what Envy needed to go back to normal. "I told you, chibi, if you didn't listen it's your fault."
"I heard you... but..."
"...that's impossible? No. It seems like all that bastard Hoenheim did was getting kids he could abandon."
It was silent for a long time, before Envy opened his mouth again.
"You didn't blow up on me for calling you 'chibi'," he reminded.
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL HE CAN'T BE SEEN BEHIND A PEBBLE?!!"
_-_-_-_
Two days passed and the rain ended. The third day they found out that a search for Edward had started. Appearently you shouldn't disappear without a note. Envy really didn't want Ed to go, he had started to really care for his brother. He now knew how Ed felt about leaving Al. Ed on the other hand longed away more then anything. Sure, he falt a little bad for leaving his older brother, but Envy could take care of himself. Al needed him. One day, after he found the philosopher's stone, maybe everything could go back to normal. To the way it should've been.
"So, shrimp, should we call them and tell them you're here or do you want to just pop up there?"
"I'm no shrimp and I think I should just drop in dramatically."
"Could I help?" the smirk on Envy's face usually meant bad things were about to happen. Really bad things.
_-_-_-_
"Everything done?"
"Yep."
"Let's do it."
They had spent four nights arranging Ed's "entrance point" which was the roof. They had spent the days observing the habits of the military groups looking for Edward and realized a routine. Mustang asked if there was any news on Fullmetal, Havoc answered that no, it wasn't, and Hawkeye asked Mustang if he wanted to join the search. Mustang said yes to get away from his paperwork and they all came back tired and disapointed. Ed entered before Mustang answered that he wanted to come and offered to take his place. Everyone was happy and Envy got to stay with Ed and Al. And they lived happily ever after.
The end.
_-_-_-_
Yea, right.
It went more like this:
"Good morning, sir." Hawkeye said as she and Havoc entered.
"Any news on Fullmetal?" Roy got up from his seat and walked to the other side of the desk, so he was only a few feet away from Hawkeye. "That little shrimp can cause so much trouble it isn't fun..." he was interrupted by a:
"I'M NOT SMALL!" tightly followed by a:
"SHUT UP CHIBI, NOW YOU'VE RUINED IT!" and a muffled "mmph!" from the ceiling. It was followed by a loud ruckus and only a few seconds later a fighting Ed and Envy fell down from above. It got instant reactions.
Havoc dropped to the floor in a dead faint, Hawkeye pulled out her gun, which she dropped a millisecond later, when Roy jumped up in her arms in fright(think Scooby Doo). Envy and Ed stopped fighting and looked at the ridiculus scene.
"Hey, Colonel Bastard," Edward said between laughs, "I thought the man carried the lady, not the other way around. You need to fix that before you get married."
Riza put Roy down as they both blushed with embarressment and anger. Envy couldn't resist a chance to embarress them more.
"So, Mustang, was it? When are you expecting the baby?"
Pulsemarks immidiatly appeared on Roy and Riza's heads. Smoke erupted from their ears. Their eyes burned with an intensety that put the sun to shame. Ed and Envy was the targets for their anger. Que Havoc waking up.
"What happened?" he asked, then he pointed towards the laughing chibi and homunculus, "And why aren't those two fighting?"
Mustang slowly took up his gloves from his pocket and slipped them on. "But I will ask them about it after I fry their sorry asses."
Hawkeye picked up her gun. "I'm with you on this one, sir."
Envy looked at Ed and togeather they voiced the one thought on their mind. "Uh-oh."
_-_-_-_
Alphonse was outside playing with a golden-colored cat, which helped him getting his mind of his disappeared brother for a while, when he heard a sound from Colonel Mustang's office. Two seconds later two shapes were visible running from a big flame. A few gunshots were heard and Alphonse smiled down to the cat.
"Brother's back."
_-_-_-_
The day after, when everything had calmed down Envy laid on a bed thinking. Sure, he wasn't with his brother(s), but he had earned at least a little trust from Ed. He thought back to a time when he had heard the saying 'two wrongs don't make a right'. But he had made two wrongs. He hadn't killed Ed, he had taken him in, and he hadn't taken Ed to the other homunculi, he had taken him back to the military. That was two wrong. But he had gained care, care for the little alchemist. And his trust. That should make some kind of right. Right? He sighed.
'Two wrongs don't make a right.
'Hmmph.
'Nonsense.'
It appeared as if in some cases, it did...
_-_-_-_