"Mr. Henry," Melody said calmly as she came in from school, "I'm back."
"Come in here," he answers back in a slurred voice. He's been drinking, she thought, Maybe if I just do what he says he won't get too angry. She slowly walked into the kitchen, still in her school uniform. Melody had been living with Henry and his wife since she was 9. She was adopted from a cruel orphanage into an equally cruel home. In 16 years, the happiest memory that she can think of was how she felt when she was finally adopted before she was aware of the second hell that she was being taken to.
Henry drank heavily and often beat Melody and his wife had a stressful but well-paying job and took out most of her anger on Melody by treating her like a slave.
When she got to the kitchen, she was greeted with a hit to the face. She lay dazed on the floor trying to catch her breath from when she landed flat on her stomach as glass shattered from the liquor bottle.
"You stupid bitch," he said, "You were dumb enough to leave your arms exposed for apparently most of this week, and now I have the school calling asking why you have so many bruises." Henry stomped over to her in his heavy boots, "We pay all this money for you to go to a private school and you've been living with us for seven damn years!" Melody tried to push herself up, but a hard stomp came on her back, "Do I need to teach you yet another lesson?"
Henry kept stomping on Melody threatening to crush her. Melody began to cry out from pain, but Henry kept going, "Don't cry to me, I wouldn't have to do this if you had just dealt with the pain and kept it hidden like a good daughter." Melody began to cough up some blood, "And now, you're gonna stain the floor!"
We wouldn't be in this situation if you weren't always beating on me, Melody thought to herself, I'm not a daughter to you, just some punching bag. Well I quit! Melody reached out and found a broken tile still in the ground. She ignored the pain as she carved an alchemic array into her forearm. Melody then froze the blood and pointed her arm behind her, sending the blood spears to Henry's face. He staggered back off of her and and fell clutching his face. Melody got up slowly on her hands and knees and everything went black.
When Melody came to, she was holding a long blood-smeared object and Henry was face down on the floor. Melody dropped the object. Did I kill him? Oh my God , what did I do? She remembered alchemically making the object from the floor tile and a sinister voice saying "Why don't you drop dead, you sick bastard?" Did I say that? A voice in the back of her mind was egging her on. Kill him now, make him pay for all he's done to you!
She bent down to touch his neck. He was alive. But I won't be when he wakes up, I have to leave, to start over. Melody dumped out everything from her school bag and went to the safe under the floor tile. She grabbed as much cash as she could then went to her room to take anything of value. She then went to Henry's closet to pack any of his wife's clothes that she could then ran from the house as fast as she could.
Envy laid in the alley still in cat's form. After Dante's failure at making a Philosopher's Stone 2 years ago, he had nowhere to go. The other homunculi were dead, except for Gluttony who was now even more of a mindless eating machine thanks to Dante. He returned the favor by eating her before she could make an escape. This all happened while Envy was at the Gate with Edward Elric. He couldn't make it through though, and he instead woke up in the mansion alone.
Now, the Elrics were long gone so he no longer had anything to live for, but he couldn't die so he was just sitting in the pouring rain.
Then the girl just ran into the alley. She had silver hair and wore a school uniform with a blue blazer and black pleated skirt. She had knee-high lace-up black boots and her hair was in a side ponytail. The girl sat down to catch her breath.
She could be interesting, Envy thought, seeing the bruise on her cheek.
Melody at the time was looking through her bag and checking her supplies. A lot of money, my old journal, random clothes, and my music box. Melody took out the small box that could fit in her palm and opened it. The song began to play [A/N: The song is a music box version of Naraku no Hana from the Higurashi series].
Definitely a runaway, thought Envy. He walked to her, still in cat form. "You know, your gonna get sick sitting in an alley in the rain," he told her.
Melody was startled by the sudden voice. She looked at the dark green cat with wide deep purple eyes. "Hi," said Envy-cat. She'll be fun to mess with, he thought seeing the look on the girl's face.
"I'm losing my mind," Melody said to him, "First I black out and try to kill my foster father, then I run away and steal his money, and now a green cat is talking to me."
"So that's your story," Envy-cat says. He takes a seat next to Melody.
"Since my sanity is completely gone and I'm now talking to a cat, my name's Melody."
"I'm Envy. And since you told me your story I'll tell you mine, think of it as equivalent exchange."
I am crazy, Melody thought, Only I'd imagine a cat that knows alchemy's main law.
Envy cleared his throat the best way a cat could. "I wanted revenge on this one man and his family for most of my life. But then, the whole family died without me doing it and now I have nothing to live for since I never accomplished my goal and it now can never be accomplished. But I can't die, so there's nothing left for me to do except for chat with you."
"I guess that's the same as me," Melody told Envy, "All my life, my goal was to get away from my life and start over, but some things happened and I had to go before I could graduate or go to college and now I'm a runaway, sitting in an alley talking to an imaginary cat, in the pouring rain."
"How do you know that you're crazy?" Envy asked her, "How do you know that I'm not a real talking cat?"
"You know alchemy's #1 law, only a crazy alchemist like me would imagine a green cat named Envy that knew that," she answered. Envy then saw the array carved into her forearm. Then Melody started giggling.
"What's so funny?" Envy asked her annoyed. Maybe she really is nuts.
"I just thought about your name," she said still giggling, "You're green and your name is Envy."
"So?"
"Ever hear the saying 'Green with Envy?'" Envy thought about this. And he couldn't help but let his mind wander on how cute Melody was when she smiled. Embarrassed, he strides off.
"What's wrong?" asks Melody.
"I don't like being laughed at so imagine me walking away or whatever," he says. No answer. He turned back to see Melody's eyes slowly closing and her falling to his side. Envy turned back to his usual green-haired boy form and caught her before she could completely hit the floor.
"I told you sitting out in the rain would get you sick," he reminds her. She was burning up.
Melody began to slowly open her eyes. "Did you just turn into a boy?"
"Yeah," Envy answered, "And you should go home. I saw all that money you had, your parents will probably forgive you to save their reputation so you can go home, graduate, get a rich job, and never see them again in a few years."
"No!" Melody shot up and grabbed Envy, "Please don't take me back there, I'm begging you. I won't last another day..." She was crying and begging to not be sent back. Melody used up the last of her energy and collapsed in Envy's arms again.
"You're lucky I have nothing better to do," Envy mutters before picking her up, Melody winced once he touched her, Envy tried his best to be more gentle. He shoved her music box into her bag and took it with him on his way to the closest hotel.
Envy took off Melody's blazer and boots then tucked her into the hotel bed. She had probably just worn herself out from running in the rain and needed some rest. He had paid for the hotel room using the money Melody stole. While he had been in her bag, he found a small book with Melody written on the first page. Her journal. He knew that he shouldn't read a girl's journal, but judging by the bruises on her neck and face and the scars all over her, he knew that her journal would contain some interesting stuff and he had nothing better to do. Envy took a seat at the desk next to her bed and opened to the first entry from 7 years ago.
My name is Melody. I found this book in a closet at the orphanage. The only reason I'm writing in it is so if I die here, there will be proof that it was from abuse and neglect and not from whatever they say I died from. I've given up on being adopted, I've lived here all my life and I'm 9 now. Apparently I was found on the doorstep with no note, just a music box; that's why they called me Melody. Most of the kids here tease me because of my hair and the fact that I've been here all my life and no one wants me. They can still remember their parents and how they were before they died and how much they were loved unlike me. In all honesty, they're miserable too and want to find someone worse off than themselves. I was just unlucky enough to be that scapegoat( it's a real word, I learned it in the classes).
Envy read on about how the orphanage workers abused them, how happy she was when she was adopted, and the abuse she received living with Henry ; she only got to write about once or twice a month so it took over 7 years to almost fill. As Envy read, the urge to find her foster father and beat him to death grew; he hadn't felt this way since the Elrics were still alive. He read about how she learned alchemy from the books in Henry's library and all the notes she had taken in the book. The last entry was from several days ago saying that Henry's wife had left on a business trip and how her foster father had began beating her even more than usual. At this point, Melody had woken up but Envy was too absorbed in the book to notice. But Melody noticed the tattoo on his leg.
"An ouroborous?" she whispered aloud, at least loud enough for Envy to hear. "So I'm not crazy because you're really a homunculous, not a cat."
Envy was confused by her reasoning, "So you won't believe in talking cats, but you'll believe that an immortal artificial person is sitting next to you, reading your journal?"
"It would explain how you could talk and how you knew alchemy's law," Melody replied , "And how you changed from a cat to a boy and why you say you can't die. Since you've read my journal, I guess you know everything now." Melody tried to sit up but winced feeling the pain in her back and ribs.
"Don't try to exert yourself too much, you're lucky that your ribs aren't broken after that, you got away with a lot of bruises all over your back."
"He was stomping on my back," Melody said, "I was afraid that he was really going to kill me this time."
"That must have been when you tried to kill him. So why didn't you after all the hell he put you through? Equivalent exchange."
Melody looked Envy in the eye when she answered, "There was a part of me that wanted to real bad, so much that it scared me. But I knew that that wasn't me, that I couldn't take a life, not even his. Besides, like I said I've always wanted to leave my past behind and start over; it would be a lot harder for me to do so with something like that over my head and I'm sure that with their money, the police would believe them more than me. Killing him would have never worked out for me."
"So what are you going to do now?" Envy asked, "Other people besides them will wonder what happened to you, like the people from your school or town."
"I doubt that, my town was really big so it would be hard to notice if one girl went missing and my foster parents were rich and important so if they did notice, they'd believe any lie that they were told. Most people actually believe that most of the injuries I got were because I was just a klutz."
"And the kids from your school?"
Melody had a sad look in her eyes that she tried to hide by looking down. "The girls in my school didn't like me much. They were always teasing me for being so shy saying that I thought I was better than everyone because my parents were so important and they thought that I was lying about my hair and eye color being natural and that it looked ugly. I'm actually glad to have left early. There was nothing left in that life for me." She smiled again at him.
It seemed to Envy that everyone in Melody's life had hated her deeply when he hadn't even known her for a day and she was already the only human he's liked since he was human himself. He had to admire her will to go on and create a new life while many would end theirs then and there. Envy would have himself if he could.
"What about you? You said that you had nothing to live for either." The question caught Envy off guard. He didn't expect anyone to actually care.
"I already told you, I'm a homunculous not a human like you."
"So?" Melody couldn't understand his answer.
Her innocence amused him."I'm a homunculous, I don't have a soul. I'm nothing more than a representation of Envy, a doll."
"What do you mean you don't have a soul? You could have fooled me." Melody blushed and gave Envy a small smile, "I've only known you for a day and you're the closest thing to a friend I've had, you're the only person I know who doesn't hate me."
What's with this girl? Envy thought to himself, he got up suddenly, his face stone. He put his hand on Melody's forehead, "Your fever's gone down but, you should still get some rest. Go back to bed."
"But you didn't answer my question," Melody protested, "Are you going to be OK?"
"Worry about yourself," he said flatly. Envy took his hand away from Melody's head and walked to the door. He looked back to Melody for a second to say, "And whoever told you you're not pretty is a jealous bitch that's not even worth your time. Trust me, I know."
Envy morphed into a brown haired man and walked down the hallway. How can she seriously be so naive after all she's been through? It annoyed him, he couldn't remember the last time someone treated him like a... human. Even after they knew that he wasn't one.
"That girl completely trusted a total stranger, who knows what could have happened if she had found someone else." Envy stopped abruptly in front of the elevator. Who knows what will happen if I leave her alone, he thought. "She's not my problem," Envy pushed the elevator button and waited.
"What about you?" The words echoed in his head along with those sweet, yet determined purple eyes. I wasn't her problem, but she still cared. Melody was still in the room alone. "Just checking on her wouldn't hurt." The elevator doors opened, but Envy was already halfway to the room.
The room was dark and quiet when Envy got to it. Melody was sleeping peacefully on her side. Envy ran his hand through the brown hair, "Why am I getting so worked up over her?" He walked over to her bedside, Melody didn't even stir. Envy pushed back a strand of silver hair, making Melody grunt and lean into the touch.
"Envy..." she murmured, lifting a hand to touch his, "Please, don't go yet."
So, I (very obviously) do not own FMA. I am not getting paid for this, though I wish I were, that would be awesome. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this fic, please review and even fav if you want. I will be back with the next chapter...eventually.
-NerdyNekoGirl
