(Author's Note: Sections written in italics are occurring in the narrator's memory.)
"Did you see that?" Hawkeye asks, turning back inquiringly to Mustang and I.
"See what?" Mustang asks her, bored. It's only the twelfth time she's gotten spooked on the short walk from the cafe to the office.
She sighs, defeated again by our inability to see through her eyes and catch a glimpse of her "stealthy assassin." "Nothing…" She trails off, but her eyes keep darting around, determined that he or she, whatever the stalker might be, will pop out at any moment.
"Look, lieutenant." Mustang says to her. "We're just a few meters from the office. You can drop it now." Hawkeye lowers her shoulders just a little bit, defeated.
The colonel moves ahead of her to unlock the door to his office building, then spins suddenly when a half-gloved hand clamps down on his shoulder. He pauses for a split second to assess his attacker, determining that he is, in fact, a threat, before raising his hand to burn him to a crisp. He freezes when I speak up. I haven't done much of that over the time I've known him.
"Envy?" I say too loud, staring at Mustang's greenish-haired assailant. He whips his head toward me, slightly lowering the gun pressed to the colonel's head. His eyes are void of recognition, but I'm not surprised by that.
"What?!" He asks sharply. Mustang and Hawkeye stare at me, bewildered. Obviously we all know who he is. We know all of the homunculi. But we don't usually yell their names in recognition every time one shows up, like I'm stupidly doing now. I mean, I'd seen some crappy snapshots stuck into his military file. I knew he was still around, somewhere, but I never imagined that I'd meet him again. Certainly not like this.
"Envy." I say again, like I'm reassuring myself that it is him. "Do you… Do you remember me?" I realize after I've said it that this is one of the worst places to get all reminisce-y with the enemy. Too late, though. I watch his face, understanding every facet of it. He stares at me like an alien.
"Why should I?" He snaps back. Exactly the same as I remember. Hot temper, sarcastic.
"I… I guess you shouldn't." I glance down at the pavement, feeling like an idiot for even trying this, then back up at him. "I'm Lorelei. It's been a long time."
He continues to stare at me like I'm a raving lunatic. And who's to say that I'm not? Then, his hand drops from Mustang's shoulder, and he swings the gun my way. Mustang and Hawkeye flinch. It's just a gesture, though. He wouldn't shoot me. "Holy shit." Envy says, and Mustang glances at him, no longer sure if he's still a threat.
"Holy shit, kid!"
I stare up at the man in front of me with tear-filled, five-year-old eyes as he gesticulates angrily. It's a little funny, but I can't laugh.
"I told you to go home! I'm not your mommy or your daddy or whatever! Scram!" He flicks his wrist at me, but I don't budge. He makes an angry noise and wipes a hand down his face, grimacing. It strikes me as funny again, but I can't break the tears to giggle at him.
"You've been following me around for three days! Get out of here, you little shit!" He continues to yell. I start to cry in earnest, and then he stops and just stares at me. I start to sob, and he turns around, putting his back to me.
"Fuck this…" He grumbles, and storms off. I wail loudly after him. He spins on his toes and glares back at me, balling his fists, and yells, "Would you just SHUT! UP! You stupid kid!" I do, and just stare at him, whimpering pathetically, pleading for his kindness. He slaps a hand over his face and just walks away.
I stay put this time. But only because I know that he'll be back tomorrow. He always is.
"You're that snot-nosed brat."
I nod as he takes a step toward me, still pointing the gun. He scans me, slowly, top to bottom, then meets my eyes again with a smirk. I shift awkwardly beneath his gaze.
"You sure have filled out." He says, and I swallow. Not that I'm frightened, though. He's creepy, sure, but I don't need to be scared of him. He wouldn't do anything to hurt me.
"Lorelei?" Hawkeye asks uneasily. I don't blame her.
"It's fine." I tell her quietly. It's not dangerous, but the colonel or lieutenant could make it that way if they start getting in the way. I know that he doesn't like he government.
Envy closes the gap between us, brushing just past Hawkeye, so that he's standing less than a foot from me. My train of thought trails off, interrupted by his proximity. His gun is pointing just past my head, because he won't shoot me. He just wants to have it ready if he needs it. His eyes sweep over me again. I shiver just a little. I know you don't look at a kid like that, but he knows I'm not some kid any more. He moves closer still, and I can see Hawkeye staring stiffly over his shoulder.
He grabs me by the waist, lifting me easily from the ground.
"C'mon, kid." He says, hefting my tiny body under one arm. I reach out and clutch his skort-type thing. He huffs unhappily, but doesn't do anything about it. He carries me off to the copse of trees just inside the forest at the edge of the city, and drops me almost carefully on the ground. I hear some crunching as I pick myself up, and a huge, grotesque beast stands in front of me, tongue lolling out of its mouth. It growls menacingly, and the hundreds of bodies growing off of it moan and howl, pleading for their already-spent lives.
"This is my true form." A twisted version of the man's voice says. "Are you scared now?" The giant beast's mouth seems to form an eerie grin. I giggle happily, giving the beast's face a sweet pat.
"Come! On!" The twisted voice complains. The beast turns its shoulder to me, and the frail human corpses reach out for me blindly, screaming. "I've got bodies growing out of bodies, growing out of bodies! Some of them are even small children, like you!" I smile broadly and skip back around to the beast's face, hugging its giant nose as best I can. The snout disappears from my arms, and I look up to see the man's body again. He sits down on a rock, pressing the heels of his palms against his eyes.
"Stupid fucking kid…" He grumbles, then looks back up at me. A heavy sigh comes out of him and he slouches, resting his forearms on his knees. He seems defeated.
"My name is Envy, got that, shrimp? If you're gonna hang around me, you gotta call me that. En. Vy. Can you say that?" I smile silently at him, making no attempt.
"Ugh!" He throws his head back angrily, then glares at me. "You better learn to talk, or I'm gonna rip your fucking head off!" He bares his teeth in a snarl. My eyes well up with fresh tears and I start to pout.
Envy groans. "Aw, jeez, kid. Don't start that again." Fat tears roll down my cheeks and I whine pitifully, fingers twisting in my dirty shirt.
"Aw, c'mon!" He rummages into his pockets angrily until he finds something, then grabs my hand and uncurls my fist to drop the object into my palm.
"Now stick that in your grubby little mouth and shut it!" I wipe my eyes with the back of my other hand and pleasantly unwrap the single peppermint, a smile spreading across my "grubby" lips.
"Lorelei."
"Go ahead, Colonel." I tell Mustang, still staring up at Envy.
"But, he's a homun—"
"I'll be fine, Colonel. He won't hurt me." A grin spreads across Envy's lips. I'm not sure if it's good or bad right now.
"That's right, Mustang." He says mockingly, lifting a hand and gently placing it on top of my head. "I won't hurt a single hair on her pretty little head." He threads his fingers into my hair, pulling them through to the ends. "But you better scram before I hurt one of yours."
I look to Mustang over Envy's shoulder, and he nods, still concerned, before taking Hawkeye into the office with him. She also seems reluctant, but doesn't know what else to do. I'll be fine.
"Envy."
His head snaps back to me, a bewildered look on his face. "What was that?"
I grab his hand with my tiny one. "Envy." I say again with a smile. It starts to spread onto his lips, but he glances up at the busty woman beside him and quickly scowls again. I draw my little eyebrows together as he looks at me, and he sighs.
"Yeah, kid. That's right." He ruffles my hair with his other hand. He looks back up at the woman. "I'll be there in a second, Lust." She squints at him, upset about something, then saunters off.
Envy crouches down in front of me, balanced on the balls of his feet. He places a finger under my chin and tilts my head up with a flick of his wrist. "Keep your chin up, kid." He says, then slides both his hands away from me as he stands and hurries after the woman.
I stay put even though I know that this time, he's not coming back.
"You… You haven't changed a bit."
Envy continues to grin, thinking my statement was something funny. "I'm a homunculus. Did you think I'd get old?"
"Well… No… But…" I glance down, embarrassed by myself.
He raises his eye brows and tilts the gun down, using its tip to trace my jaw. I swallow again, even though I know he won't shoot me. He wouldn't. "I was created to epitomize envy." He continues, ignoring my fumbling response. "That's the only personality I have. I don't have the ability to change. In any way." The gun stops beneath my chin, and he tilts my face up again.
"But you," he continues with less of a grin, "have gone off to join the military, working to hunt me down." He frowns with just a hint of farce. "That hurts. Really it does." He leans closer to me, nose an inch away from mine. "I feel so... what's the word... betrayed. I thought we had something, Lorelei. I thought I'd come back to a friend." I know he's lying. He didn't think he'd ever see me again. But I know that he cared about me, maybe just a little, when he left.
"Instead, you've gone and run off with this Mustang bastard. And, y'know, that makes me so... jealous." He growls the last word at me, sending a shiver down my spine once again. Envy removes the gun from my chin slowly, and I feel the nose of it brush along my shirt as he lowers it. His lips brush past mine, only the slightest touch of skin. I can't move.
"Envy." I murmur quietly. He chuckles, and I guess he remembers that day, too.
"Lorelei." He teases. One of his hands pulls me closer by the small of my back. He pauses for the shortest of seconds, leaving me in suspense, before his mouth is fully pressed to mine. He kisses possessively, taking what is his, rather than tenderly like an actual romantic hero would. I don't care.
"Mustang!" I hear Hawkeye yell, scolding the colonel from the office building. He grumbles back before the office door finally thuds closed.