Envy glared out across the empty, grassy plains that was Resembool, disgust for the empty and rundown town curdling in his stomach. How could those worms that called themselves humans put up with a place like this? The "town" was nothing but green, split into two parts by a dusty dirt road. The lone blue river that flowed alongside it provided no entertainment for him, since Father had strictly warned him against drowning any of the residents. Everything about the place had him bored out of his mind, and his irritation was at a constant high since he arrived in the dinky like hellhole.

What pissed him off the most was his assigned "task", which was just an excuse to punish Envy for having a smart mouth. Until Father needed him to do something actually useful and productive, he would be stuck here waiting for the Fullmetal pipsqueak to return home. It's not like Pride wasn't already keeping tabs on him, and his whereabouts weren't vital enough to have Envy himself posted in Resembool.

Seeing as the Elric home was now rubble, the Pipsqueak and his armored brother tended to stay in the old automail mechanic's house during their infrequent visits. Envy knew that he'd have to be there to know if the brothers returned, but the whole task was so trivial and insignificant that he couldn't stand to be there for more than once a day to check. However, he never saw anyone besides the old mechanic hag with the glasses. In spite of the thing he called "Father", Envy would only do the bare minimum required of him.

The envious homunculus sat at the river's edge, appearance shifted to that of a typical brown haired, brown eyed resident of the plain and boring Resembool. He lay on his back staring at the clouds, ever changing, always moving. His irritation and anger flooded into him subconsciously, hating the way they moved so freely. They didn't have to be rooted down to some god-forsaken town. They didn't have to be forced to mingle with disgusting humans. They didn't-

They didn't have to pounced on by wilds dogs.

Envy was pulled out of his cloud watching by a big, slobbery tongue running from his ear to his nose. He pushed it away with a yelp, throwing curses and threats towards the black and white mutt. He jumped to his feet, readying his nimble body to pounce-

"Oh my god! Den, get back! I'm so sorry, sir," a young blond girl ran up to grab the dog by the collar, somewhat successfully retaining him. "I don't know what got into him. He's normally so well behaved on walks."

Envy glared daggers at the slobbering mutt, wishing the girl hadn't showed so he could flay it live and let the hide out to dry. "I'm sure," he spat, turning his glare up to the dog's owner. "You need to teach the beast some fucking manners."

The girl flinched, blue eyes narrowing slightly at the homunculus. She watched him brush the backs on his pants off with both hands before turning to walk down the riverbank in the opposite direction of the owner-pet pair. Envy stomped with his hands on his hips, resiting the urge to turn around and rip the girls tongue out of her mouth. Like saying sorry ever did anything useful.

And did she actually call him sir?

He stopped abruptly when he felt a tug on the back of his cotton shit, anger rising up in him again. He whipped around to face the offender, teeth grinding together menacingly. Great, now he'd have to burn all his clothes.

The blue eyed girl didn't seem fazed by his glare, and even if she did, it didn't show. Instead, her mouth hung open slightly as if in awe. The dog sat a few feet away, waiting patiently for its master's next order. "I knew it.. you have purple eyes."

Fuck… Envy brought a hand up to his face, effectively covering one eye and took a sharp step back, glaring even harder at the girl if it was even possible. When had he let his guise slip? If he didn't play this off smoothly, it could raise suspicions.

He rubbed both eyes with the heels of his palms, using that time to change them back to brown. He looked back up at her with fake confusion plastered on his face. "What did you say I had in my eye?"

The girl took a step back herself, eyes widened in shock. "But they were just," she started pathetically, "I could've sworn they were purple just now."

Envy paused a moment for effect, then laughed in her face outright. "What?" he blurted out, "Nobody has eyes that color. You're out of your fucking mind."

She huffed at the insult, placing both hands on her hips. "I guess I was mistaken, then. You don't need to be so rude about it." Envy simply waved a dismissive hand at her, turned, and continued his trek down the riverbank. The sooner he got away from this girl the better. Associating with her was draining his patience at an incredible rate, and if he wasn't careful, he'd wring her neck. Father wouldn't be happy to hear he had disobeyed orders.

"Wait just a sec," she called out, racing after him again. Envy thought he'd blow his top right then and there, but he ignored her and reigned his bubbling irritation in to the best of his ability. He increased his pace to a speed walk, hoping the girl would eventually tire and leave. "Excuse-"

Envy whipped his entire body around to land a full-blown glower on the approaching girl, effectively calling out a firm "fuck off" then jumping to the rocks in the middle of the river, helping him reach the other side with ease. He took off in a sprint down the water's edge, not stopping for a good ten minutes. When he finally chanced a glance over his shoulder, he was glad to see the blond nowhere in sight.

He slowed to a stop, letting his pointer and middle fingers rise to rub at his aching temples, trying to ease away his anger with little results. Who did that girl think she was, getting grabby with him? Demanding him to stop? It sickened him that a mere human had spoken to him so familiarly, like he was on the same low bar of the food chain as her. She was lucky that he was on strict orders not to start trouble in this god forsaken town, or he would have ripped the hand that grabbed him right off her body, relishing the way her bones and veins would snap. Maybe Envy shouldn't have lied about his eyes… should've let her figure out his true identity… at least then he could probably get away with killing her.

He didn't venture out to the mechanic's house that night. Instead, he hid deep within the forests of Resembool to work off some steam, blasting apart tree trunks with kicks and fists. He hated how he always got stuck with the fucking tedious jobs when he was capable of so much more. He was built for strategy, for recon. So why was he playing lookout in a town that didn't even need to be watched? He shattered another tree with little effort, panting not from the exertion, but his own anger.

If he so much as laid eyes on that blond haired, blue eyed bitch again…

The next few days went by without incident. He was more careful to keep away from any bothersome humans, hiding himself in the forest. The uneventful days had left Envy going out of his mind in boredom, wishing for anything to pass the time. Even though he knew he'd probably regret it, he ventured out of the forest in his Resembool citizen appearance. He followed the riverbank out of the forest as he had previous days and headed towards the mechanic's house. Ever since his run-in with the obnoxious blond, he hadn't checked in to see if the Elric brothers had returned. It was unlikely that they returned anyway, so Envy didn't stress over his "responsibilities" that Father had suited him with.

He took his time with the trek, trying to busy his mind by watching the slowly flowing waters of the stream. How long had it been since Father sent him here…? Three weeks? A month? And yet these waters never changed. Nothing changed here, except for the clouds. Despite the clouds, there hadn't been any rain, and Envy desperately wished it would. Not that he particularly liked rain, he just wanted something to change up the pace, even so much as water droplets from the sky. At least it'd be different.

He slowed when he noticed a presence ahead of him, and he lifted his brown gaze (he double and triple checked that it was, in fact, brown) to see who was ahead of him. It wasn't a who, but a what.

The same damn mutt that had slobbered all over his greater person three days prior was drinking from the river, and lifted its own head to stare right back at the homunculus. A water/drool mixture dripped slowly from its chops, and it wagged its tail happily before trotting over towards him. Envy took a step back, not wanting a repeat of the other day. As it prepared to jump on him, Envy lashed out to grab it roughly by the collar, squatting so that he was eye level with the beast. Brown eyes narrowed, and he bared a row of sharp teeth at the canine before shoving it away roughly. The dog only trotted back over, tail wagging just a furiously. With a heavy sigh, Envy plopped down on the ground, taking the dogs head and pushing it towards the ground with him to keep it from lashing out with its slimy tongue. It seemed to calm after a minute and it kept to itself, munching at the grass or cleaning its paws. Envy still watched it carefully waiting for it to strike.

At least it wasn't a stinking human. Envy agreed with himself that the canine was much better company than any human, and that at least he had something different going on in his uneventful stay here. It pissed him off that sitting next to a semi-retarded mutt was the highlight of his month. When he got back to Central, he was going to be on his best behavior so that he wouldn't be forced into this position again.

Envy wondered idly where the mutt's obnoxious owner was. He was positive it was the same dog as before, because really, how many dogs had an automail leg?

Something in Envy's eyes shifted as he glanced over at the mentioned automail. Now that he thought back at it, the old mechanic didn't live alone, did she? She had a grandson with her, or a niece or something. Maybe a granddaughter, even.

It was getting late and the dog hadn't left his side for nearly an hour. He wondered when it would go, because Envy sure as hell wasn't going to care for it. He was mildly grateful for the company, as much as it lacked any real substance. He stood up to leave it, because it was about time for him to check up on the old mechanic's house for the Pipsqueak alchemist. The mutt followed him, however, but he made no effort to stop it. As long as it wasn't jumping up on him, it was fine. Envy preferred animals over any type of humanoid, because they just didn't talk. He planned to transform into a cat or mouse when he came closer to the household, but something made him stop.

A voice was calling out in the direction of the house, a voice that made him shudder and take a step back. Of all of the fucking people to live in that god forsaken house…

"Den! Deeeeen!" the blond appeared over the small hill that the mechanic's house sat upon, and her eyes landed immediately on the homunculus-dog pair. Relief washed over her face as she ran towards the two. "It's you again," she stated, looking towards Envy, who scowled back at her, biting his lip to keep from saying anything. She scowled right back at him, but it didn't reach her eyes. She looked down at her faithful companion, slightly surprised to see that he hovered near the strange man. Her gaze went back up to the man's brown glare, and she sighed. "I hope you don't have another stick up your ass today, because I'd really like to thank you for finding him."

Envy's eyes widened at her insult, and his usual irritation flared up. Before he could throw back a retort, she was speaking again. "Who are you anyway? We don't get a lot of visitors, and I know everyone that lives here. It's a pretty small town if you haven't noticed."

You don't fucking say. Envy ground his teeth and narrowed his eyebrows at the offending girl. "I don't have to tell you anything." He turned to walk away again, Elric brothers completely forgotten.

"Den, wait!" the girl called after him, and Envy noticed that the automail mutt had fallen in step right next to him. He attempted to shoo it away, but it didn't falter in its step once. "That's so weird," he heard the blond say, and she ran quickly ahead of him, stopping right in front of his person. Envy came to an abrupt halt, ready to shove the girl aside. As his hand twitched to hurt her, the look in her eyes made him hesitate.

Her eyes were a bright crystal blue, and the irritation on her face from moments before seemed to dissipate completely. Instead she held that same look of awe she had a few days prior, and he panicked, thinking his eyes had shifted in his anger. He brought a hand up to his face, his glare still throwing daggers. She stared for just a second before a broad smile came across her face, sending Envy into a spiraling confusion. What does the bitch want now?

"Den really likes you," she said, her grin growing wider. "I don't know why you're trying to play the big bad guy. You're obviously not."

Envy let out a snort, his hand falling from his face to be placed firmly on his hip. "Like you fucking know me," he said, insulted that the human was acting so familiar with him.

His insult didn't faze her at all, and instead she giggled to herself.

Envy rose an eyebrow at this, more confused than ever. How is she not taking the fucking hint?

"I'm Winry by the way." the girl held out her hand for Envy to shake, and he made no movement to return it. Instead he shifted his weight to his other leg, letting his head cock slightly to the side in question. He wasn't making any real effort to play a normal human, so he told her exactly what he thought for the most part. Was she just dumb? He obviously wanted nothing to do with her, and Envy always made it clear when he didn't like someone. The way she looked at him unnerved him, and he started doubting his own intimidation tactics. Things were getting weird, and he knew he had to get away from her soon.

"Haven't your parents ever told you not to talk to strangers?" Something in her eyes shifted at that, and it almost went unnoticed by Envy. Almost.

"We won't be strangers once you finally tell me your name."

Envy let out a heavy sigh, too mentally exhausted to deal with this creature any more. "Then I guess we'll be staying strangers." he turned his back on her and walked away, ignoring the many calls that came from behind him.

Hey y'all. So this is just a little drabble kinda story that I'm working on to get my Envy/Winry obsession out of the way. I have no idea how long it'll be exactly, but it'll be at least a few chapters, I know. It does have the potential to be quite a bit longer though. Hope you enjoy anyway, and reviews are very much loved. sometimes they are the ONLY things that get me to update.

So for realsies, y'all.

*cough* review please.

See ya soon 3