Disclaimer: I don't own FMA, Nutella, Monopoly, or even whatever anonymous hair gel Envy uses. Gels. And shampoos, and conditioners…
A/N: This is me popping off a quick Valentine drabble because Jane Austen Girl said so. And it's me trying to be kawaii, when I don't like writing fluff, again because JAG said so. Without much inspiration. But anyway… all I did was write a list of available characters and pick some, so don't kill me. It was almost Pride-Izumi.
Adorable WrenchesPalm Tree Head did not meet Winry in his adorable form. He'd gotten bored; Valentine's Day was one of his least favorite holidays, but all the other sins seemed to enjoy it, and they had left. Wrath liked the candy, and so he and Gluttony and Lust had gone party crashing. Greed had asked Sloth for a date, for unknown reasons, but it surely wasn't the usual cause for asking someone out. And Pride… Pride had thrown an office party, to which most of Envy's mortal acquaintances were invited.
So Envy was bored. He prowled the streets for a while, but the streets kept getting his clothes dirty and he was sure his hair would never be the same, even though he'd been careful to be someone else so his adorable form wouldn't get mucky. He'd considered going on a homicidal rampage, maybe in some high-ranking person's form and get them in a bunch of trouble, but he just wasn't in the mood. In the end, he'd gone home and thrown his socks on the table like Lust was always telling him not to do and thrown himself sulkily into a chair.
Maybe he should have gone with Wrath. The other sin had invited him, but Envy didn't like Valentine's Day candy. He preferred Nutella, things less blatantly sweet. However, prowling hadn't rid him of enough energy, and Envy was promptly up again. He played some Monopoly with himself, but couldn't help cheating, which got confusing when he had to pretend his other selves didn't notice.
After a while, he went back to sulking, and contemplated Wrath's invitation, which was when the idea hit him. He could crash a party! Just because he wasn't with anyone didn't mean it wasn't allowed. In fact, he was obligated. He was a sin, he was evil, he was supposed to do bad things like crash parties. And what better than the biggest, messiest, loudest, pinkest party around? Envy headed for Pride's domain.
He switched forms a few times, not sure whether to be an adult, or, more often – since he kept having to change under the table so people wouldn't notice, and needed an alibi for being under the table – Elysia or Ed. He kept out of Pride's way – he didn't think Pride could tell who he was if he were truly being sneaky, but it was always better to be cautious.
After a while, tired of making feeble short rants, Envy retreated to the quieter garden to change shape. It was on the fringe of a respectable time for people to go somewhere romantic and murmur sweet nothings everywhere, so he figured he might as well give it a shot. Maybe someone would mistake him for Ed and try to murmur sweet nothings in his ear – that would be funny!
Envy wandered the gardens, still Ed for lack of inspiration. Most of the older people were observant enough they'd notice if they saw themselves around a corner. Besides, he was still bored, and boredom tended to come coupled with lethargy, at least for Envy.
Eventually, Envy took to sneaking through bushes, because it was fun. His Ed-shape had something like automail, so it was a challenge to move without clanking, and fun. He started whispering things he'd seen in bad spy movies to himself, which almost made him giggle at a bad time when he saw the girl. Girls tended to take offense if you giggled when they were crying. Usually Envy didn't mind and stepped it up to a cackle, but Ed wouldn't do that, and being Ed, Envy didn't either. Instead, he composed himself solemnly and approached.
The girl was blond and toting a toolbox – Envy had never really met Winry, but he'd heard Ed talking about her, and so this was enough to identify her. "You okay, Winry?" He asked, and heard a quick sniff as she whirled.
"Oh – Ed." She didn't sound disappointed, or surprised, or anything. Gloomy. Envy suspected she was pining after Ed. For some reason, plots didn't enter his mind. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"You sure? You sounded upset." Envy listened to Ed's voice with some fascination, and to Winry with some surprise that he hadn't gotten hit with a wrench yet.
"Of course I'm upset!" Winry snapped. "I had to get you to ask me to the party, and then you just dump me like I was some sort of ticket in!"
Ah, Envy thought. You had to have a date to get into the party. Poor Havoc. "I didn't mean to. I just got distracted." Inspiration struck. "I thought I heard someone call me short."
"You would." But Winry was feeling better.
"Hey, you want to go walk around the – uh – the, uh, lake?"
"It's a moonlit natatorium." Winry informed him, but agreed, and they walked. It was a nice walk, and Envy almost didn't get home in time to greet the other sins as they arrived, in various stages of stupor caused by alcohol or sugar. It took some doing to put Wrath to bed, and Gluttony wasn't much better.
Envy took several more Ed-shaped walks with Winry, mostly through the town. He got distracted from his missions – murder had less appeal nowadays. He preferred stalking Winry – good practice, since he constantly had to change shapes to avoid suspicious Elric eyes, or the military, or just to be quiet. Or he told himself it was good practice, anyway, and managed to get away with it until he saw Winry looking at the real Ed and felt jealousy.
Jealousy was nothing new to Envy; it was, after all, a synonym for his name. He just wasn't used to being jealous of Ed, especially over a girl. But Ed kept snubbing Winry, and not noticing, and Envy had to keep rebuilding things between them on their walks. It was a great frustration, and sometimes he wished the mechanic would just notice that Ed was only nice when he was walking.
"I brought you a present." Envy said, sitting under a tree in the afternoon. There was a lake at their feet, not as pretty as the moonlit natatorium they had walked around before, but very nice in the orange-golden light.
"I do not want to know where you hid it." Winry commented, watching the water. Envy drew it from the hood of his cloak with an injured look and watched happily as Winry wibbled over its adjustable width and comfy grip, the weight to it – almost as though it were designed for throwing and the mechanical arts!
It was. Envy had helped, but it was Wrath who was the real genius. Envy didn't really like to think of the number of red stones he'd used to keep Wrath from asking why he had a sudden interest in wrenches.
"It's beautiful, Ed! Thank you!" Winry beamed at him, and Envy, emboldened, reddened.
"Oh – well, about that…"
"About what?" Winry asked, confusedly gripping the wrench. Envy noticed it was a grip that emphasized the aerodynamic function of the tool, and took a nervous step backwards. He'd managed never to get hit so far, but he knew it was just a matter of time. "Ed, where did you get the wrench?"
"It's not the wrench." He protested. "It's the Ed. I'm not, you see." It was horrendous, seeing her look like that, and Envy made a clean break of it and switched to his adorable form.
"Oh – you – you!"
Envy didn't really see how she went; he was too busy concentrating on feeling less woozy.
It seemed dishonest to stalk Winry anymore, when she was mad at him, when she was watching. Instead, Envy skulked around in a gloom, dutifully doing what Dante made him and sulking until she commented exasperatedly that he was acting more sullen than when he was a proper teenager.
After a while, Envy found his path crossing Ed's again, in the usual manner. Ed managed to get him thoroughly dirty, and neither of them succeeded in their mission, and Envy returned home even more cranky than usual to take a shower. He found a note in his hair.
It was wet, and dirty, and almost incomprehensible. However, Envy undertook the challenge, locked Wrath out of their room (and lost a door in the process) and managed to decipher it. More or less. He copied it on to another sheet of paper, but it was more shapes than letters.
The shapes were strange. The letters eventually made sense.
Build it and I might forgive you.
Wrath was allowed back in the room, with conditions.
Winry had always hated Envy, and Ed was frustrating. But then he'd been nice, and mean, and nice, and mean, and it was very confusing, and then the nice Ed turned out to be Envy. Envy, that nasty, evil murderer, and now a liar to boot – she'd knocked him out with that beautiful wrench he'd probably killed for and left.
Except that then she'd felt miserable.
Even Ed noticed after a while, after she'd gone weeks finding worried chocolate and other treats and one warm kitten in front of her door. And eventually, she'd given in and written a note. The note helped, as fixing and building automail had not – she'd been almost cheerful as she told a confused Ed to get it to Envy, cheerful enough to threaten him with a wrench, which she hadn't done since knocking Envy over.
And then she waited.
It took days, days for Ed to get a mission, and then more agonizing days until she found the gauntlet in her window box, with a paper shoved up the finger.
Sorry. Won't lie again. Wrath helped.
She hadn't realized how much she loved Envy, not really realized it, until then.
"Envy?" She called softly out into the world, but he wasn't there. She went back to the note, and found it was written on the back of a label. A hair gel label.
Three stores in Central stocked that hair gel. The first was busy, the second dusty, and the third was closed for the summer. Winry had a feeling she knew why it was closed, and headed for that one.
"There's a park down that way." Envy offered, pointing. Winry nodded, and they walked that way, holding hands.
"I have a present for you." She told him as they did so, and Envy really had to wonder where she had found out he loved Nutella.