I haven't updated for a long time, have I? Sorry about that. Here's an EnvyOC request to make up for it.
Beneath an intensely focused gaze and a stern grip, a pencil roved hurriedly across a page on lined paper, leaving behind a trail of graphite figures. The lead elicited a decisive sort of noise as it stained the paper.
3.14
Scritch, scratch. She wasn't blinking as she wrote.
3.1415926
The pencil slowed.
3.1415926535897…
"Damn." Denise Howard laid down the writing instrument and slumped back in her chair, brushing back rust-colored bangs and letting out her breath with a tired whoosh. "Only the thirteenth decimal point. I'm losing my touch."
"Any number that goes on for more than thirteen decimal places is a crime against nature," a petulant grumble asserted from the couch behind her. Denise glanced back over her shoulder, remembering for the first time in almost half an hour that there was another person in the room—well, maybe not exactly a person, but there wasn't much else she could call him.
"You don't have the right to call anything a crime against nature," she responded, picking up her pencil again to tap it thoughtfully against her temple. "You are one."
Denise heard a grunt, but wasn't sure if it was meant to express indifference, indignation, or if he was just pushing himself up from the couch cushions he had been lounging on since god knows how long before she arrived at her apartment. It must have been the last option, because after a moment the sound of footsteps floated her way and a chin came to rest on top of her head, casting a shadow over her calculation-covered paper. When she tilted her head back to look up, she found what most people would consider unusual; sharp eyes that reflected the lamp's yellow light back in amethyst tones, a headband with some sort of triangular symbol on it, unnaturally pale skin, and dark hair that came down in long tendrils, resembling the reaching, grasping limbs of a spider. He called himself Envy. Denise preferred "hey you." No need to be friendly with the guy who had basically forced her to work for him and his colleagues.
"Hey you" was leaning over her to scan her work with a scrunched brow and a faintly crinkled nose, apparently trying to decide whether the formulas were actually a form of mathematics or if she had just scribbled out random numbers and called it a day. Eventually, he shook his head and straightened up.
"You'd have to be insane to go through all those numbers. What is that, algebra?"
"Calculus. And it's not insanity," Denise lectured, "it's perfect logic. Even pi," she tapped the string of numbers she had scribbled at the bottom of the page, "is completely rational. It's a number that occurs naturally."
Envy replied with a snort. "I thought you said pi was an irrational number."
"Well—it is, but it's still logical. Like the number e."
"So why don't you write that on your papers when you're bored?"
"It's too simple," Denise shrugged, twirling her pencil between her fingers. "Two point seven one eight two eight one eight two eight—too many eights in the beginning. That makes it easier to memorize."
"So you decided to go with the harder one that makes even less sense."
"It makes perfect sense. You use it to measure a circle."
The homunculus rolled his eyes and turned away, stretching his arms above his head. "Whatever. Just as long as you do what we tell you to, I don't care what you do in your spare time." As he headed for the door, an almost supernatural glow swept over him, replacing his black skintight number with a navy blue military uniform and his long hair with a short, light brown cut. Yawning, he reached for the doorknob.
"Hey. Where are you going?" Denise asked, sitting up.
"Central HQ. I've spent enough time loafing around."
Denise frowned. "You haven't paid me yet."
"I'll pay you when you get done calculating the number of materials we need for the next stone," Envy brushed her off. "That's what we recruited you for, isn't it?"
"Recruited?" Denise scoffed over the sound of the door closing behind him. "More like coerced."
The room rapidly became swathed in a heavy silence after Envy's departure, too quiet to concentrate on math. Sweeping her gaze over the room, Denise let out a heavy sigh and abandoned her work to stretch out on the now-vacant couch, finding it still warm. Funny, she mused. He was warm.
Envy's hands had been ice cold the day she shook with him and introduced herself with the silent prompting of her father. Denise could remember the mild contempt behind his mocking smile, barely masked behind the boyish face of a soldier who had died years before, and the low tones with which he spoke to her father, as though bartering for some sort of fiscal good. With barely a glance her way, Matthew Howard had promised, "She's capable of calculating out equations for college students, and she's not even at full potential yet. You've needed a mathematician, haven't you?" Denise kept her eyes down, reciting a long string of numbers silently in her head: 3.1415926… Envy had looked her over one more time before answering cagily that he'd discuss it with his associates. Ultimately, she would be indissolubly bound to the homunculi without meeting the price her father had bargained for and Colonel Matthew Howard would die in a mysterious accident six months later.
Denise was alright with that. He had essentially sold her, and they had never been very close. The only close things were the numbers, the impassive numbers, the remote numbers, the amoral numbers that told only the truth, nothing more, nothing less. If they deceived, it was because of human folly, not theirs. And they went on forever.
3.1415926535… Damn.
They went on for years and years and never died. Denise had never understood homunculi or the science and alchemic principles behind them, but she knew that much. They went on and on. Forever. Eternal—or so Envy had told her. Envy did have a frustrating tendency to lie. Regardless, Denise knew that the deceitful homunculus made up most of her world.
Denise glanced around the room again. It felt like an empty box. Scoffing, if only to break the painfully dull silence, she pillowed her head on the armrest of the couch and laid an arm over her eyes.
"Here."
Envy started at the stack of papers that were abruptly shoved into his face, and Denise enjoyed a moment of amusement at his expense as he turned to face her with the demeanor of a cat who isn't used to being snuck up on. The breeze wafting over the roof of the apartment complex made the papers in her hand flutter as he took them from her, leaning against the wind generator that hummed mechanically.
"How did you find me?" he grumbled, removing a paper clip to flip through the sheets of calculations.
"I see you up here once in a while, so I figured I might as well check," Denise grinned. "You're not as invisible as you think you are, you know."
Envy shot her a glare and slid the paper clip back into place. "It's about time you finished this up."
"I got stuck."
That earned a raised eyebrow. "You? Stuck?"
Denise shrugged. "I've been slipping up a lot lately. It's probably the lack of sleep."
Grunting, Envy scanned the papers again. "Don't let it interfere with our assignments."
"I know." Denise studied his crinkled brow and downturned mouth for a moment. "Something wrong?"
Envy didn't look up. "FullMetal got into something he shouldn't have."
"Isn't this the second or third time he's caused you problems?"
A low, controlled sigh breezed out of Envy's mouth, and he jerked a stray tendril of hair out of his eyes. "It's fine. I'll deal with it."
"Sounds like he's getting on your nerves."
"I said I'd deal with it."
Denise bit her lip, silenced by his wintry tone. Normally Envy took any opportunity to vent about his many irritants, and strangely enough, even though Denise complained about it, she didn't mind listening. This curt silence was unfamiliar and disconcerting.
3.141592653… What came after three?
"You're awfully human, aren't you?" Envy's voice brought Denise out of her recollection, and she looked up just a moment before the implications of his seemingly arbitrary statement struck her, making her tense slightly. It was never good when he started talking about humans. It meant he was in the mood to destroy something. The violet eyes that were trained on her flickered with predatory light, something Denise had only encountered once or twice before—but that once or twice was enough to make her step back unconsciously. Unfortunately, that tiny sign of retreat was enough to provoke him.
One moment she was off balance, and the next Denise slammed against the cement roof of the building with a yelp, making to protect herself with her arms only to find them pinned down. Denise warily raised her apprehensive brown eyes to Envy's malevolent violet ones as he shifted to hold both her wrists in one hand.
"So human," Envy drawled, a smirk tugging at his lips, "just like the rest of them."
Pi streamed through her thoughts in a torrent as Denise gave her best shot at reasoning her way out of the situation. "Hey. You're working yourself up over nothing. Snap out of it." Much to her chagrin, the second bit sounded more like a plea than a command. 3.141592653…
"Working myself up?" the homunculus scoffed. His free hand closed around her throat tauntingly. "Somehow, I don't think I'm the one who's agitated." Squirming, Denise closed her eyes and tried to focus on the string of numbers in her head as Envy leaned down and bit her ear, eliciting a squeak. He laughed at the sound and did it again, as though he was just messing with her for the reaction. Hell, he probably was, Denise mused irritably. Ten seconds ago, he was in a surly mood, so where did the sudden mischievousness come from?
When Denise refused to produce the same half-whine, half-yelp that she had to his prior attack, Envy withdrew from her ear to look at her face, scowling. A disappointed grunt left his throat as he met her uncertain gaze.
"Hmph. Pathetic." He released her wrists and stood up, trudging his way back to the generator he had been leaning against while Denise cautiously sat up, rubbing her wrists and wondering if he was bipolar. He was difficult to grasp before, but now she couldn't wrap her mathematical mind around him.
"Maybe I should just get rid of you after all," Envy muttered, brushing by her towards the fire escape that led down the building. Denise stared blankly at the spot where he had just stood.
3.14159265…
No.
He was eternal. The only eternal thing, going on and on, volatile but still constant. His moods changed like the digits in pi, but they were still potently and undeniably Envy, the Envy who took her and kept her and accepted her even if it wasn't her choice. He didn't end. But if he disappeared, disappeared from her life in all his eternity, she didn't know what she'd do.
"Hey—Envy, wait."
The homunculus turned his head and raised a brow at the hand clinging to his elbow, trailing his gaze up her arm and shoulder to the face that just hinted at desperation.
"Envy, you don't mean that, do you?" The rare earnestness in her tone coaxed his brow a fraction higher. "If you wanted to get rid of me, why do you keep toying with me?" Envy's lips parted momentarily as though to answer, but they closed again without replying. Any number of seconds dragged by before he tossed his head and opened his mouth again, and another two or three escaped before he actually spoke.
"What does it matter?" It came out like a scoff but maintained a noticeable level of uncertainty. "I just—You humans have interesting reactions. It's not like I really need you around. Why do you care what I do to you?"
The answer to that question seemed obvious, but Denise didn't comment, letting her hand drop from his arm to her side. "Oh. Okay." Her hair drifted languidly around her face, pulled by the breeze. "Then I guess I don't have to stick around anymore." Envy grunted indifferently. "I could move out to the country like I always wanted." Another grunt. "I can get a permanent job, make real friends, get a boyfriend…"
"No."
The single word was surprisingly adamant, and Denise looked up quizzically at Envy's dark glare, frowning. "Why not?"
"I don't like sharing my things."
"I thought you were Envy, not Greed."
"Don't compare me to him," Envy snarled, shoving her against the generator; it was warm against her back and vibrated slightly, but she winced at the grip Envy had on her shoulders. "If you go off and live on your own and hook up with some pathetic human, I'm the one who'll have to keep an eye on you to make sure you don't leak information, and I'm not watching some rat put his hands all over you."
"Why not?" Denise retorted. "It's my life, so if I'm not working for you why should I listen to you?"
"Because you belong to me!"
"Prove it!"
For a moment the fury in Envy's face escalated, but then it abruptly broke into a grin. Denise hesitated, confused, as he drew closer. It wasn't until she realized his intention that she stopped reciting that eternal number in her head for the first time in her life.
This time he got the reaction he wanted. Denise's eyes widened as Envy covered her mouth with his own, drawing out a muffled cry and then a whimper, and her initial struggles diminished in the confines of his arms until he was holding a soft and compliant figure to his chest. His fingers tangled in her hair, pressing her to him before their lips parted with a breathy gasp. Denise spoke first, her head nestled wearily in the crook of his neck.
"I think," she breathed, "you made your point."
"I always get my way," was the smug response. Denise couldn't help but smile, shaking her head.
3.1415926535897…
It went on forever, ever-changing but eternal. She couldn't know all of it; she was only human. But there on the roof, enfolded in Envy's arms, Denise felt that thirteen digits and one kiss were enough to give her a taste of perpetuity.
This brings me back to my first fanfiction, My Love Is a Sin (EnvyOC). It's on Quizilla. I don't know about posting it here because it's kind of lousy now that I look back at it... ^^; I may edit it and post, but I'm not so sure right now.
Anyway, I hope you liked it. Excuse the mathematical terms, I got this idea in math class.