"Do you like what you see, shorty?"
Ed's hawk-yellow eyes shot back up to Envy's, defensive and angry. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He demanded, then -- his voice rising wildly, "And who the HELL are you calling short?!"
Winry was impressed by the abbreviated rant -- usually, his explosions left a crater. This time, he was taking a more dignified route.
It was actually kind of freaky...
She didn't have much time to contemplate the thought, because Ed had not waited for a response; he had lunged for the emerald-haired teenager, eyes slit like a raging bird of prey's and fists curled tightly.
She had missed Envy's taunting response: "You're not the first one to be absolutely smitten by me -- And, of course I'm talking aboutyou, pipsqueak!"
--
An otherwise ordinary, crisp cool morning, broken by the sound of falling fists. A large crowd of people was finally attracting the attention of school authorities, who wondered for a moment, and then made their way over swiftly.
Edward, sporting a bruise on his cheek and a lot of dirt on his clothes, took another swing -- missed, and was swatted away with a sharp blow to the stomach. He curled in on himself, his eyes narrowed in determination mingling with pain, but was thrown backwards enough to crash into Envy's pretty black car and set off the alarm.
A feeling of distant satisfaction overtook him.
He looked up blearily, instinctively protecting his abused gut, and ran the back of his hand across his mouth. Envy stood triumphantly over him, dark ropes of hair tossed wildly in every direction.
If Ed was like unto a bird of prey, Envy was like unto... Maybe a very agile, flexible, powerful... Bendy and invincible bird of prey.
As his world went dark, he thought unhappily that he was never able to win.
Winry let out a shriek and finally escaped Lust's hold -- the name of the underdressed woman who had been in the car with Envy, and who had restrained her when she tried to rush to her friend's aid. As she dashed forward, the school's security arrived, and maybe that's why Lust had melted into the murmuring and dispersing audience.
--
He was in a hospital, he could tell.
It had that sick smell that made him dread going to meet Al on those weekly visits. He scrunched up his nose without consciously processing the movement, and tried to move. His body might have screamed if it could speak Japanese. For now, it just sent distressed, strained jolts of severe, stubborn protest to his brain, and he collapsed back against the sick smelling, chemical clean white sheets.
"Don't move too much, Edo." It took him a moment to place the voice -- which, even in a serious moment, managed to sound light, airy, teasing. He bolted upwards, despite his body's mind-numbing objection.
"What are you doing here?" He demanded, horrified to find his voice hoarse, and not so much harsh as just... strained and tired. "Why are you calling me that?" He went by Ed and Edward; nothing else, under any circumstances. Well, except when his brother used to call him "Brother" and his mother used to call him "Sweetheart," or "Baby."
Those were the only exceptions.
Envy -- a slightly fuzzy image with wild green hair and white features, shrugged indelicately.
"We're both suspended from school. Only a week." He shifted, and the sound of swimming ice cubes could be heard. Ed's eyes wandered to the ice pack that Envy clutched to his shoulder. "You pack a strong punch... For a shorty." He chuckled, but it wasn't a malicious sound like Ed might have expected. It was halfway delighted, a little bit curious or affectionate or impressed or intrigued...
Ed flopped backwards, too tired to process all this shit.
"Well, you can leave. I don't want to look at you anymore. What's your name?" He shot out the question, looking at the kid he didn't know with narrowed eyes.
"Envy. It's my real name." He replied, grinning, meeting Edward's intimidating glare with cheeriness. "Would you like my address, and a detailed description of the layout of the place?"
Silky soft teasing. Completely detached, sort of like Envy was speaking with the accent of somebody who spent their life under a Mercury moon, under aquamarine blue clouds and hostile, exotic, rolling purple-black skies and churning oceans. Or maybe like Ed was drowning in his voice, pure fresh salt water pouring down his throat and waking him up in the morning. Shower water turning cool under his tongue.
"Don't call me shorty," he retorted groggily, turning his nose into a nest of summer sunshine locks. He noted absently that somebody had undone his hair. "My name is Edward. But I want you to call me Ed." He pointed out curtly; only people who really like to piss him off, or who were higher and more respectable than him, dared to call him that.
So maybe Envy qualified, but he didn't bother to think about it that way.
"Sure, Edo," An untouchable, confident look was paired with something slightly tender in Envy's purple irises.
--
"Why the fuck are you following me around and pissing me off all the time?" Ed snarled, sparks twirling from the furnace of his eyes. "Go be suspended by yourself."
Envy snorted, not moving from his position where he leaned casually against the red brick wall. He was wearing blue denim today, and a tie-dye t-shirt that was way too baggy... And was thus yanked up high above his belly button and tied into an attention-grabbing, clumsy knot.
"You look more American hippie from the '70s today, than Emo style." Ed added, winking one eye open as he closed his lips around the red straw, and sucked the frigid, smooth beverage into his mouth.
"You've inspired me!" Envy provided immediately, pushing away from the wall and posing with a wild grin. His teeth were stained light blue from the icy confection he was consuming, too.
"Anyway, what fun would that be? It's so much fun to torture my favorite little chibi!" A vein popped above Ed's eye, and he continued to suckle quietly. The paper cup began to perspire, fat droplets of water bubbling up between his fingers.
Still, he restrained his knee-jerk response. It was just plain undignified to go off in such an unrestrained manner in front of a sworn enemy.
"Get the hell away from me," he concluded, standing abruptly (up on the curb instead of the street, to give himself an extra couple of inches), "You almost killed my friend, and then you messed with me."
He turned an intense glare on his nemesis. "Bastard."
Envy laughed it off easily, waving a hand as if to physically brush the tension from the air. Ed watched it swirl away and lift a few stray green leaves off the asphalt to dance before tumbling away into the atmosphere.
"I put you in the hospital." Envy retorted without reserve, looking down at the boy with a sly grin. "You're like a snarling pup who only has milk teeth."
Ed pounced at that, keeping a firm hold on his slush as he swung a first. Envy feigned like a solar wind, and his palm shot forward like a bullet -- striking Ed between the eyes and forcing him to stumble back a step. He giggled.
"I'll fight with you when you don't look like a recently returned war veteran, o'chibi." And with that, he took a deep drink from his outer-space colored drink.
The much shorter boy seemed to think about this for a moment, and then with a huff, spun away and began to depart.
"Where you going?"
"Home."
"Want company?"
"No."
"Aw..."
"How did you know where I was going today, anyway?"
"Coincidence." A wide grin.
Ed spun around to face Envy, cocking his hip without thinking about it and placing a hand there. His cherry red lips looked pouty -- or swollen from kisses, both which turned Envy on. Tan skin was unveiled -- the boy who had not even seen the inside of the school before becoming suspended wore characteristic black leather pants and a dark tank top.
"Don't follow me." He demanded, watching wearily as the wild teen edged towards his motorcycle. (Apparently, he had an extreme fondness for 'pretty' vehicles. And his mother was rich, which, Envy had dutifully and offhandedly reported, "probably wasn't all acquired by legal means. As a matter of fact, she's probably an on-call hooker for the Yakuza. What other kind of woman would name her children after the deadly sins of Christianity?")
It was weird how much he felt that he knew about Envy. This was only the first day of their suspension, and Ed already had an account of all of the other's siblings. (Most of whom he despised and 'admired' -- ENVIED -- to some extent. But he managed to talk about all of them as if they were cherished characters of his favorite comic book, where even the bastardly villains deserved a proper introduction.)
"Don't worry, Edo --" Envy began a dutiful salute --
"And DON'T call me that." There was a threat in his voice, and he waved his half empty Styrofoam cup of melted slush as if to illustrate.
"Until next time!" He finished, his lashes meeting as he flashed a peace sign, then reached up to push his sinfully enormous sunglasses (which had been perched halfway on the ever-present headband and halfway on the ever-voluminous piles of dark emerald twists) over his smoky lavender eyes.
"... Envy!" Ed paused only a moment before calling out fiercely, staring at his own reflection with a hard stare and plush ruby lips.
"Why aren't your parents punishing you for getting suspended?" He demanded -- If he didn't make it a demand, he would feel uncomfortable about trespassing. As it was, he shifted in slightest agitation.
Envy seemed unfazed.
"My parent," the word dropped like milky poison from those frosty blue lips -- Not even the mention of Greed had brought to life that tone, and Envy accentuated it by peeking meaningfully over the edge of his shades, "doesn't give a damn."
Before Envy could turn away feeling like a dramatic, multifaceted and enigmatic and accomplished bastard, Edward called out to the dread-locked student's retreating back:
"My parents aren't around to give a damn!" His voice hardly trembled, and he watched Envy's silhouette against the bright blue afternoon for a reaction. Envy turned his head back to glance over his shoulder, and a thin sliver of unreadable purple could be seen before the reflective black glass chased it away.
Then, all expression was lost to distance as Edward took a jerky step backwards, and Envy hopped leisurely onto his bicycle and zoomed off, but not before bending sensually, placing his cup of thoroughly melted blue slush on the sidewalk, and deliberately forgetting it there to dig around in his pocket for an elusive silver key.
Ed fled to Granny Pinako's house, his footfalls slapping hard against the glue-colored sidewalk.
--
AN: Welcome to Chapter Two! Thanks bunches for the support I've received so far! I won't address you in this note, since I'm aspiring to answer everybody individually from now on...! :D But I REALLY appreciate it! It's good to know that some people are enjoying this small project... :D (Even looking at the number of hits is encouraging, except that this story wasn't good enough to inspire a review or a favorite or an alert... ;o; Maybe I'm oversensitive! After all, I'm writing this for myself! :D I'm enjoying it! This new style is fun for me... :D Is it bad? I'm trying to sound less calculated, perfect, and academic... And more... Simple! :D Which style do you like? )
A small comment on the "Japanese" reference... I know that in FMA, they technically are in a fantasy world similar to a European country... :3 But in this story, I'm going to set it in Japan, and Edward was planning on studying in Europe after high school, because that's where his father went! Originally, it was going to be America because I feel that I should write in a setting I'm familiar with... :3 But Japan makes it feel more exotic and less expected! A little bit of an unnecessary twist, right? XD ... Especially considering their European names... Let's suspend disbelief for this story, huh?!
Please R & R, and have a truly wonderful day! :'D (I've been thinking: Maybe I should stop fantasizing about comic book characters and start living a Real Life! ;o; But I've had small accomplishments every day... So I'll be okay with indulging... It's fun! :D I think I would be fine to die tonight, knowing that I had done some practical things and exercised my imagination a little bit... :D Isn't that what life is about?! ... This is random! xD Please live life to its fullest, AND have a wonderful day!) I'll update soon! :D
