Review of Last Chapter: Envy felt Ed's breath feather over his ear. His heart—did he have one?—beat alarmingly loud. The sin waited, unaware that he held his breath until Ed spoke so softly. "It's simple, really, Envy. It's called Love."

Disclamier: Yes, I do own FMA. Now let me go back to my little padded white room in the assylumsoI cantell more lies all day long...

Pairing: EdxEnvy. This is boys. Kissing and touching other boys. If you can't handle it, please shoo.

Warnings: Shonen-ai, and some violence. A wee bit of blood.

Envy's mind was quick, but the words of the alchemist had caught him unaware. He had been unprepared for this kind of assault. So he was standing stock still, his muscles frozen—but not from the cold, he reminded himself, he didn't feel anything—as the blond alchemist leaned so close. The other boy's lips rasped gently over Envy's ear as he spoke. "Not the best weakness to have, is it?" Ed said slowly.

Viciously ripped out of his paralysis, Envy pushed the shorter boy away from him as he stumbled back, trying to regain balance of his body and mind. "I don't have a weakness!" he barked out, when he was sure that his voice would not have a hitch in it, and his heart was back to normal. "Except for letting you live too long!" he tensed his muscles, sinews straining, as he prepared to attack while the alchemist was off guard. Ed's eyes were hidden by his damp golden bangs, but Envy leaped high in the air, spinning as he did so, intending to pound the brat into the ground.

Swiftly, Ed threw off his red cloak, the clasp coming apart easily in his metal hand as he let the muddy and rain sodden article fall to the ground. Then glancing up and judging the sin's trajectory, he ducked and spun left. Envy whirled harmlessly past from the initial dodge, but skidded to a halt and recovered, switching backwards to aim a kick at Ed's unprotected side.

The alchemist folded his lithe body down so that the bone shattering kick landed on his metal covered shoulder, then reached to grasp Envy's ankle and calf, and wrenching the sin to throw him to the ground. This was the kind of fighting the homunculus had waited for! Envy brought his other leg down, slamming it in a move no human could do, while Ed still had his other leg trapped; to connect solidly with the blonde's other collarbone. Ed hissed in pain, and fell to one knee, his metal hand still biting into Envy's calf and holding the sin tight. The alchemist looked up, his gold eyes capturing the other's.

"You're right though," Ed said with a grin that was edged with the sting of pain. Envy was suddenly very aware of their position. The sin's leg was up and over the kneeling alchemist's shoulder, as Ed's hands held Envy's bare calf with cold metal fingers. "Love isn't a weakness at all, is it?"

"Let go of me, you bastard!" for a command, Envy's words sounded vaguely like a plea. He tried to wrench his leg away from the boy, but Ed just clasped his other hand around the sin's ankle; securing him in their present position.

Momentarily stunned by the contact of Ed's warm fingers on his flesh, Envy was almost unprepared for when the alchemist allowed himself to fall backwards, still grinning. Expertly, Ed flung out his leg to catch Envy behind the knee and knock the sin forward while releasing his own auto-mail grip on his captive's leg. With a gentle thud, Ed's back connected with the ground, as a wide-eyed Envy flung his hands out forward to stop his face slamming into the wet dirt below.

Envy was now straddling the alchemist as he had done before, but this time there was no denying the contact that their two bodies were making. Perhaps for the first time that he could remember, Envy wished briefly he wore more clothes, as the waistband of Ed's black pants rubbed against the sin's naked upper thigh. He also noticed—why wasn't the shorty moving?—that Ed was only wearing a black tank top that revealed the boy's one flesh and one metal shoulder.

How I hate that body! Envy thought suddenly, yanking his one arm back, using the other for balance as he slammed a fist into Ed's jaw. I hate it! Ed had slowly turned his face back to face Envy's wild look. Though his cheek was even now beginning to swell from the blow, his grin never wavered from his golden eyes. I hate him! Another punch, and Ed made no move to block, though it was well within his power. Don't you understand! ?A small trickle of blood made its way down from the split corner of the alchemist's lip. "I hate you!" Envy roared, bringing his hand up again, willing himself to smash the smile off of the boy's face, to make this deformed, disgraced abomination understand.

"You know that isn't true, Envy." And suddenly Ed's hand was reaching up, and whatever the sin had been expecting, it wasn't that the blond boy would thread his one real hand into his black and green hair and tug gently, forcing Envy's face closer. "You can't hate me, you aren't human. Wrath can hate me. But not you; you can just envy me. Isn't that how it works?" why was the alchemist's voice so loud? Was it because the rain had stopped, or was it that the world itself had ground to a halt?

"Me, envious of…you?" the sin choked out, almost unaware that his fist that had been cocked back and ready to strike, was falling gently to brace the ground beside Ed's head. "Of you, Chibi?" he put as much scorn as he could in the word as he looked into the golden eyes so unlike his own. "You say I'm not human, look at your scrap body!" his laugh was bitter, almost hysterical. "How could I want to be you? How could I—"

"But you do." Ed hissed, yanking a bit harder on Envy's hair, his flesh fingers sliding to hold the damp tresses with a tighter grip and pulling him down so that the sin could just barely make his eyes focus on the smaller boy's face below. "It's all you can do, apart from killing. You have to look at me with all my flaws, my disgusting metal limbs, my imperfections, and you have to accept that you would give anything just to be me." The alchemist's voice was strong.

"You…" Envy's body began to shake, and he ground his teeth, his voice nothing short of a low growl. "You sad, pathetic piece of—"

Ed continued almost conversationally, though a small part of his logical brain warned him that it was just a matter of time before Envy snapped… "Isn't that what you want, though? You—with your wonderful, complete body with so much power—want to become human. A weak, foolish, sad, pathetic human being. You would give up your power to change forms, your multiple lives, your strength and speed, just so you could be like me."

Envy's breath hissed out between his teeth as if he had just received a heavy blow. His wide eyes stared down at the blond boy, though he did not really see Ed anymore. "No…" he said but the anger was gone. Everything was gone out of him, and he wondered if it was Ed's hand on the back of his head and neck that kept him upright at all. "That's not right…"

"That's why the homunculi want the stone." It was not a question, and still Ed's golden eyes burned with fire. "So they can get their souls back and be humans. Even though you know that being human—being like me—is sadness and pain and heartache. You still want it, even if you die the second after you get it. Because even though it would destroy the self you know now as Envy, you want to feel all those things, like faith, hope, justice, prudence, temperance, fortitude; all the things that are forbidden to you." It didn't matter that Envy was shaking his head at every word that Ed was saying.

The alchemist was trying to listen to his logical brain, he truly was. But there were sometimes in a scientist's life when you just had to tell the voice to shut up and be quiet. Edward could feel the cold ground beneath him; he could feel the tiny amount of warmth that spread off Envy's body that rested so close against his own. The sin's bare legs were against his own, as he was being straddled, hip to hip with his enemy. There was a curl of something in the blonde's stomach; something he had not felt very often in his few years being a young man. There was the logical brain again; telling him it was hormones, or pheromones, or something –mones.

But the less logical Ed, the one that surfaced at every short joke, or when things just needed to be done, that Ed told him that the feeling was attraction. He knew he was damned at that moment, for almost against his will, his hand brought Envy close, closer, closer still; until the sin's mouth was scant inches from his own. He let his golden eyes slip shut—there was no need to see any more, and he only hope that if God did exist, He would turn His gaze away as well. "And Envy," Ed's voice was like silk whispering over the sin's parted lips. He felt his enemy's body tense and coil so tight that the alchemist was sure that he had made the other boy snap finally. But Envy didn't move, and Ed continued. "You want to feel love, don't you? You aren't allowed, but you want to feel it, right?"

Envy exhaled a short breath. It could have been a whispered 'yes' or a hurried 'no', but Ed didn't wait for his answer, as he covered the very surprised sin's mouth with his own soft, slightly abused one, feeling the slow delicious curl of attraction linger and dance around the pain his cracked lip was experiencing. He, the Fullmetal Alchemist, was kissing his most dire enemy, and God help him, he was enjoying it.

TBC...?

Notes: Umm, can't really say anything without bringing in spoliers. Just some debate on Envy's character in this chapter. Feel free to leave it in the reviews, and thanks for reading. As always, this is for Torr. Also thanks to the 14 reviewers who inspired me to write this next chapter. There could be another bit to this but it might just be smut...Please tell me what you think.