Disclamer: Same old same old...Mocking of Elricest...(Ugh, I hate that paring..)

Thanks To: My readers, and the people who kept with my lazy butt for so long..

A/N: DUHN DUNH DUHH!! An update! -gasp- Yeah, I know what your thinking: "Took ya long enough!" I don't really have a good escuse for my long absence...Just, that I got Rock Band (FINALLY), played Assassin's Creed, have school, ect, ect. :

Reviews are welcome! And so are suggestions!

P.S.: this chapter doesn't have a song in the begining! -gaspy-

Vulnerable

Chapter Two

A week went by.

It was raining again today, and for some unknown reason, Envy found himself back at the elder Elric's house. Currently, they were both in the bedroom again; Envy with his back to the window, laying on the Elric's bed, and Edward at his desk, working on a paper.

All was quiet except for the rumbling of thunder in the background, and whenever Ed sighed in frustration and cumpled up a paper.

Many times, he would pause in his work and try to start a conversation with the Sin, but after several failed attempts, he gave up; the paper was due tomorrow, anyhow, and it was already getting late in the night.

After a half-hour of silence, Edward finally got up from his desk and left the room.

Envy, suddenly feeling intimidated by the empty room, got up a few minutes after and followed. He found the young man in the kitchen, cooking something on the stove. Violet eyes watched the dark water curiously as Edward took the small pot off the stove and poured whatever was in it into two mugs. One was handed to him, and he eyed the Elric.

Edward frowned at the homunculus's reaction, but took a ship of his own. "It's called hot chocolate," he mumbled, and gave a small smile. "...If I remember correctly, you do like chocolate, right?"

"Chocolate moose..," the other muttered back, hesitantly taking a sip of it. It was hot, but not too hot, and creamy. 'Must've added milk to mine..' he thought, remembering the other's lack of enjoyment to the pure-white drink. After another sip, Envy found that he enjoyed it, but he wasn't going to admit it.

With a quiet chuckle, Edward left the kitchen. He headed down the hall, and back to his room with his mug still in hand.

The Sin stood there a moment, staring after him with a scowl on his lips. Lazily, his gaze traveled across the small room used as the kitchen, and dinning room. There wasn't much: a small, wooden table with two chairs, a sink, and the usual cooking utilities. The kitchen, and much of the house, was built for two people.

Yet, before he arrived, Edward was living alone, and for some time, at that.

Thunder growled loudly at him through the walls, and Envy made his way back to the Elric's room. He closed the door slowly behind him. Without even looking at the human, the homunculus could tell he was smiling softy up at him. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Envy sat down on the bed. "Where is your brother?"

The question was simple, and his tone was not of the caring, but his voice was quiet.

The smile on the Elric's lips faded quickly. "Alphonse is at school...a city over..."

There was an awkward silence, and Envy shifted on the bed uncomfortably as he took another gulp of the warm coco. "...Does he visit?"

Edward shrugged from his spot at his desk, mixing the drink slowly with a spoon. "...On weekends, when he can...And whenever they get off for holiday vacation." Golden eyes shifted their view to the homunculus. "...On occasion, I do get lonely, if that is the direction you are heading in."

On occasion was not even half of it. Envy knew that. Of all the years he knew the Elrics, stalked them in the shadows, there was never a moment in which they were truly separated. And that look the older shot the younger from time to time. They love they had together was one the Sin had never seen before and knew that it was definitely not healthy. Envy wouldn't be surprised if they managed to have some Elric-mind-communication thing going on, or if they jerked off to each other when the other wasn't looking.

'Yeah, they both seem like that type.'

Envy felt the corners of his mouth hitch into a smirk as he watched Edward get up to take their empty mugs away. 'Twerp probably cries himself to sleep, missing his cat-shitting brother,' he thought, snickering quietly to himself.

"Oh Nii-san! Aah!--harder!" Envy mocked out loud, cackling in the moment with evil laughter as he fell back onto Edward's bed. The laughter died suddenly, being replaced by a scowl as thunder shook the room.

Rain heavily pounded on the roof, and lightening brightened the room every few minutes, casting shadows over the dimly lit room. Envy lifted his hand in attempt to gasp something invisible in front of him, but failed. With a tried sigh, he examined his outstretched arm.

'Still looks the same...' he thought to himself, and closed his eyes as he brought down his arm. The Sin only had a certain amount of time left, in which he would then begin to feel more; the coldness of the night air, he would bleed true blood, and worst of all, emotions.

Envy wanted to gag.

That was the last thing he wanted. He would be able to stand the chilly air, but having emotions meant to feel pain mentally. To need the company of someone else. And with Edward being the only being that he knew in this world, he would get attached to the bastard.

The door creaked open, signaling Edward's return, and Envy automatically rolled over, turning his back to the ex-alchemist. He felt the other's eyes on his back, but ignored him. If Ed had something to say to him, - maybe about what the Sin had been joking about earlier - he had a mouth.

Or maybe he came to kick the Sin out. After all, Envy was laying on Edward's bed, and using all of his junk, as well as eating his food whenever he wanted to. 'I'd like to see him make me leave.'

After a stretched silence, Edward moved quietly to his closet, where he took out a spare pillow and blankets. After closing the door, he looked back over at Envy, who he deemed to be sleeping.

"If you are still up, Envy, you are welcome to stay here tonight. I'll go sleep on the couch in the living room, so you can have my bed to sleep on," he said quietly, his voice whispered as he walked back over to the door. "Goodnight, Envy."

Envy opened his eyes seconds after Edward left the room, a scrawl on his pale lips. Pushing himself up, he stared at the door. The sound of the ex-alchemist's uneven footsteps grew fainter as he neared the living room, and Envy's cat-like eyes narrowed.

Who did Edward think he was? Was he really going to allow an enemy -- one that killed a potential father-figure, as well as said alchemist once before -- to sleep on his bed, while he sleeps in the other room, totally vulnerable? For all Ed knew, Envy could walk right out of this room, stop by the kitchen for a nice, beautiful knife, and kill the Elric once again.

Did Edward even care, for that matter? With the way he's been acting lately, Edward would probably be the one apologizing if Envy had killed him. And now that he had willingly taken the couch, he must've known that the Sin wouldn't be able to sleep knowing that Ed was resting on an - most likely - uncomfortable couch.

With a small grunt, he threw the covers off him and got out of bed.

--

"Letting the enemy sleep in your bed, in your house, while you offer to take the couch," Envy mumbled quietly as he towered over the sleeping Edward. Much to his displeasure, the fact that the human had taken sleep on the couch willingly had left the Sin feeling guilty, and he didn't like that one bit. "You've gotten soft, pipsqeak."

A thin eyebrow raised as the Elric mumbled something about 'not being short' in his sleep. Even in sleep, the young man was aware; Envy made a mental note of that.

Warily, he glanced behind him, down the hallway that lead to Edward's room, debating what he had planned to do. A roar of thunder shook the small department a beat later, as if to tell the Sin to hurry, and Envy rolled his eyes; both at himself, and at the rain that pounded the windows.

Silently, he reached over the sleeping Ed, and lifted him up bridal style, before making his way back to the Elric's room.