This one is a little disjointed but I really really like it. Mostly because oh my god, Greed so would.

TW: depression/self-confidence/self-esteem issues, some casual ableism, death reference/mention, alcohol, PDA

4. Human

The lights were still on in the house, and Envy could hear their voices rising, falling, laughing. He wasn't jealous. Of course not. He preferred it out here, in the darkness.

He sighed and leaned his head against the tree-trunk, kneading his feet against the grass. Yeah. Out in the darkness. All alone. If Pride had been here, he would have laughed at his self-pity. Lust might have comforted him, kept him company. Gluttony... would have complained about being hungry. He'd barely known Wrath though, and Greed was the last person he wanted to think about.

The firelight flickered and danced through the windows, and Envy closed his eyes. He was alone now. It shouldn't have bothered him – he could have died, so easily, so quickly – but the moment of mercy rankled even more coming from the pipsqueak. And for what? He wasn't human. He'd had a purpose and now that purpose was gone and now what was he supposed to do?

Greed had adapted. He and the prince had come to terms with each other, it seemed, and Greed always found a way to adjust. It was just his way. He could always find a niche to slide into, make himself needed. Greed had said that about humans, once, too – always found a way to make it work, to make a situation livable. Always a work-around.

Something creaked. Envy ignored it, eyes still stubbornly closed.

"Oi."

He opened one eye. Greed (with that prince's stupid smirk on his face; Envy hated his new face) was bending over him. "Fuck off."

"Still as charming as ever, I see." Greed collapsed on the ground next to him, handing him a beer. Envy pushed it away. "Nice out, innit?"

"What do you want?"

Greed raised an eyebrow, and took another sip from the bottle. "Was just checking on you. Ya don't need to get snippy."

"I don't need your pity," Envy snapped. He regretted it almost immediately. It revealed too much about his misery. Now Greed would sneer at him, maybe laugh -

Instead, Greed lay back, long black hair curling behind him on the grassy knoll. "Check it out."

"What are you doing?"

"Oi, shut up and look," Greed growled, grabbing Envy's shoulder and pulling him backwards, chuckling at his yelp. "Up," he added, pointing with his other hand.

Envy did so. The night sky was full of wispy, half-formed clouds, stars sparkling through them as the wind shifted and changed. "I'm looking. Is this one of your stupid pranks? Cause those were old last century. I -"

He cut himself off as a pair of lips pressed against his cheek. A moment later, Greed pulled away, wrapping an arm over Envy's shoulders and leaning his head into the crook of his neck. "Yes," he murmured in reply, and Envy could feel him grinning. He tried desperately to stay angry, but he wasn't sure it was going to work.

"...What do we do now?" he found himself asking. We. As if. But it had sounded so natural, almost as if it could still be true.

Greed didn't correct him, or move away. Instead, he pointed back up at the sky. "See that moon?"

"Somehow I never saw you as a stargazer."

"What else have I ever done?" he replied airily. "Besides, you know what Edward says?"

Edward again. Of course. It was the easiest thing in the world, to forget you'd been replaced.

"He says that's a chunk of rock."

"A what?"

Greed was grinning like a madman now, the moon reflected in his eyes. "Gigantic chunk of rock, floating out in space."

Envy rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure he was bullshitting you, Greed -"

"You've...you've met him, right?"

"...True." Envy sat up, looking down at Greed. "So what, you're telling me you want to figure out how to get to a godforsaken piece of rock that's literally in the middle of nowhere?"

Greed shrugged. "Why not?"

"...Humanity really is contagious."

Greed moved his eyes from the moon over to Envy, eyes still sparkling. "Come on, tell me it doesn't sound kind of fun. Besides -" he groaned as he sat up, wrapping an arm around Envy's waist. "You have to come. Imagine, a whole world, all to ourselves. The trouble we could get into."

"Trouble usually requires other people," he said dryly.

"So we'll bring some! But they have to live on the other side. I don't know. We'll figure it out as we go."

"If this is what you're like trying to live on your own, I have no idea how it took us so long to find you."

But Greed either didn't notice or didn't care about the comment on his skills. He was dreaming again, staring up at the sky. Envy glanced up at the sky again – and maybe it was the same capricious instinct that had gotten him wrapped up with Greed in the first place, but he suddenly felt a little bubble of joy in his chest.

"Oh, alright. But we're naming it after me, got it?"

"I think it already has a name, En."

"So we'll rename it." He grinned, feeling Greed's smile reflected on his own face – and suddenly the loneliness was back, all the stronger for his moment of respite.

"En?" Greed sounded concerned – of course he did, he'd never seen Envy like this before, because when Envy was upset he lashed out, but this time what could he lash out at? He wanted to hit Greed, make him stop, but then he'd leave and Envy couldn't bear that, not again, not this time -

He buried his face in Greed's chest, trying not to think about how pathetic he looked as his fingers dug into the soft silk of his shirt. It wasn't the same as the leather – it slid through his fingers too easily. "I don't want your pity," he choked out for the second time that night, gathering his voice as much as he could. "I don't want your mercy, or – or – or to be coddled, cause you don't know what else to do with me, or – or -"

He wasn't going to cry. He wasn't. He wasn't. Crying was for humans.

(-but down in the tunnels, small and helpless, he'd cried. And Greed hadn't been there. Only mercy had spared him – spared both of them.)

"En, I -"

"Just – promise me," Envy hissed, feeling the tears trace lines down his face like they were acid. "Promise me you mean it."

"I promise."

"Say it."

"I promise you, I mean it. I left you behind twice – I'm not doing it a third time, cause this time I don't have to." The unspoken words were still there, but Envy figured neither of them were quite ready to say them out loud yet.

Envy's fingers relaxed, flattening on Greed's chest. "Good," he murmured. The knot was still there in his throat, but he could feel it starting to dissolve. The tears kept rolling, kept falling – but Greed didn't say anything more, stroking Envy's hair with a tenderness he'd learned somewhere along the way. Envy wondered what he'd seen out there, who he'd met, what he'd done. Out in the world, away from Father, away from their siblings.

"So..." Envy said quietly. "How do we get to the moon?" Such an absurd statement. He loved it. After all, what could be more absurd than two inhuman beasts staring up at the sky and daydreaming? Almost as absurd as two beasts forgiving each other over and over again. Almost as absurd as a reptile wearing a human skin.

"Oh, we start small."

"You just said that."

"I know, isn't it weird? I figure a little patience goes a long way towards getting me what I want."

"So where do we start?"

"Well..." Greed disentangled himself from Envy, taking Envy's hand in his as he stood up. "Before we do anything else -" He nodded his head towards the house, still lit up and resonating with voices and music. "- We go inside and listen to Edward drunkenly rant about space and astronomy and physics and take in as much as we can before he catches on and demands credit."

Envy was on his feet before that sunk in. "Wait, the pipsqueak's drunk?"

"It was an accident. I figured with the amount of punishment he can take, he'd have a high tolerance as well!"

"Greed, he's maybe five feet."

Greed chuckled sheepishly. "Ling told me it was a good idea. That should have been a warning from the start."

"Oh fuck. I'm going to have to deal with that chirpy little jackass the whole time?"

"We're...working on it." Greed slung an arm around Envy's shoulders, still grinning like a maniac. "Work in progress. How does that sound?" He wasn't talking about Ling anymore.

Envy smiled. "Sounds about right."

Works in progress.

That he could live with.