A/N: It has been deemed worthy. In case you care at all, I'm getting all these names off some map of Amestris I found online. I'm not that creative don't worry.
A few days passed with the sin stalking the two brothers. Ed never asked when he'd fuck off and give the blond his watch back, not wanting to spark a smartass remark from the homunculus.
One day, the trio was chilling at a nice café in Erhejafnu, relaxing over some nice hot chocolate, when Ed started to listen in on some other people's conversation. Not eavesdropping. Listening in.
"Hey, have you heard about the city a little bit nearby South City? Errmuh-something?"
"Ermutixso? Yeah, I've heard. Some gang took over, right?"
"Apparently they've even converted children to join! The whole place is some shooting shitstorm!"
"I've heard rumors that Ishbalans are the ones in charge."
"Damn… they're never gonna give us a break are they? First, they rebel against us, and now this?"
Ed tuned out the conversation after that. He stood up slightly angrily, slammed some money on the table, and growled out, "We're going to Ermutixso."
Al didn't complain. His brother was ticked off at the situation, and wasn't about to let those people become terrorists without a fight. Envy, however, was just about to go off on the beansprout.
Dammit, these brats are getting themselves into a dangerous situation. They better not fuck up our plans by dying on me.
The city of Ermutixso looked like a barren wasteland. Envy could very obviously tell that there had been a lot of gun violence in the town. Basically every building was riddled with bullet holes, and he even heard a few shots every so often.
Envy took notice in how much caution Ed was taking. More accurately, the complete lack of caution. That fucking midget is going to get himself killed. I will not allow that.
"Shrimp, why the hell did you even want to come here? Is your hero complex that bad?" Envy growled out.
"Oh, sir homunculus, are you concerned for me? I never thought you were capable of that!" Ed said sarcastically.
"Concern? Don't put me on the same level as those pitiful human emotions, Fullmetal Pipsqueak."
"ARE YOU CAL-"
"Brother, I think something's wrong!" Al interrupted suddenly. Instinctively, Ed transmuted his automail arm into a blade and pressed his back against Al's.
Envy glanced around, and cursed under his breath. He was too busy getting riled up over the situation that he failed to notice that they were fucking surrounded. The gang members began showing themselves, and shit didn't look too good.
One man, who Envy assumed to be the leader, spoke up. "Now, what do outsiders have any business doing here?"
"We just wanted to check out the situation! I'm a State Alchemist, and I want to make this area safer for you!" Ed yelled out, not taking his eyes off the excess of armed people in front of him.
Fucking idiot. Envy thought. Just put it out there that you're part of the military, which basically everyone hates. I should have fucking locked you up when I had the chance.
"Oh, so it seems you want to stop this thriving town? What a great guy! Well, now that you've seen this, we can't very well let you get out."
In sync, the gang members cocked their guns, and advanced on the trio.
Envy had just enough time to get in front of Ed before the shooting began.
Ed, being mostly a melee fighter without his alchemy, was essentially helpless against so many guns. Al was a fucking suit of armor, so he didn't have much of a chance of getting harmed. Envy growled in irritation as his body was pumped full of bullets.
The alchemist seemed to be frozen once everyone started shooting. He felt completely and utterly helpless, and it didn't register to him that he could use fucking alchemy. All he could tell was that Envy was on him in an instant, protecting him.
After a while, the shooting stopped. Envy began regenerating himself as the gang reloaded their weapons. Tin can is basically invincible against bullets… Envy thought before picking up Ed and dumping him inside of Al.
"What the hell are you doing, Envy?!" Ed cried out.
"Stay put you fucking stupid ass fucking shorty!" Envy yelled out, and the shooting began again.
Many people were taken aback that Envy wasn't dying immediately from all the bullets. The homunculus was advancing on the crowd, a look of pure rage on his face.
Once the sin reached part of the circle of people, he changed his arm into a blade, and the massacre began.
No one in the gang stood a chance against Envy. The enraged homunculus could vaguely hear Ed and Al yelling at him to calm the fuck down, but he couldn't care less. These fucking guys were trying to fuck with his fucking plan by fucking shooting at Father's fucking sacrifices.
After every last member in the ring was killed, Envy stalked up to Ed and Al. He dragged Ed's shocked body out of all and gave one simple command: "Move". Ed was so shaken that he only dumbly nodded along and moved. Al's body was mildly dented from taking so many bullets, but he was mostly alright.
Until one more shot rang out.
Envy and Ed turned around in shock to see a child, who couldn't have been older than 8, holding a shotgun. The bullet was fast enough to pierce through Al's armor. And that little kid got a lucky ass shot.
Envy's eyes widened as Al collapsed to the ground. The kid had managed to not only get through the armor in the first place, but graze Al's seal. His rage was sparked again, and he stomped up to the child, brutally murdering her. A mere human child of all things just killed one of the sacrifices?!
Ed was still standing in shock after what happened. Al couldn't have died… could he? He was trembling at the idea. There was no way that could happen! Their journey wasn't over yet!
The alchemist was taken out of his trance by a slap from Envy.
"You fucking moron! Try to fix his armor! The bullet barely hit his seal, he could still fucking live!"
Ed scrambled to obey Envy, praying to a God that he didn't even believe in for this to work. Envy was doing a similar thing, but for a very different reason. Goddammit, I may actually die if that fucking tin can isn't revived!
After what felt like an hour of attempted transmutation and praying, Ed slumped to the ground. "It's no use," the alchemist said, almost inaudibly. He rested his head against the cool metal of what used to be Al, shaking.
"Then get the fuck up. There may be more of them here, and there's no use in you dying too." Envy said emotionlessly. Ed glanced up, and the look on his face made Envy feel something… an emotion that was completely foreign to him.
Concern? Pity? Empathy? No fucking way. A homunculus such as Envy could never stoop so low as to feel those weak human emotions. But… some of his anger dissipated… which meant something, right?
"We need to go." Envy said, quietly. Ed didn't react to the uncharacteristic tone of the homunculus. In fact, he reacted to nothing. He sat next to Al, expressionlessly.
Envy's hard violet eyes softened and he walked up to Ed. He tried waving his hand in front of Ed's eyes and slapping him gently. After getting no response, he bent down and picked up the small blond bridal style.
"No. Let me stay with Al." Ed murmured as Envy began walking away.
Looking down at the teen, almost surprised that he spoke, Envy said softly, "That's not your brother anymore; it's just an empty suit of armor."
Ed started shaking once again, and covered his eyes with his arm. The sin could very obviously tell that the alchemist was crying. Normally he would have taken glee in that fact: seeing his blond enemy broken. But now he just felt… empty.
"Give him back…" Ed whispered shakily. Envy didn't respond. He genuinely had no idea what to say.
As the duo was moving out of the town, several more shots rang out. The only evidence any more damage was done was when Envy felt the thick liquid of blood on his hands. The alchemist didn't respond to the shot at all. Cursing, the sin began to run out of the city, managing to protect Ed from any more harm.
Thus, the homunculus continued to run until they reached the next city over: Fius.
A/N: Oh god don't flame me. I didn't want anyone to interrupt Ed and Envy's future sexy time... And since Al doesn't ever really leave Ed, this is the best way I thought of. Also, it's more fun to just have interactions with Ed and Envy and not have Al third wheeling. So yeah. My excuses.
