I hope your ok with having to have waited so long for a chapter. But here it is. Enjoy.
I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of the characters.
Ed stumbled out of the classroom, rubbing his sore and probably bruised back. Envy was quick to be at his side, making sure to help him if he lost his balance.
"Man...that was horrible, "Ed muttered, Izumi had been so mad when he arrived, he was only a minute late but late nonetheless.
Envy nodded, "No offence is meant, but she kicked your but," He said.
Ed looked at him and noticed a faint gleam of amuesment in his eyes as he said that, and grinned, "Yeah," he agreed, "She's a way better fighter then me, probably the best in the castle," He added laughing but then stumbled forward a little but regained his balance quickly.
The homunculus glanced away from him and then took a respectful few steps behind Ed when the prince recovered from his lessons, "What do you wish for me to do now?" He asked him as they walked, "I can stay with you, or if you want you can send me to your brother."
Ed tilted his head to the side as he thought, "Why don't we go walk around the town," He offered, "It's a beautiful day out."
Envy nodded, "If that is what you want," he said, nodding his head in agreement.
Edward just started walking, "I got to go tell a guard so the castle knows where we're going," He said as he began walking, and soon enough they ran into a guard, Roy to be exact.
The guard smiled at Ed, "Hello, Ed," He greeted then glanced at Envy, the friendly look changing into a cold expression, "Homunculus," He said with a nod of the head.
Envy bowed his head, a show of respect and recognition towards Roy for his 'superior' class comapred to Envy.
"Hey, Mustang, i'm going out into town and am dragging Envy with me," Ed stated, "Make sure you let the others know and tell Al," he said.
Roy raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure it's safe, I mean your going with a homunculus," he pointed out.
"I'm probably safer with Envy then if I were alone," Ed stated, unaware of the slightly defensive tone he took.
The guard captain's face showed that he wasn't pleased with it but nodded, "Fine," He said.
Ed grinned and began walking again, "Come on, Envy!" He said as he began running down the halls.
He was right when he said it was beautiful out, the sky was clear, the birds were chirping and the weather was warm but not to the point it was hot. It had a bit of a relaxing affect on the two.
"You were right," Envy said, "It is a beautiful day."
Ed grinned, "Yeah, well I'm always right," He said as they walked, while they were walking, Ed thought about going to the Market Square. He wasn't sure how often Envy had been in this town, after all he had learned that his former master was from one of the other cities, Dublith. It was possible Envy had never been to the heart of Amestris before.
As they neared the Market Square, Ed saw the smoke coming from it. It wasn't the type of smoke coming from stoves and ovens, it was from a large fire.
"What's going on?" Ed muttered as he began running to the Market, fearing that there was a large fire. Envy was following him, hot on his heels. But the sight that met them when they reached it filled Ed with disgust.
There was a large group of people, yelling and cheering, surrounding a controlled fire. the fire was made up of several large branches making a large bonfire. There was also a large wooden post driven into the ground. Nailed to the post was a Homunculus slave, screaming in agony as the fires repeatedly burned him to death, but his healing factor kept brining him back only to go through the pain of being burned alive.
Ed clenched his fist. He was a prince, but he wasn't able to do anything about this because the homunculus was a slave, property. People were allowed to do whatever they wanted to with their property and the kingdom couldn't tell them otherwise or else they would violate the citizens rights of free will.
He glanced at Envy, expecting to see the homunculus' face filled with rage, but it was an empty mask, hiding his silent fury.
Ed wanted to turn around and leave but he was rooted in place, watching the mob cheer as the homunculus died, wondering what he did to anger his owners enough to kill him, or if they were just killing the slave for the sake of entertainment?
The death took to long and Ed wished that the homunculus could have just died quickly, be spared from the pain he was forced to go through. But when it was done, Ed turned around and began stalking off, angry and disgusted at the people of his kingdom.
When they reached a secluded spot, Ed turned to Envy.
"Why weren't you angry?" He demanded.
Envy stared evenly at Ed, "A homunculus is the property of a human, as property, a human is allowed to do what they want to their property. Being killed is not an exception to this rule, so all homunculi must accept the fact that their owners may kill them someday for any number of reasons," He said and it sounded as though he was reciting something he heard or read or was taught.
Ed growled, "It's just, he was a homunculus, and you act as though it didn't matter," He said.
"Do you wish to know how I personally feel about this?" Envy asked Ed.
He nodded his head, "Yes I do! I don't want to hear what you think about things just because you think that is what you have to think. I want to know what you actually feel about things," Ed stated, his tone saying it was an order.
Envy paused for a second, before finally speaking.
"It pisses me off," He said, catching Ed's attention, "To see what you pathetic humans do to my Brothers and Sisters of Flesh," He continued, using the old term that Homunculi called their race. Every Homunculus considered the rest of their kind as their brothers and sisters by species, which they improvised for 'Flesh'.
The homunculus continued, "You humans would be weak and useless if you didn't have homunculi. This kingdom wouldn't be as big as it was if you hadn't forced my bretheren into your wars," he said, his mask breaking into a face of disgust and rage, his voice taking on the same tone, "It's because of you that my species is growing smaller and smaller in numbers. You kill more of us off then we give birth, for ever baby that is born, three homunculi are killed."
Ed looked down, everything Envy said was true, the homunculi were such a small and rare species becaues humans forced them into wars where they got killed. They also used a type of alchemy to force them to fight, where if they refused to do as they were told, the alchemist in charge killed them.
"You wanted me to tell you what I felt about all this, and now you know," Envy said and glared down at Ed, "Do you regret asking for my opinion?"
The prince thought for a second on this, before giving Envy a solid stare, "No," He said.
Ed wasn't sure, but he was certain he saw a glint of respect in Envys eyes. As though he had gained the homunculus aproval.
Deciing that it was time to display some authortiy, Ed smirked at him, "But, I do have an order for you," He said, and watched as Envys face returned to the emotionless mask, "I want you to act like yourself. Don't try to be void of emotions and how you are acting right now. I want you to be yourself."
Surprise filled Envys face before he smirked, "Are you sure you can handle that?" He asked, a mocking tone in his voice, "My old master said I could be quite a sarcastic bitch," he warned.
Ed gave Envy a smirk of his own, already liking this new attitude of his, "I'm sure I can deal with you," he said, "I already have to deal with Hohenheim and Mustang, you can't be worse then them," He joked and Envys grin grew.
I want to be honest. I was thinking of some things that the homunculi could call the rest of their species. I know that a lot of the terms you are more familiar with in these things, but there often over used. So I thought why not just use 'Brother/Sister of the Flesh'. Because they won't all be related by blood, but there the same species, so it would make more sense to have it 'of the Flesh'.
Don't question my logic, it can be very illogical at times.
Also, I'm not going to create any Homunculus OC's. Any unnamed homunculus will just be a random unnamed one that doesn't matter a lot. I'll only use Homunculi from the series in this. So don't worry about OC's.