Roy was standing there, staring disappointed after the retreating homunculus, when the door to Edward's room jerked oddly.
He frowned, wondering if Ed might have thrown something at it to get their attention. Why else would it buck like that? Roy grabbed the doorknob…and it came off. Now the boy had broken something. Broken a metal doorknob.
Roy clapped his hands as the possibility struck him, never gladder to be able to do alchemy without a transmutation circle. He created a new door, forcing his way in the smaller opening, and was faced with what seemed to be an empty room. But that wasn't possible.
A slight gasp made Roy focus on the area obscured by the bed, and he ran over, finding exactly what he had been afraid of.
"Ed!" he half-yelled, prying the hunk of metal away from the boy, away from his ripped, bleeding arm. It was hard; Edward seemed to have been digging it inward, making a hole in his flesh. Once he got it away, Roy put the doorknob piece in his pocket with distaste, kneeling in front of the blonde on the floor. "Ed, what happened? Why…?"
Edward had tears running down his cheeks, and as soon as Roy had taken his makeshift knife away, he had started to sob. "Envy," the boy got out. "I—heard you—talking—and Envy—!" he wailed, unable to complete the thought.
"Shit," Roy whispered. "Ed, that's…"
"He—doesn't even—care enough to hate me!" Edward sobbed, pushing his fingers into the wound now. That was new—Roy pulled his hands away, restraining them in his grip. A fresh rage washed over him. That homunculus and his stupid mouth. Roy could tell that Envy had just been blowing off steam, but obviously Ed had taken his words to heart. He stood up, eyes dark.
"I'm going to go get him." Edward only buried his head in his knees.
It didn't take long to find Envy. He was still roaming the halls, a scowl on his face. The expression deepened, until Roy balled his fist and punched Envy square in his mouth.
"You fucker!" he shouted, pounding the homunculus again and again. "You complete and utter, dick!"
"Ouch—what the hell—ow!" Envy scampered down the hall, glaring back, poised to defend himself now. "The fuck was that for?"
"He heard you!" Roy hissed. "Ed wasn't happy to learn that you didn't give a shit about him."
The homunculus's eyes widened, what might have been genuine concern passing through them. "Dammit."
Roy pulled the bloody doorknob out of his pocket and shoved it in Envy's face, letting the hunk of metal speak for itself. The homunculus's eyes dilated slightly, almost like a reptile's would, and he stepped around Roy, running down the hall.
Roy followed, but stopped once he saw Envy dart inside Edward's room. At least he was facing what he caused, seeing what being such an asshole did.
He'd still have to destroy the bastard later though.
Envy barreled into Ed's room, whipping his head back and forth when he did not immediately see the pipsqueak. Where was he? Then a sob, from the corner.
Skidding the last few feet on his knees, Envy came to a rest in front of a hysterical Edward, who was sitting in a growing puddle of blood and attempting to stifle his sobs by biting on his hands. No, scratch that, who was biting his hands open.
Envy pulled the hand gently from the shrimp's mouth. "Ed, no, Ed, I'm sorry."
Edward looked up and glared at him, golden eyes faltering after only a moment. He hid his face in his knees as the tears continued to stream down. Envy was surprised to hear him let out a low whimper and pull his arm away, only to dig his fingers into his one flesh shin weakly.
Envy sat back slightly. "Ed, you can't keep doing this," he said softly.
He hadn't expected a reaction at all, but the one he received was downright violent. Edward jerked his head up, eyes fiery. He was so energized, manic. "Why the hell should you care? You don't care what I do—" though the sobs had magically disappeared, the pipsqueak couldn't suppress a hiccup. "—you don't have an opinion on me at all, so just let me bleed." Saying this, Ed moved his hands to his arm, where for the first time Envy noticed a large…wound, not a cut so much as a chunk dug out of the flesh, the source of all the blood on the floor. He paled, grabbed not just Edward's hands but his entire body, and pulled the boy onto his lap.
The shrimp fought hard, but he couldn't do much after having lost all that blood.
"Ed, you can't keep cutting. I don't know why you do—okay, I know this time, and I'm sorry—but you can't. I…I know what it's like to hate yourself enough to want to destroy yourself. I hate seeing other people self harm, especially when it's someone as strong as you."
Edward hiccupped again, scoffed, "If it bothers you that much, find some poor soul—" hiccup "—you actually give a shit about and rescue them."
Envy sighed, resting his chin on the blonde hair beneath his head. He felt the pipsqueak stiffen, punch his chest weakly, but he didn't back off. "I was just trying to get Roy off my ass, you know. He's got no right to interrogate me like that, to bring up that kind of shit. I don't want to think about feelings. I shouldn't them, and when I do, it's…weird. I didn't want to deal with it, so I just said something stupid and stormed off."
"So what do you feel about me then? Can you honestly say you give a shit at all?" Ed whispered, voice raw. This question held a certain weight to it, an importance to the shrimp Envy couldn't quite identify.
"Yes," he responded, forcing the word out though everything inside him was screaming that no, he couldn't, he was a homunculus, he needed to go kill someone and murder these weak emotions and get back to being what he should be. "I do. I hate seeing you like this. I miss the strong Edward who would kick my ass. I don't know what's making you do this, but I want it to stop."
To his surprise, the boy started crying. "Do you know how shitty this is?"
Envy sensed Ed was about to say something important, but was having trouble focusing. His words were soft, and it seemed to take a huge amount of energy for the shrimp to speak. He reached up surreptitiously and pressed the call button beside the bed. "How shitty what is?"
"To hate being alone and wanting to be with the person you love, but also to find that you kind of hate that person? To hate yourself more than anything for loving them?"
Envy had no answer, confused, and was still silent when the nurse showed up, shrieking in surprise and automatically calling in some of her colleagues.
He was somewhat numb as they pulled Edward away, his red stained clothes sticking to Envy. Looking down, he saw the blood Ed had left on him, ran his fingers through it and looked at the wet digits sadly. How could this happen? What was the pipsqueak talking about?
Now wasn't the time to ask him. Instead, as the nurses brought in a stretcher and laid Edward out on it, he murmured a more important question: "Ed, do you want me to wait for you here? After I clean up?"
"No." The voice was faint, teetering on the edge of unconsciousness. However, what it lacked in strength it made up for in determination, in sureness.
And for the first time since he had been brought to the hospital to see the shrimp, Edward said it. "Leave."
