"And then what happened?"

Envy's voice, quiet as it was, broke the spell of silence. Kimblee closed the book, setting it beside him. He got up from his chair, stretching, and stood before the fire. "You'll have to come back tomorrow night to find out," he said, smiling down towards the couch.

The nerve. "There isn't going to be a tomorrow night," said Envy, smugly enunciating into the couch cushion. "You have a job to do, Crimson Lotus. I hope that–"

"I haven't forgotten," Kimblee said lightly. He paced across the narrow apartment, around the coffee table and behind the couch. "I assure you that I won't be able to rest until the job is done."

"Then what do you call this, huh?" Envy gestured vaguely towards the book resting on the chairside table. "'Storytime?'"

"You wanted to be entertained." Kimblee leaned over the back of the couch, smiling fondly. "Or, at least, I thought you did. Perhaps I was mistaken. You might as well leave right now, so that I can get to work–"

"Wait, wait, hold the phone!" Envy flipped onto their back, looking up. "I never said that I didn't want to be entertained. Not much work that you can do at night, anyway."

"My point exactly." Kimblee sat back down, crossing his legs. "Well then. In what way do you want to be entertained?"

Envy scowled up from the pillow. "You know how. Keep reading, Crimson."
"Ah, but I thought that you didn't like this sort of thing," said Kimblee, picking up the dog-eared book. "I thought that human works of art were worthless."

"That was seven years ago," said Envy carelessly. "A lot has changed."

They weren't going to say exactly what had; it was hard them to put a finger on the reason, actually. But Kimblee knew better than to push Envy further– at least, that's what they hoped.

Kimblee only chuckled. "So mysterious," he said. "But it is funny that you would find fairy tales so enjoyable."

Fairy tales… was that what they were?

Lust hadn't said what kinds of stories they were. But she had always known so many…

Those were some of the memories that Envy liked best: when Lust would come home from one of her liaisons, and somehow, she and Envy and Greed and, for those last couple of years, Gluttony too, would all pile together and listen to her stories. Things that she'd read in human libraries… she'd always loved to read…

"Read, now," Envy snapped, flipping back onto their stomach. "I don't see why I have to tell you twice."

"No need to be so harsh." Kimblee raised an eyebrow, but picked up the book nonetheless, leafing through the pages. "There had better be no interruptions, in any case."

It had always been sort of funny, hearing about mermaids and fairies and things in these stories. After all, they were mythical creatures, full of mystery and magic, and Envy was something like that. They'd always listened to Lust's lilting voice with what they imagined was a sort of distance, imagining what it would be like to be a simple-minded human, hearing these stories that were far beyond mortal understanding. They'd listened with a sense of superiority– after all, there was no siren more beautiful than Lust. There was no dreadful end for naughty children that was more terrifying than Pride's shadowy arms choking the life-breath out of you. There was no old hag that was more horrifying than–

"Would you just stop, Greed." It wasn't even a question at this point, just a quiet statement of defeat.

Greed shrugged casually, leaning back against the wall. "Don't try to paint me as the bad guy, kid. I'm just trying to help you. There's lots of ways for you to be a little more–"

"I am well aware that there's things that you don't like about me." Envy drew out the words with a sigh, arms hugging their own body as tightly as possible. "But you don't always have to point them–"

"Guys." Greed and Envy looked up from where they sat on the concrete floor. It was Lust, her skirt swishing gracefully around her legs as she walked towards them. "Do you have to make so much noise?" She sat between them, forcing an end to their quarrel. "I managed to make it to the library again today," she said conversationally, withdrawing a small tome from within her jacket. "If you two will quiet down, I'll consider reading this to you."

They knew how to read, the both of them, but there was really nothing like hearing Lust's quiet, smooth voice reading those pages. Envy looked questioningly towards Greed– they had no desire to continue the fight anyway. Greed's eyes were unreadable for one moment, and then he shrugged. "Well, why not? But it had better be a new one."

It was quiet for one moment, as Lust opened the book. "All in the golden afternoon," she began softly, turning the delicate pages, "Full leisurely we glide…"

As she continued, Envy slowly leaned, bit by bit, against Lust, head against her shoulder. They… wouldn't do that with anybody else (no one else would accept something like that) but they liked the feeling of her regular breaths, her shoulders rising and falling slowly.

"For both our oars, with little skill, by little arms are plied."

Greed was quiet too; Envy peered discreetly over Lust to see what he was doing. Their brother rested against the wall, eyes distant. He looked remarkably handsome that way, Envy thought, without his mouth twisted in a sneer and his eyes full of taunting arrogance.

"While little hands make vain pretense our wanderings to guide."

This was nice.

It was nice to have peace, and quiet, and a warm feeling, ever so rarely.

But Lust was gone now; she'd never read to them again; she was a cold pile of ash on the floor of Lab 3. Greed lived, but he was different in all of the wrong ways, and any memories of the few good times that they had had together were lost in the void, gone forever.

But the warm feeling hadn't quite vanished, and the voice continued, but it wasn't the same. It was somewhat unsure, hesitant,

"Alice! A childish story take, and with a gentle hand, lay it where Childhood's dreams are twined in Memory's mystic band."

They… were somehow beside him now, head against his shoulder (sharp and angular, nothing like her soft shoulder), and his words pressed forward, lacking in feeling or emotion, other than an audible insistence on getting the words just right.

How had they…

Disgusting, it was disgusting, and Envy wanted to leap up and run away, but they couldn't, because the poem wasn't over yet.

Kimblee could sense their stiffness, it seemed, and pressed on, more mechanically than before. "Like pilgrim's wither'd wreath of flowers pluck'd in a far-off land." And then he was silent.

Envy jerked up off of the couch, landing unsteadily on their feet. "I've had enough entertainment," they said, staring towards him.

"Alright," said Kimblee, face blank. He closed the book. "But I don't see what I did wrong. I was only reading. You were the one who decided to come and sit beside me." He shrugged. "It's, of course, all well and good, to dislike physical contact– I'm not all that fond of it myself– but to seek it out and then get upset at me…"

He just had sounded so much like her, just for a little while…

"I'm not upset," said Envy, refusing to look him in the eye. "Stop saying that I'm upset, because I'm not."

"Alright," said Kimblee. They were both quiet for a long moment. Finally, Kimblee coughed, breaking the silence. "I… didn't get all that much read, actually; that was only the prologue. So if you would like, I can start the first chapter." He smiled. "And you can sit wherever you'd like to."

They wanted to leave– it wasn't acceptable, really it wasn't acceptable to have shown such weakness. But home was so cold and lonely right now. It was only Gluttony, who Envy tried to watch out for in the same way that Lust had but they just couldn't measure up to her, and it was only Greed, who Envy had already failed to make a good new impression on, and it was only Pride, who never had a positive word to say and was absent more often than not. And Father, who… Envy wasn't sure about.

At least with Kimblee they were admired, appreciated. Not like at home.

Envy shrugged casually, purposefully sitting down on the couch across from Kimblee. "Well, why not. I have nothing else to do. But just a little more."

Kimblee nodded, cracking the book open once again, flipping a few pages in to begin the first chapter.

Kimblee's voice, reading the pages of Alice, was more enjoyable to listen to now than it had been before; it wasn't so similar to Lust's now, and carried a different tone of its own. The nonsensical human "art" that he read almost sounded profound.

Envy stared up at the ceiling, and decided that, if Kimblee wanted to, they'd let him read all night. There was no sense in rushing off before the story was told, after all

A/N: This was based off of a prompt sent to me on tumblr requesting a book/library theme. It kind of veered off-course... I sort of wanted to show Envy's want for affection, both familial/platonic and perhaps romantic as well, and the way that the two types of love could easily be confused to someone who doesn't get either very often. I also have a soft spot for Kimblee/Lust comparisons... I have an AU idea in my head burning away in which Kimblee becomes the new Lust. I'll probably never write it, but I think that they have similar personalities, and it's fun to draw parallels between them.

Also, I've changed up the premise of "Ambivalence" a little bit; now I'm just putting all of my Kimvy stories that don't fit anywhere else in this collection, rather than strictly following the prompts like I said that I would do. They wound up inhibiting my creativity, I think, instead of helping it, so I'm just going to move along from that idea and write what inspires me.

Thank you so much for reading!