Armstrong woke up in the night only a short while after she had first fallen asleep. She had difficulties accepting that her leg hurt so much, especially since it was not even there any longer. She wanted more pain medicine but did not want to admit that, and she was not sure whether some nurse had told her that she could not get any more for some inexplicable reason. She tried to sleep again and failed miserably.

At some point, a nurse on night watch entered the room but did not turn on the lights. The room was dim but not entirely dark since some light from outside came in through the window. The nurse walked straight between Armstrong's and Shrike's beds, pushed the wheelchair out of her way and faced Shrike. She seemed to take her time looking at him.

Armstrong did not really care about the nurse's doings, but now that a nurse was around, she decided to ask for more painkillers. "Nurse? Give me some medicine for the pain, please," she said commandingly but quietly. Her voice was hoarse, so she reached for her glass of water and drank.

The nurse straightened and did not even yet turn around. She sighed. "Why don't you get it yourself?" she asked, surprisingly rudely. She turned around and her eyes widened just a little. "Wha-buhahaha! HAHAHA!"

Armstrong was so surprised that she could only stare at the nurse with her now evilly keen eyes. Sleep-deprived though she was, she did figure out what was going on. "Envy?!"

Envy did not even try to deny its identity. Though it kept its current appearance and voice, it now spoke and acted like it usually did. "What the hell happened to your leg?! No, let me guess! You felt bad because Shrike lost his arm so you cut your leg off so he wouldn't have to be alone with his problem? No, Mustang got mad at you for shooting him and burned you too!"

Armstrong groaned. "Envy, I swear on my family... That was so incredibly childish that it tops even your nightly visit about your stupid soul."

"Whatever; seriously, what happened to your leg?"

"Are you so daft you really don't remember? You attacked me and cut it," she gritted.

Envy was annoyed at being called stupid. "Are YOU an imbecile? I saw you the day before yesterday and you still had the leg."

"You cut it and the wound became infected."

Envy sighed exasperatedly. "Humans! You are awful at healing. And your immune systems are a joke. I'll have you know that every time I have to regenerate my full body, I lose all the good bacteria and stuff inside that helps the immune system and digestion and I have to collect those again and it's such a pain! You things, then again, have been cultivating those bacteria for years or decades or whatever and you still manage to get infected like that. Your immune systems are SO BAD."

"What the hell?" Armstrong did not even want to hear the explanation and sighed as she let her head drop on the pillow.

"...Didn't you even understand what I just said? I can't believe that – –"

"The details of human physiology are not my area of expertise and I have no intention of ever studying them, because they are irrelevant to me. Do not bother me with such dull things."

There was a pause, and they both heard Shrike moving. Envy turned to look at him.

"W-what?" mumbled Shrike.

"Hey. Well, I came to see you but as you see, she woke up first."

Shrike looked at Envy and felt confused.

Envy easily saw that Shrike did not recognise it. "Geez, Shrike. It's me, Envy."

"O-oh... oh. Envy! But aren't the Eastern soldiers looking for you? How did you...?" He sounded exhausted and still seemed disorientated because of Envy's appearance.

"It's night and I'm a shapeshifter. The chain of events really should be obvious even to you."

"Uh... right."

"So then, how are you? Alive, obviously, but yeah. Does that hurt?"

"Er... Well, yes, but it's... Actually it's mostly the burned skin that hurts. The arm is just sort of weird but it does hurt too, just not that much and it really doesn't make sense," he droned. "Maybe it's because Mustang did that alchemy thing. Oh, he came in here and said he'd pay for my automail."

"Well he'd better!"

"Envy, Shrike risked his life for you. Don't you have anything to say about that?" said Armstrong. She sounded tired.

Envy gave Armstrong a glance and then just looked at Shrike. It could not really say anything. It still did not understand why he had protected it. "I guess not. What should I say?" Envy shrugged and played more nonchalant than it really was. "I suppose I can say that I'm sorry you lost the arm and all. But still, I don't know why you did it. It was kind of stupid, you know, since you know I regenerate."

"Well, yes... but I didn't really think about that," he said thinly. "I thought my thermal transmutation would work. It did, actually, but it was way too slow and now I don't think heat even is the point in Mustang's transmutation, it's the combustion..."

"Envy, that was rude. You do know why he did it. Just acknowledge it."

Envy looked blankly at Armstrong for a short moment before turning to look at Shrike again. "You love me?"

"Well, yes..." Shrike did not seem to be paying attention to what he said.

Envy's expression changed just a little, and they all were quiet for a rather long time. Envy finally started realising how much Shrike cared about it and that it had not really taken him seriously before. Even if it now understood some of what he could have been feeling, it had no idea what kind of attitude it should adopt towards him.

"I am surprised that you didn't just kill me when you saw me," said Armstrong, changing the topic.

Envy turned toward her. "Huh? Oh yeah, I guess I could've done that. But I don't know, there doesn't seem to be much point."

Armstrong gave Envy a slightly perplexed look.

"If you were Mustang, him I'd have killed right away. But you're just... well, what do I care? Besides, you like annoying Mustang, that has to be a good thing."

Armstrong thought that either Envy really did not remember that she had tried quite hard to kill it when she had driven it from Fort Briggs or then it actually was not bitter about that.

"Why, would you have liked me to kill you? That leg thing can't be pleasant. Wait, how come you're not trying to kill me if you think I caused that?"

"No. And I don't particularly see a reason to kill you either. I want to know what happened while you were gone. Besides, I'm a bloody cripple now and I seem to have forgotten my sword on the wheelchair that you just pushed away, and they didn't allow firearms in here. Now, I could pummel you with my fists, but you probably would barely even notice it," she said banally.

Envy gave her a look. "I WOULD notice that."

Suddenly a small voice came from Envy's front pocket. "Also, Envy certainly did not cause the infection that led to the worsening of your leg."

"What? What the hell was that?"

Envy took a mouse out of its pocket. "This is the homunculus I created. Its name is Curiosity." Armstrong glared at Curiosity. Envy showed it to Shrike. "It just came up with the name! Cute, right?"

"Er... yes... um, hi."

"Hello. As I was saying, Envy didn't cause that infection. It is actually impossible, since infections are caused by impurities, foreign things that get into human tissue. Envy had just regenerated, so there was nothing on its body with which it could infect you. Naturally the infection could not have been caused by a part of Envy either since homunculi's parts disappear when separated from our Philosopher's Stones."

Armstrong seemed very irritated. "What? That doesn't make any sense at all."

"Would you like me to explain in detail how infec– –"

"Stars, no. Just shut up. Human physiology is not my interest."

Envy put Curiosity on its shoulder. "Awesome, right?"

"At this time of night, everything is 'deadening'."

"Geez! Humans and sleep," exclaimed Envy.

"Will you tell me what was happening in that hydroelectric power plant and what you were doing before that?"

"Why should I?"

"I think we could come to an arrangement."

"Would you protect us from Mustang?" asked Curiosity.

"Curiosity! Don't be stupid!"

"Well. I might be able to allow you to come to Briggs."

"...What?" asked Envy. "After you tried to kill me and drove me away?"

"There will of course be problems, but they can be solved later."

"Do you seriously think we'll trust you?"

"Your 'child' seems eager to."

Envy grimaced at Curiosity.

"The fact is that I wanted a shapeshifter for my benefit, and I still do. You're not particularly trustworthy, but now that Mustang isn't here to ruin everything, I believe we would have a better chance at making this work."

Envy was stunned.

"But it is late and I am very tired. So let us sleep and come back tomorrow night."

"Are you stupid? I can't trust you to not set up a trap of some kind. Talk now."

Armstrong sighed but continued. "If you came back to Briggs, you would have to play by the same rules as before. Do your job, study, wear a uniform, don't make Philosopher's Stones. You can go on vacations and study alchemy. You have to tell me everything about your studying and knowledge of alchemy. I won't be telling anything to Mustang or anyone else."

"That sounds acceptable to me," remarked Curiosity. "Can I do that too?"

"Yes."

Envy's expression was rather conflicted. It was not sure whether it could take Armstrong seriously. She seemed serious and sincere enough, but it had clear difficulties accepting that she would still have it in her Fort after everything it and she had done. Envy changed the topic. "What do you want to know?"

Armstrong breathed deeply. "Answer me truthfully. I can accept atrocities, but lying I do not tolerate under any circumstance. This will be the last chance you get. Don't deceive me, don't do anything behind my back and don't lie to me. Do you understand?"

Envy gave her a glare and seemed irascible.

"Why DID you lie to me?"

"About studying alchemy and creating a homunculus? I figured you wouldn't have it and would call Mustang to come kill me."

"Now you know better. When Mustang called to tell me what he had found, I didn't believe him. When I questioned you, you lied. That was what tipped the scales for attacking you." Armstrong pointed at Curiosity. "If that is the kind of homunculus you make, that is better than you lying to me."

"So you actually would've allowed me to create it if I'd asked?" asked Envy rather incredulously.

"Not while Mustang was keeping such a close eye. If he had not been meddling, well..." Armstrong seemed irritated. She did not want to lie and say yes, but she did not want to burn the bridge she had just started building. "...It is a possibility."

Envy stared at her with its mouth open.

"What did you do after you escaped?"

"I walked around the forests a bit and looked for Curiosity. Then I noticed Shrike was in North City, so I took him along and then we skied to Central. I went into Central headquarters to look for... Wait, before that, Colonel Sannah Ehrhardt attacked me in the street with that stupid Xingese tag-along. Then I went to the headquarters to supposedly look for information on her."

"What did you find?"

"About her? That's hardly relevant."

"I want to know either way."

Envy sighed. "I think her parents died in Ishval or something and her husband died on the day of the eclipse. Obviously she somehow knew about homunculi and so she tried to take it out on me. Revenge or whatever. She was a mineral alchemist."

"Mineral alchemist?"

"You know, stones and earth and stuff. Doesn't your stupid brother do alchemy like that too? She wasn't a state alchemist. But she was definitely better than Shrike. Anyway, I read in the archives about some suspicious transportations and figured that Mustang had ferried Curiosity to East City. Then we went to East City and I checked in the archives that the transportation had gone to some prison. Then you came here and we followed you so you led us in that power plant. I went in and broke Curiosity out and apparently Ehrhardt managed to follow me because she was there. Damned stupid Xingese, they should be banned from entering the country. By the way, why didn't you tell Mustang I was alive?"

"I can't trust him."

"Huh."

"How did you get into the headquarters?"

"In Central I posed as a soldier from North City. In Eastern I just sneaked in."

"Hm... Is Curiosity the only homunculus you've created?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you make more?"

"I couldn't. I gave Curiosity half of my own soul and apparently half of a soul isn't enough to grasp alchemy."

"How the hell does that even make sense?"

"I don't know. And what I'm going to say next will make even less sense! You know how there were originally eight of us homunculi? That meant that one soul had to be split into EIGHT parts. Actually seven, Wrath had his own soul. My only explanation is that souls grow over time or something, which is just ridiculous."

To Armstrong, it did not sound all that ridiculous. "Have you created any Philosopher's Stones?"

"No."

"Will you?"

"...Okay, I won't lie. I would like to create them. However, I no longer absolutely need to create the Stone. My shapeshifting ability allows me to effectively transform the energy of food into energy for my Philosopher's Stone."

"WHAT?"

"I have a minimum weight. I eat. I gain weight. I shapeshift that weight away and it's stored as energy in my Philosopher's Stone. I found that out about... one and a half years ago. It's an incredibly slow process, which is why I'd prefer to get Philosopher's Stones by making them out of people."

"But that means you don't have to kill people to survive."

"I know."

"...Do you promise to not make any Philosopher's Stones out of people?"

"...I promise." Envy sounded distant.

While Armstrong could not help but be suspicious of Envy, she thought that the detached answer meant that Envy had given up and it would accept that it was not able to make Philosopher's Stones any longer. In addition, Envy had not made Philosopher's Stones this far, even though it must have had the chance. "What all can you do with alchemy? Could you make a Philosopher's Stone if you had the necessary humans?"

"I can't do alchemy now! And the answer is no. Not yet. I'm telling you again, that transmutation circle was complex, and I can't recall it properly. As for the other stuff, well, I could do everything that Shrike could except that thermal transmutation thing. Thermodynamics is really confusing. See, heat is the movement of matter, so any thing that isn't impossibly cold moves all the time, but – –"

"Shut up."

"Also I wasn't as good at fixing clothes and screws. As for stuff that Shrike can't do, well, transmuting human and animal bodies and making homunculi would have to count."

"Human and animal bodies?"

"The human part is easy, but obviously I haven't tested it on actual humans. I only know that it would work because I know everything relevant about human physiology. As for animals, they're pretty similar to humans and I practised with them earlier."

"...So, can you create chimeras?"

"I can make chimeras out of two or a few animals and they're viable. I'm pretty sure I could manage with humans and animals too."

"Excellent."

"Ooh! What would a chimera of two humans be like?" exclaimed Envy in excitement. "Making that would be really funny!"

"...Will you be able to perform alchemy in the future?" asked Armstrong.

"I sure hope so. Maybe my soul needs to grow some more or something? I have no idea if it works that way or how long it would take."

Armstrong was quiet for a moment while she tried to think up some questions. "Another thing: In Briggs we came to the conclusion that you moved through the ventilation shafts when you escaped. How was that possible? Don't you weigh 400 kilograms at your lightest?"

"Normally, yes, but since you destroyed my body back then, I obviously lost all that mass. Regeneration is so slow that I don't have time to gain my full mass before I can shapeshift, so I can make my body complete even with mass missing. That hurts like hell, by the way."

Armstrong just frowned at Envy. "Well then... Curiosity, can you perform alchemy?"

"No."

"Will you try to learn it?"

"Yes."

"Can you also transform the food you eat into energy for your Philosopher's Stone?"

"Yes."

"Will you create or try to create any Philosopher's Stones out of people?"

"No."

"If you do learn alchemy, will you try to create another homunculus?"

"...Maybe, I haven't thought of that before."

"Do you hate humans?"

"No. I believe I do hate Mustang and Hector."

"Hector?"

"He was some soldier who stabbed and shot me even though I did nothing at all to him."

"What do you think of humans in general, then?"

"I think you are very odd creatures."

Armstrong coughed to hide her chuckle and did it so well that even Envy did not notice it. She then continued in her stoic tone. "That is amusing. How much do you weigh?"

"Eight to eighty kilograms."

"That little?"

Curiosity did not reply, so Envy started babbling. "Fine, I screwed up, okay? I meant it to weigh eighty kilos at minimum, but I didn't know how exactly the transmutation would set that weight, so now eighty is the maximum."

"How much do you know about the military?"

"I know the rank system, the overall duties of each rank and most of the procedures concerning the bureaucracy and chain of command. I think I have a little knowledge of some military secrets, but I don't know what most of it means."

"Hm. If I were to allow you to come into Briggs, would you want to be a soldier and be loyal to me?"

"Yes."

Armstrong spent some time thinking and did not speak for a while. "I am willing to give you both a new chance, this time without any silly restrictions from Mustang or the others. I don't know how I'll convince you that it isn't a trap and I can't think of anything right now. I'll figure out something later."

Envy could not say anything to that. It thought that she really seemed honest and it did want to believe her. On the other hand, it did not want to believe any human under any circumstance and it was suspicious of any acts that might be of service to it.

"Thank you," said Curiosity. Both Envy and Armstrong gave it a glare, and it made a small grin.

"If you won't come talk to me tomorrow, we need some way to keep contact..." Armstrong did not bother to hide how tired she was.

"Mh. Well, I can go to North City and wait until Shrike or someone familiar comes by me. It isn't fast but it works."

"Hmh. I suppose it is good enough. Don't approach anyone but Shrike."

They were quiet for some time. "Was that it?" asked Envy.

"Sure. I'm too bloody tired to think of anything else."

Envy raised its eyebrow at her but then turned to face Shrike again. Shrike had managed to fall asleep. Envy started to think again as it kept looking at him. He really liked Envy enough to risk his own life to save it. Of course, Shrike had admitted nearly from the beginning that he fancied Envy. Envy had been surprised by that, but that had not truly affected its life. After it knew that Shrike had some kind of soft spot for it, it knew what to expect, at least in general. It had started taking him for granted, but now it felt like it could no longer do that.

Human lives were cheap, and so was Shrike's. Their lives were just hanging by a thread. Shrike risking his life to save its was of course sort of important, but what was more meaningful to Envy was that he had protected it from Mustang. Shrike did not do that. He did not defy his superiors like that but he had defied Mustang anyway. Shrike thought Envy's life was valuable, more valuable than Mustang's. That was what made Shrike consequential to Envy now.

Envy was also reminded again that other than having sometimes said things that annoyed Envy by accident and defied it when it asked him to do things he found very distasteful, Shrike had been very considerate with it and had evidently tried his best to improve its disposition towards him. Envy had only tolerated him and tried to not be straightforwardly cruel with him.

On the other hand, Envy had not acted in a particularly friendly manner towards Curiosity either. Friendly behaviour was unnecessary. Still, what Curiosity had said about treating humans with some kindness was haunting in the back of Envy's mind. Being nice made people nicer in some way, and maybe there really was nothing to lose by being kinder. Envy still thought that being nice to humans would be demeaning and it did not want to be treated nicely by them, but maybe Shrike deserved to be treated a little better – and Curiosity as well. Sure enough, Shrike was a human, but he was a relatively good one. Envy also remembered the Briggs soldiers and how they had accepted it among them, even if Envy treated them derisively and they did not like it. It had felt resentful when Armstrong had turned them against it. Did that mean that having humans as friends was better than not having them as friends?

As Curiosity had said, maybe there was no reason to hate all humans. Envy did not need to hate them all. It did not need to care about them. It could care about them if it wanted. Shrike liked Envy and wanted it to be happy, so he was worth caring about, somewhat. Envy made a small smile.

In the morning, Envy was gone. Armstrong spent a considerable amount of time with a hand on her face, wondering what on earth she had been thinking. Shrike found under his pillow a drawing that depicted a pile of almost decently drawn fish sticks and came with the text "I couldn't get any real fish sticks so I drew you some. Have fun."

Author's notes: Done! I hope you liked the story. I don't (yet) have plans for another continuation. I only have a few small ideas but nothing that would make a proper story. Right now it feels like the biggest point of interest for me would be automail rehabilitation. I'll take suggestions for a sequel nonetheless!

There's some extra material in the story called "Forged in Ice – alternatives and extra chapters" (starting from chapter 4).