Envy had not spoken a word since he had entered the house and seen him. Honestly, he didn't trust himself to say anything; he knew that anything that came out of his mouth was going to be filled to the brim with vitriol and anger.
He could feel it inside him; the desire to burn, to destroy, rising more heavily to the surface than it ever had before. It was, quite literally, all he could do to not act on his feelings – and even then, only because he knew the consequences would be severe if he did.
It seemed he wasn't the only one, either. Looking at Edward, Envy saw a calm rage brewing on the boy's face.
Hohenheim either didn't notice his impending doom, or chose to ignore it. He addressed Ed with a pleasant voice.
"I've been looking forward to seeing you again, my son."
"Don't call me that."
"Edward-"
"No!"
With that, Ed charged forwards and next thing anyone knew, his fist had connected squarely with Hohenheim's jaw. Winry gasped, and rose as if to run between them; Pinako, without taking her eyes off the scene unfolding before her, grabbed Winry's arm.
"Don't do anything stupid, Winry. Hohenheim can handle himself."
Sure enough, while he had gone straight to the floor after Ed's strike, Hohenheim seemed relatively unfazed as he got back up. He rubbed his chin, where a bruise was already starting to form.
"I guess I deserve that."
"You guess?!" Ed shouted, his volume steadily rising as he continued. "You've been gone for over ten years and you show up now like nothing ever happened?! What, you think you can just pick up where you left off?"
"Ed…" Al said, though he made no real move to stop him. "He's here now."
Ed immediately turned his fury on his brother. "It's not enough, Al! Where was he when we actually needed him, huh? Where was he when Mom was dying, and we were scared out of our minds because we had no idea what to do? He didn't even show up to the damn funeral – such a loving husband, right?!"
He went for a second punch – this time, Hohenheim intercepted it.
"I completely understand your anger, Edward. But don't you think there's a better way to take it out than punching your father?"
Ed ripped his arm out of Hohenheim's.
"You are not my father. Fathers don't just abandon their kids! And no, you don't understand. You have no idea. Get lost; we don't need you."
He stormed out of the room, slamming the door of his and Al's shared room behind him. Seeing his chance to get out of there, Envy did the same; heading straight for the room he had been assigned.
When he got there, he was glad to see that damn picture had been taken off the wall; the last thing he needed was to see His face staring down at him right now. Finally able to release some of his aggression without fear of consequences, he growled as he knocked the tool box off the bench. Screws scattered everywhere, a couple hitting him before they too bounced off the floor with a clink.
Not even half finished, Envy went on to push the entire bench over, kicking it once for good measure. Then he fell against the wall, curling in on himself as if he could squash his feelings away. Squash it all down, like he always had.
He hadn't even looked at him.
. . .
Back in the living room, Al had his face in his hands as he let out a long, low groan. Winry moved to the seat closest to him and leaned against him.
"Are you okay?"
"I genuinely don't know which one I should be checking on first," Al complained. "Which one's angrier? Which one's going to cause the most damage if I don't get to them fast enough?"
"Why don't you two split your efforts," Pinako suggested calmly as she lit up a pipe. "Winry can take Ed, you can take this Envy creature. That way nobody causes any damage, which I for one am very much in favour of."
Al had flashbacks to all the horrible arguments Ed and Winry had gotten into with him present as a mediator; many of which had ended in violence.
Then he thought about the idea of leaving her alone with Envy.
Nope.
"Okay, let's do it," he said, psyching himself up as he and Winry stood at the same time. Hohenheim crossed his arms uncomfortably.
"I feel like I should be solving this situation, since I'm the one who caused it. Apologies, Pinako."
Pinako shrugged. "It's not that different to a normal day, actually. It would seem that Ed inherited more than your looks; he has that temper, too. You remember what you were like when you were younger."
"All too well," Hohenheim said, taking a seat next to her again. "Alphonse, Winry, are you two sure you can handle this by yourselves?"
"Honestly, I think that's for the best," Al said. "No offence, but I think the worst thing you could do is approach them right now. Especially Ed; he needs time to cool off."
"Well, you do know him best. Good luck."
As soon as they were in the hallway and out of earshot, Winry pulled Al aside.
"Are you sure you're okay, Al?"
"What do you mean?"
"Come on, I know this has to be weird for you too. It's weird for me and he's not even my dad!"
"Okay yeah, it's weird. Lot of emotions. But I'm not about to beat someone up," he pointed out. "I think we have more important priorities right now."
She bit her lip, letting go of him.
"Fine, you're right. Just – don't forget that you're important too, okay?"
He gave her a thumbs up, heading over to Envy's room.
At the last moment, he figured it would probably be a good idea to knock before entering. He was already essentially entering the lion's den – he should probably at least give the lion a head's up.
"Envy?"
He entered the room, timid and sticking to the wall. Envy was huddled in the corner, balled up.
"Go away."
"Come on, do you plan to just stay in here alone?"
"That's how I solve most of my problems."
"And how does that usually work out for you?"
He didn't answer. Al decided to take it as progress; at least he wasn't being screamed at. He sighed, leaning against the doorframe.
"Well, if you want to talk about anything, you can."
No answer. Al bit his lip, casting one more glance at him.
"You're not alone, you know," he said quietly.
Envy still wouldn't speak to him; but he did reach over and start to pick something up off the ground next to him. Correctly predicting that he was about to throw it at him, Al ducked out of the room and closed the door; just in time, judging by the thud on the other side.
Groaning, he decided to check on Ed and Winry. He clearly couldn't do anything else here, at least for now. It was a shame; he had started to think he had gotten through to Envy.
He thought about it on his way up the stairs, and kept getting stuck on one thought. Envy's reaction to seeing Hohenheim was shockingly similar to Ed's. In fact, it was almost identical. But that would only make sense if-
No. That was impossible. Envy was four hundred years old.
He froze. Envy had told Ed he knew Hohenheim from when he was human.
Envy was four hundred years old.
It didn't take an automail engineer to see that that maths wasn't adding up. He would have to mention this to Ed - but maybe he should wait until Ed had calmed down first, he thought with a wince.
He made his way to their shared guest room, knocking lightly before entering. Ed and Winry were awfully quiet in there, and he was starting to worry that they had legitimately killed each other.
Entering, he breathed a sigh of relief to see Ed alone in the room.
"What happened to Winry?"
Ed, to his credit, looked chagrined.
"I uh… may have told her to fuck off and leave me alone."
"Wow. You really do have a way with women, Brother."
Ed flushed dark red, snapping "Yeah well, you don't exactly have a girlfriend either."
"I'm not looking," Al reminded him. "Besides, with you as my role model? Gee, I wonder why I'm still single."
"Shut up," Ed groaned. "When the hell did you get so sassy?"
"Probably when I became a teenager. A proper one, you know; with actual hormones."
"Ugh, don't remind me. I don't want to know. Think I liked you better when you were a perpetual ten-year-old."
Al tried not to flinch at the reminder of his time in the armour; he knew Ed wasn't trying to upset him, would never use that against him. "Well, we all have to grow up sometime."
He waited a few minutes, before deciding to broach the topic.
"Speaking of growing up…"
"Don't, Al. I don't want to talk about it."
"Do you really think if you ignore it, it'll go away?"
"Why not? That's exactly what he did last time."
Ouch. That one did sting.
"I'm not exactly thrilled either, Ed. It's weird, okay? I don't even know this man. At least you were old enough to remember him a little."
"That doesn't make it easier," Ed said. "It makes it harder. You didn't know what you were missing."
"Okay that's insulting," Al said, allowing indignation to creep into his tone. "Yes I did. I saw our friends who had fathers. I knew Sarah and Urey. I'm not stupid; I knew what I was supposed to have, and that I didn't have it. Please don't act like you had it so much harder than me, because you didn't."
He had to stop, trying to calm himself down so it wouldn't turn into a fight. He honestly didn't want to get into another fight with Ed, not now, when it felt like the entire world was already against him.
"Look, I'm not saying you need to immediately forgive him. I haven't either. I'm just saying we should give him a chance. At least let him explain himself."
"Why?! What has he done to deserve that? Why should we give him a chance, Al?"
Al started to feel the beginnings of what would become a headache later. He rubbed his forehead.
"I really didn't want to have to pull this card."
"What do you-"
"Remember how you felt that one time I ran away?"
He could see it in the way Ed's expression changed; his comparison was starting to sink in. Ed's face had paled, as no doubt some of his worst memories flashed through his mind. Al definitely had his attention now.
"Remember how you felt when I didn't give you a chance? When I didn't even let you explain yourself? It was awful, wasn't it?"
Ed tried to course correct, of course, because God forbid Al ever be allowed to feel normal human emotions like regret. "It was understandable based on what you knew at the time. I don't blame you for that."
"But that doesn't change the fact that I was wrong," Al emphasised. "Didn't it turn out that there was a totally reasonable explanation? That I was overreacting? Because, as you just said, I didn't have all the information. Maybe we don't have all the information."
"We have enough," Ed said, turning to face the wall. Al lost his temper and his patience simultaneously.
"You're so damn stubborn! It's not enough that our family fell apart once; we actually have a chance to fix it now, and you'll do anything to stop that from happening! Why can't we just be happy, Ed? Why can't we just get over the past, and salvage whatever tiny fragment of a normal family we have left?"
"I don't want that! I don't want to pretend to be his happy little family now!" Ed shouted. "He doesn't deserve that!"
Al didn't respond immediately; he didn't trust himself to. When he did answer, his voice was low and quiet; but he knew Ed wouldn't mistake his tone as being calm. Oh, no. Ed knew him too well for that.
"And what about me? You're so focused on making sure Dad doesn't get more than he deserves. Did you ever stop to think that maybe I deserve a father?"
He didn't wait for him to answer. He stormed out, leaving a stunned Ed behind.
. . .
By the time the fog in Al's head cleared, he had found his way back to his favourite spot – not even realising that Envy himself had been here just hours earlier, fuming about his own Hohenheim problems. He sighed as he looked out at the calm river.
There was a lot about this situation that he needed to mentally unpack, especially if he was going to talk to Ed about it – once Ed stopped being an ass, he thought somewhat bitterly.
He didn't just mean the timeline anymore, though he had definitely put a pin in that for later. No, in dealing with Envy and then Ed in quick succession, he had confirmed his other suspicions.
The way those two were reacting to Hohenheim's presence was identical. He was sure of it now. And given that Al's frame of reference was Ed, that said a lot about Envy's motivations.
He caught himself tracing back the conversation Envy had tried to dodge once before. There had been something in particular he hadn't wanted to talk about, something that went way deeper than just not giving the enemy too much information. He had thought about it, looked at Ed and Al, and decided to keep his mouth shut.
At this point, Al had a feeling he knew what Envy was hiding. He didn't want to believe it; didn't even understand how it could be possible. But he was a scientist before anything else, and he couldn't think of any other explanation. If it was the only explanation placed in front of him, it was what he had to accept.
Out of sheer habit more than anything else, he sat down by the banks as he had since he was a very small boy. It was late at night; he really didn't think Ed was going to come looking for him this time, and he didn't expect him to. He just… needed some time to think.
It started to rain.
. . .
Back at the house, it was roughly an hour or so before Ed had cooled off enough to face the potential of seeing him again. He certainly wasn't going to seek him out – half of him was hoping the old man had left already. He was more concerned with finding Al; he couldn't just leave things on bad terms between them. He had to make it right.
With each room he checked, his heart rate raised a little more; especially as the rain outside started to turn to a storm. He had to stop to calm himself several times, reminding himself sternly that Al wasn't in the armour, rain wasn't a threat anymore…
But it was. If Al was outside, it could be. There was no blood seal to be at risk; but there was exposure, lightning, the floods that were all too common in Resembool.
The floods especially, he thought with a shudder. He didn't know if Al was strong enough to swim yet, and he didn't want to put it to the test.
His anxiety growing, Ed decided to check Envy's room. He opened without knocking, only realising after the fact that it may not have been a smart move.
It didn't matter. Envy was sitting on the bed, flipping absentmindedly through a book and snacking on nuts of some kind.
"Is he gone yet?" He asked with his mouth full.
"What, Hohenheim? I don't know. Hey, have you seen Al?"
Violet eyes flicked up to meet Ed's.
"Not for a couple hours, no. Why?"
"I can't find him."
Envy shrugged. Ed grew impatient, clenching his fists.
"Damnit, he could be in trouble Envy! In case you haven't noticed it's storming out there-"
Envy slammed his book shut, jumping off the bed in one motion. At the very least, it seemed like his strength was recovering.
"Fucking- Fine! Let's go find him, so I can get back to my book."
He grabbed Ed's shirt as he passed, dragging him with him.
"Wait, you're going to help?"
"You're not going to leave me alone until I do. I know how this works by now. You sit there and passive aggressively whine at me until I 'decide to do the right thing'. So let's just get it over with."
He opened the door, seemingly totally unafraid of the thunderstorm outside. Ed backed off a little, and Envy rolled his eyes.
"Do you want to find him, or not? You said he usually goes to that river I was at before, right? Don't you think if he's not in the house, that's the best place to start?"
"He wouldn't still be out there. He's not that stupid!"
"Sure seems like he is… Look, you're his brother, where else would he go?"
Ed didn't have an answer for him. Because once he thought about it, he realised there wasn't anywhere else. They had had childhood friends, but they had both mostly cut ties with Resembool after the transmutation. As far as Ed knew, Al didn't have anyone else in town he'd be hanging out with. And it wasn't like they had a booming city centre, like Central.
"Okay fine, let's go."
. . .
Al, to his credit, really wasn't that stupid. He had decided to try and make for home as soon as the rain had picked up. It was just that, well, it wasn't really working out that well for him.
His first problem was that the rain was so heavy it was actually making it difficult to see. He could feel every individual drop as if it was a pin digging into his skin, but he couldn't see anything more than blurry shapes. He could almost laugh; it was basically the inverse of his time in the armour.
At the present moment, rather shamefully, he was frozen on the spot. He knew he needed to get home; if he didn't, Ed was sure to come looking for him, and that wouldn't do at all with his automail. On the other hand, he really couldn't see where he was going at all – and he was absolutely terrified that he could fall into the river if he so much as stepped in the wrong direction. He had no idea if he could even swim yet; he hadn't tried.
Finally, he decided he had to start moving. He couldn't just stand here in the rain forever; he'd catch his death, and if he survived Ed would kill him for worrying him. So, moving very carefully, he started taking slow steps. Feeling his way along the ground; as difficult as it was to determine the difference between the flooded ground and the river, he could only hope there would be a difference and that he would notice it if he felt it. He could tell that he was on an incline, and this was good; it meant he was heading up the riverbank, away from the water.
Thunder crashed in his ears; Al certain it was way louder than it should be. He froze again, gasping in fear, as his hands came down over his ears.
He waited, expecting to get struck at any moment. It never came. He started moving again.
God, he hoped Ed wasn't looking for him. That idiot was going to get himself killed.
He started to get used to the technique, started to figure out what he was doing. Then he put his foot down wrong, or perhaps the mud was too slippery for him to gain traction, or perhaps the incline was too steep.
He slipped, stumbled, and then fell.
He hit the ground rolling back down the hill, unable to gain purchase on the slick ground, feeling his momentum carry him straight into the path of danger but unable to stop it. Seconds later, he was underwater. His heart raced and he started to struggle, trying to get his head above the water; the river could be peaceful enough on a good day, but with the storm it was turbulent, and the heavy rain made it almost impossible to tell where the air began and the river ended. He started to panic.
He felt himself yanked sharply upwards by his shirt, surfacing seconds later. A second pair of hands appeared, curling under his shoulders to get a better grip. Slowly, his wet, shivering form was dragged back onto the bank.
For several minutes, all he could do was cough and splutter, propped up by a firm arm against his back. Once he was able to breathe again, he turned to see his rescuers.
Ed was crouched next to him, holding him up. Envy was a short distance away, using his hand to shield his face from the rain as best he could – and sporting a decidedly annoyed expression.
"Hey! Next time you feel like going swimming, wanna wait until we're not in the middle of a goddamn Biblical flood? Humans are such fucking idiots…"
Ed gritted his teeth, turning back to his brother. "Ignore him. Are you alright?! Envy saw you fall; we got here as fast as we could! You didn't swallow any water, did you?"
"Wha- how did he see me fall? I can't see anything out here!"
Ed's expression changed. Envy sighed.
"He just got his body back, right? He's overstimulated. You think you'd be able to see straight if you couldn't feel anything for years, and then suddenly got pelted with a thunderstorm?"
He stormed over, dragging Al to his feet against Ed's complaints, brushed Al's soaked fringe out of the way, and looked at him. Al blinked as he came into focus. Envy pushed him away, so roughly that he almost fell back to the ground but for Ed catching him.
"His eyes are fine. I saw him focus on me just now. Let's just get back to the house; if we don't, none of us will be fine pretty soon."
He didn't wait for an answer, stomping back towards the house.
As soon as they entered, they were inundated with worried relatives. Winry leapt into action, grabbing a towel and throwing it over Al's head, then rubbing so hard Al felt like his hair was about to be pulled out of his scalp.
"How could you let yourself get this soaked?! You're going to get sick! Your immune system is weak, Al, you know that-"
"In my defence, I fell into the river," he said, muffled.
"You what?!"
She let go, pushing him towards his and Ed's room. "Go; get changed out of those clothes immediately! You have to dry off and warm up, or you could get hypothermia."
Hohenheim started to approach, seeming almost afraid to get too close.
"I'm so glad you're all alright; I was worried sick when Winry and Pinako told me Alphonse was missing, and that the two of you had gone after him-"
"Save it!" Ed snapped. "If you were really worried, you would've come after us too!" He followed Al up to their room, slamming the door. Winry and Pinako left, conversing back and forth about how this might impact Ed's automail, and how Al would need to be supervised the rest of the night - just in case.
Hohenheim looked over at Envy, who had his arms crossed and was doing his darndest to completely ignore Hohenheim's existence.
"William-"
"Don't call me that!" In that moment, Envy genuinely looked – and felt – as though he might murder the man. To hell with not getting the precious Elric brothers in trouble, to hell with his own life at that point! He wanted vengeance, and at this particular moment he was not seeing green, but red.
Hohenheim remained calm, his passive expression unmoved by Envy's fury.
"What happened to you?"
"You know damn well what happened to me, you bastard! You're the one who did it!"
"No, I didn't. You weren't like this when I left."
"The hell are you talking about? Are you even crazier than you were back then?"
Hohenheim adjusted his glasses, fixing Envy with that same calm expression, his lack of emotional response only heightening Envy's.
"I see, perhaps there's a misunderstanding. I'm not talking about your body. I know full well that I'm responsible for that."
For a split second, Envy wondered if he could turn his arm into a blade. Maybe his powers had come back; he hadn't tested it in a while. He smiled as he pictured that bastard's blood splattered across the room-
He couldn't deal with this. He couldn't be in the same room as that stupid old man for another second, or he really was going to kill him.
"You did that, too. I don't know why you think that just because you weren't there, it's not your fault." He barely got the sentence out through gritted teeth, practically running to his room.
He didn't know how he was going to leave it again, not with Hohenheim here – which was going to cause problems, considering he now needed to eat. He had his snacks for now, but what about after he ran out?
He hit his head against the wall.
Hohenheim had no idea what he was going to do. He didn't know why he had thought he could just come back and pick up where he had left off, and he recognised now that had been a silly dream. It felt like the blink of an eye to him, but he had been gone for ten years; for William, even longer. And for any normal person, that was a long time.
His case certainly wasn't helped by the events that he had been made aware of, which had taken place in his absence. Trisha, bless her soul, had passed away. Two separate pangs of agony went through his chest; the first at his own realisation that he would never see her again, the second at the haunted look he had caught in his youngest son's eyes when the story was being recounted.
He couldn't believe he had missed that. Could barely comprehend that he would never see her smile or hear her soft voice again, nor that his sons had had to experience all of that alone.
He couldn't fix what he had done, he knew that much. But Alphonse's hesitant acceptance of his return had given him a distant spark of hope – maybe it wasn't too late to start making things right.
He wandered slowly up to Edward and Alphonse's room, raised his hand to knock, then paused. He wasn't even sure if Alphonse was done changing yet – and even if he was, Hohenheim really had no earthly idea what he was going to say. These were not the children he had left behind; they were practically men, and he had lost the ability to communicate with them in any meaningful way. He didn't know these two young men who had grown up without him, though he recognised aspects of himself and Trisha inside them.
His nerves got the better of him. He sank to the floor outside the door, too afraid to enter and too desperate to leave.
As he sat there, parts of their conversation started to come to him through the wood of the door.
"We need to come up with a more permanent solution."
"To what?"
"You know what. They're going to show up eventually. I know we told Mustang they wouldn't find us, but come on! Everyone knows this is where we grew up."
"You know, maybe we're all overreacting."
"Are you serious right now?"
"I don't know, we don't know this 'leader' of theirs!"
"Envy does, and he seems pretty concerned! Besides, did you forget about what happened at Dante's mansion-"
Hohenheim felt as if his blood had frozen to ice.
He hadn't heard that name in a long time. He had certainly never expected to hear it from one of his sons.
And that could only mean one thing; somehow, she had found them. And she had gotten them involved in her twisted game.
Anger flooded his veins. He had not been around to raise his sons; he would have to accept that. And they might not want him as their father. But he was their father. And he wasn't going to let her use them as pawns to accomplish her selfish goals.
He got up, silently apologised to his children. And for the second time, he left them.
. . .
Yooooo
Sorry I disappeared for a while. State of the planet being what it is, etc; plus I did struggle with this chapter a little more than previous ones (on that note, sorry if it's not as good as previous chapters; I tried).
Enjoy this chapter; the next one will be coming soon!
