Points Of Authority

I figured I might as well get out a real quick chapter before I went to bed… You know… Just because I've been so good at updating within a day… Why break the chain now? Oh, my gosh! I feel so unbelievably great about this story! Within the first five minutes of me posting the last chapter last night, I got two reviews! You guys ROCK! X3 Just thought I should letcha know just how much you guys brighten my day.

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Envy walked sullenly through the darkness until he arrived at Dante's large manor. His thoughts were on the night's events.

'Why the hell was I so… so… Augh! I can't even think now! Damnit! Why am I so affected by this! You'd think it wouldn't matter! It's no big deal! It's not like I'm crushing… on… Oh. Oh, fuck no. Hell no.' His eyes went wide as realization slapped him mercilessly across the face, leaving an almost distinguishable sting, not only on the face, but on his pride. 'I can't be in love! Homunculi can't fall in love, damnit! They just can't! No, no, it must just be… just be… A mistaken emotion. Yeah. Yeah, that's it.'

And so, with that feeble attempt at reassurance to himself, he opened the grand door of the manor and began ascending the large staircase that led up to his room. Lust, home for a rare moment of the closest thing they had to peace before going off on her next mission, intercepted him on his way there.

"Hmm? Envy, you look preoccupied. What's wrong?" Lust asked, not quite trying to cheer him up, yet curious none the less.

"Huh?"

Lust's eyebrow ticked. She knew he knew that she hated repeating herself. And, sure enough, as he walked off, she saw a smug smirk on his features.

He stalked into his room, slamming the door and throwing himself upon his bed. He reached under the mattress and pulled out a collection of daggers, then turned over onto his back and began throwing them onto the ceiling. It was obvious that he did this often, judging from the many dagger-induced gouges in the ceiling. Each time, he tried to conjure up the image of someone he hated, focusing on a spot on the ceiling and trying to picture their face on the surface, then throwing the dagger and trying to hit them square in the forehead. He noticed, however, that when he tried to put Edward's face on the ceiling, he couldn't quite get the dagger out of his hand. And that frustrated him beyond words.

Lust opened the door, only to have a dagger flung her way. Though it landed square in her forehead, she pulled out, throwing Envy a slight glare as the cascade of blood falling from the gaping wound in her forehead lessened as the wound healed itself.

"Okay, now I know something's wrong. You only break out the daggers when you're pissed off."

"I'm always pissed off. This attitude shouldn't surprise you in the least."

"What happened to piss you off? Who did it? Should we go kill them?"

"NO!" Lust raised an eyebrow, and Envy flushed slightly. "Erm… That is… I… uh, I want to take care of them myself. Don't interfere, Lust."

"Humph. As long as it isn't that Fullmetal kid I don't really care."

Envy fell silent. That made Lust curious.

"It isn't Fullmetal, is it?"

Envy sent her a wayward glance. "No. I just didn't have a response to your comment. That a crime?"

Lust rolled her eyes. "Okay, obviously, you're not in a very talkative mood right now."

He gave her a mock shocked expression. "Really? What gave it away? Was it my silence? The way I've been ignoring you since you stepped in here? My blatant sarcasm?"

Lust glared. "All of the above."

Envy shrugged. "If you don't like it, you can leave. This isn't your room anyways."

She sighed and walked out, shutting his door and encasing him in darkness once more. When her footsteps had receded into the distance, he stowed the daggers back under his mattress and slid himself between his covers, pulling the black comforter up to his chin and rolling onto his side. He tried to go to sleep, but every time his eyes closed, his mind's eye was assaulted with images of Edward. And, to be totally honest, that was the last person the Sin wanted to think of at the moment, or so he tried to convince himself. After a half hour of tossing and turning, trying to get the image of Ed out of his mind, he finally rolled over onto his stomach fiercely, punching the pillow in anger. 'Well, guess who's going to be in a really bad mood tomorrow…'

Meanwhile, all the way across the manor, on the third floor, Lust knocked on Dante's door. The door opened, revealing an elderly woman, seemingly harmless and very out of place in the manor, especially to be lodging with five of the seven Sins.

"Lust?"

Lust bowed, then raised back up, looking Dante in the eye. "We need to talk."

"About what?"

"Envy. I believe that there's… something wrong. Something that might jeopardize our mission. Something that involves Edward Elric."

Dante's expression turned serious, a slight sinister look crossing her features. "And it has to do with Envy as well, you say?"

Lust nodded.

"Well, then, come in, child, come in. And I can only hope that you aren't about to tell me what I think you are."

"I'm afraid I might have to dash your hopes, Mother."

Dante let out a sigh. "I was afraid of that… To lose Envy would be a tragedy… We'd have to make a stronger homunculus to take his place…"

Lust nodded again.

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Dun dun duuuuuun! XD I'm sorry, I had to do it. So… What're Dante and Lust planning? What does Envy have to do with it? Is our favorite palm tree in grave danger? Tune in next time to find out!

Overall, I was kinda happy with this chapter… I'm glad that I've finally managed to incorporate some of what the summary says into this… I had absolutely no idea where this was headed when I typed the first chapter, but I think I've got a pretty good grip on it now. Yay! Anyway, the usual, please don't forget to review, it would make my day!

Ja, mata!

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