By: Minuiko
Random A/N: OMFG I GOT THE SIXTH HARRY POTTER!
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Chapter 5&
What's he thinking about? Ed wondered. Envy was just glowering into space, walking with his face downcast and acting, for all he knew, like a girl who was PMSing. Not that he knew anything about it, it was just what he heard sometimes. Envy had acted like a normal person for most of the morning, and then started ignoring the world around noon, staring at a fencepost ahead of him like he wanted to strangle it.
Did I do something wrong? Guilt flashed through him for a split second. Envy knew what he was getting himself into when he said he'd help Ed. By getting into the harem, he'd gain access to the entire palace's inner chambers, and that was where they had to have kept Al. But as a result of that, he was still part of the harem, the group of the King's "favorites." And being new, he'd be the one paid the most attention to, by a king who was obviously used to using women as toys and not people. And even someone who'd spent years as a prostitute wouldn't like that, especially if that someone was Envy, who had too much pride to be suited to that position. I'm the one practically forcing him to go.
And yet, if he looked on the bright side of things, he was also the one who saved Envy from probably a lifetime at that whorehouse owner's place. Well— perhaps not a lifetime, but Envy would have had a hard time getting free. He'd shortened that expanse of time… but how did he know what would've happened to Envy if he hadn't come along anyways? There's so much I don't know about him…
That wasn't important right now. What was important was the mission… That's right… the mission. Of all of us, he'd be the one who'd be in the most jeopardy…all for freedom… but slave or no, he really doesn't have any obligation to me. He doesn't have to go through this just to rescue a near-stranger's little brother. If he gets caught, if he dies— then that'd be my fault.
A random part of his brain added in, Al would do this for me, too.
Ed took a moment to muse about just how Envy was similar to Alphonse. Oh, sure, Al was calmer, had a steadier head, wasn't quite as unpredictable, but they both would sit at the riverside when they were pissed with him, forgave him as quickly as he'd said he was sorry (he wasn't actually sure if Envy had forgiven him yet, but at least he'd given up being hostile), and were vulnerable. Vulnerable and innocent and strangely important to him. They were both reasons for his guilt, but he couldn't possibly get rid of them, because then he'd be a mere child, getting rid of the reasons for his guilt to make himself feel better.
"Hey, Envy."
"What?" the dark-haired slave snapped. Ed blinked, then grinned good-naturedly (definitely unpredictable) and raised his hands defensively. "You know what to do, right?"
"Yeah, sure. I'll fuck with the fucking king and then after that I'll steal the keys from the guards and get your little brother out before I'm detected, right?"
Ed winced. "I didn't ask you to do any…"
Envy gave him a wry smile. "…prostitute work? You're an idiot. How else am I supposed to get in and out? Whatever. I'm used to the whole fucking process anyways. If I'm lucky, he'll tire out fast. If not, I guess I'll have to last for a few rounds…"
Ed was extremely uncomfortable with this discussion. For someone who hated his position, Envy sure was blunt about what he did. Ed coughed and said, "…yeah. Anyways, you know what he looks like, right?"
"I can guess," Envy replied tersely.
"We'll be waiting for you right outside the gate, a little to the left where there're no patrols, got that?"
"Mm."
"And you remember the map of the palace we showed you, right? The harem is just right of the dungeon."
"Mm."
Ed stared at him for another moment— he's not answering, that's not good— before giving him a light jerk of the chains and told him soberly, "Envy, look, I'm sorry, alright?"
That earned him a quizzical expression from the older boy. "What? What for?"
He ran his metal hand through his blonde hair, slowly destroying his already messy braid, and shrugged. "Everything, I guess."
Envy blinked, then rolled his eyes and told him, "Worry about yourself."
Ed could see that this was getting nowhere. "Right."
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The cloaked man journeyed with the group of loosely dressed travelers. It was another hot day in the desert for everyone else, trudging up paths that only the native or highly educated knew about, paths that would eventually lead into the city. He himself was not there for tourism. He was there for another reason, one that he kept to himself. Blending in had been easy. His skin was as dark as any of the people around him, and he had maintained a normal appearance, despite the fact that his face sported a strange looking x-shaped scar and that his sharp crimson eyes had a look about them that suggested a dark past.
The man's jaw was clenched. It had been days and he was no closer to his destination— king Greed's palace— than when he'd started out. But I will get there. For her, for my brother, for meHe clutched at an amulet circled around his neck and continued walking in quickened strides.
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Ed's POVHe was the most noticeable one there, with his resolute, amethyst eyes, pretty features, and his cloud of long, dark hair, but that didn't mean he would get chosen. Ed had started sweating. What if Envy didn't make it in? The slave market was large, and Envy wasn't really anything special. There were many people here selling human goods (Ed wanted to gag, but that wouldn't fit in with his master role), many claiming to have captured royalty or other important people from faraway lands for the king's enjoyment and honor. What a bunch of phonies…
But how do we compare against them?
Envy's POVEnvy saw his master's nervous look, and had given him a haughty smirk and mouthed for him not to be an idiot, that he knew what to say. The woman who was judging the slaves on the huge, theater-like stand had already gotten rid of perhaps five hundred of slaves, leaving less than a hundred left, and he had a good chance against most of the fools that were left. He couldn't help but be disgusted by her apparel: it was a showy ballroom dress, with many layers in it and covered with a cloud of bright silk and other expensive cloths— typical of a noblewoman, especially in a crowd of lowly slaves.
But there was something about her that caught his eye—something familiar… he took a moment to carefully scrutinize her features, ignoring the dress and concentrating instead on her face, her body, her movements... She had dark, glossy hair, pale, creamy skin, a slender figure— and violet eyes. Envy's eyes widened. It was too much of a coincidence. She resembled— well, him.Suddenly, he remembered those features. They hadn't changed a bit, despite the years that had passed. He clenched his fists, keeping his eyes on the woman, and growled, "Dante…"
"Don't worry, Mommy's going to get you soon. Be a good boy and wait here."
"Okay."
He had waited for her. He'd waited like the fool he was. He'd have even waited for days on end if the owner of the whorehouse hadn't taken him in and made a prostitute of him, had told him the truth of where his mother had gone and why she'd left him there, all alone in a miserable place that would ensure that he was alive, the absolute least any mother could do, was obligated to do. His lips curled as he thought bitterly, Oh yes, she left me alive. I'm so very grateful for that.
A child had been waiting in the dark, waiting for light to spill on him again, waiting in tense silence for his sense of unreasonable fear and anguish to be dulled as the person he recognized, the person he trusted, the person he loved, would pick him up and murmur soothing endearments in his ear, telling him not to be afraid, telling him that everything would be alright. That child had waited forever, maturing into a man who had ceased waiting and had been left only anger and despair. And she still never came.
Envy remembered the childish words that he would ask to someone who wasn't there, every night he'd cried himself to sleep. "Mommy, where are you? When are you coming?"
Well, I'm gonna be giving a bit of the hell I suffered to you, Mother.
The selection went on.
Ed's POVHe wanted Al there. Al had always been there, backing him up, providing a quiet sense of comfort in his bad times, giving him strength, and it felt strange, almost wrong for Al not to be there. Take me, don't take him, he didn't deserve anything…
There were now less than thirty people left, and this was where they really got to be picky. The fancy, young-to-middle-aged woman was now two people away from Envy, who had tensed and was casting dangerously murderous glances her way. Ed noticed that his fists were clenched, and he seemed to be fighting violent urges. Whoa. Does he know her or something?
If he does, that must be one hell-of-a grudge he's got…
Like me and Tou-san.
"Hohenheim…"
He'd been a complete bastard and Ed had never liked him. Whenever he got back from one of his long "business trips," which usually took longer than two months (one of them had taken him nearly a year), he would greet the family as though he actually knew them well, as though he'd never been away. Playing the perfect father when he was never around to be needed. It made him so frustrated. Neither his mother nor Al had noticed— well, they knew never to mention Hohenheim's name in his presence, but they both welcomed Hohenheim warmly whenever he came back, both pretended that there was nothing bad about his utter lack of a fatherly figure in his sons' lives. The only thing that ever prevented him from punching the man's face in was the fact that his mother loved his father and he respected his mother's wishes.
And now, his father had been away for over two years, with no word to tell his family of his doings, to soften his mother's growing look of anxiety and her awkward smiles that scarcely served to disguise her concern, to just tell them that he was alright. "Not like I care," Ed muttered under his breath. It was the rest of the family that cared.
"What's your name, boy?"
Ed's head snapped up. The woman was now before Envy, who had stiffened completely before coolly replying, "Envy. Ma'am."
Envy… I don't think that attitude's going to get you in… but because of it, Envy had just indirectly told Ed that he did know the woman. She didn't appear to recognize him though. Both of them were eye to eye, leveling each other up, studying the other's expression.The woman abruptly smiled and told him, "You're in."
She then gave him a nasty look and said, "King Greed likes the spirited ones. He'll have you down on your knees before you know it."
"You're sold, boy."
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Alphonse Elric had been moved from his solitary jail to one with two people already occupying it. It was a crude sort of chamber, but the place looked fitter for living than the dungeon he was in before. It was still gloomy and dark, but at least it wasn't cold.
One of his roommates, a dark-skinned woman with a long curtain of wavy, dark hair and reddish eyes looked at him, with more sympathy than curiosity. She asked him throatily, "Where're you from?"
Al didn't suppose it could've hurt to tell her, especially being the trusting person he was, so he answered, "Risembool. It's pretty far from here."
The woman's full lips turned upwards, and she told him quietly, "I've heard of it. This isn't my native land. I come from the Ishbal. You do know where that is, right?"
Ishbal? The place the military is at war with right now? Al decided not to ask and told her brightly, "Yeah. My name is Alphonse Elric. What's yours?"
A higher voice from behind him giggled. "You really are new, if you still have your real name."
A young boy emerged from behind a curtain and grinned at Al. He had long black hair and bright blue eyes, with an innocent sort of face that didn't quite suit his surroundings. The woman silenced him with a warning look. She then turned to Al and told him with a piercing gaze, "They call me Lust."
The boy's grin turned wider as he said, "And I'm Wrath. King Greed likes to call us by the Seven Deadly Sins. You'd be fit for Sloth or Pride, I think."
He laughed, and Lust told him to hush again. Al thought that the boy was a little out-of-line and too cheerful for someone who was in a place like this, but then, who was he to judge? There were many different kinds of people in the world. He asked them, "Are you two prisoners?"
Lust stared at him for a while, silent, and he was about to take back his question when she answered, in a whisper, "We're all prisoners… I hear a new one is coming in with us today…"
Alphonse didn't know how to respond to that, which was just as well, because Lust was had turned silent. He backed against a corner and pulled his arms around his legs in a half-crouching, half-fetal position. He wasn't cold anymore, but he still felt alone and lost without his brother.
Nii-san…please come soon…
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.:Tsuzuku:.
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A/N: Sorry if it's shorter than normal and if I made mistakes I shouldn't have. It's really late right now and I can't really concentrate… but I wanted to update, cause I took a long time for this chapter.
Dedicated to Isisoftheunderground for getting the incorrect sentence right! You get a cookie for reviewing all four chapters within a day of when they each were updated xD.
-3- And thank you to everyone else who reviewed! 3
envylover1414: Aw, thanks. Yeah, school is a bummer…
Zeila E: Zeila! Hi! Um… I might update my other stories… if I get writer's block on this story… it's not that likely to be anytime soon though, so, sorry. And yeah, I noticed the two paragraphs… it wasn't my fault, honestly, it was fanfictiondotnet's! Seems that every time I edit and save the document, random two words get mashed together. This time I edited it either two or three times, so I guess that's the reason.
Inuyasha loves sake: Hm. I should do that (did). Thanks for the suggestion.
xtormentedxkitsunex: ehh, he didn't want Ed to put them on for him and he thought that they were going to leave right away and not later in the day? It's probably one of the many faults with my writing… no, I don't think it was your English, that part of the chapter itself was slightly confusing.
kiellne: (coughs) yes, yes he was a kid. You'll see about Greed… and by the way, take a look at my rating. Although it is "yaoi", it's a bit tilting more to shounen-ai; I don't think there's going to be any actual lemon, because even though I've read some, it takes skill to make it both satisfying and not repulsive, plus, though I did make inferences, I don't like writing lemon in detail (actually, that's just my excuse for it; I've never tried writing lemon before ) maybe I should…?). This story was some sort of experiment of mine, trying to see just how daring I can be when venturing in the dark side of things. If you take a look at my other stories (which you probably won't, considering they're Tamora Pierce and Yu Yu Hakusho), you'd see that I write with a less dark tone. But anyways, thanks for reviewing.
PS: You could just get AIM for free without AOL. I use Mozilla FireFox.
Maruken: Aw, it's okay if you reviewed late. Oh yeah, I got your snake reference. So you like (there's ten letters in this), eh? It's okay, lots of people like him… even though he's an evil bastard, like Envy, he's still a cool evil bastard. I prefer evil bastards like Itachi, though. Did you know that in the manga, Scar was the one who killed Winry's parents and not Roy? I actually prefer the anime's version of things, because it gives Roy all the more reason to hate the Fuhrer, but the manga rocks too. The two have clashing storylines, though, so it's better to look at them separately. Oh, and you just gave me some ideas with your questions about everything. I really appreciate all of your awesome comments, so thanks!
Tennis-tensai: you shouldn't put yourself down like that, I appreciate all reviews xD. Especially with all the people in the world who read and don't review.