By: Minuiko
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Chapter 6&
Alphonse woke up to blinding light spilling into the dark room. "Nnnf…?" He groped around for some kind of support, walls, anything, and sat up, rubbing his eyes. How long had he been asleep? His hazel eyes fixed on the bright light source: it came from outside. It was amazing, really, how a dark room could feel like eternal night even when it was broad daylight outside.
The light was temporarily blocked as a dark, chained figure lumbered into the room. A guard roughly shoved the long-haired, notably male person into the room, barking a command to "stay there, you filthy whore!" The boy stood, unflinching, as the door slammed shut. A silence followed, leaving Alphonse thinking, Lust-san was right, there is a new person in here with us…
The dark-haired boy studied the room, his right hand on his slender hip; his lips slowly transformed into a taunting smirk as his violet eyes landed on Alphonse. "Yo," he called, "Alphonse Elric, right? Golden Boy Edward's little bro?"
Alphonse blinked. "Wha…? … yes…"
"Thought so," the other boy said with another smirk. He crouched, his eye level with Al's (who was sitting cross-legged). "That makes my job all that much easier. Your absolute genius of an older brother was sure you were in the dungeons somewhere, getting beaten up on and god knows what."
There was no missing the obvious sarcasm in that voice, and Alphonse defended his brother, "Well, he was mostly right. I was in the dungeon, yesterday and the day before. I don't know why they moved me, but…"
Wait, he knows Ed, so that means… Al's eyes widened, hopeful, as he asked, "You were sent to get me?"
"That's a brilliant deduction, Smart One," the boy taunted. "Why else do you think I know Edward no o-chibi-san?"
Al couldn't deny that his brother was short, and this boy didn't seem to pose a threat— he was here to rescue him, after all— so he didn't tell him to knock it off, merely that he shouldn't say that when Ed wasn't there— there was no one to get a rise out of. Alphonse sat up in a more comfortable position, rubbing his now-numb thighs as he asked, "What's your name?"
The boy rubbed the back of his neck as he grimaced and replied, "Envy."
Al's eyebrow raised quizzically as he thought, Was he named before or after he was bought? Envy is another one of the Seven that Lust-san mentioned, and… well, it would be rude to ask. But it is quite a coincidence. Envy was still crouching, though this time his eyes were closed. "I want to ask you something."
"Ne?"
"Do you trust Ed?"
Alphonse felt that the question was ridiculous. How could he not? "Of course I do!" he responded, feeling slightly annoyed that Envy had to ask something like that. It wasn't any of his business, and even if it was, he should've known the answer already! Ed was his brother, for crying out loud!
Envy made a small guttural sound, which may have been either agreement or disbelief. He inspected Al's face, as though merely curious about his answer. "Why?"
Because he exists. Because he's Edward Elric. Because his hair's blonde like mine and his eyes are a shade of gold lighter than but essentially similar to mine. Because I love him... I'd always wondered what it really meant to say, "I love you." Would we die for each other? I don't know about that, but at least I know that we can live for each other. He's my brother, and he's like a best friend to me. I wouldn't trust anyone else. Al matched Envy's gaze with his own fiercer version of it and said simply, "Because he's Nii-san."
Envy's eyes had a certain emotion in them— a mix of pain and approval— as he breathed softly, with a light chuckle, "Just because you do, huh? You're naïve. Innocent. Stupid. Perhaps that's for the best."
Stupid…? Alphonse thought, perplexed and perhaps a little insulted, but not enough to snap back. Stupid for believing in Nii-san? Why? Why shouldn't I?
"Do you, Envy-san?"
Envy blinked, looking bewildered. "Do I…?"
"Do you trust him?"
He didn't answer for a moment, then grinned boyishly, resembling Ed for a moment – that's not good, Ed always does that when he's keeping something from me — and flicked his finger and thumb at Al's forehead, saying, "That's for me to know and for you to find out. If we get out of here alive."
That was altogether too blunt, but Al appreciated the fact that Envy wasn't treating him like a kid, that he wasn't keeping their status away from him. Another voice greeted them with a low mumble.
"Envy?"
Wrath had awaken, yawning slightly, and was looking bleary-eyed at Envy, who raised his eyebrow. Wrath grinned, his speech slightly slurred since he'd just woken up. "That's perfect. Now all we need is Pride, Sloth, and Gluttony, and we're set." He laughed, then amended, "Actually, we only need two more people, cause Alphonse here is gonna be one of the three."
Still too happy, thought Al. Envy stared at the strange boy and looked slightly are-you-crazy-or-what and looked like he was about ask Alphonse to verify what the hell Wrath was saying before the prison door opened yet again. "You. The new prisoner. The king wants to see you."
"You mean me or him?" Alphonse had only been brought there a few hours ago, give or take a few minutes. Envy was grinning, deliberately taunting the guard, who was as stoic and unfazed as the one who was guarding Alphonse's door two days back.
"The new slave. Envy. Get out. That's an order."
He sighed, and got up slowly, slowly enough to wear out the guard's patience. The guard didn't move, but Alphonse thought he saw his hand shaking slightly, a sign of impatience or anger. He grinned. Envy was good at this. Finally, he exited the door, head held high. He looked back once and mouthed, Just wait for me. Alphonse lifted his chin to show that he understood.
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"Piece of shit," Ed commented, looking at a new automail part Winry was banging on. Winry looked up from her work, blinking in irritation, and snapped at him, "What's gotten into you?"
"Nothing."
"Didn't things go as planned?"
"Yes," he answered dully. When he was younger, he'd occasionally found it amusing to pretend he was a master and Al was a slave, mockingly snapping an invisible whip and telling Al to run faster, and when Al stumbled onto him on purpose, telling him that he was a stupid jerk, they would laugh it off together. But he didn't like what was in store for Envy back at the palace. Envy was a whore. The king would do this… and that… and maybe even that… His mind was being supplied with extremely unpleasant images, and he didn't like it one bit.
"Is this about Envy?"
Ed snapped up, meeting Winry's blue eyes, muttering, "…how'd you guess…?"
"Women know all," she replied, ignoring his sarcasm. "You're getting too attached to him when you know that when you let him go, he'll be gone from your life forever."
Ed snapped, "What the hell do you mean by "too attached"? What makes you think I'm getting attached to the little freak?"
She answered smoothly, "It's a good thing he's not here right now cause if he was, you'd be in big trouble, Ed. You call people things you don't mean when you're bothered by something."
Ed's metal hand found his way to his hair yet again, an action he found he was doing a lot nowadays. It was one of those unconscious things that relieved stress for absolutely no reason at all. "What do you know?"
Winry was one of his closest friends, though he'd never admit it to here in person— she was like a sister to him, was one of the people he'd do anything to protect, but that he'd kept secrets from so that they wouldn't get hurt. He knew that though her face remained passive, he was hurting her right now, but he really couldn't care less at the moment. She smiled. "You like him."
"Where the hell do you get off saying that? And I'm not a fag!"
She was used to his language; besides, she used foul enough terms herself. But it wasn't like he hadn't thought about liking Envy himself, and his answer was NO, he didn't. He'd thought about how he'd acted with Envy before— nice, but in a friends-only, hands-off way. The only thing that crossed the line was the scene at the riverside, and he'd already concluded that the near-kiss was an accident, he wasn't himself, he'd wanted to feel someone's touch since Al wasn't there to provide it, he was not romantically interested! Winry was still smiling that annoyingly superior smile, and wagged her finger at him. "I saw that little scene at the riverside, you can't fool me, Ed. You like him, and you're going to admit it, right here, right now."
"No fucking way."
She looked disgusted. "Boys. They know what they want and the instant it's discussed seriously, they back away like they'd never wanted it. I swear, they're such cowards."
"That's not going to work on me, Winry."
She blinked innocently. "What? I'm not trying anything. I'm just stating a fact. You're the one not being honest with yourself." She grinned. "I should've taken a picture of you right then and there when you were about to kiss him. You looked so— interested in him that it wasn't even funny."
"Just get off my case," he grumbled. Women. They'd never change their opinions once they've come to their own conclusion. It wouldn't do any good to argue with Winry. She'd already gotten it into her head that Ed liked Envy. Which he didn't. Like she said. As soon as Envy was free, he was gone, right? There. End of story. Nothing more to say.
Except…somehow… why don't I want him to go?
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"The riots are getting worse," Riza Hawkeye commented in a perfect monotone, eyeing a report she held in her hand. Roy had his forefinger to his temple, which meant he was already irritated. He sat up in his chair, asking in an attempt at a casual voice, "Fullmetal hasn't reported yet?"
"No, sir."
The phone rang. "Colonel Mustang reporting."
"Roy! My daughter is turning three next week!" There were kissing sounds in the background. Roy pictured a little heart appearing magically on top of Maes Hughes's head before stamping it out of his mind in irritation— he was annoyed enough already— and growled as Hughes plowed on, not taking the hint. "Oh yes, and I'm planning on—"
"Maes!" He yelled into the phone. "Some of us have work to do!"
"Yes, but Elysia wants a teddy bear, and I was thinking that—"
"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes. King Greed is attacking our border checkpoint. We're bordering on war here and all you can think about is you daughter's birthday?"
He slammed the phone down. It didn't matter if he offended Maes, he knew he would be forgiven. The other man was like that. He began massaging his forehead. He wasn't in the mood for Hughes' rants about his daughter. And he didn't think anyone else was either. Riza brushed past him and told him, "Colonel, please use the phone quietly."
He ignored her and muttered, "If Edward doesn't report soon…"
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Envy couldn't see the king's face, only his mouth. He was in the shadows of his throne. He was dressed in a fur-bearing black overcoat, rather unconventional for a king, but a hell-of-a-lot-better than stereotypical kings with huge white beards, a potbelly, and red fur capes. Envy could see that he was young, perhaps thirty at most, and he was extremely well built too, with arms that could crush him had he wanted to kill him; Envy wasn't jealous, only wary. A slave wasn't given enough free time to get a proper work out, and whores weren't meant to be muscular. The old master had tried to get his form as feminine as possible.
It wasn't quite the time to speculate on how the king appeared, especially when his mouth turned up into a wide, cruel grin. He could tell that Greed was sadistic, powerful, greedy, and that he would, as Dante said, bring him to his knees. Envy didn't back down. He would do as he was ordered to do. And he would save Alphonse. And then he could kiss Edward's ass good-bye and find a way to get to Dante. Even so, Envy couldn't help but give an involuntary shiver as Greed spoke.
"Envy… welcome."
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.:Tsuzuku:.
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A/N: Okay. I'm taking a vote. Who wants lemon in this story?
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Zeila E: Ha! First Reviewer! Anyway, sankyuu for the comment anyway, and it's okay that you didn't criticize, and yeah, I know what you wrote on your bio, but I was just going into a rant about what I found worthy to be "OMG'd" at in HP6, at that particular moment, not that I missed anything in the book ;D.
Kireishi aka kari: NO! DID YOU JUST DISS HARRY POTTER? WHADDYOU MEAN, "STUPID BOOK"? (coughsandisoverreacting)… but seriously. You don't read HP? YOU! EVIL PERSON! (mauls you)
TheRealInuYasha: Thank you for the review! And for getting obsessed (EnvyEd rocks). And HP6 also kicked major ass. I WANT 7! 6 had such an unsatisfying ending, even if it was good.
Kiellne: Hmm… I'll think about that. I'll probably e-mail it to you or something if I make it (looks at your bio for your e-mail), but you'll probably be one of the few who read it (btw, it'll be a completely separate story) because my friends don't quite know how twisted up I am yet (only my close ones do). By the way, I'm really kind of too young to write lemon (cough don't lose your faith in me yet! cough). But I might try xD.
Envy's slave girl: Ummmm…. Whatever I told Kiellne. And I get the detail part, but about the lemon, please don't push me into using lemon, yet. I'm still an author!virgin. Meaning that although I've lost my innocence long ago, I still haven't written or done anything yet. Get my meaning? ;
Isisoftheunderground: I was wondering why you hadn't reviewed for two days, but this is a legitimate reason. Anyways, thanks!