AnimeDutchess : ...
...DUDE! awesome! please update again soon!
Shadows Child Kataki : Update soon! Update soon! I'm lovin' this!
Esplodin' Ookami : OH MY GOD! This is so funny! Edo's a wee bit jealous of kitty, eh? XD
I like it. please continue!
Ambroisine: Aww, someway that all sounded kind of cute - I mean...aww... It would be nice to see what's going to happen next.
Me: Wow! Thanks, guys! I didn't expect this at all! XD
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The next hour was spent explaining. The next hour after that was spent trying to stop Winry from being afraid of Envy. And the hour after that was finally spent feeding Envy and dodging his humiliated insults.
"So it's agreed..." Ed was saying. He was sitting on Pinako's countertop, leaning against the wall with his legs crossed, watching Envy gulp down endless bowls of tempura rice that Winry had pulled out of the fridge. "We'll call him-" He nodded towards Envy, who hadn't spoken for almost ten minutes. "-Invidia...right?"
"Yeah." Winry said. She had gotten over how disgusting it had been that Envy had been licking her face and was scratching him at the scruff of the neck. "So if we accidentally start to call him Envy...we can catch ourselves. Env-idia. INV-idia. Sounds almost the same, doesn't it?"
"It IS the same." Envy said gruffly. He licked rice from his whiskers and looked up. "Envidia is just spelled with an E. They're promounced exactly the same way."
"No, you can defiantely hear the 'E' in there if you listen hard." Al said, leaning against the wall and tossing an apple from one hand to the other.
Envy shrugged, and went back to the food. The rice wasn't bad..it was somthing he hadn't had before. He yawned, and shook his head. He looked up past Edward and out the window. He could barely see the stars, sparkling out there like diamonds. He suddenly jumped. "O'Chibi-san! What time is it?"
Ed looked at the clock, then jumped as well. "SHIT!" He yelped. "Midnight!" He leapt off the counter, almost landed on Envy, who hissed and jumped out of the way, and ran out of the room. Envy, Al, and Winry followed hurriedly, Envy in the lead.
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Lust was waiting. She was perched on the tree outside the den window, looking agitated.
"About time." She said, leaping from the tree to the windowsill. She clambered in gracefully and came to rest on the couch. Envy leapt up to join her, and he allowed her to pet him again. Full of rice and noodles, Envy had finally become docile and content. Physically, anyways. He had been spitting insults at Edward and Al since 9:30. It seemed that he was comfortable only near Winry.
Winry didn't mind. She sat on the windowsill after Lust had gotten out of the way, and watched the scene unfold.
"Why is she here?" Lust asked quietly, nodding towards Winry.
"She knows...it's okay." Envy said. Lust ran her left hand through Envy's hair and ran her hand all the way down to the base of his tail, where she paused and scratched for a couple seconds. Envy gave a low moan of longing.
"Don't get too used to it, Envy." Lust muttered. "I won't be giving you this favor when you're human again."
"Then why do you do it now?"
"It's a natural habit to pet a cat, sorry."
"Oh..." Envy said. "Come on..." He said mischeviously. "This is the first time you've wanted to touch me everywhere and I can't enjoy it properly!"
Lust giggled despite herself. "Okay...how's this-When you're human again, I'll stroke your hair once in a while."
Envy grinned. "Deal."
"Ahem..." Edward said, narrowing his eyes angrily. "Can we get started here? Or are you two guys going to keep yammeling?"
Envy's hackles raised, and he growled. "Be quiet, Fullmetal runt."
Ed's eye twitched as his face reddened, but he said nothing for fear of waking Pinako. All he did was flip Envy the finger, and sit back against the wall.
"So how did she find out?" Lust said quietly, nodding at Winry.
Envy hung his head and Ed sniggered. "Envy was just...uh..following his feline instincts...and..uhm..." He fumbled, trying to step over the words and push his laughter away.
"I chased an apple. Are you happy?" Envy said dangerously, wrinkling his nose in displeasure. "Fucker. This is all your fault in the first place."
Ed sniffed. "No it's not. You attacked me to begin with. If you hadn'tve tried to get my..." His face turned into one of shock. "Where...where is my watch?"
Envy blinked. He had forgotten all about the watch. "Uh. Hm, well, that's a problem, there, isn't it?"
Ed curled his hands into fists. "Great. Great...this..." He began to laugh humorlessly. "This is just great, isn't it? Just PERFECT." He said, his voice rising to a manic pitch. "I have to take care of an overgrown pussy-cat, while dealing with the fact that YOU," he pointed flamoyantly at Lust, "are going to keep popping up everywhere, and NOW my State Certification is gone! This is WONDERFUL!"
"Ed, keep your voice down." Winry hissed, making flapping gestures with her hands to indicate lowered volume. "Do you want to wake Grandma up?"
Ed grit his teeth, and curled his lip contemptuously. "When I make you human again..." He hissed at Envy. "I promise you... I WILL beat the shit out of you and laugh." He stood up, and strode across the room. He slammed the door, and his boots were heard thumping down the hallway.
"That little snot." Lust muttered. "I suppose the rest of you can go. I want to talk to Envy alone for a minute." She motioned to the door. Winry blinked, and followed Ed out the room without saying anything. Al paused at the door, then turned.
"Remember to keep quiet." He warned, before gently shutting the door behind him.
Lust was silent for a minute, then said, "Don't be afraid of them, Envy."
"I'm not afraid of those little bast-"
"Not them. Your instincts, Envy."
Envy faltered, and blinked. "...but...It's so unnatural..." He curled his lip and cringed. "I mean...I can't even use my hands. I keep wanting to lick myself." He shuddered. "In the most unnatural of places, too."
Lust nodded, and put her hand on his head. "Don't worry about them. They're natural to you now. Accept them. Don't fear them. Don't let the Full Metal runt get to you."
Envy sighed. "You're right." He stood up and leapt off the couch. "Tomrorrow at midnight...?"
Lust nodded again. "Yes. I shall see you then.." She scrambled out the window and disappeared into the night.
Envy looked after her retreating form, feeling a disgusting urge to follow. His shoulders sloped, and he wandered out into the hallway, where he paced back and forth for about an hour.
How had he gotten himself into this mess? It wasn't his own fault, was it? He didn't even know he could BECOME a chimera...it was a strange predicament. He creaked past Pinako's door, and glanced at it. He made his way down into the kitchen again. Winry had cleaned up the vinegar he had spilled earlier.
His stomach growled. He supposed his appetite would have grown drastically since his feline transformation. He didn't even need to eat when he was a homunculus. But now the cat inside him needed the food that he so badly desired. He was slightly surprised that he was hungry again, after eating the rice that Winry had fixed.
He remembered about the apple that was still in the dining room. He padded towards the door and nudged it open with his nose. The dining room was pitch black. His vision wasn't sharp and clear, like an actual cat's would be. He could see faint, blurry outlines of things in front of him. The apple stood underneath Pinako's chair. He reached for it and batted it towards his waiting mouth.
He ate it in silence, thinking about his predicament. It was certainly a strange one.
He didn't know when he fell asleep. But he woke up underneath a bed. He'd wandered in here in the middle of the night and hidden himself in the dark to sleep. Blinking, his eyes adjusted to the darkness surrounding him. A thin stripe of light formed the perimeter of his prison, and he could see feet going past his eyes. He heard Winry's voice humming to herself as drawers opened and shut somewhere above him. He scootched forward so that his nose just barely poked out from the bed, as he watched Winry...get dressed.
His eyes grew wide as he watched her undress, the cat in him willing his interests away from the sight of a half-nude Winry Rockbell, the homunculus part of him wanting to jump up and down waving a pompop and a foam finger, yelling, "wHOOOOO!" But another small part inside of him commanded his body to just stay, watch, and be silent. This was an experience that he'd probably never get to take part in again, and he needed to do it delicately, without her knowing.
The pajama bottoms were inches from his snout. He knew he could grab them in an instant and make a cuddly rag from them, but he decided not to.
When Winry left her bedroom several minutes later, Envy was purring happily. He made his way down to the kitchen, where the smell of eggs and bacon made him shiver in delight. His mind, however, was still on the sight of Winry. A bland, unfocused look was on his face as he entered the warm kitchen. He didn't even mind when Pinako reached down and batted him away from the stove with a spatula.
Envy was distracted by the sound of voices coming from the dining room. He pushed the door open with his nose and sauntered in, glancing briefly at Winry. She was talking to Ed, who was chewing on a strip of bacon. The smell made Envy realize how hungry he was.
He gave a long, drawn out "Mrrrrrow!" as he seated himself at Ed's feet, pushing on the chair leg with his paw. Ed knew what Envy wanted.
"Env-idia! Nice to see you've finally gotten your lazy arse out of bed and come down." Ed said blatantly, taking another bite of bacon.
Envy furrowed his brow and meowed again.
"For the love of god, Edward, give him something!" Winry spoke up angrily, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at the alchemist.
Ed shrugged. "I'm waiting for him to ask." He said with a cynical tone.
Winry sighed and took a peice of bacon off of her plate. She dropped it on the floor for Envy, who hurried over to her and chomped on the bacon almost at once.
"Stop being so mean to him.." She said quietly, also dropping a peice of toast. "It's not his fault..."
Ed huffed and shook his hair out of his face. "You spoil him..."
Pinako tromped inside, a bowl in one hand and a plate in the other. "Here's some more bacon.." She said, placing the plate on the table. "And that's for you, cat." She put the bowl down. Envy hurried over to it.
Tuna fish...'delicious.' Envy sniffed in distaste but ate it, feeling his stomach convulse in disgust. The texture was horrible. So mushy.
"I want you to put him outside for the rest of the day, Ed." Pinako ordered, nodding at the cat. "I don't want him crapping in the house."
Envy narrowed his eyes and sniffed angrily. 'Witch...'
"I'll put him outside as soon as breakfast is done." Ed said, shrugging.
"No, Ed, I want him out NOW." Pinako said firmly, pointing at the door. Ed got up, sighed, and opened the door. Envy streaked past, glad for a romp outside.