"What do you think, Envy?"

Kimblee held out his hands, revealing the arrays tattooed on his palms. He was immensely proud of them; of course, these were only a prototype- these were only temporary: something to work out the bugs in his plan. But still, he'd spent months on creating these, refining their design thousands of times.

Envy traced one of the tattoos with a finger, staring at them bemusedly. "Didn't think you were the type, Crimson. Although the design's pretty." They chuckled. "What's next? A butterfly on your neck?"

Kimblee raised an eyebrow- Envy obviously hadn't understood the purpose of his months of work. "They're not a fashion statement," he said. "These are arrays that I've designed. When I clap them together, the two combine and form an explosive reaction that I can use as a weapon."

Envy shook their head, still chuckling, flopping down onto the couch. "That's cute. But you don't need a weapon when you've got me- Invidia, the city's-"

"-most wondrous, most magnificent, most glorious hero," finished Kimblee, saying the words in a sing-song tone. He sat down next to Envy's head on the tiny section of couch left uncovered by their sprawling body. "A hero that hurts themselves so often and so carelessly that they need my services almost constantly." He looked down on Envy, slowly running a hand through their hair. "I really can't rely on you, m'dear. Self-reliance is key."

"Yeah, yeah." Envy stared up at the ceiling. "Speaking of… got anything for me?"

He should have known that it wouldn't take them long to get to business. "Just a Stone," he said, pulling the glittering red object from his pocket. "Don't use it all in one place, please; I do worry about you hurting yourself beyond recovery. They're getting harder to make, but I've made the formula more efficient at least."

Envy didn't move from where they lay, reaching behind their head for the Stone. Kimblee let them fumble about without success for a minute or so, then relented, slipping the Stone into Envy's hand.

Envy held the stone up the light, turning it, letting the light pass through and dapple the room with broken shards of colour. "Good. This is good. You're amazing."

Kimblee smirked, but shrugged with as much modesty as he could muster. "I try my very best."

Envy slid off of the couch. "You never fail me, Crimson. I'll tell Father to give you a raise, or something…"

"Oh, no, no," said Kimblee, looking down, adjusting his tie. "The pleasure is all mine. But I need to apply it-"

Well, drat. They'd already left, the air-headed thing- and left the door open, too! Ah well; they would be back soon; they wouldn't get far without having that Stone added to their strength.

Really, though, he didn't need a raise or anything of the kind- although he could, of course, make good use of any extra resources that he was given. Envy's approval was the greatest reward that he could ask for- and their condescension the most severe punishment.

A/N: Erm... the beginning of a Superhero AU? Kind of? This was originally pretty Spider-Man inspired, where Envy was essentially Spidey and Kimblee was M.J, all because I had the idea of Kimblee and Envy in an office setting, with Kimblee raving about how this superhero had saved him yet again, and how they were the most amazing thing, and Envy is gritting their teeth the whole time trying to keep from letting their secret identity be known... but Kimblee has wound up being the sidekick/scientist "friend" instead.

I stole the name "Invidia" from a Kimvy fic called "Many Kinds of Monsters;" (which I didn't read much of- it got very smutty very fast and I can't really handle that...) it's the Latin word used to refer to the concept of envy in Catholic Christianity, as well as the Roman name for the Greek goddess Nemesis. I really like that name for Envy, and thought that it would make a neat superhero name.

Thank you so much for reading!