"When I die, I'll be… consoled, I suppose, by the fact that I'm the only one who will ever understand you."
It's dark in the prison cell; it's lit only by a lone torch in the hallway, and by a sliver of moonlight spilling in through the tiny window on the upper corner of the cell's back wall. It's hard to see Kimblee, but Envy fixes their glare upon what they can make out, on the pale blue eyes that shine in the dark. "Do you always have to start off that way?"
"What way?" He sounds amused–he knows very well what way, and it's cruel of him to purposely put them on edge.
"'When I die…' Like that. You don't need to start off like that."
"I'm trying to get you used to the idea," Kimblee says calmly, sitting up from where he's been lying on his wooden 'bed' that juts out from the wall. "Because that's probably one of the few things that worries me–what's going to happen to you after I do."
"You're a fool." Envy will never let him die; they need him too much for that to happen. But Envy says the words halfheartedly. "Anyway," they say casually, readjusting their position on the cold hard floor. "You don't know that much."
"Have you seen my notebooks? I know more than anybody else does."
Envy has seen them… if 'seen' is the right word for it. With that kind of detailed information that's contained in Kimblee's notebooks, Envy should have destroyed them long ago, or never allowed Kimblee to write it at all. But they were flattered at the time, that Kimblee would have such a scientific interest, and let him, and even encouraged him to write his observations down. Envy likes reading them now, where they stored them in Kimblee's house (somebody has to take care of the place, after all, until Kimblee's allowed to return there); it's the next-best thing to visiting him in person (or perhaps better; it's… difficult seeing him brought this low, at times).
The pages bring back memories of a better time. Envy enjoys seeing the straight lines in Kimblee's handwriting on the early pages, remembering the quiet, withdrawn, scientific young man who so cautiously asked them questions to sate his curiosity. They like even better the pages near the end, before he'd been arrested; they like the scrawling handwriting, and the nearly frantic, private outpourings of emotion, lacking the pretense of science that the earlier pages had assumed.
"I've seen them," Envy admits with a shrug, allowing a shadow of a grin to cross their face. "Fine. You know a lot. But not everything."
"It's impossible to know everything about you." In the dark, Envy sees Kimblee's smile match their own. "I know that I don't know everything," he says, "but I want to learn more. Someday I'll fully understand you."
"I doubt it." But they'd love it if he did. "Nobody else will ever come close, anyway. Not even my siblings, or even my father. Nobody else cares enough to try."
"Or, you never let anybody else."
"Maybe. But nobody else is worth letting in."
Kimblee just smiles in reply. His eyes look so beautiful when he smiles; it's something almost, but not quite, like the emotion in them that would appear after he'd heard a particularly satisfying answer to a question, years ago, in the midnight Ishvalan desert. Envy wishes that he'd smile more often. Envy, too, has things to learn about him: what triggers the smiling, what makes him laugh… they have vague ideas about each, but never anything concrete, not like what Kimblee has down in his journals. Kimblee has Envy down to a science, and they'd… almost like to accomplish that as well, to have a notebook somewhere, with poems and observations and other nonsense that only Kimblee is allowed to read, and only he understands…
Of course, that idea will probably disappear from Envy's mind before they do anything about it. But it's a pleasant thought, even if it never develops beyond that.
"I'll understand you someday, too," Envy says suddenly. "Figure out what makes you tick."
"I'm flattered," says Kimblee, smiling again, "although you've really drawn most of it out already."
That can't be true. Of course, he's human, and Envy knows all about those; there's nothing unique to note down in the way that Kimblee dutifully took note of Envy's nature, and creation, and what keeps them alive, and other such boring details of their existence. But in terms of what makes Kimblee himself…
"Oh, you're too modest," Envy says, standing up from the prison floor, pressing a kiss to Kimblee's grimy forehead before they can convince themself not to. "There's so much more to you than what I know."
"Oh, my dear, you say the nicest things," says Kimblee laughingly, but Envy feels his face grow warmer, ever-so-slightly. Excellent. He likes those little compliments, being told that he's different, unique, unfathomable. Now Envy knows this for certain, and that's the first thing they'll write down.
A/N: Another Tumblr prompt, this time for the phrase "They may not understand you, but I do." I wanted to try out yet another AU... they're usually so in-denial for me, but I really did want to try out making them seem a little more in-love. I suppose each universe depends on how much they actually work out in Ishval, before Kimblee goes to prison (if he does); if Envy can get over their hatred of all human-kind (or at least accept Kimblee as an exception) early enough, then there's more chance for a happy ending, and they have worked out a lot of their issues already here-although, as they said, there's still a lot more for them to understand about each other, regardless of the universe it takes place in. Although this is different from the tone that I usually write in (at least to me), this is really what I wanted to write and to read-I hope that's not too offputting!
Sorry for the long a/n; thank you so much for reading!