Envy took a menu from the stand on the table, flicking it over immediately to the dessert page. To their left, the Cretian countryside rushed by, fields and forests appearing like paintings from the window in the dining car of the train. They were seated with Kimblee at a couple's table in first class, their fare and a degree of respect paid for by false coins, alchemical counterfeits made from silverware. Alchemy as a whole was a much less developed science in Creta than in Amestris, and so the forgery was very simple. It was a wonderful place to take advantage of.

The finely dressed (but ugly) hostess in the dining car was staring at Envy sideways, turning her head so it was not obvious that she was observing openly, as good servants were trained to. What had drawn her attention? They looked the way they liked, with the long green hair and violet eyes, but they had changed their clothes some, giving themself a black jacket and long pants. But the jacket was unzipped and underneath it their top was as it usually was, and so from some angles the hard white flesh of their belly was visible- and of course, they were barefoot on the plush carpeted floor. Maybe it was these things, or maybe it was that they were clearly speaking in an Amestrian tongue, which, the further West they traveled, became less and less common.

"Order anything you'd like," said Kimblee to them (no one was giving him any funny looks- he had picked up a suit in Cretian fashion at their last stop, and now looked the spitting image of a wealthy local man) in an off-hand matter, his eyes browsing intently a Cretian newspaper that had been left in their sleeper. He had developed a habit of it lately- he had told them that the language and Amestrian carried many similarities, and that it was interesting to him to try and decipher the words. Envy didn't understand a lick of it, and the menu had no pictures, so they were tempted to order one of everything sweet just to make the hostess even more uncomfortable. They had been playing around like that quite a lot in recent days, little tricks with no purpose other than their amusement. It was very refreshing.

"You might have to make more money if I do," they purred, and Kimblee just smiled at them. Coyly they entwined one leg with his under the table, liking the way that the hostess blushed, before turning back to the window. "Or maybe we could steal some," they added, their tone conspiratorial, letting anyone capable of understanding in the vicinity listen in. "That would probably be better for the country's economy in the long run."

Kimblee folded his paper and looked at them directly, raising one eyebrow.

"You're mischievous tonight. Did something happen?"

Envy grinned at him, twirling one strand of their hair between their fingers.

"Maybe I'm just in a good mood."

Six Months Earlier

A red dawn was rising in the eastern sky, the horizon stained with smoke from the wreckage of the Ishvalan camp. The forest was quiet, empty of birdsong, as though nature itself had been scared into silence.

Envy curled in Kimblee's arms, sleepy, their head resting in the hollow of his throat. They were very relaxed, but still the world burned behind their eyes, all the possibilities for mischief and destruction stampeding in their mind.

"So where do you want to go next? Since you already asked me," they said, running their hands over his chest (they couldn't stop touching- he had teased them about it earlier, it was still amazing to them to feel his body again). "Back to Central? We could mess with some of your old war buddies. Or we could look for more of these Ishvalan slums- that would be fun, finish what we started, and all that."

Kimblee hummed into their hair, contemplative, one finger tracing small circles on their back. He took pleasure from the same things they did, whatever he had to say would be worth it for sure. But the silence, for some reason, was long...

"I think we should leave Amestris."

"What?"

They sat up, propping themself upright on one elbow to look down at him. Kimblee's expression was perfectly calm and neutral, the faint light of a smile touching only barely upon the curve of his lips. "What do you mean?" they asked, somehow feeling that they had heard him wrong, even though they knew they hadn't.

"Exactly what I said. We shouldn't stay here. It would be very dangerous- soon, everyone will be looking for us. It's quite risky, even for…the sorts of things we are."

Envy just stared at him, ignoring his attempt to balance their ego, and he stroked their hair soothingly, winding his fingers through the thick strands.

"And besides...what reason have we to stay? What's holding us here?"

Envy thought about that for a moment. It was true, what he said- but the concept of it seemed almost inconceivable. Their whole life had been spent within the borders of the country, their every goal and plan situated around its development and its people. The range of places within it- the many different cities and villages and cultures- had always been a wide enough world for them. It was a little frightening to think of leaving- Amestris was a tiny country compared to some on the continental maps, and the world maps were huger again! It made them feel small, one being in comparison to all of that, how could they make themself feel important in a world so vast? Perhaps these emotions were leftovers from Father's soul, the creature that had sought to make himself the greatest being in the universe, or maybe it was just their regular insecurities back at work. They hated feeling small. But if they ignored it, there was something exciting about the proposition, wasn't there? And in a sense, if they went through with it, would they not truly be larger than their siblings and the others that had come before- with more of the world caught in their eyes, more paths marked by their footsteps, more lives touched by their hands, they would surely be a greater being in the tapestry of time. This all scared them, but they found themself wanting to face it anyway. A strange feeling- surely, they had been a coward before. And now new ambitions were blooming in their mind.

"Alright," they said, and their voice seemed to tremble against their will, and so they corrected it. "Alright. Let's go. Let's go to the edge of the world."

They knew not if such a place actually existed- they had read that cartologists of the current times considered the world to be round, a circle unending- but in old myths of Xerxes, and even from the days of Amestris when they had been quite young, people had spoken of it; great waterfalls that poured into the night sky, or cliffs that fell away into Hell. The sun dragged by a man in a chariot through the Underworld, which was filled with snakes, and the souls of the putrefied dead. They did not really believe that such stories were real, but they did not disbelieve them either (if the mysterious Gate could exist, and monsters born from it with nails sharper than anything else on earth, or impenetrable skin, or shadows for limbs, or the ability to change form- why could such other things not exist, as well?) and they certainly wanted to see, one way or the other.

Kimblee kissed their forehead, relaxing some beneath them, perhaps thinking he would have to argue more for their agreement. Were they so temperamental? Well, yes, but they knew he liked it, too.

"Since we're trading tasks," he said, "you can pick the direction. East or West? Or North or South, I suppose. I think we'll get more out of it with the first two."

Envy cuddled into him and pursed their lips, considering. He was right again, of course, it would be more in their interest to take the 'left' or 'right' of a world map. Which option was more preferable? Taking the east route was closer, over the desert and into Xing, but they found they didn't much like the idea. The whole area was soured by thoughts of the nasty little princess who had kept them in a jar, how disagreeable that event had been, and the people of that country seemed to have some kind of particular awareness of supernatural entities like them- if safety was the concern, perhaps that choice was not the best. And they knew very little at all of the countries in the West, only that there were a good deal of them in varying sizes, and that their alchemy was reportedly underdeveloped in comparison to their machines.

"West, then," they said into Kimblee's chest. Now they were determined. "As the crow flies we can be out of Amestris by this time tomorrow."

"No rush," he told them with a slight humour in his voice. "Consider this a vacation of sorts, why don't we?"

Later, Six Months and a Day

The train in Creta had stopped for an hour to do maintenance at a small outpost in a rural village. Envy had been sure to make their displeasure known to the officials- playing the rich and easily disgruntled tourist was a lot of fun- but really they didn't care. The day was too nice to spend sitting for any extended period of time. And there were people here, more new people, new opportunities to be had. They took Kimblee's hand and went into the village in search of mischief, pleased by all the attention they received from the local poor for their strange appearance, liking to imagine that the men appreciated it and that the women were made jealous. The grass felt good between their toes.

"How much further to the ocean, would you say?" they tossed at Kimblee over their shoulder, and he snorted at them in a very unrefined manner, taking off his hat to fold it against his breast. This was a question they posed often, not because they cared about the answer but because they wanted to say it. They had become somehow even more impulsive, as of late.

"Oh, a good ways yet," replied Kimblee, and the way his hair blew about in the summer wind was incredibly appealing. Everything today was appealing- the blush of the old local woman as they bared their legs, the smell of hot metal in the engine, the colour of the clouds in the sky. They breathed deeply, and as they did so a bothersome little thought worked itself to life in their brain- were they not lucky to be alive?

Not that again. They still hadn't gotten over it all quite yet- even now, when they had been healed for longer than they had been hurt, with Kimblee longer than they had been apart, they felt overly aware of the changes in their situation. Whenever they felt the air on their skin they remembered how they had felt when it had been burned, whenever they looked to the horizon they remembered being blinded, whenever the floors creaked under their steps they remembered what it was like to be weightless. It was like they had been party to some kind of miracle. Underneath their (often false) front of superiority they were amazed that they had made it out on top, when no one else had, none of their siblings or Father or their minions or even a good number of the opposition, who had fought so hard and so bravely. It itched in their brain, it didn't feel right. Mostly they could ignore it, keeping themself busy with other things, living entirely in the moment like an animal- but lately, in the dark of night, they became unhinged, the world seeming entirely unreal before their eyes, unable to understand how disgusting little Envy was the winner, over anyone else. Seeing things that were not there, other futures that had never come to fruit. Kimblee had called it 'imposter syndrome', what a little irony that was, that they should feel that way when they weren't even pretending to be someone else.

But why not?

Really, why not- they could take pride in this, couldn't they, they had been trialed and found worthy. Everything that they had been through was not a lie- they hadn't cheated, not really, one couldn't cheat at life. They had made it, even if no one else had, and nothing could take that away from them. They deserved all of the happiness and comfort that had come their way, they had won, and that made them genuinely spectacular. A wonder of the modern world, like Kimblee said! And he thought of these things too, didn't he, how would he have put it? There was something he said quite often.

Survival of the fittest, yes, that was it.

Well, they were the fittest now. Both of them.

Envy squeezed Kimblee's palm a little, and their heart skipped.