Her eyes snapped open and her now conscious brain immediately processed two things: She was indeed awake. But the weight hadn't disappeared and she still couldn't breathe. In fact, there was a hand pressed over her mouth, and from the city lights shining faintly from the window she could see the outline of the figure on top of her. Realization crashed over her. There was an intruder in the house and whoever it was, they were attacking her.

One thing she'd never been able to stand was the feeling of someone being in physical control of her. Being pushed around, or pinned down, or held against her will in some form or another was an instantaneous trigger for her redheaded temper. This situation was no exception.

She exploded into action; biting savagely at the hand over her mouth and reaching up to claw at the arm attached to the hand while she thrashed in an attempt to get out from under them. Whoever it was, they were insanely heavy. The reason she couldn't breathe wasn't so much the hand over her mouth as it was the physical weight crushing her chest. She heard an angry hiss and for a second they withdrew the hand from her mouth, probably intending to strike her with it.

"Get off of me!" She gasped, trying without much luck to shove the person away. Then suddenly they were gone. She blinked in surprise, drawing in a much needed breath with the weight removed from her lungs. The figure was standing beside the bed now. How on earth had they moved that quickly? She heard an enraged growl.

"You filthy human scum! You dare to give me orders?!"

The voice was alarmingly familiar and very angry. The figure lunged towards her.

"Stay away from me!" she shrieked, scrambling off the other side of the bed and backing away. She needed to find a weapon. Or something… It was dark in the room, although she could make out the outlines of everything from the light from the window. Her laptop must have gone into sleep mode at some point. She had to get help. There was no way she could fight off an unknown attacker in the dark. Especially given they appeared to be a good deal stronger and heavier than her.

But the figure made no move to pursue her. They remained standing on the other side of the bed. Slowly her mind processed what she could see of his outline. Good lord. Was she still dreaming? It was familiar in a terrifying way. Now that she paused to actually look at the figure she recognized the lithe build and palm tree hair. It didn't matter that she couldn't see his face. Between his voice a minute ago and his outline, there was only one person this could be. Except that it was impossible!

You would know him as the fourth homunculus. And I recommend giving a subjugation command as soon as you wake up, or else you may sustain serious damage to your body. He's never been humanity's biggest fan.

But that had been a dream! Just a dream! What on earth was happening? Had she dropped so low that she was now experiencing a psychotic depression? That didn't make any sense though. She wouldn't hallucinate something like this…

"Who are you?" he hissed. "How the fuck are you controlling me?!"

She stared at him for a moment. Ok. Hallucination or not, she was alone in the dark with a human-hating, pissed off homunculus. Something clearly needed to be done. She turned and darted across the room to the door, slamming her hand into the light switch in a rushed attempt to turn it on.

The warm glow of the lamp by her bed filled the room, revealing that the figure was indeed the cross-dressing, androgynous, palm tree she had suspected him to be. He raised a hand to shield his eyes, blinking and squinting at the light which was now blinding both of them. Then he turned and met her gaze. For a moment they just stared at each other. Her heart was pounding so heart she half wondered if he could hear it from across the room.

And then she panicked.

She dashed out of the room and raced down the hallway. She wasn't even sure what her goal was except that she needed to get away from Envy before he killed her. She didn't think she could outrun him, but maybe if she got a weapon or something she could defend herself somehow. His angry growl and footfalls behind her told her he was in hot pursuit. She let out a shriek and darted into the kitchen, snatching up a large knife from the holder on the counter.

A hand clamped down on her shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled, whirling to face him, knife in hand. He jerked back as if she had burned him. His expression was an interesting mixture of surprised, angry and confused. She could feel herself quivering with adrenaline as she held the knife in front of her with both hands defensively. Her brain slowly processed how ridiculous this was. What the hell could she do to him with a knife? Even if she managed to stab him he'd just heal himself... Shit!

He appeared to recover slightly and tried to lunge at her again but froze centimeters away, apparently unable to lay a finger on her.

"What the hell?!" He growled.

"If you kill me you'll die!" She blurted abruptly.

He blinked in surprise, pulling back slightly with a skeptical expression. "What are you talking about?"

"Truth told me. If you hurt me it'll hurt you too. And if I die you die," she explained in a rush.

His expression grew blank. "…Truth told you?" He blinked. "You mean that little white bastard is to blame?!"

"Shut up!" she hissed, "You're going to wake-up everyone in the building!"

His jaw immediately snapped shut.

She blinked in surprise. He'd actually listened to her….but his purple eyes with their slit pupils were filled with a murderous expression. She shuddered. Ok. Obviously he wasn't obeying her of his own free will. So…did this mean he had to do everything she said? In that case, how was he this close to her? She'd told him to stay away from her….maybe the commands only lasted for a short period of time. Perhaps if she specified the amount of time they needed to last they'd work longer?

"Back up," she ordered him shakily. His expression was seriously scaring her. She definitely didn't want him standing this close to her. He abruptly began to walk backwards away from her, except he didn't stop. He kept backing down the hall. It appeared he was going to walk right into the wall.

"Ok stop!" she blurted. He froze. From his expression it appeared he wanted to explode. She was amazed he hadn't said anything. Oh…wait…he probably couldn't say anything since she'd told him to shut up. "Ok umm…" She was grasping at straws. What was she supposed to do in this situation? She drew in a deep breath, trying to re-order her thoughts. First things first…

"Go sit on the couch and don't get up until I tell you to," she said, her voice wavering a little. She really wasn't comfortable giving orders to this psychopath…

Without a word he walked back down the hall and crossed the room to the loveseat, sitting down and staring at her.

She leaned on the kitchen counter for support as she stared back. Now what? Well, his silence was almost worse than him yelling at this point. "You can talk now, but don't yell."

"You little bitch," He hissed, "When I get my hands on you I'm going to tear you limb from limb, nice and slowly so I can enjoy listening to you scream. Just you wait, I'll—"

"Shut up!" She cut him off fiercely. She felt a shudder run through her again at the tone of his voice, while her stomach twisted in a mixture of fear and disgust.

His jaw snapped shut again and his expression darkened further.

She buried her face in her hands and drew in a deep breath. This couldn't be happening. How was this happening? Why was this happening? So Truth had dumped this asshole on her out of the blue, and now she was supposed to teach him manners? What the hell? She let out a slow breath, forcing herself to calm down and think. If she had control over what he did that meant he couldn't do anything to her unless she let him…right? And if Truth specifically sent him here for a tune-up then she had more than enough reason to not let him walk all over her.

She felt her badly shaken confidence return slightly. If she had control over him, she could handle this. She raised her head and fixed him with a glare. Then she walked around the counter into the living room and came to a halt in front of him, hand on her hip as she started him down.

"Alright listen up," she commanded, managing to make her voice sound more confident than before, "I never asked to have to deal with you, or to have control over you. So thank Truth for that. I have no idea how long I'm stuck with you but as long as you're here, don't you dare swear at me, or threaten me. Am I understood?" She glared darkly at him.

He nodded stiffly.

"Good. You can talk again, providing you do not raise your voice."

A moment passed and he said nothing. He simply stared at her loathingly, clearly itching to tear her to shreds. Thankfully it appeared he remained unable to resist her commands. She sighed and rubbed her forehead. Well obviously he didn't want to talk to her if he couldn't swear, yell, or threaten. She glanced up at the clock on the microwave. 4am. Wonderful. She'd finally managed to fall asleep but she hadn't managed to stay that way. Well…now what? She had a pissed off homunculus trapped on her couch. What on earth was she supposed to do with him?

"This is so stupid," she muttered. Her stomach made an impatient grumble and she realized with a prick of surprise she'd never even bothered to eat supper the night before. She glanced at the angry sin and met his glare with a feeling of resignation. Well. Envy clearly had nothing to contribute to the situation so she might as well find something to eat while he sat on the couch and seethed. Maybe she'd be able to come up with something after that…

She headed back into the kitchen and dug in the cupboards. Her eyes lit upon a freshly opened jar of Nutella. Perfect! She snatched it up and glanced at the counter…oh…damn…she'd used up the last of the bread. Oh well, no big deal. She snatched up a spoon from the drawer and headed back into the living room.

She sank down to sit against the wall opposite Envy before unscrewing the lid and dipping the spoon in. She pulled it out and licked off the glop of hazelnut chocolate spread with a hum of satisfaction. She could live on this stuff.

"Is that chocolate?" Envy asked abruptly.

She blinked in surprise, glancing at him. She gave an uncertain nod.

He stared at her with an odd expression. "You're eating chocolate for breakfast?"

"Well yeah. Chocolate is a primary food group," she replied, her tone completely serious.

He continued to stare at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Give me some," he demanded.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. She'd heard he liked chocolate parfaits in that Bluebird's Illusion video game…but she'd never really thought anything of it.

"Ask nicely," she retorted offhandedly.

His glare returned with a vengeance. "May I please have some chocolate?"

The words were clearly forced out and where so at odds with his murderously furious expression that she felt a startled giggle bubble up in her throat. A moment later she lost control and began to laugh. It had a slightly hysterical edge to it, as the stress which had been building up over the last few minutes found a release. After a moment she managed to recompose herself, wiping the tears from her eyes. Envy was still glaring at her.

"What's so funny?" he demanded. She bit her lip to keep from breaking down laughing again. Clearly she was over-tired.

"Sorry. I forgot that you had to respond to me." She sounded very slightly sheepish.

She rose to her feet and headed back into the kitchen, grabbing another spoon from the drawer. Then she hesitated. She didn't mind him having some, but she still wanted some too, which meant they had to share. And she couldn't see any way of sharing it with him that didn't involve getting in close proximity to the angry, lethal homunculus. She glanced at him and he raised his eyebrows impatiently. Well then…

She crossed back into the living room to stand in front of him. "Ok, I'll share it with you on the condition that you won't try to hurt me," she told him firmly. He gave her a flat stare. "Ok?" she demanded. He let out a resigned sigh, but nodded. She swallowed nervously before gathering her courage and sinking down onto the small couch next to him.

She grabbed at the arm of the couch for balanced as she realized the cushion was sloping in his direction way more than she'd expected. In fact, she was amazed her poor little loveseat hadn't snapped in-two under the weight of the green-haired sin. She drew in a breath and handed him his spoon. He stared at it for a moment before taking it. Then he stared at the jar of Nutella she held out to him. Finally he gave her an unenthused look.

"Who said I wanted to share with a human?" he demanded waspishly.

Amara cocked an eyebrow. "What? Are you worried I have cooties?"

He gave her a very odd look, but made no response.

She sighed. "Look. You're in my house, this is my Nutella. I'm being nice enough that I'm willing to share it with you, despite your expressed desire to torture me to death I might add. If you don't feel like sharing then tough shit, you don't get any." She withdrew the jar and dipped her spoon into it again before sucking on it while staring at him flatly.

His eyes widened dangerously and she came to the abrupt realization that if she hadn't made him agree not to hurt her, she would be very dead at that moment. As it was, he was twitching in an oddly amusing way, clearly wanting to tackle her and finding himself unable to move, from her 'do not hurt me' command and possibly from her 'do not touch me' command as well.

A very slow smirk began to play at the corners of her lips. She was starting to realize she could have a hell of a lot of fun with this power if she chose to be a sick twisted person. Luckily for Envy she wasn't inclined to do that. But the thought was still entertaining.

She leaned back against the couch, watching him as she continued to suck on her spoon. The emotions plainly visible on his features and in his gaze spoke volumes about how upset he was. Anger, hatred, confusion, bewilderment… She hummed thoughtfully to herself.

"You must absolutely hate my guts right now," she commented idly.

His eyes narrowed. It was a moment before he responded.

"Seeing as I am unable to swear or raise my voice, I really can't give an adequate response to that," he said crisply.

"It's ok. I have a good enough imagination." She blanched slightly. He was still glaring at her, but he was no longer radiating uncontrollable rage. "So, do you still want some Nutella? 'Cause I don't mind sharing. It's not like I'm sick or anything…"

His expression twisted in a sneer. "I can't catch pathetic human illnesses. And I'm not sharing with you."

She felt a prick of anger. What an ungrateful ass.

"Eat a spoonful dammit," she said flatly, thrusting the jar at him again.

Immediately he obeyed, although fury began radiating from him once more. As soon as the spoon entered his mouth, however, he froze, expression going blank.

She blinked, startled by his reaction.

A moment later his eyes slipped shut and a blissful expression settled across his features.

It was such an abrupt change in mood that she could only stare.

He sucked the spoon clean, pulling it out to stare at it with a slightly disappointed expression. Then Amara let out a gasp as he abruptly reached out and snatched the jar from her, holding it protectively as he took another spoonful.

"Hey," she protested half-heartedly. She was having a hard time believing what she was seeing. The green haired sin was already sucking on another spoonful. He just looked so…blissed-out. Of course, she totally agreed with his sentiments. The stuff was amazing. But she couldn't recall ever seeing him look this happy except when he was ranting about killing people.

She realized with a start that he was going through it rather quickly. "Alright give it back."

He shot her a horrified, outraged look, but was forced to obey. "I thought you said you were willing to share!"

"Yeah, share, not have you eat the whole thing!" she retorted. "I can get you your own jar of the stuff in the morning when the stores open if you want it that badly."

His eyes widened. "Are you serious? They sell this in stores?"

"Uh…yeah…"

"Let me go!" he ordered, "I'll go get some myself!"

Her eyes widened. "Hell no! You are not going anywhere without me. You got that? No way am I unleashing you on my poor, unsuspecting world." She shuddered slightly at the thought of the trouble he would cause. And then, a thought occurred to her. Would other people be able to see him? For that matter, was he even real? Maybe she'd just completely lost her mind. Rachel had always said she would turn into a crazy hermit if she kept isolating herself the way she normally did. Maybe she'd been right after all.

The coppertop shook her head. Well either way, it appeared she was stuck with this guy. And she realized with a terrible sinking feeling that despite this earth shattering occurrence, she still had an exam to study for a week from now…

A hand waved in front of her face, jarring her from her thoughts.

"Helllooooo in there." Envy's tone was slightly mocking. When he saw he had her attention he continued. "Why don't you just let me go and explore this 'poor unsuspecting world' of yours, hmm? Then I'll be out of your hair and that will be that." His tone was persuasive.

She shook her head. "No way. Not happening."

He stared at her for a moment. Then she saw him blink in surprise and glance over at her microwave clock. Then he glanced at his hands. And then he glanced at her.

Her eyes widened as she realized too late that something had clearly changed.

He lunged at her, easily pinning her against the arm of the couch with a hand over her mouth.

A mixture of angry panic shot through her and she instantaneously lashed out, trying to thrash and peel his hand off her face. He grinned at her clearly useless attempts, easily managing to grab hold of both her wrists with his free hand. He shifted so he was practically on top of her again, his weight effectively pinning her legs down.

Despite all that, she was very slightly relieved to note he wasn't hurting her. In fact he wasn't even crushing her. Obviously all of her commands hadn't dissolved at once. But why the hell had the 'don't touch me' command worn off? Maybe she really did need to state a specific amount of time... She felt a horrible sinking feeling as she realized she hadn't done that for the 'don't hurt me' command either. How much time did she have left before she was completely at his non-existent mercy? She had to get his hand off her mouth to give him a more permanent order. But she was thoroughly stuck at the moment.

Dammit to hell she hated feeling trapped like this. She glared up at him fearfully and she felt him chuckle.

"Turnaround is fair play. How does it feel to be helpless?" He smirked twistedly. "Maybe what you said about me killing you is true. But I'm more than capable of making your life a living hell until you let me go," he pointed out darkly. "So what'll it be, hmm?" After pausing a moment to let the words sink in he slowly removed his hand, apparently prepared to slap it back over her mouth if she tried to shout out any more commands.

Despite the desperate nature of her situation, she felt a prick of amusement.

"Sorry buddy. My life's already a living hell. But you're more than welcome to try and make it worse if that's what floats your boat."

His eyes widened slightly in disbelief at the unconcerned response.

"Oh, and I forbid you to hurt me, ever. Just in case that command decides to wear off too." She glared suspiciously at him.

He stared down at her, seeming taken off guard and put-out at the same time. Finally he seemed to come up with a response, his expression annoyed.

"Do you have any idea who I am? Do you have any idea what I'm capable of?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Envy the Jealous, 4th homunculus created from the creature that calls himself 'Father'; Instigator, mass-murderer and psychopath. Yes, I'm well aware of who you are. I even know why you're so unbelievably heavy. Speaking of which, I forbid you from shape shifting into your true form without my permission," she added swiftly. Heaven only new the damage he would cause in that monstrous form. Then she hesitated. "Wait…can you still shape shift in this dimension?"

He stared down at her with wide eyes, clearly at a loss as to how she could possibly know all of that about him. Then he frowned curiously. A moment later Amara let out a startled yelp as red electricity crackled over his body and she found herself staring up at…

Herself…

...or rather, an identical copy of herself.

Apparently he'd decided to test his powers out.

"Good lord, that's just creepy. Please change back." Her voice quavered slightly. It was a little disturbing to be suddenly held prisoner by herself. Especially with that twisted expression of amusement on her face. She felt a prick of surprise when he failed to obey. She heard him chuckle with her voice and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

Frick. He made her sound… scary.

That was almost funny in a twisted way.

"I guess saying 'please' turns it into a request instead of a command," he speculated dryly.

She shivered. He really needed to stop using her form.

"Change back," she ordered sharply.

He scowled at her, but the crackle of energy ran through him once more and he returned to his original form.

"Fine then, Ginger brain, what exactly do you plan on doing with me if you force me to stick around?" he demanded irritably.

She stared at him. "Ginger brain? Fine then, palm tree. I don't have a fricking clue what I'm going to do with you. Now would you please get off of me?"

His eyes practically bugged out of his head. "What did you call me?" he voice crackled slightly.

She frowned. Having to give him direct orders was turning into a pain.

"Well if you're going to make fun of my hair then I'm going to return the favor. Now get off!" she snapped.

Immediately he released her, returning to his normal seated position on the couch.

She practically leapt away from him, darting across the room to put some much needed space between her and the homicidal maniac.

She drew in a breath and paused to organize her thoughts. Part of her wanted to go and barricade herself in her bedroom and go back to sleep and pray this was all just a very bizarre dream. But she was scared to leave him alone in case her commands suddenly wore off and he ambushed her out of the blue. She glanced back at him and blinked in surprised to see him contentedly dipping his spoon into the jar of Nutella which she had dropped when he'd grabbed her, and sucking the chocolate off slowly.

Well then…

That certainly kept him quiet. She'd have to stock up on the stuff.

She glanced around the room, feeling a little lost. What was she supposed to do now? She couldn't just put her life on hold because a homunculus had taken over her apartment. She still had that exam to study for, and on top of which…

Her train of thought was shattered by the blare of the telephone which made both her and Envy jump.

She stared across the room at the phone on the wall for two more rings before her brain finally kicked into gear and she darted across the room to answer it.

"Hello?" she answered it a little breathlessly.

"Amara! Are you ok? You never called me last night." Rachel's voice was a little miffed.

The coppertop blinked in surprise. "Shit! I'm sorry Ray. I completely forgot. I actually fell asleep, believe it or not..." A hint of sheepishness crept into her tone.

"Oh damn, seriously?! Did I wake you up?! You're usually up by now so I figured…"

"No, no it's fine. Something woke me up a few minutes ago anyway."

She heard her friend sigh.

"Alright. I want to see you today. Either I'm coming there or you're coming here," Rachel's voice left no room for argument.

Amara's eyes widened in panic.

"Uuuhhh…Ummm…I can't actually hang out today." Her voice grew slightly higher pitched.

"Why not?" Her friend's voice was skeptical.

"Um. Well, believe it or not my uh…old friend…from…um….highschool…he showed up yesterday and he's going to be staying with me for a while," she stammered awkwardly.

There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment.

"You're letting him stay with you? What exactly is your relationship with this guy?" Rachel sounded puzzled. "You never told me you had friends with benefits."

Amara's eyes widened in shock and the phone slipped out of her fingers.

It clattered across the floor and she scrambled to scoop it up again

"Hey are you alright?! What happened?" Rachel demanded.

"Sorry! I dropped the phone," Amara explained exasperatedly. "And no, he is not a friend with benefits! He's just a friend!" Damn. That was just awkward. She glanced at the sin on her couch to see him staring at her with a very odd expression, spoon frozen partway between his mouth and the jar while he tried to figure out what the hell that statement meant.

"Huh. So when do I get to meet this guy?" Rachel demanded. Amara winced. She and Rachel had only known each other for as long as Amara had been living by herself. They weren't exactly BFFs, but Rachel had a bit of a nosy personality and had taken the idea into her head that Amara needed looking after. The girl rarely took 'no' for an answer.

"Uh," she rapidly tried to come up with some sort of excuse to blow her friend off. "Maybe in a few days. Um, En…ver," she stumbled over the name slightly. "Enver is pretty jetlagged right now."

"Jet-lagged? I thought he was your friend from high school…" Rachel sounded a little suspicious.

"He is! He's just been, uh, living overseas since he graduated," Amara explained quickly.

There was a brief silence.

"…Right. Well…ok then. I guess I'll let you get back to him then. I'll call again tomorrow to see how things are going…You better not be making this guy up so you can be alone…" Her friend warned.

"Oh no, I'm definitely not making him up," She reassured her. If only she actually was…

"Alright then…I'll talk to you tomorrow," Rachel replied reluctantly.

"Ok! Bye!"Amara quickly hung up.

She stared at the phone in her hand for a minute before glancing back at the green haired sin.

Envy raised an eyebrow. "Friend with benefits? What kind of benefits?"

Amara blinked, before chuckling nervously."If you don't know then I'm not telling you. Either way you sure as hell aren't that." She shuddered slightly. No. Just…no. Then she glanced at him thoughtfully. That shape shifting ability could have maaaany different uses… She face-palmed and shook her head. No. Now was not the time to jump on that train of thought.

She stuck the phone back on its charging base and raked a hand through her hair in exasperation.

"I am so screwed," she muttered. She glanced at Envy again. "Why the hell did you have to show up now of all times? If you'd waited a week my exam would be over and Rachel would be on vacation on the other side of the country," she griped tiredly.

Envy gave her an irritated look. "You think I want to be here?"

She sighed in resignation. "No. But I do think you'll be more than happy to screw everything up while you're here."

Envy's expression grew thoughtful.

Amara glanced at the clock again. 4:30am. Well… Obviously she wouldn't be getting any more sleep; which meant she was in serious need of some coffee.

"Hey palm-tree," she asked, turning to head into the kitchen.

His expression instantly morphed into a glare. "What?"

"Do you like coffee?"

Her question seemed to take him off guard. He stared at her with a puzzled expression for a moment.

"Well?" she demanded.

Finally he gave a slow nod. She felt mildly surprised. Coffee and Nutella. Well…at least his preferred diet seemed to match up with hers. Although…he probably didn't really need to eat anyway, being a homunculus and all. She reached into the cupboard and pulled out two mugs.

"I want the green one!" he demanded sharply. She let out a sigh and wilted slightly. The sun hadn't even risen and she already looking forward to crawling into bed that night and hiding from her life. Obviously this was going to be a very long day…