Her eyes snapped open and she gasped.
She had a distinct memory of falling sleep under the covers, and yet she was currently lying on her side on top of the bedspread. And she couldn't move her arms or her legs. Her ankles and wrists were bound very snuggly by strips of black fabric; a little too snuggly for that matter. She'd lost feeling in her hands and feet.
She glanced at the window and realized with a spark of outrage that the green haired idiot had torn up her curtains in order to find something to tie her up with. Morning light streamed through the uncovered window. How the hell had she slept through all of this?! She wasn't a heavy sleeper! The fact that he'd managed to pull off this entire situation without waking her up was a little disturbing.
Her heart kicked into double time. Where the hell was he? When had he gotten the bright idea to tie her up and run off? How long had he been out on his own? What on earth had he gotten into while she was tied up here unconscious? She felt the anger left over from her dream with Truth bubble up afresh.
How dare he tie her up and leave her like this!
"Envy!" she yelled furiously, "Get your ass back here and untie me right now!"
There was an uncomfortable period of silence following her dramatic order. She ground her teeth in frustration. The orders probably wouldn't work if he couldn't hear her. Well, in that case, she'd just have to somehow get from here to the kitchen and figure out how to cut her bonds with her hands tied behind her back… It sounded a little challenging.
But she was pissed off enough that she was pretty sure she could manage it.
At that moment she heard a loud crash from down the hall, and then a second later her bedroom door burst open. A blur shot across the room and the next thing she knew something had sliced through the bonds on her wrists and ankles. She gasped in surprise and jerked around to see none other than the jealous sin standing by her bed looking supremely frustrated.
"Dammit all I should have gagged you!" he snapped.
"What the hell did you think you were doing?! Where did you go?!"
He held up a grocery bag filled with jars of nutella.
Amara's eyes widened. "Did you steal those?"
"Well duh," he retorted.
She paled slightly. "Please tell me you didn't kill the poor clerk,"
"Well somebody interrupted me before I got the chance." He scowled at her accusingly.
Amara rested her face in her hands. "Did you kill anyone else while you were out and about?" Her voice was slightly muffled but held a despairing edge.
"No," he replied sourly.
She glanced up at him suspiciously.
He rolled his eyes. "Why would I lie about that? Hell, after seeing how much it upsets you I'll make a point of slaughtering some of the idiots next time I get out."
Her hands clenched into fists and she stared down at the swirling gold bedspread. This had the potential to be very problematic. He couldn't kill her, but there was nothing stopping him from going after other people. She couldn't let that happen. But how was she supposed to prevent it if he got free every time she fell asleep? She couldn't stay awake for ever. But there had to be something she could do…
"Envy." Her voice was flat.
He hummed questioningly.
She fixed him with a serious stare. "I promise not to give you any more orders, if you swear not to go anywhere without me again."
It was a bit of a desperate request, but she couldn't think of anything else she could bargain with. He stared at her, his eyes widening slightly. Several moments passed and she half wondered if he was even going to answer her. Then suddenly his lips twisted in a wicked smirk.
"Alright, I swear," he agreed abruptly.
She felt a chill run through her.
He sounded way too pleased about this.
Then before she could blink he grabbed her off the bed and locked her in a choke hold, his arm shifting into a blade to press against her neck. She gasped. What was he doing? He gave a low chuckle that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
"In that case, I'll just take you with me to watch while I murder them." His voice was filled with twisted glee.
"Envy let me go!"
"Make me," he whispered against her ear, his tone darkly amused.
She felt a horrible dropping sensation in her stomach. What had she done? Had making that promise actually stripped away her power over him?! She hadn't intended for that to happen! She couldn't let him do this. The mixture of panic and frustration at being forcefully restrained yet again stripped away her caution. She did the only thing she could think to do.
She slammed her neck against the blade he had pressed to it.
She let out a yelp at the fiery pain which bit into her throat, but she heard a pained hiss from behind her and suddenly the arms around her let go. She stumbled forward, a hand coming up to press against the strip of agony now pulsing across her neck. Warm liquid flowed between her fingers and down her neck onto her shirt. She felt a flash of anxiety and hoped she hadn't managed to slice an important artery. Bleeding to death sounded like an unpleasant way to die. She turned to glance back at the sin and saw he was doing the same thing as her. He had a hand pressed to his neck and a pained expression on his face.
"You bitch," he hissed, his voice strained, "Why the hell isn't this healing?!"
Amara's eyes widened in realization. Perhaps wounds inflicted on him through her own body weren't affected by his healing powers..? If that was the case, she still had a bit of control over him after all. As unpleasant as it was, she could injure herself to get through to him if it came right down to it. And he wasn't a fan of pain, so it would probably be reasonably effective.
Of course, she wasn't the biggest fan of pain either, but she suspected she still possessed a higher pain tolerance than the sin.
"If you try to hurt anyone I'll kill us both," she warned him fiercely.
He gave her a horrified look. "Are you insane?!"
"Yes. Don't test me," she told him flatly. She even managed to keep a straight face. But that was mainly because she was dead serious. She'd already been tossing around the idea of taking her own life over the last couple weeks. If she suddenly had to go ahead with the idea to keep people from getting hurt on her account, she was pretty sure she could pull it off without too much trouble.
He continued to stare at her. "What is wrong with you?!"
She snorted. "Don't be a hypocrite. You're more screwed up than I am." Then she winced. The pain in her neck increased when she spoke. "Let's get these wounds bandaged up before we pass out from blood loss," she suggested, turning and heading towards the hallway.
After a moment she heard him follow after her.
A little while later the two of them stood in the living room, staring each other down. Their necks were dressed and bandaged thanks to the first aid kit Amara kept in the cupboard under the bathroom sink.
"You broke my door," She accused, glaring at the jealous sin.
It was true.
The wood was splintered and the door hung at a bit of an odd angle. She'd managed to shove it shut, but the latch was broken too.
Envy rolled his eyes. "Well if someone hadn't demanded that I come racing back here, I wouldn't have had to break back in. Blame the locks on the doors or blame yourself. Don't blame me." He bent to pull a jar of Nutella out of the bag he'd set down on the coffee table. "Get me a spoon," he ordered.
She raised her eyebrows incredulously. "Get your own damn spoon."
"Do you want me to tear apart your kitchen?" he asked blandly.
She stared at him for a moment before her expression slipped into a glare. "Asshole." She turned and headed back into the kitchen to fetch his spoon.
She grabbed it and chucked it at him from across the room, rather hoping it would hit him in the head.
He easily snatched it out of the air and smirked tauntingly.
She rolled her eyes.
And then the phone rang.
She made an exasperated sound. "Damn it all Rachel, now is so not the time!"
"What are you going to do if your friend shows up here?" Envy sounded slightly curious as he settled onto the couch with his jar of Nutella.
Amara massaged her temples. "I have no fricking clue. I'd need you to shape shift into a normal looking person and I'd need to cover up our injuries somehow."
Envy snorted. "Sucks to be you."
Amara's eyes narrowed. "Don't make me hurt you." her tone was soft but dangerous.
Envy shot her an incredulous look. "Are you threatening me?"
She gave him a serious look as she picked up the still ringing phone and answered it.
"Hello?"
"Amara! How are things with Enver?" Rachel inquired cheerfully. "What kind of name is that anyway? It's bizarre sounding."
Amara blinked.
"It's Turkish…"
"Your friend is Turkish?!"
"Ummm…..yes…"
"…I'm really looking forward to meeting this guy," Rachel's tone was curious.
Amara wilted slightly and then shot a glare at Envy. "Alright, but I don't think you'll like him much. He's a total asshole," she replied evenly, her gaze daring the sin to react to the insult.
Envy raised an eyebrow.
"Uh, then why do you hang around with him?" Rachel sounded puzzled.
"It's really complicated. So um… if you want to come over you can, but…could you maybe come late afternoon? I'd like to get some studying done while my brain is still relatively fresh," Amara said.
"Alright, sounds good. I've got somewhere to be this evening though. Is 3 o'clock ok?"
"Yep that's fine. See you then!" Amara replied.
"Bye!"
Amara hung up the phone.
"Why did you invite her over?" Envy sounded confused. Amara glanced at him, her expression resigned.
"If I hadn't she would have just come anyway. And seeing as how you broke my door, I can't exactly lock her out," she pointed out. And then she paused. "Say, how good are you at turning into Turkish people?"Envy's eyebrows shot up.
"Excuse me?" he asked in disbelief.
"Well…she kind of thinks you're Turkish…" she explained sheepishly.
He stared at her, his expression unreadable."…Turkish?"
She nodded.
"What the hell does that mean?" He sounded more puzzled than annoyed.
Amara blinked. Right… there weren't any Turkish people in the Fullmetal Alchemist world.
"How about I show you a picture?" She suggested.
He gave her a skeptical look.
She rolled her eyes. "You can bring your Nutella with you, just come to the bedroom," she said, turning and heading down the hallway to her room.
She heard him let out a heavy sigh.
"Has anyone ever told you how extremely annoying you are?" he inquired, getting up to follow her.
"As a matter of fact, no, they haven't," she retorted, sinking down into the computer chair and waking her laptop from sleep mode.
"Huh. Well I'm telling you now. You're annoying," he said flatly, coming to a stop behind her chair.
Amara snorted, opening up her browser and entering in a search for Turkish guys under Google Images. It loaded for a moment, and then a series of images popped up. Amara did a double take.
Wait…what? Wow…
"Huh. Well I suppose you could have picked a worse bunch of humans for me to look like," Envy mused.
Amara nodded slowly. He wasn't kidding. There were some extremely attractive Turkish guys in these images.
Well, if you were into the tall dark and handsome look anyway… Which…she had to admit… she kind of was… She shook her head. This was rather unexpected. She glanced at the green haired sin. He had a speculative look on his face. She frowned.
"If you hurt her I'll hurt you through me," she warned suspiciously.
Envy rolled his eyes. "Aright you little masochist. I'll play along with this." There was an amused glint in his eyes, "And I'll even promise not to hurt her." He sounded suspiciously innocent.
Amara's eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed suspiciously. "What are you up to?"
He smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know? But beggars can't be choosers. You need my help," he pointed out smugly.
Amara grimaced. "I have a very bad feeling about this…" she glanced back at the laptop.
Envy snorted.
She raked a hand through her messy copper waves exasperatedly. "Alright, you need to leave, because I need to study," she told him firmly. "So take your Nutella and scram."
Envy raised an eyebrow. "And what if I don't?"
Amara stared at him.
Well she wasn't about to start injuring herself over something like this.
"Fine then. Stay. See if I care. But you'll be bored," she warned, reaching for her accounting textbook lying on the desk.
She reluctantly opened it to the final unit and grimaced down at the text. An unexpected buzzing sound caused her to glance up in surprise. Her cellphone was lying on the desk by her laptop, the screen lit up indicating she had just received a text. Her brain eagerly lighting upon anything aside from what she needed to be studying, she reached for it and unlocked the screen.
Her mind went blank as she stared at it in shock.
Had hell frozen over?
"What's that?" Envy demanded, leaning over her shoulder to stare at the phone
"My dad just texted me," she sounded as stunned as she felt.
"…I'm going to assume that's some form of communication," Envy sounded slightly exasperated.
She nodded slowly.
"Why is this a shocking occurrence?" he asked skeptically.
"He hasn't bothered even trying to talk to me in over a month. He uses mom to keep tabs on how I'm doing," she muttered, frowning down at the cellphone.
Envy raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like a bizarre parental relationship."
Amara sighed. "He's never been much into the whole parenting thing. That was mom's department. It's not that he doesn't care…I just don't think he knows how to act with me..."
"So what did he say?" Envy demanded, clearly not overly interested in her family dynamic.
She rolled her eyes and glanced down at the message which she'd completely neglected to read in her surprise over the sender of the message.
Amara. Are you okay?
The coppertop frowned. Inquiring after her well-being wasn't something her father was usually made a habit of unless something was glaringly wrong. She couldn't imagine what had motivated him to do so now.
I'm alive and breathing. Why?
She replied curtly. His sudden interest in her well-being after receiving the cold shoulder for such an extended period actually pissed her off to some degree.
The phone buzzed again.
Good. What was the name of that anime you mentioned last time I saw you?
The coppertop stared down at the phone, utterly floored. Had somebody drugged him? Maybe he was drunk. Not that she'd ever seen him touch alcohol. But her brain was floundering uselessly trying to come up with an explanation for his totally out-of-the-blue question. Given how infrequent and awkward their conversations tended to be, TV shows weren't typically a subject that came up often. She thought back to the last time she'd actually seen him. She couldn't remember mentioning anything about anime. But the only anime she'd bothered to watch recently had been the one which included the homunculus standing behind her.
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood….Why?
She stared down at the phone, expression perplexed. Curiosity was eating at her. She couldn't even begin to imagine why he'd bothered to bring this up. After several minutes passed with no response she grew frustrated.
Was that all he was going to say?
She moved to set the phone down when it buzzed again.
Thank you.
She stared at the response for a moment, before making a frustrated sound and tossing the phone onto the desk. Clearly he didn't intend to explain further. And she already knew there was no point in pressing him about it. He'd just turn his phone off to avoid her.
"Well that was enlightening," Envy sounded a little disappointed.
"Tell me about it," she muttered, returning her attention to her textbook. Whatever. If he wanted to keep secrets she'd just ask him about it next time she saw him. He was an abysmal liar, so she'd probably find out eventually. It was probably something stupid, like a co-worker wanting to know if he knew of any good cartoons for their kids to watch. Small talk wasn't really her dad's forte.
Still, it was highly unusual for him to go out of his way to ask his daughter for help.
She shook her head. No point in worrying about it. She had more important things to focus on anyway.
An hour later she rested her head against the textbook in defeat.
"I can't do this. I'm so screwed," she muttered. The final unit was on Intangible Assets and Goodwill, and she couldn't force her tired brain to wrap itself around the concepts. It was so boring, and she was so unbelievably tired of this subject. On top of which it was complicated and just staring at the textbook made her want to curl up in a dark hole somewhere and die.
She heard Envy come to a stop by her chair. He'd been pacing up and down for the last ten minutes, doing an excellent job of shattering her fragile concentration.
"Please, just kill me now," her voice was a muffled moan of despair.
"What are you studying?" The sin sounded a little weirded-out.
"The subject from hell," she muttered.
Envy raised an eyebrow. "So…Introduction to Damnation 101?"
She gave him a wilted look. "Ha. Ha. It's Intermediate Financial Accounting 351."
"Huh. Sounds boring,"
"Yep, pretty much,"
"So…are you seriously going to keep sitting there and staring at it?" he inquired.
She made a sound of frustration and rubbed her eyes.
"If I keep studying I might be able to pull off a passing grade," she grumbled.
"…And maybe you won't. Is it really worth killing yourself over?" he asked dryly.
Her eyes widened and she stared at him for a moment before she realized he hadn't meant for her to take the statement literally.
She shook her head slightly to clear it.
"Umm…well if I fail it my dad might want me to move back in with him," she pointed out reluctantly.
Envy rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
Then suddenly he reached in and snatched the textbook away from her.
"Hey!" she cried, "What are you doing?"
"I'm bored," he replied matter-of-factly. "Entertain me."
Her eyes widened. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me." He smirked.
Her expression morphed into a glare. "Give that back. I don't have time to entertain you, I need to study!"
"If you want it, come and get it." Envy held the book up tauntingly.
Amara felt a wave of anger. "Oh no. No you don't. Give it back right now!" She rose to her feet.
"Make me." Envy grinned.
That did it.
"You asshole!" She lunged at him but he easily dodged her with a chuckle.
"Oooooh, I think I made it angry," he replied tauntingly, holding the textbook up with one hand.
Amara made a grab for it, but suddenly his arm crackled, and then stretched much longer than humanly possible up towards the roof.
"Dammit Envy that is not fair!"
Envy snickered. "You're so easy to rile up it's almost boring."
She stared at his superior expression for a moment. She was teetering on the edge of completely losing it. After the last two days, stress had completely worn down the already fragile control of her temper.
"Envy…" her voice held a dangerous edge.
"Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I did this," His arm shrank back to normal size and he grabbed the textbook with two hands, clearly intending to tear it in half.
Something inside her snapped.
She leapt forward and full out tackled him, taking him off guard enough that he actually dropped the textbook and staggered backwards. Any sort of clear thinking had gone out the window. The only thing in control now was the furious desire to tear the idiot palm tree to shreds. She'd never had any formal training in fighting. But that didn't matter. It was plenty simple to hit, slap, scratch, hair yank and head-butt an opponent.
For a moment the green haired sin was actually taken aback by her raging onslaught, allowing her to land several satisfying blows and a rather deep scratch across his cheek.
But then he recovered.
In an instant she was pinned against the wall, both arms pulled up over her head and firmly secured by one his hands.
"My my. You've got quite the little temper on you." His tone was darkly amused.
She growled in frustration as she saw a crackle of red light across his cheek, wiping away the damage she'd managed to do. She lunged forward against his grip but he jerked back slightly, meaning her teeth snapped shut on air instead of the end of his nose. His eyebrows shot up. "Hey now, take it easy. I don't want to have to hurt you."
"Yeah, only because you're a total wimp," She spat.
His eyes narrowed.
Then abruptly he kneed her in the gut.
The wash of pain as the air was brutally forced from her lungs caused her to collapse forward with a gasp. But she wasn't the only one collapsing forward. Her forehead smashed resoundingly against the green hair sin's face as he too was overcome by the effects of being kneed in the gut.
He gasped out an oath as both of them collapsed to the floor.
Amara struggled to breathe for a second or two. Then as she finally managed to pull some air into her lungs she began to laugh painfully.
"You actually fell for it! You're an idiot!"
Envy hissed in anger, cradling his bleeding nose with one hand and his throbbing stomach with the other. A moment later red light crackled across his nose, healing the damage there. But there was no such relief for his lungs and stomach.
She grinned and stuck her tongue out at him. "How do you like a taste of your own medicine?"
"You little bitch," he growled.
She smirked. "Come on then. Hit me. I dare you."
For a minute she wondered if he was actually going to fall for it again. His expression darkened alarmingly. On second thought, maybe provoking him too much wasn't a good idea. He might actually kill her by accident…
"Don't push your luck." His tone was low, and rather frightening.
She gulped.
Ok…time to back off a bit.
She drew in a slow, painful breath, wincing as her insides throbbed. Her gaze landed on the textbook laying a few feet away. She felt a prick of relief to see it was undamaged. With a pained sigh she lay back on the carpet, hands resting on bruised torso.
"Damn. Why do you have to have such bony knees?"
Envy snorted. "That's what you get for provoking me you little twit."
"Hey. You started it."
He rolled his eyes.
"So have I entertained you enough?" She demanded.
"Oh no you don't. You're not getting off that easily." The rather irritated homunculus pushed himself to his feet.
Amara blinked, staring up at his expression with a prick of unease. Maybe she'd pushed it a little too far…
The next then she knew he'd grabbed her arm and yanked her roughly to her feet.
"Oww! What are you doing?" she demanded nervously. His face was uncomfortably close to hers and she wasn't a fan of the way he was leering at her.
"You're going to make up for what you did," he told her darkly.
Her eyes widened. "H-how exactly…?"
He smirked. And then he set off for the hallway, dragging her after him.
"Hey! Stop! Where are we going?!" She dug her heels in to no avail. There was no way in hell she could come close to matching his strength.
He gave her no answer, continuing out to the porch and yanking the damaged door open.
"Envy!"
"Shut up," he growled.
Her jaw snapped shut and a thrill of fear shot through her at his tone. Man, she hadn't thought this through. Why again had she chosen to piss him off? He continued to drag her out into the hallway and down to the elevator. He pressed the button and the waited. She eyed him nervously. What on earth could he possibly be up to? Realistically there was only so much she could do right now. She hadn't been able to grab a weapon or even anything sharp, so injuring herself to control him would likely prove challenging.
The doors slid open with a ding and he yanked her roughly into the elevator. She staggered to a stop beside him as he pushed the main floor button.
"Seriously, what are you doing?" she whispered, eyes wide.
He glanced at her and smirked. "Awe, what happened to that fiery attitude you had a minute ago? You look scared."
She continued to stare at him blankly. She might have a bit of a short temper, but she wasn't an idiot. This situation could end very badly if she didn't come up with something. What was he planning to do? Was he really going to go out and start slaughtering people left, right and center with her dragging along after him?
The doors slip open and he dragged her out across the foyer to the doors.
"Wait, Envy, it's a blizzard out there. I don't have a jacket!" She protested.
It was indeed snowing quite heavily, and judging by the way it was moving in a horizontal direction, the wind was clearly very strong. On top of which, she was only wearing her long nightshirt that she'd slept in, and her feet were bare.
He ignored her, shoving the doors open and pulling her out into the storm.
The wall of cold hit her so intensely it left her gasping for air. She could feel the inside of her nose instantly freeze and her lungs vehemently protested the icy oxygen she was gulping in. The exposed skin on her legs, arms and face burned fiercely from the bitter wind, and her feet throbbed painfully from coming into contact with the freshly fallen snow covering the stairs and sidewalk. She was instantly chilled to the bone, shivers beginning to wrack her body. A moment later her teeth began to chatter as well as she staggered along after the green haired sin.
"E-nvvy, you c-can't do this. I'm g-going to f-f-freeze to death!" She scrunched her eyes shut against the onslaught of snowflakes which pelted her face. She was already loosing feeling in her feet, hands and ears.
She heard an annoyed growl.
"You humans are so pathetically weak," he grumbled.
She saw a crackle of red light and a moment later a long jacket and boots were shoved into her arms. She staggered and nearly dropped them, shivering so violently that it was difficult to keep hold of them. Swiftly she dropped the boots to the ground and slipped her numb feet into them awkwardly. She yanked the jacket on and fumbled with the zipper until the unfeeling stubs which were her fingers managed to zip it shut. Thank heavens it was a heavy winter jacket that fell nearly to her ankles and the boots he'd given her came up to her knees.
How he knew her size she didn't have a clue.
On second thought, maybe she didn't want to know…
As relief washed over her she glanced at Envy and did a dramatic double take. For a minute she thought he'd run off while she was dressing and some other guy had shown up. The older teen standing before her was tall, with darkly tanned skin and wavy black hair swept back from his face. His eyes were large and deep brown, rimmed with long dark lashes. He possessed a strong jawline, ruggedly handsome features and a dusting of five o-clock shadow. It was difficult to tell under the black leather jacket, but he appeared rather muscular as well.
It took a moment for her to realize she was gaping at him.
Her jaw snapped shut and her cheeks, already flushed from the cold, grew a shade darker. He probably hadn't intended it, but he'd managed to shapeshift into a form which epitomized her 'type'. It felt unbelievably weird and a little disturbing but she had to admit, in this body he was downright sexy.
He raised an eyebrow. "How do I look?"
"…I probably shouldn't answer that," her voice came out a little hoarse and she coughed slightly.
He snorted. "Come on. If I drag you it'll look suspicious." He turned and walked away down the sidewalk.
She blinked, and then hastened to catch up with him.
She didn't have a clue what he could be up to. If his intent was slaughtering people then she wasn't entirely sure why he'd bothered to change into Enver, the Turkish guy. Well… regardless, she was just relieved to have boots and a jacket. She was still chilled, but at least now she wasn't in danger of hypothermia.
It was snowing heavily enough that it was difficult to see where exactly they were going, but Envy seemed to have a specific destination in mind. The wind whistled between the buildings ominously and stirred up swirling clouds of powdered snow around them. A moment later they rounded a corner and Envy came to a stop by the door of a shop.
Amara blinked in surprise, glancing up at the sign. This was her favorite ice-cream parlor. Why had he brought her here?
"Inside," he ordered, pulling the door open and waiting for her to enter. She obeyed without complaint, hurrying through the door into the welcoming wave of heat inside the building.
The elderly woman behind the counter glanced up at them and grinned cheerfully. "Amara! It's wonderful to see you. How have you been?"
Astoundingly there were several other customers seated at the various tables around the shop eating ice-cream.
Only Canadians would be absurd enough to go out for ice-cream in a blizzard…
"Oh. Hello Grace. I've been good. Yourself?" She replied, hastening to put her scattered thoughts in order.
"Oh, same as always," the lady replied with a smile.
Amara glanced uncertainly at Envy.
He smirked before strolling up to the counter.
"I'd like a chocolate parfait," he told the clerk before glancing at Amara with a raised eyebrow. She stared at him, utterly floored. He wanted her to make up for attacking him…by buying him ice-cream? Seriously? She'd been bracing for an all-out slaughter fest, and this was really all he'd been planning?
"Uh…um…I'll have the same," she turned her gaze on the elderly woman, doing her best to keep a normal expression on her face.
"Oh, so he's with you then?" the lady inquired, a sly expression crossing her wrinkled face. "So is this your new boyfriend?"
Amara's eyes widened in shock as her mind reeled with the implications. She opened her mouth to assure her that he most definitely was just a friend, when an arm slid around her shoulders and pulled her against his side.
"That would be me," he replied smoothly, an amused smirk playing across his lips.
Amara froze, thoughts scattering off in wild disarray at the unexpected close proximity to the handsome teen. She found herself instantaneously battling two polar opposite desires.
The first was to up and clock him across the face as hard as she possibly could for intentionally embarrassing the hell out of her. Seriously, the bastard had already heard her tell someone he was very much just a "friend".
But unfortunately her body had other opinions on the matter, and it was instructing her to relax into his side, slip an arm around his neck and lean up and kiss him.
Actually…she was rather curious what his reaction would be to that. Since it probably was the last think he'd expect her to do. He didn't understand just how much his current form had an effect on her...
Still, as much as her body found the idea appealing, her mind was a little too pissed off to give in to that particular impulse at the moment.
"Oh, you're a lucky girl to find such a handsome guy. Must've had to search high and low to find him," the lady grinned.
Amara bit her tongue to keep from saying the first thing that came to mind: No, the asshole dropped in uninvited and now I can't get away from him. Instead she simply chuckled softly, deciding it was probably better to say nothing at all.
"Would you like me to put that on your tab dear?" the elderly clerk inquired.
"Yes, that would be wonderful, Grace. Thank you," she replied with a smile.
Then she smoothly slipped out from under the arm around her shoulders and made for one of the tables across the shop.
She was careful to pick a seat which faced out the window so that she wouldn't have to worry about keeping her expressions controlled.
As Envy sank into the seat across from her she glared blackly at him. This was so unfair. Every impulse commanded her to throw away her reservations and stare at him shamelessly. Those eyes…
She was not going to slip into a daydream staring into them! Dammit all!
He flashed a grin and she felt her stomach swoop.
"Something wrong?" his tone was infuriatingly innocent.
"You asshole," she hissed, "If you weren't immortal I swear I would kill you here and now!"
"Amara. You're blushing," he pointed out with a smirk.
She made an infuriated sound. "I hate you! Change back right now!" Her voice was low, but her tone did wonders to express the depths of her anger.
Envy raised his eyebrows. "Right here? In front of all these people? You know, something tells me that probably wouldn't go over well," he pointed out dryly. "Besides. This is way too much fun."
The smug tone of his voice made her itch to slap him.
He leaned forward, resting his elbow on the table and his chin on his hand. His expression was a typical, superiorly amused one, but in this form it had the unfortunate effect of triggering a multitude of butterflies in her stomach.
She leaned back in her chair to put distance between them.
"You know, if you keep staring at me like that, your elderly friend is going to think we're having a lover's spat."
Her eyes widened, and for a moment she almost lost control and smacked the smug expression right off his damn attractive face.
And then a thought occurred to her which caused the anger to drain away. A cool amusement trickled in to take its place.
"Alright jerk, two can play this game," she replied, before her expression changed completely and she leaned forward, resting her arms on the table as she gazed at him. In a matter of seconds she felt herself change from a barely controlled homicidal maniac, to a love struck teenage girl, her expression softening and gaze growing dreamy as she stared into his eyes. It really wasn't that difficult an act to pull off when this was how her body wanted to respond anyway…
His eyes widened slightly and he raised his eyebrows, clearly taken aback by the abrupt shift in mood. She felt a prick of satisfaction. This was what she'd anticipated. It was time to turn the tables.
But then a moment later his smirk returned in full, heart fluttering force.
"Just how far are you willing to take that act, hmm?" He leaned in much closer, his gaze filled with dark amusement.
Amara wanted to come up with a quick response, but she was suddenly unable to breathe with the distance between their faces suddenly so dramatically shortened. Even if she could breathe, the close proximity had driven every rational thought out of her mind. She'd assumed since she was just a "pathetic human" he would have quickly backed off in disgust. She really hadn't expected him to call her bluff...
Although, as far as her body was concerned, it wasn't a bluff.
"Here you are my dears!" A cheerful voice shattered her absolute focus on the dark brown eyes in front of her.
She jerked back slightly as two clear bowls of dessert were set in front of them. They were really more like shallow glasses actually… Each had a spoon sticking out of it.
Envy's attention was instantaneously diverted to the chocolate creation before him.
Amara quickly recovered.
"Thank you Grace." She turned to smile after the lady who was already bustling away to another customer.
Relief crashed over her in a wave. If the elderly lady hadn't shown up when she had, she wasn't entirely sure what would have happened. All she knew was there was a good chance she would have lost control and things would likely have ended badly…
She glanced down at the parfait in front of her. She'd never actually had one before… she glanced at the homunculus across from her to see his eyes were shut in a contented, blissed-out expression as he savoured a mouthful of the frozen dessert.
"I can't believe you dragged me out here to buy you a parfait."
He cracked an eye open to stare at her a moment before swallowing the mouthful. Then he shrugged.
"What else are you good for?" He raised an eyebrow, actually sounding rather curious.
Her jaw dropped as an idea she really didn't want to picture leapt into her mind.
"You…didn't just ask me that."
He really really needed to not stay in that form. Because she couldn't for the life of her get her brain out of the gutter.
He raised an eyebrow. "You're blushing again," he pointed out blandly, before eating another spoonful.
Her eyes narrowed and she glared daggers at him. Rather than dignifying that with a response, she turned her attention on the dessert in front of her. She grabbed the spoon and took a bite.
Her eyes widened as the flavor spread throughout her mouth.
"What?" Envy demanded, giving her a puzzled look.
She swallowed and then quickly took another bite, just to be sure. Yep. Wow. She swallowed that one to. Finally she fixed him with a flat look.
"I utterly despise you. But you have excellent taste in food."
He blinked, staring at her blankly for a moment. And then he slowly began to laugh. Not the usual cruel, mocking laughter; just normal, genuinely amused laughter.
She stared at him, a little stunned. She couldn't recall ever hearing him laugh like that.
Eventually he seemed to recover, although he was still grinning slightly.
"You are quite possibly the most bizarre human I have ever met."
She raised an eyebrow. "Uh…Thank you… I think…"
She watched him contently go back to eating his desert, feeling a little bewildered. What on earth was she going to do with this guy? His mood swings were starting to give her whiplash. She let out a sigh. Well…clearly she had another weapon to add to her arsenal. There were many different sorts of chocolate she suspected he would like. Maybe controlling him with bribes would work better than threats…