Amara drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, calming her anxious mind. She was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, finishing up the process of hair-styling and make-up. Rachel would definitely have comments to make if she showed up to find Amara in PJs, with bedhead and looking half-dead from lack of sleep. The nature of the comments would likely depend on the mood of the blonde girl, but Amara wasn't inclined to risk provoking her either way.

She leaned in and added the final touches of eyeliner before brushing her hair back from her face. The coppery waves had been relatively tamed, and now spilled past her shoulders in a less frizzy manner. The navy blue turtleneck she'd managed to dig out of the back of her dresser happened to bring out the blue in her eyes. It also had the handy effect of covering the bandage around her neck… She wasn't eager to try explaining the injury to her nosy friend. Her usual faded blue jeans completed the outfit.

She turned and left the washroom, making her way down the hall to the living room. She found Envy seated on the couch, starting on his second jar of Nutella. Mercifully he was back in his usual form, claiming he found it more comfortable.

"Are you sure you aren't Gluttony in disguise? You're going to make yourself sick." She frowned.

Envy snorted. "I already told you. Homunculi can't get sick. Which is just as well. You humans have sole proprietorship on looking and acting like pathetic weaklings."

Amara's eyes narrowed. "I hope you catch a cold while you're living here." Speaking of colds, she could feel the unpleasant hints of one coming on in her own body. After the poor sleep she'd been getting and then being dragged out into that blizzard, it wouldn't be overly surprising if she caught one. But she really couldn't afford to be sick right now. She had an exam to study for…

She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and automatically fished it out. It was likely Rachel letting her know why she was a half-hour late. It certainly wasn't an abnormal occurrence for her friend. She had a tendency of losing track of the time.

Amara unlocked the screen and her brow furrowed in puzzlement.

"Who is it this time?" Envy dipped the spoon back in the jar.

"It's my dad again," her tone was perplexed.

The homunculus raised an eyebrow. "What now?"

"Uhhh…" The coppertop stared blankly at the message for a moment, then frowned. "He wants to know if I know anything about metal prosthetics,"

Envy blinked. "…Like automail?"

"No idea..."

There was a light knock on the door and Amara jumped slightly. Apparently Rachel was finally putting in an appearance.
Her father's out of the blue inquiries would have to wait.

She shot a look at Envy and he rolled his eyes, the telltale crackle of red energy appearing over his body. She whirled and strolled over to answer the door. It was a bit awkward to jerk open with the way it was wedged shut, but after a moment the girl on the other side of the door gave it a resounding shove and it swung inward violently, nearly knocking Amara off her feet. She staggered back and gave the blonde an unenthused look.

Her friend wore a beige, mid-length jacket, dark pants and knee high boots, her numerous piercings toned down to simple small studs-her typical work attire.

Rachel totally ignored the coppertop's silent rebuff and raised an eyebrow at the door. "What happened to that?"

"Uh…well umm…" Amara shifted uneasily.

"Somebody broke in."

The voice behind her made Amara jump. The shiver that ran through her at the sound of his voice told her he was definitely back in his Enver form. Rachel's eyes widened as she stared at the taller teen. Amara noticed, with rather mixed emotions, that her friend's reaction to the shapeshifter's current appearance mirrored her own. She could see a blush beginning to creep over the other girl's cheeks.

"You must be Rachel." Envy easily sidestepped the coppertop and offered a hand to the stunned looking blond.

"Uh...Yeah, that's me." She sounded ever-so-slightly flustered, reaching out to take the offered hand, probably assuming he intended a customary handshake. Instead, she gasped as the dark-haired young man bent slightly and raised her hand to his lips.

"I'm Enver." He smirked, then released her hand and straightened up again.

Amara's jaw dropped slightly as she stared at the disguised sin in shock. What…the hell was he doing?!

"I-its nice to meet you." Rachel was now blushing quite blatantly.

"Why don't you come in?" Envy suggested, stepping back to allow her by.

Amara's jaw snapped shut and she shot him a slightly annoyed look. It was her apartment, not his. What gave him the right to invite people in?

"Oh…thank you," the blonde replied, strolling slowly into the apartment as Envy easily shoved the door shut behind her. Amara winced at the sound of splintering wood, but Rachel didn't even appear to notice. She crossed the room to the love seat, quite at home in her friend's apartment.

Amara trailed after her and sank down on the cushion beside her friend. Seeing as there really wasn't anywhere else to sit, Envy leaned against the kitchen counter.

"So um, you said someone broke in?" Rachel's tone was slightly concerned and she finally glanced at her copper-haired friend.

"Oh, um, yeah. Well you see…" Amara trailed off, not sure where exactly to go with the story.

"When did it happen?" Rachel frowned, not seeming to notice her friend's uneasiness.

"This morning," Amara replied immediately. It was true…Envy had broken down the door that morning. She was suddenly tempted to make up a story about 'Enver' locking himself out, losing his temper and then breaking back in. Envy had clearly taken it into his head to make her eat her own words for telling her friend he was 'a total asshole,' so making him look like a short tempered idiot would thwart that nicely.

"Oh man, are you serious?" Rachel gasped, "What happened?"

Amara opened her mouth to reply but was smoothly cut off by Envy.

"I had to fight him off," he said matter-of-factly.

Rachel's eyes widened as her gaze moved to the disguised sin.

"You did? Is that how your neck got hurt?" She sounded awestruck.

Amara resisted the urge to face-palm. Envy hadn't bothered to cover up the bandage around his neck, leaving it visible even in his Enver form.

Envy nodded gravely. "Yeah, he had a knife. If I hadn't been here, I'm not sure what would have become of our poor little ginger brain," he shot the coppertop a clearly concerned look, but his eyes danced with infuriating amusement.

Amara's hands clenched into fists and she began counting to ten slowly in her head to keep from flying across the room and slapping him as hard as possible. That conniving bastard had planned this out from the start, just to piss her off.

"You fought off a guy with a knife?" Rachel's tone was curious. "You must have some martial arts training or something."

Amara saw Envy's lips twitch.

"A bit..."

"Wow…" Rachel's tone and expression were having an unpleasant effect on the emotions swirling in Amara's chest. The blonde really needed to stop staring at Envy like that. "How come you never mentioned Enver before?" Rachel turned an accusing gaze on her friend.

Amara blinked. "I dunno, it just never came up I guess…"

"Amara. You never even mentioned me? I'm hurt," Envy's expression grew rather injured.

Amara shot him a flabbergasted look. Why was he doing this?!

Rachel rolled her eyes. "That's Amara for you. Never talks about stuff unless you intentionally drag it out of her."

"Why must you always exaggerate?" Amara muttered, shooting her friend an exasperated look.

"I'm sorry I'm late, by the way," Rachel said abruptly. "And unfortunately my appointment this evening got bumped up to an earlier time-slot so I have to leave right away too. But I wanted to see how you were managing." Her expression grew genuinely concerned. "You weren't looking too good the other day. How's the studying coming?"

Amara felt her expression deteriorate as a feeling of despairing defeat crept over her.

Rachel frowned. "I take it that means 'not good.' The depression's gotten worse, hasn't it?"

Amara's eyes widened slightly. Well…yes, it had grown a lot worse since they last discussed it. But Envy's arrival had thrown her world off-kilter so completely that she'd actually been too distracted to dwell on it much over the last two days. She'd almost forgotten about it, which was rather mind-blowing. Never before had something managed to distract her from a depression to this degree.

She shot a look at the sin leaning on her kitchen counter. Maybe she had something to thank him for after all. Then, with a prick of surprise she realized he had narrowed his eyes at her in a suspicious expression.

She frowned, puzzled. What was that about?

"Amara?" Rachel drew her attention once more.

"Oh…um…" She really wanted to blow her off with a reassuring smile and say she was fine but…she'd been doing that a lot lately. It was probably getting old. "Well…"

Rachel leveled a glare at her. "I knew you were lying. How bad is it?"

Amara shrank back slightly from the accusatory expression on her friend's face. She really didn't feel like talking about this… She dropped her gaze to the floor, fighting an internal battle. Finally she sighed. She might as well just admit it.

"Bad," she muttered. It was a little different from previous depressions she'd had. It wasn't nearly as physically debilitating, which meant it was easier to work through; easier to act like she was just fine. But her mind was far from fine. The dark, disturbing thoughts and ideas that plagued her had been getting downright scary before Envy had crashed into her life. And she knew from experience that distractions, even friggin incredible ones, only worked for so long. The dangerous thoughts would be back-sooner rather than later given the unpleasant exam coming up.

Rachel grabbed Amara's shoulder, forcing Amara to face her. "Don't do anything stupid. You need to get some help," The blonde's expression was dead serious.

Amara sighed in exasperation. "What help? I'm on the highest dose of antidepressants I can take and they aren't working any more. There's nothing the doctor can do short of locking me up."

Rachel's expression grew pained. "I wish there was something I could do to help."

Amara smiled bemusedly. "You shouldn't worry so much. I've got lots of practice with this. I'll just keep on toughing it out. It'll be fine."

"Good grief. You shouldn't be trying to comfort me," Rachel muttered, shaking her head. "All right. But you have to keep in touch! If you don't, I'll start coming over every day to check on you. Got it?"

Amara smiled half-heartedly. "Got it..."

Rachel's gaze moved back to Envy. "You know, I was skeptical at first, but I'm glad you're staying with her. Watch her like a hawk. Don't let her do anything we'll all regret," she ordered him severely.

Astoundingly, despite being given direct orders from a human, Envy nodded. He looked a little lost, but he was also still radiating suspicion. The gaze he leveled at her promised a number of questions once the blonde left. Amara wilted. This wasn't something she wanted to explain to him of all people.

Rachel sighed. "Well… in any case… Hey do you guys want to go out for a drink at some point?" She asked abruptly. Her gaze was lingering on Envy again. Amara's eyes narrowed slightly. Her friend definitely wasn't going to leave this alone. Envy had gone and gotten her attention and now she was obviously very interested.

"Hmm. I'll have to get back to you on that," Amara said. "Between studying and…well…I just don't know if I'll be up to it..."

"It would probably be good for you to get out. Besides, you shouldn't keep your friend," she said the word with an odd tone, "cooped up in your apartment all the time. Seriously, he's going to get bored. No offense, but even you know you're ridiculously antisocial when you get like this."

Amara felt a wave of irritation. She was well aware of when Rachel was genuinely concerned about her, and when she was just interested in getting her own agenda met. And right now her agenda was definitely fixated on the young Turkish man leaning on the counter.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll let you know, ok?" Amara brushed her off.

"You better!" Rachel said, rising to her feet, "Listen, unfortunately I should probably get going. I wish I could stay longer,"

Amara resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Judging by the look she was giving Envy, the blond was probably kicking herself for scheduling an appointment that evening.

"That's ok, don't worry about it." Amara smiled brightly. Probably too brightly. But she didn't much care at that moment.

"And I'm clearly leaving you in capable hands with Enver, so I suppose I shouldn't worry too much," Rachel added thoughtfully.

Amara's expression froze, and she hastily worked to drag her mind back out of the gutter. Ugh! Whyyyy had he picked that form?! It was killing her!

She heard a slight cough and levelled a glare at the sin, who appeared to be trying to keep from grinning.

"Hey Amara, could you walk down with me?" Rachel asked abruptly. Amara blinked in surprise.

"Umm, sure." She rose and followed after her friend to the door.

In an instant, Envy was there pulling the door open. Judging by the sound it made, Amara suspected neither her, nor Rachel, would have managed to get the thing open if they'd tried.

Rachel shot Envy a warm smile. "Take care of yourself." The flirtatious intent in her tone and gaze did astounding things to the odd feeling growing in Amara's chest.

What the heck was wrong with her? Rachel was just being Rachel. And it was Envy for heaven's sake!

"Mmmhmm. Come back soon," he replied with a crooked smile. The swooping feeling inside her at that expression was marred by the unpleasant emotion that sprang up over the smile being directed at Rachel. He turned and his gaze met hers. Then his expression filled with a very knowing amusement. Heck, amusement didn't quite cover it. He was enjoying this way too much. The bastard's whole goal with this had been to make her jealous. What a nasty, manipulative, sexy son of a bitch.

She hated him!

She stormed out the door after Rachel, fuming silently. The two of them strolled down the hall in silence. When they stopped at the elevator Rachel turned to Amara curiously.

"Wow…that guy sure is something. I thought you said he was an asshole?"

Amara sighed. "He is when he chooses to be..."

"Do you know if he's got a girlfriend?" she inquired. Amara stared at her. She wasn't usually prone to physical violence against people (Well, unless they were Envy), but right now she was feeling sorely tempted.

"Umm, no, I don't. I doubt it."

"Hmm…he's so….wow. I can't believe you two aren't together. I mean he's gotta be your type!"

"Yeah…" Amara's tone was evasive.

"Well. if you don't want him then I think I'll try asking him out." Rachel sounded fairly confident.

Amara's eyes widened. "That's a bad idea."

The blond raised an eyebrow at her. "Why?"

Amara stared blankly at her for a moment, and then blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"He's gay."

The blonde's eyes widened. "What?! You're kidding me!"

"Nope." Perhaps it was untrue, but Amara really didn't care at that moment.

"Ugh. That's just so unfair…" Her friend's gaze dropped to the floor.

Amara let out a breath of relief. The way her friend's expression had crumpled in disappointment almost made her feel bad. But saying he was gay was easier than explaining that he was actually a mass-murdering psychopathic homunculus who usually wore the appearance of an androgynous palm-tree.

"Why are the best men taken, fictional or gay?" Rachel demanded.

Amara shrugged. "Life's just a bitch like that."

The blond gave her a flat look. "Easy for you to say. You haven't had a boyfriend for as long as I've known you, and you never talk about any ex's you might have."

"Because I have neither the time nor the energy to deal with any more drama in my life."

Seriously. She had enough problems with herself without adding another human-being to the mix...

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Whatever." When the elevator doors slide open with a ding, she strolled inside. "All right, well, I'll give you a call tomorrow okay?"

Amara nodded.

"And listen to Enver! You never take good enough care of yourself when you're down. I'm sure he's more than capable of looking after you. I hear gay guys are a lot more caring and sensitive."

Amara's eyes widened. The blond grinned at her and waved as the doors slide shut, blocking her from view.

Amara continued to stare at the shiny doors with a frozen expression.

Envy…caring and sensitive?

Could there possibly be a more contradicting description of the sin?

A giggle bubbled up in her chest and she began to laugh. More than capable of looking after her? Oh man. The irony. She was suddenly very glad Envy hadn't followed them to the elevator. She wasn't entirely sure how he would react to such a comment.

She made her way back down the hall and into her room to find Envy leaning on the counter again, back in his usual form. She shoved the door shut behind her a little awkwardly, wincing at the unpleasant aching feeling throughout her body. Clearly she needed some rest while her body fought off this bug.

Envy glanced at her and raised an eyebrow.

"What?" She was a little puzzled by the suspicion in his eyes.

"What was she talking about?" he demanded.

Amara frowned. "It's not important. And it's not any of your business anyway." She strolled over to the love seat and sank down to sit cross-legged.

"It's my business of I say it is," Envy snapped.

Amara raised her eyebrows. "Sheesh, what's gotten you all riled up?"

His eyes narrowed. "She told you not to do anything stupid and to 'get help'. Sounds like something life-threatening. What's life-threatening to you is life threatening to me," he pointed out sharply.

Well, that made sense.

She smirked bitterly. "It's only life threatening if I choose to make it that way. I'm depressed, not dying of cancer."

Envy raised an eyebrow, seeming unconvinced. Amara sighed, searching for a way to change the subject. She asked the first question that came to mind.

"So what exactly is your sexual orientation?"

Envy's eyes grew as wide as if she'd dumped a bucket of water over him out of the blue. "Excuse me?"

"Well, Rachel was going to ask you out, so I told her that you're gay. I'm just curious."

Envy's eyes widened even further as he stared at her. He didn't appear to know how to respond to such an unexpected admission. It was nice to see him taken completely off-guard for a change. Then finally he seemed to recover. His expression grew slightly bemused, and he shook his head with a chuckle.

"Don't you think that's a stupid question?" A wicked smirk twisted his lips. Red energy crackled across his body and abruptly Amara found herself staring at an identical copy of herself. "I can have the best of both worlds," he told her smugly, his tone and expression rather alien coming from her own form.

Amara's eyes widened in shock and then she scrunched them shut in disgust. "Ugh, you pervert! Don't say stuff like that in my form!" She heard him chuckle with her voice and her eyes snapped open to glare at him. "Speaking of which, what the hell was up with you putting the moves on Rachel?!"

Envy's expression grew darkly amused and light crackled over him again. A moment later she found herself staring at the appealing form of Enver.

"Oooooh. You sound jealous."

Amara gasped. "What?! I am not!"

"Ha!" Envy grinned, "Don't even try to bullshit me on this ginger brain. It's not gonna work."

Realization and embarrassment struck her at the same time. Ugh. This was Envy. If there was something he was an expert on, it was probably the sin he was named for.

Her eyes narrowed. "I hate you. Change back!"

Envy snickered. "I dunno. The way you react to his form is rather entertaining."

She sighed in exasperation. She felt a definite headache coming on and her whole body felt achy and tired. Not to mention it must have grown colder in her apartment because she was freezing.

"All right, whatever. I need to go study some more."

She rose stiffly and started across the room to the hallway, but was abruptly cut off by Envy. She just about collided with him, causing her to stagger back slightly in surprise.

"Oh no you don't. I've had more than enough of staring at the back of your head while you wallow in misery. Come up with something else." His tone didn't leave room for argument.

She stared at him in disbelief. "You know, contrary to what you believe, my purpose in life is not to keep you entertained! I need to study. Now move!"

He tisked at her disapprovingly. "Amara, Amara…keeping me entertained can be much more fun than trying to study..." He smirked, leaning in closer and invading her personal bubble.

She jerked back with a slight squeak. "No thank you! I would much rather study."

He chuckled, stepping forward and closing the space between them once again. The proximity of his ruggedly handsome face to hers was doing interesting things to the butterflies in her stomach.

"You are a terrible liar," he informed her dryly, the amused glint in his eyes making her shiver.

"Envy, taking advantage of me in that form is not fair!" She hissed, glaring at him while her cheeks blazed.

"Whoever said I was fair?" he inquired, now leaning in close enough that his nose was brushing hers slightly, "If I have to take advantage of you to keep you from studying it's a small sacrifice to be made." His tone was smug, and part of her itched to reach up and slap him for it. Except a much larger part of her was itching to slide her arms around his neck and kiss him.

Conflicting desires… she seemed to get them a lot around this guy.

"I hate you," she whispered fiercely.

"Mmmhmm. I'm sure," he smirked. And then he raised an eyebrow.

Suddenly he raised his hand and pressed it against her forehead.

She jumped slightly at the unexpected contact. "What are you doing?"

His eyes narrowed accusingly. "You have a fever."

She blinked. "Oh…"

Well, that explained why she felt so awful.

He leaned back and regarded her suspiciously.

She frowned, "What?"

He opened his mouth to respond and then shut it. Now it was her turn to raise an eyebrow. What was up with him?

And then something occurred to her. She hadn't noticed it at first with his tanned skin, but he was actually flushed. And she somehow doubted he was blushing.

She reached towards him but he grabbed her wrist.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, eyes narrowed.

She rolled her eyes. "What do you think?" She reached up with her other hand and pressed it to his forehead. Her eyes widened. "You're burning up!"

His own eyes widened and he let go of her wrist. "That's not possible..."

Amara stared at him for a moment. He'd probably never been sick before, so he'd likely been ignoring the symptoms, not knowing what was causing them.

"What hurts me hurts you," she pointed out.

"You're saying I'm sick because you're sick?!"

She frowned thoughtfully. "Actually. You probably aren't sick. I bet you're just experiencing the symptoms that my body is experiencing,"

"How does that change anything?!"

"Well…I suspect it means we don't have to worry about treating you. If I get better, you'll get better. So I should probably go try to sleep for a bit."

He continued to stare at her for several moments before shaking his head in exasperation. "This is absurd."

She snorted. "Welcome to my life."

She stepped stepped around him and headed for the bedroom. She was a little surprised when he followed after her.

She glanced back at him skeptically as she made her way over to her bed. "What are you doing?"

He stood in the doorway watching her. "Making sure you actually sleep instead of studying. You damn well had better recover quickly."

She raised her eyebrows. "...Right. I'll get right on that." She pulled back the sheets and slipped under them. She felt so achy and tired…blah… If she wasn't so fuzzily sick feeling she'd probably take exception to Envy standing there watching her fall asleep.

But she really didn't give a damn at that moment.