Amara's eyes snapped open.

Judging by the low light levels streaming in from the window, it was nearing dusk. She was lying on her side. And, much to her alarm, she felt something warm against her back. With a hoarse yelp she rolled away and sat up, staring down at the palm-tree-like hair poking out from under the covers.

"Envy!" Her throat complained vehemently over the hoarse shout, but she didn't care. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

He gave a muffled grunt and the partly-exposed head slipped farther under the covers. She frowned in puzzlement. The homunculus was completely bundled up. He'd even stolen most of the blankets off of her side of the bed.

"Umm…are you ok?" She leaned closer and pulled at the covers slightly, trying to expose his face. "Hey, what's wrong?"

He clung to the sheets stubbornly, but she eventually managed to strip them away, revealing a palm-tree haired homunculus that looked so miserable she actually felt sorry for him. His eyes were shut tightly, his arms hugged close to himself as shivers wracked his form. There was a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead and his cheeks were flushed. Any remaining anger over his invasion of her sleeping area drained away. The poor guy probably felt like he was freezing to death with the chills from the fever.

She rested a hand on his shoulder and gently shook him. "Envy, you need to wake up. I can give you some stuff to help you feel better."

Slowly his eyes blinked open. The purple irises and slit pupils had an uncharacteristic glazed look to them. He turned his head and his gaze slowly focused on her. "Why do I feel like this?" His voice came out just as raspy as hers.

"You're sick," she told him carefully.

He stared at her for a minute before another violent shiver ran through him and his head sank back against the pillow. She sighed. She didn't feel a heck of a lot better than he did. Her head was pounding and her throat felt raw. And damn was it ever cold in her apartment! She wanted some of those covers Envy had stolen. She felt a slight shiver run through herself. Well, at least her stomach didn't feel sick. And actually, on that note, neither of them had had any supper. Maybe Envy didn't need any, but it probably wouldn't hurt him to have some hot soup.

She gently shook his shoulder again. "Envy, you need to get up and come with me."

He pulled the covers tighter around himself with a muffled moan.

She rolled her eyes. "You can bring the covers with you. Come on. Don't let yourself be outdone by a human." With any luck, the dig would touch on his pride, even in spite of the illness. Mustering her own strength, she slipped out of bed and padded across the room to the door. Then she glanced back at him expectantly.

Finally she saw his form shift and then slowly sit up. After a moment he slid out of bed and slowly followed after her, easily pulling all of the covers off the bed as he went, including the large, fluffy comforter. She felt a prick of relief.

There was no way in hell she could drag him if he chose to ignore her.

She headed into the kitchen and pulled open one of the cupboards where she kept some medication. Aspirin would likely help with the fever, although she wasn't entirely sure if it would work for a homunculus. Well…if they both took it then hopefully one way or another it would help. She filled two glasses of water from the tap and dumped out two extra strength pills. She grabbed one, turning and handing it to Envy, who had shuffled up behind her.

"Here, swallow these with the water. It'll help with the fever," she told him. He stared at them for a moment before he obeyed. She popped her own pils into her mouth and swallowed it down. "Alright, why don't you curl up on the couch? I'm going to make us some soup," she said, turning to grab a pot from under one of the cupboards. After a moment, the somewhat dazed homunculus obeyed, shuffling over to the couch and sinking down amidst his train of blankets.

Amara filled the pot with water and set it on the stove to boil. She got out two mugs to pour the soup into when it was finished, and then stared numbly at the counter for a moment, shivering. Ugh. Her head felt like it was going to explode. Being sick sucked. She turned and headed over to the thermostat on the wall beside the door and cranked up the heat. Feeling chilled was one of her least favorite things. After staring at the little box glumly for a moment, she decided it would be a while before the action had any noticeable effect. She headed back over to the pot and waited for the water to boil.

Ten minutes later she poured the steaming Lipton broth into the mugs and carried them carefully over to the coffee table.

"Alright, these are really hot so we should probably let them cool a bit," she rasped, then coughed on the tickle in her throat. Envy made no response, continuing to sit and stare at the floor while he shivered. She sighed, the feeling of aching fatigue dragging her limbs. Standing was more than she felt up to. Oh what the hell... She plodded across the room and flopped down next to the green-haired sin, pulling some of his blankets over her shoulders.

Abruptly he leaned over and slid his arms around her, pulling her as close to him as possible, meaning she was just about in his lap.

"Envy!" She squawked, "What do you think you're doing?!"

"You're warm," his hoarse voice came out almost as a whimper. She wanted to violently protest, but nothing in his demeanor suggested that he was intentionally trying to make her uncomfortable. He just seemed absolutely miserable. She could feel him shivering against her and felt a prick of sympathy for the pitiful looking creature.

"...Alright… But I don't really appreciate being treated as a human hot water bottle," she muttered half-heartedly. His only response was to tighten his hold around her and rest his head against hers.

For a moment she felt awkwardly tense with the situation. She definitely hadn't pegged Envy as the cuddly type. Then again, she'd never seen him quite this miserable either. Still, being cuddled by something a hundred times stronger and heavier than her, not to mention something much more maliciously twisted than her, was decidedly unnerving. And there really wasn't anything she could do about it. She wouldn't be able to squirm out of his grasp if she tried, and she lacked to energy to bother making an attempt. Another shiver ran through her and she let out a resigned sigh, admitting defeat and relaxing in his grip. At least she was getting the same benefit from this that he was-warmth.

"When am I going to start feeling better?" Envy mumbled.

Amara felt a smile tug at her lips. "Whenever I start feeling better I guess…I've got a pretty sturdy immune system so I don't usually stay sick long." Granted, the way her voice was rasping didn't make the statement all that convincing. She felt him hum tiredly against her hair. He actually seemed to be dozing off. Not that this meant he'd lessened his hold on her any. Obviously she wasn't going to be going anywhere until he decided he no longer needed his own personal heater. But she was too tired to feel irritated by it. Maybe he had the right idea. Going back to sleep sounded good.

For the first time in several days Truth chose not to take control of her dreams. Unfortunately this only meant that she was plagued by nightmarish fever dreams. A particularly unpleasant one sent her bolting awake, eyes flying open with a gasp.

The room was just about pitch black. Judging by the howling of the wind outside it was still blizzarding, which covered most of the light that the streetlights of the city usually provided through the living room window. In her rattled state of sudden wakening, the feeling of something around her securing her in place sent a wave of panic through her. She began to struggle blindly for a moment, mind scrambling to make sense of what was going on. She almost managed to break loose from whatever it was when it abruptly tightened around her, constricting much of her movement.

"What are you doing?" the sleepy voice sounded annoyed.

Amara drew in a sharp breath. "Envy...?" Realization dawned on her. Right…they'd fallen asleep on the couch. Apparently he still hadn't let go of her yet. "What are you still holding onto me?"

"Because I'm still cold," he replied flatly. His voice was still decidedly hoarse sounding. Amara frowned. Her head was still throbbing slightly and her throat felt like sandpaper, but the chills had eased off and she wasn't aching as much all over-which led her to believe that the fever had receded. Except that Envy was still radiating heat like a furnace and she could still feel him shivering slightly. She carefully reached up a hand in the dark, following his shoulder up to his neck and face till she found his forehead.

"You're still burning up," she whispered. "But that doesn't make any sense... Why would you still have a fever if I don't…?"

There was only one possibility she could think of. He wasn't just experiencing her symptoms. He was actually, genuinely sick. Perhaps her own body getting sick had given the virus access to Envy's body somehow…and while her immune system was used to fighting off colds and flu's relatively quickly, Envy hadn't ever been sick before. Which meant that his immune system likely wasn't particularly strong. She frowned. Envy was supposed to be immortal right? Well… as immortal as a character could be anyway. So surely he'd be just fine…

A doubt crept into the back of her mind. What if because the virus had accessed him through her, his powers refused to work to fight it off? Was he in actual danger of dying?

She shook her head. It was better to deal with one thing at a time. For the moment, she doubted he was in any life threatening danger.

"Envy, if you let me get up, I can go reheat that soup for you. It'll help you warm up," she promised. His grip around her tightening further was his only response. She winced slightly. This was getting a little too snug for her liking... "Envy, please. I'm trying to help you feel better," her voice took on a pleading edge.

"No," he replied mulishly.

Amara let out an exasperated sigh. "You're such a stubborn idiot! If you don't let me help you, you're going to be sick and miserable for longer than you need to be!"

She felt him shift slightly beside her. "I thought you said I would get better when you got better?" he sounded slightly suspicious.

"Well…umm…"

"What?" he demanded.

"My fever's receded but yours has gotten worse, so…that must mean you're genuinely sick too. You aren't just experiencing my symptoms..."

"That isn't possible," there was an edge to his voice.

Amara couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Well obviously it is, since you're clearly sicker than I am." An uncomfortable silence followed. She wilted slightly. "Look, I'll go reheat the soup and get you some medicine and then if you want me to I'll come back and sit with you." She sounded resigned.

There was another brief silence.

"Promise?" he asked.

She gave his outline an odd look. "Uh…sure…but you could just grab me and force me to sit with you anyway, you know." As soon as the words left her lips she wanted to bite them back. Why on earth would she say something so stupid? The last thing he needed was encouragement to force her into things!

"I don't want to move," he mumbled, sounding rather miserable.

Amara stared at him for a moment before sighing. Evil or otherwise, she couldn't help but feel bad for something that felt that awful. Heck, she'd hated watching his death scene in Brotherhood despite not particularly liking him to begin with.

"All right, I'll be right back. But you've gotta let go first," she told him gently. She heard him huff irritably, but his grip on her loosened and he finally released her.

She rose stiffly to her feet, feeling aches and pains through her body from falling asleep in such an unusual position. Surely to heavens there was a more comfortable way of doing this... Then a thought occurred to her and she winced. Sick or otherwise, she wasn't a fan of the idea of crawling into bed with the homunculus… The idea alone felt very weird.

She made her way carefully across the room in the dark until she found a light switch. Flicking it on, she squinted past the blinding brightness and began hunting in the kitchen cupboards. After a moment she found was she was looking for-a box of Neocitrin. She hated the stuff, but other than Tylenol she didn't have any other cold medication in the house. At least the unpleasant liquid covered more symptoms than the Aspirin did... She flicked on the electric kettle on the counter and set about making a new package of soup. The cold cups sitting on the coffee table probably only had mush for noodles at this point.

A short while later she had four steaming mugs sitting on the counter in front of her. Two of them smelled rather unpleasantly of lemon. Steeling herself, she grabbed the two lemon scented ones and headed back into the living room where the bedraggled looking homunculus was waiting for her.

"Alright," she said, coming to a halt in front of him, "Before you grab me again you need to drink this and you need to drink your soup."

"What is that?" he asked, making an unimpressed face at the smell coming from the mugs.

"It's disgusting," she told him bluntly. "But it will make you feel better, and I have to drink it too so it's not just you suffering through it." When he regarded her skeptically, she sighed. "Do you want to feel better or not? Hell, it's not like I'm trying to poison you. Something tells me that would be counterproductive."

He raised an eyebrow, but reluctantly extended a hand forward from under its cocoon of blankets and took one of the mugs.

"Be careful! It's hot," she warned as he raised it to his lips.

He took a small sip and then his expression twisted in a grimace. "What is this stuff?"

She carefully sank down on the edge of the loveseat, as far from the sick sin as she could manage. "It's called Neocitrin. What it lacks in flavour it makes up for in effectiveness…At least…it does for me anyway. It doesn't always affect everyone the same way." She felt a slight prick of unease at the thought. It usually made her drowsy and then the next day she felt quite a bit better. But Rachel, on the other hand, got buzzed off the stuff and it didn't really do much for her. Amara winced at the thought. Hopefully it would have the latter effect on the homunculus. A buzzed Envy wasn't something she had the energy for at this point.

"Why is it so damn hot?" he grumbled. "At least if it was a reasonable temperature you could drink it quickly and get it over with."

"You've got a point there... But the hot will help warm you up," she pointed out.

"Assuming I manage to drink it in the first place. You humans make such disgusting medication." He scowled down at his mug.

Amara smirked slightly. "Considering this is only the second human medication you've ever tried, I think you might be jumping to conclusions." Then she glanced down at her own mug, bracing herself for the inevitable.

Fifteen minutes later Envy set his empty soup mug down on the coffee table next to his empty Neocitrin mug. Amara had already finished both of hers, since she was use to drinking the unpleasant medication at scalding hot temperatures as quickly as possible. She eyed the homunculus uncertainly. He had a rather heavy lidded look to his eyes.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, a concerned edge to her voice. She had ended up moving closer to him on the couch to get under the blankets with him. Her chills had come back, making her wonder if maybe she wasn't getting better as fast as she'd thought.

He glanced at her, and her feeling of unease grew. His eyes had an odd, glazed over appearance, leading her to wonder if he was really 'all there' at the moment… Apparently the medication was already having a significant effect on him. She shifted nervously, starting to pull away from him. Maybe if he was drugged like this she could actually get away and lock herself in her room. His eyes widened as the realization that she was trying to leave sunk into his apparently slow-moving , he moved blindingly quickly, grabbing her and swinging her up, firmly pinning her down on the love seat. She let out a yelp as she was partially crushed. How on earth had he moved that fast?! He'd basically lifted her up and slammed her into the cushions, partially knocking the wind out of her. He was practically lying on top of her. They barely fit on the small couch, their feet hanging off the end slightly.

"Envy!" she gasped, having difficulty taking normal breaths with his weight on her chest. He stared down at her with his slit pupils still strangely out of focus. Then he seemed to come to the conclusion that he'd satisfactorily trapped his personal heater in place. He relaxed, lowering his head to rest against her shoulder while his arms remained locked around her like iron bars.

"Oh no…no way…don't you dare fall asleep now! Envy, get off!" she wheezed, half wondering if her ribs were going to crack under the weight of his now limp form. His breathing grew slow and even and his eyes were shut.

Dammit all he'd gone and fallen asleep on top of her!

This was so not ok. Hell, it was friggin uncomfortable for one. His arms under her back felt as hard and unyielding as bricks. On top of which, a lock of his palm-tree-like hair had fallen forward and was tickling her face. Secondly, he was invading her personal bubble about as much as physically possible short of trying to rip her clothes off. It didn't matter that he was drugged out of his mind and just in search of warmth. She was going to tear him to shreds when she finally managed to get out from under him. As it was, she wasn't going anywhere until he woke up. Even with his arms limp, the weight of his body was more than enough to keep her pinned in place.

She let out a defeated moan. Why me?

Needless to say it was a very long night. Envy didn't budge a muscle the entire time. It was like he'd turned into a slowly breathing rock. She slipped in and out of light dozes, but it was difficult to sleep when one felt this uncomfortable. Granted, the lack of oxygen from her crushed lungs did help with slipping into unconsciousness. Slowly, painfully slowly, the light from the window grew stronger. Apparently the storm had eased off throughout the night and the snow was falling much lighter now. From where she was pinned she couldn't see the clock on the microwave, and she couldn't remember if she'd bothered to check the time when they'd first woken up anyway. Either way, it seemed to take forever for the sun to creep above the horizon, little by little. Eventually the room was bathed in the pale, grey morning light of winter. She could tell from the color that it was going to be a dreary, overcast day.

Despite this, Envy didn't even stir. She felt a wash of despair and her eyes slipped shut. Not only was she uncomfortable, but after another night of terrible sleep, she felt downright awful again. Apparently Neocitrin could only do so much if the body wasn't given proper rest. Despite the warmth of the homunculus on top of her she felt chills trying to creep into her body, and her head was throbbing as fiercely as ever. And she was so unbelievably tired now. Even if Envy suddenly let her go, she didn't think she'd have the energy to go anywhere.

Then, finally, she felt movement on top of her. The homunculus shifted ever so slightly, and then his arms slipped out from under her as he raised his head and propped himself up slightly. She felt a wash of relief in her chest as much of the weight was removed from it and she was able to breathe relatively freely once more. Her eyelids flickered open tiredly and she saw him staring down at her. His eyes seemed clear and back to normal again, and the flush had disappeared from his cheeks. He actually looked quite a bit better. There was a puzzled expression on his face and he raised an eyebrow.

"How did we end up like this?"

Her eyes widened, then narrowed in anger. "You friggen grabbed me and pinned me here you jerk. Don't you remember?" she demanded, hostility radiating from her despite her fatigue. Or perhaps because of her fatigue. Her throat was still painfully raspy.

He blinked at her for a moment, and then frowned thoughtfully before shaking his head. "No, I don't. The last thing I remember is crawling in bed next to you to get warm," he told her frankly.

She stared at him for a moment before wilting. "Please, please don't ever fall asleep on top of me again," she whimpered.

He blinked, and then a slight smirk began to pull at his lips. "That bad huh?"

"Do you have any idea how heavy you are? I'm amazed I didn't suffocate."

He snorted, and then a look of dark amusement crept over his face. "You're just lucky I didn't have any dreams," he smirked darkly.

She gave him a disturbed look. "Why exactly…?"

"Because you might not have woken up in one piece." He chuckled.

Her eyes widened dramatically. "What?" It came out as a rather pathetic squeak.

He shook his head in amusement, choosing not to answer. Instead he slowly sat up, shifting so he was sitting on the edge of the couch, off of her legs. She drew in a deep breath of relief, savoring the feeling of freedom.

"Well, I don't know what happened last night but I feel way better," he commented, eyeing the mugs on the coffee table curiously.

"You're welcome," Amara muttered, "I feel awful…" Her whole body throbbed. She suspected she felt just about as miserable as Envy had the previous night.

The green haired sin glanced at her. "You look terrible."

"Gee…I wonder why…" her tone was caustic.

He glanced at the four mugs and then back at her. "If you had the same medicine as me then why are you still sick?" he sounded puzzled.

"Because somebody kept me up all night."

He hummed thoughtfully. "You should make some coffee."

She shot him an incredulous look before letting out a pained chuckle. "Sorry buddy. I think you broke your personal servant. I'm not sure I can stand right now."

He frowned at her, clearly finding this to be a nuisance."You can't seriously be that weak."

She felt a spark of outrage and managed to sit up slightly in her wave of fury. "Look here, palm-tree. You might not remember last night, but you were a hell of a lot worse off than I am now. So don't get all patronizing calling me weak! You're the one who passed out on me all night!"

His eyes narrowed slightly. "I would never stoop as low as to be as weak as you," he retorted.

The anger bubbling up inside of her had her practically on the edge of tears. "You asshole!" Unfortunately, the hoarseness of her voice took away much of the insult's venom. She forced herself into a seated position and her head spun. "Get over here, dammit all. I'm going to beat the living daylights out of you!" She wanted to full out tackle him and tear him apart, but she barely managed to jerk forward in an attempt to claw at his arm.

He easily caught her wrist in his hand and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Boy. You really are weaker than before."

"I hate you," her growl sounded more like a whimper and her eyes slipped shut. Her head was spinning and pounding to the point where she almost felt sick to her stomach. She heard him sigh.

"Well you aren't much good to me like this," he muttered, "And I'm stuck with you," his tone was rather disgusted.

A moment later she felt movement beside her and she was abruptly scooped up. Her eyes snapped open with a gasp as she found herself slung over his shoulder.

"What are you doing?! Stop it!" Being partly upside down was doing no favors for her head or stomach. "Envy, please put me down," she pleaded, hating how pathetic she sounded. She could practically hear him roll his eyes as he set off towards the hallway. He strolled down the hall and into her bedroom before walking over to the bed and dropping her unceremoniously onto the bare mattress.

"Oww," she complained, shifting slightly to a more comfortable position but not bothering to sit up or look around. Her whole body was protesting the less than gentle treatment. She heard him leave the room and return a moment later.

A pile of blankets landed on her abruptly.

"Oomph," she struggled weakly under the rather weighty mass of covers. She managed to find the edge and push them away from her head awkwardly. She glanced around wearily and met Envy's gaze.

"Hurry up and get better." He glowered down at her, arms crossed.

She blinked at him slowly before letting herself go limp against the mattress. "Why don't you just kill me now and put me out of my misery," she muttered, staring dully at the wall.

He sighed in exasperation. She heard him stroll out of the room and moment later her eyes slipped shut. After such a long and unpleasant night she slipped into unconsciousness almost immediately.

She woke some time later to someone shaking her shoulder. She blinked blearily, wondering why he could possibly want her to wake up.

"Drink this," Envy ordered, thrusting a mug in front of her face. She stared at it dumbly for a moment and then wrinkled her nose as the scent of lemon wafted over her. She pushed herself up slightly, giving him an odd look.

"You made me Neocitrin?" she was definitely puzzled. How had he figured out how to use the kettle?

"Well, it worked for me, so obviously it should work for you."

She frowned slightly. "But…why? I don't understand…"

He gave her a flat look. "Because you're bloody boring when you're like this and I'm tired of waiting around."

She stared at him for a moment. Well…that sounded plausible. Either way, it couldn't hurt to drink some more of the awful stuff. She reached out and took the mug carefully. Then she blinked. It was cold. Well then... Obviously he hadn't figured out how to work the kettle after all.

She held her breath and drank the cool syrupy liquid down as quickly as possible. Swallowing the last of it with a grimace, she handed him back the mug.

"Good. Now sleep," he ordered flatly.

"As you wish, my lord," she muttered, heavy sarcasm lacing the words. Slowly, she sank back down against the pillows and closed her eyes.

She was asleep before she even heard him walk away.