Shortly thereafter they found themselves seated on a park bench.

The snow had ceased falling, and though it was still freezing, the lack of wind made it tolerable. The park itself was dark, with streetlights lining the edges. Their bench was encompassed by the glow of one such light.

Amara shifted the brown paper bag in her lap, the bottles within clinking faintly from the movement. For herself, she'd picked out a four-pack of coolers - though, only because buying a single hadn't been an option. Envy, despite her warnings against it, had picked out a bottle of straight vodka.

When he reached a glove-clad hand into the bag and pulled it out, she eyed him skeptically. "You're going to find that disgusting."

"It can't be any worse than that medicine you fed me," he retorted.

Her eyes narrowed. "I thought you couldn't remember that?"

"That isn't a taste one forgets easily."

"Hn. Well, I still think you're going to find that very unpleasant."

Drinking straight vodka sounded about as appealing to her as downing the rubbing alcohol in her cupboard.

Envy shrugged, the picture of nonchalance as he unscrewed the lid with an easy snick and raised it to his mouth. She tried to suppress her smirk as a very odd expression crossed his face at the taste of the strong liquid. That he didn't spew it across the snowy ground in front of them was a testament to his stubbornness, but his cheeks bulged and his eyes widened much farther than usual before he managed to swallow the burning liquid.

She couldn't help a small grin. "I tried to warn you..."

He gave her an unenthused look and set his bottle aside on the bench. "What do your drinks taste like?"

She rolled her eyes. Somehow, she'd expected this. Reaching into the bag, she pulled out two of the citrus coolers and handed both of them to him. "Can you open these? I don't have a bottle opener."

He raised an eyebrow, but flicked off each lid using only his thumbs. Then he handed one back and watched her expectantly. A smile tugged at her lips.

"It's not poisonous, you know."

Unless one drank too much of it…

She raised the bottle to her lips and took a sip, the twist of alcohol in the fruity drink making her shudder. For all that everyone else her age seemed obsessed with the stuff, she didn't think she'd ever be a fan of it...

Upon seeing that she didn't keel over, Envy took a careful sip of his own bottle, and his eyebrows shot up. "Why does this taste so different?" He held the bottle up to the streetlight, staring at the pinkish liquid with a puzzled frown.

"Because the vodka isn't straight." She smirked. "There are fruit juices. Sugar. Strange artificial flavourings... etc."

"Huh..." He stared at the bottle for a moment before raising it to his lips again. Then proceeded to drain it in record time.

Amara's eyes widened. "Uh…you might want to slow down a little..."

He dropped the bottle in the snow and held out his hand for another one.

"Maybe you should take a second to see how that affects you… If you've never drank before then you might find…"

He ignored her suggestion and shoved his hand back into the bag, pulling out another one.

She heaved a sigh. This probably wasn't going to end well. But then, he hadn't had much self-control with the Nutella, so if he'd taken it into his head that he liked these coolers…well…it was a good thing she'd only bought four. Maybe she should try to quickly drink the other two so he couldn't have them…. But on the flip side, with an an empty stomach that was more than enough to make her quite tipsy…

She took another sip of her cooler, watching him finish his second drink almost as swiftly as the first. For a minute it looked like he was going to reach for another one, but then he hesitated. It was hard to tell with his tanned skin and the dim light, but she could just about swear she saw a hint of color in his cheeks. He glanced at her, head cocked slightly.

"I feel….interesting…" his tone was a little unusual and she gave him an odd look. He sounded…friendly.

"Umm, maybe you should hold off on drinking more..."

He stared at her thoughtfully for a moment, cocking his head further. He abruptly lunged forward and grabbed her into a rib-crushingly tight hug, forcing a gasp from her lips and sending the bag of alcohol tumbling off her lap into the snow.

"Envy, what are you doing?!" she squeaked.

He pulled back slightly and released her. "You looked like you needed a hug." The words were frank, his eyes unguarded and sincere.

She stared at him wide eyed, utterly floored. There was no question about it. From the unusual expression on his face, to the out of character tone of his voice… He was definitely drunk. But…she never would have pegged Envy as a 'friendly' drunk.

"You should drink more," he suggested in a tone that almost sounded concerned. "You look stressed." A worried frown creased his brow.

She continued to stare at him.

He let out an exaggerated sigh and grabbed the cooler from her hand before holding it up to her mouth.

She jerked back. "Envy! I don't need you to feed it to me. " Swiftly, she snatched the bottle away from him.

"Then hurry up and drink it! You're way too grumpy." His expression deteriorated to a pout. And then he hiccupped.

Amara blinked at him, having a hard time focusing on anything other than the bizarrely out of character aura radiating from the homunculus. He glanced down at himself with a frown. A moment later red electricity crackled across him and he was back in his usual form.

Amara gasped. "No Envy! You need to…well at least put on some winter clothes or something!" She glanced around nervously, hoping no one had just witnessed the inhuman transformation.

"Why?" he asked curiously.

"Because you can't go walking around in the middle of winter in a skort and a crop top!"

His expression deteriorated, leaving him looking rather hurt. A crackle of electricity passed over him again creating a normal looking outfit of boots, pants and a dark winter coat with a scarf. His palm-tree-like hair still looked hopelessly out of place, but at least he didn't look like a raving lunatic running around half naked in the snow.

"You're so mean," he complained, staring at her with large, injured eyes.

"I'm…mean…?" she couldn't believe what she was hearing and seeing.

He nodded unhappily.

She drew in a deep breath. Then she glanced down at the cooler in her hand. This was very clearly going to be a long, bizarre night. She raised the bottle to her lips and finished it in several gulps.

"Yay! My turn!" Envy snatched up the bottle of vodka.

"Woah woah woah!" Amara half-tackled him in an attempt to get the bottle away. "Don't start drinking that. You're already drunk enough!"

"I'm not drunk," Envy told her very seriously, holding the bottle away out of her reach. His tone and expression had sobered so quickly that for a minute she almost believed him. Then he gasped and leaned in uncomfortably close to her face, studying her intently as his nose brushed against hers.

"Envy…what…the hell…?" She tried to slowly lean away, but he followed her, refusing to leave her personal bubble.

"Your eyes…they're so pretty." She couldn't make out his expression with his face so close to her own, but his own wide eyes seemed awestruck. The expression was so mind-bogglingly out of place in his usually ominous, violet gaze that she could only stare at him slack-jawed. When he continued to stare back at her earnestly, she felt a wave of unexpected, giddy amusement begin to build in her chest. A moment later it spilled out in the form of helpless laughter. She leaned away from him, doubling over and clutching at her stomach while she laughed to tears.

Of all the things she'd expected to hear from the envious sin, that hadn't been one of them.

As she began to pull herself together she heard a sound and glanced at him through the blur of tears to see him easily consuming the bottle of vodka.

Damn.

She lunged at him and managed to grab it away, but felt a sinking feeling as she found it was already more than three quarters empty.

"Envy…?" she inquired nervously.

He glanced around curiously. "Why are we here?" His speech was totally clear and unslurred, but the happy-go-lucky, friendly tone practically screamed he was intoxicated.

Amara frowned slightly. "Envy…do you remember your promise about not hurting people?"

He turned a cheerful gaze on her. "Nope." Amara's pang of anxiety must have shown on her face because Envy's eyes promptly widened. "But don't worry! We don't have to hurt people if you'd rather do something else! I think the blood might stain your coat anyway," he added thoughtfully.

Amara stared at him for a moment before wilting. Not only was she stuck with an insanely powerful, psychopathic palm tree; now he was drunk.

"Please just kill me now," she muttered, raising the bottle and finishing off the last of the liquid with a pained grimace.

"But…" his tone made her glance at him in surprise. He looked downright horrified. "I don't want to kill you. I like you!" he told her, eyes wide with worry.

She blinked at him slowly. "You are drunk." The statement was bland.

He gave her an odd look. "No, I'm Envy." He sounded affronted. Then suddenly he jumped to his feet. "I want to do something!" he declared.

Amara rose hastily and staggered. Huh. Drinking on an empty stomach probably hadn't been the cleverest idea…

"Uh…what exactly…?" she asked warily.

Envy abruptly snapped to attention staring down the street and Amara's eyes widened as the sound of ruckus laughter and loud talking could be heard. It seemed a group of guys who were as similarly intoxicated as Envy were headed their way.

Suddenly Envy bent down, gathering a very large handful of snow into a ball.

"Envy, what are you doing?" Amara demanded, puzzled. He straightened up, holding his newly formed snowball tucked under his arm. He held a finger to his lips in an order to keep silent and then began to creep down the sidewalk towards the approaching group of young men.

The coppertop let out a gusty sigh and followed after him. No point in trying to stop him. Given how absurdly abnormal he was acting, perhaps there wasn't as much of a risk of him creating a violent scene…

As they neared the men Envy abruptly grabbed her arm and yanked her into small copse growing along the sidewalk. They waited with bated breath for the men to approach.

"Seriously, Envy, what are you-?" Her question was cut off when he abruptly leapt forward with a triumphant yell.

"Sneak attack!" He threw the snowball and absolutely clobbered the leader of the group, hitting him square in the face and sending him sprawling backwards into the snow. "Score!" he threw his hands in the air in triumph.

The other members of the group seemed utterly taken off guard.

"Dude, what the fuck?" one of them demanded.

Amara gasped as she saw Envy dart forward, and her gut clenched in dread as she wondered what exactly he was about to do. The palm-tree-haired sin came to a screeching stop right in front of the startled man and reached up, flicking him lightly on the forehead.

"You're it!" He informed him with a grin, "Catch me if you can!"

And then he was gone, racing away in the direction they had just come from.

Amara stared after him flabbergasted, before realizing if she wasn't careful she might actually lose him.

"Envy wait! Wait up!" She leapt out of the small wood and attempted to race after him. He was cutting across the middle of the park through drifts of snow, which meant that pursuing him was rather difficult in high-heeled boots. After a second or two she managed to trip and go sprawling, face-planting in the snow as her forward momentum kept her from effectively catching herself. She lay stunned for a moment, head spinning slightly as her face burned from contact with the icy fluff.

"Hey! Watcha doin?" A cheerful voice demanded.

She glanced up to see Envy staring down at her curiously.

"Making snow angels," she muttered.

He gasped. Then he fell backwards.

Amara could have sworn she felt the ground shake as his body thoroughly crushed the snow and likely made a slight crater in the frozen grown. She blinked, pushing herself up slightly. He abruptly flailed his arms and legs in an odd manor before leaping to his feet and whirling around to inspect his work.

"Tada!" he declared. Amara slowly pulled herself to her feet, staggering over to stand next to him. After a moment she felt a grin spread across her face.

"Congratulations," she told him dryly. "You've created the world's first ever palm-tree-angel."

It was true. The impression his body had left behind in the dirt was somewhat comical.

He blinked at her. "But isn't it a snow palm-tree angel?"

Amara raised an eyebrow. "It would be if you'd made it in the snow. You carved that thing into the ground." She couldn't help but wonder what people would make of it when they came across it the next day...

"Hey! There they are!"

Both Amara and Envy jumped slightly and turned to see the group of guy's that Envy had ambushed were actually attempting to pursue them.

"Um…I think we should run," Amara observed.

"Ok," Envy replied agreeably. Abruptly, he grabbed her, scooping her into his arms and taking off at a terrifying speed across the park.

Amara let out a slight shriek, clinging to him tightly. She closed her eyes against the rush of icy air, burying her face against his jacket and praying they didn't end up getting hit by a car.

-A/N-

Binge drinking: don't try it at home. Especially not with Envy.

Seriously though, it can kill you. Just don't do it. ^^;