Though Edward had gladly invited Envy over for dinner that Saturday, when the time came…he was rather nervous. After all, Roy wasn't exactly happy with the idea; as far as he was concerned, Envy was just in it to get in Ed's pants. Which, coming from Roy who went out with everyone, was pretty rich.

"Brother, please stop pacing," Alphonse sighed, glancing up from his psychology textbook for a moment. "You're making it hard for me to study."

Edward froze abruptly, having not realized he was walking around. "Sorry," he replied, sitting down beside his brother on the couch. "But why are you studying, anyway? You're doing fine in that class, you told me. Can't you rest for a day?"

Al snorted. "You're just getting lazy, Brother. You used to study all weekend too."

"Yeah, well, call me enlightened," Ed muttered. It was true, he used to spend more time buried in textbooks than Alphonse did. Lately, though…well, with sex ed class and Envy and all that, he was starting to think there were more important things than studying all the time. Besides, his grades hadn't dropped any more than a few percentage points from the change. He still had all A's, and as far as Edward was concerned, that was good enough. As long as that didn't change…who cared if he took a break to actually enjoy life a little?

Ed was interrupted from his musings by a doorbell. He smiled—the doorbell meant Envy. Roy would have walked right in. Jumping up from his seat, Edward skipped to the door, flipping the latch and pulling it open to reveal the green haired boy, who's somber face quickly brightened into a grin. "Hi!"

"Hey, baby," Envy greeted, stepping forward to give Ed a short kiss. "You took me by surprise, I thought Roy would end up answering the door and grilling me for a while…"

"You actually beat him here," Edward explained. "He's always late like this, I told you."

Raising his eyebrows, Envy glanced at the wall clock in the hallway. "It's nine thirty. Don't normal people have dinner at like, six?"

"Who told you we were normal?" Ed laughed, leading the other boy into the living room. "Sometimes he doesn't get home until 11:00—although usually at that point we eat without him. He should be here soon, though," Edward added, his tone turning apologetic. "He, ah…well, I can't say he wants to meet you. Actually, he wants a chance to prove that you're just some horn dog. He wasn't impressed with you when he saw you at your house…"

Envy only shrugged. "Whatever. That just means I'll get to prove him wrong. It's probably just the hair."

"Actually, it was more the fact that you were stripping me down when he walked in," Ed corrected, flushing at the memory.

"Roy told me about that," Al interrupted. "Not cool. I don't want to think about you two like that. Hi, by the way."

"Sup, Al?" Envy responded, ignoring that first bit. Edward, rather flustered by comparison, sat down. The other boy followed his lead, squeezing in close.

"That's not going to help with Roy's impression of you, Envy," Alphonse advised, watching them. "You're too close to him."

"Well, duh. I'm not going to act like I'm just Edward's friend," the green haired boy snickered. "No point in lying, right? I'm just going to behave and keep my hands away from the danger zones."

"Yeah, that's probably smart." Ed gasped, his head whipping around so fast something cracked as he turned to see Roy standing in the doorway, his eyebrows raised.

The room was silent for a minute before Envy threw up his arms. "Whelp, guess I'm screwed." The green haired boy stood up, holding out a hand for Roy to shake. "Nice to actually meet you. Ed's told me a lot."

Roy took the offered hand, staring at Envy's purple eyes intently. "Points for not freaking out, but I'm not impressed with that generic 'heard a lot about you horseshit.'"

"It's not horseshit," Envy responded, eyebrows raised. "I'm being completely serious. He talks about you a lot, how you took him and Al in and how you're protective and everything."

Grinning, Edward watched Roy's face shift into an expression of surprise. "Well. It's good to know you at least stop getting it on long enough to know what you're getting in to."

"Wow. Okay. No," Ed interrupted. "We're not talking about all that."

"I concur," Alphonse agreed, slamming his book shut. "No offense, Brother, but unlike our unhealthily attached guardian I have zero interest in your sex life." He fought back a smile as everyone laughed at that, the slight tension in the room broken for a moment. "How about we just go eat?"

"Sounds good to me," Envy answered. "I'm starving."

"Remind me again, Ed," Roy drawled, "why I agreed to feed your rude little boy toy?"

"Oh, no," the green haired boy interjected before Edward, shaking with giggles now, could respond, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your kid's my boy toy."

Suddenly, Edward was struck with the terrible thought that, rather than the two fighting, Envy and Roy might actually get along. And as horrible as it would be to have a father figure and a boyfriend that were constantly at odds, them getting all buddy buddy would be far more embarrassing in the long run. He hurried into the dining room, followed by a chuckling Alphonse as well as Roy and Envy, the former of which looked like he was trying very hard not to approve of the green haired boy's attitude.

Envy, of course, sat next to Ed, but the other boy held true to his word and didn't pull anything, instead scooting closer to the table excitedly. "Soup?" he asked, spotting the pot waiting on the tabletop.

"Stew," Ed corrected, pulling off the lid.

"Stew? That's a new one…"

"You've never had stew before, Envy?" Al asked, passing around bowls and spoons.

"Nope," the green haired boy replied cheerfully. Shaking his head in disappointment, Edward snagged the pot and ladled some into Envy's bowl, gratified when the other boy's eyes grew wide on the first bite. "Whoa, this is really good!"

"Thank Alphonse," Roy told him, taking the pot once Ed was done with it. "He makes this stuff himself."

"It's no big deal," Al insisted. "It's not that complicated."

"Still, that's pretty impressive," Envy said fervently.

All was quiet aside from quiet slurping for a few moments, until Roy broke the silence. "So. Envy. Are you in any of the same classes as Ed, aside from the one…?"

For the first time, Envy seemed to struggle for words. "That's kind of a complicated question to answer. I mean, I'm not, but I don't feel like it's fair to say that without explaining why."

"Go ahead, then."

The green haired boy sighed beside Edward, but launched into his explanation despite his obvious discomfort. "My family's a little messy. At Central High, you have this mix of nice, happy families like yours, and then the fuck ups, and that's my side. I wasn't raised to really give a shit about anything, to just do whatever I wanted. So I got in a lot of trouble as a kid and, obviously, didn't do well in school. I only recently decided I wasn't going to end up happy if I just kept acting like my father, so I've stepped up my game lately and I'm doing a lot better. It's not like I'm stupid, I just never applied myself before, so I'm still in classes that are a lot lower than Ed's. And that's fine, because it's my fault; I should have woken up sooner. It's just that I didn't want to tell you I was in lower level classes and having you think I was just an idiot or something."

Ed reached out a hand to rest on Envy's knee for a moment. That was fairly personal information, and it couldn't be easy handing it out to someone who barely knew you, especially if they weren't jumping to join your fan club. Still, when he glanced at Roy, the man was nodding slowly. "I respect that," he said finally, the hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "It takes a lot of character to be able to realize you want to change when you're being raised in a specific way."

His uneasiness fading, Envy's expression slipped into a cheeky grin. "Does that mean I get a point?"

Roy laughed, shaking his head. "Yeah, you get a point."

"How many points until I win?"

"A lot."

Edward rolled his eyes at their banter. Roy was all talk; at this point, Ed could tell that by the end of the night, the two of them would be sharing stupid stories about him. Oh well. At least it would make it easier to get permission to hang out with Envy outside of school now.

Oddly enough, Envy, rather than looking like he'd achieved something, seemed a little irritated about something. "Look, I love messing around as much as the next guy, but…can we just be frank about this? I don't want to feel like maybe you're still putting me on trial whenever I'm over here, and considering the fact that I'm hoping that will be fairly often…it'd be easier to just know what you're worried about so I can deal with it instead of trying to fix what I don't know is broken.

Having just raised a glass of water to his lips, Ed nearly choked. Wow. That was…a turn of events. Roy looked just as surprised as Edward felt, but he nodded. "Fair enough."

Abruptly, Alphonse scooted away from the table. "Sorry, Brother, but I think that's my cue to get the hell out of here. Don't let them get too loud about your personal business, okay? I'm upstairs if you decide to move onto better conversation topics."

Edward watched his brother walk out, debating heavily whether it would be acceptable for him to follow. He didn't know exactly where this was going to go, and he wasn't sure he wanted to be there…but then again, it would hard to justify leaving Roy and his boyfriend alone to discuss the fact that Envy was fucking him…

"Okay," Roy started as soon as he was sure Al was out of earshot. "You want to know what my problem is, but it's kind of hard to explain. How much do you know about Ed's childhood?"

Oh. Well, that was a lot less invasive than Edward had been expecting. Envy smiled, evidently satisfied with the reply he could give. "All the important stuff, as far as I can tell. The thing with his dad leaving and his mom dying and you taking them in and all."

Roy seemed taken aback by that. "Really? Ed, I didn't know you'd be so open about that."

Shrugging, Edward replied, "I kind of had to be—not that he made me tell him, jeez, Roy," he amended quickly as a dark look came over the man's face. "You're so paranoid. I just mean, at the beginning it only seemed fair to let Envy know what he was getting in to…"

"Well, if he knows, then I guess this will make sense. I'm worried, Envy, because I don't know that it's healthy for Ed to just have a fuck buddy. He gets these…days…"

"I know," the green haired boy interjected quietly. "I saw him, Thursday."

Again, Roy's expression betrayed his shock. Edward sighed, knowing what was coming as the man turned to him. "Ed? I thought you said you were going to stay home Thursday."

"I know," Edward sighed. "I was planning on it, but I ended up going anyway."

"Why?" Roy asked incredulously. "You know it's better for you to just stay at home…"

"Yeah, but I couldn't. I—ugh, this sounds so horrible—I kind of wanted to test Envy. I was flipping out about him too, this time around, and so I had to know how he'd react…"

"And in case you're curious," Envy added, "I passed. Wasn't hard. I'm not enough of an asshole to sit there trying to get in the pants of someone who's having a meltdown." Edward flushed at the gentle, poking reminder…and at the fact that they had to be discussing the fact that Envy had calmed him down. It was just…embarrassing.

Roy was quiet, chin resting on folded hands. "And did that bother you?" he finally questioned. "Were you bitter that you had to care for him for a day?"

"You know, I knew you weren't a fan of me, but that's just insulting," Envy responded, his tone and eyes icy. "Of course I didn't mind. We didn't do anything yesterday, either—I'd rather made sure Ed is okay than get my fix, alright?"

Holding up his hands, Roy defended himself. "Hey, you're the one who wanted me to be blunt with you. But I'm glad I asked—it's a little weird to look at you and know you've been in Ed's ass—

"Roy!" Edward shouted, scandalized and blushing a mad red.

"—But it makes me feel better to know that you've also just been there for him," Roy finished, ignoring the interruption.

"Glad to hear it," Envy replied. "Because there's something else I wanted to bring up, but I wanted to make sure you were cool with me first."

"What is it?"

But the green haired boy didn't answer right away, instead turning to Edward. "Ed? Is it okay if I tell him now?"

By Envy's tone of voice alone, Ed could tell exactly what he was talking about…Mr. Nichols. He immediately shrank back in his chair ever so slightly, heart racing at the reminder of what his teacher was doing. Still, uncomfortable as he was, Edward nodded. Roy would need to know at some point, and now was just as good a time as any.

"Roy," Envy began with a sigh, "I'm afraid I've got some really bad news for you."