Needless to say, once Envy had finished, Roy was seething. He had stood up and was now pacing violently across the floor, fists clenched and expression frightening in its severity. Edward watched him, not quite sure what to say or do to make the situation any better.

"Fucking bastard," Roy hissed, more to himself than anything else. He rounded on them. "Why didn't you say anything!? Gone to the god damn principal, maybe! You're not this stupid, Ed!"

"You're right," Envy interrupted, grabbing Edward's hand tightly. "He's not stupid, and neither am I. This guy's been teaching this class for how long? He would have been caught before if he weren't smart enough to be sneaky about this. If he catches wind of the principal looking around, he's going to get rid of whatever evidence there may be and then he'll just get away with it. If we wait until we can find some proof, the jackass will actually get punished for what he's doing."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Roy huffed, placing a hand over his eyes. "I know. What you're doing makes sense, from a strategic standpoint—it's what I'd do if this were a mission—it's just a little harder to think logically when I realize that twisted fuck has been watching my kid—" He broke off, clenching his teeth to try to keep calm.

"I get it, Roy," Ed interjected quietly. "It's not like I'm Mr. Smooth Sailing about this either. Just thinking about him makes me nauseous. But now that we know, it's not like we're going to give him more material, and I want to be sure he's stopped. It's all fine and good if he lays low because we sic the principal on him, but what happens in a year or two if they don't find anything? Then he'll start back up again, and maybe those kids won't notice it. I don't want to just take the easy way out and let the adults deal with this so me and Envy are fine if it means the people who are freshman now are going to be his next show."

Shaking his head, Roy looked at Edward. "Sometimes I regret taking you guys in. I've raised you to be too much like me, Ed. Now you can't just save yourself, you've gotta be the fucking hero, too."

"There's nothing wrong with how you raised me," Ed replied. "Or being a hero, for that matter."

The room was quiet for a moment while Roy continued to pace, collecting his thoughts. "You get this week," the man decided finally. "If you don't have anything by Friday, I'm calling the principal anyway. We don't know that he wouldn't find anything, but I get where you're coming from. Still, you two are just kids, and I'm not going to just sit here and watch. This week, that's all."

"Well in that case," Envy said, pulling out his phone. "We'd better start investigating."

As it turned out, between Envy, Ed, and Al, they had the phone numbers of a solid third of the sex ed class. Edward and Envy sprawled out on the couch, dialing number after number, having short conversations and then tallying up what kind of response they got for the next hour. And when they were done…Ed wasn't sure whether he was more or less disturbed by what was happening.

"Okay, so, the only person I called who said Mr. Nichols had been checking on him as well was Sam," Edward stated, stretching. "But what's weird about it is that it didn't start until he got his new partner. Remember, he was with one of the guys who got kicked out? Well Mr. Nichols never walked in or even yelled to check up on them until he got his new partner."

"That's weird…" Envy murmured, glancing at his own list. "I got two pairs who have him coming in, Leah and Abby and Jake and Anna. And get this, Leah and Abby haven't fucked each time either, and they can't remember him coming in when they weren't."

"Just like us," Edward clarified. "Okay, so…conclusions. First off, it doesn't seem to be a gender thing, considering he's got some guys and gals, some straight people and some gay people. And he's very clearly being selective; I mean, I know we didn't call everyone, but we got a hold of a lot of people, and only three pairs said he was looking in…plus, it has to be the sex he's in to, because of Abby and Leah." He thought for a moment, trying to make sense of it all. "Hey, you didn't by any chance ask about timing did you?"

"Actually, yeah," Envy answered. "Same as us there, too, it tends to be right as they finish or shortly after."

"I don't get it. If he wants to get off on the students fucking, he's not picking the right times."

"But if he has it on video, that doesn't matter," the green haired boy pointed out. "He can go back and watch whenever he wants. Or while it's going on."

"Then why come in at the end?" Edward wondered, fingering the edge of a pillow as he thought. "That doesn't make any sense."

Envy yawned, scooting closer and wrapping his arms around Ed. "Honestly, I don't care. Maybe he just gets a kick out of confirming what he's watching really happened. But it doesn't matter why. How are you supposed to try to understand these sickos anyway? Nothing they do makes sense. All that counts is that we know it's not just us imagining things now, right? So we can jump straight into trying to find something concrete to nail him with."

"I guess so…" Actually, not understanding bothered Edward more than it should. But it was just…no, it didn't make sense for anyone to get off on watching teenagers fuck, but shouldn't there still be a rhyme and reason? People like Mr. Nichols, pedophiles…they were fucked up, but they still acted in patterns, if anything more so than normal people. So what was this guy's pattern?

Roy walked in just then, interrupting Ed's thoughts. The man sighed, looking at the pair on the couch. "That's going to take some getting used to. Look, Envy, it's already eleven, and to be honest I don't feel like driving you home at the moment."

"That's cool," Envy replied, unfazed. "I walked over, I can walk back. It's not far."

The man laughed. "Didn't I tell you that you won a few points with me tonight? I'm not that mean. I was going to let you stay over, if you want."

Grinning widely, Envy whooped, tightening his grip on Edward. "Ed! We get to spoon!"

"What is it with you and spooning…?"

"I'd better not hear any…shenanigans," Roy threatened. "I'm not a dick, but seriously, you decide to get frisky and your ass is out. You need to call your parents?"

"Nah, I'll just text my brother. It's all cool."

"Alright. 'Night."

"Goodnight!" Ed and Envy chirped, laughing when they realized they had spoken in unison.

"Hey," Edward began, curling more comfortably into Envy, "you've never told me about your siblings. Other than the fact that you have a lot."

The green haired boy snorted, looking at his phone as he sent the message. "Yeah, well, it's not like there's a whole lot of awesome stuff to tell. You really want to know?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, well...I guess we'll just go up, youngest to oldest. Pride's only in elementary school, but he's a real douche. Bullies the other kids, just steals their pencils and little stuff like that, but it's not a great start. Then there's me. Then Greed—he graduated a couple of years back and actually got into the local college, but all he does is party. He's the one I just texted. Greed's kind of an idiot, but he's the least dickish of them all, so I guess you would say we're relatively close. Then there's Gluttony and Lust; they're twins, but you'd never think it if you looked like them. They're both twenty five. Gluttony hops from job to job, always at a fast food joint or a cheap diner or something like that, but he keeps getting fired 'cause he won't stop nicking the food from the kitchens. And Lust…honestly, she works in the porn industry. Real low level, but apparently she's going places or whatever. Next is Sloth, and he is easily the stupidest guy I've ever met. He's like, 27, and he's absolutely massive, but he's got no brains at all. He does wrestling, though, and realistically he turned out pretty okay. And last is Wrath. He's only thirty, but he looks about three hundred. He's addicted to the hardcore drugs, meth, crack, heroin…pretty much anything he can get his hands on that's stronger than weed. All that's really fucked his appearance."

Envy stopped thinking so abruptly that Ed almost thought he would continue. When he didn't, Edward lifted a hand, beginning to run his fingers through the other boy's bright green hair. "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"You don't have to pretend, Envy," Ed chided. "I can tell it bothers you, and I'm sorry for that. "

"You don't have to be—it's not your fault. My dad's just a shitty dad," the green haired boy responded, leaning into Edward's touch.

"Still. I mean, I look at me and Al and I know how lucky I am to have a brother like that, and I wish you could too."

"That's not even what bothers me," Envy murmured. "It's how none of them have really turned out well, aside from Sloth. I mean, he's the only one who has a steady career and isn't hooked on drugs or alcohol or whatever. I just don't want to end up turning out like the rest of them…"

"You won't," Ed replied confidently. "Here's the thing: it's up to you. I'm sure some of your siblings didn't want to end up the way they did, but they felt how you feel now…and so they gave up and just accepted it as something that was going to happen. But if you don't let yourself give up, if you don't let yourself think that it's inevitable you're going to fail, you can do better."

"Yeah, I suppose that's true," Envy sighed. He perked up after a moment, though, adding, "Hey, at least I got you! No one else has an actual relationship, even my dad…so…that's something."

Laughing, Edward pressed a kiss to Envy's cheek. "See? You're already doing better."

The green haired boy smiled back at him, his grin stretching wider as he watched Ed yawn. "You look tired. Want to head up to bed?"

"Yeah, okay." Disentangling himself from Envy, Edward led the way upstairs, stopping by Al's room where his brother was lying on the bed, lights on, dead asleep. Ed shook his head good naturedly, flicking the light switch off. "He always does that," he mouthed at Envy, before moving down one door to his room.

"It's so…plain," Envy commented. Edward looked around—bed, desk, dresser…okay, yeah, it was plain.

"Well, it's functional."

"It's not a bad thing," Envy laughed. "I just expected something more. I dunno what. A poster, or something. I've got tons in my room."

"Oh jeez, you're one of those people," Ed groaned teasingly. "I don't know if we can speak anymore."

"Shut up and love me," Envy sighed, freely plopping down on Edward's bed. Shaking his head and smiling, Ed stripped off his shirt and pants, crawling under the blankets in his boxers. Humming contentedly, the green haired boy pulled Edward to him so that Ed's back was flush with his chest.

"Behave," Edward warned as the hands on his hips pulled his ass further back.

"I am," Envy insisted. "I just like having you close."

Snuggling in, Ed exhaled slowly, closing his eyes as the other boy's fingers moved upwards to run along his arm. "'Night, Envy."

A kiss on his forehead. "Night, baby."