"Brother?" Al asked, shaking Ed's shoulder, "Brother, wake up."
"No, I'm sleeping," Ed groaned, burying his face in the cushion of the chair.
"Do sleeping people say that they're sleeping?" Envy smirked, "Well, maybe not people, but castrations, maybe."
"Are shrimp even in that class?" Ed asked, his face still buried in the chair.
"Wow, he must be tired," Envy commented, awed that he hadn't even tried to make a comeback.
"I grew. Doesn't bug me anymore," Ed stated.
"What?" Envy burst, terrified that his leading insults had been trashed.
"Would you quit being so loud?" Ed grumbled, sitting up.
"No," Envy said simply, "We have to go to the dump today anyway."
"Oh yeah, huh?" Ed yawned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes, "Sure you don't want to send Mustang in first? As a guinea pig, you know? To see if he gets eaten…"
"Brother!" Al snapped, "The Colonel has been like family to you."
"Yeah, like that one crazy uncle who you can't seem to avoid," Ed mumbled, causing Envy to chuckle at the comparison.
"I'd say more like a strict parent," Al amended.
"I've had two parents, and I'm not quite ready to deal with the stress of having another one," Ed snapped.
A short silence followed his comment.
"Hey, look, we were just joking around," Envy said timidly.
"Yeah, I know," Ed sighed, "Let's just go deal with the damn rats, okay?"
"I'm coming with you!" Winry yelled, running into the room.
"Like hell you are," Edward stated simply.
"But you have to let me go with you!" she pleaded.
"Brother is right, Winry," Al said, "It's too dangerous for you."
"It's not like you've got a lot of martial arts experience," Envy said, gesturing absently towards her. Winry grabbed his hand.
"Hey -"
"What happened?" she asked, eyeing the two red marks on top of his hand, and then flipping it over to see two identical marks on his palm.
"The rat from last night bit me," he stated, pulling his hand back, "Maybe my healing abilities aren't working because of my -"
Winry hit him over the head with her wrench.
"Ow!" Envy yelled, holding his head as red sparks engulfed it, "What the hell was that for?"
"Your healing abilities are working," she smirked.
"You didn't have to test it out!"
"But this pretty much proves our theory," Al pointed out.
"Yeah," Ed agreed, "Envy's philosopher's stone just cancels out the one in the rat. It's just like a normal human being bitten by a normal rat."
"Well it looks infected," Winry stated, rushing back out of the room.
"Hey, my hand's fine -"
"Just let her fix it," Ed stated, turning away, "You're already useless enough as it is."
"I'm a lot better than I was when you found me," Envy defended.
"Yeah, but I don't want you to be -"
"Here!" Winry said, rushing back into the room. She halted when saw Ed facing the wall and Envy and Al looking on with a mixture of confusion and worry.
"Did I interrupt something?"
"No," Ed stated, "Just do whatever and then we'll leave."
"So… I can come with you?" she tested.
"Yeah, fine, just hurry up."
"Uh… yes!" she seemed to come out of a trance as she went about treating Envy's hand. Winry stood back to examine her handiwork, and Envy grunted in what could only be thanks. With that, they exited the house and headed for the dump. Envy watched as Ed's ponytail bounced back and forth as he walked ahead of the group.
"Envy," Al whispered, tapping his shoulder.
"Hmm?"
"Brother isn't trying to be mean to you, you know?" Al told him, "He's just not very good at expressing himself. He gets angry and awkward around people, but that's just how he shows he cares."
"Yeah, I guess," Envy said absently, still staring at the back of Edward's head, "Say, Al?"
"Yeah?" Al asked, "What is it?"
"Do you know why Ed stopped wearing his hair in a braid? He used to do that all the time," he said.
"I never really thought about it," Al admitted, "You should ask him."
Envy turned to him, "You think?"
"Yeah," Al smiled, "You two are friends, right?"
Envy stared at Al, searching for an answer to that question. Not finding one, he walked ahead to talk to Edward like Al had suggested.
"Ed?" he asked, using the nickname that he'd adopted from hearing it so much.
"What?"
"I was just wondering," Envy started, "Why'd you stop wearing your hair in a braid?"
Ed smirked towards the sky.
"I guess what with Father causing me so much trouble and all, I just didn't have the time. It sort of became habit, I guess. Why?"
"Uh - no - no reason," Envy stuttered, swallowing.
"There it is!" Winry called, running ahead of us.
"Winry!" Ed ran after her, worried for her safety. Al and Envy followed close behind. They stopped when they were standing at the base of a pile of garbage.
"Well this smells wonderful," Envy said sarcastically.
"I noticed," Ed agreed, plugging his nose. A bird flew down and landed on the trash, and eyed them curiously with bright red eyes. Ed and Al both stepped in front of Winry protectively. The bird lifted a small red stone from the garbage in its beak and flew off.
"Al," Ed murmured, "Could you…"
"Mm," Al nodded, and clapped his hands together. He pressed them to the ground, drawing a surprising large amount of red stones before them from their respectful locations throughout the dump. With the stones, rats followed, scurrying after them as if searching out a drug they were addicted to.
"Get back," Ed whispered quickly. Envy took this as good advice, but Winry seemed frozen in her spot. A rather dirty looking rat turned it attention to her.
"Winry, move!"
"Ah!"
The rat leapt at her, but Al kicked it before it could even touch her.
"Run!"
Ed, Winry and Envy all turned to avoid being bitten, while Al stayed behind a little longer to hold them off. He transmuted a wall and then quickly followed after them. They ran until Ed judged it was safe.
"I don't think they're coming after us," he panted. They all slowed to a stop.
"Winry, are you okay?" Al asked. She placed a trembling hand over her mouth.
"My God…"
"Winry?"
"There were so many…"
"I know, but we can take of it," Ed reassured her.
"How?" she turned on him, "The only useful thing you could do is gone now!"
"Hey!" Envy growled at her.
"We can't do anything about this!"
"Winry, calm down -"
"How?!" she shrieked, and her voice suddenly dropped to a whisper, "How? We'll all die unless we leave right now…"
"We'll be fine," Ed told her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She stared up at him before she fell limply to the ground and sobbed.
"I'm sorry, I just…"
"It's okay," Ed reassured her.
"We're really staying, aren't we?" she choked out.
"We have to," Ed told her quietly.
"Ed," Envy whispered, staring over the grassy plains, "Don't move a muscle."
They all gazed in horror at what Envy had seen.
Author's Note: Well, this took forever. I'm having the world's worst writers block on this story, just so you know. I had to sit down and force my fingers to move on the keyboard, so if it's not as good as the other chapters, I'm sorry. I have the whole plot written out, I'm just having trouble putting it into words, I guess. I wasn't all plot inspired when I wrote this chapter, so again, sorry if it isn't as good as the others. Now, onto something a lot of you probably don't give a damn about. It has been brought to my attention that seeing as I cosplay almost exclusively as Yuki from Fruits Basket, it seems a little strange that I'm using rats as my main antagonists in the fic. Well, honestly, I love rats, and I'm getting a pet one pretty soon, (and yes, I am naming it Yuki) so my opinions on rats really have nothing to do with this. I just thought they worked for this idea, and using birds has already been done, so I'm just using them as a plot device. I love rats, and Yuki is awesome, so don't think for one second I'm a rat hater. Now, please review. I'll smile if you do.