"Ed," Envy whispered, staring over the grassy plains, "Don't move a muscle."

They all gazed in horror at what Envy had seen.

A hulking black dog stood hunched over on the side of the trail, red eyes darting back and forth under swollen eyelids as it stumbled on its mutilated legs towards the group of horrified teenagers.

"It was attacked by the rats," Ed growled under his breath.

"Poor thing…" Winry murmured.

"Yeah, well it's not our friend anymore," Envy snarled, shifting into a fighting stance.

"Is it really even capable of hurting us?" Al asked. Ed analyzed the dog, and stood up slowly. The dogs eyes stopped shifting and focused themselves firmly on Edward.

"Don't move," Envy said again. Ed held his breath as the dog tilted its head until the side of its face was facing the ground. Its saliva dripped thickly in the grass. Envy shifted, and the dog all but snapped its neck, turning in his direction, crouching lower to the ground.

And it lunged.

"No…!"

"Ed!"

"Brother!"

Envy wrapped his arms around the dog's neck, squeezing as hard as he could. Ed tried to pull his arm out of the death grip the dog had his arm in. It snarled, tearing at the flesh in its mouth.

"Damn it!" Envy shouted, gripping the dog's torso and twisting it violently. A resounding crack filled the air, and the dog fell limp. Envy pried it off of Ed, throwing it unceremoniously on the ground.

Ed gripped the wound tightly, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.

"The stone…" Winry said, watching in horror as the stone material tried to take over Ed's body. Envy thought fast. He slammed his arm down on top of Ed's elbow, pressing the newly recovered limb against the ground, trying to prevent the stone material from circulating.

"Damn it…" Ed breathed out trying to bring his eyes around.

"Fight it!" Envy screamed at him. Ed groaned, gritting his teeth. He started to loose control again and his body convulsed as his eyes rolled back again.

"Ed!" Al's eyes widened.

"Fuck!" Envy screamed, clamping his mouth over the wound and sucking. He could taste the same flavor he'd thrown up so many times overwhelm his mouth, but he kept sucking the poison out of Ed's arm until he had to come up and spit it out, not wasting a second in moving to suck more out. When he tasted the coppery salty flavor of untainted blood, he came up and spit out the contents of his mouth on the ground. He turned back to Ed staring intently at his face, watching carefully.

"Ed…?" Envy asked, observing the rise and fall of his chest becoming steadier. Al kneeled down on the other side of him, shaking his shoulder gently. Ed forced his golden eyes open, feeling his limbs return into his control.

"Envy?" he forced out. There were three collective sighs of relief.

"You idiot," Envy said, pulling Ed off the ground and against his chest. Ed gasped, shocked at the homunculus's actions. Nonetheless, he allowed himself to be held.

"Why did you do that?" Envy snapped, pulling away and holding him at arm's width, "You know that I can't be affected by the stone. Why the hell would you jump in front of me?"

Ed stared at him for a moment, but then smiled, running a hand through his hair.

"I don't know," he laughed, "I just did it."

Envy watched him in confusion, but felt the relief that Ed was okay sweep through him, and he had to laugh too. It was the only way to express his feelings.

"Idiot," he said again, getting to his feet. He held out his hand to Ed, who grabbed it and allowed himself to be pulled off the ground.

"Damn," Ed muttered, grabbing his arm, "It really let me have it."

"Let me look," Winry said, taking Ed's hand from Envy's and pulling up his sleeve.

"Hey…"

It looked like a dog bite alright. The kind that would probably need stitches.

"I can take care of this at home," Winry muttered under breath, and then said, "Keep pressure on it until we get back."

"Okay," Ed agreed, not excessively energetic after almost dying. They began walking home, keeping a lookout for rats the whole way there. They got to the house, opening the door to be assaulted by the sound of the radio.

"The rats have been considerably more active at night, although very few people have been killed -"

"Killed?" Al repeated.

"- they are traveling further east. Military officials suggest boarding off houses if evacuation is impossible…"

They all made their way into the living room. Ed sat down on the couch, beginning to feel a little light-headed.

"We should board up the windows," he affirmed.

"Envy and I can take care of that," Al said, "You need to go get fixed up."

Ed grunted as he stood up, "You say that like I'm still getting an automail tune-up."

"I can give you one of those too, if you'd like," Winry offered.

"Thanks, but no thanks," he said, following her out of the room.

"I assume you boys heard what the radio said?" Pinako asked, coming out of the kitchen.

"Yeah," Envy informed her.

"Do you have anything we could use to board up the windows?" Al asked her.

"Alphonse, we're engineers. I couldn't hold myself up straight if I didn't at least keep a bit of spare wood."

Envy chuckled as he and Al placed another board over the window.

"What?" Al asked.

"I just saw the irony," Envy explained, "Of the fact that Ed is taking what the military says seriously for the first time, after he's resigned from it."

Al laughed.

"I hadn't really thought about it, but you're right," he agreed.

"He just doesn't want anybody to tell him what to do," Envy mused, "He's no military dog."

"But now that he's out of it, what the military says is nothing more than suggestion," Al said, "Not orders."

"But even now he's disobedient."

They turned around to see Pinako standing there, pipe in hand.

"Hmm?" Al asked.

"The military said to board up the house if evacuation was impossible. Evacuation was very possible. Honestly, I don't know how he survived so long with his attitude."

"It's his attitude that kept him alive," Envy argued.

"What's going on?" Ed asked, coming out of the room he and Winry had gone in a while ago, sporting a bandaged arm.

"We were just finishing," Al said.

"Yeah. What took you so long?"

"I figured a tune up on my leg wouldn't be a bad idea," Ed shrugged.

"He definitely needed it," Winry said, coming out from behind him, holding a wrench that she was wiping off with a rag, "Turns out he's still getting taller."

Ed shot her a glare. Envy and Al both rolled their eyes, turning back to the window.

By the time night fell, they were all sitting around the fireplace in the living room, that had also been blocked off by a fire that they had vowed to keep burning. No one had voiced what they were doing, but they all seemed to know. They were all doing the same thing.

Waiting.

Winry glanced around apprehensively, and Al moved closer to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Ed smiled momentarily, but he wasn't exactly in the mood to appreciate their blossoming romance. The tension in the room was too thick for him to focus on anything but the little noises coming from outside. To him, every snapping twig was a rat approaching. Every branch bumping at the side of the house was the rats trying to scratch their way through the wood.

"Maybe they aren't coming," Winry suggested.

Envy shook his head, "No, the stone causes a certain level of hostility. They'll come after us if they know we're here."

"Maybe they don't know we're here."

"Should we turn out the lights?" Al suggested.

Scratch, scratch…

"They know we're here."

Author's Note: This took me FOREVER, and I know it. Finals happened, and I just didn't have time to write. But now it's break, and after that it's the beginning of second semester. As a result I won't be studying as much and I can work on my stories. And, for the record, this one is so much to write! I know it's not all that scary to read, but I feel like I'm doing a good job at keeping you guys on your toes. Please let me know what you think.