Chapter 15 : Almost Easy
When Ed woke up that morning he felt a distinct sense of déjà vu. He was warm he noted and comfortable, much to comfortable for him to be laying in his sleeping bag in the middle of nowhere. Why then, did he feel so safe?
He opened his eyes blearily and blinked them a few times, trying to get the sleep out of them. When that didn't work he tried to raise his arm to rub the blurriness away, only to find that he couldn't. His arm was trapped under another long pale limb that held him closely to its chest. Feeling a sinking dread settle in his stomach Ed followed the limb up to an equally pale and familiar shoulder before slowly moving his gaze to the beings head. Long green hair tickled his face and he was greeted with the familiar face of Envy, the homunculus seemingly fast asleep, and Ed freaked.
Violently Ed recoiled and pushed him away, the homunculus landing on the ground with a dull thud. Ed tried to scramble up but was constricted in his sleeping bag, fumbling with the zipper he didn't notice the pissed of homunculus waking up next to him, glaring around him before sleep fuddled eyes settled on the target of their annoyance.
Ed finally managed to free himself of the bag, moving to stand up when he was slammed, none too gently, back onto his now opened sleeping bag. The thin material did nothing to soften the blow and he grunted as all the air was knocked out of him and he saw stars. When his vision returned he was greeted with the sight of one maniac homunculus sitting on his stomach, blearily he tried to push him off again only for the homunculus to tighten the grip on his wrists and Ed noticed he was pinned to the ground once again. This time though, his adversary was awake and he did not look pleased.
"Well a good morning to you too, Ochibi-chan." He grumbled, moving Ed's wrists to one hand and using the now free appendage to rub his eyes and try to flatten his hair a bit. Ed tried not to gape at the odd sight but couldn't quite manage. There was just something about seeing your evil nemesis fixing a pretty bad case of bed head that messed with your mind. Still he managed to regain enough coherency to ask one, important question,
"What the hell are you doing here?!"
Envy sighed, obviously still half asleep before looking down on his captive with a mocking smile. "What did you think I was doing?" He grumbled, " I was trying to sleep, because,believe it or not that's actually pretty hard to do when sharing your evil lair with about 6 psycho's."
Ed looked at the sleep drunk homunculus in disbelief. "What?"
"Well you have a little brother, you should know how it is." The Envy said, as if that answered everything, and maybe in his current condition it actually did.
Shaking his head in disbelief Ed tried to think of a way out of his current situation, he was completely trapped and even in his sleepy state the homunculus still seemed perfectly capable of overpowering him. Ed knew he should be scared, terrified even, after the things he'd been through with the other. By all means he should have reverted to that soulless wreck he was not too long ago, but somehow he found he couldn't. He'd promised himself never to be that helpless again and he was planning to keep that promise, no matter who stood in his way.
That, and there was just something…odd about the other that Ed couldn't quite put his finger on. Something about those brief flashes of emotion he'd sometimes see in the others violet eyes that made him curious about the other. Ed knew it was dangerous but he wanted to know more about him and what had made him the way he was, even if just a little bit. He'd rather he didn't have to deal with him at all though, but still, the curiosity remained.
Still, he was not crazy and he knew the others visit could not mean much good, for him and his brother at least.
Deciding to push aside his musings for a better moment Ed focused back on the matter at hand, namely trying to convince Envy to let him go and getting out of this alive. Looking back up he saw that the green haired boy was staring intently at him, almost trying to look through him and he suppressed a shiver, seems like someone had woken up.
"Envy," He started speaking softly, seriously so as not to aggravate the unpredictable homunculus and tried to ignore the way the homunculus attention immediately shifted to his mouth when he did so. "What are you really doing here?"
The others eyes flicked back to Ed's own golden ones and for a second Ed saw it again, that undeterminable flash of emotion but when he tried to identify it, it was gone again, hidden away in violet depths.
So caught up in his analysis of the other was Ed that he almost didn't notice Envy had started speaking again.
"Awwww, I'm hurt Chibi," the homunculus cooed out, placing his free hand over his heart and jutting his lower lip out for emphasizes. "Is it so hard to believe that I missed you?"
Ed just looked at him in complete disbelief and eventually the homunculus gave up, huffing out an indignant 'fine then', before sitting back, letting go of Ed's wrists as he did so.
For a moment Ed considered pushing the homunculus of again but then he looked up and saw Envy's narrow eyed gaze, daring him to try. Deciding it might be a good idea not to piss of the homunculus before even knowing what he was up to, he just sighed and rubbed his flesh wrist, trying to get the blood flowing again where the other had gripped it much too tightly.
Envy remained silent for a bit, stubbornly keeping quiet, until he couldn't anymore and then he spoke up again.
"The other homunculi are planning something and they won't tell me what it is." He huffed out, obviously insulted. "Sooo…" He trailed off, looking at Ed expectantly.
"So what?" The alchemist asked, impatiently. He was getting really sick of these games.
"Soooo, here I am!" Envy finished, looking mightily pleased with himself.
Ed did everything he could to suppress a groan when he heard the other's answer and saw the mischievous look in his eyes. He did so not want to deal with this.
"Go away." He said instead, figuring he could at least give it a try.
That was the wrong thing to say though, because he immediately found himself pinned to the ground again, the homunculus's eyes flashing dangerously.
"Now Eddy, we've been over this before." He started, voice dark and threatening. "If you won't play with me I'll just go and find someone else." He leaned back a bit and Ed saw the fire in his eyes turn mocking. "And we both know what you think of that, now, don't we?" He finished there but Ed could still feel the threat lingering in the air, turning it heavy and oppressive. They both knew what the homunculus meant when he said 'play'.
Subtly he glanced over to Alphonse, trying to think of a way to get free. Envy saw though and from the expression on his face and the sudden tightening of the grip on his wrists that hadn't been the smartest thing to do.
"Uh-uh-uh, bad Chibi, You know that little brother of yours is no match for me." He mocked, " 'sides we wouldn't want him to get hurt, hmm?"
At that Ed jerked his gaze back to Envy's mocking orbs and when he saw the sadistic light dancing there he'd had enough. This was going to stop, now.
"I won't let you." He stated, dead serious and looked up into the homunculus' eyes defiantly, his own orbs flashing.
Envy's gaze flashed in return, only he looked amused now, a manic kind of pleasure that would have sent lesser men running for the hills. Ed was in no position to run however, and he wasn't planning to either.
"You can't beat me, Chibi. You know you can't." Envy said, voice oozing confidence.
"Won't stop me from trying." Ed answered, unfazed.
Envy just laughed though, a deep, dark chuckle and leaned closer, emphasizing their current position.
Ed turned his head to the side, uncomfortable with the sudden close proximity and the way he could feel the homunculus' warm breath on his cheek. "You don't scare me."
It slipped out and Ed already regretted it the minute it left his mouth. It sounded incredibly weak to him. Somehow though it seemed to have the desired effect and Envy reared back as if he'd been struck. His grip loosened and this time Ed didn't even think twice about it before pushing the other off, hard.
The homunculus hit the dirt with a loud smack and that seemed to snap him out of his daze, because within seconds he was back on his feet. He just stood there though, staring at Ed with a mixture of complete disbelief and some other emotions Ed couldn't put his finger on.
Eventually he seemed to somewhat regain his bearings and spoke, voice whisper soft and full of disbelief, "You…..you're not?" It was just a simple question and Ed could have simply said an offhanded no and left it at that, but somehow he knew that this was important. That there was something here that required more than a flimsy, uncaring no, even if he didn't know why.
And so he looked the other straight in the eyes as he answered, willing him to believe him when he confirmed his earlier statement, "I'm not." Still a simple answer, but the sincerity with which it was spoken made all the difference to Envy, even if Ed didn't know that.
The green haired boy reeled back once more, clearly surprised, and had to take a minute to compose himself. Ed watched, waiting, instinctively knowing that now was not the moment to attack the other, and instead let him regain his bearings.
Finally Envy looked up again and Ed was shocked by the intensity of his violet eyes, they seemed darker somehow, but somehow they were still less threatening than usual, like something had changed in the homunculus in that one moment. Envy opened his mouth to speak and Ed leaned in unconsciously, knowing that this would be important and that he wouldn't want to miss it.
Then out of the blue they heard a loud yawning sound and the spell was broken. Envy shut his mouth with an audible snap and both turned to look at the awakening Alphonse. Alphonse turned to look at them as well and his eyes widened when he saw the homunculus.
From the corners of his eyes Ed saw Envy's expression change and he knew the moment was over, he tried to call out to Al but it was already too late, Envy had already regained his senses and was now holding his little brother, Al's arms wrenched behind his back, his usual cruel smirk returning full force.
Ed shot up as well and ran over to the two, trying to punch the homunculus, but Envy just moved back, smiling grimly all the while even as he dragged Al's heavy armor along with him.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Chibi." He said, holding up one of his arms and showing the long, needle like point he'd changed it in, before knocking of Al's helm with his elbow and moving the point until it was hovering right over his seal. "I think we both know what happens when I do this." He threatened and moved the needle closer to the metal, teasingly tracing small circles just around the edges, carving out small furrows in the metal as he did so.
Ed jolted to a halt and somewhere to the side Alphonse's helm let out a distraught whimper.
Envy locked eyes with Ed and smiled maliciously, carving a deeper furrow next to all the others, this time piercing the metal completely and creating a hole in the armor.
"Stop it!" Ed called out, no longer able to stand watching his brother getting hurt. "Let him go!"
Envy paused in his carving, looking thoughtful for a minute before shrugging and looking back at Ed, "Nope." He smiled blithely and continued his carving. "You see," he continued, adding a small cut for every word he said, "You might not be scared of me, but that does not mean you're not scared of anything." He made a sharp cut to emphasize his last words. "I happen to think you're very scared right now."
Envy moved his hand away and checked his artwork over, seemingly pleased with himself he moved his hand back, now resting on the back of Al's seal and Ed could see the ouroboros now carved into the metal.
The homunculus looked up again and locked eyes with Ed meaningfully, appearing as if he were waiting for something, and with a sinking feeling of dread Ed realized exactly what it was.
"What do you want?" He asked, tiredly.
Envy nodded, pleased and smiled grimly. "Let's make a deal Chibi-chan." He said, "I'll let go of the tin can here," he gestured to Al's limp body, "and you will let me come with you."
Finishing Envy looked at the alchemist expectantly, but Ed could do nothing but gape at him. He wanted what?
Apparently he was taking too long because Envy let out a loud, weary sigh before turning to the brothers again. "I promise I won't hurt you." he grumbled out, obviously reluctant, though whether that was because he had to include Al in the deal or because he had to promise at all Ed couldn't say.
Still he was not exactly sure about this. Helplessly he looked around but deep inside he already knew there was no way out of it. He'd have to take the deal. That didn't mean he couldn't try and make the best of this though.
"And how am I supposed to know you'll keep your promise?" He asked, putting all his distrust in the sentence.
Envy looked up in thought, obviously not having thought that through, before shrugging and looking back at Ed again, an infuriatingly uncaring little smirk on his face. "I guess you won't." He finally said, "Still beats me poking a hole through your little brothers seal right now though."
Ed closed his eyes and sighed, they both knew the homunculus was right. He tried to look at it positively , at least this way they could keep an eye on the other, and he would know that he wasn't out there slaughtering innocents, that had to count for something right?
Opening his eyes again he walked over to the pair, not hesitating at all as he gripped Envy's pointed appendage and pulled it away from his brother. The homunculus let him, sensing his surrender and smiled victoriously at him.
"Fine then." Ed grumbled out, "but you better find your own bed."
The homunculus looked at him, surprised for a moment, before bursting out in laughter and letting go of Alphonse. He wiped a couple of stray tears from his eyes. Chuckling even as Ed walked over to his brother's head and fixed the armor, vanishing any trace of the cuts Envy had given him.
"We'll see, Chibi. We'll see."
AN/ Okay that's over 2500 words of pure Edvy interaction right there, now love me cuz it's 1 am? Pm? Anyways 1 in the morning and I'm fricking tired but this just wouldn't leave me alone . If this has a lot of spelling/grammar mistakes please tell me and I'll fix em tomorrow. For now I'll just post this though, who knows it might actually be okay ;) anyways a big thank you for all of you who faved, reviewed, alerted, read etc. you really make my day all of you :D
On another note; I HAVE A NEW EDVY STORY! ^^ it's called A Fullmetal Faerietale, and I love it ^^ This one will still be my primary focus though, so don't worry about that, but I'd love it if you could check it out and maybe give me some feedback? (yes shameless self advertisement, its one am, let me XD). But yeah, its kinda got the same feel as Smile for me, so you might like it…just a suggestion though ;)
See ya next time! xXx-Mai