Chapter 21 : Trap

Alphonse watched in shock as his brother punched Envy full in the face and the homunculus staggered back, holding his face. He watched as Ed stood there, panting, eyes unfocused, before suddenly he started swaying and his body tilted forward, eyes rolling up in his head as he fell to the earth.

Al immediately made to run to his brother but it seemed he shouldn't have bothered. Envy, being much closer to his brother, was already holding Edward in his arms. Al faltered in his sprint as he saw the homunculus cradle his brothers body close against himself to prevent Ed from falling. Al watched, stunned, as the homunculus removed a stray piece of blonde from Edwards face, tucking it behind the smaller males ear almost absentmindedly.

There was something smoldering in the green haired homunculus' eyes and it made Al feel slightly uncomfortable watching the two. He almost felt as if he were intruding on something special, something intimate that he had no business bearing witness to. But he knew that was about as far from the truth as he could get. In truth there was nothing intimate about the scene. Envy was dangerous. He'd hurt Ed more times than Al could count and worse, he'd even left several severe mental scars on his brother that he didn't think would ever heal.

It was true they shared something though, some weird kind of bond that Alphonse would probably never be able to understand. He often wondered if even Ed himself knew how deep that bond went. How much the two gravitated around each other whenever they occupied the same space. How they shut themselves off and seemed to disappear into a world all of their own whenever the other would appear. How only Envy could truly bring out the fire in his brother's eyes, for better or for worse.

Looking at Envy now, Al could tell that, in his own twisted way, the homunculus at least had some idea of what was going on there. He also knew this was not the time to dwell on his own curiosity and so he steeled himself, glancing back at the boy still crying next to the rapidly cooling body of his now dead grandmother before turning and walking to the two still standing frozen in the middle of the path.

Envy must have heard him approaching, Al wasn't exactly trying to be subtle about it, but it still took a few seconds before he looked up and tore his gaze away from the still body in his arms. Al tried to remain calm as he slowly stretched his arms out in a clear request to take his brother back, somehow knowing it would be better not to speak.

Envy just watched him for a moment, before turning back to the chibi leaning against his chest. Al could see the conflict in his purple eyes, saw his arms tighten around his brothers body and, for a minute, Al thought he might just try and run for it, but then those pale limbs moved and Ed was safely in his arms.

Al looked up to meet the steely, uncharacteristically thoughtful gaze of the homunculus and nodded his head slowly. He didn't know what came over him, by all means he should be cursing the homunculus in front of him, maybe even charge at him and try to attack him again, but something told him he shouldn't. Somewhere inside a little voice was telling him how the homunculus had been holding back the whole fight, how he'd avoided hurting his brother the entire time and how, even when he'd been attacking Jay earlier he'd mentioned he was doing it for Ed. It made him recall the vicious look Envy had thrown Lust when she'd wanted to attack them and it was that same voice that made him do what he did next. "Thank you." He whispered, watching as the homunculus, who'd already been walking off, stilled for a moment before he continued his walk again, green tresses the only thing that betrayed his barely there answering nod.

xXx-Linebreak-xXx

It had been 2 days since that had happened and Ed still hadn't woken up yet.

After Envy had left in the forest Al had quickly become aware of the heavy sound of many approaching footsteps. Soon after the villagers stormed the forest, calling loudly for miss. Park. Apparently someone had noticed she was missing and, after recalling what Ed had said at the inn, they had decided to search the forest, taking half the village with them.

It had taken all of Al's considerable sweet-talking skills, honed from years of talking Ed and himself out of trouble, to calm them down and make them listen when they'd seen the bloodied and dead body of the one they were looking for. Jay's interference had definitely helped him in getting them out unscathed, as one of the villagers had recognized the boy to be miss. Park's long lost grandson and the rest of the mob had soon quieted to listen to the child's story.

Curious himself as to how the boy could have possibly ended up with the homunculi Al had settled in to listen as well.

Jay apparently, had been happily living in the resort with his parents, good, hardworking people the villagers later assured him, that had both worked in the village's spa, up till a few months ago. When Jay turned six the family had gone out for dinner in one of the many restaurants the older part of town sported to celebrate. It had been a wonderful night, the food was great and the happy little family spent the night joking around and all around having fun, but when it came time for them to go home misfortune had struck.

Himura was known as a quaint and peaceful little town so when Jay complained about being tired the family had not hesitated in using a shortcut to get home a little earlier and put the boy to bed. Said shortcut had been one of the many narrow alleys that occupied the older part of the town, a perfect place for an ambush, and ambushed they were.

A pair of large, burly men had suddenly appeared from the shadows, knocking out Jay's unsuspecting parents almost immediately and leaving the poor boy frightened and cowering in a corner next to a dumpster. Deciding the boy was no threat the men then went to work on his parent's, disfiguring and torturing them until they were hardly recognizable anymore, just nameless lumps of bloodied flesh.

All the while the boy watched and when the men finally turned to him he could hardly see them through the tears. He still felt the knife as it carved a fine, red line into his skin though, making him cry out and finally snapping him out of his daze enough that he tried to run.

He didn't get very far. The men were much bigger and faster than him and had caught up to him in seconds. They'd thrown him against the wall, and the boy had blacked out for a minute. When he came to he could see the tall figure of a woman standing over him, shielding him from the men.

What followed next was a gruesome description of how the woman had killed every last one of the men that had been attacking Jay, that even had some of the village men looking sick. Jay himself didn't seem to be faring much better but persevered, knowing that the others needed to hear his story.

After the mystery woman had finished with the last of the men she'd turned back to Jay and calmed the trembling boy, eventually convincing him to come and live with her. Lust had been nothing but nice for the boy and soon he'd come to view her as a second mother, choosing to repress the memories of 'that night', as he referred to it, and instead live a happy life with her.

Lust had been very interested in his ability to perform alchemy without having to draw circles and so he'd practiced hard to try and make her happy. Everything had been happy for Jay from that point on until the green-haired man came that is.

Al had been very interested to hear the conversation Jay had overheard Lust and Envy having. Especially the part about someone, obviously Envy, getting 'attached' to a 'certain' alchemist. This had only served to further confirm Al's own suspicions that the homunculus was getting a little too close for comfort. He knew then that he'd need to talk to Ed about this.

Al sighed. He really didn't look forward to that. At least Jay's story had calmed the villagers enough that Al had been able to tell them his own account of things and further calm the homicidal mob. In the end it had been a shocked and grim group that had returned from the forest, an even smaller group sorrowfully trailing behind while they carried the body of the late miss Park.

Al had carried Ed to the hospital himself, not trusting any of the villagers with his brother in his current condition, and Jay had stuck close to them as well, still a bit hesitant about returning to the town after so long.

The boy had walked all the way to the hospital with the brothers before finally being taken away by a couple of his old neighbors, who promised to take care of him to a hesitant Al. Eventually the armored boy had relented and proceeded to check Ed in.

After that all he could do was wait, and wait he did.

If only Ed would wake up.

Unbeknownst to Al someone else was thinking the exact same thing.

Sitting on the window ledge of the Edward's hospital room, one leg swung on each side of the opened window to keep his balance, Envy watched, conflicted, as his little obsession took slow, deep breaths. The chibi had been like that ever since he first arrived a few hours ago and it was expected that he'd remain that way for at least another day while his body dealt with the shock of the injuries he'd sustained and what the medics expected to be some kind of psychological trauma.

More than enough time for someone to slip in and kill the boy while he couldn't defend himself.

More than enough time for Envy to slip in and kill the boy while he couldn't defend himself.

He glanced back at the sleeping boy under the stark white sheets. Even under the glaringly bright lights of the hospital he still managed to look beautiful, golden hair flowing around his face like a waterfall and playing across his cheeks. Envy moved away from the sill and to the bed, carefully brushing a stray strand away from the boy's eyes, and let his hand linger on the now somewhat pale cheek before slowly trailing it lower until it came to rest at the bottom of the chibi's neck, fingers curling around the fragile column almost instinctively.

Slowly, oh so slowly, he started applying more pressure, watching in some kind of sick fascination as the boy moved around in discomfort and his breaths started to become quicker and shallower. A hand weakly swatted at his own but he ignored it, completely focused on the image of the boy so weak before him.

A gasp left Ed's lips, lips that were slowly turning blue from lack of oxygen, and the sharp sound finally managed to shock Envy out of his daze. His hand fell to his side, twitching uselessly as he realized what he had just almost done. What had almost happened…and what did happen.

He had stopped. He had almost killed Edward and he'd stopped. He couldn't kill Edward.

The realization overwhelmed him and Envy almost felt like throwing up. He'd known before that he didn't want to kill the Elric, had known that he didn't want others to harm the boy either, but never before had he actually realized that he couldn't, just plain couldn't, kill the boy. He'd always thought he had an option, that when he finally had to make the choice he would be able to. He had been wrong to think so though, because now he had tried, only to find out that there never really had been a choice to begin with.

Edward Elric would live.

Edward would live and Envy…Envy would most likely die.

Envy couldn't help it anymore, he laughed. It wasn't a very happy sound though, loud, derisive snorts filled the room, combined with high-pitched, hysterical chuckles. The homunculus doubled over, letting out all his inner anguish and chaos in that one fit of pained laughter. He knew the people outside could hear him, knew that most likely the room would be flooded with concerned medics in mere moments. He knew. But amongst the chaos of his thoughts there was one thought that stood out between all others ; Envy knew he would die for his little obsession, but, as he looked at the boy sleeping peacefully mere inches away from him, completely unaware of the danger he had just been in, he also knew he wouldn't mind one bit.

A

AN/ And that's a wrap! Now please don't kill me for the complete suckishness of this chapter, I was really struggling with the first part for some reason . I guess it's my hate of OC's surviving for longer than 3 chapters catching up with me. I was kinda happy with the image of the last part though, but that could just be me :P Anyways let me know what you think! I really loved all the feedback for last chapter even though not much happened and I was being an evil cliffie bitch. Next chapter will (as per usual, sorry .) take a while cause I'll be basically internetless for the next 2 weeks. I'm going to Crete with my family and I won't have a computer or anything . But yeah, thanks for reading and see you all in two weeks :D xXx~Mai
(Oh and the song this time is translated from Korean but I thought it fit, Henry Lau's trap, go check it out :)