Wow! This took a bit longer then usual to put up, I guess I got a little carried away with the editing.

Anyways, thank you to everyone who favorited and followed!

It took Envy a moment to realize that the memory had finished. The past hour had been a torrent of confusion as he struggled to keep himself checked in reality. If one thing was for certain, he needed to end this now. It was hard enough just knowing about the person was supposed to be, let alone spending most of his time living it.

The more his moments became more frequent, the more Envy was glad that he had chosen a less populated route to follow into the next town. Though it wasn't as if he passed out or anything when these type of things happened anymore. All he really did now when it happened was freeze up a bit. It was no different than the reaction they had to their human remains.

Still, it was taking far too long to reach his destination like this. It was already dawn and he had yet to see any sign of a town. In fact, the only man made thing around him was the worn, metal train tracks that guided his path. It would have been too risky to try and catch a different train at the previous town with Lust and Gluttony around.

Now he was stuck surrounded by tightly packed trees with only a couple yards of narrow space between him and the tracks. All he could really do was run as fast as he could, hoping that something was nearby, before another memory overtook him.

If this kept up then the first thing he would be greeted in Resembool would be malicious smirk of the very comrade he had left behind.

. . .

Damn it, Envy thought as his vision regained its sense of color. He could have sworn that it had only been twenty minutes since the last memory. This couldn't keep happening, it hadn't been this bad since the first ten years of his life. Unmoving and helpless, all Envy could do at the moment was stare move his gaze only slightly to see out of his peripheral vision.

The most obvious thing he could tell about where he was now was that he was on the floor, his legs stretched out before him with his arms laying limply on his lap. Part of William's golden blonde hair was blocking the top of his right eye, slowly it began to fall even further from atop of his face to the point of covering that section of his face completely.

Feeling progressively even more annoyed as William didn't even bother to push it away, Envy began to wonder if something was the matter with the boy. Having watched his memories for nearly four-hundred years, he found it unlikely that it was simply because Will was too lazy to bother.

Feeling numb in this dream like state, Envy found it strange when a sudden knock at the door had neither him nor William moving just the slightest bit. "Son," Envy wanted to gag at the concern in his father's light tone. "Can we talk?"

Envy counted the seconds that remained completely silent. It got to the point that he even began to make bets by the hundredth second on whether or not it would be William or his father that would break the silence. Maybe if he was lucky neither of them would and then he could get the hell out of this damn memory.

"I'm not doing it." Unable to see William's face, the only noticeable change he could tell from this end was that he had sat up a little more straight. "I just want you to know that."

"Your mother and I . . . you know we don't want to lose you."

A glossiness in his vision overcame him, somewhat blinding some of Envy's memory. "I know," his voice cracked, "I don't want to either." Hesitating, Envy was numb to the tears that now ran down William's cheeks, "But I'm not doing . . . that!"

"It's not as bad as you thi—"

"Don't." His hands moved to tangle themselves in his hair, "I don't want you to tell me that. It may be okay for you but it's certainly not okay for me!"

"You'd rather let me and your mother watch you die," his voice was much sterner now, raising itself to the volume of an irritated parent. "Do you want us to suffer that?"

Wanting to point out that they didn't need to continue being this way, that living a full life was just as wonderful as being immortal, he settled with "No, of course not."

"Then—"

"Then I'm going to find another way," he interjected. "Surely body-swapping isn't the only way to live forever."

There was a pause. "If it wasn't then neither of us would do it." While Envy couldn't feel the shock that ran up his spin, the slight jump of his limbs was evidence enough. "You must understand that there is no other way."

"Yes there is!" It was almost pathetic to watch a grown boy of at least sixteen act in such a childish way. So upset and unable to understand reality.

". . . Everything in this world has a cost." Gasping at the sudden change in his father's tone, William craned his neck slightly to hear through the door better. "If the price of immortality is my body for another's then so be it." Despite the coldness in his voice, Envy couldn't help but pick up on the twinge of guilt. A guilt that would eventually skyrocket with each mistake he would continue to make. "There a far worse things you could lose for a prolonged life."

"Stop," he chocked. Envy's vision blurred as William began to shakily stand up. For a moment he was even convinced that this memory was coming to an end but it became painfully obvious that it was only the tears that clouded his vision.

Without even letting his father say another word, the golden hair boy sprinted his way across the room. Envy only heard a loud knock from the door before William pried open his bedroom window and hurdled the both of them out onto the yard. The homunculus almost couldn't believe what he was seeing. Hohenheims son, the perfect child, was running away.

. . .

As much as Envy hated to admit, he was spending far more time running in memory then in real life. He was also a bit surprised at how long William was actually keeping this all up. He was almost certain the boy would have ran back by now, begging for forgiveness. If he did then maybe that would be the last thing to happen for this memory to end. It was tiring to watch this bratty teen run around this god forsaken forest.

He didn't though, much to Envy's chagrin. In fact, it was only when the trees faded away and people began to replace them, did he finally stop. Letting out a strangled sigh, the boy collapsed down onto the ground, pressing his back uncomfortably against a rooted out stump.

In the horizon, from where they sat, the two could barely see anything beyond the scattered rows of farm houses. The small populated village that lied beyond here was nothing more than a slightly darker shade of black amongst the barely lit sky. Slowly but surely candles began to become lit within the unclean windows as William attempted to regain his breath.

He would have to go back now, it would be too dark to see his way soon if things kept up. A strange feeling welled up in his stomach, a pain that Envy could not detect, as William thought about facing his father again. Would he be angry? What would his mother say about this? And most importantly, what was the point of doing all this if he had no intention of leaving for good?

Unable to see the boy dig his nails further into the dirt and clench up with each passing moment, Envy became the first of them to notice the peculiar person coming into their direction. At first they just looked like a blob, nothing they wore seemed to stand out amongst the darkening sky. By the time their hair color became visible, a color not so different from the boys, William finally noticed their presence. Before clearing the leftover tears from his face, he stood up rather quickly in attention. The last thing he needed was someone asking about what had happened.

They were only twenty feet away from each other when Envy began to realize that this person wasn't so unfamiliar to either of them.

"Is that you William?" Hearing the soft tone, the golden haired boy looked away.

"Yes . . . it's me." He coughed out, "and you're Annie right?"

She was close now, close enough to see her smile. "I'm glad you remembered my name after so many weeks."

He wanted to say of course. Wanted to tell her that it was hard to forget the very few people that had bothered to talk to him in town. "There's not many people are age around here, if you haven't noticed." Feeling a bit of confidence surge into himself and attempting to regain some composure, William continued. "Let alone beautiful girls like you."

Envy wanted to laugh at the way she rolled her eyes at his failure of a compliment. "Don't let my Aunt hear you say things like that." She watched the smile drop from his face as the only brief memory of the woman came into mind. "Is something wrong?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"Because you're here," she remarked, crossing her arms together against her chest.

Scoffing at the question, William faked a look of annoyance. "Why is that a problem? It's not like I'm not allowed to be here."

Pausing, Annie looked towards the ground. "My uncle says you only come here on Sundays."

"How would he know? It's not like he follows me from my house."

"It's true though, isn't it?" He felt his throat tighten up suddenly, as if her words were strangling him with the brown ribbon in her hair. "When you do come, you don't stay very long."

"It's such a long walk," forcing something out of himself, Envy could actually feel the uncomfortable contortion of his lips into a disgruntled smile. "It would be tiring to do it every day."

"I like to walk, if you remember." Envy remembered, if William didn't. "You might like it more if you did it with your friends."

"They're too busy to do trivial things like that." Laughing at her, he brushed locks of Golden hair into his face rather than away.

"To busy doing what?"

Not existing, Envy thought with a sneer.

"You and I both know that very little people are age live here."

"So? What are you getting at?"

It was obvious her next sentence pained her, made her feel guiltier saying it then leaving the conversation blank. "These people, everyone regardless of age, only seem to know you because of your family."

He didn't hesitate to respond with this one. "My family is very prominent, if you haven't noticed, of course they know me because of my family."

"I said only because of your family." She might have yelled the word only with the way it left a ringing in his ears. "No one here knows you as a singular person, let alone a friend."

Annie's face began to contort in Envy's eyes as moisture built up and blocked his vison once again. "I h-have friends and I'm quite offended that you would suggest otherwise. Here I thought you were an actually decent person an—"

"I'm not saying these things to be mean, you should know that. The entire point of this conversation was to prove to that there is something wrong with you being here. If there wasn't you would be at home, with the people who do care for you outside of a name." The hair he had brushed into his face were pushed back as her left hand reached out to cup his shoulder.

Although the gesture left him a little dumbfounded, William continued to keep up his resolve. "You have no right to ask me such things especially if I truly don't have any friends. Feeling concern for another's feelings is something that only friends would do and we're acquaintances at best."

Giggling slightly, Annie shook him slightly. "That's not true, maybe I'm concerned because I want to be your friend and knowing of your problems would be a step closer to that goal."

Envy couldn't help but think there was something strange about watching someone say that to his face, or rather Williams face. Maybe it was the stupid memories that were starting to interfere with his sense of reality but for some reason he felt almost as if that was directed towards him.

. . . God how he needed to get out of this. He wasn't William, he would never be William and would never want to be William.

Sighing, the boy pushed her hand off his shoulder. "Can I tell you a secret?"

Beaming, Annie nodded vigorously. "Yes of course!"

"I—"

The lone 'I' was only followed by a muffled string of unclear words as Annie's face disappeared amongst the brief, familiar void.