Chapter Text
“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost!”
That’s the only words Envy manages to get out before Edward Elric punches him in the jaw, exactly three years after the Promised Day. If he’d been ready, or not holding a month’s worth of groceries, he may not have been knocked off his feet from the sheer force of it. He barely has time to try and sit up before Fullmetal is on top of him, decking him again. Ow. He’s rusty and not as strong as he used to be. This can’t possibly be fair. Then again, when did Envy ever fight fair?
“Should use your metal arm if ya wanna land a real good one,” Envy spits. He’s rewarded with another punch, right on his nose. It breaks with a crack, but he just about manages to regenerate it in the time it takes Edward to raise his arm again. That’s about when Envy realizes. “No way,” he says, staring at the raised fist above him. “You got your fuckin’ body back?!”
That makes Edward pause, just long enough for Envy to try and wiggle away from under him. Keyword ‘try’. As soon as he moves, Edward grabs his head and slams it down on the ground. Envy’s ears ring with the shock.
“Shut up!” He barks. And his voice is just as annoying as it was three years ago, just a tiny bit lower. “What the hell are you doing here?! Answer me!”
Envy purses his lips together and blows a raspberry. Edward looks positively outraged. Envy cackles and gets his head immediately slammed on the ground again.
“Ed! What-” A gasp. “No way.”
The voice feels familiar to Envy, even in his dazed, mildly concussed state. He stares up at the blurry stranger looming over Edward. He frowns, eyesight focusing, even if just a little bit. Someone with the same coloration as Fullmetal, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, hair cropped short.
“Who is this?” He asks blearily. “Some long lost cousin? Are you on another soul searching journey, Fullmetal?”
A look of confusion momentarily crosses the stranger’s face.
“Oh, I guess you haven't met me like this yet.” He points towards himself with a sheepish grin. “I’m Alphonse.”
Alphonse. Alphonse? Alphonse, the suit of armor?
“Holy shit.” Envy says, and he can’t even stop the shock from leaking into his voice. “Holy shit. Congrats, you brats.”
That’s when Edward grabs him by the hair and for the third and final time, Envy’s head is bashed against the ground.
***
Envy wakes up slowly. There’s no headache or bruises but a notabe general discomfort. Oh. It seems he’s been tied up. He throws his head back and lets out a long, irritated sigh. Something like this was bound to happen eventually, someone was bound to find him or recognize him during his quick excursions into North City, but did it really have to be the Elric Brothers of all people?
“Brats,” he mutters to himself, glancing around.
He’s in a darkened room. The floor beneath him is cold and smooth. Tile. Is he in some kind of upscale jail cell? He rocks himself up into a sitting position. His hands are tied together tight behind his back. Feet are also bound. Annoying. He sighs again. So annoying. He can’t believe he let himself get caught so easily. Just as his eyes adjust, light is flung into the room. He grunts squinting at two silhouettes in an illuminated doorway. Like a pair of fucking angels, he thinks disgruntedly to himself as his eyes adjust again to see the Elric brothers.
“Long time no see,” Envy says, grinning. His voice sounds terrible. Like someone just beat the shit out of him a few hours ago, which yeah, it happened but it really shouldn’t show. “How have you guys been?”
“None of your business,” Edward spits just as Alphonse says: “Good.”
They stare at each other momentarily, Edward’s eyes positively shooting daggers while Alphonse just looks back at him with a slight, scolding frown.
“What are you doing?” Edward hisses.
“Being polite! He’s our guest!” Alphonse shoots back.
“What- I- Al! He’s Envy! The Homunculus?”
“Fullmetal’s right you know,” Envy says flatly.
Edward gestures empaphetically towards him.
“See?! Even he agrees!”
“We just kidnapped him off the streets! We can at least be nice to him!”
“Your brother’s right, you know,” Envy tells Edward, trying not to sound like he’s having too much fun watching their bickering.
“No one asked you!” Edward yells before going back to arguing to Alphonse.
Envy takes the opportunity and light to look around himself. Definitely not a jail cell. A bathroom. It’s plain but clean, patterned with white and blue tile. There’s a toilet and a sink that’s a bit too low with a tub crammed in a corner like an afterthought. No personal belongings aside from a brush and a comb on the sink and a pile of clothes tossed near the bath.
“Are we in the North City Hotel?” That snaps the pair of brothers out of their argument. “On main street? Fancy.”
Envy doesn’t even have time to enjoy their shocked expressions because Edward’s already lunged towards him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him a bit off the floorl. He’s just as strong as he used to be, Envy realizes with a start. Maybe even more so.
“How do you know that? Were you conscious when we carried you here?” Edward exhales deeply, loosening his grip. “Of course you were. No way I knocked out a homunculus that easily.”
Ency just grins, trying not to grit his teeth too obviously. Easy. It was easy for him. He’d tear Fullmetal to pieces with his bare teeth if he only could.
“But you did,” Alphonse pipes up from behind Edward. Envy’s smile falters.
“What?”
“Put him down, Ed.”
The fingers on Envy’s shirt tighten again.
“Why should I?”
Alphonse sighs, rolling his eyes.
“Brother, come on.”
And Envy’s suddenly being dropped to the ground with a thump. He glares at Edward.
“He said put me down, not throw me down, dumbass.”
Edward looks ready to punch the living daylights out of him again but to Envy’s barely hidden relief Alphonse pulls him back.
“Brother,” he says again, patient but firm. Edward relents, crossing his arms and shooting another glare at Envy who sticks his tongue out in turn. “You did knock him out, I’m sure.”
“How?” He points a thumb towards Envy. “I’m sure you remember that he’s pretty damn cunning.”
“Yes, which is why if he was conscious he would have escaped much earlier. There were too many opportunities! Remember when you slipped carrying him down that one alley? It happened twice, Ed!”
Envy snorts, then immediately grunts as Edward kicks him in the ribs.
“You don’t have to say it in front of him,” he hisses.
“I offered you to help! But noooo, you said you could do it by yourself. You sent Envy flying halfway across the road… Good thing no one’s driving today cause of the ice.”
“Butter fingers,” Envy mumbles and gets another kick to the sternum. Worth it.
“It would have been easy for him to get up and escape then, but he didn’t… he must have been out cold.”
“Huh,” Edward says. “I guess you’re right.” He nudges Envy, who’s now lying on his side, with his foot. “You get weaker or something?”
Stupid Elric brats. Envy tries very hard not to bite Edward’s ankle just to hear him squeal like a pig. Stupid Elric brats that are actually pretty smart, smart enough to figure Envy out in a matter of hours when he’d been successfully hiding away from the entire world for years.
“You wish, moron,” he says. “By the way, you’re still shorter than your brother, even without the armor.”
It’s a low blow and it gets him another vicious kick but it’s still better than wherever the conversation was initially heading to.
“Shut up! The difference is negligible!”
“Oh? So you admit there is a difference?”
Edward grits his teeth and gestures angrily towards the air, clearly swallowing back another mountain of insults and physical assault before turning around and stomping out of the bathroom.
“Don’t punch a hole through the wall again,” Alphonse calls out. “I want the deposit back!”
An angry and incomprehensible articulation is the response. Envy has no clue what it might mean but Alphonse seems satisfied. He turns around to face Envy, one hand going to cup his chin thoughtfully.
“Now,” he says. “What to do with you…”
Envy doesn’t reply. Just stays still, still lying with his cheek to the tiled floor. He watches as Alphonse crouches down beside him.
“Envy?”
“What.”
“Ed kicked you pretty hard. Are you hurt?”
“I’m regenerating just fine, idiot. Did you forget homunculi can do that?”
“No.” Alphonse smiles lightly. “It’s weird you’re still regenerating though. You used to be faster.”
Shit. Without the big armor, Alphonse Elric was easy to underestimate. Envy needs to be more careful. He presses his lips tight together. Better to shut up for a bit if this kid is this smart.
“I noticed when we first ran into you, you didn’t even try to shapeshift.” Alphonse pokes at one of the ropes around Envy. “And you could’ve easily slipped away from these bonds by just changing a bit. So I have to assume you can’t transform anymore.” He looks at Envy in the eyes pointedly. “We don’t have to fight. We just want to know what’s going on. Tell us what you’re up to and we’ll let you free.”
“Will you actually?”
Alphonse smiles guiltily.
“Well… If you’re going to hurt anyone we can’t really let you go, can we?”
“What hurt can I do if I can’t shift anymore?”
Alphonse’s eyes widen.
“So you really can’t? Not at all?”
“I…” Envy swallows. “I’ve never really talked about this before. Not with anyone.”
Alphonse leans closer, transfixed.
“Truth is…”
“Yes?” Alphonse says practically breathless.
“...I’m fucking with ya.”
And before the boy in front of him can even look slightly confused, Envy stretches and shifts into a mouse with a crack of his bones. He uses the momentum of the shift to propel himself onto Alphonse’s face and clamber onto his head, making sure to scratch his eyes to the best of his ability on the way. Then, as Alphonse is yelping he drops to the floor and scurries quickly out of the bathroom, almost getting stepped on by Edward hurrying in.
“Al! Are you okay?! What happened?” A pause as Envy races to the door. “Where the hell is Envy?!”
“The mouse!” Alphonse yells. Shit, shit, shit. “He’s the mouse, catch him!”
“The mouse?”
Envy’s breathless, just barely making it to the door and starting to push himself under it. He can hear the stomp of Edward’s boots as he gets closer. He exhales and with his lungs empty he can just barely squeeze past and start running down the hallway. The first five seconds he almost gets stomped on by multiple shoes, but then someone screams ‘MOUSE!’ and sends everyone jumping to the sides. Finally, a lucky break, he thinks, then he thinks, oh shit, as he hears the voices of the Elric brothers following him.
“This way! Someone said ‘mouse’!”
“Look, there!”
Envy barely catches a glimpse of Alphonse pointing at him, his other hand nursing the scratch on his eye, before he’s taking off again, whipping around a nearby corner. There! His saving grace: the stairs. He flings himself between the railing’s poles and braces for the fall.
It’s slower than he expects (he’s not as heavy as he used to be after all), so he has time to properly coordinate a landing that won’t break too many bones. He lands with a bounce on some carpet, earning another squeal from a couple collecting their keys at the front desk. A young housekeeper manages to somehow hit him with a broom and he goes flying, paws flailing. He lands less gracefully, rolling on the carpet. His left shoulder twinges. Just one more problem for later.
Right now he needs to get out. By some twisted miracle, the boy with the broom had sent him towards the front door instead of away from it. He doesn’t think he has the energy left to shift again, so he crouches by it, shivering and hoping against all hope no one will see him. He can hear people running down the stairs. His heart is in his throat. Come on. Come on come on come on.
The door swings open, thanks to a weary looking business man, covering Envy in an icy wind. He could not care less though, and takes off like a shot, down the sidewalk and through the bars of the nearest sewer grate.
***
After an unknown number of hours spent running, Envy collapses somewhere in the sewers of North City. He’s sure no one’s following him anymore. Pretty sure. With how long he ran for and how small he is as a mouse it’s pretty unlikely. Right. Right, he’s a mouse. He groans. He should shift back. He doesn’t actually have to but he could really use a ride back home and that’s much easier to get looking like a human than a mouse. Even if he went by foot, he’d freeze as a mouse in the Northern weather of Amestris.
If only it was as easy as it used to be.
First, he flops down on the grimy floor, according himself a few seconds respite. They’re not tailing him anymore. That’s the most important part. He exhales. He braces. He shifts.
It hurts; a slow, awful, deep ache, one that gets worse every time he does it. He’s far enough underground that he lets himself groan and eventually wail as his bones rearrange himself. They never used to crack this loud, they never used to crack at all. His skin never used to feel so stretched thin, it never split open, and it most definitely didn’t bleed.
Envy punches down on the floor, crying out as his spine readjusts to his height, the pain pulsing down to his knees. He inhales sharply. Exhales. The worst is over. Just a few details left. Inhale. Exhale. He stretches out on the floor, working his jaw into the right place, getting his fingers to bend properly, at the right places, at the right angles, his shoulder… his shoulder hurts.
”What the fuck,” Envy mutters.
He rolls over onto his back and it twinges with pain again. From when he fell, after he got hit with a broom, of all things, as a mouse. Stupid, idiot housekeeper, and those stupid, idiot Elric brothers. He grips at his shoulder with his good hand and sits up, leaning against the wall. What’s just a little more pain? And he uses the wall to push it back into place with a sickening pop. He winces but it’s nothing compared to the shifting nowadays. At least turning into a mouse didn’t have him bawling his head off in front of the Elric brothers, then again it’s always easier to get smaller than bigger and he was hopped up on adrenaline.
He looks around wearily. He knew the sewers in Central like the back of his hand, but he hadn’t actually spent that much time in the ones here, up North. They were sickeningly lukewarm, probably on purpose, to keep things from freezing. Still, he’s shaking. Why is he shaking? He’s fine, for fuck’s sake, just took a little tumble. He’s seen way worse, many, many times. He’d gotten more banged up sparring with Greed back in the day, or even dealing with some particularly hardy civilians over the years. So why is he still shaking?
”Just tired,” he says out loud, and the sewer tunnel echoes it back at him, mocking. “Bit rusty,” he says, softer, not wanting to hear his own voice again. “Caught me off guard. Tha’s all.”
He squints up at the ceiling. There’s a manhole just a few meters up ahead. Envy hauls himself to his feet, momentarily stumbling before straightening, then he remembers that he’s alone, and goes back to hobbling till he reaches the ladder rungs fixed to the wall. Then comes the arduous task of clambering upwards and heaving the metal cover off. He winces. He’d hoped that he’d been down there enough that the streets would have emptied but there’s still the vivid sound of evening hustle and bustle.
Envy peeks out cautiously. He’s greeted with a cool breeze that has him narrowing his eyes against it, he blinks, and breathes out. The street’s not empty, just as he expected, but he is emerging in an alley instead of the middle of the sidewalk amidst the rush of pedestrians. He crawls out and quickly slots the cover back in place with a ‘thunk’. Someone passing by glances towards the sound and he glares ferociously enough that it sends them into a light jog. He grins. Still got it.
He stays in the alley a while longer, raking his fingers through his hair, pulling most of it in front of his face. He left his clothes behind in the Elrics’ bathroom when he shifted into a mouse so he’d conjured some quick ones on the spot when he’d shifted back. He adjusts them now, because a cropped top and shorts in the streets of North City would get too much attention and with some luck, the Elrics could even track him down. Envy manages some half-assed boots and a thin but long coat. Good enough.
He joins the crowd by tagging after a group of equally miserable-looking office workers. He wasn’t far from the east-most edge of the city, less than an hour’s walk away. Then, all he needs is a ride most of the way to Midgrave. Then he’s practically home. Just another two hours’ walk. Envy tries not to throw himself on the ground and roll around screaming and kicking his feet. He really didn’t need this.
The crowd thins out as he gets closer to the edge of the city. His feet drag. It’s definitely been more than an hour. The streets are properly empty now, with most lights in the window starting to turn off. Envy thinks about spending the night under a stairwell in whatever building that might have an open door but the thought of being in the same city as Fullmetal and his brother for any longer makes his skin break out into goosebumps.
The buildings get fewer and Envy starts paying more attention. Almost no cars now, but still quite a few trucks. He peers around and spots a few people huddled around a small fire in a barrel and starts hurrying towards them. Finally.
“Hey,” he calls out as he gets closer. They look up at him, two men and a woman, none of them happy to see an unfamiliar face. “Any of you gentlefolk headed to Midgrave?”
No one answers, but one of them, a slim man with a beard too big for his face, momentarily glances at the guy to his left smoking a cigarette, who immediately frowns back at him. Envy turns to him and tries a smile that is neither threatening nor cocksure.
”Could really use a ride,” he says, and he hates how he sounds, so purposefully careful, a little pleading. What happened to him? He’s Envy the Jealous for god’s sake. “Not even all the way there, I’ll just hop off a bit after the forest starts, yeah?”
The man glowers at him. He’s big, tall with wide shoulders, his hair is salt and pepper and his eyes a bright grey. He sizes Envy up then exhales slowly, pointing his thumb behind him.
”Blue truck,” he says gruffly. “I’m leaving in five minutes.”
The woman next to Salt-and-Pepper jerks her head towards him.
”You’re not gonna ask for any money?”
Envy thinks about reaching into the firepit, picking up a flaming log, and chucking it at her head. But he needs a ride. He makes a big show of turning his pockets inside out and shaking them.
”Do I look like I have any money?”
“No,” says Salt-and-Pepper. He looks at the woman who grins sheepishly. “That’s why I didn’t ask.”
Envy decides to stalk off to the truck to avoid snapping and losing any chance of getting home in a timely manner without losing a few fingers to frostbite. He does give the snow on the way there a good kicking which feels childishly satisfying. He throws himself up and over the back, cringing as he lands on his sore shoulder. He rolls it as he sits up, gathering his knees under his chin for some warmth. The metal of the cargo bed is freezing, but it’s still preferable to the hike he’d have taken instead.
Okay. He’s gotten away. He has a ride. Envy can finally take a second to gather his thoughts.
One. The Elric brothers are here, for some fucking reason. When he’d chosen to crash in the North of Amestris it was specifically because it was so empty because of the climate. Aside from the city and Briggs, there was only a handful of villages, including Midgrave. He’d woken up three years ago, disoriented and feeling like shit in the bowels of Central, and vomited about half his weight in unknown substances. He was alive again, somehow, alive but beaten and humiliated and hurt. One transformation and some sneaking around later, he realized just how badly he- they- all of them had been beaten. So he fled.
Two. The Elric brothers are not only here, but they know that Envy’s here.
Three. They know Envy’s… unwell. Vulnerable. Weak.
“Fuck!” Envy shouts, slamming a fist down on the cargo bed. He flings himself down on his back on the metal and groans, shoving his palms against his closed eyes. “Fuuuuck.”
When he does finally open his eyes back, looking dejectedly through his fingers, he’s greeted with a steely gaze, framed with black and white hair. Right. His ride. He keeps staring down at Envy.
”What,” Envy says.
”…what are you doing?”
Having a temper tantrum, please let me scream and swear in peace, Envy thinks.
“Waiting for you to start this truck.”
”You’re gonna ride in the back?”
Envy drops his arms to his side, looking at him incredulously.
“Where else would I go?”
Salt-and-Pepper just gestures for him to get up and disappears from his field of view. Envy sighs as he rolls to his side to look at him. He points to the other side of the truck. Oh. Sit next to him. Inside. Envy thinks about waving him off and lying back down and yelling at the clouds some more… but… it’s really cold. So he gets to his feet and reaches forward to open the passenger seat door and swings himself in from the cargo bed.
”Nimble,” Salt-and-Pepper comments as he shuffles inside himself. Envy doesn’t reply, just closing the car door and leaning against it. “…not much of a talker?”
Envy makes a vague noise that will hopefully shut the conversation down.
”That’s fine.”
Envy hears the click of keys then the engine rumbles to life nad he tries so hard not to sigh in relief. He does let himself slump against the window, letting the cold permeate through his cheek.
“…You’re that fellow living in the estate west of Midgrave village, aren’t you?”
“No,” Envy says too quickly. He swallows, his throat suddenly dry “I’m just passing by.”
”Just passing by?”
“Yep.”
What is wrong with him today? If anything, lying is the one skill he has that hasn’t deteriorated over the years. He most definitely was ‘that fellow’ living in a half-wrecked mansion with its own abandoned and barren garden. Someone used to live there, probably some rich military dog judging by the sheer amount of alchemy books in the library, but they were long gone by the time Envy started squatting. Eavesdropping on the folks at Midgrave revealed the place was a hotspot for rumors, he heard it getting called cursed, haunted, or even forsaken, which did draw a cackle out of him. It was perfect for him. Isolated enough that no one would bother him, and the rare times they did, it was big enough to dart away into another room, then through some well-timed steps on the creaky floorboards and a slammed door here and there, he could scare them away for good.
Then, Envy could finally be alone.
He closes his eyes against the window. He wishes he was there already, instead of in a car with a stranger who’s kindness makes his skin crawl. Alone. In his tumbledown mansion. Exactly where he needs to be. Exactly where he wants to be.
***
Envy’s startled awake by a hand on his shoulder. He jolts, slapping it away, already baring his teeth and ready to give someone hell for daring to touch him before remembering where he is.
“Easy there,” says Salt-and-Pepper, as though Envy’s a fucking horse.”Just letting you know we’re at the forest.”
Envy looks out the window. The evergreens are just starting to thicken, growing in groups of three or four.
“I’ll get out here.”
“Are you sure? I could get you closer to the estate, it’s-”
“For the last time, I’m not going there,” Envy snaps, and he reaches for the door handle.
“Alright, alright! Let me stop at least so you don’t break both your legs.” The driver grumbles. “Honestly, you try and do one good deed-”
He’s slowed down enough that Envy can jump out and not have to hear the rest of the sentence. He lands easily, cushioned by the snow and immediately starts trudging away.
“Hey! Hey, you! Hey! Stop!”
Envy just keeps walking, rolling his eyes.
“I’m talking to you! Hey! If you don’t stop and listen, I’ll tell everyone in Midgrave I know who’s living in the old estate!”
Envy considers denying again but he’s already stopped in his tracks, so he groans, and turns around making an exasperated ‘what?’ motion with his arms. Salt-n-Pepper looks momentarily surprised at this but quickly shakes his head and his face splits into a smile, and, oh god, he’s one of those big tough guys who’s secretly a softie, isn’t he? Envy runs a hand down his face. He gestures again with his free hand, ‘well?!’.
“If you ever need anything, come down to Midgrave! It’ll be the only house with a blue truck, alright?” He’s shouting so he can be heard through the wind. Envy sneers. If he’d been in better shape he’d have gone over there and flipped his stupid blue truck over. “Just ask for Pepper. That’s me!” Envy’s lip twitches. “Huh? Hey, why are you laughing? Hey! Just remember, blue truck, Pepper!” He bellows as Envy turns around, shaking his head. He does accord Pepper a lazy wave as he walks away, which is apparently enough to satisfy him because Envy hears him start the engine again.
He keeps walking, albeit more slowly, as he hears the vehicle rumble away. Then, when he’s sure it’s gone, he turns back around to the road. The estate was still ways away, and it was easier to walk on a semi-snow free road than dragging his feet through the forest, tripping over hidden roots. He clicks his tongue, looking out at the forest with a squint. He has a little less than a three hours walk ahead of him. His short nap helped; his shoulder was sore instead of aching, and whatever concussion Fullmetal had given him earlier was more or less gone. He was still disgustingly tired and his stomach felt like it had been twisted into five separate knots but that had been his everyday the past couple of years.
Nothing new.
Absolutely nothing weird or out of the ordinary for a near-indestructible homunculus.
He’d had a bit of a weird day, gotten a bit battered, but if all goes well, he won’t see Fullmetal and his brother anytime soon.
Hopefully.