exeggutorhead | IC Inbox

[THIS IS TERRIBLE.]

What do you mean, too fast! I was just drinking!

[How can humans be this fragile? HOW?]

How long before this goes away?!

Just-- probably just a few minutes.

Keep it slow when you start again and that won't happen.

_{[He's honestly not WRONG about humans being absurdly fragile. They just happen to all be USED to it.]}

You could have warned me.

[HUFF. But he's too distracted by the headache to get REALLY whiny about it.]

Were you gonna put that ice on me?

Sorry, I'm... I'm just not used to you not knowing anything about being a human.

_{[She may legitimately feel bad for not warning him about brainfreeze.]

[Wrapping a handful of ice in several paper towels, she comes back with the makeshift icepack and bends down to press it to Envy's wrist.]}

Keep still so that doesn't fall off. It might ache a little bit it'll decrease the pain in the long run.

Yeah, sure.

[He doesn't believe that she feels bad. Although while he winces at the cold ice, but he does at least plan on holding still and keeping it on.]

[He's just like this for the rest of the day, alternating threats, attempts at manipulation, and grumbling. Although at least whenever Joker and Al are there, she won't have to bear the full brunt of it. In fact, whenever Al is there he'll be almost all Envy focuses on.]

[This goes on until the clock strikes midnight and Envy, who had been keeping himself awake on pure spite and the refusal to fall asleep in front of an enemy, begins to abruptly come back to himself.]

[It's a lot to come back to all at once, and for a good few minutes he's too disoriented to really do anything but try to sort out what's going on.]

...Heather? You still awake?

[He's still not fully booted back up yet and his voice sounds vague and dizzy, but he knows he needs to talk to her. And apologize. Apologize so much.]

_{[Thank god for Al and Joker, honestly. Heather's a patient person... but not patient enough to be the only one dealing with worst-behaved prisoner in history all day long.]

[By the end of the day, though, she's the only one still in the room. They'd all figured that whatever was going on would wear off by midnight, and it had been a long day. She'd fallen asleep in the OTHER chair in the room, PokeGear still open in her lap.]

[She doesn't respond to Envy's quiet call at first, but Alessa, who'd been asleep at her feet, stirs and sits up with a low boof. Which gets Heather to lift her head.]}

--Envy?

It's me again, I'm back--fuck, my head...

[He shakes it lightly. The obscuring fog in his head is gone, but it feels as though the six years of memories are sloshing like heavy water, trying to fit back into place.]

[He has to give her some sign that it's actually him, and not another stupid, manipulative trick.]

I know what a television is. I remember what we were watching at three in the morning two days ago--it was those dumb infomercials, we were saying lines over the pitch voice.

...can you come untie me?

_{[She'd been a little hazy at first, herself, but when the words 'I'm back' leave Envy's mouth, she sits bolt upright, eyes snapping all the way open.]

[She really hadn't fallen for any of his tricks outside of feeling a little crestfallen each time he dropped his good behavior and reverted to being nasty, but her first reflexive instinct is to leap out of her chair and come straight to untie them. Before she's finished standing up, she catches herself, looking quickly at the clock-- midnight.]

[That's enough for her.]

[All the same, as she stumbles over, she asks quickly--]}

Where were we when we got together?

On the house roof, on another damn Friday. It started sleeting and we had to bolt back inside, and then we stayed in my room.

[She might not have asked for the extra details, but they tumble out anyway, like he's trying to prove that he remembers to himself, too.]

Shit--Heather, I'm really sorry for everything today. That you had to deal with...that.

[The now very recent memory of the old him, all the vicious bitterness and violence, clings like a greasy film on unwashed dishes. And the things he'd been thinking all day directed at her, at Joker, makes his stomach turn now.]

I'm sorry.

_{[As soon as he gives that first detail, she's already scrambling to untie his bonds. Maybe she SHOULD have more pause, after everything he'd said and done during the day, but THAT ANSWER'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR HER.]}

It's fine. It's fine.

_{[They can talk apologies later.]}

Let's get you untied.

_{[He's been stuck in that chair ALL DAY he probably at least needs to get in the bathroom.]}

[Envy resists squirming in the chair, letting her get at the knots unimpeded.]

Okay.

[Definitely before too long. But it's easier to focus on this right this second. He's going to be so sore in the morning...]

Please, I think my entire body is asleep by now.

[And once his arms are loose, he starts...well, at least trying to help her with the knots with his one good hand.]

But you know? That's still better than if you'd never caught me, because I would have probably keeled over from thirst by now. Or gotten caught in an automatic door.

[Even if he's still clearly shaken, a joking tone still comes easiest.]

_{[They'd tied a LOT of knots in those ropes. So it takes a few minutes to get them all off. Once they're all on the floor, she grabs his good hand to help him up.]}

Yeah, honestly? I was fuckin' scared when you ran off and not just because I knew you were probably gonna get in a slapfight with Al.

_{[It had been a HOT DAY, and not to mention he had no idea what Pokemon were... god forbid he tried to kick a Pikachu and get a billion volts of electricity unloaded into him.]}

Shit, you must be starving... I'll order room service.

[Her hand was definitely needed; he staggers a little when he gets up, trying to stretch and get the feeling back in his limbs. And if he holds onto her hand a little tighter than he needs to? Not saying anything about that. He gives her his best puppy eyes at that suggestion, or at least the best he can manage right now.]

Thank you, you're the best.

[As casual as the thanks is, he means it so much more than usual.]

[But they can keep that going in a second because she was right about something else too, and him staggering immediately to the bathroom answers that.]

_{[Her expression had been kind of tight and drawn up till he gives her the puppy eyes, and then she breaks into a tired but genuine smile. That's her Envy.]

[By the time he gets out of the bathroom, she's flopped on the bed with her legs hanging off and the room service menu open next to her. SHIT'S EXPENSIVE, there's a reason they usually load up on cheap snacks from the Mart or go OUT to eat, but fuck it, fast and convenient wins out for tonight.]}

Ordered one of those big tubs of fancy mac and cheese, it should be up in fifteen minutes or so with soup and salad.

How's your wrist? Want some more ice?

[As soon as he gets out, he beelines right back over to the bed...although he slows down just a little as he gets closer, and when he flops down next to her, he doesn't cuddle right up. He's not...really sure how touchy-feely she'd want to be with him after all that.]

That sounds amazing.

And yeah, but it can wait a minute. It does feel a lot better than it did.

[He lets out a quiet snort, and while he's still kind of joking, that apologetic note is back in his voice as he continues.]

You took much better care of me than I deserved.

_{[It's probably a smart idea for them both to have a little distance. It's not that Heather feels scared or repelled in any way (honestly, as deadly earnest as she knows he'd been every time he snarled about hurting or killing them, it had still been a little hard to take him seriously when he clearly had no idea how to even function in his own skin), but... well.]

[It had been a long and incredibly weird for them both.]

[She does, however, reach out to take his good hand, giving it a squeeze.]}

Hey... you'd do the same for me, if the old me was a misanthropic, grudge-bearing zombie with an attitude problem.

_{[Making light is the best way she knows to show that everything is all right.]}

And... well, let's be real. You really didn't have any reason to think we actually wanted to help, did you?

[He squeezes her hand back, a half-smile of his own breaking onto his face.]

'Course I would. I'd even bring you your favorite frapp.

And hell...I didn't know what you were all going to do with me. I mean, there was Al, definitely the enemy. And Joker...I don't know what I thought he was doing there but he was a conspirator.

And then there was you, the alchemist mastermind behind it all.

[He punctuates that with a light poke at a ticklish spot on her neck. One that's quickly withdrawn, since it's with his bad hand, but all the same. Even if he's still feeling out of sorts, he knows that even a little bit of playfulness can go a long way for both of them.]

I thought I'd been sent on a mission to seduce secrets out of you and you'd caught on and...I don't know, you'd obviously done something.

_{[She's too exhausted to do much laughing, but she manages a breath of a chuckle at the poke, drawing her shoulder up.]}

I have no idea how you looked at this and arrived at the conclusion of 'alchemist mastermind'.

_{[... CONSIDERING THEY'D WOKEN UP IN BED TOGETHER, THOUGH, it's hard to blame him for the second part of his assumption. Which is why she laughs again at the the thought.]}

Then again, I guess the first thing any mastermind worth their salt would want to do with you is snuggle up, huh?

[He lets out a little 'pfff' of breath, grinning tiredly.]

Oh, you would be so surprised.

[He does that thing he does where he puts a hand up to his chest vainly, although it looks even sillier when he's lying back on the bed like he is.]

And of course they would, but they'd find out pretty quick that snuggling a homunculus is a lot more like snuggling an ice cube, right?

Edited 2016-08-20 07:29 (UTC)

_{[It looks ridiculous.]}

Well obviously that's why I had to turn you human, duh.

This all happened because I was, like, so cold and sad every night.

_{[She's giggling a little bit-- the surreality of this entire fucking day is kind of getting to her-- when there's a knock at the door and she slowly sits up, letting go of Envy's hand.]}

Oh-- food's here.

_{[NOURISHMENT.]}

Oh, god, it all makes sense now.

[If the food hadn't arrived just then, who knows what rabbit hole this narrative might have gone down, with them both so out of it. But the food does arrive, and Envy sits bolt upright immediately.]

[And when the macaroni is set down, he's not going to be doing any talking at all for a bit because he's way too busy putting it into his face, and the first bite gets an almost blissful expression out of him. He really was starving.]

This is so good.

[Talking with his mouth partially full because he wants to talk but he doesn't want to stop eating.]

_{[She doesn't join in right off the bat, lingering by the door for a moment to peer down the hallway after the room service attendant as they wheel their trolley back towards the elevator.]}

... That's the most dapper Graveler I've ever seen. It had a bowtie and everything.

_{[She didn't even know they had necks.]

[By the time she turns back, Envy's already in the process of demolishing the food, and she lets out another one of those quiet laughs at the sight, the sort that's equal parts amusement and relief. She'd been seriously worried about the fact that he'd gone without food for the entire freaking day-- getting him to stay hydrated was one thing, but there was little to no actual way to get food into him without literally spoon-feeding and that was such a bad idea that no one even suggested it.]

[And then the sudden return of a YAWNING VOID in her middle reminds her that SHE hadn't eaten much of anything either, and she sits down right there on the floor, grabbing a fork from the tray.]}

Hey, chipmunk-cheeks, save a little for me.

_{[THE SALADS ARE LEFT UNTOUCHED, IT'S COMFORT FOOD TIME.]}

[Normally, he'd have gotten right on up to go look at their room service-mon, but that would mean he would have to stop eating.]

[He does nudge the dish a little closer to her as she sits down. SHARING THE MACARONI IS THE LEAST HE CAN DO.]

[It's not until the macaroni is gone and so is the soup that he thinks to make a casual nod to what they'd been talking about before.]

Man, if I'm going to get captured by a mastermind alchemist, I want it to be you.

Not to mention, you're so much hotter than anyone else I ever got sent after.

[He laughs, clearly intending that as something funny. NO BIG DEAL.]

Hand me some water out of the fridge, could you? I think it's right over next to you.

_{[Between the two of them, it didn't take long at all to make the macaroni (which really was astonishingly good, those brochures talking about Pewter City hosting a bangin' culinary scene weren't kidding) disappear, and Heather finds herself leaning against the bed with a half-finished cup of the soup next to her. After filling up on hot food, the body's automatic response is to get really fucking sleepy.]

[But she nods, sitting up to scoot a few feet to the room's mini-fridge and pass Envy a bottle of water. She gets one for herself as an afterthought.]}

Heheh.

If I'm hotter, I'd hate to see what the competition looked like.

_{[Without even really thinking about it (because honestly, half of what Envy says can be boiled down to weird, snide humor), she's just sort of taken what he's saying as a joke.]}

Pfft, oh god, it was gross old men as far as the eye can see.

[He laughs again, and takes a long swig of the water, letting out a relieved sigh after he swallows. Even though they'd at least gotten him to take some water during the day, it hadn't been nearly enough.]

You're the best mission ever.

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