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Why wouldn't I be?

[The defensive response comes out too quickly, almost a snap.]

I heard what happened the other day.

[There's silence on the other end of the line for so long that she might wonder if he's dropped the 'Gear and left.]

[He hadn't been thinking about locks or that other people might have overheard. When he finally says something, it's through gritted teeth.]

No. I'm not.

[That's what she was afraid of. At least he's said as much to her. That's something.]

Would you like to talk?

What's there to talk about?

[It comes out as a sullen grumble. But it's not a complete no.]

[He wonders if she's figured out from what he said that he was there when Sloth died. And when she died.]

Whatever you'd like to talk about, I suppose.

I'm...worried about you.

[It's awkward to admit it, but it's the truth. And she's spent too much time holding back too many truths from Envy.]

I don't like talking about any of it.

[But...oh. Envy's stomach does something weird and twisty. He's heard people here say they were worried about him, but it's not quite the same thing as hearing it from Lust.]

[You'd think it would be easier to talk to her than it is to talk to those he's met here. He's known her longer, they had already been close. Somehow, though, that makes it harder. But he'd done this to her about Scar, hadn't he?]

I don't want him here.

[Easiest, obvious things first.]

Edited 2014-08-24 23:19 (UTC)

No, I can't imagine you do.

[She can't begin to comprehend what it must feel like, for Envy.]

You have every right to be upset.

[There's another, shorter silence as Envy opens his mouth to speak, then closes it again when what she said strikes him funny. If this conversation had been happening when he was angrier, he might well have missed it.]

...What makes you say that?

[Had she figured him out?]

...I heard the exchange. It was an upsetting one.

[Regardless of what she does or doesn't know, being given the details of your own potential demise in angry outbursts is upsetting news on its own.]

...I've always been from a time ahead of everyone.

I thought...

[That he would make it.]

Whatever events he lived through aren't necessarily ones you'll experience.

His reality isn't yours.

Everyone else has followed the same timeline, why should it be any different for me? Unless he was lying.

[He's just holding onto 'lying' for now. He makes a frustrated noise.]

I can't get killed, not before...and not by him!

He may well have been. He was...very upset as well.

[And she knows Alphonse isn't exactly an innocent.]

It really did sound like mad gibberish.

Good.

[That's muttered bitterly under his breath. And it does make him feel slightly better that she also thinks Al might be lying.]

[...oh right he hasn't explained what happened to Lust has he. Well he told Greed, he should probably tell her too. And that's a lot easier than talking about his feelings.]

It's not...quite as gibberish as it probably sounded.

Just avoid one another.

[As best as possible, anyway. She can't urge Envy to forgive, not in any good conscience.

Oh?

There's another world on the other side of the Gate.

That's where that bastard Hohenheim was sent, and she sent Ed through too, later. I followed when I found out about it, but I hadn't...made it through yet, when I was brought here.

[How Ed ended up there after being killed and how Al got there, he has no idea.]

Another world? That's what's on the other side?

I knew Hohenheim was sent through the Gate, I was there when it happened, but...

How many different worlds are there?

[She doesn't bother to ask why Envy went through on his own, she can guess easily enough.]

[He nods.]

It leads to city called London...but the world is the same one that France is from.

[Which is another reason he doesn't want to believe he was killed.]

You were there?

What's it like?

[She can certainly accept other worlds easily enough.]

It was just after Sloth brought me back from the desert. I was taking my punishment when he showed up. You know the expression 'a fly on the wall'? I got to live it, literally.

It didn't sound like a half bad place, it sounded like Central almost. Alchemy doesn't work in that world, it's considered magic, and there's apparently a war going on when I'm going to show up. Not that that's much different from home.

[She can't see it, but he frowns deeply and nearly winces at what she says next. He knows exactly what sort of punishment she means.]

[There's not much point in saying something like "I'm sorry", it would just sound trite and useless in the face of that.]

...did she hesitate, at all?

[He asks dully, like he already knows the answer. But he wants to know for sure.]

I wonder how much is different.

[She pauses just a moment, thinking back over that day even though she really doesn't want to.]

Not when it came down to it.

Besides the sciences and politics and the names of places...I'm not sure it's too different at all.

[He lets out a noise that's almost a sigh. He had wanted to believe that she might have given any thought at all to taking that away from him...but at the same time he'd known that wouldn't be true.]

I didn't think so. She...told me what she did, later. When I came looking for him.

[There's a deep bitterness rising in his voice.]

And that they had gotten the Stone.

How strange...

[Lust isn't sure what to say. She doubts he'd like to hear about the conversation that preceded the opening of the Gate.]

He was terrified, I think, when he realized his fate.

[A pause.]

Things just...happened that way.

[Another area she isn't sure what to say in. She let them get away, after all.]

[No, he really doesn't. And hearing that Hohenheim had been frightened, confronting the Gate...it's something that does help, a little. But it doesn't change the fact that he hadn't been there to see it.]

[And it's starting to occur to him who to blame for that.]

...I know the gist of what happened. Pride decided he'd mention it to me.

[He pauses too.]

I'm not...it's not you I'm angry at.

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