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_{[YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID]

[Sure enough, she's got her arms folded and a VERY OBVIOUS 'yes Envy you are in trouble' face.]

[She doesn't believe in playing guilt games and trying to make people guess what they're in the doghouse for, though, so she cuts right to the chase.]}

We had a deal.

[Yeah, his face went directly to 'deer in headlights'.]

[What could she be talking about? What deals has he...]

[OH. Oh damn it.]

...is this the deal I'm thinking of?

_{[Oh for the love of...]}

We only made one deal, Envy.

_{[And then, because HE KNOWS WHAT SHE'S TALKING ABOUT, she goes ahead and raises her voice. She's not shrieking or anything, but it qualifies as a shout.]}

For christ's sake, HE'S JUST A LITTLE KID!

WHAT THE HELL?

[OH SHIT.]

I wasn't gonna kill him!

_{[ENVY THAT'S NOT HELPING.]}

The deal wasn't 'Don't kill him', it was 'STAY AWAY FROM HIM'!

Is fighting him halfway through the city staying away from him in your world?

I didn't go looking for him!

[But he sure had been spoiling for a fight when they ran into each other. He grumbles, not looking at her.]

And nobody's supposed to even remember those weekends.

Well, he did, and just 'cause you think someone's gonna forget about it doesn't mean you should DO it.

_{[His attempt to look away won't be successful, because she's leaning around close, trying to maintain eye contact. >8( MAXIMUM GUILT, GO.]}

You promised, man!

[NO NOT THE GUILT, HE HATES FEELING GUILTY.]

I know, I know! I wasn't thinking about that at the time!

Well, obviously!

But why'd you make that deal with me in the first place if you were just gonna IGNORE it?

I thought you came to me for a reason.

Plus, he's a kid!

What could he POSSIBLY have done to you that would justify beating up a kid?!

_{[SHE KNOWS HE'S SEVENTEEN but he's tiny, come on.]}

I wasn't ignoring it until just then, I ran into him some other times not on the weekend and I didn't do anything.

[He mutters that sullenly. But it DOES look like she's at least getting some nice, good guilting in.]

Hey, it's not like he's defenseless. He killed me twice during that fight!

[And impaled him and blew up one of his legs and--]

Yeah, so what you're saying is you waited till you thought you could get away with it before doing something. Not exactly helping your cause, dude.

_{[His other claim just gets a sigh and rolled eyes. Sure dying is unpleasant BUT YOU ATTACKED HIM.]}

That's not what I--! I mean...that's...

[No, Envy, that's exactly what you said. He trails off into unintelligible muttering. At the same time, there's a cold feeling twisting up through his stomach, and there's unease joining the bit of guilt in his expression. How much had Al told her?]

Edited 2014-12-27 00:39 (UTC)

_{[Not a lot, but some things, anyway.]

[Heather folds her arms again, looking at him with lidded eyes.]}

Do you have anything to say besides excuses?

[He winces, just a little, shoulders drooping.]

...Sorry.

_{[For a second, she just looks at him. Then her own shoulders sag as she lets out a loooong sigh.]}

... Envy...

_{[She's hardly going to hold this against him. She might not have been explicitly breaking any promises when she went after Claudia, but it was still the same damn thing. ... Well, okay, maybe not EXACTLY the same, but similar enough.]

[She's just so frustrated, that's all.]

[Pulling her coat off, she heads over to the table and sits down, scooting another chair out with her foot.]}

Sit with me?

[When she says his name, he tenses as though he's bracing for something unpleasant to happen.]

[But whatever he might have expected her to say, and he doesn't even know what he expected, asking him to sit wasn't it. He looks startled, and for a moment he looks every single year of his age.]

[But then that's gone, replaced by careful neutrality, and he sits with one arm flung over the back of the chair as he always does.]

Yeah...yeah, okay.

_{[Fuck.]

[She knows exactly what that tensing is, and it makes her gut clench. As mad as she is at Envy's behavior... she can't help but think that, just like with Claudia, there's someone out there who she'd really like to strangle for all this.]}

Envy, when you called me that day, I didn't offer you a deal to save your half-brother's ass.

I did it for you.

I did it for the same reason that I'm fuckin' pissed right now.

Because you're my friend. And I care about you, you big idiot.

I know you do.

[And he does. Doesn't he?]

[He was more certain before that weekend, and before he spent two weeks in the dark with his former master's words spinning circles through his head.]

I've always been shit at keeping promises.

[He sounds apologetic when he says it.]

_{[Heather runs her fingers through her hair, sighing.]}

Me too, so I guess when you get right down to it, I don't have much of a leg to stand on when it comes to bitchin' you out.

... But please.

Leave that kid alone from now on?

Now that I've met him... I fuckin' know he's not the one we should be mad at.

_{[For a second she wavered over whether or not to say 'we' rather than 'you'.]

[But she's guilt-tripped him enough already and dictating what he alone should be angry about is more accusing than ever. So it's 'we'.]

[Because even if he broke the terms of the deal, she's still got his back when it comes to his father. And it's important for him to know that.]}

[Envy's guarded expression wavers when she says 'we'. Yeah, he picked up on what she meant by that, and he's very grateful.]

How do you know that?

[...but even in the depths of guilt-trip, being angry at Elrics is something he's pretty damn stubborn about.]

_{[... Well first of all Envy, ALPHONSE IS IN FACT A YOUNG CHILD, but if that's not reason enough for you already, repeating it probably won't do any good.]

[So she sighs and just looks at him.]}

He told me to give you a message for him, because he feels bad and thought it would be better coming from me than him.

It turns out your dad didn't kill you. He was going to, but you got to him first.

Al lied. But I never would've known it if he hadn't told me and asked me to pass it along to you. Along with his apology.

And I've seen enough fake apologies in my time to know when one's legit.

He did a shitty thing, lying to you like that. N'I told him so.

But he's a kid. And he didn't have to tell me anything.

[Whatever was left of that controlled expression? Say goodbye to it.]

[At first it's just more stubborn frowning, because psh, what kind of message could Al have for him? And then...]

[He's almost not sure he's hearing her right at first. He may not have brought it up in a while, but he definitely still wasn't over the supposed fact that Hohenheim had killed him in the end and used his death to take the happy family back home. As she keeps talking, it starts sinking in. He's flooded with fury that Alphonse had lied about it and that he'd been wrecked over it all this time for nothing, and elation and relief because he did it he killed that bastard after all this time he was the one to do it. There's shock and confusion and triumph and, somewhere underneath the rest, a strange feeling of hollowness.]

[And he hasn't even really processed the part about the apology yet.]

[Instead, he leans forward, reaching to grab onto Heather's shoulders and looking at her with wide eyes. His grip is tight, but not painful, and his voice is a bit shaky.]

I...he said I was the one to do it? I killed him?

_{[WHOA THERE BUD.]

[She can't help but flinch back a little bit when he suddenly reaches out, but she doesn't try to yank away. As long as his grip doesn't become painful, anyway.]}

Yeah, he said you were the one to do it.

That you got him before the trans-- ... the thing went off.

[Fortunately, he doesn't keep holding onto her for much longer after she re-confirms that yes, it happened.]

[His grip slackens, and he leans back heavily against the back of his own chair. He raises a hand to his face, pressing the heel of it to the bridge of his nose and gripping the tips of his fingers into his scalp. And then he laughs, quietly and a bit unhinged.]

I did it, I really...

[The rest of what she said starts to catch up, and with a deep breath he comes back to himself, at least mostly. A small, confused frown starts on his face.]

...he apologized?

_{[As he takes it all in, she just watches him for a moment. It's a little weird to see, and hear-- that laugh, that heavy slump.]

[Is that how she'd have looked and sounded if she'd been able to go back in time and kill Dahlia?]}

... Yeah, he apologized.

Said you didn't deserve to be lied to like that. Regardless of whatever it is you did to him back in your world.

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