He was all right for months, even years, at the time, then something triggered in
that blond brain of his, and he wound up a silently sobbing mess on the floor. He
couldn't be talked and he didn't seem to notice anything going on around him or
even to him, so usually he just sat back and let him go. This time, though, he knew
what had set the other off, and he was vaguely (okay, maybe a little more than
vaguely) interested in seeing what happened.
Pride was the opposite of him. He never wanted to forget what had happened during
his short human life, while Pride had done his level best to block out all memories
of his life as Edward Elric. That was where the blond's problems lay. Every so often,
something pricked those buried memories, and they came rushing back up to envelope him.
Today, for instance, was a particularly bad attack. It was pure happenstance, but
they had seen a blond-haired young man. Even he could admit that, from the back,
the guy resembled the youngest Elric. What was his name: 'Al'? And that had set
Pride off in the fit he was now in, rocking silently back and forth on his heels
as tears streamed down his face.
He sat a few feet away, watching in abject fascination. He could almost see the
blond homunculus examine each memory that floated up then pack it away in that part
of his mind where they all hid till the next breakdown.
Once it would have brought him the greatest thrill to watch Edward Elric broken like
this, especially if it could have been by his hand. Pride wasn't Ed, though, or at
least not enough to count. Pride was... Pride. And damn it, he'd been around the
little blond nitwit too long; he was starting to sound like him!
Finally Pride seemed to bring himself out of it. Watching the blond come back to himself
was almost as odd as watching him lose it. Gold eyes cast around desperately till they
landed on him. "Envy... You're here..."
"Where else was I going to be?" he shot back.
The other pulled himself to his hands and knees and half-crawled, half-dragged himself
over, only to collapse again, his head in Envy's lap, blank golden eyes slipping closed.
If Pride was a cat, he'd be purring, he thought to himself.
"...Thank you... for being here..."
This time, he was the silent one, save a soft scoffing noise, as he petted Pride as if
he was the animal he sometimes acted
like.
01 November 2005
Two stories in two days... This has to be a record for me. Thank you to The Enchanted
Storybook for the nice review; it inspired me to keep going.