Envy is probably one of my favorite characters in FMA(B), I mean, I like Alphonse and Lan Fan and Greed but Envy is super interesting. I like to think that he and Lust had a good relationship, I dunno, I just do. Besides, who doesn't like a little angst?

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood)

He sat by a river, just outside Central, he could make out a train in the distance thanks to his homunculus hearing but that was it. He was alone.

Alone with this thoughts.

Stupid, pitiful, ugly Envy.

Pride had hissed those words from the shadows as he left the antechamber earlier. Envy wasn't all that fond of his older brother. Pride was pride, he was unbearable. Envy hated him, almost as much as he hated the humans. Lust sometimes teased him, but she never meant anything by it. Pride though, he chose his statements with the words he knew would tear Envy apart.

And it worked every god damned time.

Envy stared at the surface of the river, sifting through faces, always coming back to his chosen original.

He growled and splashed at the water, destroying the still and creating ripples. A scream began to bubble from his lips and he fell onto his back, slamming his fist into the ground beside him, creating a small cater.

"Rough day?"

He could pick out Lust's voice anywhere, and there, in the calm before the storm, it was clear as crystal.

Envy chose not to respond as Lust daintily sat down, folding her legs to her side. She settled a hand in his hair, curling the tendrils around her fingers in the way that she always did, gently massaging his scalp at random intervals.

They stayed like that, sitting in silence until the first rain drop fell and Envy growled at it.

"Down boy," Lust joked lightly, patting Envy's head.

"Shut up," he mumbled, closing his eyes.

"Ah, I see, Pride said something didn't he?"

"What do you think?" Envy snapped.

"You know he does it just to get under your skin."

"Which one?" he fumed, "This one? The monster's? All the other stupid humans I impersonate?"

His voice was climbing as he grew closer and closer to hysteria. He sat up, turning to face Lust, skin already beginning to bubble green as his left eye began to divvy up his iris.

Lust was unfazed as she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his forehead.

"You really shouldn't listen to Pride, Envy. You're beautiful, I tell you all the time but you never believe me," the older homunculus pulled him closer, holding him in a loose hug.

The green seemed to bleed away from his skin and his eyes returned to their usual violet, single iris and all. He allowed Lust to hold him, the action was familiar after so many years.

"Better?" she asked once the rain had progressed to a downpour.

Envy looked up at her. Her dark hair clung to her face, she looked dazzling with the rain drops decorating her skin like diamonds. Lust really was the beautiful one, no one needed to tell her that. She knew. It made Envy feel all the more pitiful that he had to rely on Lust, of all people in the world, to convince him that he was worth something.

"Marginally," he grumbled.

"I mean it Envy, you know I do."

Lust seemed to have taken over as the mother figure for all of them, Pride and Wrath being the exceptions. Gluttony obviously wouldn't know what to do without her and she used to sing for Sloth when he wanted to rest. Before Greed ran off they had a healthy relationship, but then of course that had been shattered when Lust had to lock him up at the lab.

Envy dug his toes into the drenched grass.

He didn't know very well what Lust was to him. Too caring for a sister, but not quite a mother. An aunt of sorts, maybe? He wasn't sure. It was as close as he was going to get though.

Lust kissed his forehead again, petting his hair down in a soothing manner.

"You are beautiful Envy, believe me," she whispered, cupping his face.

"If you say so Lust," he replied, laying down so his head rested in her lap. He didn't care that it was raining, he could hardly feel it anyways.

Lust just smiled.

The two homunculi stayed outside, watching the lightning and listening to the thunder until the last drop of rain had fallen.

Lust watched her little brother roll onto his side, facing away from her though still quite close. She pushed down the clawing human urge to grab his shoulder and make him look her in the eyes, just to make sure he understood that she was telling the truth. Envy had low self-esteem, it was obvious. It was Pride's fault and, dare she say it, their Father's as well.

Pride put him down on a daily basis, Father wasn't too kind to him either, never really had been. Long story short, Envy was a leaf in the wind. He didn't stand a chance. Lust did her best to help him, to keep him stable. But Envy hated pity, and even though she didn't quite pity him per say, it seemed to come off that way.

Lust began to get up, pulling Envy with her.

"Come on Pretty Boy, we've got work to do," Lust watched carefully, looking for a sign, she wasn't sure what it was though.

A minute grin flickered across Envy's lips and she almost missed it, but it was enough. She slipped her arm around his shoulder and tugged him along, taking her time as she tugged back to Central.

Later, when he would learn of her death, Envy would walk up and down the river, shifting into Lust and telling himself that he was beautiful, using her voice to authenticate it. He hoped it would help him feel better.

It never worked.

Note: I don't really know if that's how homunculus is supposed to be spelled but I'm spelling it that way