victory_road | Sept Catch-All for Sharkhouse [Closed]

SURPRISE!!!!!!

Heather's eyes snap open.

... Oh, no.

They hadn't told Alphonse.

Whether or not that was deliberate or a matter of genuine forgetfulness in the face of the whirlwind of chaos raging through the house right now, it's hard to say. Maybe a little bit of both, more of the former on Envy's end and more of the latter on Heather's. But either way, being suddenly faced with her wayward boyfriend's HORRIFIED HALF-BROTHER is literally the last thing Heather expected would happen right here, right now.

She pulls away so fast that she can almost hear the popping noise of their lips separating. If it were ANY OTHER SITUATION, the sheer cartooniness of that would be freaking hilarious, but right now, she's mostly in panic mode.

"--Al!"

Oh shit.

He looks... REALLY UPSET.

THEY DIDN'T TELL ALPHONSE.

Envy hadn't intended to tell Alphonse. Part of it was that he genuinely hadn't thought of it, but a large part was that he only really wanted to tell people who weren't going to...well, act like this.

And of course, he immediately goes on the defensive, scowling.

"What does it look like?"

Al starts stomping over to the pair with a story expression, his voice raising to an indignant shout.

"It looks like you're trying to mack on someone that's--she's not even a quarter of your age!"

He doesn't mean to dismiss Heather's maturity here, really--it's just his anger and grudge make it easier to pick and choose from the facts he has available to fling around.

"How long have you been running around behind everyone's backs?!"

What started as shock and minor panic... quickly evaporates into shock and anger when Al starts to talk.

He's a very mature kid for his age, she's always thought so. Even during his frequent squabbles with Envy, he's still ALWAYS been... well, at least somewhat justified, I mean come on, even Envy's best friends know that he frequently deserves what's coming to him. Especially when it comes to the unwanted brother that he had no shame in openly antagonizing for so long.

But this, this is the first time she's ever looked at Al and seen a little boy shooting his mouth off about something he knows nothing about. And oh, man, does it piss off the big sister in her. Unlike Envy, her first instinct had not been to go on the defensive immediately, but she's sure going there now.

Fingers curling into fists, Heather stands.

"Excuse me? I am a grownass adult and if I wanted to mack on Father Time, that's my business. Not yours."

Envy's hands curl right into fists without him even having to think about it. There are so many things here to be angry about. TRYING to mack on--?! As though he'd just decided that it would be a fun time to seduce Heather for no reason! And going for the age thing!

But she's already got that half of Al's remarks taken care of.

"And what do you mean behind everyone's backs?!"

They'd kept it a secret, sure. But what Al is implying here isn't quite the same thing.

Very suddenly Alphonse's righteous anger and rage are thrown off-kilter by Heather, and he stares up at her in shock and vague confusion for a few seconds.

That.

Um.

...what if he just...didn't address that now. Yeah.

Turning back to Envy, he scowls and balls his hands into tight fists. "Well I sure haven't heard anything about this, and it's not like we haven't been in touch!"

There had definitely been an underhanded aspect to the way they'd been sneaking around, but when you got right down to it... it really wasn't anybody else's business. As dramatic and important as it all always seemed, relationships weren't exactly a crime. And especially given that the biggest reason they'd kept it a secret had been to give Lust time to recover from her loss without having a couple shoved in her face...

Heather literally grits her teeth as she looks down at Al. The way he'd dodged around her own protest certainly hadn't gotten past her. Even if all it probably means is that he wasn't able to come up with anything to counter that on the spot (not surprising), it's still clearly discounting her own power of choice from the equation and zeroing in on Envy as though he's some kind of aggressor taking advantage.

And oh boy, she does not like that.

Truth be told, standing up there on the rock wall with the sinking sun at her back and a glare that can only be described as livid on her face, she honestly probably looks kind of scary.

"Nobody owes you a detailed confession of their love lives, Al! And with all this other shit going on, can you fucking blame us for not mentioning it? Especially if you were gonna react like THIS?!"

People previously out on walks or playing with their Pokemon in the rest of the park are kind of staring now, but dammit, she's mad! LET 'EM.

Now it's Envy's turn to get up to his feet--if there was a time to use the phrase "hopping mad" in reference to him, it would probably be now. He's livid, a lot more than he has been at Al in a long time, but without that murderous edge that usually goes hand in hand with being this angry at his half brother. No, right now he's just fucking PISSED.

And don't think he didn't notice how Heather's rebuttal got...well, basically ignored. He's not the slightest bit happy about that, for much the same reasons she is.

And you know what? Instead of going off on Al himself and giving him something else to ignore Heather about? He's just going to make Al deal with what she's saying.

"Well?!"

WHAT ARE YOU GONNA SAY TO THAT, AL?

"What--that--"

GODDAMNIT THIS ISN'T GOING HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO GO! Does Heather not even get how screwed up this all is?!

Al grits his teeth and glares right up at Heather, not seeming to be affected by the (admittedly rather comical) looming of the other two. His anger and frustration has reached a boiling point, and his admittedly long fuse has finally fizzled out to the end.

And when an Elric blows up, it is always spectacular.

"I'm freaking worried for you, Heather! Yeah he's gotten better, but I know what he can be like!"

Deep down... deep, deep down, Heather knows Al's heart is in the right place. Really, it is.

But the time for thinking about that will be later. Because right now, there is only vinegar boiling up in her throat. The survivor in her is enraged at the suggestion that this little boy somehow knew what was best for her. Even if there might be a kernel of truth in there stemming from the pair's violent history? There was just so much that Al didn't know. Too much for him to ever be more capable of making this decision for her than she was.

Her voice darkens to a growl.

"Get lost, Al. Right now. Beat it."

That strikes a nerve.

Because of course, he can't actually argue about what he used to be like. He just very recently experienced what he used to be like. And the fact that he can't argue makes the sick anger boil up even more.

This isn't like when Henry gave him the obligatory "hurt her and I'll beat you up" threat. With Al it's a legitimate accusation.

"Fuck off."

Really?

Really??

"Fine! FINE!!"

He is done. He is so done with his brother being an asshole and his friends not listening to him when he knows that stupid bastard, he knows just how bad he can get, how he can utterly lose it and put everyone around him in danger! Put sure, they can just fucking ignore him! Who cares what he knows, he's just a kid, right?!

Turning back down the sidewalk, Alphonse marches off with a furious expression, grumbling and throwing his hands up in the air.

"Whatever!"

When he whirls off and stomps away, Heather doesn't go after him.

Just stands, fists and teeth still clenched.

It's been a long time since she's felt that angry at any member of the household.

"... That kid needs to stay in his lane," she finally growls, after a good three minutes of trying to summon words that weren't just garbled angry noises.

There are times when Envy really, really wishes he still had access to his powers. Now is one of them, because it would be SO satisfying to stomp his foot down on the wall and create a mini-crater.

But that's not really an option right now, and he knows that if he stomps his foot all it will do is make a really UNsatisfying 'thwap' noise on the stone. And hurt, probably.

But when Heather finally speaks, it gives him an outlet for all that anger to burst up in words.

"Damn right he does! Who does he think he is?!"

He gestures sharply in the direction Al left in and pitches his voice in an inflection that's clearly supposed to be a mocking imitation of Al, "It's not like we weren't in touch! What the hell?"

Okay well first of all this is why it's a good thing that Envy doesn't have his powers, because the literal last thing this dumpster fire of a conversation needs is Envy turning the wall into a crater and inadvertently make Heather take a nosedive at the cold hard ground while Alphonse was still in ear's reach.

But that aside!

"I swear to god, I could just-- rrgh!"

Apparently (for once) not being as good at holding back her impulses as Envy, Heather turns and kicks the still-half-full soda can off the wall with a ringing clank, sending it spinning off into the grass.

Envy's feet get splashed with the soda as the can goes flying away, but he's too angry to even notice.

"It's none of his damn business! And nobody else had a problem!"

Although even with the temper tantrum they're both throwing right now, he still knows exactly why Al was so much angrier than the others had been. But that's not important right now!

"Acting like I couldn't even fucking tell if I was being taken advantage of, oh my god."

THAT was what bothered her the most.

Not the fact that he took one look at Envy and assumed the worst, because... well, let's be real. That's kind of been the running trend of their entire complicated... can you even call it brotherhood? The entire time Alphonse has been here, and probably even before that. Heather knows there's ample reason for it.

No, it was the other part.

The part where she apparently had no power in the face of Envy's RANDOM SEDUCTIVE WHIMS.

"Like I'm that fucking easy!"

Edited 2016-09-23 16:40 (UTC)

"Right?"

Envy gestures wildly, arms out to the sides. People are still definitely staring at these two young people shouting on top of a wall, but Envy doesn't give a damn about that right now.

"Like...like I just decided that oh! I'd better go seduce Heather for no reason! I guess I'm just BORED today!"

"Yeah, after SIX FUCKING YEARS, you were finally like-- ah, yes, I have befriended the target. Time to move on to phase two: the macking."

People are rapidly clearing out of this area of the park.

Sept Catch-All for Sharkhouse [Closed]

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