[Fic] Happily Never After (Dante/Ed; Ed/Envy; NC-17)

[cryogenia]

Title: Happily Never After
Author: cryogenia
Pairing: Dante/Ed; Ed/Envy
Rating: NC-17
Genre: Angst, dark, fucked up drama; AU diverging from anime ep 50
Warnings for: Ed-torture (hoo boy, Ed's gonna need him some therapy after all this fO.o;). Rape. DARK, very dark, folks!

A/N: Yet another horribly belated Xmas present f^^; This goes to hieronymousb. If that gives you any clue as to what to expect, ehehehe, it should ;)


Once upon a time, long ago, he had run into a child while out doing business for the old bitch.

It sounded like a fucking fairytale, remembering it like that, and he found himself sneering, a little peeved with himself. Fairy tales were foolish fantasies mothers read to kids just like that one, pointless vagaries that humans thought were entertaining; but the bitch of it was that his life really was like one. Once upon a time, the Bitch-Queen had told him there would be a day she was going to rise up out of this underground city too, and he was to be her loyal manservant and rule the new empire and all of that jazz.

If there was one pride he had, it was that he was a pragmatist. He had never for one second believed she'd come through, he'd just done her work anyway. Because things worked out. He'd met a fair-haired, beautiful child with girlish soft skin but a boy's squarish jaw, and its eerie little golden eyes had pissed him off even then, though he had not yet realized just how much he should hate them. He had been hunting a certain bigger quarry at the time, his bastard (Father) creator and he had not found him there, and that was the only hate he'd had room for in that day and age.

He had told the toddler he was the bogeyman, sent it shrieking back into its yard, and left Riesenburg for better hunting grounds. The lead had been false.

Now, years later, he saw that that meeting had been Fate, and that thought alone nearly sent him into paroxysms. One big, fucking fairytale. The long-ago child had grown up to belong to That Bastard, and now the story was supposed to have him vanquish the bogeyman, or maybe, just maybe, the other way 'round. Fated enemies. Fate and destiny.

Fucking fairy tales. Fucking fate.

Because the story hadn't gone that way. The Bitch-Queen had stepped in again and somehow thwarted it all, because that's what she wanted. And for once, he wasn't sure that he wanted what she did.

In all his long years, Envy had never denied Dante what she needed, because he'd never had anything that he needed himself.

Not like he needed this.

He could smell it.

He could feel it.

Somewhere, in the hallowed halls and desecrated cathedrals of this twisted, broken city lay a boy who had the blood of Hohenheim still running through his veins. Hohenheim, his fated enemy, whom she had wrested from his grasp (so close), thrown forever beyond reach into the Gate. She had said that it was better this way, that now they knew he was gone; but Envy knew better and the rage was unspeakable, beyond hot; it had turned icy in his veins. She had done that only so she could have the pleasure of destroying him herself, and thus denying Envy that privilege forever.

He would not be denied again.

He had a pretty good picture of exactly where she was keeping the boy; Edward Elric was her new favorite pet. She always kept her best cards the closest to her chest, and Alphonse would be on her person (what little was left of the bucket of bolts these days. She had cut out his bloodseal and fixed it on a chain, and it was a damn ugly necklace but she never had had any fashion sense.) Edward, Edward she was also keeping close along with her, bound and chained by steel shackles she had fashioned but more importantly, by the invisible choker his little brother held. Envy had never understood what the fuck was wrong with those two. Edward could fight but he willingly stayed for that little piece of metal, and Alphonse should have killed himself a long time ago if he were any kind of sensible, but he hadn't because of his brother. It made no sense.

Human vagaries, he thought to himself again, and slunk quietly through a window of the dilapidated mansion that Dante was currently gracing with her presence. He snorted. What a joke. Every now and again she fixed up these old dumps, only to get bored a few decades later and buy some place topside.

She didn't really want to stay secret; then no one would know they should be kow-towing to her.

No phosphor-lamps were burning, which was just how he wanted it. If they were glowing, it meant the bitch was awake. He had only one shot at this, because she was probably crazy but she wasn't entirely stupid, and in his rage and fear that first time, he had gone for the brat and given his intentions away. It pulsed again throughout him, ice-hot and paralyzing, and he bit through his own lip trying to keep from shouting it. He had been so close. So close. The boy had come back through the Gate, and he had felt the fire in his veins and just been so much faster. He had meant to dance with him, toy with him, rub his nose it, then skewer him...

...and she had clapped her hands and stayed them both with earth and he was never, ever going to forgive her for that.

She had known to keep them apart since then and it had damn near killed him; he had nearly taken her head before she threatened to seal him for a century (and oh god, he couldn't face Himself again; the wizened skull that was meant for him still had tattered patches of blond hair attached; brought up too many memories of looking at that fucking face in the bastard's portrait room. "Try it again, son!"; but no matter how many times he transformed he never looked Satisfactory compared to the visage of their dead sprog.) After that, he had tried to reign it in, though the pretense was not easy. There were destroyed buildings down at the uglier end of town. He managed to destroy them even further, into powder.

He would now sneak in, while the bitch was asleep, and reduce her little toy's skull to powder. And maybe hers while he was at it. He had never been much for thinking things through, but there was an appeal to killing her and taking the Stone for himself. Though he could do little more than shake it and listen to souls scream. Or maybe, he considered, he could consume it, and then he could rise up, consume the rest of the world while he was at it...

It would not work out, almost assuredly, but it was an interesting thought. If it were ever possible for something to go "right" for him, that sounded pretty right as far as he was concerned.

Fortified for the moment, he continued making his way up, up through the silent mansion. Lust was gone, Sloth and Greed were gone, Wrath was...in parts somewhere, he thought, and Gluttony had consumed the Stone and then been sucked into it, weak bastard that he was. Pride still lived, but he was busy fighting wars or something. Envy was supposed to be out there killing Mustang with him, but he'd doubled-back just in time. Dante would never, ever suspect this. He was going to kill Edward Elric, and then, he would be free of this wrath.

Sniffling. He heard sniffling. Envy veered off to his right, down a long, velvet-rugged hallway, following the minute whimpers that he could very faintly pick up. Human hearing decayed rapidly; he'd watched it happen numerous times with the old bitch, but his never faltered. One of the many things he did better than those ugly bags of meat. He tracked it down to a single oak door at the end of a hallway, with alchemical gilding and a heavy, but not insurmountable lock.

There was light beneath the door, but dammit, he was this close, and he didn't think he heard her raspy breathing. She really didn't get it, he thought smugly. The Stone wouldn't last her forever. She had taken over that pink-haired broad's body but it was already starting to decay, and tapping the Stone only drained yet more power. She would have to consume the world to have a shot at a halfway decent lifespan. The thought was appealing, but to hell with her, he had a mission.

Envy pulled a hand back and punched straight through the lock.

He had to work quick now. He grabbed a hold of the door from the inside and pulled it backwards, ripping it off its hinges before his hand had even started to heal. Stone-fluid, a mockery of blood, poured down his wrist and he snarled, yanked his appendage out of the ruined wood and bounded into the room. It was some kind of fancy bedroom, he noted only distantly. She was probably asleep in here; he'd have to work quickly. Something made a squeaking sound in one corner and he homed in on it, bared his teeth -

- froze.

"BASTARD!" he screamed, unable to find any other words; it was the first and best insult he had for his world. Tied to the bedpost, to the goddamn bedpost that Edward Elric was chained to, mocking him, was a familiar, battered skull, staring eyeless right back at him.

She had known he was going to try this. She had known, she had known, she had-- "BASTARD!" he howled again, and struggled to make his legs move backwards, away from the remains of his human self, but it was like moving through molasses. The Stone-fluid powering him solidified in the presence of his creation relic, and he head to reach down and grab one thigh to move his leg at all. His arms weighed a thousand pounds too. Before he could pull on the other leg, they locked up too.

He was caught.

With what little range of motion he had he twisted about and snarled, trying to see where the bitch was hiding, lying in wait for him. He knew she had to be. Smug bitch loved to sit in the shadows, pulling all the strings; she'd probably stapped Edward down specifically to taunt him. Look, here I am, you can't hit me! his body language said. Naked, lying on his back spread-eagled; chains on his wrists and legs and neck keeping him pinned flat to the mattress. It was practically an open invitation for an shot straight through the heart.

...lying on his back on a mattress made of ice Envy noticed in the sudden, brief rush of clarity that panic provided. His rage-induced haze had lifted a little once he had realized he was trapped, and other little details were starting to percolate in. The fact that three candles were the only actual light anywhere in the room. The fact that Edward's bed was made of ice, and he was autonomously shivering, sniffling from the cold and looking utterly miserable. The fact that Dante herself was nowhere to be seen; nor were any of her effects present. This wasn't her bedroom, he realized belatedly, it was for Edward. For Edward's torture. He could not move, but inside, he felt as if he could jump a thousand stories.

"Yeah, you like that, you asshole?" he ground out, though his jaw was as sluggish as all the rest of him. "Try sleeping on an ice-bed for a whole fucking week. She did that to me once, it hurt like a bitch. But I suppose you would die, wouldn't you, human? You're probably getting frostbite on your backside right now. You'll turn black and fall apart, how would you like that, and I'll get to w-watch you as you die of hypothermia..."

"F-fuck y-y-y-y-ou," Edward chattered, shivering violently some more. Snot rolled down his face and he sniffled, hard, the same noise Envy had followed into this trap. He must not have been on too long, Envy judged; he still had fire in him. Fuck. The rage still coiled and lay screaming within him, so close but yet so far and it was unable to strike. She was stealing his prey away from him again. The best he could do was torture it from afar.

"Oh, you think you're hot stuff still!?" he snarled, enraged as much at his own predicament as Ed's stubborn refusal to just shut up and scream when he was hurt. "Look around, short stuff! That's fucking diamond those chains are made out of! You think she transmutes that stuff for show? Automail can't break that; I can't break that, you're fucked! You're going to die here, and I - "

"Envy!" A low voice screeched suddenly from somewhere behind him, and he struggled to turn his unresponsive head to look over his shoulder. Dante, but she did not sound as triumphant as he'd thought. In fact, she sounded rather startled.

The loathing suddenly in Edward's eyes was something amazing to behold, almost like looking in a mirror. Also, fear. Edward made a choked, angry noise somewhere back in his throat and shimmied as far away as he could manage in his taut bonds.

"Envy, Envy, ENVY!" Dante tsked, though she didn't have her usual smug lecturing-voice going on. She sounded seriously incensed. "I knew I did this for a reason!"

She walked forward at a brisk pace over to the skull, into his line of sight, and suddenly Envy understood what her problem was. Rose's plump, tan body was garnered with a frivolous lacy sort of undergarment; too pale for Lioran skin, but Dante had never cared much for blending in, anyway. She was obviously on the prowl, and Envy curled his lip back in disgust. He had seen the way she worked before. Sex was a nasty, sweaty, fleshy mess, and when she wanted it she went out and got it, one way or another.
Dante ran a tan finger over the edge of the skull's natty scalp, and Envy struggled to move even one inch toward her, he hated her so much. If she would just bring that finger close enough to BITE.

"BITCH!" he hissed, watching as she lifted the relic up off the bedpost and walked it closer, until even breathing became rather difficult.

"Stay there and shut up," she snarled, and tossed her head indignantly. Pink bangs flounced with the motion. "I'll deal with you later."

"Now, Ed," she said, turning toward the bed of ice, and her voice was suddenly, sickeningly sweet. "I trust you've had some time to 'cool your head'?" Fucking laughed at her own bad joke. She clapped her hands and converted a small section of the ice straight to steam, so she could sit down on the underlying wooden frame. Edward jerked toward the warmth.

"Would you like me to warm you up, then?" she offered.

Envy had to give the bastard's son credit; he had the decency to try and resist. He shook his head as best he could, between his choke collar and the way he was shivering, but Dante had never been one to take no for an answer. She leaned in close and pressed a hand to Edward's chest, and damn if the pipsqueak didn't arch up a little into it. Weak, weak humans. Couldn't deal with fire, freezing, or vivisection. Envy wanted to mock but his voice wouldn't come out, the empty eyes of his relic staring up at him from his feet.

Dante seemed to like Edward's response, because the next transmutation severed him from the bed frame, rewired his chains so that his ankles were chained to his wrists, and from there his wrists to his collar. She kept a length of chain extending out from said collar, and wrapped it around one hand, urged him up. Edward didn't seem to need any encouragement. He attempted to run for it, and scramble off the ice.

"Not so fast!" she warned, in a semblance of her usual smamry, I'm-so-in-control-ha-ha tone. She yanked on the lead and Envy watched with some amount of satisfaction as Edward choked and fell backward into her lap, looking pained. "Now here, maybe you won't mind sitting with me."

They were so close, and he couldn't get to them, couldn't do anything but stand there and watch as Dante pulled the shivering little bastard up against her and began to run a hand all over him, the other still choked up on the length of diamond leash. That she would want him, anyway, the bastard's own son, it was almost like she wanted there to be more of that bastard in the world, his fucking yellow hair...she would fuck this kid and get herself knocked up, and then there would be a whole new generation of laughing little bastards, and they'd all look at him and his dark hair with pity, and how he wanted to claw out each and every one of their unborn little eyes...

Edward cried out suddenly, and Dante looked so fucking smug as she rocked him back and forth in her lap, hand fondling down between the crux of his thighs.

"There, much better," she pronounced, and without flare just up and dumped the boy on the floor, onto his knees, while she performed another transmutation. The ice all sublimed at once, leaving bare wooden slats, and then she dragged Edward over to a bureau with her and bade him to take out some linens. When he didn't, she hit him hard across the ass.

"I can precipitate more water, if you'd prefer ice," she warned. "It's plenty humid today."

Edward looked briefly anguished. Oh, too bad. Envy wondered if he could be so monumentally stupid as to actually choose the ice bed again, little angst whore. Edward reached for the stack of linens, though, albeit with shaky hands, as disappointing as that was. Dante turned them into a thin, springless mattress, and shoved Edward down onto it.

"Now," she said, sparing a brief glance over to Envy. He refused to let her see how much he hated her. "We will continue our lesson on how one treats a lady in bed."

"You're no lady," Edward snarled, and she cuffed him straight in the face for that.

"Your brother is at stake here, might I remind you," she said, rubbing a delicate nail over her necklace, and Edward turned shock white. That weak, human love rearing its ugly head again. "You wouldn't want to risk him over something so simple, would you?" Another transmutation sent the chains back out to the four bedposts, though now Edward was chained on hands and knees, with some amount of slack to move about. "Just in case you get any funny ideas about running."

Envy watched, loathing them both, as Dante wormed her way underneath a struggling Edward and urged him down on top of her.

It was like watching some sort of bestial grappling match. Like animals out in a field. Envy watched in disgusted as Dante rubbed herself against Edward, purring like some sort of cat in heat, while he struggled not to react to her invitation but clearly, from the oh-so-nauseating vantage point that Envy currently had, failed. Her hands squirmed around him until Edward's cock was hard and pointing down at attention, and he was cursing and jibbering and snapping his teeth wildly, trying to bite at her, until she transmuted a piece of linen into his mouth to serve as protection.

"Hold...still!" she snarled as she attempted to lower his hips down where she needed them to go. He froze and tossed his head violently, so hard Envy could hear the tendons in his neck creak, and amazingly managed to roll the linen gag down down of his mouth. Before Dante could recover, Edward had lowered his mouth and bit the top of her head, hard.

Her reaction was immediate and brutal. She slapped him hard, raking him across the chest with her nails, then shoved out from under him and hit him again.

"Do I need to bring your brother into this!?" she howled, pulling out her gawdy necklace, and Edward froze but remained defiant, bright eyes blazing.

"You can't," he rasped harshly, curled into himself as far as his bonds would allow. "If you kill him, I'll never do anything you say again."

"I wouldn't push it," she hissed, her lacy garments now rumpled messily. "Or would you like to lie on the ice bed again? On your front? I have ways..."

"I'll die too," Edward warned. "If you kill him, I'll kill myself, and then you'll have no alchemists at all."

"I won't let you."

"I'll find a way. I could bite my tongue off...I could refuse to eat...I could crush that skull you make me carry around, so he could get me-" Edward jerked his head toward Envy's relic, lying there on the floor in front of Envy.

Dante looked over and seemed to notice him again for the first time since she had immobilized him. Her eyes narrowed.

"There are worse things than death, you know," she said, and walked closer, closer, almost within striking range ifonlyhecouldmove!. She picked up the ragged skull.

"Envy, come here," she said, walking back over to the bed to set the skull on the nightstand. Its sway over him lessened just enough to let his legs move again, and he nearly made a break for it, but before the strength truly returned she'd clapped her hands and caused the floor to swell up and carry him, throw him roughly onto the bed next to Edward. Apparently it no longer mattered if he obeyed or not. Envy immediately lunged for the boy's neck and Dante whipped the skull right up close to him, causing all his joints to seize at once.

Envy, immobile, stared right into the face of his hated enemy, watched blankly as Edward's eyes went round as saucers.

Dante took off her necklace with her other hand, waved the blood seal mockingly in Edward's face. Two relics, two captives; they were both so fucked.

"I'll cut you a deal, Edward," she said conversationally, drawing back just a little with Alphonse's blood seal. Edward stared after it, transfixed. Envy's relic, she left lying on top of him; what was left of the breath he was taking seized mid-draw.

She set Alphonse's blood seal down on the bureau she had procured the linens from, and performed a transmutation on it.

Edward shrieked and writhed next to him and Envy hated him so much for being able to move it was a veritable taste in his mouth, like bile.

"NO I'M SORRY I DIDN'T MEAN IT OH GOD DON'T KILL HIM-"

The bureau reformed itself with the blood seal now set into the wood, and a soft, baby voice echoed out from nowhere within it.

"Brother...?"

"Al!" And Edward was crying, Envy saw now with contempt, getting salty icky liquid all down his face and onto Envy's skin. His nose twitched and he could smell the overpowering saline, the stench of Edward's humanity, it was getting all over him...

"Either you can do as you're told," Dante said sternly. "Or Alphonse here can watch you die, piece by piece. I never said I needed you in particular; I just need an alchemist. Alphonse here can hold all my undergarments and still do transmutations, when I give him arrays...what a handy little piece of furniture! I'm sure you'll be happy to know that you're leaving him in my care, once you're gone."

"No, brother!" Alphonse screeched, and Envy had to hand it to the little ghost or whatever the hell he was, he somehow found a way to make the stodgy bureau rattle. "Don't listen to her, I'll be fine, what is she doing to you-"

"I'll do it!" Edward choked out, and all the tension went out of him. He slumped down on the mattress, eyes staring blankly. "I'll do it, I'm sorry, just leave him alone...Al..."

"Brother!"

God, left alone, they'd probably just screech back and forth all day. Envy wondered if that was to be his punishment. Dante seemed to find it obnoxious too, though, because she clapped her hands and once again extracted the piece of metal from the bureau, secreted it against her chest. Apparently, reduced to just the seal itself, Alphonse could not speak.

"On your hands and knees, Edward," Dante ordered sternly, and quaking, the boy obeyed. "And stay there."

She looked down toward Envy.

"And Envy," she spat, and her voice was full of vitriol. "I thought I gave you specific instructions. You had your marching orders. And yet, you presume to think that you know what is best." She huffed and bent close to him.

"You are not human," she hissed in his face. "You do not have a choice. You can do as you are told, or you can be unmade, and maybe someday if you've served well enough you can become human, but right now you need to learn your place."

She didn't even bother to transmute this time, just rolled his dead weight inward on the bed, urged Ed to straddle him. "Beneath people."

Envy could only stare up at Edward, who was trembling ever so slightly. "Oh fuck..."

"Yes, exactly," Dante said, sounding bored now. It was her chess-voice, once she had all her pieces in line. "Or would you like me to take that relic away? He'd take you apart in two seconds flat, you know. And then your brother and I would be all alone here together, for the rest...of our...long, long lives..."

Edward squeezed his eyes shut, and Envy was far enough from his relic now to make a wretched face. There were no words for how much he wanted to shred both of them. Even if he had just his mouth. He would gnaw them both apart sinew from sinew.

"I can't," Edward choked, and Dante raised an elegantly plucked eyebrow.

"No, I mean, I need, oh hell, I need my hands," Edward said, swallowing hard. "It won't work otherwise.

"Bastard!" Envy ground out through clenched teeth. It was still very hard to move any part of his body at all, but at least now he could breathe. The skull was sitting to one side of the bed. Maybe, if he could some way goad Edward into kicking it away-

Dante came over and plucked the relic from the mattress and replaced it on the night stand. She then reached inside Edward's automail arm and disconnected it at the shoulder.

Edward stiffened and thrashed as his right arm flopped off to one side, still chained to the bed.

"What did you do that for!?" he yelped.

"You only need one hand to have sex," Dante offered. "But two to transmute." She released his left arm.

"Nice try. Now get to it."

Envy could feel Edward's thighs quaking on either side of his hips now, where he was straddling him, though whether in rage or in simple frustration it was impossible to tell. Edward's face flushed a deep purple and Envy watched in horror as Edward reached down between his legs to start jerking his cock.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he managed as a shaky hand slid up beneath his black wrap.

"Sex," Edward replied, looking disgusted. "Guess you've never had it. It sucks."

"He doesn't need you to do that," Dante offered. Envy glanced over at her out of his peripheral vision. She had pulled up a chair, or transmuted one, and was watching the show intently. "Just fuck him."

When Edward balked, she scowled and became more demanding. "Put your cock up his ass. Very simple. Or can you not understand that hole, either?"

Blunt fingers changed direction and started stabbing around looking for his asshole, a vestigial opening that he'd previously hardly even remembered he had. He put all his might into shifting that area, closing it off, but the relic's presence made it impossible. Fuck.

He was going to get fucked.

"It's dry," Edward said, looking as if he'd flipped a switch and was into some other place, some higher mode of thought. He might as well have been discussing how to insert tab A into slot B on a schematic, not how to stick his cock into an enemy's ass. "There's going to be a lot of um, friction, don't you think there should be some lubricant-"

"I think," Dante said testily, "that you better put your cock up his ass and fuck him until you come, and that can be your 'lubricant'. And trust me, he'll heal."

"Bitch," Envy offered, panting. Fuck, it felt strange to have the idiot jabbing around down there. Lots of nerves he hadn't remembered he had. Very uncomfortable.

"Okay then," Edward said, taking a deep, tremulous breath, looking like he hated himself more and more with every moment. He removed his hand and wrapped it around his cock, began to stroke quickly and efficiently with a grimace on his face that filled Envy with even more rage. If his blood weren't so sluggish right now, it would be boiling.

He watched, and Dante watched hungrily, as Edward managed to coax himself into full erectness, his lips working some name or phrase silently as he did so.

"What's wrong, short stuff?" Envy could not resist panting out. It was the only weapon he had right now; even if it was hard he would not give up his voice. "Wish I were someone else? Maybe your brother? Your mommy?"

A hot flash of hatred darted across Edward's face before he returned to that distant place in his head, that look of clinical detachment. Envy didn't like that.

"You're doing this for your brother, right? Kind of kinky, having sex for your brother...you suppose he can see when he's over on her neck?"

"Shut. Up!" Edward hissed, and hiked Envy's hindquarter's up, throwing his legs up toward his shoulders. With only one arm it was unbalanced, and Envy couldn't have helped if he wanted to, but somehow Edward managed to work his cock down into the cleft of Envy's ass.

It was warm and pulsing, and just a little slimy at the tip. Envy gasped.

Edward paused for a moment, then breathed hard through his nose. Envy was aware of Dante's eyes glittering, eager and predatory. She looked like she might be touching herself. Figured the old bitch would get off on power like this.

"Okay, I'm going to enter you now," Edward said, once again collected, and he rocked his hips back and pressed them forward blindly. His cock skidded along the cleft of Envy's ass but failed to go in.

"Thought you were going to fuck me?" Envy said. Edward tried again; failed once more.

"You're a real stud there, bastard," Envy groaned at him. "Here I am, just waiting to be raped..."

He would have preferred watching Edward's heartsblood bleeding out; but watching the expression on Edward's face after he said that was equally priceless.

"I'm sorry," Edward said simply, his eyes honest and pained, and Envy had never wanted to rip them out so much as he did right then.

"Envy," Dante's voice came, warning him.

"Fine, just do it," Envy said, rolling his eyes. "You can call me 'brother' all you like even, I'll be generous."

Edward looked so perfectly wounded, it was beautiful; but not quite beautiful enough to make up for the searing pain that followed. Edward gripped the base of his flagging erection and somehow finally managed to line it up correctly, get the head in. Envy resisted the urge to yowl and just bit down until he'd cut his lip for the second time that night. Unfortunately this time it did not heal instantly.

Edward winced, like it was hurting him too, and Envy did his best to clench down around the intrusion in spite. It was hard to remember how to work his ass though, it wasn't like he ever used it. He must have down something right though, because Edward twisted on top of him and clawed at his chest, looked very upset.

"You like that, short stuff?" he jeered.

"Nnngah," Edward made an incomprehensible, animal noise and stilled inside him for a moment. "Fucking hurts-"

"Keep going, Edward!" Dante called out. "Now."

Edward scratched at Envy's chest again and thrust his hips forward desperately, and now it was Envy's turn to howl. Something inside him tore, and he could feel the Stone-fluid depleting down there at a reasonable pace.

"FUCK!" he shouted.

"Oh hell, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Edward started apologizing again, looking as if he were close to tears. Envy shuddered at the thought of more of that saltiness, that human essence, spilling down onto his skin, and he forced himself to look unperturbed.

"I'm okay, it already healed," he lied, wishing the bastard would just get on with it and be done with this already. "What's your problem, are you too simple to know how to hump something!? Move your fucking hips!"

Edward did as he was told, but only reluctantly, and Envy wanted to howl as each stroke sent new fire up through his ass. The first thing he did when he got control of his form back (assuming Dante wasn't just going to seal him for good), he was going get rid of this useless, pain-inducing asshole. Finally, Edward got into a groove and began moving in some semblance of rhythm.

It still took an eternity. Edward seemed to have difficulty sustaining his arousal; he spent every other breath whispering apologies, and when he finally came (a sight that Envy could have done without ever seeing), he looked more like he were at the pinnacle of pain than pleasure.

Still, there was one thing Envy enjoyed. Dante came over then to pet on him, made him pull out so she could gather him into her lap, and Edward's expression as he looked down at his groin, soiled now with dark red Stone-fluid, was enough to feed fantasies of killing the boy for years to come.

Because oh yes indeed, it looked like that was going to be years and years away.

"I think you could use some time out now, Envy," Dante said, before, escorting a traumatized, shivering Edward away from the bed where Envy now lay chained in carbon, the relic of his former life, the relic of the life he'd never had, perched mockingly upon his chest. "Perhaps another decade will do it?"

Envy just stared back at her, unable to blink, unable to breathe. The only thing he could do was stare out and think, catch that last glimpse of golden, fearful eyes retreating away from him and think.

That was the bitch of all fairy tales, the way they came full-circle in the end. The child-hero grows up, and eventually slays the monster...and Fate sends the bogeyman back to his dark, dark stead.

Dante sealed off the door to his new prison, and the last of the candles sputtered, and went out.

::everybody's wearing my head but nobody loves me::