foolishwren | 112. [Video]

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112. [Video]

_{[It's Christmas morning, either before or after the presumed present-opening-- late enough for the sun to be that warm yellow glow as it comes through the windows.]

[The video comes on as the 'Gear is set down on a shiny counter top, and then there's a clunk as a big tall glass of some Christmasy nutmeg-dusted drink is set down in front of it. It's followed by Heather.]}

If anyone ever told me I'd be getting up early to train on Christmas morning, I'd be like pffffpchcpt.

... But damn if I don't feel pumped as hell.

_{[She scoots to the side a little bit and beckons to someone offscreen.]}

Hey, c'mon, get in the shot! Don't be shy.

_{[After a little more coaxing, the one she's talking to scoots into view and shyly waves a big red punching glove. It's a Hitmonchan with mostly-shut, squinting eyes and a rather lumpy head.]}

Junior here's been helping me out ever since he evolved. We're just grabbing something before we head back to the hotel.

... _{[She pauses and leans over to glance at a SECOND glass, which is sitting in front of the Pokemon.]}

... I hope Pokemon can have this stuff without getting sick.

_{[Because she hadn't exactly asked before getting two. :I]}

... Well, the Pokemon Center's right next door.

_{[She lifts the glass, and the Hitmonchan does the same.]}

Cheers!

_{[It seems like a wrap, and she even reaches over to turn the 'Gear off... but then:]}

[CRASH THUMPPA-THUD BOOM]

_{[There are several screams and the tinkle of breaking glass as a flying Stantler comes smashing through the restaurant like a juggernaut]}

.... Well that just happened.

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[Envy's snickering at that reindeer attack. Because with something like that, there's not much else you can do but laugh.]

I guess it heard they were giving drinks to Pokemon. You're still alive over there, right?

Well the joke's on it, there's no alcohol in this eggnog.

_{[She's willing to give her Pokemon people-food, but not willing to get them DRUNK.]}

But yeah, everything over here is okay.

Well really, I don't think it's too smart. Wouldn't be surprised if it got confused about that.

[He sets his 'Gear down on something nearby so that his hands are free. It looks like he's outside, probably on the roof of the hotel if the hulking shapes of air conditioning units in the background are anything to judge by. But he holds up his hands, showing her that he's wearing those gloves she got him.]

Got your present. France says thanks for the wine, too.

[He pauses.]

And...I remember what happened that weekend. Mostly.

_{[She uprights a chair from the floor and sits down in it.]}

Hey, no prob. I figured you guys'd like those.

... And yeah. Figured you might.

Seems like people are remembering more from those weirdass weekends than we did back in the beginning.

[He nods.]

Yeah, we didn't used to remember anything. I think I like being able to remember better.

[Because now when people who've disappeared come back, he can remember that they did. Although then there's things like what happened with Heather.]

We don't have to talk about it today, if you don't want to. But you were right in your note, we should. [He didn't really know what was happening or why; he was just guessing and winging it. But he wants to know. They might be even more alike than he thought.]

Sometimes I'm not sure I do. But I guess it has its perks.

_{[She takes a deep breath and rubs her head.]}

Yeah, I...

I guess I probably have some stuff to explain to you, huh.

Yeah, a few things.

[Just a few. He knows she'd been dead before, knows she died by fire and had some memories of it...but that's about it.]

I didn't know what was going on, I was just guessing. I wasn't even sure if you recognized me or not.

_{[She looks over her shoulder on principal to check if there's anyone listening in-- but the commotion going on among the staff is of greater interest to everyone than some girl sitting off to the side on her PokeGear.]}

... I think I recognized you.

I guess I don't really know if I did or not.

It's kinda complicated.

[And Envy will go ahead and lock this. He's up on the roof instead of in the hotel room for that reason, too. After finding that note inside the glove, he figured that if they were going to talk about it she'd rather not have three teenage girls and two entire countries overhearing.]

Either way, I was just glad you let me stick with you. I thought you were gonna run off at first.

But...what were you? Is that what you used to look like, or...?

_{[Good idea. Heather forgets about locks more often than not.]}

... No... not really, no.

You know how... about some things, you never really feel totally one way or another? Like, you just don't know if something will be good or bad? Or... you could be excited about something, but a little nervous too?

Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

[He leans back against one of the air conditioning units, listening.]

Awhile ago I had to make a big decision. Like... we're talking life-or-death.

_[LITERALLY.]

... And it was a decision I'd had to make once before, actually, but the circumstances had changed since then, big-time.

_{[She'd been given a new lease on life, one that she'd been able to snatch in her jaws and sink her teeth into properly rather than watch snippets of from far away in a dark hospital basement.]}

... But there was a part of me that was still living in the past. Part of me that was so scared of trying what I was gonna do that it just wanted to go with the original plan.

_{[A pause and a deep breath.]}

... What you saw that weekend was that.

[His eyes widen in surprise.] It was...another part of you?

Just walking around independently? Or...I guess if you remember what happened, that part took over for the weekend.

[Well he certainly guessed wrong...but there's no way he could have guessed. A lot of weird things happen in Amestris, himself included, but nothing quite like that. And...eugh, the idea of possession, or another part of you taking over...that hits a particular nerve.]

And you're all right now?

[He also wants to know about that life-or-death decision, but he'll get to that question in a minute.]

Yeah. More or less.

_{[It's more complicated than that, of course, it always is. But she's not sure how else to describe it. The creature she'd fought on the carousel had not been a separate being. It had been her. Not ALL of her, no... but still her.]}

But yeah.

I'm fine now.

... I made peace with that part of myself a long time ago.

[He doesn't quite understand it still, but he's trying. He gets the basic gist, that what he met that weekend was still her. But he nods.]

That's good, at least.

...and the life or death decision?

[He wants to know, but if she doesn't want to tell him he won't push the issue. He has plenty of things he doesn't want to tell people about himself, after all.]

_{[There's a long pause, wherein she doesn't look at the screen.]}

... Back then, there was only one way to stop something really bad from happening. And I was in a lot of pain anyway, so there was nothing to lose.

But I got some unexpected help and things turned out a little differently.

... When the bad thing started to happen again, there was that big part of me that was scared of going through it again, so I almost went with the original plan after all.

... The original plan was to die.

[Envy listens quietly, but at those last words he goes as still as a statue, tense and with a look of alarm on his face. It takes him a few moments to get control over his expression again.]

But you decided not to.

[It's not a question, because the answer is obvious or she probably wouldn't be here right now. And she had said 'almost'. But there are very, very few people Envy has ever genuinely cared about, and Heather is one of them. He's known homunculi that wanted to die and managed to do so. So he just wants to hear her say the actual words.]

[And somewhere in the back of his mind, there's the angry thought that surely someone had put her in that situation, that there was someone to blame. There's always someone to blame.]

Yeah.

I decided I'd been through too much to end it like that. If I was gonna die, I wanted to go down fighting. And I didn't care how much it would hurt.

_{[Had it been foolish, as Alessa had accused, to gamble the fate of the world against her own desire to take a chunk out of the hand that was dragging her by the scruff to the slaughter? ... Probably, yes. BUT HEY. It worked out in the end, didn't it?]}

... Besides... I'd already made it out with my life once before.

What was I supposed to do... throw away those seventeen years Dad and my past self bought me like they didn't mean a thing?

Hell no, of course you shouldn't have.

[He says this with conviction.]

There's no reason to ever go down quietly if you can help it.

Yeah.

That's how I felt.

... I just kind of had to... have a fight with myself before I could really believe it.

_[Literally.]

[He struggles with what to say for a few moments. It's always harder for him to put things into words when he's being genuine instead of just lying or putting on an act.]

I'm glad you won that fight.

[And he means that, completely.]

_{[She doesn't mind. She'd rather sense the struggle than have someone come back instantly with some platitude that was too immediate to truly mean something.]}

... Yeah.

Me too.

[He's quiet for a moment. But there's something else he wants to know.]

And...the bad thing you were fighting? Did you win?

Unless it hasn't happened yet.

[Like with the situation Henry had been telling him about.]

_{[There's a pause, but then she smiles a little bit.]

[It's different from her normal grins. There's something a little bizarre about it. Maybe even a little bit frightening.]}

Envy.

You know me.

D'you really think I'd have lost?

[Envy's brow furrows slightly, and he gives her an odd, almost searching look. Yeah, that's definitely a different grin from normal. But then he nods, his own expression returning to what it was before.]

Of course not, what was I thinking?

[He sounds a little relieved again, too. Because yes, that grin wasn't quite right, but it wouldn't be the first time he's seen Heather act in an unusual way. He's seen how she fights monsters. And for someone like Envy, things that might bother or frighten most people aren't much of an issue. The important part to him is that she won.]

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