Disclaimer - I do not own the Fullmetal Alchemist Anime or the lyrics used.

It has been a VERY long time since I have been here with this fanfic, and I'd like to welcome back any old readers and also welcome new readers to his particular tale of the Elric Brothers. If you've been along for this ride since the beginning or if you've newly joined, then you'll know exactly what you're in for here, this story is a warning all on it's own! Before we begin please know that I appreciate every review, good or bad, (and anything else you may share) even if I don't always say so. This story has been a long WIP from the original BFS through to now and if you've stuck around for all the drama and pain then thank you!

We pick up where it ended more or less in Twisted Halos. You know where they were headed...well, they've arrived. The format remains unchanged, swapping between Ed and Al's POVs per chapter and the plot continues be one very angsty ride! So, good luck and I hope you enjoy!

- The uncensored version can be found on my AO3 profile, as well as a new link for Ed and Al's apartment.

- I will be going back through the previous parts to replace any images that are not working and change any redundant notes.
- I apologize for any mistakes, this is not beta-read
- As per the usual, sensitive readers please tread lightly
- Song lyrics in this chapter belong to Meg Myers
- Censored version uploaded on FF dot net (if anyone still goes there?)

Present

I got to know that your heart beats fast and
I got to know I'm the only one for you

Alphonse was breathing deeply.

Edward was kissing down his chest softly, slowly…wetly, and it felt good, it always did.

Ed's lips were warm, soft, moist and just slightly swollen from their extended session of kissing just minutes earlier. His hands were also warm, slightly rough as they alternatively pressed, groped and caressed over Alphonse's naked sides and down over his narrow hips, which he raised slightly as he pressed up into the curve of Ed's throat the lower the older blonde kissed over his torso.

Alphonse closed his eyes, spread his already parted legs further and clenched his hands –one into the silk yellow throw cushion at the side of his head and the other in Ed's loosely braided hair- when his older brother's hot mouth found him and he dragged his open mouth over the sensitive smooth wet skin. Ed's tongue followed his parted lips as he took his mouth down, not sucking, not even kissing, but teasing Al so badly, Al was breathing loudly and feeling desperate for more.

He didn't know if Edward liked him when he was like that, restless and needy, but he'd long since stopped holding back on his sensitive, emotional reactions during sex, because there was nothing so intense and fulfilling as making love to Edward. He'd come to learn that the older man had quite a good amount of experience and while it never failed to make Alphonse a bit more than a little jealous of Ed's previous lovers, it also never failed to gratify him that no one would ever have Edward again, no one besides himself.

He moaned and pressed his head back into the wealth of silk, feather cushions that lined the high set, four poster double bed that was for his use as a guest in the Xingese Emperor's Palace. Edward's one hand had run down the side of his thigh now and the older blonde continued, taking sensitive skin into his mouth while his other hand loosely and slowly stroked.

It was maddening…and felt incredible.

He wished very badly, he was actually chanting it in his pleasure hazed mind that Edward would go lower, he had his legs spread wide enough that he was fully exposed and it would be easy for Ed to do to him what the older blonde had yet to ever do. Alphonse had read about and fantasized many things that had never yet happened between them and thinking about it made him tremble in pleasure…

…but after a few more moments the warmth of Ed's mouth was removed and Edward's hand started to work Al in earnest as the older blonde drew up, settling on one elbow at the side of Al's hip and pressing benign kisses to Alphonse's quivering stomach as his hand moved steadily, palm damp and thumb pressing and rubbing.

Alphonse was so hot and pleasantly distant it took him a few seconds to realize what Ed was doing and he opened his eyes quickly, half lidded and he frowned as his hips jerked up into Ed's determined rhythm.

"…hah…Ed…, ah…wa...wait…" he breathed out, but it was too late, he exhaled softly in several short huffs as his pelvis and lower stomach bloomed with tingles and pleasure, he raised his hips in a quick jerky movement as he finished quickly and without being able to help it.

As Edward had no doubt planned, since he'd even had the preemptive sense to move his face out of the way before Alphonse finished to avoid his face and hair getting messed.

Edward didn't remove his touch immediately, still stroking tightly upward, allowing the pleasure to linger as long as it could, as if he were being thoughtful, when really, the entirety of what Al had hopefully assumed to be foreplay, was just Ed's way of working him up to a quick end, without actual penetrative sex.

Alphonse swallowed slowly a few times, unclenching his fingers and raising his damp, warm hands to run them through his equally damp hair, because shit, Xing was hot, day or night and the humidity made him feel so lethargic, especially after his hot bath and an excellent –if rushed- finish. When he felt Edward finally remove his hand and the bed shifted beside him, he didn't open his eyes, he felt Edward's chest press to his arm and he turned his head to kiss the older blonde when he felt soft breath tickle over the hot skin of his cheek.

He was disappointed at the abrupt ending to their activities, but he wasn't upset, nor would he argue with Ed about it again like he had two days ago when they first entered into Xing's borders. Al turned on to his side after a moment of closed mouth kissing, pressing into Ed so they were almost chest to chest. He sought a deeper kiss and Edward responded, opening his mouth along with Alphonse and kissing the younger blonde slowly, exhaling through his nose about the same time Alphonse inhaled. He found even the smell of Ed's dusty, sweaty skin appealing, and curled his fingers into the base of Ed's braid as he maneuvered his other hand between them so he could cup Ed through his pants, squeezing lightly.

Edward pressed into his hand and made a quiet humming sound as he drew the kiss to a close, finishing with a soft smacking sound and licking his reddened lips, eyes half lidded and a small smile on his face, Alphonse stomach did a pleasant flutter and he couldn't help stealing one more warm, lip to lip kiss, because he knew what was coming next.

"Don't worry about me, Al." Ed said quietly as he rested his right wrist on the side of Al's naked waist, his messed right hand not touching Alphonse, and he propped his head up on his other hand, his elbow pushing into one of the large soft pillows above their heads.

Alphonse sighed through his noise as he dragged his short fingernails out of Ed's hair and down over his neck in a light tickle, moving slowly over his shoulder and then ran his hand over Ed's upper arm, his gaze followed it sleepily,

"It wouldn't take long…" he offered quietly, glancing up into Ed's face, even though he expected to be declined.

Edward smiled and it was genuine, Alphonse knew there was no pretense,

"Nah, it's okay, I told Ling I'd meet him in the Imperial Garden after I cleaned up and the servant people showed me to my room, you gonna join us?" Ed had a certain displeased tone when he said the word servant,

"No thanks…I'm too tired, especially now." Al smiled slightly and Ed did too and then he sighed,

"I figured you'd say that. Anyway…I said I'd be about a half hour, it's been about that long already and I still have to go to my room and wash the fucking dust off my face and then find the god damned Imperial Garden and then find Ling at the Auspicious Pavilion…" he sighed again.

Al continued to smile before he kissed the underside of Ed's jaw and licked his lips,

"You do taste salty…" he laughed quietly, lazily.

And then Ed moved away, rolling onto his back and then his opposite side and sliding over the silk textured sheets to throw his legs over the side of the bed. Alphonse smiled as he snuggled into the pillows and as he watched Ed through the opening in the elaborate, heavy and intricately patterned bed curtains, he wondered why Ed hadn't just said he was too tired from the trip and wanted to get some sleep when Ling invited him to the Imperial Garden,

"The Imperial Garden is behind this building, Ed, we're in the Emperor's residential palace." he said quietly, reaching out and touching his finger tips to Ed's naked lower back, "And it's called the Pavilion of Auspicious Clarity, or in Xingese, Chengruiting, it's on the far back and left of the garden, over the pond." he blinked lazily and Ed muttered 'yeah, yeah…whatever, thanks' under his breath.

Edward reached back and squeezed his hand gently before standing up and glancing to the bottom of the bed for his white long sleeved shirt he'd worn for the final leg of their journey that day along with his loose fitting, tan coloured nylon cargo style pants. Alphonse watched him pull his shirt on, thinking of how strange it was to see Ed in such light coloured clothing, and then Ed pulled the elastic band off the end of his long braid and ran his hands through it to loosen it before pulling his hair up into a pony tail; now that the trip was over, the braid was no longer necessary.

"This place is pretty over kill, huh?" Ed glanced at him with a half way impressed, half way bored look and then turned his gaze back to looking around the room. Alphonse looked around as well as much as he could without changing the position in which he was lying,

"I think it's beautiful, the architecture, the lavish layout, the colours…I love it here..." he trailed off, eyes looking over the solid walls painted a rich blue over the solid wood finish, the high carved out ceiling, with lamp like chandeliers extended from it and tapestries decorating the high ends of the walls. The floors were a shiny black colour and in one corner of the rectangular room was a large cauldron-like pot and Alphonse had often wondered what was inside of it or if it was just for some decoration. There was still more to learn about Xing, he'd missed the intricacies, he'd missed the incense, so relaxing, and the atmosphere of peace.

"Yeah, it's alright." Ed agreed as he ran his hand over his ponytail and sat down on the bed to pull his boots on,

"Can you come back to my room when you're done?" Alphonse asked quietly as Ed stood up again, the older blonde turned to face him and walked closer, he leaned over, resting on his elbows as he stretched to reach Al where he lay in the middle of the bed and they shared a kiss, then Ed pulled back and stood up,

"I can't Al, we talked about this, we have to be discreet wherever we're staying in Xing, especially here."

Alphonse half rolled his eyes and rolled onto his front, chin resting on his arms as he stared at the intricately carved wooden headboard built into the wall,

"Does that mean we're going to spend the entire vacation abstaining, even after we leave the palace?" he asked quietly, but he knew Ed could hear him because while the palace and its imperial city were massive, so massive, it was also so quiet. Their vacation was planned that they'd stay at the palace, where Ling had welcomed them to after Al had written him during the planning phase of the vacation and he'd written back, and after spending some time there they'd head further east, toward the ocean.

"Not necessarily, we'll see what accommodations are like the further we head in, you know, smaller, less populated areas." Ed was saying,

"No one knows us by face in Xing, Ed, they're not going to recognize us." he said tiredly and sighed.

"Like I said, we'll see, but here in the palace we have to be careful." then there were boot scuffs and he knew Ed was leaving, "See you in the morning, Al." Ed said quietly before the heavy door was opened and seconds later, closed again.

With a sigh, Alphonse rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.

Things between himself and Ed had been great, really great, in the days leading up to their vacation, after they'd resolved their final issues, things were smoothing themselves out nicely. Alphonse had taken a sabbatical from university since what he lost in attendance he could make up for in reading to catch up, and he'd organized for Gracia to take CookieBoots while they were gone, which Elysia was thrilled about. And Ed had plenty of free time and had been paid out a nice amount of Cenz, so they'd bought supplies, such as durable but cool clothing, hiking boots, knapsacks and such, since part of the journeys would be hot and that would be awful in ordinary clothes.

When the day to leave had come they'd headed out and it had been fun travelling on trains again, talking, watching Ed manage to sleep somehow when Alphonse's butt got sore from the hard wooden seats, yet another thing Ed had acclimated to in their years of questing that he wasn't used to. It was once they'd reached their first overnight stay in one of the smaller towns inside of Xing's borders, that Ed had started to talk about discretion. He'd booked one room but always two beds which made perfect sense but he started making excuses about being too tired or talking about thin hotel walls. So Alphonse promised to be quiet and for the first two overnight stays inside of Xing Alphonse managed, with some effort, to get Ed so frustratingly hard from making out or feeling him up that they'd ended up sleeping together, but once they crossed the first part of the desert and ended up staying in a small densely populated village and someone recognized Edward, no extent of hard on was enough to get Ed out of his pants.

From there it'd been hand jobs or nothing, so Al had, until that present point, opted for nothing.

Alphonse couldn't deny that hotel sex had been good, he was keen to keep trying new stuff, but with Ed completely shut down and nervous about people discovering them in some way, no matter how unlikely, his resolve was unbreakable, it was actually impressive how well Ed dealt with unresolved erections.

The oral Al had received a few minutes earlier had been the first in a weeklong trip and only for him to find that the discretion act was still in place, as long as they were in the palace especially. He didn't want to leave the palace too soon, they were welcome for however long they liked, Ling had said, so they'd planned for five days which would give them time to see the massive Imperial City and for Al to possibly see Mei, despite being hesitant about that part.

'Five days…' he thought sleepily and found that it didn't bother him so much, he'd have plenty to fill his time with and having gone weeks without intimacy between himself and Edward for a longer period just a few weeks before, it really wasn't a big deal anymore, because things were good, no, great, so a little abstinence would be manageable.

He also didn't care to fight about it…or for it, he and Ed didn't really fight anymore.

And aside from that, Al had something important he wanted to tell Ed, something he'd learned about Xing a while before he'd returned back to Amestris while researching other things. It was important but he didn't want to get his hopes up for a good reaction from Ed, since he worried the whole vacation might seem like some kind of manipulative set up when he finally decided to tell the older blonde what he'd learned.

There was a reason after all, why he'd been planning a couple's getaway to Xing in the first place…

With a sigh and one last distant glance around the beautiful room, Alphonse settled down to sleep, his eyes focused on one of the fire lamps hanging from the ceiling, his mind on the emptiness in his chest and the quiet of the room around him, until he drifted off to sleep.

And here we go...