This story is set in the 2003 anime continuity, right after Greed kidnaps Al. But it assumes that Greed never went to Dante's house, and that the Elric brothers established themselves for a while in Dublith, instead of going directly to Ishbal.

Chapter 1

For the umpteenth time, Alphonse stirred in his bed. It wasn't that he needed to sleep, being a hollow armor and all that, but he liked to pretend he did, like his brother in the next bed. Just as, from time to time, he pretended to eat. It was just another way to feel like a normal child.
However, that night the subterfuge was not working.

"Mmmm... Al, what's wrong with you? Every time you move, the whole bed squeaks", groaned Edward, muffling his sleepy words against the pillow.

"I'm sorry, brother. I've been very restless lately, and there's nothing to calm me down."

"I'll go over there and calm you down, if you keep making noise and don't let me sleep!", threatened his brother, and then turning on his side to face him in the dark, he added in a softer tone: "Hey, Al, can you tell me what's troubling you?"

Even inside the huge armor, Ed could sense his brother jerking up. And the gauntlets drummed nervously over his breastplate.

"It's... it's a little embarrassing to tell."

"And what about the embarrassment I feel every time people confuse you with the Fullmetal Alchemist and the older brother? Equivalent Exchange, Al! Now it's your turn to feel embarrassed. Tell me what happens to you."

Alphonse sighed deeply.

"All right, brother, since you're so tiresome... You know, I've had very strange thoughts these past few days. Especially at night. Do you remember the other day, when Winry came to visit us, and she wore such a short skirt?"

"I don't know. Didn't she wear pants that day?"

"No, she was wearing a miniskirt! And when she sat down on the couch then...eh...well, it rode up her thigh. And I kept staring for a long time, I don't know why. And now... now I can't stop thinking about that and..."

"Uh, Al", Edward didn't like the turn that the conversation was taking.

"... And I've been wondering how must feel when... you know", Al turned to his brother and looked at him in the dark, with those two points of light that he had for eyes. "Have you been with any girl?"

"I'm with you all day long, Al! And when I'm not with you, I'm in one of those missions for that bastard Colonel. Where the hell would I find time to meet girls!?"

"Well, but at least you know how it feels, don't you? When you get into the bathroom for such a long time and you touch yourself. Isn't that like making love?"

Edward felt his cheeks burning red and his mouth became suddenly dry. And then he had a fit of coughing. The innocence with which Alphonse could mention that, had disarmed him completely.

"Fuck, Al, but how do you know that!?", he exploded at last, once he recovered his voice. Maybe if he got angry, his humiliation wouldn't be so obvious.

"I'm sorry brother. I didn't want to notice, but you always make a lot of noise."

Ed buried his face in the pillow, not knowing whether to curse or cry. And all this time he thought he was discreet! At least he hoped he had never let out an embarrassing name or phrase.
Although that wasn't the biggest problem now. The biggest problem was that the dreaded day had come finally, the day Edward had been waiting so anxiously all these years, because he knew it was inevitable, sooner or later: the day in which Alphonse would ask him about "that" theme. And the most horrible thing was that it didn't matter how well he explained it to him. In the end, the only true fact was that Alphonse was a 14 year old boy, with the thoughts and desires typical of his age, but without any body to satisfy them, without any means to relieve his frustration. And it was he, Edward, who had left him in such a miserable state. Who had taken away his ability to feel pleasure, any pleasure. Maybe forever. Although this possibility was so odious, that he didn't dare to even conceive it.

"Shit, Alphonse! Why did you ask me this?", he cursed, slamming the headboard of the bed with his automail arm, in a fit of rage.

"Brother, you have broken the board... Sorry if I have bothered you, I won't speak of these things again.", muttered Al.

There was so much desolation in his voice that Edward felt the most despicable creature in the world.

"No, Al, you're not the one to apologize. The fault is mine and mine alone. We were so young when that happened, that you never had a chance to discover these things for yourself. It makes me want to die, just to think that at your 14 years you've never had an orgasm, not once in your life! Fuck!"

"Brother…"

For several minutes, they fell both in absolute silence. Alphonse staring at the blackness of the ceiling, and Edward sunk into his pillow, breathing hard, calming the hatred he felt toward himself at that moment.
And among the swirl of confused ideas of his head, one in particular suddenly lit up. A very strange idea, and yet one that seemed tremendously obvious, as if it had always been there but he had never noticed it before.

"Look, Alphonse", whispered Ed at last, his voice trembling. "Do you want ... do you want me to show you?"

And his brother nodded without words. Words were not necessary.
Edward got up and approached the other bed, kneeling on the mattress. Al sat up a little to leave him room, and just watched his brother in silence, who was now taking off his vest.

"If at some point you feel uncomfortable, Al, you just ask me to stop. Alright?"

"Yes…"

The moon of Dublith that streamed through the window lit up Edward's naked torso: white, and golden there where his hair brushed it, and silvery upon the metal joint of his shoulder.
Alphonse had seen him naked hundreds of times, but never in that way, never so intimately. And seeing his body under that light, with the pale rays and shadows creating chiaroscuros in every muscle of his anatomy, he felt something new and different.
Edward bent over him, took his hand, that cold, metallic hand, and guided it to his chest, upon one of his nipples.

"Like this, Al, move your finger in circles", explained his brother, smiling with affection. "Do you feel anything?"

"I can feel the warmth of your skin, and your heart beating so fast."

"Yes. To tell the truth, I'm very nervous. And your hand is frozen, but... I like it. You see, I have a theory: since we lost our bodies at the same time, we must have visited the Gate of Truth also at the same time, even if you don't remember anything. And perhaps, somehow, our bodies and spirits were intertwined at that moment. So if we are very close physically, and if we strive to unite our spirits, maybe we'll manage to make you feel a part of the pleasure that I feel, if only a little. That is my hope... Or maybe I'm just talking nonsense, I don't know."

Sighing, he took Alphonse's hand and dragged it down slowly, across his chest, his stomach, his hip bone, his abdomen, caressing his skin at the same time with his own finger and the gauntlet of Al. The mixture of warm flesh and cold metal had always aroused him, ever since he discovered the advantages of having an automail arm to satisfy his bodily needs.

Alphonse gasped when his hands reached the edge of the boxers, but he didn't pull away. And Edward, still looking into his eyes, took a further step and removed the last piece of cloth that covered him.
Even if they weren't visible, he knew his brother's pupils were dilating right now. And in the half-light, the tip of his member gleamed swollen and expectant.

"Oh brother! I had never, never ...", stammered Al.

"Had you never seen one like this? Erect?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Do you like it?"

"Yes. But it looks uncovered, doesn't it? And very red... can I touch it?"

Ed smiled, between sad and touched, and moved closer to his brother. Al raised his hand shyly, stroking his hair and cheek in response. Then Edward took his fingers, warmed them a little with his breath, and placed them on his pubis, where the golden hair glinted.
Al felt the blood throbbing beneath the thin skin, and always guided by his older brother, descended even more and began to caress the member as he was shown. Edward closed his eyes and tilted his head to the side.

"God, Al!", he moaned, running his finger along the same path that the gauntlet had traced.

"Do you believe in God now, brother?"

Ed burst into laughter.

"No, of course. And it's the worst time to start believing in him, don't you think? But tell me, can you feel anything, any of the things I'm feeling?"

Alphonse lowered his head.

"I don't know, not much. I feel a warmth inside me that wasn't there before. That counts?"

"Wait, let's try something else", and Ed dragged himself to his brother, leaned his back against the steel chest, pressing as much as he could against him, and grabbed him by the hand with his flesh-and-bone arm. "Now embrace me with your other arm, and touch me there like you were doing before."

Al followed the directions, and his brother spread his legs to give him free access. With him curled up against his armor like that, he could now feel his palpitations much better, the heat that radiated and fused with his metal, the gasps and soft moans that cut his breath more and more each time.

"Mmm... keep going like this, you're doing it very well, Al... Oh, yes! Very well ...", whispered Edward, as if in a trance.

And little by little, he began to move his hips, following the rhythm of his brother, and correcting him with his own fingers when he didn't apply the appropriate pressure or touched some favourite spot.
The moonlight flickered over the beads of sweat on his neck, and a clear dew had also appeared on his glans. Ed spread the new fluid along his member, as lubrication, and then spit in his hand and spread the saliva too.

"Brother, why did you do that disgusting thing!?"

"I'm sorry, Al, but your gauntlets are a bit rough, and it was getting in flesh and blood."

"Do I hurt you?", exclaimed Al, distressed.

"No, dumbass, no. Come on, stroke my hair, and my good arm. I like being touched in my good arm... Thus, thus..."

Ed let out a deep sigh and quickened the rhythm of his hips a little. It could be clearly seen how each muscle and tendon went into tension. And seeing him like that, Alphonse also felt a tangle of tension tightening inside him, more or less where his abdomen should have been, and it seemed to him that if the tension continued to build up, it would burst at any time.
In the meantime, Ed had reached that point where he became truly noisy, and he no longer cared if what came out of his mouth were blasphemies, sobs, moans, or chemical formulas. His glans had become slippery, so much that Al could hear the moist sound of the skin as it glided on it.
In a certain moment, it almost escaped from between his fingers, which were certainly not the most skilled in the world, and without realizing it, he squeezed it more than usual.
Then it happened:

"Fuck, Al, fuuuck!", shouted Ed, while his whole body stirred in a spasm.

And an explosion of liquid rose in the air like a white fountain.
For an instant, Alphonse's mind was left empty and he forgot all he knew, even his name. Weakly, like a distant echo, came to him the waves of pleasure that shook his brother's body at that moment. And an indefinite and dampened bliss, which seemed to be everywhere and at the same time nowhere, invaded his spirit.
Alphonse only let out a soft sigh, as his brother slowly quieted down, amidst shudders that grew weaker.

"Ah! I haven't strength to even get up. It's as if my bones had been transmuted into gelatin", murmured Ed, collapsing on the armor.

Still with his legs open, he looked at his member, reddened and slightly twitching. They had been a bit rough with "little Eddie"; it would hurt later.

"Shit! I should stop calling it little Eddie. Speaking about internalizing complexes", he groaned to himself, and then, turning to his brother, who still encircled him with his arms, he asked:

"Well, Al, how did you like it?"

"It was very beautiful, brother. Like alchemy."

"Uh, like alchemy?"

"Yes, it was as if all your energy, all your tension, transmuted into that white substance, into a kind of... alchemical explosion of pleasure?"

Edward smiled, blushing a little.

"That's very deep, Al. Now that you put it that way, you've made cumming seem a million times more interesting for me. But what about you? Could you perceive something?"

"Yes, I have felt "something", and looking down, he added: "Although I think it wasn't comparable to what you felt."

"Yeah, of course...", muttered Edward, but then he struggled to conceal his sadness; Al should never be aware of his doubts: "Well, don't worry, it's just something temporary that we'll fix soon. I'm certain that the solution to recover our bodies is very close, although we still can't see it", these last words were lost in a yawn; that sweet drowsiness in which always concluded his orgasms, started to sweep through him. "Hey, Al, do you mind if I sleep in your bed today?"

"Of course not, brother. I want to have you close right now, as well", he admitted, pulling a lock of hair from his forehead.

Edward then proceeded to get comfortable, after cleaning a bit the mess he had caused. He put the sheet and pillow between Alphonse's body and his own, to avoid the coldness and hardness of the metal, and snuggled into his arms. Sometimes, being so little had its advantages.
Alphonse, however, was still nervous. And a worrisome idea had assailed his mind. Again, his fingers drummed on the breastplate.

"Let it out, Al. What's the matter with you now?", mumbled Ed, closing his eyes.

"It's just... I'm not sure... what we just did... is it normal between brothers?"

Edward opened his eyes suddenly, startled by the question. At no time had such a doubt surfaced his mind. So far, everything had seemed absolutely natural to him.

"I don't know, Al. We live among normal people, but... we're hardly normal. So, what does it matter?"

Alphonse looked up at the ceiling, as if to find the answer there. But since there was nothing, he merely sighed.

"You're right. What does it matter."

"I'm always right, you should know it by now", and squeezing even more against him, Edward let out a murmur of happiness: "Good night, Al."

"Good night, brother."

Caressing his hair as he fell asleep, Alphonse told himself that he had never felt so close to him before.
And yet, a whole world still separated them.

That was the first time the Elric brothers got close to each other in such a way, though it was by no means the last.
Edward learned to notice when his brother felt that "restlessness", and it wasn't even necessary to ask anymore. He just got up from the bed and offered himself, without a word.

What neither of them knew was that outside, in Dublith's night, a couple of bright eyes were also witnesses to their secret pleasures, from a tree by the window. And beneath those eyes, a smile full of sharp teeth emerged from time to time.