IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: As I have said earlier, some of my previous chapters have been unbetaed. Now, I do have Bakadeshi currently betaing for me (and a wonderful job she's doing), which brought about a few changes. Most of them are minor, but! Some of you may remember the scene from chapter 4, where Alfons is poking Ed on the shoulder and generally being a nuisance. Per her advice, I cut that scene out of chapter four (to make it flow better) and worked it into this chapter. So you will be seeing that short scene, and I apologize for the slight mess, and the repetition (it has, however, been edited out of chapter 4, and the rest of the chapter is new stuff).

Warnings: I would like to point out that, as of this chapter, the rating has officially gone up, mostly just to be safe. However, there will be no lemons in this fic, as that's against TOS (and my personal convictions).

I would like to thank everyone who's been reviewing; you all are awesome! Comments (both of the concritty-sort and not) are love.

Imperfection

One of the great joys of being close with Edward was the freedom of being able to tease him.

As they sat in companionable silence, each one quietly absorbed in his own work, Alfons found himself stealing glances at Edward every so often. It was cute how absorbed Edward was in his work. If a meteor were to suddenly come crashing in through the ceiling, Alfons mused, Edward probably would just irritably tell it to be quiet.

Some childish part of him wondered what Edward would do if he poked him.

After all, they were supposed to be together now, right? He should be allowed to touch Edward. True, he wasn't quite sure how a relationship such as theirs was supposed to develop, but he had the feeling that if he didn't push, Edward would just allow the whole business to die a natural death.

Which meant that everything was up to him.

Well, nothing for it but to take matters into his own hands.

Mustering everything he could remember about Edward's body, Alfons leaned forward and tapped him on his right shoulder.

Edward started, and twitched to the left, looking for someone that obviously wasn't there. Shrugging, he went back to his notes, and Alfons was greatly amused.

He waited a few more minutes, then tapped Edward on the shoulder again. Edward looked around again and turned towards Alfons in perplexity. Alfons pretended to be engrossed in his own papers, and managed to keep a smile off his face until his roommate gave up.

A few minutes later, and Alfons was tapping Edward's shoulder again. Lightning-fast, Edward reached up and snagged Alfons finger, and spent several confused moments trying to figure out which hand he had caught Alfons' finger with.

Finally he made the connection, and followed the finger up to Alfons' arm and finally his face. Edward scowled at Alfons' innocent look.

"That was a dirty trick," he snapped, and turned away pointedly.

Deliberately, Alfons rested his hand on Edward's shoulder, rubbing up and down gently. Edward jumped, and stared at him in perplexity.

"What is with you?"

Alfons sighed. "Edward, could you please recalibrate your mind to accept the possibility of flirting? Otherwise this is going to get real old, real fast."

Edward gaped at him for a few minutes, then finally frowned. "That's wasn't flirting," he stated. "That was being annoying."

So Edward was going to get argumentative, was he? "That was flirting. You're just being dense. Why else would I be touching you?"

Edward rolled his eyes. "You think I know why you do anything? You're just weird. I assumed you were touching me because you like being annoying."

Alfons was unsure whether to categorize this as typical Edward tactlessness, or outright hostility. "But-"

"And besides," Edward interrupted, "That wasn't flirting. Flirting is supposed to have sexual overtones. Poking somebody on the fucking shoulder doesn't count."

"I was doing it, and I say that I was flirting!"

"And I'm telling you that you're doing it wrong!"

"Arg!" Alfons tore at his hair. "You stupid thickheaded…. If you're so good at flirting, then let's see you do it!" He sat back grumpily on his chair and crossed his arms, glowering at his idiotic roommate.

Taken aback, Edward stared at him for a moment, unsure, then crossed his arms as well. "You can't expect me to flirt with you when you're looking at me like that," he growled.

"Fine!" Alfons turned his head, staring at the wall with a glare that should have been able to peel the plaster. "See, I'm not looking at you."

"That's not an improvement," Edward muttered.

There was silence between them, as Alfons fumed with his gaze firmly fixed on the wall, and Edward tried to figure out what to do.

"Well?" he finally prodded. "I'm waiting."

"Shut up." Edward snapped back. "You're not being helpful here."

Because Edward, of course, was the epitome of helpfulness. "Not as easy as you thought, huh?" Alfons sneaked a glance out of the corner of his eye at Edward, who looked sort of pale.

"Bastard." Edward fidgeted. "Fine. Have it your way." Deliberately, he leaned forward and laid his right hand on Alfons' thigh, stroking gently.

Alfons glanced down at him, momentarily forgetting his annoyance in surprise that Edward was going through with it. Even more so, he found himself distracted by the touch, light though it was.

"See?" Edward said. "This has sexual overtones."

"You're just touching me. That doesn't count."

"Bastard, that's exactly what you were doing before!" Edward gritted his teeth, his expression quite at odds with the gentleness of his fingers.

"There's more to flirting than just petting someone. If you did that to a girl you just met, you'd get smacked," Alfons complained, rather peeved by fact that he liked the petting.

Huffing slightly in annoyance, Edward tried to arrange his features into an inviting expression. "Hey, Alfons, you look rather bored. Want me to…amuse you?" he said.

It was a game effort, Alfons had to give him that. And there was the fact that Alfons would probably never have managed to say anything like that, with that tone, God— straight faced. Thus, he waited a full ten seconds before giving in to the laughter bubbling up.

"Holy Mother!" he panted, clutching his sides, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. "That was…priceless…hee hee…"

A furious blush on his face, Edward retrieved his hand and firmly turned back to his books. "You suck," he growled.

"Oh, come on," Alfons made an honest effort to stifle his mirth, and grabbed at Edward's arm. "I didn't mean it that way. I thought you did a good job."

Edward just shook the arm off sullenly, and refused to look at Alfons.

"You promised to amuse me," Alfons wheedled, scooting his chair closer to Edward's so he could wrap both arms around his waist, and rest his chin on Edward's shoulder.

"Since you're better at it than I am," he tried really hard to keep any hint of sarcasm out of his voice, "Tell me, how's this?" Tilting his head slightly, he kissed Edward on the side of his neck, and delighted in the slight twitch he got in response. Eager to explore, he continued lower, emboldened when Edward didn't push him away. In fact, Edward was even tilting his head to the side, allowing easier access to his neck.

Edward's sigh vibrated under Alfons' mouth. "Screw flirting," Edward said, tugging Alfons away from his neck to where he could meet his eyes, the gold smoldering slightly. "Next time just do this. Wastes less time," and he leaned in to kiss Alfons firmly on the mouth.

"If I had done that, you would have probably griped about the fact that I didn't give you a warning," Alfons responded when they broke apart, and continued his exploration of Edward's face and neck with his mouth.

"I would not," Edward muttered sullenly, and leaned backwards slightly, pushing Alfons away. "Get off a second."

Reluctantly, Alfons complied, and watched curiously as Edward shifted around to face him.

An intense look on his face, Edward carefully reached up to stroke Alfons' cheek with his right hand, trailing his fingers down his nose and over his lips.

Odd, Alfons found himself thinking bemusedly, he would never have figured Edward to be so intent on… his face, which looked so much like….

The mood was fleeing quickly, and Alfons tried to put the thought from his mind. Edward had promised that he regarded Alfons as a separate person from his brother, and Alfons would just have to trust him.

"You don't look so much like him…" Edward said softly.

Alfons jerked his head away, and frowned at Edward. "Don't talk about him when we're-" he began hotly, but lost the edge, and finished lamely, "...Doing things."

No answer was forthcoming, but the mood had effectively died for now.

Alfons, unwilling to give up completely, waited a while before his next attempt at intimacy.

This time, though, he decided to try talking first, to prevent a repeat of that morning's fiasco.

-

"Are you sure you want that?" Edward asked for what might have been the thousandth time.

"Yes," Alfons sighed. "I'm very, very sure." At first, he had thought he was going to die of fear when he finally screwed up his courage to ask. As time wore on, the fear turned to embarrassment and by now he was just resigned to never getting any.

Edward had yet to emerge from behind his small barricade of books, where he had retreated the first time Alfons had fielded his request. As if, Alfons mused, he was afraid that Alfons would attack him. This was most definitely not Alfons' idea of an improvement over earlier.

Well, his one comfort was that Edward hadn't actually said no. And if the answer was positive, then Edward would definitely be getting around to it eventually.

Alfons hoped that 'eventually' would come before they both died of old age.

Several hours ago he had attempted to take the initiative, but Edward had retreated with such a look of terror on his face that Alfons had abandoned the attempt.

"The reason I'm asking," Edward suddenly said, "is because I'm not sure you're completely clear on what you're getting into."

"Look," Alfons said tiredly, "if you don't want to…"

"It's not that!" Edward protested, face slightly red. "It's just…"

Alfons didn't think he'd ever seen Edward quite so nervous.

"Have you ever really looked at me?"

"I look at you all the time. I'm looking at you right now!"

"I mean," Edward mumbled, "without my clothes on."

"Oh." Alfons paused. Had he ever actually seen Edward undressed? The only time he could remember was during the whole embarrassing demon episode, and he had been rather too flustered at the time to actually take a good look.

"Come on," Edward got up, and tugged on Alfons sleeve.

Alfons could distinctly feel his mind shutting down, and his senses targeted elsewhere. Edward was leading him to his room, and there was talk of undressing involved. It felt rather like his hormones were doing a happy-dance somewhere at the pit of his stomach.

Edward pushed Alfons to sit on the bed, and went to make sure the shutters were closed before joining him.

"I know what you said before," Edward said seriously, looking at him straight in the eye, "but I'm giving you a chance to back out."

Back out? "I meant what I said," Alfons snapped, rather offended.

"Just look, okay?"

Unlike the last time Edward had started undressing in front of him, this time Edward's hand was shaking so badly he could hardly undo the buttons on his shirt.

"I want to do that," Alfons suddenly blurted, his eyes focused on Edward's fingers, then clapped a hand over his mouth. Damn, he shouldn't have burst out like a moron-

"Go ahead."

…. What? Alfons stared in disbelief as Edward dropped his hand to his side. His heart started pounding furiously in his chest, and he replayed the last moment several times, sure he had imagined it.

Edward nodded slightly, and now there was a small smile on his face. As usual, he was amused by Alfons' discomfiture.

Hesitantly, Alfons reached over and started undoing the buttons. There was complete silence in the room, so that both of their labored breathing was painfully audible. The shirt was warm from contact with Edward's skin, and Alfons was hard pressed to keep his attention on the buttons when Edward was right there, warm and real, and only bare millimeters away from his fingertips.

Edward's breath hitched, and for the first time Alfons was sure that Edward truly did want him, just as badly as he wanted Edward.

Finally, what seemed like hours later, he reached the end of the buttons, and carefully pulled Edward's shirt out of his pants. There was no way of preventing his fingers from brushing Edward's skin, and Alfons didn't even try, his fingers burning.

Alfons had never undressed anybody before, but he sincerely hoped this would only be the first time of many. Carefully, he pushed the shirt over Edward's shoulders, exposing his chest.

Oh.

His hands jerked back involuntarily, and he swallowed thickly. The scars. How had he managed to miss them before?

Edward's left shoulder was a mess of scar tissue, and there were puckered lines around metal bolts, which seemed to be embedded in his skin. There were more, smaller ones, down his sides, and in the center of his stomach was an enormous, ragged mark that vaguely reminded Alfons of an eye.

Fascinated, Alfons reached out to touch it, but Edward made a whimpering sound in his throat that caused Alfons to snatch his hand back quickly.

"So you see," Edward managed to keep his voice steady, "it's not exactly a pretty sight." His whole posture was belligerent, challenging Alfons to reject his maimed body.

Heart pounding in his ears, Alfons leaned forward and ran his tongue firmly up the large eye-shaped scar.

Immediately, every single muscle in Edward's stomach contracted visibly, and he yelped in surprise.

"What are you-?"

Damn the scars, Alfons thought to himself. Yes, they would take getting used to – he couldn't pretend they were pretty. But the scars weren't Edward.

Right now, the salty taste of Edward's skin was on his tongue, and he wanted more.

"Okay?" he asked, his voice coming out huskier than he had expected.

Edward looked down, and his face twisted. "I hate that one," he practically snarled. "The Gate marked me. I should have died when I gave up my body for Al – but the Gate healed me, and threw me here. It fucking marked me like an animal, so that I can't forget that it owns me."

Alfons wanted to cry; he didn't want to have deep discussions now, he was hard as hell and he wanted Edward's mouth on him, or his hands, or hell, any part of Edward would do nicely.

Except that Edward had all these issues, and Alfons tried to be sympathetic, but all he could wonder was, my God, doesn't the man have hormones at all

"-and you're not paying any attention to what I'm saying, are you?"

"Nnn?" Alfons managed in a strangled sort of voice, his arms tightly crossed over his lap, while he willed his poor, oxygen-deprived brain to catch up to what was happening.

Edward frowned at him, then looked pointedly downward, and Alfons could feel his face heating up with embarrassment.

"I guess it really doesn't matter," Edward suddenly mumbled, looking sheepish. "You really don't mind…"

Then Edward abruptly pulled both his legs onto the bed, and reached over to tug Alfons' hands out of his lap. Any opposition to this manhandling evaporated when Edward's hands found their way inside his pants, stroking firmly.

Alfons was very gratified to discover that Edward did, indeed, have hormones.