Emil leaned his head against the wall of the crowded burger joint, closed his eyes, and sighed. This was his and Alfred's 3rd date, and it wasn't going very well.

Their first date at the aquarium had been fun if a little bit juvenile. For their second date, Alfred had taken him ice skating and it had been one of the most romantic dates Emil had ever been on. This place, on the other hand, was not fun or romantic. It was noisy and hectic, and completely overstimulating.

In all fairness the burgers were good, Alfred hadn't been lying about that. But he had neglected to mention the atmosphere, and now that Al had stepped out to go to the bathroom Emil needed to recuperate.

So he sat there on the torn red vinyl of a fifties style diner chair, leaning his head against a vintage red and green Mountain Dew poster, and kept his eyes shut tight to block out the amalgamation of model airplanes, 1970's records, and 60's fast food advertisements that surrounded him. Then he reached up and covered his ears with the cuffs of his sweater, muffling the sound of boisterous families and crying children that filled the restaurant.

He stayed like that for a minute or two, doing his best to recollect his senses. He would have happily kept himself in this closed of state too if he hadn't been pulled out of it my a tap on the shoulder.

"Hey, you okay?"

Emil reluctantly opened his eyes to see Alfred's concerned face staring at him. He took his hands off of his ears and sighed.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, I just get kind of overwhelmed in crowded places like this."

"Oh man. Sorry about that, you should have told me, I would have picked someplace else to take you to."

"It's alright Al, I'm fine."

"Nah, you're not enjoying yourself, I can tell. Come on, let's go pay and then we can head somewhere else."

Once they had paid for their meal and were standing idly under a street lamp in the frosty winter evening the question of where they should go came upon them.

"So...uh, the movies? My treat," Emil suggested.

"Um..well actually," Alfred replied, rubbing his hand across the back of his neck anxiously, "I was thinking that maybe we could...head over to my place? Only if you want to that is. I mean we don't have to. I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything."

Emil blushed profusely and did his best to laugh away the awkward atmosphere.

"S-sure. We can do that if you want. Why not?"

"Okay cool, I uh, live on 32nd street so we should head over there."

Emil was in a state of awe the second he walked into the condominium. He knew 32nd street was where all the rich trust fund kids lived, but he had never really been able to visualize what "trust fund kid" meant until now. The lobby was incredibly decadent, complete with a chandelier, a concierge, and a number of art pieces that looked like they should be in the MOMA. Emil remembered Mei saying that Alfred's parents were rich, but he was only just starting to connect the dots now as he stood there, dumbstruck next to a pot of large, blue orchids. If Alfred could afford to live in a place like this, Emil thought, then why was he working at the same crummy daycare as him?

"Hey," Alfred said, pulling Emil out of his thoughts with a poke in the arm, "come on, the elevator's over there."

Emil nodded and allowed himself to be dragged through the lavish building towards Alfred's condo, ogling at all the art pieces and detailed interior design that they passed on the way.

As they entered Alfred's home they were met with the sight of a large open window and a beautiful, sunset lit, view of the water. Alfred turned on the lights to revile the scads of designer furniture that decorated his place of residence and a staircase leading up to a second story. Emil's head was practically spinning. This is ridiculous, he thought, I split rent with two other people and the three of us together could never afford a place this big.

"So...uh," Alfred mumbled unintelligibly, clearly searching for Emil to start some sort of conversation.

Emil could feel the awkward silence that was growing between them and fumbled for something to say.

"I-um...nice place…" he finally croaked out

"Oh, uh, thanks. My dad's got it for me as a graduation present. I think it's a little drab myself, but I'm glad you like it."

Emil cocked his eyebrow in surprise. This was his idea of drab?

"What exactly do your parents do?" he asked.

"Humm? Well, my Papa is a neurosurgeon. He's considered to be the best in the country, he even worked on the king of Poland once, can you believe that?" Alfred exclaimed, "and my Father used to be an English professor at Oxford, but then my parents moved here so he quit. Harvard offered him a position, but they had just adopted my brother and I and he already has a tone of money since he's like, the third in line to be the Duke of Corby or something, so he decided he wanted to stay home with us kids instead. Pretty neat huh?"

"Yeah...So then what are you doing working full time at a daycare?" Emil questioned, even more, perplexed now then he had been before, "Shouldn't you be in college or something?"

"Well my parents sure want me to be in college," Alfred huffed, "But I'm not interested. I'm just not cut out for that snooty academic environment, you know? I'd rather hang out with friends and volunteer at museums and stuff. But my dad's think I'm wasting my life away, so they said if I'm not gonna go to college they're gonna stop paying for my stuff, and low and behold, now I work at a daycare."

Alfred crossed his arms with an air of finality and Emil finally understood. Alfred was a trust fund kid that had temporarily lost his trust fund.

"So uh...you wanna play video games or something?" Alfred interjected, breaking Emil's train of thought.

"uhh, sure...what games do you have?"

"Oh, I don't know, I've got a bunch. Their all on the shelf over there if you wanna take a look," Alfred said, gesturing over to a crowded bookcase.

The two of them picked through the shelf for a good game and eventually decided on a new one that neither of them had played yet. Then they settled down on a plush "modern" couch to play. The two men sat there gaming and making small talk about work and video games for about half an hour before Emil felt Alfred put a tentative hand on his thigh.

Emil had, of course, understood Alfred's intentions for the night the second he had invited him over to his place, but he decided to be coy and ignore his advances. Alfred took Emil's lack of objection as a sign to keep going and began to gently massage Emil's thigh. He spent the next five minute or so slowly inching up his partner's leg before he suddenly pulled his hand away and set down his controller.

"Are you okay with this?" he asked, turning so that he could look directly at Emil, "I don't want to pressure you into anything."

Emil looked over at the other man and blinked in surprise.

"I'm not an idiot Alfred. You invited me over to your condo on our third date. It's pretty obvious that you want to do something more intimate than just play video games, and I wouldn't have agreed to come here if I wasn't okay with that."

"Oh...uh okay, I just...I know your ace and I wasn't sure if you were okay with..uh, um, sex?"

Emil began to laugh, both at his date mates awkwardness and out of embarrassment.

"Oh you don't need to worry about that" He tittered "I mean like yeah, I'm ace, and maybe sex isn't my favorite thing to do, but it's still fun, I still enjoy it, I just don't feel sexual attraction. Not all aces are sex repulsed you know."

Alfred gave a mortified blush and Emil couldn't help but feel bad for teasing him.

"But I appreciate you checking to make sure. It was very sweet of you," he said before leaning over to give Alfred a peck on the cheek.

Alfred relaxed at the physical contact and turned both their heads so that Emil was kissing his lips instead. Their kiss started out as quick and chaste, but soon enough their lips were moving against each other, and their fingers were tangled in each others hair, and Emil could taste the coca cola on Alfred's breath. They continued to kiss and groped and teased each other until it was totally dark out and the stars were shining through Alfred big, picture frame window. Finally, Alfred pulled away and gave Emil a hazy, lustful look.

"Should we take this upstairs to the bedroom?" he asked breathlessly.

Emil shivered at his husky voice in the darkness and grinned.

"Absolutely"

AN: Sorry this took so long folks, I was having some technical difficulties!

This is also the closest I'm ever getting to writing smut, so sorry if anyone was disappointed.

Reviews are always appreciated!