FINALLY.

[mikkeneko]

Being a Sin means you never have to apologize for being evil.

Um.

The rest of the warehouse fic, for asidian. FINALLY. Part 1 here, if you've forgotten.

Review, please, because this thing kicked my ass for almost a month and I worked DARN hard to bring you twenty-two pages of armorsex.


Title: A 100-word drabble of choice to she who provides me with a title. ;_;
Pairing: AlxEd mechanically, EnvyxElrics emotionally
Warning: Angst. Rape/noncon what have you. Armor-sex. Voyeurism. Bondage. Mind games. LOTS of angst.
Rating: NC-17.



Ed's face rested against the front of Al's chest plate; Al's arm circled around his brother's back, white-splattered hands resting along his spine. Al stared at his hand, and tried not to feel filthy. "Satisfied?" he asked Envy coldly, not turning his head to look.

"Oh, quite," -- a very different voice suddenly insinuated itself, and Al whipped around to face it. In the doorway into the warehouse, past the crates where Envy still sat, watching like a vulture -- two new figures in black sat like shadows.

"Lust," he muttered, recognizing her -- and Gluttony, of course, Lust's constant shadow. In his arms, Ed stiffened, and Al panicked as he tried to recalculate the odds of escape in their favor. Now with not just one, but three of the monsters here -- but they had to get away, they had to, before --

"So what's the verdict?" Envy said sharply, all his attention seemingly on Lust; his posture was tense, though, belying the aura of casualness. "We have our orders?"

"You didn't even wait to hear them before you started playing," Lust chided, and Envy shrugged. Al's spirits leapt in hope. Maybe -- maybe Envy would get in trouble, maybe there'd be an opportunity --

Lust stepped forward, walking with an easy, undulating grace; her heels stepped sharply on the concrete floor, and here eyes stayed trained on the two of them. "We're to take them in tonight," she said, sounding bored. "Pride will open our route after sunset; until then, there's nothing to do but wait."

"No," Al whispered.

"Any word on what condition they have to be in?" Envy said, trying to feign casualness to cover up the eager lust underneath.

Al's arms tightened around Ed as he looked from one deadly, inhuman pair of eyes to another. Who were they, he wondered desperately, crazily; what did they want --

"Doesn't matter one bit," Lust purred.



Envy's laughter, echoing around the corners, had a tinge of almost hysterical relief. "Well, then," he said jovially, "we don't have a problem here. So long as they're still breathing -- sorry, so long as one of them is breathing -- when we deliver them, it doesn't matter what else we do, now does it?"

"Envy," Lust said, and her voice was calmly amused, but... Al shot her a quick look. "You're too careless, again."

"What, just because I know how to enjoy a good show? Always so conscientious, Lust!" Envy met Lust's eyes, challengingly -- and surely Al wasn't imagining the tension that rose between them? A sting of hope surfaced in his mind; if there was some way he could work on that tension, divide the two Sins...

"It's too bad you missed it," Envy continued, still holding Lust's eyes. "Even you could use a chance to... let go of yourself every now and then."

Lust didn't answer, and Al searched frantically for the right words to say, for something that would take advantage of this opportunity. Unconsciously, his arms tightened around Ed, who took a pained gasp.

At the sound, both of the Sins looked back towards them. Lust's slit-pupilled eyes rested on him for a moment; then she looked back at Envy, and smiled, chillingly. "Yes, it's too bad we couldn't come a little earlier," she purred.

Envy's smile broadened, and Al felt his heart sink; the moment of tension, whatever the cause had been, was gone. "I'd hate to see you go without," Envy smirked. "Let's see if we can rouse them for another round."

"No!" Al's angry shout cut across their conversation. "Why can't you monsters leave us alone? You already made me have s-sex with him, aren't you satisfied already?"

Envy doubled over with laughter, and Lust's perfectly shaped eyebrows lifted with surprised. "Oh, you are too much," Envy gasped. "You think that's all there is to sex? A little fingering and a handjob? That hardly qualifies as foreplay!"

"He's so innocent," Lust commented idly.

"So stupid, more like," Envy said, and straightened up again, teeth glinting. "Let's give our boy a taste of the real thing, why don't we?"

For a moment, Al's paralyzed mind couldn't process that statement, and then a shuddering gasp ripped from Ed's mouth, and it clicked. They wanted him to -- "No," he said again, voice tight with anger and disbelief. "You can't. I can't. I --" he hesitated, then shoved aside his humiliation and pushed on. "I c-can't even do that. I don't have a... I don't have one of those."

Envy snickered at his hedging; Lust began to walk towards them again. "That's a handicap," she murmured, her movement and her eyes as mesmerizing as a snake's to a mouse. "But I think we can come up with something."

She stopped a bare breath away; Al considered attacking. But then he saw Envy, watching avidly, and Gluttony, prowling about the edge of the warehouse, and reluctantly dismissed the idea.

"Drop him," Lust said.

Alphonse pulled Ed a little closer. His older brother wasn't looking.

Lust's lips curved slightly, and she reached out and casually wound her fingers through Ed's hair. The tips of her pointed nails dug into Ed's scalp, and Al was nearly paralyzed with fear, remembering how quickly those fingers could flash into unnatural scimitars.

However, all that happened was that Lust pulled, yanking on Ed's hair like a leash. It jerked his head back, bending his neck at a painful angle as Al tried to keep his brother protectively close. He didn't want to relinquish his grip on Ed. Didn't want to give him up to whatever these monsters were going to do to him.

He changed his mind, though, when he saw the golden strands slowly tearing away from Ed's skin, and a tiny whimper escaped his brother's lips. Abruptly he loosened his hold, and Ed fell to the concrete floor in a tangle of sprawled limbs and iron. Al suppressed a mental wince at the ungainliness of the fall, and prayed that nothing had been broken.

Then Lust stepped in front of him, and demanded his attention. Warily, Al tried to back away, but found himself frozen by those mesmerizing eyes.

Lust held up one hand for him to see, then flashed her fingers into long, piercing talons. Before Al could do more than flinch, she'd brought her hand down in a slashing motion, and the loincloth part of the armor that had been his only piece of clothing fluttered to the ground, in shreds.

Lust tilted her head slightly, as if considering, and her fingers flashed again. Al froze as he heart metal screech and scrape in protest. He felt no pain, barely felt anything at all, but he was aware of the steel shredding and giving way under those unnatural claws. He couldn't keep himself from looking down, and frantically tried to cast his mind away from what was happening to him; to wonder how it was that Lust came to know the array, when the homunculi couldn't do alchemy; anything not to think about those claws digging in, mutilating, between his legs.

"You have plenty of material to spare, down here," Lust told him, sounding amused. "Perhaps this was what your brother had in mind when he made this form. No?"

"What are you doing to him?" Ed growled, and Al saw his brother trying to struggle upwards, completely lacking in leverage, before his muscles trembled and gave out and cracked him against the concrete again. "Leave him alone, you bitch!"

"Oh?" Lust cast a look over her shoulder, claws momentarily still. "Are you offering to change places with him, then? I promise you I can cut this shape into flesh as easily as steel."

"No!" Al cried, overwhelming Edward's voice, and bringing Lust's attention back to him.

Steel filings dusted down as she withdrew, hand returning to a semblance of a human once more. With a strange smile on her face, Lust reached out and took his gauntlet, and forced him to place his hand directly on top of the array she'd carved into his metal flesh.

He could tell which array it was; he struggled to take his hand away, but her strength resisted. It was a simple matter-changing array, for size and shape, not composition. "What are you trying to do?" he demanded.

Envy made a derisive sound, that echoed in the empty room. "How does it feel," he taunted, "that the runt there is a third your size, but has three times as much cock as you? It was he who turned you into an emasculated metal freak, wasn't it? It's about time you got some payback for that."

"I don't want to do anything like that!" Al cried, struggling to pull away again. "You can't use alchemy, you can't use this array yourself. You can't make me do anything!"

"No?" Lust's eyes narrowed, and Al heard the creak of tortured metal as the points on her talons hardened and grew slightly. The warning was clear.

Al choked in horror, and involuntarily glanced past Lust at Ed; the boy was struggling to push himself up, to get off his back and into a more protected position, but it was a futile endeavor, sending the iron bar clattering over the concrete. He was helpless. Helpless.

Al looked up into the darkness of the warehouse spaces -- the best he could do since he could not close his eyes -- and activated the array under his fingers.

The metal bulged at the apex of the crotch, quickly reshaping and growing into a metal imitation of a phallus. He'd just had his brother's cock in his hands, a few minutes earlier, so the image of what one should look like was still too vividly clear.

Lust's eyes widened slightly, then narrowed with pleased satisfaction. "Don't stop yet," she hissed, when he paused, the blue glow dying down. "Come now, for the size you are, that is an insult."

Al darted a quick glance down, his eyes telling him what his hands couldn't, before he had to look away in shame. "You want me to --" He choked on the words, and had to stop and start again. "You want me to put this i-in him, don't you? Well, this is all that will f-fit."

A mocking bark of laughter from Envy. "Oh, don't underestimate the shorty," he said. "He's so used to bending over to let the military screw him, he must have had lots of practice."

Lust's claws gouged deep lines in the metal of his gauntlet. "Keep going," she said, smiling. "You know, most men would kill for a chance to redefine their penis size however they choose. They'd be in envy of you."

"Leave me out of this," the other Sin said. "Mine's just fine thanks."

"I will tell you when to stop," Lust asserted. Reluctantly, Al willed the activation of the array again.

Al tried to slow the process down, creeping the growth of the metal phallus incrementally, but Lust was patient and unyielding, slit-pupilled eyes glowing in the light of the reaction. When she finally released her grip on his hand, Al stared down at the thing he'd made in horror. It was easily the size of his brother's forearm, jutting awkwardly out from between his legs.

It didn't look like a real cock, or at least not like his brother's; it was artificially smooth, perfectly round at the tip. All Al could think of was that this was going to have to go into a very tight space, and the smoother he could make it, the easier it would be on Ed.

It was disgusting. And when he moved, and it banged against the inside of his thighs, it made him disgusting.

"I trust you know what to do, hmm?" Lust said, and then she stepped away, leaving the space between him and his brother clear. Her heels rang against the concrete as she crossed over to where Envy was perched.

When Ed got a good look at Al, his face drained of blood, and a spasm shook him. "Al no," he gasped, even as Al took a few hesitant steps closer, and crouched down beside him. "You can't do this. You can't fucking do this to me, Al. I don't want it, I don't want it..."

"But they'll hurt you if I don't, Niisan," Al whispered. Too terrified to be much more than numb.

"Then let them hurt me!" Ed's voice rose almost uncontrollably. "What difference does it make if they use you as a tool? Don't do this to yourself, Al, don't do this to me. If they want to shoot me, they'll shoot me -- it'll heal, it'll heal. Let that bastard fuck me if he wants -- he's dying to, I can tell from here. But don't help them!"

Al met his brother's eyes, steadily, robbed of his voice.

"Well?" One of the Sins called out sharply from behind them; for a moment, Al couldn't identify which one, before the malicious tone marked it as Envy. "Get on with it, boy. Or do you want me to come do it for you?"

"No." Al turned to face them, and braced himself.

Envy frowned with displeasure; Lust merely watched him with unfathomable eyes. "What do you mean, no?" he demanded. "You want your brother to get hurt?"

"No, I don't!" Al denied, but he didn't budge. "But if you hurt him, then that's your fault, not mine. And I won't br-break his trust. That would hurt more than anything else you could do to him."

Envy scoffed, loudly. Lust just folded her arms over her chest, and turned her head to the side. "We'll see about that," she murmured. "Gluttony?"

Al felt his heart freeze, then plummet. Oh no. No...

"Lust?" Alerted by the sound of his name, the fat little Sin came waddling eagerly over. He turned white, vacant eyes on Al, and past him, Ed. "Is it ok now? Can I eat him?" he whined.

"You can't!" Al cried, voice strangled. "You - you need him alive. You said so!"

"Alive, yes," Lust said, eyes glinting, "but nobody said anything about whole. You two have a head start on us there, but there are actually quite a few more parts he could stand to lose before it killed him. Gluttony," she said, turning to him with an almost kind tone, "do you think you could manage small bites on this one?"

"Small bites?" Gluttony's gaze swung between Ed, splayed on the floor, and Lust. "Can I do small bites?"

"You'll have to anyway," Envy put in, sounding almost anticipatory, "considering how small he is already --"

Lust looked back at Al. "You do remember what Gluttony here does to limbs, don't you?"

Al remembered. He remembered the sight of the monster sinking its teeth into his leg -- the sight of the tempered steel writhing away and leaving a gaping socket behind. And he remembered perfectly well the way a freshly severed limb looked, on a little boy bleeding to death in the choking haze.

The horror gave way to numbness. They had him and there was no way of getting out of it. Everything -- Ed's wishes, his remaining dignity, even his trust -- was going to have to come second to that image in his mind.

"Fine," he whispered, in a tiny voice. Apparently not hearing him, Gluttony was starting to waddle forward, drool escaping his mouth. Al's voice rose to a panicked shout. "I said fine! I'll do it! Just keep him away!"

"Al!" Ed hissed from behind him, full of recrimination and betrayal.

"Shut up, Niisan," Al hissed, even as Lust, smiling with triumph, called Gluttony back to her side.

"The fuck I will! Al, you said you were thinking of some way out of this!"

"I'm still trying!" Al clenched his empty gloves into fists, in frustration. "But there are three of them and I can't see any way to get out of this, Niisan, just to get it over with as soon as possible."

Ed swallowed, breath coming faster; Al saw his glance flicker down, then away as if the sight burned him. "I don't want this!" he said with barely suppressed panic.

"It doesn't matter what you want," Al replied, and felt the emptiness deep within him.

Ed clenched his jaw, and closed his eyes.

They were watching; Al could feel the twin violet gazes from across the room. They wanted a show, he knew. Envy, in particular, wanted to see blood and pain. Well, then, Al would just have to make sure not to give the Sin that satisfaction.

Al hesitated, confronted by a logistical problem. As smooth as he had desperately tried to make it, the metal shaft still chafed under his glove. It would burn and tear in Edward's flesh. He needed something like the oil Ed used in his automail, or the kind he applied to his own joints to keep rust away. But there was nothing here at all, nothing to use. No liquids at all.

None except blood. Ed's. He would have plenty of that, he was afraid, if he went ahead this way. What else was there?

In a sudden inspiration, he moved and resettled himself, kneeling beside Ed's head. "Brother," he said tentatively, and settled his hand across Edward's lips. "Brother, open your mouth."

Ed made a negative sound, shaking his head once. His eyes were still tightly closed.

"Niisan, you have to," Al said, desperate even to his own ears. "I need your... your spit, do you see? I haven't got any, but I need something. Or else it'll be too rough, and hurt you. Come on. You have to. Don't make me force you," he said, in a voice near to despair.

Although he kept his eyes firmly shut, slowly Ed's lips parted. Relief washed over Al, as he dipped the fingers of his hand into Ed's mouth. They came away stained darker, with little trails of moisture. He rubbed the same hand over the metal shaft, trying to lubricate it. There wasn't enough; he went back to Ed's mouth for more.

It occurred to him that Ed had not had any water in many hours; his mouth and throat were already parched. There was not going to be enough. He slipped his fingers under Ed's tongue and rubbed gently, trying to stimulate more. Ed shuddered and choked a little, but couldn't move his head away.

Already the little bit of spit he'd got on the shaft was starting to dry, and Al began to panic. This was taking too long. He shifted again, and his free hand came around behind Ed's neck, pulling him up and supporting him. "Open wider, Brother," he ordered him, trying to put a touch of teasing in his voice and failing. "Come on --"

Ed had a big mouth. Al knew this to be truth in every sense of the word; from the way his brother could spit fury and sarcasm at the most unwise of occasions, to the way he could shovel down an entire meal in five minutes and be ready to go right away if he had to. But now, holding Ed's head between his large, clumsy hands, for the first time he was truly aware of how small Ed's mouth was. His jaw, his skull, his bones under Ed's huge hands. So very frail. So easy to hurt.

Not more than the first few inches of the metal shaft could fit into Ed's mouth. Al thought about where else that thing was going to have to go, and had to firmly suppress the panic that thought caused.

"Lick," he encouraged Ed, softly, hand behind his head holding him firmly to the task. He really hoped he didn't taste nasty, a part of him thought. But then, how was he supposed to know?

Ed gagged, then choked; Al let him pull back. A trail of spit slipped out of the corner of Ed's mouth, and Al quickly gathered it up with his finger. Changing directions, he guided Ed's mouth sideways down the length of the shaft, trailing wetness behind him.

"That should be okay, Niisan," he whispered, and Ed pulled sharply away and swallowed hard. Al steadied himself, and lowered his brother's head gently back down. He ran his palm down the metal shaft, trying to spread the wetness around the circumference, and then held onto it to keep it from banging between his legs as he lifted himself and stepped over between Edward's legs.

He stared for a moment, blankly, then lifted his head to the Sins. "This won't work," he said. "The leg bar is in the way."

"Work around it," Envy ordered shortly.

"I can't," he said, and demonstrated the problem. When he tried to kneel between Ed's splayed legs, the iron bar interfered; metal clanked and screeched noisily as he tried and failed to lift it out of the way. "His legs just won't spread far enough. I can't get at him unless I remove it."

Envy jiggled impatiently. "So remove it already!" he said.

"Envy," Lust said sharply.

Al froze, as the two of them exchanged another long look. Finally, Envy sniggered, and broke eye contact. "Might as well," he said. "In another few minutes the runt won't even be able to walk, much less run anywhere."

Al dared to move again, and hardly daring to believe he had permission, started to unlock the metal bar from the manacles on Ed's knees. The shackles themselves were locked with a key, and neither of the Sins had made any move to provide him with one.

It took forever, and Al's heart sank as his clumsy fingers fumbled with the cruelly tight bindings. There was absolutely no hope that he could do this in a hurry. At last the metal bar clattered loose to the concrete, and Ed gasped involuntarily in relief as the tension eased.

He started to close his thighs, pulling his knees up to protect himself. Before he could, Al took hold of his knees, forcing them wide again, and then even wider as he settled his hollow metal bulk between them. Ed let out a strangled whimper, and thrashed against the hold, but Al did not release his grip, pulling Ed's knees up on either side of his broad chest. Ed cried out as the overstrained muscles in his thigh began to cramp; Al wrapped his hand around the afflicted area and dug in, trying to give ease to the painful spasm.

"Hurry up," Envy's voice ordered peremptorily, but Al didn't need the prompting. The slick saliva on the metal cock was already drying, and if he waited much longer there would be nothing to protect his brother.

"Please trust me," he whispered to Ed, clamping Ed's knees to his sides as he adjusted Ed's hips. "I'm trying not to hurt you! Just relax and I'll make it as easy as I can."

Something was glittering on Ed's face; startled, Al leaned down to see more closely.

His brother was crying. Tears squeezed from the corner of his closed eyelids. If Al had had a heart, it would have frozen in his chest right then.

"No, don't cry!" he exclaimed involuntarily, and immediately regretted it when he heard Envy's caustic laugh. "Please, Niisan -- it'll be all right --"

"Don't," Ed whispered, so faintly that as close as he was, Al could barely hear it. He was fairly sure, though, that the Sins with their unnatural senses could hear every word. "Please don't, Al. I'm begging you. Don't do this to me. Don't do this. Don't do this..."

But Gluttony's voice piped up in the background, asking when he was going to be allowed to start, and Lust's neutral reply. Al smoothed his hand over Ed's cheek, wiping up the tears, and spread the moisture over the quickly-drying spit on the metal cock.

"Sorry," he whispered back, and pushed forward.

Ed cried out, a strangled animal noise that was much worse for Al than any scream. He wished that he could cover his ears, but his hands were firmly on Ed's hips, and anyway it wouldn't have done any good. Ed jerked and struggled, motions that seemed more instinct than anything else, But Al held his hips still and kept him from ripping free.

This was obviously different from before. There was no hidden pleasure here, not for Ed, and not for him. This was nothing but pain, and pain was the show that the Sins wanted to see. He kept moving, as slowly and gently as he could, holding Ed's hips at just the angle where he could push in and be fairly sure of not ripping anything. Tears were flowing down Ed's face more freely now, and a short keening cry ripped from his lips.

Keep going. Just don't stop.

As if from a far distance, he heard the Sins talking, voices casual.

"Look at him squirm," Envy said, with an unconcealed laviciousness.

"He could do better," Lust said in a neutral, almost bored tone. "The boy doesn't know what he's doing. --Don't stop, boy."

Check for blood. Nothing yet. Don't stop.

"He's worthless," Envy agreed.

"Why not take over, then?" Lust said curiously. "You could certainly put up the form, if not the function."

Envy laughed. Keep moving, don't stop. Al's hands loosened on Ed's hips, now that he was far enough impaled on the shaft that he couldn't move. He leaned forward instead, placing his hands close to Ed's, on either side of the iron bar. A distance that stretched Ed's slight frame from fingertip to fingertip was barely more than shoulder-wide on Al.

"I could," Envy said. "But it wouldn't be as good."

"Enlighten me," Lust murmured.

Ed's face was twisted in agony, flinching every time Al moved more than an inch. His eyes were still closed, which Al regretted. He put all his weight on his left arm, the one closer to the Sins, and carefully touched his right hand to the metal bar by Ed's wrist.

"Look at the runt," Envy said, voice dripping with contempt. "Look at his face. He's crying and begging. I could have strapped him down and beaten him all night, ripped him open from the inside and he would just snarl and curse and hate me for it. He'd scream all right, but he'd never beg. This is so much better. I don't even have to lift a hand and he's in more pain than I could ever put him through."

Don't listen to them. Don't listen. Slowly, under the cover of the slow and careful thrusts, Al scratched at the metal. The next time he leaned back, he put his hand over Ed's fingers, pulled them over to make contact with the array scratched in the metal.

Ed's eyes flew open, staring up into Al's face. Just a few more minutes, he begged, trying to convey meaning with an expressionless steel helm. Just hold out for a few minutes more.

He wished he were his brother, knew his trick. Instead, he had to carefully, without breaking his rhythm or arousing suspicion, scratch the array onto his palm. First he was worried that he wouldn't have time -- and then too much time.

They were still watching him, intently, he could feel their gazes burning into him. He needed them to look away. Just for a few moments -- just long enough --

Salvation came, unexpectedly, in the form of Gluttony. The third Sin had apparently grown bored of watching Al torment his brother, and was wandering around the circuit of the warehouse. He came back up to the other two now, vacant eyes bright, and snuffling.

"Lust," he said eagerly, "I smell something good. Can I eat it?"

"Augh!" Envy exclaimed, leaning back from Gluttony in disgust. "For God's sake, Lust, haven't you got him better trained than that?"

"It's your own fault he's worked up," Lust said, but she turned back to Gluttony. For just one moment, they were looking away.

"Now," Al gasped hoarsely, even as he reared back and pulled free from Ed with a sudden lurch. The warning was unnecessary, though; Ed's hand already tightened on the iron bar, and there was a crackling as the iron suddenly writhed and disintegrated into dust.

At the same time, Al had already yanked open the chestplate on his armor. The Sins were just starting to turn back to them. Al's hand met Ed's halfway, and with a simultaneous yank launched Ed into the hollow of Al's empty chest. And in the same motion, Al was up and running.

He heard the gunshots at the same time as he felt impacts pinging against his side and back; but Ed was safe, protected, and the bullets couldn't hurt him. Not the way Lust's claws could, or Gluttony's teeth. He made not for the doors, but for the warehouse windows, crashing right through the brittle iron frames and broken glass panes. The hand with the array met the windowpane briefly as he vaulted through, and it was enough to send the alchemical charge down through the wall, into the structure of the building. There.

He didn't look behind him even as he lurched and fell the six-foot drop to the alley behind. Didn't look back as he set off running, at a pounding pace that no normal human could maintain. He heard the building rumble and collapse behind him, and he hoped, just hoped that it would delay them for long enough.

He couldn't take the time to look behind him, to see if they were gaining; he wouldn't know until they threw him down. He couldn't take the time to make sure that Ed was safe, able to brace himself properly on the inside or not.

He ran faster than any human could, but he knew they could run just as fast. And he had so much more to lose, if they caught up to him again.



Later; a more cautious pace, through crowded streets, to loose their trail and throw off the scent. There had been no sign of pursuit, not even know that they were alone.

"We've lost them," Al sighed, slumping down with relief.

"For now, maybe," Ed's defeated grumble was muffled, echoing inside his empty chest. It felt strange. Then there was a bang, of metal on metal. "All right, Al. Let me out of here."

Ed started to fumble with the chest plate, in preparation for crawling out of the armor. All at once, Al put up on arm, preventing him from leaving.

Ed stilled. "What are you doing, Al?"

"Niisan," Al whispered. "I just wanted you to know.... while you're there." He wishes he could take a steadying breath, before he rushes on. "If you wanted to... to rub out the seal. Because of what happened. Then you can. That would be okay."

There was a moment of stillness.

With a mighty shove, Ed pushed Al's blocking arm aside, and clambered awkwardly out of the armor. It took him a moment to straighten up -- he needed to cling to one of Al's armor spikes for balance -- but when he did, the eyes that swung up to meet Al's were hot with fury.

"I'm gonna have to start a list," Ed growled, "of things to kick your ass for once you're back to normal. What happened in the warehouse is gonna be number two."

"Number two?" Al said in a small voice.

"That --" and the thrusting motion of Ed's hand, back towards the gaping chest cavity, clearly meant the offer Al had just made -- "is gonna be number one. What the hell would be the point, Al? What would be the point of anything then?"

Al bowed his head, humbled. "I - I just thought I owed you that, Niisan."

"Fuck, Al," Ed said, and then Ed's metal knuckles banged on Al's shoulder, getting him to look up again. Ed's eyes were serious, his mouth grim. "What happened back there in that place was meant to be torture every bit as much for you as it was for me, Al, only you didn't seem to notice that. Half the reason I'm so pissed at you is because you just went along with it and let them hurt you."

Al sat back, stunned. He hadn't thought of it that way at all.

"Don't think I'm not pissed, 'cuz I am," Ed continued relentlessly. "But the fact that you'd even think that just goes to show that -- that you don't owe me a damn thing. So just put that thought out of your head right now, before I have to knock it out."

Al didn't say anything. He just watched as Ed turned away, and began readjusting himself, regaining his composure. Crackling stiff limbs, pulling together disarrayed clothing, fixing his hair. Slowly piecing himself together.

A clap and a crackle of alchemy mended the torn clothes, covering Ed's skin again. Another clap, and this time Ed turned to him, and Al nearly jumped straight in the air as Ed crouched down between his legs. A moment later, the ungainly metal attachment was gone, vanished back smoothly into the metal from where it had come, without leaving a trace.

Al was suddenly sorry Ed hadn't asked him. He didn't want the metal back; he wanted it gone. Gone away from him.

"I want to take a shower," Al announced, voice remote.

Ed looked up at him, startled, brows drawing together. Al didn't look at him as he continued, "I want a bath. I want to take a bath in a lake and clean myself off."

"Al," Ed said, a note of wariness in his quiet tone. "You can't. You know that."

"I know." There was a faint rattling sound in the air, one he dimly recognized as his own armor plates rattling. "I still want to. I feel --"

He felt filthy, was what he felt. Every part of him that had touched his brother, forced his brother, hurt his brother. Everything looked the same, armored plates gleaming bright and clear; but he still felt the filth, deep inside where no amount of reassurances could reach. He covered his eyes with his hands -- the only way to block out the sight of the world -- and could not cry. The shaking just increased.

"Al," Ed said, softly, and there was so much, so much in that one word. Al didn't see it, but he heard the soft clank as his brother leaned against his side, throwing his metal arm over Al's shoulder.

Al's touch made him filthy, but somehow, Ed's touch made him feel clean again.

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It was totally random. XD And French. Mm, French.