Author's note:This is a one shot for Lokilette, who requested a story about young Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald getting up to mischief and trying fire whiskey for the first time.

A Taste of Fire and Ash

"C'mon, wake up, Albie!"

Albus groaned and rolled over in bed so that he was facing away from the disgustingly cheerful voice that had roused him out of his already fading dreams.

"Go away. I'm asleep!" he grumbled.

"No you're not!" Gellert replied in a mock-pouty tone of voice. "Don't act like such an old man! You only just turned seventeen last week!"

Albus turned back around and peeked tiredly over at his best friend from behind his duvet. Gellert was sitting casually in the windowsill of the second floor bedroom that Albus shared with his brother. A quick glance revealed that Aberforth had already left the room.

"Here. I picked this for you on my way over." Gellert left a red rose on the nightstand next to the bed and pulled out his wand, conjuring up a long, thin glass with water inside. He made it look effortless, but Albus knew that it was actually surprisingly challenging to cast spells concurrently. Gellert finished by gently levitating the flower into it the vase and then dropped off of the windowsill into the room and bowed deeply in one fluid motion.

Albus stared, transfixed. He was rather thankful for the duvet, which mostly covered his burning cheeks.

"For my next trick, I'm going to roust a lazy slugabed from his blanket nest!" Gellert smirked devilishly, one eyebrow arching at a dangerous angle as he advanced on Albus with a determined air.

Albus had been blushing before, but now he was going pure scarlet. He'd only slept in pants the night before and he was fairly well aware that certain bodily happenings were going on beyond his control. The thought that Gellert might see his shame was unthinkable.

"I...er..fine, fine! You got me!" Albus exclaimed, sitting rigidly upright in bed immediately with a nervous laugh, being careful to keep the duvet from sliding off of his lap.

"Oh?" Gellert was sitting at the foot of the bed, now, looking at Albus expectantly.

Albus was entranced. Nobody moved with as much grace and purpose as Gellert did. Desire pooled in his chest like lava, burning his heart as he watched the breathtakingly handsome boy next door- a boy who had become his best friend and who, as he'd only recently been able to admit to himself, had stolen his heart.

There was a magnetism between them- Albus had felt it the moment they'd touched hands when they were first introduced. He'd always dismissed the notion of love at first sight, but that was before he'd realized that he had other romantic options besides girls.

"Penny for your thoughts, Albie?"

Albus would have hated that stupid pet name if it had been anyone else.

But Gellert was different. He was-

Albus drew in a sharp breath and his eyes refocused as Gellert's finger pressed gently against his nose.

"You're not lis-ten-ing!" Gellert said in a singsong voice, the cloves-and-honey scent of his aftershave filling Albus with a rush of heady thoughts.

"I-" Albus gulped as Gellert crawled ever closer to him, on the bed, that wickedly confident smile playing across his cherubic lips.

Albus closed his eyes and he tried to think of something else, something less dangerous. Finding nothing more pressing to focus on that didn't involve the young man who was rapidly closing in on him, his mind turned to the uncomfortable sensation in his bladder from not having visited the toilet for an entire night.

CRACK!

Albus Disapperated, reappearing in the upstairs lavatory and stumbled over to steady himself at the sink. The shockwave of magic made the mirror on the wall vibrate. After relieving his aching bladder, Albus ran the water and splashed cold water on his face before looking back up at himself.

"Impressive, Albie," Gellert said from the other side of the door, "but then again, I already knew that."

"You always climb through my window in the morning. Why can't you just knock at the front door like a normal person?" Albus grumbled as he wiped his face off with a towel and inspected the short, stubbly growth along his jawline.

"You and I both know that I am not a normal person. Neither are you, for that matter. That's why we are so great together."

He told himself that Gellert didn't mean it like that, but Albus still shivered deliciously at the thought of being together in an altogether different sort of way. It was like the electric pulse that filled him every time they touched.

Magical.

He closed his eyes and took deep breaths in and out; he knew he had to keep it together. Regardless of what his traitorous heart told him, Albus knew that he had much to lose if he blurted out a romantic confession in a moment of weakness. Better to stay only friends if the alternative was a lifetime of loneliness without Gellert at all.

Hands were on his shoulders and his eyes shot open with surprise. There, reflected in the mirror, was Gellert, standing behind him, his hands on Albus' shoulder's.

"Show off," Albus muttered, his cheeks coloring again as Gellert squeezed his shoulders again and pulled out his wand, tapping his own forehead with it playfully.

"Isn't it amazing?" Gellert gushed, "It took a lot of practice but I can Apparate silently now! Do you know how many others can do that?"

"I don't think I've ever heard of anyone doing it," Albus admitted.

"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!" Gellert replied with a cocky grin. "C'mon, now, get dressed quickly! We have a lot to do today!"

"One of these days, you're going to share the secret of how you get to be so chipper in the morning," Albus grumbled, grabbing his glasses from the medicine cabinet and stomping back to his room.

"Simple, Albie," Gellert said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small brown bag, "Lemon Drops- they're a bit sour but they grow sweeter the longer you suck on them. They wake you right up in the morning, they do."

"I want to see for myself. Can I try one?" Albus asked skeptically.

"Say Ahhh!" Gellert said, plucking one from the bag and holding it up enticingly.

Albus gulped loudly and opened his mouth, which only made Gellert smirk wider.

"I do so like flustering you like that," he admitted, popping it into Albus' mouth.

Albus made a face.

"Ugh, bitter," he complained, moving it around his mouth for a few moments before his eyes widened, "Oh, now there's some sweetness...hmm...you may very well be right."

"Well of course I'm right," Gellert replied, his face screwed up in a mock pout as he crossed his arms, "I'm always right!"

Albus threw on his robes and helped himself to some leftover breakfast, which was waiting on a covered plate in the kitchen. Gellert simply watched as he leaned in the doorway, waiting for Albus to finish.

"So...where's your brother and Arianna?" Gellert asked, looking at his fingernails with marginal interest.

"Aberforth was taking her down to the creek today," Albus said through a bite of eggs, "There are a bunch of baby ducklings hatching this time of the year. Arianna loves animals, you know."

Gellert flinched. Albus knew that his friend disagreed with their keeping of their mentally unwell sister. Most prominent wizarding families sent away so-called "damaged" kin to special sanitariums. Though it had never been an issue for him, Albus was starting to agree with Gellert. With his mother in ill health and his father long dead, it was only a matter of time before he'd be the one who'd be forced to put his dreams on hold to make sure that Arianna wasn't hurting herself or others.

"In any case," Gellert said, "I want to take you to a special place. It's not too far away from here. I've got a bunch of fun stuff planned, and a surprise I think you're going to like a lot."

Albus nodded, trying to look nonchalant, but he could feel the butterflies gathering in his belly.

Once the dishes were washed up and put away, Albus and Gellert walked out behind the house in Godric's Hollow. Gellert offered his arm with a gentlemanly nod of his head and Albus took it with a sheepish grin. For the first time, when he felt the tug of Disapperation, it was oddly gentle and didn't feel like being turned inside out and squeezed through a tube of toothpaste at all.

"It'll be our secret place, just for us," Gellert said, throwing his arms wide as he gestured to the hidden beach with the tall, craggy cliffs that towered above them menacingly. The shape of the beachfront was such that the cutting cold air seemed to grow calm and warm as it whistled down from above. The water was a stormy blue and nearly clear other than the frothy foam of the surf as it broke against the shore. "It's miles away from any muggle roads, and there's no access other than from the sea or by knowing how to get here by magical means."

"This is amazing!" Albus exclaimed with an impressed whistle as he surveyed the expanse of sand and sea.

"Oh, but that's not even the best part! C'mon!" Gellert began sprinting down the beach towards the cliffs and Albus followed with a puzzled but interested expression on his face.

As they got closer to the cliffs, Albus could see what Gellert meant. A small brown shack was built into a natural cave-like space that had eroded into the cliff.

"It's safe, I promise!" Gellert said in response to the skeptical look that Albus had on his face. "It's not much yet, but one of these days I'm going to get the level of sophistication in my charms to make it less of a bachelor pad."

"I won't hold my breath on that front," Albus joked, staring at the hideous shag carpet that had been placed on the floor.

"You're just saying that because you know you're better at Transfiguration and Charms than I am," Gellert pouted, "Why don't you show me why they gave you all O's in your NEWTS?!"

Albus fixed him with a smug look. "Say please, Gellert."

Gellert snorted but finally relented. "Fine. Please, oh great and wise Dumbledore! May your beard grow long and white until you have to tuck it into your belt like Merlin himself!"

"You don't have to go that far," Albus replied, snorting with laughter.

But, moments later, he'd created a rather cosy little sitting room, complete with plush wingback chairs transfigured from driftwood. It had been a bit difficult to turn wood into velvet, but Dumbledore had managed. He'd even made the fabric a rich purple color.

"Show-off!" Gellert laughed.

"Well, to be fair, you did ask very nicely," Albus replied with a smirk.

They spent much of the afternoon researching some of the Muggle integration plans that they'd begun to put together. It seemed like the Muggles kept having big bloody wars every couple of years, and more and more people suffered and died because of it. The advance of Muggle technology increased the death toll until Albus was certain it was only a matter of time until they figured out some way to spread the poison and death wrought by their petty grievances across the planet.

"We need to educate them," Albus said, nodding sagely.

"We need to control them, first. Keep them from killing and enslaving each other. And then our people suffer because of their self-centeredness. It's simply savage, don't you agree?" Gellert replied, looking at the grainy, black and white photos of a tank crushing a corpse.

Albus shuddered and nodded.

"Well, then, what say you that we take a break?" Gellert stretched and looked out the window at the beach. "Looks like we might be able to get a bit of swimming in before it starts raining."

They stripped down to their shorts and ran pell-mell towards the water. Albus shrieked like a little girl at the feeling of the ice cold water on his toes, but after Gellert tackled him and sent them both flying into the water, it was somehow less shocking to be completely submerged. They played around in the water until they both admitted that their faces had gone completely numb. Gellert teased Albus about how his pants were beginning to sag with water as they trudged back to the shack in the cliffs.

"You've always been so thin, Albie!" He laughed. "We gotta put some meat on those bones."

"You're one to talk, Gellert," Albus replied, sticking out his tongue, "Your pants are nearly around your ankles!"

Gellert looked down and hiked up his pants, which had fallen low enough to show the line of his pubic bone where it intersected with his torso.

"Damn things are so heavy loaded down with water," he groused, "It's too bad that our wands would swell if we brought them in the water, or I'd have already cast a Drying Charm."

Albus was about to agree when Gellert let out a whoop and, in one smooth motion, simply slipped out of his pants altogether. He slipped the wet underpants around his neck and stood with his hands on his hips, letting the air hit his naked body.

"Ahh, much better!" He cried, running ahead.

Albus just stared, his face growing hot in seconds as he watched Gellert's bare, receding arse.

It was a very difficult walk to the shack.

"Ahh, this fire is nice and warm," Gellert leaned back against the headrest of his chair, still naked from the waist up.

Albus tried to look elsewhere, but he kept finding himself staring at Gellert's bare chest, his gaze drawn down to where the elastic band met his navel.

"Galleon for your thoughts?" Gellert asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Just...nothing…" Albus replied, hastily turning his head to stare at the fire.

"Oh, that's right!" Gellert sat up and clapped his hands together, "The surprise!"

He pulled out his wand and summoned something that was hiding beneath a blanket in the corner.

"It's the finest aged Firewhiskey!" Gellert explained with a wicked grin, "It's supposed to be extra potent!"

"B...but...we're...I mean...I'm a lightweight! I can't…" Albus stuttered, his mind immediately fixating on the fact that drinking loosened his tongue a lot more than he trusted.

"Come on, Albie! Just one toast. To us!" Gellert leaned forward, a conspiratorial grin on his face and used his wand to conjure up a pair of wine glasses for said toast.

"You really should not drink firewhiskey in a wine glass!" Albus protested, "It's not proper!"

"Bollocks to propriety!" Gellert exclaimed, placing the glasses down on the floor between the two of them. "Besides, you won't tell on me, will you? I won't if you don't."

Albus gulped loudly and finally relented. "Well, if it's only one toast…"

"That's the spirit!" Gellert replied, punching Albus playfully on the shoulder before unstoppering the firewhiskey and swirling it around before pouring both glasses to the brim.

"I'm pretty sure you should have poured less," Albus replied, picking up his glass and watching it slosh up to the rim of the glass.

"I'm pretty sure that you should take a sip already," Gellert purred back.

"Didn't you want to do a toast first?" Albus replied, looking at Gellert over the top of his glasses, which had begun to fog up.

"But of course!" Gellert replied, raising his glass, "To Grindelwald and Dumbledore, brothers-in-arms and most beloved to one another over all others. May our plans prove fruitful and...pleasurable as well."

The look that Gellert shot over the rim of his glass was pure sex. Albus nearly choked on his first sip of firewhiskey and then choked because his mouth was on fire with the alcohol. He decided to try and pour the rest down his throat to shorten his suffering, but this was a horrible idea and he found his eyes watering as the alcohol lived up to its name all the way down to his stomach.

"Albie, here." A white linen handkerchief was thrust in his face and he took it gratefully, wiping off his face.

He tried to hand it back to Gellert, but the man shook his head.

"Just keep it. I think you need it more than I do. Oh, and here." He conjured up some water and handed it over. "Drink it slowly. It should help, though."

Albus coughed a little as he drank, but the cool liquid was instant relief on his poor, burned esophagus.

"How come you're not even batting an eye?" Albus accused as he recovered. "You look like you're drinking a glass of milk."

"Oh?" Gellert put his finger in his glass and then stuck it in Albus' mouth. Albus flinched as the burn of the firewhiskey bit his tongue, but his tongue instinctively wrapped around Gellert's finger without much constant thought. Gellert grinned, and Albus jerked back as he realized what he was doing.

"S-sorry!" he exclaimed, his cheeks coloring once more.

"Don't worry about it," Gellert said, setting down his glass and scooting closer to Albus, "Come on over here, then, I'm cold."

"Are you sure?" Albus couldn't believe his luck, and he could already feel the alcohol loosening his inhibitions. This was bad. If he wasn't careful…

"You've got a little something on your face. Don't worry, I'll get it for you," Gellert was saying, and suddenly he leaned in and licked something off of Albus' right cheek.

Albus blinked with disbelief, already feeling like he was about to pass out with excitement.

"Did you just...but I...Merlin, that-" Albus knew that he wasn't making any sense, but that didn't seem to matter, because Gellert had thrown his arm around Albus' shoulders and suddenly he could feel Gellert's lips press firmly against his own.

Time seemed to slow and Albus found himself kissing Gellert back, their bodies growing warm and insistent with desire as they began to writhe against one another, their breaths coming out in heavy gasps when they finally came up for air.

And then, suddenly, pain- a white hot flare of wetness and fire in Albus' leg and they had flown apart, realizing that somehow, one of the glasses had gotten between them and cut open Albus' leg. Gellert ripped out a strip of linen to press against the wound while Albus lay back and grasped for his wand.

"It's going to scar," Gellert said with a concerned frown.

"As long as we can get it cleaned out, I'll be fine," Albus promised, cursing his terrible luck for having interrupted what he was now certain was the best moment of his entire life.

"You're better at the healing spells than I am," Gellert said, looking away guiltily.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Albus replied matter-of-factly, "Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. For example, don't ask me to get on a broom unless you want to see how far I can be thrown."

Gellert snorted, but he still looked a bit sad.

"It's all my fault," he grumbled as Albus cleaned his wound and extracted shards of glass from his leg with his wand.

"It's fine; it was an accident," Albus replied, shrugging.

"I mean...I'm sorry I got carried away with the...firewhiskey and…"

Dumbledore smiled sadly at this and avoided Gellert's gaze.

"I'm just happy it happened, even if it never happens again," he admitted, cursing the drink for having loosened his lips.

When Gellert didn't reply, Albus finally chanced a look at him.

Gellert was staring at Albus with wide eyes, his cheeks glowing rosy red as his mouth hung open slightly in shock.

"Do you...mean that?" He asked, finally, his voice breathy with surprise.

"Well, of course!" Albus replied, figuring that it was now or never. "I could never say this without having firewhiskey in my blood, but...you...I...I love you, Gellert, and not just like a friend or a brother-in-arms. I know...I know it's wrong, and yet I can't stop feeling this way no matter how hard I tell myself not to. So. There. I've said it. If you decide to hate me, I will completely understand...but-"

"You...love...me…" Gellert repeated slowly, the shock evident on his face.

"I...shouldn't have said anything. I've ruined everything," Albus mumbled, the embarrassment drowning out the buzz of the alcohol.

"No, no!" Gellert exclaimed. "You've got it all wrong!"

"What?"

"Well...I haven't been completely honest...you see...the reason I keep coming in your window in the mornings…." Gellert trailed off, his face growing pink with embarrassment at his confession.

"And...and I confess that I look forward to you coming in my window and waking me up!" Albus blurted, leaning forward until he nearly fell on his face.

Gellert conjured up some linen bandages and wrapped Albus' leg gently once it was fully cleaned out, and, with the remaining wine glass and the rest of the shards Vanished into oblivion, they set to work spending the rest of the night making up for time lost to inconvenient injuries and their mutual fear of rejection.

It was, hands down, the best night of Albus Wulfric Percival Dumbledore's life.

Many years later, Albus would rub that same scar, the one that looked almost exactly like the replica of the London Underground, and tell a distraught Minerva McGonagall that scars have their uses long after the pain is gone.

In a way, the scar was all that Albus had left of Gellert-his Gellert-the young man with the devilish grin who'd stolen his heart all of those years ago.

Albus tucked his beard into his belt, remembering those words, echoing through decades of loss and sorrow.

Once the boy was placed on the correct doorstop, Albus Apparated away.

He found himself in a desolate place and endured over an hour of magical barriers and ten flights of stairs to get to the door he needed.

"Hello, Albie. Glad you decided to visit."

Staring through the bars over his half-moon glasses, Albus smiled sadly.

"Hello Gellert. It's my turn to sit by your window."

"I missed you."

"I missed you too."

Gellert was lucid for only five minutes this time, but Albus was glad for each of them. Then the wasted body that lay turned towards the wall began to spout gibberish and shout unintelligible things until Albus had to leave.

He rubbed the scar on his leg and nodded to the guard, Apparating back to Hogsmeade.

"Evening, Professor," Rosmerta said as he appeared in the back alley behind her establishment, "It's pretty busy in there, but is there anything I can get for you?"

"One firewhiskey, if you please," Albus said, his eyes swimming with sadness.

Rosmerta nodded and went to get the drink. She left him with a glass of the distinctively colored liquid before heading back to the roaring chatter inside.

"For you, my love," Dumbledore said, lifting his glass to the quiet night air, unsure as to whether he was speaking to Gellert or himself. "May you find your peace at last."