Disclaimer! The following story is complete fiction and is not intended to imply anything about the true sexuality of the celebrities mentioned or any personal knowledge about their private lives or their family.
Author's note: Hi everybody. This is the first story I have ever posted here on Nifty (despite my being a reader for 4 years now), although it's not the first one I have ever written. When you're taking the time to read it (thank you heaps for that by the way!!), please also take the time to write me some (constructive) feedback, which of course you can send to the above-mentioned address. It will be much appreciated. Before you do that nonetheless, I want to say that English is not my birth language (Dutch is). I have been studying it for years and years in a row and have been hearing it throughout my entire life already (and still I'm not sick of it...), but that will in all probability not have stopped me from still making some spelling and / or grammar errors or using a "weird word" here and there. I humbly ask for your forgiveness in advance.
OK, on to the story then. I won't tell what my intentions were when writing it / what I wanted to achieve with the occasional reader, because I want you guys to be free to feel whatever comes up first.
Enjoy the story (hopefully) and a Marry X-mass and a Happy New Year!!
Love, Apollo,
The Hall Twins in Europe, part 1.
The heart monitor was monotonously beeping through the deafening silence in a hoary room of a Belgian hospital where the light of the evening sun was being filtered by thick curtains. The sound was in a strange way tranquillizing for the young man sitting despondently at the side of the bed on which his completely motionless brother had been laid down after surgery.
He sighed in deep frustration, not really realizing or remembering how it was they got here. Frustration wasn't the only emotion rushing through his body. Like a knife constantly driving itself through his heart, sharp, stabbing sorrow and grief were putting an almost unbearable pressure on his chest. Here he was, sitting in a strange country, in a strange hospital amongst equally strange people, thousands of miles away from home, next to his twin brother who was still in a coma after having been in a horrible accident.
"Damn it Seth," he whispered, "Come back to me. Don't you dare leave me alone... don't you dare." And then he couldn't hold back anymore. Bruce buried his face in the mattress of the bed and a silent sobbing started adding to the beeping sound of the heart monitor, regularly alternated by a deep sniffing sound. Bruce Michael Hall was on the verge of being left alone in this world without the only member of his family who would still accept him in his life. He'd give up his own life to save Seth if he could, to save the one person he loved and cared about like no one else.
All of the sudden he felt a hand landing on the back of his head. The hand slowly started caressing his hair...
Nine days earlier, 1st of April, John F. Kennedy Airport, New York USA.
"Hey Bruce, wait up!" Seth shouted after his brother, who was running excitedly towards the check-in for their flight to Brussels and was rapidly disappearing in the loudly humming crowd filling the huge entrance hall of the airport.
"What? Can't keep up with me, bro? You'll have to start workin' more on your condition in the gym instead of your muscles!!", Bruce shouted back looking over his shoulder and almost bumping into an obviously very well fed lady while doing so.
"Oops, sorry ma'am, but gotta hurry! Check-in closes in 10 minutes!", he excused himself brushing past her. The lady gave him a very irritated look, flapped her hand agitatedly towards him and bent over to pick up the remains of the juicy hot dog she was feasting on before she had dropped it trying to get out of the way of the well muscled, blond young man rapidly moving towards her.
Seth groaned. "Why does he always have to get so boyish and all excited as soon as we even get near an airplane or start talking about making a trip somewhere," he pondered. "Ah well, that way at least no one ever gets bored being around him," and that last thought brought a warm smile on his lips. Yep! He loved his kid brother (although Bruce was only 53 minutes younger than him, but hey... who cares? Somebody has to take the lead, no?) and he very much enjoyed the few remaining times they were able to get together. Ever since Bruce had moved to New York to try and make a career, he didn't get to see him much anymore. Yeah they gave each other a call every once in a while when he was away from home, but that's not the same as hanging out together. And what's even more, every time Bruce took off after having paid him a brief visit, it seemed to take him longer and longer to return.
Seth felt miserable about that. He missed the way they shared everything in their lives throughout their childhood and adolescence. Bruce, his always-available play-pall when they were little and his companion and best friend going through puberty, was now more away from home than he actually was home and hardly told him anything anymore about how and what he was doing. So when Bruce suggested that they go on a vacation trip together after he had returned from three months of complete absence, Seth was more than happy to comply. Bruce said he had a few weeks off in April and so Seth thought that indeed it would be a great opportunity for them to make up for the lost time together.
But Seth wasn't the only one feeling that way. Unbeknown to him, Bruce always regretted having left his home to go live hundreds of miles away in a huge city were nobody knows you or cares about you, mostly because it meant leaving his twin, the only one who still cared for him, behind in Missouri.
"But it was what I had to do if I'm ever going to make a career in acting," he tried to convince himself. "I do have a degree in it, don't I? So why not take my chance in it... ." He realized that he was partially fooling himself with that excuse. He'd been gone for three months this time without giving any sign of life to Seth.
"So? It's not like Seth would suddenly vanish into thin air, right," he told himself to remain at peace with his conscience. "Seth would always be there when he returned and when he needed him, right?
Little did he know that one would better not take the assumption that everyone around them, everyone they've known their entire lives is immortal and will always be there, for granted... .
Seth caught up with his brother and gave him a playful push in the back. "You jerk, always trying to make a fool out of poor old me huh, and you should pay that lady a new hot dog," he said with feigned indignation. "I should just bend you over my knee right here on the spot, and give you a good spanking on the butt for this."
"Aw, is my old man hurt?" Bruce asked with a smirk. "Deal with it bro. What I've got less in brains, you've got less in stamina. And as for that lady... it doesn't look like she's going to starve because she didn't get to finish her sausage."
"Oh, shut up and just hand that woman over there the tickets, will ya," Seth groaned.
After some vigorous typing on her computer the desk lady handed the brothers all the necessities for being allowed on a flight and took their luggage from them. "Your flight leaves in an hour at 9 pm, gentlemen. You can find the boarding gate to the airplane on your tickets. Have a nice flight," the lady said with a bright smile and a cheerful twinkling in here eyes.
"Sometimes one would think they put robots behind those desks," Seth thought, "always friendly, always smiling, repeating the same lines tens of times a day... man, it's like they've been programmed." He took the information from the lady and gave Bruce, who seemed to be very captivated by the machinery that transported the luggage towards the depot, a tug on his shirt to make it clear they had to make room for the next passengers in line. Bruce snapped out of his "trance" and went after his brother.
The flight Bruce and Seth had booked was one for Brussels, capital of Belgium. They had decided to take a tour through Europe together and what better place to start it than the city currently known as the "centre of the Old Continent"? From there they'd go to Bruges -- "Venice of the North" -- London, Paris, Madrid, Rome and Athens. Each one of these cities had played an important role in the history of the continent and contained an invaluable treasure of monuments and arts. Brussels for instance is the current head quarter of the central European government and the NATO, Bruges was one of the, if not the, most important trade centres in medieval Europe, Paris is the capital of one of the leading nations throughout the entire European history since the Romans disappeared, London the capital of the former British empire, Madrid capital of the former Spanish empire, Rome capital of the ancient Roman empire and Athens one of the leading cities in the ancient Greek civilization. As both of the brothers had attended university, they were more than interested in such things and so they had decided to see as many of it as they could and to take at least 3 weeks in doing so.
Bruce and Seth still had about an hour until their flight took off and as they had about 8 hours of sitting on a plane ahead of them, they decided to take a good last walk around the airport and grab a cop of stiff coffee.
"So are you sure we'll be able to find ourselves a good place to sleep every night?", Seth asked while leisurely walking next to Bruce through the huge and overly crowded buildings that were Kennedy Airport.
"Oh come on, relax man. It's not like we're goin' to the African rainforest or somethin'. We're talkin' about Europe. I'm sure there'll be plenty of good hotels and motels over there to stay over night."
"Yeah I know that, but the high season for tourists is setting in this time of year, which means that many hotels and sorts might already be full by know," Seth persisted.
"So what? If it comes to that we'll just look if we can stay with some folks who live there. I'm sure there will always be people prepared to take some strangers in for a night or two. And if that doesn't work we'll look for a camping or so. Besides, motels are never completely full and we've got ourselves a good travellin' guide to lead us, so lighten up and try to enjoy this." And to put some extra force into he words he gave Seth a good, well meant slap on the back.
"Yeah, you're right," Seth admitted. "I do worry too much don't I? I think it's just me always being too rational about everything and never willing to loosen up and follow my instincts. But come to think of it, you can't really blame me... it's what I've been taught in uni and it's what I have to do at work."
"Mmm, my smart big brother, the pharmaceutical oncologist," Bruce interrupted. "Damn, that's a mouth full! Now let all of that medical stuff go, don't think about those guys in their white coats anymore and stop thinkin' about needles and little tubes to stick into people's bodies and scanners that can show you what your patients had for dinner. Think about the adventures we might be gettin' ourselves into, the fun we'll have..."
A sly grin appeared on Bruce's face and he got that mischievous look in his eyes he always got when his inner child resurfaced. "You think we'll be allowed to jump off the Eiffel Tower, you know like those base jumpers, or to take a piss from the top of Saint Peter's Cathedral or to take that old Queen of England to a disco bar and get her drunk? Hah! Maybe the Pope will want to go with us to a gay bar or somethin'. A guy who's constantly walking around in a white dress has to be totally gay, I'll tell ya that!"
"Hahaha, you dork," Seth laughed. "I don't know about the Queen and disco bars or the Pope and gay bars, but I'll ask them if we pass by Buckingham Palace and the Vatican."
"There you go, bro, already breakin' out of your cocoon! Now spread your wings and go fly around like the ugly little insect you are," Bruce shouted waving his arms through the air.
"If you don't keep your voice down I might come and sting ya hard, pall. Everybody's watching us, so behave", Seth hissed at his brother and gave him a punch in the arm with his elbow.
"Ouch! So what? Let them watch, I don't care," Bruce hissed in return with clear agitation in his voice. But Bruce was never able to stay mad for long. The typical cheerful expression on his face quickly returned and he grabbed his brother by the arm: "Come on, let's go grab a coffee. Only half an hour till we have to go on board." And with that Bruce flounced off, heading for a small, cosy cafe a whole end further down the corridor they were walking through, with once again Seth trailing after him.
Once they were seated, Seth wanted to discuss more serious matters before flying across the Atlantic. He hadn't mentioned it to Bruce yet since the latter came back to him a week before, but he felt like he had to get it off his chest before lifting off. In a strange way he felt like now was the perfect time to do it, like it might be the last chance to explain Bruce how he felt about the way their lives were going now. Was it a hunch for something bad to happen...? Seth quickly dismissed that thought and spoke up to Bruce.
"So eum, Bruce... how come I haven't seen or heard from you in about 3 months before we decided to do this," Seth said, "you got me worried that something might have happened, you know." And while he said it he momentarily felt that cold hollow inside of him again, that gnawing emptiness Bruce always left behind in his soul when once again he took off for an absence of a few weeks, or even months like now. "I would appreciate it if next time you at least give me a call or something, letting me know how you're doing or maybe even, hmm... I don't know, give me the number of your new cell phone or the new address you're staying at when you have decided to move!" With each word he spoke Seth felt himself getting more and more angry. "What the hell happened that you didn't even bother to give me that information? Don't I count anymore? What happened to us sharing everything with each other, not having any secrets for each other, with us sticking together after all that's happened?!"
Ouch, that one hurt.
"I think you can figure out my reasons for doin' what I did on your own," Bruce answered, looking his brother straight in the eye despite the emotional blow he just had to take.
Seth opened his mouth to answer, but a waiter interrupted them: "What can I bring you, gentlemen?"
"Two coffees with cream and no sugar, thanks," Seth ordered. "Oh, and bring me a blueberry muffin too, please. I'm getting a little hungry again. You want to grab a quick bite too, Bruce?"
"No, I'm fine thanks. Leave us," Bruce half snapped waving his hand to the waiter. What he wanted was for that waiter to take a hike ASAP, so he could hear what Seth had to say.
The waiter gave Bruce an ugly look and took off.
Seth shifted in his chair and took a deep breath: "I might have a clue as to why you acted that way yes, but I'd like to hear you say it instead of having to take a wild guess." He tried to stay calm and keep his voice straight, but his heart was pounding in his chest like it had gone mad. He'd been waiting for this moment for almost two years now, and now that it was there he could hardly control his emotions.
"Oh come on Seth! What would you have done if your own parents kicked you out of the house because you came out to them that you're gay and even made it so that the rest of the family rejects you as well," Bruce almost shouted throwing his hands in the air. "I just couldn't stay there anymore, not if nobody wants me anymore and not if everyone I thought I knew turns out to be so damned conservative that they still don't eat meat on fuckin' Friday or can't accept their son for who he is!"
"I still wanted you and I think I can call myself open minded," Seth said in a gentle voice. "There was no reason for you to run away from me as well and certainly no reason to lie about it either... you should've known that you can come to me with everything..."
"Yeah, and I'm grateful for that, but you still live with our parents, so I didn't have many options, did I? Besides, it turned out to be a good opportunity for me to go make my own life anyway."
"That may be so, but why the hell does it seem like you're running from me too," Seth snapped, and he had to control himself not to bang the table with his fist. That last statement his brother had made, really agitated him. "Go make your own life all you want," he continued, "God, let me even encourage you to, but I'd like to think that you would at least include your TWIN brother in it instead of doing it all on your own and disappearing for weeks or months in a row like you have been doing for the last two years! Let me repeat: you are still very welcome in my life, bro! Whether you're gay or bi or even a transvestite, I don't care! And I think that me defying our parents by going on this trip with you proves that more than enough!"
"Actually there was, or still is another reason for me to avoid you ever since I came out to our family, but I can't and won't talk about it right now or any other time for that matter. All I'm askin' at this very moment is to go on this trip with me and enjoy it. Just the two of us, as brothers, for old time's sake, OK?
Out of the corner of his eye Bruce saw the waiter returning with their order. "Now, keep your voice down and act cool," Bruce whispered, turning his head to greet the waiter with a friendly smile.
"Here's your coffee and one blueberry muffin, gentlemen."
The waiter set out their order on the table, Seth paid for the bill and gave the guy a nice tip to get rid of him a bit faster, and indeed within half a minute the waiter trailed off again.
Seth took a moment to think about what Bruce had said. Him still living with their parents most of the time clearly wasn't the only reason why Bruce hardly sought contact with him anymore. Although Bruce said he didn't want to discuss it, Seth couldn't resist asking: "I hope you weren't talking about being embarrassed with me about your being gay. I don't think any less of you because of it. I already told you that more than once. You're still my brother and nothing will change that."
"Lets just drop the subject, OK," Bruce pleaded. "I wanna enjoy goin' to Europe, not think about all of our issues all the time."
"OK, I won't say another word about it... for now, but I don't like the fact that you're keeping things from me." Seth finished his coffee in one pull, swallowed the last bits of his muffin and stood up from his chair. Without looking back at his brother he left the cafe. "Come on, we've got a plane to catch."
"Dammit," Bruce cursed to himself. "Now he's still pissed at me. What a fuckin' perfect way to start a vacation... ." He stood up, roughly pushed his chair back under the table and went to follow his brother.
Nothing was said anymore between the twins from that moment on. They were both completely sunk in their own thoughts. Seth couldn't understand why his twin kept excluding him from his life and Bruce was angered with himself that he didn't have the guts to tell Seth about his true feelings for him.
Yes, that's why Bruce couldn't stand being around his twin brother for much longer than a week, maximum two weeks anymore. He'd always had deeper feelings for Seth than just the ordinary brotherly love one can find between "ordinary brothers". To him Seth was nothing less than perfect. First of all of course because he was unearthly handsome and beautiful (he found Seth to be way more attractive than himself), but mainly because Seth had always been the only one to keep supporting him no matter what, to accept him for the person he is and the only one who never lectured him for being a "sex-crazed pansy" (he wasn't sex crazed at all, but his parents assumed that being gay was automatically equal to being sex-crazed) or a "heretic, living in grave sin, committing the most unspeakable abomination with other men, who would most surely get a one-way ticket to hell." That's what the rest of their family had told him, but not Seth. The love and support he got from his twin was unconditional, was perfect. Seth still liked and loved him and that was the only reason he held it out with his folks long enough to get a degree in acting, which -- lucky for him -- they had still allowed, albeit after Seth had talked into them for days in a row.
But despite his brother's good intentions, in the end Bruce still wanted to get away as far from his birth family as he could. The coldness they treated him with eventually became unbearable and he grew tired of having to hide his feelings for Seth even more carefully than before, because, so he reasoned, now that Seth knew he was gay, he would definitely find out about how his brother really felt about him, and then Seth in his turn would turn his back on him and shut him out of his life. And Seth was not gay... so whether he told his brother about the intense love he felt for him or not, it wouldn't matter; nothing could ever result from it, or so he thought... .
Outcome of all his reasoning? He had to leave his home. Much to his surprise his parents would help him with that in a totally unexpected way. One day when he returned from the gym his father almost literally kicked him out of the house without any warning in advance. Said he was old enough to take care of his own from now on, and to put some extra force into his words he threw all of Bruce's personal belongings right out the window. "No longer will I neither tolerate nor accept having a pansy for a son, so stay out!! For good!!", his father had shouted after him. And that's what Bruce had been doing these last two years. He travelled to New York to try and build a new life and he would only return to his home town every once in a while to meet up with Seth for a couple of days maximum.
But avoiding Seth as much as he could, turned out to be even worse than being around him all the time. Bruce missed his twin like crazy, so after this last absence of 3 months he decided to try and restore his bond with Seth the way it had been before father-dearest kicked him out. "About three weeks of spending time with him on a trip to Europe, far away from home, would do the trick," he thought.
"A bonehead, that's what I am," Bruce murmured under his breath to his reflection in the small mirror of the uncomfortably narrow toilet room on the plane, with hints of both dismay and anger shimmering through his low voice. "Or wait, make that a coward; don't even have the guts to tell my twin bro the fuckin' truth. Dammit, what the hell am I even doin' here," he sighed in an outburst of desperation. "I can never have what I want from him and I shouldn't even be wanting it! I mean, it's not like I wanna fuck his brains out or somethin', but still -- what I want -- it's -- it's incest." Saying that last word out loud made him shiver. He thought things over again for a moment and then seemed to have made up his mind. "No! I can have a normal relationship with my brother! I will have a normal relationship with Seth no matter what or how I feel! Better to hide the truth from him and still have him around, than to tell him everything and loose him!"
"Hey you in there! What's taking you so long?! You're not the only one who has to go, you know," came from a stern male voice outside the toilet.
Bruce snapped out of his personal conversation. "Just a minute!" He quickly finished washing his hands, dried them off and left.
"That's about time, young man", a tall, heavily built black man with grey hairs covering most of what was left of his black ones lectured him. "I almost thought you got sucked into the toilet."
"Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts for a moment there."
"Yeah, well. You continue thinking on your seat then, but not here," the tall black man continued his lecture.
"Again, my apologies," and without saying another word Bruce went back to his seat where he sat down next to his sleeping brother. He silently watched him for a moment.
"God I love him..." The emotions rushing through his body at that instant were almost suffocating. He had to fight the urge to caress Seth's cheek; wouldn't want other passengers to suspect anything...
"You're so beautiful... you're everything I could ever want in a man; why couldn't you have been some stranger I met in a pub; why do you have to be my brother...?" His mind kept producing more questions of that kind, and with them came the images of how it would be if Seth would answer his feelings. Images of kissing Seth, of holding him in a strong, loving embrace. Images of lying together in bed with him, sleeping on his chest. Images of his body, of exploring that divine body, of removing his shorts, of softly kissing his...
"NO! You sick fuck! You can't think like that!" Bruce abruptly turned away from Seth. "OK, I can't keep this up. Maybe I'd better try and get some sleep. Still 6 hours of flying to go anyway and anything's better then sittin' here thinkin' about me and Seth havin'..., damn! There I go again!" He pushed his head against the back of his seat and forced himself to sleep. After about 10 minutes the effort started to work and he slowly drifted off into dreamland.
The plain continued it's flight to Brussels and both young men stayed vast asleep until they were flying well over Great- Britain and the young, friendly voice of a stewardess awoke them.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts and remain seated until the plane has come to a full stop. Thank you." Shortly after the announcement the plane began its descent to Zaventem, the airport of Brussels.
"Ow man, my neck's sore," Seth complained as he stretched his body. "These seats really aren't made to have a good night's sleep on."
"Nope, they aren't," Bruce groaned while rubbing and massaging his neck and shoulders. "I think I'd better go get a new neck instead of tryin' to get this one supple again. Ouch! Looks like it's kinda stuck"
"Here, turn around and let me take care of that." Bruce turned his back to his brother (at least as much as he could with the seat belt holding him back) and then Seth took hold of his shoulders and started slowly rubbing and kneading the muscles in the broad shoulders and the expansive back in front of him. "Wow, would you look at how high the sun stands already," Seth remarked as he watched through the small window while trying to relax Bruce's muscles. "Seems to be around midday here. We should've set our watches in advance."
Bruce didn't pay attention to what his brother was saying. He was in pure ecstasy. The sensations raging through his body as Seth was massaging his neck, back and shoulders were almost orgasmic. It had been quite a while since Seth had touched him like that, and to Bruce it was sheer bliss. A powerful tingling starting in his spine and from there expanding over his entire body, even to the tips of his toes, made him shiver and got him light headed. He even felt his crotch beginning to stir. He closed his eyes and the world around him was fading... .
"Bruce! Come on, we have to get off the plane. Hey! Earth to Bruce," Seth called.
"Huh? What? What's goin' on?" Bruce hadn't even noticed the massaging had stopped and been replaced by a tugging at his shoulders.
"I said: we have to get off the plane. Come on, get up."
Still a bit light headed, Bruce stood up, took his hand luggage out of the luggage space above the seats and went to the exit-door of the plane.
"Thank you for flying with American Airlines and enjoy your stay in Belgium." The stewardess repeated her line over and over again, never losing the beaming smile and the friendly twinkle in her eyes.
About an hour later the twins had gathered their luggage, had grabbed a bite to eat and were now standing in the exit of the airport.
"Which way was it to the rented cars again," Seth asked while looking around the huge, busy parking lots in front of the entrance hall.
"I think she said it was to the left and then the first floor of the second building on our left again," Bruce considered.
"It sure would be a hell of a lot easier if we could understand what was on these signs." Seth let his eyes wander over the many signs that were to lead in and out coming passengers into the right directions. "Oh wait, here it is in French and English. Hah, now that's what I call handy," and with that he took a turn to the left and started walking away, with Bruce in his wake.
"OK, 12.15pm. I say we immediately start with the sight seeing and go to the centre of Brussels." Seth had a detailed road map of the city spread on his lap and drew small circles around the monuments, museums, palaces, ..., he and Bruce had selected in the travelling guide.
"Pff, noon already and I just feel like it's only early in the mornin'. I think that a jet lag won't be one of the side effects of travellin' I'm goin' to be immune to," Bruce sighed.
"Oh come on, we just got here. Give it a day or two and you'll be fine." Seth started the car and took off to the centre of "Europe's capital".
The entire afternoon and part of the early evening was then spent on visiting locations such as the royal palace, the central marketplace, city hall, and so on. It was well after 7pm when the twins decided to go look for a nice restaurant, as it had been a whole while since they'd had anything decent to eat. After a delicious meal in one of the many small, cosy restaurants on the Butcher's Street next to the central marketplace, they went back to the car in the underground parking lot and headed for a motel they had marked on the map in advance. As Bruce had stated earlier, there were still rooms available and to keep the costs low Seth decided to take one room for the both of them. A room with only one bed... king sized, but still only one bed. Bruce's heart was pounding in his chest and felt like it was going to burst out of it any second. It had been ever since they were little that he and Seth had slept in the same room, had seen each other get undressed, get naked... .
"Bruce! Hey Bruce! Man, what is it with you and getting lost in your own thoughts these last two days," Seth snickered.
"Oh, um... sorry," Bruce stuttered. "Let's go," and Bruce quickly turned away from Seth in order to conceal the blush that had rapidly appeared on his face because of getting caught in the act, or better put "in the thought". He feared that Seth might notice the thrilling excitement he was feeling after hearing that he'd be sleeping in the same bed with his twin.
The brothers took the stairs to the second floor, entered their room and put their bags to the side. Unpacking was not necessary as they were only going to stay there for one night.
"Man, I think I'm getting a little ripe," Seth said sniffing his armpits. "I'm gonna take a shower and then hit the sack, for although I'm not really tired yet, it'll probably be for the best to immediately start living by the local clock here." And with that Seth started to take his clothes off right then and there, in the centre of the room.
"OK, but don't take too long. I wanna... ." Bruce turned his head and his heart instantly skipped a beat. Seth was already removing his shirt, exposing his smooth, utterly well defined and nicely tanned chest and abdomen. Bruce was gaping at him by then. Seth, not paying any attention to his bedazzled brother, turned around and his hands went down to the button of his pants. A gentle snapping sound, the soft gliding of the pants along two powerful legs and Seth stood in his tight black boxers that seductively clamped around his well-formed and firm buttocks.
Bruce was spellbound by the show his twin was performing for him. As said he hadn't seen Seth naked anymore since they were little because of the prudish convictions of their parents. And now Seth was unveiling to him what had been a fantasy of his ever since he hit puberty and started to get sexually interested in guys. Bruce's eyes never left his brother's broad back and incredibly edible butt. If only he could nuzzle in between those two golden globes and inhale the most surely intoxicating scent that was the essence of his twin... . Bruce's heart was almost jumping out of his chest in the expectation of those boxers coming down and his penis had grown rock hard because of the dizzy-making erotic spectacle in front of him. Sadly the climax never came.
Seth bent over to take the showering material out of one of the bags and then disappeared into the small bathroom next to the door of the room, still wearing his underwear.
Slightly disappointed and still a bit delirious Bruce tried to recover from the intense experience he just had. "Maybe I could just casually walk into the bathroom to put my stuff ready... that wouldn't be suspicious, would it," he pondered. "No. No! I can't do that! Besides, he'll be standin' behind a blast curtain anyway, so why even bother." Bruce laid back on one side of the bed in defeat and simply awaited his turn.
Twenty minutes later Seth exited the bathroom, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. "There! Now that was invigorating! Your turn, bro!"
Again Bruce's heart started racing, but instead of just sitting there, gawking at the stunning male beauty of his twin, he quickly lifted himself off the bed, undressed until he was down to his boxers, grabbed the shower equipment and slipped into the bathroom. But it didn't provide him any release at all. As soon as he had entered the small and damp space, an overwhelming, virile scent wafted into his nostrils. Every square inch of the bathroom reeked of his brother and it made Bruce's hormones race and his senses flare to life.
"Shit, this is too hot," he softly groaned. He inhaled deeply and let his hands wander over his body, paying extra attention to his very sensitive chest and his crotch that was straining against the fabric of his boxers. He quickly took those off and entered the still warm shower stall. Soon the hot water was flooding his body. Bruce grabbed hold of his organ and let himself get lost in the rapidly increasing sexual pleasure that was building up in his body. At first images of gorgeous young studs flashed through his mind, but very soon those studs were replaced by images of his brother. Seth's beautiful face, with those deep, gleaming blue eyes; his perfectly sculpted body that looked like it was one of Michelangelo's masterpieces; his private parts that had been hidden from his sight ever since he was 6 years old... Erotic scenes were swirling around in his mind, the scent of his twin was completely surrounding him and out of the depths of his groin a powerful orgasm started to build. Only seconds later the explosion followed, sending Bruce to the point of almost complete exhaustion.
"God, that was intense," he panted. But soon the afterglow was slowly fading away and reality started to come back to the still flustered young man. "God, that was perverse!", his brain shouted. "This felt so immensely good! I love him so much!", his heart yelled in return. "Argh...," he groaned in light despair.
Bruce took his time in finishing his shower, then dried himself off, put on a fresh pair of shorts and exited the bathroom. Not much to his surprise Seth had already slipped under the blankets and apparently had dozed off, facing away from him towards the windows, which were being blinded by thick, heavy curtains so that most of the light from the streets couldn't shimmer through anymore.
As carefully as possible, Bruce sat down on the right side of the bed and gently lay down next to the slowly heaving silhouette next to him. He lied still for a moment, listening to his twin's soft breading. Suddenly Seth shifted a little and moved a few inches closer to Bruce as if he were instinctively looking for the body that had just entered the bed. Only a small gap of space now still separated Bruce from his sibling. He could feel the mild warmth radiating from Seth's body and the latter's scent slowly began to fill his nose again.
"Oh fuck, this is pure torture," Bruce whispered to himself. He wanted to snuggle up against Seth and spoon him so that he could peacefully drift off to sleep in the comforting embrace of his brother's warmth and calming presence. But of course that was no option, so in the end Bruce settled for just turning into Seth's direction while still keeping an "acceptable" distance, but still he made it so that the blankets didn't fall in between them so that he could still feel the energy radiating from the man on the left side of the bed. And so it came that again Bruce had to be content with nothing more than a fantasy. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep... .
"Beep! Beep! Beep! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP!! Wham!!"
"Damned alarm," Seth groaned into his pillow after he had silenced the tumultuous machine with a good blow. Quickly he became aware that a hand was resting on his side. He turned around and found Bruce lying right behind him with a soft smile on his face. "Hmm, someone's gotten all cuddly in his sleep. Must be having a good dream. Sorry pall, but I'll have to tear you out of there." And with a mock roar he roughly grabbed Bruce's sides and started mercilessly tickling him. The latter's eyes immediately shot open with a look of total bewilderment in them and in a reflex Bruce curled himself up and contracted his abdomen. At first he was too startled to laugh so he just gave a few squeaks and tried to crawl away from the hands that were wildly grasping at his most ticklish areas, but after reality had set in he started to roar with laughter.
"Oh please God, stop it," Bruce managed to stutter. "Stop! Sto-ho-hop!!" But Seth wouldn't let go. "Waahaahahaaaahaaa!! Le- he-et go-hoho!! Hahahaaaaa!!" Finally Bruce was able to free himself from his brother's grip and jumped off the bed. "Holy mother of God," he exclaimed still chuckling a bit. "Don't you ever do that again! You almost got me a heart attack! And I was just havin' such a good dream!"
"Yeah, I noticed. What was it about," Seth asked with a huge and sly grin on his face.
Still a bit woozy from the hard laughing Bruce forgot to put his guard up and started to tell. "Well, it was about you and...," but just in time Bruce stopped himself from telling what had happened in the dream and he abruptly broke off the sentence.
"Me and what?"
"Nothin'. Just drop it", Bruce mumbled turning a bit red in the face as he felt like he'd been caught again.
"Ah come on. Don't be shy!" Seth said maintaining his grin. "Was I eating from the forbidden fruit as our parents would call it," he chuckled.
"No! Just drop it! OK?! Stop buggin' me, man!" Bruce snapped more angrily than he had wanted to.
"OK, OK. Sorry for asking. I'm already leaving. Won't be causing you anymore trouble at all." Seth stood up, went around the bed, brushed past his twin and headed straight for the bathroom. Just before entering nonetheless he turned around and sternly said: "You know, if you want this trip to be a bit agreeable... if you want the two of us to get along... you'll have to stop shutting me out of your own little personal world. I'm not going to cope with this kind of reactions all the time, so you'd better change your attitude soon, or I'm going back to America as soon as I can get a flight. Got it?" Having spoken his mind, Seth rushed into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
Once inside he immediately regretted his harshness to Bruce. "Damned, I hope I didn't hurt him or anything," he said under his breath, leaning against the back of the door. "No. Maybe this will make him come to his senses. Maybe he'll be a bit shaken now and open up to me...". Seth let out a deep sigh and then went to prepare himself for the day.
Back in the room Bruce had let himself fall back onto the bed. Small tears were trickling out of the corners of his eyes. "Shit! I'm never goin' to be able to deal with this," he silently sobbed holding his hands over his face. "How am I goin' to act normal around him if I really want somethin' totally different than to just travel around with him? I have to tell him..., I just have to... I can't go on like this anymore, `cause it's doin' more damage to our relationship than any good." After a couple of minutes the tears stopped and a hint of resoluteness appeared on Bruce's face. He had made up his mind. He would tell the whole story behind his long absences, behind the illogical reactions from his side, simply behind his entire strange behaviour. "Seth loves me," Bruce convinced himself. "He'll understand. He won't shut me out because of this. Tonight I'm tellin' him. Tonight..."
After breakfast, the entire day was then spent on visiting the remaining sights of the city they had marked. It went to locations such as the Atomium, the IMAX-cinema with its incredibly large screen, the enormous basilica of Koekelberg, and so on. After supper in one of the several restaurants in Bruparc, the twins left Brussels around 7pm and headed for Bruges, which was about 2 hours of driving towards the coast away. They would stay there for two or three days, after which they'd return the rented car to Brussels. From there they'd be heading for Paris with the Thalis. Little did they know that they'd never make it to the French capital...
It was a quiet ride along the E40, the highway that comes all the way from the city of Keulen in Germany and leads -- after splitting up in West-Flanders, the coastal province of Belgium -- to the city of Oostende on the Belgian coast and to Calais in Northern France. Both of the brothers were tired from the long day and neither of them still had neither the energy nor the desire to discuss the troubles that were haunting and damaging their relationship. The few times Bruce did speak up was to give Seth directions from the road map he had spread out in his lap.
After about three quarters of an hour of driving the twins were approaching Ghent, the old capital of the Medieval County of Flanders, a "world dominant" economic power during the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. Many remnants of its former glory and riches have been preserved and are still to be seen on numerous locations in the city, but as Ghent is not as well known as Bruges, the brothers hadn't put it onto their itinerary.
Bruce was getting more nervous with each second. He was growing tired of the uncomfortable silence between him and Seth and was desperately looking for a way to start telling his brother the up until then still hidden parts of the truth behind his strange behaviour. His heart started beating faster and harder and his breath became more difficult to control.
Of course this didn't go unnoticed with Seth and the latter was getting worried. "Hey bro, you alright? You look like you're about to hyperventilate or get a nervous breakdown or something. What's going on?"
Bruce was a little shaken that Seth had already picked up on his turbulent inner struggle and didn't immediately know how to respond. Should he just spit it out? Should he wait until they had arrived in Bruges? But what would he tell Seth right now if he waited...? He had never been able to lie to his twin (only hide something from him every now and then) and he wasn't going to start now either. Finally he managed to speak up.
"OK, uh... I don't really know how to explain this -- how to tell you this -- um... you see, I'm... ah... well it's about you and... ever since... uh... Shit! Erm..." Bruce's nerves were almost worn to shreds by then. His heart was franticly jumping around in his chest, his mouth was becoming dryer with every second and the words were wildly dancing in his mind without ever being placed in a proper sentence. All he managed to do was sitting there, helplessly fumbling with the map on his lap.
"Hey, hey, hey! Bruce! Calm down, bro. Whatever it is that's on your mind, I'm not gonna eat you alive for it or something. Remember, you can tell me anything, OK? Just take a deep breath and spill it out."
"OK. Right. I'm just goin' to bring it out in the open then. Seth, I'm..."
Bruce never got to finish his sentence. Seth's eyes had been taken off the road when he tried to calm his brother down, his right hand had left the steering wheel and he kept looking at Bruce when the latter started to speak again. Neither of them noticed their car slowly going to the far right side of the highway, the exit approaching, the small group of trees at the corner of the two separating roads...
"SETH!!!!! LOOK OUT!!!!!!" Bruce threw his arms in front of his head and pushed back against his seat, yelling in agony.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" In a reflex Seth tried to grab his brother and throw himself over him, but by then the car was tearing into the small forest at a 100 kilometres per hour. Ramming the crash barrier the vehicle was thrown to its right side, hitting one of the first trees with the right side of its rear. This made the car being catapulted to it's left and almost completely rotate. A couple of metres farther, the car hit another tree with its back end and finally came to a stop.
A couple of minutes of deafening silence... Suddenly some movement inside the car... Bruce was stirring a little... his eyes fluttered open again...
"Holy sweet mother of God," he whispered. "Jesus Christ. What just happened," he continued inwardly. "Am I still alive?". Soon reality hit him again and with it the realisation of what had actually happened. "Oh God! Oh my fuckin' God! I wanna get out!! Am I hurt?" Bruce sat still for a moment trying to make out if he was injured or not. No killing pain of sorts could be sensed. He moved both of his arms, slowly turned his head in short moves. He slowly lifted his legs a bit, tensed up some of his muscles... Except for the pain one would relate to being badly bruised, he felt nothing "weird", nothing that made him fear for his life. Everything seemed to be fine.
A man appeared next to the open window. "Ben je ongedeerd?", he asked in Dutch. "Blijf kalm!! Ik heb de ambulance gebeld!!"
"Wha -- What? I -- I don't understand. I'm not..." Suddenly Seth came into his mind. He jerked his head to the left and looked his brother over. Seth's eyes were closed and his head was hanging down, his arms dangling loosely around his body that was being held straight up only by the blocked seatbelt.
"Seth...?" Bruce gave his brother's shoulder a light push. "Seth?!" Another push. Still nothing. Panic. "SETH!!!! Oh God sir, help us!!! Please, call someone!!! Call an ambulance!!!! Please hurry!!!" Bruce was desperately trying to get out of his seat...
"Ah, you're not from Belgium," the man replied. He bent a little through the window and firmly placed his hands on Bruce's shoulders, looking him straight in the eyes. "Don't worry! I have called the emergency services! They are on their way! Please, sir, stay in your seat! You may have gotten hurt. I'll go check on the driver."
The man went around the car and bent through the other broken window next to were Seth was sitting. He placed his fingers against the side of Seth's neck. The feeling of blood still rushing through the artery. Now the man held his hand under Seth's nose. A gentle gush of warm air blew on his palm. Good, the young man was still alive... but no sign of consciousness at all could be seen and a light stream of blood was running along the side of his face.
The man looked up at Bruce who was staring at him with a look of what must have been unbearable fear in his eyes. "It's ok. Don't be afraid. You're friend is still alive, but..." he quickly tried to reassure the terrified young man opposite of him.
Bruce interrupted him. "My friend?! He -- he's not my friend at all! He's my brother! My twin brother and he can't die! He really can't! I can't live without him! You gotta save him! You just have to!! Please!" And again Bruce tried to brake free from his seatbelt.
"He won't die, OK? Now calm down, sir! Remain seated! The ambulance will be here any time now!" The man spoke the words slowly, accentuating each one of them to try and get through to Bruce, but it was no use. The young man was clearly panicking and not listening to a word of what he was saying. Lucky for him the sirens of oncoming police cars and ambulances could be heard. Soon blue and red flashing-lights were spreading their light over the small forest. Men and women in fluorescent vests started swiftly running around.
"They're lucky," one of them muttered to a colleague. "If the front of the car had hit this tree, then most likely neither of them would have survived."
Witnesses were being interrogated by the police. The brothers were being freed from their prison of crushed metal and entered into the two yellow ambulances that both had "Universiteit Gent" spelled on them in big blue letters; ambulances from the university hospital of Ghent.
Bruce was restlessly tossing about on the stretcher. A man and a woman were placing all kinds of stuff onto his body and attached him to some technical equipment. "M--My brother... Where's my brother... Where's Seth..." he constantly asked.
A warm, friendly, reassuring female voice spoke with a clearly audible Dutch accent: "I'm doctor Deneckere. Your brother is being transported in another ambulance. He's in good hands. Don't worry. He'll be fine. Now, I need you to calm down, lay back and let us do our work." The woman pressed on Bruce's stomach. "Do you feel a twinge when I press here?"
"No. Not really."
The lady moved to another spot and pressed again. "Any stab of pain?"
"No."
She continued this for a while and then came to a conclusion. "Good. No internal bleedings," she said to her colleague who was assisting her. Then she addressed Bruce again, placed a hand on his forehead and slowly stroked it. "You've been lucky young man. For as far as I can see, you only have been bruised on several places on your body. Quite badly still, but nothing life-threatening. You'll be OK."
Bruce looked up into the friendly face of the doctor. He was met by deep, comforting brown eyes and a warm smile that was beaming down on him. A faint smile appeared on his face. Slowly he started to calm down and the intense panic gradually faded away.
"We're arriving at the hospital now," the doctor spoke. "We're going to take you into a surgery room and take some further tests so that we can locate the damage that has clearly been done to your skeleton. Try to remain calm, OK?"
"OK, but do you know how my brother's doin'," he asked, panic briefly swaying over him again.
"Well..." She was a little hesitant to tell the young man what she already knew about Seth's condition, but when she saw the fear in the pleading blue eyes that were looking up into hers, she gave in. "First indications are that he's not at risk of his life, but he has been severely injured on his head and his neck, which means that he must have taken a few hard blows on it. We haven't been able to make him regain consciousness again, so there might be some brain damage. That's all I can say at the time."
Bruce couldn't speak. Tears were welling in his eyes and he was lightly sobbing. Seth's pain was his pain. Seth's suffering was his suffering and the thought of his twin being in danger was unbearable.
"I'm sorry," the woman said with a slightly broken voice, placing her hand back on Bruce's forehead. "We're going to do everything we can for your bother."
The ambulances stopped in front of one of the twelve large buildings of Ghent's university hospital. Both of the brothers were taken inside to the operating rooms... .
Well, I hope you've been enjoying yourselves so far and that you're all anxious to see what's coming next. If you are, then you won't have to wait very long. The second (and final) part is already finished and will be published hopefully tomorrow.
Until then :-)!!