Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 17:05:47 +0100
From: Phoibos Apollo <halltwinsstory@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Hall Twins in Europe part 1

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 :-)!!