Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 12:53:31 -0800 (PST)
From: Sebastian Wallace <sebastian_wallace@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Christmas Reunion Part 1

CHRISTMAS REUNION
by Sebastian Wallace

===

Author: sebastian_wallace@yahoo.co.uk
Website: http://stories.remoworld.com

===

Just about every Christmas I can remember, my dad's sister and brother have
paid my parents a visit with their families.  For an afternoon and evening,
the house becomes overwhelmed by people.  You can't seem to move without
tripping over someone's feet or elbowing someone's drink over.

It used to be worse when Auntie Pauline -- that's my dad's sister -- and
Uncle Bill used to bring their son Josh along with them.  Josh was a few
years older than me and used to see the visit as an opportunity to take the
piss out of me continually and steal or break as much of my stuff as he
could in the time they were here.

But he'd stopped coming when he'd reached sixteen or so.  My CD collection
and I had breathed a grateful sigh of relief.

Uncle Sean -- my dad's brother -- and his wife used to bring their big
black retriever.  I think my mother hated that dog even more than I hated
Josh.  One year it got so excited by carol singers coming to the door that
it somehow got the electric cable of the Christmas tree lights entwined
around itself and pulled the tree, the lights, the baubles and even the
fairy on top out onto the front garden when my dad opened the front door.
Another year it managed to gulp down half of the uncooked turkey my mother
was preparing when her back was turned.

After that my mum developed a sudden and inexplicable allergy to dog hair.
Poor Tara has had to be put into a boarding kennel ever since.

It became a bit better, too, after my older sister Adrianne got married and
moved out from home when she was twenty.  That freed up a bedroom to become
a spare room and so I didn't have to sleep downstairs to accommodate the
annual invasion.

These days, since I left home to go to University and now that I've moved
up to Leeds, I'm hardly ever at my parents' house to witness the Christmas
reunions.  The last time I was part of it, actually, must have been seven
or eight years ago.

As I remember it, I'd paid my parents a fleeting visit between the
end-of-term parties at University and visiting my girlfriend's folks for
Christmas and the New Year. I'd called into see them for the night,
stopping off at London on the drive from Southampton and Yorkshire.

Originally I'd said I wouldn't have time to see them until well into the
New Year.  But I figured I'd surprise them by taking a detour from the M25;
have at least one evening of festive tradition with the folks before
heading up North.

Unfortunately, my brief appearance had happened to coincide with the night
my aunts and uncles chose to visit.  And to complicate matters further, it
also happened to be the weekend that my older brother had chosen to stay
over with them.

You see, Gareth had been avoiding me since the Summer.  My phone messages
had gone unacknowledged, letters had been unanswered, and every time I'd
been to my parents' house he always seemed to be visiting friends or had
made plans to be as far away as possible.  Even a card I'd sent him to
congratulate him on a job he'd got in Guildford -- doing something with
computers -- had been met with only silence.

It had become clear that he simply didn't want to know me.

The problem had arisen because a joke between us had got a little out of
hand.  Well, let's be honest about this: it had got pretty drastically out
of hand.

It had happened like this.  Gareth had been staying with me in Southampton
and a mate of mine had made a few jokes about the fact that Gareth and I
are pretty close and don't have many hang-ups about being naked around each
other and stuff like that.  Gareth and I had fooled around in front of him
-- pretending to get it on together -- and then, after a few beers and when
it had become clear that our mate was getting turned on by what we were
doing, we'd got our dicks out and played around a little together.

Not too much wrong with that, you might be thinking: just two brothers
having a laugh at some guy's expense.  But it went a bit further after my
mate had gone.  It had gone a lot further, actually.

It had seemed pretty cool at the time, trying some stuff with my older
brother that I'd wondered about since we were kids, but afterwards -- well
-- it hadn't seemed quite so straightforward.  Gareth had had some pretty
serious regrets and had left my place looking anxious and upset at
something he saw as being entirely his fault.  He's the elder brother, you
see: that means, according to Gareth's logic, that he carries the emotional
can.

I hadn't felt quite so upset by what we'd done -- I figured, and still
feel, actually, that it's something that most brothers experiment with when
they're young -- but I'd desperately wanted to make contact with Gareth
about it since we'd parted.

I hadn't wanted him to get the impression that I was trying to force him to
talk about something he clearly didn't want to confront, but I'd wanted him
to know that I missed him and hoped we could be mates again.

So now you see why my turning up in the middle of a family reunion, with
Gareth open-mouthed in horror at my appearance in the doorway, wasn't
exactly the best moment to have chosen.

I think, at first, that he thought he'd been the victim of a conspiracy
between my mother and I; that she'd phoned me with the details of his visit
so as to set up an encounter between the two of us.

He'd stared at her as she hugged me, as if trying to spot some tell-tale
sign that her apparent surprise was bogus, and had muttered something like,
"Very convenient," when I'd explained that I'd called in on the way to
seeing my girlfriend's family.

But after I'd said my hellos to my parents and turned to greet Gareth, I
made it clear, as sincerely as I could, that I hadn't known he'd be home
that weekend.

His expression had softened from hostility to uncertainty.

I gave him an affectionate slap on the shoulder and said, "It's good to see
you, Gazz..."

He'd shrugged.  "Yeah..."

His face was wary and his posture cold and stuff.  He really didn't want
this to be happening.

My mother announced that, since I'd come home, one of us would have to
sleep on the camp-bed.  Gareth has the bigger bedroom of the two of us, a
leftover from when we were kids living at home, and so his bedroom had been
assigned to Uncle Sean and Aunty Diane.

Until my arrival, it seemed that Gareth was going to sleep in the single
bed in my smaller room.

I'd suggested, "I don't mind... we'll share the room.  Gareth can have the
bed... I'll sleep on the floor --"

But Gareth had almost cried out in horror at that prospect.  "No!  I'll
sleep downstairs!"

My mother had seemed taken aback.

Gareth quickly added, trying to keep his voice to a more composed volume,
"It's no problem... really..."

My mother shrugged.  "Well, okay... if you're sure..."

Gareth nodded, trying to look casual about something he was clearly
extremely uptight about.  "It's no big deal..."

My mother went on, "You really don't need to sleep downstairs, though,
Gareth... you and Sebastian have slept with each other before, haven't
you...?"

Gareth turned scarlet.  "What do you mean?"

My mother looked surprised by his response.  "When you were younger... on
holiday and stuff... you'd always share a room..."

Gareth sighed, "Oh... yeah..."  He seemed to realise that he was
over-reacting but held firm in his intention to vacate my bedroom.

I even offered to sleep downstairs so that he could have the bed -- I was,
after all, the interloper -- but Gareth was unshakeable.

I think my parents interpreted his steadfast refusal to share a room with
me as being part of Gareth's tendency towards solitude which had started in
his teens.

Knowing the real reason, I felt upset that my older brother wanted nothing
to do with me and slightly affronted that he seemed to be assuming I would
make a move on him during the night despite him making his discomfort with
the sexual side of our relationship so blatant.

He continued to be tense during supper and then almost entirely withdrew
from the conversation when my dad, his sister and brother were reminiscing
about their childhood.  He sat glaring at his glass of wine in a corner as
though trying to will the evening to reach its end.

At one point my Auntie Pauline was gently teasing my dad about something
he'd done when he was a boy -- I don't remember what -- and Uncle Sean
waded in to defend him.

Auntie Pauline had smiled and nodded knowingly.  "You two have always stuck
together against me... Jim could say black's white and you'd be agreeing
with him, Sean... it's been the same ever since you were old enough to
talk..."

Uncle Sean had smiled back.  "You're the oldest of us... you're just the
obvious target to be someone to rebel against..."

Auntie Pauline had seemed unconvinced.  She shook her head.  "I don't think
that's all there is to it.  You two are brothers and I'm the sister... I
can never be part of your boys' club..."

My dad had chuckled.  "I didn't think brothers were supposed to be like
that.  I mean, aren't brothers supposed to be more competitive... have the
relationship of a pair of rivals rather than friends...?"

My mother interjected, "I don't think so... Gareth and Sebastian have never
been like that... they've always been very close like you and Sean..."

Gareth glanced up from his wine glass, his eyes guarded.

My dad laughed, "Yeah, that's true.  And they've always ganged up together
against Adrianne..."

Auntie Pauline nodded.  "It's like I said, you see.  Brothers do have a
kind of boys' club..."

Uncle Sean disagreed.  "I don't think that's true of all brothers.
Actually, I know a lot of blokes who wouldn't piss on their own brothers if
they were on fire..."

Auntie Pauline tutted and glowered at him for using the word 'piss', like
he was still a kid.  My mother could stop herself from smiling and looked
downward to try and hide it.

He went on, indifferent to his sister's disapproval, "Maybe it's just the
brothers in this family... I don't know..."

My dad agreed.  "Gareth and Sebastian are closer than most brothers, that's
true.  You guys have done a lot of stuff together, haven't you...?"

Gareth turned the colour of beetroot and stared back down at his wine.

I wasn't feeling quite so uncomfortable -- in fact, I wasn't feeling at all
uncomfortable -- so I spoke for the two us.  "I dunno... there's guys at
University who are closer to their brothers than Gareth and I..."

Uncle Sean shrugged.  "But for every pair of those there must be a dozen
who don't see their brothers from one year to the next... no, you guys are
closer than most, like me and your dad, and that's nice... that's how it
should be..."

Gareth continued blushing, unable to make eye contact with anyone.

I guess everyone except me assumed he was drunk.

I found I couldn't sleep that night.  I felt guilty for showing up at the
house when Gareth was here, for spoiling his weekend with our parents, and
for making him feel so tense and anxious and paranoid about every innocuous
comment anyone said about the pair of us.

I was wishing I'd continued driving up to Keighley to see Kaz, my
girlfriend.

It must have been about half past three in the morning when I crept out of
my room and tiptoed downstairs to talk to Gareth.

Over the hours I'd been lying awake, I'd decided that the two of us had to
talk; Gareth looked like he was getting really screwed up about what had
happened between us: it was time to see if I could put things right.  Let's
face it: I couldn't exactly make things any worse.

The house was deadly quiet except for the slow, occasional growl of Uncle
Bill's snores from Adrianne's old room.

Gareth was lying in his sleeping bag in front of the dying embers of the
fire that had been roaring just a few hours earlier.  A weak red glow
filled the room from it.

He looked over at me as I entered the room.  Like me, it seemed he was
having trouble sleeping.

I whispered, "I wanted to talk to you..."

He nodded.

I walked over to him, and knelt at his feet in front of the fire.  I stoked
the coals a little, and they glowed a little redder, but it didn't kick out
much heat.

I said, "I'm freezing..."

I was wearing just a teeshirt and my briefs and the air felt bitingly cold
against the skin of my arms and legs.

He suggested, "Throw a few more pieces of coal on it... there's still
enough life in it for them to catch..."

I did as he said, feeling a little surprised that Gareth was implicitly
asking me to stay a while with him.  I mixed the fresh pieces with the
hotter remnants, and a couple of then soon began to burn.

I said, "I honestly didn't know you were staying here this weekend,
Gazz..."

He nodded.  "Yeah.  I know.  I was just surprised to see you..."

"You've been avoiding me."

He looked at the fire.  "For pretty obvious reasons..."

I decided to approach the matter head-on.  Lance the wound, so to speak.
"What we did, Gareth... it wasn't wrong... it shouldn't come between us
like this..."

He had his answer ready.  "What we did might not have been wrong, I'm not
sure... I just know that how I feel definitely is..."

"Okay... so tell me how you feel..."

He laughed hollowly.  "Fucked up..."

I put my hand on his shin and squeezed it.  He didn't withdraw as I'd
expected.  His leg felt warm; the air in the room was still freezing
despite the coals that were burning on the fire.

I said, "It's time to move on, mate.  We enjoyed it, but --"

He cut in, "Yeah, we enjoyed it.  That's the problem... we enjoyed it far
too much..."

I didn't see where he was coming from.  I tried, "Well... it doesn't have
to be a problem... we don't have to make it a problem..."

He stared at me.  His eyes were fixed on mine.  "I don't think you get it,
Seb... this isn't about guilt or self-recrimination or anything like
that..."

"Okay..."  I shrugged.  "So what's it about?"

He kept staring at me.  "It's about the fact that... well..."  He looked
back at the fire.  The flames were licking upward into the chimney but
giving out little heat.  "Ever since you got here, I've wanted to... I
dunno... to do the same stuff that we did that night..."

I was stunned to hear him say that.  I hadn't expected it at all.

I asked him, "Why didn't you tell me... why've you been so funny with me
these last few months...?"

"Because it's wrong.  How I feel is wrong..."

"I don't think it is.  It doesn't have to be..."

He stared back at me.  "We're brothers for Christ's sake...!"

I nodded.  "Yeah, and we love each other... and if we chose, occasionally,
to express that love in a physical way, well who's to say that's wrong...?"

He shook his head.  "A hug's one thing, Seb.  Getting our dicks out
and... well..."

I squeezed his leg more firmly.  "Gareth, mate.  Listen.  I really enjoyed
what we did.  It felt good to be with you like that... it felt warm and
affectionate and in no way wrong.  At least not to me.  It wasn't like
doing stuff with a girl... you're my brother and that made it totally
different from that..."

He tried to say something but I stopped him.

I went on, "I thought -- for my part -- that it brought us closer.  It
really upset me when you wouldn't answer my calls and stuff... I wanted you
to talk about it with me if you were feeling messed up about it... if you
can't talk to me, who the hell can you talk to, Gazz?"

He looked down.  He muttered, "I'm sorry, Seb.  I just couldn't."

I nodded.  "As far as I'm concerned, if it ever happens again, I'd enjoy
it.  And if it doesn't... well, I'd kind of miss it, but what's most
important is that we stay mates.  That outweighs everything else..."

He nodded.  "Yeah... look, I'm really sorry Seb.  I knew I was upsetting
you, but I really couldn't face you..."

I smiled.  "Don't worry about it."

He said, "You're shaking..."

"I'm shivering... I'm fucking freezing..."

He smiled.  "Do you want to get in here with me...?"

"If that wouldn't freak you out too much..."

He shook his head, unzipping his sleeping bag.  "Having you next to me
won't freak me out.  I'll enjoy it.  I'll probably get hard.  That's the
part that will freak me out..."

I smiled and got in with him, smelling the familiar scent of his body
inside the sleeping bag.  "I just don't see why it should, Gazz.  When we
were kids and we used to wank off together, part of the fun of it -- at
least for me -- was seeing you do it.  That got me hard.  To me that's
reasonable.  I mean, when you feel affection for someone, you're bound to
find them attractive..."

I snuggled in beside him.  Like me, he was wearing a teeshirt and pair of
briefs.

He said, "You think it's as straightforward as that...?"

I smiled.  "Well, no.  But it's part of it..."

I put my arm over him.  "Give me a hug, Gazz..."

He rolled over to face me and I did the same to him.  We wrapped our arms
around each other.

I whispered, "Don't ever give me the silent treatment again..."

He nodded.

I said, "Promise."

He smiled.  "Yeah, I promise."

I held him tight to me, pressing my cheek against his.

When we pulled away from each other, I said, "So did you get hard?"

He smiled more broadly.  "What do you think?"

I reached down to feel between his legs.  Sure enough, his cock was stiff
and making a thick, throbbing rod inside his briefs.

I chuckled.

He asked, "What about you?"

I smiled back at him.  "What do you think?"

He reached down to mine and found it in a similar state.

I gently rubbed my fingers up and down the length of his.  I felt it swell
in appreciation.  The head of it strained against the confines of his
briefs.

He did the same to mine, following my rhythm.

I reminded him, "Just twenty minutes ago you were telling me how screwed up
you've been feeling... is this really the best thing to do right now?"

He shrugged.  "I dunno.  Hair of the dog that bit you and all that..."

I smiled weakly.  That wasn't very convincing.

I asked him again, "Are you sure?"

He answered me by pressing his mouth to mine.  I accepted him eagerly,
opening my mouth and pushing my tongue against his.

His breathing became punctuated by short gasps as our tongues wrestled
gently inside our mouths, his entering me and playing with mine and then me
doing the same to his.

I felt his hand release my cock from my underwear and begin to masturbate
it in earnest.

I quickly followed suit with his larger organ.

He pulled back from my mouth to whisper, "You know what I want you to
do...?"

Our hands maintained their rhythms on each other's cocks.

I nodded.  "Yeah.  I think so."

"And do you want to do it?"

"Yeah, of course.  If it won't screw you up..."

He hesitated.  "I really want you to do it.  I've thought about it so often
since... that day..."

I said, "As far as I'm concerned, it'll be an act of affection, Gazz.  An
expression of how I feel for you as my brother..."

We kept masturbating each other for a few seconds while Gareth thought
about the implications of what we were contemplating.

Eventually he suggested, "I think if we do it, Seb... I think it would be
best for me to visit you in the New Year... or you to visit me.  Stay over
with each other; talk about it and see how we feel.  Don't give the memory
time to fester..."

I nodded.  "That's fine by me..."

His thumb swirled around the head of my cock, rubbing my precum into the
sensitive skin around the slit.

He nodded back at me.  "In that case..."

===

Will be concluded

===

Comments please to: sebastian_wallace@yahoo.co.uk