FREE FLYING HEARTS -- A collection of short stories from Tonig73

VICES ...

Laurent stood as still as stone, just waiting, blocking out everything that was going on around him. The noise, the screaming, the lights that relentlessly flashed across his face. Larry stood on the opposite side of the huge stage, ready to catch their cue, already antsy, bouncing on his toes and grinning like a fucking Cheshire cat. Lau caught his eye as he stared at him, glared at him. Larry smirked from far enough away that he knew Lau couldn't do anything about it.

They met in the middle of the walkway, giving each other a sly warning glance that no one would notice except them. They walked towards B as she walked at them, walking backwards for a few steps before heading to circle the edges of the circular stage in the centre of the vast stadium. Larry stalked around, full of himself as usual, too full of himself for Lau's liking, pointing at people in the crowd and getting mouthy, the smirk still firmly in place. Laurent was fuming at his brother, where was his self control, his professionalism ? Laurent lost his own then.

"Don't you dare fuck this up !" he pointed his finger in Larry's face, yelling at his brother as they came within touching distance of each other, multiple camera's catching it all. For Lau, it was Deja vu all over again. It brought back tinges of Fusion Concept, Larry doing the exact same thing, behaving in the exact same manner, the exact same vices driving his body and his over inflated ego forward. Lau pointing at him furiously, telling him to sit the fuck down, he was his own worst enemy right now. But then, Larry had always been his own worst enemy, hadn't he ? They hadn't come all this way to prove their point, only to go away empty handed because Larry couldn't get a grip.

"Just worry about yourself and leave me the fuck alone !" Larry sneered back. They were bathed in blue light, their reflective crew jackets now glinting silver in the centre of a stadium that held 70,000 people, and suddenly all eyes were on them. Their professionalism was well honed by now, after years of practice and perfect timing, they hit each other's hand away roughly in passing, it was a knee jerk reaction now, and launched into what they did best.

They danced in front of these people, and did it as only they could. When the lights dimmed signalling the finale', the twin men stalked away to neutral corners. Laurent didn't want to even lay his eyes on his brother if he didn't have to right now, let alone talk to him. There was maybe 30 minutes left of the show, they could wait that long to yell and scream at each other in the relative privacy of their own dressing room. Laurent knew he would be stewed enough in his own juices by then to provide his brother with the reality check he so badly needed, and the one that could only come from him.

They hugged Queen B on stage as they did every night, all smiles and brotherly camaraderie as was usual. But when they were done, tonight was different. Laurent had had enough. The cast and crew hugged or high fived each other as they made their way down the labyrinthine corridors to dressing rooms and the Kraft tables to refuel. Larry marched away from Laurent like he was trying to escape the plague.

He didn't want to look at Laurent either, he didn't want to look into his face and see what he knew he would see. He didn't want Lau to see what lay behind his eyes either, so the faster he could move, the more distance he put between them, the better. He didn't want his brother to catch the guilt that seemed to settle itself there lately, even though he knew he could feel it. Even if they were good at it enough to be able to cover what they hid in their eyes, they would always feel it. A blessing they had been born with their mother had always told them, but now it was more like a curse, an anchor weighing them down, tethering them together whether they liked it or not. Usually they liked it, that barely perceptible internal itch that required one or other of them to scratch, letting the other know they could both feel it. It was comforting for them, this tethering. And right now ? All either of them wanted to do was to cut the tie that bound them together.