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maderrWritten for my beloved tsu chan! The SMP story that the post office ate.
To be honest I still wonder how good it is >_> I worked on it hardcore, but I'm not sure it came off right. So if you don't like it, Tsu, I'll write you another. I'll take the beatings, b/c crit should always be welcome, but I probably won't have the nerve to look at them for a couple of days. Just so no one thinks I'm ignoring them.
Anyway. This planet is only ever mentioned in passing in the main story. They're not docked long enough for anyone to learn anything about. I want to do several stories involving this locale - I figured this was a good place to start ^_~
Planet 2147151 (Bangkok), red dragon tower
“Bangkok was purchased in the 12th Century of IG rule. It was bought by a wealthy businessman from the planet Mars, which lies…”
Elton stopped listening to the tour guide, far more interested in devising excuses to get out of it. He felt like an idiot, surrounded by kids and parents and grandparents. “Why are we doing this? “
“Ellie…” his sister sighed softly, speaking low enough that they wouldn’t bother the others in the tour group. “Do I really have to remind you?”
“No,” Elton replied. “I’m sorry – it’s just…never mind. I’m sorry.” He smiled. “We came to have fun, not to worry. So I’ll try not to.”
His sister shook her head and pinched his arm. “You? Not worry? That’s like saying we’ll wake up wealthy.”
“Couldn’t you make a better wisecrack than that, Lana?”
“Yeah, okay. Not funny.” She tapped his nose with her finger. “But! Remember? While we’re here we pretend like we have no worries or cares. We’re here to have fun, and that means cheesy tours, bad jokes and getting utterly drunk – and maybe debauched – later.”
Elton rolled his eyes. “You are not getting debauched.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll just tell you I was out catching a play or something.”
“…Wait a minute. Does that mean every time you’ve ever gone to see a play...?”
Lana snorted. “I wish. Sadly, no.”
“Oh thank stars.”
“Shut up.” Lana pinched him again.
“Ouch! Quit that! Pay attention to your stupid tour, because I fully intend to quiz you later.”
Laughing, Lana hooked arms with her brother and led him around the gallery as the tour guide indicated they should wander around and look at their leisure. “Isn’t this fun though, Ellie? We actually made it to Bangkok.” She smiled at him and then turned her attention to the glass case before them, examining the faded papers and trinkets inside.
She didn’t see the sad smile Elton gave her, before he forced the cheer back into his face and manner.
“Do you think we’ll see anyone famous?” she asked, looking back up at him. “Wouldn’t that be fun?”
“No, it wouldn’t be.” Elton grinned. “Because then you’d try to harass them and we’d spend the rest of our vacation in lock up.”
Lana sniffed. “Now who’s making bad jokes? And I know how to behave, thank you very much.” She tugged on his arm. “Come on, there’s more to see.”
“Oh, goodie.”
“You!” Lana stuck her tongue out and hauled him around the rest of the exhibits, then back to the group as they continued their tour of one of the five main towers that were the center of Bangkok.
Red, black, green, blue and yellow – the five dragons spiraling up from the earth and creating what eventually became the heart of Bangkok, the only place in IG territory that could rival Planet Zero for the sheer number of people it saw per day. And the people that visited the ‘Star of Delights’ were far more interesting than those who had business with the Infinitum. Elton felt completely out of his element.
Not that back home felt much like his element either. Begging a need to sit down for a few minutes, he watched his sister flutter around the latest floor devoted to a museum chronicling Bangkok’s legacy – from a weak, mostly barren planet bought by a far-too-wealthy Martian to the most notorious planet in the four quadrants. It was controlled by the wealthy eccentric’s descendants, the latest of which were a reclusive old man and his two sons – of whom Elton knew much though he'd never heard anything himself. He had no interest in Bangkok and its inhabitants.
But Lana had always been in love with the place. Before everything had fallen apart, she had planned to someday drag an unsuspecting lover into a grand Bangkok wedding.
Elton wished she hadn’t been forced to settle for a tense three-day vacation with her little brother. But he’d wished for a lot of things he hadn’t gotten.
“Are you done resting yet?” Lana loomed over him with hands on hips. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You’d better not be over here brooding.”
“I’m not, I’m not. I was thinking deeply about how wonderful and magical Bangkok is, I swear it.” Elton held his hands up in surrender. “Honest. Really.”
“Liar,” Lana said fondly, and hauled him to his feet. “Come on, idiot. Tour’s over, let’s go rest a bit before our evening adventures."
Elton gave a long-suffering sigh. "Yes, Princess."
Much later that evening, Elton escorted his sister down to the hotel lobby, an obscenely grand entryway of gold and glass and crystal. But Lana had wanted one of the finest, and so the finest it had been. He tugged at one of her curls before sliding a soft, white fur stole over her shoulders. Rather than hide anything, the fur only seemed to accenuate her form-fitting, sleeveless red dress and the necklace that was her pride and joy. The diamonds in it – Cela diamonds, some of the finest in existence – covered the majority of her throat in a pattern that almost looked woven, all of them spun around the massive heart-shaped Fornarian ruby at the center. Her prize piece and one of two they’d refused to let be taken away. Combined with the fair skin, pale blonde hair and emerald green eyes they'd gotten from their mother and it was a wonder to him his sister hadn't already been claimed by someone.
Then again, there had been their father.
“So should I expect you in the morning or the afternoon?"
"I'll be back by morning, but I wouldn't expect me to be awake before noon."
"Of course." Elton rolled his eyes.
Lana ignored the gesture. "Are you certain you don't want to come with me? We could see the play and then do a late dinner together."
"I'd rather just do dinner and then see what I can find," Elton said with a shrug. "You know me. Go glamour and glitz and charm someone who turns out to be an Interstellar lawyer."
"He'd probably just be an ass like all the rest," Lana wrinkled her nose. "If you're certain, then I'll see you tomorrow night." She kissed his cheek. "Try to enjoy yourself."
"Of course. Enjoy the play, Lana. Don't bring back someone prettier than me."
Lana laughed at the old joke. “There are few men prettier than you, dear brother." With a last laugh and a wave, she allowed a hotel employee to escort her to her waiting transport.
Elton watched for a moment, then turned and strode toward the hotel restaurant. A moment later he was seated at a table at the edge of the wide space that divided the restaurant, leaving plenty of walking room for guests and workers in the crowded restaurant. It gave him a nice of view of not only the restaurant but also the skyline outside and most of the lobby. Plenty of distractions to keep him from brooding, since he'd promised Lana he'd try to avoid it.
When his waiter arrived, Elton asked about the wines - thirty minutes of heated debate later the waiter vanished cheerfully to get the wine upon which they'd agreed. Elton sat back and sipped his water, looking out across the crowded room. So many people, all of them of a much higher class than he. He felt like an imposter...even if he should fit right in. Luckily he'd never really wanted to join in.
"Here you are, sir."
Elton nodded and tasted the wine when it was offered, nodding his approval a moment later. The waiter poured and then took his order. Toying with the stem of his wineglass, Elton went back to crowd watching, mind drifting idly as he tried to guess what the occupants and each table were doing. He shifted his attention from a couple by the window at a flurry of noise from the front of the restaurant and saw a man rushing through like his life depended on getting to the far side as fast as possible. The man was drop-dead gorgeous. Human, of the pale-skinned type from quad one like he and Lana. Very pale skin, nearly white. Hair just past his chin, fine-looking and darker than the richest Jupiter ink. A high-necked black sweater and matching slacks, all the dark just bringing out that fine skin.
But the speed at which he walked meant he wasn’t watching his surroundings as closely as he should have been, and Elton and the other diners could only watch as the man collided with a waiter, sending a tray of bread and wine flying—
—and the handsome stranger straight into Elton, who tipped over in his chair, sending them both spilling to the floor.
“Whoa,” the man said, and Elton realized abruptly he was much younger than he’d first appeared. Elton was twenty-five, the man sprawled over him couldn’t be much older. “Sorry about that, pretty. Nice catch though, except for the falling over bit.” Fumbling about for a moment, the stranger eventually stood up and hauled Elton with him. “Terribly, terribly sorry. Tell them your stay is on me, ‘kay?” And Elton literally felt his brain shut down when the man, only just taller than him, stooped to kiss him briefly on the lips. “Bye, pretty. Maybe I’ll see you later.” And with that, the stranger turned and was gone, once more rushing pell-mell across the restaurant.
The waiter’s laughter, as well as the resumption of noise in the restaurant, snapped Elton from his stupor. “Who—what was that?”
“That was…” the waiter glanced at a point card the man had shoved into his hand. “Master Baxter.” And though he’d hesitated on the name, he was clearly surprised Elton had been completely ignorant.
“Ah,” Elton said, too uncertain now to admit he still had no idea who the man was talking about.
“Shall I bring the entrée, sir?” the waiter asked, eyeing the mess created by Master Baxter. “We have already prepared a new table for you.”
“Please.” Elton shook his head, the humor of the situation finally striking him. “Does that happen often?”
“At least once a week.”
Elton nodded and let himself be led to the new table, which wasn’t far from his previous seat and afforded an even better view of everything. When his entrée arrived he ate with a vengeance, both to counteract the fresh bottle of wine and to try and erase the memory of lips that had burned when they’d touched his, leaving a trace of something dark and spicy.
Dessert was something decadent-looking and almost too sweet, served with coffee that had been generously laced with what Elton thought was Kreska brandy. He shook his head, amused, and wondered how many guests the mysterious Master Baxter fell on that the best was brought out to appease them.
Lana was going to be furious she’d missed out, and that thought made Elton grin all the more. Of course, he was also grinning because there was far too much wine and brandy in his system. He looked up to signal the waiter to bring him a regular coffee and nearly fell out of his chair.
There was a second one. In almost every way, right down to the speed and manner in which he walked, the clothes, the pale skin and dark hair, the second was the same as the first. Stars, one man that attractive shouldn’t be allowed to exist and there were two of them? Elton gripped his coffee cup, unable to look away, and wondered if he’d had far more to drink than he had believed.
Though clearly in a hurry, the new stranger noticed Elton’s staring and paused at his table. “Miss me, pretty?”
Elton shook himself out of his stupor and frowned. What game was the man playing at? “No. I just wondered if you were going to knock me over like your brother did. I’d rather drink the coffee than wear it.”
The man’s eyes went wide with shock, and he drew a sharp breath. “What did you say?”
“I said—”
“I know what you said,” the man interrupted. “How did you know I wasn’t Baxter?”
Elton looked at him like he was crazy. “Isn’t it obvious?” And suddenly he noticed the dead silence that had befallen the restaurant, and the wide-eyed look the waiter was giving him.
“Did you just guess?”
“No, I did not just guess.” Elton stood up, then wished he hadn’t. No more wine. No more brandy. Ever. “You’re not that alike.”
The man wore a dazed expression as he stepped forward to steady Elton. “C’mon, pretty. We’re leaving.”
“My name is Elton, not ‘pretty.’” Elton shoved him away before he gave into the drunken urge to find out if this one tasted different from his twin. But the man held on to him, pulled him bodily against his side. Elton wanted to push him away, really he did…but if he did that he’d probably topple over. His new rule was no more alcohol.
He held on for dear life as Baxter’s brother led him from the restaurant. “Do either of you know how to walk slowly?” he asked sourly.
The man laughed, and Elton could feel it vibrating in his chest. “Nope, not really. But I don’t crash into people quite as often as Baxter.” They came to a sudden halt in a private teleport lobby and Elton pulled away long enough to realize he probably shouldn’t be trying to stand on his own two feet.
“What’s your name?” he managed, realizing he didn’t know.
Like the waiter earlier, the man seemed surprised Elton didn’t already know. “Lucid,” he said. “And I guess you met Baxter the hard way. C’mon, pretty – I mean Elton.” He winked and guided Elton into the teleport. “Up we go.”
“Up?” Elton managed, stumbling into Lucid. He started to move away, horrified at how badly the alcohol had gotten to him, but Lucid merely held him in place and punched in a long sequence of numbers.
“Up,” Lucid repeated. “Our rooms are at the top of Black Dragon tower.”
And suddenly Elton didn’t feel so drunk anymore, as realization washed over him like a bucket of ice water. “But that’s where—”
Lucid laughed against his ear, making Elton shiver despite himself. “You really didn’t know, did you?”
Elton jerked away. “You’re the brothers. You own Bangkok. I didn’t know you were twins.”
“Technically our father still owns it,” Lucid said with a wink. “Come on,” he said as they stopped. “We’re here.”
“Why am I here?” Elton stayed in the transport.
Lucid brows went up, and he reached in to grab Elton by the wrist and pull him out of the transport. “ Because,” was all he said.
“Thanks for clearing that up.”
“You really don’t know?” Lucid seemed truly amazed.
Elton shook his head. “All I know about Bangkok is that my sister is obsessed, your father is a recluse and you two more or less own it. I try not to keep up with celebrity gossip.”
Lucid laughed, and Elton wondered why it had taken him so long to notice the pale blue eyes. Like aquamarines. “It’s not important, pretty.”
“Stop calling me that,” Elton said irritably. “It’s absurd.”
“I wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true.” Lucid winked and pressed his palm to a reader on the wall. A second later a door slid open where it looked as if there hadn’t been a door at all and Elton was rushed inside.
Inside proved to be as overwhelming as the man rushing him around. Elton realized dizzily that not all the alcohol had vanished from his system, and he wondered when he would wake up.
If he hadn’t already figured out who the twins were, the room he was in would have been a big tip off. Silks, satins and fabrics he only knew from pictures filled his vision, along with several fortunes’ worth of furniture, paintings and other decorations. All of it in green and black and silver, the soft white lights muted to give the whole a lazy, sleepy feel.
Lucid was pushing him again, pressing him down onto a couch that felt way too soft to be real furniture. It dipped as Lucid added his own weight, leaning over Elton. Finger combed through his hair, and Elton thought wildly before Lucid kissed him that Lana would be mad he’d ruined all her work fixing it up.
And again it was only a brief kiss, barely more than a lingering thought, but it was enough that Elton noted one more difference between the brothers. Baxter had burned, like dark, spiced Bangkok rum. Lucid’s kiss held a bite, the tart, cool taste of a potent Vrill wine. “What—” Elton wondered how he’d gotten in so far over his head. He never should have come to Bangkok.
“Rest a moment, pretty. I need to rearrange some meetings.” Lucid vanished, leaving Elton alone with his thoughts.
Escape seemed like the sanest and soberest of them and Elton struggled to his feet to do exactly that. But nearly to the door – which he realized he wasn’t sure how to work – it slid open to admit the bastard that had started all the trouble.
Baxter stopped and stared, confused and surprised. “Hullo, pretty. I thought you’d gone off, when I didn’t see you in the restaurant. How’d you find your way up here?”
“I’m here,” Elton said acidly, focusing on his confusion and anger. “Because your brother is insane. And would you both stop calling me pretty!”
The door slid shut as Baxter finally stepped fully into the room, hands coming up to slide through Elton’s hair, down his back, gently tugging him close and soothing him despite his best efforts to be thoroughly pissed off. They made him dizzy. Baxter started to speak, but Elton could hear Lucid reappearing behind them, from whatever room he’d wandered off into. “Luc? What’s going on?” Baxter stroked Elton’s cheek before letting him go to stride over to his brother.
Lucid gave his brother a kiss in greeting – but there was nothing brotherly about the kiss. Elton thought he was going to either explode or pass out. He was quiet and boring – this wasn’t just out of his range, it was beyond his comprehension. Why was he here?
“What’s going on Luc? Not that I’m complaining. We haven’t had fun in too long.” Baxter nipped at the fingers that danced teasingly over his lips.
“Yeah, I’d like to know what’s going on too.” Elton backed as far away from them as he could get, hoping that if he pressed against the space where the door was maybe it would be good enough to open for him.
Lucid draped his arms over his brother, who had turned to face Elton dead on. “First, pretty prefers to be called Elton. Second - he can tell us apart.”
Elton frowned, confused, when Baxter showed the same shocked expression his brother had before. “You say that like it’s impossible to do! Don’t tell me I’ve been brought up here for such a stupid reason. Can I leave?”
Baxter shook himself and slid free of his brothers hold, and they both approached Elton, who really wished the wall would open up. “Can you really tell us apart?” he asked, voice full of wonder, curiosity and the painful sort of hope Elton had finally lost a term ago, three days after his father had died.
“Yes, I can.” Elton looked at them, utterly bemused. “There’s no such thing as two people being exactly alike. I don’t care what studies have been done, what experiments were run with clones and whatnot. It just isn’t possible. You two look almost exactly alike,” his hand twitched, wanting to touch, but Elton held back. “But you’re still different.”
“How?” Lucid asked, a trace of bitterness in his voice. “Until we were twenty-two we did everything we could think of to make people see us differently. No one ever could. Our father gave up trying to tell us apart years ago – all he ever calls us is “son.” Even our mother couldn’t keep us straight…though she at least tried for a bit.”
Baxter nodded. “Friends couldn’t tell us apart. Neither could lovers.” Oh, there was world of hurt and anger in that simple sentence.
“You’re different,” Elton insisted. Suddenly it seemed important to convince them of this, though only seconds ago he’d thought the whole thing idiotic. “A slight difference in the way you carry yourself.” He pointed at Baxter. “The way you hunch slightly forward.” Turned to Lucid. “The way you hold your head, like you’re looking over a crowded room.” Elton shook his head, not sure how to explain the differences he’d unconsciously noted. “Your smiles tilt differently.” He fell silent, thinking, wishing he could better explain what he meant. “There are differences,” he said lamely, frustrated. Fighting with his alcohol-clouded mind, Elton latched onto the one thing he knew he understood. “Like diamonds. They all look the same to most people. I could hold a Cela next to an Earth and no one would know the difference. But they’re there, if you know how to look. They…sparkle differently.”
Lucid and Baxter smiled, surprised and pleased by what he’d said. Elton thought it was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen. There was no way he was going to leave this room wholly intact.
Baxter touched him first, sliding a hand up his chest—Elton could swear he felt it burn through his linen shirt— around to cup the back of his head and then all he knew was the press of firm lips and an eager tongue, the burn of Bangkok rum and something entirely male. He let his eyes drift shut, ignoring the voices screaming in panic at the back of his head, the warnings that he’d only regret things in the morning.
Barely had Baxter abandoned his mouth to play elsewhere than Lucid took his turn, one arm braced on the wall above them, ducking his head to kiss Elton in his turn, sharp and cool where his brother was slow and hot, and underneath it all he tasted so much like Baxter but not quite. Hands played across his body, exploring and teasing, and Elton wanted to escape as much as he wanted to free his own hands to touch in his turn.
He wished he could blame it on the alcohol when his hands started touching, fighting with sweaters and the touches to his own body, and then whole room was spinning upside down, all around, then precariously seemed right side up again. Elton realized they were on the couch, then closed his eyes again because keeping them open made him dizzy. Lucid took his mouth again, which didn’t help the dizziness at all but made it far more tolerable.
“Can you still tell the difference, pretty?”
Elton froze, and slowly opened his eyes, looking between the men above him. “Am I here just because I can tell the difference between you?”
Lucid frowned, his own passion--clouded eyes growing more focused. ‘No.”
“Definitely not,” Baxter said, kissing his cheek, hand stroking Elton’s belly where his shirt had been shoved open. “I was going to kidnap you anyway. I went back to the restaurant to find you. We like pretty boys that don’t mind our…close relationship.”
“And how did you know I wouldn’t mind? Because I didn’t.”
Baxter leaned up from where he knelt on the floor to kiss first Lucid – stars was that an image burned forever into his brain – and then Elton.
Elton clung to the twins for dear life, unable to do more than go along with whatever they wanted.
“Bax can always tell,” Lucid said, and Elton had to think for a moment before he remembered what they’d been discussing. “It’s just that before we might have asked, or done the whole dinner, night out seduction thing. But telling us apart – that’s a dream come true, pretty." Lucid kissed him, slow and soft and sweet. “We don’t let dreams get away.”
Elton shook his head, fighting the twin distractions driving him insane. “And how do you know you even like me? What if telling you apart is the only good thing about me?”
“Details,” Baxter said, hands and lips putting an end to Elton’s protests. “That’s what tomorrow is for.”
It was like being doused with ice water. Only a hazy, distant thing until then, hearing Baxter mention tomorrow was a dose of reality. There would be tomorrow…but then it was all over. Even if this whole night had a chance of being more than a one-time fling – and why in the hell was he even considering it? – it simply wasn’t possible. “I have to go,” he said, choking. He attempted to shove the twins off him, away. There was no way he could stay, not if he wanted to avoid the pain he knew would come with morning.
Baxter and Lucid weren’t having it. Lucid pulled him close, shifting on the couch until they were sitting pressed against each other, Baxter moving into the empty space on his other side. They each kissed his cheeks. “We’re sorry, pretty.”
“I guess we’re too used to having our way all the time.”
Elton shook his head, soothed despite himself by their gentle touches. It was foreign and right all at once, and he wished again he could blame the alcohol for making him feel like this was okay. He’d known them barely more than an hour – and he didn’t even know them!
Maybe it was the alcohol thinking. “I have to go,” he repeated. “You don’t understand.”
“Don’t understand what?” Baxter pet his hair, soothed a hand down his spine.
Elton tried to pull away from the touches, but that only pressed him closer to Lucid. Getting away was impossible. His eye was caught by the glimmer of gold – the watch on his right wrist. He swore he could feel the mark beneath the watch burning, leaving holes in things that already had too many of them.
Holes that seemed to fill every time the twins touched him, spoke in those soft, persuasive voices. “Don’t ask. Just please – let me go.”
“Only if you really hate things that much.”
Elton struggled to get away, turning desperate. “It’s not that I hate it!” He gave up when he realized his struggles did nothing more than tangle them all together more. “It’s not hate,” he said again, miserably. “Please, I can’t stay. I never should have let you—“
Fingers pressed against his lip, replaced by lips that carried a slow burn. “Pretty, whatever’s wrong we can fix it. Don’t you know that?”
“He doesn’t,” Lucid said. “Not a bit of it. Didn’t even know who we were, Bax.”
Baxter blinked, then smiled. Elton thought anyone who couldn’t see the differences in their smiles was an idiot. Lucid’s smiles were quick, smooth. Baxter’s were slower, crooked, more in his eyes. He captured Elton around the waist and moved until he lay on his back, Elton spread across his thighs, and dragged him down for a kiss that sent every thought in Elton’s head spinning away. “Whatever you want is yours for the asking. Name it, we’ll give it to you.” Baxter held him close, almost desperately. “Anything.”
Elton lay against him for a moment, eyes closed, fingers tight in the fabric of Baxter’s sweater. Lucid’s fingers he could feel in his hair and along his back and he wanted nothing more than to stay there forever. It would be so easy to ask…but it wouldn’t be right. He and Lana had, though unintentionally, made their own mess. If he wanted to stay and find out if there could be something with Baxter and Lucid, starting off by asking them to fix his problems wasn’t the way to do it. No relationship begun that way ever lasted. It certainly hadn’t with his mother and father, and it hadn’t worked with his own first and – until now – last attempt. But still the words hurt, burned in his throat, in his chest, as he spoke them “Then let me go.” His eyes he kept closed, unable to open them and see how they reacted.
The twins stilled, and looked at each other in silence for a long moment. They nodded. “Then stay the night, pretty. We’ll let you go in the morning. All right?”
“All right,” Elton said, still unwilling to open his eyes.
“Now don’t go to sleep on us yet, pretty. If we only get you for tonight, we’ve got lots of playing to do.”
Elton shook his head slowly back and forth, still half-convinced the entire night was nothing but a wine and brandy dream. “None of this seems real.”
“You’re telling me,” Baxter replied, nibbling at his lips. “Can you really tell us apart, pretty?”
And Elton would have taken offense, but there was so much wistful longing in that voice, he could only moan and leaned down for a real kiss. “I could tell you apart blindfolded.”
Lucid hissed. “Fuck, pretty.”
And then Elton’s world went spinning wildly out of control again, and he clung to the twins, content to let them control their one night.
*~*~*~*
"Oh my god!" Lana didn't wait for him to enter the room, but began speaking - shouting really - the moment he opened the door. "I've heard all kinds of things about you! Is it true?" She launched herself from the chaise by the windows, all but running across their hotel room toward him -- then stumbled to an awkward halt, nostrils flaring at the way he smelled, eyes growing as large as dinner plates as she took in his disheveled appearance. "Oh my god! It is true! You won the Jewels of Bangkok!"
"The what?" Elton looked at her, barely understanding a word she said. "We have to go."
"What? We can't go. Are you crazy?" Lana stopped. "Babe, what's wrong?"
Elton shook his head. "We have to go," he repeated roughly. "Lana, please. I can't--they shouldn't--we're--"
"Give me fifteen minutes to pack," Lana said somberly, eyes sad and intent on her brother. "Of course we'll go, Ellie. I wasn't thinking. Fifteen minutes, swear."
Thirty minutes later they were checked out of the hotel. Another twenty of arguing with tellers about changing their tickets and they were onboard a star hopper home
"All right, little brother - let's have the details. You can't look that miserable and expect to get away with not telling your sister a thing."
Slowly, haltingly - leaving out certain scenes and details - Elton related what had occurred. He finished by letting his head thud against the shuttle window.
"Oh, Ellie..."
"I know, I know. I should've asked..." Elton closed his eyes. "But I couldn't, you know? It wouldn't have been right."
Lana smiled softly, wrapped him up in her arms, smelling like vanilla and cinnamon, and kissed his brow. "Of course you did the right thing. I wish you hadn't had to do it though. As miserable as you look, they must have made you really happy ."
Elton closed his eyes and clung to his sister, and almost didn't get the words out, they were so hard to say. "I could have stayed forever."
Hugging him closer, burying her face in his hair, Lana held him for several minutes. "Okay, enough serious. We've already got more of that than I can stand."
Elton laughed despite himself and sat back in his seat.
"Twins, huh?" Lana grinned. "Wow, I didn't know you had it in you."
"Lana!"
"What? Okay, okay. We'll pretend I'm suitably horrified and disgusted for twenty seconds. Ready? Go." A silence fell as Lana folded her arms and glared at him, looking every inch the stern, unbending matron.
Exactly twenty seconds later she broke into a wide grin. "So give details. Damn, twins are going to be hard to beat. Especially the Jewels of Bangkok. I don’t think there is beating that."
"That's the second time you've called them that," Elton said, curious but also desperate to get away from the details he didn't want to discuss. "Why?"
Lana laughed at him. "Only you, Ellie, could spend a night with the Jewels and not realize what exactly it is you're doing."
"Oh I knew what I was doing. Sort of." Elton turned red and shut up.
"Oh, really?"
"Jewels! Explain!"
"Okay, okay. Like I said - only you. Ellie, they're half the reason people visit Bangkok. Even you should've heard this story."
"Just tell me now."
"There isn't a lot to tell. The crux of it is that no one can tell them apart – not a single soul. Not their parents, not their doctors, not their friends or lovers. If they pretended to be each other for a day no one would ever notice. People say they do it all the time; that they’re so good on picking up what the other’s done or said that you never know if you’ve spoken to one or both.”
Elton thought back to the restaurant, and what had set off his life-changing comment – that Lucid had acted like he was Baxter when he saw Elton, and acted as though it were perfectly acceptable. “So let me guess – they finally got fed up?”
“Something like that. Story goes that one of them brought his lover to a big banquet – though I wonder now if they were sharing…” She looked thoughtfully at Elton.
“Story,” Elton said.
“And apparently the guy made no effort whatsoever to tell them apart, despite the fact that he should have been trying more than anyone else. It’s said he started getting drunk, and began to mix them on purpose, then ceased to use their names and eventually settled on ‘Jewels.’ The brothers grew so angry with his callous behavior that they kicked him out of Bangkok."
“I don’t see what any of this has to do with me and identifying them.”
Lana smiled. “Apparently at some point during the whole fiasco, when everyone was really angry and cutting loose, one of the brothers declared that he would gladly give up Bangkok to find one person who knew him from his brother. Apparently the other one heard and followed it up with a more formal declaration – that to whomever could tell them apart, really tell them apart and not just guess correctly once or twice, they would give whatever was in their power to give. Whatever the winner asked. It’s been a sort of informal contest ever since. People try all the time, catching the brothers together, catching them separately – you name it, someone has tried it. No one has ever succeeded. And apparently you knew only after a quick glance at each of them.” Lana looked at him pleadingly. “Now you have to tell me a story – pretty please? Doesn’t your sister deserve to know how you did it?” She sat back in her seat, grinning. “Not that I’m really surprised, mind. I was at first, but once I thought about it…well, if anyone could pick out the details I guess it would be you.”
Elton rolled his eyes. “Gems and people are two different things.”
“Details are details. Now give them.”
“Baxter fell on me – surely you heard that part?”
“Yeah, and then he kissed you and vanished. And apparently he came back in later and teased you when he caught you staring…and you asked if he was going to fall on you like his brother did. The rest…well, everyone is making up their own stories.” Lana looked him over. “The way you looked and smelled walking into the hotel room, I’d imagine reality far outstrips the best fantasies.”
“You’re my sister,” Elton complained. “Stay out of my sex life. And why are you asking me to tell this story when you obviously already know it?”
“Hey, I’m just jealous.”
Elton looked chagrined suddenly. “Here I am bemoaning my own fate and I haven’t even asked about your evening.”
Lana smiled. “I had fun. Went to the play, met a nice man and had dinner with him. Changed at the room, went out to enjoy the nightlife…then got back to hear all about how my little brother apparently scored the Jewels of Bangkok." She winked at him. “So I had all the fun I wanted, even if we’re leaving a day early. And anyway…now that the fun is over…better just to face reality, yeah?” She fell silent, frowning as her thoughts meandered. “There’s just got to be—“
“Don’t,” Elton said tightly, expression pained. “We’ve done this a hundred thousand times before and the results never change. We did our best, we had our fling – now it’s time to face reality.”
“Except they’re not our facts to face! It was all his fault,” Lana’s eyes brimmed with tears, so far from her usual smiles and jests. “He used us, he made us sign those papers. He took them all away from us and now we’re--“ She choked. “We shouldn’t have to face arrest because he tricked us into everything. We didn’t—why won’t anyone help us?” Lana dissolved into tears, and it was Elton’s turn to hold her.
He sighed softly, bitterness creeping into his voice though he tried to keep it out. “Because if any of them had really cared about us, they wouldn’t have let him do the things he did. It doesn’t matter. It’s over. We’ll see each other again one day, and we’ll still have the Lady’s Heart and Dark Sisters. Everything will be okay again one day. We just…have to get through the hard stuff first.”
Neither pointed out how far away that positive future was. Even with all the bargaining they’d been forced into, there were more violations stacked against them than he could believe. It had made him dizzy, the day after his father died – almost two years exactly after their mother finally gave up living – to realize that the officials on his doorstep hadn’t come to discuss a will; they’d come to “work out deals” in regards to various contracts and obligations and promises apparently made by them via their father.
Working out deals had cost them everything. The jewelry store that had been in their mother’s family almost since Mars become the Primary planet in the system. The jewels that were beyond price until that moment. Their house was empty of almost everything but a desk, a couple of old beds and food for a few more days. Everything had either been confiscated or sold to pay fines and debts that seemed to increase every day.
No one had helped – their father's “friends” had swooped in to carry off the jewels and money they’d been after for years. His enemies had taken the rest, and the lawyers were happily collecting the “crumbs” of what was meant to be their family legacy and fortune. His mother’s friends and their own had been scared off years ago. There was no one to help them fight, no one who would listen when they said they were innocent. That their father had used them when their mother, by some miracle, had managed to write a will that left everything to them and not her husband.
And though most fines and penalties had been paid, there was still trial to stand in a few days. What remained of their money they’d used to spend their last days together on Bangkok. Spending all their money there further guaranteed no one else would get it. They were tired of it going to people who should not have it.
In all the chaos and loss, they’d held on to only two pieces of jewelry – the only two pieces their father hadn’t known existed. If he had, there was no doubt they’d be gone. Selling them would easily pay the rest of the fines and fees they still owed. But their mother had loved those pieces best, and they were all they had left.
The Lady’s Heart Lana had worn on her night out was the first piece. The diamond and ruby necklace was her masterpiece – if they had shown it to their father, and the interstellar market, it probably would have made her famous.
The remaining piece was actually a set of two necklaces, family heirlooms – their mother had never shared it with their father. Two chokers made from black pearls, naturally grown and perfectly matched. The like had not been seen since Earth had been turned into a Rehab planet.
Elton removed the watch from his wrist and thumbed the small barcode that had been marked into his skin. They’d been given them by the courts, to ensure that they couldn’t run away before standing trial.
“Well…” Lana smiled weakly. “Two more days of this hellhole and we’ll never have to see it again.”
“That is certainly true,” Elton said, and he was genuinely happy about that, even if he wasn’t pleased about the rest of the situation. The house had felt more like a prison ever since he was old enough to understand that his father was the reason their mother had cried.
“C’mon. I’ll fix breakfast for us.”
Elton hefted their bags and followed her across the yard—then dropped them with a thud when the door opened at their approach, rather than needing to be activated. “Don’t tell me the bastards helped themselves to our house? What did they hope to find? Crumbs?” Bitterly Elton shoved past his sister to finally give the men who’d finished ruining their lives the piece of his mind he’d always wanted to deliver.
The door to the study was ajar, light spilling into the dark, dusty hallway floor – bare now, for they’d sold the rugs that had once been there. “Now see—“ Elton grabbed the door to keep from falling. “What are you doing here?”
Lucid looked up from the sheaf of papers in his hand. Across the lenses of his In-specs words flashed and danced, information whirling past his eyes even as he looked through it to regard Elton. “Hullo, pretty. We wondered how much longer ‘til you showed. Just a second, let Bax finish round three.”
“Unacceptable!” Baxter bellowed, waving a hand in the air to emphasize his vehement disapproval. “Do they think I’m playing games? Where the hell is my Council representative?” He spoke furiously to a screen activated at eye level, to an older, graying man whose expression seemed to only grow calmer the more upset Baxter got. “If they want to play games, I can play. I know a lot more than they do and all their dirty little tricks.” He grabbed a bundle of papers from the edge of the desk, lost completely to whatever he was raging about. “In the first three sections of this contract alone there are easily six counts of blatant disregard for the IG Code of Interplanetary Trade. And two of those disregarded codes are 9 & 17 – I’ll have their firms and their balls for this. Did they think someone wouldn’t notice what they’re attempting? If Mr. Merrick of Merrick, Walnut and Chevro can find the time to break this many codes in one contract, never mind the violations I’ve skimmed over in the others, then he can find the time to contact me and discuss this face to face. And if that doesn’t work, Siler, you can tell Mr. Merrick that I’m dropping professional courtesy, skipping the proper channels entirely and going straight to the High Chancellor. He’s in violation of so many things I’m amazed he’s not in Rehab himself.”
Siler’s expression finally cracked into a faint smile. “Perhaps that’s why he’s too busy to take calls.”
“He can either take a call from me or he can answer the door when the High Chancellor’s men drop by for a visit. It’s his choice. Call me back.” Baxter turned to his brother to make a wisecrack, then realized his brother wasn’t looking at him but rather fixedly at the door. He turned, already smiling, eyes softening. “Hullo, pretty.”
Elton could only stare. They were still too beautiful to be real. In matching coal-black suits, ice-blue ties, right down to the silver on their fingers and in their ears, they were every inch the ultra-elite owners of Bangkok. So different than the men who’d whirled him away for a night he’d never forget. These were the Jewels of Bangkok. Except that when they looked at him with that expression on their faces, all he saw were the Baxter and Lucid he hadn’t wanted to leave. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“Nonsense, pretty.”
A helpless giggle interrupted them. Lana covered her mouth. “Sorry, it’s just—they call you pretty? That’s so cute.”
“Shut it!” Elton said, more desperate than angry. He turned his attention to the twins as they approached him, and Elton felt much like he had the night before – like he was helpless prey. They reached him together, hands at his hips, in his hair, stroking his face. “Didn’t we tell you, pretty? We don’t let go of dreams.” Baxter brushed his lips with a whisper-soft kiss. “Especially the ones that come true.”
Elton shuddered, leaning into them even while his mind reminded him he’d been trying to leave. “But—I can’t—it isn’t right.” But he didn’t try to evade the kiss when Lucid leaned forward, tasting of something sweet . “You shouldn’t be doing this.”
Baxter pulled away, content to let Lucid hold their lover while he went back to work. “Nonsense,” he said with a snort. “The only ones in the wrong here are the people that did all this and the ones who let them. I’m going to glue their asses to a starhopper and send’em through a light gate – for starters. Just wait—”
He was cut off as his screen clicked on, notifying him of an incoming call. Baxter strode over to it and accepted the call. Siler appeared on the screen. “So what’s the status?”
“Mr. Merrick is still refusing our attempts at communication. He says he won’t speak to anyone who isn’t legally documented as Mr. And Mrs. Cullinan's representative.”
“A nice ploy, but you can tell him that he’d do better to act than stall. He’ll have his documentation, and he can refer to them as Master and Lady Cullinan.” Baxter retrieved his papers and launched into his plans for Mr. Merrick. Elton listened but was soon overwhelmed by the legal jargon and the rapid fire pace at which it was rattled off – though Siler clearly had no problem keeping up.
Lucid watched his brother, then shared a conspiratorial grin with Elton. “He loves this sort of thing. Honestly, when he found out he’d be getting to do battle? Possibly in court? Positively giddy. Plus fresh meat; we didn’t recognize the firm that’s hassling you. You should just sit back and watch him, he’ll really get off on you as an audience.” Laughing at Elton’s expression, Lucid kissed his cheek and then wandered over to Lana. “You’re the Lady Lana. Elton speaks highly of you.” He reached out to take Lana’s hand, and kissed it. “I have to admit I’m relieved you’re not as upset by this as most would be.”
Lana shrugged. “So long as you’re not offended I can’t tell you apart. We’ve got bigger things to worry about than who my brother sleeps with.”
“Not for long you don’t,” Baxter said, pausing in his tirade to Siler. “There are so many violations in these papers, I feel like I’m back in law school. It’s like looking at my first year homework all over again.” He spared a look for Elton. “Pretty, you should have just said something. This is easy to fix – no reason for you to leave at all.”
Lucid pressed a finger to Elton’s lips before he could launch into the protests written across his face. “Seriously. The only thing Bax likes more than sex is a good fight over IG law. I’m not exaggerating when I say that. You really should watch him in court next time he goes.” He ducked his head to speak in Elton’s ear. “It’ll twist him up really good, and we can unwind him later.”
Elton hoped Lana couldn’t see the effect those words had. And if they hoping to distract him from yelling at them, he had to admit it was almost working. But the protests he fully intended to voice, no matter how distracting the idea of unknotting Baxter sounded, were prevented by Baxter’s sudden raging. “He doesn’t think so? Oh, really? So now he’s calling me a liar?”
“He thinks perhaps Master Elton has contrived a last ditch effort to escape court and Rehab.”
“How in the hell did this guy get into IG law? You can tell Mr. Merrick that I dislike being called a liar, and more than that I do not take kindly to the disparaging of Master Elton. If he wants to play games, then we’ll play games! In an hour tops, he can expect the High Chancellor’s men – not the Enforcers, oh no, the High Chancellor’s personal soldiers – to arrive at the firm and escort the entirety to Zero and I will see them there and then we can discuss who exactly is the liar here!”
Siler didn’t bat an eye, merely punched keys on his own data system, dispersing orders. “So does that mean we can discard the first half of the agenda? The first part of the second half will need revising, to account for the direct involvement…”
Baxter nodded and began barking changes, jotting notes on his own papers, data occasionally flashing across his in-lens. He spared a glance for his brother. “No fair standing there touching while I’m working. Don’t you have your own job to do?”
Lucid laughed. “Yes, Bax.” He winked at Elton. “I told you he got off on it.”
Elton silently conceded the point – Baxter didn’t look angry at all, though Merrick was obviously proving to be aggravating. He looked more like he was having the time of his life. “Are you really going to call the High Chancellor?” he asked weakly. “Why?”
“Because I can,” Baxter said with a predatory smile. He strode toward Elton and cupped his face, kissing him hard and fast. “And I’ll do everything I can to see they suffer for trying to take you from us.” He spun away again, leaving Elton breathless and dizzy. “How goes it, Luc?”
Elton stared dazedly at Lucid, who was sitting at his desk, alternating between a sheaf of papers, a data screen and his in-specs. “Well, of course.” He grinned at his brother. “Being me makes this almost too easy.”
Baxter snorted. “And you accuse me of getting off on legal battles?”
“You do.”
“At least I don’t get off on shopping.”
“Treasure hunting.”
“It’s not hunting if you’re buying it.”
Lucid rolled his eyes. “Ask these guys, I bet they know all about the difficulties involved with tracking down very specific items and buying them from people who don’t want to sell them.”
Lana blinked as Baxter turned toward her, then slowly nodded. “At least with jewels, if you’re doing it legally. The Fornarian ruby for the Lady’s Heart took my mother and I three years to obtain…though part of that was so my father wouldn’t realize what we were doing.”
“What are you doing?” Elton asked suspiciously. He brushed Baxter aside and approached the desk, drawing a sharp breath when he figured it out. “You can’t do that!” He buried his face in his hands. “That’s going too far.”
“No it isn’t.”
“Yes, it is!” Elton looked up, eyes blazing. “Some of those necklaces cost hundreds of millions of points. The jewels in them are one of a kind, irreplaceable. Buying them isn't nonsense.”
“I’m only buying back the ones originally listed as private property of the family,” Lucid said soothingly. “The rest I figured could be left alone. And if it’s the money that concerns you, pretty, what I’m spending now can be recovered by Bangkok in a matter of days. Money is nothing.”
“Money isn’t nothing! Money is what made this mess for Lana and me in the first place. Money is what ruined my mother! It’s what cost me my last lover! It shouldn’t contaminate this too.” He tried to struggle when Baxter embraced him from behind, watching helplessly as Lucid rose from the desk and approached. “I left because I didn’t want it in the way. No good comes from a relationship started like this.” He turned away from Lucid’s kiss. “I don’t want to know that I owe you every single day of my life.”
Lucid held him still and kissed him, tasting sweet and smelling of some exotic, woodsy cologne. His hair was soft where it brushed against Elton’s cheeks. “Pretty, you worry too much. We’re not your father and though I never met her, I’d be willing to bet you’re a lot stronger than your mother.” He stood up straight, brushing loose strands of hair from Elton’s face, tucking his own behind his ears. From behind, Baxter’s embrace loosened, brushing soothingly over him as Baxter pressed a soft kiss behind his ear. “Elton,” and it was jarring, to hear them use his name. He stayed silent, pinned by the intensity in Lucid’s pale eyes. “You don’t owe us a single thing. Not one. We said we would give anything to the person who could truly tell us apart. You can, and proved it over and over again.”
Baxter took up, voice as intense as Lucid’s gaze. He turned Elton around to look at him. “Nothing we can give you could ever come close to what it means to us to know that when you look at us, you see Baxter and Lucid, not simply ‘the twins.’ You have no idea how much that means to us.”
“But—”
“C’mon, pretty.” Lucid stroked his hair, moving so that they both were watching him. “If you’re still unhappy, say in a month, we’ll take you wherever you want to go and never bother you again.”
Elton shook his head. “That’s what I mean. You’re too generous.”
“Generous?” Lucid snorted. “Generous nothing.” He winked. “Desperate is the word you’re looking for. We want you. We want you with us for as long as you’ll have us. We’ll do whatever it takes to keep you. It was hard enough letting you go the first time, even knowing we’d see you again in a few hours.”
“Yeah, how’d you do that?” Elton frowned.
Baxter looked smug. “We’re the Jewels of Bangkok. Nothing is out of our reach.”
“It’s true jewels are known to cause trouble,” Elton said, torn between amusement and frustration. “You’re both crazy. One night is not enough of a reason to do all this. It’s outrageous and reckless and foolish.”
Lucid nipped at his nose. “But the chance for many more nights is worth a great deal more than this.”
Elton opened his mouth to protest again, but was neatly interrupted by a ringing voice. “Oh, shut up, Ellie. Know when to give up.” Elton jumped, gaze jerking to his sister, still standing in the corner, smiling at them with tear-bright eyes. “Honestly, just say yes already. It’s pretty obvious from here you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“Don’t you know when to leave the room?” Elton asked in exasperation, fighting a smile. “Honestly, Lana.”
“So are you going to listen to your big sister?”
Elton looked at them and gave up. “Who am I to resist adding the Jewels of Bangkok to my collection?”
To be honest I still wonder how good it is >_> I worked on it hardcore, but I'm not sure it came off right. So if you don't like it, Tsu, I'll write you another. I'll take the beatings, b/c crit should always be welcome, but I probably won't have the nerve to look at them for a couple of days. Just so no one thinks I'm ignoring them.
Anyway. This planet is only ever mentioned in passing in the main story. They're not docked long enough for anyone to learn anything about. I want to do several stories involving this locale - I figured this was a good place to start ^_~
The Jewels of Bangkok
Planet 2147151 (Bangkok), red dragon tower
“Bangkok was purchased in the 12th Century of IG rule. It was bought by a wealthy businessman from the planet Mars, which lies…”
Elton stopped listening to the tour guide, far more interested in devising excuses to get out of it. He felt like an idiot, surrounded by kids and parents and grandparents. “Why are we doing this? “
“Ellie…” his sister sighed softly, speaking low enough that they wouldn’t bother the others in the tour group. “Do I really have to remind you?”
“No,” Elton replied. “I’m sorry – it’s just…never mind. I’m sorry.” He smiled. “We came to have fun, not to worry. So I’ll try not to.”
His sister shook her head and pinched his arm. “You? Not worry? That’s like saying we’ll wake up wealthy.”
“Couldn’t you make a better wisecrack than that, Lana?”
“Yeah, okay. Not funny.” She tapped his nose with her finger. “But! Remember? While we’re here we pretend like we have no worries or cares. We’re here to have fun, and that means cheesy tours, bad jokes and getting utterly drunk – and maybe debauched – later.”
Elton rolled his eyes. “You are not getting debauched.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll just tell you I was out catching a play or something.”
“…Wait a minute. Does that mean every time you’ve ever gone to see a play...?”
Lana snorted. “I wish. Sadly, no.”
“Oh thank stars.”
“Shut up.” Lana pinched him again.
“Ouch! Quit that! Pay attention to your stupid tour, because I fully intend to quiz you later.”
Laughing, Lana hooked arms with her brother and led him around the gallery as the tour guide indicated they should wander around and look at their leisure. “Isn’t this fun though, Ellie? We actually made it to Bangkok.” She smiled at him and then turned her attention to the glass case before them, examining the faded papers and trinkets inside.
She didn’t see the sad smile Elton gave her, before he forced the cheer back into his face and manner.
“Do you think we’ll see anyone famous?” she asked, looking back up at him. “Wouldn’t that be fun?”
“No, it wouldn’t be.” Elton grinned. “Because then you’d try to harass them and we’d spend the rest of our vacation in lock up.”
Lana sniffed. “Now who’s making bad jokes? And I know how to behave, thank you very much.” She tugged on his arm. “Come on, there’s more to see.”
“Oh, goodie.”
“You!” Lana stuck her tongue out and hauled him around the rest of the exhibits, then back to the group as they continued their tour of one of the five main towers that were the center of Bangkok.
Red, black, green, blue and yellow – the five dragons spiraling up from the earth and creating what eventually became the heart of Bangkok, the only place in IG territory that could rival Planet Zero for the sheer number of people it saw per day. And the people that visited the ‘Star of Delights’ were far more interesting than those who had business with the Infinitum. Elton felt completely out of his element.
Not that back home felt much like his element either. Begging a need to sit down for a few minutes, he watched his sister flutter around the latest floor devoted to a museum chronicling Bangkok’s legacy – from a weak, mostly barren planet bought by a far-too-wealthy Martian to the most notorious planet in the four quadrants. It was controlled by the wealthy eccentric’s descendants, the latest of which were a reclusive old man and his two sons – of whom Elton knew much though he'd never heard anything himself. He had no interest in Bangkok and its inhabitants.
But Lana had always been in love with the place. Before everything had fallen apart, she had planned to someday drag an unsuspecting lover into a grand Bangkok wedding.
Elton wished she hadn’t been forced to settle for a tense three-day vacation with her little brother. But he’d wished for a lot of things he hadn’t gotten.
“Are you done resting yet?” Lana loomed over him with hands on hips. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You’d better not be over here brooding.”
“I’m not, I’m not. I was thinking deeply about how wonderful and magical Bangkok is, I swear it.” Elton held his hands up in surrender. “Honest. Really.”
“Liar,” Lana said fondly, and hauled him to his feet. “Come on, idiot. Tour’s over, let’s go rest a bit before our evening adventures."
Elton gave a long-suffering sigh. "Yes, Princess."
Much later that evening, Elton escorted his sister down to the hotel lobby, an obscenely grand entryway of gold and glass and crystal. But Lana had wanted one of the finest, and so the finest it had been. He tugged at one of her curls before sliding a soft, white fur stole over her shoulders. Rather than hide anything, the fur only seemed to accenuate her form-fitting, sleeveless red dress and the necklace that was her pride and joy. The diamonds in it – Cela diamonds, some of the finest in existence – covered the majority of her throat in a pattern that almost looked woven, all of them spun around the massive heart-shaped Fornarian ruby at the center. Her prize piece and one of two they’d refused to let be taken away. Combined with the fair skin, pale blonde hair and emerald green eyes they'd gotten from their mother and it was a wonder to him his sister hadn't already been claimed by someone.
Then again, there had been their father.
“So should I expect you in the morning or the afternoon?"
"I'll be back by morning, but I wouldn't expect me to be awake before noon."
"Of course." Elton rolled his eyes.
Lana ignored the gesture. "Are you certain you don't want to come with me? We could see the play and then do a late dinner together."
"I'd rather just do dinner and then see what I can find," Elton said with a shrug. "You know me. Go glamour and glitz and charm someone who turns out to be an Interstellar lawyer."
"He'd probably just be an ass like all the rest," Lana wrinkled her nose. "If you're certain, then I'll see you tomorrow night." She kissed his cheek. "Try to enjoy yourself."
"Of course. Enjoy the play, Lana. Don't bring back someone prettier than me."
Lana laughed at the old joke. “There are few men prettier than you, dear brother." With a last laugh and a wave, she allowed a hotel employee to escort her to her waiting transport.
Elton watched for a moment, then turned and strode toward the hotel restaurant. A moment later he was seated at a table at the edge of the wide space that divided the restaurant, leaving plenty of walking room for guests and workers in the crowded restaurant. It gave him a nice of view of not only the restaurant but also the skyline outside and most of the lobby. Plenty of distractions to keep him from brooding, since he'd promised Lana he'd try to avoid it.
When his waiter arrived, Elton asked about the wines - thirty minutes of heated debate later the waiter vanished cheerfully to get the wine upon which they'd agreed. Elton sat back and sipped his water, looking out across the crowded room. So many people, all of them of a much higher class than he. He felt like an imposter...even if he should fit right in. Luckily he'd never really wanted to join in.
"Here you are, sir."
Elton nodded and tasted the wine when it was offered, nodding his approval a moment later. The waiter poured and then took his order. Toying with the stem of his wineglass, Elton went back to crowd watching, mind drifting idly as he tried to guess what the occupants and each table were doing. He shifted his attention from a couple by the window at a flurry of noise from the front of the restaurant and saw a man rushing through like his life depended on getting to the far side as fast as possible. The man was drop-dead gorgeous. Human, of the pale-skinned type from quad one like he and Lana. Very pale skin, nearly white. Hair just past his chin, fine-looking and darker than the richest Jupiter ink. A high-necked black sweater and matching slacks, all the dark just bringing out that fine skin.
But the speed at which he walked meant he wasn’t watching his surroundings as closely as he should have been, and Elton and the other diners could only watch as the man collided with a waiter, sending a tray of bread and wine flying—
—and the handsome stranger straight into Elton, who tipped over in his chair, sending them both spilling to the floor.
“Whoa,” the man said, and Elton realized abruptly he was much younger than he’d first appeared. Elton was twenty-five, the man sprawled over him couldn’t be much older. “Sorry about that, pretty. Nice catch though, except for the falling over bit.” Fumbling about for a moment, the stranger eventually stood up and hauled Elton with him. “Terribly, terribly sorry. Tell them your stay is on me, ‘kay?” And Elton literally felt his brain shut down when the man, only just taller than him, stooped to kiss him briefly on the lips. “Bye, pretty. Maybe I’ll see you later.” And with that, the stranger turned and was gone, once more rushing pell-mell across the restaurant.
The waiter’s laughter, as well as the resumption of noise in the restaurant, snapped Elton from his stupor. “Who—what was that?”
“That was…” the waiter glanced at a point card the man had shoved into his hand. “Master Baxter.” And though he’d hesitated on the name, he was clearly surprised Elton had been completely ignorant.
“Ah,” Elton said, too uncertain now to admit he still had no idea who the man was talking about.
“Shall I bring the entrée, sir?” the waiter asked, eyeing the mess created by Master Baxter. “We have already prepared a new table for you.”
“Please.” Elton shook his head, the humor of the situation finally striking him. “Does that happen often?”
“At least once a week.”
Elton nodded and let himself be led to the new table, which wasn’t far from his previous seat and afforded an even better view of everything. When his entrée arrived he ate with a vengeance, both to counteract the fresh bottle of wine and to try and erase the memory of lips that had burned when they’d touched his, leaving a trace of something dark and spicy.
Dessert was something decadent-looking and almost too sweet, served with coffee that had been generously laced with what Elton thought was Kreska brandy. He shook his head, amused, and wondered how many guests the mysterious Master Baxter fell on that the best was brought out to appease them.
Lana was going to be furious she’d missed out, and that thought made Elton grin all the more. Of course, he was also grinning because there was far too much wine and brandy in his system. He looked up to signal the waiter to bring him a regular coffee and nearly fell out of his chair.
There was a second one. In almost every way, right down to the speed and manner in which he walked, the clothes, the pale skin and dark hair, the second was the same as the first. Stars, one man that attractive shouldn’t be allowed to exist and there were two of them? Elton gripped his coffee cup, unable to look away, and wondered if he’d had far more to drink than he had believed.
Though clearly in a hurry, the new stranger noticed Elton’s staring and paused at his table. “Miss me, pretty?”
Elton shook himself out of his stupor and frowned. What game was the man playing at? “No. I just wondered if you were going to knock me over like your brother did. I’d rather drink the coffee than wear it.”
The man’s eyes went wide with shock, and he drew a sharp breath. “What did you say?”
“I said—”
“I know what you said,” the man interrupted. “How did you know I wasn’t Baxter?”
Elton looked at him like he was crazy. “Isn’t it obvious?” And suddenly he noticed the dead silence that had befallen the restaurant, and the wide-eyed look the waiter was giving him.
“Did you just guess?”
“No, I did not just guess.” Elton stood up, then wished he hadn’t. No more wine. No more brandy. Ever. “You’re not that alike.”
The man wore a dazed expression as he stepped forward to steady Elton. “C’mon, pretty. We’re leaving.”
“My name is Elton, not ‘pretty.’” Elton shoved him away before he gave into the drunken urge to find out if this one tasted different from his twin. But the man held on to him, pulled him bodily against his side. Elton wanted to push him away, really he did…but if he did that he’d probably topple over. His new rule was no more alcohol.
He held on for dear life as Baxter’s brother led him from the restaurant. “Do either of you know how to walk slowly?” he asked sourly.
The man laughed, and Elton could feel it vibrating in his chest. “Nope, not really. But I don’t crash into people quite as often as Baxter.” They came to a sudden halt in a private teleport lobby and Elton pulled away long enough to realize he probably shouldn’t be trying to stand on his own two feet.
“What’s your name?” he managed, realizing he didn’t know.
Like the waiter earlier, the man seemed surprised Elton didn’t already know. “Lucid,” he said. “And I guess you met Baxter the hard way. C’mon, pretty – I mean Elton.” He winked and guided Elton into the teleport. “Up we go.”
“Up?” Elton managed, stumbling into Lucid. He started to move away, horrified at how badly the alcohol had gotten to him, but Lucid merely held him in place and punched in a long sequence of numbers.
“Up,” Lucid repeated. “Our rooms are at the top of Black Dragon tower.”
And suddenly Elton didn’t feel so drunk anymore, as realization washed over him like a bucket of ice water. “But that’s where—”
Lucid laughed against his ear, making Elton shiver despite himself. “You really didn’t know, did you?”
Elton jerked away. “You’re the brothers. You own Bangkok. I didn’t know you were twins.”
“Technically our father still owns it,” Lucid said with a wink. “Come on,” he said as they stopped. “We’re here.”
“Why am I here?” Elton stayed in the transport.
Lucid brows went up, and he reached in to grab Elton by the wrist and pull him out of the transport. “ Because,” was all he said.
“Thanks for clearing that up.”
“You really don’t know?” Lucid seemed truly amazed.
Elton shook his head. “All I know about Bangkok is that my sister is obsessed, your father is a recluse and you two more or less own it. I try not to keep up with celebrity gossip.”
Lucid laughed, and Elton wondered why it had taken him so long to notice the pale blue eyes. Like aquamarines. “It’s not important, pretty.”
“Stop calling me that,” Elton said irritably. “It’s absurd.”
“I wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true.” Lucid winked and pressed his palm to a reader on the wall. A second later a door slid open where it looked as if there hadn’t been a door at all and Elton was rushed inside.
Inside proved to be as overwhelming as the man rushing him around. Elton realized dizzily that not all the alcohol had vanished from his system, and he wondered when he would wake up.
If he hadn’t already figured out who the twins were, the room he was in would have been a big tip off. Silks, satins and fabrics he only knew from pictures filled his vision, along with several fortunes’ worth of furniture, paintings and other decorations. All of it in green and black and silver, the soft white lights muted to give the whole a lazy, sleepy feel.
Lucid was pushing him again, pressing him down onto a couch that felt way too soft to be real furniture. It dipped as Lucid added his own weight, leaning over Elton. Finger combed through his hair, and Elton thought wildly before Lucid kissed him that Lana would be mad he’d ruined all her work fixing it up.
And again it was only a brief kiss, barely more than a lingering thought, but it was enough that Elton noted one more difference between the brothers. Baxter had burned, like dark, spiced Bangkok rum. Lucid’s kiss held a bite, the tart, cool taste of a potent Vrill wine. “What—” Elton wondered how he’d gotten in so far over his head. He never should have come to Bangkok.
“Rest a moment, pretty. I need to rearrange some meetings.” Lucid vanished, leaving Elton alone with his thoughts.
Escape seemed like the sanest and soberest of them and Elton struggled to his feet to do exactly that. But nearly to the door – which he realized he wasn’t sure how to work – it slid open to admit the bastard that had started all the trouble.
Baxter stopped and stared, confused and surprised. “Hullo, pretty. I thought you’d gone off, when I didn’t see you in the restaurant. How’d you find your way up here?”
“I’m here,” Elton said acidly, focusing on his confusion and anger. “Because your brother is insane. And would you both stop calling me pretty!”
The door slid shut as Baxter finally stepped fully into the room, hands coming up to slide through Elton’s hair, down his back, gently tugging him close and soothing him despite his best efforts to be thoroughly pissed off. They made him dizzy. Baxter started to speak, but Elton could hear Lucid reappearing behind them, from whatever room he’d wandered off into. “Luc? What’s going on?” Baxter stroked Elton’s cheek before letting him go to stride over to his brother.
Lucid gave his brother a kiss in greeting – but there was nothing brotherly about the kiss. Elton thought he was going to either explode or pass out. He was quiet and boring – this wasn’t just out of his range, it was beyond his comprehension. Why was he here?
“What’s going on Luc? Not that I’m complaining. We haven’t had fun in too long.” Baxter nipped at the fingers that danced teasingly over his lips.
“Yeah, I’d like to know what’s going on too.” Elton backed as far away from them as he could get, hoping that if he pressed against the space where the door was maybe it would be good enough to open for him.
Lucid draped his arms over his brother, who had turned to face Elton dead on. “First, pretty prefers to be called Elton. Second - he can tell us apart.”
Elton frowned, confused, when Baxter showed the same shocked expression his brother had before. “You say that like it’s impossible to do! Don’t tell me I’ve been brought up here for such a stupid reason. Can I leave?”
Baxter shook himself and slid free of his brothers hold, and they both approached Elton, who really wished the wall would open up. “Can you really tell us apart?” he asked, voice full of wonder, curiosity and the painful sort of hope Elton had finally lost a term ago, three days after his father had died.
“Yes, I can.” Elton looked at them, utterly bemused. “There’s no such thing as two people being exactly alike. I don’t care what studies have been done, what experiments were run with clones and whatnot. It just isn’t possible. You two look almost exactly alike,” his hand twitched, wanting to touch, but Elton held back. “But you’re still different.”
“How?” Lucid asked, a trace of bitterness in his voice. “Until we were twenty-two we did everything we could think of to make people see us differently. No one ever could. Our father gave up trying to tell us apart years ago – all he ever calls us is “son.” Even our mother couldn’t keep us straight…though she at least tried for a bit.”
Baxter nodded. “Friends couldn’t tell us apart. Neither could lovers.” Oh, there was world of hurt and anger in that simple sentence.
“You’re different,” Elton insisted. Suddenly it seemed important to convince them of this, though only seconds ago he’d thought the whole thing idiotic. “A slight difference in the way you carry yourself.” He pointed at Baxter. “The way you hunch slightly forward.” Turned to Lucid. “The way you hold your head, like you’re looking over a crowded room.” Elton shook his head, not sure how to explain the differences he’d unconsciously noted. “Your smiles tilt differently.” He fell silent, thinking, wishing he could better explain what he meant. “There are differences,” he said lamely, frustrated. Fighting with his alcohol-clouded mind, Elton latched onto the one thing he knew he understood. “Like diamonds. They all look the same to most people. I could hold a Cela next to an Earth and no one would know the difference. But they’re there, if you know how to look. They…sparkle differently.”
Lucid and Baxter smiled, surprised and pleased by what he’d said. Elton thought it was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen. There was no way he was going to leave this room wholly intact.
Baxter touched him first, sliding a hand up his chest—Elton could swear he felt it burn through his linen shirt— around to cup the back of his head and then all he knew was the press of firm lips and an eager tongue, the burn of Bangkok rum and something entirely male. He let his eyes drift shut, ignoring the voices screaming in panic at the back of his head, the warnings that he’d only regret things in the morning.
Barely had Baxter abandoned his mouth to play elsewhere than Lucid took his turn, one arm braced on the wall above them, ducking his head to kiss Elton in his turn, sharp and cool where his brother was slow and hot, and underneath it all he tasted so much like Baxter but not quite. Hands played across his body, exploring and teasing, and Elton wanted to escape as much as he wanted to free his own hands to touch in his turn.
He wished he could blame it on the alcohol when his hands started touching, fighting with sweaters and the touches to his own body, and then whole room was spinning upside down, all around, then precariously seemed right side up again. Elton realized they were on the couch, then closed his eyes again because keeping them open made him dizzy. Lucid took his mouth again, which didn’t help the dizziness at all but made it far more tolerable.
“Can you still tell the difference, pretty?”
Elton froze, and slowly opened his eyes, looking between the men above him. “Am I here just because I can tell the difference between you?”
Lucid frowned, his own passion--clouded eyes growing more focused. ‘No.”
“Definitely not,” Baxter said, kissing his cheek, hand stroking Elton’s belly where his shirt had been shoved open. “I was going to kidnap you anyway. I went back to the restaurant to find you. We like pretty boys that don’t mind our…close relationship.”
“And how did you know I wouldn’t mind? Because I didn’t.”
Baxter leaned up from where he knelt on the floor to kiss first Lucid – stars was that an image burned forever into his brain – and then Elton.
Elton clung to the twins for dear life, unable to do more than go along with whatever they wanted.
“Bax can always tell,” Lucid said, and Elton had to think for a moment before he remembered what they’d been discussing. “It’s just that before we might have asked, or done the whole dinner, night out seduction thing. But telling us apart – that’s a dream come true, pretty." Lucid kissed him, slow and soft and sweet. “We don’t let dreams get away.”
Elton shook his head, fighting the twin distractions driving him insane. “And how do you know you even like me? What if telling you apart is the only good thing about me?”
“Details,” Baxter said, hands and lips putting an end to Elton’s protests. “That’s what tomorrow is for.”
It was like being doused with ice water. Only a hazy, distant thing until then, hearing Baxter mention tomorrow was a dose of reality. There would be tomorrow…but then it was all over. Even if this whole night had a chance of being more than a one-time fling – and why in the hell was he even considering it? – it simply wasn’t possible. “I have to go,” he said, choking. He attempted to shove the twins off him, away. There was no way he could stay, not if he wanted to avoid the pain he knew would come with morning.
Baxter and Lucid weren’t having it. Lucid pulled him close, shifting on the couch until they were sitting pressed against each other, Baxter moving into the empty space on his other side. They each kissed his cheeks. “We’re sorry, pretty.”
“I guess we’re too used to having our way all the time.”
Elton shook his head, soothed despite himself by their gentle touches. It was foreign and right all at once, and he wished again he could blame the alcohol for making him feel like this was okay. He’d known them barely more than an hour – and he didn’t even know them!
Maybe it was the alcohol thinking. “I have to go,” he repeated. “You don’t understand.”
“Don’t understand what?” Baxter pet his hair, soothed a hand down his spine.
Elton tried to pull away from the touches, but that only pressed him closer to Lucid. Getting away was impossible. His eye was caught by the glimmer of gold – the watch on his right wrist. He swore he could feel the mark beneath the watch burning, leaving holes in things that already had too many of them.
Holes that seemed to fill every time the twins touched him, spoke in those soft, persuasive voices. “Don’t ask. Just please – let me go.”
“Only if you really hate things that much.”
Elton struggled to get away, turning desperate. “It’s not that I hate it!” He gave up when he realized his struggles did nothing more than tangle them all together more. “It’s not hate,” he said again, miserably. “Please, I can’t stay. I never should have let you—“
Fingers pressed against his lip, replaced by lips that carried a slow burn. “Pretty, whatever’s wrong we can fix it. Don’t you know that?”
“He doesn’t,” Lucid said. “Not a bit of it. Didn’t even know who we were, Bax.”
Baxter blinked, then smiled. Elton thought anyone who couldn’t see the differences in their smiles was an idiot. Lucid’s smiles were quick, smooth. Baxter’s were slower, crooked, more in his eyes. He captured Elton around the waist and moved until he lay on his back, Elton spread across his thighs, and dragged him down for a kiss that sent every thought in Elton’s head spinning away. “Whatever you want is yours for the asking. Name it, we’ll give it to you.” Baxter held him close, almost desperately. “Anything.”
Elton lay against him for a moment, eyes closed, fingers tight in the fabric of Baxter’s sweater. Lucid’s fingers he could feel in his hair and along his back and he wanted nothing more than to stay there forever. It would be so easy to ask…but it wouldn’t be right. He and Lana had, though unintentionally, made their own mess. If he wanted to stay and find out if there could be something with Baxter and Lucid, starting off by asking them to fix his problems wasn’t the way to do it. No relationship begun that way ever lasted. It certainly hadn’t with his mother and father, and it hadn’t worked with his own first and – until now – last attempt. But still the words hurt, burned in his throat, in his chest, as he spoke them “Then let me go.” His eyes he kept closed, unable to open them and see how they reacted.
The twins stilled, and looked at each other in silence for a long moment. They nodded. “Then stay the night, pretty. We’ll let you go in the morning. All right?”
“All right,” Elton said, still unwilling to open his eyes.
“Now don’t go to sleep on us yet, pretty. If we only get you for tonight, we’ve got lots of playing to do.”
Elton shook his head slowly back and forth, still half-convinced the entire night was nothing but a wine and brandy dream. “None of this seems real.”
“You’re telling me,” Baxter replied, nibbling at his lips. “Can you really tell us apart, pretty?”
And Elton would have taken offense, but there was so much wistful longing in that voice, he could only moan and leaned down for a real kiss. “I could tell you apart blindfolded.”
Lucid hissed. “Fuck, pretty.”
And then Elton’s world went spinning wildly out of control again, and he clung to the twins, content to let them control their one night.
*~*~*~*
"Oh my god!" Lana didn't wait for him to enter the room, but began speaking - shouting really - the moment he opened the door. "I've heard all kinds of things about you! Is it true?" She launched herself from the chaise by the windows, all but running across their hotel room toward him -- then stumbled to an awkward halt, nostrils flaring at the way he smelled, eyes growing as large as dinner plates as she took in his disheveled appearance. "Oh my god! It is true! You won the Jewels of Bangkok!"
"The what?" Elton looked at her, barely understanding a word she said. "We have to go."
"What? We can't go. Are you crazy?" Lana stopped. "Babe, what's wrong?"
Elton shook his head. "We have to go," he repeated roughly. "Lana, please. I can't--they shouldn't--we're--"
"Give me fifteen minutes to pack," Lana said somberly, eyes sad and intent on her brother. "Of course we'll go, Ellie. I wasn't thinking. Fifteen minutes, swear."
Thirty minutes later they were checked out of the hotel. Another twenty of arguing with tellers about changing their tickets and they were onboard a star hopper home
"All right, little brother - let's have the details. You can't look that miserable and expect to get away with not telling your sister a thing."
Slowly, haltingly - leaving out certain scenes and details - Elton related what had occurred. He finished by letting his head thud against the shuttle window.
"Oh, Ellie..."
"I know, I know. I should've asked..." Elton closed his eyes. "But I couldn't, you know? It wouldn't have been right."
Lana smiled softly, wrapped him up in her arms, smelling like vanilla and cinnamon, and kissed his brow. "Of course you did the right thing. I wish you hadn't had to do it though. As miserable as you look, they must have made you really happy ."
Elton closed his eyes and clung to his sister, and almost didn't get the words out, they were so hard to say. "I could have stayed forever."
Hugging him closer, burying her face in his hair, Lana held him for several minutes. "Okay, enough serious. We've already got more of that than I can stand."
Elton laughed despite himself and sat back in his seat.
"Twins, huh?" Lana grinned. "Wow, I didn't know you had it in you."
"Lana!"
"What? Okay, okay. We'll pretend I'm suitably horrified and disgusted for twenty seconds. Ready? Go." A silence fell as Lana folded her arms and glared at him, looking every inch the stern, unbending matron.
Exactly twenty seconds later she broke into a wide grin. "So give details. Damn, twins are going to be hard to beat. Especially the Jewels of Bangkok. I don’t think there is beating that."
"That's the second time you've called them that," Elton said, curious but also desperate to get away from the details he didn't want to discuss. "Why?"
Lana laughed at him. "Only you, Ellie, could spend a night with the Jewels and not realize what exactly it is you're doing."
"Oh I knew what I was doing. Sort of." Elton turned red and shut up.
"Oh, really?"
"Jewels! Explain!"
"Okay, okay. Like I said - only you. Ellie, they're half the reason people visit Bangkok. Even you should've heard this story."
"Just tell me now."
"There isn't a lot to tell. The crux of it is that no one can tell them apart – not a single soul. Not their parents, not their doctors, not their friends or lovers. If they pretended to be each other for a day no one would ever notice. People say they do it all the time; that they’re so good on picking up what the other’s done or said that you never know if you’ve spoken to one or both.”
Elton thought back to the restaurant, and what had set off his life-changing comment – that Lucid had acted like he was Baxter when he saw Elton, and acted as though it were perfectly acceptable. “So let me guess – they finally got fed up?”
“Something like that. Story goes that one of them brought his lover to a big banquet – though I wonder now if they were sharing…” She looked thoughtfully at Elton.
“Story,” Elton said.
“And apparently the guy made no effort whatsoever to tell them apart, despite the fact that he should have been trying more than anyone else. It’s said he started getting drunk, and began to mix them on purpose, then ceased to use their names and eventually settled on ‘Jewels.’ The brothers grew so angry with his callous behavior that they kicked him out of Bangkok."
“I don’t see what any of this has to do with me and identifying them.”
Lana smiled. “Apparently at some point during the whole fiasco, when everyone was really angry and cutting loose, one of the brothers declared that he would gladly give up Bangkok to find one person who knew him from his brother. Apparently the other one heard and followed it up with a more formal declaration – that to whomever could tell them apart, really tell them apart and not just guess correctly once or twice, they would give whatever was in their power to give. Whatever the winner asked. It’s been a sort of informal contest ever since. People try all the time, catching the brothers together, catching them separately – you name it, someone has tried it. No one has ever succeeded. And apparently you knew only after a quick glance at each of them.” Lana looked at him pleadingly. “Now you have to tell me a story – pretty please? Doesn’t your sister deserve to know how you did it?” She sat back in her seat, grinning. “Not that I’m really surprised, mind. I was at first, but once I thought about it…well, if anyone could pick out the details I guess it would be you.”
Elton rolled his eyes. “Gems and people are two different things.”
“Details are details. Now give them.”
“Baxter fell on me – surely you heard that part?”
“Yeah, and then he kissed you and vanished. And apparently he came back in later and teased you when he caught you staring…and you asked if he was going to fall on you like his brother did. The rest…well, everyone is making up their own stories.” Lana looked him over. “The way you looked and smelled walking into the hotel room, I’d imagine reality far outstrips the best fantasies.”
“You’re my sister,” Elton complained. “Stay out of my sex life. And why are you asking me to tell this story when you obviously already know it?”
“Hey, I’m just jealous.”
Elton looked chagrined suddenly. “Here I am bemoaning my own fate and I haven’t even asked about your evening.”
Lana smiled. “I had fun. Went to the play, met a nice man and had dinner with him. Changed at the room, went out to enjoy the nightlife…then got back to hear all about how my little brother apparently scored the Jewels of Bangkok." She winked at him. “So I had all the fun I wanted, even if we’re leaving a day early. And anyway…now that the fun is over…better just to face reality, yeah?” She fell silent, frowning as her thoughts meandered. “There’s just got to be—“
“Don’t,” Elton said tightly, expression pained. “We’ve done this a hundred thousand times before and the results never change. We did our best, we had our fling – now it’s time to face reality.”
“Except they’re not our facts to face! It was all his fault,” Lana’s eyes brimmed with tears, so far from her usual smiles and jests. “He used us, he made us sign those papers. He took them all away from us and now we’re--“ She choked. “We shouldn’t have to face arrest because he tricked us into everything. We didn’t—why won’t anyone help us?” Lana dissolved into tears, and it was Elton’s turn to hold her.
He sighed softly, bitterness creeping into his voice though he tried to keep it out. “Because if any of them had really cared about us, they wouldn’t have let him do the things he did. It doesn’t matter. It’s over. We’ll see each other again one day, and we’ll still have the Lady’s Heart and Dark Sisters. Everything will be okay again one day. We just…have to get through the hard stuff first.”
Neither pointed out how far away that positive future was. Even with all the bargaining they’d been forced into, there were more violations stacked against them than he could believe. It had made him dizzy, the day after his father died – almost two years exactly after their mother finally gave up living – to realize that the officials on his doorstep hadn’t come to discuss a will; they’d come to “work out deals” in regards to various contracts and obligations and promises apparently made by them via their father.
Working out deals had cost them everything. The jewelry store that had been in their mother’s family almost since Mars become the Primary planet in the system. The jewels that were beyond price until that moment. Their house was empty of almost everything but a desk, a couple of old beds and food for a few more days. Everything had either been confiscated or sold to pay fines and debts that seemed to increase every day.
No one had helped – their father's “friends” had swooped in to carry off the jewels and money they’d been after for years. His enemies had taken the rest, and the lawyers were happily collecting the “crumbs” of what was meant to be their family legacy and fortune. His mother’s friends and their own had been scared off years ago. There was no one to help them fight, no one who would listen when they said they were innocent. That their father had used them when their mother, by some miracle, had managed to write a will that left everything to them and not her husband.
And though most fines and penalties had been paid, there was still trial to stand in a few days. What remained of their money they’d used to spend their last days together on Bangkok. Spending all their money there further guaranteed no one else would get it. They were tired of it going to people who should not have it.
In all the chaos and loss, they’d held on to only two pieces of jewelry – the only two pieces their father hadn’t known existed. If he had, there was no doubt they’d be gone. Selling them would easily pay the rest of the fines and fees they still owed. But their mother had loved those pieces best, and they were all they had left.
The Lady’s Heart Lana had worn on her night out was the first piece. The diamond and ruby necklace was her masterpiece – if they had shown it to their father, and the interstellar market, it probably would have made her famous.
The remaining piece was actually a set of two necklaces, family heirlooms – their mother had never shared it with their father. Two chokers made from black pearls, naturally grown and perfectly matched. The like had not been seen since Earth had been turned into a Rehab planet.
Elton removed the watch from his wrist and thumbed the small barcode that had been marked into his skin. They’d been given them by the courts, to ensure that they couldn’t run away before standing trial.
“Well…” Lana smiled weakly. “Two more days of this hellhole and we’ll never have to see it again.”
“That is certainly true,” Elton said, and he was genuinely happy about that, even if he wasn’t pleased about the rest of the situation. The house had felt more like a prison ever since he was old enough to understand that his father was the reason their mother had cried.
“C’mon. I’ll fix breakfast for us.”
Elton hefted their bags and followed her across the yard—then dropped them with a thud when the door opened at their approach, rather than needing to be activated. “Don’t tell me the bastards helped themselves to our house? What did they hope to find? Crumbs?” Bitterly Elton shoved past his sister to finally give the men who’d finished ruining their lives the piece of his mind he’d always wanted to deliver.
The door to the study was ajar, light spilling into the dark, dusty hallway floor – bare now, for they’d sold the rugs that had once been there. “Now see—“ Elton grabbed the door to keep from falling. “What are you doing here?”
Lucid looked up from the sheaf of papers in his hand. Across the lenses of his In-specs words flashed and danced, information whirling past his eyes even as he looked through it to regard Elton. “Hullo, pretty. We wondered how much longer ‘til you showed. Just a second, let Bax finish round three.”
“Unacceptable!” Baxter bellowed, waving a hand in the air to emphasize his vehement disapproval. “Do they think I’m playing games? Where the hell is my Council representative?” He spoke furiously to a screen activated at eye level, to an older, graying man whose expression seemed to only grow calmer the more upset Baxter got. “If they want to play games, I can play. I know a lot more than they do and all their dirty little tricks.” He grabbed a bundle of papers from the edge of the desk, lost completely to whatever he was raging about. “In the first three sections of this contract alone there are easily six counts of blatant disregard for the IG Code of Interplanetary Trade. And two of those disregarded codes are 9 & 17 – I’ll have their firms and their balls for this. Did they think someone wouldn’t notice what they’re attempting? If Mr. Merrick of Merrick, Walnut and Chevro can find the time to break this many codes in one contract, never mind the violations I’ve skimmed over in the others, then he can find the time to contact me and discuss this face to face. And if that doesn’t work, Siler, you can tell Mr. Merrick that I’m dropping professional courtesy, skipping the proper channels entirely and going straight to the High Chancellor. He’s in violation of so many things I’m amazed he’s not in Rehab himself.”
Siler’s expression finally cracked into a faint smile. “Perhaps that’s why he’s too busy to take calls.”
“He can either take a call from me or he can answer the door when the High Chancellor’s men drop by for a visit. It’s his choice. Call me back.” Baxter turned to his brother to make a wisecrack, then realized his brother wasn’t looking at him but rather fixedly at the door. He turned, already smiling, eyes softening. “Hullo, pretty.”
Elton could only stare. They were still too beautiful to be real. In matching coal-black suits, ice-blue ties, right down to the silver on their fingers and in their ears, they were every inch the ultra-elite owners of Bangkok. So different than the men who’d whirled him away for a night he’d never forget. These were the Jewels of Bangkok. Except that when they looked at him with that expression on their faces, all he saw were the Baxter and Lucid he hadn’t wanted to leave. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“Nonsense, pretty.”
A helpless giggle interrupted them. Lana covered her mouth. “Sorry, it’s just—they call you pretty? That’s so cute.”
“Shut it!” Elton said, more desperate than angry. He turned his attention to the twins as they approached him, and Elton felt much like he had the night before – like he was helpless prey. They reached him together, hands at his hips, in his hair, stroking his face. “Didn’t we tell you, pretty? We don’t let go of dreams.” Baxter brushed his lips with a whisper-soft kiss. “Especially the ones that come true.”
Elton shuddered, leaning into them even while his mind reminded him he’d been trying to leave. “But—I can’t—it isn’t right.” But he didn’t try to evade the kiss when Lucid leaned forward, tasting of something sweet . “You shouldn’t be doing this.”
Baxter pulled away, content to let Lucid hold their lover while he went back to work. “Nonsense,” he said with a snort. “The only ones in the wrong here are the people that did all this and the ones who let them. I’m going to glue their asses to a starhopper and send’em through a light gate – for starters. Just wait—”
He was cut off as his screen clicked on, notifying him of an incoming call. Baxter strode over to it and accepted the call. Siler appeared on the screen. “So what’s the status?”
“Mr. Merrick is still refusing our attempts at communication. He says he won’t speak to anyone who isn’t legally documented as Mr. And Mrs. Cullinan's representative.”
“A nice ploy, but you can tell him that he’d do better to act than stall. He’ll have his documentation, and he can refer to them as Master and Lady Cullinan.” Baxter retrieved his papers and launched into his plans for Mr. Merrick. Elton listened but was soon overwhelmed by the legal jargon and the rapid fire pace at which it was rattled off – though Siler clearly had no problem keeping up.
Lucid watched his brother, then shared a conspiratorial grin with Elton. “He loves this sort of thing. Honestly, when he found out he’d be getting to do battle? Possibly in court? Positively giddy. Plus fresh meat; we didn’t recognize the firm that’s hassling you. You should just sit back and watch him, he’ll really get off on you as an audience.” Laughing at Elton’s expression, Lucid kissed his cheek and then wandered over to Lana. “You’re the Lady Lana. Elton speaks highly of you.” He reached out to take Lana’s hand, and kissed it. “I have to admit I’m relieved you’re not as upset by this as most would be.”
Lana shrugged. “So long as you’re not offended I can’t tell you apart. We’ve got bigger things to worry about than who my brother sleeps with.”
“Not for long you don’t,” Baxter said, pausing in his tirade to Siler. “There are so many violations in these papers, I feel like I’m back in law school. It’s like looking at my first year homework all over again.” He spared a look for Elton. “Pretty, you should have just said something. This is easy to fix – no reason for you to leave at all.”
Lucid pressed a finger to Elton’s lips before he could launch into the protests written across his face. “Seriously. The only thing Bax likes more than sex is a good fight over IG law. I’m not exaggerating when I say that. You really should watch him in court next time he goes.” He ducked his head to speak in Elton’s ear. “It’ll twist him up really good, and we can unwind him later.”
Elton hoped Lana couldn’t see the effect those words had. And if they hoping to distract him from yelling at them, he had to admit it was almost working. But the protests he fully intended to voice, no matter how distracting the idea of unknotting Baxter sounded, were prevented by Baxter’s sudden raging. “He doesn’t think so? Oh, really? So now he’s calling me a liar?”
“He thinks perhaps Master Elton has contrived a last ditch effort to escape court and Rehab.”
“How in the hell did this guy get into IG law? You can tell Mr. Merrick that I dislike being called a liar, and more than that I do not take kindly to the disparaging of Master Elton. If he wants to play games, then we’ll play games! In an hour tops, he can expect the High Chancellor’s men – not the Enforcers, oh no, the High Chancellor’s personal soldiers – to arrive at the firm and escort the entirety to Zero and I will see them there and then we can discuss who exactly is the liar here!”
Siler didn’t bat an eye, merely punched keys on his own data system, dispersing orders. “So does that mean we can discard the first half of the agenda? The first part of the second half will need revising, to account for the direct involvement…”
Baxter nodded and began barking changes, jotting notes on his own papers, data occasionally flashing across his in-lens. He spared a glance for his brother. “No fair standing there touching while I’m working. Don’t you have your own job to do?”
Lucid laughed. “Yes, Bax.” He winked at Elton. “I told you he got off on it.”
Elton silently conceded the point – Baxter didn’t look angry at all, though Merrick was obviously proving to be aggravating. He looked more like he was having the time of his life. “Are you really going to call the High Chancellor?” he asked weakly. “Why?”
“Because I can,” Baxter said with a predatory smile. He strode toward Elton and cupped his face, kissing him hard and fast. “And I’ll do everything I can to see they suffer for trying to take you from us.” He spun away again, leaving Elton breathless and dizzy. “How goes it, Luc?”
Elton stared dazedly at Lucid, who was sitting at his desk, alternating between a sheaf of papers, a data screen and his in-specs. “Well, of course.” He grinned at his brother. “Being me makes this almost too easy.”
Baxter snorted. “And you accuse me of getting off on legal battles?”
“You do.”
“At least I don’t get off on shopping.”
“Treasure hunting.”
“It’s not hunting if you’re buying it.”
Lucid rolled his eyes. “Ask these guys, I bet they know all about the difficulties involved with tracking down very specific items and buying them from people who don’t want to sell them.”
Lana blinked as Baxter turned toward her, then slowly nodded. “At least with jewels, if you’re doing it legally. The Fornarian ruby for the Lady’s Heart took my mother and I three years to obtain…though part of that was so my father wouldn’t realize what we were doing.”
“What are you doing?” Elton asked suspiciously. He brushed Baxter aside and approached the desk, drawing a sharp breath when he figured it out. “You can’t do that!” He buried his face in his hands. “That’s going too far.”
“No it isn’t.”
“Yes, it is!” Elton looked up, eyes blazing. “Some of those necklaces cost hundreds of millions of points. The jewels in them are one of a kind, irreplaceable. Buying them isn't nonsense.”
“I’m only buying back the ones originally listed as private property of the family,” Lucid said soothingly. “The rest I figured could be left alone. And if it’s the money that concerns you, pretty, what I’m spending now can be recovered by Bangkok in a matter of days. Money is nothing.”
“Money isn’t nothing! Money is what made this mess for Lana and me in the first place. Money is what ruined my mother! It’s what cost me my last lover! It shouldn’t contaminate this too.” He tried to struggle when Baxter embraced him from behind, watching helplessly as Lucid rose from the desk and approached. “I left because I didn’t want it in the way. No good comes from a relationship started like this.” He turned away from Lucid’s kiss. “I don’t want to know that I owe you every single day of my life.”
Lucid held him still and kissed him, tasting sweet and smelling of some exotic, woodsy cologne. His hair was soft where it brushed against Elton’s cheeks. “Pretty, you worry too much. We’re not your father and though I never met her, I’d be willing to bet you’re a lot stronger than your mother.” He stood up straight, brushing loose strands of hair from Elton’s face, tucking his own behind his ears. From behind, Baxter’s embrace loosened, brushing soothingly over him as Baxter pressed a soft kiss behind his ear. “Elton,” and it was jarring, to hear them use his name. He stayed silent, pinned by the intensity in Lucid’s pale eyes. “You don’t owe us a single thing. Not one. We said we would give anything to the person who could truly tell us apart. You can, and proved it over and over again.”
Baxter took up, voice as intense as Lucid’s gaze. He turned Elton around to look at him. “Nothing we can give you could ever come close to what it means to us to know that when you look at us, you see Baxter and Lucid, not simply ‘the twins.’ You have no idea how much that means to us.”
“But—”
“C’mon, pretty.” Lucid stroked his hair, moving so that they both were watching him. “If you’re still unhappy, say in a month, we’ll take you wherever you want to go and never bother you again.”
Elton shook his head. “That’s what I mean. You’re too generous.”
“Generous?” Lucid snorted. “Generous nothing.” He winked. “Desperate is the word you’re looking for. We want you. We want you with us for as long as you’ll have us. We’ll do whatever it takes to keep you. It was hard enough letting you go the first time, even knowing we’d see you again in a few hours.”
“Yeah, how’d you do that?” Elton frowned.
Baxter looked smug. “We’re the Jewels of Bangkok. Nothing is out of our reach.”
“It’s true jewels are known to cause trouble,” Elton said, torn between amusement and frustration. “You’re both crazy. One night is not enough of a reason to do all this. It’s outrageous and reckless and foolish.”
Lucid nipped at his nose. “But the chance for many more nights is worth a great deal more than this.”
Elton opened his mouth to protest again, but was neatly interrupted by a ringing voice. “Oh, shut up, Ellie. Know when to give up.” Elton jumped, gaze jerking to his sister, still standing in the corner, smiling at them with tear-bright eyes. “Honestly, just say yes already. It’s pretty obvious from here you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“Don’t you know when to leave the room?” Elton asked in exasperation, fighting a smile. “Honestly, Lana.”
“So are you going to listen to your big sister?”
Elton looked at them and gave up. “Who am I to resist adding the Jewels of Bangkok to my collection?”
Re: le sigh
Date: 2005-10-03 11:43 pm (UTC)Thank you, Sip ^__^
I would love to know how one of my fav 'verses is in a genre I generally dislike.