Unexpected Liaisons - 20. Cohabitation

Before he’d lived with his twin, Zupan had lived with a group of other mad guys who liked extreme sports in a shared student house. He had never, ever, lived with someone the way he was living with Zander: never lived with a girlfriend, boyfriend, anyone. He’d never permanently shared his bed, which was no longer just his bed, or his space. Living with Zander was like getting a pet, but a pet with his own belongings and opinions and schedule.

Zoltan and Issac had moved all of Zander’s stuff in while the pair of them had been on tour around Europe with the team, and Zander had settled into the large flat as though he’d always been there. Not that there weren’t teething problems. Zupan quickly discovered that for all Zander’s neat incredibly well put together look, he liked to shuck his clothes and leave them on the floor, which was annoying, inconvenient, and after the time he couldn’t even get to the wet room after he came home from the gym, they had a short sharp row about the state of the floor-drobe.

“And you do realise that beer is not supposed to live the salad drawer?” Zander had snapped back, “Also, I am not surviving on nachos for the rest of my life.”

“I like nachos.” Zupan had sulked.

“Sweetie,” Zander, like his lover, believed in settling arguments with discussion layered with compliments and saccharinity, “Nachos are great, but they’re not a whole food group. I’ll use the wardrobe if you buy some kind of green vegetable. Deal?”

Zupan had pulled the boy into his lap and hugged him tightly.

“Deal. And please stop moving the milk, I can’t reach it if you put it up top.” Zupan kissed the blond boy hard, “I’m sorry.”

“Why’re you sorry?” Zander wiggled in his lap suggestively.

“I never lived with anyone before. I don’t wanna argue with you.”

“Babe…” Zander twisted, straddling his lap, quick fingers on the waistband of his sweats, “I want you to tell me if something bugs you,” He ran a bold fingertip down the bulge in Zupan’s underwear, “I don’t want to be one of those couples who bottle everything up. We have to talk about the stuff that bothers us.” Zander was practically purring against his neck, his fingers curved around Zupan’s silk wrapped length, “And that way we get to have much more excellent sex.”

“Is that right?” Zupan dug his thick fingers into Zander’s butt, “Does that mean I’m getting lucky tonight?”

Zander finally slipped through the thin barrier of Zupan’s new underwear, causing the athlete to hiss in pleasure, his abs jumping under the touch.

“Oh you get lucky every night babe.” Zander’s teeth grazed over his neck has he began to pump his boyfriend’s cock.

“Don’t I just?”

*

“Dude.” Zupan caught a high five from his brother as he rolled into the lounge, “What’s up?” When Zoltan didn’t quip back straight away, Zander looked at him again. Something was up. “Bro?”

“You and Zan make a really sweet couple dude.” Zoltan swigged at his beer bottle, not meeting Zupan’s eyes. Zu rolled around to sit directly in front of him.

“And why are you speaking like you’re never gonna see us again. What the fuck?” Realisation dawned on him. “Zol, do you not want him living here? Cause we can move out or something, get our own place.”

“Zu…” Zoltan smiled at his twin, “I have never seen you this happy before. It’s awesome. Of course I don’t want you guys to move out.” He sipped from the bottle again. Zupan narrowed his eyes.

“O-K. So what’s up, because you look like your plotting something.”

“Yeah. Kinda.” The big guy shuffled in his seat and pulled out a long ticket wallet from his back pocket. Zupan snatched it from his brother, flipping it open.

“Uganda? An open return?” He threw the ticket back at his twin, “What the fuck is this?”

“Zu…”

“You’re leaving?”

“Babe.” Zander appeared from the entrance to the kitchen, “Calm down Zu. Let him talk.”

“You knew about this?” but Zupan could already feel his anger dissolving as his boyfriend paced across the room and sat gently in his lap. He could never stay mad in Zander’s presence very long.

“I spoke to him about it, just generally.” Zoltan sighed, “Look, I’ve always wanted to travel, and they have this great program out there. I’m going to build schools and homes and stuff,” Zoltan flexed an not inconsiderable bicep, “They said they could use a guy like me.” He shrugged, “Plus you guys could use your own space, be together without me hovering around all the time.” Zoltan smiled, genuinely this time, “Time for a change bud.”

“Zan?”

“Babe?”

“Give us a minute?” Zupan smiled at his boyfriend, then fixed his eyes on his brother.

“Sure thing. I’m gonna go deal with the mess we made of the bed last night.”

Zander sashayed off across the flat and Zupan spent a heartbeat wondering what on earth had happened to him and how in hell he’d gotten this lucky.

“Are you doing this because of us?”

“Not entirely.” Zoltan was telling him the truth, he could feel it.

“You always wanted to travel, didn’t you.”

“Yes.”

“And I’ve been holding you back,” a hot stab of guilt, followed by a flood of disappointed anger, “Shit.”

“No!” Zoltan grabbed his twin’s hands, their knuckles resting where their knees touched. “No. It was never my job to look out for you. I wanted to.”

“So you’re going because now I have Zander looking out for me?” Zupan snorted, “You think I don’t want you around anymore?”

Zoltan sighed.

“Zu, it’s not all about you. We’re nearly thirty. I wanna see the world and have mad adventures and fall in love. Look at this last year. Issac has settled down, you’re in the process of doing just that. Most of our friends are couples, and I want that too.”

“Then why are you leaving?” Zupan was confused. There were plenty of girls in town.

“Because it seems like the right thing to do. It’s the right time, and you never know where travelling will take you.”

“Somewhere without decent sanitation?” Zupan replied, and then laughed, “If it’s what you want…”

“Thanks bro.” Zoltan reached forward, and pulled them together in a one armed hug, “I’mma miss you.”

“Me too. When are you going?”

“Tomorrow. I got it all worked out with Bay at the bar, I won’t leave the South Alaska short and everything’s booked. You gonna come to the airport and see me off?”

“Only as long as I get to drive.” Zupan grinned wide, “You drive like a fucking snail.”

Zoltan bit back whatever he had been about to say.

“Bro, if this is your last night, then we need to go out. Call the boys!”

“This is going to be messy isn’t it?” Zoltan groaned. Zupan slapped him on the thigh and punched his arm.

“Oh, you betcha!”