U-N-I - 10. Chapter 10

After coming out in September 2013 and what I found out about my stupid so-called parents, we all felt that we had to take a much needed break from everything. So we all went away for a month before we had to begin the recording of our third album.

The weather was getting cold in England and we wanted to soak up some sun before throwing ourselves head-long in into the recording. Dylan and Damon went away with their respective model girlfriends, Jordan went to Ibiza with a few mates, and Rob and I went to the Bahamas. We knew a few paparazzi would follow us there, which they did. There had been a few shirtless pictures of us taken on the beach that ended up being published, but we didn't care. We just tried not to kiss in public but I wasn't sure whether or not we had avoided having a picture of us kissing each other in the papers.

For almost a month, we just enjoyed each other, relaxed, partied, ate great food, enjoyed different water sports and outdoor activities, slept at any hour of the day and had sex whenever one of us got a little horny, sucking, jerking or fucking. We just enjoyed having no schedule to follow, and just blew some steam off, and loads of jizz! Rob was particularly into having his ass fucked, he seemed to enjoy it even more than he did before and woud ask me to fuck him practically every day, which was fine with me. I loved to top him and I knew that part of the reason he loved bottoming so much probably had something to do with it being a specifically gay act. Maybe it made him more comfortable, reminding him who he was.

It was our last night in Rock House Harbour Island. In the Bahamas, we loved the privacy available amongst all the islands and oddly enough, their indifference when it came to superstars. Celebrities were treated with an automatic deference. They were delivering exceptional customer service, but Bahamians didn't typically get star-struck and minded their own business. We just stayed away from touristic spots.

"Sir," a guy from the front desk called. "we've already taken care of some of your luggage. Here's your key."

It was weird for us that people in the hotel would actually do your packing for you, and I always felt bad about it, but they would do it without us even asking them to. I knew I would have to get used to it but for now, I still had trouble feeling comfortable with all the special treatment we received. I thanked him, took the key and headed toward our room. There were only ten rooms in the resort, making it really private.

I used my key to open the door and walked in. Rob was nowhere in sight and I wondered if he had stepped out to get something, although he had told me he'd be waiting for me in our room while I finished working out in the gym. He had got tired of it before I had and I wanted to run on the treadmill for at least half an hour.

It was when I walked into the room that I saw light flickering from the bathroom. The door was only slightly ajar, and I could tell that the main lights were turned off. I slowly pushed open the door to reveal tall candles, placed in various parts of the room, casting a warm glow in the darkened space. The shades were drawn, and in the large Jacuzzi tub, filled with bubbles, there he was.

"Hey, enjoying yourself!" I grinned slightly, stepping inside.

"Close the door," he said.

Even in the dim light, his eyes were still bright. I walked over and sat down on the marble platform surrounding the tub,

"Looks pretty cozy in there," I smiled.

"I must confess," he said with a laugh, "I wasn't sure if this was sexy or really embarrassing."

I laughed,

"Trust me." I leaned down and kissed him, "Everything you do is sexy."

He smiled and settled back down into the water.

He reached out of the water and clasped his wet hand around my own. He reached down with his lips and kissed my hands. I must have felt cold from the air conditioning, because I could feel myself getting warmer.

"So, you think there's room for one more in there?" I asked.

He smiled and once again pushed back into the tub. He was well covered by the bubbles, but I could see his shoulders and the top of his chest. I stood up and pulled my t-shirt off in one fluid motion. I could feel Rob's eyes on me, watching every move I made. I kicked off my shoes, pulled off my socks, and lowered my cargo shorts, stepping out of them as they hit the floor. Smiling briefly at him, I hooked my fingers under the waistband of my Calvin Klein underwear, and pulled them down. I admit I slowly exaggerated this last step, letting Rob watch the fabric slowly move down my thighs.

Fully nude, I stood there for a moment, and asked him if he liked what he saw. He nodded, and I stepped into the tub, sitting down on the opposite end that he was. He took my foot in his hands and started to massage it.

"Oh, that feels good," I moaned, closing my eyes and resting my head against the back of the tub.

We talked for a moment about having to leave on the next day and go back to London.

"Dylan called, he's back already. Said the recording studio should be ready in a few days," he informed me.

We’d had had people working on it while we were away.

"Brillant! Can't wait to begin recording in there!" I answered, as I had been writing lots of new stuff while on holidays.

My mind couldn't quite completely disconnect from the prospect of recording our third album.

"He said it looked fuckin' amazing! He's gonna send us a pic later," he smiled.

He started rubbing my other foot, and after a moment he motioned,

"Come over here".

I maneuvered myself around so that my back was lying against his chest. His legs parted to make room for me and I could feel his cock, lying against my backside. It wasn't fully hard, but definitely started moving once I was up against it. It was nice feeling him against me in the water like this. It was sensual, like we were both suddenly made of silk. He wrapped his arms around me, dancing his fingers up and down my abs. I could feel my own cock growing hard underneath the water, but so far Rob wasn't paying any attention to it.

He moved his hands up to my shoulders and started massaging them hard. I was a bit tense from working out and it was almost painful, but it felt so good at the same time. I could feel the muscles relaxing as he continued to rub them, working all the knots out.

I could tell that his cock was now hard against me. It was up against the crack of my ass and traveled up almost to my waist. I turned and smiled at him as he slid his hands back down onto my chest. He traced the outline of my pecs, and briefly moved over my nipples before sending his hands down under the water, grabbing my hard cock.

"You're enjoying this," he laughed.

"So are you." I laughed back, wiggling my back against his own hard member.

He stroked me slowly, not trying to get me off, but to get me excited. Under the water, his hands inspected every part of my cock, every vein, pulled down the forskin to explore the head. One of his hands cupped my balls and softly started to roll them around, lightly pulling on their sac. I was silent and content for a while, but soon started to make little noises.

I needed to give him some attention. I rolled over so that our chests pressed together. I kissed him deeply, pushing my tongue in as far as it would go. His own tongue wrapped around my own and I felt his hands grab onto my ass, holding me tight against him.

"I love you," he moaned when my lips left his and fastened onto his neck.

"Love you too," I answered, kissing the wet hollow of his throat.

 

 

I extended my tongue and traced it down his right shoulder. My cock was hard against his stomach, and I could feel my excitement increasing. I pulled his hands off my ass and raised them above his head. I pushed my face into his armpit, licking and pulling, enjoying the access I had to my beautiful boyfriend. I couldn't help but think of the thousands of people who must fantasize about being with him, touching his sexy body. But he was mine, all mine.

Rob moaned as I moved to his other armpit before sliding my mouth down to his nipples, which hovered just above the water. I took his left nipple into my mouth, biting it, feeling it expand in the warmth of my mouth. I licked across his chest, until I reached his right nipple. I slowly started to back away from him, my tongue sliding down his chest as I lifted his body above the water. I was between his legs, holding his ass, his cock raised out of the water. It was hard and warm from the hot water. He had obviously just shaved because his balls and the area between them and his ass was completely smooth.

I bent over and fastened my lips around the head of his cock, causing him to moan in delight. I went down on it halfway, whipping my tongue all over it. I pulled my mouth of off his stiff prick, and started to wildly lick it up and down, giving special attention to the head, working down the foreskin. Rob floated on his back, watching my every move.

I took a deep breath and deep-throated him. A look of satisfaction must have swept across my face as my nose brushed up against his damp pubes. I noticed Rob's abs crunching as I did this, and after doing it a few more times I pulled my mouth off of him and began an oral assault on his balls. He gave a high-pitched sigh as my mouth found the spot just above his hole, and started lapping at it like a kitten does to milk. I was still holding him up by his ass, and my fingers began to dance around his crack, eliciting further moans from above.

"Roll over," I said, pushing his body back into the water. I saw his green eyes beam at me just before he turned over onto his knees, placing his ass right in front of me. I could see his tight hole, tempting me, hovering just above the water. I reached over to the edge of the tub and picked up a new bar of soap. Dipping it into the water, I slowly brought it up to his hole, and slowly started to slide it up and down his crack.

"Ooooh," he moaned. "That feels nice."

Yeah, he was clearly loving any interaction with his ass, and I was more than happy to provide it. I slid the white bar of soap up and down him a few times, and then, without thinking, I started pushing the end of it up against his hole.

"Uuuuh," he yelped, but made no motion for me to stop.

I didn't know what I was doing, but I was getting excited by the level of trust he had in me. Keeping a tight grip on one end, I pushed the other end of the oval-shaped soap into his ass, watching the lips of his anus clamp around it, trying to push it out. Rob lowered his head to his chest, moaning softly, and I looked at the beautiful triangular shape created between his shoulders and torso.

After a few more strokes, I removed the soap and replaced it with my fingers. I slipped two, then three fingers deep inside him, moving the soap around. I opened him up and touched his prostate, causing him to moan loudly.

His ass felt tight and thick and I slid my fingers in and out letting his asshole relax more and more until I added my thumb as well. He moaned hard, as he enjoyed having his ass stretched out like this. I gently played with his hole some more and when I removed my fingers, I dipped his ass down into the water, rinsing the soap away.

"Damn, I love this shit," he sighed when I brought it back out of the water.

"I'm not done," I told him with a laugh.

"Keep going at it then," he said. "Do what you want. It's yours."

I spread his cheeks apart with my hands and pushed my face into his crack. My tongue found his wrinkled hole and started pushing to get inside.

"Ohhh fuck," Rob groaned, pressing back against me.

His hole was opened by my fingers, making it easy for my tongue to explore him.

After reaching as far as I could, I withdrew and started licking around his hole, feeling its wrinkly ridges, sliding my tongue from top to bottom.

"Ohh, it's so fuckin' good," Rob sighed deeply.

"I love doing this," I panted, going back in for more.

I always enjoyed rimming him, probably because I knew how much he loved it; I actually loved it even more when he was the one rimming me. It's something that both turned us on. I spread his cheeks wider and dove in deeper with my tongue. He moaned again and I saw his hand reaching for his cock.

"Leave it," I said, moving his hand away, wanting him to concentrate on the pleasure I was giving him.

"Ugh, you're driving me nuts," he moaned as he obeyed me.

I was resisting the urge to start fucking him, but I almost couldn't take it anymore. I kept rimming him though, feeling my own cock throb.

After a few more minutes of this, Rob pulled away from me. He grabbed the silicone-based lube he'd prepared and applied some on himself. Then he flipped around, straddling me and causing some water to fly out of the tub.

He maneuvered himself to trap my cock in the crack of his ass.

"I'm ready for you," he said in a low voice and smiled.

My cock, trapped between his hand and his ass was on fire, ready to explode despite the fact that I hadn't even been touching it. I smiled back, slowly pushed myself into him and he moaned. I could feel his ass gently grab my cock in the water, my previous work and the lube making it easy to slide inside him.

"Oh God," he actually laughed, his mouth opening widely as he threw his head back and started moaning, enjoying getting slowly fucked in the water.

For the most part he kept his eyes closed, but occasionally he would open them and lean down to kiss me or to caress the muscles of my chest and abs. He would grab my hair and pull my head back to nibble at my neck.

Eventually his hand returned to his hard cock, and I started to speed up a little, thinking that maybe he was getting close. The water splashed out of the tub and we laughed because fucking a bit more roughly was maybe not the best idea, as long as we were in this position.

He raised himself off my cock we positioned ourselves so that our cocks pressed up against each other.

We began a slow rocking up and down. He leaned down to passionately kiss my lips as he grasped both of our cocks in one hand and started tugging them together. My hands once again grabbed his ass, pulling him down onto me. Our rhythm quickened and I brought two of my fingers to his hole, working them inside.

"Oh yeah!" he panted. "Do that. Finger my hole."

I did as I was told as we started grinding against each other faster and faster. His grip was tight around our cocks and the sensation was quickly building to a climax.

"Oh God, babe. I'm gonna cum!" I panted.

Rob could only moan as he too, neared the end. I saw his neck muscles tightening as we simultaneously began pumping our loads into the water. We were both moaning wildly. The pressure of his hand, and feeling his cock against my own made my orgasm particularly intense. He bit down gently onto my shoulder as he continued to rock himself against me, waiting for his orgasm to subside.

We were both soon drained of energy, panting, holding onto each other like we were afraid to let go. I held his head against my chest, stroking his damp hair, telling him how beautiful he was. The candles were half melted and we both would have fallen asleep, were it not for our mutual fear of drowning. At this moment everything was as it should be. We were best friends and lovers, enjoying intimacy in a way I believed we could never experience with anyone else.

Ever so slowly we made our way out of the tub. We slipped on the bathrobes provided by the hotel and cuddled together on the bed.

"This was a cool surprise," I said, looking down at his head once again resting on my chest.

"I wish we didn't have to leave tomorrow." he replied.

"Me too," I said, suddenly feeling sad. "I'm not sure I'm ready to go back into the real world."

After a while, we got dressed and headed out to dinner. On the way to the restaurant, he suggested that we stopped for a moment on the private beach. The beach was deserted and as the sun was going down, the sky was a mixture of pink, red and orange, it was beautiful.

I sat on the sand and I rested my back against him as he sat behind me. We didn't speak for a moment and just enjoyed the last sunset in this little paradise, where we felt almost at home, after staying for a whole month in the place.

He was gently caressing my hand with his left hand when I felt him slip something on my finger. I looked down to see that what I had felt was a ring. It was a simple and discrete, probably white gold, man's wedding band.

I turned around slightly and looked at him with a puzzled expression, but with a slight smile on my face.

I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out as I felt completely taken aback. Until I smiled and let out a chuckle,

"Are you… Are you asking me…like…?"

He smiled at me, and let out a chuckle as well,

"I love the freaked out look on your face right now!"

"Yeah, yeah, I am freaked out!" I confirmed jokingly.

He laughed,

"I don't plan on doing the whole ceremony thing in front of the mayor, you know that, don't sweat it!"

"Oh ok!" I said with a sigh,

"You fuckin' scared me!"

"That was the plan." he said with a chuckle, "But…," he continued, the expression on his face and the sound of his voice getting more serious, "I'd really like you to wear this."

He looked deep into my eyes and said in a whisper,

"Because I'm yours, and because you're mine… and I want the whole fucking world to know that!"

I smiled as I stared into his eyes. He sounded so sincere.

"Will you wear it?" he asked me softly.

"Of course," I answered as lovingly as I could.

I placed a soft kiss on his lips and said,

"You're amazing!"

"Well, I dunno, but if I am, it's thanks to you. You make me amazing."

He was still holding my hand and I felt him place another ring between my fingers that he must have been holding in the palm of his hand all along. I looked down and smiled. I took it between my thumb and forefinger and slipped it onto his finger.

We kissed again, with a bit more intensity this time as he held my face in his hands. When he pulled back, he pressed his forehead against mine and closed his eyes.

"I love you so fucking much Mark," he told me passionately and planted another soft but intense kiss on my lips and I felt exactly the same wave of lust rush through me as I did the very first time he had told me he loved me.

He pulled back and looked at the sky,

"The sun's gone. We should go have dinner," he said softly.

"Yeah!" I nodded, "Give me a sec though," I chuckled.

"Are you hard?" he asked with a grin.

I nodded,

"Alright… let's just keep watching the sun that is not there anymore!"

I rested my back against him again and he kissed the side of my face a little as he held me tight.

"Not helping!" I exclaimed and we just laughed.

--------

We had a wonderfully romantic dinner and night and then left the Bahamas on the next morning.

Once in London, we refused all interviews. We only accepted to be interviewed in our studio by a couple music journalists near the end of the recording about the making of the record, but we refused any questions about our relationship.

We didn’t play any live gigs, we only worked on new songs mostly during the week, and we would usually take the weekend off. We worked with a couple of charities, we did record a song with Rihanna in New York, and wrote a song with Bono’s collaboration, we went on holidays again, and this lasted for about a year.

However, we decided to stay very active on social media and we kept sharing pictures on the band's instagram account. Maybe every couple of days, we would post something. Pictures of us playing an instrument, short videos to tease them with a new sound for the album as we worked in the studio, artwork for the album. Most of the time, it was related to what we were doing with the band, but not always. We also posted a few pictures or fun videos of us together in a more private setting, while on holidays, at Christmas, for our birthdays, or just hanging out together. I posted a picture of my “together thru life” tattoo because they were always asking in the comments, Rob did too as he had got a couple of tattoos as well ...that kind of things.

The day we were to start recording, we posted a selfie on Instagram that received a huge amount of comments, saying "First day of recording! So excited to start, better get ready!" because it was obvious that we were still in bed together. It didn't reveal much but it was sweet and very private.

In September 2014, we put the final touches to the album and in November, it was out. We had to start the promotion. There was no more avoiding journalists and hiding from the media. We were going to do our first TV interview since coming out a year before. We were not planning on revealing much, but we honestly didn't know how it would play out. We just knew that we liked and trusted the host, and that it wouldn't be a shallow interview just about the fact that we were gay, which we had always refused to do, even when the British gay magazine 'Attitude' had asked. However, we were about to agree to it because every couple of months they were asking if we would consider it. We would always answer that we wanted the album to be out first, to actually have something other than our relationship to talk about. Moreover, we were expecting a pretty hot photoshoot with them so we figured we'd better give people some time to get used to the news before agreeing to pose half naked or kissing each other in a gay magazine.

This first interview was going to air on TV and it was in front of an audience, mainly composed of fans. It was definitely going to be about our career, our music, our new album… and maybe our relationship. We wanted it to be casual, interesting and fun for people to watch, and as we loved joking around during interviews, we couldn't wait to do one again. We had kind of missed it.

The host introduced us before we began,

"One minute, you're ordinary blokes bashing out songs with a few of your mates, the next you're global superstars, blinded by the glare of celebrity, paparazzi snapping pictures of you, the whole world following your every move. That's gotta be weird, but that's daily life for our first guests, members of a band that brought you many hits, including these…" and a few of our videos were broadcast on the screen behind us.

"You have been waiting for it, they're finally here. From U-N-I, I am going to interview Robbie Myers and Mark Emery, who are now two of the most recognizable faces in the music world. They have sold over 35 million records worldwide and won many awards.Their third album "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall" came out two weeks ago and has been number one in over twenty countries since then. Please welcome two very funny and lovable members of one the biggest rock band in the world. Sit back, buckle yourself in and enjoy this ride while we chat with them."

We watched the mix of videos of our hit songs and said,

"It's weird, like, we rarely listen to our music." Rob said.

"You don't like listening to your own music? You've just had enough?" the host asked us jokingly.

"No, we don't listen to our old songs that much," he explained.

"Oh ok. But when you're recording the album, I mean the last one was like, about a twelve months experience, when you're recording it, you have to listen to it."

"Yeah, of course." I said. "We love recording, and we always can't wait to do it again, but when we're finished, I think we kind of need to never see it again, you know." I joked.

Rob laughed, " Except we have to play it every night for another year!"

"Yeah, there is that little problem," I joked, "No, but we still like playing it of course, we love playing it, it's not the same as listening to the album when you're on your couch at home, or singing it in your car, you know."

"He's just being humble, you're probably gonna notice that throughout this interview." Rob joked.

"Well, I think it's sane not to listen to our own music. The thing is you don't learn anything when you listen to your own music, so I always try to listen to other people's things and read other things, 'cause I'm always looking for the next thing to do."

"Yes," Rob added, "we do really listen intently to anything else that comes out, and you know, there's no point in being on this planet, unless you aim super high!" He said, raising his hand.

"Super high yeah." the host repeated, "cause you've got a great opportunity now, and I'm sure you're aware of it! Because U-N-I has been so successful in the past five years! Now you're back with an amazing third album, everybody's already in love with it, it's already one of the fastest-selling records in UK history and yet, this is your first interview to promote it. Because you've really disappeared from the media for the past year. You've only been active for your fans on social media really! But nobody's forgotten about you, and I think now, you might have the time and the ressources to actually create something fantastic!"

"I know, I know," Rob said.

"Which is the scariest thing in the world, the blank page!" the interviewer added.

"Well it's not though," I answered, "because it's almost like, we've been given a job. I feel like we're at a point where, and this might sound very arrogant, but I feel we're at the point where we've been given the job of being this famous band, and now it's what we do! It's like winning the presidency or something, in my view, so it's not what we've done, it's what we're gonna do with it. You know, we can either get really into… coke and hookers or…"

I looked at Rob, not sure what to say next, so he just agreed with a grin,

"Yeah, we can just do that!" and everybody laughed out loud.

"Aren't you supposed to be gay?" the host asked jokingly.

"Oh right, forgot you knew about that!" Rob joked. "But you see, there are five members in this band and we're not all gay! So god knows what the other three are gonna do during the upcoming tour!"

"Well, since you came out, judging by what you shared on social media, you seem to be in a good place, and you look happy, and I assume you are happier than ever before, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah," I began saying,"we're just happy to be here, you know, and to be in this position. And I think now, instead of getting into drugs and hookers, we can be totally inspired, and try and do… well, we know what we're gonna do, but we can't really say it, because…," I smiled.

"Yes you can," the host insisted jokingly. "no-one will tell anyone, it's ok!"

The audience laughed again.

"You know," I added, "like I said, we feel like we kind of cheated our way into this position, and so, now we have to do something that's really good! That's how I feel. Obviously we've done some stuff that's good, but we can always be better, and I think our new album is, you know, one notch above."

"Yeah," Rob continued. "We were walking down the street a while ago, and we walked past this group of guys playing basketball, and one of them was like, 'oh my god guys, I love your music', and then another one was like, 'you guys suck’!!'"

"And then…" he continued, laughing a little with the host and the audience, "when we were far enough away to not be a threat anymore, it was like 'your music is terrible!!' "

I added jokingly,

"So we are well aware that we need to improve you know!"

Everybody was laughing out loud at this story so Rob added jokingly,

"Yeah, but before that moment, we weren't so sure! So I'd like to thank that nine year old guy, whose balls haven't dropped, for ruining my life," he said shaking his head.

"Did you say that to him? The host laughed, "You know, your balls haven't dropped?"

"Yeah, he did!" I confirmed. "It's funny, you know because when somebody insults you to your face about your music, the first thing you wanna do is pick on something about their appearance. It's a terrible thing but you know, what can you do? But it annoys me when you sort of become a real…"

"Asshole?" Rob said finishing my sentence.

"Yeah! Best as all that stuff go over your head, sometimes though we're just not strong enough to do that."

The host continued,

"Yeah. It's normal. You're only human. You don't have to be super nice to everyone just because you're in the biggest band in the world!"

Rob frowned and shook his head,

"We're not from 'One Direction'! " he joked, which was a very successful British boy band worldwide that the media referred to as the biggest band in the world at that moment. Again there was a lot of laughter in the audience.

"Ohhh, I thought you…, you're not?"

"No! Yeah, everyone does this! Like they confuse us! They say we're the biggest band in the world, how is Harry? How is everyone? NO! That's not us!" he insisted jokingly and the audience laughed louder.

"Yeah, you are actually a big supporter of 'One Direction', aren't you?" the host asked.

"Yeah, last time we saw them, I suggested to Harry that we open a barber shop together, called Hairy Styles, but he wouldn't…" he said, shaking his head.

"He won't do it?"

Rob shook his head no again, faking disappointed,

"No, he won't do it! He doesn't call me back," he said sadly.

"Aw, he's missing out!"

"Yeah. We like those guys, but…we're from a different band!" he confirmed jokingly.

"Are any of them gay?"

"Hey, we don't know anything about that!" Rob responded with a slight grin.

"You haven't been flirting with them?"

" Well, they're cute, but I mean, we're like a bit older than them, aren't we?" he asked, looking at me inquisitively.

"I don't know, I'm not sure, how old are they?"

The host answered,

"I think only a couple of years younger than you are. But I see why you would think that, they do still look like boys when you look like men. So, are you gonna collaborate with them?" he asked.

"Hey, who knows, we can write cheesy love songs too!" Rob joked.

"Well, you have worked with Bono and Rihanna on this new album, so you're in a different league, what was that like?"

Rob answered,

"It was awesome, especially Bono, but Rihanna too! It was just very different. But we can't reveal too much about that yet but yeah, it was amazing."

"How did you approach Rihanna to record "Princess of China", did you just call her up and say, hey we'd like to work with you?"

We looked at each other and Rob whispered,

That's not really a story we can tell, is it?" and I just laughed as I shook my head no.

"Sorry. Yeah, basically, you know for that song, at the top of our list was … Rihanna, and at the bottom of our list was…nobody else. Il was just a song for her! So we plucked up the courage to call her, and so she's on it! Which is great! And it's actually my favourite bit of the album! It's the only bit I can really enjoy listening to, because I'm not on it!" he laughed.

"And how did you approach Bono?"

"Bono is actually the one who called us up… because he had already offered to work with us, and he had this idea for a song, which is 'Up and Up' on the album. We still can't get over this, working with him was really a dream come true."

"We've learnt a lot from him," I added. "He's been amazing to us. All of them really, The Edge too, all of them."

"What have they been able to teach you?"

"Just by giving us advice. I always view it as if they're in a class above, like the older boys at school that you admire you know. It's very heartwarming to have their support. And I think if they weren't so friendly to us, we'd be in a lot more trouble and we'd be a lot more depressed about people's opinions about … what is essentially just entertainment that you're trying to produce."

"Yes, how do you react to people criticizing you?"

"Well, you know, it's like the guys playing basketball, what you think is what you think." I answered, "But critics fascinate me though, because, I mean really, if you don't like it, you don't have to listen to it!"

"Yes, but yet, you're talking about, you wanna go for something great, and really wanna try for something special! Is there a passion in you that they're missing?" he asked.

"No, but we try and take..." I hesitated and stopped talking for a few seconds before saying,"Listen, behind closed doors,

it's very hard, when you've slaved over something and you love it and you mean it with every inch of your… balls!" everybody laughed and I chuckled, "When somebody says, aw they don't mean that, or it's soulless or it's hollow. But you know that's life, what can you do? You know, it can just fire you up even more."

" Yeah," Rob continued. " We know we're not the Beatles yet, and no one else has to tell us that. But as long as there's some kind of balance. We try not to read anything anymore, we just assume that it's 50/50."

"Yeah, fifty percent of people who hate us, and the other fifty who really hate us!" I joked, which made people laugh again.

"No but," I continued with a laugh, "as long as there's some kind of balance, and as long as you're selling records and people are still coming to your concerts and having fun, you can't really worry about what some fat guy who doesn't know what he's talking about thinks. So you just have to keep going!"

"You're getting righteous again!" he told me.

"Yeah I know, it's coming out of us!" I joked.

"You know, you seem very, almost defensive about your success!"

"Told you he was humble." Rob told him and I looked at him with a shrug.

"Are you also proud of what you've done?" he asked me.

"Of course!" I answered. "And if you come to our concerts, you'll see it! You know. It's very hard to believe it when you're talking about it. But when you're playing it, or singing it," I said looking at Rob, "it's a different matter. When we're playing music, I don't want to be anywhere else in the world, and I love it and I'm proud of it to the nth degree, because that's who I am, that's who we are. We wouldn't have this awesome life without it! So it means everything to us!"

"Yeah, you do have an awesome life! What is the secret to you guys? I mean, you attract all kind of people really, your audience is very diverse. You release an album and it goes straight to number one worldwide, all the dates to your upcoming tour were sold out in a matter of minutes, what is your secret?"

"We don't know!" Rob laughed. "I think it's because we love what we do! And people can see that, and it's very satisfying to do it. We feel very grateful for what we have, our fans, and we try not to take our success for granted. We know we are very lucky and there are amazing people who work with us and who help us out…"

"It's gotta be down to the music also. There's such a buzz around you and your music because the songs that you're creating obviously touch so many people, I mean, I think you are the biggest band in the world at the moment."

"I don't know about that," Rob said.

"Well if you're not, you can become the biggest band in the world… not that it matters!"

"Yeah no, size doesn't matter!" he joked.

Everybody laughed.

"But yeah, we're just lucky and if I can just get a little deeper…When any of us is going through a hard time, it's the band that picks each other up. We have that brotherhood, and that really is an amazing thing to have in your life. So it doesn't matter if we become the biggest band in the world or not, as long as we're still a band, you know, as long as we have each other, that's all that matters to us really."

"That's great! And you're gonna start a stadium tour soon? Are you anxious about that?"

"Yeah, we are, of course," Rob answered, sounding very eager. "but I like having a huge crowd of people in front of me, so I'm not too worried. The bigger the better!"

"Why is that?"

"Because it's less intimidating! I just see a sea of people and I'm excited and it's exhilarating. I find it a lot more comfortable in that situation. Much more than if you're playing in a very small venue, when you can see people's faces staring at you!"

" How did you find ideas for new songs this time? Because you must run out of ideas after a while!"

I answered,

"No, you just need to live a little, experience life and, you know there's always things to feel miserable or happy about in your life if you need to write songs."

The host laughed,

"Has coming out inspired you?"

"A little I guess, yeah. The title of the album and the song "'Every Teardrop is a Waterfall' is about that in a way, and maybe also, the whole sound of this album is influenced by that change in our lives. I mean on this album, we sort of took another direction, and changed our sound a little. It's more up-tempo. A lot of songs are quite similar to our sound in the first two albums, but there are also many songs that sound a lot more joyful, there's more optimism and hope…"

"Has song writing come easily to you on this last album then?"

"Yeah. It has come easily but it hasn't always necessarily come good though" I said with a laugh.

"So how do you measure the difference between … okay and good?"

"Well, we know a song is a success or not depending on how people react to it during gigs. So we'll have to see! And also, maybe by, whether someone says something to you that really means something, like it did something for them, our songs. Like, there's a song on the album, "The Scientist" which is about breaking up with a girl, we've had…"

"Is that about you breaking up with a girl?" he interrupted me, as he knew I was the band's song writer.

"Well, yeah."

"Oh you had a girlfriend?"

"Yeah, but, that was a long time ago."

"Yeah! He used to be straight. I turned him gay!" Rob said with a serious tone of voice.

I shook my head with a laugh as I looked at him,

"Would you stop saying that, I swear!" I complained jokingly, because it was not the first time he'd said it.

"Oh come on, let me have a little fun with this!" he begged.

I rolled my eyes and added matter-of-factly,

"And I'm not gay, I just like you a lot!"

"Good one!" he laughed and the whole audience did as well.

"Never mind! So you know," I continued, brushing this playful argument aside, "this song seems to have really touched people. We often get like, sad boyfriend stories. Which is, sad, but, you know, someone's got to write songs that are good for that situation."

"So, about coming out, the two of you are in a … committed relationship," he said, pointing at the rings on our finger. "and we all know, it must've been hard to come out, and it must be a bit difficult still, because there's so much scrutiny. And you've been together for over five years, right? And you've managed to stay in the closet all this time…"

"Yeah," Rob sighed.

"So, was that difficult to do?"

"Not really." Rob answered. "Because we were friends first, so you know, it wasn't hard to just act as friends when we were out in public. Although, our fans suspected there might be more between us, 'cause, maybe, we were a bit too close to be just friends."

The audience clapped and whistled.

"I think it's the way you look at each other!" the interviewer told us and the audience seemed to agree as they got louder.

"Yeah, probably." Rob agreed with a nod.

"Yeah, and you've known each other your whole life, right? So… how did your relationship begin? How did you fall in love?"

"I don't know." I told him. "How do people fall in love really? I don't know, we can't really talk about that."

"You can't?"

"No, we can't." I repeated.

"Because…" he insisted.

"Because it's private, and it's uncomfortable, and we don't like talking about it."

"You know," Rob added. "we've always loved each other in one way or another since we were kids really, so, at some point, being together just made perfect sense. And it still does, and it'll probably continue to do so. But it's as much as I'm gonna say on the subject."

Of course, this made the audience react cheerfully again.

"Which is already too much!" I added jokingly.

"Oh come on, give 'em something," he laughed.

The host smiled,

"Ok, I'm really not trying to drag you into a difficult situation here…"

"No, that's fine." I said.

"But, your private life is in the public eye, and one of the hardest decision you have to make when you're in a closeted relationship, is when you decide to come out! So when you did come out, were you prepared for the fact that so many people were gonna comment on it and talk about your relationship?"

I sighed,

"I don't care, I don't give a shit," I answered, "I think people's private lives are their own thing, and if people wanna comment on it, that's fine. I don't mind. I love Rob, and I don't give a toss what anyone else thinks you know."

Rob continued,

"Yeah that's something we don't really care about that much anymore. It was scary when we had to take the plunge to come out, but now, we're feeling a lot better about being out. People commenting on other people's lives, you know, it's just part of the times we live in! And that's why we decided to come out on social media, because now, with the internet, you can just see what people really think!"

He looked at me and I added,

"Yeah, I think that's normal. Young people can't be too fascinated in the real news, 'cause it's kind of … a downer. And they can't really have that much faith in the world's number one men, I don't think! So, it's just more fun to talk about famous people's relationships, it's just nice you know. We do it all the time!" I chuckled,

"So I don't mind people talking about it. I don't want to talk about it myself but I don't have any problem if someone wants to talk about our relationship when they're having their coffee, I don't care, it's fine."

Rob added,

"Yeah, but it's still disturbing that so many people think it's okay to just say whatever they wanna say about our private lives… to our face, like, almost! And it's one thing, when you become a little bit famous or successful, you realize how much bullshit you're being fed, and it's really kind of annoying. I think we came at a time in our lives when it suddenly hit us that, wow, we can't necessarily trust everybody like we thought we could."

The host nodded and asked,

"Yeah, the tabloids didn't really give you a choice in the matter, did they? Are you saying that you now have to be wary of everyone?"

Rob answered,

"No, I don't think… maybe. But we are more and more aware that we can't trust everyone. It probably has to do with traveling around, or just being five years older than we were five years ago. I think we just weren't ready to face all that before. We were really young and it would have been hard to deal with being openly gay when we started the band. I'm glad that we didn't have to deal with the media wanting to out us before you know, because it would have been a lot more difficult, I think. But now that we're older and our relationship’s also stronger, we feel like we can share it with others, and maybe, through our music, make people more tolerant and open-minded."

"Yeah, you've got a role to play here!" the host said.

"I suppose we do, yeah," Rob said with a smile.

"Bono said - I think, of your music, "A great melody can make even the hardest heart soar. Do you think that music actually has this capacity to change people?"

"Not some people no," I said, thinking of my ‘father’.

"No?" he asked surprised.

"No." I repeated, shaking my head, "I think some music can accentuate people's personalities, you know? If you're a bastard, there's music that can make you more of a bastard… and if you're sweet, there's music that can make you more sweet."

"Yeah… and if you're romantic, well, then… there's 'One Direction', " Rob joked.

Everybody laughed.

"And U-N-I is for who?" The host asked inquisitively.

We looked at each other and grinned. I tried to find good things to say that would flatter our fans and be fun at the same time as I started saying,

"U-N-I 's for people with great taste... Intelligence... Incredible good lookingness. Talent. Ability. Success… Grabbing of life." I looked at Rob again with a smile, slightly raising my eyebrows and he continued, because I was kinda running out of ideas.

The audience was laughing and clapping.

"Yeah, U-N-I is for people who know what life's about. They're always entertaining. Delightful to talk to."

"Sweet. Charming." I added

"Incredibly good in bed," he said with a grin.

I let out a chuckle,

"Virile. And they have incredible success with girls… or boys!"

"Or both!’ Rob added.

"They're generally just the world's best citizens." I simply said gazing at Rob, "Maybe we're biased, but…"

"But we're definitely right!'' he finished my sentence.

I nodded as he smiled at me and placed his hand under my chin, before giving me a peck on the lips, which I knew was going to keep our fans talking for a while. There were a few whistles.

"And here I thought you were down on yourselves boys, thank you very much," the host joked, and we thanked him as well.

"We'll see you at the O2 arena in February! I think everyone here is very excited about that special date!"

"So are we!" Rob answered.

We were to play just one gig at the O2 arena, a venue of 20,000 people, which meant that it would hopefully be a more intimate gig with our fans, and we were hoping to make it very special. Then, we were to start a stadium tour in April, including headlining the Glastonbury festival in June, as well as other famous festivals. Now, it was time to rehearse. The fun part was about to start!