Catering With Benefits (3) - An Appetite for More - 47. Still a Bit Raw

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With Thomas away, this would be the first time the party would be all couples. It had been an eventful year for all with lots of career and lifestyle changes to celebrate, as well as a few sad occasions to be remembered. Edward wanted to style the party as a celebration of the past year, a remembrance of Jared’s life and looking forward to an even better year in 2020.

It was the biggest roll-up yet for Edward’s pre-Christmas party. Divas had no functions, Dean’s was staffed by casuals, Dare to Bare closed at midday and Poppy’s staffing was arranged so that some worked lunch and others worked the dinner shift.

By the time most guests arrived Romel had the drinks flowing and Edward was in conference with Tristan.

“I think they will be thrilled to be part of it and the resulting word of mouth won’t hurt either.” said Edward, who then turned to his friends and announced there would be a surprise if they gathered around the pool. When all were seated, Edward announced “Thanks all for coming today, Romel and I certainly appreciate you coming.”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” replied Justin.

“Thank you from the back row. Now before we get into the serious eating and drinking, Tristan and I have a big surprise for you. Would you like to explain Tristan?”

“Guys, as you all probably know, my ballet is completed in its theatre form that will soon be premiered at Divas. I hope you will all be attending.”

“Already on the waiting list.” replied Brett. “Not gonna miss an all male, nude ballet.”

“Great guys. Now the next stage of the ballet planning is to choreograph the water sequence for when we stage it at the bath house. We have practised as best we can in the studio, but now we need to turn that into the real thing. So today the dancers will start rehearsing their moves right here in Edward and Romel’s pool.”

“Oh man, that sounds exciting.” added Dean.

“So guys, with your indulgence, or maybe for your indulgence I present our water ballet stars.”

As Tristan pointed towards the house, and all eyes followed, out stepped eight naked men. Four heavily built members of the Sydney Stingers, gay water polo club, each with strong legs and shoulders. Carried on those shoulders were four of Tristan’s dancers. They were greeted by applause and whistles from the appreciative group.

“Now guys, what you will see today is the first attempts at creating these moves in water. So you won’t see a show as such, but a raw choreography process.”

As the eight got wet, Tristan explained further. “What I am attempting to represent here is to see the dancers apparently dancing on water. To achieve this, the water polo guys will crouch on the floor of the pool, while the dancers stand on their shoulders. As the guys rise from the bottom of the pool, the dancers will rise until their feet are just at water surface level. Please watch.” He asked as he gave his crew their signal.

The bottoms, disappeared underwater and the tops mounted their shoulders. One by one they rose and stood in a circle. It was then, Tristan realised he needed a signal system so that when the guys were underwater they could get a cue as to when to rise. A quick conference was held and they agreed on a set of hand signals that could be given by a ninth person with his hands underwater. Once their heads were above water and they could see each other and the lead bottom could give the cues. Justin volunteered to be the cue master for the day.

***

This was the first party or dinner held by Edward and Romel since Peggy’s arrival. She checked out each guest, from afar, as they arrived. During the water ballet, when everyone was still, she felt it safe enough to have a closer sniff of the invaders. She startled Brett, who was sitting on the ground, when she brushed by his legs. He shooed her away, but she was unperturbed and went to the next set of legs. Jeremy was a little more accommodating of her presence. He even gave her a stroke, which she tolerated for a few moments, then moved on. Snowy thought it was great when she jumped onto his lap, but Peggy soon turned away from him when he attempted to tickle her whiskers. Peggy, felt this was a total invasion of her personal space.

Still in search of a warm comfortable lap, she stepped over Andy with a sneer, and onto the third occupant of the bench seat. Dean was prepared to be reasonably tolerant until she started to knead his legs. When he chastised Peggy, her paws slipped between his legs. In fright her claws came out to get a grip and Peggy was swiftly removed bodily before Dean sustained any damage to his vital parts.

Having been unceremoniously dumped on the ground, Peggy thought this group undeserving of her affections, so she left them, tail and nose in the air. She went to the kitchen, nibbled a few dried pellets of an undetermined food variety, although she felt it had an oceanic origin, and then slowly crept back outside and jumped onto the back of Edward’s chair to watch the strange people cavorting in the pool. When her purring, so close to Edward’s ear began to distract him, she was lifted off her perch and onto master’s lap.

At the conclusion of the water show, when everyone wanted to congratulate them simultaneously, this was too much for Peggy, who by then decided that she would make better use of the outdoors and the more interesting possibilities of exploring the garden, in search of....well anything smaller than her that dared to moved.

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The dancers practised their moves for about an hour, while the rest of the party watched in awe as the moves quickly came together. Tristan then gave the crew a break, and an opportunity to join the party, but they were not allowed alcohol.

As they left the pool, some wrapped towels around their waists, but Tristan objected “No towels guys, I want you to stay naked all day and get used to being naked in public. The more you do it, the more normal it will seem and the less embarrassed you will feel when performing. I’m sure my friends here won’t object. It won’t be the first time for nudity at these parties.”

“Then maybe they should join us.” suggested one of the Stingers.

“That’s a great idea, I’ll see what I can do.”

Rather than make an announcement, Tristan went around and explained to his friends. For obvious reasons, he approached Justin first, who was only too happy to co-operate. Then he asked Juanito, who encouraged Raj to join him. As others noticed what was happening they shed their clothes till all were naked, except two. Edward was in the kitchen and had not noticed the mass strip taking place in his yard. Brett had been in the bathroom while this was happening, so when he stepped onto the deck and noticed, he yelled, a little too loudly “Fuck, what a flesh fest!”

That attracted the attention of everyone who turned to look at Brett. “What?” he asked, but he got no answer, instead a slow clap and chant of “Get it off.” was started by Justin. Despite his usual cheeky manner, Brett was not prone to willingly bare his overweight, slightly flabby body in public and turned a bright shade of red.

By now Edward had noticed the activities, realised what was happening and that he also would have to join in. He didn’t want to disrupt Brett’s starring role, so he waited, but when he heard Brett say “Not while you’re all looking.” Edward decided some encouragement was needed. He quickly went through his phone playlist and found one of his favourite old songs ‘The Stripper’, pressed play and walked out to the deck.

Brett turned, when he heard the music and Edward said “I will if you will.”

That was all the encouragement he needed. The double act received a huge round of applause and enough whistles to set off the neighbourhood dogs.

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Justin had not previously met any of the dancers. He looked around and noticed two guys, who seemed to stand very close to each other and assumed they must be a couple, so he went over to introduce himself. As he approached, he said “Hi guys, I’m Justin...” then did a double take and asked, “Are you two....?”

“Yes, we’re twins. I’m Isa and this is my brother Duncan.”

“Good to meet you Justin.” added Duncan.

“Isa, that’s an unusual name.”

“It’s actually short for Isador, which I hate. Our Mother’s a dancer, as was our grandmother, who was a great admirer of the dancer Isadora Duncan. Our great grandmother was a friend of Isadora Duncan, so no prize for guessing how we were named.”

“I hadn’t noticed before, when you were in the pool, just how much alike you are.”
“That’s us, the image of each other.” Replied Duncan.

“I can’t get away from myself.” joked Isa.

“I can see you’re dressed alike at present, wearing only your birthday suits. Very impressive, I must say. Do you work out together? Not only do you have the same faces, but looking at your bodies, every muscle seems to be the same?”

“And look at this.” said Isa, as he lifted his cock to show his balls and Duncan did the same.

“Bugger me!” exclaimed Justin “Both of you have a lefty that hangs slightly lower than the right one.”

“We do all things together. To keep our looks identical we eat the same and exercise the same, even doing the exact same number of reps.”

“So, why do you want to keep looking so identical?”

“There is a big demand for identical twin models. The more alike we are, the more work we get.”

“I didn’t know that. What sort of modelling do you do?”

“Fashion of course, but also advertising where there is an angle for twins. We’ve done a few commercials, some soft porn and are hoping to get into TV and movies.”

“But don’t they have special effects tricks these days, where one actor can play two parts?”

“They do, but the real thing is still in demand.”

“The public really have a fascination with identical twins.”

“And our agent is promoting us as the actor with his own back-up.”

“Like when one of us is sick or injured, the other can substitute.”

Justin was almost becoming dizzy with switching his focus from one twin to the other. When he asked a question, he was never sure who would answer. Sometimes they even picked up each other’s answer part way through.

“I have to ask do you dress the same?”

“Not any more. Patricia, our mother, used to dress us the same when we were young, but as you grow up you want some independence and that was the one thing we rebelled against.”

“I guess it’s the only way friends can tell you apart. Hey have you ever tricked your girlfriends, by swapping.”

“We don’t have girlfriends Justin.” replied Duncan as he winked at Justin.

“Oh, I see, so have you ever tried to trick a boyfriend.”

“That would be difficult.”

“Why, I can’t tell you apart, so someone would have to know you very well to tell the difference.”

“Let me put it this way. If we swapped, I’d be him and he’d be me and each of us could tell.”

Justin looked confused for a moment, then realised what Isa meant. “Oh I see what you mean when you say, you do all things together.”

“Yes, it’s very convenient. We know exactly what each other wants and we engage in exactly the same activities to keep our bodies identical.”

“I don’t think I want to talk about that now guys.”

“Sorry, does twincest embarrass you?”

“Sort of, but it’s more complicated and still a bit raw. I think I’ll go meet some of the swimmers.”

As Justin walked away, Isa asked his brother “What’s his problem?”

“I don’t know, maybe Tristan knows, I’ll ask him later.”

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Raj and Juanito were chatting with two of the Stingers. Neither were strong swimmers

so they were both fascinated by the ability of water polo players to stay afloat while at the same time, play a ball game.

“I just don’t understand how you can do it. I’d sink like a stone.” said Raj.

“You have to be able to tread water. Do you know what that means?”

“I think so. You wiggle your legs to stay afloat, instead of normal swimming.”

“I wouldn’t call it wiggling, but yes that‘s the idea. There are techniques you can learn and of course you need good leg muscle strength. It can be a gruelling sport and even staying in one place requires the continuous effort of treading water. To extend our reach for the ball while stationary, we use a kick called the eggbeater to raise our upper bodies above the surface of the water. ” replied Frank

“I don’t think I could do it.” added Juanito.

“Maybe not at present, but if you do a lot of swimming practice, that helps. Water polo is also an endurance sport, so as well as swimming ability you need to build up your aerobic strength. Long swims and running are good for that.”

“So is this the first time you been involved with dancing?”

“Apart from strutting my stuff at a bar, it certainly is. But we’re not really dancing under the water. Us guys are just a platform for the dancers to perform on. We’re just the muscle. But I’m finding it interesting. It’s certainly a new concept for me.”

“How is it working for Tristan, he seems like a hard taskmaster.”

“He certainly demands a lot of his dancers. Before we took this gig, we watched some of his rehearsals in the studio. He is demanding, but that’s how you get the best out of people. It’s probably not unlike water polo. The unfit and lazy don’t last long with a demanding coach and when team pressure is applied. You not only want to impress your coach, but you also certainly don’t want to let down your teammates.”

“I notice you only drinking water, is that part of your training routine?”

“No, I’d kill for a cold beer right now, but Tristan won’t let us have alcohol while rehearsing. It makes sense of course. Don’t want any missteps that could cause an accident and injury.”

“Can I get you a Coke or something other than water?”

“Definitely not mate, wouldn’t put that poison in my body.”

“Somebody told me, The Stingers is a gay team, is that right?” asked Juanito.

We are an LGBTIQ inclusive club and our mission is to provide a safe, inclusive and friendly environment to learn, play water polo, train and socialise. Non gay members are welcome to join but must be aware of and support the inclusive nature of our club.”

“So how long have you been playing water polo?”

“Me, for five years now and it has certainly been a great experience. I have increased my fitness enormously and met new friends. I’ve had a lot of fun and a few injuries.”

“Really?”

‘Yes, water polo is a relatively dangerous sport and can lead to bruises, scratches, broken bones, head injuries, or even drowning. However, you can decrease the chances of injury if you stay in shape, use the proper protective gear and follow the rules.”

“What gear do you wear apart from Speedos?”

“A water polo cap that is a protective covering over our ears and protects them from injury in the event of head contact. That can be often in an environment where you are not playing on a solid surface. People think that playing in water with no hard surfaces is safe, but it is definitely a contact sport.”

“Well, I’m impressed, but don’t think I’ll get any closer than the viewing stands.”

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Andy and Dean had also cornered one of the swimmers. While Andy was inhaling the man’s chest and shoulder muscles, Dean was engaged in conversation with Mark.

“I didn’t even know we had a gay water polo team.”

“The club’s been around for nearly twenty years now. It was originally formed in 2001 to represent Sydney in the 2002 Gay Games, and is now a well-known part of the Sydney LGBTIQ sporting and water polo communities.”

“So who do you play against? I don’t know of any water polo teams.”

“There are some local teams in the competition and we also play in the national comps.

We have been represented in all gay games since 2002, including the Eurogames in Stockholm, the IGLA competition in Edmonton, the Outgames in Antwerp, the gay games in Cologne and Chicago.”

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After the break it was back into the pool for a further run through of the already practised moves. When Edward advised that lunch was nearly ready, Tristan allowed them to leave the pool and rejoin the party.