steins_stories | A Brother's Lullaby, Tom/Bill, G

♥Fluff Friday♥

Title: A Brother's Lullaby
Author:

steinsgrrl
Fandom: Tokio Hotel
Pairing(s): Tom/Bill
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. I in no way intend to insinuate that any of the below actually happened. It is simply a piece of written entertainment based on the public personas of real people.
Rating: G
Summary: Bill misses his bed, his brother's arms and his dogs and just can't sleep.
Author's notes: Written for Fluff Friday, September 18, 2009. From a prompt by

anachan87 on

de_band_prompts. Thank you so much to my beta,

ma_chelle.

Bill punched his pillow, dove his head into the crater he’d made and squeezed his eyes shut tightly.

One betraying eyelid popped open and Bill found himself staring right at the bright red numbers on the alarm clock.

3:42

He huffed and rolled onto his back.

It was too quiet in here. They were too high up from the street to hear much in the way of traffic and it was too late for many cars to be out now, anyway. The bodyguards, management, and even the rest of the band had retired to their rooms and were likely dreaming peacefully by now, but Bill couldn’t sleep and he had no idea why; he’d been tired as hell when they got to the hotel.

They hadn’t played a concert in nearly a year. They were a little rusty with the old songs and they were more than a little nervous, but they were so excited to be back in front of an audience—their audience—that Bill’s adrenaline level had been through the roof.

But only forty-five minutes after he’d sung his last note of the night and the concert was over, his adrenaline level had crashed and crashed hard. He’d been so tired, Bill wasn’t sure how he made it to his room. He knew he and Tom had taken the elevator up but he had only a vague recollection of doing so. He’d climbed into bed and closed his eyes, thankful for the softness of the sheets and the darkness of the room, knowing he’d be dead to the world any moment.

The next thing he knew, he realized he’d been lying awake for hours, staring at the ceiling, and trying to decide whether he would fall asleep faster if he counted sheep or took a hot bath. It was too late for a bath and he was far too lazy to draw one right now, anyway. He tried counting sheep but the ones in his head all looked the same and he lost count and gave up, irritated that he couldn’t even do that right.

Growling out his frustration, Bill sat up and slapped his hands in frustration against the mattress. He balled his fists and jammed them into his eyes, rubbing them hard before flopping down onto his back again. He missed their dogs and he missed his brother; Bill wasn’t used to sleeping alone anymore. Their dogs were staying with Simone in Hamburg while the band was in Köln and there was no fixing that tonight. Tom was in another room, in another bed and Bill tried to resist going to him now.

They’d given up long ago on having their own rooms at home, no matter what they had to tell the public; they’d simply grown too used to being together. They shopped together, ate, together, worked and played together. And once they’d finally come to terms with what it meant to be your twin’s soulmate, they had given in to an attraction, a physical and emotional need for each other, that had been just under the surface for them for so long that they didn’t remember a time in their lives without it. From that point on, they’d tried to make sure to be together every night.

It had been much easier once they had their own tour bus, and then they’d come home to start the new album and they didn’t have to sneak around anymore. Even when they went to Los Angeles and Miami to record, they simply told the record company to book them one room with two beds, just to save money. They were brothers; no one ever questioned them there.

But tonight, the hotel had given them free rooms. It was not a merely kind gesture on the part of the hotel; it was purely business. The hotel management knew that crowds gathered in front of whichever hotel the band laid their heads at night and they thought having Tokio Hotel as their guests would be good publicity. Jost had figured since the hotel was offering, they might as well all have their own rooms…rooms with one bed. And Bill was miserable.

He had no excuse to be in Tom's bed and Tom had no excuse to be in his. Bill was a little old to be claiming he had nightmares or was homesick, though he guessed the latter really did apply. He missed their home and their bed, covered in fluffy blankets, frilly pillows that Tom snorted at and shoved to the floor before climbing into bed (but that he arranged carefully each time he made the bed just the way Bill liked it), and he missed their dogs, lying all around them and over them and snoring loud enough they’d keep anyone else awake. But Bill was used to it, he missed it, and it was too damn quiet in here!

Bill threw back the covers and jumped out of bed. This was dumb. How the hell would anyone know where they slept? The doors had perfectly good locks on them and if Bill didn’t answer his door in the morning, he could just say he had been in the shower. At this point, he didn’t care what he’d have to say; he needed Tom.

The connecting door between their rooms wasn’t locked and he hadn’t expected it to be. He turned the knob and opened the door slowly, hoping it wouldn’t squeak and wake Tom up. His brother wasn’t a particularly light sleeper, but an unfamiliar sound like that could pull him out of a deep sleep. Bill wasn’t worried that climbing into bed would wake him up; he did that every night.

Bill made his way across the room in the dark, holding his hands out in front of him and hoping his brother hadn’t left something lying out that Bill could trip over or stub his toe on. When his knee hit the bed, Bill let out a long breath and reached down to feel his way around to ‘his’ side of the bed. Pulling back the covers, he slid between them, reaching out to feel for which way Tom was lying. Smiling to himself, Bill turned on his side and snuggled his backside into Tom's groin, pulling his arm around his waist at the same time.

Tom let out a little half-snore and Bill felt him jerk awake, his arm tightening around him. “Mm, hi,” Tom murmured sleepily and kissed his neck where there was a gap in his dreads. “What’re you doing here?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” Bill whispered.

Bill felt Tom's concern before he even opened his mouth. “Bad dream?”

“No, nothing like that.” Bill stroked the hand pressed flat against his chest before twining his fingers with Tom's. “I just…” Bill’s face grew warm and he turned it into the pillow. Was this any less embarrassing than when he’d been so homesick on tour he hadn’t left Tom's side for weeks? He should be able to handle one night sleeping on his own, shouldn’t he?

“Just what?” Tom prodded.

Bill mumbled into the cotton but Tom moved quick fingers and gave a little twist to Bill’s nipple ring, making him twitch. “Okay! I said…I missed you.”

“Oh,” Tom replied. “Is that all?”

Bill would have been much more irritated if he hadn’t heard the smile in Tom's voice. “Is that all? It’s enough, don’t you think? It was too quiet by myself and I missed you. And the dogs,” Bill chuckled and Tom echoed it behind him, “but mostly you.”

“Can’t take one night without me, huh?” Tom teased, before pressing warm lips to Bill’s shoulder and Bill shuddered at the contact. He loved it when his brother was being sweet. “Why didn’t you come sooner?”

Bill turned in Tom's arms to lie on his back, wanting to see his brother’s face but it was too dark. “I keep thinking that now we’re older, there’s no reason for me to be in here with you. So what if someone calls the room phone and I don’t answer? Or they come knocking on the door and I’m not there? What’s my excuse?”

Tom propped himself up on his elbow next to him. “You’re my brother, Bill. Isn’t that reason enough for you to be in here?”

“All night?” Bill scoffed.

“Yes, all night.” Tom answered, his voice confident as his fingers meandered over Bill’s chest, circling nipples and plucking lightly at his nipple rings. “And all day, too. Why not?”

“You know why not, Tom.” Bill sucked in a breath and caught his brother’s hand as it trailed lower down his belly.

“Bill, this doesn’t even have to be about that. Forget what the fangirls think for a minute and forget that it’s true. Forget that I love you—“ Tom broke off as Bill snorted.

“Yeah right.”

“No, I’m serious. Forget all that for a moment.” Tom brought Bill’s hand to his lips and kissed his fingers softly.

“Okay,” Bill said, reluctantly, because he didn’t even want to think about what his life would be like without that part of Tom now that he’d loved him so long.

“When it comes right down to it, what are we, Bill?”

“Um.” He didn’t know what Tom was getting at.

“What have you always been to me? Always.” Tom hinted, holding Bill’s hand to his chest, right over his heart. Bill could feel it thumping steadily beneath his palm, a sound that had often soothed him when he couldn’t sleep.

“Your brother. We’ve always been brothers.” Bill smiled, because of course they had, and Bill cherished the knowledge that there had always been one person there for him, one person he could always count on; his brother.

“But more than that.” Tom took his hand away from Bill’s and settled it over Bill’s chest, over the heart that was melting because of his twin. His twin.

“Twins,” Bill breathed.

“They don’t have twins, Bill. They don’t know what it’s like. We need to be together. We don’t just want to; we need to. They will never understand that.” Tom's voice was quiet, but urgent, and Bill felt himself straining toward him, wanting to touch him.

“They never will,” Bill agreed.

“So if they ever dare to question why we are together, any time of the day…or night, what’s our answer?” Tom asked and, of course, the answer was obvious.

“We’re twins and they wouldn’t understand.” Bill breathed a sigh of relief. Why did he get so worked up about these things? He knew if he just talked to Tom about this, they’d figure it out. He yawned and stretched next to Tom and felt his brother chuckle.

“Ready to sleep now?”

“Mhm, I think so. Wrap me up?” Bill leaned up to kissed him quick, hoping he aimed right in the darkness. His lips brushed Tom's and he laid down, smiling.

“Of course.” Tom wrapped his arm around Bill as soon as Bill turned over and he cuddled up against him, pulling him closer, his breath wisped lightly across Bill’s ear.

Bill was warm and happy, ready to fall asleep where he should be, in his brother’s arms and it wasn’t long before his world began to get fuzzy and black. He could feel his breath growing shallow and steady when he just barely heard his brother behind him.

“You know what else you are, Bill?” Tom whispered. He must have thought Bill was asleep because he only waited a beat before nuzzling his nose into the back of Bill’s neck and answering his own question. “Mine.”

Bill slept.