Chasing Tide (A Merman's Tale And The Human Who Desired Him)

MON FRÈRE.

Chapter: 23.
********

"So...," the other man sitting in a private jet struck a conversation. "How is it going, chasing the princess?" He watched a smile form on the other's lips as he picked up his champagne flute and brought it to his lips.

Putting down the glass. "He is giving me the run for my money." He said, still with that smile.

"Ah, I didn't think he fancied being chased." The first said.

"I actually like it," the second declared.

"You do?" There was a hint of surprise.

"Yes," the second chuckled, understanding why the other seemed a little surprised. "The more he makes me chase, the deeper I fall into him. God, I crave him something fierce." He whispered, hissing a little as if imagining the subject of their conversation in his mind. "You have no idea how I try to resist the urge every damn time I am face to face with him. I want to kiss him so hard his heart would explode." He added and the other smiled knowingly.

"I know, it's written all over you, this mad obsession over this man, what's more surprising is the control you are putting into it. You were never a patient man, not once have I seen you wait so long to have something you want. Not when you want them as badly as you want this man. You must really love him."

"With every beat, every breath, every pump of the blood within my veins."

"That much is patent." The other rose and walked over to the bar. "Care for more champagne?" He asked and the second nodded his confirmation. "How is business?" He asked while retrieving another bottle.

"Running," the other replied. "Mostly, leaving everything in the hands of Jacob, I have got bigger fish to fry."

"Hmm, poor Jacob." The other empathized.

"I know, I should award him a vacation soon."

"Agreed," he returned with the bottle then poured them both another fill. "So, you took care of the debts?" He raised a question, taking his seat opposite the other.

"Every penny,"

"Frère,"

"I know, this is bad, no matter how you look at it, I have to get closer to him. There is no telling how far I will have to go to get to him. But what is even worse is how I'm already willing to do anything to get there."

"I would assume so considering the huge sum that left the account, I heard from the Financial Accountant."

"Interests accumulated over the years but it's all settled now and that money isn't a big of a deal."

"Mon frère," the other called, putting down his glass. "You know I will always support you, as the black sheep of the family, you alone believed in me, you fought with me and you fought for me even when our parents considered me a lost child, a nuisance who would amount to nothing, they weren't very far from the truth if you had not intervened. If you had given up on me like everyone else, I would truly have become lost, forgotten, humiliated, and a nonentity. But, it was thanks to you that I am here today, living, breathing, and wealthy, all made possible through the first company you entrusted into my hands." The first reminisced.

"Our sisters may have acted greedily with their inheritance but I wasn't going to watch my own twin brother suffer like the son of a nobody."

"I choose a part."

"You were just a boy, a mindless, carefree one at that, couldn't be tied down or held at a place for too long, you craved adventure, you yearned to explore the vast world and its different pleasures, many teens make equal mistakes at that age."

"You were a teen too, yet you were nothing like me."

"Well, one of us had to be the rational one." That made the first laugh.

"Yet you shouldn't have split your inheritance in half for my sake."

"I would do it all over again, Mon frère. You are my Partner, my Muse, even when you would abandon me as a child and as a teenager, I would not have loved you any less, remember when you would sneak into my bedroom on the nights of our birthdays just so you could share your shoddy gifts and cuddle with me." They both laughed at the memory.

"Those nights were always my happiest." The first said, feeling a pang of guilt stab him in the chest.

"I wished so many nights that you would return home to me." The second confessed with wet eyes.

"Je suis vraiment désolé, mon frère." (I'm really sorry, my brother.) He pleaded for the millionth time. All those lost years, all the memories they would have made.

"You have apologized enough, brother, no more apologies from you." The second chastised with a glint in his eyes which made the other chuckle despite himself. "Our parents never knew you came around and even slept under their roof," they laughed again.

"They would have gone ballistic had they found out."

"Well, you crashed our father's two-hundred-million car, there were only two of that kind in the world and he owned the last one, you crashed it and ran away. You came back, pleaded and you were forgiven, just when we were starting to think you had repented you stole our mother's jewelry worth over a hundred..."

"...Maman, was so furious that she cursed you then disowned you but I would not allow that, I told her if she disowned you then it means she automatically did the same to me too. Years later, you returned clad in nothing but rags, battered face, and unattended injuries, I was hurt, my heart bled for you, I begged for forgiveness on your behalf, for three nights I knelt in front of our parent's bedroom door, I refused to eat or drink, they were frightened I was going to die then they accepted you into the house once again."

"But, barely three months after you returned home, you broke the last straw and ran away with fifty million, money meant to use in paying the employees, you little rascal. What in the devil's name did you even do with all that money and items?!" The other asked as if after all these years, it still confuses him what life his twin lived as a teen. They may be identical but their personalities were completely different. When one is hot and cold the other is warm and melting. It was a strange combination.

"Alright, enough about my horrible shenanigans," the other pleaded, he wasn't exactly proud of the life he led as a teenager and young adult. Lots of wrong choices he made, many of which he couldn't even account for. The precious moments he missed and the many memories he would have made with his twin, chasing life on the highs, he found himself mingling with the wrong crowd. Women, men, drugs, alcohol, and gambling, devoured his sense of reasoning and slowly he slipped away from family, from his twin, causing them heartaches. But that was all in the past now.

*************
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, LOVERS!