They always worked together because it was safer this way, calling themselves Starlet and Pearl because none of their clients needed to know their real names.
And there were a lot of rich, middle-aged men (or even older ones) who enjoyed the company of good looking girls who offered their services for the right amount of money.
Like this man with long, wavy dark hair, streaked with gray, they had agreed to meet in the bar where they usually met with their clients before going home (or to a hotel room) with them.
Only that this man didn't want them for himself, but for his nephews, claiming that he was worried about the closeness of the brothers and that it would do them some good 'to meet with such attractive young women', as he put it. It didn't hurt that he even paid them for the short meeting with him, not to mention the money they would get for spending the whole night with the man's nephews.
They could do with the money.
Sigrid (that was Pearl's real name) had not only to pay her fees for college but also to support her family and Tauriel (as Starlet was called) wanted to become a doctor.
So Starlet and Pearl were sent to the apartment the brothers lived in, wearing very short, very tight dresses (Tauriel in forest green and Sigrid in lake blue) and black nine-inch heels.
A blond young man with shoulder-length, curly hair and a trimmed beard opened the door a crack, wearing tight bleached and destroyed blue jeans and a light brown tank top.
"So you are the special guests my uncle has talked about?" he asked, drawing at his cigarette, studying them. In the background, some very loud and aggressive rock music was playing.
Pearl and Starlet exchanged a glance. He was rather short, meaning that they were towering over him because of their high heels (although neither Tauriel nor Sigrid was especially tall). When that happened, men normally requested them to take the shoes off, but he didn't.
So, after their initial surprise, Starlet answered, "Yes, that would be us... I'm Starlet and this is Pearl. May we come in?"
The blond young man didn't say anything, just opened the door for them completely and the two girls stepped over the threshold.
"I hope you will excuse the disorder... Our uncle only informed us like ten minutes ago that two young ladies would be visiting us," he explained while guiding them through a long, dark and narrow corridor which was crammed with different items like cardboard boxes, skateboards, shoes and bikes, towards a glass door which seemed to be leading to the living room.
"Oh, that's alright," Pearl answered while moving closer to Starlet.
Ever since they had met at the children's home (because Sigrid's mother had been institutionalized and her father had been incarcerated whereas Tauriel's mother had committed suicide and her biological father hadn't wanted to take her in) the two of them had been taking care of each other, like sisters. Or lovers.
And then, the blond, young man opened the glass door, ushering them into the smoke-filled living room where another young man with long and wild, dark-brown hair and some designer stubble was sitting on an expensive looking black leather couch, wearing tight black cargo pants and a dark blue tank top, smoking like a chimney while the TV was on (some kind of documentary about wildlife) with the sound turned off because there was very loud music coming from the young men's hi-fi system.
"This is my baby brother, Kíli," the blond young man explained.
Starlet turned towards the blond one with a raised eyebrow. "And you are..." she tried to coax him into telling them his name.
"Oh, I haven't introduced myself? Sorry, too much dope and booze... I'm Fíli, and, yes, our mother has had a cruel sense of humour... Or maybe she was also high while naming us," he answered which made his younger brother laugh. He had a nice laugh, innocent and carefree.
"Well, she definitely was high, Fee, considering the fact that she was doing her own brothers, she could only have been high like a kite," he answered and to Pearl's and Starlet's surprise the blond, young man (Fíli) chuckled before flopping down on the couch next to his brother who immediately rested his head on the other one's shoulder, offering him a glass that appeared to be filled to the brim with whiskey.
The blond one accepted it, brushing his nose against the dark-haired one's temple.
Starlet and Pearl exchanged another glance, feeling all dressed up and with nowhere to go.
Apparently, the blond young man seemed to remember some of his manners.
"Can we offer you something to drink?" he finally asked Starlet and Pearl.
Starlet sighed. "Well, yes, thank you. I'd like a glass of water," she answered.
" And I'd like some orange juice, if it isn't too much trouble," Pearl added.
The blond young man offered her a lopsided grin. "Oh, no trouble at all. Actually, Kíli and I like to drink our vodka with a splash of orange juice," he explained, jumping up from the couch which caused his brother (who had been leaning on him) to upend face first in the couch.
"Fee!" he complained while propping himself up.
The blond one turned towards him.
"Sorry! Didn't know you were that dependent on me, Kee" he answered.
"Ha ha, very funny," the dark-haired young man shot back while pouting. Then he seemed to notice that he and his brother were still having guests.
"Oh, sorry, I totally forgot about you... If Fíli and I had known that some hot girls would be visiting us, we wouldn't have taken all those drugs," he explained, gesturing towards the coffee table, made from dark oak wood and light marble and on which the remnants of their drug use was still on display: a tea light, a spoon and a syringe as well as a credit card, a handheld mirror and a rolled up five hundred Euro bill.
Pearl started to feel uncomfortable. Of course, most of their clients were doing drugs (they could tell from their behaviour) and sometimes they were even offered something 'to get into the mood' (which they always declined), but none of them were so open about it.
Unlike those brothers.
Then the blond one (Fíli) returned with two glasses.
"There you go, please, have a seat," he said while offering the glass with clear liquid to Starlet and the glass with orange liquid to Pearl.
"Thank you," they answered simultaneously while sitting down on the leather couch as well.
Pearl could see that Starlet was carefully sniffing the contents of her glass before taking a sip and she did the same (though they both knew from experience that date-rape drugs didn't have a specific smell or taste, a hard lesson they had learned, ending up in hospital).
The blond young man snorted. "You think I put something into your drinks? Why? I take it that my uncle paid you for having sex with us, meaning that we can do anything we want with you as long as the money is good," he declared.
Immediately Pearl put her glass down onto the coffee table with a loud clank.
"Oh, you think because Tauriel and I are escorts you can do whatever you want with us? That's not true! So, think again, Blondie," she remarked vehemently.
"Pearl!" Starlet hissed and the girl with the caramel coloured curls noticed her mistake. She had revealed her partner's real name.
"Who?" the blond young man asked, frowning.
Before Pearl could response, Starlet took matters into her own hands. "That would be me. My real name is Tauriel, not Starlet," she revealed.
"And I'm Sigrid. Pearl is just the name I use when working," she added in order to support her friend.
The brother's exchanged a glance before turning towards the two young women.
"We appreciate your honesty. And you should know that neither Fíli nor I will ask for your services in the bedroom tonight... if you get my meaning. You two are not the first hookers our uncle has hired for us and normally we manage to entertain us and our guests otherwise," the dark-haired one (Kíli) explained.
Tauriel and Sigrid looked at each other.
"Are you into some sort of kink? Because Pearl and I only do the normal stuff, you know, like oral and vaginal," Tauriel made clear.
Kíli giggled. "I thought we were using real names here... but alright, I get it that you want to use your aliases. No, Fee and I are not into kink, we just want to ask you if you are okay with playing some video games with us?" he inquired while looking from one girl to the other, giving them the puppy eyes.
Tauriel and Sigrid exchanged another look. Somehow, during their whole career as escorts, that had been the most unusual request so far.