Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me and so on.
AN: Okay, I'm officially blaming all of you, if I fail my test, because I just had to write on the next chapter after reading your reviews. No, wait. Just a joke. Wish me luck for Monday!
Shanne: Thank you.
D: Um mal meinen Lieblingskomiker zu zitieren: „Wir brauchen dem CIA keine falschen Beweismittel liefern, wir haben Superstars, Star-Search, Casting-Shows, wir haben musikalische Massenvernichtungswaffen, da träumt der Irak nur davon. … Den Begriff Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit, den muss man weiter fassen: Casting-Shows, singende Soap-Weiber,…". Und um mal zum Thema zurückzukommen: Klar, hätte Piper wohl logischerweise Chris was davon erzählt, dass er seinen Bruder bereits kennt, aber 1. wäre dann die Spannung futsch gewesen und 2. dachte Piper vielleicht, es wäre eine nette Überraschung. Ansonsten sag ich vor allem 1000 Mal danke. Vielen, vielen Dank, hoffentlich bis zum nächsten Mal.
Embry: Yep, poor Chris, but he will survive. And maybe he will survive and be happy. Maybe.
bstant: Here's the update, thanks for the review.
Hexe99: Thank you, here's the new chappie.
Nika Dawson: Yes, me too. I hope, I'll never be in their situation (highly unpossible). Thanks a lot.
Aeris: Yep, scheiß Semesterende. Aber jetzt stehen dann erst mal acht Wochen Semesterferien vor mir (auch wenn ich noch für ne Klausur am Ende der Ferien lernen muss, aber das hat ja noch Zeit). Ich hoffe, ich bekomm die Story in der Zeit noch fertig. Auf jeden Fall danke für dein Feedback, freu mich immer drauf.
History Buff 1990: Wow. Never imagined getting thus a reaction. Makes me very happy. And proud. And wow. Did I say wow? g Thanks a lot.
Mystiksnake: Oh yes, big shock. But everything will fall into place. I hope.
Proud-to-be-Insane: Yeah, would be difficult to just let them stay together. But I promise, I'll try to work something out. Hope, you'll like it.
Squall90218: Thanks a lot. Nice to get new readers.
Pendecardiel: We'll see. I know, how the relationship will end. And I promise, you'll find out soon, too.
Regan Malfoy: Well, thanks a lot. Good to know you like my story.
Chapter 8
Chris looked in shock at his boyfriend standing in the door claiming to be his brother. He stared at him for a full minute before snapping out of his trance. He drew in a shaky breath and turned around to his mother and newfound father.
"I... I'll be right back", he fled the room before anyone could say anything.
"Chris", Piper called after him and stood up to follow him. "Sweetie, wait."
Matthew stopped her from leaving the room with a hand on her arm. "Wait, I'll talk to him."
Piper looked sceptically at first but nodded finally. "Okay, sure. You talk to him."
Matthew left the room after another glance at his father.
------
Matthew knocked on the door to Chris's room. "Chris?"
"Go away!"
"Chris, please open the door!"
"I said go away!"
"Chris, let me in. I'm not gonna leave." After a few moments of silence Matthew heard the key turn around. He drew in a deep breath before he opened the door and entered the room. He immediately saw Chris standing in front of the window looking out.
"You okay?" Matthew asked carefully.
Chris laughed shakily. "Yeah, sure. Everything's great."
Matthew went over to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder. "Chris, I know this is some heavy shit..."
"Really? You don't say."
"But please relax." He kissed Chris on his cheek which caused the younger one to flinch away and cross the room.
„We can't do this anymore", Chris was now leaning against his cupboard with his eyes closed.
Matt approached him carefully. "I don't want this to end."
"You think I do?" Chris snapped. "Christ, I'd want to fuck you right here and now, but we can't. We have to stop this."
"Chris", Matt tried to soothe the younger one.
"No", Chris interrupted. "We're brothers, Matt. Brothers!"
He tried desperately to hold his tears back.
Matt put his hand on Chris's cheek. "I love you."
This time Chris let a tear slip away and it rolled down his cheek until it reached Matt's hand. "I know. But we can't love each other anymore. It's better we forget that anything ever happened between us." He turned his back to the the blonde. "I think it's for the best if you leave me alone for a while."
Matthew looked at him tearfully. "Okay", he finally whispered and left the room after another sad look a his newfound brother.
Chris closed the door after Matt and leaned against the door with his back. He slowly sled down and was fully crying by the time he sat on the floor with his head between his knees.
------
"Is he okay?" Piper asked as Matthew came down again.
"Yeah", the blonde nodded and tried to look convincing. "Just a bit confused."
Piper nodded. "I know. I didn't think he would take it so rough. I mean, I thought he would be surprised but get over it real soon."
Matthew shrugged and looked at his father, who smiled lightly.
"I suppose he won't come down for dinner?"
"No, I don't think so", Matt confirmed.
Piper nodded. "Well, let's go to the dining-room and eat, okay?"
Matthew hesitated at first but nodded when he saw his father's pleading expression. "Sure."
The Wyatts sat down while Piper brought the food over. "I hope, you'll like it."
"I'm sure I will", Matthew answered politely. "I eat nearly everything."
"That's good", his mother smiled. "Your cousins are very difficult in that way. I have to make something special nearly everyday for every one of them."
Matthew forced a smile at his face. "Wow, must be interesting dinners."
"Yes, they are."
Matthew looked at the plate his mother had filled up for him, put some of it on his fork and ate it. "Tastes really good."
"Well, thank you", Piper nodded. "I should hope so since I own a restaurant."
"You do?" Matthew asked at the same time his father said:
"You do?"
The Halliwell nodded. "I opened it nine years ago with the money we made with the club."
Leo nodded while Matthew looked up interested. "The club?"
"P3", he explained. "It's a club here in San Francisco that I own."
"Wow", Matthew nodded and took another bite.
"So what about you", Piper changed the topic and looked at her oldest son. "Are you good in school?"
Matthew nodded. "Yeah, I'm doing quite good."
"Did you find some friends already?"
"Yeah, there are some quite cool kids around."
Piper nodded. "That's great. What about a girlfriend?"
Matthew was quite impressed with himself that he didn't choke on the food or blush furiously. "No", he managed to get out after he had swallowed the food in his mouth. "No girlfriend."
------
Chris looked at the clock in his room. It was eleven p.m. He should sleep. But he wouldn't. He couldn't. He should do something. He stood up from his bed where he had been sitting for more than four hours thinking about his lover. His brother. One and the same person. He went over to the wardrobe and hit it with his right hand. He would go crazy if he kept on sitting around doing nothing.
He had heard his father and his brother leaving. He had listened to his mother knocking on the door. He didn't open the door. Even as Piper started to get angry and began to shout at him, he kept the door closed. He didn't want to talk to her. He didn't want to talk to anybody. He wanted to forget the whole day and everything he had found out.
Forget. He wanted to forget. There was only one good way to forget.
He pulled his mobile out of his trousers and called Kat, who answered her cell phone after ten seconds.
"Hey Chris", she greeted him. "What's up?"
"That's what I wanted to ask you", Chris answered. "I'd like to party."
"You do?" Kat sounded surprised. "I thought you couldn't go out tonight because of some family stuff."
"Well, yeah, family stuff's over. So do you know a good place to go tonight?"
Kat thought about it for a second. "I think, Kelly is having a party tonight."
"Kelly? That freak girl?"
Kat snorted. "She's no freak, she's just a bit gothic. And so will be the crowd there."
Chris nodded. "Perfect for tonight."
"Why? What's up?"
Chris closed his eyes for a second before answering. "Nothing, I'm just in a bad mood. So I'll be over at your's in five?"
"Sure. See you then."
Chris hung up, put the phone back in his pocket and grabbed his wallet. He went to the door and listened for a while to make sure nobody was still around. Then he went over to the window, opened it and climbed out.
Twenty minutes later he and Kat entered the house of Kelly Anderson. There were about thirty people hanging around in the living-room although most of them seemed to be too out of it to notice them.
Chris shrugged and looked for something to drink which he found in the form of vodka on a table. He took an unopened bottle, searched for two unused glasses and sat down on the couch, which was remarkably empty. He poured some vodka into one of the glasses and handed it to Kat, who had sat down next to him. He filled another glass, this time as full as it was possible and clinked glasses with his best friend.
Kat looked at him as he drowned the whole glass at once and filled another. "Are you okay?"
"Sure", Chris nodded and started to empty his glass again.
"So that's why you're drinking vodka like water."
"Yep." Chris put his glass away and started to drink straight from the bottle.
"Chris?" Kat started again. "Did something happen with your family?"
"Nope", Chris shook his head and took another sip.
"Did something happen with Matthew?"
Chris didn't put the bottle down and so didn't answer.
"Chris", Kat asked once again.
The Halliwell put the bottle down and stared at a couple of drunk girls dancing slowly in the middle of the room. "We broke up", he explained without any emotions in his voice.
"What? Why?"
Chris gave a short laugh. "It's complicated."
"How?"
"I can't tell you." He put the bottle up again.
------
It was eleven a.m. when Matthew rang the bell at the Manor and got the door opened by his mother.
"Hi Matthew", she smiled at him. "Good to see you again."
"Nice to be here", he said as he entered the house. "I'm always looking forward to a nice lunch instead of the little I manage to cook myself without burning it."
"What about Leo? Can't he like cook anything?"
Matthew laughed. "Well, firstly, Dad's not around much during the day because he's working for like twelve hours a day and secondly, Dad is like the worst cook ever."
Piper laughed. "Well, I don't think he ever had to. But is he still working as a whitelighter? Because if he's working the whole day, that would be a bit much wouldn't it?"
Matthew nodded. "He's on vacation. Kind of. For over ten years now, so technically, he quit."
Piper raised an eyebrow. "He can do that suddenly?"
"Suddenly? What do you mean?"
Piper shook her head. "Nothing." She started to walk towards the kitchen. "So, now prepare yourself, you're about to meet the rest of the family."
Matthew smiled. "Sounds great to me."
"Yeah, now", Piper laughed. "But I'm sure, you'll regret saying that later."
The blonde followed her and was greeted by Phoebe, who pulled him into a hug as soon as he entered the kitchen. "Hi, I'm your Aunt Phoebe and I'm so happy to see you." She took a step back to look at him. "Oh, my god, just look at you, all grown up. But you're still so cute."
Matthew just looked at her and nodded. A second later he was pulled into another hug, this time by the other woman in the room. "Hi, I'm your Aunt Paige, nice to meet you... again."
"Yeah, thanks", Matthew managed to get out before he was pulled into another hug from Phoebe.
"I'm so happy to see you", she exclaimed again and didn't seperate from her nephew, which caused Matthew to look at his mother pleadingly.
Piper hold a laugh back as he watched her overly happy sister hug her son. "Okay, Phoebe, enough for the moment. Why don't you go upstairs and wake Chris? I want him down for lunch."
"Sure", Phoebe smiled as she passed Matthew with another smile and left the kitchen.
"Thank you." The blonde smiled at his mother.
"No problem."
"So I heard that you met Chris in school and became friends", Paige asked.
"Yeah", Matthew nodded and forced a smile on his face. "We met on my first day in school."
"How?", Paige wanted to know curiously. "I mean, you're different classes."
"Well, actually, we met at the principal's office."
Paige laughed. "Yeah, that's my Chris. Everyday a visit at the principal's."
Piper frowned. "Paige, that's not funny. So would you please stop encouraging him?"
Paige nodded unconvincingly. "Sure."
The oldest Halliwell just rolled her eyes and turned to her son. "Your cousins won't be here today, we thought it would be better if you didn't meet all of the family at once."
Matthew just nodded as he was distracted by Phoebe entering the kitchen again followed by Chris, who looked like he was still asleep.
"Hey, look, I woke sleeping beauty", Phoebe exclaimed happy, which caused Chris to groan. He walked over to one of the chairs and sat down. Then he buried his head in his arms, which lay on the counter.
"Chris", Piper spoke to her youngest. "We have a guest."
Chris looked up, noticed Matthew, murmered a "Hi" and let his head fall down again.
Paige chuckled.
"Paige, Phoebe, could you lay the table?" Piper asked her sisters.
"Sure", the two of them left the room.
The phone rang and they heard as Paige answered it and called for Piper a minute later. "Be right back", Piper smiled and left the kitchen as well leaving Chris and Matthew alone in an uncomfortable silence.
Matthew looked at his brother. "You okay?" He asked quietly.
"Of course", Chris answered without looking up.
"You have a hangover", the older one stated.
This caused Chris to look up. "So?"
Matthew shrugged. "Nothing."
Both were happy when Piper came back a minute later and started to ask Matthew questions about Seattle.
------
For the next few weeks all of the Halliwells fell into a pattern. Matthew would come over to the Manor everyday and spend some time with his family. Chris would hide from him every chance he got and ignore him at every meal they had to have together. At night he would go out, drink until he forgot about his messed-up life and flirt with various guys in his drunken state, wheras Matthew sat in his room and tried to occupy himself with schoolwork, books and his computer.
Three weeks after Matthew had found out about his lover being his brother, he sat in the cafeteria at school, when Kat sat down next to him.
"Hey", she greeted him.
"Hey", he answered, quite surprised because Kat hadn't talked to him since he and Chris had broken up.
"So you and Chris broke up?" Kat got straight to the point.
"Yeah."
"I suppose you're not gonna tell me why, either?"
Matthew shook his head. "No, sorry."
Kat sighed. "It's okay. Listen, I'm not here to talk about your break-up."
"Then why are you here?"
"I want to talk about Chris."
Matthew raised an eyebrow. "What? Why?"
"Because whatever the reason for your break-up was, he's hurt. Deeply. And it's not healthy for him."
Matthew looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Kat sighed again and rubbed her temple before she explained. "He's out every night until dawn, drinks himself to oblivion, smokes and I even saw him talking to Tony a few times."
Matthew gaped at her. "Tony? The dealer Tony?"
Kat nodded. "I know he isn't sleeping. He's good at hiding it, but if you really look at him he looks half dead."
Matthew sighed. "So what do you want me to do?"
"I don't know", Kat shrugged. "But I'm sure you're the only one who can do something, even if you broke up."
------
It was late afternoon when Matthew opened the door to the Manor with the key his mother had given to him a week ago.
"Hello?" He called into the house, but got no answer. "Hello", he repeated, but the house still seemed to be empty. He sighed, put the key on the table near the entrance door and entered the kitchen, where he grabbed a can of coke from the fridge and sat down on one of the chairs.
He stood up again when he heard someone come down the stairs. With the can in one hand, he left the kitchen and entered the hallway to find Chris rummaging through the cupboard next to the stairs.
"Hey", Matthew greeted him.
Chris spun around, obviously shocked to find his former lover in the house. "Hey", he mumbled and turned to leave the house.
Matthew saw him stumble a few times, before he reached the door. "Are you okay?"
"Sure", Chris answered and went to open the door, when suddenly an arm at his shoulder stopped him. "What?" He turned around with an angry glare.
Matthew looked at him for a second. "What are you on?"
"What?" Chris started to laugh. "Are you crazy?"
"I saw you stumble three times on the way from the stairs to the door and you speak half as fast as you usually do. I'd say you're drunk, but I don't smell any alcohol. Plus, you're eyes are dilated." He took another step towards Chris causing the two of them to be closer together then they had ever been for the last weeks. "You shouldn't do that", he went on, looking Chris directly in his eyes.
Chris shook his head and managed to get away from Matthew. "Shouldn't do what? Be a bit sad because the best relationship I had was destroyed? Be a bit angry because my family lied to me my whole life? Well, excuse me, if I'm not over it after two hours like you."
"You think this is easy for me?" Matthew asked back, getting louder as his anger grew. "News flash, it isn't. I still don't go around getting drunk and stoned."
"Hello?" Pipers voice interrupted the fight causing the two boys to just glare at each other until Piper entered the hallway. "Hey", she greeted the two of them. "Nice to see you two." She kissed both of them on the cheek before glancing at Chris. "Are you going out?"
Chris nodded not looking at anyone directly. "There's a party. I'll stay the night, okay?"
Piper hesitated at first but nodded. "Okay. Hey, why don't you take Matthew with you?"
Chris, who was just about to open the door, froze in the motion. "What?"
"Would be nice, wouldn't it?" Piper went on without noticing the dicomfort both of her sons were in. "You could hang out a bit."
Matthew coughed lightly. "I don't think that's such a good idea. I came over to spend time with you, didn't I?"
Piper nodded. "Yeah, but we can also spend some time together tomorrow."
"Not today, okay?" Matthew looked at his mother pleadingly. "Maybe another day I'll go with him."
"Well, okay", the oldest Halliwell nodded. "Be safe." She kissed Chris once again and went back to the kitchen.
Chris didn't look at Matthew, as he opened the door. "Wait!" Piper voice made him stop once again.
Piper was standing in the hallway once again. "Where is this party? Maybe Matthew wants to stop by later."
Chris looked at his brother, who had his eyebrows raised at him in question. "At Jen's", he mumbled before quickly leaving the house.
Matthew stared after him for a moment, then turned around with a sigh and followed his mother into the kitchen.
TBC...