Becoming

Blood Brothers

In the morning, Dave slipped back into his room to shave, shower, and dress. Then he used Ade's key card to let himself back into his lover's room and used a combination of coffee and kisses to wake him up enough to get dressed and meet the others downstairs. The hotel had a buffet, so he and a yawning Ade went through the line to dish up something approximating a full English breakfast before sitting down with Steve, Jan, and a bleary-eyed Nicko who didn't have anything but four cups of coffee in front of him.

Bruce and Emppu arrived just then, and Steve jokingly ordered Bruce to walk around the table, saying, "I just want to make sure you didn't injure yourself overnight."

Bruce replied to that with a simple two-fingered salute, then the buffet caught his attention and he actually bounced eagerly when he saw a server carrying out a platter of Karelian pies and egg butter. "You blokes have to try these," he told his bandmates enthusiastically. "We had them at Jukka's place and they're so good!"

Emppu chuckled. "They are good, although Satu's were probably better than these will be. Then again, she's married to my oldest friend, so I'm probably biased." He went ahead and grabbed himself a couple along with some yogurt and peaches, and a bowl of porridge topped with a dollop of strawberry jam.

Bruce got himself a similar meal, replacing the porridge with toast and adding a banana to slice into his yogurt.

Steve looked from the couple's meals to the eggs, bacon or sausage, and lavishly buttered toast with jam in front of the rest of the band and rolled his eyes. "I mighta known you'd find yourself a bloke as into that healthy shite as you are, Bruce," he teased.

"Eating healthy does wonders for endurance," Bruce said blandly. He took a bite of his Karelian pie and smiled. "And I still think you lot should try these."

"Who are you and where'd you stow the real Bruce?" Steve laughed. "You're never in this good of a mood this early!"

Emppu put on his best innocent expression. "I assure you that's the real Bruce," he told Steve. "As to his good mood, do you reeeeally want the answer to that?" He followed his question by sucking yogurt from his spoon as if it was a lollipop.

Steve's fork clattered to the table as he stared at the little guitarist in shock while Dave, Janick, and Bruce all cracked up laughing. "Erm, right, just forget I asked, then," the bassist said sheepishly. "I deserved that." He picked up his fork and turned his attention back to his meal, but after a moment he looked at Emppu and said, "You seemed the quietest of the lot when I met your band those years back. Where'd all that cheek come from?"

Emppu grinned. "I've always had it," he said. "Finns are terrible at small talk, though, unless we're pretty deep into a bottle. We hadn't yet had time to start drinking properly after our set when you met us that time. Also, I was shy of meeting a musical legend back then, unlike yesterday when I was meeting my boyfriend's bandmates, you know?"

"Yeah, I think I do," Steve said with a nod and a smile. "So what do you think of us, now you've had a proper look at us all?"

"I think you're good people," Emppu said. "I look forward to spending more time with you all and getting to know you better."

Dave grinned. "Are you that diplomatic, or did Bruce not whinge about us to you yet?"

"Probably a little of both," Emppu said with a chuckle. "He's mentioned that there are a few, uh, strong personalities within the band, that can clash on occasion. He even admits to being one of them."

"Bloody hell, you've got the man whipped, don't you?" Steve goggled. "Never thought I'd see the day our Bruce would admit he's even partly at fault for some for some of the dustups we've had over the years."