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Rhett’s hands were so delicate. How could a man of his size have such gentle hands? Link had spent numerous hours just admiring those lean fingers, just admiring them, letting his mind drift into dream state, where everything was fuzzy, soft and warm. Good gosh, how lovely they looked, when Rhett was stroking his beard deep in his thoughts. Sometimes Link almost stopped breathing, seeing Rhett glide his fingers on the smooth surface of their wooden desk. He was hypnotized by those hands, and more than anything, he wanted to feel those hands on his own skin.
Rhett was a sensual man. He loved to feel the different textures on things around him. He often found himself caressing something, getting lost in his own private world. He didn’t always realize his actions until watching them on film, but if he closed his eyes he could easily bring back the sensations and emotions of that moment. Sometimes he thought he’d rather go blind and lose his ability to hear than never be able to touch again. Of course there were times he forgot himself staring at something beautiful, but it was the sense of touch he preferred. Recently he’d been finding himself far too often staring at his friend’s beautiful face wondering what it would be like to touch it…if only it was possible!
Link was listening carefully about Stevie’s idea for the next episode of GMM. They had briefly discussed the party game ”Seven minutes in heaven” recently in an episode, and Link had accidentally called it Seven seconds instead of minutes, and pretty much made a fool of himself afterwards. Now the crew had an idea to actually play Seven minutes of heaven on GMM, and Link had trouble grasping the idea.
”So you want us to stay in the Mythical museum, in the dark, for an entire episode? What’s the catch? I don’t get it?” It didn’t seem very purposeful to film them in the dark. Like, what would they even do?
”It would be a kind of a scientific experiment. You know the concept of the game – in the dark, you can do whatever you want for seven minutes. No one is able to see what happens, no one will know what goes on. The idea is, we’d basically set microphones in there so we’d hear you talk, and the rest is up to you. You could have a talk about your teenage memories or maybe about how things are different with your kids. Whatever you prefer. You know the fans like to hear you talk about your teenage years, and there were some really nice comments after you talked about how Lily is growing up and all that.”
Link felt being drawn to two opposite directions. They had never had any trouble talking about stuff in any circumstances, so surely they’d be able to carry through an episode in the dark. That was not the problem. But the idea of spending seven minutes in a small enclosed space, in the dark, with the freedom to do anything, it was far too tempting to feel comfortable. ”I wouldn’t be able to see him, or his hands, so maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal after all?” he pondered, almost giving in to the idea already.
”I’ll talk to Rhett about it, if it’s ok with him, we can do it.”
Rhett raised his eyebrow listening to Link explain the idea. He could feel a small twirl of excitement in his stomach, but he was hesitant to admit himself he was all up for the challenge. But then again, he’d contained himself for the past 30 years, how hard would another 7 minutes be?
”I guess we could try it. People keep asking for a new series of Ear biscuits, so maybe we could use this as a test to see if they are genuinely interested in hearing us talk without seeing us. And if Stevie thinks it’ll work, why the hell not?”
They were both worried, but too proud to admit it even to each other.
”What happens if you close two best friends in a dark closet for seven minutes?”
”Let’s talk about that!”
Link was nervous. He could feel a drop of sweat running down his spine under his blue sweater. There were so many things about the whole thing that concerned him. He didn’t enjoy being locked up in the first place, and the fact it would be dark didn’t exactly calm him down.The truth was, however, that he didn’t feel safe to be able hold himself back around Rhett. He could see his own emotions reflected on Rhett’s face – now that the time to start the experiment was close, he was acting unusually cheerful, as if to hide his true feelings. Oh gosh…
”Ok guys, we are locking the door behind you, but we’ll be right here, if you need to get out. Have fun!”
Stevie firmly closed the door behind Rhett. The loud click of the lock sounded final, and for a fraction of a second, Rhett thought they would never be leaving this tiny room. He could see Link starting to get anxious – he was going through the mythical mail items, touching them and occationally lifting them up for closer inspection, as if to comfort himself.
”Link, it’s going to be ok, it’s just seven minutes, remember?”
Link turned to look at his friend, and just as their eyes connected, the lights went off.
”Ok, looks like the experiment has started. Remember, this is for science!”
Link sounded his normal on-screen self, but at the same time his right hand was making circular motions in the air, trying to find anything to hold on to. It didn’t take long to hit Rhett’s warm arm. Link immediately felt a little bit more calm now that he knew Rhett was by his side.
”You know, maybe we should sit down before we crash the stuff on the shelves. We wouldn’t want to destroy this fine museum.”
Rhett’s voice was a comforting and familiar thing to hear in the pitch black space. Link loved Rhett’s voice, it’s deep soft tone, and the relaxed rhythm of his words. It reminded Link of a forest where everything was green, cool and soothing, and where the high trees almost covered the sky. Listening to Rhett was like being cocooned in calmness. Link couldn’t help but smile at his thoughts, being grateful for the lack of cameras, as he slid his hand to Rhett’s in order to maintain his balance.
”Yeah, it’s best we sit, all this darkness is making me feel a bit dizzy.”
They carefully lowered themselves to the ground, taking support from each other’s bodies. Moving in the dark was surprisingly difficult, and of course, Link hit his head on the lowest shelf on his way down.
”Ouch! Darn it!” Link released his hand from Rhett’s to feel the soon-to-be bumb on his head. He should wear a helmet apparently.
”Are you ok, buddy?” Rhett’s voice sounded concerned.
Link felt the cool and gentle fingers touch his own hand which was still covering the hurting spot on his head. He could feel the hand jolt a bit when it found his hand, but instead of backing off, it stayed on his hand. It was a delicate touch at first. Then Link felt a small caress against his hand.
”It’s nothing, just hit my head! You know, it’s kind of stupid this whole game involves being in the dark. Think of all the hazards it causes – kids cracking their skulls and stuff like that. I can’t imagine anyone enjoying this.”
Link was babbling. Rhett’s hand was warming up against his, refusing to move away. Link didn’t quite know how to react, when he felt the gentle strokes first against his hand, then slowly moving down his wrist. Rhett’s hand stopped to feel his pulse, which immediately responded by beating faster.
”I’d imagine the darkness can help set the mood. It’s so much easier to do things in the dark, with no worries about how you look. And it does accentuate the other senses, you know.”
How could Rhett be casually talking when at the same time his hand was moving down Link’s side, touching and feeling it’s way. Link was shivering and his breath was getting faster. He was seriously having trouble thinking straigh. Then he felt another hand touching his face. Oh shit!
”I’ve always been more of a visual person. I like to see what I’m doing.” Link didn’t have a single coherent thought in his head. Rhett’s left arm was now pulling him closer to his body, while the right hand was moving on Link’s face, tracing the lines of his lips. Link felt his glasses being lifted from his face, and another sweet touch grazed his closed eyelids, wiping away a small tear forming in the corner of his eye.
”I guess it never hurts anybody to try something new every now and then. I can fully imagine kids having fun with this game. It’s actually funny we never tried this in our teenage years.”
What was Rhett saying? Were they still doing the show? All Link could think about right now was that his best friend was touching his butt and running his fingers along his neck sending electric shocks all over his body. Link was slowly loosing all control over himself and he was loving it.
Rhett couldn’t believe he was touching Link the way he always had dreamed of. Link was so beautiful to look at, but now that the visual aspect was out of the picture, Rhett indulged in touching him to his hearts content. Tracing the shapes of Link’s face, running his fingers trough his hair, feeling the firm muscles under his clothes and skin. It was all almost too much to bear, knowing that as long as the crew was listening behind the door, they couldn’t do much more than this. Rhett was dying to go further, to feel Link’s skin against his, to get closer.
Link could feel Rhett starting to lose his self-control. Trying to maintain any focus was almost painful at this point. All he could think about was tearing off any pieces of clothing stopping him from feeling Rhett’s bare body, skin on skin. Link’s heart was beating so fast it almost jumped out of his chest. He was aching to kiss Rhett but he didn’t know if he could stop himself if he started. Link had never been as turned on as at that moment. He needed to kiss Rhett right n…
”Time’s up, boys!” A sudden call from the door followed by a bright light made both Rhett and Link jump and pull away from each other. The door was opened, and Stevie’s familiar face appeared in the opening. With a far too knowing smile on her face she looked at the guys for a while before saying anything.
”Should I leave you here for another seven minutes, or do you want to come to the set and film the rest of the episode?” Stevie’s eyes were twinkling as she flashed a wide grin and dissapeared.
Rhett turned to look at Link, who was standing right by his side, looking flustered, blushed and out of breath, clearly unable to say anything. Rhett reached for his hand and closed his own firmly around it.
”I think we’ll come back later, when the microphones aren’t listening. This wasn’t as unpleasant as i expected.”
”Yeah, I guess the dark isn’t that bad after all. It really does accentuate the senses.”
Then they walked away from the closet, knowing they’d be visiting their personal heaven many more times again. Seven minutes wasn’t nearly enough.