A Thousand Oceans Wide

After a few more mime acts of excitement, Bill settled down, a smile ever present on his purdy lips. Tom grinned throughout seeing how Bill was suddenly so animated when just a few hours ago he was lying on the bed not moving.

"Are you hungry?" Tom asked. "Oh, and I called mom, Gordon, Georg, Gustav, Andreas, David, Dunja--" And he stopped when he saw Bill shaking his head rapidly, an angry pout on his face. He waved his hands about. Tom merely laughed. "Too many people?" he asked, and Bill nodded, rolling his eyes. Heidi smiled.

Markus stood staring at Bill's neck even when Heidi carried him on her lap as she sat on the chair beside the patient. Bill finally noticed the boy. His eyes grew round as he wore a big curious smile on his face. He pointed to the boy and gave a who-are-you look. And Bill looked at Heidi for an answer.

"What's that on his neck?" Markus asked Heidi, wondering. Heidi grinned and kissed her brother's head.

"That's something that prevents Bill's vocal cords from dropping out of his throat," Tom answered, sitting beside Bill on the patient's bed, a leg brought up to rest by his brother's feet.

"Something like that," Heidi rubbed the little boy's head. She looked at Bill. "His name is Markus."

"Heidi's brother," Tom added, taking out his digital camera.

Bill looked utterly surprised. They haven't seen each other in a few years and Heidi's got a brother. How amazing, he thought. He smiled and clapped his hands, signifying his amusement. The blond girl grinned.

"Heidi's brother," Markus repeated, smiling as he started rolling the corner of Bill's blanket. Tom looked amused. Bill stroked the young child's cheek and grinned.

"Poor accident kid," Tom said jokingly. "That's a hell of an age gap, right?"

Bill clapped his hands hard once, frowning hard at Tom telling him to stop being annoying with his comments. He pointed a finger his older brother and shook it from side to side as Heidi tried not to mind it too much. Accident kid wasn't the wrong term, but she didn't like anyone talking about Markus that way. Not at all. And she loved how Bill stood up for them against his own twin brother.

Tom laughed, apologized under his breath and he started taking pictures. He took some of Bill and some of Heidi and Markus, though the girl seemed pretty reluctant. Maybe she's camera shy, Tom figured. Bill insisted they took one together, the first pictures after his surgery. And they did. Markus loved being in pictures, it seemed.

"What have I been doing?" Heidi asked when Bill gestured a bit, trying to get his questions right.

Bill hesitated and nodded but sighed. He turned to Tom and motioned for pen and paper, and the older twin got it for him. Bill started scribbling on it and showed it to Heidi: How's school?

Heidi stared at the paper for a while. "I'm doing my apprenticeship," she answered. And her gaze turned to Markus who was sitting by the bed and drawing on another piece of paper Tom just gave him. Tom was surprised by Heidi's answer.

Bill raised his eyebrows in curiosity. By right, Heidi would be in the university now if she could have gone there. She seemed to be a year behind. And then he scribbled: Why? My God, you repeated?

Heidi hated telling people that, but it was pretty true. "Yeah," she said. "I screwed up during my first year."

Bill quickly wrote: BUT YOU'RE A GENIUS!

The girl laughed a bit when she saw those few huge words. "I'm not!" she insisted, rolling her eyes.

"Well, you are smart," Tom said. And Bill showed Heidi some writing: Distracted? And Tom got a bit playful with his choice of words as he continued. "Was it because you missed me?"

Heidi felt a sudden hatred towards Tom. What in the world would make him say something like that? She was honestly irked by that sentence, but she tried to let it go. Bill rolled his eyes when he heard Tom's stupid remark, slapping his brother on the arm.

"Too busy for that, Tom," she answered, patting Markus as the boy leaned against her sleepily.

Tom smirked at Heidi's answer and shrugged. "Just kidding." She still didn't like it that he said that.

Bill kept the paper and pen aside and sighed happily. Heidi found it interesting how effeminate Bill was in every way. He looked pretty, and pretty androgynous so to say. The nice eyes, nose, lips, good skin, long hair, lithe figure and gentle actions; they made Bill seem so soft and kind to her. This was definitely a different Bill. She wondered if he had changed... if he was actually gay. She didn't want to ask him, though. It was pretty damn rude a question to ask someone who had just had a vocal surgery. She definitely didn't want Bill screaming his throat out at her in defense. No way.

"I've got to go," Heidi said. "Markus is sleepy and I've got to go find my mom."

Bill nodded. And he gestured a bit, which Tom cleverly interpreted it and answered.

"Her dad's in the hospital. Some accident, and she was here and I bumped into her," he said. "Well, I met the kid first, though."

The younger Kaulitz flailed wildly again, demanding the status of Heidi's father.

"He's fine," she laughed. "He's been here a few days and he'll be fine. I'll be going now."

She stood up carrying Markus in her arms. She was pretty skinny and Markus was already a big kid, and she should have had his stroller with her but he was an active kid who couldn't stay in it for long so she had to carry him. Bill kicked Tom's butt off the bed slightly, motioning for him to go ahead and help carry the kid back and messily, he wrote on the paper to send his wishes to her dad.

"Oh, okay," Tom said. "I'll get the nurse to get you your food, okay?" And he stood up. He looked at Bill interestedly when his brother shook his head, taking his own phone and typed a few words and showed them to Tom. "Right," Tom grinned. "Mom. Home food. Okay." He found it endearing how Bill couldn't speak. It was weird to see Bill like that, seeing as Bill was pretty much a loudspeaker 24/7. Heidi grinned as she saw the whole act. Bill was too cute for words.

"It's okay," Heidi quickly said when Tom wanted to offer his help. "He's not very heavy," she lied.

"But I'm going to see your dad," he said. "And Bill insists."

Heidi looked at Bill who smiled as he typed away on his phone. Texting was pretty much his only form of communication--besides gesturing and writing--for the next few weeks.

"I think my dad's sleeping," she said.

"I'll leave him fruits, like I said. And flowers," Tom slouched, awaiting Heidi's submission. She seemed pretty stubborn, very unlike her. At least, the her he once knew. "It'll be nice to know that someone else he knows is in the same hospital too, right? Come on, Markus is sleeping. And uh, as long as he won't kick me, I don't mind carrying him." And he reached out to carefully grab a hold of the boy.

Heidi sighed softly, knowing that somehow, Tom will always have his way. Like he did before. She just had to give in to him. She reluctantly handed Markus over to him. It was weird for her to see them so close together. It was very... unnerving.

Bill wrote a few more words on the paper and waved them frantically at Heidi. She went over to read it and a smile formed on her face when she did: Come see me tomorrow. And she gave a soft laugh. She could have hugged Bill right there and then but she didn't. Bill scribbled some more: Or whenever you're free because I would need friends to talk to! :)

"I will," Heidi answered. She leaned in and gave Bill a hug and the other so gladly returned it. Tom was standing by the side watching his twin and ex-girlfriend being affectionate, and he felt a sort of déjà vu coming on. It was so long ago that this familiar scene happened. It looked like a whole reenactment of sorts minus the pervertness. Well, at least a small percentage of it.

Heidi gave Bill her number and soon, she left with Tom and Markus.

~

After ordering fruits and flowers via phone, Tom and Heidi went to her father's room which was a ward away. She immediately asked him to wait outside as she peered in to check. Thank God her father really was asleep. She looked around and saw her mother on the chair beside him, and smiled softly at that. Closing the door quickly and moving back, she bumped backwards unto Tom who was actually intending to go in. At least, he thought he was supposed to follow her because she was going in.

"Ow," he muttered, wincing when his cap got knocked back and quite off his head. She was tall, and almost as tall as him and he was astounded by that fact, so she easily rendered his cap out of place. Markus made a soft noise of discomfort as he readjusted his head on Tom's shoulder, and the young man pat the boy's back to soothe him. At least, he thought that was what he should do.

Heidi jumped back in slight shock, unable to accept the intrusion of personal space. "Sorry," she apologized. "And my dad's really sleeping so I'll just tell him you came by." She scooped her hands around Markus' limp sleeping body and Tom slowly let go.

"Oh," he said. "Okay, then. They're sending the stuff up in a while, just so you know." He gave her a smile as he readjusted his cap. Something felt weird about his cap now. It seemed so out of place, annoying him to bits. He shifted it again.

The girl looked at him oddly, wondering what he was doing with his LA cap. "Sure," she answered simply. She turned away a bit but hoped he'd turn and walk away first before she went in. She wanted to watch him leave.

"Is my cap weird?" Tom asked suddenly. "Like, is it out of place? It's usually to the right. And it is to the right, right?"

His string of funny questions merely made Heidi raised her eyebrows. "It's fine," she said, deciding to help a little and push it flat down on his head and tugging the tip up a bit. She loosened his tail behind and ruffled it slightly, doing minor adjustments. Tom grinned when she was done, amazed she did it single-handedly.

"Cool," he said, licking his lips and pursing them as he nodded in a smirkful smile. He caught a glimmer in her almond shaped eyes as she offered a subtle creeping smile. She didn't intened to give that to him, but it was inevitable seeing Tom's reaction as it was, and how pretty dumb the whole adjusting of cap was when it looked just the same as before.

Heidi managed a slight smile before turning and going in.

"Bye," Tom said. "I'll see you around. Bill got your number, so we'll hang out soon, yeah?"

The long blond curly-haired girl blinked a bit before nodding and closing the door on him. She could feel goosebumps appearing all over her, and she shivered as she reminisced. That all somehow reminded her of the younger Tom, much to her surprise.