Brian moaned as Justin pressed his lips to Brian’s. The younger man’s kisses became more insistent and more passionate. When Brian pulled away to catch his breath, Justin dived down to kiss and nip at Brian’s exposed neck. Grabbing hold of Brian’s hands and pinning them to the mattress, Justin then straddled Brian. He sat up and reached behind him to lightly stroke Brian cock then smiled down at his lover. ~~Relax and count back from 10, Mr. Kinney.~~ Suddenly the vision of Justin above him was replaced by the last thing he heard and saw before going under for surgery. Brian started then shook his head as if to clear it. He looked away for a split second and turned back to find his lover over him once again. What the fuck? Brian thought to himself. Justin then leaned down to capture Brian’s lips once again. Justin was in an aggressive mood tonight and it made Brian chuckle, but he also decided to turn the tables. When Justin leaned down for a second kiss, Brian caught him and turned him over pinning him to the mattress earning him a huff and a smile. ~~Image of scalpel cutting across skin.~~ Brian hesitated for a split second again. Fuck. He thought as he reached to the bedside table for a condom. He quickly rolled onto his waning erection. Fuck this. He thought. ~~Image of bloody mass being placed in a metal tray.~~ Brian angrily forced the image from his mind and continued to prepare himself. His first attempt at penetration failed, so he tried again. His second attempt was his last. He suddenly pulled away from Justin as his erection faded. Justin bewildered by his lover’s behavior turned to look at Brian over his shoulder. “What is it?” Justin asked concerned. “Nothing.” Brian said then raised his hand to stop any further comments from his lover. “Don’t say anything?” “Brian.” Justin continued. “It’s okay.” He tired to touch his lover only to have Brian flinch away. “You just had surgery. Your body has to have time to heal.” “Stop.” Brian said softly. “Please.” Justin heard the defeat in Brian’s words and silenced at once. “I need a shower.” Brian got up and disappeared into the bathroom shutting the door behind him letting Justin know in no uncertain terms that he wanted to be alone. Justin sat staring at the door as the sounds of water penetrated the walls. He rolled over and buried his face in Brian’s pillow. Fuck. He thought. By the time Brian returned to the bed, Justin had drifted off. It didn’t however stop him from turning to find Brian and wrapping himself around the other man as soon as Brian climbed into bed. Brian looked down wondering if Justin was actually asleep or not, but when the younger man didn’t react when Brian said his name, he assumed that Justin was actually sleeping. Brian settled closer to Justin and sighed. God this sucks. He thought. It took him awhile before he could finally drift off to sleep with Justin still wrapped tightly around him. -- There was tension in the air as John moved about the kitchen making his breakfast prior to school. He watched as both his uncle and Justin tried to act as if nothing was wrong, but failed miserably. “Do you need a ride to school?” Brian asked John curtly. “Nope.” John said. “I’m taking the bus today. Remember?” Brian nodded. “Right.” Brian said shortly. “This afternoon?” “Nope.” John said again. “I have that project to work on with Chris. I’m going to his house after school.” “Yeah. Sorry.” Brian said distractedly. “Forgot.” “I’ll be home for dinner, though.” John said. He looked the clock on the microwave. “Gotta go.” He said turning toward Brian. “See you tonight.” “What about you?” Brian asked not looking at Justin. “I could use a ride.” Justin said throwing his bag over his head. “I need to meet with Michael on the next issue of Rage this morning at the store.” Brian nodded opening the front door for his lover. -- “These new drawings of Rage and JT are hot.” Michael said looking through the stack of drawings Justin had produced from his portfolio. “Why can’t we ever see Zephyr in a fuck-fest with some great looking guy?” “Because nobody buys our comics to see Zephyr get laid.” Justin said incredulously. “That is so not true.” Michael protested. “Just because you don’t want to see it . . .” “It’s not that I don’t want to see it,” Justin said with a smirk, “it’s just that I can’t imagine it.” “Well, I can.” Michael said in a bit of a huff. “When he and his hunky boyfriend, the world famous paleontologist, Ken Kirshner, get it on, they really rattle the old dinosaur bones.” “Right.” Justin said moving away from the counter. “What’s up with you, anyway?” Michael asked. “Nothing.” Justin said. “Just tired, I guess.” “Maybe you should take vitamins.” Michael offered. “Would help you keep up with Brian.” Justin bit his tongue. The last person he had any intention of telling about his and Brian’s troubles in the bedroom was Michael. “Or you could go see Ben’s herbalist. He has a million and one remedies for all that ails you.” “An herbalist?” Justin said. “Yeah, this elderly Chinese guy that Ben’s gone to a couple of times.” Michael said in passing. “He’s given stuff to Ben that actually lowered his viral load.” “Really?” Justin said trying not to sound as interested as he truly was. Michael nodded. “Well, yeah.” Michael said. “Chinese medicine’s been around for thousands of years. And, if it can lower Ben’s viral load, who knows what else it can fix. Right?” “I guess.” Justin said. “Now, about this Zephyr fuck-fest . . .” Michael said causing Justin’s mind to go back to the subject at hand. -- Justin walked into the herbalist shop in the small section of Pittsburgh called China Town. There was an elderly man and woman behind the counter. Justin looked around quickly happy to discover that he was alone in the store before walking up to the counter. “Excuse me.” Justin said politely. “Yes, may I help?” The elderly man said. “I-I hope so.” Justin said looking around once more. “I’m looking for something to help . . . performance.” “Athletic performance? You are singer? Dancer?” The man asked. “Well, no.” Justin said haltingly. “See, my boyfriend, he just had surgery. And, well, he’s been having trouble in . . uh.” “The bedroom, perhaps?” The old man asked causing Justin to blush. “I see. What type of surgery did you friend have?” “He had to have a testicle removed due to cancer and now he’s having radiation treatments.” Justin explained. “Cancer?” The old man said then turned to the elderly woman across the room. He said something in Chinese to which the woman answered in Chinese. “Ahhh. Western medicine.” He said shaking his head. “It kill you before it kill you.” He turned to the woman once again. “Too much water. Drown out his fire.” He turned to smile at Justin. “But, never fear. I fix.” He went though a list of ingredients that sounded more than a bit exotic to Justin. As he spoke he and the woman moved in unison to gather what was needed. He wrapped everything up in paper and put them in a bag. “Make tea.” He instructed. “Have your friend drink while still hot. It will rekindle the fire in his Life Gate. Make him hard like rock.” Justin blushed again. “Is your friend taking the chemotherapies?” The old woman asked. “No, just radiation.” Justin assured. “Good.” She said then handed Justin a handwritten list of direction of how much of each ingredient to add. “Read careful. Follow directions to letter.” “This won’t cause any problems with his other treatment will it?” Justin asked as he paid the bill. “No no. ” The man said. “Only chemotherapies would be affected.” She smiled at Justin. “This will help your friend. Make him feel better. Make you both feel better.” “Thank you.” Justin said with a shy smile. “You are very welcome.” She said with a grandmotherly smile and pat on his head. -- Later that evening after dinner, Justin started measuring out the ingredients to the tea per the instructions. As he put the water on to boil and was looking for the strainer, the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it.” John called from the living room. Justin turned the water down to low and went to see who was at the door. John Burke, Sr. stood in the hallway talking excitedly with John, Jr. “Hey.” Justin said smiling. “Hey, Justin.” Burke said. “Is Brian home?” “Yeah, he’s in the study.” Justin said. “Hang on. I’ll get him.” He walked down the hall and lightly knocked on the door to the Brian’s home office. “Brian.” He opened the door and Brian looked up from his work. “John’s dad’s here. He wants to talk to you about something.” “Be out in a minute.” “You want something to drink?” Justin asked Burke when he had returned. “No, thanks.” Burke said. “This is a really nice house.” Justin smiled. “I keep forgetting how nice it is ‘til I get here.” “Hey, John.” Brian said as he entered the living room. “What’s up?” “Well, I lucked into some tickets for the Penguins and I wanted to take John.” John smiled widely at his Uncle. “I know it’s a school night, but I’ll get him to school tomorrow on time and, you know, you guys’ll have some extra time alone together.” “Please.” John said. Brian chuckled. “I don’t have a problem with it as long as you get any homework done at your Dad’s.” Brian said. “Yes!” John said and threw his arms around Brian’s neck. “Thanks Uncle Bri.” He turned to his Dad. “I’ll go get my stuff.” He said as he disappeared up the stairs. “He won’t be out too late and I’ll make sure he gets his homework done.” Burke said. “Thanks.” “You don’t need to thank me.” Brian said. “He’s your son. You should be able to spoil him every now and then.” Burke smiled. -- Once John and his dad were out the door, Justin remembered what he’d been doing and returned to the kitchen. Brian decided to stop working for the evening and Justin found him lying on the living room floor reading a magazine when he finished the tea. He walked over and sat down on the coffee table handing the cup to Brian. “Drink this.” Justin instructed. “It smells like Yak shit.” Brian stated matter of factly. “Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was in here, too.” Justin joked. Brian chuckled not looking up from his magazine. “It’s a magic potion from a Chinese herbalist.” “Will it make me small?” Brian asked mockingly. “I’m hoping that it will make you large.” Justin said as he moved to lie beside Brian. “Very very large.” Brian looked up sharply and Justin didn’t know what to expect at first. Brian took the cup and looked at Justin as if to see that the younger man’s intentions weren’t malicious. Justin guessed he saw what he needed to see, because without so much as a thought, Brian took the cup and downed the concoction in one gulp. He made a noise of disgust and covered mouth before shuddering. “That’s disgusting.” “Who cares as long as it works?” Justin said then leaned in to kiss Brian. Brian turned away slightly but Justin put his hand on Brian’s shoulder and leaned in to kiss him once again. “Feel anything?” Brian took Justin hand from his shoulder and huffed in frustration. “If you’re expecting my glasses to steam up, I hate to disappoint you.” He said. “It’s supposed to rekindle the fire in your Life Gate.” Justin said a smiled playing at the corners of his mouth. “My life gate?” “I know.” Justin said now smiling. “It sounds ludicrous, but if it works who gives a shit.” “Well, maybe it can also stop me from thinking about what’s no longer there.” He reached down to grab his artificial testicle. “And that in its place is this piece of plastic.” Justin frowned. “Or from picturing them sucking a bloody, diseased ridden ball out of me.” He swatted Justin on the ass as he stood up and walked over to the mantel. “Or from feeling so shitty from having them burn me to a crisp with their ray gun that all I want to do is dig a hole and crawl in. Only I’m too busy vomiting.” Justin moved in behind him and put his hands on Brian’s shoulders. “Who knows? Maybe then I might even be able to get it up.” “There’s gotta be something.” Justin said as he wrapped his arms around Brian’s waist. “Yeah, well, whatever it is,” he turned to look at Justin, “it’s not a cup of Lipton’s.” -- Justin woke up early Saturday morning to finish up work on a project for one of his classes. He’d just put on the finishing touches when the doorbell rang. Justin looked up at the clock and saw that it was nearly eleven. He put his brush down and headed for the front door. He looked through the window and saw an older man and woman standing on the porch. Who the fuck? He thought as he opened the door. “Hello.” The woman said when she saw Justin. “I’m looking for Brian Kinney.” When Justin didn’t say anything right away, she continued. “I’m Leeann Burke and this is my husband, Julius.” Justin looked confused. “We’re John Burke’s parents. John, Jr.’s grandparents.” “Oh.” Justin said. “Of course.” He smiled embarrassed. “Please, come in.” He stepped aside to let Leeann and Julius enter. “I’m sorry about that. Please sit down.” “That’s perfectly fine, young man.” Leeann said. “Is Mr. Kinney home?” “Yes, he’s upstairs. I believe he was in the shower a few minutes ago.” Justin said. “I’ll go up and see if he’s dressed.” The Burke’s nodded and smiled politely as Justin turned to go upstairs. He found Brian wrapped in a towel staring at the clothes in his closet. “Brian.” Justin called then stopped as Brian stood with his lips pursed. “What?” “I have absolutely nothing to wear.” Brian said. “You have hundreds of outfits, Brian.” Justin countered laughing. “And you need to get into one. John’s grandparents are here.” “Right now?” Justin nodded. “What do they want? I mean John’s with his dad.” Justin shrugged. “Okay, I’ll be down in a second.” Justin went back down stairs. The Burke’s were talking rather animatedly to one another, but stopped abruptly when they caught sight of Justin’s return. Both looked up at Justin with twin looks of demure politeness. “He should be right down.” Justin said. The Burke’s nodded. “Would you like something to drink? There’s coffee.” “I’d love a cup of coffee.” Julius said with a nod. “I could use a glass of water myself.” Leeann said. “Coming right up.” Justin said. Brian came down the steps barefoot in his jeans and white dress shirt over a white v-neck t-shirt. It had been over 15 years since he’d laid eyes on the Burkes. Not since Claire and John, Sr.’s wedding. “Mr. & Mrs. Burke.” Brian said offering his hand first to Julius then Leeann. “To what do I owe this rather surprising visit?” He asked abruptly. “We wanted to speak to you about John, Jr.” Leeann said. “What about him?” Brian asked suspiciously. “We were rather surprised when we heard from Johnny that your sister had chosen you as John, Jr.’s guardian.” Leeann began. “From what we’d heard in the past, you and Claire were barely on speaking terms.” “I was pretty surprised myself.” Brian admitted. “But, we’re doing good. John’s happy. He’s doing very well in school. And, he’s slowly but surely healing since the accident. Physically and emotionally.” “Is it true what Johnny said about you and this young man?” Leeann asked nodding in Justin’s direction. “That depends on what he said?” Brian asked calmly. “John told us what you are, Mr. Kinney.” Julius said. “And, that the two of you”, he pointed to Brian and Justin, “are raising John, Jr. as a ‘couple’.” The distaste Julius had for the situation was obvious. “We are a couple, Mr. Burke.” Brian said. “Justin is my partner. We’ve been together for almost four years now.” “Four years.” Leeann scoffed. “He looks like he’s still in high school.” “I’m in art school, actually.” Justin countered. “And, in case you were wondering, I turn 21 next month.” Brian watched the Burkes doing the math. It would have been funny if they didn’t seem so serious. “That means that you were, you were only 17 when the two of you met.” Leeann said troubled. “And?” Justin challenged. “Is this what you do, Mr. Kinney?” Julius asked point blank. “Is this how you recruit them?” Brian pressed his lips together in an effort not to blow up at the Burkes. “Is my grandson next?” “I think it would be very good idea if you left now.” Brian said quietly. “Very well.” Julius said. “We will be back, however. We don’t think that this is the proper environment for our Grandson to grow up in and we intend to seek full custody.” Brian’s eyes darkened. “Get out of my house. Now.” Brian sounded dangerously close to exploding. The Burkes stood as Justin crossed to open the door for them. “We will see you in court, Mr. Kinney.” Leeann added as they stalked off the porch toward their car. Justin shut he door and looked at Brian in shock. Brian stood very still staring at the door Justin had just closed. “They can’t do that, right?” Justin asked. “Brian? They can’t take John away from us, can they?” “I need to call my attorney.” Brian said softly before turning toward the door to the hallway. “Fuck me.” Justin said as he sat down hard on the sofa. End Chapter 7.