A/N: Sorry for the short chapter AGAIN. But I sort of write in bursts - and sometimes the bursts aren't very long. Face it, wouldn't you rather have a short chapter now, than wait a month for a chapter only two or three times longer? Please REVIEW! :) I love you all. Chapter 3 - Alright, not alright... alright. “Here we are! Disgustingly expensive jewelry as far as the eye can see!” Emmett exclaimed with a self-satisfied smile. Brian merely stared. Dozens of glass cases, each with dozens of objects glittering with the light from dozens of spotlights, lay in front of him in an array of lights and colours. He walked, almost transfixed through the isles of silver, gold, jewels. He stopped in front of one of the cases to look at the prices and was content to find that every single item was at least in the quadruple digits. Only the best for his Sunshine. (No, he did not just think that) “God, Brian, WHY did you have to bring me in here? It’s so depressing.” Emmett whined. But Brian didn’t hear him. His eyes had fallen, glued, upon one of the objects in the case before him. He reached out a finger and placed it over the glass case. It was, as trite as it might be, perfect. A golden band with two carefully engraved leaves, fused with flecks of white gold, on either side of an impressively sized and rectangular-cut diamond. He looked at the price: $10,200. He immediately dug into his pocket and pulled out his credit card, noticing that Emmett had lost himself among the shiny objects in the corner of the room. He signaled a store clerk. “Excuse me, yes, I’d like to buy this ring.” He indicated to the object of his desire (the other object of his desire). The man gave him a quick sweep with bright green eyes, before smiling politely. “Yes, sir. What method of payment shall you be using?” He asked in a pretentiously high-class manner. “And shall this need to be gift wrapped?” “Credit. And no, it shall not. Just give me the goddamn ring.” Emmett couldn’t be transfixed for too much longer, and he didn’t feel like have the supreme pleasure of having him announce to the world how fabulously adorable it was that Brian Kinney had just spent $10,200 on an engagement ring for his currently ex-partner. Right now he just wanted to get the fuck out of there. Once the store clerk had regained his snotty composure, he reached into his pocket, took out a set of keys and opened the case. Brian reached in and grabbed the ring while simultaneously handing the man his credit card. He swung around to look at Emmett. He had moved a few cases over, but still seemed to be hopelessly transfixed. Brian shook his head amusedly at the man’s patheticness, before realizing that he really couldn’t talk about patheticness given his current situation. He huffed and rolled his eyes to no one as the sales clerk returned with his card and a small brown bag. “Here you are, sir. Have a lovely day. I hope the lucky lady enjoys it. She is very fortunate to have a man with such wonderful taste.” Brian’s face had an almost dangerous amount of smugness to it. “Oh yes.” He replied. “He is very fortunate, indeed.” And he grabbed the bag out of the clerk’s pasty hands, threw the ring inside of it and spun around to rescue Emmett from his sea of self-pitying despair. “We’re leaving.” He said abruptly and grabbed Emmett by the collar. “But, but, butbutbut. It’s so PRETTY.” He whined loudly. Brian sighed and pulled him harder. “Yeah, and I’ve found what I want. Ergo, we’re leaving.” This caused Emmett to stop in his tracks, which, in turn caused Brian to inadvertently shove him to the ground. The smaller man seemed unfazed, however, as he picked himself up with a smile on his face. “What did you find?” He asked mischievously. “That’s for me to know and for you to hopefully find out.” “Aw, Brian, please…” He whined, sounding exactly like Gus when Brian denied him an ice cream cone, to which Brian would always reply - “No. It’ll make you fat.” Except he wasn’t supposed to say that part out loud. Emmett gave him a signature what-the-fuck-are-you-on look. “Huh?” “Nevermind.” Brian muttered. “Get in the car.” He shoved a finger in the direction of the ‘Vette. “No.” Emmett crossed his arms defiantly. “What?” “Not until you show me what’s in the bag.” Brian stood, pensive for a minute. “Do you have any money on you?” Emmett’s eyes narrowed slowly. “Um. Yeah.” He replied dumbly. “Good. Then get yourself a cab.” He turned around and walked towards the ‘Vette, smirking and swinging his keys on his index finger. Emmett huffed loudly. “But, BRIAN.” Brian whipped around. “Look, having one 5-year-old son is bad enough. Either you get your ass in the car right now or - I swear to the God that doesn’t exist – you won’t be planning my wedding.” Brian honestly couldn’t remember when he’d seen the man move faster. “How do you always know how to get to people?” Emmett asked, sliding into the ‘Vette, trying to be all deep and phsychoanylistic. Contrary to popular belief, Brian’s mind had always intrigued him. Brian quickly brushed him off. “Well, there’s really only two things in this world a queen like you cares about – shopping and fucking. And I don’t exactly care to involve myself in your ‘love life’ – or lack thereof.” He ended with a smirk. Emmett did not find this funny. “Why do you always do that?” “What?” He asked innocently. “That – answer a question, but not really answer the question.” “I think that has to be the most eloquent thing I’ve ever heard.” Brian quipped sardonically. “Can we go tux shopping, now? Or do you need to psychoanalyze me even more?” He paused, as if he was going to stop talking, but continued, slightly louder. “Why do you do it anyway? So you can feel good about yourself, that you finally figured out what’s wrong with me? Well, guess what. I’ve been sent to about a dozen shrinks and about as far as any of them have gotten is that I had a fucked up childhood and fucked up parents – and therefore I believe that love is bullshit because I’d never even seen love. All I saw was hate. But I was taught that parents always loved each other – so, to me, love was two people screaming at each other at 2 in the fucking morning and waking up the entire fucking neighborhood, just so that one of them could spend the whole night popping pills and crying her eyes out, and the other could drink himself into oblivion, and throw a fist or two at his kid.” He breathed through his nose slowly. “I can figure that out all by myself, thank you very much.” Emmet sat frozen for a few moments. “I’m sorry.” He said quietly. “I didn’t know.” “Yes you did. Everyone knows. No doubt Mikey’s told all of you – how I used to come over to his house, makes him seem like a hero, huh? But really the only ones that ever really gave a shit about me were Deb and Vic.” He sucked a breath in before adding calmly. “And sorry’s bullshit.” He turned the key in the ignition and the ‘Vette sprung to life. Emmet stared solemnly out the window. He suddenly felt something he’d never known before. He felt sympathy for Brian Kinney. Not much. But it was there. He smiled sadly. Brian hated sympathy. He cleared his throat, shaking himself from the hypnoticism as it started to rain steadily. He watched as Brian flicked the wipers and pulled from the sidewalk, and asked sweetly (but not too sweetly), “So what sort of style did you have in mind? Traditional? Or something fabulous?” Brian lips twitched slightly upward. Yeah. He could deal with Emmet.