Lois, thank you for the beta...you are the greatest!
Chapter 15 – Joyous Morning A Little Later…(Day 40) After several rounds of lovemaking and a leisurely shower, Brian and Justin decided they could probably face the day ahead. Especially after Brian extracted a promise from Justin to avoid certain limp word choices when describing his blowjobs, and Brian promised to give Justin blowjobs more often in exchange. Clad in pajamas, they were just lying in bed talking to one another. Justin was leisurely sketching, so they decided to release the lock on their bedroom door. A few moments later, there was the familiar knock…the immediate open door…the patter of two pairs of little feet…and the appearance to two little faces at the foot of the bed. Brian wondered if Gus and Nicky had been lurking in the hall, just waiting for the lock on their bedroom door to be released. He knew that wasn’t possible since Nicky’s room was some distance away, but he had to wonder never the less…their timing was just too perfect. Justin and Brian smiled at each other, before Justin patted the space between them, and both Nicky and Gus scampered up on the bed. Nicky crawled over to Justin and gave him a wet kiss, before making himself comfortable. “What are you two doing up so early?” Justin asked. “We missed you,” Gus explained, crawling up the middle of the bed to hug his dad first, and then Justin. “So we came to see you.” “You did?” Justin said with some amazement, curious why the duo bypassed Paul and Jason’s room all together. Brian couldn’t help laughing at the image of two kids huddled around Justin; he wished he had a camera handy. Brian reached for his robe. “Well, since I’m not really needed here,” he said with a laugh, “I’ll go and check to see that the coffee is started. I’ll be right back.” At his point, Gus and Nicky were in some sort of deep in conversation with Justin, so Brian merely shook his head, as he was leaving the room. Brian ran into Paul and Jason in the kitchen. “I see you’re alone,” Paul began to tease, “That can only mean that Gus and Nicky somehow found their way to Justin first thing this morning. We noticed they weren’t in their room.” “So you didn’t lock your door? We warned you!” Jason chimed in. “Nicky just seems to be homing in on Justin first thing in the morning…like I said.” “Justin and I were already up. When I left the room, Nicky and Gus were deep in conversation with Justin. I’ve never quite understood what they can find so engaging to talk about so early in the morning,” Brian commented. “It’s a wonder,” Jason added with a laugh. Paul and Jason and Brian talked for a few minutes longer, before they all went back to the guest room to rescue Justin from his little captors. Tickles and hugs all around and alternate loving arms seemed to encourage Gus and Nicky to leave Justin’s side. The fact that Brian was willing to lift Nicky in the air and gently drop him in the middle of the bed, where he was tickled and hugged was enough to temporarily make him happy, whereas Gus only needed to be tickled by his newly acquainted uncles. When the kids settled down, Brian picked up Gus, and Paul picked up Nicky, and they headed back down to Nicky’s room to help the kids get dressed. *** Brian and Justin later managed to dress casually in jeans and sweaters and found their way down to the kitchen for breakfast. Brian had his usual dry toast and coffee, while Paul and Jason and the kids settled for cereal with fruit. Only Justin had bacon, egg, cheese, buttered toast, and fruit. Everyone kept distracting Justin during breakfast. Gus and Brian shamelessly enjoyed various elements of Justin’s breakfast as they talked, laughed, and stole morsels of food while feigning complete innocence every time Justin looked up. At the end of breakfast, Justin made some comment about still being hungry, which caused Gus and Brian to burst out laughing as they were leaving the table. “I get the feeling this is the way that breakfast usually goes when you’re all together,” Jason commented. “You know I would have fixed a bigger breakfast for them if they had only let me know,” he tried to rationalize as a way of apology to Justin. “It wouldn’t have mattered,” Justin explained with a sigh, gently touching Jason on the arm in consolation. About this time, Brian and Gus passed through the room, “Justin does such interesting things to his food, doesn’t he Gus?” Brian smirked. Gus nodded his agreement. The father-son duo disappeared again. “I see,” Jason added with a laugh. He had accepted long ago that he would never understand Brian and Justin. Now he was starting to think that he would never understand Gus either. “So what’s the plan for today?” Paul asked. “Well, you and Brian have to go shopping for those games,” Jason reminded him. “The moms will be over shortly with the loaf cakes for Justin to sculpt, and Jus, we have to finish that piñata too,” Jason reminded him with a smile. “And Jason, what did you say you were doing today?” Paul mockingly asked. “I’m going to be Justin’s assistant like always,” Jason clarified as if that was unnecessary. Then he added for good measure, “You know, I really don’t understand why you keep asking me that ridiculous question.” Paul burst out laughing first. Then he said in his own defense, “Because now that Brian is here, I have a lot of explaining to do. I actually have to be prepared with quick answers,” he tried to explain with a serious tone. “Since when are you afraid of Brian?” Jason had to ask. “Since he made it clear, when he got off the plane, that he’s not putting up with any bullshit,” Paul explained. “And, he’s relying on me to help keep you two in line,” he tried to say sternly. Jason and Justin looked at each other and burst out laughing. Paul simply glared at them. “I know…Brian and I have to go shopping, but before we go anywhere, we have to call Mom. You know how she feels about Brian, and she doesn’t even know that he’s here yet.” “Good point,” Jason agreed. “Well, give me a hand with kitchen clean up, and then we’ll call her. Gabrielle will probably drop by here later too.” “You think so?” Justin asked. “Yeah. My Mom is probably with her too huh?” Jason pointed out. “Sometimes it’s hard to believe our moms hang out together as much as they do.” “That’s like my mom and Debbie,” Justin added. “They just seem to enjoy each other’s company. You wouldn’t think they would because they’re so different. But they do seem to spend a lot of time together.” “Well,” Brian said, walking back into the kitchen, “They’re both comparing notes on what you’re up to. It’s the only way that they think they can keep tabs on you.” “Brian!” Justin complained. “Don’t blame me, Sunshine. I’m just setting the record straight.” *** A few minutes later the front door opened and in walked Fran Dunbar. “Brian,” Fran said, ignoring everyone else. “When did you get in?” she asked, wrapping her arms tightly around him. Brian was reminded of Debbie, but with the exception…that his ability to breath was still intact. “Last night,” he answered, lingering in her embrace. “So did you miss me or what? You know Pittsburgh isn’t that far?” he teased. “My son is keeping me a prisoner here in Cincinnati,” Fran mockingly professed. “But one of these day’s I’m going to surprise you,” she teased as she finally decided to release him. “Of course, if the rumors are true you aren’t in Pittsburgh anyway, but hiding out with Justin in that mansion…some place where no one can find you,” she persisted in her teasing. “Now Fran, your son is in advertising, you know better than to listen to rumors,” Brian bantered back. Everyone burst out laughing at the easy banter between them. Katie entered a few moments later and caught sight of Gus. “So Nicky, who’s your little friend? He’s cute…looks surprisingly like Brian,” she commented with a laugh. “That’s because he’s my son, ” Brian said with a sigh over his shoulder to Katie. “Gus… this…is Granny Fran,” he said, motioning to the woman, who just hugged him to death. Gus cautiously approached and accepted a hug from Fran. Then he whispered to Justin, who was standing close by, “She’s just like Grandma Deb.” Everybody laughed. “And this is my mom,” Jason said, reaching out and hugging his mom, “This is your Granny Katie.” Nicky made sure that Gus got another hug, as well as accepting one himself from Katie. “What’s in the tin, Mom,” Jason asked. “Fran and I baked chocolate chip cookies, and we thought that Nicky and Gus might like some,” Katie explained. “Justin might like some too. I don’t know about the rest of you since you have to watch your waistlines,” Fran teased. “By all means, we have to feed Justin, he needs to keep up his strength to do his work,” Jason said. “Oh yeah. The cake. I have the loaf cakes for you too, Justin. So you can get started.” Katie said. “The cakes are important, but you haven’t seen Justin’s latest creation! You don’t even know about this one yet now, do you?” Jason was being very mysterious. “Come with me, Mom,” Jason said, guiding the moms into the garage. “You have to see this to believe it.” “Now this is only the skeleton, but I think that you’ll get the general idea,” Jason said, pointing to the now dried, but unmistakable shape of a truck. “It’s a piñata,” he added just in case they couldn’t tell what it was in its bear-bones condition. “It’s a truck piñata!” Fran exclaimed. “I can see what it is.” “Oh my god. Nicky is going to be so thrilled,” Katie added with a laugh. “We just have to add the creped paper,” Jason pointed out, showing the brightly colored pieces that were going to be the planned additions to the surface of the piñata. “Who ever heard of a truck piñata?” Fran finally asked. “Leave it to the creative mind of Justin,” Katie continued. *** They walked back into the dining area to find Gus and Nicky feeding the last of their cookies to Justin, while everyone else in the room was laughing and pretending not to notice. Paul and Brian helped their kids clean their hand and gave them each a small glass of milk to drink. Justin was starting to settle down. After all he had work to do. Justin made himself comfortable on one side of the table; Gus and Nicky decided to sit across from him. Justin began the task of shaping the cakes using a very sharp scalpel. “What are you doing?” Gus asked, receiving the sliver of excess cake that Justin offered him and immediately sharing a bit of it with Nicky. “I’m trying to shape a truck out of this cake,” Justin answered, continuing to sculpt the cake, but watching carefully Nicky’s reaction to what was going on. “What kind of truck?” Nicky asked with renewed interest, upon hearing the word ‘truck’. “I have no idea yet,” Justin commented, “We’ll have to wait and see.” Obviously this was the wrong answer, because Nicky began immediately coaching Justin about the proper shape of the trucks. Finally, Justin had to stop sculpting to hear everything that Nicky had to say about trucks. Then Gus wanted to add his limited knowledge of trucks to the mix. Justin listened intensely, trying to remember when he sent out a call that he needed assistants. “Wouldn’t you two like to take a nap,” Justin teasingly suggested. “Noooooooooooooo” they whined in unison and then continued to offer their guidance as only an almost-four-year-old and a six year old can. “Haven’t you heard that an artist like to work alone?” Justin continued to tease. Of course, they paid no attention to this comment, since Gus and Nicky decided that it obviously had nothing to do with them. Brian and Paul suggested that Gus and Nicky might like to go shopping with them. “No, Dad,” Gus said, “We can’t leave Justin all alone.” “He needs us,” Nicky chimed in. “We help,” he explained, spreading out his arms and making sure that neither Paul nor Brian came too close to them. “Sorry, Jus. We tried,” Paul said in defeat. “That’s ok,” Justin said with a deep sigh, looking at the two little faces staring up at him. “It’s obvious that I need their guidance, so here,” he said handing them paper and crayons, “Go ahead and show me again how it’s supposed to look?” With the last statement, all the adults had to make their way into the living room. They didn’t want to burst out laughing in front of the kids. Justin glared at them as they were leaving. When Gus and Nicky began working on their drawings on paper, they got very quiet and the suggestions that they were offering Justin about what he should be doing were greatly reduced. As Justin was working, he could hear periodic laughter from the living room. Gus and Nicky periodically would have Justin look at their drawing, and he seemed to manage to adjust the shape of his sculpted truck to what he perceived Gus and Nicky had indicated with their crayons. Justin made Gus and Nicky very happy. Yep…Justin sure had a way with kids. The adults were trying to recompose themselves in the living room from their laughter over watching Justin and the kids and the in depth discussion about all things trucks. Fran and Katie managed to secretly photograph moments between Justin and Gus and Nicky without their knowledge. “We’ve lost our kids,” Jason said. “Like what else is new,” Paul added. “You should have seen them earlier, Gus and Nicky were feeding cookies to Justin. They must think he’s this helpless little kid,” he laughed. “Some things never change,” Brian said with a smirk. “ But trust me, Justin’s no kid!” “Nicky’s just a little control freak,” Jason commented with a smile. “He’s been orchestrating Justin and Gus ever since they got here.” Brian saw a perfect opportunity to discuss a touchy subject. “By the way, I have it on good authority that you’re stifling Nicky’s creativity by forcing him to do his art so neatly,” Brian pointed out earnestly. “Oh, this is obviously from the world according to Justin Taylor Artist,” Jason said with a laugh. “You saw the difference between us when you arrived last night. He had to stop and take a shower,” Jason chimed in, “While I was still neat and clean.” “Let’s not completely discount what he says,” Paul interjected, “How much did you say his last paintings sold for?” “Try $50,000 in Santa Barbara,” Brian commented with a certain amount of pride. “Maybe we shouldn’t so easily discount everything that he says,” Paul suggested, “You have to admit that Justin is pretty creative.” “Well, of course, you’ll all have a chance to judge for yourself during the opening of new wing of the gallery in a few months,” Brian reminded them “I’m really looking forward to it,” Fran added. “So Paul, while you and Brian are out, you might as well pick up the additional tickets.” “What happen, Paul, did you miscount?” Brian asked sarcastically. “Don’t be a smart ass! Justin only told us that he was going to be part of the exhibit. He didn’t tell us he was going to be the featured artist. Then recently, there was a big article in the paper about the opening of the new wing, and the whole article was pretty much about Justin. You should have told us,” Paul protested. “Justin got you to agree to come to the opening. You would have noticed once you were there that he was the featured artist. What’s the problem?” Brian had to ask with a smirk. “Mom, Katie, Lee, Gabrielle, Ryan,” Paul added, “Need I say more.” Brian started laughing. “Why are you laughing? Do the Pittsburgh and Toronto contingents know about his featured artist’s thing? “I think that only Lindsay knows…but I don’t think that Justin has said anything to anyone else,” Brian said on reflection. “Just wait until they find out? And if you aren’t nicer to me, that’s just what going to happen,” Paul suggested with a subtle, threatening tone. “Are you finished?” Brian said, hitting Paul on the arm for emphasis. “I’m going to see what going on in the dining room.” As Brian entered the dining room and looked at all the intense faces hard at work, he couldn’t help but smile. He simply kissed everyone on the top of their heads and started to leave the room. So as the truck was being sculpted from the cakes, Justin’s assistants were actually quite pleased with their contributions to the final product. “Brian, don’t forget that you and Paul have work to do,” Justin said with a laugh, “I just don’t want you to forget,” he teased. “No problem, Sunshine.” Brian returned to the gang in the living room, “Katie, can you and Fran stay here for a bit. Paul and Jason and I have a few things to take care of.” “No problem. We’ll rescue Justin, if necessary.” “Thanks, we won’t be too long,” Brian said, grabbing Paul and Jason by their collars and pulling them out the front door. *** A few moments later, Gabrielle dropped by. She was not surprised to find the moms there. She was, however, surprised to find that Nicky had a new playmate. “Hi Mom, I really hate to say this. But Nicky’s new playmate looks like a miniature version of Brian Kinney,” she said with a laugh. “It good to see my children still have their keen powers of observation,” Fran teased. “That’s because, there, in that room, IS a miniature version of Brian…that’s his son, Gus. Brian arrived last night.” “Brian’s in town. God, his son looks just like him. Where is he?” “Paul and Jason and Brian left together. Justin assigned them a few last minute chores. So they won’t be gone long.” “So Mom, are you having a good time with Justin and the kids?” Gabrielle asked teasingly. “Yeah, but it’s fun to watch Nicky and Gus with Justin,” Fran reported, “They think he’s some lost kid…some missing link…earlier they were feeding him cookies.” “Well you have to admit, Justin is always hungry. To remain so slim and eat like he does, it’s always possible that his being a missing link would really explain everything.” “You leave Justin alone. If it wasn’t for Justin, I don’t want to think about what this party would be like. Fortunately Justin is so over the top that even with Paul and Jason teasing him, he still does masterful work. No wonder he’s so successful as an artist.” Fran said lovingly in Justin’s defense. “Did you see his sketch for what the playroom should look like once all the decorations and everything are in place?” Katie asked as she reached for the page that Justin had given her earlier. “Ryan, Lee, and the guys have agreed to put up the decorations tonight, now that we have Justin’s sketches. We will have no trouble putting everything in place. Justin’s drawings are like a map of where everything should go,” Fran added. “Are you two all prepared for tomorrow?” Gabrielle asked “Our crystal balls told us that people will be at the house all day. We have enough food to feed an army. The liquor cabinet is stocked, I understand. Justin sent Brian and our sons off with last minute things to handle and to buy games for the kids. So the day should be fun. Then I guess everyone will disappear over to Pipeline for the old thumpa thumpa to close out the evening,” Fran revealed, dancing a bit as she said this. Gabrielle burst out laughing. “Mom, what do you know about the thumpa thumpa of the Pipeline?” she asked. “I only look innocent,” Fran answered with a smile. “I have ears. I hear things,” she added with a laugh. “Besides, Katie and I compare notes,” she added. “So that’s why you two spend so much time together,” Gabrielle teased. “Please tell me you two didn’t visit the club on one of your girls night’s out?” “Why would you think such a thing? Just because they have separate areas for lesbians?” Katie added. “Doesn’t mean that we know anything?” “Besides, it’s not polite to go and tell!” Fran quipped. Once again, Gabrielle burst out laughing. She made a mental note that she had to tell Paul and Jason that their mothers have developed some nocturnal habits that bear much closer watching.