A/N: I had a really hard time writing for Justin, so that's part of the reason this chapter took so long. So just forgive me if this doen't sound 100% like Justin, just go with it lol.
This also was originally going to be a lot longer, but I decided to make it two chapters instead of one.
Enjoy and please review :)
Justin’s POV
I lean back from the canvas I’m currently working on and stretch my back and arms. I have been here for weeks it seems, trying to get all these paintings done. I set my brush down and flex my hand. So far, it’s been cooperative since now I know when to rest it and when I can push it. There is only a dull ache, I’ll give it ten minutes. I walk over to the old sofa that I found a week ago and am grateful that I finally found some form of furniture to put in here. It looks out of place in my studio. I told Brian this place was too nice.
My stereo is still playing and I can actually listen to it now. When I’m painting and get into the zone, the music is hardly there. I still get the beats and occasionally hum along unconsciously, but my focus is usually completely on my art. So I take a moment to actually enjoy the music and as I’m listening, I’m rubbing my fingers and palm. I wish Brian was here to do this. I don’t know what he does differently when he massages my hand, but it always works better. Even my hand can’t resist his charms it seems.
I get up and get my bottle of water from my bag. It’s warm but it will do. As I drink, I feel a little refreshed. I stretch my arms again, preparing for another long session. I want to finish this painting tonight if I can. I walk back over to my canvas and look at what I have left to do. This is going to be a good one. I pick back up my brush and dip it in the paint and flow right back into my art.
I must have really been focused because I hardly realize my phone is ringing over my music and intense concentration. I look down at the small digital clock plugged in on the floor and notice it’s been hours since my last break. I quickly put my brush down and wipe my hands on my paint splattered shirt. I dig in my pocket and take out my phone. It’s Michael.
“Hey Michael”
“Hey, how’ve you been?”
“Well, I’ve been busting my ass with these paintings. Everyone wants it all done quick. I just hope my hand holds out,” I say and I rub the hand in question.
“Just don’t push yourself too hard, you know Brian will queen out if you overdo it.” I laugh.
“Yeah, and he say’s I’m the drama queen. So how are you, Ben and Hunter?”
“Good. Ben’s been busy writing his latest book. Hunter is still being Hunter. He wanted us to buy Brian’s loft for him. He said he was going to be the next Brian Kinney, but straight and needed the loft to play the part. I’m sure that’s the last thing Brian would want for his loft, for it to become a straight fuck pad.” We both laugh at the idea.
“That would be a shame. We spent so much time hetero-proofing the loft for it all to be undone now. Plus, straight sex in the loft just seems too ironic.” I can’t even picture it, not without gagging.
“You’re telling me. But don’t worry, Brian killed that dream fast. Not to mention, we would never be able to buy Brian’s loft anyways.”
“Well, it’s probably just as well. He should have to live in a shitty apartment with a couple of roommates before he can experience the joy of having his own place anyways.”
“Like you did,” he says sarcastically while laughing.
“Hey, I had my share of shitty places and roommates in-between all my stays at the loft. I offer Ethan as exhibit A.” I hate bringing him up, especially with Michael because I know what he thought of me during that time. We’ve both gotten over it, but it’s still an uncomfortable subject, for both of us.
“Yeah I can just imagine the shithole he has now since he came back to Pittsburgh.”
“He did? When did this happen?”
“A couple months ago. His talent representatives dropped him and he’s back to where he started. Which is probably why he went psycho and punched Bri...” he abruptly stops talking.
“What are you talking about? Ethan punched Brian? When?” I’m completely confused. Why didn’t Brian tell me?
“Shit. I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“Tell me Michael. What the hell happened?” I have to sit down for this.
He sighs before telling me. “Well, me and Brian were meeting at the diner for lunch a couple days ago and I guess he walked there and saw Ethan playing in front of the diner. I don’t know how it all started since I came in at the end, but I guess Brian told him that you weren’t here if he was looking for you and Ethan told Brian he was a shit and that Brian never loved you. Brian was being a smart ass and I guess it got to Ethan so he just punched him,” he pauses. I can’t believe this happened. “By then I had walked by and seen what was happening. I rushed over and held Brian back and finally got Ethan to leave. Brian has a black eye and he hasn’t been to work very much lately because of it. He said he was sick of all the sympathetic stares he was getting from the art department.” He laughs a little at that.
It takes me a minute to absorb all of what he just told me. Since when does Ethan have the balls to actually punch someone? Let alone Brian. Why didn’t Brian tell me? God, he still belittles his own problems. That and he probably doesn’t want me to get all motherly. Well tough shit.
“You said this happened a few days ago?”
“Yeah. His eye doesn’t look that bad, but you can still tell. We all know better than to bring it up again.”
“I’m coming back for a few days...”
“No Justin. He’ll kill me if he knew I told you. Plus, that’s why he didn’t tell you. He didn’t want you to come back and make a big deal about it and he knows how busy you are right now. Besides, he’s fine.”
“I don’t care. I’m coming back. I won’t let on that I know, so don’t worry about him finding out you told me. I’ll be there tomorrow. DON’T tell him I’m coming,” I say as I am already rinsing my brushes and putting things away so I can leave.
“Fine. I guess I’ll see you when you get here,” he says with a sigh and hangs up.
I’m shutting down my computer and still putting things away and I can’t stop thinking about Brian and Ethan’s confrontation. What are the chances of them running into each other? Why did Ethan have to be brainless enough to hang around there? Well, Ethan is going to get an ear full when I find him. He was fucking lucky Michael was there to hold Brian back from beating the shit out of him. While I’m thinking of what I’m going to tell Ethan when I see him and I’m grabbing my bag and just about to walk out the door, my phone rings again.
“Michael, I said I’m coming back and that’s that. I’m not going to change my mind.”
I don’t hear anything so I look at the number and it’s unknown. I put the phone back to my ear and I hear what sounds like breathing.
“Who is this?” I ask.
All I hear is the breathing still. Then they hang up. I look down at my phone in confusion. I shrug my shoulders and stuff my phone back in my pocket. I have to get back to the apartment and look up flights for tomorrow morning.
When I get back to the apartment I see Kristin sitting at the counter eating dinner. She doesn’t acknowledge me and I just roll my eyes as I pass her and go straight to my room. Ever since Brian called her a cunt, he seemed to ruin any chance I had of salvaging a friendship with her because I seem to find more and more things about her that annoy me now. I get in my room and turn on my laptop. While I’m waiting for it to start up, I call Grace and ask her to come over. As I’m waiting for her, I start to look up flights. I book one for noon tomorrow. After all the late nights painting, I need a day to sleep in. Especially if I have to deal with trying to drag what happened with Ethan out of Brian.
I’m just taking out my suitcase when Grace walks in my room.
“Heyyyy there good lookin’! Did you make plans for a long distant booty call already?” she chuckles at her own joke. She is just like Daphne, it’s uncanny.
“Well, yes and no,” I say as I start taking out clothes and folding them and put them in my suitcase.
“What the hell does that mean?” she asks and starts to help me pack.
“It’s kinda of long story that resembles a cheesy gay romance novel.”
“Ooooo those are the best kind! Come on, tell momma.” She pushes my suitcase over and jumps on my bed and stares at me like I’m about to reveal the secret to life. I roll my eyes at her and walk over to my dresser to get more things to pack.
“Well, you know about Brian. A couple of years ago when we were kind of together, or at least as together as he would let us be at the time, I thought I wanted romance and flowers so I left him for a violin player. He ended up cheating on me and I realized I made a big mistake. Me and Brian got back together and that sums it up.” I know I am leaving out major details, but I really hate thinking about that whole thing. I’d rather forget it ever happened.
“So it was basically a gay love triangle? That wasn’t nearly as long or as complicated as you made it seem. But nevertheless, what does this have to do with you and your spontaneous trip?”
“It seems that Brian had a run in with ‘the fiddler’ as he liked to call him, and now I have to go and do damage control.” I walk out of the room and down the hall into the bathroom. I’m grabbing my toothbrush and my toiletries when Grace walks in and leans against the door frame.
“From what you’ve told me about Brian, he doesn’t seem like the type that needs ‘damage control’. And I have a feeling he wouldn’t be happy if he knew that that’s what you were doing.”
“He thinks he doesn’t need it. But I’m not just going there for him. I’m going there to see what the hell made Ethan go ape shit crazy.” I gather up the rest of the stuff I need in the bathroom and squeeze past Grace. I walk into the living room to grab my messenger bag when Kristin finally realizes that I exist and that it appears that I’m packing.
“Are you leaving?” Kristin asks in a bored tone.
“It appears so. I’ll be back in a couple of days.” She gives me a half nod and goes back to whatever she was doing on her laptop. Bitch.
I walk back into my room and Grace is looking at the pictures I have sitting next to my bed. They are all of Brian and me, or just Brian. I go over to my desk and grab a sketch book and the case I keep all my drawing materials in and put them in my messenger bag. I shut down my laptop and put that in my bag as well. I’m just zipping my suitcase up when Grace finally stop staring at the pictures.
“Does Kristin know you’re leaving?”
“Yes, she just noticed when I went to get my bag. But she doesn’t give a shit about what I do anyways.”
“Yeah... I don’t know why you guys can’t get along,” she says and she lays down on my bed.
“I don’t know either.” I move my suitcase to the floor, out of the way and then sit down at my desk. I lean back and look up at my ceiling.
“What times your flight tomorrow?”
“Noon.”
“Are you going to take a cab? Cause I could drive you,” she offers.
“If you don’t mind, that would be great. I still can’t believe you’re brave enough to have a car in this city,” I joke.
“Well, it’s a real bitch most of the time, but it has it’s perks every now and then.” She sits up and straightens her clothes. “I’ll be here at 10 tomorrow. Be ready.” She walks out the room with a small wave and a “toodles”. I have to laugh because it reminds me of Emmett. I glance over at my clock to see if it’s too early to go to sleep. It’s a little past 11 so I decide that I could use a good nights rest for once and get undressed and turn out the lights. For a while I just lay there and I start to think that maybe after all the late nights, going to bed early was a bad idea. But then I finally drift off, with thoughts of being home again tomorrow leaving me with a slight smile on my face.
*****
After Grace drops me off at the airport and I check my bag in, I grab some coffee and sit at my gate to wait. I try not to think about all the drama that is most likely going to occur during this visit but instead try to focus on trivial things. Like the artistic design of the airport, parents holding their kids up to the windows to look at the planes, the impatient-ness of the man across from me who keeps looking at his watch and the way the young woman a few seats down from him keeps batting her eyelashes at me. I curse myself for not thinking to bring a book or something so I could have a legitimate reason to ignore these people. I settle for staring blankly at my half empty coffee cup.
I didn’t realize how much time I could waste staring at a cup until the stewardess announced that it was time to start boarding. I get up and throw the cup away, since while I was staring at it rather than drinking it, it turned cold. I shift my messenger bag over my shoulder and stand in line to board.
I get as comfortable as I can get in a coach seat, thankful that I got the window. I barely acknowledge the passengers that sit beside me, and they don’t acknowledge me either. I look out the window at the guys below with they’re orange flashlights and wonder if they hate their jobs.
After we finally take off, I am already bored. I decide that sleep will relieve me of having to suffer through the hour wait to get into Pittsburgh. And although I had more sleep last night than I had all week, I have the gift to fall asleep anywhere. The next thing I know, I hear the pilot coming over the speaker informing us we are preparing to land.
After making it through the long process of actually getting off the plane and waiting too long for my bag, I go find a cab. I decide to go to the loft instead of popping in Kinnetik. Michael said that Brian hasn’t been going to the office very much, but I have a feeling that by now he can’t come up with any more excuses as to why he wouldn’t be at work besides his black eye and he can’t have his employees ruining his reputation by thinking that he’s ashamed of his battle wound. So I head to the loft, intent on surprising him when he gets home.
When I get there, it really is like coming home. I’ve missed this place a lot. When I walk in the door, I feel so giddy. I take my bag into the bedroom and unpack my stuff, noticing that Brian still has my drawers empty. After, I look at the clock to see how much time I have before Brian gets home. It’s a little past 2:30. I contemplate going to the store to get stuff to make dinner, figuring that Brian most likely only has water, beer, old take-out and poppers in his fridge. I decide that I don’t want to risk being seen by anyone. I don’t want someone to tell Brian that I’m here, I told him I would surprise him this time and I plan on it. I go to the fridge just to see if there is an off chance that Brian might actually have anything of substance in there and am shocked to see that there is. Not much, but at least enough to form some kind of meal.
So now that I know what I’m going to make for later, I go get my messenger bag and take out my sketch pad. I figure that will be a good time waster. I’m on my third sketch when I notice the time, it’s a little past four. I have a feeling that Brian will want to come home early. He may be able to go to the office with his shiner, but I doubt he can last the whole day with all the questioning stares. I don’t know why it bothers him so much.
I start to get the stuff out for dinner. I have things going and still chopping up some vegetables for the salad when I hear the door open. I look up just in time to see Brian walk into the kitchen with a confused look on his face that quickly turns into surprise. Bingo.
“Hi honey. I thought I’d make us a romantic meal while the kids were at soccer practice,” I say with a smile.
“Ha, ha. What the fuck are you doing here?” He puts his briefcase on the counter and takes off his suit jacket. He slides up behind me and takes a slice of carrot. I try and turn around to face him, but I notice he is doing his best to keep his face out of view. I decide to play along for a while.
“Is your memory that faulty already? I told you that I was going to surprise you.”
“I didn’t expect you to come this soon. So I guess you succeeded.” He leaves the kitchen and goes to the bedroom to change. He’ll eventually run out of things to avoid getting me a look at his eye. I continue to play along.
“I was surprised to actually find food in your fridge. Please don’t tell me you actually decided to eat like a human? That would be so unlike you.”
“Well, it seems I got so used to having real food that once you flew the coop I had no choice but to continue on in your wake. That, or I finally got sick of take-out and dry turkey sandwiches.” He walks down the stairs still pulling on his wife beater, his jeans with one button undone. He continues over to the sofa where he sits down and begins looking through my sketch book. I finish putting everything in the salad and put it in the fridge. Everything is done now and I cover the food on the stove because we are not eating until I get this out of him.
I walk to the back of the sofa and wrap my arms around him from behind. I nuzzle his neck and then start to place soft kisses there. He leans his head back into me and closes his eyes. I move my one hand down and pinch his nipple through his shirt and I hear him moan. I move my mouth to his ear and blow on it and watch as he shivers a bit. I run my tongue along the outside.
“How about some pre-dinner entertainment?” I whisper.
He gives me a slight moan in response. I move around the sofa and straddle his lap. He puts his hands on my hips as I grind a little into him. His head is still back and his eyes are still closed. I got him distracted so he will forget to block the view of his eye. I put my hand behind his neck and pull him up for a fierce kiss. His hands move up from my hips to wrap around my back and pull me closer. I grind into him a little more as our kiss deepens. I pull back quickly and stare at him. I can still clearly see the evidence of Ethan’s punch. It’s still purple and it only makes me wonder how bad it looked right after. I start to feel angry. Angry at Ethan for even daring to punch Brian and angry and Brian for provoking him. I see Brian slowly open his eyes, wondering why I stopped. He sees the look on my face and sees where I’m looking. He quickly pushes me off him and stands up, quietly cursing himself for getting distracted.
“Brian...”
“It’s nothing,” he says abruptly.
“You have a fucking black eye. I believe that falls under the subject of something.”
He doesn’t say anything. He just stands in front of the window, looking out at nothing.
“I thought we were past this, this thing where you don’t tell me stuff.”
“Some habits die hard,” he says sarcastically.
“Just fucking tell me.” I sit on the sofa with my arms crossed. I’m going to get this out of him if it’s the last thing I do.
“It’s a fucking black eye, like you said. How the fuck do you think I got it?” He starts to pace now.
“Ok. Then who did it? And don’t waste time by making up some bullshit lie.”
He stops in front of the window again and runs his hand over the back of his neck. I know he probably really wants a drink right now and I am slightly proud of him for holding out... for now. I just sit there refusing to give in.
“I don’t see what’s so hard about this.” I finally say.
“It was Ethan, ok? Happy now?” He sighs then goes over to his desk to grab his cigarettes. He quickly lights one and inhales deeply.
“Why would Ethan punch you? And since when is he back in Pittsburgh?”
“Well, seems little Ian was dropped from his precious talent representatives and is back to working the streets.” I knew he would have no problem telling me about Ethan’s failure. I also noticed how he went back to using ‘Ian’.
“And? That still doesn’t tell me why he punched you?”
“Fuck. Fine. I was going to meet Michael at the diner for lunch. Ian was playing out front. I decided to make a little donation to the art. He refused to take it. I told him you weren’t here if he was looking for you. He called me a shit and said I never loved you like he did. I told him he was full of bullshit and I might have told him he was a shitty fuck and to stick to foundling his violin.” I laugh a little at that. “Then the next thing I knew, I had an eye full of fist. By then Michael came along and held me back from kicking that fuckers ass.” He shrugs. “That’s pretty much it.”
I get up off the sofa and walk over to the desk where he’s still standing and smoking. He’s looking anywhere but at me.
“When did this all happen?”
“A couple days ago.” He inhales from his cigarette again.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” This is the only part of the story that I need to know. I just stand there next to him, looking at his profile.
“I... it wasn’t that big of a deal. I knew you would freak out and want to come back. I knew you didn’t have the time to come back anyways. You’re busy and I’m busy. Besides, it’s not like I haven’t had one of these before.” He puts out his cigarette and I move in front of him.
“I know. But you still should have told me,” I say gently. I put my arms around his neck and pull him down so our foreheads rest together. I look into his eyes and I see him asking for forgiveness. I silently give it to him. He then leans in and kisses my lips softly while he wraps his arms around my waist and slowly runs his hands under my shirt. I pull back and wait until he’s looking at me.
“Are there any more drama’s that I don’t know about?” I ask smiling.
“Not really. Just that I called Mel and Linds and told them about moving to New York.” He walks over to the sofa and sits down and motions for me to do the same. I sit down and face him.
“And?”
“They were fine about it. Lindsey tried to go off on a romantic tangent and half way through her gushing I had to stop her. They both wished us luck in the Big Apple.”
“I knew they would support you. I can’t wait for Gus to come visit. Think of how jealous all his friends will be when he tells them about the weekends with his handsome dad in New York.” We both smile at that.
“With both his dads,” he adds quietly but I heard it loud and clear.
“What?”
“You’re his dad too you know. You’ve been there for him just as much as me, if not more.” He looks away.
“You’re a good father Brian and Gus adores you.”
“He adores you too,” he smiles.
“Well, I just seem to have a thing with you Kinney men.”
“It seems that way,” he says while leaning in and kissing me.
“Oh, I almost forgot about dinner.” I start to get up but Brian grabs my arm and pulls me back down onto the sofa.
“You might as well forget it. It just so happens you picked perfect night to come back. It’s a Deb’s family dinner night. We can surprise everyone all at once with your spontaneous appearance,” he says as he wraps his arm around my shoulders to bring me in for another kiss.
“What time do we have to be there?” I ask breathless, in-between kisses.
“A couple hours. Plenty of time to finish that pre-dinner entertainment.” He says and starts to pull my shirt off and I’m unbuttoning his jeans.
Soon we are both naked and I’m straddling him once again on the sofa as our lips are still fused together in a intense kiss. I’m slowly moving my hips, causing us both to moan into each others mouths. One of his hands is on my neck, holding us in a kiss, the other is on my hip, trying to get me to grind harder and faster on him. It feels so good to be with Brian like this again. Sex is always earthshattering after we’ve been apart for a while. I pull my lips away from his and take in deep breaths while I rest my forehead against his. He takes the hand that was on my neck and slowly drags it down to my nipple and pinches it.
“Oh god Brian,” I gasp. “I need you.”
He leans over and quickly gets into the pocket of his pants and grabs a condom and hands it to me. Then I see him shove his hand in-between the cushions and at first I’m confused until I remember that we always hid lube there for occasions such as this. I’m just rolling the condom on when his hand emerges from between the cushions and at the same I hear him give another moan. I grab the lube and put some on him then raise my body. He grabs me around the hips and guides himself into me. It feels so good. I lean my head back and gasp as he keeps going deeper. I look up and see that Brian has been watching me and all I see is lust in his eyes. I know I have always been able to drive him crazy.
He reaches out quickly and pulls me in for another kiss that seems to consume me. I start to move my hips and he starts to rock into me. We can’t seem to get enough as we both are frantically kissing and touching and thrusting as hard and as much as we can. It doesn’t take long before I start to feel it, the tingling that is quickly devouring me so I lean over and whisper into his ear “make me cum Brian” and I see his mouth drop open and he moans my name. Just the sight of him as his orgasm hits him is enough to send me into my own. I cling to him as I ride out the waves of pleasure.
I lift my head up from his shoulder and wipe my hand across his sweaty forehead. He leans forward and kisses my jaw all the way to my lips. I sit up and roll over to lean back on the sofa beside him. He takes the condom off and tosses it to the side. It still amazes me that he can do that considering he’s usually such a neat freak.
“How long until you move to New York? I could really use this on a regular basis again. It’s a good stress reliever.” I give him a lazy smile.
“Tell me about it.”
I quickly stop myself from asking him what he meant by that. It almost sounds like he’s not fucking anyone else. I figured that as soon as we decided not to get married that he would be relieved and would go right back to what he did before. Although, he has changed a lot since then. Although I’m still hesitant to bring it up. Maybe I’ll just ask one of the guys later.
“Ready for round two?” he gives me a smirk and then is off the sofa and dragging me by the arm to the bedroom.
*****
After a round in the bedroom and one in the shower, we somehow managed to tear ourselves away from each other to get dressed. I then salvaged all I could of the dinner that I prepared despite the fact that we probably won’t eat it anyway. We headed down to the ‘vette and were driving in a comfortable silence when Brian finally says something.
“I haven’t told anyone else about the move to New York yet. Well besides Mel, Linds, Michael and Theodore. Well, that’s pretty much half of them, but I thought I’d tell the rest of them tonight.” He sounds almost nervous.
“Well so far everyone’s been happy for you, I doubt the rest of them will object.” I place a hand on thigh for reassurance.
“They all probably think I’m moving because of you,” he smirks.
“You are,” I say with confidence.
“Twat.”
The rest of the ride I keep my hand on his thigh and stare at the familiar streets. Soon enough we are at Deb’s and witnessing everyone’s surprise that I’m here. Deb quickly has me in a death hug and plants a big kiss of my cheek to which she soon after wipes the lipstick off. Emmett lets out a squeal of happiness and envelopes me in a hug as well. Everyone else just says how surprised they are to see me drop in. Everyone except Michael, who gives me a questioning glance, silently asking me if Brian told me about Ethan to which I slightly nod in his direction. We are all ushered to the table while Deb finishes putting everything out. We all start eating and catching up and soon it’s half way through the meal and Brian still hasn’t said anything about the move. I look over and raise an eyebrow at him but he looks away, avoiding my questioning look. It isn’t until we’re all done and there is a lull in the conversation that Brian finally brings it up.
“Oh, I should probably let the rest of you know, I’m moving to New York.” No bullshit and straight to the point as usual.
Everyone just looks at him for a minute wondering if he’s joking. Besides me, Michael and Ted.
“Are you shitting me?” asks Deb.
“No. I’m expanding Kinnetik. It should be up and running in another month or so.”
“Wow Brian, that’s great! You’ve always been chomping at the bit to move there. And how romantic that Justin will be there with you! What are you going to do with the office here?” I knew Emmett wouldn’t have a problem with it.
“Well, it just so happens Brian has entrusted me with being the head of the Pittsburgh office,” Ted says with pride.
“You knew about this?” asks Emmett.
“Well of course. How could he buy a new office building and renovate it without me knowing? I am his accountant after all.”
“I’m so proud of you Brian. You’re going to be a huge fucking success just like Sunshine!” Deb says with a huge smile. I know her approval means a lot to Brian.
“So this still means that you guys can’t give me the loft?” Hunter asks.
“You knew too?” asks Deb.
“Yeah. Brian told Michael and he told me and Ben. So anyways, can I have the loft?”
“In your dreams. There is NO way I’m going to hand my loft over to you, especially knowing the straight sexual perversions you would be conducting there.” Brian visibly shudders even saying it. Everyone laughs at the disgusted look Brian gives and the dejected look Hunter takes on.
“Do Mel and Linds know?” asks Ben.
“Yeah, I called them yesterday. They’re all for it.” I can see a major difference in Brian now that he told everyone. He is completely relaxed now that everyone knows and they all seem to be happy about it.
“I’m sure Gus will love to visit you guys in New York. That’s like every kids dream.” Michael says.
“Well the lad should be quite diverse between here, Toronto and New York. What a jet setter he’ll turn out to be.” Brian jokes.
“Are you going to sell the house?” Emmett asks.
“No, just the loft. We’re going to keep the house for when we come back to visit. It will save on the hotel bills in the long run.” Brian says. I doubt that’s true about the hotel bills being higher than the money it will cost to keep the house, but I know the real reason why he wants to keep it. It holds special meaning for us both.
“So Justin, are you excited that Brian’s dick will be in the same area code as you again?” Ted asks sarcastically.
“Of course. I knew he wouldn’t be able to stay away from me for too long.” I say with a smirk as I look over at Brian. He smiles back at me and leans over to give me a kiss, this being his way of agreeing with me.
“So I’m assuming you’re going to dump that bitchy roommate of yours and shack back up with Brian when he gets out there, right?” Emmet says. I guess Brian has been telling everyone about my less than stellar roommate. I’m just beginning to answer when Brian quickly cuts in.
“Yes. He’s going to. The little WASP has roughed it long enough in poverty. It’s time for him to return to his classier roots.” I roll my eyes at him.
“I think ‘poverty’ is being a little dramatic, don’t you think? But yes, I will be moving in with Brian once he moves out there. After all, he can’t seem to live without me.” I smile a sickly sweet smile his way.
Everyone continues to ask question after question about Brian’s big move. Eventually, they are satisfied for now and the night continues on like any other family dinner. And after the last of the wine is finished off, we say our goodbyes and head out. The drive back to the loft is another comfortable silence one and when we pull up, I’m grateful to be back home. As we are going up in the elevator, and I’m leaning against Brian, I start to think about selling the loft. It will be sad to know that I’ll never to able to come here anymore. Brian goes to unlock the door and when he walks inside I pause in the doorway, remembering the first time I watched him walk through that door and me slowly following him. It seems like forever ago, and yet it also feels like it was just yesterday.
I close the door behind me and walk up to the bedroom where Brian is already getting undressed. I get undressed too and we both lay down intertwined together like we always do. I tiredly run my fingers over Brian chest while he runs his fingers over my exposed back. It all hits me in that moment that I’ve missed this so much. Just laying with Brian before we fall asleep, where all we’re doing is gently caressing each other. Maybe that’s why I’ve had such a hard time sleeping lately.
“I’m going to miss it here.” I say quietly. And I don’t just mean the loft, I’ll miss being here with Brian at night before I fall asleep once I have to go back to New York.
“Me too,” he whispers and I know he understands what I meant.