"Rachel and Joey? That's stupid. Ross is her lobster" Justin stated, doing the weird lobster-walking-on-the-beach sign with his hands for emphasis.

"It is not stupid!" Kathy exclaimed indignant.

They were having their coffee-and-cigarette break that had quickly become routine. Around them were a dozen Vanguard employees, all gathered in the one room that didn't have a "no smoking" sign. Justin figured he could get his nicotine fix just by inhaling the fumes in that place. But he nonetheless enjoyed his cigarette immensely. He couldn't smoke at home. Ethan said it was a disgusting habit and he would not tolerate it at the apartment.

He liked Kathy. Her weird theories about "Friends" aside, she was a fun person to be around.

"Besides, Joey is hotter. And I think David Schwimmer is gay… does he look gay to you?" she asked, as though Justin was an expert of the sort.

"Tell you what. Next time I'm in Hollywood I'll hit on him. And then you'll have your answer." He replied.

Kathy laughed good-naturedly.

"Justin!" Steve approached them. "Here you are. Brian wants to see you in his office."

"What about?" Justin asked, confused. After yesterday's drama, he wasn't sure he was up to facing the lovely Mister Kinney.

"No idea." Steve shrugged. "But you better get over there fast. He doesn't appreciate waiting." he added and with that he left.

Justin put out his cigarette in a hurry. So much for his 10 minute break.

"Fuck. Did you do something?" Kathy asked worried.

"I don't think so" Except maybe turning down his advances….

"Well, he never asks to see any of us for good… Just…don't get fired ok? I kinda like you."

"I'll do my best." Justin reassured her.

When he made it to the office a couple of minutes later, Brian was busy yelling at someone over the phone.

"Are you listening to yourself? What kind of bullshit excuse is that?" Brian was saying to his rant-of-the-day victim. "I don't care. Just make it work." He hung up the phone, annoyed.

"Taylor…" he said after finally noticing Justin standing awkwardly next to the door. Brian got up from his chair to close the door behind Justin. "How nice of you to finally come. I've been waiting for you for god knows how long."

"I was on my break…" he tried to justify himself.

"And your point is?" Brian said, raising one eyebrow.

"It won't happen again." Justin replied in his most professional tone.

"You're right. It won't."

Justin could not help but notice how close to him Brian was right now. And the long look he was giving him… it felt like he was trying to read his mind or something.

And, god - what cologne was that? It smelled really really good…

"Take a seat." Brian indicated, after what seemed ages, and moved behind the desk to sit on his 'throne of power'.

Justin sat down and looked at him expectantly.

"This" Brian pulled a large envelope out of seemingly nowhere and let it down on the desk with a considerable thud "is my current project. Callisto Furniture. Now the visuals, as you can see…" he opened the envelope at the correct page without even looking "is shit."

Justin looked down at it. It wasn't that bad…maybe it needed a little fixing here and there…

"It's not perfect…"

"It is shit." Brian repeated. Well, obviously Justin's opinion didn't matter that much. "The stupid Art Director that was responsible did nothing of what I asked him to."

"And you're telling me this because…?"

"It's obvious isn't it? I want you to take over."

"Me?" Justin asked surprised. A whole project on him?

"Yes, you. You don't have to do much really. The general idea is there. You just have to make it actually worth looking at."

Justin was lost for words. "Um… yes… ok…"

"Ok? Great." Brian smiled. "Are we done?" He didn't wait for an answer and just went ahead and started busying himself with some other issue.

"Done? But… you haven't told me what you want."

"Instructions are in the envelope." Brian commented absentmindedly.

Justin took a long breath before getting up. "I'll have it ready by Monday."

If he didn't know better, he would have sworn Brian chuckled. "You'll have it done by tomorrow. The client can't wait any longer."

Brian then went on ignoring him, filing away papers.

"But… Brian…" he tried to get his attention "You have to give me more time…"

"Let's get things straight. You work for me, not with me. So, I would appreciate it if you referred to me as Mr. Kinney. It's only a sign of good manners, don't you think?"

Wow. Talk about cold.

"Mr. Kinney. What you are asking of me is impossible." Justin tried reasoning with him.

Brian stood up with a long-suffering look. He leaned his weight on the desk.

"It is not impossible. It is just… hard."

God, those eyes. Justin couldn't help but stare into them. At least he tried to. It was surely better than getting distracted by Brian's lips. He felt himself flush at the proximity.

"But… if you are not up for it…" Brian went on, his stare making it perfectly clear that he was fully aware of the effect his voice was having on Justin "we can always find something else for you to do. Maybe you can… color something. If you can work it around your breaks of course."

Justin grabbed the damned envelope and excused himself with no other comment. He left the office with a lot of unanswered questions and definitely a lot hornier than when he came in.

Justin had spent the rest of the day at work redoing the visuals. Brian had given him just printouts, and Justin had to go from creative group to creative group, looking for the original computer files. And when he did find them, he realized that they had been formatted such that Justin couldn't do any changes to it. He had spent more time reformatting the damn visuals than he had revising it.

Justin was beginning to see Brian's point. The visuals were press ads for modern, yuppie furniture…and these visuals looked like an Ikea catalogue that had been shot by an avant-garde French cinematographer, with everything basked in blue light and slightly out of focus. Ugh…who would want to buy furniture like this? Well, maybe I'm being a bit too harsh, Justin thought, remembering Ethan's flea-market couch.

He looked over at Brian's instructions. Brian (or one of his minions) had rewritten the entire copy. The colours had to be redone completely, which meant each image had to be manipulated all over again. And then the backgrounds…Justin frowned, as he went over the instructions once more. Brian clearly thought that Justin was incapable of creative thought. The instructions were precise, and seemed better suited to a computer operator than a junior artist.

Justin's eyes narrowed. He wasn't expected to do anything creative – this was assembly line work, and the trick was only whether Justin could beat the clock and have each section – living, dining, bedroom etc – finished on time. Justin glanced at his watch. If he worked on it without a break, he could finish it all just before he was supposed to start at the diner. He'd have to come early tomorrow to get everything printed and mounted and ready on time, but he supposed that that wasn't the worst of it. Well, at least Brian wasn't making a secret of what he thought of Justin's talents…or lack thereof.

Justin sighed deeply as he dialed Ethan's number…this wasn't going to be pretty.

"Justin? Are you calling me with some good news? Like you quit your job?"

"Ethan! I've been here less than a week – why would I quit?"

"A guy can always hope. Anyway, I was about to call you – listen, Lara and John are having a small get together at their place tonight, and I thought that we could grab a bottle of wine and head there –"

Justin hated Lara. He hated John even more. They had less personality than a shoelace. "Ethan, I have work tonight."

"Can't you call in sick?"

"Ethan, you know I can't." Justin felt his stomach tying up in knots – he hadn't even told Ethan about working late at Vanguard, and they were already heading towards an argument.

"Why not? People fall sick all the time."

"Not people who need the money. And I feel bad about lying to Debbie."

"Sure. Of course. You feel bad about lying to Debbie, but you don't feel bad about ditching your own boyfriend."

"Ethan, please. I'm not ditching you – I didn't even know about Lara and John's thing! I just don't want to –"

"Whatever , Justin. Why'd you call?"

Justin sighed again. "Look, I got some extra work here that's due tomorrow so I have to work late…I'll head to the diner from here and then see you later, ok?"

Ethan laughed incredulously. "Are you kidding me? You've been there less than a week and you're already doing overtime?"

"Ethan –"

"If you can spare the time, pick up a bag of cat food for Wolfram on your way back."

With that, Ethan cut the line.

Brian Kinney. Justin was doing something as mundane as clearing dirty plates, but he couldn't stop replaying the conversation in his office. Brian oozed pure, raw sex. He felt himself harden in spite of himself. Stop it. Think dead kittens. And puppies. And Ethan.

But that was proving to be a very difficult task. Justin had just barely managed to finish revising the visuals before practically sprinting to the diner. And then all he could do was replay the conversation over and over again in his head, seeing Brian, complete with the double entendres. It was bad enough that he was working for the hottest man in the universe; the hottest man in the universe wanted to sleep with him. As insulted as Justin was by the thought, he was also flattered.

"Well, who fucked you across the table?"

"What?" Kiki's voice brought Justin back to earth.

Kiki grinned. "I know that look – that's the sex look."

"The sex look?" Justin tried his best nonchalant voice.

"Yeah…the look people get when they're thinking of sex. The sex look."

"Ha ha ha! I was actually thinking about work. Nothing sexy about that at all." Well, that was a lie. Brian's campaigns were all about sex. He could make cat litter sexy. Cat litter…Wolfram…shit. Ethan was going to skin him alive when he got home.

Justin watched as Kiki cleared a table across him. This campaign for Callisto had none of Brian's touches to it. Unless the endless blue lighting was supposed to be a throwback to porn movies, Justin thought with shudder. The visuals were efficient, but not sexy. Ironic, considering that the store was named after one of Zeus' lovers, he thought. I wonder that Brian didn't pick up on that…

The stupid Art Director that was responsible did nothing of what I asked him to.

Of course! Brian must have given a totally different brief, and the only sexual element that got translated visually was the creepy blue lighting! Suddenly, the wheels in Justin's head started working faster than he could blink.

What if…what if he were to design a secondary campaign? One that would probably be more in line with something Brian would come up with? Something that looked like furniture Brian Kinney would buy? Something raw, sexual and almost animal…and yet classy. Human figures…modern and sexy, blended together with the furniture…men, women…as if the Kama Sutra had been sketched by the love child of Marcel Breuer and Giorgio Armani.

Justin rushed to the back and quickly sketched the ideas that popped up in his head before he forgot them…and as the pictures formed in his mind, he was assaulted by another brainwave. An animation…a short 15 second spot…he could base it on just one of the visual! Of course, he wouldn't be able to do a voice over, or come up with effective copy, but he could cover it up if he could find a sultry instrumental riff…maybe Roxanne?

He had his laptop with him. Justin glanced at the clock. His shift finished at three in the morning…that gave him six hours until he was due at work. If he didn't waste time travelling back and forth and stayed at the diner all night, he could try and finish his campaign. Then, if he had time, he could rush back home to quickly shower and change, and if he didn't have time, he could ask Daphne to go pick up a set of clothes for him and drop it off at the diner so he could shower and change here itself and rush back to work – he would anyway have to get there as early as possible because he would have two campaigns to take printouts for instead of one. And get them mounted.

Fuck. He literally wouldn't get a wink of sleep. But if he could pull this off – if he could earn Brian Kinney's respect – it would totally be worth it.

First things first. Justin called Debbie, and asked if it was ok if he spent the entire night at the diner, after closing up. After painstakingly explaining to her – at least five times – that yes, he was alright, and no, he wasn't hiding from anything or anyone and it truly was just because of work, and no, he didn't want her to come over – he finally got Debbie to say ok. Next, he called Daphne to ask her to help out, and that went much easier. His third call went out to Kathy, whom he begged for just two copy lines that he could rotate for his visuals, so that there would be some visual-verbal connect.

And the last call he made was of course the most difficult.

"What? You're spending the night at the diner? The entire night? So that you can work? Justin, are you out of your fucking mind?"

"Ethan, I'm so incredibly sorry…but I really need to do this. Brian hates me! I just want to be able to show that I'm good."

"Justin, if they can't appreciate your talent, you should just walk out of there. You don't need to prove yourself to anyone – we can find you another job somewhere – Starbucks is always hiring, and it wouldn't have one tenth of this stress."

Justin struggled to keep his voice under check. "I don't want to work at Starbucks. I want to be at Vanguard. And I want them to realize that I'm not some freeloader."

"Freeloader? What the hell is that? And aren't you going to at least change your clothes? You must be stinking."

Justin grimaced. Well, that was nice to know. "Daphne said that she could pick up some clothes and drop it by…" his voice trailed off as he braced himself for the next onslaught.

"Daphne? I should've known that she would encourage this nonsense. I dunno Justin…this job, this company…it's fucking retarded. And you haven't even been there a week. And I'm guessing that there's no cat food at the diner for Wolfram? Yeah, I thought so. I guess I'll see you whenever then."

For the second time that day, Ethan hung up on him. Justin turned around to see Kiki quickly walking out of the now empty kitchen.

Ok. Clear your mind Justin, and think about nothing but this campaign for the next six hours. You can do this. You will do this.

"Justin, you're amazing!" Kathy said, as she helped him mount his visuals.

Justin hadn't had time to go home and get dressed, and he had barely managed to brush his teeth and wash his face before Daphne dropped him off at Vanguard. He had sprinkled himself with a heavy dose of cologne that Daphne had wisely brought with her. Better to smell like a perfume garden than the Liberty Diner, Justin figured.

He was still running out of time, and when Kathy walked in early, asking if he needed any help, Justin almost kissed her. Almost. Together, they printed and mounted all the visuals, and Justin actually thought that he might have time to grab a bite to eat when Cynthia came. It was barely nine thirty.

"Justin." She looked at him sympathetically. "Brian wants you in his office, with the visuals for Callisto."

Justin nodded weakly. Kathy looked at him.

"Do you want me to help you carry some of these in there?"

"No, I can manage. Though I'd love it if you could just stand next to me for moral support."

Kathy squeezed his shoulder. "Justin, this shit is brilliant. You're gonna be just fine."

Justin took a deep breath, and together with Kathy, they headed towards the lion's den.

"What the fuck is all that?" Brian frowned at Justin as he walked in with his laptop and twelve visuals balanced precariously under each arm.

Justin decided not to answer him – or look at him - and placed his laptop on Brian's desk before setting the visuals down.

"Good morning Mr. Kinney."

Brian raised an eyebrow. "You look like shit. I guess one day of hard work really might kill you. Pity."

Justin tried not to fall for the bait. Dead kittens and puppies. And a dead Bambi.

Kathy was already beginning to look worried.

"Mr. Kinney, all the revisions you requested on the Callisto campaign has been done. I have the printouts with me here, and I…hope…trust…hope…that you …that they are what you were expecting."

Brian was looking at him expressionlessly.

Justin bulldozed ahead, while his courage still held sway. "I also…I also took the liberty of working on an alternative campaign for Callisto." Brian's mask slipped a little bit, as he arched an eyebrow at Justin.

"I have several visuals prepared for that as well…and a short – 15 second – animation."

Now the surprise on Brian's face was slightly more evident.

"The copy…it's just rough copy, but it's more the concept and the style that I…that we have right now…anyway…um…let me start...show…let me…us…let us show you the work."