Midnight Whispers
QAF Brian and Justin Fanfiction

 

January 21

Brian shuffled into the diner, half dead to the world and completely uncaring to the way his hair stuck out in every direction, as if he'd just gotten out of bed; which he had. Scrubbing a hand over his face, he grimaced and scratched at the scruff on his neck and cheeks, wishing he'd had the time to shave before coming; but he also knew that the insatiable beast he lived with would have flounced his merry ass over here himself if Brian hadn't gone right that very fucking second.

Yawning, Brian cast an irritated eye over the patrons who sat there staring at him and raised an eyebrow, smirking when they quickly looked away and resumed their conversations. Fuck him over with an eighteen-inch dildo; this was going to be the talk of the Avenue for days. Luckily, he was going out of town for the next few days and he wouldn't have to hear people lamenting the downfall of the Stud.

Like he fucking cared these days.

All he cared about at the moment was getting his little, blond twat's fucking lemon bars, so he could go the fuck home and get some more sleep. Walking up to the counter, he sat down heavily and stared blankly at the wall as he waited for someone to serve him. He closed his eyes and rested his chin on his clasped hands, and wondered how the fuck this was his life. Being sent out at fucking two in the morning to buy lemon squares of all things; and not just any lemon squares; oh, no, they had to be from the fucking diner as 'it just wasn't the same otherwise.'

The things he did for the brat.

Brian sighed and opened his eyes as he heard someone walk up to him; and then he stared in blurry confusion at a familiar mop of bright red hair and a loud vest filled with buttons thrown over a t-shirt that said, 'If you can't handle the Sass, then you can't handle the Ass.' Brian snorted and made a mental not to tell Justin to stop encouraging the woman and her God-awful t-shirts, as he recognized that one.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Brian asked, blinking slowly at the woman who had been more of a mother to him than his own.

"I could ask you the same," Debbie chuckled as she leaned against the counter, a wide smile on her face. "But I can probably guess. You look like shit, kiddo."

Brian, not in the mood for guessing games, just stared blandly at Deb, one brow raised. Deb huffed and rolled her eyes, but answered the question nonetheless.

"I'm here because Kiki twisted her ankle last night and needed a last minute substitute so she could keep her foot elevated…" Deb said, stopping when Brian sat and frowned at her.

"You know, the whole reason I bought this diner and made you manager was so you would have to pull anymore of these shifts," Brian said, decidedly not happy with this turn of events. He had specifically told Deb that as manager she was required to work days for the most part in order to keep her from working herself into an early grave.

"I'm well aware of that, asshole," Deb said with an exasperated huff, placing her hands on her hips and frowning at Brian in kind. "You didn't let me finish. And this was the only night I couldn't find a replacement."

"I stand corrected," Brian nodded and rolled his lips between his teeth in an effort not to laugh at the indignant expression on pseudo-mother's face.

"As you should," Deb said, staring at Brian with a gimlet eye; Brian held up his hands in a placating gesture and mimed a zipping motion over his lips. "And as for you, Mr. High and Mighty; you're here because a certain blue-eyed blond has you wrapped around his finger and was craving lemon squares."

"Two and oh," Brian conceded, an arch smile on his face.

"I do know my Sunshine," Deb cackled, chomping on her gum as if it were going out of style. "Never could resist these things. Although, please tell me he didn't make drive all the way from Britin to get them."

"No, thankfully we're staying at the loft tonight," Brian sighed; Deb's brow pinched in confusion. "I have to fly out in the morning for a client meeting and it was easier to stay in town. And Justin doesn't like sleeping at Britin by himself if he can help it."

Deb's face cleared as she nodded, her earlier confusion quickly replaced by a knowing smirk. "And even if you weren't at the loft, you still would have driven all the way here for his lemon squares, wouldn't ya?"

Brian folded his lips under once more, but this time in an effort to remain silent rather than quell his laughter; not that it mattered as he knew Deb would draw the right conclusion anyways. She knew him far too well for him to ever fool her.

"I told ya," Deb laughed long and hearty, and then, much to Brian's annoyance, pinched him on the cheek like he was fucking five-years-old. "Wrapped you around his finger."

"Can you just get me the fucking lemon squares so I can back and feed my bottomless pit before he decides to walk over himself?" Brian groused, shifting uncomfortably when every eye had turned towards them again. Plus, he knew that if he didn't get these back to Justin soon, the twat would do just that, and then he'd never hear the end of it.

"Sure, sweetheart," Deb said with an indulgent smile, patting him on the cheek; Brian rolled his eyes and huffed in exasperation. "Give me a couple of minutes, and I'll have these things wrapped in no time."

Brian groaned and dropped his head in his hands, blatantly ignoring the curious looks that continued to be shot his way; Justin was so paying for this indignity. Not that he had much of a reputation left to take a beating; people had long stop believing the careless, selfish asshole image that he'd cultivated when he was younger.

"Here you go," Deb said as she walked up with a white, to-go box and set it in front of Brian. "A box of sunshine for our Sunshine."

"Thanks Deb," Brian said and pulled out his wallet to pay; only to put it back when Deb frowned at him since she'd told him long ago that owners shouldn't have to pay for the items twice. "You've saved my life once again."

Brian got up and picked up the box of lemon squares, hoping that his twat would be satisfied with them for now because like hell was he going to hare off and find whatever new craving had struck his fancy in Brian's absence.

"Hey, Brian," Deb said hesitantly; Brian looked up, surprised to see her chewing on her bottom lip, an uncertain look on her face. "About the other day, when Jen and I showed up at your house, we didn't mean to upset…"

Brian sighed; he'd told Justin just to fucking talk to them already. Why the fuck was he the one that was always getting stuck with dealing with all this emotional bullshit?

"Deb, it's fine," Brian smiled reassuringly, and then squeezed her on the shoulder. "You know as well as I do that Justin has already forgotten it. Just, next time, maybe try not to be so heavy-handed with the advice. You know what Justin is like; he's a stubborn twat that needs to figure things out for himself, and will dig his heels in when pushed. Plus, we've had a recent discussion about asking for help. Don't worry about it."

"It just seemed he was still angry at dinner the other night," Deb said, her brow pinched with worry. "He barely said a word to me or Jen and then that argument with Lindsay…"

"First of all, he didn't speak to you or Mother Taylor because he was worried you were still mad at him for mouthing off," Brian snickered, remembering how worried Justin had been on the drive over to Deb's, certain they were both going to rip him a new asshole for his contentious words earlier that week.

"That little brat," Den laughed, relief filling her face and her eyes misting wistfully, as if thinking of some good memory. "We weren't mad; in fact, after the initial shock wore off, we laughed ourselves silly and Jen shared some of this she'd said to her own mother and mother-in-law; and then I shared what it was like to have Vic hovering over me all the time. There were no hard feelings; we remember what the hormones were like."

"Good to know," Brian smirked and made a mental note to tell Justin just to fucking breakdown and call them to work things out. "Maybe the twat will stop walking on eggshells then. As for Lindsay, that is confrontation that has been coming for a long time and stems from events long before the pregnancy. You know that Justin has never forgiven her for going behind his back and showing me that article."

"As well he shouldn't," Deb said with an indignant scowl, her hands pressed firmly against her hips. "It was none of her fucking business. She treated him like a child that didn't know his own mind."

Brian arched a brow at the irony of that statement.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Deb said with a huff, dismissing his unspoken words with a fond smile and a wave of her hand. "I know that Jen and I weren't much better. I'll call him up and invite him to lunch or dinner this week and make amends."

"I would let him stew a little longer actually," Brian snorted, playing with the keys in his jacket pocket. "But do as you must."

"Why would you say that?" Deb asked, surprise and confusion written all over her face. And Brian could very well understand that as he was usually the first one to champion Justin and get into anyone's face if they were causing him undue stress. But in this case, he had blatantly defied the rules they'd set for his continued health and brought the entire situation onto himself. And sometimes, the twat needed to sweat it out a bit.

"Because his bad mood was mostly own fault?" Brian said, and then explained further when Deb just continued to stare at him with bewilderment. "The only reason he was so cranky that day was because he'd overworked himself and hadn't eaten."

Deb's mouth rounded in surprise, and then her lips dropped into an exasperated frown as she shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"What?" Brian said with a smirk. "You honestly think I don't know my husband? I know him much better than he likes sometimes. I just didn't do anything to stop it because a) sometimes Justin needs to learn from his own mistakes and b) I knew you and Mother Taylor wouldn't be able to resist checking up on him when you heard that Anna was gone."

"How could you know…" Deb asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Who do you think told Jennifer's friend, Linda?" Brian asked rhetorically, his tongue firmly planted into his cheek.

"You little shit," Deb accused, pointing one of her blood-red fingernails in his face; but Brian just stared at her, defying her to tell him he was wrong. Deb just huffed again.

"As Justin says, 'I'm on to you,'" Brian said with a snicker as he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "All of you. "

"You do take real good care of that man," Deb said softly, a tremulous, but pleased smile on her face as she pressed her lips to Brian's cheek, whispering near his ear. "I'm proud of you, kiddo."

Brian closed his eyes for a brief second, his throat constricting with emotions he hated to, and wouldn't, acknowledge, but he didn't need to.

His Ma had always seen right through him.

"Yeah, well, I should get back," Brian said, blowing out a harsh breath and blinking back the moisture in his eyes as he held the box aloft. He turned on his heel and threw his parting words over his shoulder as he headed back to the twat that had wrought so many changes in his life. "Night, Ma."

 

Chapter End Notes:

So, this didn't go quite as I planned. I had originally meant this to be a Justin and Brian interaction, with a bit of Deb thrown in, all of it wrapped around Brian dealing with more of Justin's cravings. But then this gorgeous Mother-Son moment came about and I am very happy that the vignette didn't follow the script.

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