February 13

Justin walked down the bread aisle headed for the far end where all the snack cakes, Danishes and pies were located. While he had come to the store with the purpose of picking up a few things he needed to make jambalaya tonight, he also knew that he was running low on his Twinkies and decided to pick up a box or two while he was there. Even if that meant finding a second hiding place for them.

One could never have enough Twinkies in his opinion.

Halting the cart in front of the designated sweet breads area, Justin looked for his Twinkies and huffed when he realized that they were stacked on the top shelf. Again. Frowning, he stared at the box that was just out of his reach and cursed under his breath; if he didn't know any better, he'd swear that Brian had somehow convinced the store manager to move them to the top shelf just to thwart Justin.

But it would be highly paranoid of him to think that; and, well, he didn't think that even Brian was that persuasive. There was likely some other explanation for moving them to the top shelf, but didn't they realize that shorter people needed Twinkies too!

Biting his bottom lip, Justin looked around to see if there was someone who could help him, but it was just his luck that for once, the aisle was empty. But that didn't matter to him as he would get his damned Twinkies one way or the other, even if he had to find something to knock them down with. But first things first, he should really just try standing on his tip toes and reaching them on his own.

Pressing one hand firmly against one of the shelves, Justin reached up, standing precariously on his toes and cursed when he felt his center of gravity shift, nearly toppling him into the shelves. Dropping back down onto his heels, you would have thought he'd learned from the last time, but no, he just had to try it again. And then Justin shuddered, vividly recalling the last time he'd tried doing this and the way he'd nearly fallen over. That had scared the shit out of him. In fact, if hadn't been for that guy, he would have…

Justin frowned, rubbing his arms as the memory of that day came back to him; how could he have forgotten that? It had seemed so weird then, but now that the loft had been broken into, it really stood out as odd.

Justin sighed and looked at the boxes of Twinkies with a forlorn look; hadn't these been lower the last time he'd been there? He could have sworn that they'd been on the fourth shelf, not all the way at the top. Growling under his breath, Justin stood there and stared at the offending boxes, trying to figure out the best way to get them down.

He really hated when the store was reorganized; it ended up with him walking all over the fucking store because things weren't where they were supposed to be. And that meant wasting precious time that he could be using to finish Sunbeam's room or working on the pieces for his show. Didn't they have better things to do than to confuse their shoppers?

But obviously not, as he was stuck here, being deprived of the one thing that made this whole pregnancy bit easier to deal with, because some asshole thought they'd better on the top shelf; and it wasn't fair.

Well, maybe if he stood on his tiptoes, he could just reach them without having to find some tall person to grab them for him, looking like an idiot while they did so. Holding onto the shelf, Justin stretched up on his tiptoes and could just about reach them, but couldn't get a good grip on the box. Instead he kept knocking them further back. Growling under his breath, he stretched as far as he could and then started batting at the bottom of the box, hoping to nudge it off the shelf and into his waiting hands.

But just as he'd managed to push the box forward enough to knock it off, his feet slipped out from under him, and Justin had a split second to panic as he felt himself pitch forward. Time seemed to slow as he teetered on his toes and he was bracing himself against the inevitable impact of the floor against his knees, or worse, his belly, when he was pulled back against something firm and solid.

Scrabbling on his feet, Justin sighed with relief as strong arms wrapped around his middle and pulled him further against a firm, very male chest allowing him to get his feet back under him. Exhaling explosively, Justin sank back into his rescuer's grip and just stood there, knees weak, trying to get his breath back. That could have been a nasty spill; and fuck, if anything had happened to Sunbeam…God, he didn't know what he would have done if Sunbeam had gotten hurt all because he was too proud to ask someone for help.

Not to mention how Brian would have reacted to the fall; fuck, he would have wrapped Justin up in so much swaddling, that Justin would never see the light of day until well after the baby was born. And Justin would have let him, as already the guilt was setting in. He knew better than this; he knew that his balance was off these days and that he was having trouble doing things and should have asked for was nothing wrong with asking for help.

Fuck, how many times had he told Brian that very thing?

Still trembling, Justin opened his eyes and was just about to thank his savior; when he was suddenly pulled further into the man's embrace and felt the man's nose bury it's way into the hair next to his ear. He stiffened as the man inhaled deeply and groaned. What the actual fuck? Was this guy getting off on him…Justin shuddered at the thought, especially when the guy murmured in his ear, "God, you feel so good."

Gasping, Justin froze, not quite believing what he heard; the guy froze as well, and must have realized that he'd said that out loud rather than thought it as he swore under his breath. Justin swallowed, his heart hammering as he tried to break the other man's hold, but his rescuer, now captor, just squeezed him once more, and whispered, "you need to be more careful; we wouldn't want anything to happen to you."

And then the man abruptly let him go and shoved him lightly away from him; not enough to knock him over, but enough to disorientate him. Justin grabbed onto the shelf and the turned around to see if he recognized the man. Unfortunately, all he saw was the man's back as he swiftly turned the corner. Justin hurried over to the end of the aisle, but judging by the slap of feet on tile, he doubted he'd see anything.

And sure enough as he got the end of the aisle, all he could see was a figure in black hurriedly making his way out the door. And then the guy was gone and there was really nothing Justin could do. Turning around, Justin walked back to his cart, forgetting all about his Twinkies and hurriedly made his way to the checkout counter. He needed to leave now.

Coming back to himself, Justin's frown deepened and he couldn't help feeling unsettled by the memory. In fact, he couldn't believe that he'd forgotten about the incident in the first place given how weird and out of place it had been; but then, he'd likely wrote it off as some weirdo or former trick that decided to get fresh with a cute blond and didn't think of it again.

But now, with the loft break in, and the things that he'd learned from Michael, that incident took a more sinister note. What if that had been the stalker? And what if he'd been following Justin around the store? What if he saw that as an opportunity to get closer to Justin and… Justin shuddered again, his hands trembling as he stared blankly down the end of the aisle.

What if he was here now?

Inhaling sharply, Justin clenched his hands into fists and looked around without really seeing anything, his heart picking up in tempo as he thought of all the times he'd felt like he'd been watched. And then there was that weird sense of déjà vu that had been following him around, those times when he'd thought he'd seen someone familiar, but couldn't place them. How many times had he felt the hand of a stranger on him as he passed by, and how many times had that stranger been the stalker?

Rubbing his hands over his arms, Justin couldn't help the chill that flooded his body; that the stalker could have gotten that close to him and he wouldn't have even known it, freaked him out. And if the stalker could do that, what was to stop him from grabbing Justin off the street one day? Scrubbing his hand over his face, Justin reached in his coat to grab his phone; he just needed to hear Brian's voice right now before he completely freaked himself out and had another anxiety attack; and then he nearly screamed as he heard a voice near his ear.

"Are you okay, sir?" the voice asked; Justin whirled around, his heart pounding as he stared at the youth, his mind going into overdrive.

And then it calmed as logic kicked in and Justin realized that it couldn't be the stalker or, at the very least, couldn't have been his assailant. First of all, the kid was far too tall; nearly Brian's height and the stalker was closer to his. And the build was wrong; not to mention this kid couldn't have been more than seventeen and his voice wasn't right. It didn't have that ring of maturity that the other had.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Justin said, trying to shrug his panic off. "Just gave myself a bit of a fright when I was trying to reach something on the top shelf. I slipped a bit." He gestured to his stomach. "My center of gravity is a bit off right now."

"I can grab it for you if you'd like," the boy, Peter it said on his name tag, offered.

"That would be great, if you could," Justin said as he moved away from the shelf. "If you could just grab me two boxes of those Twinkies. Thanks."

"Here you go, sir," Peter said, handing Justin the boxes. "Was there anything else you needed help finding?"

"No, thanks," Justin said with a weak smile. "This was the last item on my list. Thank you, again."

And with that Justin nodded at the boy and walked away; but once again, he couldn't shake the feeling of being watched and he didn't like it at all.

… … … … …

Justin pulled through the gate at Britin and immediately activated them, watching them close and lock behind him. And then, and only then, did he feel safe. This wasn't something he typically did. In fact, Brian was often getting on his case about leaving the gate open when he was gone, disliking the idea of Justin out here all alone as their nearest neighbors were a good half-mile down the street.

True, Anna and John were often there, and Brian trusted them to keep an eye on Justin; but he also knew they were in and out all day, dealing with their various duties and that it often left the house open to anyone off the street if Justin didn't bother.

He was starting to see his husband's point.

Continuing up the drive, Justin parked and got out of the SUV, smiling at Anna as she came out to help him with the groceries. She had a small disapproving smile on her face a she'd tried to talk Justin into allowing her to do the shopping; stating that it was her job as it was part of her job description. But Justin had waved her off, insisting that he wanted to do it himself. Maybe next time he'd listen and let her go. He didn't feel quite safe there anymore.

"I told you, I could have done this myself," Anna admonished, grabbing a couple of the bags and heading for the door.

"I know, I know," Justin said, rolling his eyes. He swore, his life was filled with more than his fair share of mother hens. "But I wanted to get out and do it myself."

"What you wanted to do was buy more of those disgusting little snack cakes that you like," Anna harrumphed, casting him a knowing look.

Justin just grinned and nodded, "That too."

Anna shook her head. She agreed with Brian on the Twinkies; but unlike Brian, she'd said her piece and washed her hands of it, muttering something about stubborn carriers that never listened to the good sense God gave a goose anyways when it came to their cravings. Justin had just grinned and continued eating his 'disgusting little snack cake' as if she hadn't said a thing.

"Well, then you won't mind if I take these away before they contaminate your kitchen," Justin smirked, grabbing the boxes of Twinkies and making for the door.

"Get out here, you brat," Anna snickered as she began putting the groceries up. "Go hide them before your man gives you hell for them."

"He has to find them first," Justin snickered.

"You aren't nearly as sly as you think you are, my dear," Anna tossed back at him. "If he hasn't found them by now, he will soon enough. Mark my words."

"Ah, but I do like to keep him on his toes," Justin smirked as he walked out the door to Anna's laughter. "He'd be bored otherwise."

Running up the stairs with his contraband, Justin quickly made his way into his studio and closed the door. Walking over to his latest hiding place, an empty paint can in the stack of full cans along the wall, Justin dropped down to his knees and began pulling down the cans until he reached it. Grabbing the can, he reached for the screwdriver on the windowsill and quickly pried it open; and then immediately froze as the cakes came into view. A wide grin spread across his face; it looked like Anna was right.

Pulling out one of the cakes he studied it for a long moment and then chuckled at his husband's ingenuity. Well, there was a reason Brian had won the number of awards he had over the years. But for all his attention to detail there was a small flaw in his plan.

Opening the package, Justin held the supposed Twinkie up in the light; it looked like a Twinkie. He put it up to his nose and sniffed; it smelled like a Twinkie. He took a cautious bite; it tasted like...actually it tasted better than his Twinkies. But, no matter what he thought of it, this was most definitely not a Twinkie.

He'd give Brian this; he was good. He'd thought of almost everything, but for one small detail in the packaging – even the individually wrapped cakes that came in a box had the Hostess brand stamped onto the plastic wrapping. And the very noticeably lacking of a brand stamp told him that this was not one of his Twinkies.

It was some sort of imposter.

A, frankly, very good imposter, and Justin planned on eating every single one of them, but an imposter nonetheless.

Grabbing another one, Justin placed the lid back onto the can and placed it back onto the stack and quickly put the others on top of it. He picked up the boxes of Twinkies and walked over to the door to find yet another hiding place.

But mark his words; he would definitely be getting even with Brian for this.