It was late in the afternoon when Michael and Ben left, but not before Michael promised Nick a tour of his store. Justin cringed at the idea of spending hours upon hours holed up in the comic book store. He trusted Michael enough to leave Nick with him for a few hours, and so his plan for the next day caught life.

Once they were alone, Justin took Nick to bed for his nap, while Brian sat on the couch with his laptop. He had to brainstorm ideas for the next campaign at work, but he preferred it to running after potential clients.

There was the new account for the toy store, opened only a few months ago, but it gave Brian headaches to find ways to promote it. He had no idea how to make it fun and reach out to the kids. If they liked the commercial, their parents would have to buy them the toys.

Justin came back downstairs, and as he walked around the couch, the screen of Brian’s laptop caught his attention. He leaned over his shoulder, tsk-ing.

“What shitty graphic artists do you have?”

“Tell me about it. They can’t get it right, and I have to show the manager of the toy store something by Friday.”

“Well, what do you have in mind?” Justin sat next to him, turning the laptop his way.

“I want to animate some toys…and have them wanting to play.”

“You know how hard that is? I can try helping you, but I’ll need a better computer. I have a program in mine.”

“You don’t have to…I’m sure you’re busy—”

“Doing what? I don’t have anything better to do, and this will take my mind off…things. Hold on.” He rushed to retrieve his laptop; Brian waited, musing on Justin’s mood swings.

When Justin returned, they focused solely on the ad, working together as good as Brian remembered. Justin had helped him many times in the past, and he always got him, unlike his Art Department.

“We need to find a pattern in this chaos,” Justin said thoughtfully, biting on his thumb as he frowned at the screen. “What has the best impact on kids? Teddy bears. We can start with the teddy, or better make him the narrator.”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

They shared a smile, before Justin typed on his computer and hit Enter with satisfaction.

“Welcome to Toys Land! I’m Mr. Bear. Let me introduce you to my friends.”

Brian burst out laughing at the rough voice coming from the computer.

Justin half-heartedly slapped his shoulder. “It’s a bear. We need a deep, rough voice. I have other types of voices.” He showed Brian other ways he could make the bear talk.

“Okay, we can keep that one,” Brian agreed after a few tries and nothing sounding right. “But I have to think of something else he’ll say. It’s too lame: I’m Mr. Bear,” he mocked.

“It was a test. I could have made him say anything else.” He pushed the laptop away. “I want something to drink. You?”

“There’s beer in the fridge. You can bring two.”

“Sure.”

While Justin was gone, Brian changed the words the bear was saying, then sat back against the couch, smiling innocently.

Justin handed Brian one beer, taking his seat beside him. As he pulled the laptop back on his knees, he pressed Enter by mistake. It was what Brian had hoped.

“Are you into bears?”

Justin gasped, narrowing his eyes at Brian. “This is for children, Brian!”

“It was funny.”

Justin deleted Brian’s words, then decided to play along. “Bears are usually tops. You willing to be my pussy boy?”

Brian’s gulp of beer flew out of his nose. “Justin!”

“What? It was funny,” he returned the words, laughing.

“As a matter of fact, I know bears who bottom.”

“They were probably afraid to try topping the Big Bad Kinney,” Justin muttered.

“Few had the privilege to feel my ass around their dick.” Brian held Justin’s eyes. “A very exclusive top two.”

Justin averted his eyes, not wanting to be guilt-tripped. Brian was great at guilt-tripping people. “I think the bear should introduce a few other plush animals, then cars, planes, and trains, and then dolls. What do you think?”

“I think you’re hiding something. You said we’ll talk…I’m all ears.”

“Since when do you want to talk? You avoid communication in all ways, maybe except when it’s done with your tongue or dick.”

“Were you really happy, Sunshine?”

“Brian, let’s work on your commercial.”

“We’ll do it tomorrow when you visit me at Kinnetik.”

“Who lied to you that I’d visit?”

“You will.” Brian shifted closer. “Let go, Justin. Tell me. I can see it in your eyes, but you’re so closed off. I’ve never seen you so hidden inside your head. What the fuck happened?”

Justin hated the way Brian could read him. “What do you want to know, Brian? I’m so fucking tired of this charade. I regret the things I said the night we broke up, is that what you want to know? I was stupid thinking Ethan was my rebound guy. It worked for a while, until I realized…”

“You still loved me.”

Justin gulped thickly. “Stop. I refuse to go through this again. We won’t happen ever again. I want you to understand I don’t want an us again. Nick is everything for me. Okay?”

“I get that. I’m not a moron. But having a kid, doesn’t mean you have to be a monk.”

“Brian, no. Please. If you ever cared a little bit about me, don’t try to win me back. We both know I’ll cave. I’m not ready to ever be in a relationship again…or any other arrangement. And if I ever want sex, I know where Babylon is.”

Brian gaped at him, unable to come up with anything.

In that moment he understood Justin was set to stay single for the rest of his life, to dedicate his entire time to his son.

He couldn’t insist on that matter. He wasn’t going to push him.

It isn’t giving up, he convinced himself. He was stepping back, because he loved Justin and hated to see him sad.

“Can we be friends?” Brian found himself asking.

“I thought we already were friends.”

“We are.”

“Good.” Justin smiled, touching his bottle to Brian’s. “To friendship.”

“To friendship,” Brian echoed him.

#

On Monday morning, Brian woke up in quite a cheerful mood. Despite the fact that his foot hurt, he decided it wasn’t anything a couple Tylenol couldn’t cure.

His attempt at showering on his own, reminded him of the previous night when Justin had helped him. Justin had brought a plastic bag from the kitchen and wrapped it around the cast, before helping Brian in the tub, insisting it would work better than the shower cabin.

As Brian stuck his cast in the plastic bag, wrapping it tightly under his knee, before stepping into the shower cabin, he remembered the way Justin’s hands had felt on his skin. He shivered, cursing the effect Justin still had over him.

Every inch of his body could still feel Justin’s soapy fingers from the previous night. Brian arched his neck, running his fingers down the column of his neck to his chest, closing his eyes as he envisioned Justin joining him. He would slip behind him unnoticed, startling him with soft kisses on his shoulder. Then his hands would wrap around his waist, turning him around, bringing his head closer as he leaned for a kiss. Brian would push them into the glass wall, earning a soft moan from Justin.

As his fantasy escalated to Justin lifting a leg, helping Brian get a better position to enter him, Brian fisted his dick, moaning. Water ran down his face as he kept tugging at his dick, lost in his mind.

“Christ, Brian,” Justin shouted, snatching the shower cabin’s door open. Water and steam blurred his vision at first, before he could focus on what he was seeing.

Startled, Brian lost his footing, but Justin was quick to grab his elbow, keeping his steady. Brian stared at Justin’s sudden apparition, rendered speechless.

“I heard you calling my name…I mean…” Justin gulped thickly, realizing why Brian was yelling his name.

Brian’s arousal clouded brain didn’t catch up with the moment, and kept pumping his dick steadily.

Justin’s eyes zeroed on the slow movements until he forced himself to meet Brian’s hazy gaze. “Brian, snap out of it!”

“If you turned into a prude, then fucking turn around and let me finish jerking off.”

Justin’s mouth dropped.

“Or you can drop to your knees since you already opened your mouth.”

“Fuck you!” Justin stormed out of the bathroom. His skin was flushed and blood boiling, but he blamed it on Brian’s audacity. He stomped off to the room he shared with his son, sitting at the foot of the bed.

After a few calming breaths, and willing his unwanted erection to mellow, he touched Nick’s feet, slowly shaking him. “Time to get up, kiddo.”

“Ngg…shleeeep…”

“Nope. We have to wake up. What, did you get used to waking up late already? A week without school and you can’t be up at seven?”

“Tiireeed.”

“I’m sure you are.” Justin leaned over his son’s body, kissing his cheek. As he pulled away, he took the blanket with him, patting Nick’s ass. “Get up now.”

“JUSTIN!”

Nick shot up looking around disorientated. Justin laughed nervously. If Brian calling his name like that got Nick to get up, he wasn’t exactly going to complain. Though, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to think too deeply of why Brian was shouting his name.

“Justin, for God’s sake! Get your ass in here!”

“The Drama Queen needs me. If you aren’t out of the bed by the time I return, you’re in heaps of trouble,” he warned Nick, leaving the room.

Nick snatched the blanket back, cuddling into the still lukewarm material.

“What now?” Justin stepped into Brian’s room, stopping in the doorway at the sight in front of him. He wasn’t sure if laughing was appropriate.

“Do you mind helping me? I’m fucking stuck!”

“I can see that. Didn’t it occur to you that you can’t fit into your precious Armani tailored pants with that cast?” Justin approached Brian who was leaning against the bed. One of his legs was in the pants, while the other not so much, stuck midway into the pant leg.

“Slowly,” Brian warned, when Justin pulled the pants off him.

“What were you wearing on Friday?”

“They fucking cut off my jeans.”

“Do you still have them? You’ll have to wear them until the cast is off.”

“Which will be later today. I’m not keeping this thing on for longer than a few more hours. First stop is the hospital.”

“Stop being such a cry baby. Here—your jeans. Do you think you can manage on your own? I have a feeling Nick is still fast asleep, even though I told him to get up.”

“If I fall, you’ll hear,” Brian grunted, snatching his jeans from Justin.

Without further drama, Brian managed to finish getting dressed on his own. In the hallway, on his way to the stairs, he contemplated whether it was safe the ask Justin for help, or adventure downstairs without help.

Justin was carefully closing the guest bedroom’s door behind him.

“Morning,” Brian said cheekily, earning a confused look from Justin.

“Morning to you too,” he muttered. “I could have lived without all that drama so early in the morning.” He yawned loudly. “We stayed up pretty late. I need coffee.”

“It’s in the kitchen.” Brian shrugged, allowing Justin to grab his arm on the way downstairs. “How did you sleep?”

“Well, thank you.”

Safely arriving in the kitchen, Brian slumped in a chair while Justin worked on preparing coffee. “You look tired.”

“Okay, I didn’t sleep well. Happy? Nick kept kicking me, and when he settled and I managed to fall asleep, I had a bad dream. It took me hours to get back to sleep.”

“A bad dream?” Brian knew from experience how cranky Justin got after such a night.

And it didn’t help that the first thing he saw was Brian jacking off, which Justin wasn’t sure yet if it was a good first thing to see in the morning, or not.

“Yeah.” He poured coffee in two mugs, sitting next to Brian. “It didn’t take long to realize it wasn’t actually a dream. It’s reality. My life has never been more complicated than it is now.” He dropped his head on the table, sighing heavily.

“If you need anything…you know I’ll help you.”

“You already have, Brian. You gave us a place to stay and you offered to help me with school names for Nick. You can’t bring back Ethan, or make this pain go away, or stop Nick from asking about his Pappy.”

“It’s true, I can’t. What I can do is help you go on. It’s not the end of the world. You said it yourself—you have to go on for your kid.” Brian stroked Justin’s hair, his heart squeezing at seeing him so sad.

“Keep reminding me that. Uh, speaking of help…would you mind terribly if you stayed with Nick tomorrow? It will be a week since…you know…I don’t know if…” A knot in Justin’s throat choked him up.

“I won’t mind. Shouldn’t you go wake him up? I’d like to get to work at a reasonable time.”

“Oh, sure. I caved and allowed him a few more minutes of sleep. Can I leave him at the daycare you have at Kinnetik while I run my errands?”

“We already got that covered.” Brian rolled his eyes.

He finished his coffee by the time Justin returned with his sleepy son under his arm. Planting him in the chair across from Brian, Justin placed the cereal box in front of him, before taking his coffee.

“Is that all that he eats?” Brian inquired. He thought Justin was a good parent, but apparently he wasn’t very careful with his kid’s food.

“It’s all he eats in the morning. No matter how hard we tried to explain the importance of a healthy breakfast, he’d still eat that crap. I hope it’s just a phase…but it’s been going on for over a year.”

“Maybe we should introduce him to Debbie.” Brian laughed. “It’s funny, though. Your kid not liking food.”

“He takes after Lucy. She was so skinny…never eating much. She’s the one who helped us…” Justin waved awkwardly to Nick, who was busy pushing fistfuls of cereal in his mouth.

“Oh, I was under the impression you had him,” Brian snarked. “Anyway, help me back upstairs. I need to get something.”

“Finish eating.” Justin shook his finger at Nick. He seized Brian’s elbow, steering him to the stairs. “Introducing him to Debbie’s food is not such a bad idea. Everyone who sees him, thinks it’s my fault he’s so scrawny. He won’t eat…and I don’t force feed him.”

“I’m surprised. You still cook?”

“Whenever I have time, yeah. Here you are. Need my help?”

“I wanted to talk to you about earlier.”

“Forget it.” Justin was uncomfortable speaking about the compromising position he had caught Brian in the shower. He knew Brian still felt something toward him, but Justin was determined not to cave. He had always gotten hurt when he opened up to Brian and allowed his love for the man to cloud his brain. This time around, it wouldn’t be only him hurt, and Justin would do anything in his power to spare Nick such pain.

Brian realized Justin wasn’t likely to accept talking about that, so he changed his mind. He was going to play a tough card. “Let me apologize for being so careless. I’m but a man, once again around his drug of sorts.”

“Brian,” Justin hissed through clenched teeth. “Don’t!”

They stared at each other for a long time, before Justin marched out of Brian’s room, slamming door of the guest room behind him. He tried to slow his breathing, hating the way Brian got to him.