Brian's cell phone rang a little after 9:00 the next morning, a Thursday. Brian and Justin were still in bed asleep, and Brian let out a string of grumbled curses as he picked the phone up from his nightstand.

"What?" he growled into the phone.

"Brian?" Cynthia said. "Please tell me that you're home, and not tanning your ass in some tropical paradise."

"As appealing as that sounds, no. I've been taking a ‘staycation.'"

"Good, because Keith Meyers is here, and he's pissed that you aren't."

Keith Meyers was the chairman of Meyer's Linens, a line of luxury sheets and towels. That was the last campaign Brian had worked on before leaving to start his two-week vacation, and the Incompetent Twins, Bob and Brad, were to present the new campaign to Meyers and a few members of his board.

"Did you tell him that I'm on vacation?" Brian asked.

"Yes, but he said he didn't give a shit... oh, hold on."

There was some rustling in the background before Marty Ryder came on the line. "Kinney, get in here. Meyers is waiting."

Brian looked over at Justin, who was still sleeping like a baby. "Ryder, I'm sure Bob and Brad can handle the presentation without me." Probably not... but I made it idiot-proof just for them, Brian thought to himself. "Or you could do it."

"You were the one that recruited Meyers, and he expects you to give the presentation, so get your ass in here, now."

Brian sighed. "Fuck... alright, I'll be there in half an hour." He then climbed out of bed, gave himself a quick shave, and took a shower.

After drying off, he dressed in a brown D&G suit with a light blue shirt and brown and blue-striped tie. He took a couple of minutes to style his hair and returned to the bedroom, where Justin was still sleeping, snoring quietly while lying on his back.

Brian smiled before giving Justin a light shake by the shoulder. "Sunshine?"

"Hmm?" Justin moaned, his eyes still closed.

"I have to go into the office, but I should be back around lunchtime."

Justin opened his eyes a bit. "'kay."

Brian gave the blonde a light peck on the lips, used his fingers to comb some of the hair, which had grown out quite a bit since they first met, off his forehead, and regrettably grabbed his keys, wallet, and cell phone before leaving.

********************

Brian pulled the door to the loft open a few hours later, carrying a paper to-go bag. He sat the food on the kitchen island and noticed that the loft was eerily quiet. After looking over at the empty living room, he walked up the short staircase to the bedroom. He was surprised to find Justin still asleep in the bed.

He took a couple of minutes to carefully hang his suit back up in the closet and dressed in a sleeveless t-shirt and cargo shorts. Brian then laid on the bed next to Justin and kissed the blonde awake.

"Mmm... hi," Justin said in a sleepy tone.

"Hey. Have you been in bed the whole time I was gone?"

"Yeah. What time is it?"

Brian looked over at the alarm clock. "Quarter after twelve."

Justin slowly sat up. "Shit, I haven't taken my meds yet."

Brian retrieved a blue plastic daily pill holder from Justin's duffel bag by the closet and tried to hand it to him.

Justin shook his head. "Those are my evening pills. My morning pills are in the red one."

Brian put the blue pill holder back and handed him the red one, and then went into the kitchen to get him a bottle of water.

"I got us some chicken Caesar salads from that Italian deli down the street," Brian said as Justin swallowed down his pills. "And I got a thing of sugar-free Jello fruit salad that we can split."

Justin sat his pill holder and bottle on the night stand. "I'm not very hungry."

"You have to eat something. You're practically a skeleton," Brian said. "Christ, I sound like Deb."

Justin snickered. "I still have to take my insulin, too."

"Well, you'll have to do that, because I'm sure as hell not giving you a shot." Brian pulled the duvet back, revealing a fully-naked Justin, licking his lips at the site of the boy's erection. He reached into the duffel and threw the blonde a pair of boxer briefs. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but get dressed so you can eat."

Brian took their food out of the bag and placed the containers on the dining room table while Justin put on his underwear and gave himself the shot. He put on a t-shirt, sweat pants, and socks before coming to sit down at the table.

"It's fucking freezing in here," Justin said.

"The thermostat is on seventy-two. It's almost a hundred degrees outside," Brian said. "Luckily the a/c in the Jeep works quickly, or I would have sweated my ass off out there."

They ate in silence for a few minutes, Brian finishing his Caesar and half of the fruit salad while Justin picked at his lunch. "You feeling okay?" Brian asked, noticing that the boy wasn't eating with gusto as he normally did or talking up a storm in between bites.

Justin shrugged. "I'm just tired. Someone has kept me up past my normal bedtime the last couple of nights."

Brian smiled. "Sorry."

"Sure you are," Justin replied with a grin. "So why did you have to go in to work? I thought you weren't due back until Monday."

"Eh, it was just for a needy client who insisted I be there to hold his hand during a presentation. I then had to kiss his ass before he signed the contract. I told my boss not to expect me back in until Monday after lunch to make up for it."

"Well, at least you know that you're a valuable employee; that it's hard for them to get by without you."

Brian picked up his empty container to put into the bag on the counter. "I could have lost the account if I hadn't been in town. If this had been a real vacation instead of time to recuperate after the surgery, I would be on a beach somewhere south, sipping margaritas served by a cabana boy in a thong."

Justin frowned as he looked down at his food. "I'm sorry you sacrificed two weeks of vacation time because of me."

Brian walked over to sit down next to Justin. "Hey... listen to me. Are you listening?"

Justin looked up into Brian's hazel eyes. "Yes, I'm listening."

"Some years, I don't even get the chance to use all four weeks I normally get for vacation, and they roll over to the next year. Because I only took three weeks last year, I still have three more weeks to use this year, which I plan on using to go skiing in the Swiss Alps in December before Christmas."

"Switzerland, really?" Justin asked incredulously.

"Hell yeah. I've gone once before, it's awesome. I'll also spend a few days in Milan to shop. And besides... it was worth the ‘sacrifice,' as you called it. I don't regret what I did for you, at all, okay?"

Justin nodded.

Brian gave him a kiss just before his cell phone, which he had placed on the bedroom nightstand, rang. He went to answer it, and Justin couldn't help but overhear his conversation.

"Yeah? No, we just ate... What do you mean, ‘Who's we?' Me and Justin... Yes, where the fuck else would he be?" Brian paused for several seconds before saying, "Yes, he has friends his own age... No, I haven't met any of them, but... No, I can't. I'm only supposed to do light cardio for the next few weeks, no lifting... I have a treadmill here, why the fuck would I go to the gym if I can only use the treadmill?"

He paused again, and Justin could hear what sounded like Brian drumming his fingertips on the nightstand. "It's none of your fucking business what I do with him... shut the fuck up."

After a few more seconds of silence, Brian said to the caller, "Hold on." He then called out to Justin, "Hey, do you want to go to Babylon tonight? They're having a ‘Pecs of Death' contest that starts at eight."

Before Justin could utter a word in response, Brian asked the person on the phone, "Why not? He won't bother... Alright, I'll pick you up at eight." Brian sighed. "Fine, seven. We can grab some Thai before we go. Later."

Brian sat the phone on the nightstand and walked back out to the dining room. "He just wants it to be the two of us."

"‘He' being Michael?" Justin asked.

"Yeah, because ‘Babylon is our thing,' even though I guaran-damn-tee that Theodore and Emmett will be there, too."

"He doesn't like me," Justin said.

"Well, he can just get the fuck over himself," Brian said. "He's not had one boyfriend that I've liked, so..."

Justin's eyebrows raised as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Am I your boyfriend, all of a sudden? What happened to ‘We don't need to put a label on it'?"

Brian sighed and squeezed his eyes closed for a moment, mentally kicking himself for that slip of the tongue. "If that's what you want to write in your diary, then yes, you and I are, for the lack of a better term, ‘boyfriends.'"

"Oh!" Justin yelled as he jumped out of the chair and into Brian's arms, nearly knocking him backwards. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome," Brian said as he fought a smile.

Justin pulled back to look up at Brian's face. "Now, tell me you love me."

Brian shoved him away gently. "Fuck you."

Justin laughed. "Alright, one step at a time."

"Are you done?" Brian asked, referring to Justin's partially eaten lunch.

"Yeah, I'm just not feeling very hungry right now. The insulin will kick in soon, and it will spark my appetite."

Brian picked the containers up. "Well, I'll put these in the fridge and you can finish them later, if you want. Most of the food Deb brought over last week probably needs to be thrown out, but there's stuff for a sandwich."

"By the way," Justin said as he made his way over to sit on one of the barstools, "I don't have a diary."

"Oh?" Brian said as he started pulling old food out of the refrigerator.

"And I do have friends my own age," he added. "Well, one..."

"That Daphne chick from your sketchbook?"

"Yeah. We've been friends since grade school. She's my Michael, in a way. She was the first person I came out to."

"And does she hold a candle for you, like Mikey does for me?"

Justin paused for a moment. "Well... she did ask me if I would take her virginity a few months ago."

Brian smiled in amusement. "You fucked a girl, too?"

"No," Justin replied adamantly. "I thought about it, and I decided that I wanted my first sexual experience to be with a man. And I admit that Daphne is a very beautiful girl, but I just couldn't imagine doing that with her... or any other girl."

"There are plenty of fags that have never fucked a girl before," Brian said as he dumped a dish of leftover spaghetti into the sink.

"You're not one of those fags, of course," Justin reminded him.

Brian groaned. "Why did I have to tell you about my mad foray down the straight road?"

Justin smiled. "Nobody forced you to. Anyway, after I turned Daphne down, she ended up fucking some guy on the swim team, and he dumped her soon afterwards for a blonde bimbo cheerleader."

"That's because straight guys want to stick their dick into all the pussy they can get a hold of. How about you invite Daphne over tonight, so you're not all by yourself while I'm out with Mikey? You can do each other's nails, cry together while watching Terms of Endearment, synchronize your periods..."

Justin took a breath to retort, but Brian cut him off by turning on the garbage disposal before dumping more old pasta into the sink.

********************

Justin pulled the door open and let Daphne in when she arrived a little after 6:30. She had with her a bag containing food from a local steak house that she and Justin frequented. He took the bag from her and began walking over to the dining room table.

"This is an awesome place," Daphne said while she looked around the loft.

"The furniture's all Italian- Milan," Justin added. "Ooh, you've got to come see the naked guy."

Daphne walked past the bedroom entrance closest to the dining room at the same time that Brian walked out of the bathroom wearing nothing but his cowry shell bracelet and a smirk. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head as she caught sight of Brian's cock, which was half-erect for no good reason.

"Oh, my... oh, my God," Daphne sputtered.

"Hey, the food fairy's here," Brian said before walking over to his closet.

Justin looked over at his friend, who was frozen in shock as she stared at Brian's bare ass. "I didn't mean that naked guy," he cracked as he took Daphne's hand to pull her away. "I meant the one in the painting over here."

Daphne looked at the Attila Richard Lukacs painting behind the table, which wasn't nearly as impressive as the living naked guy she just saw.

Brian walked out wearing a red button-up short-sleeved shirt and tight black jeans just as Daphne and Justin sat down for dinner.

"Daph, this is Brian," Justin said.

"Yeah... I guessed," Daphne said as she held out her right hand to the tall brunette.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Daphne," Brian said before kissing the top of her hand.

Daphne giggled. "It's nice to meet you, too."

Brian held his arms out to the side and asked Justin, "What do you think?"

Justin puckered his lips as he looked at Brian head to toe. "I'd fuck you."

"Well, that's a relief," Brian said as he walked over to give Justin a goodbye kiss, which went on for several seconds before Brian pulled away. "What are you guys doing tonight?"

Justin shrugged. "Oh, you know- smoke some weed, download some porn..."

"Uh-huh," Brian said as he gathered his things from on top of the kitchen island. "Well, I'll try to be home before midnight, but don't wait up. Bye, darlings."

Daphne held her tongue until Brian closed the door behind himself. "Oh, my God... he is to die for!"

"I know," Justin said, smiling widely. "And he's all mine. He finally said that we're boyfriends earlier."

Daphne put her hand over her heart. "Oh... I'm so happy for you!"

"It's like everything is finally going my way in my life," Justin said. "I have a new kidney, a gorgeous boyfriend, and a shot at going to art school."

"Too bad your dad's still not talking to you, or your life would be perfect," Daphne said as she cut into her steak.

Justin's smile faded. "I don't want to talk to him. If he can't accept me for the man I am, fuck him. At least my mom is actually trying to accept me."

"You don't even miss him?"

"I miss the father he used to be, the father that loved me and was proud of me. But it turns out that that father wasn't real, because he can only love me for who he wants me to be, and being gay is the last thing he wants of me. But it's the only way I can be."

Justin looked down at the meal Daphne had brought for him, which consisted of a bacon-wrapped filet, medium rare, with a baked potato and grilled asparagus. This was undoubtedly his favorite meal, and he would usually dig into it like a starving man, but it just didn't appeal to him at the moment.

He took a bite of an asparagus tip and nearly gagged. Apparently, Daphne could tell that he wasn't enjoying it.

"What's wrong? Did they not cook it right?"

"No, it's fine," Justin said before taking a sip of water to wash it down. "My appetite hasn't been that great today. A common side effect of my immunosuppressants is stomach upset."

"Well, don't force it down. You can reheat it later when you feel hungry."

Justin put his food in the refrigerator next to his lunch he didn't eat and rejoined Daphne at the table while she talked about her college plans. She had been accepted to Carnegie Mellon in the Health Professions Program, hoping to go on to medical school after earning her bachelor's degree, and was excited that she would be living in the dorms.

After Daphne finished her dinner, they moved over to the seating area in front of the TV. She had brought along with her one of their favorite movies, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, on DVD and they settled into Brian's Barcelona chairs after putting the movie in.

Daphne glanced over at Justin a few minutes into the film and noticed that he wasn't mouthing the dialog to "Dammit Janet" like he normally did. "Are you feeling okay?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I'm just a little tired."

Daphne got up to feel his forehead, which was really warm and a bit sweaty. "I think you may be running a fever."

Justin shook his head. "I'm fine. It's just a little warm in here." Which was a lie, because he had been feeling cold since getting out of bed that afternoon, plus the fact that he hadn't eaten much that day meant his blood sugar was probably low, making him feel weak and a bit dizzy.

"Justin, you just got out of the hospital a few days ago after having surgery, and if you're not feeling well-"

"I'm fine, Daph," Justin replied forcefully. "Look, why don't you just head on home and I'll hit the sack. I'll feel better tomorrow."

Daphne looked at him with a serious expression for several seconds, but knew it wasn't wise to argue with Justin over his health. "Okay... if you're sure?"

Justin nodded as he hit the buttons on the remote to turn off the TV and DVD player. "Yeah, don't worry."

Daphne sighed before standing up. "Alright. I'll leave the movie over here, and you can give it back to me sometime."

Justin stood up to walk her to the door and had to fight to keep his composure. "I'll call you tomorrow."

"Okay." Daphne gave her best friend a hug before leaving.

The door had hardly closed behind her before Justin ran to the bathroom. He kneeled on the floor in front of the toilet as he felt a wave of nausea hit him. He gagged several times, but nothing but acid came up.

After staying in the bathroom for a while, Justin flopped down on the bed after he was sure he wasn't going to vomit. He was shivering at this point, although his clothes were soaked with sweat.

There were several lights burning throughout the loft, but Justin didn't have the energy to turn them off. Instead, he pulled the duvet over his head and soon fell asleep.