EMMETT

It had to be shock that caused me to run away instead of talking to Drew. I always had this fantasy that we'd meet again. But nowhere in there was him looking pissed at me, or that I'd still be single. I let him go, and decided to get on with my life. I wasn’t going to wait forever, because I believed if you love someone you stayed and found a way to make it work. It's why what Justin did never made any sense to me. He loved Brian, but couldn’t stay and fight for them, but in the end what I did wasn’t fighting for Drew either.

“Emmett stop, I just wanted to talk.” Drew tells me, running to catch me.

“Really, why?” I ask, once I stopped and turned around.

“I need to tell you, I should have seen you were everything I wanted.” He tells me.

“You were new to the whole scene, you were doing what we always do at first.” I tell him.

“You weren’t my first Emmett. You were just the first one I didn’t want to hide, in a life where all I did was hide everything.” He tells me.

“Why are you here now?” I ask.

“I guess I was hoping that you hadn’t managed to find what you wanted.” He tells me.

“It’s different after understanding what love really was. Love means too much to give it away to just anyone.” I tell him.

“We both learned the same thing, because no one was you.” He tells me.

“If you figured that out why didn’t you come find me?” I ask, still skittish about Drew.

“The same reason you never answered anytime I tried to contact you after we parted ways. We were both afraid of hearing we were really over.” He tells me.

I stood there trying to figure out why I wasn’t jumping in his arms, when he never talked like this before. I looked over at Justin standing in front of Brian, watching me and Drew. I realized that sometimes it’s being in the same place in your life at the same time. I held out my hand, giving him the opportunity to take it.

“This just means I’m willing to get to know you again.” I tell him.

“I’ll take what you give me, and show you we can be more.” He tells me, grabbing it and pulling me to him.

BRIAN

Justin didn’t waste time once we got to the loft, he was naked and in the shower before I got to the bedroom. I looked at him under the spray, and remembered the first morning when I walked in and saw him. I couldn’t get enough of him, and would have continued all day if life hadn’t interfered. I walked in, pulling him to me, wanting us as close as I could get him. He turned his head and I leaned down sealing our lips together, as I ran my hands down his chest before finding him hard and ready. I rubbed my cock up and down teasing him as I played with his ass. His hands were gripping my hips as he moved with me. He started begging me to fuck him and I reached for a condom, letting my soapy fingers open him up. When he was ready, he pushed back, taking me to the root. He used my hand to stroke him as he thrusted for us. I felt him tighten knowing he was about to cum, and when he did, I grabbed his hands, holding them to the wall and thrusted faster, until I came.

Justin was practically asleep when I dried him off, saying he needed to call Daphne soon, or she’d kick his ass for not telling her we were trying again. He curled his hand under the pillow and turned to his side. I didn’t do what I normally did and sleep on my side of the bed, but curled around Justin, reaching my arm around him, falling asleep thinking this was one of the things I never liked unless it was Justin.

I left Justin in bed the next morning and went to get him breakfast. Deb was there as usual, and told me I obviously forgot I was feeding Justin, when I ordered to go. She came back with two bags.

“He’ll snack on the other stuff, you really need to start keeping more food in the loft.” She tells me.

“He’ll eventually shop, because I never buy ‘the good shit’, according to him.” I tell her.

“I heard there was some excitement at Babylon last night.” She tells me.

“Drew apparently still wants Emmett.” I tell her.

“While Emmett was kissing and groping Sunshine.” She laughs, when I might have growled.

I left to get this to Justin before he woke up, so he wouldn’t be grouchy at eating healthy shit. I got back to see Gus sitting in the kitchen eating with Lindsay and Justin. I was disappointed because I wanted to surprise Justin by bringing him breakfast, but happy to see Gus and Justin were getting along.

“I came over to see Justin, but also to let you know that Mel and I were going to let Gus visit Justin while he’s gone.” Lindsay tells me.

“He can come with me. I planned to spend the last two weeks he has to work with him. Then we could come home together.” I tell her.

“Mel and I were hoping to visit too.” She tells us.

“As long as it isn’t the first two weeks, that’s the busiest time for me. We could all play tourist together.” Justin tells her.

“I wanted to see what you do. I always thought you would lean more towards painting.” Lindsay tells him.

“I still paint, it’s just what I’m doing now was something I was interested in too.” He tells her.

“I’d love to see your paintings.” Lindsay tells him.

“Wes is sending them, so Brian can show you when they get here.” Justin tells her.

“We’ll get out of your hair. Gus just wanted to see Justin and tell him.” She tells us, helping to clean up.

I handed Justin the food I’d picked up, which had Justin happy. I wanted to ask why he told Lindsay the paintings were still on their way when he had them in my storage room, but waited, because he most likely had a reason for it.

“I wanted you to see them before anyone else did.” Justin tells me, as soon as they left.

“You know you're good, you always have been.” I tell him.

“I’m better, bordering on great. It’s just, I wanted to show you first, not have someone else do it for me.” He tells me.

“I wanted to feed you, but apparently someone else did.” I tell him.

“Lindsay brings what I call snacks.” He tells me, grabbing a fork.

I went to the storage closet and looked through the canvases, seeing the changes to his style. Justin came in as I looked through them, most were abstracts that were gallery quality, then there were a couple where the subject matter seem to be me.

“You were always my favorite.” He tells me.

“I could use you to teach my artists. There are days I question how they got through art school.” I tell him.

“They probably question why you think you know anything about real art.” He tells me.

“Twat.”

JUSTIN

Brian handed me a pile of paperwork, saying it was just things we needed to tie up.

“When you get back, this is our home, and the deed should reflect that.” He tells me.

“It makes sense, and I'd be happy to share a deed with you.” I tell him.

“And?” He asks.

“We should also set up a joint account for paying the bills. If we do this, I help pay for things. Which also includes paying you back for the part of the loan I did use for college.” I tell him.

“You know I never cared about it. I wanted it so you could go to college.” He tells me.

“Which I appreciated, but also wanted to be able to do it on my own.” I tell him.

“If you want to pay it back, put it in the account I had Ted set up for my personal bills. We can add your name to it.” He tells me, shrugging.

“I also want to help with the renovations for the loft. If we're doing this together we share the costs.” I tell him.

“Ted suggested giving you an office at Kinnetik. You can work from there, since we most likely have everything you could use.” He tells me.

“I really don't need one, my jobs are done at the sets.” I tell him.

“What do you do if your not making a movie?” He asks.

“Having a job was dependent on if a movie was being made. I saved the money I was making. In between jobs, I worked in Wes’s clubs, bartending for my daily expenses.” I tell him.

“Then work at Kinnetik between your jobs.” He tells me.

“Which wouldn't require me to have an office. I'm sure there are desks in your art department.” I tell him.

“I'm sure there are, but the last thing I need is the art department thinking I'm not a complete asshole. It keeps them from showing up with boards Gus could draw better.” He tells me.

“You’re full of shit, you wouldn't have kept anyone if they weren’t the best at what they do.” I tell him.

“You’re one of the best artists I know, so why would you think I'd pass up the opportunity to have you at Kinnetik?” He asks me.

“I have no problem with working for you, but setting me up in an office would only make sense to me if all your artists have their own offices. Otherwise they would see me as getting things they haven't, when I just started. It would also cause problems when they have to work with me. I don't want to start out with the people who've been there worrying that I'm there to spy on them.” I tell him.

“You sitting at a desk in the art department isn't going to change their minds.” He tells me.

“I think we should keep our relationship out of the office. If people figure it out then hopefully it will be after working with me and seeing that you don’t treat me differently because we’re together.” I tell him.

“You really think they aren’t going to figure out we're together? The art department gossips like Emmett. You've been to Kinnetik, and trust me, they are probably trying to find out who you are, since you were there with me and Ted.” He tells me.

I started flipping through the paperwork, not having an argument for that. “What's this?” I ask, sliding it to him.

“My POA, it didn’t make sense to keep Michael if we're together. If something happens, then you won’t be told you’re shut out, they way they did with Mel.” He tells me.

“I should do the same, not that my mom would do that to you again.” He tells me.

“We should have her over one night.” He tells me.

“For dinner?” I ask.

“It would give her and I a chance to know each other. After you left, we didn’t stay in touch. I want her to feel welcome in our lives. When you and I decide to have kids, she's going to want to be involved in our lives.” He tells me.

“We can do that when we get back. I haven't spent much time with her, or Deb. It might be nice to have them both over. Are you considering donating to Mel and Lindsay again?” I ask.

“Not now. When they first brought it up, I thought about it, but if we have kids, we'd have to divide our time with Gus already.” He tells me.

“I want to adopt.” I tell him.

“Why?” He asks.

“We aren’t going to have a child that's biology ours, and like with Gus, I don't care if they’re biologically mine. If you want us to have one the way you had Gus, then we can, it's just either way it doesn't change that they'll be ours.” I tell him.

“We can decide it when we're ready.” He tells me.

“Why not make the decision now?” I ask.

“I like the idea of seeing you in one of our children.” He tells me.

“I just don’t want to have a child with someone we know. Watching what you went through isn’t something I want us to have to go through.” I tell him.

“There are other ways, and we'll look into them, along with adoption.” He tells me.

“We don’t have to do anything right now, it's something I eventually want.” I tell him.

“It's something we should do sooner.” He tells me.

“Brian, I'm here and not going anywhere. We have time to get used to us before we start adding a family.” I tell him.

Brian nodded, but seemed like something was bothering him. “What's really bothering you about this?” I ask.

“It's knowing what I want. I've never been patient when it comes to getting what I want.” He tells me.

“I told you what I wanted, tell me what you want.” I tell him.

“I did, but maybe you were distracted.” He smirks.

“Partners in everything?” I ask.

“I picked Vermont for more than just a missed vacation.” He tells me.