The bell over the door jangled as it opened, and Justin smiled.  It always reminded him of Zuzu and Bedford Falls and angels getting their wings. When he saw it was Ben who had come in, he nodded to the man and grinned wryly. It was likely the bells soon would herald two assholes about to get bitch slapped.

The diner was crowded, as it usually was on a week-end night, but it was starting to empty out as the time closed in on 9:00. Everyone was pretty much filled up on food now, so they could absorb more alcohol when they hit the bars and clubs. Liberty Diner being this close to the heart of all things Pittsburgh-gay was a financial benefit all around on clubbing nights. 

Justin took off his apron, kissed Kiki on the cheek with a cheery "Shift's over, Deb should be here soon," before he joined Brian and the other guys at their usual booth. He bounced over and slid into Brian's lap, then reached over and kissed Ben on the lips, the way he'd seen Brian kiss Michael a thousand different times.

"What the fuck, Justin?" Brian gave Justin a little shove off his lap, landing him on the edge of the bench seat.

"Just a little kiss between friends, Brian," Justin replied, as he rubbed his ass. "You're familiar with the concept, aren't you?"

Ted cleared his throat.

Emmett said, "You go, Baby."

Michael was either trying not to cry or having a hypertensive crisis. Justin wasn't really sure which. Right now, he didn't much care either way.

Ben just nodded and said, "Showing open affection to one's good friends is an important part of any lasting friendship."

"Since when are you and Boy Wonder such good friends?" Looks like the hypertensive crisis won out. No tears for Little Mikey now. Just steam.

"Justin and I have been friends since we met, Mike. We share an eclectic chosen family, have varied common interests, and share a birthdate. Why wouldn't we be good friends?"

Ted and Emmett wisely said nothing, but they did watch the banter like it was a tennis match.

Brian, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes, cocked one brow and tilted his head - to prove how unbothered he was by all this affection between the suddenly good friends. He knew his boyf---, Justin well enough to know exactly what this little exhibition was all about. "Enough, Justin," he said. "How the fuck did you find out?"  

"Find out? You mean how did I find out that... Ben and I are good friends?" Butter wouldn't melt in the kid's mouth at the moment, he was playing it so cool. He batted his eyes at Brian coquettishly, then turned and spoke crisply in Michael's direction. "We talked. A lot. About a lot of things."

Now, Michael might not be the brightest crayon in the box, but he eventually clued up. His eyes got wide and the hypertensive-crisis red his face was wearing earlier leeched out into a dull panic-pink. "Oh, fuck."

"Funny you should say that," Ben barked out and Michael's face blanched to a witless-white. Brian just stuck his tongue in his cheek and rolled his eyes.

"Speaking of fucking..." Justin started.

"Twat..."

"Shut the fuck up, Boy Wonder!"

"...we did," Ben finished.

Ted dropped his coffee cup.

Emmett's fork-full of donut was frozen somewhere between plate and mouth.

Brian pulled his lips in further and raised his eyebrow higher.

Michael turned puke green. With a tinge of yellow around the mouth.

"So," Justin chimed. "Who's up for Babylon?"

"No! No, you don't get to drop that shit and just think it's okay!" Michael was now back to hypertensive crisis red. Justin fleetingly thought that had to be hard on the man's cardiovascular system. "Ben... how could you fuck him?!"

"Oh, did I break some rule, Michael, like maybe not fucking your friends?"

"You told Justin we fucked?!" Michael turned his anger on Brian.

"No, Mikey," Brian gritted out. "No, I didn't. But you just told everyone in the diner, dipshit."

Michael laid his head on the table. He did want to cry.

"I saw you," Ben said. The hurt spilled out of him with every word. "I saw you in the shop. You weren't being particularly circumspect about it."

"But, you didn't have to..."

"Neither did you! What Brian and I did was years before I even met you!" Ben ran his hands through his hair, not letting Michael's sad eyes distract him. "Whether you were jealous of me or jealous of him, it shouldn't have mattered, Mike! It had absolutely nothing, nothing whatsoever to do with you!"

"Yes, it did! You're my boyfriend and he fucked you!"

"No. You were my boyfriend and he fucked you. Because you're a jealous, petty little man, Mike. And I have no more time to waste on petty little men."

Michael sat, stunned at what Ben was telling him. You were my boyfriend...petty little man... don't have time to waste...

Emmett and Ted knew it was time to leave the men alone. They quietly paid their bills and walked out. They had a feeling that nothing would be the same on the Avenue for quite some time after that little showdown.

"Do you think they really..."

"Brian and Michael? Definitely. Justin and Ben? I don't know that it really matters if they did or not. But you have to admit that was some shot across the bow either way."

"Yeah, I think you're right, Teddy." Emmett looped his arm through his friend's. "Buy me a drink? I think I could use one."

Brian watched Justin as he walked out onto the sidewalk, a little too much bounce in his step, and shook his head. He knew his boy, knew what he would and wouldn't do, and he knew he wouldn't do that. Wouldn't risk them that way. That was his style, not Justin's. He grabbed Justin's shirt and pulled the young man against his chest.

"You two didn't fuck, did you?"

"I guess it's a mystery."

"Justin..."

"But I know that you and Michael did fuck and it'll be a cold day in hell before that'll be okay with me, Brian."

"It was just a fuck, Justin."

"So was Ben. Just a fuck and a kiss and intimacy with someone whose name I know and with whom I share history. Not nearly as much as you and Michael, but still a shared history and family and memories and friends. Just a fuck. Nothing to worry about, right?"

"Well, you succeeded. You hurt him. For what? A joke? An object lesson?"

"Wow, maybe you're finally getting it, Brainiac. That shit hurts people. Ben, for instance," Justin said quietly. "Me."

"Stop with the drama princess routine, Sunshine. He's not like you..."

"If you ever expect your dick to come anywhere near my ass again in this lifetime, you'll stop right there, Brian. He's exactly like me. Human. With feelings and insecurities and strengths and jealousies. Neither one of us is immune to being hurt or humiliated just because it doesn't conveniently fit into your litany of life mottos."

Brian looked back at the diner window, saw Deb going in, and knew that shit was really going to hit the fan after tonight.

"And if you even think about going back in there to console Michael right now, my shit will be packed and out of there when you get home, Brian. That isn't an ultimatum. That's a fucking promise." Justin turned to walk toward the loft rather than Babylon, then stopped and turned back toward Brian. "Whether Ben and I fucked or not, Brian, we goddamned well got fucked over."

"Justin, it wasn't done to hurt you."

"But it did! Jesus, Brian! Intent is irrelevant! You knew it would hurt us! If you didn't care about my feelings, at least you should have thought of Ben's!" He didn't know how much more clearly he could put it to Brian. He was tired of trying. "Go, Brian. Go to Babylon. Drink your mommy issues away, fuck your daddy issues away, come home smelling of cheap booze and stale cum. As you so eloquently like to point out, it's nobody's business but their own where anyone sticks their dick - or whose dick they decide to ride. Right?"    

Brian stood stock still in the middle of the sidewalk watching Justin walk away. Justin's parting words - his own words tossed back at him - slapped him squarely in the solar plexus. He felt colder than he had in a long time and pulled his jacket tighter around himself. Not that it would help with this particular freeze.   Yeah, he'd fucked up when he fucked Michael. He'd known that from the moment he walked into the shop, pushed the man up against the wall. He'd given into Michael's jealousy and childishly hurt feelings. Brian had let Mikey's insecurities - hell, his own insecurities - rule the moment. Michael was jealous and Brian was scared of losing him to those jealousies. Some people throw money at a problem; Brian Kinney throws dick.

But surely Justin and Ben didn't retaliate in kind. Did they? Brian had to admit he wasn't so sure of that. And why in the hell it mattered to him - well he didn't want to think about that. Or admit it. He just knew he felt bare-assed naked standing here, emotionally exposed and freezing and with this fucking ache in the middle of his chest. He glanced briefly back at the brightly lit diner and saw Ben walk resolutely away from a tearful Michael and thought about consoling his oldest friend.

... Go, Brian... Drink your mommy issues away, fuck your daddy issues away...

...come home smelling of cheap booze and stale cum...

...nobody's business but their own where anyone sticks their dick...

...with feelings and insecurities and strengths and jealousies...

...my shit will be packed and out of there when you get home...

He'd never imagined the phrase "come to Jesus" would ever cross his mind once he'd walked out of the Kinney house so many years ago, and certainly not in the middle of Liberty Avenue, but he was gobsmacked with it right now. It warred for prominence in his head, warred with memories of a broken boy huddling under blue lights, of ice cream and blood, of painful decisions and killing with kindness...

... Drink your mommy issues away, fuck your daddy issues away...

Now the glow of Liberty seemed to dim, and the only spark of light Brian could see as he stood there freezing - the waste and loss of his longest friendship behind him, that odd ache in his chest - was Justin's silhouette, disappearing quickly into the dark. His feet followed him.

Fuck knows what he was going to say when he caught him. Maybe he'd talk about finding his religion.