JUSTIN

Brian asked me to take Emmett out while he and Ted talked to Drew. They both felt it was better to feel Drew out about the campaign and about Emmett, before possibly upsetting Emmett. I thought it would be better to at least tell Emmett, because he wasn’t a child. But they both asked me to let them make sure there was anything to tell Emmett first. Ted finally told me it was because he didn’t want Emmett hurt if Drew was with someone else. Which I could understand, because it was one of my fears when I left Brian, that he would find someone he loved enough to do everything for that he said he didn’t want.

When I called Emmett he said he wanted to go to this bar uptown. I didn’t figure it out until we were there and Michael came in, looking for someone. At first I was ambivalent about the whole thing, but now it was kind of funny to watch, because I was seeing things that didn’t resemble what Brian and I were doing.

Michael went to the bar and sat next to Byron, who was talking up another guy and completely ignoring Michael. It’s something Brian didn’t do to me, if I was there, he included me. Another thing was that Brian would never let me pay for anything, but Byron had Michael paying, not only for his drinks but for the trick of the night. It was bad when I started feeling sorry for Michael.

“Baby, think about it, it’s like watching everything Brian could have done if he really didn’t want you around. You would think Michael would have learned something watching you and Brian. Like the fact that Brian always paid attention to where you were and what you were doing. This Byron guy only seems to notice Michael if there isn’t anyone else to take home.” He tells me.

“Brian thinks he did things that should have had me walking away from him. I didn’t enjoy the tricks when I could tell he was only doing it to drive home the point we weren’t in a relationship, but it was really only in the beginning when he did that. It hurt when he did it, but he always ended up coming to find me and making sure I made it home.” I tell Emmett, shaking my head when Michael handed money to the bartender for a large round of drinks for Byron’s group.

“How else could he see it, you left him.” He tells me.

“It wasn’t because he was tricking that night. It was because everything I was doing wasn’t showing him I was worth everything he was doing for me. Brian blames himself for things that really never bothered me. We both agreed to an open relationship, but he agreed to the rules I asked of him. I started to feel like he was compromising everything, because he took me in and took care of me. I wanted to let him have a choice, but how could he when I was being pushed on him and he felt like it was his fault that Hobb’s did what he did.” I tell him, rolling my eyes when Michael tried to put his arm around Byron and Byron threw it off him. “He needs to figure out that if he wants Byron’s attention, he needs to ignore him.” I tell Emmett.

“Was that what you did?” He asks me.

“When Brian was busy, I found other people to play with, which had Brian showing up. Which worked because my nights ended with Brian tossing the trick aside. The only time it didn’t work was if Michael got upset about anything.” I tell him.

“Michael obviously should have paid attention to the Justin Operating Manual, because it’s really not sexy to sit there pouting while you pay for everyone’s night.” Emmett tells me as we watch Michael fold his arms and look pissy, but yet pay for another round, including for the trick Byron was practically fucking at the table.

“It worked for him when he was around all of us. He’s used to being the center of attention and most likely thinks if it worked once, it should work again.” I tell Emmett.

Michael spotted Emmett and I and came over, even though there has never been any reason he would think I would care what he does. Emmett looked at me as if apologizing that Michael was about to sit with us. I just prayed that Byron wouldn’t see me and think it would be a good thing to come over and hit on me. It really wasn’t a compliment to me that he was interested in Michael.

“I can’t believe he’s acting like I’m not here.” Michael tells us, sitting down.”Why are you two here?” He ask.

“Brian and Ted had a business thing.” Emmett tells him.

Byron leans over whispering in the other guy’s ear and Michael started to get up. There was a part of me that just wanted to see Byron treat Michael like he was an annoying asshole, but I was here to keep Emmett occupied. “I’m ready to get something to eat before we meet Brian at Babylon.” I tell Emmett, and like always, Michael just has to hear ‘Brian will be around’ and he forgets everything else.

“We might as well go to the diner, it will get Ma off my back about being nice to you.” Michael tells me.

“Just what I wanted, to make your life easier.” I muttered, wanting to kick my own ass for saving Michael from embarrassing himself.

We got up, and damnit, Byron looked over at us and left the table and the trick to catch us. I wrapped my arm around Emmett and kissed him, making him look at me like I’d lost my mind, or maybe it was the fear that Brian would kill him. Which maybe he would, but I would handle Brian later if we didn’t lose Byron. Michael looked thrilled as Byron told him he would love to come with us to get dinner.

“We’d love for you to come and pay for dinner.” I added, just because the guy rubbed me the wrong way, in a way Michael hadn’t accomplished.

BRIAN

When Cynthia called Drew’s agent, he called back telling her that Drew was in town and would meet us for dinner to discuss what Leo wanted. We got to the restaurant Drew kept us waiting for thirty minutes before showing up and looking disappointed that it was just Ted and me.

“Leo didn’t come, I guess he didn’t want me as badly as it sounds.” Drew tells us, but all I was seeing was it wasn’t Leo not being here that bothered Drew.

“I told Leo if it seemed like you were still pissed about what happened then we could look for someone with a better reputation than you. It would just be better to use you to show there were no hard feelings about you causing us to dump you for not disclosing that there was a possible PR nightmare about to happen.” I tell him.

“It wouldn’t have happened if Emmett had been a woman.” He tells me.

“With Leo’s family oriented values, your cheating on your fiancee would have been a problem for him, whether it was with a man or a woman.” I tell him.

“Brian Kinney protecting a homophobe, not something I ever thought anyone would live to see.” Drew tells me.

“Actually it was protecting the reputation of the company I was paid to sell. Leo knew I was gay and didn’t have a problem with it. You on the other hand hid it, cheated on the woman you were in a high profile relationship with, while she was planning your wedding and inviting the press in to see the how much in love you two were. Leo wanted someone who people could look up to representing his campaign, unfortunately you proved even queers couldn’t look up to you, since you couldn’t even admit that fucking men meant you were gay. It would really be a contest to figure out which one of you was the homophobe. But that’s the past. Now you need to decide if the money he’s willing to pay to promote a gay man can overcome your anger that we decided not to join in your tabloid covered coming out. This is business, which was never as personal as you took it. It’s something Emmett figured out when you left him to finish your education.” I tell him.

“How is Emmett?” He asked, casually.

“Good. His business survived being your wedding planner.” I tell him.

“I get it Brian, I was wrong about everything.” He tells me.

“Good. So are you considering this campaign, or were you just here to waste my time in hopes of seeing Emmett?” I ask.

“Does he know you're talking to me?” He asks, which means until we talk Emmett, everything else doesn’t matter.

“No. We didn’t want Emmett to be hurt if you had moved on.” Ted tells him.

“I don’t think you move on from Emmett. For me, no one compares to him.” Drew tells us.

“If you believe that why didn’t you ever call him again?” Ted asks.

“I figured by now he'd have found someone who wanted what he did, I didn’t want to see it.” He tells us.

“He hasn’t, but then he really hasn’t mentioned you either.” I tell him, making Drew look like I shot him. It’s really not my thing, this emotional drivel. Well Justin’s different, but overall I still don’t deal with this shit.

“Which really means more than you think. Emmett talks about everything, unless it’s something that hurts him. In that case it takes a lot of cosmos and man done wrong, then it’s all about you.” Ted hopefully is joking.

“Now that we’ve established that Emmett possibly thinks you're the one for him, can we talk about you representing the campaign?” I ask.

“I’ll say yes if you arrange for Emmett and I to see each other. Nothing more, just the chance to tell him he was wrong. I didn’t need to experiment when I already had him.” He tells me.

“I’ll text Justin to bring Emmett to Babylon.” I tell him, as I take out my phone.

He texted back, saying they were on their way after they ate. Figured he was eating again.

“He’ll be at Babylon tonight.” I tell Drew.

“Then get the contracts, the only thing my agent requires is a twenty percent increase in my payment and a penalty if Brown drops me again, unless it’s a morality issue.” He tells me.

“Leo was willing to go forty, and we’ll stick him with that, for being a homophobe.” I tell him, smirking.

Drew followed us into Babylon. I took us up to the catwalk to find Justin and Emmett in the sea of bodies. I heard Drew curse and looked at what he was looking at. Honeycutt is going to die. I glared at the guy who grabbed my arm, he rolled his eyes at me.

“Remember me, the guy at the King of Babylon contest? I left with Justin? Sean? Whatever. Justin told me to tell you he just didn’t want to cause a fight tonight so he and Emmett are just keeping that from happening.” He tells me.

“Did Justin also explain why he and Emmett would be kissing and generally doing things I don’t like, together?” I ask him.

“Um, well it’s that whiny guy you hang out with, apparently his friend keeps hitting on Justin and Justin said whiny blames…”

I walk down through the bodies and once again took Emmett’s hands off Justin’s ass. “Shoulders won’t make me kill you.” I tell Emmett.

“Look, the guy didn’t get it when Justin told him he’d rather have an acid bath then let him near said ass. I just like the way it pissed him off that I could touch it.” Emmett jokes.

“Most people would love what you touched, but it really seems to upset Drew.” I tell Emmett, tilting my head at the quarterback glaring at Justin.

Emmett looked up, then kissed Justin on the lips before walking out of Babylon. Drew watched, then ran when he realized the man he wanted had just walked out the door.

“I’m going to spank your ass.” I tell him.

“Gosh, please don’t Mr. Kinney. I’ll be very, very good.” Justin tells me, rubbing my hard on.

“Come on. I know you want to see what’s happening, then we are going home.” I tell him, holding onto his ass and making sure to pass the asshole, who needs to understand Mikey’s the best he could hope for.

“Brian, come meet Byron.” Mikey yells. But really why would I care, any more than I did with the last two Mikey couldn’t make work with. Especially when this one is too busy staring at Justin and any other ass he thinks is available.