BRIAN 

Seeing Gus run off the plane, lit Justin up like a Christmas tree. Michael slowly followed Gus, wary of his reception. Justin took a deep breath before greeting Michael. I knew they would never be close, but Justin’s maturity showed by not snubbing Michael. 

Justin arranged for us to see the set of the Lord of the Rings. Which had Michael practically bouncing in the car. Gus was just happy he had something interesting to take pictures of to show his class. While Gus was busy asking questions to the person giving us a VIP tour, Michael wanted to talk to me. 

“I really fucked up with Justin. He told me he didn’t see us being friends, but that he could deal with me.” He tells me. 

“It's the best you're going to get from him. I'm respecting his decisions this time. He isn't demanding that I cut you out of my life, and I'm not demanding he treats you any better than you did him.” I tell him. 

“I came because I wanted him give him back the rights to Rage. He can fix what I destroyed.” He tells me. 

“He won't want to work with you again. What you did in that second issue was just reaffirming what you said. It's why I never opened it when you brought it to me. I didn’t want to believe my best friend, the person who sat with me while I waited to hear if the man I love survived, could publish my nightmares.” I tell him.

“I was fucking jealous of how he showed up and got, almost from the beginning, what I waited years for you to want with me.” He tells me. 

“Michael, you seem to have a different idea of what it was like for Justin. You seemed to ignore anything I did, but zeroed in on everything Justin did that you saw as wrong. Do you want the unvarnished truth about what being with me would have been like for you? It wasn’t the romantic getaways of Dr Dave, or long walks in the park with Ben. It would have been you watching me fuck other men, while I made damn sure you knew I wouldn't say I love you, or even call what we were doing a relationship. It was me encouraging my partner to fuck someone else, and act like an ass when he wanted to have a picnic. I wasn’t including him in my problems, instead I was telling my best friend. Watching him trying not to be disappointed every time he wanted us to do something and I skipped out on him. You kept saying Justin didn’t deserve me, but be honest, did I deserve his love after treating him the way I did?” I ask. 

“It doesn’t matter what I think, because in the end he loved you, faults and all.” He tells me. 

“I hope one day you find what Justin and I have, but you can't be him. I didn’t interfere while you were chasing Byron, because it was time for you to take responsibility for your own life. Now that you screwed your head back on, did it help you figure anything out?” I ask. 

“Wes sort of helped me figure out why my relationships crash and burn. I'm never me, I’m just what I think the other person wants. It's the same thing I did with you. If you wanted to party all night, I didn’t care that I had to be at work. When the truth was I'd rather watch a movie or sit around with other comic geeks talking about the plot twists. Thinking about my past, I can’t figure out why I ignored Ted, who was better for me.” He tells me. 

“You ignored Ted because you couldn’t give him what he wanted. You can’t love someone unless you do. Emmett and Ted figured that out. It wouldn’t have worked with you any better than it did with Emmett for Ted. It's different when you really love someone.” I tell him.

“I hope one day I love someone as much as you love him.” He says quietly.

“He once said that to me about you.” I tell him, kissing his head.

MICHAEL 

Watching Justin work really changes the way I once thought of him. He wasn’t taking orders but giving them. When we came back, Gus wanted to see what Justin was doing. I was surrounded by some of the biggest names in the acting field, but was unable to stop watching Justin. The people around him respected him and practically tripped over themselves to do what he wanted. Yet when Brett Keller walked over, they deferred to Justin and his boss, treating Brett as if he was a bit player, not the guy who signed their paychecks.

Justin was getting irritated at Brett and looked at me, smiling a smile I've never seen. He said something to Brett that had him looking at me. Brett frowned when Justin shooed him towards me and Brian, but walked over to me. Gus took off to go see Justin saying something I couldn’t hear to Brett.

“If I didn't like that kid, he'd have been fired every time we work together.” He tells Brian.

“It's what you get for hiring him.” Brian tells him.

“So you're the idiot who screwed up Rage?” He asks me.

“Yes I am.” I admit.

“Thanks for doing that.” He tells me. 

“I'm not sure that was a compliment.” I tell him.

“It was the reason I took an interest in the original illustrator. His work in that issue kept me from ignoring the intern like I would normally do. It made me keep up with his work at the studio and introduce him to the art director of all of my movies. One day, he's going to be fought over by other directors, because he's surpassing what even his boss does. So yeah, thanks, because he's always going to leave his door open for me.” He tells me. 

“Only in business.” Brian tells him. 

“He's made that clear to everyone on the set.” He tells Brian, who gets smug.

Suddenly, giving him the rights to Rage seems like nothing, when Brett was pretty much saying Justin was headed to bigger and better things. I still wanted to offer it to him as a way for him to see I understood he was the better person, not just for Rage, but for my best friend. 

At dinner, I handed Justin the envelope with the transfer of ownership. He looked at it, then handed it back to me.

“I don’t need Rage anymore.” He tells me, looking at Brian.

I went for a walk, since Brian said Gus wanted to watch movies. Justin was in the lobby talking to a couple of people he worked with when I walked past. He broke off from them and offered to walk around with me.

“Brian said he and Gus are staying in.” I tell him. 

“He told me.” He says, walking with me.

“Aren't you going to join them?” I ask. 

“Later. You look kind of lost.” He tells me. 

“Why do you always have to be a nice guy?” I ask, thinking this was just one more thing that makes him better than me.

“It balances my relationship with Brian. He gets to be the big bad, me nice.” He jokes.

“Why didn’t you want Rage?” I ask.

“Because it symbolized my unrealistic expectations, and in a lot of respects, my immaturity. I'm not saying liking comics is immature, just that my reasons for doing the comic were. I wanted Rage to be everything Brian wouldn’t be.” He tells me. 

“Like the way I try to live through comics.” I tell him. 

“Michael, it's understanding that there isn't a hero, charging in on a white horse to save you. It’s learning to be the hero. We can't have powers, but we can learn that being a hero is doing what we can to help people. While I was gone, one of the things I learned was that Brian was right, in the end you only have you. He was also wrong, in that it isn't weak to show you care. It's something he figured out while I was gone. I do care about you, it's just hard to want to be involved with you, when you’re really the selfish shit you once told me Brian was. I came back and instead of growing up, you're still stuck at first base.” He tells me.

“It's hard to follow in your footsteps. Everything you do, you do well.” I tell him. 

“Are you serious? I've made hundreds of bad decisions. I acted like a child, running away from the shit I did. I'm not perfect or even close. If that's why you've spent the entire time we've known each other treating me like shit, you're not seeing me.” He tells me, leaving me to go back to the hotel.

I kept walking, thinking about how Justin must have felt when Brian would talk to me, but treat Justin like he wouldn’t understand. I needed to talk to someone who wouldn’t blow smoke up my ass.

“Michael, you do realize how expensive this call is?” Emmett asks. 

“Why did you stay friends with me, after some of the bullshit I did?” I ask. 

“Being friends means not giving up on someone. Why are you asking?” He asks. 

“Because it bothers me that I could be the kind of person who said the things I did about Justin after he left. Ma was right, I took Justin’s generosity and shit on him.” I tell him. 

“I don’t think he dwells on it, why are you?” He asks. 

“Because I care about him.” I tell him. 

“Then give him a reason to believe you can be a better person.” He tells me. 

“How?” I ask.

“For once, do what he did.” He tells me. 

“I'm not doing the whole Byron thing again.” I joke.

“It was entertaining at least. But I'm talking about learning to be Michael.” He says, hanging up.