His Lean and Meaness




Ted’s POV:

Can anyone truly know a person any person especially a person like Brian Kinney?



He is an enigma among men.  Smart, powerful, the body of a god, oozing confidence with a legendary sexual prowess that I will never have first hand knowledge of.



This man is a mass of contradictions.  Tall and lean well muscled but not overly so, you get the impression that a strong breeze could knock him over until you get caught in one of his strong hands.



He’s a mans man, chic and classic like one of his Armani suits; but watch him play with his son or hold Justin in the throws of a panic attack; or giving Lindsey comfort after an argument with Melanie.  He’s sweet, kind more of a maternal soul rather than paternal but please don’t tell anyone I said that cause he’d kill me.



He’s called the stud of Liberty Ave. and no one comes close to taking away that title even though it’s been a while since his last trick; or at least he’s being very, very discreet.



Only his closest family of friends knows that this notorious top has on more than one occasion admitted his fondness for riding cock but that cock belongs to only one man.  A very special man who burst upon him the night his son was born and never left.



Justin found Brian’s lost heart and has taken up residence within it.  Brian will never let Justin go not that Justin would ever go.  Their hold on each other is unshakable.



We’ve all seen pieces of Brian few have of us have ever witnessed the complete man.  Justin for sure has lived, seen and loves the complete true Brian Kinney.  Lindsey too, she knows just about everything there is to know about him.  Debbie well she too I suspect.  She keeps hoping for the best but seems to expect the worst from him but she does have hope.



You’d think Michael would know him after all he is his best friend but sometimes and I hate to say this, Michael keeps the blinders on.  I know he loves Ben but there’s this part of him waiting, hoping that Brian would drop Justin like a used condom and declare his love for Michael.  Michael sees Brian as Rage the sexual hero saving Gayopolis one fuck at a time.



Emmett sees Brian as a queen well more of a king than a queen burning with bright blue flames.  He can keep you warm with his loyalty and friendship but consume you to ash if you cross him or one of his friends.



Hunter sees Brian as pure sex and he’s right.  I’ve seen a lot of porn and sex but there’s no one like Brian, pure sex.



To Gus he’s daddy and not that he’d admit it but Brian has grown to love and relish in that role.



To Deb he’s her first lost boy.  The proud asshole we all blame for everything that goes wrong in our lives but then run to when we need it fixed.  I’m guilty of that on more than one occasion too; this I will admit saying.



We’ve all seen Brian angry, scared, happy, lost, on the prowl, drunk, high, confused, troubled and very much in love but he wont admit that either.

We’ve seen glimpses of his inner strength.  Watch him try to hold it together when Justin got bashed or when his father died and when he damn near lost everything after the Stockwell thing.





But few of us have really seen the physical strength of the man.  We’ve seen him at the gym but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him lift anything heavier than a 20lb. dumbbell.



He hardly eats so I have no idea how he keeps up his stamina for Justin who by the way has his own legendary sexual appetite.  It may be true what they say that the stud of Liberty Ave. has met his match in the blond boy King of Babylon.



But I digress.

His strength.



We were all over at Debbie’s today.  She needed some yard work done, not that it’s a big yard but our long hard Pittsburgh winter took its toll on the old trees that are in her yard.  Vic was feeling tired and not up to wielding an axe so we rented chainsaws and a mulcher to take care of the dead wood.



Mikey, Ben and Justin were planning which branches and trees needed to be cut while Vic, Deb and Emmett handled the food; we had to keep our he-men fed.  Hunter and I were sort of go-fers.



Brian had to work for a while then go to the munchers.  By the time he was to show up at Deb’s we would have been finished and Deb was going to cook dinner as a reward.  Or this is how we thought the day would go.  And for the most part it did until Mikey insisted on one last branch that needed to be cut down and in a way he was right.



The branch was big with smaller branches many of which had already fallen off leaving spikes that looked like some great medieval torture device.  The branch had to go I could see it cracking off the next winter in an ice storm or heavy snow.  It was dangerous.



They tried to calculate where to cut so that the branch would fall straight but something went horribly wrong.  Instead of falling straight it somehow twisted and landed right on Justin.



Justin wasn’t hurt thank god, those spikes prevented the branch from actually touching the ground but it landed with such force that the spikes buried themselves a few inches into the ground.  If it weren’t for the fact that Justin has rather a compact body he would have been squashed.  As it is he had trouble breathing the larger part of the trunk had him pinned.



We all stood there in shock not knowing what to do.  Vic called 911, Debbie kept screaming and Ben tried to figure out a way of using a lever to pry the branch up.  As brawny as Ben is he couldn’t lift the branch even with Michael and Hunter to help.



Justin started to hyperventilate so Emmett held his hand to calm him.  I don’t know where the fire dept. was I never heard a siren.  Anyway that’s when Brian arrived.



Hearing the commotion he ran directly into the yard.  Brian took one look at Justin and screamed out his name; Justin could barely respond above a whisper not being able to fully inflate his lungs.  You could almost see the waves of guilt and horror wash across the man’s face, you knew he was thinking of the bashing.  That helpless feeling he had when he couldn’t help his Justin back then.  This time it was different.



Brian pushed Emmett aside and in only what could be phrased as Rage-like strength Brian lifted the branch and swung it around so that it cleared Justin.



You could see that Brian wanted to take Justin into his arms but forced himself to keep Justin still in case of internal injuries and any movement could do damage.  He lay on the grass next to Justin until the paramedics came to take him to the hospital.  Justin didn’t want to go but Brian even threatened to withhold nookie until the doctor said that Justin was okay.  Now who could argue with that, so Justin went.  We all went.

After Justin was x-rayed from head to toe and Brian was satisfied that he was really okay we all went back to Deb’s.



Brian insisted that Justin lay down to rest as we finished clearing up the yard and returned the chainsaws.  Deb started dinner.  Brian wouldn’t leave Justin’s side so we cleaned our selves up and waited for dinner and tried to relax.  None of us believed what we had witnessed.  Oh we all know the logical explanation, the sudden rush of adrenaline can make anyone ten times stronger for brief periods, but somehow it added another facet to the Kinney mystique.  His lean and meanness truly had the strength of Rage; especially when it comes to saving his JT.



When Rage and JT, I mean Brian and Justin came down for dinner they were a little worse for where but nothing that one of Deb’s fantastic meals couldn’t fix or a little of B&J alone time.



Actually we were all a little nervous about leaving the two alone.  Even though the doctor insisted that there were no broken bones Justin was bruised and felt beat up.  Brian had strained his back and was warned the he too may feel the after affects of lifting something that heavy.  So both men had prescriptions for pain medicine and muscle relaxants.  I volunteered to stay at the loft with them just in case both men were in so much pain that neither could help the other.



Brian is actually a very gracious host.  He made sure the sheets were clean on the futon, brought me a pillow and extra blankets.  It seems he likes it cool in the loft when he sleeps, he must get easily overheated.  He handed me the remote for the TV, offered me anything in his kitchen and gave me a warning shot about staying away from the booze.  Believe when I say that I will never ever go there.



He bid me goodnight.



I was then inadvertently treated to the Brian Kinney that only Justin gets to see.  Apparently Justin still gets nightmares and often needs to sleep with a night light so those neon lights have taken on a whole new purpose.  Barely above a whisper I heard them talk.  I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but who could help it…



“Justin baby you comfortable?”

“Yes Bri”

“Sure?”

“Uh huh---sniffle, sniffle”

“Shhh baby it’s okay”

“Oh Brian I was so scared”
”I know Jus, I was too”

“You?  You seemed so brave”

“Uh uh I was scared I was going to loose you, I couldn’t think straight, all I saw was red like I was right back in that garage, I thought, I…”

“What Bri?”

“I thought I couldn’t help you back then but I had to try now”

“Brian you saved me back then and now, you’re my Rage”

“Hmmm, you’re my JT”

“---groan---”

“You hurt, want me to get your pills?”

“No it’s not that bad, I don’t like the way they make me feel after”

“I remember”

“How are you, how’s your back?”

“Okay I guess, it only hurts when I breathe”

“Oh you, so I guess no nookie for either of us”

“Fuck no, we’ll find a way but not now tomorrow we need to sleep, come here baby snuggle up”

“---yawn---ok Bri, love you my hero, my Rage”

“Love you too Sunshine, my JT, my angel, sleep baby”

“Sleeping Bri”



Like I said can anyone truly know a person especially a person like Brian Kinney.  Well I feel very fortunate to know him a little better.



Goodnight.



TBC





Sabina  1/2/04