Chapter 29 - Over The Rainbow.

After Justin had eaten his way through half the breakfast menu, the two men headed out to explore the London of 2016. Justin was still a bit leery of the hand holding thing, so he shrugged off Brian’s advances at first, but within a few blocks, what with all the strangeness of the unknown coming at him from all sides, he slowly drifted closer and closer to Brian’s side. When Brian grabbed for his hand a second time, he didn’t resist. In fact, he rather liked this possessive side of the big guy. And so their adventure proceeded with the two of them walking along, hand-in-hand, through the teeming streets of the busy Covent Garden area.

It was a wet day out, so Justin was glad Brian had borrowed one of the hotel’s umbrellas as they’d left. It was a good sized one and easily covered the both of them once Justin had decided it was okay to walk a little closer. Even so, they were both happy to turn off The Strand onto the smaller side streets, since the wind seemed to blow less intensely as soon as they headed north on Southampton Street towards Covent Garden Market.

Justin was slightly reassured to note that most of the buildings he was used to seeing along the familiar route were there. Other than that, though, things were markedly different. First of all, the lower end of Southampton Street had been blocked off to cars, creating what Brian informed him was called a ‘Pedestrian Walkway’. So, while The Strand was a busy street, bustling with cars, busses and lorries, Southampton seemed a lot less crowded. Being a Monday, though, there were still plenty of business types hurrying about, intent on whatever their workdays required of them. But even on the pedestrian street, there were a LOT more people than Justin was used to seeing.

Besides all the offices and banks and other professional venues, this part of the street was also lined with trendy bistros, upscale shops and other places for folks to congregate in large numbers. Brian was constantly having to fend off passersby who threatened to bump into a Justin walking around with his head in the clouds as he looked about himself in amazement. Justin didn’t think he’d ever in his life seen so many people. And such an assortment of people too; there were so many strange looking people, all sorts of races and colors and wearing such odd looking clothing. Both men and women - who, by the way, were dressed so promiscuously it made Justin blush - were wandering around, going in and out of all the stores, sitting at tables in the restaurants and just rambling about. Where in the world were they all going? Didn’t any of them have real jobs?

Justin hadn’t realized he’d voiced his questions aloud until Brian answered him. “Work schedules are a lot more flexible for people these days. And I expect that there are just, generally speaking, a lot more people in the city of London than back in your day.” Then Brian fished his incredible little lightbox thing out of his pocket and, holding it up in front of his face, pressed the big button on the front and said, “Siri, what’s the current population of London.”

And, wonder of all wonders, the lightbox SPOKE BACK TO HIM!

“As of January 1, 2016, the population of greater London was . . .” the oddly metallic voice paused and then continued, “approximately eight million, seven hundred eighty-eight thousand."

“How did you do that?” Justin asked, looking at the lightbox warily. “How does your lightbox . . . phone . . . know the population of a city?”

“Remember when I showed you the button for the ‘Internet’ last night? Well, the phone can access that information pretty much all the time. And it’s programmed with this intelligent assistant that can talk to you in a normal voice,” Brian explained. “You just ask her questions and she answers you, using the information from the internet.”

Justin looked askance at the lightbox. He had enjoyed playing with it the night before. Some of the games on it were amusing. And the amount of information you could access using it was phenomenal. But he didn’t care for an inanimate object that seemed smarter than him and could talk back at you. He would let Brian have his lightbox but Justin didn’t plan to mess around with it too much.

The information on how many people lived in London was staggering. That was a heck of a lot of people. No wonder the streets seemed so busy. But even more than the sheer numbers of people, it was the types of people and what they were doing that seemed most alien. There were so many foreigners. Justin had spent a little bit of time in the East End and down by the docks since he’d arrived in London, and was therefore used to seeing the Chinamen and Indians that populated the area. But this wasn’t the East End and there were a lot more different kinds of people here than that. There were people with every different color of skin he could imagine, dressed in outlandish costumes that he didn’t think he could even describe if asked. And lots of mixed race couples to boot. It all made the city Justin had begun to think of as home feel like an alien place that he barely recognized. He was glad that Brian was there next to his side, being the only comforting thing within his grasp.

Brian must have sensed Justin’s growing anxiety because about that point he pulled the nervous newcomer into one of the stores along the way. Justin felt himself almost immediately relax. It was substantially quieter inside than it had been out on the street and there were far fewer people. Unfortunately, the shop happened to be a men’s clothing store, which meant that Justin had to put up with Brian getting all excited about shopping. Justin had never really been a dandy, himself. He was just a regular guy and, to him, clothing was just something to cover his body and keep him warm. Not that he didn’t enjoy looking attractive, but he’d never really had the money to dress like a posh. And, for the past several months, he’d spent the majority of his time dressed in his uniform, so it hadn’t been an issue. Brian, on the other hand, seemed to be quite the clothes horse. And right then he seemed determined to turn Justin into his very own dress up doll. After twenty minutes of this, Justin wasn’t sure if he wouldn’t have been safer out on the street with the hordes of people.

Two shirts, a jacket and a pair of something Brian called ‘jeans’ later, Justin was finally allowed to escape from that store. He had no idea where or when he’d wear all these things - especially the ‘jeans’ which looked to him like something low-level factory workers or convicts might wear - but it seemed to have made Brian happy to buy all these things, so Justin supposed he could at least be polite and not say derogatory things about the purchases.

Shopping appeared to be thirsty work though, since the first thing Brian wanted to do after leaving the clothing store was to stop for a cup of coffee. Justin could do that, he thought. Not that he was really a big coffee drinker - it was more that a pot of coffee always seemed to be brewing at the air base and it was hot and helped keep the pilots awake for their missions - but at least he knew what coffee was, right?

Or, at least, he’d thought he knew what coffee was until they entered the coffee shop Brian pulled him into. Looking over the menu of offerings posted on the wall behind the counter, Justin wasn’t so sure. What the devil was up with these prices; did people really pay almost four pounds for a cup of coffee? Also, there didn’t actually seem to be anything on there called ‘coffee’ per se. What the hamhocks was ‘Macchiato’ or ‘Chai’ or ‘Matcha’ or even a ‘Smoothie’? And who, in their right mind, drank spinach, broccoli and cucumber juice? The only thing that looked at all familiar on that list was the Earl Grey Tea. But when he tried to order a tea, Brian shh’ed him, saying he didn’t want THAT, and instead ordered him something called a Venti Caramel Mocha. Justin was relieved when they sat down at a pleasant little table in an out of the way corner and he tasted his whatever-it-was drink, to find it tasted a little like a hot chocolate. Okay, he could do this weird modern coffee thing, he supposed, as long as Brian ordered for him. And as long as nobody made him drink broccoli juice and tried to charge him more than four pounds for the privilege.

When Brian had finished his coffee drink too - something called a ‘Latte’ that looked to Justin like plain coffee with lots of milk and about a half a pound of sugar added - they took off again. By that point Justin felt like he had his sea legs, so to speak, and was getting a little more used to the crowds of strange people. He probably didn’t need the hand holding any longer, but Brian seemed to like it so he let his Handsome have his way. Justin would probably never get used to the idea that they didn’t need to hide the fact they were queer. It made him feel so exposed. The idea that loving another man was somehow wrong or bad was simply so deeply ingrained in him, that even seeing other men kissing didn’t completely set him at ease. But, so far, holding hands hadn’t brought about any negative consequences, so he supposed that at least this much open affection was okay.

The two of them strolled along the rest of Southampton Street, stopping in at a few shops along the way. There were lots of clothing stores, including a store that specialized in leather goods, which Brian spent a long time in. Brian ended up buying himself a very nice new wallet, but Justin refused to allow the spendthrift man to buy him the pale brown leather jacket Brian thought suited his blond hair. Justin did enjoy the half hour or so they spent in the store with the big black apple picture over the door. It was full of hundreds of different lightbox things as well as larger machines that Brian called ‘computers’. It was fascinating. Justin loved all the gadgets and had fun playing with the different lightboxes while Brian talked with the sales clerk about buying something called a ‘tablet’ for his son, Gus. They left that store with a very large bag full of stuff.

At the end of Southampton Street they turned east and made their way towards Covent Garden Market. Or, at least where the market used to be. The area looked nothing at all like Justin remembered it from when he’d walked through the market just the day before. The streets which had formerly been dirty, crowded and filled with lorries or carts full of goods being brought in from the countryside for sale, were now clean and clear of all clutter. There were still a lot of people here, but it was a much more orderly environment than he was used to. Brian led them through the big main doors, into a space that was neat and tidy and lined by small individual shops rather than the large barrows and bins and stacks of crates full of goods that the market of 1941 was made up of. It was so overwhelming, Justin had no idea what to think of it.

Brian seemed to not notice anything out of the ordinary as he made his way down the aisles pointing out various things to Justin. They eventually ended up at the far end of the market in front of a series of food vendors. And if Justin had been amazed by the amount of food on offer at the hotel that morning, he was utterly aghast by what was available here. There were at least seven different ‘restaurants’ here, each with its own food selection, and all of which offered more food than Justin had ever imagined in one place. Even more disquieting, the food itself was so strange. He was used to seeing the familiar chippie shops throughout the city - offering their newspaper wrapped fish and chips - which was a perpetual favorite of his. And then there were also the usual sit-down restaurants, offering more substantial fare for a more substantial price, of course. But that was the extent of the food options in Justin’s London. He had never even heard of some of these kinds of food. There was Indian food, Chinese food, Mexican food, and something called ‘Thai’ food. There was one place that seemed to offer only pastas and other Italian meals. There was another that said it offered ‘Sushi’ - whatever THAT was. There was one that claimed to offer ‘Vegan’ options and looked like it was all vegetables with no meat at all.

And there was even one place, ‘Bierschenke’, that advertised all GERMAN food, claiming it ‘Brought Munich to London’, with all sorts of sausages and stuff on its menu. Justin was offended just looking at that place. How could anyone in London eat stinking Gerry food, for crying out loud? It was akin to treason just having this place here, the RAF pilot thought to himself.

“You hungry, Blue Eyes?” Brian asked, looking at the food displayed in the glass-fronted serving counter with obvious interest. “This place has an absolutely delicious Chicken Schnitzel Salad that I love. I come here far more often than is good for my waistline, I’m afraid. You’d probably like the Sausage Feast platters - Cynthia swears by the Weisswurst. And they have great German beer too, which is always a plus.”

Justin couldn’t believe his ears, was Brian really suggesting that they eat . . . there? The pilot didn’t care how good the food smelled or how much his mouth watered as the delicious aromas hit his nose, there was no way in h-e-double-toothpicks he was putting anything German into his body. He didn’t understand how Brian was even considering it. And from what the brunet just said, he seemed to visit this . . . establishment . . . fairly often.

“I am rather hungry, but I really don’t think we should be eating THERE, Brian.” Justin exclaimed. “And if I’m being honest, I don’t know why you would even want to.”

Brian looked taken aback at the tone with which Justin had spoken.

“Blue Eyes . . .” Brian started in, his tone just that little bit condescending enough to grate on Justin’s nerves.

“If we ate there, Brian, we would be giving money to the enemy. That is a serious offence; something I could very well get discharged or even arrested for, if it ever became known.”

Brian rubbed at Justin’s shoulder with this annoyingly patient look on his face. “It’s not like that anymore . . .”

“But I thought you said Germany lost the war?” Justin asked, not only confused but getting a little ticked off.

“They did. But the war ended over seventy years ago, Justin. The world has moved on since then. Germany apologized for the atrocities they were responsible for and people now happily drive German cars, vacation there, everything. England and Germany are now close allies. Hell, this restaurant is probably owned and operated by British citizens . . .”

Justin couldn’t help but be shocked by Brian’s words. Everything was SO different now and it was hard to imagine how the world had changed and moved on so much in those intervening years. In his reality, Germany was the ENEMY. England and Germany were busy attacking each other on a daily basis and had been for almost a year now. Germany had been responsible for killing thousands of British citizens, and from what Brian had said so far, it sounded like they’d be killing even more before this terrible war was over. Justin simply couldn’t fathom the fact that the two countries were now friends. And regardless of what Brian was telling him, he didn’t think he could stomach German food. Not when he’d have to go back to his own time in just a few hours and maybe have to fly a mission where his aim would be to shoot and kill Germans.

Brian must have seen his reaction in his face and known that Justin wasn’t going to give in on this point, because he quickly relented. “Fine. Whatever, Blue Eyes. If you don’t want to eat German food, there are plenty of other options here - pick something else.”

In the end, Justin opted to try some Indian food, since India was part of the British Empire, and therefore he felt like he would be helping his comrades in arms by eating there. He’d never actually tried Indian food before, but it smelled delicious. Brian warned him that it would be rather spicy, but that was okay with Justin. He liked well peppered meat; how spicy could it be? So, despite the warning, Justin insisted on the Indian food.

With a chuckle that sounded suspiciously dastardly, Brian went ahead and ordered them both something called Curry Chicken and Naan. Justin thought it was a strange name for what looked to him like a bowl full of rice with cut up chicken on top, all covered in a yellowish sauce. When he asked Brian, ‘non what?’, the infuriating man just laughed at him even harder. Justin was a bit tired of getting laughed at all morning - it wasn’t his fault that all this was new to him. But he chose not to say anything for the time being just to keep the peace. Brian also ordered them three beers and a water even though Justin reminded him about the no-alcohol-for-concussions thing. Brian replied to trust him; that Justin was gonna need the beer.

They took their food over to an empty table in the middle of the hall and settled in with all the bags full of Brian’s morning shopping piled up on the floor next to them. There were two large bowls full of the main dish, each with a large piece of some sort of flattened, doughy, biscuit sitting on top. Then Brian opened two of the IPAs and the water bottle and arranged them all in front of Justin, keeping the third beer for himself.

Justin picked up the fork that the server had given him - following Brian’s example as the modern man took off the see-through film the utensil was wrapped in - before examining it more carefully. Justin had no idea what substance the fork was made out of. It was hard and black but a little bendable at the same time. It definitely wasn’t metal or wooden, but what else could you make forks out of? He’d never seen anything like it before. Then he noticed the bowl his food came in was made out of the same hard, black, flexible material. Justin sighed. Another mystery he’d have to ask Brian about later. Preferably when Brian wasn’t already laughing at him.

Ignoring the unsolved mystery of the utensils, Justin dug into his ‘Curry’, thinking all the while that in his world a ‘curry’ was a type of brush you used on horses, not food. Where the dickens did they come up with these odd names for things? But the first bite of chicken was quite good. The sauce it was cooked in tasted earthy and savory. He rather liked it, despite how unfamiliar it was. And the rice was a nice addition to the meat, even though he was more used to having mashed potatoes with his meals. The flat biscuit was a little plain but he followed Brian’s example and used it to help scoop up a larger second bite.

But that was when Justin began to notice that the deceptively simple food really was as spicy as Brian had warned him. It was a slow spiciness, though; it built up when you weren’t thinking about it. Justin had never experienced anything like it. The food itself didn’t TASTE spicy, but by the time he’d eaten half a dozen forkfuls, he could FEEL the spiciness swamping his mouth and his lips. What the heck was in this stuff? It felt like his lips were actually on fire, they were burning so badly.

“Ah! Oh, oh, oh . . .” He couldn’t think clearly enough to form words to ask for the help he needed as his mouth blazed.

Justin fumbled around, grabbing for the large container of water that Brian had providentially opened up for him. He swallowed about half the bottle, but it didn’t really do anything to put out the fire burning his lips. If anything, the water seemed to spread the fiery feelings around to more areas. Brian was being no help at all, sitting there smirking at him - if Justin wasn’t so busy trying to keep his lips from burning off, he’d have slugged the big idiot. Right as Justin was about to chug down the rest of the water, Brian intervened, plucking the container of water out of his hand and replacing it with a beer.

“Water doesn’t do anything to counter the spices in curry. The beer is better,” Brian explained as Justin gulped at the beer. “The natural sugars in the beer, as well as the alcohol itself, chemically interact to counter the capsaicin in the chili powder that’s added to the cumin and other curry spices. It neutralizes the alkaloid oils in the capsaicin. If it’s really bad, we can even get you some milk - that’ll kill the spice completely.”

Justin gratefully sipped at the cold beer, so glad it seemed to be working that he forgot to be annoyed at Brian for his superior, gloating looks. It didn’t take long before the fire in his mouth and on his tongue seemed to be pretty much contained. His lips were still burning a little though, making Justin wish he could just stick his whole face in a vat of beer instead of drinking it out of the bottle. The only thing that seemed to help was to hold the cold glass bottle itself up against his prickling lips, sort of mouthing the side of the thing in what was probably a ridiculous looking manner.

“Damn it, Blue Eyes,” Brian cursed at him, shaking his head and making Justin wonder what it was he was doing wrong NOW? Before he could respond, though, Brian had pulled the chair Justin was sitting in around so that he was facing sideways to the table, allowing Brian to lean in closer. “What have I told you about looking adorable all the time? You’re turning me into a damned lesbian, making me even THINK the word ‘adorable’ this much. Now I’m just going to have to kiss those fucking adorable, bright pink lips of yours until they’re all better.”

Before Justin could caution his lover about the fact they were in a public place, or even turn his head away, Brian had snatched away the cold beer bottle and mashed his lips against Justin’s own. Justin was so shocked and self-conscious at first that he didn’t react; he was too busy looking around him out of the corners of his eyes, trying to see if anyone was about to come after them for this unheard of display of queerness. But, after a few seconds, when nobody seemed at all surprised by the sight of two men kissing - a couple of women sitting at a nearby table were even pointing and smiling approvingly at them, imagine that - Justin finally relented and started to kiss back. The kissing didn’t seem to do anything to quench the fire in his lips, but at least now all the rest of his body had heated up to match, so he supposed it was all relative.

“There. Now that I’ve got that out of my system, I feel much better,” Brian teased once he’d finally pulled his lips away. “How about you, Sunshine?”

Justin could feel himself blushing so strongly that his face was probably even redder than his lips at that point. He looked away from Brian, trying to mentally pull himself together and will down the erection that had inconveniently popped up as a result of that heated kiss. But at least he was no longer thinking about his burning lips any more.

All the happy feelings disappeared, though, when Brian started quietly laughing at him again. Justin huffed a sigh and decided he needed to confront the problem head on. So, pushing aside the remains of his dangerous meal, he looked over at the chuckling wonder.

“I do not appreciate you laughing at me all the time, Brian,” Justin stated brusquely. “I know I’m probably doing all sorts of inappropriate things, but I can’t help it. All of this is new to me. Instead of laughing, you could be helping me figure it all out so I don’t keep making a fool out of myself.”

“Oh, Blue Eyes,” Brian started out with yet another condescending chuckle that almost earned him a punch in the puss. Luckily for him, Brian must have recognized the warning signs and he instantly changed his approach. “I’m not laughing AT you, Justin. I’m laughing because I’m having so much fun showing you all these things. It’s eye opening for me to see my world from your perspective like this. I’ve never really thought about everything - everything I would normally find so ordinary and mundane - the way you see it all. It’s fascinating, actually,” Brian explained, placating Justin’s temper a tiny bit. “And you’re not making a fool out of yourself. I wouldn’t let you do that - I promise. Nobody but me probably even notices your reactions. But if it bothers you so much, I’ll try to stop. It won’t be easy though. Not with you being so fucking . . . I’m not going to even say that word again - my balls will start to shrink in protest . . . but you get the point.”

“Thank you, Brian.” Justin relaxed a bit knowing that his lover wasn’t trying to make fun of him, even though he still felt so out of place here. “I am, sort of, enjoying myself this morning too. But it’s all so strange. There’s so much here I don’t understand. I’m not used to feeling so . . . so lost.”

“You’re not lost, Blue Eyes. I’m here with you,” Brian replied, acting so awfully sweet that Justin was tempted to pull him back in for another kiss regardless of the fact that they were out in public.

Justin, instead, decided to change the subject. “I think I’ll skip the rest of my lunch, if you don’t mind. I don’t think I’m ready for future food.”

“Probably a good idea. We’ll have to work you up to Indian food a little bit at a time, I think,” Brian proposed, taking one last bite of his own meal and then scooping up all the detritus, including the bowls and forks and throwing it all in a nearby trash bin.

Justin didn’t know what to think about that. Why had Brian thrown out the bowls and utensils? Who did that? You didn’t just throw out your plates when you were done with a meal - shouldn’t they give them back to the restaurant person so they could be washed and used again? While he watched, though, he noticed other diners doing the same thing with their plates and bowls and cups. It was all very wasteful, but apparently it was the thing to do here. Again, he didn’t understand, but would have to wait and ask Brian about it all later since his lover was already gathering their possessions up and looked ready to leave. Justin shook his head and sighed as he followed behind Brian. Who knew just walking around London would turn into such an adventure?

They left the market through a different door from the one they’d entered by and continued on their way, heading roughly northward. The rain had let up, so they no longer needed the umbrella and it was turning into a nice walk. They continued to look in at the various shops along the way, but there didn’t seem to be anything Brian was particularly interested in so they didn’t stop. Until, that is, they came across a shop that Justin actually recognized: The Burberry store. It was the same store, in the same location, as he remembered from 1941. Justin had purchased a uniform jacket there just two months earlier. This store looked much fancier than he remembered, though, and they seemed to sell a lot more than just coats these days, but at least it was a familiar sight. He had to work hard to talk Brian out of going into that shop - Justin didn’t want the man to think he had to buy him even more stuff than he already had that morning.

“Well, if you’re shopped out, Blue Eyes, then what else DO you want to do?” Brian asked. “You must still be hungry, since you didn’t eat that much . . .” Justin was about to stop him, unwilling as he was to attempt any other strange foods after that lunch experience, but then Brian got a mischievous twinkle in his eye and rushed on. “I know, how about something sweet? You did tell me you loved chocolate right?” Justin shrugged and nodded. “Then I have the perfect place to take you. Come on.”

Brian led them around the block and up James Street towards Long Acre. When it looked like they were going to turn west, Justin stopped him and demanded to know where they were heading. Brian was a little vague, but said he was going to take Justin to someplace over off of Charing Cross. Justin suggested they walk a block more and hop on the Underground at the Covent Garden station. He started tugging on Brian’s sleeve, dragging him towards the familiar street corner where the station was located; a part of the city that looked refreshingly familiar to him.

Brian looked down the block at the Covent Garden Tube Station that Justin was urging him towards and groaned a little. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the Underground - as public transportation went, it was efficient and incredibly useful. He would be the last one to complain about the convenience of a walkable city like London. But the Tube could also be crowded and, now that the rain had let up, he didn’t really see the attraction.

“We’re only heading to Leicester Square,” Brian complained as he attempted to pull Justin away from the crowd heading towards the entrance of Covent Garden station, where it wasn’t at all out the realm of possibility that they’d get trampled to death by the horde of intent tube goers. “We can walk it in less than two minutes, Blue Eyes. It’s just not worth it. Look, if you stand here,” Brian explained as he pulled Justin over to the corner of of the pavement and pointed down Long Acre, “you can even see the station. In the time it would take for us to head down and actually wait for the train itself, we could easily walk there and back.”

Justin, however, stood his ground, looking longingly at the red brick facade of the Underground Station, and Brian knew he would cave to whatever his blond wanted.

He got it; the Underground, and especially that particular station, was familiar to Justin. He used it most days to get to the air base or just to make his way around the city. Justin had sheltered from air raids in that station. It wasn’t surprising, after the busy morning they’d had and all the new and strange things that Brian had already introduced him to, that Justin would want to do something that felt comfortable to him.

“I know it’s probably silly . . . but please?” the blond begged. “I love riding the Tube. And I wanna see how different it is these days. Come on, Handsome.”

How could Brian say no to that? Judging by the smug look on Justin’s face, his little blond was well aware of the fact that he had his ‘Handsome’ wrapped around his little finger. And he seemed to be taking full advantage of it too. Brian was a pretty soft sell though, and easily gave in, letting himself be towed along into the flow of foot traffic headed to the station.

Justin clutched Brian’s hand tightly as they rode the elevator down to the platforms in silence. Brian tried to see the place from his companion’s perspective. The station really hadn’t changed all that much over the past seventy-five years. The overall layout of the building was exactly the same. It was definitely cleaner and the decorations, including the tiling that lined the walls, had been upgraded, but overall Brian imagined the space would seem eerily familiar to his twentieth-century boy. The only thing that really stuck out to Brian as different from the station he knew in 1941, were the addition of all the advertising posters that now lined the walls on the walk to the trains - those walls had all been completely bare back in Justin’s time, with maybe the infrequent exception of some wartime notices or warnings. Today’s Tube, though, was inundated with advertising almost everywhere you looked.

Right as he was thinking this, he saw one particular poster he thought might be of interest. Brian gripped Justin’s hand tighter and led him away from the crowd and over to the huge poster with the name ‘Britcom’ splashed across the top. The picture showed one of the fancy, high tech gadgets that worked with the company’s new, cutting edge, silicon-metal composite batteries, that Brian had been assured were the next generation in energy storage solutions.

“Remember I told you I was in advertising?”

Justin nodded.

“This company here,” Brian tapped the brightly colored picture in front of him, “they’re why I’m in the UK. I’ve just taken over the advertising for all of Britcom’s future campaigns.”

“Is this one of yours?” Justin asked curiously, a proud smile lining his face as he spoke.

“Nah, this is still their old campaign. We haven’t even come close to finishing the new one yet.”

The fact that Justin seemed excited to see something Brian had worked so hard on made the usually reserved advertising exec rather happy. He’d have to try and remember to show Justin some of his work on his laptop the next time they were at the hotel together. With Justin’s creative eye, maybe he’d even have some ideas to help Brian resolve the ongoing problems he’d been having with Britcom’s campaign.

It was then that they heard the train pulling into the platform, and once again Brian took the smaller man’s hand in his as they ran to make it before the doors closed.

Luckily they made it in time, but what felt like hundreds of people continued to get on behind them, crowding in even as the doors started to close. The train was packed and the two men were pushed tightly together, into a corner, with Justin’s back pressed firmly against Brian’s chest. As the train started its engine, the carriage jolted forward and Justin stumbled slightly. Brian used that opportunity to wrap his free arm tightly around the man in front of him, pressing their bodies even more firmly together.

“I wish we weren’t getting off in a second,” Brian whispered into the blond’s delectable little ear, “because the way the train is moving and making your ass rub up against me like that . . . Let’s just say, if we were on here for much longer, I’d be getting off way before we got off the train.”

Justin chuckled and cheekily moved his ass in a little circular motion just as the train pulled into Leicester Square station.

“Enough of that little boy,” Brian groaned as he pushed his very obvious erection against Justin’s behind and started walking them off the train.

As they got off the carriage and onto the safety of the platform, Brian placed his hand on the base of Justin’s back and headed towards the exit.

“Do you want me to walk in front of you?” Justin asked quietly, as he gave a subtle little nod towards Brian’s groin.

The older man laughed, which in turn caused Justin to tut loudly, turn on his heel and walk quickly away, obviously miffed.

Brian grabbed Justin’s arm and pulled him out of the throng of people all making their way towards the stairs. “Slow down, Blue Eyes.”

“You’re laughing at me again, Brian,” Justin huffed with an unhappy frown. “I know this is probably funny for you, but it’s starting to really get on my nerves,”

Brian looked at him. “You done?”

“No.”

Brian sighed and shook his head at the intransigent youth. Which only got him an even more grumpy glare from his blond. So, taking matters in hand, Brian smiled at the Underground worker that passed them by, and as soon as the man’s back was turned, pulled Justin over so they were now leaning against the wall, well away from the platform’s edge but out of sight of most of the other Tube patrons.

Justin, who was still fuming and not in any mood to be placated, hissed at him again. “I may not know much about what you can or can’t do today, but I know for a fact if you walked around with one of . . . those . . .” He surreptitiously pointed to Brian’s bulging crotch.

“You mean my big, fat, juicy boner?” Brian whispered into Justin’s mouth as he gave the blond a quick peck on the lips.

“Whatever you want to call it,” Justin sighed, clearly annoyed by Brian’s distraction tactics. "But if you walked around with one of those in 1941 you would get called a pervert or, in some cases, maybe even get arrested. And I’m sorry if you find my actions to be silly, but after what happened with Lucky . . .”

“Fuck, Blue Eyes. I’m really not making fun of you. And I get that you’re still worrying about the thing with Lucky . . .”  

Brian rubbed at his face. He realized he was being a complete dick. When he’d told Justin earlier he wasn’t making fun of him, it was the truth. It really was interesting to see things with new eyes, like Justin was seeing them. But he hadn’t thought about how being so openly gay would affect his little fighter pilot. Justin was so used to living in the closet - not because he was ashamed of who he was but because he had to out of fear of being arrested or losing his place in the RAF - that it had to be difficult for him to deal with Brian’s modern approach to the same issues. It might be slightly amusing to Brian to tease Justin and push his boundaries like he’d been doing, but it had to be stressful for the younger man.

And that’s when it hit him; if Brian had behaved like he had today in Justin’s time, not only would they both get arrested, but they would also have had to face the legal ramifications for those actions. Their punishment could include anything up to and including jail time, ostracization and even chemical castration. That thought alone made Brian shiver. It was no wonder that Justin was uncomfortable with Brian’s out and proud displays. He really did need to rein in his overly enthusiastic gayness for Justin’s sake.

“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, Justin. I promise to dial down the displays. Okay?” Brian offered conciliatorily.

“Thank you, Brian,” Justin relented with a relieved smile.

“Good. Now, let’s get a move on, because I’ve got one more place to take you that I KNOW you’re going to love,” Brian said, closing the door on the minor spat and leading his charge up the stairs towards the exit with a renewed bounce in his step.

“Where are we going?” Justin laughed as Brian eagerly pulled him through the mass of people congregating in Leicester Square, weaving their way through the busy crowd heading towards Piccadilly Circus. “And why do we have to run there?”

“Look over there and you’ll see” Brian grinned as he lifted their entwined hands and pointed to the right, where a building was lit up in the most beautiful, bright, rainbow colors.

Justin looked confused as he read the name of the store outloud. “M&M’s World?”

“Yeah,” Brian walked them towards the store, their joined hands swinging between them. “This is where I got your candy from.”

“But what is it?” Justin’s nose wrinkled as he tried to see inside.

“It’s a candy store. A HUGE candy store. And the only candy they sell are M&M’s.” Saying it out loud, Brian realized how strange that sounded.

Justin’s mouth fell open. “But it’s . . . It’s massive! This whole place is just for one kind of candy? Who does that?”

“M&M’s does that, Blue Eyes. And, to use a Britishism, It’s BLOODY BRILLIANT!” Brian declared, tearing Justin away from his contemplation of the larger-than-life-sized Red M&M Beefeater Royal Guard that stood sentry at the entrance. “Come on, Justin. You’re going to love this place. And, if you’re a good little boy, I’ll buy you all the chocolate you possibly desire . . .”

Justin beamed one of his best, sunshiney smiles at Brian and then trotted after the bigger man as they made their way inside the heavenly smelling world of chocolate everything.