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Author's Chapter Notes:

I have to admit, everybody's comments made LOL when they realized I wasn't disclosing Sunbeam's sex. And, yes, you read that right; I won't be telling you the gender because I'm evil like that. However, I am not completely heartless; so, let's play a game. If you can guess the sex and the day Sunbeam is born, I will write you something. This offer is limited to completely new one-shots or vignettes or chapters for my existing stories. A few things to keep in mind if you are going to make a guess - Justin's due date is June 11; BUT he will NOT deliver on that date. I won't tell you if he will deliver early or late, but I will tell you that the birth sign will remain Gemini, so no worries on a too early birth. (While I might mess with the boys a bit by adding some stress and intrigue, I won't do that to them.) And, if you choose to guess on multiples (I'm sure someone will), make sure to give the gender of each and whether you think they will be fraternal or identical. The last part won't really play part in the game, but I'm curious what people would think. Lastly, you CAN make up to three guesses, but I will only take guesses up to the end of MAY story line wise; which may not match up to the current calendar year. Hopefully, this will keep people from killing me for being a brat and not telling you. On with the show!


 

January 11

Justin put a dab of yellow paint in the middle of the white daisy he’d painted on the wall and stood back to admire his handiwork. He was quite pleased with the way the forest mural was taking shape and couldn’t wait for the full thing to finally come together. Hopefully, that would be sooner rather than later; however, with the snail’s pace he'd had to work at, he had a feeling this project would take him much of his pregnancy.

Due to the potential toxicity of the paints and other chemicals he worked with, he'd promised to take this slowly and to work on it no more than four hours a day, broken up into one hour segments. A promise that Brian had extracted from him during one of their drawn-out lovemaking sessions, when Justin was far too weak and incoherent to do anything other than agree with him.

Sneaky bastard.

Not that he hadn’t agreed with the need to be careful, (even if he had ordered natural paints from BioShield and Valspar for this very reason). He just would have negotiated a couple of more hours of painting time per day if he’d been thinking straight. But once he’d promised, Brian wouldn’t budge on it and even told their housekeeper, Anna, the rules so she could pry Justin out of the room at the right time.

His husband could be an overbearing bastard sometimes.

The other conditions he’d been expected to meet, were that each time he painted, he had to wear a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, gloves and a filtered, face mask so that he didn’t breathe too many fumes; that combined with the room being well ventilated. As, while they hadn’t found any studies that showed that paint fumes were detrimental to the baby, neither of them were willing to take any chances with Sunbeam. All of which he complied to in order keep Brian from hovering over his shoulder.

But he had to admit, he really hated being swaddled up like a mummy. It was really annoying when he couldn't so much as push up his sleeves while he was painting without incurring his husband's wrath, but he did it to keep the peace.

He supposed that he could've saved himself the hassle and just hired out someone else to bring the mural to life like his mother suggested, but there was no way in hell that Justin would allow it. It was his baby, and his nursery, and his fucking vision. And oo one, but no one, other than him would be creating this particular wonderland. Even if it fucking took him right up until the day Sunbeam was born.

Setting the brush aside, Justin glanced at the clock and grimaced to see his time was nearly up. Something made evident by the heavy tread of footsteps on the stairs. Rolling his eyes, Justin took his brushes into the bathroom to wash, ignoring said footsteps as they got closer and closer to the door. Really, Brian was beyond predictable at times.

“Justin?” Brian called as soon as he stepped over the threshold of the nursery, and then went silent as he admired the new touches to the mural. Or so Justin guessed.

“In here,” Justin called, swishing his brushes through solvent, careful not to spill any on him. “I’m just cleaning my brushes.”

And then he mentally counted to three in his head and forced back of huff of irritation when Brian heaved the expected exasperated sigh. Honestly, you'd think that Justin wasn't able to take care of himself by the way he acted.

“I told you to let me take care of that,” Brian huffed as he stalked across the room and entered the bathroom with a frown.

“I can take care of it myself,” Justin griped, swatting Brian’s hands away. “Honestly, I’m pregnant; not a fucking invalid. I can manage to drag a paint brush back and forth through liquid on my own without any interference.”

“Yes, Justin,” Brian groused, grabbing at his paintbrush again. “You are pregnant, which is why it would be better that I deal with the potentially toxic chemicals.”

Fed up, Justin dropped the brush and whirled around, his hands on his hips.

“What toxic chemicals?” he demanded in a highly irritated voice; because as if he’d endanger himself and Sunbeam. “Everything I have been using is non-toxic from the natural-based paints to the cleaners; which, by the way, is a mixture of water and fabric softener. And still, I have been adhering to your rules of taking breaks often and bundling myself up like a fucking mummy just so you won’t bitch too much. You know I’d never do anything to harm Sunbeam.”

Brian just glared for a moment longer, and then huffed, his face softening as he walked over and leaned his brow against the top of Justin's head.

“I know,” Brian said with a sheepish smile on his face. He pressed a kiss to Justin’s temple as he whispered. “I just worry about you and Sunbeam. You are my life and I don’t want anything to happen to either of you.”

And really, that was just so unfair. How the hell was he supposed to stay angry when his husband said shit like that?

“Not fair,” he muttered for good measure; Brian just grinned like the unrepentant bastard that he was. “So, now that you know the helpless, little waif is perfectly capable of taking care of himself – go away so I clean my damned brushes."

Brian snorted, but backed away with his hands held up in supplication.

“I’ll meet you down in the kitchen for lunch, Sunshine,” Brian said, a tongue in cheek smirk on his face. “I want to make sure that I get my fill before you and your bottomless pit of a stomach ravage it leaving me to waste away to nothing.”

Justin scowled; had he mentioned his husband can be an irritating asshole at times?

Justin flipped him off, muttering under his breath as Brian just laughed and walked out of the room, presumably to go get said lunch. Like it was Justin’s fault that Sunbeam had made his already healthy appetite nearly voracious.

He finished cleaning his brushes and set them into a container to dry, and then dumped the ‘solvent’ into a slop bucket for later disposal. He quickly stripped off his gloves and mask and set them to the side and all but galloped down the back stairs leading directly into the kitchen, his stomach growling. He strode through the door and over the sink, pushed up his sleeves and washed his hands.

“So, what’s on the menu today?” Justin asked, looking over at Brian, who was spooning up something up into a bowl.

“Anna made butternut squash soup yesterday,” Brian said as he set the bowl aside and filled another with the fragrant soup. “I know it’s one of your favorites. So, I heated that up, made a quick salad and grilled some chicken for sandwiches. You’ll have to have to make your own sandwich, however, as I have no idea what you want on it.”

Justin snorted as he saw Brian cringe a little as he said that last part. While most of his strange cravings were due to Sunbeam, he did admit that sometimes he just couldn’t help messing with Brian a bit when it came to his food combinations. Luckily for him, today, Justin just wanted his normal chicken sandwich. Walking over to the cupboard, he pulled the honey wheat bread down and quickly assembled a sandwich with cranberry aioli, chicken, pepper jack, spinach and tomatoes.

He set his sandwich next to the bowl of soup and then walked over to pull out plates for their salad. He handed them off to Brian and grabbed a couple of tangerines and a banana to add to the growing pile next to his plate before grabbing the milk and pouring himself a large glass. He set it down by his plate and looked around, just knowing he was missing something, but he couldn’t figure out what.

Justin shrugged and sat down, and helped himself to the salad, while Brian just watched in amusement. He took a few bites of his meal, listening as Brian started filling him in on one of their new accounts, and then he frowned as he tasted the soup. Taking another bite, he swirled it over his palate, his frown deepening. It was good; really good actually, but there was just something missing.

“Is something wrong?” Brian asked, halting his commentary with a wary look.

“This needs something,” Justin said as he got up from the table and walked over to the refrigerator and began to dig through it.

“Of course it does,” Brian said in resignation; and Justin would have found the dread written all over his face amusing if he hadn’t been far too busy looking for that elusive thing that the soup needed.

“Ah ha!” He exclaimed and pulled out a little pot of crème fraîche. And then he spied the apple pie from the night before and pulled that out too.

Justin happily made his way back to the table with his finds, snickering when Brian sighed with relief at his newest additions. He spooned a large dollop of the crème fraîche into his soup and swirled it around and then took another bite, humming happily when the soup was now perfect. He quickly demolished the sandwich, salad, fruit and the soup and was just reaching for the pie when Brian huffed.

“You know, Sunshine,” Brian said, his voice dry as the Sahara. “When the doctor said that you should consume an extra three hundred calories, I’m pretty sure that she meant three hundred a day, not per meal.”

Justin scowled and flipped Brian off for the second time that day; because, really? He was just asking to get his ass kicked at this point if was implying that - in any way, shape or form - that Justin was getting fat. He was barely showing as it was and thought he was doing pretty well for four months pregnant.

“My, we are tetchy today,” Brian snickered as he finished his salad; he stood and came up behind Justin to grab his plate, crowding him as he leaned down to whisper hotly against his ear. “It’s a good thing that I know exactly how to deal with tetchy little boys; don’t I, Sunshine?” Justin paused mid bite, his dick going zero to sixty in less than a second. Fuck his hormones; especially when Brian licked the shell of his ear and said. “And I have the perfect way to work off those excess calories.”

Justin looked down at his plate for a second and then, dropping his fork, quickly stood and grabbed Brian by his shirt and dragged him out of the room.

The pie could definitely wait.

 

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