January 18

Brian rubbed the back of his neck and looked up from the computer, finally satisfied with the new boards for the new Eyeconics campaign. And it only took him three days of brow beating his art staff and then finally dragging Justin away from his studio to get it done. If he could only find a way to clone Justin, his work would be so much easier as he wouldn't have to repeat himself over and over again.

Then again, more than one Justin, while fun for a while, would likely end up being the death of him given the way he attracted trouble.

Sighing, he took a sip of his now lukewarm coffee and grimaced; ugh, that was for shit. Standing, he smiled as Gus lifted his head for a brief moment, before going back to his books and note taking. It was always nice to spend time with his, Sonny Boy; even if they weren't saying anything. Walking over to his wet bar, Brian dumped the cup down the sink and refilled it. Dumping an unhealthy amount of sugar into his cup, Brian swirled it with a coffee stick and walked back to his desk to finish up the work he'd brought home.

It had been a quiet Saturday morning, with Justin sleeping late due to his late night Twinkie adventure and subsequent 'punishment.' (Although, it wasn't much of a punishment when the twat enjoyed it so much.) Brian, on the other hand, had been up well before dawn as the munchers planned to drop off his Sonny Boy before they went on their latest adult-only weekend retreat.

Why they couldn't leave late last night, and save them all the early morning drop off, he didn't know; but, at least, it worked out to his advantage. He'd been able to get several hours of work done this morning without having to listen to Justin bitch about his working on the weekends. As if he were one to talk with his working on the nursery mural and sudden bursts of artistic inspiration. But, apparently, it was somehow different, as Justin said that he found painting or sketching to be relaxing, while Brian just turned into a 'big ball of stress.' his words.

But unfortunately, having your own business wasn't a nine-to-five, five-days-a-week-only job. It was a 'you will work whenever the hell you are needed because your staff can't seem to even shit without you' job, built up around the 'I am the customer and it will be my way or the highway' mentality. In other words, he didn't get a fucking break, and completely work-free weekends were a thing of the past; especially if he wanted to have everything in order for when he took paternity leave.

So, he and his Sonny Boy had retreated to his study, where Gus had flopped down on the couch and went back to sleep, while Brian started on his e-mail. He'd worked for about four hours straight, his only company being that of his Sonny Boy's snores; until, finally, Gus had awoken and shuffled off for a quick bowl of cereal before joining him in the study once more to work on his weekend homework.

Rubbing his hand over his eyes, Brian went back to the figures on his computer, and smiled when he heard familiar tread of footsteps making their way past the door towards the kitchen. He glanced at the clock and was surprised to note that it read eleven o'clock in the morning; and then snickered, he must have worn the twat out last night.

Smirking to himself, Brian took a long drink of his refreshed coffee, absently listening to the normal sounds of Justin puttering around in the kitchen while his coffee brewed. And that had been a bit of a contentious point between them. He was of the firm belief that Justin shouldn't be drinking it at all, but he'd been firmly overruled.

Although, hopefully, if things go right...

Brian had just taking another sip of his coffee when he heard a loud clatter in the kitchen, followed by a string of expletives that had him near blushing and Gus snickering at the other desk. Concerned, Brian was just about to get up and check on Justin when heavy footsteps stomped in his direction.

His husband stormed into the room in a high dudgeon, hair still sticking up in every direction as if he'd just rolled out of bed, which he likely had; clad in light-grey sweats and a long-sleeved blue shirt with a baby peeking through a zippered slit on his belly. And where he'd gotten that shirt, he didn't know, but he needed to fire the person bought it for or sold it to him because like Justin needed any more ratty t-shirts.

Justin stormed over to his desk and slammed a coffee mug down on the desk in front of him, a snarl on his face. The sugared and creamed brown liquid sloshed dangerously in the mug, but luckily didn't spill out onto his very expensive, antique, mahogany desk. Otherwise he'd have to pull him over his lap for a firm spanking.

"What is this shit?" Justin sneered, pointing to the liquid in the mug.

Brian glanced down at the mug and then looked back up at Justin with an arched brow and a bland smile on his face. "Coffee?"

"No, this is not coffee!" Justin snarled, stabbing his finger at the mug in question. "This is some decaffeinated shit that you tried to substitute for my coffee and failed miserably! Which would have been obvious had you'd actually tasted it before trying to be sneaky and pouring the beans into my regular container."

Fuck; he probably should have tasted it. But he'd taken Ted's word for it when he said he'd used the brand and Blake hadn't even noticed the difference. Then again, Blake used to drink the Diner's coffee without flinching, and Justin had become a true connoisseur of the stuff due to Brian's influence. So, he really should have done more research on that before making the switch. However, in his defense, he'd been a bit sleep deprived lately.

Brian met his husband's glare head on and quickly tried to come up with a plausible explanation for the switch, but couldn't. He was busted and he knew it; so he went with the only defense he had left.

"The book said…" Brian said, cringing internally at his almost pious tone; Christ, this pregnancy really was screwing with his head. He needed to do a ball check after this conversation just to make sure they were still there.

"I don't care what the book said," Justin cut in with a near fanatical gleam in his eyes. "My doctor said I can have one cup of coffee per day. And I will damn well have my one cup of coffee per day."

Yeah, that would be the asshole that overrode him and reassured Justin that, 'of course, you can drink coffee every day. In fact, you can safely consume up to 200 mg, which is the equivalent of twelve ounces of coffee, per day. Although, I would prefer you stick one cup. No need to tempt fate.' He wasn't sure what Justin had wanted to do more in that moment – cry in relief or dance a jig.

"Be reasonable, Sunshine," Brian tried again, but wisely shut up when Justin hissed and bared his teeth.

"There is no reasonable about this shit," Justin said in a low, controlled voice that sent a chill down Brian's spine. "I am allotted up one cup of coffee per day and I will get it." Justin held out one hand, palm up. "Give me my damn coffee, now! Or Sunbeam will only have one father to deal with!"

"Okay, okay," Brian huffed and got out of his chair; he walked over to the wet bar and grabbed the container of coffee he'd stored under the sink, because like hell was he going to throw it out. Those were premium grounds. He walked back over and handed it to Justin. "Fuck, here's your coffee."

"Thank you," Justin said, hugging the can to his chest as he gave Brian the evil eye. "I will be putting this back in the cupboard where it belongs and you will leave it there or else. No touchies!"

With that messaged imparted, Justin stormed back out of the study and headed toward the kitchen; likely to brew a new cup of coffee. Sitting down heavily in his chair, Brian sighed and rubbed his temples, trying to fight off the headache that was suddenly blooming behind his eyes. And to think, he had the utmost pleasure of dealing with this shit for the next four months. Joy.

"I told you to leave his coffee alone," Gus piped up, snickering as he looked over at Brian, a very familiar tongue in cheek smirk on his face.

Brian huffed again, and mock glared at his Sonny Boy; he wished that he could refute that claim, but he couldn't. When he'd first discussed it with Ted, Gus happened to be in the room. His Sonny Boy had laughed until he was crying and said he couldn't wait for the fireworks to start when his Jus figured out that they'd been messing with his coffee.

"Thanks for the support, Sonny Boy," Brian said dryly, rolling his eyes as Gus just snickered once more.

"Christ, Dad," Gus said, turning back to his books. "Even I know better than to come between Jus and his coffee. You really must have a death wish."

And so spake his darling progeny; so much for having each other's backs.

Turning back to his computer, Brian pulled up the internet, typed a few words into Google and began his research on decaf coffees because like hell was he giving up on this venture yet. He will find a way to limit Justin's caffeine intake  if it was the last thing he did.