Chapter 2

“Justin,” Brian breathed as he was almost crushed to death by the younger man that was holding on for dear life. Brian just took in his scent and held him close, not daring to open his eyes in fear that all of this would turn out to be a bad dream. A dream which tortured him with the promise of a better life, only to have him realise that it was a dream and would never become true.

“Brian, God...,” Justin muttered, holding on to all of Brian that he could touch, not letting go for even a second.

After several minutes of them just hugging, Justin pulled back slightly and took Brian's face in his hands, watching the closed eyes of his former tutor and lover.

“Brian... look at me...,” he whispered, but Brian didn't open his eyes. He only shook his head and pulled Justin close again. “Brian, please... Look at me,” Justin whispered again, but once again Brian refused to open his eyes and look at the young man.

Justin could only imagine the turmoil Brian had to be in and could only imagine how hard the last four and a half years since he had been sold by Justin's father had to have been for the slave.

Not knowing what to do or how to handle their reunion, Justin did the one thing that came to his mind. He leaned in and sighed happily as his lips touched Brian's in a gentle, hesitant kiss.

At first Brian didn't respond other than pressing his lips to Justin's, but once Justin begged for entrance, Brian knew he had no choice. He had always been powerless where the young blond was concerned and if he was honest with himself for just one second, he wanted this kiss. He needed it. Even if it was just a dream. He needed something good in his life just for once, even if it only lasted for a few seconds.

In the end Brian started to kiss Justin back and once their tongues started the age old duel, Brian felt his body taking over. There was no way he could kiss this man and not look into his blue eyes, eyes that were windows to his soul. Brian slowly opened his eyes, prepared to see Justin disappear as he realised that it had all been a dream, but Justin didn't disappear. The young man was still here, was still holding him and kissing him and looking at him from shining, blue eyes.

Brian couldn't help but gasp as he realised that this wasn't a dream, but reality and that he was really holding Justin. The one man he could call a lover and someone he had cared about deeply in his fucked up life. The one man who had loved him and had cared for him and had tried to protect him with all his might.

Memories came flooding Brian's mind and he couldn't wave them away even though he wanted to. Memories of them being caught as they had sex in Justin's room that fateful afternoon. Memories of Justin's father, Craig Taylor, punishing him with a broom in a way he deemed “right for gay monsters” like himself. Memories of the pain he had been in once Craig Taylor had been done mutilating his asshole with the broom. Memories of Justin's face covered in tears when he had seen what his father had done to Brian, memories of Justin's secret visits as Brian was recovering from Craig Taylor's vicious attack, promises Justin had made at his bedside, promises of saving him, of protecting him from his father. Promises Brian had never believed in, knowing that Justin wouldn't be able to keep them probably didn't mean them anyway and then memories of Justin's cries when he himself had realised that he couldn't keep his promises to Brian, when he had realised what his father had planned for Brian's future and that there was nothing he could do to stop his father.

Brian had to pull back from their kiss as more memories assaulted him and he remembered the last time he had seen Justin at the Taylor residence. When Craig Taylor had violently pulled him out of his room and pushed him towards the door where Brian could see the car from the slave agency waiting for him, waiting to take him to his new life of pain and even more pain.

Not wanting these memories, Brian shook his head over and over, willing them to go away, but they just wouldn't. Watching Brian's face and reaction, Justin knew immediately what was going through the older man's head as the same memories had been plaguing his mind for years as well.

“What is going on here? Where are you taking him?” Brian could hear Justin's angry voice as the young boy came running down the stairs, heading towards where his father was pulling Brian out of the house.

“Go back to your room, Justin,” Craig Taylor angrily yelled at his son, further pulling Brian towards the door and the waiting car.

“I will do no such thing. Let him go! You have hurt him enough,” the blond angrily yelled at his father and Brian couldn't help but be amazed by the young man's strength. Even though it was utterly hopeless, he was still standing up to his father.

“Your room. NOW!” Craig Taylor yelled once more and when Justin didn't do as his father had requested, he slapped Justin hard in the face.

Brian couldn't watch on as his lover, boyfriend, partner or whatever you wanted to call Justin got hit by his father. He freed himself from Craig Taylor's grip and punched the man hard in his arrogant, sick face. “Leave him the fuck alone,” Brian angrily yelled, before making his way over to where Justin was cowering on the floor, holding his face in pain and obvious disbelief that his father had slapped him.

“Are you okay?” Brian asked, running his hands over the young man's face and sighing in relief when Justin nodded.

“Brian, I...,” Justin started, but they were interrupted by Craig Taylor who violently pulled Brian away by his hairs, nearly pulling out the man's hair in the process.

“Dad! Stop it! STOP IT!” Justin yelled, following his father and Brian as they headed out of the house towards the waiting car. Justin knew that the car belonged to slave traders. His father had taunted him for weeks that he would sell Brian to slave traders that would turn him into a pleasure slave, but he hadn't believed that his father would actually go through with it. So far Justin had only thought his father was threatening him and wanted to scare him.

“Go to your room, Justin. This is my last warning,” Craig Taylor sneered at his son as he handed Brian over to the waiting men next to the car.

“Dad, don't! I love him! I LOVE HIM!” Justin was now yelling, tears running down his face as he looked from his father's cold face to Brian's pained as Brian was put into the car of the slave traders.

“You don't know what love is and you certainly don't love an animal like him!” his father snapped as he yanked Justin's arm to get him to pull back from the car and let them leave. “He will get what he deserves for molesting you! He will get the punishment animals like him deserve!”

“He didn't molest me. I wanted him to fuck me! I WANTED HIM!” Justin yelled at his father, who only ignored him and turned back to the house, pulling a still yelling Justin with him.

Getting desperate, Justin pulled away from his father's grasp and ran towards the car where Brian was being shackled to the middle console. Justin opened the door and tried to pull Brian out of the car, but he was being stopped by two big slave traders that were immediately at his side. He tried to fight them, but knew that it was futile. They were so much bigger and stronger than him. In the end he did the only thing he could think of and focused his gaze on Brian.

“I love you! I will find you! Trust me. I will find you, Brian. I will not give up on us,” he repeated over and over again as the bigger man pushed him back, closed the door and then drove away with the man Justin loved more than life itself.

“Brian,” Justin whispered, running his hand over the older man's cheek, trying to bring him back to the here and now. “It's okay... it's okay... it's real. We're really here,” he repeated over and over until he saw the older man's gaze clear and focus on his face.

“How?” was all Brian could ask, looking at the man opposite him in obvious wonder and confusion. He had thought he would never see the man again and voiced as much.

“Come inside and lets have a drink. I think we both need it,” Justin smiled gently as he took Brian's hand and pulled him into what turned out to be quite a big, modern loft. Looking at the outside of the building Brian would have never guessed that a place like this could be hiding inside this building.

Brian followed Justin towards the kitchen island and gratefully took the glass of whiskey Justin had poured for each of them. He downed it in one gulp. He watched as Justin sat down on one of the bar stools and did the same, eyeing the younger man opposite him, still not able to believe that Justin was really here and that they had finally been reunited after four and a half long, agonizing years apart.

“How?” Was all Brian could ask again, looking at the younger man from glassy, pained hazel eyes.

“I...,” Justin started, but didn't quite know what to say. He had thought about this moment for years, had thought about what he wanted to say to Brian for years, had planned this whole conversation in his head, but now that Brian was here, sitting opposite him, he just couldn't find the right words. In the end he settled on the ones he knew were the most important and needed to be said the most.

“I am so sorry, Brian. So sorry,” he muttered, not looking into Brian's eyes as he took the older man's hand and squeezed it gently.

“For what?” The older man could only frown, wondering what Justin would be sorry for. None of what had happened had been Justin's fault. Brian had been the one who should have known better. He had been the adult and the slave. He had been the one who had been aware of the dangers. Justin had merely been a 17-year old teenager. He definitely had not been the one to blame.

“That it took me so long to find you,” the younger man got out before he broke down in tears, sobbing violently at Brian's side.

“Shhhh,” Brian tried to comfort him, taking him into his arms and pulling him close. “It's not your fault. None of this is your fault.” He didn't know if Justin believed him, but gradually he calmed down and stopped crying.

“It is. It was my father that did those horrible things to you... It was my father that... that sold you to those sick perverts and... it's all my fault because he caught us in my room when... when I should have known better...,” Justin started, refusing to look at Brian until the older man forced him to meet his gaze.

“It was not your fault! You hear me? Not your fault! You couldn't have known what he would do and... you didn't make him do the things he did,” Brian whispered, thinking back to how he had been mutilated by that broom and how painful it had been. “I was the adult and I should have known better. I should have stopped you, but I didn't... If at all, this is my fault and not yours,” Brian said, hoping that he could get through to the young man.

“You don't blame me?” Justin asked and Brian could easily see the fear in his blue eyes.

“Never have, never will,” Brian whispered, before he pulled Justin close again, pressing their lips together once more. “None of this was your fault.”

They stayed in their embrace, their lips gently pressed together for what felt like hours, before Brian pulled back, running his hand through Justin's hair.

“I can't believe you're here. I... I have never thought that I would ever see you again...”

“It's real, Brian,” Justin whispered, smiling one of his famous smiles at Brian. God, Brian had loved those smiles. Whenever he had seen Justin smile like that, he had known that everything would be alright. How could it not be?

“How?” Brian repeated his earlier question, hoping that Justin would now be able to give him an answer.

Looking at their still joined hands in Brian's lap, Justin took a deep breath before he began telling Brian his story.

“I promised you that I would find you and I did,” Justin started, but stopped again when he saw Brian lowering his eyes. “You didn't believe me.... you never have,” Justin whispered when he realised what the expression on Brian's face meant.

Brian shook his head sadly. “I... I couldn't allow myself to. It... hope is a dangerous thing when you're a slave. I just couldn't allow myself to give in to that hope.”

Justin could easily hear the pain in the older man's voice and he knew that they would have to talk about the last almost five years more, but now, it didn't matter. They would have time. All the time in the world. In the end he just nodded, he could understand what Brian was saying. He might have never been a slave himself, but he had seen the way Brian had been treated by his own father, he had heard the stories that were told at anti-slavery rallyes and he had a pretty good idea what Brian's life had been like these last four and a half years. He knew about Sapperstein's reputation and it pained him that he hadn't been able to save Brian from that monster's grasp earlier.

“I made a vow to myself that day. That I would not let my father win. I would not let him destroy what had become the best part of my life. I... I just had to figure out a way to go about it all,” Justin started, squeezing Brian's hand that was holding his.

“My father and I... we had a terrible disagreement that day. He just couldn't accept that I was gay and that you being away would not change the fact that I was still gay. He thought it had been all you, but... he couldn't understand that I loved you and meant it. So... I packed my shit that very same day and left the house.”

Brian gasped and looked at Justin from wide eyes. “You what?”

Justin shrugged. “I couldn't stay under his roof for a minute longer, not after what he had done and after what I knew he would do to me. I knew he would force me to live a life according to his ideas and never the life that I wanted. I didn't want to be married to a society heiress and I didn't want to take over Taylor Electronics one day and I knew that if I ever wanted a chance at my own life, I had to leave. So I packed one duffle bag of clothes and my sketchpad and left without ever looking bad.”

Brian looked at the young man opposite him in absolute amazement. Justin had only been 17 at the time and had still left the only home he had ever known.

“I went to Liberty Avenue, knowing that it was a well known gay area of town and was hoping that I would find some help there. I was looking for a shelter or some charity that would help young, gay teens and while I was looking, I met this woman who was really nice. She could see the situation I was in and she offered me a job at the diner she worked at. She also offered me a room in her house when she found out that I didn't have a place to go and... she and her family became my family. I have found great friends and a great family on Liberty Avenue and... I have never looked back once. My father disinherited me and closed my college fund and for a time I had no idea how I was ever going to find you and save you. I didn't even know how to support myself. In the end, one of my new friends, who is a professor at CMU, helped me apply for grants and loans and he helped me get into PIFA. Now that my father was no longer part of my life, there was no need to go for the business degree he wanted me to get and I could focus on my art as I had always wanted to. During my second year of college, her son, who is a real comic book geek came up with this anti-slavery story that was inspired by a real life friend of theirs. He asked me to illustrate it and it was published as a comic shortly after. It became really popular in anti-slavery circles and it paid the bills. It allowed me to just focus on college and get my degree faster. It also allowed me to found my own graphic design company once I had finished college. The company did really well and it allowed me to buy this loft, to dabble in art and to continue working on the comic with him. It has given me freedom and … it has given me the means to start looking for you,” Justin ended, looking at Brian's hazel eyes.

“It wasn't easy to find any information as I could hardly go and just ask my father where he had sold you off to, but a cop friend was able to find out what slave agency the car belonged to that had taken you away that day. He also helped put some pressure on them, so they would give us the information where you had been sold to. Once we knew you were owned by Sapperstein, we just had to try to convince him to sell you.”

“How did you?” Brian asked, amazed by the story he was hearing. He couldn't believe that Justin had gone through all that trouble for him.

“Money... In the end that's all they care about in those circles. I... I just had to make an offer he couldn't refuse and then he signed over your ownership to me.”

“And now?” Brian frowned, not sure about what was going to happen next. This couldn't be it, could it? It couldn't be that easy in the end to escape from Sapperstein's clutches.

“Now you're safe, Brian. It's finally over,” Justin whispered, looking at the older man from sincere eyes.

“Safe?” Brian couldn't believe it. Not after all these years of pain and torture.

“Yes, you're safe, Brian. It's over,” Justin repeated, this time pulling the older man closer and sealing his statement with a gentle kiss.