When Brian Kinney finally woke up, it was already half past twelve. Justin should have landed by now and taking his first steps in New York. He was glad he didn’t wake up on time to witness Justin leaving him one more time. Justin wasn’t leaving him per se but hey, he was flying to another city to pursue his dream of becoming the next Andy Warhol. Whatever “it’s only time” meant, it sure as hell didn’t mean “I’ll see you tonight”.

Brian went into the bathroom, showered, brushed his teeth, and went back into the bedroom. He wasn’t in the mood for getting dressed. With a towel secured around his waist, he got down the couple of steps between the bedroom and the rest of the loft and …

“Jesus Fucking Christ! What the fuck are you doing here?”

There, on one of the bar stools, Justin was sitting, reading a magazine and eating a huge bowl of fruit salad.

“Good morning to you too.”

Brian wasn’t sure he wasn’t simply imagining Justin. It had happened to him before so he couldn’t really laugh it off. But no, he wasn’t having a vision! Justin was in their kitchen, stuffing his face with fruits drowned in some sugary syrup.

“What the fuck are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in New York!”

“Yeah about that, I changed my mind! I am not going to New York. If Lindsay really thinks the sun shines in New York, she can go. I’ll buy her a ticket. But I am not going.”

“Justin don’t be ridiculous! You need to go!”

“I don’t need to do anything I don’t want to do! So Brian, if you really think that the woman who can’t decide whether she’s a lesbian or a bisexual, that the woman who was ready to involve her son in a criminal scheme, that the woman who has been lying to herself ever since she met you, knows what I should do better than I know, maybe you should go to her and ask her to marry you!”

Yeah, the little blond boy was no longer an afraid teenager looking for validation! He was a man who knew what he wanted and who knew that not every asshole needed a bat to bash another person. An article in an art magazine was good enough! When Chris bashed him, he lost himself. When Lindsay bashed him with that article, she brought back the seventeen-year-old boy who didn’t care about what anyone thought! And that new seventeen-year-old knew that Brian loved him. So really, the whole family was in for a couple of surprises!

“I need coffee.”

“Pour yourself a cup.”

Brian gave him a bland look and prepared his coffee. He drank half his cup before uttering a word.

“So you just woke up and decided that you’re staying here?”

“No! I never intended on going. But I knew better than telling you the truth. You would have pushed me off Mount Kinney and went to Linds and Mikey for support while they would be too happy to play best friends.”

Brian looked at him for a long moment. That wasn’t the same Justin he went to bed with last night. The man in front of him was different. The man in front of him was secure in their relationship and up to the fight of his life.

“So what’s the plan? You’re a little WASP prince, you always have a plan.”

Justin gave him his patented sunshine smile.

“Well…”