A/N: Thank you to all who are reviewing! It makes my day!!

Disclaimer: This is fanfiction only. No money is being made whatsoever, I just love Queer as Folk. Characters are out of character and Brian is a little younger.

Chapter 5

IN THE BEDROOM

All the long way up to Brian's apartments, Justin looked around him as if he were at the finest museum of art, looking at all the art and tapestries and urns and suits of armor that decorated the halls. However, all this stuff was lost on Brian who'd seen it for the 25 years of his life that he'd been there. But every time he'd try to move things along, the frog would say: "Hold up! Hold up! I'll never get to see this again in my life! Slow down! Slow down!...Or I could call your father..."

And so Brian was forced to slow down. The whole trip was like travelling through molasses and twice as torturous. It took forever.

However, at last...at last they were there. Brian slid open the heavy iron door, dumped the cushion on a chair and slammed it shut again and locked it. (Every royal had been allowed to decorate their apartments any way they'd liked and Brian had had some very interesting ideas.)

Justin's bulgy eyes roamed around the room, taking in the nice living area with leather couches, small kitchen and the absolutely HUGE bed dominating the center of the space.

"Nice place," he commented politely.

"I don't care what you think. You shouldn't be in it," Brian said rudely.

"We made a deal," pointed out the frog.

"A deal you forced me to make. There was no other way to get my ball back. It was coercion. When it comes right down to it, you're nothing but a wretched blackmailer!"

"Nevertheless, the deal was done. And your father expects me tomorrow morning. So how about we try and make the best of it?"

"Fine," said Brian, simply because there was nothing else for him to say, "What do you want to do?"

"I'm hungry. I'd like to eat, now that it is just you and me."

"OK." Brian opened the window and put the steak on the windowsill. "You'll have to wait a bit though. We're a ways up."

"Oh, that's all right. I'm quite used to waiting," answered Justin.

"Hey yeah, we are a ways up. A LONG ways up. I should just throw you out! Then I'd be rid of you once and for all! Oh dear! I'm sorry Father! You know how he liked to grandstand! He was showing off and there was nothing I could do!" Brian snickered evilly and advanced.

Justin hopped away to safety. There's only one flaw with that plan, my Prince."

"Oh? And what's that?'

"Uhhh...my kung fu, remember? I could have you out that window light years before you could get me. And besides, it's common knowledge that frogs are made of rubber. That's what makes us so shiny. So if by some miracle, you did get me out the window, and if I didn't land in the moat, I'd just tuck into a ball and bounce along the ground a bit. Then a short hop to the front gates, a short chat with your father and soon after you'd be arrested for attempted toadacide!"

"Rubber!? That's ridiculous!"

"So are talking frogs. And yet...here we are!"

Brian stood there tensed for a few moments and then turned away. He gave a muted sob.

"Oh I don't believe you for a minute! But anyway, you are right about your martial art skill. Besides I don't want you dead! I just want you gone! I don't want to share my bed with a frog! It's disgusting!" He sank onto the sofa and buried his head into his hands. His shoulders shook but he made no sound.

Justin looked at the Prince and hopped across the floor to him. He hopped up onto the sofa and then onto the back and looked at the sad Prince and his sorrow was mirrored in his big black eyes.

"Oh my Prince! I did not do this to make you unhappy. I truly wanted us to become friends. From what you told me about yourself, I thought you really needed someone and as for me...I wanted to share my life...such as it is...and not be alone when the end comes."

"You keep saying that. Are you so near death?"

"I think so. Frogs do not live as long as humans and I feel as if I have lived a long life...from a froggy point of view. And so, even though the winter has come and gone and spring is here and blooming, I think the autumn of my life is upon me. I fear my end is near. I did not want to be alone. But I do not want to be with you here this way, if it only going to cause you unhappiness. I'll tell you what. Let's make it double or nothing. If you can give me a kiss, I'll leave. I'll arrange it with the King so you don't get in trouble. I'll leave and you'll never see me again. If not, then I stay, without the hostility."

"Kiss you!?" Brian recoiled in revulsion.

"On the cheek. No tongue. I promise," Justin said, winking.

"Oh...." Brian took a deep breath, and bent toward the frog. Closer and closer he came. He puckered up...I can do this....I can do this...he thought.

"Uuuuggghhhhhhh!!! I cannot do this! I just can't! Oh, it's too horrible!" Brian moved away at the last second and resumed his place of despair on the couch.
"All right then! The deal stands! And it looks like my dinner is here. I must admit, I love Fly Take Out! And a pity this meat isn't a little older. I could have had some flied lice!"

Justin hopped over to a bedside table near the window and Zip! Zip! He began to snatch up the large horseflies that the meat was attracting.

After a delicious meal of horseflies, gnats, fruit flies, and even a big dragonfly that blundered over, Justin declared he was done. Brian knocked the meat out the window where it would fall into the moat and be eaten by the crocodile living there and shoo ed most of the remaining flies out the window and closed it. There were a few remaining but Justin hopped carefully around and hunted them all down.

"So...what do we do now?" asked Brian sulkily. The hostility had evaporated somewhat but he was still a sore loser.

"Well...why don't we just move on and pretend the accident had never happened and there were no bad feelings. There's no well here. Show me some more of those moves you were trying to show me yesterday."

"Hmmmmm.....well, it's not high enough for a high throw....but you're not the only one who can juggle, you know. And he grabbed his golden nut, and a few walnuts from a bowl and proceeded to juggle six nuts in a circle, then in a high circle, then in a criss-cross formation, and then threw one to Justin who caught it deftly. He threw it back. Brian threw him two. They began a back and forth routine as if they'd been practicing for years.

"There once was a man from Kantucket..." Brian began a filthy limerick, trying to make Justin disgusted or laugh or both.

To his grudging admiration though, Justin didn't break focus and instead began his own, filthier, more disgusting limerick. Brian quirked an eyebrow. Justin stuck out his tongue, grabbed a walnut and then spit it out and hit Brian in the forehead, a glancing blow, right between the eyes. Brian threw everything up and broke out laughing. He couldn't help it. This was all so ridiculous. He was juggling and trading poetry and being friends....with a frog! It was something that had never been heard of or would ever be heard of again.

And at that moment, something in Brian relented and relaxed and he smiled, a real smile for the first time in what seemed like forever.

"I'm sorry I've been horrible," he apologized, "I'll...I'll even give you that kiss if you'd like. To make up for being a sore loser."

Justin's froggy smile dimmed.

"What's the matter?"

"You want me gone. You want to kiss me so I'll leave."

"No. You can still stay. Here, this is your pillow." Brian came over and picked up Justin and carried him over to the bed and laid him on one of the many silken bed pillows. He laid down beside him. "Just be sure to stay on your side," he teased.

"I'll try and control myself," Justin returned flippantly.

And that's when Brian leaned over and kissed Justin on his shiny smooth cheek before he entirely lost his nerve.