THE ICE KING

Chapter 11

What Happened With Brian

         And now....and now... you simply must be wondering what happened to Brian after the Ice King exploded off the roof carrying him off and away from Justin who was tossed in the corner the way someone tosses a bag of ice into the freezer.

         And you must be wondering why I've taken so long to tell you. Well, that is simply because the things that happened to Brian are so much more straightforward than what happened to Justin, that is takes almost no time at all to tell you.

         HEY! Hey you! And you! And you in the third row! And YOU!! Yes, especially YOU! I said ALMOST no time to tell you. Sit your ass back down! That's better! Now if I may continue...? Thank you.

         The Ice King blasted off with Brian high into the air. He gathered all his freezing forces, the air, the snow, and the ice and used them to surround himself with a neverending blizzard, a cyclone of cold. And riding this blizzard, he carried Brian all the way back to the North.  And because the Ice King was and is a powerful supernatural being made for the cold, made of cold, and because Brian was safe in his cocoon of ice, they needed no stops. And so, a trip that took Justin a matter of days travel including air travel via the North Wind and 23 days of adventuring, took the Ice King only 23 minutes to complete.

         As the Ice King approached his castle, he made a sweeping gesture and swept away all the ice and snow, leaving only a cushion of wind to sit on. Santa's village was visible but it was small because they were high above his own castle and approaching it from above.

         "Wake up, My Treasure," said the Ice King, and the very power of his words caused Brian's ice cocoon to crack and shatter in a million pieces. Brian stirred and blinked and then opened his eyes. They were brown as usual but the Ice King detected that they were a slightly more lukewarm brown color than before.

         Brian gave a cold smile but snuggled into the Ice King's snowy robe as if it were made of the warmest furs. "MMMM," he groaned in pleasure, "Hello. Where are we?"

         "We are approaching my palace," answered the Ice King, "It is down there." He pointed.

         Brian looked. "It's very beautiful. But it's hardly perfect."

         The Ice King laughed. "No, my dear, it is not. That is not the perfect thing I shall show you."

         "Then what is?" asked Brian impatiently.

         "All in good time," was the only thing the Ice King would say.

         "What is that place at the foot of the mountain?"

         "Brian!" the Ice King boomed, "I have taken you under my wing and granted you My protection and patronage but you must not forget your place! I am the Terrible and Great, the Powerful and Majestic Ice King and you must address me as you would a king!"

         "Yes Your Majesty. I'm sorry, Your Majesty," apologized Brian. Not many things in this world intimidated Brian but flying 1000 feet up pressed against a giant man made out of ice was one of them. He figured it would probably be best not to piss this guy off.

         "That's all right," replied the Ice King.

         "What is that place, Your Majesty?" Brian asked again.

         "It is Santa's village," answered the Ice King.

         "Santa's village! But that's...that's..."

         "A children's story? A fairy tale?" the Ice King finished for him in amusement.

         ‘Well, yes! Uh...You Majesty."

         "The Ice King smiled at his submission and replied, "What better way to keep something hidden than to convince everyone it doesn't exist! If nobody looks, nobody finds!"

         And laughing in joy at Brian's open-mouthed astonishment, the Ice King swept them both into the courtyard and then into the castle itself.

         There was a fabulous Great Hall with an enormous cut ice staircase. To the right and left were two huge arched doorways. The Ice King swept him through the left door but it really didn't matter. Both doors led to the same place.

         They turned a corner and went down a long hall that seemed like a mile.(since it was) All along this hall was the most fabulous artwork and tapestries you could imagine. They depicted scenes so sad they would make the most hard-hearted person cry. Others were so funny they would have had the most depressed person rolling on the floor in hysterics. Brian thought they were all lovely but he always ended with "But they are not perfect." The Ice King would only laugh and press him onward. There was a turn to the right and there was an enormous set of double doors on their left.

         The Ice King blustered his way in through these doors and Brian found himself in a room that was as large as two football fields and twice as high as any cathedral. It was as cold as a deep freeze but Brian didn`t notice.

         At the opposite end of the room was an enormous throne, ornately and delicately ice sculpted with decorations and pictures and symbols. It was the most beautiful thing Brian had seen. On the left and right were two smaller, simpler ice thrones.

         Brian commented on the thrones especially the most beautiful one but he finished with, "But it's not perfect."

         "No. That is my throne and the two smaller ones belong to the four winds. But they are not the perfect thing I have brought you to see."

         "Then what is?"

         "All in good time," was all the Ice King would say.

         "Why are there only two thrones for four winds?" asked Brian.

         "Because although they are twins, the east wind is always as far from the west as they can possibly be. They never meet and so there is no need for an extra throne. As for the North and South Winds, their nature will be revealed when you find the perfection you seek. But they too share a throne. So there is only need for two thrones."

         "How sad for twins to be separated forever," commented Brian.

         "Do you really think so?" asked the Ice King shrewdly.

         Brian thought about it. "No, not really," he admitted.

         In the exact center of the room, a giant compass was cut into the floor. It marked every angle and direction there was. In the center of the floor, in the center of the compass, a hole was cut into the ice signifying the exact center of the compass and of the floor.

         "The center of that compass is the exact point of the real North Pole. Standing on that spot, the only direction left to go is south. You will be on top of the world!"

         At his permission, Brian stood in the hole and revelled that he was in the spot he had always dreamed of...literally.

         "Very impressive, Your Majesty. But this is hardly the perfect thing."

         "No. You are right," said the Ice King.

         "Then what is?" asked Brian clambering out of the hole.

         "All in good time," was all the Ice King would say.

         Brian stood in front of the Ice King submissively but full of pent up frustration. "Please, Your Majesty, I have travelled all this way, left my home, my business, and all my family to see this perfect thing! If I don't see it soon the curiosity will KILL ME! Please, please show it to me!?" Brian's face was blue and his eyes were definitely less hazel. Although he did not realize it, his heart a solid lump of ice, pumping ice water through his veins.

         "Yes. You have waited long and I will set you on your quest soon. I have one more thing to do first. Stay here," said the Ice King.

         He moved away from Brian a bit and yelled, "NORTH! EAST! COME TO ME!"

         A great wind blew through the throne room and from the massive doors blew the entities known as the North and East wind. The North Wind you are familiar with and the East Wind was similar but a lot of the faces they melded into were Asian in nature. They both swept up to the Ice King and made obeisance.

         "What is your desire, O King?" they asked.

         "Blow around the world until you get to Pittsburgh. Find Justin Taylor and set him on his journey here. East, you will need to help North as he can only travel north. Cause blizzards and snowstorms and mayhem until you get there and bring the blond to me!"

         "Master! We obey!" The two winds combined and chanted "Snow and blow! Snow and blow! Snow and Blow!" They followed the compass point Northeast...well, southeast for a bit, out the doors again, out the castle and around the world causing fierce cold and mayhem wherever they went. Eventually East dropped off North and he met up with Justin. But you know that part of the story so we'll just go back to Brian.

         After the winds left, the Ice King turned and swept past Brian, past the compass, to a clear spot in the floor near and a little to one side of his throne. He pointed a finger and shot a cold blue beam of pure, clean cold shot out of the tip. It hit the floor and began to cut into it, to carve it. The snow began to fly. The ice King began to move his hand slowly at first, and then faster and faster until it became a blur. Brian tried to move closer to see what he was doing but he was driven back. Snow was blown high in the air and all over.

         At last the Ice King stopped. The snow settled. The Ice King blew with a slow steady breath and blew the snow away as someone blows away the shavings from an eraser after scrubbing out a most pesky mistake. Brian gaped.

         A large square had been cut into the ice. Inside the square was a grid of small squares. The grid was 64 squares high and 64 squares across, making a total of 4,096 squares. Each square had a random letter.  The Ice King shot out one square and Brian could see that it was a huge sliding puzzle. The lettered squares would move up, down, left and right, each sliding into the one space left.

         "Within this puzzle is a single phrase and a single solution. When you solve it, it will be because you have found the perfect thing that you seek."

         "It's - it's so beautiful! It's almost perfect in itself! But not quite."

         "No. Not quite," agreed the Ice King, "Good luck, Brian." He went over and sat on his throne above Brian and watched him as one might watch his child playing on the floor. Which, in a way, he was.

         And so, Brian knelt down and started. And what do you know? The first thing he discovered was that the letters were stuck fast. They wouldn't slide at all.

         "Hey! They won't move! What's the deal?"

         "Keep trying," was all the Ice King would say.

         "And so, Brian kept trying. And trying. And trying. Time seemed to slow down but of course, it didn't. It marched on, and Brian kept trying and trying. In fact, he kept trying to move that first piece for an entire week. It was, in fact, that entire week that Justin and Gus spent at Ian's, in the Garden of Eternal Summer.

          Finally, at the end of the week, but to Brian what seemed only like 15 minutes or so, he again raised his head rather stiffly and complained, "It still won't move. I don't understand."

         "Keep trying," was all the Ice King would say.

         "Justin's smart. I bet he could help me," said Brian.

         SHHHTKK!!! A square slid.

         The Ice King smiled.

         "Ahhhh, but he would not! I expect he's angry with me," mused Brian.

         The puzzle froze solid again.

         "Why do you say that, My Treasure?" asked the Ice King.

         "I left him without a second thought. Plus I yelled at my little boy. He was terribly angry with me."

         SHHHTKK! A square slid.

         "I should not have yelled at my Sonny Boy. Oh, my little boy! My little, little boy!"

         SHHTKK! SHHTKK! This earned him two squares before it froze completely again.

         "I shall never see him again. He will never forgive me." Brian's icy heart took over again.

         "Why do you say that?" asked the Ice King.

         "Because if I was him I wouldn't," answered Brian.

         "But he is not you. Perhaps one day he will surprise you."

         "The letters...won't move," said Brian, struggling.

         "Keep trying, My Treasure," was all the Ice King would say.

         And so, Brian kept trying. And trying. And trying. Time slowed again. Brian slowed. Eventually, he became a living statue, focussed on his one task. The four winds came and went. The Ice King was needed elsewhere from time to time and he came and went. Brian heard them on some level but he didn't understand their speech. It was like the roar of the ocean. He didn't move and he was focussed on his single task. Day after day he knelt there unmoving, uncaring, trying and trying. His body slowed down. His heart slowed down. Everything slowed down.

         Finally, there came a day when the Ice King was needed in the Midwest of North America to sweep down and cause a terrible blizzard. He told Brian he would be back soon. Brian nodded once almost imperceptibly and the Ice King left.

         A day passed.

         And so it was that Brian was alone and frozen alive when the enormous throne room doors were pushed open and Justin and Gus appeared. They saw Brian and dashed toward him.

         And that is what happened with Brian.

JGJGJGJGJGGJGJ

         Meanwhile, back at the crater, Jason had strong-armed his way into the hunter`s caravan and plopped himself down into a seat and refused to move.

         The hunter yelled. He threatened. He cajoled. He bargained. He begged on bended knee. Jason refused to move. He tried to throw Jason out but Jason just let his body relax into a dead weight and the hunter could not pick him up enough to throw him out. So finally, he just sat heavily down in an armchair across from Jason and sat there staring at the younger man.

         "I am glad to see that you have accepted your fate at last," Jason said serenely, "Because I'm not going anywhere."

         "You're my prisoner," the hunter said stubbornly, "Prisoners aren't supposed to be in comfortable quarters."

         "Perhaps not. But it's too cold out there to survive the night. And as I said, there's only the two of us now. So you might as well accept me. I refuse to be alone in the dark."

         "And I want nothing more to be left alone," grumbled the hunter.

         "Then you shouldn't have compelled us to come back with you!!" yelled Jason angrily.

         "I explained that. I never hunted man before."

         "Fool! You cannot hunt man like a dumb animal and expect him to accept being treated like one!"

         "Why not?" asked the hunter genuinely wanting to know.

         Jason looked at him incredulously, "Because men are NOT dumb animals. They won't accept such inhumane treatment without putting up a fight! Would you?"

         The hunter ignored the question and instead asked one of his own. "How did you escape?"

         "The gypsies, you stole all this from, these Rolettis, were magicians among other things. There was a trapdoor in the floor. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a trapdoor in all the caravans. Yes! Look! There‘s a ring in the floor near the back in here as well! Didn't you ever wonder about that?"

         "I just thought it was decorative," said the hunter sulkily.

         Jason's look of disgust said it all.

         "Where did your companions go?"

         "The reindeer you captured was one of Santa's reindeer. We liberated him and they flew off to finish their trip to the North Pole. They were seeking the Ice King."

         "Santa's reindeer...Ice King...there's no such thing..." he mumbled.

         "Quite obviously, there must be. Since my friend and his little boy are gone."

         The hunter had nothing to say to that.

         "So what do we do now?"

         "What do you mean?"

         "Well, it's usually just me. I don't have a lot of social skills. I - I don't really know what to do now."

         "Well, you could start by asking me if I'd like to take my coat off...maybe offer me a cup of tea."

         "OK - Uh...would you like to take your coat off? Can I make you some tea...uhh, what's your name?"

         Jason shrugged out of his coat. "I'm Jason. And what's your name?"

         "Hunter."

         "No, that's what you are. What's your name?"

         "Hunter."

         "So...you're a hustling hunter named Hunter?"

         "That's right."

         Jason sighed. "Of course you are. Why not? Well, yes, thank you Hunter. I'd love some tea."

JGJGJGJGJGJG

         Justin and Gus ran across the enormous throne room and over to Brian.

         "Daddy! Daddy! I missed you so much!" Gus shrieked.

         "Bri! It's Justin! Bri!? I've come to take you home!"

         Justin and Gus ran right up to Brian and then stopped dead. Gus whimpered in fear and grabbed onto Justin's leg. Justin's eyes widened in horror.

         Brian knelt there on the ice as usual. With a horrible scraping sound, in one quick movement, his head turned sideways and looked at them.

         His face, neck, hands, everywhere, were blue. His lips were bloodless. His eyes were colorless, like looking into irises made of ice water. His once brown hair was coated with white ice and stiffened into icicles so sharp they would cut your finger. And when he spoke, even his voice was sharp, brittle and cold.

         "Jussss---tinnn. What...are you...doing...here?" he rasped.

         "I - I came. I've come to take you home, Brian. "Justin was a little confused. "I came to rescue you."

         "Rescue? I...don't...understand."

         "I saw you get abducted by the Ice King. And then the North Wind told us about the goblin's glass. We've been travelling to come get you ever since."

         "Twat," Brian said in what was supposed to be an affectionate way. He smiled and it was terrible to behold. "The Ice King didn't abduct me. I went with him. He promised to show me something. Something perfect."

         "But then why would he send for us? And what have you been doing all this time?"

         "I'm trying to solve this puzzle." Brian turned his head back with another horrible scraping noise, "Maybe he thought you could help me."

         SHHTKK! A piece moved.

         "Finally! That's the first time a piece has moved in...in...well in a long time."

         "Brian?" Justin asked carefully, "How long have you been working on this thing?"

         "I don't know. A few hours maybe. A day maybe. No. Maybe a few..." His head scraped sideways again. "It can't have been more than a few days. Can it?"

         "Brian, it's been 23 days. You've been working on that puzzle for 23 days."

         "It's nearly Christmas!" shrieked Gus, "Aren't you coming home for Christmas, Daddy!?"

         "Gus?? Is that my Sonny Boy?"

         SHHTTKKK!! A piece moved.

         "Yes Daddy, it's me. Me n' Just'n came a long, long way to get you. A long, LONG way," he reiterated.

         "Oh, Sonny boy! I'm so sorry! But I can't go. Not yet!"

         "But why, Daddy?"

         "I have to solve this puzzle. The Ice King told be when I solve it, he'll show me something...something perfect!" He turned back to the puzzle. It was frozen solid again.

         "I don't get it! What could be more perfect than Christmas morning?" Gus asked, genuinely confused.

         "Brian! You have to listen to me! You've been working at this thing for days! It's frozen solid! Don't you get it!? You'll never solve it! You'll never solve it because there is nothing that's perfect!"

         "No! No, he wouldn't lie to me! There must be a way. There must be a solution!"

         Justin took out the rose from his pocket. It straightened out and unfurled as usual, but it was very limp and delicate. In consternation, Justin watched a petal fall. That had never happened before. There wasn't much time.

            JGJGJGJGJGJGJG

         Jason and Hunter had tea and then dinner and then just relaxed a bit. But at last it was time to think about going to bed. Hunter wanted to march Jason out to a prison caravan but Jason saw now that he was acting out of fear and just flatly refused.

         "Hey! I told you, It's five hundred to stay with all...."

         "Stop it!" Justin interrupted. "You can quit that because we both know it's just bravado. None of that is going to happen. On both ends," he said meaningfully.

         "Well then, where are you gonna sleep? Cuz' it's not gonna be with me! Not unless you fork over the baby grand for all th..."

         "Stop it!" Jason said again. "And you are hardly "all that" anyway. You sleep in your own bed and I shall use the bedroll and sleep on the floor. Look, it'll be just like a sleepover."

         "A sleepover?" Hmm. I've never done that before."

         "Boy, you have been alone for a long time haven't you?"

         "All my life. Well, my adult life anyway."

         "What a huge, huge surprise!" thought Jason. Out loud he asked, "And what about when you were a kid?"

         "MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!" Hunter yelled. Jason was shocked.

         "Hunter, what's wrong?" he asked.

         "Nothing. Sorry. I just - I just don't talk about my childhood a lot. Anyway, tell me about a sleepover. What are you supposed to do?"

         "We get ready for bed. Put on pajamas if we got ‘em. Maybe make some hot chocolate. Relax in bed and talk some more. Then...just, go to sleep."

         "That sounds OK. Do you have pajamas?"

         "Yes."

         "OK. You can dress behind that curtain," Hunter showed him a place near the back of the caravan. While Jason did that, Hunter put some milk on the stove to heat for the hot chocolate. Then, when Jason was dressed, Hunter took his turn. Jason was stirring the milk when he heard a sulky: "I only have bottoms."

         "I don't mind if you don't."

         "I dunno. Guess not."

         "OK then. Come on out."

         Hunter came out, in silk pajama bottoms and Jason was amazed. He knew the hunter was big and broad but he had always thought maybe some of that was just multi-layering. Nope. Hunter was big, bronzed and beautiful. Wide, broad pecs, big, defined arms and a chiselled 8 pack. Jason turned back to the milk and stirred and tried to ignore the resounding jackpot bells going off in his head. Hadn't he just told him that there'd be none of that going on?

         Hunter sat on his bunk and watched Jason. "Don't let it burn."

         "I won't." Jason focussed on the milk with a steely determination.

         A few minutes passed.

         And then suddenly he was there, right behind him, "I can take over," Hunter said.

         Jason jumped. Hunter's arms snaked around him, grabbing the pot handle so the milk wouldn't spill with one hand and grabbing his waist with the other. Jason felt himself pressed against a solid wall of what seemed 200 lbs of solid man muscle. And Lord help him, he loved it!

         Hunter seemed to like it too. He moved his big hand from his waist to his stomach and began to rub lazy circles on it with his palm. With his other hand he continued to stir the hot milk. Jason waited for Hunter to let him go.

         But he didn't. He only continued to hold Jason prisoner against his body with one beefy arm and make those slow, torturous circles on his tummy. Jason had never felt anything so erotic in his entire life. His knees grew weak and he leaned back for more support and Hard Hunter was there to give it. Jason grabbed onto that torturous forearm and tried to pull it off so he could move away. It wouldn't move.

         "Don't go." He heard a needy voice.

         "Hunter? I thought we talked about this. This isn't necessary. The hustling...you don't need...I don't want...Oh God, why does that have to feel so good!?"

         "I'm not hustling, I promise," Hunter whispered, "I want to do this. I needed to see what it felt like to have you in my arms."

         "And how does it feel?"

         "God help me! It feels...it feels so good!"

         "It feels good for me too. I don't understand. I was in love with Justin a little while ago. I made him go away though, He's married. And now this. Hunter, what the hell is going on here?" He looked up and saw the greenest eyes he d ever seen looking down.

         He was hypnotized.

         "I don't know," Hunter whispered back.

         They moved closer.

         They kissed.

JGJGJGGJGJGJGJGJG

         Justin was putting the rose in his buttonhole for safekeeping when he heard: "I know something perfect!" It was Gus.

         Brian's head scraped back with that horrible noise. "Oh yeah, little man? And what's that?"

         A petal fell.

         "I wanna show you somethin' first! I made it just for you, Daddy!" Gus rummaged around in his jacket pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "Papa Justin told me to draw something that made me happy that first night when we started out. I didn't finish so I hadta keep workin' on it during the trip. But it's done now." He unfolded it. This is what makes me happy, Daddy! This is what's perfect for me."

         On the paper was a childish but well done drawing of Brian and Justin kissing in the Diner. There was mistletoe above them and on the tabletop their hands were entwined into one. Gus had lost count so there were about a million fingers in there but Gus had included their two golden wedding rings and they were touching.

         "'Member when we went to the Diner to see Nana Debbie when I got all cold and we had hot chocolate? ‘Member Daddy?"

         "I remember...Sonny Boy." Brian took a breath and it sounded like he was breathing in ice chips.

         A petal fell.

         "Well, I was watching you kiss and I thought, that moment, that moment right there, was perfect. If I coulda stopped time so that every minute could be that happy and you could kiss Justin forever, and you could be my Daddies loving each other forever, then that would make me happy! So that's what I drew! Me loving you! You loving me! You and Justin loving each other! That's what's perfect, Daddy! That's what's perfect!"

         "You...you...still love me?" Brian asked, in that horrible brittle voice.

         A petal fell.

         "Of course Daddy! I'm your Sonny Boy! I'll love you forever!"

         "But I yelled at you and scared you. Oh, Sonny! I'm so sorry for that..."

         SSHHTTKK! SSHHHTTKK!

         "...I know you can never forgive me! (The puzzle re-froze but was forgotten) "But I really am..."

         A petal fell.

         "Why can't I forgive you, Daddy? Am I not ‘lowed?"

         "No Son. Because if I was you, I wouldn't forgive me."

         A petal fell. The rose was half gone.

         "Now, Daddy, listen to me. First of all, the only reason, I wanted another hot chocolate was because I wanted to feel that happy feeling from the Diner again. And you did scare me but the North Wind ‘splained that to me. You have a bad thing in your heart that's making you grumpy. So it wasn't your fault. I love you. And of course I forgive you." He threw himself into Brian's blue and brittle arms. I forgive you Daddy and I love you. So much. So much! Come home Daddy!"

         He hugged him for as long as he could but at last had to pull away. "Brrrrr. Hugging you is like trying to hug a fudgsicle!" he exclaimed.

         A few more petals fell. There were only a few left.

         "You - you still love me..." Brian said it again but it was not a question this time, more like a fervent prayer of thanks.

         "And I love you too, Brian," Justin said, bending down and hugging him. As much as that moment in the Diner, more! More and more each passing moment, till I can hardly stand it! I've travelled to the end of the Earth, faced temptation, hypothermia, and looked death in the face more than once and I would do it all again just to spend one more year, month, week, day, hour, one minute with you! I love you, you big lug. I love you and I'm never going to let you go!" And he grabbed Brian and hugged him, feeling the freezing cold of his partner's body, welcoming its frigid death. For, if this was the last, if this didn't work, then he welcomed the frozen demise that awaited them both. A few petals fell. There was only one left. It hung by a thread.

         "You love me...You really love me...After all the tricks and rejection and bullshit and...and everything...You really love me! Oh Justin! Justin! Sonny Boy! I love you too! I love you! I love you!"

         With great heaving sobs, Brian broke down and cried and cried. The lump of ice that was his heart melted and started pumping again. It jolted free the shard of the goblin's glass, and it was forced out of his eye through his tears and settled onto his cheek.

         Justin saw the sparkling shard on his cheek and said, "Hold still!"

         Carefully, he picked it off and carefully placed it onto Gus' drawing and then folded it over for safekeeping. As he did he noticed the rose in his buttonhole was growing new petals, growing redder and stronger and blooming. In no time, it was fresh and beautiful as it was when Ian had picked it for them. The danger was over. Justin was filled with such joy that he crushed Brian to himself again. He was only half as cold as before. Brian looked into his lover's eyes and said, "This is the perfect thing!" And he covered Justin's lips in a soul-searing kiss that seemed to go on and on. Their hands entwined, just like in the drawing. Their rings touched.

         As soon as they did, Gus cried out, "Daddies, lookit! Lookit!"  And pointed excitedly. The two men broke off and swung round to look.

         The entire puzzle was melting, into a large square pool. All the letters except for a precious few vanished away into the water. The squares that were left floated freely on the water. They gravitated toward each other and connected. There was a crunching sound as the water re-froze instantly. A single phrase of letters was left in the floor.

FOR ALL

ETERNITY

         "You solved it!" Justin cried.

         "No, Sunshine! WE solved it! I could never have done it without you! My hero!" And Brian pulled him in for another passionate kiss.

         And he was warm! His lips were warm against his, his skin was returning to its nice pink tone and his hair was brown again. Wet, but brown. And back to his voracious self. He rolled over and over on the ice, quickly turning the action from PG to Rated R.

         "Brian!" Justin finally gasped out, "Stop! Stop," he said more gently, " We have company!"

         Brian grinned over at his son who was grinning at them, sitting cross-legged on the floor, resting his jaw in his palms, waiting for them to finish.

         Brian bent down next to Justin's ear and whispered, "And when we don't...I want you inside me!"

         Justin gasped. "Brian, are you sure!"

         Brian nodded. "I've learned a lot about submission during my stay with the Ice King. I'm not going to stop being a top but I want to feel you the way you feel me. I want you inside me. You earned it. You deserve it."

         Justin stood. "Well then. Let's go home!" He held out a hand and Brian grabbed it and allowed himself to be hauled to his feet.

         They gathered their belongings and Gus to themselves and ran toward the exit.

         "Let's get out of here! We were told no one leaves this palace alive!" yelled Justin.

         "Justin, no! That can't be true. It must be just a rumor. The Ice King treated me so well. He is fearsome but he was kind to me," said Brian.

         "Well, I'd just as soon get away from here as soon as possible!"

         They were nearly to the door.

         "Relax Justin. Don't worry. I won't let him hurt you or Gus. Besides, it's not like he's never going to let us leave this place!"

         As if on cue, the doors to the throne room blasted open with a great noise. They were blasted backward about 20 feet.

         The Ice King and the North Wind entered the throne room. The Ice King towered over them and the North Wind laughed his usual boisterous laugh.

         "In a loud, grating and echoing voice, the Ice King intoned, "You will NEVER leave this place!!!"

TBC