Chapter 24 - Making Changes.

They'd turned off their phones as soon as they left Debbie's last night and refused to answer the loft phone, screening all messages using the answering machine instead. Which meant that nobody had managed to further berate Justin for his incorrect decisions all night. Brian had to get up and leave for work at his usual time, but Justin, who was free from school until September, was still asleep when Michael let the small intervention group into the loft about 10:00 am the next morning. They were there to talk some 'sense' into the wayward boy who just didn't understand everything he was throwing away for the pipe dream of being with an undeserving Brian Kinney.

Brian was sitting at his desk finalizing a presentation he'd be giving to a new client that afternoon when he got a text message from Justin saying only 'Listen'. His phone rang a minute later and as soon as he answered he heard Michael, Debbie and Lindsey, all talking at the same time, each trying to convince Justin that Brian was unworthy of any sacrifices he might make on the man's behalf. Brian listened for about a half a minute, then hung up, disgusted by the things his loving family was saying about him. 'I've got this' Brian texted back to the beleaguered boy.

"Cynthia" Brian yelled into the intercom, summoning his assistant. She appeared in his office within seconds, ready to take whatever action he needed - he really adored Cynthia!

"Get a locksmith over to my loft immediately. Make sure they have a couple of big, burley guys on the job. I want everyone except Justin Taylor thrown out of the loft and the locks changed right away. If the locksmith has any problems, they can call the cops. I'm sick of Michael letting himself into my loft without permission. Got it?"

"Justin Taylor?" Cynthia had to ask - she'd gotten a couple of calls from this mystery man lately and her boss always took the call no matter what - it had her curious.

"That's what I said. Justin Taylor. Blond. Eighteen. Adorable bubble butt. And, the only person I want to find in my loft when I get home tonight." Brian, sort of, explained.

It was enough for Cynthia, who trotted off to get someone on the job ASAP.

Meanwhile, Justin was getting pretty angry sitting there listening to all the reasons why he couldn't or shouldn't have any confidence in Brian Kinney. He heard all the stories - some for the second or third time - about how Brian couldn't be relied on, how Brian didn't do relationships and would just leave him by the wayside someday, how Brian was wrong for him, didn't do dates, was only interested in getting his own dick sucked and couldn't be trusted. The stories were always biased and mean and tailored to show the worst of the man while leaving out any redeeming actions he might have taken at another time or in different circumstances. Justin was getting pissed off at these 'friends' of Brian's and was more than ready for them to be gone.

When the intercom buzzer rang, Justin happily jumped up to answer it, if only for the distraction. "Justin Taylor?" The intercom voice asked.

"Yes, that's me," Justin answered, a little confused.

"Brian Kinney sent us to deal with a pest control problem you have,"

Justin had no idea what Brian had sent these guys for, but he thought it might be good so he quickly buzzed them up and waited with the loft door open. His intervention group was still babbling at him from behind, but Justin had tuned them out. Moments later, the elevator doors opened and two of the biggest men he'd ever seen stepped up to greet him.

"You Justin Taylor?" Hulk #1 asked as Justin tilted his head back to look up at the face towering about two feet above him.

"Yes. . . " was all he could manage to say.

"Course he's Taylor, you dolt," exclaimed Hulk #2, punching his buddy in the shoulder to emphasize his point. "Blond. Eighteen. Adorable bubble butt. That's what the lady said. And she was definitely right," #2 said with a wink in Justin's direction. "Let's get going!"

Justin simply stood there watching while the Hulk Brothers pushed past him into the loft. Their entrance finally stopped the intervention tirade inside. When Justin peeked at the scene, he found Debbie, Michael and Lindsey all standing in a semi-circle looking up into the towering Hulks' large faces.

"Ladies. Sir," intoned Hulk #1. "I have to ask you to leave immediately."

"You can't throw us out," Michael squeaked like a mouse. "This is my friend Brian's loft. I have every right to be here and so do my friends."

"No, you don't," Hulk #2 said in a much less congenial voice than his partner. "Brian Kinney's the man who sent us. He said to throw all of you out and if you gave us trouble to call the police. So, you nice folks gonna go quiet, like, or do we need ta get insistent about it." Hulk #2 ended his little speech with a gargantuan grin showing off his three gold teeth to the peons at his feet.

The peons opted to obey. They grumbled about Brian's rudeness while they gathered their stuff and then shuffled towards the door. "Come on, Sunshine. You can come back to my place and we'll get your stuff later when Mr. High and Mighty is home," Debbie advised sympathetically as she patted Justin on the shoulder.

"Nope," Hulk #1 told her, removing her tiny hand from Justin's shoulder with his hamhock sized fist. "The cute little blond stays. Everybody else goes. That's what Kinney wants."

"What?" Michael started to protest that the twink wasn't being thrown out just like the rest of them.

Hulk #2 stepped up and positioned his imposing giant-sized body between Justin and Michael. He smiled that gold-toothed grin down on the tiny, sputtering brunet and didn't say a word. Michael's spluttering puttered out and he swallowed hard. Then, with a nasty scowl directed at Justin, who was peeking out around #2's hulkiness, Michael finally turned and walked out of the loft with Debbie and Lindsey following quietly.

Hulk #1 followed the three down the stairs, ostensibly to make sure they actually left the building. Hulk #2 went into the hallway and returned quickly with two large tool boxes that had apparently been stashed out of sight until the Hulk Brothers dealt with the pests. Then, without saying anything further, #2 took out his tools and started working on the door lock.

It only took the guys about fifteen minutes to change out the lock on the door. Then, Hulk #2 also installed a deadbolt lock and a nice strong security chain - he told Justin that Kinney clearly wanted him to be safe when he wasn't home, which made the youth smile one of his extra big Sunshine smiles. Hulk #1 was busy meanwhile rekeying the front door and distributing the new keys to the other tenants. Justin promised to give out keys to any of the tenants who weren't home so all the extras were left with him. And, in just a little over a half hour, the Hulk Brothers were done. They both patted the cute little blond on his head like a good little puppy as they said goodbye and let themselves out.

Justin's phone rang about a minute later. "Everything taken care of?" Brian's soothing voice asked as soon as he'd answered.

"Yeah. Thanks Brian."

"No problem. Mikey had used that key of his one time too often. It was past time to do something about it," Brian said sadly. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm great. I actually have a key to the loft I didn't have to steal!" Justin teased.

"Later, Twat!"

"Later!"

Since Justin had to wait around and make sure the other tenants got their front door keys, he didn't get much done the rest of that day. He did call his mother back, listened to her harangue for a while and then calmly explained that Brian had offered last night to pay for him to attend PIFA. That surprising news quieted Mother Taylor down pretty quickly. Justin didn't explain the nature of the deal they'd worked out, he just told his mother that they'd worked out terms for how he would pay Brian back. He also informed her that he was staying with Brian while he went to school and she should stop complaining or worrying because it wasn't going to do any good.

Once his mother had been taken care of, Justin settled into the couch with his sketchbook and started on a drawing of the Hulk Brothers confronting Mikey Mouse. That kept him amused until late afternoon when the other tenants began to arrive home. He'd taped a note to the front door advising everyone to buzz him to get in and then to come up to the fourth floor for their new keys. Justin had already met most of the neighbors, unlike Brian who'd lived there for years and never bothered to learn a single one of the other tenants' names.

About 4:30, Justin's visit with the nice lesbian couple that lived in 2B was interrupted by someone else ringing from the front door. Justin simply buzzed whoever it was up without asking, assuming it was just another tenant. He was surprised when an elegant blonde woman he didn't know appeared at the open loft door with a sheaf of papers in her hand.

"You must be Justin," the blonde announced as she strutted into the loft as if she belonged. "I'm Cynthia, Mr. Kinney's assistant. Brian's still in a meeting with a client, but he wanted to make sure that these got signed today, so I figured I'd just run them over here myself. I hope I'm not interrupting anything important?" Cynthia settled herself at the dining room table and started to organize her paperwork.

The neighbors excused themselves quickly at that, and Justin showed them out then took a seat at the table next to the officious woman.

"How did you know who I am?" Justin asked, curious about the casual greeting he'd received earlier.

"Well, first of all, you look exactly like Brian described you right down to the 'adorable bubble butt'," Cynthia explained with a teasing little smile. "And secondly, the locksmiths I hired this morning were ordered to throw everyone other than Justin Taylor out of the place before changing the locks, because Brian said - and I quote -  'He's the only person I want to find in my loft when I get home tonight.' So, since you're still here, you must be the Justin Taylor I'm looking for."

Justin was pleasantly embarrassed at the way Brian had described him to his assistant and he blushed a bit. Cynthia thought he was too adorable for words and silently vowed to do everything in her power to help Brian keep this young man around for a long, long time. Cynthia was sure that this sweet, blushing young blond was exactly what her boss had needed in his life for some time now. And one of the first steps in that direction was the documents she had sitting on the table in front of her.

"So, what is all this?" Justin asked, waving at the papers.

"First, this is a Tenancy Agreement," Cynthia shoved one sizable pile of papers at Justin and handed him a pen. "This makes you a legal resident of the loft - in essence it says you're renting space from Brian, who's the legal owner - which means you have the right to throw unwanted visitors, like those from this morning, out of the apartment and no one has the right to keep you out unless your lease is broken. Sign here, initial in the space here at the bottom of each page, and then sign here and here. I'll notarize that last signature for you. Oh, and you owe Brian one dollar a year for the lease."

"Pretty steep rent, don't you think," Justin joked as he signed and initialed where directed.

"Second," Cynthia straightened out all the papers from the first pile and moved on. "Brian had a new Durable Power of Attorney drawn up naming you as his Attorney in Fact and/or Legal Guardian if he were to become incapacitated due to injury or sickness. This gives you the right to make medical decisions for him when he can't. You need to sign here on the last page. I've also attached a copy of his Advanced Directive detailing Brian's wishes in various medical situations, but you will be responsible as the Attorney in Fact for making sure these directives are followed."

"Wow, I . . . I wasn't expecting anything like this . . ." Justin hesitated to sign the very serious and important papers. "We didn't discuss this at all . . ."

"Justin," Cynthia reached out and grabbed the overwhelmed youth's hand. "I know this seems like a big step for you. It's a big step for Brian, too. This isn't something he'd do on just a whim. And Brian hasn't told me a lot about your relationship, but I do know that doing all this is Brian's way of telling you that he cares about you and, maybe even more importantly, he trusts you. There aren't very many people Brian trusts. That makes you a very remarkable person, Justin Taylor. And if Brian thinks you can handle this, then I know you can, too."

Justin took a deep breath, smiled and nodded, then picked up the pen and signed where Cynthia directed.

"Okay!" Cynthia beamed as she started to pack up all her work. "I'll scan everything and email you PDF's of the fully executed documents for your records. Oh, and here," she pushed one last pile of papers towards Justin. "I took the liberty of having the lawyer draft a Durable Power of Attorney for you too. Look it over and mark any changes you'd like. When you're done, just send it back to me with Brian and I'll get the final draft ready for you to sign." Cynthia smiled warmly at the stunned but grateful young man as she stood up and made her way towards the door. "It was truly nice to meet you, Justin. Feel free to call me if you need ANYTHING."

Justin saw Cynthia out, pulled the loft door closed and then collapsed back against the door, sliding slowly into a crouch on the floor while he tried to process everything that had just happened.

Back at Ryder's, Cynthia strode into Brian's office and dropped a large stack of documents on the center of the glass-topped desk. "Okay, here you go, Boss. Those are all your originals. I've scanned them and already sent copies to you and Mr. Taylor. You're good to go. And may I add that Mr. Taylor seemed like an incredibly sweet and completely adorable young man," the outspoken assistant asserted her opinion.

"Yes, you may. And he is," Brian replied with a hint of a smile. Then he handed her a separate stack of documents and presentation boards and went back into full business-mode, bringing Cynthia up to date on the new client he'd just signed while she was out. That kept them busy for the rest of the day.

Last thing, as Brian was gathering work together that he needed to take home, he stopped Cynthia and advised her of one last task. "Tomorrow morning, would you contact the Pittsburgh Institute of Fine Arts and have them send Justin's fall tuition statement to me?"

"Of course, Boss," Cynthia replied without further comment, although she was already reeling inside at all the revelations she'd uncovered today about her very private Boss' not-so-private-anymore-life.