Chapter 18 - Kinney Exposed.

Kevan’s brain was so full it felt like there wasn’t any more room for anything else in there. I mean, really, there was just a whole lot of stuff going on in there today! Who KNEW the world was so incredibly fascinating?

This morning there were all these amazing, bright, colorful THINGS out there that Kevan had never seen before. He wanted to touch them and taste them and experience every single one of them. If only he could figure out how to get to them, he was sure he could learn the secret of each thing. But, alas, no matter how much poor Kevan grabbed for all the intriguing things, he just wasn’t fast enough to capture them.

If he wasn’t so fascinated, he’d be really pissed off right about now.

Kevan was even more confused by the fact that the little Bubba person thing seemed to be allowed to play with all the bright colorful things and he was not. The Daddy even handed a few of the things directly to The Bubba. Kevan kept reaching out his own hand but The Daddy just didn’t seem to understand. The Daddy never handed any of the interesting things to Kevan. And The Bubba would wave the things around in front of Kevan’s face, making those high-pitched mouth sounds he always made, but he never let Kevan actually get ahold of the enticing objects.

Kevan had decided, in his little baby mind, that The Bubba was just a tease - or at least what passed for that particular idea in his fledgling baby brain.

If only Kevan could reach the things! He tried to make mouth sounds in order to instruct The Daddy or The Papa to give him the things, but they were SO slow. He tried to move his body closer to the things so he could reach them using that new trick he’d learned a few days ago whereby he could lift up his shoulders, but it didn’t really work. He waved his fists in the air, demanding with his actions that he be given one of the things so he could examine it properly, but nobody seemed to notice.

Gee! Why was this so difficult! How was a baby supposed to learn anything with all these hurdles that prevented him from getting what he wanted? Why didn’t his people things obey him?

Finally, when he was just short of starting in on a real doozy of a tantrum if he didn’t get one of the colorful things right away, Kevan accidentally did a pushup move and a grabbing move AT THE SAME TIME!

WHOA! Kevan had NOT expected THAT!

How the hell had he managed to make the entire world turn upside down? The Daddy was now upside down and so was The Bubba. The pile of bright colorful things he’d been trying to reach was now on the ceiling behind him. Even The Papa sitting in his chair was now dangling from the ceiling. That was really unexpected.

Kevan really didn’t know he could control the whole world around him like that but he was very pleased with himself.

Of course, this new discovery that he was able to alter the physics of the entire universe didn’t do ANYTHING to relieve the feeling that his brain was way too full.

Justin couldn’t stop himself from taking yet another picture of the heartwarming scene in front of him. He pulled his phone out of his pocket as surreptitiously as possible, aimed and took the shot as fast as he could, but he wasn’t sneaky enough to have escaped Brian’s half-hearted disdain. Justin got a fleeting look of exasperation before the busy Daddy’s focus was once again redirected by his son pointing out yet another piece of the giant floor puzzle that needed to be placed.

This one - the third of the morning - was a fanciful farm scene. It was very toddler friendly - the pieces were huge and it didn’t take too much ingenuity to figure out where each was supposed to go. Even so, Gus had decided that his Daddy would be the one to actually place the puzzle pieces into their rightful spots. Gus just directed which piece to do when. Kevan was supervising the process while lying on his belly next to Brian and Gus on the carpet of the Children’s Museum’s Toddler Room. They’d been there for more than an hour already and hadn’t yet made it out of this room. But the boys, including Brian, seemed to be having so much fun that Justin didn’t really care. He was just thrilled to sit and watch his little family interacting together and it really didn’t matter to him what they did.

“Sheep, Daddy! Sheep!” Gus demanded, handing the cartoon depiction of a fluffy white sheep to his father and pointing to the spot where the piece should go.

“Yeah, do the sheep, Brian,” Justin kidded his partner, laughing at the officious way Gus was ordering his father around not to mention the way Brian was letting him.

“Kinky, Sunshine, but I’m not into beastiality,” Brian quipped back, tongue in cheek sarcasm fully functional even while he was playing Super Dad.

“Gross!” was Justin’s only comment.

Luckily, before the conversation devolved further into realms wholly inappropriate for a place with this many children, everyone was interrupted by an insistent “Wah!” from Kevan.

From the moment they’d arrived, the baby had been fascinated by all the new and exciting colors, sights and sounds found in this new place. Everything about this museum was perfectly engineered to stimulate his baby brain and it appeared to be working. Kevan was more engaged than Justin had ever seen him. He’d been communicating his exuberance by alternatingly pumping his body up and down with his little arms in a baby version of pushups and then grabbing at the bright puzzle pieces laid in front of him. Gus was egging his little brother on by waving the tantalizingly colorful pieces in front of Kevan’s face every so often and then giggling at the baby’s antics.

Right as Gus picked up the sheep piece, again flashing it temptingly in front of his little ‘Bubba’, Kevan pushed up on his arms and at almost the same time reached out one chubby fist to try and grab for the enticing prize. The combination move resulted in Kevan collapsing and rolling over to the right, leaving him in the end on his back. The shock of this unprecedented experience is what caused the big “Wah!” from the startled baby.

“Dada! Lookee Bubba! Bubba roll-ded!” Gus shouted out, as proud of his little brother as if he himself had accomplished this herculean feat.

“Way to go, Sonny Boy!” Brian praised his son and lifted him high up above his head in celebration. “Did you see what my brilliant son learned to do, Sunshine?”

“Yes, I did,” Justin replied, sliding off the chair where he’d been sitting and watching all the fun in order to join the trio on the carpet. “But, Brian, why is he YOUR son when he’s being cute and brilliant and MY son when he’s throwing up on people.”

“Because you’re the throwing up parent, Sunshine. I’m not doing that part ever again. I prefer to be the ‘Fun’ parent,” Brian announced decisively as he rolled back over with Kevan still in his hands, laid the baby on his back on the carpet and commenced with an all out tickle attack on the infant’s tummy.

Kevan promptly rewarded his ‘Fun’ Daddy with a peal of giggles and a mini-Sunshine smile.

Justin watched Brian and Gus as they continued to play with Kevan, making silly faces and tickling him in order to elicit more giggling. The three of them were absolutely fucking adorable. He took about ten more photos and thought to himself that this - right here - was by far the best birthday present he could have received.

“Yep! My sons are both fucking geniuses! Gus here was doing the puzzles at the Children’s Museum faster than I could keep up with him and Kevan mastered the milestone of rolling over on his own this morning,” Brian bragged to Debbie as soon as she’d seated them in the back booth at the Diner.

“Well of course they’re brilliant,” Deb beamed at the beautiful little family in front of her. “With daddies like you and our Sunshine here, these two will be ruling the fucking world in no time! Won’t you honey,” Deb chuckled as she helped Gus into a booster seat while Justin strapped Kevan into the Diner’s only highchair. “What do you say, Gorgeous Gus - do you want to be President when you grow up? Or maybe just cure cancer?”

“Not to put any pressure on Gus, or anything, right Deb?” Lindsey gently chided the overly-proud grandma, walking up just as Deb finished gushing. The tall blonde slid into the booth on the same side as her son and Brian, leaning in to kiss Gus’ cheek in the process. “Hey there, Lambskin! How was your big adventure with your Daddy?”

Gus didn’t respond right away because he was already sipping at the glass of milk Grandma Debbie had brought him.

“We had a most excellent adventure!” Brian enthused. “Last night we spent the whole evening hanging out in Gus’s fabulous new room . . .”

“Pitcher walls, Mama!” Gus interjected.

“That’s right, Sonny Boy! Your room has a picture wall and we all got to draw on it!” Brian beamed down at his son. When he saw Lindsey’s disapproving look at the idea of her child being taught it was okay to draw on the walls, Brian quickly rushed to explain, “Don’t get your muncher panties in a twist, Lindz - Justin painted the whole wall with Blackboard Paint, so it’s perfectly fine for Gus to draw on that particular wall. But only on the black wall, right, Sonny Boy?”

“Bwack onny!” Gus echoed the rule.

“Anyway, as I was saying, we hung out, drew on the wall and had a picnic on the floor before both Gus and his little Bubba here passed out,” Brian bragged, making it sound like coloring and having floor picnics weren’t completely out of character for him, causing Justin to smile and Lindsey to look rather confused. “And then this morning we all went to the children’s museum where Gus showed his superior intelligence in the puzzle room and Kevan exhibited his advanced motor skills by rolling over on his own. Justin, of course, just took lots of pictures and spent his time planning out in his mind exactly how he was going to draw each and every adorable vignette, which will no doubt lead to the creation of several masterpieces in the not too distant future. So, I think it’s fair to say that all my boys had an entertaining visit.”

“And it sounds like Daddy had as much fun as the rest of the boys. Good for you, Brian!” Debbie petted Brian’s hair as she got up to return to work. She seemed almost as proud of her surrogate son as Brian was of his own children. Brian didn’t admit it out loud, but his slightly shy grin back up at Debbie told everyone watching that he had, in fact, thoroughly enjoyed himself no matter how out of character his actions appeared.

“Boy, it certainly does sound like you kept your Daddy busy, Gus!” Lindsey ruffled her son’s hair affectionately but kept her eyes trained on Brian.

Ever since she sat down, Lindsey had been noticing the intimate smiles and looks exchanged between Brian and Justin and the tiny chuckles they’d share over seemingly private jokes. Brian seemed so relaxed and comfortable in his skin. She had never seen her old friend like that - and especially not around Gus. He’d always seemed on edge and slightly unsure of himself before, despite doing his best to cover that up with his usual bravado. But here, right in front of her incredulous eyes, was a Brian Kinney who seemed happy and at ease playing the role of doting Daddy. In public even!

This was not the Brian who’d told her repeatedly that all he wanted was the occasional uncredited cameo appearance in Gus’ life and that he wasn’t cut out to be a full-time parent. This wasn’t the same man who’d denigrated her life with Mel and their desire to have a child, accusing them of trying to live out some pseudo-heteronormative lie. This was the man that Lindsey alway knew Brian could be - a loving, caring, proud father. Only, it wasn’t Lindsey who had managed to bring this side of Brian out, even after all her years of trying. It wasn’t her child that had inspired him to make this huge change all of a sudden.

As Lindsey observed yet another familiar gesture between the two men - Brian reaching out his hand to lightly trace one long index finger along Justin’s wrist as they both smiled together over Kevan blowing spit bubbles or some other ridiculous baby nonsense - she inwardly seethed with jealousy at the knowledge that Justin was now Brian’s closest confidante and it was Justin’s child that had worked this minor miracle in the previously recalcitrant Mr. Kinney.

“Hey, Brian,” Lindsey piped up, hoping to divert his attention away from the boy who she was coming to think of more and more as her rival. “You know Gus has a couple of new puzzles at home that we haven’t gotten around to working on. What do you say to coming over for dinner some time this week and the two of you can take a stab at them.”

“Yeah sure. Sounds like fun, right Sonny Boy!” Brian grinned expectantly at his older son. “I’m probably up for another puzzle or two. I think Justin and I are both free on Wednesday. Is that good for you, Lindz?”

“Wednesday’s fine, Bri,” Lindsey hesitated but then decided to just plow on, “but I thought it might be nice for you and Gus to just have a little one-on-one time. You know all the parenting books say that it’s important, once a new child comes along, to set aside time to spend with just the older sibling so he doesn’t feel neglected. Maybe, just this once, Justin and Kevan could stay home and do something just the two of them as well.”

“Well, um, I don’t . . .” Brian didn’t know why exactly, but he didn’t like Lindsey’s suggestion very much. It sounded like a perfectly reasonable request, but it felt wrong. It somehow raised his self protective instincts.

Justin, on the other hand, knew right off the bat that this was just another one of Lindsey’s manipulative schemes. Even back when Justin had still considered Lindsey to be a friend, he’d been well aware of how calculating she could be. In her own saccharine sweet yet passive-aggressive way, Lindsey almost always managed to get whatever it was she wanted. And ever since he’d seen the woman’s ugly reaction to finding out about Brian’s pregnancy, Justin had been wary of her. If it wasn’t for Gus, and the need to stay in Lindsey’s good graces in order for Brian to maintain a good relationship with his son, Justin would have been happy to write that particular relationship off. The last thing he wanted was to let her have Brian all to herself, alone and unprotected, where she’d be free to work her wiles on him.

“That’s an excellent idea, Honey,” Debbie announced as she returned with everyone’s meals in hand. “Brian can spend some quality time with Gus, and Justin and Kevan can come over to my place for dinner! I know Vic has been dying to get in some face time with Sunshine and our littlest family member. Dinner’s at 6:30 sharp, Sunshine. Don’t be late. I’ll make Chicken Parmigiana - your favorite!”

Before Justin could protest, Debbie was already off to take another lunch order and Lindsey was smiling triumphantly at the way everything was working out.

Justin would have still spoken up, even then, but everything seemed to be conspiring against him this afternoon. No sooner had Deb trotted off than the second round of Novotny’s came jogging up to the booth. With his standard, ‘Hey, Brian!”, Michael slid into the booth, forcing Justin to slide over towards the wall and away from Kevan’s highchair.

Michael immediately started in on questioning Brian about how he’d been, why he hadn’t returned any of Michael’s 27 phone messages and why Brian never wanted to hang out with him or go to the bar or club with him. Amidst the chaos that swept their table along with Michael’s advent, Lindsey made a strategic withdrawal - scooping up Gus and waving goodbye with a brief ‘See you on Wednesday, Brian’ before she was out the door.

As if he was feeling left out of the conversation, Kevan also took this opportunity to speak up and let his daddies know that he needed some attention too. His low-level whimpering cries were just a prelude to the shrill wailing that both fathers knew would be coming if they didn’t take immediate action. Justin was aware that it was past time for his bottle and started digging through the overstuffed diaper bag to find the spare that he usually kept there for just such emergencies.   

Brian was distracted by Michael’s insistent efforts to commandeer all of his Best Friend’s attention, so he didn’t notice right away that Justin’s search wasn’t successful.

“Shit!” Justin’s too-loud exclamation finally got the attention of everyone at the table. “I think I left Kevan’s extra bottle at home. We were in such a rush to get out and Gus was so excited, I guess I forgot it.” Justin looked over at his partner with an apologetic expression.

Brian immediately knew exactly what it was that Justin was implying with that expectant look. He also knew that his panic-stricken “Here?” wasn’t likely to get him out of his fatherly duties. Justin merely shrugged, knowing that there weren’t a whole lot of other options. A quick glance at Kevan told Brian that the baby was gearing up for a really good cry if he didn’t get his own lunch very, very soon.  

“Fuck!” Brian sighed with resignation as he started to slide out of the booth. “I’m going, but just so you know, Sunshine, you’re on diaper duty for the rest of the fucking week for this.”

Justin batted his long blond eyelashes and smiled submissively at the big stud who patiently lifted Kevan out of the highchair, grabbed the burping cloth that the young blond held out to him and bravely trudged off towards the men’s room at the back of the Diner with his offspring in hand.

“Brian? Hey, Brian, where are you going?” Michael called after his retreating friend, completely clueless about what was going on and not happy that Brian had totally ignored all his questions. Finally turning to the youth still waiting in the booth with him, Michael demanded, “what the fuck’s going on? Where is Brian going? He didn’t even touch his lunch yet.”

Justin, irritated by Michael’s slowness, just shook his head and huffed out a little mirthless laugh.

Michael gave the annoying twink a scathing look and then jumped up to follow Brian.

When a confused and curious Michael pulled open the door to the men’s room, all he saw was one drag queen with her ultra-tight minidress hoisted up around her waist as she used the urinal. The doors to both of the toilet stalls were closed. From the sound effects emanating from the closest - ‘Yeah, baby! Harder! Harder!’ - he surmised that it was not being used for its originally intended purpose.

“Hey!” Brian’s voice yelled from the farther stall, accompanied by the sound of a fist banging against the metal divider. “Either finish up already in there or go fuck out in the alley. You’re fucking annoying the hell out me!” The fucking noises did speed up a bit after that, but that only meant the noise level also rose. This result also increased the unhappy mumbling coming from Brian’s stall. “. . . get a fucking room, already . . . more cum on the walls in here than at the Baths! Don’t they ever fucking clean this place . . . Disgusting! . . . bet Todd wrote his number on every damn bathroom wall on Liberty Avenue - the skank!”

“Um, Brian?” Michael questioned, rapping lightly with his knuckles on the door of the stall.

“I’m fucking busy in here, Mikey. What the hell do you want?”

“What the fuck’s going on, Brian? Why did you take the baby . . .”

“What do you THINK I’m doing, Mikey?” Brian waited a moment or two but since there was no answer from his clueless friend, Brian gave him another prompt, “Kevan was hungry and Justin forgot to bring a bottle, so . . .”

Even then it took Michael almost a full minute to work it out in his slow brain. When he finally did, Michael practically yelled out his conclusion, “you’re feeding the baby? You . . . You’re . . . In here? You’re fucking breast feeding a baby in the Liberty Diner Men’s Room?”

Of course, Michael’s outburst startled everyone. The Drag Queen let her dress drop before she’d even finished shaking it off. The two guys fucking in the other toilet stall came to a complete stop. And even the old leather daddy who’d just opened up the door, about to come in to use the facilities, froze in place with his one hand still holding open the bathroom door so that everyone in the whole Diner could now hear.

“Fucking A, Mikey!” Brian’s voice was clearly furious. “How the hell else do you think the baby’s going to get fed since Justin forgot the fucking bottle? Of course I’m fucking breast feeding him. And since I didn’t want all of Liberty Avenue knowing that I now have working tits, I didn’t have much choice but to come in here to this disgustingly filthy pit where I THOUGHT I could take care of things in peace. I did NOT think you’d fucking follow me in here and announce my business - at the top of your fucking loud-ass lungs - to the two fags fucking in the stall next to me. So, if you’re through now, can you fucking leave me alone already because Kevan won’t nurse when I’m all fucking stressed out like this and I’d like to get out of this fucking vile toilet stall sometime this century.”

When Brian finally emerged from the the bathroom about fifteen minutes later, the Diner was completely silent. Every single eye in the room was riveted on him and Kevan. There was no sign of Michael Novotny, who had immediately run away with his tail between his legs the moment he realized what he’d done. Justin was waiting for them at the booth, biting nervously on his bottom lip and looking worried.

“Oh . . . FUCK ME!” Brian cursed, handed the baby to Justin and stomped off alone out the front door of the Diner.