Chapter 43 - Countdown to Kinnetik.

What the doo doo? Where was The Daddy? Did he try to disappear again?

Kevan had woken up in his pretty green and brown room all ready to start off his day with a nice bottle of gunk, a bowlful of green finger paints and some world spinning magic. He had his whole morning planned out and it was going to be fun, fun, fun. But then, before it was even started, his day was ruined when the door opened and instead of The Daddy or The Papa, that Curly One came into his green and brown room.

Kevan liked The Curly One well enough. She was soft and smelled pretty and always paid attention to Kevan. But she wasn’t The Daddy. Kevan liked to know where The Daddy was at all times. The Daddy had been known to just disappear a lot, which was not at all a good thing. And, while Kevan was getting a little more confident that The Daddy would eventually reappear, he still needed to make sure of him at least a few times a day. Mornings were the best time to do that. The Daddy was almost always the one to come get Kevan first thing in the morning. Morning was their time. It was special. It was NOT a time when Kevan wanted that silly Curly One.

Kevan broke out the Wail. He Wailed for a hundred and a thousand years. But it didn’t work. No matter how much he used the Wail, The Daddy didn’t reappear. It was just The Curly One.

Kevan was not amused.

Kevan threw his bottle of gunk on the floor where it crashed and the gunk all spilled out everywhere all over the brown.

Kevan refused to taste even a spoonful of the pretty green finger paints. When The Curly One wasn’t looking, Kevan knocked the bowl of finger paints off the high chair tray so that they could play with the gunk on the floor. The brown down there was very colorful today. But that wasn’t much consolation to Kevan who was still angry about The Disappearing Daddy.

Instead of another bowl of the yummy green finger paints, The Curly One next tried to give Kevan a bowl of sticky white stuff. Normally, Kevan didn’t mind the sticky white stuff, but not this morning. This morning Kevan took a big handful of the sticky white stuff and threw it into the bushy brown curly stuff on The Curly One’s head. The Curly One was not amused by that. She made an unhappy face and yelled some unhappy mouth sounds and then gave up on trying to get Kevan to eat anything more that morning.

When The Curly One took Kevan out of the high chair and put him on a blanket on the floor, Kevan just laid there. He was too angry to work his world spinning magic. He didn’t want to play with the toys The Curly One gave him. He threw the toys at The Curly One’s bushy curly head. Then Kevan pulled the blanket over his head and Wailed and Wailed and Wailed. When that still didn’t produce The Daddy, Kevan chewed on Uglyworm’s tail until he fell asleep.

Kevan just hoped that The Daddy would turn up again by the time he woke up. Otherwise, the whole day would be total doo doo.

What WAS Kevan going to do with that Stupid Disappearing Daddy?

Justin was so tired by the time they left the follow up meeting with Armani that he didn’t know if he could actually walk all the way to the parking garage on his own two legs or not. The past two weeks had been such a whirlwind of activity that he had been lucky to get four or five hours of sleep a night and it was all starting to catch up to him. The tired teen looked over at Brian and noted that his partner didn’t look much better.

This time, though, Justin couldn’t blame his lack of sleep on his son. Kevan was actually being a little angel lately - sleeping through the night consistently, eating more and more solid foods without turning them into fingerpaints, and - now that the house was thoroughly baby-proofed - mostly staying out of trouble. They’d had to call in a lot of favors, babysitting-wise, but between Debbie, Jennifer and Daphne, Kevan had been kept busy almost every evening so that his daddies could stay busy too.

Mostly, Justin had lost sleep because he’d been up till all hours working on one campaign after another for Kinnetik. They’d pitched to three different potential Kinnetik clients in just over a week and a half. That was a record even for Brian Kinney. They’d all been major, national or international companies, to boot. And Justin had been solely responsible for all the artwork so far. Thankfully, there was only one more pitch left before they could take a break and get back to the rest of their lives . . . including all the homework that was piling up unfinished for Justin.

So far, their efforts had paid off spectacularly. They’d done the initial Armani pitch a week ago Monday and been given the green light by the Marketing Team to take the campaign to the Board for final approval - which was what they’d just finished with today. They were currently waiting in the lobby to hear what the final vote by the Board would be, although Brian said he wasn’t worried at all. They’d also pitched to Novena on Friday and to Graco yesterday. The Novena pitch, which Brian had done alone, had gone well, although they hadn’t heard yet if the company was committed or not. The Graco pitch, however, had gone over so incredibly well that the company had signed off on the contract before they’d even left the building.

The last and biggest client, Fisher-Price, was scheduled for Friday at the company’s headquarters in East Aurora, New York. Justin had finished the artwork and the graphics but still needed to put it all together and get the final boards ready. He should be able to do all that tomorrow between classes using the PIFA photo lab resources, which would hopefully make it easier than trying to do it at home with the occasional trip to Kinkos as needed, like he’d been doing previously. Justin would have to miss classes on Friday to go with Brian to do the presentation, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t about to let Brian fly on his own and face the potential hordes of fans that might expose him to again. And even though Brian’s morning sickness had abated quite a bit, he was still subject to a fit of nausea every now and then, which meant that Justin would be needed as backup, just in case.  

While Justin was reviewing his voluminous ‘To Do’ list in his head, Brian was sitting next to him and calmly flipping through a magazine. They’d been able to do the pitch to the Armani Board via Computer Teleconference rather than having to fly into New York. While VanGuard had the technology set up to do that kind of thing in house, Brian didn’t trust Vance not to spy on him. Therefore they’d opted to use the conference room facilities at the Fairmont Hotel downtown. The two Armani representatives who’d flown in to Pittsburgh to meet Brian in person were still in the conference room while Brian and Justin had stepped out into the lobby until after the Board had voted and finished some other business. Justin, despite his exhaustion, was sitting on the edge of his seat in expectation and couldn’t understand how Brian could look so cool and unconcerned.

“Relax, Sunshine,” Brian admonished his jumpy companion when Justin accidentally knocked into Brian’s elbow . . . for about the third time. “Trust me. I know how to read these things, Justin, and I’m ninety percent certain that this is a done deal. The guy in charge - Mr. Pinstriped Suit - he was smiling at me like a loon the whole fucking time. He’ll sway the rest.”

“I hope you’re right, Brian. But, even so, I don’t know how you can just sit there . . .” Justin would have gone on, venting his nervousness, if he hadn’t been distracted by the approach of a gorgeous, sandy-haired hunk of man who had moved up to stand next to Brian’s chair.

“Brian?” The man’s smooth tenor voice dripped sex appeal so thickly that Justin could almost taste it. When Brian looked up at the intruder, the man smiled and his light blue eyes twinkled down at the seated man with a glitter that instantly made Justin’s hackle rise. “It is you! How’s it going Brian?” The man held out his hand in greeting with a comfortable familiarity. “What the hell brings you to Pittsburgh, Brian? I figured that I’d never see you again after you left Cancun and here you are turning up in my old hometown.”

“Yeah. Small fucking world, right?” Brian snarked as he stood up and shook hands with the newcomer, avoiding Justin’s frosty gaze. “I actually live in the Pitts. But I thought you were based out of L.A. or New York.”

“I am. I live in L.A. But I actually grew up here and my parents are still around so I fly in and out of Pittsburgh quite a bit,” the handsome male model explained. When Brian seemed at a loss for words and didn’t seem at all interested in introducing him to the young blond now standing at Brian’s elbow, the man continued confidently on his own. “Hi. I’m Logan. Logan Jackson,” he announced and offered his hand to Justin as well.

“Nice to meet you, Logan,” Justin replied, his WASPy politeness almost completely covering up the icy coolness in the greeting as he accepted the handshake. “I’m Justin Taylor . . . Brian’s partner.”

“Oh . . . So that would make YOU his ‘Sunshine’, then?” Logan, aka Mr. Hunkalicious, chuckled anxiously as he looked over to Brian for some kind of support.

Justin was not amused.

“Yes. That would be me. Brian’s Sunshine. His business partner, life partner and the other father to his son.” Justin continued to hold onto the newcomer’s hand, gripping it tightly all the while. “And I guess that would make YOU his random, nameless, Cancun beach fuck. Am I right?”

“Um . . . well . . . I don’t . . .” Mr. ‘Licious wasn’t at all prepared for this extreme level of aggression from someone who looked like an unassuming and cherubic little blond boy and therefore he really had no clue what to say.

Brian was just standing there looking on with an amused gleam in his eye and not offering any support whatsoever to the struggling man. ‘Licious might not know it yet, but he was so far out of his league that he might as well not even bother to show up for the game. In fact, Brian would take odds that, if ‘Licious didn’t pull his hand back soon, he might not have a hand at all by the time little Sunshine was through with him. No way was Brian going to get involved in this confrontation. He already knew the outcome and he liked his dick in one piece and fully functional. ‘Licious was on his own.

“No. You don’t. And you really shouldn’t have, either,” Justin continued with a freezing smile on his innocent pink lips, still not letting go of that hand even though ‘Licious Logan was now actively trying to extricate it from the young artist’s strong grip. “Especially if you want to maintain the pretence that you’re straight. Because, if you come near Brian again, I’ll make sure that every media outlet in the western hemisphere knows that you like to slip that pencil stub you call a dick up another guy’s ass.” Justin was still smiling angelically even while the venomous words trickled out of him, and both Brian and ‘Licious simply stood there stunned speechless. “Now, it’s been a real treat meeting you and all, but I think it’s time for you to go. Don’t you? Goodbye.”

‘Licious Logan looked aside at Brian as if asking for help. Brian merely shook his head and smiled. “He really doesn’t LOOK that scary, does he?” was Brian’s only comment.

“Okay, then. Um. Bye,” ‘Licious Jackson’s hand was finally released and he quickly backed away from the psychotically smiling blond boy.

“You do know that you scare the shit out of me when you go all ‘Icy Polite Butch WASP’ like that. Right?” Brian asked as they both reseated themselves in the hotel lobby chairs.

“Good.” Justin commented in that same scary polite voice.

Brian thought it best not to say anything further and let his Sunshine have the last word.

Luckily, the scary silence was broken right then by the advent of one of the Armani reps. He approached Brian with a big grin on his face and the welcome news that the Board had officially signed off on the new contract with Kinnetik. The cost of breaking their existing VanGuard contract would be subtracted from the overall contract price, but Brian had been prepared for that and it didn’t faze him in the least. He would make more than enough off the large multinational design firm over the next three years to make up for the pittance he’d have to pay to Vance.

And it meant that, combined with the five other current accounts Brian had already poached to date, PittSteel and Graco, Kinnetik was pretty much a sure thing. If they nailed Fisher-Price on Friday, that would just be gravy. Or rather, since they were going for class, maybe more like a fine, rich au jus sauce suitable for an expensive french restaurant.

Yep. Thanks to Brian’s handful of mutant recombinant genes, he was now well on his way towards financial independence as his own boss and the owner of what would soon be known as one of the fastest growing advertising companies on the East Coast. Not bad for less than a month’s work.

One of the other things that had kept Justin from getting enough rest over the past couple of weeks was that he’d decided to throw Brian a big thirty-first birthday celebration. He didn’t want to leave it up to the vicissitudes of the family again this year - not after the disaster that had been Brian’s birthday the prior year. Plus, this year they had big, big news to impart to the family and had decided not to wait until the last minute. Brian had accepted the idea of a party, albeit with poor grace and mumblings about ‘not celebrating fucking birthdays’, once Justin explained to him that it could double as a kickoff party for Kinnetik. So, in between caring for Kevan, going to classes as much as possible, preparing the artwork for all their new accounts and acting as Brian’s assistant when he was giving the pitches, Justin had also been planning a rather large party.

The only thing that saved Justin’s sanity with regard to this party was that he had a lot of help. Elsie MacGregor had volunteered to help with invitations. Emmett and Vic were in charge of preparing a buffet supper. Zavi and his brothers had been hired to provide security and arrange transportation. Mother Taylor had been delegated to pick up a substantial supply of both alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks. And, because he couldn’t come up with anything else for her to do, Debbie had been allowed to take charge of the decorations - albeit with Justin retaining full veto power if the tact-challenged lady went too overboard.

As the date for the party approached, Justin had to trust that everything was in place for the party and his instructions were being followed, because he simply didn’t have the time or energy to spare to look into matters himself. The party was set for Sunday evening - the night of Brian’s birthday. And, with one account pitch still looming and all his attention focused on that, he just hoped that his minions were more prepared than he was.

Unfortunately, Justin didn’t finish the last of the Fisher-Price boards until after one am on Friday morning and their flight to Buffalo, New York - the closest airport to the Fisher-Price headquarters in East Aurora - left at seven-thirty. Which meant that he got approximately three and a half hours of sleep. The only good thing about this schedule was that they would be out of the house and long gone before Kevan woke up and discovered that his Daddy was gone. Justin didn’t envy Daphne  - who’d stayed over the night before so that she would be on hand for the early morning departure - the job of trying to care for the baby once that happened. But mostly, Justin was just too fucking tired to care.

With Brian supervising, the boards had been carefully packed away into their carrier the night before. Justin woke up when the alarm went off, sleep-walked through a shower and dressing and then dozed in the car as Brian drove them through the early morning gloom to the airport. Even the copious quantities of caffeine he consumed with their rushed breakfast at the airport weren’t enough to completely wake Justin up. Brian was tired too, but seemed generally better able to deal with his own lack of sleep. He mostly let Justin doze wherever they would sit and then herded him on to the next spot as needed. It wasn’t till the car service was approaching the large block of modern buildings which housed the multinational corporation that the sleepy artist began to perk up.

For this campaign, since the company was primarily focused on children's toys, they had decided to pimp out not only Brian but Kevan too. They'd discussed that decision at length, but in the end they both agreed that the account was worth too much to quibble over whether or not they should keep their son out of the limelight. Besides, Kevan was an adorable baby and he looked fabulous in all the photos Brian had taken of him playing with a variety of Fisher-Price toys. Justin remarked on that fact yet again while he was setting up the boards in the conference room where they were directed after arriving at the correct building.

As it turned out, the company’s new head of marketing was a fifty-something woman who was a mother herself. The plump redheaded woman, who was a little on the bosomy side, entered the room about five minutes before the rest of the group and greeted them with a refreshingly open friendliness. The three of them chatted casually while they were waiting. It turned out that Mama ToyCo - Brian's nickname for the motherly executive - was another one of Brian's fans and that she had followed his story in both the papers and on television with great interest. She then immediately commented on the child depicted on the boards, asking if that was indeed the little miracle baby. When they admitted that yes, it was Kevan, the woman gushed over how adorable the boy was. The conversation then devolved into a discussion of all things parenthood until the rest of the marketing team arrived.

Brian’s spiel went as well as expected. He seemed energized by the fact that the person in charge was obviously pulling for them from the start. And when it came to the part of the presentation where they disclosed Brian's second pregnancy, along with the fact that he was having twins this go around, Mama ToyCo practically leaped out of her seat in order to rush over and give both men congratulatory hugs. Ms. ToyCo, it was revealed, was a twin herself and was quick to reassure the expectant fathers that the joys of having twins would far outweigh the perceived burden.

Taking their cue from the Boss Lady, the rest of the group were equally as enthusiastic by the end of the presentation. Mama ToyCo approved the proposed campaign on the spot, more than excited that her company was going to get to ride on the publicity coattails of Brian's second miracle pregnancy. She said she'd send the contracts over to legal for review and have them signed and in Brian's hands by the beginning of the next week.

Justin gleefully invited Mama ToyCo to their party on Sunday, and she delightedly accepted.

And, just like that, it was all over with. They'd heard back from Novena just the night before giving them the go ahead on that campaign too. Which meant that the three of them - Brian, Justin and Cynthia - had managed to secure three brand new multi-million dollar accounts in less than a month. That was on top of Armani, PittSteel, and several other old accounts committing to follow Brian to his new company. It was a resounding and unprecedented success, not to mention a huge slap in the face to Gardner Vance. Of course, now all the REALLY hard work would begin, including finding office space and hiring the staff necessary to handle the mountains of work that all these accounts would be generating. But at least, for the moment, they could stop long enough to catch their breath and celebrate their remarkable achievement.

As they gathered together their presentation materials and prepared to head home, it was now Brian who seemed overcome by exhaustion. Justin was still running on the adrenaline high he got from knowing they'd succeeded with their plan. Brian, though, slumped in one of the conference room chairs and laid his head in his hands.

“Hey, Stud,” Justin came up behind his partner and began to rub the tired man's shoulders. “What's wrong? You should be ecstatic right now. Everything you planned has worked perfectly. Aren't you thrilled?”

“I am. It's great,” Brian didn't sound like he thought it was great though. “But now that it's all settled . . . I guess the reality of it all just hit me. Again.” Brian lifted up his head and looked at the hovering teen with a lost expression on his handsome face. “I just started my own business at only thirty years old. And I'm also a settled family man with two kids, another two on the way, a house, and a partner. How the fuck did all this happen?”

When stated like that, it really did seem like a lot for the man who, a year and a half earlier, had been unattached and planned to stay that way forever. Justin leaned down, wrapped his arms around Brian's chest and held on tight. Funny how life sorta happened to you like that when you weren't paying attention.

“Buck up, Brian. You're great. You're a complete success at only thirty. And at least you're not virtually married with three kids at only nineteen,” Justin threw back at him.

“Yeah. That is bad. How the fuck did you let that happen to you?” Brian chuckled and then got serious again. “It could be worse, though. YOU could be the one who was pregnant . . . With fucking twins.”

“Okay, so we're both absolutely pathetic. But at least we're pathetic together.” Justin reassured his man, standing up and leaving one last squeeze to Brian's shoulders. “But how about we go home, collapse into bed, and be pathetic together there instead of here.”

“Fine. But first I'm going to go puke again because, now that I don't have anything else to worry about, I just remembered that I'm fucking knocked up again and I deserve a moment to freak out about it . . . Have I mentioned before how unfair this is?” Brian slowly staggered to his feet, holding onto the edge of the table and swaying.

“Yep. I hear ya, Stud.” Justin offered the big man his sturdy shoulder to lean on. “Come on, then. I'll keep you company while you're puking and then we’ll get the hell out of here.”

“Sounds like a good plan, Sunshine.”

“There.” Brian pulled the lightweight sweater on and ran his fingers through his hair one last time, looking at himself in the mirror on the closet door. “Not bad. I'd fuck me.”

“I'd fuck you too, but then all our party guests would get bored waiting for us, Stud,” Justin advised, coming into the bedroom just as Brian was done admiring himself. Justin promptly handed Kevan off to his Daddy. “Here. Hold this and try to keep him from getting dirty again before everyone arrives. I still have to get myself dressed.”

Brian took his son into his arms and then looked at himself again in the mirror. “Fuck. I really AM turning into fucking Ward Cleaver, aren’t I, Sonny Boy.”

“Huh?” Justin asked as he shimmied into a clean pair of slacks.

“Just something Lindsey said the last time I saw her,” Brian explained. “She intimated I was turning into some 1950’s cliche - throwing smashing dinner parties in my fabulous house with you cast as the little woman doing the dishes in your pearls.” Brian scoffed.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Justin trotted over to the bureau, flipped open the lid of a little box waiting on top and took out a small gold ring with a single pearl on it. “There. Will that do?” the blond boy asked as he switched out the plain gold nipple ring he'd been wearing for the new pearl one, causing Brian to burst out laughing. “I also have that fancy mother-of-pearl inlaid butt plug you got me for Christmas. I could wear that too. Of course, then I wouldn't be able to play hostess for you all night because I'd be too horny.”

“Come here, June,” Brian pulled the grinning blond imp to him for one long, wet, tongue-filled and definitely NOT sanctioned-for-prime-time kiss. “At least YOU get my sense of humor.”

Justin left Brian with one more kiss then pulled away to finish buttoning up his shirt and fixing his hair. Just as he laid down the hairbrush, they heard the doorbell ringing to announce their first guest. One last look in the mirror showed them an image of their little family in all it's strange perfection.

“Time to make your appearance Birthday Boy!” Justin said, smacking Brian's ass familiarly as he walked past and out the door.

Brian followed a little more slowly. “Here's the plan, Sonny Boy. We’ll do the whole meet and greet thing together but when I just can't take it anymore, I'll give you a signal. Then you can start crying and I'll have an excuse to escape. How does that sound?”

“Gah!” Kevan seemed agreeable to being his Daddy’s wingman for the night.

“Okay. Here goes nothing, kiddo.” Brian kissed the baby's cheek as they emerged from the hallway and found that the Greatroom was already half filled with guests.