I walked into the diner and saw Mikey looking like Captain Astro died again, with everyone crowded around him. Once again I had to wonder how a fictional character caused this much emotion in Mikey. I sat down with the guys who were all just as confused as I was over this.

“He’s killing him.” Mikey cries loudly to everyone.

“I thought he was already dead?” I tell Mikey.

“He told you?” Mikey asks.

“Who told me what?” I ask him, confused.

“Justin. He’s killing Rage.” He tells me.

I got up, kissed Michael, Emmett, Ted, and then Ben when he walked up with Michael’s shake. I had a house to open up.

“Brian what was that about?” Ted asks, running after me.

“Time’s up and I need to go. I have a present coming.” I tell him, running to my car.

“When did he call to tell you he was coming home?” Ted asks.

“He didn’t, Mikey just did.” I tell him.

“I don’t understand.” He tells me.

“You don’t need to, but I need you to watch over Kinnetik for a few weeks. Justin and I won’t be back until we’ve had time for ourselves. No one needs to know he’s coming, understood.” I tell him.

I pulled up at the house and found the front door open. When I walked in, there were people everywhere, bringing things in and cleaning the house. Rachel came running down the stairs and stopped when she saw me.

“Mr Kinney, you need to go to your loft, Justin wanted everything ready before you and he came home.” She tells me.

“What am I doing at my loft?” I ask her.

“Getting dressed, he told me to tell you to meet him where it all began.” She tells me.

Only Justin would be this sentimental. I took off, calling Jen because this time Mom was going to be there when I proposed to the twat.

“Brian, how have you been? You know, calling more than once a week so I know your breathing isn’t the way I see this relationship working.” She tells me.

“He’s coming home.” I tell her.

“Finally. I swear I never know where he is anymore. If you didn’t tell him to call I doubt he’d remember.” She tells me.

“He just gets lost in his work, then me. I just learned to hand him a phone to call you with. He never remembers where his is.” I tell her.

“Are you two going to tell everyone?” She asks.

“I figured I’d just bring him to dinner and surprise everyone.” I tell her.

“At least warn Deb, she’ll end up slapping Michael as if he didn’t tell her.” She tells me, laughing.

“I’ll leave that up to you. Mom, will you do me the honor of allowing me to marry your son?” I ask her.

“Oh God, not again?” She jokes.

“I’m taking him out of here after whatever he has planned for tonight. This time we are actually getting married. You might want to pack a bag, since we want to live after getting married.” I tell her, hanging up.

He finally did everything and sent me the message. Although Mikey is most likely going to kill Justin when he finds out Rage isn’t really dying. Mikey and Justin kept Rage going, but as time went on, Mikey wanted a comic that centered around Zephyr and Ken. They each agreed that Rage would be written by Justin, and Mikey would write the adventures of Zephyr with a different artist doing the panels. Mikey’s comic isn’t doing what Rage is, but hey, Rage VS Ken, no contest. I really think it’s because Justin and Mikey still put out two editions a year that bring Zephyr back to fight with Rage. Justin made it so the two separate comics eventually reach a point where the stories connect twice a year.

I can’t believe it’s been six years since Justin was back for more than a weekend or holiday. I remember when he told me he wanted to come home but needed to finish what he’d left me to do. I met him in Spain for the week and asked if he was going to be able to make Gus’s birthday.

“Do you think that it’s time for me to come home?” He asked.

“Justin, we agreed that you’ll come home when you know it’s time.” I told him.

“I keep thinking that it is, but then another opportunity comes up. I’m getting tired of this nomadic life.” He told me.

“When you really do get tired, because I know you’re not, then come home.” I told him.

“It’s just, when I do come home I don’t want everyone showing up the way they do when I come for holidays and weekends. I want time that is just you and me first. If everyone finds out, it will be calls wanting to do things, which I want to because I miss everyone, but not for a few weeks.” He told me.

“Then figure out a way to tell me and everyone else, without them figuring it out.” I told him.

Justin woke up the next morning and told me if I ever hear Rage is dead, it means he is on his way home for good. Mikey’s mourning is my happiness. I got to the loft to see clothes on the bed, and really, Justin’s assistant Rachel, needs to work for me. The girl thinks of everything and has it ready before you know you need it. I was getting dressed, when Lindsay called to tell me that she and Mel were going to come for the weekend. I sat there trying to figure out how Justin and I could juggle all this and not alert the troops.

JUSTIN

Michael is such a drama queen, it’s not like I really planned to kill Rage, but then he doesn’t know that. Ben even called to ask why I was killing Rage. I’m sure he just wants peace and quiet, but he’ll get it when Rage survives. I knew Brian would have to tell Ted, but Ted learned to keep his mouth shut when it came to my visits, after we ended up not having a minute to ourselves the first time.

When I left Pittsburgh, Brian and I became busy and didn’t see a lot of each other for the first year. He was running his ass off to make Kinnetik the success it became, so there wasn’t time for a lot of visits. During year two I started getting offers for shows and started traveling with my agent, so it was me causing us to have longer separations. It was year three when Brian showed up when I hadn’t called him for a few weeks. I’d been trying to decide if any of this was worth losing Brian for, and took a couple weeks off from everything and rented a cabin in Vermont. Brian managed to get out of my agent, Stephen, where I was and showed up to find out why I wasn’t answering him. I felt like a total shit when he asked me if I wanted to break up.

“No. I just hate the way we never have any time for each other. I keep feeling like you’re going to get tired of how things have been and just tell me you’re done.” I told him.

“Where did you get that idea from?” He asked me.

“I’m fucking lonely, spending months away from each other. You can’t tell me it doesn’t bother you and that life wouldn’t be easier if I just came home.” I told him.

“Of course it would be easier, but when have we ever tried to take the easy way. I plan to stick to the man I want to marry one day, even if it means he has to be away from me to do what he needs to do. If this is about wanting to see each other more, all you had to do was tell me and I would have been anywhere you needed me to be.” He told me, pulling me up in his arms.

“It’s not fair to you that you always have to be the one who travels to see me.” I told him,

“Justin, I don’t care as long as I know that one day, instead of wearing these around our necks, we actually do what we said we would with them.” He told me, pulling my necklace with his ring on it.

“Why not just do it now?” I asked him.

“I want to do it when there aren’t going to be anymore separations. When we can move into our house and finally know there are no more month long trips to Europe that I can’t take with you. Kinnetik is almost ready for me to be able to hire enough execs that I don’t have to be there all the time and can devote my time to watching you become the artist I knew you would be.” He told me.

After we spent the weekend together, Brian and I made promises that we wouldn’t let a month go by without seeing each other. I think half my problem was that we decided to be monogamous, but my hand could only take so much and phone sex only made me miss the real thing.

Years four and five he made sure to sync our planners and filled in ways that we could see each other more often. One thing that we always made sure of was to be in Canada for all of Gus’s birthdays and any holidays. I hated that I was missing half of Gus’s life, but managed to convince the girls to let Gus come spend parts of his summers with me, when I traveled. Brian would join us as soon as he could get away and take Gus back with him when it was time. I asked Brian if he wanted us to have a child one day.

“When we can finally settle down, I do.” He told me.

“We might have grandchildren before that happens.” I told him.

“Justin, if you want a child now, we do it. I just think it would be nice to be in one place.” He told me.

“You really want to have one?” I asked.

“Yes Twat, you seem to make me want things I never thought I would.” He told me.

Now that I know I can stop the merry-go-round, I came home. I fired Stephen, because he was worse than Lindsay, convincing Brian that I should leave to become famous. I hate that it worked because it meant leaving Brian for years.

I got dressed in the hotel room that I rented so Brian wouldn’t find me until we got to meet the way I wanted us to. I know he’s going to be ready to strangle me for this, but I wanted us to start from where we began eleven years ago. Only this time we didn’t have to deal with all the drama it took to get us here. Daphne was waiting with the car, rolling her eyes at me for wanting to make an entrance, but I decided that the place where he changed my world was where I wanted to propose to him.

“I hate you. You can still wear the same fucking jeans.” She tells me, kissing me as she dropped me off in the same place.

“Stop having kids and you’ll see your feet again.” I tell her, patting baby number three.

I walked down the street that scared the shit out of me the first time I walked down it and found the streetlight with Mr Kinney standing there waiting.

“You were supposed to wait over there.” I pointed.

“I was waiting for my future, not my past.” He tells me.

I got down on one knee and pulled the ring out while he stared at me. “I wanted to propose this time. Will you marry me?” I asked him.

“Like you didn’t know the answer six years ago.” He tells me.

“How about just answering, because I really want to get up.” I tell him.

“Okay.” He tells me.

“Seriously. Okay. Just say it.” I tell him.

“Let’s do it.” He tells me.

“Say it, because really, there’s something slimy under my knee.” I tell him, fearing what was down there.

“Yes, Mr Taylor, I’ll marry you.” He tells me, kissing me, but keeping me away from him.

“I think I need another shower.” I tell him.

“I think there’s one you can use, since you insisted on doing this all over again.” He tells me, taking me to his car.

“Bitching is not how I thought we’d do this.” I complain.

“No, you just had to be all sentimental when we could already be naked and fucking on every surface of the house. I swear, I never thought you were this big of a twat.” He complains, but he’s smiling.

“I’m the twat you love, so get over it.” I tell him.

“Can you two ever do anything normal?” My mother asks.

“Please, he bought a house to propose in, this is as normal as we’ll ever be.” I tell her, kissing her before being shoved in Brian’s car.

“I’ll meet you at the airport in the morning.” She yells, getting into her car with Tucker.

“You brought my mom?” I bitch.

“Yes bitchy, I figured I’d keep my ball by including her.” He tells me.

“You're afraid of my mommy.” I sing-song.

“Justin, shut up.” He tells me, speeding into the night.