Carpe Noctem

Chapter 6

Justin was sitting in the chair by the window in his hospital room thinking. He did a lot of thinking lately. He was waiting for Daphne to come and pick him up to take him to Brian's. His mother had finally lain off now that he had chosen to go and live at Brian's. He still wasn't sure what it was that possessed him to agree to go back to the loft, although he was sure that it had something to do with the way his mom had been suffocating him. He was unsure about how the whole thing would work out with Brian, he still loved him, of that there was no doubt, but did Brian feel the same way? They had been talking a lot lately, actually Brian had been doing a lot of talking lately, Justin just didn't really feel like talking much right now.

Before Justin had a chance to get far on the Brian train of thought he heard Daphne coming in to his room. She had a kind of bouncy step that he had come to recognise. He really hadn't believed in all that 'when you lose one sense, your others are extra sensitive' bullshit, but now that he couldn't see, he found it to be somewhat true.

"Well, aren't we looking aplomb today?" Daphne said as she entered the room. Justin turned to face his best friend.

"Aplomb, really?" he looked at her with a disbelieving look. Since Justin had been in the hospital he and Daphne had been playing a game where every day Daphne randomly chose a word from the dictionary that they both had to try and use in a sentence before the end of the day. It was kind of fun but Justin was pretty sure that it was just Daphne's way of trying to give his mind something to do other than all the thinking he'd been doing lately.

"It means 'calm self-possession'. So I think technically I'm right."

"Whatever, Daph." He gave her a small smile, he she was right.

"All right, Justin, I do believe that I promised you a non-hospital lunch before we make our way over to the loft."

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Across town Michael was on a warpath as he made his way to the top floor of Brian's building. For a week and a half his best friend had been practically invisible. He'd stopped showing up for breakfasts at the diner and was nowhere to be found after work. If Brian did show up at Woody's it was usually only a short period of time before he made up an excuse to leave. Michael had left an almost constant strain of messages on his machine and cell phone, a tactic that worked in the past but apparently not this time.

As he reached Brian's door he could see that it was open and he could hear voices inside. As much of an exhibitionist as Brian was he never left his door open when he had tricks over, yet there was definitely another man inside. Michael peered inside the loft. Brian and his visitor were both still wearing clothes so that bode well.

"This place is great Brian." Michael heard the other man say.

"So you think it will work?" Brian inquired. What the hell? Michael immediately jumped to conclusions. Was Brian moving? He hadn't heard anything about it, but maybe that's why Brian had been avoiding all of them lately.

"Yeah, with a few small adjustments I think it will be just about perfect." The stranger replied.

Michael, never one for timing or tact, barged in on the conversation. "Brian?" he said making his presence known. Both men turned to face the newcomer. Brian rolled his eyes when Michael gave the other man in the room a glare.

"Is there a particular reason you've invited yourself in?" Brian said making his way over to the kitchen to put down the bottle of water he had been drinking, the other man following him over.

Michael really didn't feel like having this conversation in front of a complete stranger. "Could you get rid of this guy, I really don't want to talk to you in front of one of your tricks." Michael said bluntly giving the man another glare. The man smiled and looked at Brian, who was giving Mikey one of those 'you're so pathetic' looks.

"Wait until I tell my girlfriend, she's going to think this is hilarious."

Mikey's face went from a glare to a blank and confused look.

"Josh, Mikey. Mikey, Josh, Justin' visual therapist." Brian explained as the confusion deepened for the shorter man.

Before Michael could speak again, Josh spoke. "Well Brian, as I said I think this place will work just fine, so I'll be on my way and see you later." He shook Brian's hand then turned to Michael, "Nice to meet you Michael." He said with a sincere grin, then turned and left the loft.

Brian turned and looked at his best friend. "Mikey, what are you doing here?" He said, already knowing the answer but wanting to hear what excuse his friend would come up with for coming over uninvited yet again.

Michael considered the question carefully and decided that if he expected the truth from Brian he'd better be forth-coming. "I want to know why you've been avoiding me! Are you moving? Why the Hell was that guy here?" Well in the end it turned into a barrage instead of rationality.

Brian walked over to the kitchen and put down the empty water bottle on the counter. This was exactly why he'd been avoiding his friends, Michael especially. They always jumped to conclusions and the assumed the worst of him. He turned to look at his friend. Michael was standing there looking at him imploringly.

"I'm not moving, Mikey."

"Then what's with the boxes?" he responded motioning to the boxes stacked in the corner.

"It's just some of Justin's stuff; you can help me unpack it if you want."

Michael looked at Brian dumbfounded. What the Hell was going on?!

"Unpack it?" he questioned.

"Yeah, Daphne's bringing him over in a couple hours and I'd like to have these unpacked by then." Brian explained like this was common knowledge and not a huge bombshell.

"BRIAN!" Michael exclaimed. "He's moving in! How the Hell did the little twat convince you of that?!"

Brian glared icily at Michael. "I asked him." he said in a quiet growl.

"You wha…why?"

Brian knew why but he really didn't feel like going into it with Michael, so he decided to go the logical route. "Well he and the fiddler are over, so he can't very well go back there. His mother has been smothering him; if he went home with her it probably wouldn't be long until he forgot how to wipe his own ass. He can't go back to Deb's, she's got too much crap that he can run into or knock over."

Although this made complete sense to Brian he was surprised to hear Michael question more.

"Well, why you? Why can't he get his own place?"

Now it was Brian's turn to look dumbfounded. Surely Michael wasn't that oblivious. Everyone in the 'family' knew that Justin still couldn't see.

"You do realise he's fucking blind right!" Brian said raising his voice at the end of his sentence.

Minutes before Daphne's car had arrived outside of the loft. Because she had been in a rush after lunch Justin had been able to convince Daphne to let him go up to Brian's by himself. Although it had taken him a few minutes he was standing outside the door of the loft, but now he wished he was anywhere else but there.

"Christ Brian, he's not the only blind person in the world and plenty of them live alone! So I don't see why he had to live with you!"

When he had finished Michael looked at his friend and saw the anger radiating from him. That wasn't usually something he received from Brian, annoyance, yes, but not anger. He watched as Brian turned and made his way over to the fridge. He thought back to the hospital and the way Brian had looked. It had been so strange to see Brian fall to pieces over someone. But this wasn't just someone, it was Justin. It suddenly dawned on him, like someone had lit a neon sign over his head.

"You still care about him!" he exclaimed.

Brian pulled his head from the fridge, Mikey had figured it out! Wasn't that a surprise? He opened the beer in his hands and raised it to his lips, not confirming or disproving the statement. That was enough for Michael to know he was right.

"I still don't think it's a good idea." Brian remained silent but cocked an eyebrow as if to say, 'Oh? And why is that?'

"Well it's totally going to interrupt your life plus he's gonna need all kinds of attention and stuff."

Brian had to break his silence to huff a laugh at the 'and stuff' Michael Novotny, ever the articulate.

"Actually I had to force him to have his stuff moved in; he said he wouldn't even consider moving in if it meant having to change the loft."

Michael was surprised at this. Brian had to force Justin to move in? His best friend had been acting strange lately, but this almost seemed like too much. He watched as Brian made his way over to the boxes and began to go through one of them.

Michael remembered how different Brian had seemed since the break-up, but at the time Michael had his relationship with Ben to work out. Was it possible that they were finally growing up? He wasn't sure but he'd give Brian the benefit of the doubt. He made his way over to Brian and the boxes to help, he decided he'd give it a chance but would keep a close eye on Justin nonetheless, he wouldn't let the blond hurt his friend again.

An hour later all of Justin's stuff was unpacked and Brian was sitting at the computer installing some voice software. Michael had gone home. It had been a weird conversation, but he thought that it was possible that Michael finally got it, which was a big accomplishment for him. His thoughts on the talk they had had were interrupted by the phone ringing.

"Yeah?" he answered.

"Hey Brian," it was Daphne.

"What can I do for you darling?"

"I'd like to speak to your better half please."

Brian was confused. "Justin?"

"Of course Justin, can I talk to him?"

"What do you mean? I thought you were with him." But even as he said it he had a sense of foreboding edging its way in.

"He's not there?!" Daphne exclaimed. The worry in her voice did nothing for his nerves.

"No, should he be?"

"Yes! I dropped him off at your place over an hour ago!"

"What the Hell?"

Daphne's voice was quiet and scared. "Where is he Brian? He shouldn't be out by himself."

"I know, I'll find him." Brian said with fierce determination. At least he hoped he would.

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