Yours, Mine, and Ours

Wednesday was usually a late day for Justin but with his last class cancelled that particular Wednesday he was a couple of hours early getting back to the loft. "Brian will be surprised," he was thinking as he rode the elevator up to the proper floor, "If he's already home."

Brian was already home and he was very surprised as Justin came through the sliding door. Justin took a look at Brian and smiled. "You're hiding something behind your back, Brian." he accused his boyfriend. "I wonder what it could be?"

"Well I'm not going to show you," Brian replied. "What the hell are you doing home so soon? This is your late day."

"Well, I can guess what it is," Justin told him, sticking to the subject as he saw it. "I'll bet it's a present. Probably an Easter present for me."

"Close enough," Brian answered. "Now hide your eyes while I put it somewhere."

"OK, Honey," Justin said. "I guess that's fair. I'll just start getting Gus' Easter basket ready. Only four more days."

"I think that's a little early, Baby," Brian advised him as Justin got a little closer.

"Hey, Bri," Justin exclaimed. "Is that chocolate I see on your face? Brian Kinney, did you find the chocolate rabbit I had hidden to give you on Easter?"

"So you think this loft is Yellowstone Park," Brian admitted. "Yeah, I found it. Thanks, Twink. A sugar-free, fat-free, fake-chocolate Easter rabbit. Neat."

"Well you're always watching calories and I knew you liked chocolate," Justin defended himself. "That's the best I could do. How much of it did you eat? Let me see."

Justin kind of grabbed onto Brian jokingly and the chocolate rabbit came into view. It was Justin's turn to be surprised. "Brian, that's not your chocolate rabbit. That's Gus' chocolate rabbit - the one I got to put in his Easter basket. You ate Gus' Easter rabbit."

"Not all of it," Brian corrected him. "I just ate around the bottom of it. You can still put it in the basket in all that fake grass and he'll never know."

"Brian Kinney," Justin insisted. "That's not like stealing candy from a baby. That is stealing candy from a baby and that's terrible."

"I'll tell you what's terrible," Brian insisted back, "No-sugar, no-fat, no-chocolate, chocolate rabbits. Now that's terrible. And technically, I didn't steal any candy from a baby. You hadn't given it to Gus yet so it was still yours, so even if I did steal it, it was you I stole it from."

Justin just grinned as Brian rethought his statement. "You probably figure that even if I stole it from you, I was still stealing it from a baby," Brian had to laugh. "But technically, we are a couple so what's yours is mine and so I didn't steal it at all."

"We may be a couple, Bri," Justin told him, "But we're not legally married, and I don't know if the yours and mine changes to ours just because we're a couple."

"Well, I feel enough like we're married that I think it should," Brian countered.

"OK. One point for Kinney. You're well on your way to becoming a shyster lawyer, Honey," Justin concluded. "But you won't be able to argue away the flab around your waist. And you're usually so careful. I hope you haven't decided to let yourself go, Brian. You were always so careful."

"I guess you won't love me when I get old and flabby," Brian complained.

"Yeah, I will," Justin replied with a certain feigned lack of enthusiasm. "Till death do us part."

"Well you should have known I was the kind who would steal candy from a baby, Kiddo," Brian concluded. "You should have gone after Mikey. He was free then and he would never steal candy from a baby."

"Yeah, you deceived me, Sweetheart," Justin recalled. "I knew you were a selfish bastard who didn't like anybody but Mikey and Linz and you still treated them like shit just like you treated everybody else. I knew you were addicted to drugs and booze and one-night stands, but you never let on that you'd steal candy from a baby till now, when I'm really stuck on you and it's too late."

"So now I guess you're planning to steer me away from that life of crime?" Brian suggested.

"Bet on it," Justin told him. And that finished the discussion - for then.

The subject came up again a few hours later, when the fireplace was lit and the guys were in position on the floor watching the fake flames darting to and fro.

"You're not mad at me, Brian?" Justin asked Brian after the usual period of silence they observed upon sitting down.

"What for?" Brian asked him back.

"You know," Justin continued. "For making such a fuss about you eating Gus' rabbit. I can go out tomorrow and get another rabbit for Gus - even though it has to have pink eyes, a blue nose and white sprinkles on its head. But you are absolutely irreplaceable, Brian. I love you."

"Well if you're going to get Gus another chocolate rabbit, I guess I can have the rest of the one I started on," Brian answered.

"Brian Kinney," Justin complained. "I try to get romantic and you're worried about a candy rabbit."

"First things first," Brian explained. "I want you around for a long time and that rabbit won't last very long at all. There'll be plenty of time for romance when that rabbit is history."

While Justin was laughing, Brian reached under the couch and withdrew the already-nibbled-on rabbit that Gus would never see. "I'm going to eat a piece right now,' Brian proclaimed.

"Well break off an ear and pass it over here, " Justin told him.

"You want some of my rabbit?" Brian pretended shock.

"It's not your rabbit," Justin informed him. "It's our rabbit. We're a couple, remember, and what's yours is mine. I got that straight from our resident shyster lawyer."

"We're not legally married though," Brian protested.

"Well I feel enough like we're married to get that ear," Justin insisted. "So hand it over."

"Baby," Brian cajoled as they chewed on their chocolate. "If you're going to get another of these rabbits for Gus, maybe you should get another one for us - notice I said us and not me."

"Forget it, Kinney," Justin replied. "When you put on a pound or two, it's me who'll have to listen to all the guff. You can finish this rabbit and then you still have that delicious other rabbit that I got for you in the first place. And I promise I won't eat any of that one at all so you can have it all to yourself. How does that sound?"

"That sounds like we're really married," Brian groaned. "Are you positively sure we aren't legally married?"

"Not legally," Justin thought to himself as he rubbed his head against Brian's cheek.

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