Where's the Fire?

Brian had a feeling before the guys sat themselves down in front of their fake fireplace. He felt that Justin was not pleased at something Brian had told him earlier in the day. Brian expected the subject to come up in front of the flickering flames. Brian decided that the best defense was a good offense.

"Are you upset about the fireplace business, Baby?" he asked the kid.

"Why would I be upset about the fireplace business?" Justin asked him in return.

"OK," Brian concluded. "We have now established that you are upset about the fireplace business, so I guess I should ask why you're upset about the fireplace business?"

"And just why would I be upset about the fireplace business?" Justin wanted to know.

"I asked you first, Sweetheart," Brian smiled at him. "But let me go over the whole thing again, OK? I have this good account with Ace Fireplaces. I want to keep that account. A couple of years ago they gave me this fireplace we have here…."

"Which you hated and wanted to get rid of," Justin interrupted him. "But which I wanted to keep and look how neat it has been for us. You like the fireplace too now, Brian, so you might as well admit it."

"I will admit it, Baby," Brian agreed, "And then I will go on with my story if you'll let me. Last year they wanted me to replace this fireplace with their newer model and you said…."

"I didn't want any new fireplace, Bri," Justin interrupted again. "How could we know the new fireplace would work as well as the old one? We can discuss anything in front of this one and we always end up happy. How could we be sure the new fireplace would be as good?"

"You're right, Kiddo, as always, so I know we are going to be blissfully happy after this discussion is over - maybe not during the discussion itself but surely when it's over," Brian conceded laconically. "But to continue with my story, I turned them down. They were surprised and I wasn't about to tell them why I didn't want the new model. I don't mind being crazy but I'm not going to tell people who don't know it."

"Yeah," Justin relented slightly, "There are some people left who don't know you're crazy."

"Which is probably because they don't know that I ever took up with you, Baby," Brian reasoned, "And worse yet, I'm not one bit sorry I did."

Justin seemed to snuggle up to Brian as the big guy went on. "OK, now they have an even newer model which they offered me. I couldn't turn them down again. I had to take it. I really did. Now would you want to replace our fireplace with the new one?"

"No," Justin answered. "Of course, I don't want any new fireplace. I love this one."

"Me too, Sweetheart," Brian agreed. "But I had to take the new fireplace. I really did. So now there are two fireplaces. We don't need two fireplaces. We couldn't stand that much happiness."

"Yeah," Justin conceded. "I guess you had to take the new one, but then you gave it to Mikey and Ben."

"You, my beloved twink," Brian replied, "Are the one who told Mikey all about our fireplace. In fact, I think you even invited him over to sit in front of it, and I think it was you who convinced him it was magic. He's been talking about getting one ever since but it takes Mikey a long time to get around to doing things. He was really glad to get the fireplace though, and he'll tell me how it works and all so Ace won't know I gave it away. It was a perfect solution. So what's bothering you about that?"

"I don't know, Bri," Justin admitted. "It's like sharing our secret or something. Maybe like giving away some of the luck we have with our fireplace. I don't know. Never mind. I'm just crazy, I guess."

"Well, you did take up with me, Baby," Brian told him, "So maybe you are crazy."

"Maybe," Justin agreed. "But I guess the fireplace business is settled. Sorry if I made an issue of it. I guess you know how I am."

"Yeah," Brian told him, "I do know how you are. But I still have a question for you, Baby. When I took the fireplace over to Mikey's, he said that Malcolm and Hunter would be happy about it too."

"He did?" Justin responded.

"He did," Brian confirmed. "And he said that they had been after him to get a fireplace ever since they tried out ours. Now I don't remember them ever trying out ours. Do you remember them ever using it, Baby? Maybe you have a better memory than I do?"

"Uh," Justin hedged. "Maybe…."

"Maybe you remember or maybe they did use our 'good luck' fireplace?" Brian asked for clarification.

"Well there were a couple of times when Hunter and Malcolm were not seeing eye to eye," Justin confessed, "So I had them sit for an hour or so in front of our fireplace and that seemed to help them solve their problems. The fireplace seemed to work for them just like it works for us."

"And you weren't afraid they'd take some of our luck out of the magic fireplace?" Brian asked through a suppressed laugh.

"It never seemed to bother us," Justin defended himself. "The fireplace always works for us and you know it. No matter what crazy thing I do, I can explain it to you if we have the fireplace working. You know that."

Brian smiled gently. He did know that.

"How come you didn't tell me about it, Baby?" Brian wondered. "About you lending our fireplace to Malcolm and Hunter, and maybe a lot of other people I don't even know about. You didn't think I'd be mad about it, did you?"

"Nah," Justin responded, "But I did figure you'd make fun of me and razz me about it, just like you're going to do now, so go ahead, scoff and deride."

"Maybe I'll do a little scoffing and deriding later, Baby," Brian replied. "But I still don't see why me giving the new fireplace to Mikey bothered you. Wanna tell me what the problem was?"

"I can't, Brian," Justin admitted. "I just do dumb things every once in a while - not all that often but sometimes. You know that. I know you know that. I'm sorry but that's just me. I can't help it. You know what though, Bri, you don't ever seem to get mad at me when I do something dumb. You don't even pick on me when I do something really dumb."

"You got me, Twink," Brian confessed. "Actually I do like to pick on you every once in a while, not often but sometimes, but I would never pick on you when you do something really dumb. I love you way too much to ever do that."

"Well then," Justin posed the significant question, "Are you going to pick on me about this?"

"I haven't decided," Brian told him.

"I think you should pick on me, Bri," Justin grinned at him. "Just a little bit though."

"You know what, Babe," Brian changed the subject. "Mikey told me that he and Ben had a disagreement yesterday and they tried out the new fireplace and he thought it worked for them."

"It didn't take any of our magic though, Brian," Justin responded. "Our fireplace worked again tonight. I'm happy. Aren't you?"

"Yeah," Brian squeezed the twink and tousled his hair at the same time. "I'm happy."

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