Recapitulation

The guys had been too busy to sit in front of their fireplace for a few days so they were pleased at last for the opportunity to sprawl on the floor of the loft together in front of the flickering flames.

"Mikey says Brandon came home from the hospital today," Brian opened the discussion.

"Yeah," Justin responded.  "I was just going to tell you that.  Actually he's been out of the hospital for over a week now but he just got out of the rehab center today.  He's getting around OK but he'll be doing therapy for another couple of months.  He's lucky though.  He should make a full recovery."

"Well I'm glad we helped them get through it," Brian said.  "We did our good deed for the year.  I guess we'll be keeping in contact with those guys from now on though?" 

"Only if you want to, Honey.  But Brandon does want to take us out to dinner next week to thank us for helping them out," Justin mentioned.  "It's up to you, Bri.  If you don't want to go, we don't have to.  I didn't tell them we'd go.  It's your call."

"Naw," Brian told him.  "I think it should be up to you.  You know what's the right thing to do with this kind of stuff.  If you say we go, we go."

"We'll see, Brian," Justin replied.  "I'll be talking to Jason later in the week.  And Brian – that was really nice – what you just said about me."

"It was your compliment for the night, Sweetheart," Brian laughed it off.  "Now I can be as mean to you as I want to for the rest of the night and my conscience won't bother me."

"You can cut that out if you want to, Brian," Justin smiled at him.  "You ought to know by now that I see through all that tough guy business.  But it's OK if you want to do it.  I don't really mind."

Brian didn't answer so the conversation paused at this point for a while.  The guys did not need to talk to communicate.  Not that they didn't talk.

"Baby," Brian asked, "You seem to have known Jason for a while.  Until this happened, I didn't even know you knew Jason?"

"I guess I know a lot of people you don't know I know," Justin reasoned, "Just like you know a lot of people I don't know.  But I think you met Jason too at least once.  He was a friend of Hunter's and he had a small part in a couple of Malcolm's plays.  That's how I met him."

"And you really helped him to trap poor Brandon?" Brian wondered.

"Poor Brandon, eh?" Justin smiled.  "I never thought I'd hear you call him 'poor Brandon.'"

"Enough, Twink," Brian came back good-naturedly.  "There just might be a very good reason for me to call him 'poor Brandon.'  But I was asking how you helped Jason trap Brandon – whether he's 'poor Brandon' or not."

"I didn't really help him," Justin said.  "Not the way you're probably thinking.  I did give him a little advice though.  See, he wanted to go to Babylon this one time and he was afraid to go by himself - so Malcolm went with him.  Well Jason saw Brandon there and fell for him right away.  He told Malcolm that he knew he would never have a chance with Brandon, and Malcolm told him to talk to me."

"Why would Malcolm do that?" Brian had to laugh.

"I don't know," Justin wondered too.  "Your guess is as good as mine.  I guess Malcolm just thought I was resourceful."

"And are you going to tell me what advice you gave to Jason," Brian asked, "Or is that one of your trade secrets?"

"I told him that if he loved Brandon, he should just go for it," Justin told Brian, "And if Brandon was worth having, maybe he'd come around.  I warned him that maybe Brandon didn't even know what love was so maybe it would take some time – but Brandon just might eventually figure it out and maybe everything might just work out the way Jason hoped it would."

"And how did you get to be so wise, Baby?" Brian squeezed the kid closer to himself.

"I don't know, Brian," Justin replied.  "I guess I was just born with a lot of wisdom.  Yeah, I think I was always wise."

"Tell me something, Baby," Brian was laughing.  "Do us sexy, wild, play-the-field studs have any chance at all against the Association of Beautiful Blond Twinks – or are we all doomed once one of you guys decides he wants us?"

"I think the hard-hearted, really mean ones can get away," Justin conjectured, "And good riddance too.  But the ones that are really great people deep down inside, I think they'll know love when they find it – or when it finds them.  They don't have much chance, Bri – they're just unlucky I guess."

"Maybe not unlucky, Baby," Brian corrected him.  "Maybe not unlucky at all."

So there was another quiet period in the loft – this one lasting a bit longer than the earlier one.

Brian eventually returned to the discussion.  "Are Brandon and Jason going to have any financial problems while Brandon gets better?" he asked the kid.  "You know, Baby, I don't even know what Brandon does for a living.  My guess is that he's some kind of construction worker.  Betcha I'm close."

"I wouldn't say all that close, Bri," Justin laughed.  "Brandon is a lawyer with one of the big firms downtown.  Specializes in labor relations.  I thought you knew that.  Everybody at Babylon knows that.  You may not have known Jason but you sure knew Brandon.  I can't believe you didn't know he was a lawyer."

"Maybe you haven't noticed it, Honey," Brian laughed back at him, "But I'm not around Babylon very much these days – and the few times you did let me go, I didn't do much paling around with Brandon.  I did, however, notice what his specialty was at Babylon.  Maybe you could call that labor relations."

"Brian Kinney, you can be downright exasperating even at the best of times," Justin objected.  "You know darn well you can go to Babylon any time you want to – as long as I'm there too."

"You don't trust me?" Brian joked.  "After all this time together, you still don't trust me."

"Well I guess I could trust you without me," Justin considered, "If you had Mikey with you – or maybe now even Brandon.  They'd look out for my interests and keep you out of trouble.

"Cut it out, Twink," Brian told him, "If I'm exasperating, I'd have to say I'm not the only exasperating guy around here."

"Maybe not," Justin agreed. 

Quiet again descended on the loft.  The third time might have been the charm.  It wasn't.

Brian again restarted the discussion.  "Are you currently helping any beautiful blond twinks catch any hard-to-get tough-guys, Baby?" he asked "Or are you on hiatus?"

"Not right now, BK," Justin smiled at him.  "The current big deal at Babylon is some guy named Oswaldo.  He's mean enough all right but there isn't any blond twink who wants him."

"Poor Oswaldo," Brian opined.

"Gee whiz, Bri," Justin grinned.  "You are really getting soft.  First 'poor Brandon' and now 'poor Oswaldo.'  What about 'poor Brian?'"

"'Poor Brian is not complaining," he was told as Brian ran his fingers through the kid's hair.  “You know what though, Baby, I think you should find a beautiful blond twink for Oswaldo.  I think that‘s what he needs.”

“Are you sure you know what you’re saying, Brian?” Justin was quizzical.  “You must really be happy with the beautiful blond twink you have…. And you don‘t even know Oswaldo either.”

“No I don’t,” Brian mused, “But why should Oswaldo get away scot free?….When me and Brandon….”

“You know what, Kinney,” Justin mused back, in a manner of interrupting Brian‘s train of thought,  “I think there’s something else you better say right now.”

“I love you,” Brian whispered to the kid, squeezing him in closer.

That seemed to be exactly the right thing to say.

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