It’s That Time Again

It was cold and blustery in Pittsburgh and the guys were happy to be sitting together sharing the heat and the light of their fake fireplace.  Brian had his arm around Justin.  They both had smiles on their faces.  There was a discussion coming on.  They both knew that but neither one seemed ready to start it.

“I talked to Abelard on the phone today,” Brian finally initiated the topic they were both thinking about.  “He called me at the office.”

“I thought maybe you had,” Justin responded.  “You kind of looked like you had talked to Abelard today.”

“Wow,” Brian marveled.  “You are really perceptive.  But I am pretty perceptive too so I suspect you also talked to Abelard today.”

“I don’t know if you’d really want to call that perception, Sweetheart,” Justin countered.  “My guess is that, if you talked to Abelard today, he told you he had talked to me.”

“Actually he did tell me that he had talked to you,” Brian admitted, “And he wanted us to come to Columbus.”

“Cut it out, Brian,” Justin told him.  “If Abelard talked to you, he told you the whole story.  He called here today to talk to you but I was here and you weren’t.  There are about ten of them at OSU who want us to help them with their Christmas shopping and he thought it might be easier if we came there instead of them all coming here.  I told him I didn’t think you would want to come to Columbus and that I couldn’t go without you.  I also told him that I don’t know the stores out there, and that Mikey and Malcolm and Hunter also help out, besides you, of course, and that the whole shopping thing would be more efficient here.  He asked me if I’d be mad if he talked to you and I told him I wouldn’t be mad, and that we’d come to Columbus if you wanted to.  So you have no reason to criticize me at all – none whatsoever.  We had seven of them here last year and we can handle ten this year if you want to.  Or we can go to Columbus if you want to do that.”

“Twink,” Brian grinned at him.  “You know me pretty well and you know I am absolutely no help at shopping at Christmas or any other time either.  You do need the other guys but you don’t need me.”

“You are absolutely wrong, Mr. Kinney, Sir, with all due respect,” Justin informed him.  “I could probably get the shopping done without the other guys but it would be impossible without you.  I need you, Bri, even if you are not the world’s greatest shopper.  We all have our weak points.”

“You too?” Brian acted surprised.

“Just cut it out, Kinney,” Justin insisted.  “Yeah, I may have a few very small weak points but I am not going to list any of them for you so don’t ask.  Suffice it to say that every once in a while when you criticize me, like you always do, that you might just have a little bit of a point every once in a while.”

“I think I ought to send you off to law school, Kiddo,” Brian laughed at him.  “Melanie at her legalistic best couldn’t have come up with anything better than that admission of your occasional weak point.”

“I think you’re picking on me right now, Brian,” Justin groused.  “And just as the Christmas season is coming on too.  What about peace and good-will and all that stuff?”

“Can’t help it, Honey,” Brian laughed.  “I guess it’s just one more of my many weak points.  I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want you to be sorry,” Justin said

“I’m glad,” Brian responded, “Because I don’t think I’m really sorry at all.  It’s hard for me to be sorry about anything when I’m sitting next to the greatest kid in the world.”

“You know what, Bri,” Justin nuzzled his head into Brian’s face.  “You have a really lot of good points.”  And that seemed to close down the discussion – for a while.

“Well I guess you’ve decided that those guys will have to come here for the Christmas shopping,” Justin surmised in restarting the conversation.

“Yeah, I think so,” Brian said.  “I know you’re not going to turn them down and I want it to be as easy on you as it can be.  You’re always so happy to help everybody and I have to look out for you. cause you won’t.  You are kind of important to me.”

“And you saying that is kind of like an early Christmas present, Bri,” Justin whispered.  “The best Christmas present I could ever get.”

“By the way, Baby,” Brian bragged just a bit, “I already have your Christmas gift picked out.”

“I love it,” Justin cooed.

“You don’t know what it is, Twink,” Brian reasoned, “So you can’t love it – not yet anyhow.”

“Yeah I can,” Justin argued.  “I know what good taste Cynthia has.”

“OK, Wise Guy,” Brian growled with a smile.  “Cynthia does not even know I got your present.  Mikey knows but he’s the only one.  I picked it out myself.  So there.”

“And Mikey likes it?” Justin smiled back at him.

“Now you cut it out, Twink,” Brian cut him off.  “Yeah, Mikey likes it, and don’t try to get me to second guess myself.  Where’s all your peace and good-will for the Christmas season?  Mikey sometimes likes nice stuff.  I’m really getting to like Christmas and you’re not going to ruin it for me either.”

“Gee whiz, Bri,” Justin concluded.  “Since you like Christmas so much, maybe you’ll want to do the Christmas cards this year?”

“Nope,” Brian replied.  “One of my weak points.  You do them so much better than I ever could.”

“But I bet you’ll help with the decorating?” Justin went on.

“Nope,” Brian replied, “Another of my weak points.  You and Malcolm can do it and I’ll just supervise and make an occasional suggestion.”

“Some of the Christmas cookies and stuff then?” Justin wanted to know.

“I don’t think so, Baby,” Brian figured.  “I’m no good in the kitchen.  We don’t want our friends to get sick.  I think you better do that.”

“No wonder you like Christmas so much, Brian,” Justin laughed in reply.  “I do all the work and you just have a good time.”

”Yeah,” Brian agreed.  “You do all the work and I have a good time.  It’s that time of year again.”

“OK, Kinney,” Justin chortled.  “I guess you’re just lucky to have me around at Christmas, with all those weak points.  I wonder if we could come up with any strong points.  Wanna try?”

“Well, I do love you, Baby, at Christmas and all the rest of the year too,” Brian postulated, “And see that ring you’re wearing that I gave you a couple of Christmases ago.  Well, if you weren’t already wearing that one, I would really want to give you one this year.”

There was a tear in the corner of Justin’s eye as he cuddled himself closer to Brian.  “Brian Kinney, you know what?” Justin responded.  “You are a big liar.  You don’t have any weak points at all.”

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