Reputations to Uphold

Brian thought that Justin was in a hurry to get the fireplace lit – so Brian also thought that Justin might just have an agenda for the evening’s discussion. Well, yes and no actually. But as soon as they got themselves into place, Brian had his answer.

“Hey, Brian,” the kid asked. “What would you think about maybe building a snowman tonight? There’s plenty of snow.”

“You mean you want to have your ‘build a snowman and attack Brian with your secret stash of snowballs’ night early this year?” Brian asked him back. “Don’t we usually have that little ambush on Christmas night – after I’ve given you all your presents?”

“Not the same thing at all, Brian,” Justin explained. “Tonight we’d drive over to Mikey’s. It’s ‘snowman building contest’ night over there and different teams build snowmen and then they give out prizes for the best ones. Actually everybody gets a prize, I think, but some prizes are better than others. The snowman has to be all done in an hour and a half. There are six guys on a team. We’d be with Mikey and Ben and Hunter and Malcolm – and I bet we’d win.”

“If everybody gets a prize, Sweetheart,” Brian decided, “that’s a pretty safe bet. And I’d be safe too. You wouldn’t do any sneak snowball attack with those guys there. You wouldn’t want them to see the ‘real’ Justin in action.”

“No I wouldn’t, Kinney,” Justin leered at him. “I’ll save the ‘real’ Justin in action till we get back.”

“Geez, Baby,” Brian teased him. “You must really want to get into this snowman building contest. You really do have a very competitive nature.”

“I’m not competitive at all, Brian,” Justin demurred. “That’s why I always let you win stuff. But I guess I would admit I like a challenge.”

“Yeah, you do,” Brian laughed at him. “That’s why you liked that Amahl Christmas opera over at Performing Arts – that you dragged me to – despite my protests.”

“Gee whiz, Brian,” Justin demurred again. “I had nothing to do with that. You took your son to see it and I like – just went along. And Linz and Mel were there – and Malcolm and Mikey and Ben because Hunter was in it …. We all had fun, I thought.”

“All depends on what you call fun,” Brian complained. “But I do want to ask you a question though. Gus seemed to know what was going on all the time. He doesn’t speak any foreign languages, does he – that nobody told me about? What language were they singing in anyhow?”

“English. Bri,” Justin laughed. “Every word was English. But I think they went over the whole thing with Gus before the show so that he’d know what was going on. I guess they didn’t think about going over it with you. They probably should have …”

“Could just as well have been Sanskrit as far as I was concerned, Sweetheart. But maybe I just wasn’t listening very close,” Brian defended himself. “Maybe I was doing something else. Like maybe I was looking at you – over Gus’ head. You wouldn’t sit next to me …”

“Hey, Kinney,” Justin defended himself in return. “It was Gus’ night and he wanted to sit next to both of us so he had to sit between us. But you were holding his left hand through a good bit of the performance and I was holding his right hand – so we were sort of connected.”

“Well maybe that worked for you, Baby,” Brian grouched. “But it did not work for me.”

”But we’re sitting next to each other now, Bri,” Justin suggested as he took Brian’s hand in his.

“You know what, Babe,” Brian grinned at him. “That’s not a good way to get me to leave here and go out into the cold to build some dumb snowman and win some stupid prize…”

So Justin withdrew his hand and cuddled himself closer to Brian in one movement. “We’re not due over there till 7:30, Honey – so we don’t really have to rush. The contest starts at 8:00.”

There was a short period of silence then which culminated when Brian asked the kid: “Don’t you think you should call Mikey and tell him we’re coming so he doesn’t have to look for some replacements for his team…”

“Nah,” Justin replied. “I think they are figuring we’ll be there. Like – I’d call them if we weren’t coming.”

“Like there was no doubt in your mind - or theirs - that we would be coming?” Brian pointed out. “Because you had already decided we were …”

“So you spent the whole night at Amahl just looking at me, Brian,” Justin ignored Brian’s remark and returned to an issue that pleased him more. “What color shirt was I wearing?”

“How the hell do I know what color shirt you were wearing, JT?” Brian retorted. “I wasn’t looking at your shirt. I was looking at you. Sometimes you look pretty attractive if I must say so – but don’t get a big head about it …”

“Sometimes, Bri,” Justin extracted one part of Brian’s statement. “Sometimes I look pretty attractive …”

“Cut it out, Taylor,” Brian commanded. “If you get me mad enough, I could ambush you over at Mikey’s if I felt like it. Nobody has any high falutin’ ideas about what a nice guy I am … And your damn shirt was blue. So there.”

“Brown, Brian,” Justin laughed. “My shirt was brown. But you are right about one thing though. That really was me you were looking at.”

“And how can you be sure of that?” Brian wanted to know. “You being so busy with Amahl and all them kings and shepherds and such.”

“Well maybe I glanced over at you once or twice too, Honey,” Justin admitted. “And your shirt really was blue, Bri – with that understated pattern in it.”

Brian pulled the kid closer and kissed him on the forehead. “And what color shirt are you wearing now?” he asked.

“Dammit, Brian,” Justin recoiled just slightly. “I just figured it out. You’re doing all this romantic stuff to make me sorry that I talked you into going over to Mikey’s for the snowman building. You are really mean. I have half a notion to blast you with a snowball later when I get a chance.”

“But you won’t, Baby,” Brian teased. “You have your saintly reputation to maintain. You don’t want them to see the ‘real’ Justin Taylor in action. But, you know what, at least we won’t have Brandon and Jason over there copying everything we do tonight.”

“Well maybe not – but maybe so, Honey,” Justin advised him. “One of the guys that Brandon works with lives out there too. They’ll be on a different team, but they’ll be there all right.”

“Gee I’m glad to hear that, Baby,” Brian grinned at him. “Maybe I’ll invite them to come back here after the competition and we can all have some cookies and cocoa together.”

“I hope that’s a joke, Kinney,” Justin warned him. “You try to issue any such invitation and the ‘real’ Justin may emerge right there in Mikey’s little park - and the hell with my reputation…”

“OK, Baby,” Brian gave in. “We’ll do it your way. No such invitations will be issued. Your reputation will be preserved over there. Well - we better get up and get going if we’re due by 7:30.”

“Let’s just leave the fireplace on, Brian,” Justin suggested as they got up to go out. “Then we won’t have to take the time to light it then when we get back.”

“Looks like your reputation will be preserved here too – when we get back,” Brian predicted.

“I hate you, Brian Kinney,” Justin grumbled as they walked out the door.

But Brian didn’t believe him. Not for a minute. After all it was the Christmas season – and nobody had more Christmas spirit than they did.
 

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