Mistaken Identity

Justin was finishing off some sketches on the computer when Brian returned to the loft one evening. "Hi, Honey," Justin looked up and greeted him.

"I could have killed you at the office today," Brian returned the greeting.

Justin did not act as if he thought his life were in any real danger. "You have me mixed up with somebody else, Bri," he answered, "I wasn't anywhere near your office today. This must be a case of mistaken identity."

"You can cause trouble miles away from where you are," Brian grinned, "It's one of your talents."

"So I have more than just that one talent then," Justin deduced.

"Yeah, you do," Brian admitted, "Some are a lot better than others."

"We ought to discuss them all in detail sometime," Justin decided, "But I would be interested right now in knowing why I almost got killed today when I wasn't even there."

"Baby," Brian asked him, "What is Malcolm's last name?"

"Shellcoff," Justin replied, looking puzzled, "Spelled just the way it sounds. But you know that."

"I do now," Brian told him, "But you always call him Malcolm McDuff. I must have heard you call him that a hundred times."

"That's his nickname, Brian," Justin was still not sure where this conversation was going, "That's what all the guys at school call him. Sometimes he even introduces himself as Malcolm McDuff. You didn't think that was his name, did you?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Brian retorted, "I guess someday I'll find out your name is really Justin Schickelgruber and that Justin Taylor is just your nickname."

"Nope, it's Taylor all right," Justin gibed, "But I'm not sure I should get killed because you had Malcolm's last name wrong."

"It's just that I heard you call him Malcolm McDuff so often, and I've heard Mikey and Hunter call him that, and Ben too, I think, and I'm pretty sure I never heard the name Shellcoff before." Brian mused.

"Brian, that is so romantic," Justin told him.

"What the hell is so romantic?" Brian seemed bewildered, "I never heard Malcolm's name before and somehow that's romantic."

"Brian, sometimes you just don't see things," Justin remonstrated, "I don't know what's so suddenly important about Malcolm's last name, but you're saying that you heard a lot of us calling him Malcolm McDuff, but I'm the only one you wanted to kill. I must be someone special."

"You are very definitely someone special," Brian had to laugh, "But I never said I didn't want to kill the others too. Maybe I did and maybe I didn't."

"Bet you didn't," Justin answered, getting up from the computer, and walking over to Brian and brushing up against him.

"Not telling," Brian replied, still laughing.

"But are you going to tell me why Malcolm's name is so important all of a sudden," Justin asked, "If it has some connection to why you wanted to kill me, I deserve to know."

"OK Twink," Brian told him, "Seems I was out of the office for a while today and when I got back I had several phone calls to return. I recognized all the names except one. Figured it must be a new contact. You want to know what that name was? Abe Shellcoff."

"Oh my God, Brian," Justin laughed, "You got a phone call from Abelard."

"I would have guessed right away if he had said Abelard Shellcoff, or I would have known if it been Abe McDuff," Brian informed him, "But how was I to know who Abe Shellcoff was?"

"Did you call him back?" Justin asked eagerly, "What did he want?"

"I don't think I'll tell you," Brian pouted, "You never told me Malcolm's last name."

"You've had a really bad day, Sweetheart," Justin told him, patting him on the head, "And Justin is going to take you out to dinner to cheer you up."

"Justin wants to take me out to dinner," Brian reasoned, "To weasel what Abe wanted out of me. Weaseling is another one of your talents."

"That's a mean thing to say, Bri," Justin smiled at him, "I won't mention anything about it during the entire dinner." And he didn't.

A little while later, after an enjoyable meal, the guys had placed themselves in front of their fireplace. They were sitting in silence but they were both thinking about the same thing.

Brian opened the chat. "Sitting here is a lot of fun," he said, "And I don't want to waste the time having you try to find out what Abe wanted, so I'm going to tell you. It's not that important anyhow."

"So you don't care whether you ruin my fun or not," Justin pretended to pout.

"I'll try to see that you have some fun after I tell you about Abelard," Brian promised.

"Fair enough," Justin agreed with a certain degree of enthusiasm.

"Seems Abelard has found out there are a couple of gay guys at Ohio State,' Brian began, "And now that he knows gays exist in Ohio, he was wondering if Malcolm could really be gay and called to find out what I thought."

"And?" Justin interjected.

"I told Abe it was a real possibility, but that Malcolm would still be Malcolm whether he was gay or straight and since Abe liked him, he should like him either way." Brian summarized, " That seemed to quiet him down and we reminisced about his visit here. He was impressed with Pittsburgh and all of us."

"He was certainly impressed with you," Justin countered, "Maybe he's gay too. I think he really tumbled for you, Brian."

"Well, he thought I was straight, remember," Brian smiled, "So you have nothing to worry about, Kiddo. Anyhow, he asked about you."

"About me?" Justin seemed surprised.

"Yeah," Brian continued, "He wanted to know if that cousin who was staying with me was still around."

"What did you tell him?" Justin wanted to know.

"I told him that he was," Brian laughed, "And that I thought I'd never get rid of him."

"Well you may have been wrong about the name, " Justin said, snuggling himself closer to Brian, "But you sure got that one right."

Brian felt very happy sitting there, and he knew it was Justin who made him so very happy. It was one of his talents.

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