Devil's Playground

Epilogue

Brian Justin and Daphne sat in the living room charting out the basics for Justin which included school, housing and work.

"First," Brian said seriously, "you're going back to school."

Justin smiled happily. "Really? They'd let me?"

Brian snorted. "Of course they'd let you. They should be so lucky to get a kid who actually wants to go."

Justin made a face. "Will I have to pick up where I left off? Cuz that would take forever."

"No I don't think so. I'm going to schedule an appointment for us to see the guidance counselor at Allegheny High. We'll tell them your situation and I believe there's an equivalency test you can take that will tell them based on your scores which grade you should be in. Don't worry about it; you're smart. If you're lucky, they'll place you as a senior then you'd only have to do one year. You've already missed two months so you'll have to try to catch up."

"I don't think that'll be a problem," Justin said confidently.

"Good, Deb said you can still work at the diner, but I think you might want to cut back the hours a bit, just until you get caught up with school. Deb will understand. School comes first."

"Um, where will I live?" Justin asked tentatively.

"Deb won't mind if you live with her." He rubbed his hand up and down Justin's thigh. "I just think we need a bit more time before you move in here with me."

Justin curled up against Brian. "Ok, but I at least want to spend the night a couple of times a week."

Brian grinned and leaned in to kiss him. "I won't stop you."

Daphne coughed, "Actually I have an idea. Um, I sort of took a gamble that you'd stay. Well, how would you like to live with me?"

Justin looked at Daphne excitedly. "But you had roommates."

"It's a new year and a new semester; they switched to the dorms. Like I said I took a gamble you'd stay. So what do you say, roomie?"

Justin leapt off the sofa and hugged Daphne. "That would be cool; I'd really like that, yes."

Brian nodded, liking the idea. "I agree. I think it would be good for Justin to live with someone close to his age."

"What about rent? I want to pay my own way but I don't make all that much at the diner and now especially since I'm going to have to cut back for a while."

Daphne squeezed Justin's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. We'll figure something out."

"I'll make up the difference if Justin can't quite pay his half."

Justin sighed. "Brian, I don't want you to have to do that."

"Your education is more important; it's only money. You're my partner; let me take care of you. Besides I have an idea on how you can bring in more money but we'll save that for down the road. We'll need to get you settled in school first." Brian rubbed his forehead. "Oh, that reminds me. Do you have a birth certificate?"

"I was born at home but yes I have it with me."

"Good, what about a social security card?"

"Yes, I have that as well."

"Really? Huh, well then, that's one less thing to worry about."

&&&&&&&

Brian and Justin had a meeting with Allegheny High's guidance counselor.

"Justin?"

"Hmm?"

"I think it would be best if you didn't let the school know you're gay. It'll be safer. This school is way bigger than you're used to."

"You're probably right besides I'm sure I'll get mocked enough just being Amish."

The guidance councilor came in. "Hello, Mr. Kinney, good to meet you. I'm Mrs. Bowen and you must be Justin Taylor."

"Yes, ma'am," Justin said shyly.

"What can I do for you today?"

"Well I was hoping to get the ball rolling on enrolling Justin into school. I guess you could call me Justin's guardian, though he is eighteen."

Justin bit his lip to stifle a laugh. Thinking of Brian as his guardian in the parental sense gave him the giggles.

"Do you have his transcripts?"

"No, I believe I told your secretary that Justin was Amish. There are no transcripts. I hope that won't be a problem."

"No, I suppose not. Justin were you home schooled?"

"No, there was a little school house with about ten kids at any given time. I'm from Lancaster. I got good marks all the way through."

"Which grade did you stop at?"

"The 8th, I would have continued but it wasn't allowed."

"Justin took his leave from the Amish community for a year. He's made the difficult decision not to go back. He's very smart and a quick learner. He would like to finish school; I would like that for him also."

"He'll have to take an equivalency test."

"Of course."

"I can schedule the test for tomorrow. He can take the test in the library."

Justin smiled happily almost wiggling, anxious to get started.

Brian chuckled, "He love's the library."

"Since you are his guardian, I assume he's living with you?"

"Actually no, he'll be living with a friend of his who was also Amish. She's in college now; they're close friends. I thought it would be good for him. I'm very much a part of his life though; he knows he can come to me for help. He's been living in Pittsburgh for a year so most of the culture shock has worn off."

Justin blushed thinking back to when he first arrived, nauseous from the car ride and scared out of his mind. Brian torturing him with his cell phone, he still didn't miss one bit. There was also the wondrous joy of Velcro.

"Would you like a tour of the school, Justin?"

"Yes please, that would be nice." He smiled his sunshine smile.

&&&&&&&

The next day Brian took Justin back to the school and walked him to the library. The test itself would take several hours. Brian brought some work from the office to keep him busy while he waited for Justin. It was no surprise when Justin did fairly well on the test. He did exceptionally well in math, science and English. Justin was happy that they placed him as a senior. Being a senior did have its perks. He could pretty much pick any classes he wanted. Justin listened to Brian's advice and took a beginner computer course and a business class. He also took creative writing and a more advanced art class. Justin couldn't wait to get started.

&&&&&&&

After Justin's first day he couldn't wait to tell Brian all about it. As soon as his last class of the day was over he rode his bike all the way to the loft to tell Brian. Brian insisted Justin didn't need to be buzzed in. He could feel free to let himself in anytime, but old habits were hard to break. Justin slung off his messenger's bag by the door. It had been a gift from Daphne; she even filled it with notebooks and pencils. He'd been ecstatic and she playfully called him a freak.

"So, how was you day?" Brian asked with a smile. Judging by Justin's glowing smile he had a good day.

"It was awesome, overwhelming and exciting. It was really great, Brian. I'm glad to be back in school"

"Good, I got you something. It's over there on the table."

"Brian, you didn't have to."

Brian kissed Justin's lips. "Partner's privileges."

"You got me something expensive, didn't you?"

"Quit complaining and open it."

Justin opened the rather large box. He carefully took the case out of the box. He knew it was a computer but he couldn't remember the other name it was called.

"Brian, thank you so much."

"You needed it for school so…"

"I know it's a computer but what's it called again?"

Brian smiled. "A laptop."

"Yeah, that's it."

Brian held out a smaller box. "I also got you this."

Justin bit his lip and said nothing, taking the gift. He knew Brian wanted to give him things he thought he needed. He was learning sometimes it was just better to accept the gift. Brian was trying to keep his face neutral. He couldn't wait to see the look on Justin's face; sometimes he could be so evil.

Justin was not amused when he unwrapped the gift and found a silver cell phone very much like the one he had smashed. Brian began to giggle at Justin's reaction. It was rare, but Brian did giggle.

Justin held the phone with two pinched fingers. He looked at it with disdain. "Hello my nemesis, we meet again. I thought I killed you."

By this time Brian was practically rolling on the floor with laughter. Reluctantly Justin put the evil device in his pocket.

&&&&&&&

Justin passed his first semester with flying colors and excellent marks. Brian invited Justin and Daphne over for dinner. He thought now might be a good time to put his idea for Justin in motion. Justin was balancing school and work rather well. Brian let Justin and Daphne into the loft. He immediately pulled Justin into a kiss.

"Where's my kiss?" Daphne pouted.

Brian smirked but leaned in to kiss her cheek. She happily floated to the living room. When the food came Brian set all the cartons on the coffee table. Brian listened to Justin and Daphne happily talk about their day. When the chatter began to die down Brian decided it was a good time to bring up his idea.

"Justin, how would you like to get back to woodworking again?"

"Well, I have missed it. What did you have in mind?"

"Remember back when we were getting you first settled? I said I had an idea for you to bring in extra money."

"Yeah."

"I wanted to give you time to settle in. How would you like to have your own furniture business?"

Justin's mouth dropped open then a wide blinding smile lit his face. "Are you serious? How?"

"You have a basic concept of how the internet works. Between Daphne and myself we can create a web site for you to sell all the beautiful furniture you make."

Justin's eyes misted over with tears. He threw himself into Brian's arms hugging him tight.

"Oh Brian, that would be so wonderful. I never dreamed it could happen so soon."

Brian kissed him on the lips. "You have to keep up with your school work though."

"Yes, of course."

"Justin, this is so cool." Daphne reached for a pad of paper to begin making notes. "I can just see it now; the home page background could be a quilt with little horse and buggies across the top." Daphne cringed. "Would that be too upsetting?"

"No, I like it," Justin smiled reassuringly. "A part of me will always be Amish even though I'm not one of them anymore."

Daphne nodded, "We should have a little bio about you on the front page. Amish kid decided to leave the order, is attending school now, you're continuing to make your wonderful furniture. If you want you can mention you're gay and a little bit about that."

Justin looked to Brian for advice but Brian just shrugged leaving the decision up to him.

"Ok, yeah, I don't want to hide who I am."

Daphne smiled. "Cool, we can add a little rainbow flag at the bottom of the page." Daphne laughed, "If the elders could see it, they'd all have massive strokes."

Brian threw out an idea. "The buttons that the person can click on should be in the shape of butter churns."

Daphne made a note of that. "Yeah, I like that."

Justin buried his head in his hands. "Christ, will I never live that down?"

"Nope," Brian said with an evil grin.

Something occurred to Justin. "Wait, how am I going to keep up with all the orders? I'm just one little person."

Brian playfully grabbed his crotch. "Not so little."

Daphne smirked. "I finally saw it and I have to agree."

Justin gasped. "When did you see me?"

Daphne's lips curled into a smile. "I'll never tell."

Brian got the 'children' back on track.

"It could be stated on the page that you're still in school and this is a means to supplement your income. You'll take orders on a first come first serve basis. Being that all your furniture is all custom made, of high quality and original, I'm sure the masses wouldn't mind waiting. I can take pictures of my bed and Deb and Vic's chairs and Gus' toy box. We can use those as samples of your work."

Justin nodded smiling happily. He was excited that his dream was coming true. He always wanted a furniture business. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine it would happen this way.

"Um, Brian, where am I going to get all the wood?"

"One of the first things to know about business Sunshine, strings can always be pulled, deals can be made and favors can be cashed in."

Brian being the best ad man that he was would advertise Justin's business in all the right places to get the desired exposure.

&&&&&&&

Brian took many pictures of his grand bed from all different angles. He left the beautiful quilt on the bed as it was more of Justin's fine work. He got close ups of Justin's crafter's seal. When he was done he set the camera up on a tripod and playfully pulled Justin down on the bed. When the camera went off they were curled up on the bed with their arms around each other smiling at the camera.

&&&&&&&

Two weeks later Daphne had the web site all ready to unveil. She brought her laptop to the loft to show Brian and Justin all her work. Daphne set up her laptop on the dining room table. Brian and Justin were on either side of her.

"Your website is done, Justin. It's not live yet though. I thought you could look at it and see if you want to make any changes."

Daphne typed in the address. www.tayloredamishcreations.net. Justin let out a little "oh" when he saw the quilt he did for Brian's bed as the background. There were little animated buggies with horses trotting across the top of the page. Brian growled. Center page was the picture of Brian and Justin on the bed. The picture must have gotten mixed in with the ones he intended for the site.

"Oh, come on. Everyone would want to see what the artist looked like and his loving partner, of course." She sighed, "Fine, I can delete it if you want."

Justin looked at Brian with a little pleading look. He wanted to keep it just like it was. "If I have to put up with the butter churns, I get the picture of us."

"Fine," Brian sighed. It was a small price for Justin's happiness.

Justin read through his own bio and other notes. At the bottom of the page was a pride flag waving proudly. Daphne clicked on a butter churn that called up the pictures of Brian's bed and the other furniture Justin had made. Everything looked very professional and he was truly pleased with how it turned out. Daphne had set up an e-mail account so Justin could converse with prospective buyers and e-mail friends. After some serious thought his e mail address became JTcraftsman@yahoo.com

Daphne looked at the guys. "Anything you want to add?"

"No, it's perfect just the way it is."

"As your business grows we can add more categories. When you're ready all you have to do is push this button to activate the site." Daphne showed him which button to push. Justin held Brian's hand then reached out with the other and slowly pushed the button. Brian pulled him into a heated kiss. He was so proud of his boy.

&&&&&&&

One Year Later

When the letter finally came, Justin raced over to Brian's loft. Good or bad he wanted to share the news with Brian first. When Brian opened the door he was nearly tackled by the exuberant blonde.

"It came, Brian! The letter from PIFA came!"

"Well, did you get in?"

Brian didn't have any doubts that Justin would get in. Justin had worked very hard to hone his skill both in wood and on canvas.

"I thought we could open it together."

Brian took Justin's hand and led him over to the sofa. He sat down and got comfortable, pulling Justin on his lap.

"Well, open it, already."

With trembling excited fingers, Justin tore open the envelope. When Justin read the first line of the letter he gasped.

"I got in!"

"Congratulations, Justin, I knew you could do it."

The letter fell to the floor as the happy couple kissed and made out. Brian nudged Justin off his lap then headed up to the bedroom with Justin close behind. Justin caught the look on Brian's face, though he couldn't quite describe it. The best he could come up with was a shy, boyish look which he'd never thought he'd see on Brian.

Brian took a deep breath. "I have something I want to show you." Brian opened the closet; half his clothes were gone. Then he opened up a drawer that was completely empty. "I miss you when you're not here. I wouldn't mind if you moved in. Will you move in with me?"

Justin smiled. "All you had to do was ask."

Justin kissed him fiercely and passionately. "Yes, I'll move in with you."

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