Endeavor
Chapter Fourteen: Endless December

“This is so my mom,” Justin said, holding out a card to Brian, “or not my mom.”

Brian grabbed the card from Justin’s hand and read the inside. “Your mother doesn’t usually invite you to Christmas dinner?”

“It’s not just dinner,” Justin clarified, “it’s a party at her house.”

“And?”

“I called her after I got this in the mail today because the last I heard, I was just going to do whatever it is you’re doing for Christmas because they were going to Tucker’s sister’s for dinner. I mean, I probably would’ve hung with you either way, but…”

“I get it,” Brian said, handing Justin back the card. “So why the party?”

“Kelly, Tucker’s sister, she found out a few days ago that her husband, Keith is going to be flying home for leave from Iraq next week. Now they’re going to be going to his parent’s house for brunch, and with him coming home the last thing she needs to be doing is spending all her time preparing for a party.”

“Understandable.” Brian couldn’t guess as to why Justin was in drama princess mode about this.

“Yeah, it is. Except now, my mother has offered to have Christmas at her house. She’s having all of Tucker’s family come and a few cousins she hasn’t seen in a long time are suddenly flying in from California and she wants to show me off.”

“So show yourself off then.”

“She wants to show off you too. I know, I know, I don’t expect that you’d want to go. You already had to do the family thing when you came to her wedding. I don’t want to force you to do that again.”

Brian turned himself on the sofa so he could properly face Justin.” You didn’t force me to go to the wedding and you’re not going to force me to go to the Christmas party.”

Justin pouted. “I get that, but I’ve got to be there. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

“Well are you going to ask me for an answer or do you not want me to go with you?”

“Yes I want you to go with me but…”

“Then ask me.” Brian wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of attending a Christmas party, especially because he’d already attended Lindsay’s party and that was one party too many as it was. However, Justin had gone to Thanksgiving with him and Lindsay’s holiday party so it was only fair if he went with him to his mother's.

Justin was surprised that Brian wasn’t taking the out he gave him. “Will you go with me?”

“Yes.”

“Wait… don’t you have other plans at Deb’s?”

“No, everyone’s going separate places this Christmas.”

Justin straddled Brian’s lap and carded his hands through his hair. “So you don’t mind coming?”

Brian thrust his hips up and palmed Justin’s ass with his hands. “When do I ever mind coming with you?”
 

*****

“It was stupid of me to say yes.”

“Why was saying yes to your son spending Christmas with you stupid?” Justin asked. He stood behind Brian’s office chair, rubbing his hands along Brian’s back and shoulders, giving him a mid-day massage.

“Cause now he’s all gung-ho about it and he’s told me that he knows that Santa will find him no matter where he sleeps on Christmas Eve.”

“Which he will,” Justin agreed. “You assured him of that, right?”

“Of course,” Brian huffed. “Right after I did, I realized that Santa may not have to come down a chimney, that Santa Clause movie made that myth defunct, but there’s got to be a place for Santa to put his presents and I don’t even have a tree!”

Justin stopped the massage and put his face on Brian’s shoulder. “But I do.”

Brian looked at him. “You do? Since when?”

“Since yesterday. After you left, I pulled my Christmas stuff out of my storage locker in the basement. It’s only a plastic six foot tree with some generic ornaments, but I think it’d be an okay place for Gus’ presents… and ours.”

Brian spun his chair around, practically pinning Justin against the wall behind his desk. “You wouldn’t mind having us spend the night on Christmas Eve and doing all the Christmas morning stuff?” Brian suppressed a groan at the thought.

Justin shrugged. “Course not. It’ll be fun.”

“I hope you’ll still think so by the time we drop him of after your Mom’s party.”

“I’ve spent time with him before; remember I used to babysit for him and Jenny. Having Gus alone will be a breeze.”

Brian pulled Justin onto him so he’d sit across his knees. “And what does my little elf want from Santa this year?” He ran his hand down Justin’s chest and rested it over his crotch.

Justin moved around, awakening Brian’s cock. “Aren’t you gonna ask if I’ve been naughty or nice?”

“Oh I know you’ve been an equal amount of both.” He kissed and licked Justin’s ear before whispering into it. “So what does Justin want for Christmas?”

Justin refrained from spouting any cheesy line about how he had everything he wanted. “Right now, I want you to fuck me.”

Brian stopped the game as a new problem came into his mind. “Where will Gus sleep?” he asked. “Shit. Neither one of our places is set up for that.”

“Well, Gus can sleep in my bed,” Justin reasoned. “We’ve both slept on the pullout enough times to know it’s comfortable. The bathroom’s in the bedroom so I’m sure that if we told him not to come out once he went to bed, he’d probably listen. I always obeyed the rules when it got close to Christmas. I didn’t want Santa to give me switches or take away my presents.”

“I guess that could work,” Brian said, relaxing. “Gus is a pretty deep sleeper too and at least you’ve got doors and walls in your apartment.”

“That I do,” Justin laughed.

Brian kissed Justin’s mouth and whispered against it, “So you didn’t answer me. What do you want for Christmas, little boy?”

Justin moaned as Brian stroked him. “I want my boss to stop making me want to beg him to fuck me when we have a pitch to make in five minutes.”

Brian laughed devilishly. “I don’t think you’ll be getting that for Christmas, so you’d better think of something else.”

 

*****

After popping the wine cork, Justin decided that getting glasses down from the cabinet was too much of an effort. He made his way down the hall and stopped before getting to the doorway of the dining room. “Are you done yet?” he whispered, cautious of the hallway's echo. The last thing he wanted to do was wake Gus up when he and Brian had finally finished wrapping his gifts.

“Just a second,” Brian called back, just as quietly. He folded the snowflake-printed paper into a triangle over the end of the box, pulled it over the bottom and secured it with a piece of tape. After flipping the box over, he grabbed two blue bows, put tape on the bottom of them and placed them in the corners of the top of the box.

Justin impatiently whined, “Now?’

“Just hold the fuck on,” Brian bitched.

“Fiiine.” Justin took a big swig of wine and leaned against the wall, wondering how much longer it would take Brian to wrap his gift. He’d been in the kitchen at least ten minutes boxing up the Christmas cookies he’d made with Gus.

Brian placed the envelope for Justin in the center of the box, securing it under white ribbon. He hated wrapping presents, he’d been doing it most of the night alongside Justin, but Brian figured that if he was going to subject him to the task then he’d make each gift look perfect. “All done.”

Justin entered the dining room and draped his arms over Brian’s shoulders from behind. “You did a great job, Brian.” He refrained from commenting about how Brian had wrapped seven gifts in the time that it took himself to wrap a dozen, and box up four dozen cookies.

Brian tipped his head to the side, placed his mouth around the wine bottle, and allowed Justin to tip it back so he could have a drink. The moment he took his mouth away, he placed it against Justin’s and explored his mouth with his tongue. “Mmm..”

Justin placed the wine on the table, stood up and tugged on Brian’s arm. “You know, there is citric acid in wine.”

“Well not enough to fuck up the taste of your come.” Brian followed Justin over to the sofa bed and crawled between his legs. “Quit trying to find ways to prove the Mountain Dew thing wrong.”

“I’m not,” Justin protested, flipping Brian onto his back. He grabbed his arms and pinned them above his head. “It’s my turn, tonight.”

“Ho, ho, ho,” Brian said mockingly. “Go on, little elf, show Santa what a big candy cane you have in your tights.”

Justin giggled and dropped his head against Brian’s chest. “That isn’t kinky. It’s weird.”
 

*****

“Justin, your mom said you work at an advertising agency,” Laura prompted.

Justin turned his attention to his mother’s cousin and nodded. “Yes, I work at Exhibition as the Art Director.”

“That’s the same company you own, right, Brian?” Gregory, Laura’s husband asked.

“One and the same,” Brian replied.

Kelly gasped, “So that’s how you two met?”

Justin wanted to die. If another person asked how he and Brian got together and that yes, in fact they worked together, he was going to scream. “Uhuh.”

“You’re awfully young to have a job like that at such a prestigious company,” Gregory commented.

“Justin is well educated,” Jennifer spoke proudly. “Brian would’ve been an idiot not to hire him.”

“He’s also extremely talented in many ways.” Brian slipped his hand beneath the table and rubbed the tension from Justin’s leg.

“So when did you two meet?” Laura persisted with her interrogation.

“I hired Justin about a year ago,” Brian started.

“But we only just became a couple this month,” Justin clarified.

“Does anyone here want to talk about anything other than my brother?” Molly asked.

Tucker laughed. “So subtle Molly, why don’t you tell everyone what your favorite gift was?” he suggested.

Molly beamed at Tucker, happy that she was now the center of attention. “That’s easy. Brian and Justin got me a bright orange laptop.”

“Orange is her favorite color,” Jennifer filled in.

“I got a laptop too, but mine’s from Santa,” Gus piped in. “Mine’s blue. But that’s not my favorite present.”

“It isn’t?” Brian asked.

“Nope.” Gus looked around at all the adults sitting at the long table. “It’s all the space books my dad had when he was a little boy. He gave them all to me!”

Justin watched the shocked expression cross Brian’s face and squeezed his hand under the table. Brian had been so worried that Gus was only being polite about liking the books when he’d opened them that morning.
 

*****

Brian closed the door to the jeep and looked beside him at Justin who had fallen asleep in the time that it’d taken him to bring Gus into Lindsay and Melanie’s house. It had been one long day and he was ready to get home. Only, when he thought of going home, both his loft and Justin’s apartment appealed to him equally.

Justin awoke as Brian backed out of the driveway and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Sorry, guess I’m tired.”

Brian glanced at Justin and smiled at him. “You can go back to sleep.”

Justin cleared his throat. “It’s okay, if I sleep now I won’t be able to sleep when we get home.”

“Are you going to fall asleep while I fuck you?” Brian asked.

Justin grunted. “I only did that once. You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

“No, I’m not.” Brian smirked. “So, answer the question.”

Justin let out a long yawn.

Brian watched Justin’s mouth open wide and wider, it was totally distracting while driving. Especially because he thought about sticking his dick inside of it and that made him think about a thousand other talents Justin performed with his mouth.

Justin turned his body to curl against Brian’s arm and whispered, “You can fuck my mouth when we get home.”

Brian grinned. “I know that I should find it completely lame that you can read my mind, but I for some reason, I don’t.”

Justin’s breath warmed Brian’s cool skin as he laughed softly against his neck. “You’re so weird.”

Brian was enjoying Justin’s warm body pressed against his and told himself that what they were doing wasn’t cuddling. He liked Justin’s weight beside him; liked hearing his soft breathing near his ear as he made his way through the quiet streets toward Justin’s apartment. He figured that since it was still Christmas, Justin would probably want to go back to his place where he could be surrounded by all the decorations he’d spent hours putting up. As he pulled into the parking garage Justin’s cell phone singing ended the peaceful silence.

Justin groaned and moaned as he sat up and tried to dig his phone from his pocket. He looked over at Brian, sure that the man would be glaring about the chosen ring-tone song and was correct to see he was. “It’s Christmas. I wanted a Christmas song,” he defended.

“Whatever,” Brian huffed.

Justin flipped open the phone and put it on speaker. “Merry Christmas, Daph.”

“Merry Christmas. Hey… am I on speaker?”

“Yeah, I’m in Brian’s jeep. Brian say…”

Brian glared. “Merry Christmas, Daphne,” he sing-songed.

“Merry Christmas, Brian”

“So what’s up?” Justin asked. “We still on for tomorrow night?”

“Definitely. Steven and I were wondering if you wanted to get dinner with us somewhere before we go to Babylon.”

Justin looked at Brian. “What do you think?”

“Oh, a double-date,” he joked. “I can’t wait!”

Daphne laughed. “Right, well neither can I.”

“Where were you thinking we'd go?” Justin asked.

“Well I was going to call and make reservations for Bravo Franco. Is that okay with you two? That is, if I can get us in around eight. Otherwise I’ll try another Italian restaurant.”

“Sounds good,” Justin said.

“Wait,” Brian grabbed the phone from Justin and turned the speaker off. “I’ve brought clients there many times. If they say they don’t have anything available, tell them that it’s for Exhibition, give them my name and they will miraculously have a table for you.”

Justin loved when Brian was an asshole and took charge the way he was doing at that moment. He’d never tell him that, he was the one who had to keep Brian’s ego in check, but boy oh boy did it make him hard. After Brian said goodbye for the both of them and hung up the phone, Justin made a point of squeezing his crotch. “I think I’m completely awake now.”

Brian shut the car off and kissed Justin roughly. “Well, I’m still fucking your mouth the moment we’re upstairs.”

“Only if you promise to fuck my ass afterward.”

Brian rested his forehead against Justin’s and growled seductively, “I promise.”
 

*****

“He doesn’t dance like a straight guy,” Justin commented in Brian’s ear.

Brian glanced at Daphne and Steven dancing and laughed. “Yeah, he does.”

“Oh, right his style resembles yours. That is where I’m getting confused.”

Brian squeezed Justin’s ass, bringing their bodies closer and grinded their crotches together, “Really? Maybe you’d rather go rub against him?”

Justin shook his head. “I’ll pass. I guess I was wrong.”

Brian smirked. “I guess…” he trailed off, his words failing him as his eyes fell on the two new arrivals.

“See someone you like?” Justin asked, licking a bead of sweat from Brian’s chin.

“Eric and Sacha are here,” Brian said, looking back at Justin before the two men caught him staring.

Justin paled for a moment and refrained from turning around to look. “They’re together?”

“What? You care?” Brian asked.

“Not in the way you think I do,” Justin assured. “I want to see Eric happy.”

Brian nodded. “Then turn around and see for yourself.” He turned Justin himself and moved him so they were chest to back. “I knew Sacha had a thing for him,” he whispered in Justin’s ear.

Eric and Sacha spotted Justin and Brian and immediately looked away.

Daphne had also noticed the two men and danced closer to Brian and Justin. “Do you mind if I say hi to him?” she asked.

Justin shrugged non-committally. Sure, Daphne hadn’t always thought he and Eric were right for one another, but they had been friends, good friends before Daphne had moved to Philadelphia.

“I take it that’s Sacha?” Daphne asked Justin.

“With your ex?” Steven asked Justin.

“Yes, with my ex,” Justin groaned. “I have no idea what he was thinking coming here. He never wanted to come here when we were together.”

“You did bring him that one time,” Brian, reminded him.

“Obviously he’s come to show off,” Justin snipped.

“Would you like me to kick him out, Dawson?” Brian joked.

“Of course not!” Justin shot back. “I’m with you now, Eric is the past.”

Brian kissed Justin’s ear. “Good, now stop acting like a princess and go with Daphne to say hi.”

“What?” Justin gasped.

“Just go,” Brian urged pushing him toward Daphne. “Make nice.”

Justin took Daphne’s hand. “Come on, Brian wants me to go with you to say hi.”

The moment Daphne and Justin disappeared into the crowd of dancers a muscular man who’d been cruising Steven all night immediately took his chance. “You want to go to the backroom?” he asked, rubbing the small of Steven’s back.

Steven stepped away from the man and shook his head. “I’m with him,” he said, pointing to Brian.

Brian laughed aloud and grabbed Steven’s arm. “In that case, I’ll buy you a beer.”

 

*****

Justin was so completely and totally NOT jealous. He really wasn’t. In total honesty here, he wasn’t in denial like he had been before, the truth was, he wasn’t jealous of Sacha like he had been when he was with Eric.

At first, he and Eric were understandably uncomfortable and had an awkward conversation that went something like this: “Hey how are you?” “I’m fine.” “That’s good.” “What are you doing here?” “Sacha wanted to see what all the fuss was about.” Then Sacha and Daphne saved them and they began catching up.

Justin sort of watched from the side-lines, inputting small words that really did nothing to carry their conversation further. He had learned that Sacha and Eric had ‘officially’ gotten together a few days after he and Eric had broken up. Eric didn’t want to waste any more time because he was now into the whole ‘live for today’ mentality, even though Justin thought that completely went against the ‘living green for a cleaner tomorrow’ mentality he also still obviously had.

Justin had allowed the music that was playing to drift into his ears and only half-listened to the conversation Eric, Sacha and Daphne were having about some crazy plant that was attacking Disney World. He wondered how in the fuck he and Eric had lasted as long as they had. They had absolutely nothing in common. He tried to think if they ever had any shared interest that was worthy of remembering besides sex but couldn’t pinpoint a thing.

He looked around Babylon and saw Brian and Steven were at the bar, drinking and having a conversation that had them both laughing. He was sure that if he were standing over there he’d probably be laughing and having a hell of a lot more fun.

“Eric, sing Daphne some of the song you came up with,” Sacha encouraged.

Eric’s cheeks blushed from embarrassment. “No way, Daphne doesn’t want to hear me sing.”

“Oh come on,” Daphne said, “sure I do. I know you can sing. I’ve heard you do Karaoke like a million times.”

“Fine, fine.” Eric took a deep breath and began singing, “Kudzu, suffocating Kudzu. If we don’t figure out a solu…tion it’s going to… turn our backyards into a zoo! Kudzu. It’s up to you and me. We have to…stop the Kudzu. From the Florida Keys to the Louisiana bayou… it’s attacking our native plants and trees… it’s Kudzu. We’ve got to… got to stop the Kudzu.”

“That’s fucking hilarious!”

“Well it’s going to be a serious ecomic-musical,” Eric explained. “I think we can reach more people if we make the learning entertaining and something they’ll remember.”

“So Kudzu is your latest cause?” Daphne asked.

Eric nodded. “Sacha turned me onto it.”

And that’s when Justin broke into the conversation. “Hey, I’m going to get a beer, Daph.” He smiled at Sacha and then Eric, “I’ll see you guys later. Good luck with the musical, Eric.”

“Thanks,” Eric replied, reaching out to hug Justin.

Justin hugged Eric back, feeling a little giggly as he pulled away and saw Sacha giving him a hard glare. He smiled triumphantly and walked back through the crowd toward Brian. Brian and Steven were laughing about something else as he got to the bar. “What’s so funny?” Justin asked, grabbing Brian’s beer and guzzling it.

“I was just telling Steven about your Little Mister classes,” Brian teased.

Justin choked on his beer.
 

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