Title: Changes, Part 11/? (You & Me-Series)
Author:
soulmatejunkee Fandom: Queer as Folk US
Pairing: Brian/Justin
Timeline: Post 5.13; POV's
Word Count: 2.526
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything. It’s all CowLip and Showtime.
Beta: My lovely
mander3_swish - thank you :)
So much panic because of one little line...
As always: Every comment is welcome. I Love to read what you think. Thanks!
01.
Listen to me02.
Trust me03. Babylon
Part 1 |
Part 204. Find a way
Part 1 |
Part 2 |
Part 3 |
Part 405.
...remember what's missing?06.
The Party07. Thanksgiving
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10 08. 1 wedding, 4 rings...
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1209.
The first Webcam Sex Chat10.
The first call11. Expectations -
Happy Valentine |
Revenge12.
March 18th 200613. Aftermath -
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814.
Be careful what you wish for15. Changes -
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11 Justin's POV
When we arrived to dinner, Ted and Blake weren’t there yet, so it was my big moment or our big moment or something like that. It was the first time Brian had brought me along to a business dinner and he would have to introduce me. Call me weird, but I was curious about how he would do it. In the past, all he has ever said was “That’s Justin,” but he has never introduced me to someone as his boyfriend, partner, or however he might define us.
Timothy Raymon was a guy in his fifties, he looked nice, reminded me a little bit of Ryan O’Neill. And he really had no clue about who I might be.
“Mr. Kinney,” he greeted Brian and shook his hand, before he looked at me. “I’m sorry, I was expecting Mr. Schmidt.”
“He will be here,” Brian answered, and put one hand on my back, when he said: “This is Justin Taylor, my partner.”
Partner… that was a big moment for me and it ended up in total confusion for Raymon. He greeted me, of course and gave me a warm smile, but it was obvious that the word “partner” didn’t tell him what kind of partner I was and that I was not his business partner.
“You’re very young to already be a partner of an advertising company, Mr. Taylor,” Raymon said when we all sat down around the table. “That’s very impressive.”
“Partner in life,” Brian replied and nodded. “He’s my partner in life. The other half of the ring, so to speak.”
I knew he was very tempted to use the word wife, simply because it was the word Mr. Raymon had used when he invited Blake and I, but he didn’t.
“Oh!” After two seconds of complete confusion Raymon burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, but sometimes it’s just funny how one’s first impression can fail. I thought you were a married guy with two or three little kids. You know, married and settled with a girl from high school.”
Now I had to laugh.
We had another quiet funny moment when Ted arrived a few minutes later and introduced Blake as his husband. I somehow felt a little sorry for Raymon actually, now he was surrounded by two gay couples and even though you’re a tough guy and not homophobic, that’s a lot to handle. I’m sure he wished he would’ve brought his own wife to the dinner.
We small talked for awhile, and I think he relaxed a little when he realized that we weren’t weird or different. After a few minutes it was almost as if we were old friends.
“So, as much as I enjoy dinner and small talk, maybe we could discuss the job at hand for a moment,” Brian said before dessert.
“That’s why we’re here,” Raymon nodded, “and because I always want to meet the people I work with in privacy to find out if I can trust them. I like your campaign, you did a good job.”
“But it’s not what you were looking for?”
I was very impressed at how calm Brian seemed to be, when we both - we all - knew how important that client was for Kinnetik.
“Well, the reason I came to your company was because I really enjoyed some of your older campaigns, especially Remson and Brown Athletics. Honest, sexy, cool… I like that. I know that selling luxury apartments is not as dramatic as an incurable illness and also not as sexy as a young football player, but… it was the reason why I came to your agency. As I said, the campaign is very good, but I think you can do better because it’s been said that Brian Kinney is the best and I want the best.”
Again, Brian acted totally cool. “What did you have in mind?”
“I want you to stay in one of my apartments for a weekend - with your partner… in life,” he laughed again and shook his head. “It might help you to imagine what it means to own a place like that.”
“Wow.” That was all I was able to say. I had seen the prospectus; I knew what these apartments looked like.
“We have seven apartments we use as show suites: Miami, New York, San Diego, Las Vegas, Dallas, Vancouver, and Acapulco. I let you choose which one you want to visit,” he continued.
“Acapulco,” I said and they all looked at me. Oops! But hey, what the fuck… I was the partner that was offered to stay one weekend with the king of advertising in a luxury apartment that almost dumped the Trump Tower apartments - almost.
Raymon smiled at me and nodded to Brian. “You can have the apartment the weekend after next, Friday ‘til Monday. I’ll give you another week to create the best campaign for my company you can come up with. Deal?”
It was a challenge and Brian loved to be challenged. I don’t think he ever rejected one. So of course his answer was “Deal” - not in the least because he needed Raymon as a new client.
I was totally euphoric… I know it was a business trip, in a way, but not for me. I would be in Acapulco, in a luxury apartment for three days!
“Do you know how beautiful Acapulco is?” I asked Brian when we drove back home. “No, don’t answer me. Just act as if you have never been there before okay?”
He laughed.
That day was definitely one of the best days in a long, long time. First the offer for Rage and then the luxury-weekend. When we got home, I was still babbling about Acapulco and the sun and the beach and the ocean. As soon as we were inside Brian grabbed me and kissed me. At first I thought it was just one of those kisses to shut me up because I knew I was babbling but couldn’t stop, but then I realized it wasn’t… it was a real kiss.
Soft, tender, lovely, with longing, and passionate. One of those kisses that always means something, maybe something he couldn’t say or something he felt but had no idea how to put it in words.
He leaned his forehead against mine and whispered. “It’s good that you’re here.”
And so I knew what the kiss had meant: I missed you. I needed you. I want you here.
Brian's POV
At the end of our way back home it wasn’t necessary anymore to go to Acapulco because Justin somehow managed to tell me simply everything about it. I knew he was excited about the weekend and so was I, but probably not for exactly the same reason.
The dinner hadn’t been what I wanted it to be. I needed Raymon as a new client; it was important for the company, it was important for me. The economic situation had become worse and worse, and it seemed that there was no way out, but I had no intention to give up. I had heard that Vangard had to lay off some staff, too, and that Vance had even considered closing his company.
I wanted to survive. I couldn’t give up. What then? I would loose a lot of money, way too much money and the club didn’t yield enough profit to pay for itself, the loft, and the house.
So Raymon was practically my last chance. We still had Remson and Brown, but both companies had to deal with the bad economic situation lately and hadn’t wanted to order big campaigns until it got better. We weren’t in danger, at least I wasn’t, but if there wouldn’t be any changes (for the better) soon, I would have to lay off some people again. I really hated having to do that.
I couldn’t sleep that night. I thought about Raymon and what he told us. He wanted something big, something special and he was willing to pay for it. I was the one who had to work something out that convinced him that Kinnetik really was the best advertising agency he could get.
“You’re going to create the best campaign the world has ever seen.”
I almost had a heart attack. “Jesus.”
“I’m sorry,” Justin said, and put his hand on my shoulder.
I sighed. “I thought you were asleep.”
“I know you’re worrying about Kinnetik and I know how important Raymon is for you. And I know that you’re not giving up until you’ve got him. And you will get him. You always get what you want.”
I looked at him. It was dark, there was only the moon shining through the windows. “I do?”
“You got me, I am everything you ever wanted, right?”
I laughed and sighed. “Fuck, I wish I already had an idea.”
“Don’t push it. The more you push, the less will happen.”
“I thought we got him,” I admitted. “I thought he would say yes.”
Justin got up on his arm and leaned over me. “He didn’t say no. I think he really liked you and your work. If he didn’t he would’ve told you no. Now we have a free weekend in Acapulco coming up and there’ll be this one perfect idea! You’ve never failed Brian; you’ve never doubted your talent. Now is a really bad time to start that.”
I raised my head and kissed him. Then I pulled him down on me, his face was lying on my neck and I could smell the scent of his shampoo lingering in his hair. I wasn’t used to sleeping in the house during the week, nor having someone beside me during night, it was still weird. Also the thought of not saying goodbye to him next Sunday, of not going back to an empty loft… it just didn’t feel familiar yet. It felt good, and welcome.
He was still lying on me when the alarm went off the next morning, and he was yawning and moaning again, just like yesterday morning. I could feel his morning erection on my thigh and my own pressed against his stomach.
Morning sex, possibly every morning from now on… god knows I missed it.
“I know exactly what you’re thinking about,” he mumbled against my neck and pulled the blanket over us when he started to crawl down on me. Well that wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, I was thinking about a shower for two, but who am I to stop him when he was willing to give me one of his precious blow jobs?
When I arrived at Kinnetik, Ted and Cynthia were already awaiting my arrival, both completely turned on by Raymon’s wish to get something special and - I have no idea what they had done during the night - they had some ideas and their ideas weren’t bad.
“Maybe we should focus on a commercial,” Ted said. “I think it’s easier to sell luxury when you can take a look at it.”
“TV spots?” I asked.
“Sure, TV, Internet, everything.”
“And for the graphics and billboards we need a really amazing idea,” Cynthia nodded. “Something that … well, blows your mind away, to speak in your language.”
For some reason the second she said that I thought about Justin on that billboard. I sighed and laughed, I was so fucked up. But then… he was fucking gorgeous.
“Mind blowing…” I looked at them. “That’s a good place to start. We need more information. How expensive are the apartments, do they offer some help for financing and loans, or is it really just for people who are super rich? How much does the cheapest apartment cost and how much is the most expensive? Ted?”
“I’m on my way, boss.”
Cynthia looked after him and then turned back to me. “We’ll get him, right?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Good. What do you want me to do?”
I bit my lower lip. So far we hadn’t been in the Acapulco apartment, but we needed to start somewhere. We couldn’t wait two weeks. To create a whole campaign with commercials in one week was almost impossible and as we knew now, it had to be mind blowing.
“Check the apartments, all of them. How many rooms do they have, are they meant for families, couples or singles and then… start the castings.”
“On which group do we focus?“ she asked.
I shrugged. “On all of them.“
“Got it.”
“Oh and Cynthia… I need two flights to Acapulco for Friday in a week and two flights back to Pittsburgh for Monday. For the rest of information, please contact Mr. Raymon.”
She nodded and I knew Ted had already told her about Acapulco. She left my office.
I sat down and closed my eyes. This sucked. Normally I loved to create a new campaign, the bigger the better, but I hated to do it under pressure. Some people say they work better when they’re under pressure, but I don’t, at least not when the pressure is so hard that it practically decides if you survive or not.
“But I need to talk to him, now.”
“No you can’t… hey!”
I looked up and saw Cynthia trying to stop someone from storming into my office - unsuccessfully.
“Claire,” I said. What the fuck? I hadn’t seen my sister in a while. Well, I had met her a few weeks or months ago, but we just looked at each other, no one said anything. There was nothing left to say since what had happened a few years ago. Not that we ever had a lot of stuff to talk about.
“I’m sorry, Brian,” Cynthia shrugged.
“It’s okay.” I leaned back in my chair and looked at my sister. She looked exactly like Jack: she had his face, his eyes. “What can I do for you?”
“You could’ve called me back. What’s the point of having an answering machine?” She sat down on the table in front of my desk.
I frowned. I couldn’t remember listening to a message from her, but then… I hadn’t been at the loft for almost two weeks. Practically ever since Justin decided to come back home I stayed at the house to prepare everything and waited for him to move back.
“Haven’t been there in a while,” I said.
“I had to contact that Debbie woman to find you,” she said and made a face, as if contacting Debbie was the worst thing she had ever done in her life, while I was thinking about killing Debbie for telling Claire where she could find me.
“And you found me”, I nodded. “Just for my safety… I haven’t seen either of your precious sons since one of them called me a child molester.”
“It’s about mom.”
I hadn’t seen my mother since that time she showed up here just to tell me - again - that I would burn in hell and that giving me cancer was God’s plan to wake me up. Since then, I had no intention of seeing her again and it seemed that she hadn’t either.
“What about her?”
“I thought you might care that she died last week.”
TBC