"No Way!"

The indignant young man strode over and pointed at the glass bottle Brian held. "Look. Tiny sailor hats. That ought to be worth a few tenths of a point at least."

  
"Wrong" Brian smirked, leaning into Justin's personal space. "I took off for that. It's trite."

"Trite?" Justin grabbed the half-full bottle of guava juice and thumped it down on the counter. The tiny plastic sailboat with its plastic ant crew bobbed erratically inside but somehow stayed afloat. "You really think the ants-with-toothpaste sculpture in  the bathroom or the still-life with ants was more original than this?"

 
"Well Mikey almost ate the ant-bran cereal. I increased your score for realism on that one."

  
Justin snorted, unimpressed. "Some people aren't too careful about what they put in their mouths."

  
"Unlike you," Brian leaned closer and claimed a kiss.

  
"What about the Anta-Lisa in toast? Complete with cinnamon sugar shading? That was genius." Justin exclaimed once he had gotten past the distraction of the kissing. He was supposed to be annoyed after all.

  
"My personal favorites are still the Kama Sutra illustrations. Except for the one on my pillow. The one in the underwear drawer was especially good."

 
"Yeah.... so was the re-enactment." Justin threw him a grin and reached into a drawer for the tongs to remove the boat from the juice.

  
"No, leave it. Get dressed and we'll go to the Diner for breakfast. We can clean it up after."

  
"Did Mrs Helvenhoff really threaten to get an exterminator?"

  
"I tried to tell her the ants were part of your modern art project but she didn't believe me. She insisted that she saw them moving around when she was trying to clean."

  
"I guess leaving the Condom Caravan arrangement in the shower was a bad idea." Justin conceded, then grinned widely. "But I got a perfect score for that one."

  
"Six-point-oh." Brian confirmed, dragging the young man towards him. "So we go get something to eat then come back here and round up all your pesky little ants to keep the cleaning lady happy." Brian leaned down and nipped Justin's ear. "After all, it's easier to replace a twink than a good cleaning lady."

"Especially one that knows how to get out those really tough stains." Justin teased, pulling away so he could get dressed. "I'm gonna miss the little guys. The art contest has been..." He raised his eyebrows. "...stimulating."

Brian smirked, waiting for the inevitable question.

"So, do I win?"

Three weeks ago Brian had surprised Justin with a picnic on the floor of the loft - complete with a   shower of tiny plastic ants. The next day Justin had driven him crazy by putting the things all over the loft - even in the bed. By the end of the day Brian had two choices, either kill the kid or keep him busy.  So Brian challenged him to use the ants in art projects, to be judged by Brian, and if he did well enough there would be another floor picnic - this time without the ants.

Almost every day for the last three weeks something new had awaited Brian - either upon waking or when he returned home in the evening. The first few days, the arrangements were elaborate - interesting variations of famous artwork. But as the days passed, more of Justin's sensibilities tempered the pieces and they became witty, often political or erotic masterpieces. Brian had not missed the fact that the sailboat in the guava juice was a parody of a magazine ad he had been mocking earlier that week.

  
Brian used a six-point rating scale just because he felt like it, and he'd carefully recorded the dates, titles and scores along with a digital photo of each piece on the computer. He thought Justin might consider working with plastic ants when he wanted to do something different for school; he certainly had enough experience working with them now.

He watched Justin bend down to pick up a few of the tiny creatures, remembering how he'd looked last night, the silk of his back arrayed with an elaborate design of the creatures - and how enjoyable it had been to remove them, one at a time while Justin tried desperately not to writhe.

Grinning wickedly, Brian scooped up the handful of ants that littered the counter and dumped them into a plastic container. Maybe he'd give them to Mikey. That could be interesting.

Anyway, it's not like he was going to miss the things.

He reached out for the bowl of fruit and nut mix that Justin had left on the counter, extracting a raisin.

In fact, he wouldn't miss the ants at all.

No way.

:::end:::

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