Rules of the Heart

Chapter 10

"I don’t know what’s wrong with him," Michael whined to Emmett as Justin delivered their plates. Michael’s disdain for the teen had elevated to such a level that he didn’t even acknowledge him. He’d gotten so used to the blond just being everywhere and ignoring him, that he continued pouting as if he and Emmett were alone. "I can’t remember the last time we fucked. Either I can’t find him, or by the time I do he’s passed out."

Emmett glanced at Justin and saw relief wash over the teen from that bit of information. He then turned his attention back to his friend. Of course, he couldn’t tell Michael that he knew what was ‘wrong’ with Brian. Yes, Emmett had put two and two together weeks ago. Instead, he tried to impress upon his friend that this attitude was not going to win him any points. Their flailing relationship aside, Michael was still Brian’s best friend and he needed to get his head out of his ass before the damage was irreparable. "Sweetie, you know Brian’s been working like a dog to get that partnership, and then to find out his boss sold the agency, he just needs a little time to lick his wounds and get his game face back on."

"I know that," Michael retorted. "I’m his boyfriend. But I don’t understand why he keeps shutting me out. We’re supposed to tell each other everything, but he never confides in me anymore. I don’t know anything more than the rest of you, and I’m sick of it."

"Michael," Emmett sighed exasperatedly. "It isn’t about you! You claim to be Brian’s best friend, but sometimes you act like you don’t know him at all. He doesn’t do pity so he isn’t going to confide his feelings to anyone right now."

"You don’t understand," Michael snapped, pushing his plate away. "Your last relationship lasted forty-five minutes." He got up and threw some bills on the table before storming out.

"Oh, I understand better than you think," Emmett muttered as he got Justin’s attention and waved him over.

"Something wrong?" Justin asked as he looked over Michael’s untouched food.

"You tell me," Emmett said, grabbing the teen’s arm and pulling him into Michael’s vacated seat. "How is Brian doing?"

Justin shrugged. "How should I know?" Emmett knew better than to ask him something like that at the diner of all places.

Emmett rolled his eyes. "Because you see him the most these days."

Justin glared at his friend, then looked around to make sure no one was listening. "You know the rul—deal. Once a week, Em. We fuck like crazy one night a week. That’s hardly conducive for a heart-to-heart chat. Besides, there’s six other days--"

"That’s more than the rest of us," Emmett interrupted. "I think I’ve seen Brian a total of five minutes all week. And you can’t tell me there isn’t any pillow talk. I know you, baby, that mouth is constantly moving."

Justin couldn’t help giggling. "Only on his dick. But I’m not complaining."

Emmett sighed dramatically. "I’m grateful. I think my ears are going to bleed if Michael keeps this up."

"Sorry." But what was Justin supposed to do? It wasn’t like he even felt bad for lying to Michael.

"Don’t be, Princess. You and Brian are doing what you need to do. It’s Michael’s own damn fault if he can’t read the writing on the wall. I, for one, am tired of trying to translate."

"I know," Justin replied sympathetically. He did feel bad that Emmett was caught in the middle and almost said so, but he knew Emmett would just shrug it off and reply he’d take the hard place any day.

Speaking of hard, Justin saw Brian walk by the window…with Michael on his tail. They must’ve run into each other outside. Justin stifled a groan, it wouldn’t have mattered if Brian had been alone anyway. The man wouldn’t just throw him over the counter and fuck him right there, although it was his favorite fantasy when the diner was slow.

The teen excused himself and went to the kitchen for Brian’s order. He placed the bag next to the register and started to ring it up. It took all of his will power not to watch his lover just walk in the door. He knew Brian would look incredible in one of his Armani suits. And Justin would look incredibly immature drooling like Gus. Christ, if he thought he had it bad for the older man after the first time, it was a million times worse now!

Over the past month, they’d been together every Friday night. Neither of them acknowledged it was a set schedule, it just happened that way. Every Friday they would do their own separate things like every other night of the week, but as the night progressed Brian would disappear first, call Justin to meet him somewhere and the teen would slip away as well. Emmett was the only one to know the truth, he’d shrewdly figured it out after a few weeks, but why would anyone else notice? They figured Brian was at the baths and Justin was with his friends from school.

To keep it that way, the two men had zero contact with each other during the rest of the week, besides coincidental meetings like Brian eating at the diner. At first, it was hard for Justin to adjust to seeing a completely different side of Brian alone and then being subject to his usual persona in public. But since being integrated into their ‘family’, Justin now had a better understanding of what the older man dealt with daily. Lindsay and Gus, Michael, Debbie and Vic, his job, and even his own homophobic family, all made huge demands on Brian’s time and energy. It didn’t take long for the teen to realize the exec struggled hard everyday to keep all those balls in the air and he didn’t need another one thrown at him.

Besides, Justin knew if anyone else found out about them seeing each other, they would make a huge issue about the age difference and how they’d hurt Michael, not to mention every queen in the Pitts gleefully taking potshots at Brian’s reputation. But he couldn’t worry about that. Their ‘deal’ was the only way Brian could handle the situation right now and Justin accepted that. The most important thing to the teen was that Brian needed him to be a refuge he could count on and Justin wasn’t going to let the older man down.

As Justin slid the bag over to Brian and waited for him to take out his wallet, the blond struggled to contain his jealousy when Michael pawed at the other man. It was a small consolation that tomorrow was Friday again.

Brian paid Justin for his lunch and grabbed the bag. He looked inside, making sure there were napkins and frowned. "What’s this?" he asked, pulling out a small container packed with his sandwich.

"Split pea soup," Justin said. "Debbie said it’s your favorite, but I forgot to tell you when you called so I just put some in since its kind of cold out today. If you don’t want it--"

"It’s fine," Brian replied curtly, closing the bag again. He accepted his change and was about to leave when Michael snatched the receipt for Brian’s order from the register tape. "He better not have charged you for that if you didn’t order it," he grumbled as he looked over the numbers.

Brian took the receipt from him and threw it in the trash. He knew Justin hadn’t charged him, but if Michael saw that, he’d bitch the kid was stealing. "If you want to talk, Mikey," Brian grudgingly changed the subject, "do it now, I have to get back to the office." Without waiting for a response, he was out the door again, Michael yipping at his heels.

"So, you want to meet us at Woody’s tonight?" Emmett asked, hoping to prevent Justin from dwelling on the Michael and Brian show outside. He knew Justin was okay with Brian fucking tricks, but Michael was a different story.

"Can’t. I’m watching Gus while Mel and Linds do some last minute shopping for their engagement dinner tomorrow."

"I can’t believe they finally got back together," Emmett sighed. "It’s so romantic—even for lesbians."

Justin nodded. They’d all witnessed the emotional reunion when Gus had been taken to the emergency room after falling off the swing at daycare and breaking his arm. Lindsay called Mel and the woman came immediately. While they were waiting to take their son home, the women finally talked and not only got back together, but decided to get married. Even Brian was happy for them, although he’d never admit it.

 

***
 

"I wanted to give you this," Michael pouted as he rushed to keep up with Brian as he crossed the street to his jeep. Michael thrust a card dangling from a cord at his friend.

"Tell me that’s a slave tag for Meathook," Brian practically begged.

"It’s an uber pass to Comic-Con. A complete comic book overload all weekend long. You promised you’d go," Michael droned.

Brian didn’t remember that at all. He must have been fucked out of his mind. "Can’t," he replied brusquely.

"You promised!"

"I doubt that," Brian snapped. "However, I did promise to loan you the money for the down payment on Buzzy’s store so you can quit the Big Q, but if I don’t go to Chicago tomorrow, I won’t have a job or the money. Not only will you still be working at the Crap Emporium, so will I."

"Oh, god, Brian," Michael exclaimed, shaking his head. "Who did you fuck this time?"

The exec glared at him incredulously. "Myself," he shot back as he got in the car. "I’ve been fucking myself all along."

 

***
 

Just as the girls’ were leaving to run their errands that evening, Brian pulled up. He met them at the door and abruptly announced, "I won’t be here tomorrow. Bye."

"Wait a minute!" Lindsay cried, grabbing his arm as Melanie muttered, "Figures, asshole."

Justin had arrived only moments before and took Gus to the other room so the boy wouldn’t hear the adults arguing.

"It’s important to us," Lindsay said. "We want everyone here."

"No we don’t. He’ll just insult everyone and get drunk anyway," Melanie sneered.

Brian tried to remember why he thought his son was better off with this woman in his life. "Right," he agreed just wanting to get the fuck out there. "So, I’m doing you a favor. Remember that next time you ask for money," he added dryly.

"You’re Gus’ father, you prick," Melanie hissed. "If you don’t want the responsibility, I’ll be happy to get the papers for you."

"Honey, Brian just--" Lindsay started before Melanie glared at her and walked away. Considering her relationship with Brian had been a huge factor in Melanie leaving in the first place, and for Melanie arguing they should move to New York after the wedding, she directed her frustration at her friend. "Why do you have to rub it in all the time?" she spat angrily.

Brian blinked at her. "I’ll be--"

"At the baths getting your dick sucked," she finished. "We’ll let Gus know why his daddy’s not here with the rest of the family tomorrow."

"I’m sure," Brian drawled, slamming the door behind him as he left.

Despite his best efforts, Justin had still overheard their conversation and was shocked the women hadn’t even asked Brian WHY he couldn’t make it. The teen knew Brian wouldn’t miss a family event unless it was important. The blond quickly followed the older man out, ignoring the surprised cries of the women calling after him.

He caught up to his lover as Brian was getting into the jeep. "What’s going on? Why aren’t you going to be here tomorrow?" the teen asked cautiously when Brian glared at him.

"I heard they opened a new leather bar in Chicago, I thought I’d check it out," Brian replied sarcastically.

Justin wrinkled his nose. "Is it work?"

Brian nodded. "I have to leave in the morning."

"It’s the new owner isn’t it? Is it bad?"

Brian nodded again. The kid never ceased to amaze him.

"Can I help?" Justin fully expected the man to blow him off, but he just wanted Brian to know he cared about what was going on when no one else seemed to.

Brian raised an eyebrow. Unless the kid could pull a campaign out of his ass… Oh, hell, who knew. Justin had been full of surprises since the night they met. The biggest of which was that he was still around.

Justin recognized that look. He knew Brian thought he was smart, but sometimes the man still treated him like a kid so of course he didn’t think the teen could help. But if he didn’t tell Justin what was going on, he wouldn’t really know, would he? Fuck it. He knew better than to try to make Brian open up more than he already had. The blond shrugged nonchalantly. "I just thought--"

"I know what you thought," Brian replied softly. He stared down the street for a moment, then started the engine. "Come over when you’re done here."

 

***
 

Justin rolled over and knew Brian wasn’t in bed before his hand felt the cool sheets on the other side. He sat up and saw the older man hunched over his computer. He glanced at the clock and cringed. 3:20. Had Brian slept at all? Or had he just gone back to work when Justin fell asleep after fucking? The teen wrapped the sheet around himself and went over to the desk.

Brian looked up as the boy approached and his brows knit together. "What are you doing up?" he asked as he pushed his chair back and pulled Justin onto his lap.

"I was cold," Justin replied as he opened the sheet and wrapped it around them both so he could feel Brian’s bare skin against his. "Hmm…better…"

Brian had to agree it was. He sat for a moment, stroking the blond head resting on his shoulder, then whispered, "Go back to bed, you have class in a few hours."

"Brian, you need to sleep too."

"I need to finish this, I can sleep on the plane."

"It’s finished," Justin told him, standing up and taking Brian’s hand. Brian had shown him the campaign he planned to present to Brown Athletics and it was great. "And if you only sleep on the plane those bags under your eyes will be worse."

"Twat," Brian grumbled as he fought the urge to look in the mirror. "I don’t do bags," he insisted.

"Keep telling yourself that when they try to check you through security," Justin teased.

Brian glared at him, but Justin wasn’t budging. "I can’t sleep," the irritated exec finally confessed.

Justin smiled coyly. "I can change that."

Brian shook his head. "You’re the one who passes out from fucking, not me."

"I know. So if I pass out when you fuck me, then you shouldn’t have any problem if--"

"Dream on, Sunshine."

 

***
 

"That was…amazing," Justin gasped as he discarded the condom and collapsed on the bed.

"Huh." Brian grunted, still prone across the mattress. He tiredly lifted his head, looking at the smug blond beside him. "It was alright."

Justin’s smile flickered for a moment, then renewed itself when he saw the sated glaze over Brian’s eyes before the lids drooped a little more. "You loved it," he boasted giddily.

Brian grunted something else unintelligible, but Justin could see the corners of his mouth turning up as the older man rolled onto his side and settled to sleep.

Justin knew Brian didn’t consciously cuddle, although the older man would occasionally wrap around Justin in his sleep, so the blond fought the urge to snuggle up to him. Instead he only scooted a little closer and placed a soft kiss on the dozing man’s lips, mission accomplished, before putting a few more inches between them again and closing his own eyes. He was just drifting off when Brian pulled him back.

The older man saw the blue eyes pop open again and he silenced the inevitable question with a long deep kiss. The boy’s lips were swollen and bruised from his earlier attacks, but Justin still opened to him willingly. The teen instinctively molded himself against the other man and a content sigh escaped when they broke apart. Brian let the blond nestle against his chest and held him tightly as they both fell into a peaceful sleep.