A/N - This is yet another fic based on CP Coulter's Dalton. It focuses on the Reed side of Rane and the Julian side of Jogan and Reed & Julian being friends.

Reed was laying on the floor with a piece of paper in front of him and a pencil in his hand. He was staring blankly at the page, trying to focus. This was supposed to be a distraction from the distraction from the project he'd been working on earlier. The main project was sitting a few feet away, leaning against the wall. It was a half-finished painting of his dog, Coco. He'd been working on it, but after a while he needed a break. Unfortunately, he found that if he stopped working, he started thinking. And at this point, thinking was pretty much the last thing he wanted to do. So he'd grabbed some other supplies & started working on something else. That quickly turned into a drawing of Shane, which (when he realized what he had been drawing) he had thrown across the room. He needed something to keep his mind off of Blaine's younger brother. Unfortunately, however, he'd so far been unable to think of anything else to draw. He stood up and walked over to his bed. He fell onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. Why does this have to be so difficult?

Julian was writing an essay. It was the last of his homework that he had left to do, and it was due in two weeks. He had been working nonstop for a day and a half. He couldn't sleep, so he did his homework. During the day, he refused to take breaks - breaks meant letting his mind wander, the one thing he really did not want it to do. When he finished the essay, he would work on his lines for the next time he was going to LA to work on Something Damaged. Both Derek & Logan had tried to convince him to take a break, but he refused. Logan knew he'd hardly slept in two days, but Julian didn't care. He just kept going. He finished the essay he'd been working on, but he couldn't find the script for the next episode of Something Damaged that he was in. So the world was forcing him to take a break. He refused to let his mind drift to Logan. He unwrapped a cherry lollipop and walked out of the room. If I'm going to take a break, I might as well go somewhere else.

Reed stood up. He needed to go somewhere, to walk around. He'd been in his room all day. He wandered out of the room, avoided being shot at by the twins and walked out of Windsor. He found his way to a small, out of the way garden that seemed like a good place to sit & find some distraction.

When he got there, he found Julian Larson sitting on the bench.

"Oh, Hi Julian," Reed said distractedly.

"Hi Reed," replied Julian. Reed noticed that he looked deep in thought.

Reed said, "I, uh, didn't mean to interrupt your thinking about whatever you were thinking about. I just needed to get out of my room and away from Windsor."

"I know the feeling," said Julian. "I don't mind that you're here, really. I've been looking for a distraction for the last few days."

"Me too," Reed said quietly. He sat down next to Julian. "Unfortunately, even my distractions seem to lead me back to thinking about what I want to be distracted from."

"I've run out of work to do," Julian replied.

"I'm starting to lose my mind," said Reed. "I can only stare at a half-finished painting for so long. But when I tried to find something else to do, I ended up drawing -" He stopped abruptly.

"Who? Or, uh, what?" asked Julian curiously.

Reed wasn't sure right away whether or not to tell him the truth. But hey, how much would Julian really judge him - he was friends with Logan, after all. "Shane Anderson, Blaine's younger brother. He's… I'm in love with him."

"Does he know?" Julian asked.

Reed shook his head. "He seems like he likes me, but his sort-of ex boyfriend showed up before I could tell him how I feel. He's spent all his time with Micah ever since he showed up." He looked at the ground. "Not that I've really given him a chance to talk to me. I keep running away."

"Running away," repeated Julian. Reed nodded. Julian quietly said, "I've been running away, too, Reed."

"From what? You're Julian Larson! What could you possibly have to run away from?" asked Reed.

"Logan," mumbled Julian. "Always going after other guys… completely oblivious…"

"Acting takes confidence and courage, right?" said Reed. Julian shrugged. "Well then why don't you go ahead and say something to Logan? Eventually he's going to figure out that Kurt isn't interested in him and he'll be crushed - then he'll go looking for someone else. Plus, you never know - he doesn't know you like guys, does he?" Julian shook his head. "Then maybe he has feelings for you, too, and just hasn't acted on them because he thinks you're straight."

"Maybe," Julian said. "How about this, Reed. I'll tell Logan I'm in love with him - but only if you tell Shane."

Reed's eyes widened. He took a deep breath. "Okay."

Julian checked the time. "It's almost time for dinner. We should go back to our houses."

"Yeah," agreed Reed.

They both stood up, and just before they walked off in opposite directions, they both mumbled, "Thanks."

Reed ran back to Windsor house. "BLAINE! BLAINE?" he exclaimed. He ran upstairs and knocked on Blaine's bedroom door. He heard someone moving towards the door. "Blaine, where's your -" he started, but then the door opened and Reed found himself looking at Shane.

"Hi Reed!" Shane said happily.

Reed took a deep breath. "Uh, Shane… Can we talk for a minute?"

Julian walked back to Stuart and straight upstairs to Logan's room. He found Logan working on some piece of homework and humming to himself.

He looked up when Julian opened the door. "Hey, Jules. What's up?"

"Logan, I need to talk to you."

A/N - a little shorter than what I usually write, but I care not. Review, pretty please?