Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Special thanks to JustBeAQueen for Betaing this and thanks to BritinForever29,Koalared, olliluck, foshizzledizzle13, Aiwendil1, mandarinpeel, Bryton4ever71 and libfulknot
Chapter 7
He sat down and raised his eyes from his task and froze.
"What the fuck happened?"
Brian saw Justin flinch and he dropped the washcloth before reaching and turning of the spray from the shower. His hands wiped the water from the pale flesh and he had to fight to control his breathing. Scars littered Justin's back, all about an inch to three inches in length. Closer to the bottom of Justin's back there was a long scar that curled up to his shoulder blade. The skin was raised on some of the scars and Brian trailed his fingers along a few of them. God, there were so many of them. Brian trailed his finger down the longest one. Brain could feel the shaky breaths in his lover's body. "Are there any more injuries Justin?" How many were there? Why did it seem that every time he turned around he would find some new wound?
He saw the blond head nod and Justin turned around so that he was facing Brian before taking his hand and pushing it to his nipple. Brian moved his hand and looked at the dark bud, it was had a scar running through the center of it the flesh overlapping slightly. Justin wasn't missing his nipple ring it had been torn out. He ran his thumb over the marred flesh before meeting Justin's eyes. The blond looked insecure, unsure and a little scared. Why the hell would he be scared though. Brian wasn't the one who had done this. He wasn't the one who had ruined the pale flesh; flesh that Brian had spent countless nights running his tongue and fingertips down; had spent countless hours playing with to bring the blond pleasure.
Brian moved his hand down ghosting over the scratches on Justin's stomach. There were so many injuries, there was so much pain. The anger had seemed to drain out of him and instead there was this deep despair. Justin's skin told his story; it told Brian that there was pain, pain that still lingered in both the physical and the emotional sense. Some of the scratches - more like cuts - would scar. There was a deep one that drew a line down to Justin's naval that looked particularly nasty. Was that what Justin was afraid of, was he scared that Brian wouldn't want him anymore now that he was covered in scars. Brian reached his hand up and cupped the side of Justin's head before trailing his thumb along the scar that reached into the man's hairline.
"They don't make you any less beautiful," the words were soft. He shifted his hand down and ran his thumb over the split in Justin's lip before leaning forward and kissing him gently. . It was a bitter sweet kiss and Brian felt Justin's arms wrap around him and push against him. The kiss was chaste and Brian didn't move to change it. He just let their lips stay together. Brian could feel the tears hit his face and he knew that they weren't his. Justin was crying, silently and without any movement. The tears were just falling.
Shifting Brian stood and wrapped one of his arms around Justin's shoulders and another under his knees. The blond was in his arms a moment later Justin's arms coming around his neck. The bathroom tiles were cold under his feet as he made his way from the bathroom into the bedroom. He set Justin down on the bed before kissing him lightly. "I need to change the bandages on your feet." Brian searched for the bag with their purchases and quickly found where Justin had put it. He was on the bed a moment later unwrapping the now wet gauze from Justin's feet. The white material came away stained with blood and for the first time Brian looked at the mess on his lover's feet. There were cuts across them ranging in size and the bottom of his soles looked as if they had been through a war. Maybe they had.
He applied the antiseptic and rebandaged them before placing the dirty bandages in the bag and tossing them into the bedside garbage can. Then he was moving. He laid on the bed next to Justin and the blond curled into him burying his face into the crook of Brian's neck. Brian wrapped an arm around Justin and stroked a thumb over the base of his skull, over and over, steadily. He could feel Justin's tears coating his neck.
Later he would call himself a dyke. Later he was going ask himself where in the hell his balls went. Later he would look at Justin and remember every scar and every kiss and every tear. Later he was going to remember everything about this moment. Later he would worry about his image. Right now though it didn't matter. None of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was the man in his arms and what he needed because secretly, it was what they both needed.
Brian waited a good hour after Justin had fallen asleep to get out of bed. The blond whined but rolled over with a gentle nudge grabbing a pillow and clinging to it. He was really going to have to figure out how Justin slept so deeply one day. There was a deep pressure in Brian's bladder and he moved to the bathroom. When was the last time he had taken a piss - or eaten anything for that matter? He felt like his bodies functions had gone into a hibernated state and were just waking up. He hadn't seen Justin eat or use the bathroom either.
Shrugging he finished his business before washing his hands and going back to the bedroom. Justin was still sleeping. There was some light filtering into the bedroom from a lamp outside and it cast a glow on the blond. He was lying on his stomach partially his face burrowed into a pillow. Brian could see the scars. He grabbed his phone from his jacket pocket and moved into the living room sitting on the couch. He just sat there in the dark. The cool air was pushing against his skin. Reaching up Brain trailed his fingers over the platinum bands. They sometimes felt like a heavy weight against his chest. They were filled with promises and dreams, both his and Justin's.
He needed a drink. He got up from the couch and walked over to the mini-fridge and peered into it. There were four beers lined up, Brian grabbed them and sat back down on the couch. The first lid was popped and Brian took a deep drink, the amber brown liquid splashing down his throat. He really wanted something a bit harder than the beer. He drank it slowly picking off the label on the side of the bottle. So many things were running through his head and nothing was running through his head all at the same never would have acted like this before he met Justin. He was the fuck without a care, then throw them out guy. Justin had changed all of that.
'That persistent kid has gotten under the wire.'
Brian took another swig of his beer and leaned his head against the back of the couch. Great now Debbie was in his head. She had been right though - that persistent kid - that twink had somehow forced his way into Brian's head and heart. Justin had shoved and kicked and broken Brian down. He had made him change. Another swig was taken. Sometimes Brian wished that he could go back to being that meaningless playboy, that he could go back to being the ultimate stud of Babylon. Other times though - the memories hurt. Not the memories of fucking mindless people, the memories of what it had done to Justin. It had hurt the blond, it had hurt him so much. Brian could remember every tear, every argument. He could remember how Justin's face would flash in betrayal and the way he would try to hide that look. Brian could remember everything.
He had worked his way onto the second beer. He needed to stop thinking about this shit, there was no point to it. It wasn't going to do them any good for him to sit here and think about the things he wished he could change. Things that he couldn't change. Brian grabbed his cellphone and scrolled for Cynthia's number before pushing the send button.
It was 9 at night, there was a chance that she wasn't even going to pick up. He heard it ring, once, twice, then four times before it was picked up with a soft click.
"Boss?" She sounded tired and Brian instinctively knew that even though he had called her cell phone because of the hour, that she was still in the office.
"Working late?" Brian set the bottle down.
"Yeah, the new intern fucked up and I have to clean it up."
"Want me to fire her?"
"No, I've dealt with it boss."
Brian nodded and resisted the urge to grab the bottle again.
"What did you need boss?"
Brian was silent.
"Boss?"
"I need you to make flight arrangements for tomorrow, something in the early afternoon. Tell them one of the passengers needs wheelchair arrangement." Cynthia let out a small gasp and Brian cut her off, "it's not permanent."
"All right…is there anything else?" She sounded hesitant and Brian knew that she wanted to ask a million questions and was resisting.
"Get groceries for Britin and pick us up at the airport, also call and make Justin an appointment at our doctor's office."
"Alright, I'll call you tomorrow morning with the flight information." Brian hung up and looked at the beer bottles. He wasn't going to drink anymore tonight. Leaving the phone in the living room he made his way back into the bed. Justin was still lying in the exact place that he left him, on top of the duvet. Shaking his head Brian climbed back into the bed. (I moved that statement, just seemed to fit better there.) Justin seemed to sense his presence because as soon as he was lying down the blond turned to him pushing their skin together. Brian fell asleep trailing his fingers down the long scar on Justin's back wondering where it came from.
Brian slowly woke up, the world edging in. His eyes slipped open and turned on his side to see Justin lying next to him, his head propped up on one arm. Justin had been watching him sleep. "Morning, you want some breakfast?" Justin gave an eager nod and Brian smiled before getting off the bed and going to the bathroom to get the wheelchair. By the time he had rolled it into the bedroom Justin was positioned on the edge of the bed to get into it. Brian flipped the lock on and Justin maneuvered himself into the chair. The brunette didn't stay to watch but walked into the living room grabbing the menu from the table.
"Do you want to eat here or do you want to go out?" He turned and saw Justin mouthing the word here while wheeling himself into the room. "Ok pick out what you want and I'll order it." Brian grabbed the beer bottles and put them on the counter while Justin looked at the menu. A few minutes later he had Justin's selection via some pointing and Justin went back into the bedroom.
Brian picked up the phone and ordered the pancakes, sausage and eggs as well as placing his own order of coffee. He needed a shower, his had been disturbed last night and he could feel the grease starting to gather in his hair. Brian set the phone down and headed to the bathroom. He grinned as he entered it. Justin was sitting on the toilet taking a piss. "I think you spent too much time with the munchers," Justin gave him a look flicking him off before mouthing, fuck you. Shrugging Brian turned on the shower, closed the door and started to wash. He heard Justin moving around in the bathroom through the glass doors and he figured he was getting dressed.
It was weird, Justin seemed fine, normal almost, when they were together and alone. If anyone else was in the room though Justin seemed to get nervous and clung to him. So was it an aversion to people then? Did Justin not trust anyone he didn't know? Did he trust anyone he did? Brian hadn't seen him with anyone from their group; he would have to see what happened with Cynthia later. If Justin got nervous around the people that he used to trust then they might have bigger issues than what Brian had originally anticipated.
He shut off the water and grabbed a towel drying off before tossing it onto the counter and putting on his clothes, he left his shirt unbuttoned and walked into the living room. Justin was sitting at the table eating his breakfast. He was wearing the scrubs again and once and a while he would stop and rub the stubble on his chin. Brian knew that he had a shadow forming, luckily Justin had always been slow to grow facial hair.
Brian grabbed the coffee from the tray before sitting at the table and pouring sugar into it from the tiny white packets. Brian had never really understood Justin's fascination with fattening foods - ok so he could understand it but that didn't mean he had to endorse it. Silently he vowed to never let Justin find his chocolate stash. Brian raised an eyebrow as Justin poured more syrup onto his plate and proceeded to rub his scrambled eggs through them. Justin was going to get fat one of these days. For now though he could stand to gain a few pounds, maybe the blond should keep with his current habits - at least for a little while.
There was a newspaper on the table and he grabbed it flipping through the pages until he found the stock page. He glanced over the numbers and checked which businesses seemed to be floundering and which were rising; it was an offensive strategy to his company. He would see which businesses needed a boost and actually had a good product then get someone to call them with a sales pitch. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't but he didn't get this far just by sitting on his ass and letting clients come to him. There was nothing in the newspaper that he hadn't seen though so he folded it over back to the front page and scanned over it, there was a follow-up piece on Justin. The blond's name wasn't mentioned though so he didn't concern himself with it. The article pretty much stated that Justin was released from the hospital in good health and there would be no lasting damage.
His phone went off and Brian got up snatching it and almost answered it without checking the id. Michael's name was staring at him from the display. Part of him wanted to ignore the call but it had been five days since he had last talked to Mikey, the last time being on Friday. He looked at Justin's back before answering the phone.
"Mikey?"
"Brian! I've been trying to get ahold of you for days. Are you ok?" Brian raised and eyebrow.
"Yeah I'm fine, my phone was off all weekend because I was working on something and I've been in meetings since early Tuesday." He wasn't really lying, he had been working on finding Justin last weekend and he had been in meetings - just not with clients. Words were easy to manipulate.
"Alright, Mom's just worried, ya know? You never show up for Sunday dinners and half the time people can't get a hold of you on the weekend."
"Look Mikey I'm fine."
"It's just that…" Michael's voice trailed off.
"It's just what?" Brian felt his ire start to rise.
"The anniversary is next week…you know from the day Justin…" Brian resisted the urge to snap at his friend. Why was it that every time something bad happened Michael assumed he was going to do something stupid - ok so it wasn't that farfetched. He did have the scarfing incident working against him and there was that time where he had been standing on the ledge of a roof when his son was born.
"I'm fine Mikey, pay attention to the professor and the brat." Michael started to protest and Brian cut him off, "I've got to go." He snapped the phone closed and set it on the table looking up to be met with a questioning and slightly cocky gaze. "Shut the fuck up Justin," The blond held up his hands in surrender.
Brian slipped the phone into his pocket and moved to Justin before running his tongue over the blond's lips gathering the syrup from them. He moved to pull back and Justin's hand wrapped around the back of his neck, their lips parted and came back together. Justin was sliding his other hand under Brian's open shirt, his fingers dancing across the skin. Brian slipped his hands along Justin's body pushing the shirt up, Justin raised his arms and the shirt was tossed to the side. Brian pulled back and grabbed a chair pulling it close before sitting in it and pulling Justin from his wheelchair so that he was sitting on his lap.
"That's better." Justin grinned at him and Brian felt their lips connect a second later, Justin was pushing his shirt off and Brian let him. The blue material fell back against the chair before slipping down. Brian lowered his mouth pushing Justin's body away from his slightly so that he could wrap his mouth around the now scarred nipple. His tongue lathered over it and he sucked lightly, he could feel Justin arching slightly and fingers dig into his shoulders. A light tug with his teeth and the sound of air being sucked in through closed teeth met his ears. Brian mentally smirked and soothed the nipple with his tongue before licking his way to the other hardening nub.
Brian could taste the sweat forming on Justin's skin salty against his tongue as he rubbed his hands along the blond's back. He watched as the skin started to flush and the nipples filled with blood turning them a shade darker. His lips finally locked over the other nipple and Justin began running a hand through his hair. A wheezing sound was speeding up and Brian smirked knowing that he was the one causing it.
A chime started and Brian's pocket vibrated, he wanted to kill something. He had Justin in a starting frenzy and he was enjoying it damnit! Justin had said he enjoyed pleasure even if he couldn't get hard, so while he wasn't about to fuck him he could at least lick and give pleasure to every inch of Justin's body that would respond. Brian reached into his pocket and pulled his cellphone out. Justin's lips attached to the spot below his ear and the blond sucked. Brian grabbed Justin's ass squeezing hard and he snapped his cellphone to his ear.
"What!" The word was bit out because Justin had gripped his cock while biting his ear.
"Boss….are you okay? you sound kinda…"
Brian bit back a gasp and Justin tugged on his ear with his teeth and ground his hand down into his hardening cock.
"I'm fine Cynthia, what do you want?"
Justin had moved on and was licking his way down Brian's neck to his shoulder swiping his tongue along the flesh and nibbling it.
"Boss we have a problem…a serious problem." It was then that Brian heard the screams in the background, a woman's screams, a very familiar mother's screams.
Coming up on Breaking the Silence
Then it evaporated and he grabbed the front of Brian's shirt. Leaning down Brian caught their lips. He could feel Justin smile and it was infectious. Brian pulled back a minute later and moved behind Justin to push his chair, they were going to be alright.
A/N I still do not have chapter 8 complete and unfortunately it has turned into November, which means that it is NANOWRIMO. Due to this all fanfictions are put onto hiatus until the first of December as I will be working on my novel entitled Shadows Call. I want to thank everyone who is reading this fanfiction and I hope that you'll review.
With Thanks,
Mako
