Set the evening of the day that Brian convinces Stockwell to make an appearance at the Gay and Lesbian Centre
oOoOo
"Sooooo," Justin asked, as Brian came in through the loft's door, "how did it go?"
"He's going to the GLC tomorrow," the older man said smugly.
"Perfect," Justin smiled. "What are we gonna do?"
"Stick a poster to his forehead?" Brian smirked.
Justin just scowled. He didn't know why Brian suddenly felt like he was above the posters, just because he was setting up the first of Stockwell's biggest downfalls.
"I did have one idea," Brian admitted, taking a Bud from the fridge and opening the bottle.
"Yeah, what?"
"I got Cynthia to do a little research for me today," he said, sitting next to Justin.
"And?"
"And since Stockwell's been in chief of police, over 80% of Gay and Lesbian related crimes have been over looked."
"What?" Justin asked in disbelief.
"Seems the homo-hater is as good as encouraging queer-bashing," Brian sighed, taking a long swig of his beer before tracing his fingers over the left side of Justin's head right at his hairline; the place he'd been bashed. Justin's hand went to rest on Brian wrist as the older man continued to finger the part of Justin's head that was completely void of feeling.
"What are we going to do?" Justin whispered, his voice full of emotion.
Brian retracted his hand and sat back in the sofa, taking another swig of his drink. "Cynthia researched loads of incidents but I got her to pick the most recent, most obviously corrupt examples," the older man stopped. It sounded like every word was causing him physical pain.
Justin frowned and paused waiting for Brian to elaborate. He didn't, so the younger man was forced to ask, "so, who were they?"
Brian took a deep breath, another drink and got to his feet. He left the beer on the coffee table and went to retrieve his briefcase, he pulled something out from the case and brought it back to the sofa with him. It was a folder full of information, each sheet was stapled to a photo.
"Cynthia's pretty thorough," Brian joked weakly, sitting back down and beginning to show his partner in crime the list. "Margarita Lopez," he said, holding up the first picture and passing it to Justin. The younger man took it and studied the photo carefully. "Jefferson Procter," was the next one. Then there was, "Natasha Ginsberg." Brian handed over the next photo which was of "Dumpster Boy". The older man smirked, "better give Debbie that one. We all know how passionately she feels about that twinkie."
Justin grinned a little. "That's four," he said. "Who's the fifth one?"Brian shifted a little, he looked a little uncomfortable as he reached for the photo of the fifth victim. He handed it over wordlessly and as soon as Justin saw the black and white photo of himself, he understood why. It was silent for a while. Neither man really knew what to say when Justin's bashing was brought up. It was a hyper sensitive subject for both of them and neither wanted to offend the other.
"I'll give my mom this one," Justin said eventually. "You know how passionately she feels about this twinkie."
Brian gave a weak smile and said, "we can find someone else if you don't want to…"
"No," Justin interrupted immediately. "It's fine. Just…" he trailed off.
"What?"
"Can we use a different photo, I look like an idiot in this one."
Brian did laugh then. He put his hand on the back of Justin's head and pulled him into a searing kiss. When they broke apart, Justin was grinning widely. "So, what is the plan?"
"Ah," Brian smiled and he began to explain it.
When he'd finished explained, he frowned, his forehead creasing nervously.
"What?" Justin asked. "It's a really good idea."
"I know. That's the problem," Brian sighed.
"God, you're not still worried about what'll happen to Stockwell, are you?"
"No, it's just," he paused and looked at Justin, "how are we going to convince everyone you up with it?" Then he grinned.
"Asshole," Justin grinned back, hitting Brian in the stomach with the back of his hand.
Set after Stockwell and Vance walk in on them *coughs* erm ... fucking!
("Haven't you ever seen two guys fucking before?" No, he hasn't Brian coz he's a 'goddamn Nazi homophobe is what he is' - gotta love Debbie)
oOoOo
"Wanna finish?" Brian asked, angrily before storming to the bathroom and shutting the door. Brian barely ever shut the door to the bathroom, not when he was taking a piss or in the shower or shaving or anything else. Justin stood up and pulled his pants on and went to the door of the bathroom. He heard the shower switch on and sighed. He knew they were in trouble. He knew he'd definitely lost his internship and he knew Brian had probably lost his job too. Shit.
Brian took an age in the shower, he leant against the wall motionless and just let the water was over him, he allowed it to run down his face like a warm waterfall eventually, when the water was starting to run a bit colder, he decided it was time to get out. He dried off and walked mutedly back into the bedroom. Justin was led there in a pair of shorts and he was watching Brian carefully as the older man dropped his towel and got into bed. He pulled to covers over him, turned on his side away from Justin and waited. He didn't really want to speak to anyone, least of all Justin but he knew the younger man wouldn't be able to resist. He knew Justin would wriggle over and say something that should make him feel better but wouldn't.
Slowly but surely, Justin felt the mattress dip behind him as Justin moved across the bed towards him. He felt a hand on his shoulder as slender figures began to trace slowly up and down his arm and Brian felt a faint hope that maybe Justin wouldn't say anything and that this was all there would be.
"I was thinking," Justin started. Or not, Brian thought. "What if you tell Vance the posters and everything it was all just me. The thing at the GLC was me. We can say you didn't have anything to do with it."
Brian blinked once slowly. He couldn't believe Justin was even suggesting that. Sometimes, the younger man really showed his age but Brian didn't shout or yell, he didn't have the energy.
"It wouldn't work," he said slowly, rolling steadily onto his back. "Even if you had been the only one who'd created the poster and the incident at the GLC it's still obvious I knew about it. And," he sighed heavily, "I'm pretty sure fucking the intern is kind of frowned upon too."
Justin smiled a little although nothing was really funny.
"What?" Brian asked.
"Just made it sound all kinky like a porno." He leant down and kissed Brian gently. "Why Mr Kinney, you've been taking advantage of the poor, innocent intern."
Brian let out an involuntary groan as Justin smiled and kissed him again before pressing his ear against Brian's chest. They both fell quiet but Brian's hand came to rest in Justin's hair and fiddle with it a bit. Justin hummed contently despite the fact his mind was racing as he tried to come up with anything that might save Brian's job.
"So what are you going to do?" Justin whispered after a moment or two. Brian's hand stopped in his hair for a second but started up again almost immediately. Anyone other than Justin may not have even noticed.
"I'll think of something," Brian said calmly and with confidence he didn't feel. Justin's eyes closed then and when he woke up, sun was streaming through the window and Brian was pacing the loft.
"Vance called," he muttered, when he realised that Justin was awake. "I've got a meeting with him first thing this morning." He turned around abruptly and marched back to where he'd just come from. "And," he said as he turned on the spot again, continuing with his pacing, "you're fired." And as an afterthought, "sorry."
"Wait," Justin sat up in the bed, "he got you to fire me."
Brian stopped pacing then and looked at Justin. "We both knew you were gonna get canned," he pointed out.
"Yeah, but by you."
"Well Vance pretty much wants to strangle you. You've cost him Stockwell's campaign and he has to fire his best advertising exec. If I were you, I'd stay away from him. In fact, I'll pick your stuff up from Vanguard."
"No fucking way," Justin growled. "I'm taking the walk of shame too."
They'd fought about it for a while but eventually Justin had gone into Vanguard to pick up his stuff. There were a few pencils, a jumper and a notebook of scribbled record of everything he'd done since he'd been there. They were all clumped together in a neat-ish pile on one of the lesser used desks. Justin went over, picked up the stuff and shoved it roughly into his shoulder bag.
"Hey," a voice suddenly made him jump. Justin span around and was faced with Connor. "You weren't kidding then," the other boy smiled impishly, "you actually were fucking the boss."
Justin smiled a bit and gave confirmatory shrug.
"The rumour is that Stockwell caught you in the act."
"You should stop listening to all these rumours, Connor," Justin sighed, zipping his bag up.
"So it's not true, then?"
"I never said that."
"So he did?"
Justin's silence told the other boy everything he needed to know but Justin found it strange, Connor didn't look disgusted or shocked, he just looked … well, impressed.
"And you made those stop Stockwell posters," Connor grinned. "They shouldn't be kicking you out, they should be giving you a medal."
Justin chuckled a little. "I can't see Vance wanting to reward me for fucking up his biggest campaign and forcing his arm in canning his best advertising agent."
"Wait, Kinney's getting fired?"
"Probably," Justin nodded. If there was anything he had regretted about this whole ordeal it was that Brian had lost his job, not only his job but his livelihood, everything he'd worked so fucking hard for all his life.
"Shit," Connor moaned, kicking at a table leg. "It's gonna be crap 'round here with only Vance running things."
Well, Justin thought, that proved his theory that the people at the company worked hard for Brian Kinney not Gardner Vance. He'd guessed as much as soon as he'd arrived at Vanguard. Every person who worked there seemed to want to do well to impress their boss. But more than that, they respected Brian. He'd already proved his worth at the company enough times to be the undisputed leader of all of them. Justin wondered just how well Vanguard would fair without him.
"Justin," Cynthia's voice suddenly disturbed the two. "Vance is going send to security to escort you out if you don't leave soon," she whispered. "I think he wants you out before Brian gets here."
Justin nodded, said a quick goodbye to Connor and left Vanguard without another word. He promised himself he would never get into the cutthroat world of advertising ever again. He'd got all he'd wanted from the work experience, he just wasn't sure it would be worth what he'd cost the most important person in his life.
