Disclaimer: Do not own, did not create, do not profit from. They will never be mine despite what I like to think.

Rating: PG-13 for this installment.

A/N: Thank you Kessy Kate, Shampoo marea, and evil-morbid-brat for reviewing!

Chapter Three: Alpha Males

Tapping his fingers on the bar while holding his straight up scotch in his other hand, Brian stood there looking for a rather attractive blond who was requesting that he meet him at the club at ten o'clock. It happened to be twenty minutes past and about ten guys later who had given him the look and murmured something about meeting him in the back room. Each time Brian ignored them, not even bothering to acknowledge their presence until his other favorite blond haired beauty showed up.

"Let the tricking begin," he said, smiling at Brian mockingly.

"Bet's off. Get the hell out of my club," said Brian, turning away to lean his back against the bar, holding his glass to his mouth to take a sip as he surveyed the room of dancing, grinding bodies in the spastic light.

"What?"

"I said get the fuck out or I'll throw your ass out."

"You can't –"

"I'm the owner. I can."

The silence between them wasn't awkward but one filled with loathing and disgust. Brian cocked his head to the side, meeting his eyes. "Do you need an escort?"

"What ever happened to you being inside of me?"

Trying to flip the tables and flirt, Brian noted, downing the last of his scotch and slamming it down on the bar in a request for another. He grabbed it and looked at the man beside him dully, running his eyes down and then back up leather and denim.

"You're nothing I haven't had before."

"You're so sure about that?"

"Yeah. There's plenty of dyed blonds wearing leather around here that I've fucked."

"Like the kid you're fucking now?"

A line that should never ever be crossed or even coming close to touching. Brian didn't even acknowledge the comment, thinking it better than raging at him, tell him that his name was Justin and he was actually in his twenties, though still a good ten years younger than Brian.

Brian waved down one of the guys from security, the same one that had told the blond that he was being banned from Babylon.

"Escort him out of here. Now." Brian then turned to the man in shock beside of him. "If I ever catch you in here again, I'll make sure that you won't have a dick to get sucked off or fuck with."

"Asshole," he muttered before being pushed off by the security guy.

When Brian looked up over his glass he saw Justin with his arms slack at his sides and his mouth slightly open in awe.

"You rejected him?"

"Kind of," Brian murmured against the lip of his glass when Justin came over to stand with him.

"Kind of?"

"I told him that our bet was off and that he's banned from Babylon."

"For how long?"

"Forever."

Setting down the glass gently this time on the bar, he shook his head when the bartender went to refill it. He looked at the ground for a while, his arms resting back on the bar as well, and swallowed hard. It was the first time that he could remember that he turned down a potential good fuck and Brian knew that it had to be done, for Justin at least.

Justin's hand cupped the side of his face and turned it so Brian was looking straight into pools of bright blue. Standing on his tiptoes, Justin leaned into Brian to give him a kiss that was both slow and utterly erotic. A moment later, he stood back on his heels, his hand still on Brian's freshly shaven face.

"Do you believe me now?"

"I told you already. I've always believed you, I just had to see it."

"You saw it now. Are we done with this game?"

Smiling his vibrant smile, Justin replied, "Brian, we're far from being done."

"Fuck you."

Emmett came bouncing over with Ted trailing not too far behind him and Brian's eyes nearly feel out of his head when he saw Michael. Michael was looking around shyly as if it was his time in Babylon but he was taking in the sight of all the impressive looking bodies moving together in time with the beat of the song, and how the lights made him feel like he was on one of his old E trips.

"Mikey, I thought Babylon wasn't a part of your lifestyle anymore," commented Brian, his form of a greeting.

"Don't get too excited. Ben's meeting us here."

"What's the occasion?"

"Hunter."

"What?"

"We decided that we need to get out of the house and have a little fun."

"Instead of looking for the kid whose probably shooting up heroin and getting fucked for money again?"

"Brian," warned Justin, laying his hand on Brian's arm.

Brian saw the hurt in Michael's eyes. Somehow it cut a little deeper than anything else Brian had said to him before and he instantly felt guilty. His usual 'no apologies, no regrets' got shot to shit when Justin started looking at him in a way that was saying 'Apologize.'

"Look, Mikey, I'm sorry for being such a prick." Michael looked up at him, eyes wide with tears and with something that could have been amazement.

"You're apologizing?"

"Yeah?" said Brian confused.

"You never apologize."

"Don't get used to it."

"It's okay, Brian. I accept your apology."

It was then that Ben showed up with a grin on his face as he enclosed his arms around his small husband, whispering something into his ear. Justin smiled in spite of Brian, letting out a sigh that caught Brian's attention. He watched as Justin gazed at the married couple with something akin to longing. Not longing to be with one of them, but longing for what they had. Brian swallowed hard and took Justin's hand in his.

"Dance with me, Sunshine."

Before Justin could refuse, Brian was already leading him onto the dance floor while their friends stared at them in wholly bewilderment.

"They're back together?" said Ted, frowning at his friends, looking at each of them for an answer.

"Brian never told me," said Michael, staring at the two dancing close together and now grinding with the change of the song.

"Maybe it just happened," said Emmett, sipping his Cosmopolitan as he watched the brunet and the blond.

"Maybe."

"You sound surprised," said Emmett, looking now at Michael perplexedly.

"Because the only way that Justin would have gotten back together with Brian is if Brian told him he loves him, proposed to him, or committed to him and only him."

"I think it's the latter," remarked Ted, eyeing a dark haired guy not far from them who was staring at Ted with intensity and interest. "It's the easiest thing for Brian to do."

"No, it's really not," responded Emmett. "Monogamy is not his thing, more than admitting his feelings for a hot young blond."

"I don't know," mumbled Michael, kind of hurt that Brian hadn't told him.

The two of them where far beyond caring that their friends were watching them with peaked interest. Brian didn't have to explain anything to anyone and he knew Justin was thinking the same. Pulling his lover closer by his hips, Brian dipped his head to nuzzle the side of Justin's neck.

How could he have ever thought that living without him was an option? Brian asked himself. The mere smell of the kid had him hard, that and the fact that Justin was grinding his own erection against his leg. Justin's harried breathing in his ear sent shivers down and then back up Brian's spine. With one hand still on the other man's hip, Brian brought his right to cup the side of Justin's face, staring deeply into Justin's eyes.

"Say it," Justin whispered, seeing it in Brian's hazel eyes but desperately wanting to hear it.

"I…I can't," Brian breathed out, defeated and feeling ashamed. He looked down at the ground and sighed.

What the hell was wrong with him? He loved Justin with every inch of him (that sounds bad) so why the fuck was it so hard for him to admit it out loud?

"You can," pleaded Justin, resting his hand on Brian's cheek, mirroring the brunet's position.

"I'm sorry, Justin."

It was getting difficult for Brian to breathe properly. He told him it wasn't because of how vulnerable and weak he felt but because of the alcohol and the flickering lights that used to give him headaches the first few times he starting coming here.

Tearing himself away from Justin, Brian ignored him as he tried to keep Brian with him. His friends were staring at them curiously and Brian didn't think he had ever seen Emmett look so worried before for Brian, or maybe it was Justin. Brian got out of Babylon as quickly as he could and practically ran the rest of the way home, nearly getting hit twice when he ran across the street.

The heavy wooden door slide shut soundly before Brian leaned back against it, trying to catch his breath. It was then that it hit him: he fucking ran away. Panting only lightly now, Brian stared at nothing in particular as he tried to come to terms with what he had just done.

Brian Kinney does not run, he told himself. It only took him a minute to begin to pace, his mind working a mile a minute. What was he turning into? He had changed so much over the course a few days and it was all because of some fucking twink… that he loved, he told himself a second later.

He'd stopped tricking and staying out until the wee hours of the morning, he was doing less hardcore drugs, and being friendlier and nicer in general to everyone. He was making less sarcastic remarks and being less of an asshole.

"What the fuck!" he yelled, grabbing the nearest thing that happened to be a rather expensive vase. He threw it as hard as he could at the wall, shattering it into pieces.

And now he was having temper tantrums. What was the world coming to?

Brian looked at the remains of the vase that were spread across the hardwood for a few long minutes. The flowers that Justin had brought home the other day were laying limply, two of them broken at the stems, and Brian felt like such a dick all of a sudden. The vase was one of Justin's favorite and now it was shattered on the floor. Why did Brian always have to hurt him somehow, even if it was indirectly?

Searching for the dustpan that he never used, he heard the front door opening slowly, almost as if the person was being cautious.

"Brian? Are you in here?"

Brian pursed his lips together, his hand wrapped around the handle of the dustpan. He thought for a moment about not answering but if Justin stayed, it would make Brian look even more like an ass.

"Yeah," he muttered as he stood up.

"What the hell was that about?"

Brian looked at him for a minute with little expression on face before he moved towards the pieces of the white glass vase in Justin's clear view.

"I broke the vase."

"That's not what I'm talking about. Babylon. What the fuck happened to you at Babylon?" He spoke each word of the last sentence slowly and precisely. "You just ran."

"Don't say it," he winced. He hadn't been able to cut him off in time.

"What? That you ran? Why can't I say it? It's true." Justin was a little more than mad as he watched Brian bend at the knees to start to pick of the broken vase. Justin noticed that a couple of the flowers that hadn't been spared of Brian's rage. "Don't want to admit that you did it?"

Brian continued to not acknowledge what he was saying, keeping his back to him as he remained cleaning up his mess. When he got up and grabbed a sink to mop up the water, however, Brian saw how livid Justin was, an unnatural flare in his vivid blue eyes.

"You don't like to hear it. do you? You don't like to admit that you, Brian Kinney, are capable of weakness. Why is it such a big deal to you? I'm sorry to burst your ever prominent bubble, but you're fucking human, Brian."

The entire time Brian had his tongue in his cheek, trying desperately not to snap and yell at the young man telling him everything that was right but wrong with him. Brian knew that if he explained everything to Justin, he would probably end up being laughed at or told that he was acting stupid. That was not an option. Either of them.

"I just had to get out of there," he said quietly, more to himself than Justin as he moved back to the mess that he had made.

It was true and far from a lie. Brian hadn't been able to face Justin and he was afraid that he would end up saying something he would regret.

"Why can't you just say it?"

There it was again and Brian had no way of escaping and nowhere to run to.

"Or do you not love me?"

Brian's eyes flashed up to meet Justin's instantly and the younger man saw that that was not the case. Justin knew that before, though, and was just trying to get Brian to say it.

"Justin, a person can only change so much at a time."

"What are you talking about? I'm not trying to change you."

"Yes, you are. Tricking is –" Brian stopped and corrected himself, " – was my life until you gave me an ultimatum. Partying until dawn and being on every drug known to man was also a part of my life until you again, gave me another ultimatum."

"You're changing for the better."

"I know," muttered Brian sadly and slightly regretfully. "I'm being fucking nicer to people and apologizing. Did you hear me tonight? I fucking said sorry to Michael. I can't believe I said sorry."

"Well, you shouldn't have said what you did then."

Brian stared at him with his usual practiced dull expression. "How come you don't have to change, hmm?"

"It's because I already have."

"Fucker," Brian breathed out though Justin heard it loud enough, causing him to smile. "You are going to change one thing for me."

"What's that?"

"You're going to stop looking at Michael and Ben like you fucking want what they have."

"But I do want what they have. We've been through this. I thought that by us getting back together meant that we're heading in a direction."

"And we weren't before?"

"No."

Brian raised his eyebrows quickly, the dull expression still on his face though Justin couldn't see it because Brian had his back to him once more.

"Brian, tell me that we're heading somewhere."

"We're heading somewhere," he said flatly.

"Do you mean that?" Justin pressed, stepping closer to him. "If you don't, take it back."

"I'm not taking anything back."

"Good."

"That doesn't mean that I mean it."

Justin's face deadpanned. "Then it looks like I'm packing my bags again."

"You're not and we haven't even gotten your shit yet from Michael's."

"Why am I not leaving?"

"Because I fucking said that you're not."

It was as close as an 'I love you' as Justin was going to receive that night and he knew that that was the equivalent to Brian. He watched as Brian stood up and walked towards him before he stopped to throw the cloth in the sink. The flowers were still laying limply and forsaken on the floor behind him.

"Are we done with this?"

"For now," stated Justin.

"I don't like this new backbone that you have," admitted Brian, eyeing the blond.

"What are you talking about? I've always had one."

"Not with me you haven't. Lose it."

"You afraid that you're not the alpha male any more?" wondered Justin with a hint of teasing in his tone as Brian pulled him to him.

"I am the alpha male, Sunshine."

"Show me."