Disclaimer: To my dismay, I do not own QAF and I do not even begin to claim that I created it or profit from it. However, if Gale Harold wishes to, you know, be my sex slave, I'm cool with that. Honestly.

Rating: PG and only because there's hints of 'strong language.'

Chapter Fifteen: What He Don't Know Can't Hurt Him

It was well into the evening and Brian was sitting in Woody's with Michael since Justin still hadn't returned yet from shopping with Daphne. He checked his watch for what had to have been the seventh time that hour. It wasn't like Justin to be gone for several hours and not call, even if it was to say 'hello'.

Michael looked over his friend and didn't know whether he felt sorry for the guy or not, since after all, Brian Kinney did not fret over anyone or anything for that matter.

"He hasn't called yet?"

Brian glanced at him as if he had completely forgotten that Michael was sitting there next to him and had been for almost two hours. He shook his head faintly, pursing his lips, before he took a swig from the bottle clutched in his right hand.

"He and Daphne left earlier to go shopping. She apparently has a date tonight," he scoffed at the last part, rolling his eyes.

"Then there's nothing you should be worried about. Justin's with Daphne."

"Who said anything about being worried?" His face was so calm and composed. Sometimes Michael just wanted to smack the façade off of the man's face if it meant that Brian would show some emotion for once.

"That's the eighth time you've looked at your watch since we got here."

Brian shrugged nonchalantly.

"Really, Brian. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Mikey. Don't worry your pretty head about it."

"So something is wrong," Michael stated, his eyes studying the side of Brian's face.

"Stop looking at me, you perv."

Michael chuckled and glanced around the bar, filled with more people now than when they arrived. A few recognizable faces but none the stood out. Ben was supposed to meet him along with the rest of the guys, any minute now.

The sigh that Brian let out was quiet but his friend still heard it. Michael rested his hand on Brian's shoulder and smiled with amusement at the brunet. Brian might have not been willing to admit it, but he was worried for Justin, which meant that he cared about the young blond. If Michael felt like stirring things up a bit, he would have pointed it out. Somehow though, he knew there was something more than Justin not calling him that was making him so irritable and unnaturally concerned.

"Justin never calls you, Bri."

"He does sometimes."

"What's really going on?"

For what appeared to have been the hundredth time that night, Brian sighed and reached into his jacket, pulling something out of the pocket on the inside. Michael's eyes followed Brian's hand, which put something on the bar before him. When Brian withdrew his hand, Michael gasped and his hand instantly went to cover his mouth.

"It's not for you," smirked Brian, sipping at his beer.

"This is what you're worried about?" he exclaimed.

"Would you care to speak any louder? I don't think they heard you in the bathroom."

"Why would you be afraid of him saying no?"

Brian sent him a sharp glare, almost dropping his drink. How his friend was so intuitive for a guy, was beyond Brian.

"I never said that."

"Why else would you be so worried?"

"Oh, I don't know. I don't really propose to someone every day," Brian bit out sarcastically.

"Of course Justin would say yes."

"That's not the impression I got this morning."

"You already asked him!"

"No," said Brian hastily, trying to keep Michael's voice down. "I kind of hinted at marriage and he froze up."

"Maybe he was just surprised that you would consider it. I mean, he's pretty much accepted the fact that you're not into marriage. I mean, were not."

Brian shrugged and downed the rest of his drink. The man beside him looked like he was going to burst with excitement as he clutched the ring box in his hands.

"Can I open it?"

"Fine," said Brian, sounding as bored as ever.

Michael 'oohed' and 'ahhed' over the simple male silver band with three small diamonds in the inlay. Brian figured that since Justin was basically the woman in the relationship that he should get to wear diamonds like any other wife.

"So he doesn't know?" inquired Michael, still teeming with joy and excitement despite the rather loud and attention grabbing squeal he let out seconds before.

"He has no fucking clue," Brian replied casually, a smirk on his dreamy face, staring at the bottles that lined the shelves behind the bar, while he took a rather long, slow drag of his cigarette.

"Brian, this is so exciting!" Michael exclaimed, clapping his hands together.

Brian finally turned his head to the side to look at his friend whose smile spread impossibly wider when seeing his eyes filled with affection for a particular young blond. At last, he let out a smile that was completely genuine before he hung his head, resting the heel of his palm against his forehead.

"What the fuck am I thinking?" he wondered rhetorically aloud, chuckling to himself as he said the words.

"That you love Justin and wouldn't want to spend the rest of your life with anyone else but him," his friend replied easily, pausing to take a healthy gulp of his beer. "Brian, it's about fucking time."

Now, there was a more serious tone in Michael's voice that wasn't lost on Brian. Slowly, he nodded his head in agreement, took another drag of his cigarette, and then stomped the thing out madly in its ashtray.

"I'm quitting too."

"Smoking?"

"Yeah."

"I'm surprised you didn't quit sooner."

"Why?"

"You're such a health freak."

Brian shrugged nonchalantly and then ordered the two of them another round.

"So what's prompting you to quit?"

There was a sigh relieved from Brian's mouth, the deep rush of air sliding past his lips, and he smiled down at the bar for what must have been the seventh time that night. His hands were twined together in front of him, his elbows up on the wooden surface of the bar, and he gazed at them now, curious to feel the cool sensation of a band of gold wrapped tightly around his finger.

"Justin hates it. He doesn't say it but I know he does."

"He hates a lot of things, Bri."

"I thought you would be happy that I've decided it stop slowly killing myself, Michael."

"Yeah, I'm all about Brian preservation," Michael quipped, grinning his teasing smile at the brunette in front of him.

The two of them must have looked a little odd, Brian sitting facing the bar, hardly giving Michael any attention except for words and the odd glance, while Michael sat on his stool facing Brian, fully engrossed in Brian.

"I'm glad someone is."

"You mean, besides Justin?"

Brian laughed, tossing his cigarette package onto the bar that had resided in the pocket of his black leather jacket. It was three quarters full and he was throwing them away or at least leaving them there forsaken once he had left.

"When are you going to ask Justin?"

There was a small silence between them as Brian sat there quiet, pondering the question that he had been thinking about, among others as well, for the better part of two weeks.

"I'm not exactly sure yet. I was thinking about this Friday at Babylon."

Michael deadpanned. "Babylon?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah. What's wrong with that?"

"You don't fucking pro –"

"Keep your voice down," growled Brian, glaring at his friend darkly when a couple of heads turned.

"Anyways, you just don't."

"Why not?"

"It's a fucking club for crying out loud!"

"I'm still not seeing your point Mikey."

"You're just going to do it when you two are dancing or something? Or when he's sucking you off in the back?"

Brian feigned thoughtfulness for a brief moment just to faze Michael. "You know, I thought about the latter for a while…"

"But?"

It was Brian's turn to deadpan. "It's fucking impersonal."

"Actually, it's very personal."

"So now you're for the idea?"

"No, I was just saying."

"That because someone is sucking your dick, it's personal? Mikey, you've been in the back of Babylon countless times with numerous tricks. How many of them can you name?"

"Ben, and that's all that matters."

A loud, rather obnoxious cry of laughter was heard from Brian. The man was practically banging his fist against the bar as tears came to his eyes from laughing so hard. He held his sides and then gradually regained his normal breathing pattern before looking up at Michael's hurt expression.

"I'm serious, Brian," Michael whispered, fingering the condensation on his freshly topped beer.

"You're such a romantic."

What normally would have been a compliment or a casual observation was suddenly an insult when being said from Brian's lips.

"You've turned into quite the one yourself."

"You're talking to the man who wants to propose to his boyfriend at Babylon."

"That's only the second time I've heard you say that word in an hour and a half."

"And?"

"You're not fully admitting it, are you Brian?"

"Why the fuck would I be proposing to Justin if I couldn't admit it."

"Admit what?"

"That I wanted to marry him."

Michael smirked, noticing that Brian was going to say something along the lines of the 'L' word and it wasn't 'lesbian.'

"You can't say it, can you?"

"Say what?"

"That you love Justin."

"Yes I can."

"So do it," he challenged, reveling in the idea that he had Brian Kinney squirming in his seat.

"Why? What the fuck's it to you?"

"Why not? See, you keep stalling. Just say it."

"Tell me the last trick's name before you're first with Ben."

Brian cut off what Michael was about to answer with. "Honor system, Mikey."

That shut him up. Michael sat there, searching his brain rapidly. He could see the guy's face, practically feel his lips wrapped around the head of his dick, but Michael could not for the life of him remember his name.

"You can't, can you?"

"No but that's an entirely different story. I can't remember his name because that was two years ago. You can't admit that you love Justin to me because you've never admitted that you loved anyone. You haven't even told Justin once that you love him."

"Does indirectly count?"

"How can you indirectly tell someone that you love them?"

"There are many ways Mikey, you just wouldn't understand."

"Daniel," he said abruptly, a grin beginning to plaster across his face.

Brian furrowed his brow, already forgetting what their conversation had been about a minute ago prior. "What?"

"The trick's name was Daniel."

Recognition spread across Brian's façade. "Yes, you would be correct you little shit."

"How would you know?"

"He was an old client of mine until he sucked me off and then claimed that I had tricked him into doing it. At that time, he was in the proverbial closet but now he's flaming."

"I'm surprised you even remembered."

"Astonishment isn't something I deal with everyday. When I do experience it, I remember it."

"So are you actually going to propose to Justin at Babylon?"

"No."

"Really?"

"No."

"Fuck off, Bri. Which is it?"

Michael heard a small ring coming from Brian's pocket and watched as his friend pulled out his cell phone, smiling at the name on the screen. Brian stood up, his friend watching him curiously as he pulled out his wallet, leaving enough money for their drinks and a healthy tip.

"You'll just have to see. In the meantime, I have to go see a blond about a blowjob."