Brian's Birthday (Day 31)

Hunter's POV

I had gotten Brian to come to the studio by telling him that there was an emergency. I had only managed to get him there 15 minutes before the guests were supposed to arrive. I hoped that Brian would get with the program quickly.

"I thought Justin stopped renting this place."

"Well, you know how he likes to hang onto old things," I responded sarcastically.

Brian just glared at me.

When we walked in, Brian was shocked to find Justin standing about a foot in front of him, wearing a pale turquoise cashmere sweater and snug white jeans that perfectly accentuated his ass and cock.

Brian stared at Justin as though he were a ghost for several long minutes. Justin finally broke the silence.

He said in a soft voice, "Happy Birthday, Brian."

"I don't understand. How are you here?"

Justin hesitated, looking down for a moment before meeting Brian's eyes once more. In a near whisper, he replied, "I never left."

"What the fuck, Justin? I…Fuck!"

Brian turned away.

"Brian, wait, please. I know you're confused and angry, and you have every right to be. But please, just hear me out. Please."

Two minutes passed in silence. Then, he turned back around and said, with a blank expression and an emotionless tone, "I'm listening."

His entire body was closed off.

Justin blinked away tears and began in a shaky voice, "I know that you've always tried to do and make me do what's best for me, but you aren't always right. You love me, and you don't want things to be hard for me, but, sometimes, you just need to leave well enough alone and let me make my own way. Like with the Pink Posse."

Daphne and I, standing together behind Justin, saw Brian's mask slip and a look of pain pass over Brian's face before he managed to get control of his feelings.

Deb, Carl, Emmett, Ted, Ben, Michael, Justin's mom, her boyfriend, and Molly walked in, but both Brian and Justin were oblivious to everything but each other.

Justin swallowed hard and continued, "You had to let me make my own choices, my own mistakes. I had to work through the residual issues I had from the bashing alone. Well, I'm telling you now that this is another time when I have to make my own way. I can't listen to other people who think they know what I need, what's best for me. Going to New York might be the 'smart' choice, but so was Ethan, and that was a huge mistake, the biggest mistake I had made up to that point. I can become famous working in the Pitts. It might take longer, but it can be done. What I can't lose, what I need the most…"

Brian's eyes met Justin's.

"…is you, us. You are my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When I realized that, again, I just couldn't leave. But I couldn't convince you with words, so I came here. To do this."

Justin handed a flyer to Brian.

"I have an agent in New York, one with a great reputation, and I have already been asked to do a show. It's only a three-artist show at a small gallery in New York, but it's a beginning. And, as always, it began with us."

Brian looked doubtful. "What do you mean?"

"Look at the pieces under my name. These are paintings I made while I was here the first week. They are about us. I showed the gallery owner paintings I did before I left the loft. Interesting but soulless pieces I painted after we called off the wedding. I was so concerned with technique; I tried so hard to create something impressive, but she wasn't impressed at all because I had already started dying inside. She wanted these two and another two I painted my first week here. They are all about us. Our first time, the prom, the emptiness of being apart, the emptiness I feel and the emptiness I saw in your eyes in a recent picture Hunter gave me, and you, my eternal muse. She took one look and perceived the love and the longing, the passion, and she wanted them in the show straightaway, no doubts at all in her mind. How can I put anything real in my work, no matter what the subject, if I'm separated from you, my heart."

Deb, Justin's mom, Emmett, and Daphne were all crying softly. I blinked a few times to keep my eyes dry.

"Everything worthwhile I've ever done began with us. I think if you look back, you would say the same. Even Gus. He was born the day we met, and I named him. Together, we can do anything. Apart, we aren't even whole."

Justin took a deep breath and continued, "That actually brings me to another question."

Brian looked at him in confusion.

"When you said that I was all you wanted at the bachelor party and when you wanted to cuddle, I freaked out."

Brian scoffed, "Understatement of the century."

Justin laughed. But in a voice laden with emotion, one that continually threatened to break, he said, "I had wanted to be all you needed and desired for so long, but, eventually, I gave up hoping. Then, when it happened, I was afraid to trust it. I had forgotten three important rules from the Brian Kinney Handbook."

"Didn't you write that book?" Brian asked with amusement in his eyes.

"Yeah. I did. One, Brian Kinney never does anything he doesn't want to do, two, Brian Kinney never does anything halfway, and, three, Brian Kinney is capable of amazing changes, and, at those times, he becomes someone almost entirely new. You did it right before my prom, during Stockwell's campaign, and, again, when you asked me to marry you. You gave me everything I ever asked for (except one, but I imagine that will only be a matter of time), and I threw it all away because I was scared to trust it. I don't ever want to make that mistake again. I want to wake up beside you every morning. I want what I've wanted since the day I met you, to be in your life and for you to be in mine. Every day and in every way possible."

Justin got down on one knee in front of Brian (at this point, everyone gasped), pulled a ring out of his pocket, took Brian's left hand, and slipped it on.

Brian stared at the ring for a moment and, then, looked at Justin intensely. He asked, "What's this?"

This time, try as he might, Justin couldn't keep his voice from breaking. "It's an engagement ring. It means that I love you. I've loved you since the day we met, and I always will. You're my heart."

Looking up at Brian shyly and trembling slightly, though his voice was even, he asked, "Brian Kinney, would you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?"

Everyone was holding their breath. Even me.

Brian lifted Justin to his feet, kissed him passionately, and, then, after a long pause, whispered in his ear, loudly enough for all to hear, "Yes. There is nothing I would like more than to marry you, Justin Taylor."

Brian's eyes glistened with unshed tears.

Then all hell broke loose. Emmett and Daphne started squealing, Deb and Justin's mom were crying, and Michael, Ben, Ted, and Justin's mom's boyfriend were patting Brian and Justin on the back congratulating them, while Brian and Justin were desperately trying to extricate themselves from the crowd, so they could go fuck.