Half drunk, this was not something that Brian wanted to deal with. Especially not after Mikey stormed out in another one of his melodramatic huffs. He was such a woman. And, like a woman, it would all be forgotten tomorrow.

Not so with Justin.

He pulled himself together as best he could and stumbled into the bedroom where Justin was sitting quietly in the dark. “Mind if I join you?” he said, not waiting for a response to sit next to him. “You okay?”

“No,” Justin said, tears glistening in his eyes as he looked up to Brian. Brian winced. Those tears. He put his arms around Justin and let him cry onto his shoulder for a bit, stroking his hair and kissing his neck softly.

“You’d better not be getting snot all over my shirt,” he said softly, and Justin chuckled a little.

“Damn allergies,” he said weakly. Brian smiled and ruffled his hair. Beautiful.

“You wanna talk about it?” Brian asked, getting up to toss his dampened shirt into the laundry basket. Dizzied a little after getting up, he decided to take his pants off too. It just might be close to bedtime.

“I don’t really know what else there is to say,” Justin said. “He got to me. Again.”

Feeling that this was probably not the best time to mention that he’d warned him, Brian instead crawled onto the bed and under the blanket. Justin just stared at him. “Take your coat off, stay awhile.” Brian said, resting his head back onto the pillow. Justin took off his socks and jeans and climbed in next to Brian. He wrapped his arm around the boy’s shoulders, and he settled in comfortably. “He only gets to you because you let him.”

“That’s easy for you to say, he didn’t bash you,” Justin started, then bit it back. Brian resisted the urge to get angry. Justin knew very well how much it had hurt him, how much it still hurt him. He’d seen him cry. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.”

“It’s okay, you’re upset. I understand. You want me to go rip his head off? I’d be more than happy to do that for you.”

Justin kissed his chest. “No, thanks, but I’ll keep you posted. I just wish it would go away.”

“Justin, it may not ever go away. You have to find a way to get past it. You’re better than him,” Brian said, kissing his forehead. “Don’t let him do this to you. Come to Pride.”

“I don’t want to.”

Brian smirked to himself. Just like a child. “So do it for me, I wouldn’t feel right having all that fun while you sat here alone.”

Justin didn’t say a word.

“I’ll take that as a maybe.” Brian said, and then he noticed Justin snoring softly on his chest. He kissed his forehead again, inhaling deeply of his agonizingly sweet scent. He smiled, this time taking away the tears instead of causing them. That’s something to be proud of. Then he wrapped the other arm around him and rested his face next to Justin’s. “You better not drool on me unless you mean it,” he whispered, then drifted off to sleep himself.

And the next day, at Woody’s, Brian couldn’t let him go. He tried, but he couldn’t. And the smile on Justin’s face, the smile that spread despite himself on his own, made it worth it.

He didn’t realize he’d conceded until it was too late.

And when he did, he didn’t care.

end