Lazy Sunday
by elfin
 
 

"Honey!" Emmett threw his arms around Michael in a tight hug. "Welcome home."

Michael smiled as he returned the embrace, a little confused. They’d been apart about twelve hours.

He could smell the distinct aroma of roasting meat coming from the small apartment and it made him happy to be coming back to live here.

Emmett released him and stepped back, sweeping his arm in an inviting gesture, letting his friend step inside. Brian didn’t move from where he too was standing in the doorway. He handed Emmett the two expensive bottles of white wine he’d bought. "Do I get a hug?"

Emmett took the bottles, eyebrows rising in appreciation, and tipped his head to one side, moving his gaze from the labels to his old friend. Then his face cracked into a smile once again. "Of course you do, Babe."

With some difficulty, Emmett wrapped his arms around Brian’s neck, trying to stop the two bottles from crashing against one another. Brian’s arms went around his waist and for a moment they stood, holding one another close.

"Are you okay, Honey?" Emmett spoke quietly for only Brian to hear. He felt the other nod his head. Something was changing. The dynamic between them, the balance, had altered dramatically over the last few days and was still altering. Emmett was happy to be along for the ride.
 
 

"I didn’t know you could cook," Brian told Emmett as he reached over and speared another roasted potato.

"He can’t," Ted put in smoothly.

Brian glanced over, and his face split into a smile as he looked back at the other man. "You said…."

"I never actually said that I’d cooked," Emmett defended himself immediately.

Michael listened happily to the banter. He’d missed this. He’d felt out of it while he’d been living at David’s. He’d lost sight of this for a while. Living with his boyfriend had been what they’d all – except Brian – told him would be perfect for him. They’d been wrong.

They were collecting up the dirty plates when Brian’s phone rang. He dug his cell out of his jacket, where he’d thrown it over the arm of the couch, and smiled when a glance at the screen told him who was calling.

"Hey, you."

"Bri." There was a tease in Vince’s voice that immediately had an effect on Brian’s body. He wandered into what was once and would again be Mikey’s room.

"Missed me already?"
"Always. What time do you finish work tomorrow?"

Brian never ceased to be surprised by his long-distance lover. He adored that. "Whenever. I haven’t been in for a week so they’ll go easy on me for a couple of days."

"Do they know?"

"Just that I’ve been in the hospital. Why do you want to know?"

"My plane lands at… sixteen forty… twenty to five tomorrow afternoon, your time."

Brian wasn’t sure he’d heard right. "Vince… you are kidding?"

There was a pause. "You don’t want to see me."

"Vince…." Brian let the idea become reality in his mind. "Shit, Vince, get your ass over here." He took a deep breath. "Four forty, I’ll be at the airport. How long do I have you for?"

"That’s under debate." That was fine with Brian.
 
 

He walked back into the other room, not bothering to adjust himself. Michael looked up from the table. "Vince?"

Brian nodded. "He’s coming over tomorrow."
Emmett and Ted looked at Michael in a way that Brian found touching and comical at once. Michael’s reaction was to roll his eyes at his friends and smile at Brian. "He’s serious?"
Brian nodded, regarding Michael as if he was the only person in the room. Brian had one look that he hid from the rest of the world - his guilty look. Michael had seen it after Justin had sucked Brian off in Michael’s room. He was seeing it again now.

Getting up, Michael took his best friend by the arm and led him back into the bedroom, closing the door and leaning back against it. He didn’t speak, he simply waited. Brian dropped down on to the bed, head bowed. "I want him to come over," he murmured. "I didn’t think I would, but I do."

"It’s okay, Brian."

The other man’s head snapped up. "Mikey… Vince is… different… from the others."

Michael tipped his head to one side, watching his best friend in the whole world as he pulled himself apart over a guy he’d never even met. He’d always thought there would be a time to say everything he’d kept bottled up within him for sixteen years. Now he had finally arrived at that moment in time, he realized he didn’t have to say it all because Brian already knew.

Pushing away from the door, Michael sat down on the bed next to Brian, one leg folded under him, the other foot on the floor. "Remember when we were sixteen, Mom let us have that party at our house? Remember I found you in the bathroom and that guy… Matthew Berkwitz, was giving you a blow job on the can?" Brian nodded, a small smile touching his lips. "I watched you, loving every minute of it. Not cos of what he was doing to you and not cos you had your cock out. Because of the pleasure on your face, that glazed look in your eyes. I watched your orgasm – I love watching you climax, have I ever told you that?"

Brian shook his head, eyes locked on Michael’s face, captured by his friend’s words. Michael lowered the volume of his voice. "I love to see you happy. I’m holding out the hope that one day I’ll make you happy…."

Brian’s expression fell. "You do…."

Michael reached for him, loosely putting his arms around Brian’s neck, bringing their foreheads to rest against one another. "You know what I mean."

"I know what you mean. Things have changed."

Michael lifted his head for a moment and dropped a kiss into Brian’s hair. "Things have changed since you were raped," he murmured gently. "That’s understandable. But you need to sort yourself out, decide if you want to go back to fucking a different guy every night," there was no judgement in his tone, "or if you want to try being with the same guy." A slow smile made its way across Michael’s face. "Of course, you’d have to start slowly. Start with one guy for, say, three nights, then a different guy for four nights, another guy for five nights," he giggled as Brian’s fingers poked his ribs. "work your way up."

The tickling became more definite and Michael pulled away, grabbing at Brian’s hands while trying to catch his breath between laughing and shouting at Brian to stop.

They ended up lying back width-ways over the bed, their legs dangling over the side. Brian had gathered Michael in his arms, holding him close into his side.

"You didn’t leave Dave for me." It was perhaps the first time Brian had honestly realized it.

"I told you that. I left him for myself." Michael closed his eyes. "There are things to be said for boyfriends and things definitely NOT to be said for boyfriends." Brian chuckled, laying his head on top of Michael’s. "The sex is great. Getting to know what he likes, letting him know what you like, practising that on one another. I’ll miss that, I don’t know if I can go back to fucking behind Babylon again…." There was only slight distaste in his voice. "But I want to go out when I want to, see who I want to, see you without worrying about how David’ll react."

"You’re all grown up, Mikey." There was pride in Brian’s voice.

"I wouldn’t go that far."

They lay together in silence for a few minutes. A knock made them both look up. "Come in, Em," Michael called. The door opened and Emmett put his head around the frame. He smiled when he saw them. It seemed like years since he’d caught them not doing anything and still looking guilty for it.

"We have pudding…." Emmett grinned, and bringing his hand into the room, he threw a plump strawberry at Brian’s chest. Brian caught it before it hit the front of his white shirt.

"Hey!"

Emmett wiggled his eyebrows. "Come and get it."
 
 

Ted and Michael washed the dishes. Emmett and Brian supervised until they tired of getting covered in soapsuds. They settled onto the couch, beside one another, wine glasses hanging from their fingers, almost mirroring one another.

"You hate me don’t you? For Michael and David splitting up." Brian stared at the white liquid in his glass.

Emmett turned his head to look at him. "No. I did. I thought he’d ended it because you’d promised him something he could never have: you. But that’s not why he did it."

"I’ve never promised him anything."

Emmett snorted. "I know. Maybe that’s what I always blamed you for."

Brian frowned. "For not promising what I could never give him?"

"He always wanted it so much. Wanted you so much. Seeing you two recently…. It’s nice. It’s good, for you both."

Sipping his wine, Brian smiled wryly. "Are you actually saying I’m good for him?" he murmured softly.

Emmett smiled, leaning against Brian’s arm. "You know, you do have the capacity to love, despite the fact you think you don’t. You love Michael and Gus, Deb and Vic, Lindz and Melanie and Ted…."

"You."

Emmett grinned. "I was getting around to me." He glanced up, and saw Brian give that rare, genuine smile that sometimes escaped during unguarded moments. He suddenly knew what Michael found so precious about that smile.

Emmett made himself more comfortable, turning so that he was lying lengthways across the sofa, feet up on the arm, shifting down until his head was resting against Brian’s shoulder. He was counting the seconds before Brian pushed him away, so he was shocked when Brian’s arm appeared over his shoulder and wrapped around his upper body, fingers spreading over his collarbone.

"I know you all think I’m using you. Bastard Brian gets a cock forced up his ass and suddenly he’s everyone’s best friend."

Second shock of the minute. Emmett moved his head, one side to the other. "We don’t think that." Carefully, he moved one hand up to cover Brian’s. "You need us right now. We’re your friends, whatever’s happening. We’ll still be your friends when you’re back cruising Liberty Avenue."

Emmett felt that arm tighten around him for a moment and he closed his eyes. He could feel Brian breathing, and he was amazed at how comfortable he felt there. He’d wondered, in the past, how Brian hooked so many men, why he was never, ever turned down.

He remembered one guy in particular, ‘Hotlanta’, who Brian picked up in Woody’s. They’d left the club together, looking for all the world like a couple. Emmett had watched them, and for the first time he’d actually found Brian attractive, seen him for a second through the eyes of one of his lovers. For a moment back then, someone had managed to melt the ice and reveal the warmth hidden away in Brian’s heart.

"How do you manage to look like an angel and the devil at once?"

Brian actually laughed at that. "I don’t. I just look like me, act like me. Other people add their own interpretations."

"Umm… very deep."

"It’s true. Other people try to force their ideas upon us." He dropped his voice to a murmur. "You were just as guilty, with Mikey and David." Just words, no accusation. "He couldn’t be what Dave wanted him to be, just as he couldn’t be what you and Ted were asking him to be. We were all pushing them together."

"You weren’t!"

"What do you think his birthday was all about? After that, I was as guilty as everyone else."

"You two look SO sweet!" Without opening his eyes, Emmett swatted his hand out and caught Ted’s arm. "Ow!"

When he did look up, he saw Ted and Michael leaning over the back of the couch. "Finished already?" he asked them sweetly.

"No, we left the rest for you two."

Emmett was never sure whether Michael was teasing or not. But he made no effort to move. "So… what to do for the rest of this gorgeous Sunday afternoon…."

*

Michael reached over Brian’s legs and dug his hand into the bucket, grabbing a fistful of popcorn. "It’s been years since we’ve done this!" he said happily.

Brian took a single kernel and placed it in the centre of his palm. Aiming carefully, he flicked it across Emmett at Ted. "Tell me again why we’re seeing ‘Charlie’s Angels’?"

Michael rolled his eyes. "For starters, Emmett didn’t want to see ‘Hannibal’, and secondly, you claimed it was the gayest film ever made."

Brian grinned suddenly. "It is! Just wait!"

The lights dimmed, and in unison, the four of them put their legs up over the backs of the seats in front. Brian reached over and picked up Michael’s hand. He held it throughout the film.

Even when Emmett put a couple of the little unpopped popcorn kernels down the back of his shirt.

Brian motioned to Michael to hold the mega-cup of Diet Coke. Michael watched, attention momentarily captured by Brian sliding the end of the straw along with his thumb between his lips. He sucked up some of the coke and jammed his thumb over the end of the straw. Then, making sure Emmett’s attention was on the gorgeous bad guy currently striping on screen, Brian put the end of the straw against his friend’s neck and removed his thumb.

They were glad the rest of the cinema was empty.

Emmett cried out as the ice-cold liquid dripped down over his neck into the collar of his brightly coloured shirt. He glared at Brian.

"Do that again, and I’ll put those ice-cubes down your pants."
Brian’s eyes flashed. Leaning over he licked his lips close to Emmett’s ear. "Dare you."

Emmett raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

An hour later, the film still rolling, Brian was actually watching the movie. He’d become so engrossed in the hammy acting and unbelievable plot that he hadn’t noticed Ted slip out of the theatre and return a few minutes later with a fresh Coke. Brian was holding onto Michael’s left against Michael’s thigh while Michael’s right hand rested on Brian’s own thigh. He’d moved it there slowly over the last hour and Brian thought he was making a move and had ignored it as much as he could.

Again, Emmett and Michael exchanged glances. And a smile.

A second later, Michael had Brian’s fly undone and Emmett had pushed two large cubes of ice into Brian’s underwear.

Brian sat forward, biting back on his yell of protest. He fished the cubes out before they melted against his semi-erect cock. His little Mikey was starting to learn cunning. The touch that had been arousing him from for the best part of the film had been part of a set-up!

Taking one cube in each hand, Brian stuffed them down Michael’s and Emmett’s shirts before they could stop him.

Zipping up, Brian made himself comfortable again and settled back to watch the end of the movie, keeping to himself his giggles at his friends’ efforts to find the ice in their clothing.

* * *

fin part six
elfin

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