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Brian settled Gus in the middle of the bed, tucked a teddy bear under his left arm, then smoothed a hand over Gus' shower-damp hair. He glanced out to the kitchen and saw that Justin was still working at the counter, drawing with sure, smooth movements. Brian pulled the covers up over Gus' body and kissed his forehead.

"Sleep tight, Sonny Boy. Justin and I will come to bed a little later."

Gus grabbed his hand, frowning. "What about my story?"

"Your story?"

"My bedtime story. Mommy always reads me a bedtime story."

Brian blinked at his son for a moment, then grabbed Gus' bag out of the closet and searched it for a children's book. Surely, Lindsay would have included one--but, no. He ran a hand through his hair and tried to think of something appropriate to read to the child.

He knelt by the bedside table hoping that there might be a good old fashioned comic in there somewhere. Instead, he pulled out a few obviously inappropriate issues of Rage, and several of Justin's books--which were more foreplay than literature. Brian didn't think that the latest book of stories by Chris Kent would be quite appropriate for his son.

"Sonny Boy? I don't have any stories for you."

Gus shrugged and rolled his eyes, something he'd just started doing, and which Lindsay claimed he'd picked up from Brian. "Make one up, Daddy."

Brian laughed and sat down on the bed. "You don't really need one, do you, Gus? You're a big boy--"

"Make one up, Daddy." Gus' voice was all seriousness, and strangely like Justin's when he was demanding his way.

Brian sighed, leaned back and gathered Gus in the crook of his arm. He thought hard, running his fingers through Gus' hair, watching Justin drawing at the kitchen counter. Justin's shadow slid over the walls when he got up to refill his glass of water, and Brian smiled at the way his cute little ass settled on the stool again before he picked the pencil up again.

Gus shifted restlessly against him then poked his thigh. "Make up the story, Daddy. Make it a good story."

"Okay, a good story, huh?"



Once upon a time, umm, about four years ago, I guess, there was a handsome young prince named, uhh, James Dean. Yeah. And Prince James liked to fuh--um, enjoyed spending time with other handsome young men, though he didn't really like any of them enough to spend more than a few hours with them.

"Was he lonely?" Gus asked.

"What? Well, I--" Brian glanced at Justin, his blond head bent over his work. "Well, just between you and me, Gus. I think he was, but he didn't know it. He thought he was perfectly happy."

But one night he was out looking for a guy to spend time with and he wasn't having any luck. He'd let some guy at the masquerade ball he was attending suck his--um, his lollipop, but that hadn't even been fun.

"I don't like to share my lollipops either!" Gus stated adamantly.

Brian stifled a laugh and patted his son's head. "Are you going to let me tell the story, or what?"

Gus settled against Brian more tightly, turning his big eyes expectantly toward Brian's face.

So, after dancing and sharing his lollipop with a few guys, Prince James still wasn't having a great night and he had decided to get his faithful servant, Astroboy, to take him home because he was too tired to drive himself. That's when it happened, Gus. Prince James walked out to his Jeep, dragging poor Astroboy along behind him, and that's when he saw him. The prettiest boy in the world. And Prince James knew that he had to have him--uh, as a friend, to talk to late at night, when, uh, things were boring, or maybe to show him how to play games that only princes play.

Gus nodded his head as though he understood perfectly.

So, leaving Astroboy by the Jeep, Prince James approached the beautiful blond boy and asked him, "Had a busy night?" And the boy said that he had been very busy. The boy said that he'd been to many different parties that night and that he liked leather. This surprised Prince James, but he found it intriguing.

Prince James could tell the boy thought that he was hot, uh--nice looking and pretty, too. And he figured that if the boy was only given the chance to witness his juggling abilities, then he'd be willing to maybe be a very special friend to him, or at least entertain him for the evening.

So Prince James told the boy that he had a lot of cool games to play at his palace and that the boy could come with him.

"Playstation or Xbox?" Gus asked.

"Um, Playstation?"

"A Prince should have an Xbox, Daddy."

"Oh, well, an Xbox, then."

Gus nodded, and patted his leg. "This is good so far, Daddy. Go on."

So, the boy came back to the palace and they played some games. The boy was very impressed with the size of Prince James' Xbox and the next morning told Prince James that he wanted to play with it again. Sadly, because Prince James was so much older than the boy, he thought that the boy shouldn't come play anymore and should stick with kids his own age.

"What was the boy's name?"

"Oh, uh," Brian looked toward Justin, who was putting his glass and dish away in the dishwasher, and would probably be coming to see what was taking Brian so long to put Gus to bed if he didn't hurry up. "I think his name was J.T."

"Like Justin's comic."

"You've been reading Justin's comic?"

Gus snorted in a way that Brian recognized as classic Kinney. "No, Mommy says only grown up boys can read it. But when I grow up I'm gonna read it every single day!"

Brian nodded, solemnly.

"I want Justin to make a comic just for me!"

"Did you ask him?" Brian asked certain that any request his son made of Justin would be delivered.

"Yes!" Gus clapped his hands together. "He said he'd ask Michael! Isn't that cool, Daddy?"

"That's cool, Gus. Justin and Michael are cool."

Gus nodded and poked at his leg again. "Go on. More story. And make it good, Daddy."

So, the boy, J.T. didn't care what Prince James thought and started following him everywhere. In this day and age, Sonny Boy, that's called stalking and it's illegal, so don't do it, okay? But in the land where this story is set, it was just an annoyance to Prince James and he told J.T. to go away and leave him alone, but J.T. would have none of it.

Finally, one night, J.T. showed up at one of the Prince's balls, wearing nothing but glitter and a hot pair of pants. He started dancing with Prince's new friends, trying to lure them away from Prince James--

"That's mean. Jake at school stole my best friend Ron and I hate him!"

"Don't worry, Sonny Boy, Prince James can take care of himself."

J.T. wasn't trying to steal his friends, really. He was just trying to show Prince James that he could be just as fun to play with as those other guys, if not more so. So, Prince James realized that he would rather play with J.T. than the new friends anyway, because J.T. was really ballsy, um, that means brave. And Prince James really liked brave boys. All boys should strive to be brave, Gus. Keep that in mind.

So, after that J.T. and Prince James Dean continued to hang out and play with the Xbox and also other games that were really fun. They became very good friends and Prince James' devoted servant, Astroboy, was not at all pleased with the arrangement. He resented J.T.'s new place in Prince James' life until he got a new boyfriend, named Body Building Ben.

Justin was standing on the top step, listening with his arms crossed over his chest and an amused smirk on his face. "J.T.? Astroboy? Body Building Ben? Gee--who's this story about, I wonder?"

Brian ignored him.

Prince James Dean and J.T. were pretty good friends at that point and that's when J.T. asked him to come back to his village and go to a big dance that they were going to have that weekend. It seemed like a bad idea to Prince James, so he said no at first, but the more he thought about it, and the more he thought about how beautiful J.T.'s smile would be if he actually went, he figured what the hell, and decided to go.

So, he went to the big party and they danced together in front of everyone in J.T.'s village. But it turns out that there was this one boy, a very mean boy, who was in love with J.T. and was jealous of him dancing with James, so he came after J.T. with a big baseball bat, and when Prince James wasn't looking, the mean boy bashed J.T.'s head in.

Gus gasped. "Wow! What happened, Daddy? Did J.T. die?"

"No, J.T. didn't die."

"Well, he kind of did, really," Justin said quietly from where he perched on the side of the bed. "The part of him that was a little boy died and then he became a man."

J.T. was in the hospital for a long time and when he got out, Prince James had resolved that he would be a better friend to J.T. because he felt bad for not preventing him from being hurt. But J.T.'s family said that Prince James was the reason that J.T. had been injured, and so they wouldn't let him see his friend. That made him very sad, and he missed his friend very much.

But then, one day, J.T. showed up and said, "I don't care what my parents say. We're going to live together and be friends forever and play with your giant Xbox all the time." And Prince James was so relieved to have his friend back that he agreed that J.T. could live with him.

"Was it happily ever after then? Did they play Xbox forever and invite Astroboy and Body Building Ben over for contests, Daddy?"

"Sadly, no, Gus. It just got even messier from there--"

Justin snorted and stretched out across the bottom of the bed where he could watch and listen.

One day Astroboy told Prince James that he'd seen J.T. playing Xbox with another guy, some fiddler that he'd apparently become besotted with. Prince James decided not to say anything, because even though he and J.T. had agreed to only play one time with other people's Xboxes, it didn't really matter to him if J.T. wasn't keeping his promise, because he just wanted J.T. to stay and be his friend.

But J.T. cared that Prince James Dean didn't care, and so he went off to live with the fiddler in this tiny shack on the edge of the woods where wolves howled every night looking for food. In fact, one time, J.T. was almost eaten alive by the wolves. They'd climbed in through the windows and thought he looked like a tasty treat.

"Wait, what are you talking about? What wolves?" Justin asked.

Brian rolled his eyes and continued with his story.

The wolves were named Poverty, Idiocy, Romanticism and Faithlessness. One day, though, rumor has it that the wolves came and ate the fiddler instead, leaving poor J.T. without a friend at all. So he came crawling back on his hands and knees to Prince James Dean, begging him to take him back because he missed playing with his Xbox so very much.

Justin snorted and rolled his eyes. "Right. That's exactly how it happened."

Gus blinked at Justin before saying, "Daddy knows, Justin. You should listen to Daddy."

"Yeah, Sunshine, you should listen to me. I know."

You would think, Sonny Boy, that Sunshine, um, I mean J.T. would have learned his lesson about playing with other people's Xboxes, but no. He decided to play with this idiot named Coyote for awhile who was fuh--, um, really crazy and played with guns--

"I never played with Cody's Xbox!" Justin exclaimed.

"Shh!" Gus said.

And then he played with this movie star's Xbox when he went out to L.A. to make a movie based on the really genius comic book that he'd made with Astroboy. It was a comic based on Prince James Dean, so of course it was a raging success.

But, after awhile, he realized that the best Xbox in the whole universe belonged to Prince James and he trotted his hot little ass, uh, his cute little butt home to the Prince and they lived, well, I wouldn't say happily ever after, because J.T. is a huge drama queen and likes to throw fits, but pretty close to happily ever after, I guess.

"I do not throw fits. You're the drama queen in this house."

"It's not about you Justin!" Gus exclaimed. "Mommy says it's just a story. It's not real.'"

"Okay, Gus." Justin agreed. "Your mom is right. Still, I just want to set the record straight. I never played with Cody's Xbox...well, not more than once."

Brian rolled his eyes and pronounced solemnly,

 

"THE END"