Fic: Unleashed part 3
THREE
It seemed Stockwell hadn’t harassed anyone on Liberty Avenue for well over a week, unheard of. He was up to something, Brian was sure of it, and so were the club owners.
“There’s no way he’s given up, the bastard is up to something,” Martin said, and Brian had to agree. He didn’t like this silence, not at all.
“He’s not contacted me about his anti-bullying campaign either.” No, his assistant had been the one to turn up to that particular meeting and Brian knew Stockwell liked to attend his own meetings with Vanguard, thought it would give him a better image to be so closely involved.
“So, we just have to wait until he strikes? Until someone else ends up dead, or hurt?” The manager of the only all-dyke club on Liberty sighed angrily, pushing her coffee away in disgust.
“I don’t see what we can do, we have no evidence.”
“Do you think that dead kid? The dumpster hustler, is anything to do with this?”
Brian hadn’t thought of that. His mind flashed back to the grey skinned, blue eyed, blond haired boy and he gave an inwards shudder. “It’s one way to clean up the neighbourhood, that’s for sure.”
“So, more people are gonna have to die before we nail that son of a bitch?”
“Well, we can all go and talk to the police if that will make you feel better, I mean, Jim Stockwell probably has them all on his payroll, and if not, he’s still one of their own, have you forgotten what he used to be before he was Mayor?” Brian wished these idiots would use their brains to actually thing. “If we’re going to go to the papers, we need evidence, concrete evidence.” Brian pushed himself up from the chair. “Fuck it, I’m out of here, we’ll meet again when someone has actually got something to say.”
Brian walked out, trying not to think of the blond, wishing he could go to Babylon and disappear into the back room and pretend none of this was happening. Instead, he walked out of the crowded office and down the stairs to the bar, ordered a shot and then another.
He was pleasantly drunk when he stumbled out of the club, but seeing a vision of long blond hair blowing in the wind, petite body leaning against a lamppost, arms crossed over his chest, sobered him up.
He blinked a few times, making sure it wasn’t just a drunken vision, then let anger boil from the pit of his stomach upwards. He stalked over and took hold of the boy’s arm.
“What the fuck, are you doing out here, alone?”
“I lost Mikey somewhere.”
“You shouldn’t be alone out here, it’s dangerous.”
“I can look after myself.”
“You can’t do shit, no offence, but you don’t know the rules.”
“Tell them to me then, I’m very good at rules.”
Justin’s eyes became dull, maybe Brian was just like Uncle Jim, he wanted to talk rules, boundaries, punishments, the collar. He felt it brush against his neck, but refused to touch it.
Justin saw everything in terms of the collar, it was how he’d lived most of his life, it was the only life he remembered.
“No lingering on Liberty Avenue alone, always tell someone where you are, we should get you a cell phone…fuck…I’ll probably be having this conversation in sixteen years time with Gus.”
“You’re not going to-make me do things for you?” Justin frowned and felt bad at the look of shock that fell over Brian’s face.
“Fuck, Justin. What the hell has happened to you, to make you think I’m going to abuse you in some way?”
“It’s not abuse.”
“You’re seriously fucked up.” Child-like, and that was why it was so wrong for Brian to want him so badly. “If people hurt you, make you do things you don’t want to do, it’s abuse.”
“Like Chris,” Justin suddenly understood.
“Who is Chris?” He ran his hand through his hair, resisting the temptation to pull and scream.
“Who put his hands down my pants.” Justin bit his lip, he didn’t like thinking about that, it made him feel weird inside.
“Yes, if you didn’t want that, it was wrong.”
Everything was so confusing. “Do people want it?”
“ Most people do, yeah, it’s called sex, and it’s meant to be pleasurable.”
Justin snorted. “I know what sex is.” Uncle Jim had had it enough times.
“Jesus, you’re making my head hurt worse than any hangover could.”
“Do you want it-with me?” He cocked his head and waited expectantly.
It took Brian a while to answer, he went for the truth, he refused to lie to the kid. “I’m not going to lie, you’re desirable, and yes, I would like to, if you wanted to as well, it’s not something I’m going to force on you, and to be honest, you’re so fucking naïve right now, it’d feel like I was abusing some little kid.”
“I’m not a kid, I’m seventeen.”
“A seventeen year old that doesn’t seem to know how to live in the real world.”
Justin clenched his fists and pushed past Brian, turning back, eyes blazing. “Fuck you, Brian.” He hadn’t been allowed to be part of the real world, only see it from the outside. That wasn’t his fault.
Brian jogged after him, taking hold of his arm to stop him running away. Justin spun around to face him. “I’m trying really hard to keep the reasons I should kiss you to the forefront of my mind. I don’t want to be like-" he thought of the name, Justin had given him earlier, “Chris.”
“You aren’t like him, I didn’t like it when he touched me, when he kissed me. I might like it if you kiss me though.” Justin couldn’t believe he’d said that, but for the first time since he’d met Brian he realised he would like the other man’s lips on his.
“Are you even gay?” Brian wasn’t sure Justin was capable of making decisions like this one, though he didn’t know when a simple kiss had become so important to him.
“What’s gay? I like who I like.” It wasn’t about the sex of a person, but how they made him feel, and for the first time in his life Justin felt alive, and he wasn’t hurting anybody, he was just being ordinary.
Brian stepped closer to Justin, his mind screaming at the wrongness, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He cupped Justin’s shoulders gently and leaned down, his lips touching the blond’s gently before deepening slowly.
His hands moved around Justin’s back, tangling with long hair, he’d always hated men with long hair before, it reminded him of fucking a woman, but this was different.
Justin was still for a while, remembering the feeling of Brian’s lips against his own, so strange, but nice, something he hadn’t felt before, and it was good, not horrible like Chris’s strange touch, and he didn’t feel dirty when his cock hardened, just shocked.
When Justin started to move his lips against Brian’s, he took it as a sign to deepen the kiss, trailed his tongue along smooth lips until he gained entrance. Justin tasted exquisite, so sweet and untainted, Brian pulled back, gasping, knowing if he didn’t move he would want more than just their lips to touch.
“Brian! What the hell are you doing?” Mikey ran over to them. “You can have any trick you want, don’t start messing with him.”
“He wasn’t messing with me, Mikey.”
Mikey gave Justin a small smile. “I’ve known Brian a long time, believe me, you don’t want to be messed with by him. Please, Brian, don’t hurt him, Ma would have your balls on a stick.”
“I’m not a baby Mikey, you doing need to look after me.”
Mikey snorted, “And then Lindz and Ma would have my balls on a stick.”
“You promised to teach me to dance, Mikey,” Justin said, distracting him, “Are you coming, Brian?”
“Fuck yeah, Mikey can’t dance for shit, no way is he teaching you.”
Justin couldn’t sleep that night. His mind kept returning to Brian’s kiss, followed shortly by their dance. He sat crossed legged on his bed, flicking through the books Lindsey had left him.
He tried to copy a picture in the book, but his mind wasn’t on it, for once he knew what he wanted to draw, could picture every pencil mark in his head.
He turned to a clean page, and hesitant at first he put pencil to paper, drawing a rough outline of Brian’s face, trying to recreate it from memory.
He worked long into the night, until the light filtered through his curtains and he could barely keep his eyes open, then he snuggled down beneath his covers, in the small, second hand bed that used to belong to Michael, and slept, happy for the first time he could remember.
He woke a couple of hours later to Vic’s knocking on his door. He stumbled out of bed, rubbed his eyes and opened the door. “We have an emergency.” Justin’s whole body stiffened. “Sis is down a busboy at work, she phoned to ask if you could fill in.”
“I’m not sure, I’ve never done it before.”
“All you need to do is collect empty plates, clean tables, fill coffee, easy. You’ll get paid.”
“OK, I’ll do it, it sounds like fun.”
Justin took a quick shower and tied his hair up into a ponytail, leaving the ends tucked in, and out of the way.
He entered the diner with butterflies in his stomach. It was a heaving mass of people and he could barely make his way to the counter. Debbie spotted him and practically pushed customers out of the way to get to him. She hugged him tightly and kissed him loudly on the cheek.
“Sunshine! You’re a lifesaver, is what you are. Come out back, I’ll go through the work with you. Can you believe Bobbie just didn’t turn up for his shift? Kids these days. Anyways, here’s your apron. You just get the tables cleared for now.”
Justin tied the white apron around his waist and made his way to the first table, leaning over and taking the empty plates. He received a lot of attention as he worked, every fag practically drooling over the blue eyed blond.
He tensed when an arm threaded around his waist and turned him around, but relaxed soon again when he realised it was Brian. “What are you doing working in this dump?”
“Deb asked me.”
“And a star he is too, you should see the fucking tips he got!” Deb said as she walked past, plates piled neatly up her forearms.
“It’s fun.”
Brian rolled his eyes and sat on a free barstool. “Only you could think that.”
“I can’t stand around talking, there are empty plates over there.”
Just as he went to reach for the empty plate he felt a hand on his ass. He froze, and felt the fingers squeeze. Slowly he looked down to the owner of the hand, and placed the plates back on the table.
He stepped away and grabbed the wrist when it reached for him again. “No one touches me unless I want them too.” His eyes were like ice chips as he glared at the stranger, remembering what Brian had said to him.
“I’m sure you want it, baby.”
He went to move out of Justin’s grasp, but found he couldn’t, he frowned and Justin tightened his grip, to just the wrong side of painful. “No, I don’t want it.” He let go and the man’s arm sprung back like elastic, he laughed, tried to shrug it off in front of his friends.
“Fine, whatever.”
Justin picked the plate up and took it out back. Brian was waiting for him when he re-entered. He sipped his coffee casually, “You did good there,” he said between sips.
“I don’t want anyone touching me like that.” Brian tried to hide his disappointment. “Except maybe you.”
Brian leant down and kissed him quickly. “Good to know, sunshine, see you around.”
Debbie rounded the corner just as Brian left, she smiled at Justin and fanned herself. “Well, thank fuck the rush is over. You did good kiddo. So, how do you fancy a regular job here? Earn some extra cash.”
“I could buy paints.”
“Yeah, you sure could,” she lay her hand on his arm. “Do you go to school?”
“I’ve never been to school. My uncle taught me.”
“Home tutoring, nothing wrong with that, I suppose. Well, you got a job here as long as you want it.”
It seemed Stockwell hadn’t harassed anyone on Liberty Avenue for well over a week, unheard of. He was up to something, Brian was sure of it, and so were the club owners.
“There’s no way he’s given up, the bastard is up to something,” Martin said, and Brian had to agree. He didn’t like this silence, not at all.
“He’s not contacted me about his anti-bullying campaign either.” No, his assistant had been the one to turn up to that particular meeting and Brian knew Stockwell liked to attend his own meetings with Vanguard, thought it would give him a better image to be so closely involved.
“So, we just have to wait until he strikes? Until someone else ends up dead, or hurt?” The manager of the only all-dyke club on Liberty sighed angrily, pushing her coffee away in disgust.
“I don’t see what we can do, we have no evidence.”
“Do you think that dead kid? The dumpster hustler, is anything to do with this?”
Brian hadn’t thought of that. His mind flashed back to the grey skinned, blue eyed, blond haired boy and he gave an inwards shudder. “It’s one way to clean up the neighbourhood, that’s for sure.”
“So, more people are gonna have to die before we nail that son of a bitch?”
“Well, we can all go and talk to the police if that will make you feel better, I mean, Jim Stockwell probably has them all on his payroll, and if not, he’s still one of their own, have you forgotten what he used to be before he was Mayor?” Brian wished these idiots would use their brains to actually thing. “If we’re going to go to the papers, we need evidence, concrete evidence.” Brian pushed himself up from the chair. “Fuck it, I’m out of here, we’ll meet again when someone has actually got something to say.”
Brian walked out, trying not to think of the blond, wishing he could go to Babylon and disappear into the back room and pretend none of this was happening. Instead, he walked out of the crowded office and down the stairs to the bar, ordered a shot and then another.
He was pleasantly drunk when he stumbled out of the club, but seeing a vision of long blond hair blowing in the wind, petite body leaning against a lamppost, arms crossed over his chest, sobered him up.
He blinked a few times, making sure it wasn’t just a drunken vision, then let anger boil from the pit of his stomach upwards. He stalked over and took hold of the boy’s arm.
“What the fuck, are you doing out here, alone?”
“I lost Mikey somewhere.”
“You shouldn’t be alone out here, it’s dangerous.”
“I can look after myself.”
“You can’t do shit, no offence, but you don’t know the rules.”
“Tell them to me then, I’m very good at rules.”
Justin’s eyes became dull, maybe Brian was just like Uncle Jim, he wanted to talk rules, boundaries, punishments, the collar. He felt it brush against his neck, but refused to touch it.
Justin saw everything in terms of the collar, it was how he’d lived most of his life, it was the only life he remembered.
“No lingering on Liberty Avenue alone, always tell someone where you are, we should get you a cell phone…fuck…I’ll probably be having this conversation in sixteen years time with Gus.”
“You’re not going to-make me do things for you?” Justin frowned and felt bad at the look of shock that fell over Brian’s face.
“Fuck, Justin. What the hell has happened to you, to make you think I’m going to abuse you in some way?”
“It’s not abuse.”
“You’re seriously fucked up.” Child-like, and that was why it was so wrong for Brian to want him so badly. “If people hurt you, make you do things you don’t want to do, it’s abuse.”
“Like Chris,” Justin suddenly understood.
“Who is Chris?” He ran his hand through his hair, resisting the temptation to pull and scream.
“Who put his hands down my pants.” Justin bit his lip, he didn’t like thinking about that, it made him feel weird inside.
“Yes, if you didn’t want that, it was wrong.”
Everything was so confusing. “Do people want it?”
“ Most people do, yeah, it’s called sex, and it’s meant to be pleasurable.”
Justin snorted. “I know what sex is.” Uncle Jim had had it enough times.
“Jesus, you’re making my head hurt worse than any hangover could.”
“Do you want it-with me?” He cocked his head and waited expectantly.
It took Brian a while to answer, he went for the truth, he refused to lie to the kid. “I’m not going to lie, you’re desirable, and yes, I would like to, if you wanted to as well, it’s not something I’m going to force on you, and to be honest, you’re so fucking naïve right now, it’d feel like I was abusing some little kid.”
“I’m not a kid, I’m seventeen.”
“A seventeen year old that doesn’t seem to know how to live in the real world.”
Justin clenched his fists and pushed past Brian, turning back, eyes blazing. “Fuck you, Brian.” He hadn’t been allowed to be part of the real world, only see it from the outside. That wasn’t his fault.
Brian jogged after him, taking hold of his arm to stop him running away. Justin spun around to face him. “I’m trying really hard to keep the reasons I should kiss you to the forefront of my mind. I don’t want to be like-" he thought of the name, Justin had given him earlier, “Chris.”
“You aren’t like him, I didn’t like it when he touched me, when he kissed me. I might like it if you kiss me though.” Justin couldn’t believe he’d said that, but for the first time since he’d met Brian he realised he would like the other man’s lips on his.
“Are you even gay?” Brian wasn’t sure Justin was capable of making decisions like this one, though he didn’t know when a simple kiss had become so important to him.
“What’s gay? I like who I like.” It wasn’t about the sex of a person, but how they made him feel, and for the first time in his life Justin felt alive, and he wasn’t hurting anybody, he was just being ordinary.
Brian stepped closer to Justin, his mind screaming at the wrongness, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He cupped Justin’s shoulders gently and leaned down, his lips touching the blond’s gently before deepening slowly.
His hands moved around Justin’s back, tangling with long hair, he’d always hated men with long hair before, it reminded him of fucking a woman, but this was different.
Justin was still for a while, remembering the feeling of Brian’s lips against his own, so strange, but nice, something he hadn’t felt before, and it was good, not horrible like Chris’s strange touch, and he didn’t feel dirty when his cock hardened, just shocked.
When Justin started to move his lips against Brian’s, he took it as a sign to deepen the kiss, trailed his tongue along smooth lips until he gained entrance. Justin tasted exquisite, so sweet and untainted, Brian pulled back, gasping, knowing if he didn’t move he would want more than just their lips to touch.
“Brian! What the hell are you doing?” Mikey ran over to them. “You can have any trick you want, don’t start messing with him.”
“He wasn’t messing with me, Mikey.”
Mikey gave Justin a small smile. “I’ve known Brian a long time, believe me, you don’t want to be messed with by him. Please, Brian, don’t hurt him, Ma would have your balls on a stick.”
“I’m not a baby Mikey, you doing need to look after me.”
Mikey snorted, “And then Lindz and Ma would have my balls on a stick.”
“You promised to teach me to dance, Mikey,” Justin said, distracting him, “Are you coming, Brian?”
“Fuck yeah, Mikey can’t dance for shit, no way is he teaching you.”
Justin couldn’t sleep that night. His mind kept returning to Brian’s kiss, followed shortly by their dance. He sat crossed legged on his bed, flicking through the books Lindsey had left him.
He tried to copy a picture in the book, but his mind wasn’t on it, for once he knew what he wanted to draw, could picture every pencil mark in his head.
He turned to a clean page, and hesitant at first he put pencil to paper, drawing a rough outline of Brian’s face, trying to recreate it from memory.
He worked long into the night, until the light filtered through his curtains and he could barely keep his eyes open, then he snuggled down beneath his covers, in the small, second hand bed that used to belong to Michael, and slept, happy for the first time he could remember.
He woke a couple of hours later to Vic’s knocking on his door. He stumbled out of bed, rubbed his eyes and opened the door. “We have an emergency.” Justin’s whole body stiffened. “Sis is down a busboy at work, she phoned to ask if you could fill in.”
“I’m not sure, I’ve never done it before.”
“All you need to do is collect empty plates, clean tables, fill coffee, easy. You’ll get paid.”
“OK, I’ll do it, it sounds like fun.”
Justin took a quick shower and tied his hair up into a ponytail, leaving the ends tucked in, and out of the way.
He entered the diner with butterflies in his stomach. It was a heaving mass of people and he could barely make his way to the counter. Debbie spotted him and practically pushed customers out of the way to get to him. She hugged him tightly and kissed him loudly on the cheek.
“Sunshine! You’re a lifesaver, is what you are. Come out back, I’ll go through the work with you. Can you believe Bobbie just didn’t turn up for his shift? Kids these days. Anyways, here’s your apron. You just get the tables cleared for now.”
Justin tied the white apron around his waist and made his way to the first table, leaning over and taking the empty plates. He received a lot of attention as he worked, every fag practically drooling over the blue eyed blond.
He tensed when an arm threaded around his waist and turned him around, but relaxed soon again when he realised it was Brian. “What are you doing working in this dump?”
“Deb asked me.”
“And a star he is too, you should see the fucking tips he got!” Deb said as she walked past, plates piled neatly up her forearms.
“It’s fun.”
Brian rolled his eyes and sat on a free barstool. “Only you could think that.”
“I can’t stand around talking, there are empty plates over there.”
Just as he went to reach for the empty plate he felt a hand on his ass. He froze, and felt the fingers squeeze. Slowly he looked down to the owner of the hand, and placed the plates back on the table.
He stepped away and grabbed the wrist when it reached for him again. “No one touches me unless I want them too.” His eyes were like ice chips as he glared at the stranger, remembering what Brian had said to him.
“I’m sure you want it, baby.”
He went to move out of Justin’s grasp, but found he couldn’t, he frowned and Justin tightened his grip, to just the wrong side of painful. “No, I don’t want it.” He let go and the man’s arm sprung back like elastic, he laughed, tried to shrug it off in front of his friends.
“Fine, whatever.”
Justin picked the plate up and took it out back. Brian was waiting for him when he re-entered. He sipped his coffee casually, “You did good there,” he said between sips.
“I don’t want anyone touching me like that.” Brian tried to hide his disappointment. “Except maybe you.”
Brian leant down and kissed him quickly. “Good to know, sunshine, see you around.”
Debbie rounded the corner just as Brian left, she smiled at Justin and fanned herself. “Well, thank fuck the rush is over. You did good kiddo. So, how do you fancy a regular job here? Earn some extra cash.”
“I could buy paints.”
“Yeah, you sure could,” she lay her hand on his arm. “Do you go to school?”
“I’ve never been to school. My uncle taught me.”
“Home tutoring, nothing wrong with that, I suppose. Well, you got a job here as long as you want it.”