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Brian wasn't sure how Justin had talked him into going Christmas Tree shopping, but he had. He didn't know why Justin insisted on a real tree though. He knew it was going to be horrible on his allergies until they got rid of the tree. Justin had just said he'd take his pills and that they needed a real tree. This was going to be their first year married and he wanted to start their own traditions. It was also going to be a Christmas that they got to have Gus there the entire time.
It was the only thing that Gus had put on his Christmas list to Santa. He wanted two weeks with his daddy or nothing at all. It had taken since the beginning of November for the girls to agree to it. They kept saying the weekend only and Gus had to leave Christmas day. The little boy hadn't budged on his wish once. Brian wasn't even sure what had been finally done to get Gus there with Justin and him, but his son was.
Gus was at the moment running a little in front of them looking at all the Christmas Trees. Brian kept an eye on him not wanting him to get too far ahead. He had his arm around Justin's waist holding him close while they walked. It was actually nice doing this as a family. He knew that in a few years they'd probably have another child with them. Justin had been hinting at having their own child and he wasn't opposed to the idea at all. It would be nice to have their child that might have his husband's beautiful blue eyes and smile.
"Daddy, Dada, this is the tree." Gus said stopping beside one looking back at them.
He had a smile on his face pointing at a six foot tree. Britin had more space for a taller one, but the little boy thought it was just the right size for their home. He had pleaded and begged to be here with his dads. He had even threatened a hunger strike because he didn't want to be away from his daddy or dada for Christmas. He hated where his mommies had moved them. It was horrible and he still hadn't made any friends.
His mommies had kept saying he would, but he kept being ignored at school and at home. His sister always seemed to have his mommies attention. He loved J.R., but he also wanted to be noticed too. His dads never ignored him, they loved him so much and he never doubted that with them. He'd tried running away, but hadn't known how to get here. It had been the thing that had finally broken his mommies on keeping him from his daddies for Christmas.
"You want this tree huh, well I think you made the perfect choice, Sonny boy." Brian said lifting Gus up in his arms.
"Yes, daddy. It just the right size for the three of us." Gus said. "What you think dada?" Gus asked looking at Justin wanting his opinion.
"It's perfect like you are." Justin said with a smile. "Let me go and find someone so we can take it home." He added. "The ordainments we made should be dry by then and we can decorate it."
They had spent the night before after Gus had gotten there making homemade ordainments. They had also gone and bought some at the store. Brian and he had let Gus pick the decorations that he wanted. Gus had been so happy when they hadn't objected to what he'd chosen. Justin knew why Gus had wanted to come here for Christmas. He hadn't had the heart to tell Brian though because it would have only caused trouble. He knew that Brian hated that Gus was so far away from them now.
When Gus had called him after he'd gotten lost trying to run away he'd lost it with Lindsay and Melanie. He'd made it clear that Gus was coming there for Christmas because it was obvious their son was going to try it on his own if he didn't see them. The girls hadn't even been home when Gus had ran away. He'd been with a sitter because they'd gone to some Christmas party with their new friends.
He had gone and gotten Gus with Daphne when Brian had to spend two days up to his eyes in meeting after meeting. He'd came back with Gus and told Brian he was staying until he had to go back to school. Brian hadn't asked yet, but he was sure that he would eventually. He'd been expecting only two and half days with Gus now he had almost two weeks with him. He had also let the mothers know things had to change. Gus had told him all the way back to West Virginia about how it had been since they'd moved. It had been months and moving to Canada defiantly didn't seem to be their answer to it all. It defiantly wasn't the answer to a heart broken five year old.
"I get to put the decorations on not just watch?" Gus asked biting his lower lip. "The whole tree not just one side?" It was usually one or two ordainments he got to put on so he didn't mess up the tree.
"Of course you get to decorate the whole tree. We'll just be your assistants to lift you up wherever you can't reach." Brian said. He knew Lindsay loved the tree to be perfect, but he didn't care what their tree looked like as long as Gus was happy. "You can make it where only decorated on one side where it might even fall over if you like." He grinned.
Gus smiled so bright hugging his daddy. "Thank you, dada we wait here for you. Please tell them to hurry we want spent lots of time decorating the tree." He said
"Okay, I'll be right back." Justin said giving Gus a smile before he took the tag from the tree so no one else could get it even if Brian was guarding it. He didn't think Gus would let anyone have it either.
~BJ JB BJ JB~
The tree had been bought and loaded onto the top of Justin's SUV that he'd gotten when they had moved to West Virginia. Brian had insisted that he'd need a vehicle since they were no longer in walking distance of places. It also helped when having to take his canvases back and forth to the gallery. He still had days he couldn't believe that he owned his own gallery, but he did. A lot had changed since he had married Brian and it was all for the better. He wasn't going to regret a thing about his decision to forgo New York.
Once they had gotten home they'd set everything up before bringing the tree into the house. The ordainments had been dried so they had gone to work on putting them on the tree. As promised Justin and Brian stood back letting Gus do all the decorating. They lifted him up so he could reach every part of the tree. The tree was so colorful too with ordainments from every color of the rainbow. There were even some rainbow ones that Justin had helped Gus paint on some plain white ordainments.
Brian had been in on the painting the ordainments the night before too. They'd had the kitchen table covered in a drop cloth so it wouldn't get stained. They'd even made some cloth ordainments for the tree too. Justin and Brian had done the cutting out of the patterns, but Gus had drawn them. He was a pretty good artist in the making, which Brian had no doubt about. He knew his son was bright and could do anything he set his mind to. He was sure that was how Gus had gotten here to start with instead of the short time that had been planned out.
Christmas music was going in the background as they let Gus work deciding on which level each ordainment went on the tree. They had put the tree in the middle of the living room moving the couch and coffee table off to the side for Christmas. Gus had been worried about Santa being burned if he came down the chimney with a fire going. They had convinced him that Santa would be okay.
~BJ JB BJ JB~
"We are out of ordainments." Gus declared looking a little sad, but the tree was so covered with them it looked like it would fall over at any moment.
"That's okay, we still have the tree topper to put on." Justin said handing it to Gus before lifting him up once more. "Go ahead and put it on."
Gus slipped the rainbow he'd made the night before onto the top of the tree. He hadn't wanted to put anything typical on the Christmas Tree as a topper. He wanted something that represented them. The tree was already a rainbow of colors so it seemed only right to have one at the top of it. It was four different ones put together with their ends coming together in a point at the top. At the bottom it was opened up so it fit right down over the tree's top snuggly.
"I think you did an excellent job with your creation." Brian said taking a picture of the finished work.
He'd taken others while Gus had been decorating, Justin had too. They'd wanted plenty of pictures even if they weren't going to forget this any time soon. Gus hadn't stopped smiling once while they'd been decorating. They had also taken a couple of breaks to dance to the music. He'd seen Gus snap a couple of pictures when Justin and he had been slow dancing to one of the songs. A few of them they'd had Gus between them dancing too just having fun. It was so far becoming his favorite Christmas, which he'd never really liked celebrating in the past.
"Thanks daddy, I can say it's my tree." Gus beamed proudly.
"Yes it is because you picked it out for us and decorated the whole thing." Justin said. "Why don't you go pick a movie out while we put the boxes up. We won't object to anything you pick out."
~BJ JB BJ JB~
Gus squealed in delight before he took off out of the room to find the movie he wanted. He was so excited to once again be able to pick what got to be done. Brian hadn't been blind to what Justin had been doing since he got there. When Gus left the room he started picking up the empty boxes with Justin figuring how to bring it up. He didn't want to spoil the good mood, but there was something going on for sure. The last time he'd talked to Gus on the phone he'd heard how sad his son was. He heard it every time they talked even after almost a year of him being gone; Gus wasn't happy it seemed.
"I'm happy that he's here with us, but I know that Lindsay and Mel didn't just decide over night to let Gus spend that much time here. So you going to tell me what happened?" Brian asked.
Justin made sure he didn't hear Gus coming back yet before setting the box he had down. He wasn't sure if it was the best time to tell, but he couldn't keep it from Brian. His husband was one of the most important people in his life. He knew how much he loved Gus and him both. He'd seen how Brian was with Gus and there was no doubt he'd do anything to make him happy. He just wasn't sure what could be done besides what he had done to fix everything.
"Gus is here because I got a phone call from him two days ago. He had packed up his bear you gave him, a few clothes, a little bit of food, and left home. He didn't know how to get here though and got lost. The girls were at some Christmas party with their new friends. The kids left with some teenage sitter who didn't watch the kids at all. Gus was thought to be in his bed, but of course he wasn't." Justin said with a sigh seeing the anger on Brian's face starting to form.
He didn't stop talking though or let Brian interrupt. He told him everything that Gus had told him about school, home, and how miserable he was. That information included the fact that his mothers were once again bickering. It seemed that every two years the moms had huge blow outs since he'd met them. It was going on six years and he should have known they wouldn't have fixed everything by leaving Pittsburg. Gus being the oldest of their kids understood their fights more too.
"Look, you can't say anything with Gus around. He begged me not to say anything that would make you upset. He's already feeling like he's not wanted at times. He knows that you love him, it's why he was trying to get here. We don't let him down the way he is feeling and he has been. I told them that they had better fix whatever problems they were having. I laid them out while Gus was with Daphne. I took her with me because I needed someone to make sure Gus was safe while I laid it out. Gus didn't tell me the rest until we were on the way back. I of course called them back letting them know they had until New Years to fix things. If not I'd find a way to make their lives hell until they made it up to Gus for the way they made him feel." Justin finished trying to keep his voice low in case Gus was coming back.
"Thank you for protecting our son." Brian said hugging Justin. He wanted to say so much more, but he knew Justin was right. He couldn't let Gus see how upset he was right now. He'd think it would be because of him. "Let's finish here and anything Gus wants to do we can do. I don't care if he wants to watch cartoons til we die. I'll watch every single one of them with the two of you." He said holding onto Justin before he pulled back kissing him. "I love you for loving him so much." he added.
"Of course I love him, just like I love his dad who's got the biggest heart in the world." Justin said with a smile. "We may need to pick the tree up several times before Christmas is over, but it is beautiful." He added looking back at Gus' creation.
"That is true." Brian said back.
~BJ JB BJ JB~
They spent the rest of the day letting Gus picked what they did. They watched a couple of cartoons, ate mac and cheese for lunch before going outside for a while to play. They also had to pick the tree up once or twice. Gus had been worried at first, but they'd just picked it up before lifting him up to put the ordainments that had fallen off back on. Gus hadn't worried after that knowing he wasn't going to get fussed at for something he couldn't help.
At the end of the night they had let Gus pick out a stack of books they had there reading them to him. They'd taken turns until they'd read all eight of the books. Gus had been surprised they'd read them all, but he'd been happy too. It had been a while since he'd gotten so much attention. They had even let him sit up until he'd gotten sleepy before making him go to bed. He had of course been out like a light when they had tucked him in the bed. He couldn't wait until Christmas morning that was soon. He had gotten what he wished for so badly and if he got nothing else he still wouldn't care.
His daddies had told him that he'd picked out the best tree for them. They'd said he did a great job on everything he had done. They'd even made some cookies and decorated them with food paint. It had been so much fun to do and when he'd accidently gotten stuff on his clothes he had watched his daddy spear some on his own shirt. Dada had done the same not wanting him to feel left out. He'd laughed because his daddies had also speared some on each other and his cheeks too.
~BJ JB BJ JB~
Justin slipped under the covers putting his arm across Brian's stomach letting his head rest on his chest. He knew they still needed to talk more, but didn't really want to. Instead he had come up with another idea of what they could do. He had thought about it while Brian had been cleaning up the kitchen. Gus hadn't asked for a thing besides being with them for Christmas. The little boy wasn't expecting anything else either, which he informed Brian of.
"I thought of that too, Sunshine. I think tomorrow we should get your mom to watch him while we go pick out a few other things." Brian said moving his hand over Justin's back.
"Brian, you do realize that even if he thought he wasn't getting anything or wanted anything, we didn't do that?" Justin asked. "He's going to have so many gifts to open Christmas morning he won't know what to do."
"I know, but I still want to get him something else." Brian smiled knowing what Gus had been asking for the most, before it had been him. "We'd have to take care of it, but Gus did ask for a puppy for his birthday and was turned down."
Justin laughed knowing that they would defiantly be taking care of it. However, he loved the idea of doing that for Gus. "Okay, now we better get some sleep so we got plenty of energy tomorrow. A little boy and a puppy will be even harder to keep up with." He said before Brian started tickling him.
"I'll get you for that, twat." Brian smiled before kissing Justin. Even if they were married he still loved teasing Justin with his other nickname for him. Justin was far from that now, but it didn't matter.
Their laughter turned into moans as they moved together loving the others touch before falling asleep as close as they could get the way Justin enjoyed; still joined together.
~THE END~