Michael furrowed his brows at Brian knowing exactly what that smile meant.

"We will talk about this later!" Michael said while fuming.

"Talk about what?" Emmett asked.

"Nothing," Michael said.

"No, he 's right. You said we'll talk about this later. What's this?" Ted asked.

"Nothing," Michael said again more angrily.

"Oh, so you'll talk about nothing later? Can't you talk about nothing now, here in front of Emmett and me?" Ted asked.

"Ted!" Michael screeched.

Brian chuckled. "He meant, Einstein, as in it's none of your business," Brian said in Ted's ear.

"Fine, but if it's nothing," Ted continued.

Brian and Michael rolled their eyes. "So we need to go do that thing," Michael said, directing his statement at Brian.

"The thing," Brian said.

"Yeah that thing," Michael stressed, not wanting to alert the guys to where he and Brian would be going. "So hurry up and eat your breakfast so we can go do that thing."

"What thing is that?" Brian asked.

Ted and Emmett watched back and forth as the conversation went from one to the other.

"The thing, Brian. The thing!!" Michael screeched.

"Oooh, could Teddy and I go do the thing too?" Emmett asked.

"No, only me and Brian," Michael said.

Justin walked over at that moment. "What's going on?" he asked as he put his pencil behind his ear.

"Brian and Michael are going to do some...thing," Ted said while waving his hand in the air.

Justin raised an eyebrow. "You're doing a thing with Michael," he asked.

"It's not that kind of thing," Brian smiled back at Justin.

"And he won't let us go with them to do the thing," Emmett pouted.

Justin shook his head, "do you really want to do this thing with them Emmett?"

"No, I just don't want to be left out," Emmett said. "I never get to do anything."

"You and I can go do some thing later, okay?" Ted said to Emmett.

"Yay!" Emmett said with glee while clapping his hands.

Debbie walked over at that moment. "What are you guys going to do?"

"Things," all four said.

And then it hit Brian like that ton of proverbial bricks.

All the things that had changed since Justin wasn't in his life, the things he was seeing now in the past few hours since his life changed for the worse; it all made sense.

Their little extended family, for as much as they cared and loved each other needed something more. It needed that extra little push in the right direction. Someone to come along and call them on their shit.

Justin was the shot in the arm to their little world, the world they had become entirely too cozy in.

And without him, this, all this was the horrific result.