Chapter Text
All throughout her life, Marilyn Durant made sure people knew not to mess with her. With the people not worth the time, it was with the flick of a wrist to make sure their shoelaces tied themselves together as soon as they finished patting themselves on the back for mocking her. Sometimes with the more ignorant ones, she would just make a scathing remark, make them cower, and not resort to her otherworldly abilities. Once in a while with the people who really pissed her off, she would take time out of her day, loosen the leash on her magic a little more, and make sure their week was completely unbearable. Nothing too extreme but how many parking tickets, food stains, rude customers, and lost twenty dollar bills could one person take?
And then there were people like Brian Kinney.
The thing was, she knew Brian was instinctually good. She has to see his aura every time they both frequent Liberty Avenue. Despite his debaucherous sex life and devil may care attitude, she could tell how sensitive and loving the man secretly was. When she first saw him, she thought she was losing her touch when she saw the aura of a man who should have cartoon birds fixing his hair only to see him minutes later fuck seven men in the back room of Babylon and tear his friend, Theodore, a new one for being a “boring and lonely accountant.”
She didn’t understand Brian at first. He fascinated her though. So she had stolen a strand of his hair. He was quite offended when she plucked it out but it was easy enough to convince him it caught on her purse as she walked passed his seat. That piece of hair gave her the ability to look into his past more clearly and she could see how damaged he was. He had been abused, taken advantage of, and beaten down at such a young age. She knew he had buried his real self long ago and built up walls of arrogancy, anonymous sex, and wealth to keep himself from getting too hurt. She felt for him. So whenever he would make a skeptical and rude remark about her she would ignore it and let it slide. She knew that the Brian who currently lain dormant would not say or do the kind of things that he had been saying and doing for the last twenty years or so. Maybe one day he would see that.
Her feelings about not doing anything when it came to Brian Kinney changed when he fell in love with Justin Taylor.
Brian was so hot and cold with the boy. She had stayed out of the way when Brian kept dismissing Justin in the beginning. It was his business if he wanted to stay lonely by pushing away his most compatible soul mate. She hadn’t interfered when Justin briefly left him. Brian needed the wake-up call. That wake-up call apparently didn’t last too long though. Now that Brian was ignoring his partner’s needs by participating in some sex contest, it was only a matter of time before he lost Justin again. It was a pity. She had become a bit of a fan of the couple and she was far from the only one.
She could mind her own business and let them fall apart. It was probably the right thing to let them do things on their own.
Or she could get her spell books out and make things more interesting. She could solve this quickly by slipping Brian a truth serum that took away his walls for a while, but that could come later if need be. She could make the outcome of what she was about to do much more subtle but Brian Kinney needed to be put in his place once more and see what it was like to lose Justin before it happened for good. She was going to have fun with this and make it dramatic with a dash of ridiculous.
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“Mr. Taylor! Be a dear and come over here for a minute, will you?”
Justin glanced around and back at Mysterious Marilyn to give her a questioning look. She nodded her head and gestured for him to come over and sit next to her. Justin slowly walked over and complied.
“Um, hi. You wanted to see me?”
“Yes. How have you been, honey?”
“Okay, I guess. Listen, I don’t have any money for a reading-”
“I didn’t ask you over here for financial gain, even though I know you have thirty dollars in your pocket. I asked you over to offer to do one for free.”
Justin gave her a skeptical look and seemed hesitant. Marilyn sighed. Why does everything have to be about money?
“I mean, I don’t know-”
“I assure you, I’m quite accurate.”
“I know that. You’re too accurate. I don’t know if I want to hear what you have to say.”
Marilyn gleefully giggled. She loved it when her impeccable job performance made its way around Pittsburgh.
“Oh, don’t worry about hearing anything too awful. You are going to lead an incredible life, Justin Taylor. I can tell you that. Now, how about that free reading?”
That seemed to cheer Justin up a bit. He smiled at her and nodded his head.
“Okay. I don’t see the harm in just one reading.”
“It will only help you in the long run, be positive of that. Now give me your hands.”
Justin held out his hands and Marilyn placed hers on top of his. She rubbed the discrete powder against his palms and started to speak. She saw a little bit of his past. Oh boy, was he angry a few months ago. That explains why he shaved off his pretty hair. She received some X rated visions of him and Brian together. She saw a little of his future. It consisted of explosions, art, New York, heartache, and feeling like a part of him was missing. But she wasn’t going to tell him that. Not if she was going to try to change things.
“I see a man in your life. Someone who you really love.”
“Right, Brian.”
“Yes. But he’s dragging his feet, isn’t he? You want something more and the more you want it the more he pulls away.”
Justin blinks a few times and nods to confirm her statement.
“There’s another man. One whom you already know but never saw as a romantic prospect. But you will within 48 hours.”
“Wait, what? Who are you talking about?”
“You’ll see soon. No matter how little the pairing makes sense, you will feel like you have fallen fast and hard for him. You will barely even feel guilty about it. The infatuation you will feel for this man will be thorough to the T.”
“That’s all well and fine, but I don’t see how I will fall for someone else that I already know within 48 hours-”
“And I don’t see how you will remember this conversation as soon as I take my hands off of yours.”
Marilyn lifts her hands off of Justin’s. Justin looks confused as to how he got there and glances at Marilyn. Marilyn looks back at him and clears her throat.
“Would you like a reading? Five dollars for a palm reading, ten for the board or tarot, and twenty for the zodiac chart.”
“No thanks. I don’t have any money.”
“There’s thirty dollars in your pocket, dear.
Justin blushes, mumbles to her “Have a good night” and goes to the other side of the bar. It worked. She hasn’t done that for a while, but it felt good. She was always a little bit of a prankster and that particular spell appealed to that side of her. She is so glad she was able to get a hold of Ted Schmidt’s jacket at Babylon last night. She had needed something that he owned for the spell to work. Brian would be in such a state when Justin and Ted’s new romance became the talk of the town.