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How We Got Where We're Going

Allie

Disclaimer: All things QAF belong to CowLip. I take liberties but they own them, I don’t.
Characters: All Queer As Folk characters
Pairing: Brian and Justin
Warning: Entire Thing will be NC-17. Spoilers for like all Five Seasons.

XV - What HE Needs

"Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
~ A. A. Milne ~

June 14, 2019 3:23am

Brian's POV

I hear him gasp. My eyes snap open just as he bolts upright in bed. His breathing is fast and shallow. "Hey." I reach out for him but he jerks away from me. I knew better than to do that, but it's three in the morning and I forgot. I sit up in bed watching as he leans forward, pressing his head to his covered knees. The lights from the city shine on his bare back that is glistening with sweat. I reach behind me, pulling the headboard up as I lean back. I know all I can do is watch and wait.

He shakes his head back and forth. "Fuck, Brian." He laughs but it's unpleasant. "Fuck." His hands clasp behind his head as he presses himself down harder on his knees.

I feel powerless, but then again this has always made me feel powerless. It's been a long time. In fact, I can't even remember the last time he woke up in a cold sweat from a nightmare. It doesn't take much deduction on my part to know why he had one tonight. He's been under a lot of stress the last couple of days. This thing with Gus, Christ, it's affecting him more than either of us thought it would. He had that shit with Grady and his hand has been giving him problems. He told me he had an anger outburst when his hand cramped and it fucked up the painting he was working on at the time.

"I haven't felt that angry in a really long time,"
He told me.

I watch as he slowly uncurls himself and sits up straight. He takes a deep breath and finally turns to me. I raise an eyebrow and he shakes his head as he crawls over to me until he is lying as close as he can without being on top of me. He lays his head against my thigh and drapes his arm across my legs. My hand automatically starts stroking his hair. We lay like that for a while until he says, "I haven't had one of those in a long time."

I curl a lock of his hair around my finger. "Yeah."

He runs his hand over my thigh. "I don't even remember it. It was just this feeling, you know?" His hand stills on my leg. "It's like seeing Gus like that…it's like being back there and-" He takes a deep breath. "I'm projecting and I fucking hate that."

"It's just been a stressful week." I tell him.

He sits up and looks at me. "Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"You know what." He throws back the covers and moves to his side of the bed.

"I really don't." I can feel the anger coming off of him in waves.

"Don't make excuses for me." He stands up and pulls on a pair of sweats.

"Where are you going?" I ask him as he starts walking to the door.

"Kitchen," he throws out over his shoulder as he leaves the room, closing the door behind him.

I stare at the door trying to figure what the fuck just happened. I reach for a cigarette and light it. This shit is fucking with his head. Gus has only been here for four days and has had two panic attacks, both of which Justin witnessed. I'm not stupid. I know he sees and feels the same things I do. Gus told me the panic attack he had at the gallery was pretty bad, but that Justin was there. I know how Justin works. After eighteen years it would be impossible not to know almost everything he thinks, feels, wants, or needs. I know that when he saw Gus that day that he saw himself. I know he saw what I would see everyday when I came home from work. I know he felt those memories crawling under his skin, itching him from the inside out. Yes, he's projecting, but I don't see how he couldn't. It's so fucking similar except this time he's riding on my side of the fence.

The truth is that Justin's attacks, his nightmares, his overall experience was much worse. Yes, Gus is hurting and he's a mess, but it's only a sample of where Justin has been. I can see the similarities but I can feel the differences. Gus doesn't carry around inside him a cold rage. Gus carries around a deep fucking loss, a hurt so palpable that I can almost taste his loneliness. On the very basic level of things Gus isn't angry. He's fucking sad. Gus isn't going to start running around wearing pink and toting a fucking gun seeking revenge on the person who ran into him. At least he’d better fucking not. It's not like he can anyway, since that bastard is in prison for vehicular manslaughter.

I stub out my cigarette as I get out of bed. I reach for the pair of jeans I discarded earlier and pull them on. I know what he's doing. I know it like I know him. This is one of the reasons why I told him we should have a small studio for him at the loft. We have an extra bedroom for guests that we hardly use. When he gets like this, and it's usually only when he's stressed out, he gets restless. He could walk to his studio but I know he won't, not at this time of day.

I walk out of the bedroom and down the hall. I can smell the cleaning solution already. I enter the kitchen and find exactly what I expected. He's leaning over the sink blowing his hair out of his face as he scrubs it clean. The fucker is already clean.

"Justin." He doesn't even look up at me. I walk over to him grab him by the shoulder and turn him around. "Stop this." I move my hands over his shoulders and up his neck until I'm cupping his face. "Just stop."

He tries to pull back but I hold him in place. The wet rag in his hands drips water on the floor between us. "I feel…" He looks away from me. "It's…" He sighs and I pull him to me, feeling the cold rag on my back when he wraps his arms around my waist. "It seems so ridiculous doesn't it?"

I stroke his hair with my right hand. "It's not."

"It's not like I forgot. It's not like it's ever really gone." He pulls away from me and looks me in the eyes. "What if I can't do this, Brian?"

"Do what?"

"Help Gus. What if it just gets to be too fucking much?"

I take the rag from his hand and toss it in the sink. I take his left hand in mine, lacing our fingers together and lead him out of the kitchen and into the living room. I sit down on the couch, and in a move that's old but familiar he lays down with his head in my lap. I stroke his hair and try to think of what I can say to tell him how strong he is. That he can help Gus because he's been there, and that what he is feeling now is just residual effects from a time better forgotten. I want to tell him anything and everything I can to ease his worry, but like always the words get lodged in my throat.

He sighs. "I'm just overreacting." He wraps his arms around my legs. "I know that…it seems shitty to say but from what I've seen so far he has a milder case, as far as panic attacks go." He sits up and looks at me. "He's not angry." I watch him watching me. "You already knew that." It's not a question.

"He's scared and he's-

"Lonely." I nod. He moves closer to me and caresses my cheek. "He doesn't have what I had." I kiss the palm of his hand.

"No." I tell him. "But he has us."

I cup the back of his neck and pull his mouth to mine, sweeping my tongue over his bottom lip before sucking it into my mouth. As he straddles my lap I kiss him full on, pushing my tongue into his mouth. His arms drape over my shoulders as his hands weave into my hair. I kiss his cheek, his jaw, that spot behind his ear.

I move forward on the couch and cup his ass with both of my hands. "Wrap your legs around me," I tell him.

When he does I stand up. He laughs into my neck. "I can walk."

I head towards the bedroom, my hands gripping his ass. "I know you can." I lean him back against the wall and kiss him again, deeper, hungrier, because I want to be in him right now. Without taking my lips from him I walk into the bedroom, kicking the door closed behind us.

When I approach the bed he pulls his mouth from mine. "Don't you dare toss me on the bed," he mumbles into my neck. I laugh and toss him to the middle of the bed. He bounces a few times and starts laughing. "Asshole." Sometimes he's way too easy.

I crawl on the bed, over him, kissing my way up his body until my mouth is back on his. His hands grip my hair as his tongue pushes deeper into my mouth. I press my body down on his, my hands stroking his arms, his face, any part they can reach. We're in the middle of the kiss when I feel the change in him. His kiss gets softer, his hands stroke my back in a light caress, his body relaxes into the bed, and I know exactly what he wants.

I places kisses all over his face, changing my tempo to suit his rhythm. "Tell me." I whisper in his ear. If he wants it like this I want to hear it. I rest my forehead on his, our lips so close that every breath he exhales is the breath I inhale.

His hands cup my face and he pushes me back so he can look into my eyes. I wait. "I want it slow." He pecks me on the lips. "Make it last."

I nod and kiss him on the lips. My tongue glides into his mouth savoring the taste. I move my body off of his. Breaking our kiss, I move him onto his side, pressing my chest to his back and moving my right arm under his head. I reach for the lube and coat my cock with it. I toss the lube to the floor and use my left hand to position the head of my cock at his hole. I kiss his shoulder and neck as I guide myself in. He rolls his head back on my arm and I kiss him. I slide my hand up his leg, over his side, and around to his stomach. I press slowly into him. It's so fucking hot and smooth. It's everything.

"Brian." My name flows off his tongue in a whispered moan. I'm all the way inside him. I know what he wants. I hold myself still inside him as I run my hand up his side and down his arm until my fingers weave between his and curl into his palm. When his fingers squeeze down on mine, I begin to move my hips. My strokes are long, deep, slow, and smooth. I kiss is neck, his shoulder, tasting every part of him my lips can reach. I breathe in his scent that is a mixture of everything he is and the part of me that he carries around with him.

I give him what he needs right now. He's feeling too emotional. It flows through his body with every beat of his heart. When he leans his head back I taste the salt of his tears. I move, kiss, and caress him in every way I know he likes. My body caresses him saying, "I'm here. It's okay. I understand." Each stroke saying, "I love you. I love you. I love you." I soak up every single ounce of love he has for me and return it to him tenfold.

Afterward, I stay inside him because I know he's not ready to break the connection. I hold him close to me, planting soft lazy kisses on his neck. I feel him relax against me as his breathing gets deeper. I press my lips to his ear and whisper to him, "You can do it Justin." He doesn't ask what I'm talking about because he knows. He can help Gus, we both can, and we both will.

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