Written for the QAF Gift Exchange 2015 forenika_benika

Gift Request: Fic. Could be AU or post-513, fluff, hurt-comfort, or kid-fic. I really love a good AU story! And some post 513 ones. It can be really anything with my favorite boys Brian and Justin. I don't mind some angst if there will be a very happy end. Just, please, don't kill anyone! ;)

Other Specifications: Ethan never happened. It'll be good if the boys will be in character. They can meet anyway you like!

Beta: Xrifree

A/N: I went with a completely AU setting, and tried to include a touch of angst, since you mentioned it. Hope this is close to what you had in mind! Have a wonderful Christmas, and all the very, very best for 2016!

The title is taken from the A-ha track of the same name.


Disclaimer:

Based on the show 'Queer as Folk' by Showtime. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is made from this work.


Justin had never been stood up before. He felt embarrassed, uncomfortable and supremely annoyed. This experience also meant that he would never look at romantic comedies in the same way again. Ugh. He was just going to order dinner and plough through the evening, and let the waiters laugh at him in the kitchen.

As Justin was wondering about his options, he sensed the presence of someone, and briefly, his hopes surged up, thinking that his date had finally turned up.

It wasn't his date. Instead, it was a much taller, much better looking man. Justin looked him up and down. Much better looking than the idiot violinist that he was supposed to have dinner with. Justin would have wagered that the man was gay. He wasn't obvious, but Justin would have bet good money.

"You've been stood up, haven't you?"

Unfortunately, this good-looker wasn't his date, and he was also being annoying.

Justin scowled. "And that is your business how, exactly?"

"You're sitting at the only available table."

Justin rolled his eyes. "It's not 'available' if I'm occupying it, is it? Besides, there's a free table right over there." He was not wrong; Justin could see an empty table.

"Look, the entire restaurant can see that you've been stood up; you've been sitting there for the last thirty minutes, looking at your watch, your phone, the door, and your glass of wine. I have a client coming here in ten minutes, and because you won't leave, I'm stuck with that table," the man pointed to the empty table, "next to the kitchen entrance. Not a place I want to entertain a client. So…since you're not being wined and dined, could you please leave? Move? I'll pay for your dinner." He added as an afterthought.

The arrogance of the man was almost amusing.

"So you've watched me for thirty minutes, and you couldn't wheedle a better table out of the manager?"

The man scoffed. "I was late. The management doesn't want to offend you, which is why I'm here telling you what they're too chicken shit to say."

"I'm tired, annoyed, humiliated and hungry. I – "

"Brian, good to see you!" Justin looked on blankly as a portly man, with a woman who seemed to be his wife walked over to their – no, his – table, and proceeded to shake the man's hand. "Honey, I told you there was no need to worry, and that Brian would bring someone as well. This is my wife, Elizabeth."

'Brian' shook her hand, clearly at a loss, and trying to figure his way out of the misunderstanding.

Justin smiled brightly. Maybe the evening could be salvaged.

"Very lovely to meet you Elizabeth. I'm Justin." He shook her hand, and then that of the gentleman. "Brian, darling, sit down. I already ordered myself some wine – I got here quite early."

Brian, did indeed, sit down. He returned Justin's beaming smile with a more restrained one, but Justin could see the amusement in the man's eyes.

And that's how Justin Taylor met Brian Kinney.


"That must be nice, both of you working in advertising."

So far, the meal had gone very well, and they had not faced any obstacles. While Brian and Robert talked of moving Robert's advertising business to Brian's agency, Justin had mostly kept Elizabeth entertained, which was quite easy. He had wanted to join Brian's conversation with some comments of his own, but knew better than to do that. It was one thing to hijack the man's dinner plans, but it would not do to ruin his business plans, even if any faux pas would be an accident. He could play the trophy partner.

Justin smiled sweetly. "I actually don't work in advertising per se. I'm working - interning - at a production company. The vast majority of the work we do is for ad agencies, though."

Robert pressed on. "But you studied advertising?"

"I did a double major in business and art from Dartmouth."

Elizabeth beamed. "So you're both creative people. That's nice. It's hard to make those types of connections in your personal life."

Justin and Brian had identical smiles.

"Indeed." Brian commented. "Some more wine, Elizabeth? Robert?"

"Dartmouth is in…Connecticut? New Hampshire?"

"New Hampshire."

"And are you from the East Coast? I know Brian has mentioned that he's from Pittsburgh. What about you, Justin?"

It was a good thing that he wasn't drinking anything, because Justin might have choked on it, in his surprise. Brian was also from Pittsburgh?

"Actually, I'm from Pittsburgh as well. That's how Brian and I met," he added coyly, smiling angelically at Brian.

"Aaaw, you're both from Pittsburgh and you're both creative! That's soo…aaw…what a connection the two of you share." Elizabeth prattled dreamily.

To Justin, it seemed like Brian was trying hard not to laugh. He himself was struggling to maintain his composure. Elizabeth was sweet, but she seemed somewhat removed from reality.

Acting it up, Justin placed his hand on top of Brian's, squeezing it gently. "I know. Timing is everything. And Brian and I…we fit together like…like…"

"Two pieces of Lego." Brian supplied dryly, much to the amusement of Robert.

"Oh Brian, you can be so unromantic at times. See what I have to deal with?" Justin said, taking the opportunity to lean over and kiss the man lightly on his cheek. Smart, hot and witty. The evening had turned out much better than he had expected. Much better.

"Would you care for some dessert?" The waiter materialized, handing out the dessert menus.

"I'll have an espresso." Robert said, without even looking at the menu.

Elizabeth seemed disappointed. "Could I have the apple crumble?"

Brian looked at the menu, then at Justin, but didn't say anything. Justin quickly glanced at the menu.

"Brian, shall we share the tiramisu?"

It looked as if Brian was hiding a smirk. "Sure, why not?"

"You know, I never understood tiramisu." Robert said. "I mean, is it a cake? It's cake, right? Why isn't it listed under cakes?"

Brian buried himself in his wine glass, refusing to answer. Justin thought it was his way of rebelling against ignorance.

"Traditionally, it's made of savoiardi, which is not a cake. It's like…sponge biscuits. But, some people make it now using cake instead. But that's really sacrilege, if you ask me. It's not a cake"

"He pretends to order one for both of us to share, but then eats it all by himself. I go for the Italian clothes, and he goes for the Italian food." Brian said, conspiratorially.

"Now you're just being mean." Justin responded with a smile.

Damn it, he thought. Now he was going to have to actually share the tiramisu and not look like a greedy Neanderthal. Brian smiled at him calmly, and there was twinkle in his eye. He clearly had pegged Justin down right.


They stood outside on the sidewalk. There was a slight chill to the night air, unusual for April. Justin didn't mind. He breathed in deeply, enjoying the breeze.

"I hope you know that you're a piece of shit."

Justin laughed at Brian. "Aaaw, admit it. You had fun. I made a boring dinner interesting."

Brian shook his head. "You're still a piece of shit. What if they were homophobic?"

"You shouldn't do business with homophobic people." Justin stated matter-of-factly. "They'd only drop you like a hot brick when they find out you like sins proscribed by the bible."

Brian rolled his eyes. "Didn't you say you were a business major from Dartmouth? Did they teach you nothing there?"

"Double major. Business and art. I like to let the arty side control me."

"And here I thought it was the crazy side." Brian mumbled. "So, where are you headed?"

Justin glanced at his watch. "I have to go to a shoot."

Brian raised his eyebrow. "Now? In the middle of the night? I thought you were just an intern."

"Pffft. It's the interns that do all the work. I practically did the art direction for the scene; I have to turn up. Sucks to be me."

To be honest, Justin did not mind his intern job at a video production company. He got to work on computer animation, art direction and set design, mostly for advertisements, but on occasion, they got a few independent films come their way as well. The best part of his job was that his homophobic father hated it.

"You scheduled a date on a night you were busy?"

"We all have to eat, Brian. Besides, the idiot was a concert violinist on tour. His availability was limited."

Justin felt that they were at that awkward stage of a (non) date, when everyone made small talk because no one knew how to move forward. He liked Brian, he had fun during dinner, he wanted to see the man again, and he had a shoot to get to.

Justin pulled out his name card and gave it to Brian. "Call me."

"I don't do dates." Brian stated. "Only time I was on one, I fucked the waiter."

Justin looked at Brian, laughing. The potential in this man was infinite.

"Call me," he repeated. "We can hang out and non-date."

He gave Brian a light kiss before he disappeared into the night.


It took Brian 11 days to call him. Justin had counted, and was very close to taking action himself.

In 2 days, he had managed to find out Brian's contact information, after all. Justin was very chilled out, and he knew that he would be more than hooking up with Brian. It was only a question of time.

Things didn't go exactly as Justin had planned. They rarely ever did, but he was cool with it. He could adjust, and he could wait.

Because, as it turned out, Brian called him with a business proposition. More like a request. More like begging for help.

Justin hoped that it was a ruse to get in touch with him, but it was hard to tell with Brian.

Brian had an urgent project for his client. It would take roughly two weeks to complete, and required a lot of computer animation, graphic design and artwork – all things that Justin excelled in. His own creative team was on it, but given the deadline and the last-minuteness, they needed an extra pair of hands.

Brian had already checked out Justin's work.

Justin was thrilled, and was unabashed about showing it. However, he couldn't just take two weeks out of his own job, so he struck a deal to work for Brian in the evenings and weekends. Brian agreed. Brian also said that the job would have been evenings anyway, because his team could not squeeze it in during regular hours.

Justin saw Brian every day, for almost two weeks.

Every fucking day, for two weeks.

They did not have sex once.

Part of that was Justin's fault. He was way too stressed, and stretched to capacity, working two jobs full-time.

Brian's team…they were awful. Justin didn't think they were incompetent – well, not all of them, anyway – but they were just mean, horrible, human beings. They all considered him a threat – as if a fucking job was what Justin was after.

No one would help him, no one would explain shit, and most of them dumped at least part of their responsibilities on to his lap. Justin was scared about fucking up the project, anal to point of insanity about doing a perfect job and impressing Brian, and going nuts by trying to smile through the whole ordeal.

He didn't complain to Brian. He didn't utter a word about the awful work environment. He wasn't going to be that person.

Especially because he was beginning to like Brian. Like, really like Brian.

Brian wasn't there throughout the whole evening when the team worked. He'd drop by at random times, to talk to them, to discuss things, tweak things, or just check on the day's work. More often than not, Brian joined them for dinner, where everyone suddenly became incredibly nice to Justin.

Justin just played along.

On more than one occasion, Brian dropped him home.

He got to speak to Brian, they talked about things other than the goddamn project. He found out, for example, that Brian had a son, being raised by a lesbian couple. That they both had homophobic fathers, and vastly different mothers. That Brian grew up in a working-class family with alcoholics for parents, and Justin was raised by wealthy WASP parents, and yet, they both had had similarly unhappy, lonely childhoods. He learnt that there was an 11 year age gap between them, and yet, it was the last thing either of them noticed.

They talked about all of this, and more, when Brian dropped him home. On more than one occasion.

And yet.

No sex.

Just good night kisses – not chaste, but also not the sex-in-the-back-alley-right-now kind of kisses. Good night kisses that were soft, tingly with the promise of something more.

Kisses that had Justin touching his lips long after Brian had left.

In those moments, Justin kicked himself for not having the energy to encourage Brian in some manner or form. For being so scared of the work dynamic that he couldn't even manage to flirt with Brian – the only reason he had agreed to take on the job in the first place.