Disclaimer: I don't own Queer as Folk or any of its characters; they belong to Showtime, Ron Cowen, Daniel Lipman, etc.

A/N: The prompt for this chapter is number 3 in the list, Sky. It takes place about two weeks after the first chapter, sometime early Season 2 before Justin starts school.

"You don't have to do this, you know," Justin said for approximately the millionth time that week.

"Someone has to make sure that you go to all the important lectures about not partying too much, staying away from drugs and alcohol, focusing on your studies…" Brian trailed off as he lazily drove into the parking lot of the Pittsburgh Institute of Fine Arts admissions office.

"Not fucking around?" Justin added mock-helpfully.

"No, I think even the old fuddy-duddy professors encourage that one. Another good reason for me to come with you – maybe I'll find some fresh blood here."

"Since you've already fucked every trick at Babylon?"

"Not every trick, just the hot ones," Brian replied with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

Justin laughed and rolled his eyes. "C'mon, let's get going. We don't want orientation to start without us."

After six hours of meetings, lectures, tours, and registration, Justin and Brian finally left campus and started heading back to the loft.

"Do you wanna grab a bite to eat before we go back?" Justin asked, careful not to use the word "home" just yet.

"Sure, whatever. Where do you want to go?" Brian responded distractedly.

"Um, how about that new Indian place down the street?"

"Okay." They passed the rest of the drive in silence until Brian pulled the Jeep into a spot a few doors down from the restaurant.

"You're uncharacteristically quiet, Brian," Justin commented as they each got out and started walking down the block.

"Just thinking," Brian said with a touch of sadness in his voice.

"Always a dangerous endeavor," Justin replied, smirking.

"Using my own lines against me?"

"You've taught me well."

"Table for two?" the hostess, whose name tag read Sahila, asked brightly, interrupting their banter. "There will be one available inside in about 20 minutes, or I can seat you on the patio now."

Justin knew that normally Brian would rather wait hours than do something so potentially "romantic" as eating outside, where dirt might get on his expensive Italian shoes or the wind might mess up his perfectly styled hair. But the way things had been going, he figured this was as good of a time as any to press his luck.

"It's pretty nice out tonight, we'll eat on the patio," Justin told Sahila.

"Excellent. Follow me, gentlemen," she said.

When they sat down, Brian immediately picked up his menu to start deciding on a drink, but Justin pushed it back down onto the table.

"Okay, what has gotten into you? You voluntarily come to my college orientation, you don't protest at all when I ask to go out to eat, just the two of us, which could look suspiciously like a date, and you're sitting outside without caring about how the summer breeze will mess up your look. What the hell is wrong?"

"Nothing the hell is wrong," Brian snapped. "And I thought you'd like all of those things."

"I do. I'm not complaining about the behaviors, I'm concerned about the state of mind that preceded them."

"What are you, my psychiatrist? Just let me order something to drink and leave my state of mind the fuck alone."

"If I thought I could convince you to talk to someone else, I would. But Michael will just give in and Debbie will talk more than she'll listen, so you're stuck with me."

"What makes you think I need to talk to anyone not named Jim Beam?" Brian asked sardonically.

"Because that's what normal people do when they have problems, Brian, they talk about them with their friends."

"Are we friends?"

"I don't know what the hell we are, but we're something, and I'm the only one who's going to keep pushing hard enough to get anything out of you."

Brian smirked briefly at the double entendre before staring intensely at Justin, hoping he would break first but knowing from the past year that it was unlikely.

"The summer before I went to college contained one of those brief periods where my father was trying to get sober and my mother was pretending to believe that this time would be different," Brian began slowly as he looked down at the table, unable to meet Justin's eyes just yet. "I knew that wasn't true, but I was stupid enough to believe that it might last until I left for school. The night before my orientation they got into a fight; he stormed off to a bar and she locked herself in the bathroom. Claire was already out of the house, and I wasn't about to call her anyway, so I got up early, took my old man's credit card, and walked to the bus stop, hoping there would be one headed to State College. When I got there, Debbie was sitting on a bench," he snickered, "holding two bus tickets, just waiting for me."

"She does have that knack for knowing what you need even before you do, doesn't she?" Justin added. Brian nodded silently, his hazel eyes growing dark for a moment before continuing,

"Anyway, since your dad's an asshole and I knew you'd think Jennifer was too busy with work and your sister to take time off, I figured I'd go with you instead."

Justin took Brian's hand under the table and squeezed it quickly. "Thank you," he replied. He knew how much it had taken for Brian to say all of that, and he appreciated even more the unspoken subtext – that Brian hadn't wanted him to experience the feeling that he wasn't important enough for anyone to bother with, and that Brian wanted to be that person who knew what he needed without having to be asked.

"For what?" Brian replied, quickly reforming his emotional mask.

"For coming to dinner with me."

"Yeah, and what the fuck are we doing sitting outside, anyway?"

"We can look up at the sky while we're waiting," Justin replied matter-of-factly.

"That is so pathetic," Brian responded with his typical refrain.

"It's not pathetic, it's grounding." At that Brian raised his eyebrows but kept his mouth shut. "The sky is always there…no matter where you are, or what you're doing, or who you're with, it always stays the same."

The two men sat in silence for a just a moment, looking up at the stars in the sky.

"So does Babylon," Brian pointed out. Justin just laughed.

"As soon as we finish eating, we'll go back, take a shower, get changed, and head out, then."

Brian's eyes flicked upward one more time before the waitress came by, leaned over, and whispered in Justin's ear, "You're welcome."