If I could just have one last dance with you...

Disclaimer: I do not own Queer as Folk or any of the characters. They belong to Showtime and Cowlip.

Warnings: Slash, some strong language, homophobia, and in this chapter, some minor violence.

So finally got chapter 7 finished, sorry for the long wait but it took me a long time to decide what to do with this chapter. Thank you to all the people who have stuck with me so far, reviews much appreciated x

Chapter 7: Lying alone in Brian's bed

Michael sneaked quietly up behind Brian but Brian knew he was there.

"You 'no, you'd make a terrible hit man." Brian informed him, catching Michael off-guard.

"Damn-" began Michael, walking next to Brian. "How did you know I was there?"

"Well, duh, my super powers." Said Brian completely seriously, causing Michael to laugh.

"So, do you wanna go get a drink or something?" Asked Michael, "you 'no, seeing that we haven't spent any time together since Justin was in the hospital..."

"I can't-" began Brian, dying a little inside as he saw Mikey's eyes fall. "...Justin still gets a little freaked out when he's on his own to long."

"Oh, okay..." Said Michael, quickly picking himself up. "But, hey! Do you want to go to Comic Con with me next week? I got us passes."

"Dude!" Said Brian in a joking voice. "The kids at school will like, puke, they'll be like...so jealous." He finished unenthusiastically.

Michael rolled his eyes. "You're right, it's a bad idea." Michael went to walk away but Brian's arm snaked out and grabbed his hand. Michael looked back.

"What time?"

Michael smiled. "6 '0 clock next Saturday."

Brian promised his best friend he'd be there and Michael went home happy.

...

Justin was scared by the overwhelming sea of people as he walked down the street. Every time someone brushed past him it felt like another blow. Justin's heart rate increased significantly and he just wanted to run away and hide.

But he could clearly see his target, and that grounded him; Brian.

Brian was holding his arms out, waiting for him, and Justin knew that in a few minutes he'd be safe again.

Staring at his lover, Justin began to think about just how beautiful Brian Kinney was. His lean body was so tanned and strong, Justin's eyes travelled across Brian's slender neck and his soft, full lips but then he lost himself in Brian's giant hazel eyes, with no will to ever be found.

Justin suddenly realised that thinking about Brian was really helping, he must have walked two feet at least. Justin couldn't help but smile slightly as he realised that Brian was helping him to survive without even trying.

Brian watched his boy carefully as he tentatively walked down the street. Brian was trying hard to resist the urge to run to Justin, he instead put his arms out for him.

"Come on, Sonny Boy." Said Brian, not sure if Justin could hear. It then occurred to Brian that he had just called Sunshine; sonny boy. He shook it off as Justin being there when Gus was born, it never occurred to him just how incredibly protective that sentence had been.

Justin looked so vulnerable, Brian just wanted to protect him.

A few minutes passed and Justin reached Brian, Brian immediately enclosed Justin's body into his own and Justin threw his arms almost desperately around Brian, hugging him tightly.

Justin breathed a contented sigh of relief as his body practically melted in Brian's arms.

"I wasn't sure if I could make it." Justin admitted, breaking off from Brian, but Brian didn't remove his arms from around Justin's waist and Sunshine didn't remove his arms from around Brian's neck.

"I was." Said Brian, without a shadow of a doubt.

"I'm glad you have faith in me." Said Justin jokingly.

"Well," began Brian, "you put up with my bullshit for a year, didn't you?"

Justin put a hand on Brian's cheek. "That's because I love you more than anything else on the Earth." Brian leaned down and kissed Justin softly.

"And it's not bullshit," Justin clarified, "it's what you believe in. Trust me, your mind is your sexiest feature, you know what you feel and you know what you want."

Brian pulled Justin closer against his body. "I know what I want." He said playfully.

Justin grinned and laughed. "Ever the romantic." He commented.

"Hey, your flattery is only after one thing." Brian joked, Justin couldn't help but jokingly reply; "am I really that transparent?"

...

That night, Brian was walking down the street supposedly alone. When all of a sudden, he saw two young men around Justin's age emerge from the shadows. One of them had noticeably spiky hair whilst the other one had an unattractive tattoo across his face. As the two boys advanced on him, Brian stopped walking.

"It's all your fault, you bastard." One of them spat.

Confused, Brian went to walk away until a fist collided with his head, tearing his lip open. Suddenly, he felt another blow to his eye. With one hand, Brian easily held one of the youths away from his body, sending his elbow into the other guy's face, easily knocking him to the ground. The teenagers' eyes suddenly filled with fear, they hadn't expected Brian to be able to fight them off so easily.

Brian dabbed at his lip. "Go home, kids, and pick on someone your own size."

The one on the floor got up and they both ran away. Brian rolled his eyes, you couldn't even get decent thugs any more.

Brian slid the loft door open and walked in, Sunshine stood up at his arrival.

"Hi..." he began, walking over to his boyfriend. Justin suddenly caught sight of Brian's face and his eyes widened, Brian walked past Justin to put his things down and Justin walked to Brian and took his face in his hands.

Brian sighed as Justin began to examine his injuries.

"What...happened?" Asked Justin, the worry evident in his eyes.

"Two kids just tried to start on me," said Brian, "I scared them off. It wasn't even a fight, I was just caught off-guard." Brian could still see the worry strong in Justin's eyes.

"I'm fine." Brian reassured him.

"What kids?" Asked Justin.

"I dunno, around your age." Said Brian nonchalantly, shrugging out of his jacket. "One had a really ugly tat across his face..."

"Did the other one have spiky hair?" Asked Justin suddenly.

"Yeah..." Said Brian slowly.

Justin ran a hand through his hair. "They're Chris Hobbs' psycho friends, they must have gone after you because his trial is coming up." Said Justin, without thinking.

"One of them did say it was all my fault..." said Brian, before Justin's words sank in and complete shock filled his entire body.

"Chris Hobbs' trial is coming up?"

"Yeah." Said Justin slowly, realising his mistake, eyes meeting the floor.

"How in the fuck did I manage to miss that?" Asked Brian, completely oblivious. Brian looked up to see Justin staring at the floor. "Sunshine...?"

"Everyone decided to keep it a secret from you," Justin admitted, "because the trial fell on the same time as the comic convention with Michael."

Brian was immensely shocked. "So, you just weren't going to tell me?"

Justin shook his head, ashamed.

"I thought I was your partner?" Asked Brian.

"Of course you are," Said Justin, "it was so hard for me to lie to you, but I was doing it for you..."

Justin could tell how angry Brian was, but when Justin went to touch him, Brian walked away and turned his back on Justin, rubbing his eyes. This hurt Justin so much it was like a stab to his heart, Justin was so angry with himself. Fighting off tears, Justin tried to explain himself.

"You've changed so much, for me." Said Justin, "you've stopped tricking and you barely ever go out any more, and I'm not gonna let you sacrifice your friendship with Michael for me."

Brian sighed.

"You love Michael," Justin softly reminded Brian, "not in the same way you love me, but you still love him."

Brian turned to Justin. "When you said that you want my life to go on," Brian began, "you need to understand that you are a part of that life."

Brian walked up to Justin and Justin stared, lost in Brian's eyes, he had a feeling that he would be lost in Brian's eyes forever.

Brian softly stroked Justin's hair. "I understand what you did." Said Brian softly, "I also know that Michael will happily reschedule, I'm going to be there for you."

"I was so scared," Justin admitted, "thinking about having to face the trial without you."

"I don't like that you put my needs above your own." Brian told Justin softly.

Justin gently ran a finger tenderly over Brian's bruised eye. "It's what you do when you love someone."

Brian stared into Justin's eyes.

"I'm sorry I went behind your back." Justin continued, Brian immediately leant down and kissed Justin, and Justin felt well and truly forgiven.

In their bed, Justin softly kissed Brian's injuries, trying to kiss away the pain and making Brian moan as he revelled in Sunshine's tender, healing kisses.

...

"It's messed up, that's what it is." Said Debbie, horrified at Brian's bruising the next day in the diner.

"You should call the police." Said Michael.

"There's no point," said Brian, "they barely grazed me."

"Hobbs and his friends are fucking psycho's," said Debbie, "wait till you see. I called everyone from PFlag, we are gonna pack that court room next Saturday."

Brian looked up at Debbie and she suddenly realised her mistake.

"Next Saturday?" Asked Michael, he looked up at Brian. "Are you going to the trial?"

Brian was upset that he had to hurt his best friend and upset that he had to break a promise.

"I have to." He said softly.

"I understand," Michael smiled, but Brian knew how upset Michael really was.

...

As soon as Brian entered the loft he heard Justin sobbing. Brian walked into the loft and saw Justin, hugging his knees against his chest on the floor and crying. Brian dropped everything he was holding and ran to Justin, getting down onto his knees and holding Justin in his arms.

"I'm...I'm freaking out about the trial," Justin sobbed into Brian's chest, "I can't see him again, I can't go!"

"Hey," Brian soothed Justin, rubbing his arms and planting tender butterfly kisses all over him, after a few minutes, Justin's breathing began to even out and he began to calm down.

"If you don't want to go, you don't have to." Brian told Justin soothingly, rocking him slowly in his arms.

"I won't go either."

Justin stood up. "You have to go." He said, "you have to testify."

"I don't want to leave you on your own." Brian told him.

"I'll be fine," said Justin, "I was actually thinking about spending the night with my Mom, I wanna see her anyway."

Brian didn't answer and Justin got down onto his knees and ran a hand along Brian's cheek.

"I'll dream about you." Justin told Brian, and Brian kissed Justin passionately right there on the floor.

...

At the trial, Brian sat down immediately after his testimony and Debbie squeezed his arm affectionately. Brian smiled gratefully up at his real mother.

The minutes passed like hours as everyone waited for a verdict.

When the judge told the court room that Christopher Hobbs, an upstanding member of St. James academy, was provoked into his attack, you could smell the anger in the court room. And Brian struggled to remain seated when Justin's dance with his "older lover" was described as being "highly provocative."

When Hobbs got off with 500 hours of community service, Daphne and Brian looked at each other, then looked at everyone else, but none of them could speak.

PFlag flooded out of the court room in rage and Emmett and Daphne could see the pure fucking anger in Brian's eyes and were honestly afraid.

Debbie was crying with rage. "Hobbs would have got more for attacking a dog!" She screamed. When Chris Hobbs walked out of the court room, Debbie lunged for him and Emmett quickly held her back.

Vic and Daphne shared a look and silently agreed to grab Brian if he so much as moved, but he didn't.

"I'm gonna call every PFlag chapter in the country!" Debbie shouted, "and we are gonna protest and march..."

"I'm gonna go back to Jennifer's," Daphne told Brian, "tell them what happened."

"I'll come with you," said Brian, "I need to be with Justin."

"Actually-" began Daphne, "-it might be better if you don't come, you're really upset and I think you should calm down first."

"Yeah, okay, that makes sense." Brian agreed. "Just, send him my love."

Daphne promised she would, and just before she left, she turned back to Brian. "I like you." She told him.

"I like you, too." Brian told her truthfully.

Brian stood there contemplating what to do, before he got an idea and walked determinedly towards Deb...

Brian stood alone outside of the court house in the crowd of people, silently praying that his and Debbie's idea would work.

Emmett saw Brian standing alone and walked up to him.

"I'm so sorry," Emmett told Brian.

"Don't be," said Brian, smiling shallowly, "there was nothing any one could do."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Emmett agreed.

Brian looked at Emmett. "If I was ever a dick to you," he began, "I'm sorry about it."

Emmett smiled. "You're my friend," he told Brian, "I'd be more worried if you weren't a dick to me." Emmett and Brian shared a smile and stood in comfortable silence with each other for a minute.

"It's days like this," began Emmett, "it makes you really respect what you've got, I mean, okay, Justin didn't get his justice, but he's alive."

Brian nodded in agreement. "You're right." He told Emmett. As Brian processed Emmett's words, he suddenly realised the perfect way to calm down, it makes you really respect what you've got...

...

At the Comic Convention, Michael picked up a very preserved Comic book, balancing it on his head, Michael was shocked at just how straight it was.

"It looks good on you." Said a familiar voice from behind him. Michael took the comic off of his head and turned to see Brian smiling at him.

"Shouldn't you be at the trial?" Michael asked.

"Trials over," answered Brian, "he got off." He said sadly, but with acceptance.

"I'm sorry." Said Michael.

Brian shrugged. "Justin's alive." Said Brian, repeating Emmett's words, "that's all that matters."

"I suppose you're right." Michael agreed. "Shouldn't you be with Justin?"

"Justin's with his mother," said Brian, "and when I was standing outside of that court room, it occurred to me how much I wanted to see you."

Michael began rifting through comics. "Look," he began, "our friendship has moved on since Justin was put in that hospital," and even though Michael was hurt by what he was saying, he understood it, "-and that's okay."

Brian put a hand on Michael's shoulder and Michael turned to face him.

"Some things change," Brian agreed, "but there are some things that aren't meant to." He looked into Mikey's eyes. "I love Justin," Brian told his best friend, "will always love Justin and will always be there for him, but you have been my best friend for all of my life," he held Michael's ever so familiar face in his hands, "and you will be for the rest of it. I got a massive scare when Justin was bashed," Brian admitted, "and I know that I've been very protective and distant to everyone lately, but that doesn't mean that I love you any less than before."

Michael smiled broadly at Brian, glad he hadn't lost him. Brian returned the smile and then grabbed Michael and pulled him to go and have their picture taken with Captain Astro.

The pair goofed around Comic Con just like old times, never changing, because why should they? As Michael grinned at Brian, indulging in one of his greatest pleasures, Brian was proud that Michael Novotny was one of his most precious possessions.

But as Brian and Mikey ran around Comic Con, rekindling their treasured friendship; Brian Kinney's other most precious possession clutched onto a pillow, silently begging for his soul mate to come home.

Justin was lying alone in Brian's bed as he cried.