There Was A Time When We Used To Know Each Other- Chapter 2
Title: There Was A Time When We Used To Know Each Other
Chapter: 3/?
Author: way_to_the_end
Rating: NC-17
Fandom: Queer As Folk US
Paring: Justin/Brian
Characters: Justin, Brian, The Gang
Warnings: Alternative Universe
Summary: Justin and Brian met when Brian was in New York (so this AU starts after the 1x21). They were together but then they broke up. Now is 5 years later... could they meet again and start over?
Betarider: edom56



7 Years Earlier…

That morning Brian was running late for work. It was just a couple of months since he moved to New York from Pittsburgh. Having dreamed all his life to be good enough at his work to be able to make it in New York, he jumped at the offer of a new job in one of the top AD Firms in the City. He said goodbye to everyone and left for the Big City.

Now, here he was… being late for the third time in two weeks… he was starting to think that he should just cut down on the tricking and the drinking to get more sleep and start to make his own breakfast.

As he was trying to balance his briefcase, the papers that he almost forgot at home, and his coat, he didn’t notice Starbuck’s door being opened and before he knew what was happening, he found a big coffee stain on his white shirt.

“Fuck!” he hissed. “Would you fucking mind watching where the fuck you go?” he said without looking up from the stain.

“I’m sorry! I got distracted and didn’t see you. I’ll pay the dry cleaning bill” he heard a soft voice say and then he saw pale fingers with paint under the nails, trying to wipe away the stain with a little napkin.

“Well, you better! It’s fucking Armani and…” he stopped when he looked up and found himself staring at a young blond boy, suddenly forgetting what he was mad about.

“I really am sorry. I’m late to my class and I was in a hurry” the blond excuses himself once again.

Brian took in the short hair, almost shaved off and found it sexy but what really got his attention, was the little smile that was on the young man’s face.

“I wasn’t looking either” Brian found himself saying before he too smiled. It was all so uncharacteristic for him. He usually yelled at everyone and if anyone else would have spilled coffee on his new shirt, he was pretty sure that he would have fired the sorry ass or made him buy a new shirt.

The blond kneeled down, picked up some papers that Brian hadn’t noticed he had dropped, and gently gave them to him before repeating once again “Sorry” when he noticed the coffee that had spilled on the papers as well.

“How much do you think the dry cleaning is going to cost?”

Brian laughed. The boy had the appearance of a student. “I bet that it’s too much for you.”

The boy laughed. “Probably. So, what about I buy you a coffee?”

“So you can spill that one on me too?”

A slight shade of red crept on the young man’s face and Brian found it rather cute even if he wouldn’t have been caught dead thinking something like that.

“I promise to not spill anything.”
Brian extended his hand. “I’m Brian. Kinney.”

The blond smiled before shaking the proffered hand. “I’m Justin. Taylor.”


Present Days…

Brian put away his sunglasses as he stared at the empty space before him. It took him seven years, but now he was going to open his own agency. The only thing that was wrong in his dream-of-a-lifetime was the fact that he pictured himself on Madison Av. in New York, and not on Liberty Av. in Pittsburgh in an old bathhouse. However, his son was almost ten and even if he wouldn’t have admitted it out loud, he kind of missed his family. To tell the truth, he had been thinking about returning to Pittsburgh for the last five years because the only time when he truly felt good in New York, was those first two years that he spent there… and he didn’t want to think about the reason why those two years were so great and the last five, were shit.

“So, the place is finally yours” he heard Michael tell him and he just nodded. “What are you going to do now?”

That question, caused another train of thought to enter his mind… a specific memory that he hoped to have forgotten.

6 Years Earlier…

Brian put down his chopsticks on his coffee table before lying down on the shaggy carpet, pulling Justin down with him; he was sitting between his legs.

Justin leaned his back into Brian’s chest and the brunet sighed before closing his arms around the slim torso of the younger man.

They both looked up at the ceiling and after a couple of minutes of silence, Brian whispered, “You know, we’ve been together for a little over a year now, and I still haven’t told you about my biggest dream…”

Justin smiled and put his hands over Brian’s which were resting on his belly. “Tell me.”

“You wanna know?” Brian teased him.

“You know I always want know things about you.”

Brian chuckled. “True.”

“So, what is it?”

“I want to open my own agency and make a big success out of it.”

“It would be so cool.”

“Yeah, that’s what I think too.”

They stayed in silence for a while after that, just holding each other until Brian whispered, “If I’ll do it, you’re going to be my art director.” It wasn’t a question but just a statement. Suddenly, the dream of his life, started to include, another person… someone for whom he cared more than anything else.

“Ok” Justin quietly answered before turning in his lover arms and starting to kiss him.

Present Days…

“Brian! Brian!” Mikey snapped his fingers in front of Brian’s face.

“What?”

“Where did you go? I asked you what you were going to do now. You need some furniture and employees.”

Brian nodded again before sighing, putting his sunglasses back on and turning to leave; sure that Mikey would follow.  

“Let’s go get some lunch” he said to his best friend and without another word, he exited the building and climbed in his corvette.

The entire time it took to get to the Diner, Michael kept glancing at Brian from time to time but he just kept looking ahead of him with his sunglasses on even if there wasn’t any sun and with a stern look on his face… the same look that he had had the last five years.

Nobody knew what had happened to him. One day he called almost every day to hear how everyone was doing, then his calls started to be weekly but he always had a tone of happiness in his voice whenever someone of them called him. It went that way for two years, two years in which they only saw him twice and just for short visits because he seemed eagerly to go back to New York, but at least, every time, he had some sort of spark in his eyes.

Then it changed. Two years later, he became distant from everyone and he called just once or twice at month and visited only for Gus, Michael and Linz’s birthday.

Ever since he came back a couple of months earlier, everyone noticed the always-hard look that he had on his face but no one ever questioned him about it.

“Lindsay said that they have a new artist in her gallery and that he’s very well known” Michael said, casually, just to break the silence that was filling the car.

Brian didn’t answer him and Michael sighed. “Maybe you could check out the exhibit, you know? Try to find something cool to hang in your loft or in your new office, well, when it’s going to be your office.”

Brian looked briefly at his friend about to tell him to just shut up and not to talk about exhibits and artists, but stopped himself. “You could use that time to be with Gus while he’s in a place that he likes. I still wonder why he keeps drawing a blond guy, but whatever. He’s pretty excited about this show even if he doesn’t want to tell anybody why.”

Brian parked outside the diner and killed the engine before turning his attention to Michael without saying anything about the ‘blond figure’ from Gus’ drawings. “Mikey, listen, I don’t want to hang anything in my loft and it’s going to take two months before the agency is ready, so I don’t really need anything for the office either.”

Michael sighed. “I just wanted you to come. Linz would like it. You barely go out with any of us.”

“That’s because I’m busy. How many times did we have this conversation?”

“Why are you always such in a bad mood? I swear that fucking city made you go crazy” he said in frustration before opening the car’s door and heading into the Diner without waiting for Brian.

The brunet stayed in the car, closing his eyes for a moment. Flashing images of paint stained hands, blond shaggy hair and laughing blue eyes filled his mind and determinately, he shook his head to clear his thoughts, but it didn’t work the way it should have.

He looked towards the diner and saw Michael talking with Emmett at the counter and without thinking about it he started the car and headed back to the loft. In that moment, he wanted to be alone with his thoughts of the blond man that he used to know so many years before.