Full Stop

Disclaimer - CowLip/Russell T Davies/Showtime own them, I don't.

Future fic, AU, angst, Brian/Justin. PG-13 for a bit of bad language. Definite spoilers through the first four seasons. Not very long :)

Feedback would be great!

When Justin leaves the loft the last time, it isn't because Brian won't stop tricking or because they want different things. It isn't because Brian's work is too important or because Justin's art has him away from Pittsburgh so often that he might as well move out.

Brian has nearly always been right about everything, and he was right about this. He was expecting it all along.

Mikey acts like it's the fucking end of the world, spending every spare minute (which aren't many, really, with Ben and the hustler and the kid) by Brian's side, pointing out every fuckable guy they pass like an owner waving a bone in front of a dog's face. But it's different from when Justin left before, and Brian really doesn't feel like fucking everything that moves and drinking enough scotch to need a liver transplant.

Life goes on pretty normally. He does all the things he always does; goes to work, the diner, Woody's, Babylon, but he does all of them without his arm around someone's shoulders, without waking up in the morning spying blond hair from the corner of his eye or with Justin's mouth wrapped around his cock.

They stay friends and in some ways get to know each other better than they did before. It seems to make the others happy. They stop treating Brian like he's about to fall apart pretty quickly, and there's none of that awkwardness about exactly who should be invited to dinner at Deb's.

Five months later Justin starts dating someone called Richard, and things get serious pretty quickly. Brian declares that he likes him and tries to sound sincere, but secretly thinks of Richard as Dick because no one will ever be good enough for Justin.

He should know.

Four months after that, Justin and Dick get a place together and Brian figures that Justin finally got what he always wanted. The night of the housewarming party - Justin has never rubbed anything in his face (sex acts aside) and doesn't that night, either - Brian goes home and puts up every drawing Justin has ever made of him.

In the morning he takes them all down.

Brian has always said that he doesn't believe in love, that it's for dykes and breeders, but he knows that he will always love Gus and Michael and Deb and Linds, and he also knows that Justin was his one-time one-shot deal.

He'd never say it to anyone, of course, but he'll always be glad that he was there to help after the bashing, and he'll always be thankful that the little shit didn't just go when Brian threw him out after the cancer.

He'd never say to anyone, least of all Justin, that he's never going to fall in love and actually mean it.

"I don't know how to tell you this, I...but it's not fair not to tell you...God, I'm so sorry, but..."

Brian has always been right about everything.

"I'm not in love with you anymore."

~FINIS