New QAF Fic: Reality Bites, R, 1/1
Reality Bites
by Suz
Disclaimer - Showtime/CowLip own them, yadda yadda.
I ficced! !!! !!
:D :D :D
Brian/Justin, angst, drama, but all about Teh Love. Future fic, rated R for language and sexual situations.
Feedback would be wonderful! :) Many thanks to my nel. *MWA*
*
It's November when Brian finally gives in to the inevitable. They've been fighting against it for months - more than a year - desperately trying everything they can, every course of action. Every possibility, loophole, suggestion that anyone could come up with. Nothing works.
It doesn't sit well with Brian, but then failure never does.
No one blames him, and that almost hurts most of all. They're understandably upset, but not surprised - as if they'd been expecting this all along.
Maybe he was the only one who couldn't see it.
The day Brian has to tell his employees that Kinnetik is going under, Justin is standing next to him.
*
Of course, it's only then that the work *really* starts. Brian will not let his staff go without their last pay cheques, but the administrators are taking all the money out of the company to pay debts owed. With Ted's help Brian manages to pay some of his staff, but in the end he has to dip into his own now-scarce savings to make sure they get what they deserve. It's a joint account (and wasn't *that* a bundle of laughs when Mikey found out?) but after discussing it together Justin doesn't bitch, or judge.
He helps Brian write out the cheques.
*
Britin went last year, selling for less than he paid for it. It was yet another thing that pissed Brian off, but had to be done.
He'd been hanging on to it by the skin of teeth because as far as he'd been concerned, it didn't belong to him.
Justin, of course, was the one who insisted they fucking sell. Slowly jacking Brian's cock, softly but firmly explaining that while the house was amazing and he would never forget the beautiful gesture (Justin's words), it'd all be for nothing if the albatross around their neck - and that's what it was, now - ended up costing so much that they ended out on the street.
After Brian came, eyes stinging, Justin whispered that their bed at the loft was his favourite anyway.
*
They're not the only one's struggling, and one day it hits Brian that almost everyone they know works in an area for things that people don't *need*. With the economy failing, people go out to eat less. Throw fewer parties (and the ones they do have are smaller and less expensive). Stop buying the comic books they've indulged in since childhood. Stop paying ridiculous fucking amounts for a work of art.
Emmett's cell phone stops going off at every opportunity, and every week Michael is inventing some new special offer to plaster across the windows of his shop.
Dinner at Deb's stops being an occasional gathering and becomes a frequent occurrence, every Sunday. She's only allowed to provide one dish herself, and everyone else brings something with them (except for Brian, of course, but he figures Justin brings enough for the both of them). The topics of work or the economy are strictly off the menu, and Deb laughs loud and long, and barely looks at the framed picture of Carl at all.
*
Justin gets a shitty little job at a shitty little design company, but they both know he's lucky to get anything at all, especially in a field he has some vague interest in. Sometimes he bitches about the hours or the woman who keeps trying to set him up with her brother (a situation that had only ended when Brian had 'escorted' Justin to work one day and French kissed him for a good five minutes, right in front of her), but never about the job itself. It's a small company, and they don't know how long it's going to last.
Brian manages to get occasional freelance work, but no one's hiring full-time. He even manages to bite his tongue, says he's willing to work his way up from the bottom - but he already knows that, right now, there's nowhere to work his way up to. There's not much to apply for, but of what there is he applies for anything and everything, and is told he's over-qualified for anything and everything. Brian's reaching the point where he doesn't care what the fucking job is, as long as it brings in money.
Justin becomes anal - in a bad way - about keeping things switched off when they're not actually needed - the lights, the heating, the light over the bed, the coffee maker - and Brian stopped yelling at him about it months ago. Everything about their fucking shitty situation hurts his pride, but it helps that it's not just him who's failed.
It's the entire fucking world.
*
At night they fuck and huddle under the covers, Justin sometimes teasing him with horror stories of ramen noodles and the so-called 'romance' of being forced to live as a college student again. Brian had enough of that the first time round.
It does make him acknowledge that things could be worse. The loft is paid for. They don't actually have to eat ramen noodles to survive, unlike a lot of poor fuckers. They're both bringing an income of some kind.
It's just not the way things should be.
But then Justin will make fun of him for being a grumpy asshole (Justin's words). Or joke that being monogamous would mean not needing to pay out for condoms.
After all, he'll say quite reasonably, they go through a lot of condoms.
And Brian will smirk or laugh or smack his ass, and for a moment they're the only thing that matters.
~FINIS
by Suz
Disclaimer - Showtime/CowLip own them, yadda yadda.
I ficced! !!! !!
:D :D :D
Brian/Justin, angst, drama, but all about Teh Love. Future fic, rated R for language and sexual situations.
Feedback would be wonderful! :) Many thanks to my nel. *MWA*
*
It's November when Brian finally gives in to the inevitable. They've been fighting against it for months - more than a year - desperately trying everything they can, every course of action. Every possibility, loophole, suggestion that anyone could come up with. Nothing works.
It doesn't sit well with Brian, but then failure never does.
No one blames him, and that almost hurts most of all. They're understandably upset, but not surprised - as if they'd been expecting this all along.
Maybe he was the only one who couldn't see it.
The day Brian has to tell his employees that Kinnetik is going under, Justin is standing next to him.
*
Of course, it's only then that the work *really* starts. Brian will not let his staff go without their last pay cheques, but the administrators are taking all the money out of the company to pay debts owed. With Ted's help Brian manages to pay some of his staff, but in the end he has to dip into his own now-scarce savings to make sure they get what they deserve. It's a joint account (and wasn't *that* a bundle of laughs when Mikey found out?) but after discussing it together Justin doesn't bitch, or judge.
He helps Brian write out the cheques.
*
Britin went last year, selling for less than he paid for it. It was yet another thing that pissed Brian off, but had to be done.
He'd been hanging on to it by the skin of teeth because as far as he'd been concerned, it didn't belong to him.
Justin, of course, was the one who insisted they fucking sell. Slowly jacking Brian's cock, softly but firmly explaining that while the house was amazing and he would never forget the beautiful gesture (Justin's words), it'd all be for nothing if the albatross around their neck - and that's what it was, now - ended up costing so much that they ended out on the street.
After Brian came, eyes stinging, Justin whispered that their bed at the loft was his favourite anyway.
*
They're not the only one's struggling, and one day it hits Brian that almost everyone they know works in an area for things that people don't *need*. With the economy failing, people go out to eat less. Throw fewer parties (and the ones they do have are smaller and less expensive). Stop buying the comic books they've indulged in since childhood. Stop paying ridiculous fucking amounts for a work of art.
Emmett's cell phone stops going off at every opportunity, and every week Michael is inventing some new special offer to plaster across the windows of his shop.
Dinner at Deb's stops being an occasional gathering and becomes a frequent occurrence, every Sunday. She's only allowed to provide one dish herself, and everyone else brings something with them (except for Brian, of course, but he figures Justin brings enough for the both of them). The topics of work or the economy are strictly off the menu, and Deb laughs loud and long, and barely looks at the framed picture of Carl at all.
*
Justin gets a shitty little job at a shitty little design company, but they both know he's lucky to get anything at all, especially in a field he has some vague interest in. Sometimes he bitches about the hours or the woman who keeps trying to set him up with her brother (a situation that had only ended when Brian had 'escorted' Justin to work one day and French kissed him for a good five minutes, right in front of her), but never about the job itself. It's a small company, and they don't know how long it's going to last.
Brian manages to get occasional freelance work, but no one's hiring full-time. He even manages to bite his tongue, says he's willing to work his way up from the bottom - but he already knows that, right now, there's nowhere to work his way up to. There's not much to apply for, but of what there is he applies for anything and everything, and is told he's over-qualified for anything and everything. Brian's reaching the point where he doesn't care what the fucking job is, as long as it brings in money.
Justin becomes anal - in a bad way - about keeping things switched off when they're not actually needed - the lights, the heating, the light over the bed, the coffee maker - and Brian stopped yelling at him about it months ago. Everything about their fucking shitty situation hurts his pride, but it helps that it's not just him who's failed.
It's the entire fucking world.
*
At night they fuck and huddle under the covers, Justin sometimes teasing him with horror stories of ramen noodles and the so-called 'romance' of being forced to live as a college student again. Brian had enough of that the first time round.
It does make him acknowledge that things could be worse. The loft is paid for. They don't actually have to eat ramen noodles to survive, unlike a lot of poor fuckers. They're both bringing an income of some kind.
It's just not the way things should be.
But then Justin will make fun of him for being a grumpy asshole (Justin's words). Or joke that being monogamous would mean not needing to pay out for condoms.
After all, he'll say quite reasonably, they go through a lot of condoms.
And Brian will smirk or laugh or smack his ass, and for a moment they're the only thing that matters.
~FINIS