The Suffering Of Fools (IJ Fanfic, Sal Vulcano X Brian Quinn)

Part 28

Sal pulled up on Brian's driveway, next to his Jeep, and sat there for some time. What would he tell him?

He couldn't bear the thought of breaking Q's heart; for no matter how many lies had been told so far, and of all those that will be told in the future to hide what they shared; there was still one truth - that Sal loved Brian, and that the feeling was returned.

He wondered how the two of them would go on to make the show: for it hurt Sal enough to know of the pain he was about to cause his friend of so many years; but to never acknowledge the spark and sprawling love that they shared was too harrowing a thought.

Sighing, he got out of his car, and closed the door heavily behind him before knocking on the peeling wood of Q's front door. He waited with bated breath to hear nothing but silence from the passage inside; relief spilling over him; before someone stirred inside and started treading their way with heavy footfalls to the front of the house.

His heart sank as the lock on the inner door began to click his entrance, and Brian's beaming face met his now sallow and sunken eyes, puffy and pink with tears yet to fall.

Q's face fell at the sight of the object of his affection, now shattered and sorrowful. He hushed his mismatched soulmate and ushered him in with an arm slung gently about his shoulder, closing the door behind them and holding him close.

"Sal, what's wrong?" he asked in his deep, grumbling voice laced with worry and fret.

Sal raised his face from its place buried in the other man's broad and comfortable chest, and looked him in the eyes. He saw such care and tenderness in those rich chocolate orbs that he could barely choke up the words to shatter the windows; the sweet and kindred soul; of the man he loved so deeply. Instead came a pitiful blub that released his tears; falling now down his ashen cheeks and leaving salty trails that glistened in the faint half light of the apartment.

Q said nothing, but merely wrapped his arm up and around Sal, resting it along his spine so that his large yet gentle hands could run their fingers through his hair, his face cast down and pressed against Brian's chest.

Placing his chin in the nook of Sal's shoulder; so that his mouth was beside his ear; he whispered to Sal words of reassurance.

He told him of a great many things, but most of all about how deeply he loved him, and how he would always be there for him - and this merely drew quiet sobs from his darling friend and lover; for he knew that they could never truly be together again, and it cut him like a blade.