Author's Notes: I would like to thank you all again for taking this journey with me. An extra special thanks to my beta KJ for being so fantabulous. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Justin's POV I make my way up his beautiful body, trailing hot, wet kisses along his torso. I stop to suckle, nip, and lick his nipples before eventually continuing to kiss my way to his adam's apple and finally his luscious lips. Tenderly I kiss those lush lips, seeking entrance with my tongue, and his tongue comes out to meet mine in a familiar dance. After several minutes of kissing I pull away from him and begin to make my way back down his body. Trailing my tongue down the center of his torso I take time nibble along the edges of his navel. Continuing the journey down his body I lick and suck at the tender flesh where thigh meets groin and he groans. I glance up at him and he looks at me and for a moment I get lost in those hazel eyes that I love so much. I can tell by the look in his eyes that he is ready to take this to the next level, so I spit in my hand and begin to work my moistened fingers into the opening of his anus. Before long he is moaning and writhing beneath me, just begging for me to give him more. I take another minute to scissor my fingers widening him up to make sure he is ready for me. I slip just the head of my penis into his opening, and then pull back out. I repeat this motion several times until he screams out in frustration. Finally not able to keep up the delicious torment any long with one push I bury myself inside him. His warmth envelopes me and I almost lose control. Thrusting in and out of the man I love is all I've dreamed about for weeks, and I'm finally here in this moment. I wish it would last longer but after only a few minutes the sweat is dripping off my body and landing on Brian's chest and stomach. I cry out as my body empties into Brian's and I feel his juices spurt in between us. After collapsing on top of him I drift off to sleep. When I wake up a short time later Brian and I formulate a more definite plan. His life won't change. He will still go to work everyday, he has just said he would start trying to come home a bit earlier so I'm not alone all day. I prepare myself for being alone and cut off from the world for quite some time. Who knows how much longer this war will last? If I am to hide out here then no one can know I am here. I can't leave for fear of being seen. If someone comes to visit, as Brian has assured me my mother will do, I must hide in our room and remain completely quiet until they are gone. I will spend my days reading and sketching, and dreaming of the moment when Brian will come home from work. That moment will probably be my most favorite everyday. I guess each day for a few hours I will get a small idea of what it was like for him to wait for me to come home the two years I was away. And so we will go to bed tonight, and tomorrow we will start a new chapter in our lives. Almost Two Years Later – April 15th, 1865 Brian's POV I make my way home tonight in shock. Lincoln is dead. Lee surrendered six days ago. It's just a matter of time before the rest of the confederate troops surrender. It was starting to feel like this war would never end, but in the little world Justin and I have created for ourselves that was almost preferable. I did always feel for the families of those who were still fighting and dying, but having Justin home and all to myself for the last two years was my idea of heaven. Standing on the porch I hesitate to open the door, these events mean the end of this war, and I don't know what that means for me; for us. We've ignored the inevitable for the last two years. Time has run out though, we can't go on pretending. Reality has found us. "Justin, I'm home." I love coming home to Justin and getting a kiss when I walk through the door every night. Tonight though I can't help but realize that it might be the last time I am able to feel this way. Our lips part and I look into his eyes and I know that he knows. "Lincoln's dead," I tell him since I know he is cut off from the world while hiding out here. "Then I guess its time we face reality, and our future. What are we going to do Brian?" "You have to return home. You have to return to the farm. No one would ever understand if you 'returned' from war and came to live with me. Your mother understood you living with me while you were injured because you were still upset with her, but that just isn't the case anymore. Besides you and I both know she needs you there to help run things." "What about us? I don't want to live without you." "You won't ever really be without me. We'll just have to go back to the way things were before the war started." "No. I can't go back to being just your friend. No Brian you can't mean that." He starts to cry a little and I realize how what I've said was taken the wrong way so I wrap him up in my arms and shush him a bit to calm him back down. "Justin I didn't mean it. At least not the way it sounded. I just meant that you would live at your farm, and I would live here. You'll still come to visit me almost everyday like you used to, no one would question that, and what we have between us will just have to be our lifelong secret." "A secret? I wish we could just be together! To hell with what people think, or what may be best for us or for my family." "Please Justin don't make this any harder than it has to be, please. This doesn't mean I don't love you. I do, you know I do. We don't need to declare it to the world to know that. This time, these last two years, they are more than we should have ever had the right to have. And as long as we have each other it doesn't matter where we live, we'll be fine." "I know. You're right Brian. But I'll keep up hope that maybe someday we can live together like this again. I'm going to go now before it gets too dark, if I stay here another night I'll never be able to leave." He leans up to kiss me and I have to restrain myself from dragging him back into the bedroom, back into the life we've been living, so I let him go. He opens the door, crosses the threshold, turns around and says a simple "I love you Brian" before shutting the door and leaving. "I love you too, Justin. I'll see you tomorrow," I say to the devastating emptiness of my house. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Final Author's Note: I do apologize if you were hoping for or expecting a happily ever after type of ending – I just didn't feel that would be historically accurate. I gave you the best ending I felt I could. If you have complaints I would be happy to hear them too! I promise the next fic I write won't have a similar ending.