#wild!!

parts 1-13 linked here. entire fic on ao3 here.

The train pulls into Union Station only twenty minutes late, which is better than John had expected—he didn’t even realize you could take a train from California to Chicago, but Andrew hadn’t wanted to deal with the TSA or anything, didn’t want to use his real documents or risk false ones, and didn’t want to travel without at least a knife (John argued it down from a couple guns. It’s... an ongoing negotiation).

John knows Andrew’s worries do make sense, what with everything about his life. Still, John isn’t quite sure he believes he’ll be on this train, even after everything that’s happened the last few months.

Andrew’s traveling under an assumed name. His family’s got issues (John can relate, although his family's issues are... significantly different than Andrew's), and there are various agencies who want to keep track of him (John can relate less to this one, although he’s certainly been hit up for money by organizations who (1) should not have his contact information in the first place and/or (2) should know that he no longer has access to the Carter family money). So he’s Andrew Carter for this trip, which. Well. It makes John feel all sorts of ways!

After nearly two days on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, in a little private sleeper train car that he’s sent John dozens of pictures of—Andrew is enamored of it in his intense, quiet way. It’s a marvel of civic engineering, the views incredible, the construction years in the making—and John knows that after an orgasm or two to relax him, Andrew will be infodumping about the route, the engine, and the history all night long.

That’s alright. John can’t wait to hear it.

Because it’s been six months—half a year!—of video calls and phone calls and texts and pictures (both filthy and mundane), and this, moments from now, will be the first time he’s seeing Andrew with his own eyes, touching him with his own hands.

That is, if Andrew gets off the train.

John stares at the line of traincars as it slows to a stop—and there, through the glass of the window of the exit door in the car third from the locomotive, he sees a familiar silhouette standing stock-still and his heart starts to pound. He hurries down the platform, dodging people and suitcases and benches, and when the door slides open, John is there, waiting. Ready.

“Hi,” he says, and he can feel the way his face is split open with a grin, because—he’s here. He’s real.

Andrew steps down from the train car, backpack over one shoulder, and smiles, tiny and hopeful and a little shy. He’s shorter than John had imagined, shoulders just as broad, bronze-silver hair catching the light, and he’s just as beautiful—and John steps forward, reaches out, and pulls him in close, wrapping him tight in his arms. Their bodies fit together perfectly, no awkwardness, only a shocking, immediate familiarity.

Andrew buries his face in John’s neck, breath hot against his skin, and laughs under his breath, just a little.

“You’re here,” Andrew murmurs, muffled, exhalation hot against John’s skin.

“So are you,” John says.

“You’re wearing my sweater,” Andrew says, and his hands tighten around John’s waist, holding him close, not letting go.

There are details to work out—rearranging John’s apartment, fencing the backpack full of stolen jewelry Andrew’s holding, getting documents and having fights about the dishes—but for now?

This is enough.

HELLO?? ANDROMEDA LAN?? WHAT?? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE??

HOW DID YOU EVEN FIND THIS, ANON?? And you knew to show me?? That’s literally her, like ACTUALLY that’s her, that is wild!!!

It is SO hard to pick a favorite moment, I think the entirety ending of Ghost Files Alone Together is definitely up there, because that voice over killed me, but there's also some all-time classics, like Ryan, somehow not realizing he's being taught about the People Who Danced To Death In France referencing The People Who Danced To Death In France or Indiana Bergara making Shane's brain short circuit.

@sophsun1 is AMAZING and has been posting so many beautiful, perfectly colored, high quality gifs every day that i literally cannot keep up with them haha. i've been queueing so many gifsets so that i don't flood you all with a billion gifsets at once, but i am so thrilled that it is reminding so many QAF fans about how great the show is! the gifseries is definitely making ME consider pulling out my own boxset to do my first rewatch in years.

re:the ending, i definitely read it more as a "not never, just not now" situation for brian/justin. i know brian is VERY open ended "whether we see each other next weekend or never again, it's just time" but like. given everything that happened in their relationship and how obvious it is that brian loved justin, i think the "never again" comment is just him being a little flippant and deferring to his usual attempt at downplaying his own commitment out of comfort. i personally think that man was on a flight to NYC basically as soon as he left babylon lol. i definitely agree that i wish they were just definitively together at the end, but i also think the ending feels very true to brian and justin—and i DO appreciate brian recognizing that justin deserves to spread his wings and really give NYC a shot.