And Then There Were Two
by Chris J

I could hear the voices before I even opened the door. I'd heard this conversation before, of course, but never this loud and never this late.

"I'm sorry miss but you're going to have to come with us."

"But I'm with Justin. He wants me to stay."

"Miss, if you'll just come along. You really don't want to be making a scene."

There were brief sounds of struggle, a half-hearted squeal, then the sound of footsteps heading down the hall and towards the elevators. I felt safe popping my head out the door at that point and I watched our security team lead the young blonde woman away from our suites and out of the hotel.

I wondered if this one was a talker. She certainly wouldn't be the first to go to the tabloids with stories of Justin's nocturnal activities, but most of those stories got laughed away after one look at little Justin's angelic face. Besides, with teenagers having sex all over the country, was it really news that one Justin Timberlake, legally an adult, was sexually active?

Stupid question.

I started towards the soda machine, my original destination, but stopped at Justin's still-half-open door. "Justin, man," I called inside, softly. "You gotta stop making 'em think you want 'em to stay."

"Dunno where she got that idea," came his muffled voice, sounding like he was struggling out of bed. "All I did was get laid. Man, don't they ever just leave quiet-like?"

"Hey, maybe you're just that good," I told him.

"Heh, yeah, maybe," he said, his voice becoming clearer as he walked towards the door, towards me. "Once you get a piece of me, you never wanna go back. Hey, you get lucky last night, too, man?" He reached the door and leaned sleepily on the doorframe, waiting for me to answer.

"Yeah."

He grinned. "Was she cute?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. Do you think Chris is cute?"

"Huh?" he said. I thought it would take him a while to piece that one together, but the boy is quick. "You slept with Chris last night?"

"Yeah."

"Well, whatever gets your rocks off, bro," he said, reaching out to squeeze my shoulder supportively. "Now fuck off would you and let me shower."

I laughed. "Listen, how about I order up room service in my room today and we all hang out there for a while? We still gotta break the news to JC."

"Huh? What news?"

"Me and Chris," I reminded him.

"Oh, what, that's news now?" He shook his head to clear it a little and yawned widely. "Yeah, sure, I'll be there. It's gotta beat the hell out of whatever buffet crap is being laid out for the crew today. Just gimme a few, 'kay?"

"Sure," I said, letting him slip back inside his hotel room. "Half an hour sound okay?"

"Sure, whatever."

I started towards the soda machine again and heard the door click shut behind me. I grabbed a Coke for myself, then thought about the guys that'd be joining us and grabbed a few more drinks, carrying them back in my shirt. As I passed JC's room I heard the shower running and figured if I gave him a call in ten minutes or so he'd probably be out and getting ready. Reaching my room, I banged on the door with my knee and waited for Chris to open it up for me.

"What, you forget your card?" he asked loudly, swinging it wide. "Oh, shit man, sorry, you need help with those?"

"Nah," I said, dumping the cans on the bed and shaking the excess water off my shirt. "I got it." I grabbed a diet soda and handed it to him. "This one's yours."

"Diet? Are you hinting at something?" he snickered.

"Yeah, like I'm going to give you a can of pure sugar before an interview. Be thankful I didn't make you wait for juice." I cracked open my can of Coke and drained half of it in one gulp. There's nothing like a shock of sugar and caffeine first thing in the morning.

I set the can down on the dresser and examined my shirt again. The water from the cans had soaked through and the material had stretched a little from the weight.

"Shit, I need to change," I said. "Chris, you mind ordering up room service for five? The guys are coming back here for breakfast."

"What? Okay, sure," he said, not even bothering to ask me why. I kinda liked that he sometimes knew what I was thinking, or at least wasn't surprised by it. "Anything in particular you'll be wantin' me to get?"

"No, whatever," I said, my voice muffled by the shirt covering my face as I fought to pull it over my head. "Whatever you think the guys'll like, I guess."

I could hear him talking softly as I rummaged through my suitcase for a decent shirt, tossing a few items onto the floor beside it. I finally came up with a red and white jersey that I liked and tossed the rest of the clothes back on top. Pulling it on over my head, I turned back to Chris who was off the phone and lounging on his stomach on the bed.

"Pass me the phone," I said, sitting down on the end of the bed.

"Huh? Get it yourself, man." "Fine." I turned my body, flopped right on top of him, and reached for the phone.

"Hey!"

"You asked for it," I said, grinning even though he couldn't see it. He squirmed a bit beneath me, managing to get flipped over onto his back, then seemed to give up. I dialed up JC's room and waited a few rings until he answered.

"Hey, JC," I said brightly, recalling quite well how much he'd had to drink before he slipped out of the bar the night before. I was disappointed that he didn't moan or mumble or do anything in reaction to my goading. "We're having breakfast here in my room. Be here in fifteen minutes."

Chris wrapped his arms around me as JC spoke, slipping his fingers underneath my shirt to stroke my back lightly. "Oh, that's nice," I breathed. "No, not you JC," I added quickly, remembering the phone. "No, I didn't...just be here, okay? We'll have food."

I hung up the phone and reached back to pull Chris' hands from my back before things could go too far. He held me too tightly, though, and right at that point I realized our groins were pressed tightly together.

Man, how did I get myself into these things?

"Hey guys," said Lance, opening the door. It was all the warning we got before he stepped into the room. Chris let me go then, and Lance watched with a bemused expression as I climbed off of him. "Am I interrupting anything?"

"Nothing important," I muttered, giving Chris a dark look. He just flashed a grin at me and bounced to his feet next to the bed. "Next time I'm taking charge of the spare key cards. I mean it. You abuse the privilege, man."

"I do not," said Lance, taking over the seat again. "Who else gets up early enough to get y'all out of bed when you're late?"

"JC!" shouted Chris, delighted with his own joke. I smacked him on the back of the head and pulled him down to sit next to me on the bed.

"You drank my Coke, didn't you," I accused him.

"No way, man, I'm just a morning person!"

"You lie," argued Lance, still amused by us. "You can't lie to us. We know."

"I though you were going for a run?" I asked him, steering the conversation to neutral ground.

"Nah," he said, his face falling in disappointment. "Security says it's not safe, too many fans milling around the hotel and the street and stuff. So I figured I'd just come back up here and hang with you guys 'til JC and Justin get up...if that's cool with you."

"It's cool," I told him. "But they're up already. They'll be here for breakfast soon..." I looked up as I heard a knock at the door.

"That'll be room service," said Chris, getting up to answer it. "There's no way those two are ready yet." He tipped the man at the door--which was good because it hadn't even occurred to me to get any money ready--and wheeled the cart in himself.

"Damn, that looks good," said Lance, stealing a piece of bacon without even getting up out of his seat. "What's the occasion?"

"I think I'm coming out," said Chris absently, picking around in the fruit salad for the strawberry that was buried on the bottom.

"Get your fingers out of there!" I slapped his hand but he ignored me and popped the strawberry in his mouth. "Some of the rest of us might want some of that two?"

"Joey, if I'm germy, trust me, you've already caught it."

I rolled my eyes and gave him a quick kiss on the top of his head. "Oh, by the way, I already told Justin."

"You what?"

"I met him in the hallway earlier. His, um, 'lady' was just leaving."

"Again?" said Lance. "Does that boy every stop?"

"Only to sleep," I said with a wink. "Come on guys, he's nineteen. The kid's got more hormones than he knows what to do with." Not that Lance or I were much older, but Lance had his principles and I...well, I did have a girl up to my hotel room a couple of nights ago so I guess I'm not much better.

"I'm not convinced he does much of that," said Lance, shaking his head and snagging another piece of bacon. "Night after night...he's got stamina, I'll say that for him."

There was a knock at the door again. I looked at Chris, but apparently it was my turn to get back up off my ass and answer it. I wondered if I was ever going to get to sit down for more than five minutes today.

"Hey JC," I said, opening the door wider to let him in. He yawned and smiled at me in thanks, stepping into the room and right over to the room service cart.

"Thanks for the food," was all he said before digging in to the pancakes and pouring himself some orange juice.

I was still holding the door open when Justin came ambling in. I'd noticed Chris didn't get any cereal. I thought Justin'd be pissed but he just sat down on Lance's knee and started picking at the fruit salad.

"Hey JC," he said between mouthfuls as I sat back down on the bed. "Joey and Chris slept together last night."

JC put his fork down and looked first at Chris, then at me. "Seriously? As in had sex?"

"Justin, you're an ass," said Lance, smacking him on the back.

"What? Wha'd I do?" he asked innocently, turning a little to face Lance. "That's what we're all here about, right?"

"You were supposed to let them tell him."

"So? I just saved 'em the trouble. Man, y'all are acting like this is some kinda big deal." He shook his head and went back to his fruit salad. I think he was picking out the melon bits.

"Yeah, seriously," I told JC, turning back to him.

He looked up at me quizzically, with a hint of a smile on his lips. "What, you couldn't land your waitress so you decided to seduce your best friend?"

"Hey, get it straight," said Chris, piping up. "I was the seducer. Joey was the seducee. And for your information either one of us could have had the waitress if we'd really wanted to." I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at that. From the look on his face, I think Chris was resisting too.

"Yeah, okay, that's cool," said JC, picking up his fork again and toying with his food. "I just didn't know you swung that way, Chris, that's all. I figured Joey did some fast-talking to lure you into his bed."

"No, actually there was very little talking involved, fast or not. Especially once we got to the bed." He turned and kissed me, full on the lips, for the first time in front of the guys. With tongue.

It's fun to make JC blush. Almost as fun as Lance.

"Okay, I get it," he said, looking down at his plate. "Y'all are doing it. Good for you...and I mean that."

"Are we finished talking about gay sex now?" asked Justin. "Cause I'd like to get back to my breakfast."

"We're done," I assured him.

"For now," added Chris.

"So how does Dani feel about all this?"

The room kinda stilled at JC's words, but Chris was totally relaxed. I took his hand and squeezed it for support and stayed quiet, letting him know that how he responded to the question was entirely up to him.

"We broke up," he began.

"Because you're sleeping with Joey," concluded Justin. "Yeah, I can believe that."

"We broke up almost six months ago," he said, shooting a silencing look in Justin's direction. "I--we--didn't want to deal with the hassles of a public break-up, so we just kinda left things as they were. I guess I should have told you guys sooooo...sorry 'bout that. I guess that's it."

JC and Lance got the hint that Chris didn't really want to get into it, at least not right now. They both let out little 'Oh's and went back to what they were doing. Justin was either less observant--which I doubted--or just wanted to say his piece anyway.

"Man, I can't believe you didn't tell us that. I mean, what did you think we were gonna do, bro? Go to the press with it? Nah, we're your friends, man. We're your family. No secrets."

"Just?" I said in a low voice.

"Yeah?"

"Drop it."

He took one look at the expression on my face and nodded. I guess I can be an intimidating guy when I need to be.

Justin turned back to his fruit and took another mouthful. "Man, this is so much better than the crap they'd be serving us downstairs."

"Well, eat up," I said generously. "There's plenty and there's nowhere we've gotta be for a couple hours."

I watched everyone as they ate, taking a bit of toast and a cup of coffee for myself. I'd have more after, when they were all gone.

When Lance looked at us he kinda smiled, as though he were genuinely happy that two of his friends had gotten together and were...well, whatever it is that Chris and I were. I think in his head we were a couple, even if we weren't so sure of that yet. He's such a romantic at heart.

Justin barely looked at all. I honestly think he didn't care one way or the other. Or, rather, cared, but it made no difference to him who we slept with. We stayed out of his bedroom and he stayed out of ours.

JC seemed thoughtful when he looked, trying not to be obvious about it. Maybe he was still trying to figure the whole thing out. I mean, it was pretty unexpected for all of us, myself included. There's just no way they saw it coming.

I was glad they all knew now. Chris was turning out to be more affectionate than I'd expected--not that we weren't all affectionate with one another to begin with--and I don't think we could have kept things hidden for more than a few, oh, hours. I looked at him and squeezed his hand again and smiled. It had gone well for us, and I was looking forward to things to come.

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