vibrations
by
foxmonkey
Justin would always associate Sprite with evil, thanks to Lance.
It was another anonymous hotel, nice of course, but pretty much the same as every other nice hotel they'd stayed at. The only difference was that the mini-fridge in this room didn't have any Sprite in it, and that's what Justin seriously craved at the moment. He poked the lump in the next bed.
"Jace, I'm going to the machines. Want anything?"
The top of JC's curly head appeared from under the blanket. "God, how about a new skull," he groaned, "and maybe a new stomach while you're at it. Fuck." They'd been out drinking, and his voice sounded thick. He pulled the blankets back over his head.
"Man, you're going to have a hell of a hangover if you already feel like warmed-over ass." Justin felt slightly woozy, but obviously better than JC.
"Feelin' like ass would be an improvement," JC mumbled, barely audible through the mass of bed linens covering his head.
"I'll get you a Sprite, too. Settles your stomach, according to Mama Timberlake," Justin said sympathetically. "I'll be right back." He shimmed out into the hall, shaking his hips, still feeling the urge to dance.
The hall was relatively quiet. Chris' door was slightly ajar, and Justin could see Joey and Chris, both in sweatpants, sitting on the bed watching TV. Not porn then, or the door would be closed. Justin peeked in and waved.
" 'S up, Jup?" Chris called cheerily. He waved a glass of brown liquid in greeting.
"Not enough drinking at the club, fellas?" Justin asked good-naturedly.
Joey hitched a thumb at Chris. "Just him. I'm man enough to admit when I've been beaten into submission, and whiskey has officially kicked my ass tonight."
"How's the pretty ballerina?" Chris asked, sipping his drink.
"Poor Jace, he's a hurtin' puppy," Justin replied. I'm headin' to the machines to get something for him. You guys want anything?"
Chris shook his head, holding his drink aloft as proof that he had his drinks bases covered. Joey stretched. "I'm heading to bed in a minute. Lance still up?" Joey asked.
"I'll know in a minute. Night fellas." Justin pulled the door closed and continued down the hall, still shaking his hips to the beat that played in his head.
He raised his hand to knock on Lance's door and paused when he heard an unfamiliar voice tangled with Lance's in what sounded like a heated conversation. When Lance got even louder, Justin became concerned and gripped the doorknob. He'd been trained to alert security in shaky situations, but he was still slightly loopy from beer and liquor, and wasn't thinking quite straight at that moment. He opened the door.
"Hey, what's--" He stopped. Lance was seated, looking perfectly fine if a bit perturbed. Justin only knew two people who could wear the word "perturbed" well. One of them was JC. The other was Lance. Cool green eyes turned in Justin's direction, and Justin just blinked.
The room seemed to be filled with twins. Well, if ten or twenty of the same guy could be called twins, that is. Justin blinked again and wondered exactly how much he'd had to drink, and if Jack Daniels qualified as an hallucinogenic.
Lance sighed. "Well, this is unfortunate," he said, rubbing a hand across his eyes. "Do you see now why I tell you schmucks to be as quiet as possible?" he asked the group of men. "Huh? Got it now?"
If it had been possible for JC and Kevin Richardson to have children together, this group of men would have been their sons. They were tall, slender, dark-haired and hazel-eyed, and their almost hawkish facial features were softened by small, neat moustaches and goatees. They were dressed identically in expensively-tailored dark grey suits - Armani, probably - soft grey shirts, black ties and sleek grey shoes, Gucci or Prada, Justin guessed. They were very, very attractive. Justin swayed slightly.
"Lance?" Justin peered across the room. "Uhm. This is weird. These guys..." he trailed off as the men turned simultaneously to look at him. Attractive, and very, very scary. "Lance?"
"Shut the door Justin, it's cool." Lance waved impatiently when Justin took a moment to wonder if that was a good idea. Justin shut the door, and Lance turned to the men. "These," Lance said, with another wave, "are my minions."
"Weh?" He'd definitely had too much to drink to face this right now. On the other hand, he didn't think he'd ever had enough to drink in order to face what looked like...a really strange situation. "Okay," Justin said, "I'm man enough to admit that I'm confused."
With a barely perceptible tilt of his chin, Lance glanced at the men. They turned, and with one last synchronous glance in Justin's direction, filed one by one through a door into the next room. Justin blinked again, because they didn't have suites. They had rooms. Large, luxurious rooms with one door, not two. Doors that stayed in one place and didn't just suddenly melt, blend into the wall and disappear the way this one had.
Whoa.
"I'm only going to say this once," Lance said. He settled back in his chair and crossed his legs. "Sit." Justin felt a slight nudge at his knees; he turned and found that a very comfortable-looking leather chair had appeared behind him. He fought the urge to whimper, and sat.
"You guys are always teasing me about trying to take over the world, but that's not quite true," Lance began. "I'm ambitious, but I don't want to take over the world. Only parts of it." He paused. "I'd like to rule the world, but who wouldn't? But I'm not evil, I'm just a little bad around the edges. A little evil. Just slightly wicked, that's all. Nothing you guys don't already think about me." He looked as cool and collected as usual, and Justin was momentarily calmed. But the disappearing door and all those twins...
"Okay, those guys are your minions?"
Lance made a disgusted nosie. "Well, it's not like I could get you fuckers to do anything useful," he scoffed.
"What would you want us to do?" Justin asked, offended and alarmed that Lance might try to use him in some nefarious plot to rule the world. Lance just shrugged dismissively.
"Right, like you fuckers would do anything." He looked away and left it at that.
"What are you?" Justin wondered if Lance's sudden journey into hotness had been less Mother Nature and more Prince of Darkness. "Are you like, an imp or something?" The alcohol was rapidly leaving his system, and a night of dancing, drinking and sleeping was rapidly turning into a night of being freaked out.
Lance smiled and shook his head. "I'm still me, Justin. I'm just--"
"An imp or, or, or a devil, or something," Justin insisted. He pointed at the wall. "And those guys. What do they do?"
"Well, they couldn't help me with the space mission, unfortunately," Lance replied with an upraised eyebrow. "But they've been useful."
"So are you...?"
"A natural blond?" Lance's smile was gently wicked.
"Hah. I mean, are you. Human?" Justin was almost afraid to hear the answer. He held his breath.
"Justin, it's me," Lance said softly. Yes, I'm human. I'm the same Lance you've always known."
"I don't know if I know the Lance I've always known!" Justin exclaimed. "The Lance I know doesn't have minions. And why do they look like--"
"Because I think Kevin and JC are attractive," Lance interrupted, rolling his eyes. "And no, I don't have a crush on either of them," he said, anticipating Justin's next question. "Besides," he added, looking slyly up through his lashes, "Nick wouldn't like that very much."
For not the first time sine he'd stepped into the room, Justin's mind boggled. When he looked back at Lance, Lance was studying his cuticles and frowning critically.
"Why don't they look like Nick, then?"
Lance shrugged and smiled. "I wouldn't get very much work done, would I? Imagine yourself surrounded by twenty copies of JC," he said, and Justin's face flushed.
"We're not," Justin said, unable to formulate much more than that. He wasn't in the mood to share his deepest secrets with anyone. He was a little woozy, a little tired, and a lot freaked out. He looked down at the floor, hoping Lance couldn't see him blush. "I don't." He stood so quickly that he knocked the chair into the door.
"Relax. Sit," Lance said. "It's okay, I won't tell anyone. Come on, sit down." He seemed distressed that Justin was upset. Justin dropped rather heavily into the chair. "Now then," Lance said, smiling. "You can't deny it, you know. You two vibrate like tuning forks when you're within a mile of each other."
"Please don't say anything," Justin said, feeling defeated. "Don't."
"So!" Lance said brightly. "Tuning forks!"
Why wouldn't he drop it? "Lance, just pretend you don't know, okay? Please?"
Lance shook his head. "No can do. I can help a little if you'd like."
"No." Justin was vehement. "Don't make anything happen," Justin said, his face hot and flushed. "If it's meant to happen it will. I don't want to force C into anything against his will."
Lance sat silent a moment, then shook his head. "Damn, y'all are two of the most thick-skulled men I've ever met. You're..." he stopped and shook his head again. "I love you both, but damn y'all are dumb."
"Look," Justin sighed, "I was on my way down the hall for some pop, so I'll leave you to your..." he waved with his hand in the direction of the disappearing door. "So. Goodnight. And if you don't mention this ever again, I won't either. It'll be some freaky figment of my drunk ass imagingation, that's all." He brushed a hand over his face. "Which it might very well be." Except that when he opened his eyes Lance was holding an ice bucket filled to the brim with bottles of Sprite nestled in sparkling cubes of ice. Justin's eyes widened. "Uh...okay."
"Don't worry about forgetting," Lance said. "You won't remember any of this. As soon as you close the door behind you, it'll all be gone. As far as you'll know, you poked your head in, we had a chat, and then you said goodnight. You got your pop and ice and headed back to your room."
Justin took the ice bucket and as he did, the wall began to swirl and the disappearing door foggily reappeared. Justin groped for the doorknob behind him, wondering when he'd lost his mind, but all he said was "'Night, Lance," just before he stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind him.
.
. .
Lanced eyed the door thoughtfully after it closed.
"Mr. Bass?" The twins had filed back into the room, and the closest cocked his head. "Instructions?"
"No," Lance said, smiling. "I've got this one." He drummed his fingers as he mused, hardly acknowledging the pear green sparks that danced beneath his fingertips and skittered along the desktop surface.
.
. .
JC was curled on his side when Justin got back, his head and one hand visible, and he was eating crackers to settle his stomach. JC hated crumbs in his bed, so Justin knew he was in a bad way.
"Here you go," Justin said. He set the ice bucket on the nightstand and filled a glass with ice, then opened one of the bottles. JC sat up a bit while Justin poured some of the pop into the glass. JC took the Sprite eagerly, and Justin watched his throat work as he took a long sip.
"Mmmm," JC sighed appreciatively, lowering the glass. "That's good, just what I needed. Thanks, J."
Justin started to sit on his own bed but moved to JC's instead. "C," he began without even knowing he wanted to say anything, "do you, uhm. Think about..." He panicked when it seemed he was about to rush headlong down a path he feared to tread, "do you think about guys a lot Men?" He blushed but continued to stammer forward almost against his will.
"Do you miss it? Because you're bi, I mean. Do you...do you want a man?" Justin was sweating lightly from the exertion involved in trying to keep from talking, and he still hadn't been able to help himself. JC was round-eyed and looked slightly terrified.
"Why? Have I. Is it. Obvious?" JC swallowed deeply and sat up fully, pushing his hands through his hair. "Does it make you uncomfortable? Has someone said something?" He looked ill, even paler than before, and he'd begun to shake.
"No! No, it's okay, don't worry." Justin patted JC's arm. "Jeez, C, you're vibrating like a..." He raised his eyes.
"..tuning fork," JC finished for him. They looked at each other. "You're trembling too," JC said softly.
He bit his lip; he could feel the words in his throat, far too cheesy to say out loud but he couldn't help it, he just couldn't stop and he was absolutely mortified to hear himself say, "You make me tremble."
JC was cautious and sensitive, and he gazed at Justin a moment before he nodded. "I didn't know what to say," JC said softly. "It just sounded wrong in my head."
"How's it sound now?" Justin moved closer.
"It..." JC seemed to be struggling with himself. "It sounds good. Right."
Justin moved even closer. "So then, this would be okay?" He leaned close to kiss JC lightly.
"Yeah," JC whispered. "That would be okay." His eyes drifted shut and he leaned forward and they kissed until Justin pulled away, slightly.
"Wow." Justin leaned his forehead against JC's. "We've had a lot to drink and," he licked his lips, "my head's spinning. And I know you're not feeling the best, but, anyway, maybe not tonight, but...I really like morning sex. Like, a lot."
"Hmmm," JC hummed and smiled and curled his hand into Justin's shirt, "I'm suddenly feeling much better."
.
. .
Justin, still slightly dazed even hours later, had awakened entwined with JC, pleasantly exhausted and with the thought, "Gotta tell Lance!" echoing through his head. He kissed JC's jaw then licked him once for good measure, and eased out of bed. JC murmured sleepily, but Justin said "shhh, shhh," until JC quieted. He slipped into a pair of jeans one of them had tossed on the floor, and pulled on the nearest t-shirt, JC's, by the fit. He opened the door and ambled sleepily down the hall.
"Yo, Bass!" He thumped once on Lance's door. He heard movement inside a moment before Lance ushered him in, smiling.
"J! You're up pretty early. Come on in." He stepped back and Justin stepped in.
"Okay," Justin said, "I can't really remember what we talked about last night, but whatever you said helped." Lance's smile widened and Justin tried not to grin. "Just don't tease us too much, alright?" Lance's eyes twinkled mischievously.
"We talked about tuning forks, that's all."
Justin stared and blinked and everything suddenly came rushing back to him. "I told you not to do anything! he wailed. "What, did you hypnotize me? Us?"
"No, you idiot," Lance said. "I just got both of you to finally get beyond the roadblocks you'd set up for yourselves. Man, it's been tiresome watching you dance around it. You should be thanking me, you know," he pointed out.
"Hey," Justin said, eyes narrowing, "I thought you said you couldn't get us to do anything."
"I said that I can't get you to do anything useful," Lance said. "You can start thanking me any time now."
"Yeah, well. I guess you're not completely evil." Justin nodded. "Thank you. Really." They shared a smile before Justin moved toward the door. "So the forgetting thing again?"
"Yep," Lance replied. "As soon as the door closes behind you."
"Okay." Justin hesitated, then moved forward and hugged Lance tightly, and Lance hugged him tightly in return. "Thanks, man. Thank you."
Lance laughed against Justin's neck. "I'm not really evil," he said softly. He pulled back, and again, they smiled. "I'm just me, and I love you guys. I want you to be happy." He gave Justin a little push. "Go be happy."
"You know what, I think I will." Justin stepped back into the hall and waved his fingers. "Happy Halloween, man."
Lance smiled. "Happy Halloween." He closed the door.
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