Another city. Louisville, this time, or at least they thought it might be Louisville. After a while it was just another venue, another big stadium, another day on the road.
Another soundcheck.
Or at least, it would be another soundcheck if two of the bandmembers would get themselves the fuck out of the bathroom, Chris thought uncharitably, as he banged on the locked door again.
"Chasez!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, and he was a singer, so he could yell pretty damn loud. "Get your fucking hands off the infant and get the fuck out here so you can go whip the teenies into a frenzy."
The door opened, revealing JC and Justin in all their rumpled glory. They were both breathing hard, their shirts untucked, and Chris thought that maybe Justin's fly was still unzipped, though he quickly looked away because there were just some things he really didn't need to see.
"I'd rather whip JC into a frenzy," Justin said with a low growl, and he kissed the other man's neck. JC snaked his arms back around Justin's body, grabbing his butt and pulling them together for a passionate kiss.
Chris rolled his eyes so hard he thought he might sprain something. The sexual tension between the two lead singers had been growing all during the tour, and everyone had known it was only a matter of time before something had to give. Two weeks ago, in Las Vegas, it finally had. No one was exactly sure what happened, but one minute Justin and JC were screaming at each other in the hallway of the hotel, and the next thing anyone knew they were kissing each other. After that they disappeared into Justin's room, and no one saw them again until the next morning... when they both seemed to be in a much better mood.
If Chris had ever given much thought to his two friends dating -- and he really hadn't -- he would have expected them to be lovey dovey and mushy and generally nauseating. JC had all this deep, soulful shit going on, and Justin was like an affectionate puppy dog, and the thought of the two of them together brought to mind images of them cuddling on the tour bus, whispering sweet nothings to each other, and, well... giggling. To his surprise, when it happened it wasn't anything like that.
They fucked. A lot.
Every chance they got, it seemed, and they were inventive enough to find quite a few chances. A couple of times they just barely escaped getting caught, and that seemed to turn them on even more. They couldn't seem to keep their hands off each other in private, and if they were whispering sweet nothings to each other, it wasn't when anyone could overhear. Instead the rest of the group would sit in the tour bus, the TV turned up as loud as possible, trying to avoid the groans of, "Oh, fuck yeah," and "Do it... oh god, harder, oh god," and the occasional exclamation of, "Christ, your fucking mouth!" coming from the bunks in the back.
Come to think of it, Chris would have preferred the giggling.
It wasn't like anyone was judgmental about them being together, because they were young and healthy and if they wanted to fuck each others' brains out, well, who was going to say that wasn't a good idea? It just seemed strange to him that two people who were so close, and already loved each other on so many levels, were having a relationship based completely on sex. On the one hand, if they didn't get their emotions involved it would have less of an impact on the group if and when this ... whatever ... flamed out. On the other hand, well, it was just plain weird.
With a sigh, Chris yanked the two of them apart, ignoring Justin's plaintive whimper as he was separated from JC's mouth. "Down, boys," he said pointedly, and bit back a laugh as they both tried to adjust their raging hard ons in unison. "Can we just go do soundcheck, and then the two of you can go back to the hotel and screw like wild mink for all I care, but can we just do this, please?"
They could tell that Chris wasn't kidding now, so they got serious in a hurry, and did their best to make themselves presentable for the fans. Of course, Chris thought wryly, it wasn't like showing up with mussed hair and swollen lips and barely concealed erections wouldn't be even more of a turn on for the fans. Just so long as they didn't figure out where it had come from.
After that, things went off as usual. They half-danced, half-marked their way through "Pop", and all the little girls screamed for Justin in "Gone", and it was just like every other soundcheck. They got plaques from the city that somehow made them honorary residents, and entitled them to free chicken for life or something, and they smiled and posed for pictures.
If there was a new closeness between JC and Justin on stage, well, it just came across as the energy between the group. The band members knew it was different than it used to be, but the audience didn't, and it even seemed to make all their performances tighter and sharper. The other three played interference, trying to keep the two of them somewhat apart, because they tended to... forget themselves when they touched, and that would be kind of hard to explain on stage. But the bantering was fun, and no one thought anything of it.
The Q&A sessions were pretty much the same in every city, too. This time, though, JC and Justin seemed to find everything silly, making little jokes and comments about all the questions and answers. When a girl got up and asked Lance to marry her, they totally lost it.
Justin pulled up his mic set from where he had dropped it around his neck, and spoke into it. "Mawwidge."
Chris, Joey and Lance all turned to look at him. Huh? Just then, from the other side of the stage, JC answered, "Mawwidge is what bwings us here together, today."
The crowd went wild, girls screaming and clapping as if Justin had suddenly broken into his hip-thrusting beat box routine, instead of just standing on stage being weird with JC.
"The fuck is that?" Chris covered his mic so that the teenies wouldn't hear one of their icons blasting a four letter word across the stadium sound system.
"I think it's from The Princess Bride," Joey whispered back.
JC and Justin were still on their roll. "Mawwidge..." Justin repeated.
"... that bwessed awwangement..." JC jumped in.
"That dweam within a dweam."
More screams.
Justin and JC smiled at each other from across the length of the stage, then in unison said, "Wuv. Twu Wuv."
Chris was seriously afraid that some of the girls in the audience would need medical attention, given the frenzy this was causing.
"Jeez, maybe we should add this to the show," Lance said. "They seem to like it better than the singing."
JC and Justin finally seemed to notice the commotion they had caused, and they did a cute little bow toward the audience. Their friends got the feeling that they hadn't even realized that they were standing in front of 500 fans before that.
After that, soundcheck wrapped up in short order. Walking out of the stadium, JC jumped on Justin's back, and Justin ran down the ramp giving him a piggyback ride.
"You know," Chris observed to no one in particular, "those two are really very strange."
Later in the bus, after the show, three of the guys sat in the main area with the television blasting as loud as possible. Despite that, the sounds coming from the back of the bus refused to be drowned out.
"Oh.... yes... with your tongue... oh God!"
Shaking his head, Chris headed to the back to grab his CD player off his bunk, figuring he'd have an easier time with headphones on. What he needed right now was some hard rock pounding at his ear drums.
He had hoped to be in and out without hearing anything that would emotionally scar him for life, but just as he reached for the player, Justin exclaimed, "Oh, god, JC, you're such a stud!"
Chris jumped, nearly losing his balance. Those two never let up. Unfuckingbelievable.
And then he heard... giggling.
"'Stud?'" JC whispered in a low voice. "God, Jus, you sound like bad porn."
More giggling. "How about stud muffin? Would you like that better?"
Easing forward, Chris peered between the wall and the curtains, trying to see inside the bunk where the two were lying. He could just barely make out JC on his back, with Justin curled up against his chest. They were both wearing t-shirts and boxers.
"You know, we should probably let up on this whole sexaholic thing soon," JC murmured. "I think it's starting to piss them off."
"Yeah, but it keeps them from bugging us, doesn't it? I mean, no one wants to hear about our sex life. Hey, it's your turn."
There was a pause, and then JC exclaimed loudly, "No, don't stop, don't ever stop!" Then, lowering his voice several decibels added, "That's true. As long as they're embarrassed about it we won't have listen to Lance warning us about how it could affect the group, or Chris wanting to know what my intentions toward you are, or Joey telling me not to get too attached because you might just be going through an 'experimental phase.'"
"Yeah. I mean, right now they just roll their eyes a lot when they see us groping each other. Can you imagine the shit we'd have to put up with if they realized we were in love?"
JC leaned down and kissed the tip of Justin's nose. "Wuv," he sighed.
"Twu wuv," Justin answered, and their lips met in a long, sweet kiss.
Chris carefully tiptoed out of the back, and though he cursed himself for being an old softie, there was a warm glow in his heart. Twu wuv indeed.
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Author's Note: A fan report from the Louisville, KY Soundcheck stated that when a fan asked Lance to marry him, Justin and JC started quoting The Princess Bride... and a story idea was born.