JC liked cooking huge breakfasts on Sunday mornings, and it was habit to just show up and eat and hang out with the rest of the guys. Chris had always thought it was the perfect way to end one week and start another. Sure, they were on hiatus right now, and Lance was halfway to space and all the way to Russia most of the time, Joey was busy being  a daddy,  and Justin was off being all kinds of solo, but Chris knew that JC would still make breakfast, and that Joey was across the street and could always be talked into coming over.

He let himself in, and wasn't surprised to find the house already smelling deliciously of food, and he walked into the kitchen, leaned against the doorframe and was about to shout for JC, asking where he was, when a
voice he didn't recognize spoke up.

"Oh hi. JC said some of you might be coming over. I'm Pete. Eggs?" his mouth was probably open, but eally, there was a very naked guy in JC's kitchen, offering him scrambled eggs, and that just hit so high on the
wrong-o'meter, that he was left speechless.

So.

"Um" he said, and Pete rattled the pan in his direction.

"Come on. I used to be a chef at this fancy restaurant. I'm a good cook."

Right. Sure.

"Um sure."

Pete smiled broadly, and Chris blinked. Pete looked a lot like JC when he did that.

Speaking of which, JC was waddling into the kitchen just then; again with the very naked; and kissed Pete's neck.

"Hey babe" he whispered, and Pete smiled down at the eggs.

"Company" he said, and JC looked up, the hopeless freshly laid look all over his face, sated and lazy.

"Oh hi Chris. Coffee?" he asked, and Chris nodded, dumbfounded.

He couldn't stop staring at the two naked asses, and found himself wondering if Pete sunbathed naked like JC, because he didn't have tan lines either.

JC hated tan lines, and had unlike Chris, no problems with nudity. Chris pitied the sight of his own blindingly white ass and lobster red every where else, after a day of frolicking in the sun, but he was just really worried
that his dick would get sunburned, because that sounded like something that was very painful, and should be avoided at all costs.

"C did you- whoa, the Olson twins." Justin said, and Chris looked at him.

"What?"

"I see JC and his twin and they're both naked." Justin said, covering his eyes. Chris smiled, finally able to have the upper hand of the situation.

"No that's just Pete." He said, and Justin dropped his hands and stared a few seconds.

"Right" he then said, and pulled out a chair.

"Hi" Pete smiled over the bowl of batter, and the smell of melting sugar wafted through the air.
"Pancakes?"

Justin nodded and sat down. JC smiled and placed a bottle of syrup in front of him on the table.

"This is just so wrong" Justin muttered.

"I mean, not that" he added hurriedly, pointing at the two pairs of legs, which was all that was showing since Pete and JC were hiding behind the door of the fridge, obviously kissing. "I mean, there's a huge weird factor in that, but all this." He gestured around the room with hungover accuracy, "is just wrong."

Joey stepped into the kitchen, slapping JC's naked ass, and leaning over Pete's shoulder. "Oh you made me hash. You're my hero, Pete."

Chris and Justin stared.

"So, how've you guys been? I haven't seen you around for a while." Joey said as he sat down next to Justin.

"Well. um" Justin said, staring at Pete's slim frame that looked so much like JC's.

"JC's naked, man." Justin said and Chris nodded.

"Yes. Yes he is. And we've never seen JC naked before." Chris quite liked the sight, but that part he kept for himself.

"Well, yeah, but he's being naked with another guy. Another naked guy." 

Justin popped the top off the syrup.

"Does that bother you?" Joey asked, and Justin shook his head.

"No, no, I just. He's always been all about the girl parts, is all."

"Not since last Saturday night, he hasn't." Joey said, and took the pot of coffee from JC's hands. JC sauntered back to Pete and bit at his ear lobe.

"Since you so obviously is cool as a cucumber about the whole thing, you might want to give us some pointers." Chris said, and pulled at his own ear.

"Well, I came over here last Sunday, and JC'd just come home himself. All freaked out because he'd had a one night stand."

Justin cocked his head to the side a little, because even though Joey was known as something very near a slut, JC was just the same, if not worse.

"With a guy" Joey clarified.

"Oh"

Joey spread an even layer of ketchup on his hash.

"So you know, I told him to just go back and talk to the guy and.whatever. And you know, Jayce was all "but that goes against all one night stand rules." Joey smiled. "I told him to anyway, and" he bit down on a forkful of hash and ketchup, and proceeded to chew somewhat proudly. "Just look at that." He said, and pointed to the other end of the kitchen.

Pete was feeding JC pancakes, the syrup dripping down his chin. Pete kissed it off, and Chris had to look away.

 

"I'm throwing this little party, Friday night, you wanna come? Everybody's gonna be there, I even got C to promise he'd come." Justin's voice was exited in his ear, and he watched Power Puff girls in his
underwear, occasionally jerking off, and wondering what a sick perverted man he was.

"Um." He said, and looked at the clock on the wall. He wasn't even sure what day it was.

"Come on. JC is gonna be there, man."

"And?" he asked, because Justin just couldn't know.

"And you're madly in love with the boy. Come on, get drunk, watch him wiggle that fine ass, confess your undying love to him. It'll be fun!"

Once in a while, he'd really like to know what life was like for Justin. What it felt like to be beautiful and talented and adored by the world. What it felt like to have everything turn out exactly the way you wanted it
to. Now was one of those times.

"JC's gonna be there, and he's gonna bring his gorgeous boyfriend, and they'll wiggle together." He said, and Justin just laughed.

"Come on man.  Pete's just the test drive. You'll be the real thing."

"I'm not even gonna comment on how cheesy that was, Infant." Chris said, and Justin sighed impatiently on the other end.

"Chris, you're hot for him, he loves you already. Give it a shot, man." Justin's voice softened. "Chris. Really. What's the worst that can happen?"

"Good question, Justin, let me see if I can answer that. Hmmm, well, the worst thing that can happen is that he'll think I'm a disgusting old man, so he'll quit the band and go solo, and we can handle being 'Sync', but 'Syn' just doesn't have the same ring to it. Maybe he'll even be so freaked, that he turns straight again, and then he'll write a book about it, "Of Chris Kirkpatrick and how he made me go straight.", and gay and bi men all over the world will camp out on my lawn and throw rotten eggs on my house and try to kill me in my sleep. That's probably the worst thing that could happen." Chris said and he could almost see Justin shake his head.

"Or maybe he'll just kiss you." Justin said and hung up.



"See, I told you he was gay" Chris said, and Lance laughed. The telephone crackled statically.

"Chris, Darling, you think that all the hot guys are gay."

"Well, I've been right so far, haven't I?" Chris asked smugly, and Lance snorted.

"Oh fuck off."

Chris didn't reply, and the line went quiet.

"So what are you gonna do?" Lance asked after a little while, and Chris shrugged.

"What can I do?"

"Well, isn't it obvious? You get rid of Pete, and swoop in to claim what's rightfully yours." Lance said, and Chris sighed.

"It's. Not. That. Easy. They are completely head over heels in love, and Jayce is just so insanely happy. You should see him Lance, he fucking glows. I'm not going to be the one who screws that up for him."

"Then I don't know what to say." Lance said quietly, and Chris closed his eyes.

"Me neither."

"You're a wonderful boyfriend, Chris. One of these days, JC will know that."

"One of these days." Chris repeated dryly.

"Yeah." Lance said, and Chris could hear the smile on his lips.

"Thanks."


The stereo was playing 'No diggity', and he was on his way through the third frozen maguerita when JC and Pete arrived, holding hands and looking like they belonged in a movie, beautiful, perfect and in love. JC introduced Pete to the people who didn't know him, and then threw himself down next to Chris in the couch.

"So! Enjoying the hiatus?" he asked, trailing his fingers over Pete's scalp, down his neck to where it met the shirt, and rested his hand there.

"It's been. Weird." Chris offered, his throat burning.

"I know. Just the other day I told Pete how weird it was to have nothing scheduled. Right?" he asked, and Pete smiled and nodded.

"But then you have more time for me." he said, and JC's eyes squeezed shut as he leaned in and kissed Pete.

Chris watched as the muscles in JC's neck worked, and he thought that JC probably was a very bad kisser, anyway.

Then he got up to get another maguerita.



He decided that yes, he was most definitely a sick perverted bastard, because he was so hard it hurt, and all he was doing was watching JC and Pete dance together. JC was rubbing his ass suggestively against Pete's
crotch, and Pete had JC anchored tightly against him with a possesive arm. They swayed to the heavy beat, moved as one body, and Chris was so drunk that they seemed to melt together before his eyes, and it was so hot he couldn't tear his eyes away.

JC threw his head back, a drop of sweat glinting by his temple, and Pete leaned in, lewdly lapping it away with a pink tongue.

Chris turned his head over the side of the couch and threw up.


He tried to avoid Sundays and JC after that, and even had Melinda write up a story about him and a RV, becaus JC read BOP and Cosmo Girl! and always belived what they said.

Justin had told them about the breakup a couple of months before it hit the press, and JC had pointed to a picture of them holding hands, and the text next to it that said, Timberlake and Spears both denies the breakup rumors. "They are very happy together, and everything else is nonesense" a source close to the couple says.

"See?" he'd said, and Justin had sighed. "Jayce, it's just PR, you know. It's not true."

"But" JC had inspected the picture closely. "I don't understand. Why would they lie?"

True to nature, JC sent him an email that said that when he came home, he should call, and then he could come over to dinner with him and Pete.

He never replied.

He did, though, feel just a little betrayed when he found out that Justin had had dinner with JC and Pete, because it felt like it was wrong of Justin to just accept this guy, when he should be plotting how to get rid off him with Chris.

But then he thought about the way every phone conversation or email from JC always turned out to be about Pete, and he couldn't really be mad.


His cellphone rang on a Sunday around noon, and when he saw the caller ID, he almost didn't pick up.

"Um" JC said in a tiny voice, and sniffed a little.

"Could you maybe come visit me for a few days?" he said, and Chris lifted an eyebrow.

"Sure. Why?" he asked, trying to juggle the phone and his canned soup.

"Um." JC said again, and Chris sat down in the sofa, wholly prepared for a long weird talk with JC.

"Pete kinda broke up with me." he then said, and Chris put the soup down on the table, in fear of dropping it.

"What?" he said, and JC sniffed pitifully.

"Cause he found someone he could kiss in public. He cheated on me, Chris." JC's tone was accusing, as if Chris had something to do with it.

"I'm, oh, Jayce I'm sorry. I'll be there as soon as possibly, okay?"

"Okay." JC said, and hung up.

Chris called Lance.



"That's like taking advantage of him."

"Look, I didn't say that you should maul him while he's crying on your shoulder, I'm just saying be there for him, and then when he's over Pete, he'll see what a good guy you are, and voila!" Lance said.

"But, it just feels a bit like a dirty trick."

"You're a man, Chris, this is what we've been doing for several millennia. Don't break the cycle." Lance said and then hung up a bit hard.

Chris packed clothes, 10 condoms and a tube of lube in a weekend bag and got into his car.



JC wasn't pretty when he had been crying, which was a huge relief for Chris. Partly because it would just be wrong to have a hard on when JC is heartbroken, partly because he had never really seen JC not pretty, or not hot, and he wasn't hot or pretty, and it just made him seem more human.

They drove down to the beach and walked around until the sun is setting, and when it did they sat in the sand, watching.

"How do you feel?" Chris asked and JC shrugged and shivered.

"Cold" he answered, and Chris rubbed his arms a little.

"No I'm fine, I just" JC looked out over the ocean and fell silent."I think my heart is breaking" he confessed, and Chris held him closer.

"You know? I mean, when you and Lance-"

"No" Chris said, and JC looked at him, over his shoulder.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I love Lance, but I don't love him. and I didn't then, we just fucked." 

"Oh." JC says, and looks back out.

"Yeah, so I can't really. Like, relate like that." Chris said.

"But Dani -" JC pointed out, and dug his toes into the cooling sand.

"I think this is different." Chris replied.

"Yeah, like the circumstances are, but a heartbreak is a heartbreak."

"I'm sorry." Chris said and meant it.

JC smiled and stood up, reaching a hand out for Chris.

"Yeah," he said and pulled Chris up.

"But I think I'll be okay, you know. Other fish and all that."

"Sure." Chris said and dusted sand off his ass.

It was a short drive back to JC's.

 

JC proved that he was as good at cooking dinner, as he was at breakfast, and Chris, who'd lived by eating canned goods and takeout for far too long, ate heartely off the homecooking.

"So, uh." he said, wiping his mouth, because he felt that they should probably talk about it. "Did um, did Pete tell you that he'd been with someone else?" he asked, and JC chewed slowly, putting his fork
down.

"Um yeah, pretty detailed, actually. His name is Michael." JC said and sipped at his wine. "And not only is Michael out and proud, he also deepthroats."

"He does?" Chris asked coversationally.

"Yep. Pete tried to teach me, but I - " JC broke off and blushed furiously. "I am not having this conversation." he said.

"Sure you are" Chris said and smiled charmingly. "Come on. From one cocksucker to another."

"Right. Pete was kind of. Eager, like." JC stuttered.

"That's understandable." Chris said, and JC looked at him curiously. "I mean. Um. Go on."

"Well um. And. Big." JC widened his eyes and Chris coughed. "So it just didn't, completely." JC opened his mouth widely and shaped it into an O. He closed his mouth. "Like. Fit." He said and looked at Chris.

Chris saw the edges of his ears turn pink, and the JC looked away.

"Chris" he said. "Chris, this is weird."

"It really is." Chris agreed.

"So let's never, um" JC made a fluttering gesture between them, "again." he said.

Chris nodded his consent, and thought about his grandma naked, because JC talking about blowjobs and deepthroating and making that face?

Hard as a fucking rock.

"It's getting unbearable" he said on the 6th day of almost constantly having a hard-on.

"Well, now you know how JC feels." Lance said, and Chris snorted.

"I'll have you know, that those things have nothing to do with each other. If JC was hard because of me, and not because Justin hit the high note right, then it would have been the same." Chris whispered.

"Okay." Lance whispered back. "Why are we whispering?" and Chris sighed.

"JC's sleeping, man.

"Right, and he's such a light sleeper."

"Look, it's just embarrasing. I don't think he's noticed yet, but"

"Then what's the problem?"

"Do you have to ask?"

"Yes. As an ex-fuckbuddy and boyfriend of sorts, yeah I have to ask. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, though." Lance said, and his smile came through in his voice all the way from Russia.

"He um" Chris scratched his head and walked over to close the door. "He told me that Pete broke up with him because he's closeted."

"That's not very nice." Lance said, and Chris shook his head.

"Also, he said something about Pete complaining because he hasn't quite figured deepthroating out yet."

"That's just mean." Lance said and Chris swore he could hear the line between his eyebrows.

"It is" he agreed, "but he's taking it very nicely. He's eating and stuff. Nothing too melodramatic has taken place yet."

"Well sure. I mean, Pete was the one to make C realize that he isn't as straight as he wished he was, but he wasn't the one the one." Lance said.

"You're probably right", Chris said, "but I still feel a little bad about the whole thing."

"Don't. You're just being there for him. Say hi, okay?"

Chris nodded and hung up, slowly tiptoeing to JC's room.

JC was fast asleep, flushed and warm under the covers. Chris rolled them back a little, and JC sighed and shifted.

"Time is it?" he asked groggily, and Chris smiled.

"Ten. You kind of slept through dinner, but there's some leftover pizza in the fridge if you want." Chris offered, and JC shook his head.

"Na. I'll just go back to sleep."

"You don't say?" Chris teased, and JC smiled.

"Come to bed with me, Chris" he said, and there was nothing sexual about the way he said it, which made it easy for Chris to push the covers back and crawl in beside JC.

"Can I tell you a secret and you won't get mad?" JC whispered, and Chris nodded, slowly running his fingertips over JC's rosy cheeks.

"I think I'm over Pete. Like, it still hurts, but only a little." JC whispered, and Chris looked at him.

"But that's good. Why would I be mad?"

"Maybe", JC pressed his lips tightly together, "maybe I was kind of over him a few days ago, and I didn't tell you because it's nice with you here, and I didn't want you to leave." the words rushed out of JC's mouth, and he squeezed his eyes together as if Chris was going to hit him. When nothing happened, he slowly opened one eye, and saw Chris smiling at him. He opened the other. "But, like, you can leave if you want. You don't have to stay and babysit. It's okay, I'm fine."

"Maybe I don't want to leave" Chris whispered in JC's ear, and it felt forbidden and intimate.

"No?" JC asked joyfully, and his eyes crinkled up to little twin half moons.

Chris leaned in and kissed him on the mouth, softly, quickly, and JC's eyes widened.

"Stay then" he said, and pressed up close to Chris.

JC was softer than he looked, and warm and lovely, and Chris slept better that night than he had in a long time.

 

JC was making breakfast when he woke up, and he went downstairs. JC looked up and saw him, and then walked up so close that their toes were touching.

"Morning" JC said, and Chris nodded.

"Yeah" he said, and reached, lifting himself up on his toes, one hand curling in on itself on the small of JC's
back, nails digging into the slightly callused flesh of his palm, and he thought , "if this is a dream, wake me now, wake me now, wake me now, before it's too late"  and he ran his fingers through the soft curls at JC's neck, pulling him down a little, and JC's mouth was soft and warm, and all he had ever wanted.

He uncurled his hand a little, because he pinched and it wasn't a dream, and his palm hurt, now, but it was okay, because JC was still kissing him.

"We should go." Justin said to Joey.

Joey leaned against the doorframe. "I don't know man, this is kinda hot."

"We're going" Justin said and hauled Joey with him out the door.

"Upstairs" JC panted, stripping his clothes off as he walked up the stairs, and Chris followed his example.

When they finally made it to the bed, they were both blisfully naked.

Later, still naked beside JC, Chris couldn't help but think that he had been wrong. This  was the perfect way to end one week and start another.