Chris woke up with a smile, feeling Joey's arms around his body, holding him, protecting him.
It felt right.
Before, with Danny, with those others he didn't quite remember, the morning after had always been awkward. He was always filled with fears, doubts, and self-consciousness. But in Joey's embrace, all he could think of was how right it felt.
He was meant to be there, as corny as it sounded.
And
reality could go to hell.
He looked at the sleeping man, amazed at how just on their first night together they had fitted in so perfectly, even in their sleep, so they ended up embraced, face to face. The first thing he saw was Joey's face, and he knew his smile, the silly grin he couldn't erase from his face, was going to be the first thing Joey saw that perfect morning.
Almost as on cue, Joey opened his eyes and smiled at him.
"'Morning, Joey." Chris whispered, and leaned down to kiss him. Joey's answer was to meet his kiss, and embrace him tighter.
And for the next minute, reality was forgotten.
* * *
Joey looked into Chris eyes and his heart ran faster. He had thought that he had seen every possible emotion in them: sadness, confusion, joy, mirth, embarrassment, lust, desire… but this one was new, and it was the one he had been wanting to see. Happiness. Absolute and complete happiness.
And he knew it was reflected back, because he never had felt so complete in his life.
"'Morning, Chris." He answered, as soon as they finished their first kiss of the day.
He wanted to stay like that forever. Just him and Chris, and fuck the rest of the world. But reality had a nasty way of intruding in his thoughts, and so, Joey knew they had to get up.
"Just imagine," he said, still smiling at Chris, getting out of the bed." Brian, AJ, Howie and Lance's expressions if your sisters wake up before them."
"You want to shower first?" Chris asked, and for a second Joey was surprised that there was no awkwardness in his voice. But then he saw the sincere gleam in Chris' eyes and all doubts were erased.
"I didn't bring clean clothes with me." He said, leaning down to kiss Chris again. Maybe it was corny, but he was quickly getting addicted to the taste of the older teacher's lips.
"I can loan you some." Chris grinned at Joey's doubtful expression. "I had this phase a few months ago when I always wore clothes a size or three bigger than me. I still have some of those around."
And so, after a quick shower, and another stolen kiss, Joey looked at his reflection as he wore a couple of jaded jeans that were almost a perfect fit, and an x-large t-shirt with a huge happy face. They went downstairs, silent since they discovered that Kate and Emily were still asleep, towards where Lance and Howie were sleeping. Before he opened the door thought, Joey turned around to kiss Chris. He wanted to explain him how things were between him and his bandmates, what secrets he kept, but he didn't want to say the words… He didn't want Chris to think that he was ashamed or something.
"I understand." Chris said, as if he had read Joey's mind. "Let's get them up so you guys can have some breakfast."
Joey smiled, amazed and kissed him again, trying to memorize Chris' taste, scent, everything, before he had to give him up.
Waking up Lance and Howie was no problem, both men were already up and had been talking when Joey and Chris entered the room. AJ and Brian were both asleep, and Joey had to stifle a laugh upon seeing AJ's covers all over the floor. After a quick conference with Howie and Lance, a small trip to the living room where Emily kept all her tapes, and a little effort moving the tv speakers towards the door of the guestroom, they woke up their friends to the sound of the best alarm they could find: A thousand girls yelling AJ and Brian's names.
Predictably enough, both men jumped out of the bed and were well into the living room before they realized that Lance, Howie, Joey and even Chris were laughing in the guestroom.
"Very funny…" AJ muttered, going to the kitchen to see if he could find some coffee. "It is too early for me to notice when the fans are yelling in Portuguese."
* * *
Lance thanked Chris as the teacher handed him a cup of coffee and scrambled eggs. If anyone had noticed that Joey wasn't wearing the same clothes as the night before, or that his hair was slightly wet, no one mentioned it, and breakfast was a very quiet event, until Emily entered the kitchen.
It was only 8:30, so his sister was still half asleep. She passed next to the guys, not really seeing them, right to the fridge, poured herself a glass of milk and took a slice of toast before heading out, barely mumbling a "G'd morning Chris."
Then she left, and Chris smiled at the others, mentally counting the seconds. When he reached 15, they all heard the sound of rushing steps down the stairs and Emily appeared again in the kitchen's doorstep, her eyes big as saucers.
"OH! THEY! WHEN? WHY? WHAT?!" She asked, looking from Chris to the guys at the table and then back to Chris.
"Yes, Emliy, you're not dreaming. They're here." Chris said,
putting his own cup on the table.
"Hi, Emily." Lance greeted, while Joey waved. Then he pointed
to Howie, AJ and Brian. "You know them, right?"
She nodded, and Chris almost laughed at the stunned look on his sister's face. She opened her mouth, closed it and opened it again, looking like a fish out of the water. Just when he was going to remind her she needed to breathe, Kate came bouncing down the stairs.
The guys had only a second to prepare themselves to the ear-shattering shriek that came out of Kate's mouth as soon as she saw the gathering in her mother's kitchen.
"Oh, my… Oh… Ah… Emily… Chris… They… We… Kitchen… here…" She began, really fast, hyperventilating. "When… What is going on here?!"
"Katie, don't make a scene." Chris scolded, walking towards her sister. "After all, it was you who called Howie and asked him to come."
"Howie?" Emily squealed and the Backstreet boy waved at her. "That Howie? Chris's Howie? Why you never told me you knew him?!"
"I just found out he was famous, Emily." He explained, shrugging. "You should ask Kate why she never told us."
"But… he's here!" Kate managed to breath. "With Brian and AJ and Lance and Joey and… Wait a second! Lance and Joey?! Didn't you guys hated each other?"
"Media exaggeration." Brian explained, drinking the last drops of his coffee.
"But don't tell anyone. It's too much fun." AJ smirked, and at that, the girls laughed.
As Chris served Emily a bowl of cereal and Kate made herself a sandwich, the two groups proceeded to explain the chain of coincidences and events that led to them having breakfast together at Chris' house. There was just a brief interruption when Emily pouted for not hearing her brother's most smashing performance after the 'choir thing' - and even when AJ and Lance asked again what was the 'choir thing', Chris managed to avoid the subject - and through it all, Chris was amazed that his sisters never mentioned that Joey was wearing his clothes.
* * *
"Thanks for letting us use your phone," Lance said, hanging up. He had spend ten minutes trying to reason with JC, who in Lance's opinion had crossed the line between natural worry and absolute paranoia, in the relative privacy of the Kirkpatrick's kitchen, while Brian, AJ and Howie agreed to sing something for the girls in the living room and Chris and Joey… well, they _had_ been in the living room the whole time too, but one had to be blind not to notice that both men were in a world of their own. They were not obvious about it: they weren't touching, and their eyes didn't meet all the time… But there was this… feeling… of familiarity between the two of them, that made Lance be convinced that everything was as it should be.
"No problem." Chris smiled, but Lance knew the smile was more directed at Joey than at him. "Everything's all right?"
"JC is freaking out."
"What else is new?" Joey interrupted, making Chris giggle. That made even Howie lift an eyebrow, since they all had the impression that Chris was too nervous about JC. Then, Howie turned to see Lance, and they shared a knowing look. That meant that they had to talk again before the Backstreet boys were back in Buffalo, because Lance had the feeling that Chris and Joey would need all the friends and support they could get.
"He's sending the limo back." Lance explained. "Kevin called to your hotel, and they're sending the bus. I don't know if you're in deep shit or not, but we're on house arrest until you are back in your own tour."
AJ shrugged. "That means we are in deep shit." Then he smiled at Kate and Emily. "You girls wanna go to the concert tonight?"
"You mean it?!" Emily squealed, unable to hide her excitement at the idea.
"Sure. We must have some backstage passes in the bus. "Brian agreed, before turning to see Chris. "What do you say, Chris? Can you take your sisters to Buffalo tonight?"
"Since you offered them backstage passes, Brian, I can't say no." Chris was smiling, but this time the smile didn't reach his voice, and Lance knew that finally, reality was starting to intrude in Chris' and Joey's bubble.
"Where are we going from here, Lance?" Joey asked, and his voice sounded a little sad too.
"Ci…"
"Cinncinatti!" Emily chipped in, and for a moment, Lance had the insane idea of inviting them to that concert too, but he managed to not say it out loud. Cinncinatti was a completely different state, and he doubted Chris would agree to drive that far.
"That's like 8 hours away from here…" Chris' suddenly said, wishfully.
"Can we go, Chris?" Emily asked, her eyes big with expectation, but her brother shook his head no.
"Sorry, Em. We have to go to school, remember?" He explained, and messed her hair. Lance nodded, understanding, but he was sure that he had heard more disappointment in Chris' voice than what he had seen in Emily's face.
"Hey, Cheer up! " Joey said, smiling, but Lance was almost sure that he had heard sadness tainting the older man's voice. "Your brother still owes us a tour around Albany today, so you still can have *N Sync all for yourself for one whole day!"
And Emily laughed, and Chris smiled too, a private smile he shared with Joey. But Lance was sure that behind Joey's words was sadness, because his friend knew that his time with Chris was quickly coming to an end.
* * *
Danny missed the limousine just for 15 minutes, Kate thought as she closed the door on her brother's annoying ex-boyfriend -lover, she knew, but she hated to use that word in connection with Daniel Windsor. And that was good. Chris hadn't told her he was supposed to meet with Danny that Sunday, so obviously her brother had forgot, and that was even better.
Sure, she would have forgotten every single important meeting of the day if she had been invited to hang with the man of her dreams too, but Chris never, ever, missed a meeting. Even if it was a dull meeting with Zeck at the High School, he was always there. Maybe late, but there.
And now, he had simply forgot Danny.
When Chris had told her about Joey, and what Danny had said, Kate had wanted to personally hunt and main/kill/castrate the jerk that called himself Chris' boyfriend. She had stood idle for two years watching the designer demean and humiliate Chris at every possible moment, convincing her brother that he wasn't good enough to be loved, that he wasn't special.
What was worse, Chris believed it.
So Kate had done the only thing possible, that was getting someone who Chris trusted completely and who was also in the stardom business. And watching his brother smile, really smile, when he was with Joey, she knew she had done the right thing.
Being able to slam the door on Danny's face had been her just reward.
* * *
Howie watched in silence as AJ amused Emily telling her about the time Kevin's pants fell on stage, Brian rolled his eyes, talking absentmindedly to Lance, and Joey and Chris sit silently, side by side.
He wasn't staring, and he hoped neither of his friends noticed his interest, because he knew that now and here wasn't the time to start talking about their relationship. Or about if they had a relationship. When he had went to the Cauldron, he had seen an almost broken Chris, a Chris who seemed to have given up all hopes of being loved.
This morning, Chris glowed. And Joey glowed too, so one had to be blind not to catch on with what was going on.
Perhaps AJ's glasses were too dark, Howie mused, and smiled.
Still, the scene before him had him puzzled. He had never thought Joey was gay. Of all the *N Sync guys, the Italian was the last one Howie would have believed to be even bisexual. But he was obviously smitten on Chris. And Chris… Chris was lost to the world. He couldn't even remember a time when he had seen Chris so absorbed with one person. Granted, he had only been Chris' roommate for two years and a half, but they had become good friends, and Howie had seen Chris in love.
Never like this, though.
His mind wandered back to the talk he had had with Lance that morning, before breakfast. They had compared notes, on what Lance had learned about Chris, what Howie knew about Chris, and what Lance had seen Joey do, and what Kate had told Howie. The result had been that they had a thing that could be great for both their friends, messed up in the middle of a mined camp.
Because, even when he was paranoiac and didn't know a thing of what was going on, JC had a point. Joey was Famous. He couldn't go anywhere without being recognized -except, apparently, some gay bars where distracted high school teachers went to wallow in their misery- and / or photographed. And one, just one picture of them together, would mean a media disaster for *N Sync. And for Chris too, because even when he was out, and everyone in his school knew it, the paparazzi wouldn't leave him alone. The peaceful house they had just left would become a media circus.
On the other hand, Joey traveled a lot. They were never in the same state for more than a week, two tops, and when he wasn't touring he was in Orlando. True, they had a lot of special appearances in NYC, but that didn't mean Joey would be able to escape towards Albany, traveling four hours in the highway, every time.
It had been at that point when Howie and Lance stopped talking about it, fully aware that they couldn't plan Joey and Chris' relationship when they hadn't told them if there was a relationship.
Joey looked up suddenly, meeting Howie' eyes and smiled, blushing a little as Howie shook his head.
And Howie smiled too, wondering if there was anyone in the car that wouldn't see that there was a relationship there.
* * *
As the limousine stopped in the back door of the hotel -there was no need to try and cross the multitude of girls around the *N Sync bus, because they didn't need to know the Backstreet Boys were there too- Joey sighed, and, by impulse, placed his hand on Chris' thigh, making the teacher look at him and smile, resigned.
They both knew that their time together was coming to an end, but Joey didn't want to resign to that. The night before had been one of the most wonderful in his life, and he didn't want to give that up.
At least not without a fight.
But first he needed to talk to Chris, to know if his lover agreed with him, because they hadn't had much time to talk at Chris' house, and now he had to face JC, who would be in a rotten mood, and then wait till the Backstreet Boys were back on his tour, all the while surrounded by his bandmates, so he wouldn't have a time for himself and Chris…
And then it was going to be time to pack, because they were leaving Monday, early in the morning.
Still, with his
hand on Chris' thigh, and watching Chris' smile, and Chris' gleaming happy
eyes, he could forget that for a second more, and stay in his dream for
a little while, before returning to reality.