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laniew1As first dates went, theirs was pretty uneventful considering.
TITLE: Every Good Plan… Has A First Date – JC/Britney, JC/Justin UST
SERIES: Every Good Plan
Author: Melanie
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing at all, least of all those contained within.
Read these first …
Every Good Plan… Has A Beginning
Every Good Plan… Has Its Opposition
Every Good Plan… Has A First Date
As first dates went, theirs was pretty uneventful considering.
It happened two days after the start of The Plan and had only been delayed that long because although they had two events in their schedules in common JC had insisted that he needed to take some of that time to tell his parents about the plan.
He didn’t want his father to think that just because he and Britney were ‘dating’ that grandchildren were imminent.
He’d told her that they’d been open and if not totally supportive, then mostly supportive when he came out. His mother only tried to set him up with old high school girlfriends once a year now.
The fact that he was currently ‘dating’ Britney would come as something of a shock.
So four people knew, the two of them and JC’s parents, she didn’t dare tell her mother (even though JC insisted that it was okay) because from past experience she was sure that her mother couldn’t keep a secret and the truth would end up on the cover of People.
A simple Indy movie premiere, a film she only even knew about because a friend of a friend was starring in it, happened to be their official coming out. It had worked out great for both parties.
She’d let JC dress himself because she didn’t want to be accused by either Chris, acting on Justin’s behalf, or the public (i.e. *NSYNC’s rabid fans) of trying to change him. Once he had figured out what he was wearing she had coordinated her wardrobe for the night with it.
He’d been amazingly low key, she’d been truly surprised.
Chris had scowled at her for an hour after they had all met up. Although part of that might have been the fact that she and JC had tried to ditch him. They had bodyguards why did they need Chris too.
Chris had of course tagged along; she had honestly expected nothing less. Britney was sure that he thought if he left them alone for more than 30 seconds they’d wind up married. If they were in Vegas that might have been the case. Nothing made someone more desirable than being unavailable. Justin would have swooped in and had the marriage annulled in less than an hour, Lance could be very helpful that way she figured.
She actually felt kind of bad for Chris. Caught in the middle, watching JC for Justin, then getting screamed at by Justin for not watching close enough. If she’d been Chris she would have walked away and told Justin to wake the hell up.
Poor Chris had already had the distinct misfortune of being the barer of the bad news of JC’s new relationship; he’d had to listen to Justin scream for 30 minutes straight about it. Justin had refused to be placated and the only way Chris had got him to even hang up and go perform was to promise that JC and Britney would never be alone for a single moment.
Britney knew all this because a) Justin’s voice when he was screaming carried a great distance and b) she’d been eavesdropping.
When they’d arrived at the premiere she’d drawn a deep breath, had squeezed JC’s hands and then the door had opened.
They’d been practically blinded by the flashbulbs the moment they stepped out of the limo, JC exiting first, his hand secure around hers as he assisted her out. Smiling, waving, ignoring the gasps from the crowd as they realized who had arrived together, attempting but not altogether succeeding in ignoring the press… the paparazzi were practically salivating at the sight of them together.
They’d walked the sky blue carpet (Britney wondered if they’d ever go back to red carpets… maybe if she ever made another movie she’d put in an early vote for the red, they were so much classier) arm in arm, Chris moseying along behind them.
To anyone’s eyes they’d looked very much like the picture perfect happy couple (all those months of pretending with Bobbi had certainly honed JC’s skills), with a chaperone. They smiled at the fans lined up on both sides, stopped to chat with the various entertainment crews who were shuffling for position practically assaulting each other in order to be the first to get an interview with the new couple.
She’d guaranteed JC in one of their miniscule private moments (they’d had two when Chris had been out of earshot or distracted) that from the way their pictures were being snapped and the amount of interviews they’d been cornered for (more than the movies stars), that they had at least one cover, a headline and a blip on either E!News or Entertainment Tonight.
She’d placed her bets on E!News, but at the time she hadn’t been sure if Entertainment Tonight would have a slow night or not.
Chris had managed to slide his way into the first two of the seventeen pictures that had been taken before the photographers figured out that they had to be pretty damn quick with the shutter finger if they didn’t want an unwanted third party in their ‘exclusive photos’ of JC and Britney’s first night out on the town together as a couple.
The news crews were better; they just sort of shoved him out of the way or kept the camera tight on JC and Britney.
Chris had probably been having nightmares, fearing for his life ever since then of Justin’s reaction to those same pictures. Probably envisioning Justin killing him slowly for allowing the other fifteen.
The one that had been printed on the cover of both People and US Weekly had been one of their ‘private moments’.
Chris had been distracted by the arrival of a braless Kirsten Dunst on the arm of Tobey Maguire and JC had taken the moment to whisper something inane in her ear.
That was the shot on the covers of the magazines she was staring at. JC ducking down to whisper in her ear, her face angled up towards him. Both of them smiling, very obviously happy.
The new Pop Prince and Pop Princess, JC had almost fallen over himself laughing at that. The magazines had short memory spans. She’d missed the magazine but supposedly just over a month prior Justin had been the Pop Prince and JC had barely been mentioned in the article.
Britney had pointed out that the article for Justin and Cameron had not even included pictures of the couple together… they at least had fifteen shots of the two of them together from that night, they’d also included a couple from when they’d been on the MMC which disturbed her slightly because they had been just friends then and a couple of group ones that included her with *NSYNC.
She wondered if they’d held the cover specifically for them, wondered how they’d managed to put the stories together so quickly. Did they have some stockpile of stories that they used or had someone from their management sides leaked the information on them?
It was unsurprising that though they’d included a picture of her with Justin (chronicling past relationships), that the two that had Chris hanging between them had not been included in the article.
She could swear she almost heard Justin screaming from his hotel room.
******************************************************************************
Justin threw the magazine on the floor; Trace had gotten him the People because the article was longer and had more pictures. He wondered if the US Weekly with the shorter article and less pictures had more in the way of truth.
It was lies, all lies! JC was gay, he’d told Justin this when he was fourteen… and had been in love with him since he was seventeen, which he hadn’t told Justin but that’s what Joey had assured him.
He stomped on the cover repeatedly, making sure to hit Britney’s face and not JC’s with his sneakered feet. It wasn’t Jace’s fault after all that he’d been drawn into Brit’s web
JC was a trusting soul and obviously Britney had given him some sob story and he’d decided to go along with it without sharing the story with anyone so now no one knew what was going on.
It wasn’t JC’s fault. It was his, between him and Joey they tried to make sure JC kept out of trouble, they didn’t always succeed but they always tried. When he wandered around alone he tended to attract trouble like bees to honey.
But everyone had been busy, even JC had been busy recording so they’d thought he’d be safe locked up in his studio. Chris had been the first to realize that JC was out of the studio and wandering around town alone when they’d filmed their congratulations speech for Lance.
Chris and Justin had talked, Justin had the tour, Joey had family commitments, also known as ‘the wedding that Kelly would kill them all if they interfered with’, Lance had ‘something’ that he couldn’t talk about, Chris had pretty much nothing so he’d cleared what was left on his schedule and flown to JC’s next known stop.
Then all hell had broken loose.
Justin could remember the phone call vividly. He’d not been at his best. He’d been tired and cranky, wondering if this was all worth it and Chris had woken him up.
He knew he’d yelled, knew he’d insulted Chris on pretty much every level known to man, as well as some biological ones. He owed him about a hundred apologies and about fifty cases of beer.
Cameron hadn’t spoken to him for two hours because she was afraid of him going off on her. Of course a lot of that had been because once Justin had told her and Christina what had happened they had both started laughing… hysterically.
He hadn’t thought it very funny.
He still didn’t think it was very funny.
JC was being used by Britney in some nefarious scheme that Justin hadn’t been able to put a finger on yet but once he did he’d make sure she paid dearly. Nobody messed with what was his. And JC was his… he just didn’t know it yet.
He’d made his decisions, had been getting ready to act on them once the North American tour was over, Cameron had been boosting his confidence while she spent girly time with Christina. Something about studying the life of a popstar life for her next movie.
To him it just looked like they spent a lot of time getting manicures and making fun of him.
He’d been gearing up for telling JC the truth, practicing it in front of the mirror (he’d practiced in front of Trace, Cameron and Christina but they kept stopping him and making stupid comments) so he didn’t screw it up when he finally had JC right in front of him to say it to. Then it seemed hell had frozen over and Britney had cut him off at the pass. Stealing JC right out from under him.
Cameron and Christina had been quite amused. They’d both told him not to wait.
Life was not fair. He hadn’t cheated on his girlfriend and then been rewarded by getting the man of her dreams.
“You done killing the magazine?” Christina was smirking in the doorway, Cameron hovering behind her. They were both too amused by the whole thing. He needed to find different friends.
The fact that Britney had started dating JC just as Justin had decided to be honest with everyone had been a constant source of amusement for the last five days. He was very tired of being the butt of their jokes and sly innuendoes.
Christina had never hesitated to tell him that as much as she wanted Cameron on the tour that it was a bad idea. That since Cameron wasn’t telling anyone about her next role that everyone was going to get the wrong idea about her being there. He had managed to restrain himself from pointing out that 75% of the population already thought they were dating so how much more of a wrong idea could they get.
“I don’t think he’s even close yet,” Cameron that time. Grinning widely. “You can still see Britney’s face.”
“Probably would have been better off going outside and walking through some mud puddles or dog shit, it would have disfigured her quicker,” Christina again. Justin scowled.
“There’s fifteen pictures of JC and Britney together in there. They did a whole photo spread,” Trace pointed out ever-so-helpfully from the couch. His voice sounded amused, Justin’s scowl deepened.
“Fifteen huh?” Christina walked into the room, shoving Justin out of the way so she could pick the magazine up. Flipping easily to the Cover Story, complete with pictures. “They have more than that… there’s a handful of ones from MMC and a couple from when you were dating her.”
Justin snarled, Christina winked before she busied herself scanning the article. Probably looking for a mention of herself. There was one, a note that Britney’s ex was currently on tour with her music rival.
“Those don’t count,” Trace said. “They weren’t dating then.”
“Who’s to say,” Cameron shrugged. Nudging Christina over she flopped down beside her, scanning the article over her shoulder. “They look really cute together.”
“They do not look good together,” Justin snarled, ignoring the looks that his three friends shared. “She’s a manipulative bitch and she’s using him for…for something.”
“Riiiight,” Christina relaxed back on the couch, shifting slightly so she could lay her legs over Trace’s. “For what purpose is she using him exactly?”
“I don’t know,” Justin was frustrated. “He hasn’t told us yet.”
“You said Chris talked to him,” Trace reminded him.
“So…”
“Well JC can’t lie; it’s a known fact… why does Chris think they’re dating if they’re not dating?”
“Maybe JC’s just embracing his newfound bisexuality,” Christina winked at him.
“’tina…”
“He did date girls for years before he came out, he must have found something interesting about them.”
“Trace you’re not helping,” Justin muttered. At times like this he wished he had hair, just so he could pull it out.
“Didn’t know I was supposed to be,” Trace plucked the magazine out of Christina’s hands, dropping the one he’d been looking at in her lap as an exchange. He ignored Justin’s growl. “I don’t know why this is such a big deal…”
“Trace give him a break,” Cameron grinned. “I mean it’s not every day that your ex-girlfriend swoops in and steals your guy.”
“He could take Britney.”
“You guys are just a barrel of laughs.”
“And you call yourself a genius,” Christina rolled her eyes. “If you’re so worried about JC why don’t you call and talk to him instead of leaving it up to Chris to determine what’s true and what’s not. I mean I know you trust him but come on.”
“He’s probably afraid that Brit’s going to answer,” Cameron grinned.
“I think he’s more afraid that JC’s going to say ‘yes, I’m currently dating Britney’…”
Justin sighed, rubbing his head. Wondering where he’d hidden his razor, his hair needed a trim. He ignored his friends’ laughter and comments. He held solace in the fact that Chris hadn’t been real amused by the fact that JC and Britney were dating. In fact he’d been hyperventilating when he called. Justin had to make him get a paper bag to breathe into before Chris could even tell him what was going on.
When he got home he really needed to look into getting new friends… ones that would support him in his misery… not make fun of him.
******************************************************************************
TITLE: Every Good Plan… Has A First Date – JC/Britney, JC/Justin UST
SERIES: Every Good Plan
Author: Melanie
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing at all, least of all those contained within.
Read these first …
Every Good Plan… Has A Beginning
Every Good Plan… Has Its Opposition
Every Good Plan… Has A First Date
As first dates went, theirs was pretty uneventful considering.
It happened two days after the start of The Plan and had only been delayed that long because although they had two events in their schedules in common JC had insisted that he needed to take some of that time to tell his parents about the plan.
He didn’t want his father to think that just because he and Britney were ‘dating’ that grandchildren were imminent.
He’d told her that they’d been open and if not totally supportive, then mostly supportive when he came out. His mother only tried to set him up with old high school girlfriends once a year now.
The fact that he was currently ‘dating’ Britney would come as something of a shock.
So four people knew, the two of them and JC’s parents, she didn’t dare tell her mother (even though JC insisted that it was okay) because from past experience she was sure that her mother couldn’t keep a secret and the truth would end up on the cover of People.
A simple Indy movie premiere, a film she only even knew about because a friend of a friend was starring in it, happened to be their official coming out. It had worked out great for both parties.
She’d let JC dress himself because she didn’t want to be accused by either Chris, acting on Justin’s behalf, or the public (i.e. *NSYNC’s rabid fans) of trying to change him. Once he had figured out what he was wearing she had coordinated her wardrobe for the night with it.
He’d been amazingly low key, she’d been truly surprised.
Chris had scowled at her for an hour after they had all met up. Although part of that might have been the fact that she and JC had tried to ditch him. They had bodyguards why did they need Chris too.
Chris had of course tagged along; she had honestly expected nothing less. Britney was sure that he thought if he left them alone for more than 30 seconds they’d wind up married. If they were in Vegas that might have been the case. Nothing made someone more desirable than being unavailable. Justin would have swooped in and had the marriage annulled in less than an hour, Lance could be very helpful that way she figured.
She actually felt kind of bad for Chris. Caught in the middle, watching JC for Justin, then getting screamed at by Justin for not watching close enough. If she’d been Chris she would have walked away and told Justin to wake the hell up.
Poor Chris had already had the distinct misfortune of being the barer of the bad news of JC’s new relationship; he’d had to listen to Justin scream for 30 minutes straight about it. Justin had refused to be placated and the only way Chris had got him to even hang up and go perform was to promise that JC and Britney would never be alone for a single moment.
Britney knew all this because a) Justin’s voice when he was screaming carried a great distance and b) she’d been eavesdropping.
When they’d arrived at the premiere she’d drawn a deep breath, had squeezed JC’s hands and then the door had opened.
They’d been practically blinded by the flashbulbs the moment they stepped out of the limo, JC exiting first, his hand secure around hers as he assisted her out. Smiling, waving, ignoring the gasps from the crowd as they realized who had arrived together, attempting but not altogether succeeding in ignoring the press… the paparazzi were practically salivating at the sight of them together.
They’d walked the sky blue carpet (Britney wondered if they’d ever go back to red carpets… maybe if she ever made another movie she’d put in an early vote for the red, they were so much classier) arm in arm, Chris moseying along behind them.
To anyone’s eyes they’d looked very much like the picture perfect happy couple (all those months of pretending with Bobbi had certainly honed JC’s skills), with a chaperone. They smiled at the fans lined up on both sides, stopped to chat with the various entertainment crews who were shuffling for position practically assaulting each other in order to be the first to get an interview with the new couple.
She’d guaranteed JC in one of their miniscule private moments (they’d had two when Chris had been out of earshot or distracted) that from the way their pictures were being snapped and the amount of interviews they’d been cornered for (more than the movies stars), that they had at least one cover, a headline and a blip on either E!News or Entertainment Tonight.
She’d placed her bets on E!News, but at the time she hadn’t been sure if Entertainment Tonight would have a slow night or not.
Chris had managed to slide his way into the first two of the seventeen pictures that had been taken before the photographers figured out that they had to be pretty damn quick with the shutter finger if they didn’t want an unwanted third party in their ‘exclusive photos’ of JC and Britney’s first night out on the town together as a couple.
The news crews were better; they just sort of shoved him out of the way or kept the camera tight on JC and Britney.
Chris had probably been having nightmares, fearing for his life ever since then of Justin’s reaction to those same pictures. Probably envisioning Justin killing him slowly for allowing the other fifteen.
The one that had been printed on the cover of both People and US Weekly had been one of their ‘private moments’.
Chris had been distracted by the arrival of a braless Kirsten Dunst on the arm of Tobey Maguire and JC had taken the moment to whisper something inane in her ear.
That was the shot on the covers of the magazines she was staring at. JC ducking down to whisper in her ear, her face angled up towards him. Both of them smiling, very obviously happy.
The new Pop Prince and Pop Princess, JC had almost fallen over himself laughing at that. The magazines had short memory spans. She’d missed the magazine but supposedly just over a month prior Justin had been the Pop Prince and JC had barely been mentioned in the article.
Britney had pointed out that the article for Justin and Cameron had not even included pictures of the couple together… they at least had fifteen shots of the two of them together from that night, they’d also included a couple from when they’d been on the MMC which disturbed her slightly because they had been just friends then and a couple of group ones that included her with *NSYNC.
She wondered if they’d held the cover specifically for them, wondered how they’d managed to put the stories together so quickly. Did they have some stockpile of stories that they used or had someone from their management sides leaked the information on them?
It was unsurprising that though they’d included a picture of her with Justin (chronicling past relationships), that the two that had Chris hanging between them had not been included in the article.
She could swear she almost heard Justin screaming from his hotel room.
Justin threw the magazine on the floor; Trace had gotten him the People because the article was longer and had more pictures. He wondered if the US Weekly with the shorter article and less pictures had more in the way of truth.
It was lies, all lies! JC was gay, he’d told Justin this when he was fourteen… and had been in love with him since he was seventeen, which he hadn’t told Justin but that’s what Joey had assured him.
He stomped on the cover repeatedly, making sure to hit Britney’s face and not JC’s with his sneakered feet. It wasn’t Jace’s fault after all that he’d been drawn into Brit’s web
JC was a trusting soul and obviously Britney had given him some sob story and he’d decided to go along with it without sharing the story with anyone so now no one knew what was going on.
It wasn’t JC’s fault. It was his, between him and Joey they tried to make sure JC kept out of trouble, they didn’t always succeed but they always tried. When he wandered around alone he tended to attract trouble like bees to honey.
But everyone had been busy, even JC had been busy recording so they’d thought he’d be safe locked up in his studio. Chris had been the first to realize that JC was out of the studio and wandering around town alone when they’d filmed their congratulations speech for Lance.
Chris and Justin had talked, Justin had the tour, Joey had family commitments, also known as ‘the wedding that Kelly would kill them all if they interfered with’, Lance had ‘something’ that he couldn’t talk about, Chris had pretty much nothing so he’d cleared what was left on his schedule and flown to JC’s next known stop.
Then all hell had broken loose.
Justin could remember the phone call vividly. He’d not been at his best. He’d been tired and cranky, wondering if this was all worth it and Chris had woken him up.
He knew he’d yelled, knew he’d insulted Chris on pretty much every level known to man, as well as some biological ones. He owed him about a hundred apologies and about fifty cases of beer.
Cameron hadn’t spoken to him for two hours because she was afraid of him going off on her. Of course a lot of that had been because once Justin had told her and Christina what had happened they had both started laughing… hysterically.
He hadn’t thought it very funny.
He still didn’t think it was very funny.
JC was being used by Britney in some nefarious scheme that Justin hadn’t been able to put a finger on yet but once he did he’d make sure she paid dearly. Nobody messed with what was his. And JC was his… he just didn’t know it yet.
He’d made his decisions, had been getting ready to act on them once the North American tour was over, Cameron had been boosting his confidence while she spent girly time with Christina. Something about studying the life of a popstar life for her next movie.
To him it just looked like they spent a lot of time getting manicures and making fun of him.
He’d been gearing up for telling JC the truth, practicing it in front of the mirror (he’d practiced in front of Trace, Cameron and Christina but they kept stopping him and making stupid comments) so he didn’t screw it up when he finally had JC right in front of him to say it to. Then it seemed hell had frozen over and Britney had cut him off at the pass. Stealing JC right out from under him.
Cameron and Christina had been quite amused. They’d both told him not to wait.
Life was not fair. He hadn’t cheated on his girlfriend and then been rewarded by getting the man of her dreams.
“You done killing the magazine?” Christina was smirking in the doorway, Cameron hovering behind her. They were both too amused by the whole thing. He needed to find different friends.
The fact that Britney had started dating JC just as Justin had decided to be honest with everyone had been a constant source of amusement for the last five days. He was very tired of being the butt of their jokes and sly innuendoes.
Christina had never hesitated to tell him that as much as she wanted Cameron on the tour that it was a bad idea. That since Cameron wasn’t telling anyone about her next role that everyone was going to get the wrong idea about her being there. He had managed to restrain himself from pointing out that 75% of the population already thought they were dating so how much more of a wrong idea could they get.
“I don’t think he’s even close yet,” Cameron that time. Grinning widely. “You can still see Britney’s face.”
“Probably would have been better off going outside and walking through some mud puddles or dog shit, it would have disfigured her quicker,” Christina again. Justin scowled.
“There’s fifteen pictures of JC and Britney together in there. They did a whole photo spread,” Trace pointed out ever-so-helpfully from the couch. His voice sounded amused, Justin’s scowl deepened.
“Fifteen huh?” Christina walked into the room, shoving Justin out of the way so she could pick the magazine up. Flipping easily to the Cover Story, complete with pictures. “They have more than that… there’s a handful of ones from MMC and a couple from when you were dating her.”
Justin snarled, Christina winked before she busied herself scanning the article. Probably looking for a mention of herself. There was one, a note that Britney’s ex was currently on tour with her music rival.
“Those don’t count,” Trace said. “They weren’t dating then.”
“Who’s to say,” Cameron shrugged. Nudging Christina over she flopped down beside her, scanning the article over her shoulder. “They look really cute together.”
“They do not look good together,” Justin snarled, ignoring the looks that his three friends shared. “She’s a manipulative bitch and she’s using him for…for something.”
“Riiiight,” Christina relaxed back on the couch, shifting slightly so she could lay her legs over Trace’s. “For what purpose is she using him exactly?”
“I don’t know,” Justin was frustrated. “He hasn’t told us yet.”
“You said Chris talked to him,” Trace reminded him.
“So…”
“Well JC can’t lie; it’s a known fact… why does Chris think they’re dating if they’re not dating?”
“Maybe JC’s just embracing his newfound bisexuality,” Christina winked at him.
“’tina…”
“He did date girls for years before he came out, he must have found something interesting about them.”
“Trace you’re not helping,” Justin muttered. At times like this he wished he had hair, just so he could pull it out.
“Didn’t know I was supposed to be,” Trace plucked the magazine out of Christina’s hands, dropping the one he’d been looking at in her lap as an exchange. He ignored Justin’s growl. “I don’t know why this is such a big deal…”
“Trace give him a break,” Cameron grinned. “I mean it’s not every day that your ex-girlfriend swoops in and steals your guy.”
“He could take Britney.”
“You guys are just a barrel of laughs.”
“And you call yourself a genius,” Christina rolled her eyes. “If you’re so worried about JC why don’t you call and talk to him instead of leaving it up to Chris to determine what’s true and what’s not. I mean I know you trust him but come on.”
“He’s probably afraid that Brit’s going to answer,” Cameron grinned.
“I think he’s more afraid that JC’s going to say ‘yes, I’m currently dating Britney’…”
Justin sighed, rubbing his head. Wondering where he’d hidden his razor, his hair needed a trim. He ignored his friends’ laughter and comments. He held solace in the fact that Chris hadn’t been real amused by the fact that JC and Britney were dating. In fact he’d been hyperventilating when he called. Justin had to make him get a paper bag to breathe into before Chris could even tell him what was going on.
When he got home he really needed to look into getting new friends… ones that would support him in his misery… not make fun of him.
