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laniew1TITLE: The Guardians – Justin/JC – JC/AJ
Author: Melanie
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing at all, least of all those contained within.
This is going in strange and unusual places. Buckle your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
And I’d be interested to hear who everyone thinks JC should actually end up with, should Justin be propelled back to the ‘real world’, and what everyone’s thoughts are on what exactly happened. I’m not guaranteeing that any of that will be what happens, but I’d like to hear thoughts now that it’s underway. I know there are at least 3 people reading so…
Chapter 2
The pain was almost unbearable, JC pressed fingers to his temples. Small rhythmic movements to try and alleviate the pain. Trying to focus on anything besides the pain shooting through his eyeballs and forehead and temples… pretty much his entire head at this point.
Twenty minutes to show time. This was so not the time to get a migraine.
He wished momentarily that AJ was there. AJ had magic fingers that banished migraines and pain in general.
Sometimes following the massage there would be sex.
He almost jumped when he felt warms fingers at the back of his neck, digging deep into tightened muscles.
“Do you want me to get AJ?” he felt Megan’s breath against the back of his neck even as he shook his head.
Megan was just as good… he’d get rid of the pain, but there would be no sex. He felt a little disappointed in that and wished for AJ again.
But AJ would get pissed if he lost his spot. He always picked the one that gave him the best view of JC’s ass. AJ said it was the best one he’d ever seen.
JC thought he was a little biased.
“It’s just a little headache… I’ll be okay,” he murmured, eyes closed he pressed the palm of his hand to his forehead sighing.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t… Does something feel… off?” he queried softly.
“What do you mean?” her hands left his neck and when he opened his eyes she was crouched in front of him. Identical black t-shirt, identical black leather pants, black belt that denoted that they were partners. His eyes flickered away from her a moment and he could see Damian hovering by the door, identical clothing, red belt… he was probably waiting for a signal from either JC or Megan before he ran to get AJ.
“I don’t know,” he forced a weak smile to his face. “I’m probably just imagining things.”
“Hmm,” Megan’s reply was noncommittal as her head tilted to one side and she studied him.
“But everyone’s okay right?”
“Everyone’s fine.”
“Justin?”
“Is at Chris’ watching the show.”
“You’re sure?”
Megan grinned. “I’m positive. I don’t want to see AJ commit murder any more than you do… although it’s been kind of amusing to see what Justin keeps coming up with. He’s really taking this to whole new extremes.”
“I wish he’d stop,” JC closed his eyes again, head lolling forward as he rolled his shoulders.
“He’s in love with you.”
“He thinks he’s in love with me… but it doesn’t matter because I’m in love with AJ so…”
“You can’t be in love with two people?”
“If one of them is AJ? No. Besides I don’t think of Justin like that. He’s this little kid that was on MMC with me.”
“Justin hasn’t been a little kid for a while, and you and Justin have been friends for a long time…”
“I love AJ.”
“I know…”
“Justin’s just a friend, a close friend but that doesn’t mean that I want to have a relationship with him, I mean I have AJ why would I want anyone else?”
“We are not talking about your sex life.”
“I wasn’t…” JC smirked eyes opening, Damian was missing from the door which meant that Megan had issued either some unseen signal to go fetch AJ or he’d returned to his own partner. “What is it with you and sex anyway?”
“You’re like my brother JC,” Megan glared at him with a pained expression. “I don’t want to talk about sex with my brother, I don’t want to even think about my brother having sex… its bad enough when I have to hear it.”
“So don’t listen.”
“The hotel walls are thin, its unavoidable.”
“Like you don’t have sex.”
“I don’t,” Megan tossed her head and replied loftily. “Nick and I have a pure love.”
JC stared at her for about a half a second before bursting into laughter, holding his stomach with one hand he wiped at his eyes with the other. “A pure love, I’ll have to remember that,” he grinned widely.
“Glad to be of service,” she winked at him as she smoothly rose to her feet. “Now…” the door opening behind her cut her off and JC turned his attention to Damian who was moving out of the way to let AJ pass by him.
AJ stopped directly in front of him, nodding briefly at Megan before focusing his entire being on JC. Studying the smile on JC’s face, wet eyes.
“Megan took care of you already.”
“Did you know that Nick and Meggie have a pure love?”
“So what’s that screaming and moaning we hear… porn?”
“We don’t watch porn,” Megan wrinkled her nose as she touched AJ’s back lightly. “I’m going to make sure we’re all set.”
“I should…” JC made to stand, stopping when Megan waved him back.
“Let AJ do whatever it is that AJ does before a concert to put that big smirk on your face…”
“Sex,” AJ supplied helpfully, ignoring JC’s snickers and Megan’s horrified expression.
“Oh god…” Megan groaned backing towards the door. “Just… I’m going to check on the teams,” she said quickly, grabbing Damian’s arm as she passed by she hit the door with her hip and let it close behind them.
AJ easily slid into a crouch in front of JC, touching his cheek gently. “Migraine?”
“Meggie took my mind off of it and I’ll be okay once I get on stage.”
“Are they getting worse?”
“Just nerves… and you know, the stuff with Justin,” JC murmured leaning forward to rest his forehead against AJ’s. “Did you cancel the hit on him?”
“I wouldn’t put a hit out on Justin,” AJ said haughtily. “That’d be one thing I’d want to make sure got done right… so I’d do it myself.”
“AJ.”
“He’s in love with you.”
“And I’m in love with you. You don’t need to worry about Justin.”
“He’s your friend, you care about him…”
“I care about a lot of people; you don’t seem worried about any of them.”
“Justin’s been your friend for a long time. I know you don’t love him, but it could conceivably happen.”
“AJ…”
“It happened to us,” AJ said softly, leaning back their eyes locked together he continued. “When we started, we didn’t even like each other that much. It was months before it was more than just sex and we began caring about each other, liking each other… it was another year before either one of us realized that it was love… Just starting out, right at this moment you have more with Justin than you had with me at the beginning.”
“I’m not looking AJ,” JC traced his cheekbones, running a thumb over soft lips. “I love you, unless you leave me I’m not even going to look at someone else. I don’t want anyone else.”
“Don’t underestimate him… Justin is a determined young man.”
“I’m not worried about Justin.”
AJ gently captured a hand within his, pressing a kiss to the knuckles as he held it.
“I am.”
Justin stared at the poster adorning his bedroom wall.
He’d seen posters before; he’d posed for more than he could remember. But it was the first poster that he’d seen JC posed for that didn’t include him or one of the other guys and didn’t include one of JC’s trademark crazy outfits.
He knew who the other three people in the poster with him were though now.
The concert had been an… experience. And one he hoped that he wouldn’t have to repeat any time soon.
The singers, JC and his new counterparts – Damian, Megan, Sarah… they all had beautiful voices. Eerily beautiful voices that made Justin wonder if he had hit his head and was now unconscious stuck inside some freaky nightmare where everything he cared about was slowly stripped away from him.
But then Chris had smacked him and the pain had been real so he knew this was… real.
Just seeing JC dancing and singing, the same high energy that he’d always had during *NSYNC’s concerts but in a different band had left him feeling ill.
Now he could understand how the others felt when they’d seen his shows, him on stage, singing and dancing with people who weren’t them.
He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He didn’t even know where he was.
All he did know was that while *NSYNC was together (minus one member of course) they had reached nowhere near the magnitude of stardom that he’d known only a few short hours before when his life had been the one he knew.
And they were still name *NSYNC, a topic he’d forced once the concert was ever. He knew the story of how they’d gotten their name like the back of his hand, he’d told the story more times than he could remember. How the name had been pulled together by his mom from the last letters of each of their names; Lance becoming Lansten when he’d replaced Jason and Joshua becoming JC even though he’d really wanted to go back to Joshua.
His mom had still had her hand in the naming of the group but in an entirely different manner.
“It’s because the first time we sang we were all in harmony, you knowing singing in sync so…” Joey shrugged, “she played with it a little bit and came up with *NSYNC. We didn’t care we just wanted a name to bill ourselves as.”
Justin stared disbelief etched into every muscle on his face. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I’m telling your mom,” Chris shouted. “Wait til she hears her precious baby is trash talking her ideas now.”
Joey, sensing that he was feeling a little… odd, had graciously decided to fill him in on the gossip while Chris and Lance had been in the kitchen worrying about the state of his mental health.
The Backstreet Boys were still together and performing, a short break had been taken, but no one had gone into rehab and only Brian had gotten married. Although Joey confided softly the marriage was on shaky ground. Brian’s wife wanted him to quit the group and Brian refused.
“What about Nick?” Justin asked picking at a loose thread on the throw hanging over the back of the couch.
“What about him?”
“He didn’t do the solo album?”
“Solo album? He’s part of a group… besides the evil witch wants him to hold off while she tries to propel Aaron into superstardom.”
And then there was The Guardians… they were the *NSYNC of this crazy world. Except without being a boyband and having way more members.
“Really a lot of them are just dancers, but they’re all billed as official members. They just had a kick ass poster released.”
Their popularity knew no bounds… and both groups had managed to hold onto their fan bases even after JC and AJ had come out together.
JC and AJ… Justin wasn’t kidding himself, although he was confident in his ability to regain JC’s love.
Because their worlds weren’t that different, barring the group thing… his JC’d had feelings for both him and AJ as well, he’d just gotten there first and never left so AJ had never been an issue. But in this world AJ had gotten there first… so he’d just have to press his luck and show JC that what he could offer him was better than what AJ could.
Joey had told him to leave JC and AJ alone, pretty much worried for Justin’s life it seemed, warning him that AJ was a fighter… a nasty, dirty fighter who wouldn’t hesitate to drop him if he felt threatened.
Leaning forward, he peered closely at the poster. Standing back to back with JC, hands crossed over her chest and a smile on her face was Megan. Kneeling directly in front of them was Damian and Sarah. Visible on the left shoulders of Megan and Sarah’s t-shirts was a white circle. The Guardian’s and their names imprinted within its confines. He knew from watching the concert that if he could see JC and Damian’s left shoulders he’d see the exact same thing.
Where had JC’s individuality gone? The man that Justin loved, the one that he adored from the top of his wavy spiked hair to the tips of his sandaled-toe ring wearing feet, the man that would pretty much wear anything, despite what gender it would normally have been assigned to had seemingly vanished.
And Justin was making it his mission to find him and bring him back to him… where he belonged.
As soon as he figured out what the hell had happened to him.