Part 23


The restaurant beside Raine that JC had suggested they try turned out to be a semi-casual little sushi/sashimi bar and grill, and they decided to park their two cars behind it since the parking lot was less congested than the lot behind Raine. They both agreed on sushi ("'Cause there's always breath mints and gum, right?"), and Justin remembered that he'd eaten nothing all day except some cashews back at Avalon. And now that he was around JC again and feeling a bubbly calm washing in around his earlier anxiety, his appetite began to wake up and growl for more than icy vodka and fiery bourbon.

By chance, they found parking spots not too far from each other and walked to the restaurant shoulder to shoulder, talking and laughing and comfortably brushing their arms together, not even a drifting shadow of awkwardness or self-consciousness between then. A kind of melting-together vibe, a continuation of the rhythmic flow they had going on Friday night. It hadn't died down. It hadn't even faded a little. And inside the place and seated, their chitchat banter and stolen looks at each other carried on across the table like a natural progression.

"Are you totally sure this joint is okay? I mean there's like a thousand other food spots in walking distance of here, you know." JC was speaking softly, barely above a whisper, with his eyes cast downward, quickly skimming over the tall crisp four-page menu they'd been handed when they sat down. "Looks like they've got about 27 trillion damn pieces of all kinds of stuff to choose from on the thingy here, but if you don't see anything that suits your fancy or if, you know, nothing looks good to you, um, we can always take a hike somewhere else. I'm flexible -"

"JC," Justin broke into the cute ramble with a hushed hiss of the syllables of his name. He'd been watching JC from the other side of the table, smiling, eyes glimmering in the muted light from the Japanese rock garden next to them. "Chill out. This place is fine. I love this kind of 'grub.' And yes. I see plenty of things that suit my fancy……….things that look good to me."

JC glanced up at the feathery-light voice, at the warm smile, at the soft-blue eyes that were staring at him rather than at the other menu that still lay closed on the table beside Justin's elbow.

"I see plenty of things that suit my fancy……….things that look good to me."

JC grinned, the edge of his tongue sneaking out to wet his lower lip. "Okay. There's plenty to my liking right here too. Know what I mean? Guess we're staying."

"Then we can both be mutually satisfied?" Justin's smile curled upward, sinfully slick, on the right side of his mouth.

And JC felt the hot thud of reaction inside from his ribcage down to his groin. "Ah, well, I was hoping so."

"Then yeah. I totally know what you mean."

They opted for some mixed tempura and squid salad as an appetizer and then a chef's choice assortment for two of sushi and sashimi combo to share for dinner. Sake to drink was a given, and it made them high and giggly all over again. There a few incidents of fumbled chopsticks and accidental dropping of their rolls into the dipping sauces, spattering tiny colorful droplets on the white tablecloth. And easy, bright-eyed snickering from both of them through all of it.

"Damn! This might be fun if I weren't such a spazztastic klutz," JC laughed in a whisper. "Do you think Morimoto the waiter might bring me a bib or something? How do you say 'please' in Japanese? And, like, where did the dude go? Look at the mess I'm making, man!"

Justin bent forward over the table and laughed. "You're not a spazztastic klutz. And it is fun. Lots of fun. I'm making as big a mess as you are. But you know what? What the hell? I'll take care of it. I'll leave Iron Chef Beverly Hills a big, honking tip. 'Kay?"

"Look-the-other-fucking-way money?"

"Exactly."

JC figured he hadn't smiled and grinned this much since he couldn't remember when. It was fun. "You're so crazy, Timberlake."

At a quiet point in the meal, Justin stopped eating and whispered to him over the table. "Man, I'm still all blown away by how musical you are, JC," You play the piano and sing. You just picked up that song I asked for so quick. Like it was nothing. Like a natural."

JC prodded a piece of seared tuna on his little square plate. "Ah, I've been around instruments and performed in choruses and musicals and plays and productions and stuff like that all through school. I'm kind of used to it. I guess it does come sort of naturally to me now. It's kind of in my blood, I guess you could say."

"So do you know the guitar too? Didn't you say you were trying to sell one in the classifieds that day we first spoke on the phone?"

JC nodded, dabbing his mouth with the cotton napkin. "Yeah, okay. I've messed around with the guitar too some over the years. It's been a while now. Not much since I came out to L.A. So yes again. I'm looking to get rid of it. Know any takers?"

"Maybe moi."

"You?"

Justin lifted his eyebrows just slightly. "I used to play a little, back in the day."

"No kidding? Really?" JC's eyes brightened.

Justin shrugged, a faint red rising to his cheeks from the sake. "Yeah. A little. I can read some music when I try. And maybe I could use a guitar around the house now, for when I want to pick it up and tinker with it again. Never know when the urge will hit ya."

"Then it's yours. Done deal." JC smiled and knocked Justin's leg with his own beneath the table.

For a moment, Justin watched him from across the table, wanting to be touched by those long, slim fingers like that bite of sushi as being touched, wanting to be lifted up and brought to that warm, full mouth, those dark-pink lips, wanting, aching to be savored like that by him.

Um, are you flirting with me?

Um, you can bet your nice ass I am.

"That song you sang back at Avalon. The one before 'This I Promise You.' I've never heard it before. Where'd you find it?"

JC raised his eyes and swallowed slowly. "I didn't. It found me."

"What?"

JC hesitated, darting his gaze away. And Justin recognized it this time as humbleness.

"I, well, wrote that one. Me and my buddy Tony. We came up with it together."

"For real?"

"Yep. He and I used to run together in Orlando years ago and then somehow hooked up again out here in L.A. He's the regular entertainment at Avalon. He plays guitar mostly and performs his own stuff. Except on the weekends. That's when he takes his little solo act to clubs and small venues around the So-Cal/Vegas area. And he got me the job there to fill in for him when he's gone. See? That's the story."

Justin's senses reeled, not as much from the sake as from each new bit of information he kept discovering about JC. "Wow. That's amazing. You've got a cool connection in the business. And you wrote your own song."

"I helped write it."

"Well, it was a great song. No dorkus-ness or Velveeta-cheesy-ass-ness about it. I'm adding it to your growing list of talents, man. That's so awesome. You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

JC laughed shyly. "Hey, look. We can go and check out Lucca - I mean Tony - his show sometime if you want. I think you'd dig his stuff."

Justin thought he'd dig it too. Just because JC did. "Yeah, sure. That'd be awesome. I'd love to."

He caught himself staring at JC's slow, liquid-like movements yet again. The way the structured angles of his face softened in the flickering light of the candle on the table. The way that same warm light made the caramel strands scattered through his dark hair glow and writhe. The way those slender fingers slid around the black tapered chopstick and stabbed the pointed ends at a plump grain of rice. The curve of his jaw line, the slant of his high cheekbones, the rounded tip of his nose.

"It all fits together so perfectly, so handsomely," he whispered, not realizing he'd spoken aloud until the distracted hush slid over his own eardrums.

"Come again?" JC leaned forward and smiled at him (i.e., busted him), the low lights in the restaurant giving his eyes more radiance. "I didn't catch that."

"Um, I was just thinking over here about how perfect your life seems, how easily you've arranged all the different - way different - parts together and made it all fit and work so beautifully for you," Justin tried to slink his way out of that one.

JC shrugged and scrunched his nose. "You think so? And here I was envying all that stability and structure you've got going on in your little world, man. How you don't have to worry about a crazy-ass, always-changing schedule and juggling 29 part-time jobs and shit."

"Stability and structure." Justin snickered. "Fuck. It even sounds boring."

JC grinned. "Well, being all over the damn place every single day isn't as exciting as you might think."

"Maybe there's a happy in-the-middle. A mix of both that's just right."

JC rubbed his shin against Justin's below the table again and held his eyes. "Hmm. Well, sounds like you nailed it, eh? You and me? This? A happy little in-the-middle?"

Justin's slow-burn smile oozed and spread across his face, warmth from JC's leg racing up through him. "So……….do you still want to get a drink over at Raine?"

Or are you thinking exactly what I'm thinking - that we could go some place else instead? Some place more private?

JC winked. Or did he?

"Maybe just one."

~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~

They had exactly two drinks next door at Raine - two bottled beers each - only because the sake and the soy and the other spicy sauces at dinner had made them terribly thirsty. But they didn't sit down while they drank them. Instead, they toured around the interior of the packed, loud club, side by side, both of them bristling with the same antsy current.

And they didn't even need to talk about it, didn't need to talk about much at all, in fact. It was simply there, connecting them, moving them along, whispering to them both that coming into Raine was just a formality, something to do merely because they'd planned to do it.

They let it, the current, sweep them through the moments. A sharp awareness of each other's body so warm and so close, a breathless anticipation that simmered so near the surface and flared up every time their hips rocked against each other or their hands brushed together. A thick, humid desire to be away from all of these other people, to be in a place all their own, alone with each other.

Outside in the parking lot again, Justin sighed out a deep breath and sucked in the fresh air as he leaned his butt against the door of his car, his heart thumping madly in his chest, every muscle he had wound up as tight as piano wire. JC stood directly in front of him, ghostly inches away, and in JC's close expression, he saw the same wild, flushed look that he felt in himself. He saw the hotness of it spread like brush fires from their eyes down to their crotches. A fierce and unrestrained want, a burning and determined hunger.

A night breeze whisked over their faces, cooling the sheen of perspiration on their skin, heating the blood in their veins. In the distance around them, others, mostly guys from Raine, chatted and wandered to their rides, noticing nothing out of the ordinary about two guys huddled up together against the side of a car. JC stepped closer until their kneecaps, through their slacks, touched.

"Justin………I think I might fucking explode if I don't kiss you right now," he rasped. And Justin could hear the hot breath hitching itself in his throat.

"I'd feel just awful if you, you know, exploded," he answered in a thick whisper. Paralyzed to move any other part of himself, he reached his hand up to grasp the slim hip so close to his own. "C'mere, JC. Please."

And JC didn't need to be pulled into the kiss. He'd already made up his mind about what he wanted, had already started falling toward Justin, toward those hot, red lips before they even finished beckoning him with their soft words. Both his hands grabbed Justin's waist on each side, and he body-slammed him backward against the car, pressing himself into Justin's warmth, seizing the heat of Justin's mouth with his own. Tasting Justin, giving himself to Justin to taste.

It was a kiss of wet fire, aggressive and consuming, lips sucking greedily on lips, tongues seeking entry into warm places they'd never probed before and sliding together, smooth and sleek. Feeling Justin's hands holding his hips, Justin's heart pounding beneath the weight of his body, and Justin's erection thudding solid against his own hardness, he writhed against him with their mouths joined, an intense warm melting sensation rippling all over them, plunging them both breathlessly deeper into each other for the first sweet, hot time.

"It's too……….too much……….and so not enough," he growled out steam against Justin's cheek when they broke for oxygen.

Justin, panting, long eyelashes fluttering, didn't let go of him for a second, didn't let him move even an inch off him. Two long, lean bodies pressing shared heat together. "Definitely not enough……….want more."

"What a bitch about having both our cars……….but, well, my place is probably closer……….if you want to……….you know."

"Yessss. Of course……….I want to. Did you even have to ask?"

"No. Felt it," JC whispered.

"Same here," Justin hissed and caressed one of the prominent cheekbones on JC's face with his lips, like he'd been aching to do for forever. "Two cars. Minor technicality. Can be dealt with."

"Then you're okay to drive? To follow me there?"

"I'll manage." Justin giggled, his mouth sliding over JC's nose to the other cheekbone. "I might even get some steering help. From down below."

JC smiled and shuddered when Justin pushed a gentle thrust against his swollen erection, a tiny shiver down the back of his neck like a fever. "Yeah. I've got that same problem."

"I know. Felt it."

"I'll lead the way. Okay? And we've got our cells if we get separated."

"We won't. And hey. Let's fucking hurry."

JC laughed quietly and kissed the thick tip of Justin's nose. Because he could now. Damn, this felt good.

"We could stay here, you know. Just like this."

Slivers of moonlight glinted in Justin's narrowed blue eyes. "We'd get arrested for some severe public indecency because - hello? - 'not enough.' Remember?"

"You crack me the hell up, Timberlake." JC let out another wispy giggle. "So let's hit it."

"I'm right behind you, man."

"Cool."



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