"I knew it," Justin says, smiles.
"Just don't go checkin' out my ass, now," Chris says.
Joey doesn't say anything. JC thinks he's pissed, because JC's known him longest but never said anything. Joey apologizes after a few days, laughs, hugs JC. Says he was just surprised.
It's around then that Jason quits.
When they find Lance, JC doesn't tell him. Doesn't think he really needs to know. He figures it out anyway, when he catches JC and his boyfriend - Mark, some guy Joey went to high school with - making out in the backseat of Chris' car.
He can't look JC in the eye for a long while.
"Hey, look," Joey says, after Lance flat-out refuses to flip JC when they get the first draft of the choreography for I Want You Back. "He doesn't have a fucking disease, okay."
Lance stares at his feet. "I know," he says sullenly.
"Good," Joey says. "I know you're all straight and southern Baptist and shit, so it's, um, weird. But, like, looking at him and touching him isn't going to make you gay, okay?"
"I know," Lance repeats, but he's not sure he does, yet. He's never been sure how to treat gay people, because they're different and wrong and it was always a bad thing when someone in high school accused him of being gay.
Joey stares at him for a long while. "So start acting like it," he says. So Lance does, just because it's JC.
JC has a lot of boyfriends, Lance notices, but not because he's keeping track. JC has no problem with picking up guys, especially when they're in Europe, so he has a lot of one-night stands, too. He likes them big, Lance notices, too, usually taller than JC himself, and muscular, but there are no real similarities beyond that.
There's Jochen and Franz and Uwe and Karl over the course of two weeks, who are all Aryan and fucking huge, and he has a short stint with the tour manager in Germany, before he figures out the guy's been fucking the lighting manager, too. He dates one of the public relations guys - Iain, who they picked up in England during Smash - all throughout the North American promo, who JC insists needs to be with them all the time. They break it off when JC has a series of flings, but they fire Iain and threaten legal action if he says anything about JC.
Lance would be really pissed if anything got out.
JC's single for a while after that; claims that during the lawsuit he's too stressed even to get it up, but Justin tells Chris he can hear JC beating off through the hotel walls. Chris tells him to shut up, because it's none of their business. Lance supposes it isn't.
When Britney and Justin go public, PR tells JC he needs to date someone.
"Preferably without a dick," Theresa says.
"But -" JC says.
"For show," Theresa says soothingly.
"I like dick," JC protests.
"It doesn't matter," Nathan says. "You don't need to sleep with her. It's just an illusion."
"I thought the illusion was that we're five, good-looking, available men," Chris says.
"Kirkpatrick, the good-looking bit is already fucked by your presence," Theresa says.
"Hey," he says.
"I'll find someone," Nathan supplies.
"I cut the braids, didn't I?" Chris asks.
And Bobbie's not really that bad. She's nice enough to JC, even if she thinks Justin's a little shit and she's a bitch to Lance, but she isn't under the delusion that she's actually dating dating JC. She's rock star girlfriend hot, she did soft core, and Joey thinks that's kind of cool, and JC has to see her precious little.
When they release No Strings Attached, JC goes clubbing with Chris a lot and get blowjobs in bathrooms, and always goes home with someone different. PR doesn't mind, really, because Bobbie's there as a safety net. Lance isn't impressed.
When they go on tour again, he hooks up with some guy from Atlanta named Dave, who's significantly younger and skinnier than JC. He's pretty in a girly way, and not JC's type, and Lance hates him. Lance hates a lot of JC's boyfriends.
JC flies Dave out to see them a lot, and he sometimes spends a few weeks on tour. He and JC cuddle on the bus a lot, in a sickeningly cute way, and they fuck noisily in the hotels. Chris likes him because they talk about clothes, especially when Fuman Skeeto's really in its developmental stage. Justin likes him because he gives startlingly good advice about Britney for a gay boy. Joey likes him because he makes JC genuinely happy, and Joey's not really been worried about anything but that.
Lance hates him because JC's in love with him. Lance doesn't think JC's ever actually been in love before, doesn't want anything bad to happen. Doesn't want anything to blow up at them.
JC's probably heartbroken when Dave leaves him after the tour, because they aren't seeing enough of each other, but JC never really says anything about it. He talks about Dave a lot, though, and Lance actually feels kind of badly, because it's not like JC deserves a break-up over something as inconsequential as time. He hates Dave even more.
JC changes, after that. He's never been bulky, just sort of wiry, and not big, just had sort of corded muscles in his arms and legs. The rest's always been small and angular, but now it seems everything's going that way - not that Lance is really paying any attention. JC loses definition, his wrists get skinny, his cheekbones are almost gaunt. He starts wearing hip-hugging pants - and his hips are all bone, really - and tiny shirts he probably borrows from Bobbie. His hair's longer, and highlighted, and really soft.
He doesn't look like JC any more, Lance thinks.
It's around then that Lance starts working out. He's long past his awkward teen years and the platinum and he's actually looking kind of male, and he doesn't really see the harm. It's not like he's got any ulterior motives. He lifts weights with Justin, mostly, because he's never been too fond of actual exercise.
"Are you gay?" Justin asks, between sets, one time.
"What?" Lance asks. He never expects these things - he hasn't been getting them since high school.
"I said, are you gay," Justin says, but he's flushed red, now.
"No," Lance replies, and he's not. He's had girlfriends - not as many as JC's had boyfriends, but still. "I don't look gay, do I?"
"Does JC look gay?" Justin asks sharply, and Lance supposes he doesn't. "It's just, you know. Thing," Justin says, and waves vaguely at Lance's body.
Lance doesn't know.
It's around when the release date for Celebrity is proposed that it happens.
JC's drunk and they're at a club, and he sidles up behind Lance, slips an arm around his waist. "Hey, pretty," he whispers in Lance's ear, and Lance pauses, but JC's still grinding his hips against him, and it doesn't look like he's going to stop.
"Hey, C," Lance says, but he doesn't feel comfortable doing this on the dance floor of a crowded club; he's not gay; he doesn't feel like doing it at all.
"Do you want to get out of here," JC asks, and his breath smells like scotch and rum and it's not at all pleasant.
"No," Lance says, and inhales sharply when JC presses himself to his back.
"Yeah, you do," JC says, and Lance wonders how someone so intoxicated can be so fucking hard.
"No," Lance repeats, but JC's already leading him out of the club, kissing his neck.
JC pulls him into the limo, and Lance hardly has the door closed before JC presses his mouth to his, and slides his hands up the back of Lance's shirt, and pulls them down on the seat. This isn't turning Lance on, though, because he's not gay, but if he closes his eyes, he can pretend JC's a girl with a hot mouth and jutting hipbones, and oh, a dick, but when JC sucks on his lower lip hard enough to make it itch, he doesn't even care about JC's anatomy.
JC slips his hand down Lance's pants, curling his fist around Lance's slender dick, and Lance gasps against JC's mouth, but JC doesn't stop. Lance can't tell when his shirt comes off, or his pants, or JC's, but they must, because he can feel JC's skin sliding against his chest. JC's panting something in his ear, but he can't tell what it is, can only concentrate on the feel of JC's dick pressing against his abdomen, the feel of JC's hair under his fingers, the feel of JC's neck beneath his lips. JC repeats it louder, then, when Lance's tongue swipes along the skin just below his ear.
"Fuckmefuckmefuckme, don't care, just, fuckfuckfuck," and spreads his legs so Lance slips between his thighs. And Lance doesn't even think about it, just trails his hands down JC's body, spreads JC's ass, slips inside. JC arches his back into him, his head pressing back against the leather seat, breathing ragged, and Lance imagines it probably hurts, but he doesn't know enough about gay sex to care. Lance's thrusts aren't rhythmic, but he doesn't care about that either, not when JC hooks his legs around Lance's waist, twines his ankles together high on Lance's back, and kisses him again, tongue invading his mouth until Lance isn't even capable of caring. JC's thrusts are full-bodied and forceful and his fingers are clawing at Lance's back, and when he comes, he bites Lance's lip so hard it bleeds, and whimpers. Lance stares down at him, and JC shouldn't be beautiful, and yet he is, and Lance comes with one final thrust, so hard his vision blurs. He collapses against JC, burying his head in JC's shoulder. JC threads his arms around Lance's neck, and holds him momentarily.
"Should tell the driver to get back to the hotel," JC mumbles, then, and reaches for his shirt on the floor of the limo, like it doesn't mean anything.
Because it doesn't.
And Lance has never had to worry about his sexuality, either.