Economics

by >>Jae

Justin woke up early, before the alarm went off. He had a meeting with management at nine. Just him. He squirmed a little, Chris' arm over his stomach pinning him in place. He didn't know he'd been trying to wake Chris up until Chris' eyes fluttered open and he sighed in relief.

"'S up, J?" Chris said hoarsely.

Justin curled closer to him. "Nothing," he said.

Chris rubbed his back gently. "Don't worry about it, kiddo. It's nothing."

"I know," Justin said miserably. He knew he shouldn't worry about it, but he couldn't help it. He knew they wouldn't yell at him or anything. Sometimes he wished they would. He thought it would be easier to fight back if they did. Instead they'd just talk at him, droning until he felt like their words were drilling into him, leaving tiny holes in his skin. He hated it when they were mad at him. Not that they'd say that. They'd say they were concerned maybe, or disappointed. Justin sighed.

"Hey," Chris said. "It'll be fine, really. You'll just get speech number thirty-two, from page fifty-five of the popstar wrangling manual, and you'll smile and nod and be out of there in time for breakfast."

"What's speech number thirty-two?" Justin asked. That was part of his problem. He didn't know why they were calling him in. Johnny's assistant hadn't known when she called him, or wasn't supposed to tell him. She just said, "There are some issues he wants to discuss with you," and Justin's stomach had twisted into knots that hadn't left. In his experience, issues were never good.

"Oh, you know," Chris said. "Are you one hundred percent sure about this whole sodomy thing, and if not, we know some lovely call girls we could introduce you to."

Justin laughed. "That's not it. Why would they do it now, after all this time?"

"Well, they're probably thinking it was just, you know, an experiment. Maybe you're ready to try something else."

"It's not an experiment," Justin said, his mouth on Chris' shoulder.

"So you're sure about the sodomy then," Chris said.

Justin laughed again. "Pretty sure, yeah."

Chris slid a hand down over Justin's hip and turned him onto his stomach. "Maybe we just better check," he said.

Justin was ten minutes late for his meeting.

When he got there, Johnny's assistant looked at him disapprovingly and told him that Johnny had been waiting for him. Justin paused a minute before he walked into the office. He pasted a smile on his face. He opened the door and strode in like he belonged there, like he expected everyone inside to be happy to see him, not concerned or disappointed.

Johnny was by himself. Justin didn't know if that was a good or a bad sign.

Justin left the meeting feeling pretty good. There had been no talk of unfortunate fan prejudices or impetuous decisions or career risks. What Johnny had said made sense, and what he suggested was easy enough. The only rocky moment had come at the end. Justin had said he had to ask Chris first, and Johnny had looked at him. "You're an adult now, Justin," Johnny had said. "We all think highly of Chris, of course, but don't you think you should be making your own decisions?"

Justin was proud of himself. He'd almost backed down -- it was so easy to make people happy, he found it hard to let them down. But he'd thought about what Chris would have done, and he met Johnny's eyes. "I am," Justin had said. "And I'm making the decision to talk to Chris first." Johnny had shrugged, but Justin hadn't dropped his eyes until Johnny smiled and told him to have a good day.

Justin bounced back into their room. The meeting hadn't been long at all. Chris was still in bed. Justin sat cross-legged on the foot of the bed. "How'd it go, J?" Chris said.

"It wasn't bad at all," Justin said.

Chris grinned and wrapped a hand around Justin's ankle, tugged him a little further up the bed. "Told you so," he said. "What did they want?"

Justin told him. Chris' hand dropped from Justin's ankle and lay curled into itself in the sheets. Chris' lips parted, and his jaw worked. Justin thought he must be telling it wrong, and he struggled to remember the smooth words with which Johnny had explained it so thoroughly.

"It's a business decision, really," Justin said. "There are rumors already, and we'd just be leveraging them. It would draw people's attention away, and it would make things easier for us." Chris still didn't say anything. Justin thought harder. "It's a win-win situation," he said, and Chris' lips twisted. Somehow the words hadn't sounded quite so hollow in Johnny's mouth.

"Right," Chris said. "And what exactly does Britney win in this? Besides a fake boyfriend, of course?" His lips twisted again. "I assume you'd be a fake boyfriend."

Justin clambered up the bed and threw himself on Chris. Chris shoved him away. "You're heavy," he said.

"Chris," Justin said, pressing back against him, "Chris, you can't think. Of course I wouldn't. I don't. You know I love you," he said. "You know. I know you believe that."

"I believe you," Chris said.

"It's just. It's just going to be Brit. I mean, I've known her forever, she's a good kid. She's not --"

"You think it's about her?" Chris said sharply. "You think I'm worried about that little girl?"

"Then what? I don't." Justin swallowed. "If you don't want me to do it, I won't."

Chris sat up suddenly, and Justin fell back onto the bed. "Don't do that," he said. "You make your own decision. You do what you want."

"Okay," Justin said slowly. He kept his eyes on Chris', watching him closely. "It wouldn't mean anything, you know that. I know you know that. And it would make it easier for us to be together. We wouldn't have to be so careful, think so much about if people will say anything. And, you know, Brit. Like you said, she's nothing to worry about, just a little girl practically. And we know her, and we like her, and she likes us, and some people already think she's. She and me. It would just be so easy."

"All right," Chris said. "If that's what you want, that's what you should do."

"It's not, like. It's not real," Justin said. "It's a business decision."

"Do you really think you can --"

"People do it all the time. Johnny said. People you wouldn't even think. You want to know who?" Justin grinned.

"But you, J. Do you really think you can --" Chris said, and stopped. He ran a hand through his hair. "All right," he said again.

"You're not mad at me?" Justin said. Chris didn't look mad.

"No," Chris said. Justin sat up and leaned into Chris. Chris' arm wrapped loosely around his waist.

"It's for us," Justin said. "It's to make it easy for us to be together. I wouldn't care otherwise."

"Yeah," Chris said. "You like things to be easy."

"Well, sure," Justin said. "Who doesn't like for things to be easy?"

"Who doesn't like for things to be easy?" Chris echoed slowly. He smiled at Justin.