Chris's first reaction was to laugh. It wasn't every day Joey got burned. Mostly he was the only one who didn't strike out on these little forays out into the singles scene. Justin was too young and really just snuck in to dance. He liked to dance. JC did all right, but Chris thought maybe he was lukewarm on the girls. Or maybe he was just obtuse. Sometimes it was more like JC was getting picked up by the ladies, rather than the other way around. Lance, well, Lance rarely went. Too awkward, too shy. That would change soon. As for Chris himself... he got around.

Just not as much as Joey. Joey was young, but not too young. He was tall, and pretty attractive; big in that way women liked. Chris thought Joey's secret really lay in his smile though, which was more self-deprecating than smarmy. Of course it might just have been that Joey played the odds. He didn't really seem to have any standard that he held women up to. Skinny was just as good as chubby, blonde was just as good brunette, Latina was as good as Asian. He wasn't a very picky person, but tonight Joey had clearly picked wrong.

Chris swallowed his laughter and went over to him, slapping his hand down on Joey's shoulder, feeling oddly fatherly. Chris almost broke out the "Son, I remember the first time I got shot down," story, but Joey didn't look too happy right then, so maybe he'd wait. "It could be worse."

"How?" Joey shook his shirt out and ice chips fell to the ground. Chris didn't notice though, thumping club music hid the soft clink of them hitting the ground.

"Well, for one thing, that glass could have been full. You might have an eyeful of alcohol right now and I'd have you with your head in a grimy sink telling you to open your eyes so we can flush 'em with water. But as it is, you just got beaned with some ice."

"You're right, Chris, I'm a lucky, lucky man." Joey slipped out from under Chris's hand and started pushing his way through the crowd. And not towards the dance floor. Out. Ah hell, Chris thought, the kid wants to go home. Fine.

He finished his beer in two gulps and followed Joey out the door and into the brisk Orlando night. It wasn't exactly cold, but a night chill was starting to creep up from the ground, and the streets seemed oddly deserted for a Saturday night. Probably because everyone was trying to get into the fucking clubs instead of running out of them.

Chris tried to catch up to Joey without actually running, but Joey's legs were really long and he was walking really fast so he just gave up, and broke into a jog.

"You're taking this harder than I expected," Chris said, pretending he wasn't out of breath.

"How am I supposed to take something like that?" Joey stopped at the street corner and seemed to be trying to figure out where they were parked. Chris tugged his sleeve to the left and they went down the block.

"Well," Chris said, thinking. "You might have gone back on the dance floor to nurse your wounded manhood by finding a girl interested in macking on the Italian Stallion that is Joey Fatone Jr, but that opportunity has passed. So... drinking?" Chris nodded, "Yes, drinking is always a manly way to deal with your troubles."

"You give some awful advice, man. I don't even know what you would tell someone who was standing on a ledge." Joey was scanning over the cars now, looking for Chris's sad, little, "just make it till the end of the month, baby, please," Hyundai.

"Who do you think you're talking to, Oprah? Listen, Justin's visiting his dad in Tennessee and Lynn's in Miami with her hubby. Club Timberlake is open after hours, and if we stop and get a six pack or something, you'll find the bar is very lax about checking IDs."

They got the six pack, and for a moment Chris felt like he was back in high school, buying beer and taking it back home to drink just for the hell of it. He eyed a pack of Marlboro Reds, just to complete the picture, but he resisted. He really had to take care of his voice now. Joey was surprisingly mopey in the car and Chris filled up the silence by singing along with R.E.M until Joey laughed at him ad-libbing the words to "it's the end of the world as we know it," mostly with vulgar inserts.

He got a belly laugh out of Joey when he sang a line all about New Zealanders and their sheep. "You're one crazy shit."

They got to Justin's house, and Chris turned on the stereo. Rock music on a low volume was like a white noise machine. He smiled at Joey, and went to put the beer in the fridge. He grabbed two to start with, and returned to living room to find Joey sitting in the easy chair in the living room. He was back to being mopey, slumped in the chair with his legs open sort of loose and sensual.

Chris got an impulse. A wild and crazy, "let's see what would happen if I did this" kind of impulse: the kind of impulse that led to jumping off the roof with an umbrella to see if it slowed your fall any. Chris didn't want to jump off the roof though. He wanted to jump on Joey. So he did. The chair rocked back almost to the breaking point, and Chris dropped the beer, but all in all the landing went pretty well.

"What the fuck, Chris?" Joey shrieked. "You're such a fucking freak sometimes."

"Guilty as charged." Chris settled down on Joey's lap, sublimely pleased with himself. He liked this, being close enough to Joey to smell him, stale smoke, cologne, and the lusty smell of Joey's sweat. He rested his hands on Joey's chest, fingers spread out over the breadth of it. "Isn't this more fun, though?"

Joey shrugged, and reached down for his beer. "I don't know. It'd be more fun if you were a hot girl."

Chris smirked, "As it is, I'm just a hot boy." He pouted his lips out, and struck a sexy pose, held it for a second, then relaxed. He peered at Joey, who seemed to be a little uncomfortable. "I thought you swung both ways."

Joey's gaze snapped up to Chris's face, and then away. "Who told you that?"

Chris tilted his head to better look at Joey's face, scanning for anger, or disgust. None though, just a healthy portion of freaking out with a side of worry. "No one. I just, ya know, assumed."

"Why?"

My straight facade was flawless! Chris added mentally. "Dude, I dunno. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Don't take offense."

"I'm not- I'm- you're not... wrong." Joey took a deep breath and looked at Chris again. "But I thought it wasn't, you know, cool to be- Lou said that-"

"Lou says what he says," Chris interrupted. He shrugged. "Personally, I think he said that to get one of us to tell him that we were gay or bi so that he could know who to hit on and who not to."

"So it's cool then?"

"It's cool. I mean it wouldn't make much sense if I were to look down on you, what with my checkered past and all." Chris winked.

"You mean..."

Chris shrugged, "Yeah. I'm bi. I guess. I mean, it's not a very important thing to me. Happens when it happens."

"So..." Jesus, Chris thought, Joey had another question? "Does this mean you're hitting on me?" He didn't seem to be all that unhappy about the proposition.

Chris blinked slowly, various wheels and gears working in his head on whether he should or he shouldn't. Joey was in the band, and young, and maybe not entirely comfortable with his bisexuality, and maybe on the rebound from that bitchy girl from the bar. "Um." Chris said. Joey was hot, too, knowing how to work his whole 'I'm a swarthy Italian male that'll fuck you hard and smile while doing it' vibe. He was experienced too; Chris had seen him take enough girls home. From where Chris was sitting, Joey was a ready and willing hot boy. Shit... shit. Oh, why the hell not? "I am if you want me to."

"Cool," was all Joey said. Then he leaned up, and Chris leaned down, and they kissed: wet, slick slide of lips and tongue.

Fuck yeah, Chris thought, they were starting this out nasty. Joey's hands came to rest on Chris's hips, smoothing over the denim to get a feel for the curve of flesh and bone beneath. Chris hooked his ankles on the inside of Joey's things, spreading his knees to press a little closer to him. They kissed for a while, Joey's hands sliding everywhere until they finally took things to the next step by sliding under Chris's shirt.

"Hey," Chris said. Joey looked a little miffed at being stopped, "No, just hey. How far are we taking this?"

Joey laughed at him, and Chris suddenly remembered Joey's string of one-night stands. "As far as you like."

"Cocky bastard." Chris murmured, and Joey moved his lips up to a spot behind his ear.

Chris arched a little, and Joey quickly seized the opportunity to bite at the underside of his jaw.

"Damn," Chris said, agreeably. "No one under twenty should be this good, you know?"

Joey didn't say anything, just slid his teeth along the taut tendon of Chris's neck. Chris hummed.

"Seriously. You can't see my face right now, but I'm entirely appalled at all this." Joey dragged the pads of his fingers down Chris's back, and he murmured absentmindedly, "Shocked and appalled," as he threw his head back.

Joey stopped, pulling back to glare at Chris. "You're gonna do this the whole time?"

Chris looked down, "Do what?"

"Talk? It's not even dirty talk, it's silly, distracting talk."

Chris shrugged, "I can't help it. I just... I've always talked when I'm nervous or excited so..." His grin was too wide to be apologetic, it was really more of a taunt. "Go ahead, just try and shut me up," he dared, and Joey seemed happy to take the challenge.

Joey grinned knowingly, and kissed him deep and hard, letting his hands do everything else. Chris's mouth was occupied while Joey's fingertips stroked the cords of Chris's neck, and traced his collarbone. They slid down, then, under his shirt and up to rub his thumbs over Chris's nipples.

Chris pulled away from the kiss, laughing. He was panting to be sure, but the way Joey had gone about that amused him. "Nipple work, Joey? What do you think I am? A girl?"

He pinched a little harder and Chris sucked in a deep breath through his nose and slowly let it out through his mouth. Joey leaned back, watching him and Chris fought to keep from letting Joey know that he actually liked it. He pushed up at the hem of Chris's shirt until he got the idea and took it off. Chris started to tug at Joey's shirt, but lost motivation when Joey caught his mouth again, and his fingers moved down, down, down his back and into the back of his jeans.

Chris mumbled an almost word into Joey's kiss when his finger started to trace the triangle shaped indention just above the swell of Chris's ass. Joey broke the kiss, looking worried, "What? Are you not cool with-"

Chris shook his head quickly, "No, believe me, I'm cool. Just figured-" he stopped himself into going into all the reasons he knew Joey would be a top. "I'll go get the stuff."

He slid slowly off of Joey's lap, meaning to go find the lube he'd hidden safely away so that Justin wouldn't find and ask about it. Joey started to get up, too, but Chris stopped him. "I'll be right back, promise."

Joey looked a little confused. "But wouldn't it be better... I mean, shouldn't we move this to a bed or something?"

Chris smiled and shook his head, "Nah, I was kinda looking forward to you fucking me on the chair, porno style." He leered at Joey and realized he was still wearing all his clothes, even his shoes. "And get undressed while I'm gone, kay?" He disappeared into the hallway.

When he came back, Chris had his hand over his eyes. "Just one thing," he declared emphatically. "If you're still wearing your socks, you better take those off, cause that just ain't sexy."

He heard Joey laugh and figured that meant it was alright to look. He peeked between and fingers and thought, yeah, it was all good. Jesus, he was buff. And that in way Chris liked. Justin had a perfect musculature, his every muscle was defined and well formed. Not that Chris was looking, but the kid liked to flaunt it. Joey though, had a softer belly, but massive arms that bulged when he flexed them, and his thighs were topped with thick slabs of muscle. Yum.

Chris wiggled out of his own clothes; shoes and socks first. He moved slowly toward Joey, wondering if he wanted to just jump straight into the fucking, or maybe take his time with Joey's cock. Both seemed to be pretty good options from where he was standing. Time to wing it. He slid his hands down Joey's chest as he crawled back into his lap. He tried to think of something to say, but couldn't. No matter, he'd think of something eventually. Right now though, he thought he'd do some tasting.

Joey was pretty pliant, letting Chris tip up his chin and softly bite his neck. A line of blushing teeth marks started to slowly appear along Joey's neck and on the smooth skin of his shoulder. Chris shifted down to the floor, kneeling now as his nipped his way down Joey's stomach.

"You're gonna quit with the teeth when you get to my dick right?"

Chris laughed and bit, hard, right under Joey's navel. "Who said I was gonna give you a blow job?" He bit the soft pale insides of Joey's thighs to make his point. Joey yelped and Chris gave a few conciliatory licks all along the length of Joey's erection. He sucked the pink head into his mouth for a moment, and pulled away, smacking his lips thoughtfully. "Mm." Joey was really pretty thick. It was probably going to take a while to stretch everything comfortably, and Chris was impatient for it already. "We should get cracking," he said to himself.

He picked up the lube from the floor and reclaimed his perch on Joey's lap. "Fingers." Joey offered his fingers to Chris. "Lube." Chris said as he squirted out a dollop of lube onto them. "Scalpel." He held out his hand as if waiting for a nurse to give him one.

"Freak." Joey spread it out over his fingers. Chris scooted back and started to think about relaxing.

He wiggled a little while Joey circled his finger around his opening. "Can't really play doctor with gay sex, though, have you noticed that? Too much like a flashback to a –ah!"

Joey slid it in up to the first knuckle, and Chris worked his muscles around it until he started wanting more. "Okay, more," he said, sighing as Joey pushed in further. Any more commentary was cut off with the effort of keeping himself open to Joey's intruding fingers. Chris was getting hotter for it now, gasping intermittently, and Chris saw Joey watching his face closely to tell if it was a good gasp or a bad one.

Mostly it was good gasps, so it wasn't too long before Chris was thrusting back, and ready for a lot more.

"Shit," Chris mumbled. He hadn't grabbed a condom and he really didn't want to get up and hunt for one. "You got a condom in your wallet, right?"

Joey nodded numbly, "Yeah." He groped for his jeans on the carpet and eventually worked out his wallet from the back pocket.

"Joey Fatone, always prepared," he said approvingly. "The perfect boy scout except for the whole getting it on with a guy thing."

As he rolled it on, Chris squeezed out some more lube on his hands, rubbing it between his palms to heat it. Joey threw his head back and groaned as Chris slicked him up. Chris almost thought about telling him to put another one on, but he trusted Joey not to finish the show before the curtain call.

He stood up, spreading Joey's legs as far apart as the chair would allow. "This is a pretty athletic position, but it'll be worth the Charlie horse in the morning" He turned, facing away from Joey, hooking his legs on the outside of Joey's. "Line it up, man." He voice was rough and high with anticipation now.

Joey's hand spread across Chris's stomach, slowly pulling him down and back. Even with all the prep work, Joey had to press in slowly, nudging in while Chris dug his fingers into his own thighs. Critical mass was reached and Chris keened softly as the last few inches were covered in a final thrust. They rested for a moment, Joey shifting down a little to get the angle right. Chris leaned his shoulders against Joey's chest and held his hips a few inches above Joey's.

"Have at it, boy," Chris panted and Joey began thrusting. "Fuck," Chris moaned, going a little limp, and making the strokes even shallower. "Fuck."

Joey lifted Chris's hips with both hands. "This isn't all about you, you know."

"It should be. Anything worth- fuck -worthwhile is usually about me."

"Chris," Joey's fingers dug into the flesh of Chris's hips.

"You're not coming now, are you?" Chris whined. "Where's that legendary stamina I heard all the girls talking about?"

"Shut up, I'm not- Just. Shut up."

"Make me."

Chris was a little surprised when Joey tipped them forward and he landed on his hands and knees on the floor. "What the-?"

Joey thrust again, and Chris realized it was going to be this kind of dirty, fast and frantic on the floor. "Rugburn," he mumbled, deciding it was an acceptable consequence and a good thing to annoy Joey about. Joey fucked a little harder, and Chris looked straight down at the carpet shag under him while he caught his breath. "You know, you'd think Lynn would buy a softer rug," he panted. "You know?"

Joey didn't respond, moving steadily now, deep and hard, and Chris kind of wanted to forget talking and just go with the flow, but he didn't want Joey to win quite so easily. He found a rhythm with his words, inhaling between each, as he rambled on. "I mean, when you're deciding on what kind of carpet you want, wouldn't the thought-" he moaned, loudly.

It was a moment before he remembered where he was in the sentence. "You know, thought that at some point you might find yourself like you and me-" Joey reached around, and started stroking Chris's cock. He was pulling sort of haphazardly and Chris thought maybe he was getting close. He also thought maybe his talking was helping Joey hold it off.

"-And you know, you'd think she'd be nice enough to get a softer shag so we didn't get our knees all tore up." He grunted, feeling a tremble slide up from his thighs. "Just a common courtesy. Joey, shit." Chris took fistfuls of the rough, itchy carpet now, holding on as things hit the crescendo. He could think of nothing to say except obscenities, and they tumbled from his mouth in a nonsensical jumble.

Joey won on a technicality when Chris came, too hard to breath, let alone say a word. Chris wanted to collapse but he kept his elbows locked while Joey reached his own climax. Joey fell back, leaning against the easy chair where all this had begun. Chris flipped onto his back, breathing deep and letting his mind catch up to his body. He sat up eventually, and rubbed his knees with a rather unattractive grimace.

Joey got up and stretched, apparently completely unconscious of his own nakedness as he strode out of the living room.

Little too quick with the love 'm and leave 'em, Fatone, Chris thought. But Joey was back rather quickly, holding a little bottle of green gel. "What's that?" Chris asked.

"Aloe," Joey said, sitting next to Chris and squeezing out a healthy blob of the stuff on to Chris's abused knees. He even rubbed it in gently, too, while Chris watched him with a small smile on his face.

"Thanks." He pecked a quick kiss on the corner of Joey's mouth. "Come on, stay here tonight, we'll tell Lynn we had a slumber party." Joey smiled back at him, stood first and then helped Chris up. Chris gathered up their clothes before leading Joey back to the bedroom.

The bed was really too small to sleep with any space between them, but Chris didn't really relax until Joey put an arm around him and tugged him closer still.