Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2001 19:31:48  0000
From: BlueKat <bluekath@eudoramail.com>
Subject: Eternally Yours, chapter twenty   (gay/celeb/boybands)

Legal disclaimer: not true. Fiction. Not meant to imply anything about
anyone. Don't read if you're not old enough.

Author's notes: have fun.

 -Eternally Yours, chapter twenty -

For a moment JC just stood and watched them. It was like watching a well
rehearsed dance, only that the two dancers were decorated in crimson
flowers of quickly drying blood whenever they met. Coming to his senses
again, JC approached them, having to use all his strength to hold them
apart.

"Enough!" His voice was sharp and loud. "What the hell's gotten into you,
Lance?"

Green eyes were glowering. A cut on his cheek was in the process of closing
up again, still a few drops of blood managed to run down his face. "Stay
out of this, Josh," he answered. "This is between Justin and me..."

"Really?" Justin smiled back, getting to his feet. "I think you *should*
tell JC about it... Come on, you're not like, *embarrassed*, are you?" he
teased.

Lance started towards Justin, before JC pushed him back. "You stay where
you are," he warned him. "Justin, what are you talking about?"

"Why don't you let Lance explain?" Justin told him, the smile getting
wider, satisfaction dancing in his eyes. "After all I just saw
them... Although they made such a cute couple... Lance and..." He waited
until he had JC's undivided attention before he finished. "Chris."

Immediately JC turned to Lance. "You better explain yourselves right
now. And you better not be telling me what I think you're going to."

"He was lying to you all the time," Justin said from behind them. "I saw
him with the slayer last night, and tonight too."

"I didn't know he was the slayer at first," Lance protested, his voice
low. "When I found out, I'd already..." He glared at Justin, with something
close to despair in his eyes. "You freakin' little misfit, why couldn't you
just let it go?"

"I should have expected that you had something to do with this too,
Justin," JC sighed. "But Lance, you had to know what kind of danger you
were putting yourself in? Chris would have killed you..." He paused,
turning back to look at Lance. "Why didn't he kill you? I have never know
Chris to back out of a hunt or a fight."

"Oh they weren't fighting." Justin's amused voice sounded again. "No, they
were *far* too busy playing tonsil hockey for that..."

"God, I hate you!" Lance said, again pushed back by JC. Justin merely
smiled innocently back.

"He hadn't told the slayer either, Josh. He didn't tell him that he's our
kind."

JC seemed to understand what was going on, and Lance could very clearly see
that he didn't like the situation. Blue eyes met his.

"Lance," JC asked. "Would you please enlighten me here... I can get the
fact that you ran into Chris, and that you left the house without our
permission... But please, *please* don't tell me that you...have feelings
for him?"

"I..." Lance started, unsure of what to say. He was sure of his feelings,
but JC was looking at him with a nearly begging look. But he couldn't lie
about it.

"I love him," Lance said in the end. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to
happen." His words were heavy in the quiet house.

"God, Lance," JC said, shaking his head. "Do you have any idea what
something like this means? Chris isn't like me. If he finds out who you
really are, he'll kill you in an instant."

"No, he wouldn't!" Lance protested. "Thanks to the devil spawn over there,
he already knows! And he couldn't kill me. He just...left." The pain,
momentarily overridden by rage, was back, clawing its way through his
body. "He left me."

Taking a look at Lance's face, JC stepped back, a look of sympathy on his
own face. "I'm sorry, Lance, but I really think it was for the best. And
with what's going on...you could have put us all in danger. Chris is here
to kill Joey, don't forget that, and now when..."

"I know," Lance said, too calm for Justin's liking. The green eyes hadn't
lost their glow. "Oh and by the way, Justin here felt the need to tell
Chris all about you too. That the two of us are staying with you and Joey."

"You did what, Justin?" Now JC was staring at the younger man.

"I just said that he's staying with us!" Justin defended himself. "I didn't
do anything wrong! Lance was the one who was all over the slayer, you
haven't asked him what he was telling Chris!"

"That's because I know that Lance is too smart to tell him anything about
us," JC replied, his words being followed by tears pooling in Justin's blue
eyes.

"You always take his side! He was the one that did something wrong and now
you're all blaming me! That isn't fair!"

"We're not blaming you," JC told him. "But you shouldn't have said
anything, Justin. You should have come to us, and let Joey and me handle
this."

"Handle what?" a voice asked and they all looked up to find Joey standing
in the door.

The hallway fell silent again. "We have a problem, love," JC quietly told
him. "Lance has been seeing Chris. Chris didn't know that Lance's a vampire
before tonight, when Justin told him."

The tired look on Joey's face, was mixed with a thoughtful one. "I don't
think Chris will be able to do that much about it. They all know who he is
now... And now that the fighting within our own ranks has ended, they are
turning to the council and the slayers."

"You sent them after him?" Lance's voice was filled with disbelief. "If
they hurt him, I will..." His words stopped suddenly as he felt a force
press him back against the wall.

"I didn't send anyone after anybody. But he's a slayer, Lance. It was
unbelieveably foolish of you to do anything like this."

"Not any more foolish than you," Lance growled, after Joey let him go. "I
didn't ask for this, remember? I never asked to be turned. If I hadn't, I
would be with Chris now, and everything would have been fine."

"I'm sorry, but there's no way to change this," Joey answered. "I thought
you would be more responsible than this, Lance. You of all should know how
important it is to not tell anyone about us."

"I didn't tell either. Justin did."

This time Justin attacked, and was stopped by Joey. "I don't believe it!"
Justin pouted. "He goes and put us all in danger and everyone's mad at
me. I didn't do anything." A single tear escaped down his cheek. "I just
wanted to... You love him more than me."

"What?" Joey spun around, staring at Justin. "Of course we don't."

"Yes, you do!" Now the tears were flowing down Justin's pale face, and he
looked defeated. "You're both so proud of him because he does everything
right, and I always get in trouble... You don't want me anymore. He's so
perfect and I just wanted you to see that he's not any better than me, so
you won't leave me..." By now his words got lost in the tears and Joey
hugged him tightly to him.

"Justin, we could never leave you, don't even think such a thing." Joey was
softly running his hand over Justin's back. "We love you so much, both JC
and me."

"You do?" Justin's voice was broken and rusty, and Lance had never heard
him sound so young. He almost felt sorry for him.

"Of course we do," Joey soothed him. "And there's nothing you could to to
make us stop loving you either."

Then Lance noticed JC watching him.

"What?" he asked, his voice coming out a lot less colder than he had
planned.

"I wish this hadn't happened," JC answered him. "How can I be mad, what am
I to say to you? When Joey and I did just the same thing? But Chris and
me... He is nothing like me, Lance. Don't hope for something that's not
going to happen."

"You're wrong," Lance whispered. "I love him. He loves me. If Justin hadn't
told him, everything would have been fine..."

"He would have found out sometime," JC gently told him, and Lance knew he
was right. "You couldn't have hidden it from him forever."

Leaning against the wall, Lance ran a hand over his face, not surprised to
find his palm wet. "I know, I know. But I just wanted the chance to pretend
just a little longer, you know? That I'm not what I am, and he wasn't what
he is...that everything was perfect for just a while..."

"Nothing's ever perfect," JC sighed. "There is always some pain built in
somewhere."

Joey was still holding Justin in his arms, feeling the sobs quiet down to
shaky breathing. He looked at Lance. "I know what you're thinking, Lance,
and you can't do it. You're not to see Chris again. If you do, you're not
only endangering us, you're also putting him in danger." The raw pain in
the younger man's eyes made him cringe. "We ran into him the night you ran
away from us downtown. He tried to kill JC. You may think that he loves
you, but now that he knows who you really are... You are nothing but an
enemy to him."

Lance looked like Joey had just hit him. Stumbling back, he turned and ran
down to his own room, the door slamming shut after him.

"Did you have to be so cruel?" The question didn't surprise Joey. He turned
to JC.

"Yes. You know Chris. And we can't risk the newfound peace in the society
either. If this comes out, everything I accomplished tonight will be in
vain. Vincenzo will have died for no reason. I can't let that happen."

"I know," JC replied softly. "But then again... When we met...I noticed a
lot of changes in Chris... I honestly don't think he would have been able
to kill me..."

"I can't take that chance, baby," Joey told him, still holding Justin who
had curled into him like a small kitten. "I know that Lance is hurting now,
and I hate to be the one to add more to it, but what am I supposed to do
here? If he just gets over this..." He stopped when he saw JC's
look. "Yeah, I know... But I am not telling him about that right now."

Hugging himself, JC looked out of the window. "Sometimes I wonder...if that
isn't a punishment of some kind. We live forever. But most of us never find
someone to share eternity with. Maybe they're right, when they say we're
monsters...who only have the capacability to love once..."

"You know that's not true," Joey immediately replied. "We love each other,
and Justin and Lance..."

"Yes," JC answered, still watching the dark outside. "But what you and I
have... If one of us should fall, Joey, do you think the other one could
ever find someone else to love like that again?" He turned to find that
Joey wasn't looking back at him this time. He was threading his fingers
through Justin's curly hair, hiding his face in the silken mass of golden
locks. "You know I'm right," JC whispered. "If he really has fallen in
love, he will feel that way forever...or until he..."

The silence fell like heavy rain over the dark hallway. JC's words weakened
away, but they both knew that they were true. And the silence was weeping
black tears of darkness, mixing with hidden tears from iriscent green eyes.

*****

The moon was shining in through the windows of the large room. The pale
light fell over gym apparats, making them seem like disconfigured
ghosts. In the darkest corner a figure was curled up, knees pressed tightly
to his chest, arms securely fastened around his knees again.

He had stopped crying, if not counting one or another stray tear. Now he
was mostly feeling cold, and scared, even if he'd never admit it, not even
to himself. He kept his eyes closed, because every time he opened them he
saw the translucent thought-image of a tall man, with black, long hair,
loosely gathered in a ponytail, moving around in the room. It was safer to
keep his eyes closed.

It was no use in trying to convince himself that he was wrong, that he was
alone. The shadowy image mixed with memories of glittering green eyes and a
smile that had all his defenses crumbling at once.

"Jesus Christ!" Chris throught, feeling his fingernails drive themselves
through the skin of his palms. "How could I have been so fucking stupid!?"
The shadows with him offered no response, just continued their slow,
gliding dance in the empty room.

---
"Blessed Are The Cheese Makers"
(Monthy Python's Life Of Brian.)

-Sanity Is Just A State Of Mind-
http://www.envy.nu/bluekat