recs for wutendeskind
Yesterday I met a new person, wutendeskind, and you all know how I love new people, and how I like to make them read all my favorite fic even if they're resistant to my fandom/pairing/whatever. Well, wutendeskind has admitted to reading lots of JuC, but has only just started to expand her horizons with other pairings. So I decided to make her a recs list of Non-JuC. For the record, all my recs can be found:
+at my delicious page
+ via my recs tag
+at Popsoundboard's recs tag
+ Recs by Characters from turps33, who solicited recs from everyone ever.
And now for some recs. I tried to rec classic must-reads in all the non-JuC pairings. Now, she's not much of a Joey slasher, so I only have a very few Joey pairing fics. And she's read lots of Sandy, so I refrained from my usual "read all of these!" comments.
As always, feel free to add to this list via comments and I will edit the post accordingly. If you rec a fic I am not familiar with, please give the pairing and say why you like it!
JC/Lance
+Kaleidoscope by withdiamonds // This is a very multi-pairing fic, but at heart it's a bassez fic about learning and growing and falling in love and being let down and letting go and coming back. I just recently reread this when I was on a bassez kick last week, and it completely fulfilled my yearning for long, lovely bassez.
It's late and JC is too tired to do more than brush his teeth before falling into bed. He waits for Lance, fighting sleep, but there's a voice in his head telling him to give it up, whispering that from the way Lance and Joey had their heads together this afternoon, Joey's hand rubbing slow circles over Lance's visibly twitching calf muscle, JC shouldn't hold his breath. JC hears voices through his open window, out by the pool, talking quietly in the dark. He doesn't get up to see who it is. He already knows.
+The Wedding Cake Theory by nopseud // Lance wants to stay in the closet and JC doesn't, and Justin is kind of a jerk, and with her usual flair for humor and amazingly awesome JC, she makes me love them all over again.
The theory JC had developed back then was that coming out was like organising a family event. One of the big ones-maybe a wedding. There were tiers of relatives and friends, like tiers on a cake, little circles at the top, and big, irregular spreads at the bottom. Once you invited one person on a tier you had to invite everyone else. It was some basic law of human kinship. If you didn't follow it, then you caused deep offence, and it meant bitter arguments which turned into grudges that were then handed down for generations.
This was how all big family events ended up inviting everyone or no one.
While in theory JC could've picked a couple of tiers to tell, in practise he'd always worried that the invitations to the 'JC's Coming Out Party' would start spreading, with each push outwards bigger than the last. So he never mentioned anything, except to a few guys who pretty much had to know, considering what he'd been doing with them at the time.
+Stay the Night by Em // This used to be up on synchronik's site, but the popslash portion of that site still isn't up. However, I have the file knocking around somewhere if anyone wants it. It's a hooker fic. And it's depressing and sad and definitely not your Pretty Woman-type affair. And it's really good. The Lance in this fic... I can't even describe it. He's Lance and he isn't. He's exactly how I imagine and incredibly broken, jaded Lance would be.
+A Slow Beating Between Them by wearemany // An AU. Lance words for a record label. Lance discovers JC, who is pretty much exactly like normal JC except never famous. This is one of my very favorite fics. She's a wonderful writer with prose that manages to be engaging and yet not overly elaborate. I love her characterizations to pieces.
JC is twenty-seven years old, and he lives in the garage behind his parents' house. He's an assistant manager at Boston Market, mostly because everyone else who has worked there as long as he has quit or gotten fired for stealing or can't operate the deep fry without burning themselves.
His parents barely charge him any rent, so he has plenty of cash for the things that really matter. He's got a decent Yamaha and a G4 and DSL that his dad split off from the family computer, the long blue cable hanging parallel to the clothesline across the driveway. He helps run a website for DJs and musicians to post their work in progress for critique.
He's got over a thousand songs he's written since he was sixteen on seven hard drives and a sweet new mic for vocals that he bought with birthday money. With his headphones on, he can almost pretend the rhythmic thudding of sneakers in the dryer is part of the beat he's writing. He's got his tunes, and his internet, and cash to spare for old vinyl.
He's got everything he needs.
+Only One Kind of Love by geneli4 // MPREG. Uh, so if you don't like MPREG... you should still read this because it's awesome. I can't imagine people NOT liking MPREG but I know they exist, hence the disclaimer. This fic is... there's something very special about the connection between JC and Lance here, and I just really love it.
It should be complicated but it isn't, it's easy and right and you fall asleep with JC's arms wrapped around you, one of his hands splayed over your belly, over the soft curve you couldn't hide now even if you tried. You wake up like that, too, sweat slick and stuck together, the beat of his pulse racing through your skin. You wake up a little dizzy and still tired and JC mumbles in his sleep, he nuzzles closer and your eyes aren't even open yet but you're awake now, and so damn happy. Blissful, really, and you enjoy it for as long as you can before your body propels you out of bed, stomach rolling up and up and you're almost grateful to slump over the cool porcelain and just let it all go.
+JC's Diary: The Edge of Raisin // Every fandom needs its Bridget Jones's Diary parody, but I am pretty sure popslash has the best one. This fic is pretty much the best thing ever. EVER. I laugh so hard when I read it. It's JC at his bitchiest, most ridiculous, most awesome, and I just will never get over this awesomeness.
Joshua Chasez Diary, 8 August, 2003
cigarettes: 3 (v.v. bad, must protect vulnerable teenagers from evil popstar influence) Alcohol units: 15 (v. v. good, all were free!), Times jerked off thinking about Justin: 3 (v. bad, yesss veerry baaaaad), Songs written about sex: 1, Songs written NOT about sex: 0 (weird, this one never changes), Sex had: 1 BIG one (or a couple of mini ones, if you like, kinda like an F5 tornado - rrrooaaarrr).
6am: Wake up, like everyone does at 6am. Only, am millionaire popstar so can go back to sleep.
7.45am: Wake up from phone ringing. Let the machine take it with my usual: I'm not in and my cellphone is turned off. Leave a message if you think it'll help. Am still a popstar, so go back to sleep.
10.00am: Wake up from bird crashing against the huge window of my fort on the hill. It probably died or had a concussion, so maybe I ought to- zzzzzzzzz.
11.45am: Get up. Stretch. Pull sheets off bed and put them in the trash, like every morning.
11.50am: Go to have a shower and jerk off.
12.50: Come.
GSF
+ It's Like Your Hand by giddygeek // A popslash/Stargate: Atlantis crossover, in which nsync are cloned somehow and in Atlantis and it is AWESOME. I think the moment I mention clones, everyone should go running to read. Plus, Justin is the sheep-headed one! That will never stop being hilarious.
The sheep-headed one flipped through the photographs, stopped, and said, "Holy shit--get me some scissors, man! Do you have someone here who can shave my head like that?"
"No," Rodney snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. "You're the sheep-headed one."
"My name is Justin."
"I'm not learning your name!" Rodney said. "If we put you back, why bother? If we keep you, you're toast--I give it a year, max."
"Keep us?" said the blond, sitting up straighter. "What do you mean, keep us? You're not sending us back to Earth?"
"You've never been to Earth. Follow along, kids: you're clones. This is a top-secret project, based in another galaxy. The real you, their families, friends, fans, and sycophants can't ever know you exist. So what's going to happen, are we going to send you to Earth and trust you to live in hiding the rest of your lives?"
"Yes."
Rodney snorted, and ignored Elizabeth's quelling look. "Think again," he said. "I'm not having my career ruined because one of you can't resist trying to get a blowjob from a groupie."
+Relief by Calico // NSYNC makes a bet as to who can go the longest without orgasming. And then they proceed to try to make each other break it. And it is hot. And awesome. And hot.
Justin/Lance
+A 21st Century Love Story by jeweliana // I love this story. It's very... domestic! And wonderful. A very perfect wallowy lambs fic. They buy sheets! At Bed, Bath, and Beyond! And for some reason that idea is so fucking delightful to me. I really *heart* this fic.
Lance had a plan. Six months of doing what he wanted, and then back to the real world. It was extremely self-indulgent, but after six painstaking hours at a hospital in Mississippi last year, he knew the value of getting the most out of life. Luckily, his dad was OK, but Lance wasn’t going to wait until a heart attack had him flat on his back before he realized that he needed to work less and stop putting off the fun stuff.
+Insight by Beth // Lance's dog is psychic. Do I really need to say more? Okay, what I will say is, I love this Justin. And this Justin-Lance dynamic is just perfectly done. AND LANCE'S DOG IS PSYCHIC.
"Okay, but that still doesn't mean that there's no such thing as a psychic dog," JC said.
"Yeah. Why not?" Justin's eyes were huge and beautiful. "I mean, how cool would that be?"
Lance spoke carefully. "Don't you think a psychic person might be more --"
"Nah. 'Cause dogs, see, they pick up on shit most people don't. They see in so many ways we can't," JC said, and he was every bit as earnest as Justin had been. "And also, dogs get all the good stuff, 'cause people are more relaxed when it's just them and their pet, you know?"
"But they don't even care about the same things we do." Lance was starting to become annoyed. Why the fuck hadn't he remembered how quickly Justin and JC bonded in such stupid ways over such asinine things? "I don't see how either of you could think --"
"Look -- I'm sorry if all your dog could do was tell you that he missed Beth, but that's your problem. A psychic dog would've said things of substance." Justin sat back in perfect satisfaction and crossed his arms over his chest, almost as if that had made sense. JC did the same thing.
+Love You Like Tupperware by kel and lise // There's something melancholy and just... right about this fic. It feels true. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED. *shines tinhat* Justin wants Lance to bring himself back. And yes. I love this Justin.
If we went to my home we'd have to fuck on top of my luggage, you think, but instead you say, "What are we going to go when we go to your home. Or, for that matter, my home? Watch cartoons? Play board games?" It was just a tour thing. The tour's been over for hours, days, maybe and you're leaving in the morning for a different kind of summer vacation. You have packed luggage. It's important for Justin to understand this.
"You, you're the one with all the good board games. So if we're gonna do that, I should go home with you. But I was thinking, you know, that we could have sex. And if we're gonna do that, we can go where ever you want." Justin licks his lips. It's really almost enough to get you right there. Justin's tongue, his lips and it's no surprise, Justin is always the best looking person in the room at the end of the night.
+Buying A Clue by Lennie // Cute young lambs fic. This is a very happy place. There are super hero syncers! And stuff. I don't know! I just like it.
+Shiny and New by wearemany // So, Lance is gay, but he doesn't know what he likes, and Justin is convinced that he could be the one to show Lance. And then he is, because he's just Justin. And stuff.
So, Lance is gay and that's fine. But he doesn't date, he doesn't pick up guys, he doesn't do anything but work and he doesn't even break a sweat about never getting tail. Justin alternates between finding this endearing, amusing, baffling and sometimes, just plain infuriating. Everyone else gets some, Chris and Joey chasing after girls, JC and Justin going after anything they can get and Lance just sits back and waits for something. Lance doesn't even complain, only commenting on it when one of them asks him about his weird celibacy thing. Lance insists it's not some kind of policy, it's just that he doesn't have time, that he doesn't make it the end all of everything he does to get laid. "I don't have to be paired up, I don't need to fuck someone every free night I have," he says.
+Out from Underneath aka the Epic of the Lambs by withdiamonds // I have probably read this story at least ten times. Maybe more. I really really love it. Really really. I wrote a remix of it! Mostly from memory! Because I love it that much. And it really is epic. It's a reunion fic but there are flashbacks to the very beginning and it's just, yes. It's perfect. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
+Or What They Think Is Love by cliokat // Bike messenger AU!! This was one of the first popslash fics I ever read, and it set the bar pretty damn high, I have to say. Justin is a bike messenger and Lance is some sort of financial analyst and there is delightful Britney and adorably fuzzy JC and a bit of angst but mostly awesomeness. AND EMINEM MAKES A CAMEO but I won't say where. This fic makes me miss Boston.
+Landfall by Betty Plotnick // Oh, I love this fic. Lance comes back from Russia and reconnects with normalish humans again and it's hard but it's lovely. I just love this version of Lance.
"You'd act angry about the invasion of privacy, but secretly you'd be humiliated. I'd act humiliated, but secretly I'd be relieved. We'd try to handle it gracefully, but pretty soon we'd decide, fuck them. We've already done everything and gotten everything we could possibly want, so what do we need them for? We'd move to Wisconsin and try to figure out what's so great about a normal life, anyway. We couldn't handle free time, so we'd get jobs in a mall. You'd be the manager of the Gap, and I'd work at Sam Goody."
+Making the List by _ducks // Oh, *hearts*. I know I say that about every fic, but the Justin in this one is so fucking adorable I want to hug him and keep him as a pet. Uh, not in a sexy way. More like in a cat way. But yes. This fic is great. Justin makes lists of all the things he wants. And Lance ends up on the list.
"Chris lies in interviews all the time."
"Chris is -- that's different. Chris says, JC's pregnant, or he had a fight in a bar and killed somebody's pet alligator, or he wants to marry Ricky Martin. He might as well be holding up a big sign saying 'hi, I am lying'. It's funny. You're like a compulsive liar or something. And everyone believes you, it's stupid."
"Maybe I do want to marry Ricky Martin," Lance said, and put his fork down, looked up at Justin, waiting.
"That's ... cool," Justin said after a beat. "Ricky Martin's not cool," he added, in case Lance had been serious about that part. People should have standards.
Justin/Chris
+Orlando by waxjism // Genderswap! Justin turns into a girl. A girl who looks like she might kick your ass! And it is awesome, and naturally Chris wants to hit that, but he pretty much always wanted to hit that, because that is the plot of every genderswap ever. And that is why I love genderswap! Oh, and he's in a BSB video. That cracks me up, too.
JC blinks when he sees Justin, blinks and blinks and blinks, and for a second, Chris thinks he looks almost envious. The way he runs his eyes up and down Justin's legs and chest isn't so much lascivious as ... awed. "Man, you look great," JC says, finally. Not, "holy fuck, you're a girl!" or "Jesus Christ, what are we gonna do now?" or even "this is weird." Just, "I always knew you'd make a beautiful woman, Justin," and a soft little smile.
"Yeah?"
"Sure," JC says and hugs Justin, completely unselfconsciously. Chris hasn't dared touch Justin all day. There are just so many places that are off-limits now, but JC doesn't seem to care.
+ Deja Voodoo by kira_j // OMG. This is pretty much one of my absolute favorite fics in the WORLD and I can't even explain why except it is breathtaking in its amazingness. I fucking wish I could write like this. I try, I fail. And then I read this again because it's so awesome. I can't even explain the plot. Justin wants Chris. Chris wants everyone else. And there is Lynn. And there is JC. And. I just love it. I can't explain it further.
The morning after Lynn first slept with Chris, she was cleaning up in the kitchen when Justin came down, dressed in long shorts and a vest. There was something purposeful about how he picked out the whitest one, and not the almost-grey t-shirt he usually wore to bed. It made his skin look darker than it did the day before. Like honey on dark brown bread, toasted and burnt sweet. She whisked three eggs in a plastic jug, and added four table spoons of milk then put on oven gloves and squatted instead of bent at the waist to open the stove door. As she put the baking tray with the sizzling hash browns on to the protective matt on the counter, Justin hopped up to sit next to it, feet banging against the cupboard door. He looked down at her through sleepy stuck-together eyelashes then tilted his head and opened his arms. He was so narrow, he hadn’t been eating her cheese on toast and when she breathed in behind his ear, she thought, Chris was right.
+Metafictional by Steph // So someone, I want to say Joey, but maybe Chris, signs them up to participate in SeSa. And it's pretty much hilarious and I love fic where they discover slash! And I don't even remember how this ends up being Timbertrick but I am sure it's wonderful because I just know that I love this fic. I think because I just relate to the Joey in this who loves badfic so much he wants to write his own. Also, I want to read "JC the Dolphinboy". I bet it's like drinking cum from a cock!
"I can't explain this right," Joey says, and he reaches into his bag and produces a sheaf of papers. "But I printed something for you to read."
It's called "JC the Dolphinboy," and it's a story about a popstar who sleeps in a bathtub and eats lots of fish, due to his changing into a dolphin on every new moon for reasons that the story never explains. It's not the easiest reading experience, due to the spelling errors and inventive grammar, but there's an earnestness in the words that he finds intriguing. This girl, this JoshuasLaydee, really believes in this world where JC is a simpering, isolated, less evolved mammal. At the end, the band tearfully lets JC go, but not before they all get matching dolphin tattoos to remember him by. Then JC dramatically dives off into the ocean to search for more of his kind. It's ridiculous and stupid, and Chris wonders if there's a sequel.
"See?" Joey says, and he's practically bouncing in his seat. "Isn't it awful? Isn't it great?"
JC/Chris
+How JC Escaped from Planet Sequin and Got His Groove Back by llamabitchyo // Llama is like the new queen of TrickC. She just writes amazing, hilarious TrickC and this fic is both amazing and hilarious. I really recommend just reading everything by her, but this one is a good start. JC starts producing massive amounts of sparkling dust and he calls in Chris to figure out what the hell is going on with him.
He had to cancel the cleaning service after he noticed how nervous even Marciella had become around him. He hated to do it, but he couldn't think of any way to reassure her.
Somehow, he thought telling her, "Hey, I'm not a vampire or anything. I'm just a pale guy with a mysterious dust problem," was unlikely to help.
+ Coffee Shop AU by fluffontop // aka Bitchy Barista. Um, basically? JC is a bitchy barista. And Chris is Chris. And Justin is nearly as bitchy as JC but not quite, and it is pretty awesomely fabulous. I based the 7-11 AU a lot on this fic, and it's because this fic is awesome.
The black-haired guy with the really pretty friend came in at 2:00 like they always did. JC thought they must work together and always have their break together, but he doubted they were a couple. The pretty one was very much out of the black-haired one's league.
"Hi." He smiled. "What can I get you today?"
The pretty one smiled back. JC knew his name: Lance. But he always thought of him as "ohh, pretty".
"You. To go." Unfortunately it was Chris, the not so pretty one, who did all the flirting. JC snorted at him, and let his gaze linger on Lance.
"Just a mocha and an almond cappuccino, please," Lance said, politely. His cheeks were pink, warm and flustered. His voice was low and soft and sounded like sex. The boy really had the most amazing eyes.
"Finally Friday, huh? You doing anything this weekend?" Chris's voice was not like sex at all. More like cartoons in bed. Cartoons in bed after your lover's failed to get it up.
+Digital Age Remix, the Same Old Story by llamabitchyo // So, I love fics in which people email and text and things. And this fic is full of that, but also of Chris saving the day one JC at a time. And the voices are just so great! You can tell she spent some time researching how Lance and Joey write because the emails are so perfectly them. (ie Joey can't spell, and is kind of clueless, and Lance likes to tell dumb jokes and use lots of exclamation points.)
To: tr.icky@gmail.co
From: bassman@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: Re: plan C
Fuck off. I'm not going to fuck Chace in some half-assed, crazy Kirkpatrick scheme to save JC from himself. So...
Stop Asking!!
I mean, I would, though the emo bangs just make me want to vomit. (Shut up! My bad hair was NOT my fault and you have no room to talk.) I would IF I thought it would help, but it won't. He just needs to ride his telepathic roads out of the damn closet already. It's great out here and he'd love it =D
Oh! I've got some new Chuck Norris jokes, did I tell you when you were here? And did I tell you they're trying to make this flaming drink with whipped cream? They haven't mastered it yet, but it's amazing ... [editor's note: email transcript cut for length]
+Freely Given by Helen // Everything by Helen is pretty awesome, I have to say, but I really love this fic because it feels like a Chris that could actually happen. He wants to cheer JC up after Bobbie dumps him. By mercy fucking him. Which I am totally okay with. And then there's this part where Chris's dogs get attached to JC and. AND. I just love this fic. Love it. Love Helen's JC.
He'd though that being crammed on the same bus for six years with someone would render them transparent. He'd known how to cheer JC up, and it hadn't been difficult to figure out what he liked in bed, although, in retrospect, Chris had to admit to himself that that had less to do with his familiarity with JC, and his superior powers of observation, than with the fact that JC tended to arch in an approving and sluttish manner every time he did something right. There were, as it happened, new things to learn about JC-not just sex things, like the way that JC would climb into his lap while they were watching tv when he wanted to be fucked and that he liked to hold hands in bed, or things that were almost sex things, like that JC's hips were ticklish, but things that had nothing to do with sex, like that JC couldn't cook anything at all, but thought he could. He was always offering to cook things, and bought ingredients, but everything he made was a failure. Chris did most of the cooking.
+Wolves and Boybands Mate for Life by merryish // (who has a link for this. Mine appears to be broken *sadface*) And I can't even remember what it's about, exactly, because I can't look at it. Damn. Fandom has come through! Chris tries to woo JC, and it just leaves him confused, and then JC tries to woo Chris with similar results, but eventually they get their shit together and it is awesome and adorable.
JC tried to woo Chris by writing him songs. He worked on them constantly, trying to get the words just right. It was weird, but the more he cared about a song the harder it was to finish. He could write Space Cowboy in like half a day but writing a song for a guy he was in love with, that took weeks. This wasn't a big problem or anything, since JC had been in love with Chris for years and it hadn't occurred to him to do anything besides write about it until they started the Celebrity tour. He had a lot of material to work with.
The songs didn't make any sense to Chris. They seemed to be mostly about girls. A few were about girls and candles, and a few were about girls and boats, and one of them seemed to be about Justin. The most recent one, Chris was pretty sure, was about a dog, or possibly a wolf, who turned into a butterfly. He had to read it three times before he got even that much.
+The Legendary Grapefruit Gurus of Southern California by Torch // Oh man. I love this because it's kind of a reversal from the typical TrickC plot. In this one, JC is the guru and Chris has to learn how to be zen enough for grapefruits which totally only makes sense in my head. And there's a part where Justin is sick and they go to a deli and it's just fucking adorable. Everyone should read everything by Torch because it is all awesome.
JC had six unused toothbrushes, still wrapped individually in plastic. Chris wasn't surprised. They were arranged in a rainbow color sequence in the bathroom cabinet. Chris wasn't surprised at that, either. He took the green one.
JC opened the door to the guest room. "You want a t-shirt to sleep in, or something?"
Chris shook his head. "Nah, I'll be fine. Actually." He twirled the toothbrush between two fingers. "I'll get up early tomorrow, get a flight back to Chicago. I can't just leave my RV like that."
JC looked thoughtful. "Why not? It'd be great if you stayed. We can hang out, and J's coming in a couple of days, and all."
"I'm sure the Divine Mister Timberlake will survive," Chris said.
JC snorted. "I'm gonna tell him you said that. Are you sure you don't wanna stay?" Chris shook his head. "Why not?"
"Well, you said yourself that I'm not ready for the grapefruit zen or whatever," Chris said.
"Oh, no," JC said. "That's not what I meant. I meant that you're not ready for this."
He leaned forward and kissed Chris.
Chris dropped the toothbrush.
Chris/Lance
+And You'll Notice My Smile (Is Like Kool Aid) by nopseud // TrickyFish is a pairing I have thus far managed to avoid writing, but it's only because people like Anna write it so well that I am afraid to even attempt. This was one of my favorites from SeSa '07. Lance gets what he wants. He knows how to smile just so to get what he wants. And Chris knows exactly what is going on, because he is Chris and he is all knowing and if there's one person who can trick a Lance, it's Chris.
+ All That Stuff's A Sideshow by vaudevilles // Chris and Lance get outed, and it is funny and awesome and adorable and OMG I LOVE IT. I wish very much that she was still writing but she has given us some very awesome fics regardless. I have a lot of love for this fic; I love her characterizations and her humor. So great.
+Green Scales Fell Like Rain by withdiamonds // Yes, I do love Donna's fic, STFU and enjoy it, people. Lance comes out in an alternate timeline. OH THIS FIC. I love it. It hurts. But it's cathartic and happy, too. The trickyfish is great, but the Lance-JC interactions are just as good. Donna knows how to write the *group* while still holding onto a sense of romance and something special for the pairing.
+The Long Run by wearemany // This really is THE definitive trickyfish, and I don't have time to talk about it because I need to go HOME OMG, but it's a great story, futurefic, Chris owns a bar in Chicago and of course it's gorgeously written and characterized and pretty perfect in almost every way.
Chris/Joey
+The Same Inside by Helen // Chris turns into a girl! And does a Maxim photoshoot. And it is awesome. This is one of they very few Choey fics I can do. Like, I can read Choey, and I can enjoy it, but this one makes me believe it's possible.
"Great. Tomorrow. and here's something I thought I would never say, the rest of you should try very hard not to turn into girls, especially you, Fatone, as you would make a very ugly girl."
"Okay, Theresa," Justin said.
"All I'm saying is that at least Chris is cute. You got a sweet can, Kirkpatrick, and that's the only reason we didn't go with the "'Nsync's Kirkpatrick dies in horrible train accident; his dying wish that people purchase more albums" story."
Joey/JC
+Be Able to Stop by Helen // Okay look, I like genderswaps. I can't help it. And somehow whenever someone turns into a girl, it makes SENSE that they hook up with Joey, because he's the only straight one. (yes, in my brain. Which does not resemble reality.) So, in this one, JC turns into a girl, and he's better at being a girl than you or I will ever be because he's already JC Chasez. And Joey falls in love with him because how could you not? But uh, it's sad at the end, just to warn you.
They couldn't stop staring at JC's legs when he changed into a girl, because they were long and slim, and he kept wearing little vintage dresses, with matching shoes and eye-makeup, and they finally realized he'd been growing his hair out so that he could have a glossy, stylishly disheveled bob. They weren't as shocked by the fact that he was a girl as they were by the fact that he seemed to be already quite good at it.
"Dude, I'm fucking impressed," Justin said, when JC showed up wearing a crisp green dress with cap sleeves, with matching sandals and painted nails. JC twirled around, and the dress flew up around his thighs.
"Are you wearing a thong?" Justin asked.
"None of your business," JC said at the same time that Lance said "You don't wear thongs with skirts, moron."
Crossovers
+The Earl of Rothinghamtonfordshire by Jae (chris/nick) // Oh, fuck, this is one of the funniest fics I have ever, ever read. At first I was leery because Chris and Nick seem like the most unlikely pairing that isn't Justin/AJ ever, but then I read it and I was converted. Instantly. Um, so what happens is, Nick writes a romance novel. Or maybe it's Justin. SOMEONE writes a romance novel. It doesn't even matter, just read it. It's hilarious.
"Me too," Kevin said. "Look, Nick, you can't just go around putting us in things you write. It's not fair."
"I didn't mind," Brian said. "I liked being the vicar, and living in the vicarage with the vicaress, and riding in my vicarriage all over the vicartown."
"Yeah, I liked my part too," AJ said. "Alexi the valet was pretty cool, and it's kind of a sweet gig, parking Lord Kevin's horses. Plus, people keep giving me monkeys, and what's more fun than a bunch of monkeys? Nothing, that's what."
"You know they're not real monkeys," Howie said.
"What?" AJ said.
"What?" Nick said.
"It's slang for money. More money, actually, than anyone would probably give the valet -- never mind," Howie said. "Also, the valet doesn't park the horses."
"Really?" AJ said. "What do I do?"
"A valet's a kind of a servant -- you attend to Lord Kevin's personal needs."
"I'm a hooker?" AJ said. Brian grabbed the nearest copy of Nick's book and started rifling through it.
"He's a hooker?" Kevin said. "Look, Nick, I don't know what kind of book you're trying to write here --"
"He's not a hooker," Howie said. "You're not a hooker. You take care of Lord Kevin's clothes, things like that."
"Okay, I think I'd rather be a hooker."
"You'd probably be better at that," Kevin said, "judging by the state of your shirt."
+Poptarts in Atlantis by Torch (jc/nick) // You might sense a theme to my crossovers. I like Nick. He's pretty. Sue me. Anyway, yes! This fic! Is awesome! And I can honestly say I loved it even before I started watching Stargate: Atlantis. JC is a scientist in Atlantis. Nick is a marine. There is some kind of whale plotline involved, but mostly it is JC Chasez: intrepid scientist, doing stuff and wandering around barefoot and annoying Rodney with his very existence.
McKay turned around. "It's you," he said, glaring. "Chavez."
"Chasez."
"Whatever. Great. Now I suppose I have to find somewhere for you to-" He gestured around the lab, which looked fairly empty.
"You knew I was coming," JC said. "Good to see you, man. Have you been working out?"
"If by working out you mean running for my life from hostile aliens, yes."
"Well, whatever works for you," JC said peacefully. "I started doing yoga last year, and-"
"And you wouldn't believe how little I care about that. In fact-" Someone short and scruffy and kind of cute wandered up with a cup of coffee. McKay turned on him abruptly. "Zelenka, good. Zelenka will make sure you're settled in. Someplace out of the way." He stomped off.
"Radek Zelenka," short and scruffy said, holding out his coffee-mug-free hand. "You have managed to offend Dr McKay already, or did you know him before?"
"Not really," JC said. "I mean, I haven't seen him in a couple of years. But he was my thesis advisor for about two weeks, except we didn't really get on, and then Marie talked him into being there for my diss, and then there was this project over at MIT where I guess we didn't see eye to eye, and then that business when he reviewed my book and didn't even like the cover-"
+The Haircuts by k8 (jc/nick) // OHOH. I love this fic. Um, let's see. It's an AU. JC has like 10 jobs. And it has delightful, activist!Justin and kind of slutty Britney and a side helping of TrickyFish and I honestly can't all remember what happens except that JC figures some shit out at the end. And it is awesome.
JC wants it to be a theme party. He can't think of a theme, suggests a color perhaps-- not black though, that's so been done before, and twice. But Lance puts his foot down with a "no. Just, no. And how the fuck do I know you? And why do you live here?" He also raises his right eyebrow higher than normal sarcasm levels allow so JC doesn't think he'll push it for a while.
So it will not be a theme party, he tells Britney on the T, which results in her snapping her gum in a comforting way and making him focus on her hair instead. It's a new hairdresser, she's not sure his ideas about fringe should really have been implemented in the real world, but JC likes it quite a bit. Actually, JC likes it so much he wants to know where she got it and how much. Good hair dressers are important. Besides, Mother has scheduled a haircut at home for JC's wedding prep. JC is trying to avoid said haircut. Like the plague. Hair debate continues. JC suggests Britney try dying it a very orangey red, because the color obviously won't exist in nature, but the Men In Suits can't fire her for it. Britney claims to detest the Men In Suits-- secret code name for executive assistant position at top advertising agency-- but she gets paid and can afford to have a DIESEL Ass, and really, she tells JC, that's something worth paying for.
+The Hackery AU by Georgina (justin/nick) // They are hackers! And covert ops specialists! And! It's awesome! But unfinished. Which is sad. But still. Good times.
+Prelude to A Kiss by ?? (lance/john rzeznik) // As in the singer from the Goo Goo Dolls and yes it's an odd pairing and yet, it somehow makes total sense when I read it. I should know who wrote this, but I had to Wayback the link so I'm not really sure. In any case, this fic is awesome. And angsty and hurty but so fucking good and it ends happy.
John considers calling the kid, he takes out his phone on more than one occasion, but never goes through with it. He's never sure why; he's almost positive it's because he's not gay, and he's pretty sure that Lance is. And he certainly doesn't want to be gay, so calling the kid would be a waste of time for both of them, it would only end badly when John eventually tells him hey, thanks, but no thanks.
John has dreams. Dreams about weird green eyes and a deep voice that wakes him up in the morning. He has dreams about a boy with spiky blond hair and a pair of sunglasses that make him look sexy when really, he should look dorky. He wakes up hard, and as much as he tries to convince himself that it was Adrienne he was dreaming about, he knows differently when he jerks off and the flash of a smile he sees belongs to the kid with the weird eyes, and he comes harder than he ever has.
So maybe he isn't as straight as he thought. Maybe he should give this kid a call and see if he could get Lance to show him a thing or two, maybe he can act like he's done this before and at least get a free blowjob out of the deal. A blowjob's a blowjob, right? A mouth's a mouth, it doesn't matter who it belongs to.
+A Hell of A Yarn by SarahQ (AJ/JC) // This might be my favorite letterboys fic, solely because JC owns a YARN SHOP. A freaking yarn shop! That's too perfect. AJ owns some kind of punk/skater shop. And they team up to fight The Man or the City Council or... something. It doesn't matter, it's just awesome.
Advanced Placement Pairings
aka the Weird Shit That Normal People Usually Run Away From
+Gold by Sandy the Younger (britney/chris) // Yeah so, I like het sometimes? And I like Britney always. And Britney/Chris is a fucking awesome pairing. This actually has about 10 pairings including Britney/Bobbie, which is another fucking awesome pairing, and it's kind of inexplicable? But it's very good. So read it.
Wade's fingers manage to graze Justin's forearm and Britney's waist at the same time, hands as busy as his feet. He smiles once at both of them and again at the photographers over Justin's shoulder. Justin knows Bobbie's coming tonight and he knows Wade's face will be all over the January issue of J-14. Wade will make it into PopStar!, too, but not People. Not US. Wade belongs in US, though. Accidental Celebrities Digest. Justin knows he and Britney will be all over everything, everywhere.
Next to Justin, Britney hums. He is thinking about proposing. He is thinking about breaking up with her.
+ Girl Stuff by llamabitchyo (britney/justin, britney/lynn) // Britney wants to be like Lynn, aka MADE OF AWESOME. This fic. Okay so, the Britney voice is just so fucking pitch perfect. I don't know how Llama managed that, but she did, because it is absolutely dead on. And again, I pretty much love anything with Britney, but especially awesome stuff with Britney AND Lynn.
And Britney wasn't stupid. It didn't take much figuring to know that if the people who should have been looking at her like that hadn't looked at her like that by now, well then... she was going to have to get it from someone else. And Britney knew just who she wanted it from.
She was prettier and more talented than Justin, and Ms. Harless was going to look at her with that exact same sparkle of amazement. Britney would make it happen.
So she sat down next to Justin and immediately started her campaign to impress his momma.
+The Seahorse Story by Betty Plotnick (justin/trace) // Uh, mpreg. Kind of. Justin lays eggs. Because he's possibly part dragon? And... I don't know how to explain this, it's just really good! And the eggs are really cute. And Trace is very awesome in this while still being kind of annoyingly Trace-ish. One of my all time favorites, for sure.
"I'm not giving birth. Jesus, I'm not fucking pregnant."
"No, because that would be weird," Chris says wisely, and then rolls his eyes. "Eggs? Eggs? That's not genetically odd, J, that's fucking inhuman."
"Only a little," Justin says sulkily. "On my mom's side."
"Wait," JC says, "wait, there, a minute. Are you saying that's true? You're really...not completely human? What -- what -- I mean, are you, like, an alien? Partially," he specifies quickly, holding up a hand to forestall the inevitable objection.
+The World A Hunting Is by LC (justin/lynn, chris/lynn) // It's a sort of haunting, sad AU in which Justin lives in some sort of trailer park with his mom and uh... there's something to do with JC and how he escaped that life and Justin's waiting for him to come back and take Justin away. Or something. I'm not explaining it right! It's good, I promise.
Fire, though, just makes him think back to the hot wet air chewing at his skin, and he wants to die. Justin leans back against the aluminum siding of the trailer, he picks up his coke bottle and drinks what's left, all warm and flat by now. He's been sitting out under the sun for maybe two hours, though he cannot tell for sure. It's possible JC won't come, for the heat, because nobody in their right mind is wanting to step outside today, just lie in bed with a baggie of ice on your forehead and cry.
Momma is inside in the dark. Justin used to sit next to her when she cried and he stroked her shoulders and her hair, if she didn't have a wet cloth on her forehead, and he kissed her fingers. Not anymore though, because she has Chris now, and Justin has always understood that he's just standing in. He knows she needs Chris, same like she needed Joe, and Jimmy before him. Before Jimmy Justin can't remember.
His life is run according to the weather and according to the names of those men. They have all been good to him. He knows that it more often goes the other way. Britney who is his friend told him about her momma's men. She and Justin sat by the brown stream, in the punch-dent under the bank, where it looks like somebody'd spooned out a spoonful of dirt just big enough for two people to sit all hunched up.
Backstreet Stuff
+The Beginning, Sir (And Not A Minute Sooner) by bubbleforest (nick/aj) // So, Nick's bandmates go missing one by one, and he has to find them via dreams about various fairytales and Britney is Tinkerbell, and it is funny and cute and nostalgic and awesome.
+Diurnal by boomingvoice (nick/brian) // This fic is soso beautiful and it makes me ache for Nick and I just really wish he had a better life, you know? And I wish he were just a little smarter so he could maybe deal with all his shit better. Oh Nicky. Anyway, that's sort of what this fic is about. Dealing, and not dealing. But really it's just gorgeously written.
Someone is again disturbing your rest at the ungodly hour of 4 pm. You moan, and you’re tired enough that you’re almost not embarrassed at your fucked up sleep schedule. You take two seconds to roll over and decide to ignore the door.
Five minutes later the phone is ringing. You check the ID and very nearly cry. You flip it open. “Brian. Fuck off.”
“Nick, come open the door.”
“No.” You throw the phone at the door. It hits with a dull thunk, which Brian answers with persistent knocking. You hate Brian. You go open the door.
“Hey beautiful,” he says with a grin. His eyes are very blue and you wonder how shot your own must be.
You consider punching him. You tell him that. He smiles, and then you really do try, only you’re so slow with sleep that he just laughs as he twists aside and takes hold of your fist.
Other People's Recs:
+musicboxgirl recs some stuff over here. And also right here.
+Mercy and Be Your Own Best Friend by Betty Plotnick (trickyfish) // Suggested by pensnest "for they are both awesome."
+The Sound of Pop Music by _ducks // Recommended by 1000_words because "that story symbolizes so much of what is great about popslash, just the cheerful insanity of it all." I will second this. It is a Sound of Music AU with JUSTIN AS MARIA THE NUN. The end.
And when I get home from work I will add my crossover pairings and my Advanced Placement pairings, and everyone else's suggestions.
+at my delicious page
+ via my recs tag
+at Popsoundboard's recs tag
+ Recs by Characters from turps33, who solicited recs from everyone ever.
And now for some recs. I tried to rec classic must-reads in all the non-JuC pairings. Now, she's not much of a Joey slasher, so I only have a very few Joey pairing fics. And she's read lots of Sandy, so I refrained from my usual "read all of these!" comments.
As always, feel free to add to this list via comments and I will edit the post accordingly. If you rec a fic I am not familiar with, please give the pairing and say why you like it!
JC/Lance
+Kaleidoscope by withdiamonds // This is a very multi-pairing fic, but at heart it's a bassez fic about learning and growing and falling in love and being let down and letting go and coming back. I just recently reread this when I was on a bassez kick last week, and it completely fulfilled my yearning for long, lovely bassez.
It's late and JC is too tired to do more than brush his teeth before falling into bed. He waits for Lance, fighting sleep, but there's a voice in his head telling him to give it up, whispering that from the way Lance and Joey had their heads together this afternoon, Joey's hand rubbing slow circles over Lance's visibly twitching calf muscle, JC shouldn't hold his breath. JC hears voices through his open window, out by the pool, talking quietly in the dark. He doesn't get up to see who it is. He already knows.
+The Wedding Cake Theory by nopseud // Lance wants to stay in the closet and JC doesn't, and Justin is kind of a jerk, and with her usual flair for humor and amazingly awesome JC, she makes me love them all over again.
The theory JC had developed back then was that coming out was like organising a family event. One of the big ones-maybe a wedding. There were tiers of relatives and friends, like tiers on a cake, little circles at the top, and big, irregular spreads at the bottom. Once you invited one person on a tier you had to invite everyone else. It was some basic law of human kinship. If you didn't follow it, then you caused deep offence, and it meant bitter arguments which turned into grudges that were then handed down for generations.
This was how all big family events ended up inviting everyone or no one.
While in theory JC could've picked a couple of tiers to tell, in practise he'd always worried that the invitations to the 'JC's Coming Out Party' would start spreading, with each push outwards bigger than the last. So he never mentioned anything, except to a few guys who pretty much had to know, considering what he'd been doing with them at the time.
+Stay the Night by Em // This used to be up on synchronik's site, but the popslash portion of that site still isn't up. However, I have the file knocking around somewhere if anyone wants it. It's a hooker fic. And it's depressing and sad and definitely not your Pretty Woman-type affair. And it's really good. The Lance in this fic... I can't even describe it. He's Lance and he isn't. He's exactly how I imagine and incredibly broken, jaded Lance would be.
+A Slow Beating Between Them by wearemany // An AU. Lance words for a record label. Lance discovers JC, who is pretty much exactly like normal JC except never famous. This is one of my very favorite fics. She's a wonderful writer with prose that manages to be engaging and yet not overly elaborate. I love her characterizations to pieces.
JC is twenty-seven years old, and he lives in the garage behind his parents' house. He's an assistant manager at Boston Market, mostly because everyone else who has worked there as long as he has quit or gotten fired for stealing or can't operate the deep fry without burning themselves.
His parents barely charge him any rent, so he has plenty of cash for the things that really matter. He's got a decent Yamaha and a G4 and DSL that his dad split off from the family computer, the long blue cable hanging parallel to the clothesline across the driveway. He helps run a website for DJs and musicians to post their work in progress for critique.
He's got over a thousand songs he's written since he was sixteen on seven hard drives and a sweet new mic for vocals that he bought with birthday money. With his headphones on, he can almost pretend the rhythmic thudding of sneakers in the dryer is part of the beat he's writing. He's got his tunes, and his internet, and cash to spare for old vinyl.
He's got everything he needs.
+Only One Kind of Love by geneli4 // MPREG. Uh, so if you don't like MPREG... you should still read this because it's awesome. I can't imagine people NOT liking MPREG but I know they exist, hence the disclaimer. This fic is... there's something very special about the connection between JC and Lance here, and I just really love it.
It should be complicated but it isn't, it's easy and right and you fall asleep with JC's arms wrapped around you, one of his hands splayed over your belly, over the soft curve you couldn't hide now even if you tried. You wake up like that, too, sweat slick and stuck together, the beat of his pulse racing through your skin. You wake up a little dizzy and still tired and JC mumbles in his sleep, he nuzzles closer and your eyes aren't even open yet but you're awake now, and so damn happy. Blissful, really, and you enjoy it for as long as you can before your body propels you out of bed, stomach rolling up and up and you're almost grateful to slump over the cool porcelain and just let it all go.
+JC's Diary: The Edge of Raisin // Every fandom needs its Bridget Jones's Diary parody, but I am pretty sure popslash has the best one. This fic is pretty much the best thing ever. EVER. I laugh so hard when I read it. It's JC at his bitchiest, most ridiculous, most awesome, and I just will never get over this awesomeness.
Joshua Chasez Diary, 8 August, 2003
cigarettes: 3 (v.v. bad, must protect vulnerable teenagers from evil popstar influence) Alcohol units: 15 (v. v. good, all were free!), Times jerked off thinking about Justin: 3 (v. bad, yesss veerry baaaaad), Songs written about sex: 1, Songs written NOT about sex: 0 (weird, this one never changes), Sex had: 1 BIG one (or a couple of mini ones, if you like, kinda like an F5 tornado - rrrooaaarrr).
6am: Wake up, like everyone does at 6am. Only, am millionaire popstar so can go back to sleep.
7.45am: Wake up from phone ringing. Let the machine take it with my usual: I'm not in and my cellphone is turned off. Leave a message if you think it'll help. Am still a popstar, so go back to sleep.
10.00am: Wake up from bird crashing against the huge window of my fort on the hill. It probably died or had a concussion, so maybe I ought to- zzzzzzzzz.
11.45am: Get up. Stretch. Pull sheets off bed and put them in the trash, like every morning.
11.50am: Go to have a shower and jerk off.
12.50: Come.
GSF
+ It's Like Your Hand by giddygeek // A popslash/Stargate: Atlantis crossover, in which nsync are cloned somehow and in Atlantis and it is AWESOME. I think the moment I mention clones, everyone should go running to read. Plus, Justin is the sheep-headed one! That will never stop being hilarious.
The sheep-headed one flipped through the photographs, stopped, and said, "Holy shit--get me some scissors, man! Do you have someone here who can shave my head like that?"
"No," Rodney snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. "You're the sheep-headed one."
"My name is Justin."
"I'm not learning your name!" Rodney said. "If we put you back, why bother? If we keep you, you're toast--I give it a year, max."
"Keep us?" said the blond, sitting up straighter. "What do you mean, keep us? You're not sending us back to Earth?"
"You've never been to Earth. Follow along, kids: you're clones. This is a top-secret project, based in another galaxy. The real you, their families, friends, fans, and sycophants can't ever know you exist. So what's going to happen, are we going to send you to Earth and trust you to live in hiding the rest of your lives?"
"Yes."
Rodney snorted, and ignored Elizabeth's quelling look. "Think again," he said. "I'm not having my career ruined because one of you can't resist trying to get a blowjob from a groupie."
+Relief by Calico // NSYNC makes a bet as to who can go the longest without orgasming. And then they proceed to try to make each other break it. And it is hot. And awesome. And hot.
Justin/Lance
+A 21st Century Love Story by jeweliana // I love this story. It's very... domestic! And wonderful. A very perfect wallowy lambs fic. They buy sheets! At Bed, Bath, and Beyond! And for some reason that idea is so fucking delightful to me. I really *heart* this fic.
Lance had a plan. Six months of doing what he wanted, and then back to the real world. It was extremely self-indulgent, but after six painstaking hours at a hospital in Mississippi last year, he knew the value of getting the most out of life. Luckily, his dad was OK, but Lance wasn’t going to wait until a heart attack had him flat on his back before he realized that he needed to work less and stop putting off the fun stuff.
+Insight by Beth // Lance's dog is psychic. Do I really need to say more? Okay, what I will say is, I love this Justin. And this Justin-Lance dynamic is just perfectly done. AND LANCE'S DOG IS PSYCHIC.
"Okay, but that still doesn't mean that there's no such thing as a psychic dog," JC said.
"Yeah. Why not?" Justin's eyes were huge and beautiful. "I mean, how cool would that be?"
Lance spoke carefully. "Don't you think a psychic person might be more --"
"Nah. 'Cause dogs, see, they pick up on shit most people don't. They see in so many ways we can't," JC said, and he was every bit as earnest as Justin had been. "And also, dogs get all the good stuff, 'cause people are more relaxed when it's just them and their pet, you know?"
"But they don't even care about the same things we do." Lance was starting to become annoyed. Why the fuck hadn't he remembered how quickly Justin and JC bonded in such stupid ways over such asinine things? "I don't see how either of you could think --"
"Look -- I'm sorry if all your dog could do was tell you that he missed Beth, but that's your problem. A psychic dog would've said things of substance." Justin sat back in perfect satisfaction and crossed his arms over his chest, almost as if that had made sense. JC did the same thing.
+Love You Like Tupperware by kel and lise // There's something melancholy and just... right about this fic. It feels true. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED. *shines tinhat* Justin wants Lance to bring himself back. And yes. I love this Justin.
If we went to my home we'd have to fuck on top of my luggage, you think, but instead you say, "What are we going to go when we go to your home. Or, for that matter, my home? Watch cartoons? Play board games?" It was just a tour thing. The tour's been over for hours, days, maybe and you're leaving in the morning for a different kind of summer vacation. You have packed luggage. It's important for Justin to understand this.
"You, you're the one with all the good board games. So if we're gonna do that, I should go home with you. But I was thinking, you know, that we could have sex. And if we're gonna do that, we can go where ever you want." Justin licks his lips. It's really almost enough to get you right there. Justin's tongue, his lips and it's no surprise, Justin is always the best looking person in the room at the end of the night.
+Buying A Clue by Lennie // Cute young lambs fic. This is a very happy place. There are super hero syncers! And stuff. I don't know! I just like it.
+Shiny and New by wearemany // So, Lance is gay, but he doesn't know what he likes, and Justin is convinced that he could be the one to show Lance. And then he is, because he's just Justin. And stuff.
So, Lance is gay and that's fine. But he doesn't date, he doesn't pick up guys, he doesn't do anything but work and he doesn't even break a sweat about never getting tail. Justin alternates between finding this endearing, amusing, baffling and sometimes, just plain infuriating. Everyone else gets some, Chris and Joey chasing after girls, JC and Justin going after anything they can get and Lance just sits back and waits for something. Lance doesn't even complain, only commenting on it when one of them asks him about his weird celibacy thing. Lance insists it's not some kind of policy, it's just that he doesn't have time, that he doesn't make it the end all of everything he does to get laid. "I don't have to be paired up, I don't need to fuck someone every free night I have," he says.
+Out from Underneath aka the Epic of the Lambs by withdiamonds // I have probably read this story at least ten times. Maybe more. I really really love it. Really really. I wrote a remix of it! Mostly from memory! Because I love it that much. And it really is epic. It's a reunion fic but there are flashbacks to the very beginning and it's just, yes. It's perfect. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
+Or What They Think Is Love by cliokat // Bike messenger AU!! This was one of the first popslash fics I ever read, and it set the bar pretty damn high, I have to say. Justin is a bike messenger and Lance is some sort of financial analyst and there is delightful Britney and adorably fuzzy JC and a bit of angst but mostly awesomeness. AND EMINEM MAKES A CAMEO but I won't say where. This fic makes me miss Boston.
+Landfall by Betty Plotnick // Oh, I love this fic. Lance comes back from Russia and reconnects with normalish humans again and it's hard but it's lovely. I just love this version of Lance.
"You'd act angry about the invasion of privacy, but secretly you'd be humiliated. I'd act humiliated, but secretly I'd be relieved. We'd try to handle it gracefully, but pretty soon we'd decide, fuck them. We've already done everything and gotten everything we could possibly want, so what do we need them for? We'd move to Wisconsin and try to figure out what's so great about a normal life, anyway. We couldn't handle free time, so we'd get jobs in a mall. You'd be the manager of the Gap, and I'd work at Sam Goody."
+Making the List by _ducks // Oh, *hearts*. I know I say that about every fic, but the Justin in this one is so fucking adorable I want to hug him and keep him as a pet. Uh, not in a sexy way. More like in a cat way. But yes. This fic is great. Justin makes lists of all the things he wants. And Lance ends up on the list.
"Chris lies in interviews all the time."
"Chris is -- that's different. Chris says, JC's pregnant, or he had a fight in a bar and killed somebody's pet alligator, or he wants to marry Ricky Martin. He might as well be holding up a big sign saying 'hi, I am lying'. It's funny. You're like a compulsive liar or something. And everyone believes you, it's stupid."
"Maybe I do want to marry Ricky Martin," Lance said, and put his fork down, looked up at Justin, waiting.
"That's ... cool," Justin said after a beat. "Ricky Martin's not cool," he added, in case Lance had been serious about that part. People should have standards.
Justin/Chris
+Orlando by waxjism // Genderswap! Justin turns into a girl. A girl who looks like she might kick your ass! And it is awesome, and naturally Chris wants to hit that, but he pretty much always wanted to hit that, because that is the plot of every genderswap ever. And that is why I love genderswap! Oh, and he's in a BSB video. That cracks me up, too.
JC blinks when he sees Justin, blinks and blinks and blinks, and for a second, Chris thinks he looks almost envious. The way he runs his eyes up and down Justin's legs and chest isn't so much lascivious as ... awed. "Man, you look great," JC says, finally. Not, "holy fuck, you're a girl!" or "Jesus Christ, what are we gonna do now?" or even "this is weird." Just, "I always knew you'd make a beautiful woman, Justin," and a soft little smile.
"Yeah?"
"Sure," JC says and hugs Justin, completely unselfconsciously. Chris hasn't dared touch Justin all day. There are just so many places that are off-limits now, but JC doesn't seem to care.
+ Deja Voodoo by kira_j // OMG. This is pretty much one of my absolute favorite fics in the WORLD and I can't even explain why except it is breathtaking in its amazingness. I fucking wish I could write like this. I try, I fail. And then I read this again because it's so awesome. I can't even explain the plot. Justin wants Chris. Chris wants everyone else. And there is Lynn. And there is JC. And. I just love it. I can't explain it further.
The morning after Lynn first slept with Chris, she was cleaning up in the kitchen when Justin came down, dressed in long shorts and a vest. There was something purposeful about how he picked out the whitest one, and not the almost-grey t-shirt he usually wore to bed. It made his skin look darker than it did the day before. Like honey on dark brown bread, toasted and burnt sweet. She whisked three eggs in a plastic jug, and added four table spoons of milk then put on oven gloves and squatted instead of bent at the waist to open the stove door. As she put the baking tray with the sizzling hash browns on to the protective matt on the counter, Justin hopped up to sit next to it, feet banging against the cupboard door. He looked down at her through sleepy stuck-together eyelashes then tilted his head and opened his arms. He was so narrow, he hadn’t been eating her cheese on toast and when she breathed in behind his ear, she thought, Chris was right.
+Metafictional by Steph // So someone, I want to say Joey, but maybe Chris, signs them up to participate in SeSa. And it's pretty much hilarious and I love fic where they discover slash! And I don't even remember how this ends up being Timbertrick but I am sure it's wonderful because I just know that I love this fic. I think because I just relate to the Joey in this who loves badfic so much he wants to write his own. Also, I want to read "JC the Dolphinboy". I bet it's like drinking cum from a cock!
"I can't explain this right," Joey says, and he reaches into his bag and produces a sheaf of papers. "But I printed something for you to read."
It's called "JC the Dolphinboy," and it's a story about a popstar who sleeps in a bathtub and eats lots of fish, due to his changing into a dolphin on every new moon for reasons that the story never explains. It's not the easiest reading experience, due to the spelling errors and inventive grammar, but there's an earnestness in the words that he finds intriguing. This girl, this JoshuasLaydee, really believes in this world where JC is a simpering, isolated, less evolved mammal. At the end, the band tearfully lets JC go, but not before they all get matching dolphin tattoos to remember him by. Then JC dramatically dives off into the ocean to search for more of his kind. It's ridiculous and stupid, and Chris wonders if there's a sequel.
"See?" Joey says, and he's practically bouncing in his seat. "Isn't it awful? Isn't it great?"
JC/Chris
+How JC Escaped from Planet Sequin and Got His Groove Back by llamabitchyo // Llama is like the new queen of TrickC. She just writes amazing, hilarious TrickC and this fic is both amazing and hilarious. I really recommend just reading everything by her, but this one is a good start. JC starts producing massive amounts of sparkling dust and he calls in Chris to figure out what the hell is going on with him.
He had to cancel the cleaning service after he noticed how nervous even Marciella had become around him. He hated to do it, but he couldn't think of any way to reassure her.
Somehow, he thought telling her, "Hey, I'm not a vampire or anything. I'm just a pale guy with a mysterious dust problem," was unlikely to help.
+ Coffee Shop AU by fluffontop // aka Bitchy Barista. Um, basically? JC is a bitchy barista. And Chris is Chris. And Justin is nearly as bitchy as JC but not quite, and it is pretty awesomely fabulous. I based the 7-11 AU a lot on this fic, and it's because this fic is awesome.
The black-haired guy with the really pretty friend came in at 2:00 like they always did. JC thought they must work together and always have their break together, but he doubted they were a couple. The pretty one was very much out of the black-haired one's league.
"Hi." He smiled. "What can I get you today?"
The pretty one smiled back. JC knew his name: Lance. But he always thought of him as "ohh, pretty".
"You. To go." Unfortunately it was Chris, the not so pretty one, who did all the flirting. JC snorted at him, and let his gaze linger on Lance.
"Just a mocha and an almond cappuccino, please," Lance said, politely. His cheeks were pink, warm and flustered. His voice was low and soft and sounded like sex. The boy really had the most amazing eyes.
"Finally Friday, huh? You doing anything this weekend?" Chris's voice was not like sex at all. More like cartoons in bed. Cartoons in bed after your lover's failed to get it up.
+Digital Age Remix, the Same Old Story by llamabitchyo // So, I love fics in which people email and text and things. And this fic is full of that, but also of Chris saving the day one JC at a time. And the voices are just so great! You can tell she spent some time researching how Lance and Joey write because the emails are so perfectly them. (ie Joey can't spell, and is kind of clueless, and Lance likes to tell dumb jokes and use lots of exclamation points.)
To: tr.icky@gmail.co
From: bassman@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: Re: plan C
Fuck off. I'm not going to fuck Chace in some half-assed, crazy Kirkpatrick scheme to save JC from himself. So...
Stop Asking!!
I mean, I would, though the emo bangs just make me want to vomit. (Shut up! My bad hair was NOT my fault and you have no room to talk.) I would IF I thought it would help, but it won't. He just needs to ride his telepathic roads out of the damn closet already. It's great out here and he'd love it =D
Oh! I've got some new Chuck Norris jokes, did I tell you when you were here? And did I tell you they're trying to make this flaming drink with whipped cream? They haven't mastered it yet, but it's amazing ... [editor's note: email transcript cut for length]
+Freely Given by Helen // Everything by Helen is pretty awesome, I have to say, but I really love this fic because it feels like a Chris that could actually happen. He wants to cheer JC up after Bobbie dumps him. By mercy fucking him. Which I am totally okay with. And then there's this part where Chris's dogs get attached to JC and. AND. I just love this fic. Love it. Love Helen's JC.
He'd though that being crammed on the same bus for six years with someone would render them transparent. He'd known how to cheer JC up, and it hadn't been difficult to figure out what he liked in bed, although, in retrospect, Chris had to admit to himself that that had less to do with his familiarity with JC, and his superior powers of observation, than with the fact that JC tended to arch in an approving and sluttish manner every time he did something right. There were, as it happened, new things to learn about JC-not just sex things, like the way that JC would climb into his lap while they were watching tv when he wanted to be fucked and that he liked to hold hands in bed, or things that were almost sex things, like that JC's hips were ticklish, but things that had nothing to do with sex, like that JC couldn't cook anything at all, but thought he could. He was always offering to cook things, and bought ingredients, but everything he made was a failure. Chris did most of the cooking.
+Wolves and Boybands Mate for Life by merryish // (who has a link for this. Mine appears to be broken *sadface*) And I can't even remember what it's about, exactly, because I can't look at it. Damn. Fandom has come through! Chris tries to woo JC, and it just leaves him confused, and then JC tries to woo Chris with similar results, but eventually they get their shit together and it is awesome and adorable.
JC tried to woo Chris by writing him songs. He worked on them constantly, trying to get the words just right. It was weird, but the more he cared about a song the harder it was to finish. He could write Space Cowboy in like half a day but writing a song for a guy he was in love with, that took weeks. This wasn't a big problem or anything, since JC had been in love with Chris for years and it hadn't occurred to him to do anything besides write about it until they started the Celebrity tour. He had a lot of material to work with.
The songs didn't make any sense to Chris. They seemed to be mostly about girls. A few were about girls and candles, and a few were about girls and boats, and one of them seemed to be about Justin. The most recent one, Chris was pretty sure, was about a dog, or possibly a wolf, who turned into a butterfly. He had to read it three times before he got even that much.
+The Legendary Grapefruit Gurus of Southern California by Torch // Oh man. I love this because it's kind of a reversal from the typical TrickC plot. In this one, JC is the guru and Chris has to learn how to be zen enough for grapefruits which totally only makes sense in my head. And there's a part where Justin is sick and they go to a deli and it's just fucking adorable. Everyone should read everything by Torch because it is all awesome.
JC had six unused toothbrushes, still wrapped individually in plastic. Chris wasn't surprised. They were arranged in a rainbow color sequence in the bathroom cabinet. Chris wasn't surprised at that, either. He took the green one.
JC opened the door to the guest room. "You want a t-shirt to sleep in, or something?"
Chris shook his head. "Nah, I'll be fine. Actually." He twirled the toothbrush between two fingers. "I'll get up early tomorrow, get a flight back to Chicago. I can't just leave my RV like that."
JC looked thoughtful. "Why not? It'd be great if you stayed. We can hang out, and J's coming in a couple of days, and all."
"I'm sure the Divine Mister Timberlake will survive," Chris said.
JC snorted. "I'm gonna tell him you said that. Are you sure you don't wanna stay?" Chris shook his head. "Why not?"
"Well, you said yourself that I'm not ready for the grapefruit zen or whatever," Chris said.
"Oh, no," JC said. "That's not what I meant. I meant that you're not ready for this."
He leaned forward and kissed Chris.
Chris dropped the toothbrush.
Chris/Lance
+And You'll Notice My Smile (Is Like Kool Aid) by nopseud // TrickyFish is a pairing I have thus far managed to avoid writing, but it's only because people like Anna write it so well that I am afraid to even attempt. This was one of my favorites from SeSa '07. Lance gets what he wants. He knows how to smile just so to get what he wants. And Chris knows exactly what is going on, because he is Chris and he is all knowing and if there's one person who can trick a Lance, it's Chris.
+ All That Stuff's A Sideshow by vaudevilles // Chris and Lance get outed, and it is funny and awesome and adorable and OMG I LOVE IT. I wish very much that she was still writing but she has given us some very awesome fics regardless. I have a lot of love for this fic; I love her characterizations and her humor. So great.
+Green Scales Fell Like Rain by withdiamonds // Yes, I do love Donna's fic, STFU and enjoy it, people. Lance comes out in an alternate timeline. OH THIS FIC. I love it. It hurts. But it's cathartic and happy, too. The trickyfish is great, but the Lance-JC interactions are just as good. Donna knows how to write the *group* while still holding onto a sense of romance and something special for the pairing.
+The Long Run by wearemany // This really is THE definitive trickyfish, and I don't have time to talk about it because I need to go HOME OMG, but it's a great story, futurefic, Chris owns a bar in Chicago and of course it's gorgeously written and characterized and pretty perfect in almost every way.
Chris/Joey
+The Same Inside by Helen // Chris turns into a girl! And does a Maxim photoshoot. And it is awesome. This is one of they very few Choey fics I can do. Like, I can read Choey, and I can enjoy it, but this one makes me believe it's possible.
"Great. Tomorrow. and here's something I thought I would never say, the rest of you should try very hard not to turn into girls, especially you, Fatone, as you would make a very ugly girl."
"Okay, Theresa," Justin said.
"All I'm saying is that at least Chris is cute. You got a sweet can, Kirkpatrick, and that's the only reason we didn't go with the "'Nsync's Kirkpatrick dies in horrible train accident; his dying wish that people purchase more albums" story."
Joey/JC
+Be Able to Stop by Helen // Okay look, I like genderswaps. I can't help it. And somehow whenever someone turns into a girl, it makes SENSE that they hook up with Joey, because he's the only straight one. (yes, in my brain. Which does not resemble reality.) So, in this one, JC turns into a girl, and he's better at being a girl than you or I will ever be because he's already JC Chasez. And Joey falls in love with him because how could you not? But uh, it's sad at the end, just to warn you.
They couldn't stop staring at JC's legs when he changed into a girl, because they were long and slim, and he kept wearing little vintage dresses, with matching shoes and eye-makeup, and they finally realized he'd been growing his hair out so that he could have a glossy, stylishly disheveled bob. They weren't as shocked by the fact that he was a girl as they were by the fact that he seemed to be already quite good at it.
"Dude, I'm fucking impressed," Justin said, when JC showed up wearing a crisp green dress with cap sleeves, with matching sandals and painted nails. JC twirled around, and the dress flew up around his thighs.
"Are you wearing a thong?" Justin asked.
"None of your business," JC said at the same time that Lance said "You don't wear thongs with skirts, moron."
Crossovers
+The Earl of Rothinghamtonfordshire by Jae (chris/nick) // Oh, fuck, this is one of the funniest fics I have ever, ever read. At first I was leery because Chris and Nick seem like the most unlikely pairing that isn't Justin/AJ ever, but then I read it and I was converted. Instantly. Um, so what happens is, Nick writes a romance novel. Or maybe it's Justin. SOMEONE writes a romance novel. It doesn't even matter, just read it. It's hilarious.
"Me too," Kevin said. "Look, Nick, you can't just go around putting us in things you write. It's not fair."
"I didn't mind," Brian said. "I liked being the vicar, and living in the vicarage with the vicaress, and riding in my vicarriage all over the vicartown."
"Yeah, I liked my part too," AJ said. "Alexi the valet was pretty cool, and it's kind of a sweet gig, parking Lord Kevin's horses. Plus, people keep giving me monkeys, and what's more fun than a bunch of monkeys? Nothing, that's what."
"You know they're not real monkeys," Howie said.
"What?" AJ said.
"What?" Nick said.
"It's slang for money. More money, actually, than anyone would probably give the valet -- never mind," Howie said. "Also, the valet doesn't park the horses."
"Really?" AJ said. "What do I do?"
"A valet's a kind of a servant -- you attend to Lord Kevin's personal needs."
"I'm a hooker?" AJ said. Brian grabbed the nearest copy of Nick's book and started rifling through it.
"He's a hooker?" Kevin said. "Look, Nick, I don't know what kind of book you're trying to write here --"
"He's not a hooker," Howie said. "You're not a hooker. You take care of Lord Kevin's clothes, things like that."
"Okay, I think I'd rather be a hooker."
"You'd probably be better at that," Kevin said, "judging by the state of your shirt."
+Poptarts in Atlantis by Torch (jc/nick) // You might sense a theme to my crossovers. I like Nick. He's pretty. Sue me. Anyway, yes! This fic! Is awesome! And I can honestly say I loved it even before I started watching Stargate: Atlantis. JC is a scientist in Atlantis. Nick is a marine. There is some kind of whale plotline involved, but mostly it is JC Chasez: intrepid scientist, doing stuff and wandering around barefoot and annoying Rodney with his very existence.
McKay turned around. "It's you," he said, glaring. "Chavez."
"Chasez."
"Whatever. Great. Now I suppose I have to find somewhere for you to-" He gestured around the lab, which looked fairly empty.
"You knew I was coming," JC said. "Good to see you, man. Have you been working out?"
"If by working out you mean running for my life from hostile aliens, yes."
"Well, whatever works for you," JC said peacefully. "I started doing yoga last year, and-"
"And you wouldn't believe how little I care about that. In fact-" Someone short and scruffy and kind of cute wandered up with a cup of coffee. McKay turned on him abruptly. "Zelenka, good. Zelenka will make sure you're settled in. Someplace out of the way." He stomped off.
"Radek Zelenka," short and scruffy said, holding out his coffee-mug-free hand. "You have managed to offend Dr McKay already, or did you know him before?"
"Not really," JC said. "I mean, I haven't seen him in a couple of years. But he was my thesis advisor for about two weeks, except we didn't really get on, and then Marie talked him into being there for my diss, and then there was this project over at MIT where I guess we didn't see eye to eye, and then that business when he reviewed my book and didn't even like the cover-"
+The Haircuts by k8 (jc/nick) // OHOH. I love this fic. Um, let's see. It's an AU. JC has like 10 jobs. And it has delightful, activist!Justin and kind of slutty Britney and a side helping of TrickyFish and I honestly can't all remember what happens except that JC figures some shit out at the end. And it is awesome.
JC wants it to be a theme party. He can't think of a theme, suggests a color perhaps-- not black though, that's so been done before, and twice. But Lance puts his foot down with a "no. Just, no. And how the fuck do I know you? And why do you live here?" He also raises his right eyebrow higher than normal sarcasm levels allow so JC doesn't think he'll push it for a while.
So it will not be a theme party, he tells Britney on the T, which results in her snapping her gum in a comforting way and making him focus on her hair instead. It's a new hairdresser, she's not sure his ideas about fringe should really have been implemented in the real world, but JC likes it quite a bit. Actually, JC likes it so much he wants to know where she got it and how much. Good hair dressers are important. Besides, Mother has scheduled a haircut at home for JC's wedding prep. JC is trying to avoid said haircut. Like the plague. Hair debate continues. JC suggests Britney try dying it a very orangey red, because the color obviously won't exist in nature, but the Men In Suits can't fire her for it. Britney claims to detest the Men In Suits-- secret code name for executive assistant position at top advertising agency-- but she gets paid and can afford to have a DIESEL Ass, and really, she tells JC, that's something worth paying for.
+The Hackery AU by Georgina (justin/nick) // They are hackers! And covert ops specialists! And! It's awesome! But unfinished. Which is sad. But still. Good times.
+Prelude to A Kiss by ?? (lance/john rzeznik) // As in the singer from the Goo Goo Dolls and yes it's an odd pairing and yet, it somehow makes total sense when I read it. I should know who wrote this, but I had to Wayback the link so I'm not really sure. In any case, this fic is awesome. And angsty and hurty but so fucking good and it ends happy.
John considers calling the kid, he takes out his phone on more than one occasion, but never goes through with it. He's never sure why; he's almost positive it's because he's not gay, and he's pretty sure that Lance is. And he certainly doesn't want to be gay, so calling the kid would be a waste of time for both of them, it would only end badly when John eventually tells him hey, thanks, but no thanks.
John has dreams. Dreams about weird green eyes and a deep voice that wakes him up in the morning. He has dreams about a boy with spiky blond hair and a pair of sunglasses that make him look sexy when really, he should look dorky. He wakes up hard, and as much as he tries to convince himself that it was Adrienne he was dreaming about, he knows differently when he jerks off and the flash of a smile he sees belongs to the kid with the weird eyes, and he comes harder than he ever has.
So maybe he isn't as straight as he thought. Maybe he should give this kid a call and see if he could get Lance to show him a thing or two, maybe he can act like he's done this before and at least get a free blowjob out of the deal. A blowjob's a blowjob, right? A mouth's a mouth, it doesn't matter who it belongs to.
+A Hell of A Yarn by SarahQ (AJ/JC) // This might be my favorite letterboys fic, solely because JC owns a YARN SHOP. A freaking yarn shop! That's too perfect. AJ owns some kind of punk/skater shop. And they team up to fight The Man or the City Council or... something. It doesn't matter, it's just awesome.
Advanced Placement Pairings
aka the Weird Shit That Normal People Usually Run Away From
+Gold by Sandy the Younger (britney/chris) // Yeah so, I like het sometimes? And I like Britney always. And Britney/Chris is a fucking awesome pairing. This actually has about 10 pairings including Britney/Bobbie, which is another fucking awesome pairing, and it's kind of inexplicable? But it's very good. So read it.
Wade's fingers manage to graze Justin's forearm and Britney's waist at the same time, hands as busy as his feet. He smiles once at both of them and again at the photographers over Justin's shoulder. Justin knows Bobbie's coming tonight and he knows Wade's face will be all over the January issue of J-14. Wade will make it into PopStar!, too, but not People. Not US. Wade belongs in US, though. Accidental Celebrities Digest. Justin knows he and Britney will be all over everything, everywhere.
Next to Justin, Britney hums. He is thinking about proposing. He is thinking about breaking up with her.
+ Girl Stuff by llamabitchyo (britney/justin, britney/lynn) // Britney wants to be like Lynn, aka MADE OF AWESOME. This fic. Okay so, the Britney voice is just so fucking pitch perfect. I don't know how Llama managed that, but she did, because it is absolutely dead on. And again, I pretty much love anything with Britney, but especially awesome stuff with Britney AND Lynn.
And Britney wasn't stupid. It didn't take much figuring to know that if the people who should have been looking at her like that hadn't looked at her like that by now, well then... she was going to have to get it from someone else. And Britney knew just who she wanted it from.
She was prettier and more talented than Justin, and Ms. Harless was going to look at her with that exact same sparkle of amazement. Britney would make it happen.
So she sat down next to Justin and immediately started her campaign to impress his momma.
+The Seahorse Story by Betty Plotnick (justin/trace) // Uh, mpreg. Kind of. Justin lays eggs. Because he's possibly part dragon? And... I don't know how to explain this, it's just really good! And the eggs are really cute. And Trace is very awesome in this while still being kind of annoyingly Trace-ish. One of my all time favorites, for sure.
"I'm not giving birth. Jesus, I'm not fucking pregnant."
"No, because that would be weird," Chris says wisely, and then rolls his eyes. "Eggs? Eggs? That's not genetically odd, J, that's fucking inhuman."
"Only a little," Justin says sulkily. "On my mom's side."
"Wait," JC says, "wait, there, a minute. Are you saying that's true? You're really...not completely human? What -- what -- I mean, are you, like, an alien? Partially," he specifies quickly, holding up a hand to forestall the inevitable objection.
+The World A Hunting Is by LC (justin/lynn, chris/lynn) // It's a sort of haunting, sad AU in which Justin lives in some sort of trailer park with his mom and uh... there's something to do with JC and how he escaped that life and Justin's waiting for him to come back and take Justin away. Or something. I'm not explaining it right! It's good, I promise.
Fire, though, just makes him think back to the hot wet air chewing at his skin, and he wants to die. Justin leans back against the aluminum siding of the trailer, he picks up his coke bottle and drinks what's left, all warm and flat by now. He's been sitting out under the sun for maybe two hours, though he cannot tell for sure. It's possible JC won't come, for the heat, because nobody in their right mind is wanting to step outside today, just lie in bed with a baggie of ice on your forehead and cry.
Momma is inside in the dark. Justin used to sit next to her when she cried and he stroked her shoulders and her hair, if she didn't have a wet cloth on her forehead, and he kissed her fingers. Not anymore though, because she has Chris now, and Justin has always understood that he's just standing in. He knows she needs Chris, same like she needed Joe, and Jimmy before him. Before Jimmy Justin can't remember.
His life is run according to the weather and according to the names of those men. They have all been good to him. He knows that it more often goes the other way. Britney who is his friend told him about her momma's men. She and Justin sat by the brown stream, in the punch-dent under the bank, where it looks like somebody'd spooned out a spoonful of dirt just big enough for two people to sit all hunched up.
Backstreet Stuff
+The Beginning, Sir (And Not A Minute Sooner) by bubbleforest (nick/aj) // So, Nick's bandmates go missing one by one, and he has to find them via dreams about various fairytales and Britney is Tinkerbell, and it is funny and cute and nostalgic and awesome.
+Diurnal by boomingvoice (nick/brian) // This fic is soso beautiful and it makes me ache for Nick and I just really wish he had a better life, you know? And I wish he were just a little smarter so he could maybe deal with all his shit better. Oh Nicky. Anyway, that's sort of what this fic is about. Dealing, and not dealing. But really it's just gorgeously written.
Someone is again disturbing your rest at the ungodly hour of 4 pm. You moan, and you’re tired enough that you’re almost not embarrassed at your fucked up sleep schedule. You take two seconds to roll over and decide to ignore the door.
Five minutes later the phone is ringing. You check the ID and very nearly cry. You flip it open. “Brian. Fuck off.”
“Nick, come open the door.”
“No.” You throw the phone at the door. It hits with a dull thunk, which Brian answers with persistent knocking. You hate Brian. You go open the door.
“Hey beautiful,” he says with a grin. His eyes are very blue and you wonder how shot your own must be.
You consider punching him. You tell him that. He smiles, and then you really do try, only you’re so slow with sleep that he just laughs as he twists aside and takes hold of your fist.
Other People's Recs:
+musicboxgirl recs some stuff over here. And also right here.
+Mercy and Be Your Own Best Friend by Betty Plotnick (trickyfish) // Suggested by pensnest "for they are both awesome."
+The Sound of Pop Music by _ducks // Recommended by 1000_words because "that story symbolizes so much of what is great about popslash, just the cheerful insanity of it all." I will second this. It is a Sound of Music AU with JUSTIN AS MARIA THE NUN. The end.
And when I get home from work I will add my crossover pairings and my Advanced Placement pairings, and everyone else's suggestions.