Pairing: JC/Lance
Beta: Missy…thank you!
For Cooper, who gets ideas and is oh so willing to share them. What’s next?
The Quarter
It was the worst vacation of his life.
These two weeks were the last true family vacation that they were going to have and all his family was doing was arguing.
Lance was sick of it. He could hear them through the connecting door to his parents’ room heating up again, and damn if he was going to sit in his and Stacey’s room waiting for it to end, for the third day in a row, for God’s sake.
Stacey was eighteen and wanted to be out doing her own thing, his parents wanted her with them; Lance just wanted them to stop arguing.
It was gorgeous out and the day was wasting away because his sister was being a witch and his parents were buying into it. She was going to ruin the whole thing for all of them. Girls were so stupid, and he didn’t care if she was his sister, Stacey was worse than all of the other girls he knew put together.
Well, he wasn’t going to let her ruin his vacation. If they wanted to stay inside – again – and argue all day, they could. He was going to the pool. Maybe then this wouldn’t seem like it was going to be the worse vacation ever.
JC didn’t mind keeping an eye on his younger siblings so that his parents could have a little down time. Not really, anyway. They did a lot for him, like this vacation; but sometimes it was a pain not being able to do what he wanted. Still, it was nice here at the pool, and neither of his brat siblings – as he so fondly called them – were really bothering him all that much. Heather was floating with a bunch of twittering girls in the pool and Tyler was…Tyler was… Damn, he’d lost Tyler.
JC sighed as he hefted himself out of his lounge chair. The kid was always wandering off somewhere, and no matter how many times JC told him to stick close, the next time he’d go looking for him, Tyler would be nowhere to be found.
This time he was going to tie him to a damn chair and be done with it. He stopped briefly to tell his sister where he was going, rolling his eyes as he walked away at the giggles that followed his departure.
Girls.
Shaking his head, JC headed for the first of the three places that he thought he might find his eleven year old brother, the playground right outside the pool area – and, no Tyler.
His next stop was the snack bar, and though his brother wasn’t there either, he stopped and grabbed a few soft drinks to take back to the pool with them.
He didn’t begin to panic until he’d gone through the locker room twice, finding not a trace of his brother anywhere. He was going to kill Tyler when he found him, right after he finished hugging the stuffing out of him.
Sure the kid was a pain in the butt, but he was JC’s pain in the butt and he didn’t want to think about what it would be like if something had happened to him. Never mind what his mom and dad would do to him.
JC sank onto a bench between rows of lockers and took a deep breath. Maybe Tyler had gotten sick of hanging out and had gone back to their room. He could call and find out, but if Tyler weren’t there then JC would have to explain to his parents that he’d lost the kid and that would be bad.
Then again, if Tyler was really lost, it would probably be best to let his parents know that sooner than later, because time was important when kids had been – God. JC’s stomach clenched and he was halfway off the bench heading toward the phone to call his mom and dad’s room when the door at the other end of the locker room opened.
“It’s okay, buddy, it’s just a scratch really. Come on over here and have a seat. We’ll fix you up in no time.”
JC couldn’t see who had come in from where he was, but he could hear just fine and the sniff that followed was one he’d heard a thousand times before. Tyler.
The water ran and then the voice came again, “Here we go, put this on your knee. The cold will make it feel better.”
JC heard no response, other than another sniff, and he’d started towards his brother when the voice spoke again.
“Once, when I was little, I stubbed my big toe and broke it. I cried so hard my sister still teases me about it.”
“My sister’s a jerk.”
Yup, definitely Tyler. JC slid back to the bench in relief. He could almost hear the smile in the stranger’s reply.
“Yeah, mine’s not all the big of a prize either.”
There was a shuffle of clothing and then, “How is it?”
“It hurts.”
“It’s a pretty decent scrape.”
JC leaned forward, trying to see around the lockers, but he couldn’t. As quietly as possible he made his way around to the end of the row, not sure why he was being so secretive about it, only wanting to see the stranger before he approached them.
“You going to be okay?” JC heard before he peeked around the corner, and whoa. Damn, if his brothers rescuer wasn’t cute.
Slightly dorky what with the odd sort of haircut he was sporting, and way skinny, but still, blonde, tanned, and cute.
“It’s stupid to cry,” Tyler declared.
“Nah,” the blonde replied. “Everyone cries.”
“JC doesn’t. He’s cool.”
“JC?”
“He’s my brother.”
“Ahh.”
“He never cries about anything.”
“Maybe you just don’t ever see him.”
Tyler shook his head so that his sandy blonde hair flopped in his eyes. JC nearly sighed when the older boy reached out and smoothed it back.
“He’s really brave,” Tyler boasted.
“I bet.”
“All my sister’s friends like him.” The boy shook his head. “Girls are stupid.”
“Because they like your brother?”
Tyler gave him a look that had JC stifling a chuckle.
“No. Duh. Because they’re girls, and they just are. They giggle and scream, and put all this gunk on their face. Bleh.”
“Not all of them are bad, you know? Someday you’ll probably actually like one.”
“No way,” Tyler stated empathically.
“We’ll see.” They sat quietly for a minute; Tyler sniffing occasionally, before the older boy again spoke, “My name’s Lance, by the way.”
“That’s a weird name.”
JC nearly groaned. Leave it to his bratty brother to insult the person who’d just rescued him. He’d best step in before Ty did something else that would be even more embarrassing. As quietly as possible he made his way back to the door, opened it and yelled in as if he were just getting there. “Tyler, are you in here?”
His tone wasn’t friendly and he heard his brother’s quiet, “uh oh,” before he rounded the corner and pretended to just now spot the boy and his new friend.
“I’ve been looking all over for you, Ty, where have you been?”
“I had to go to the bathroom, and when I was done I went out the wrong door and I fell.” Tyler stuck out his leg. “Look.”
JC bent to examine his brother’s leg, acutely aware of the blonde’s stare on him the entire time.
“Ow.”
“It really hurts.” Tyler sniffed for good measure.
“I bet. Still.” JC mock slapped his brother’s head. “You’re not supposed to leave the pool area without telling me. What if it’d been worse and,” he looked up into a pair of sparkling green eyes and stopped dead. “Uh.”
Green eyes smiled and held out a hand. “Hi, I’m Lance.”
JC took the offered hand and then knelt there mute, struck dumb by the eyes, and the smile, and – ‘damn, JC, say something, you idiot.’
“Hey. I’m uh, JC. Tyler’s, uhm, brother.”
Tyler snickered and JC shot out a hand, clamping it over his mouth before the kid could open it and say something that would completely embarrass him. One of the things that JC loved the most about his family was how open they all were with each other, but the downside of that was they all tended to know everything there was to know about each other. For instance, Tyler knew that JC liked boys, not girls. When he was sure that his brother had gotten the message, JC removed his hand.
“Thanks – for,” JC shrugged, “you know, helping the brat out.”
“Oh sure, no problem.”
There was that smile again, only this time it was accompanied with a light squeeze to JC’s shoulder. His bare shoulder. It sent a zing right down JC’s seventeen-year-old spine and straight to his groin.
Oh, God.
It was embarrassing enough how often that happened, but now, it was mortifying. Or it would be when he stood up. Which he would have to do sometime – soon.
He needed to think of something other than the hand that still sat warmly against his skin. His mother, who was going to kill him if she came down to the pool and found Heather there alone.
That helped, a little.
The lady who’d been sitting two lounge chairs down who should have never been allowed to leave her hotel room in the bikini she’d had on. JC shook his head slightly; it hadn’t been pretty, and oh, thank you, God, yes, that was working.
He stood hurriedly, grabbed Tyler by the arm and pulled. “I, ah, need to get back to the pool. My sister is -” JC waved vaguely in the direction of the door because he’d once again looked into Lance’s eyes.
He really needed to stop doing that.
“Lance is going to the pool, too,” Tyler chirped in. “He told me outside, and he’s staying here at the hotel, and he has a sister that’s a pain, too, just like Heather, and-”
Again, JC clamped a hand over his youngest sibling’s mouth.
“If you can deal with hanging out with the chatter box here all afternoon, you’re welcome to tag along with us. We’ve got a bunch of chairs scoped out.”
Lance smiled, and oh man, blushed. “Cool, thanks.”
JC followed him out of the locker room knowing there was no help for him now. The blush had done it; he was a goner.
Lance had had more fun in the past two hours than he had the whole three days he’d been in New Orleans so far.
Sure, JC’s little brother could talk your ear off, and his sister – a pretty, dark-haired girl – and her friends had been a bit of a pain, swimming over and giggling over nothing every fifteen minutes or so, but still, it’d been fun.
There’d been a bunch of kids hanging out at the pool and they’d gotten an impromptu game of volleyball started. He and JC had wound up on the same team, and even though Lance had sucked at the game, JC had been really cool about making sure he got his chances at the ball. He’d had a blast and when the game was over and they were sitting on the side of the pool, watching Tyler belly-flop off the diving board, he said as much to JC.
“That was great, thanks for including me.”
“You don’t play all that bad.”
“Oh, please, I suck.”
JC stopped swirling his foot through the water, “No, you don’t.”
“I missed half the serve’s that came my way, JC.”
“Did you see the guy on the other team, the one with the red hair?”
Lance nodded.
“He missed every shot. You didn’t suck.”
“JC! JC! Watch me.”
They both turned in time to see Tyler execute a spectacular cannon ball. Lance watched him for a minute, laughing at the kids antics, until the light nudge of JC’s shoulder against his grabbed his attention.
“I think my sister’s friend likes you,” JC told him, his hand coming to rest on Lance’s shoulder so that he could turn him in the direction of the girl who was trying hard to pretend she wasn’t staring.
“Oh.” Lance felt his cheeks heat and ducked his head.
Taking that as a sign of the other boy’s interest, JC dropped his hand and sighed, “I could introduce you if you want?”
“No!” Lance blushed scarlet when JC looked startled at his vehemence. “I – uhm – don’t – uh – like – uh – girls,” he stuttered and then said more surely but still so softly that JC had to lean in close to hear, “I don’t like girls. Not like that anyway.”
All Lance could think as he waited for JC to say something, anything, was that he wished he’d had more time with the other boy, because he was for sure going to tell him now to get the hell away from him.
Except that he didn’t; what he did was brush his hand over Lance’s back and tell him, “Me, too.”
“This is so unfair.” JC, fisted hands resting on his hips, glared at his parents. “I’m going to be eighteen in less than two months, I’m not a baby.”
“No,” Roy replied calmly. “You’re not. But you are still a minor and as such your mother and I are responsible for your welfare, which means that unfair or not, you’re not going to go wandering around the Quarter on your own.”
“But, Dad-”
“No, Josh, and that’s final.”
“This sucks.” JC flopped into the closet chair, arms crossed, a mutinous expression on his face and repeated despite knowing – or maybe because of it– how much his mother hated the expression, “This really, really, sucks.”
“Enough,” his father warned. “You’re acting like a two-year-old.”
“Well, why shouldn’t I?” JC asked, using logic only understood by those with teen affixed to their age. “You’re treating me like I’m two. I mean, come on, Dad, it’s not like I want to go there to do anything but look around.”
“Fine, then your mom will get Heather and Tyler, and we’ll go and look around.”
“No.”
“But I thought you wanted to go?”
“By myself. I want to go by myself, not with the brat twins tagging along.”
Roy sighed, “I’m sorry, son, but that’s not going to happen. Not this trip. Either we all go or it’s a no go.”
“Fine.” JC shoved out of the chair. “I’m going to my room, and I don’t want to be disturbed.”
He slammed out of the room, tempting his father to revisit a time when he would have tanned his hide for that type of behavior. Roy restrained himself and instead turned to his wife. “Are we being too tough on him?”
“He’s seventeen years old and starting to explore certain possibilities. The last thing he needs to be doing is wandering the Quarter alone, so no, we’re not being too tough on him.”
“He’d never do anything--”
“Maybe not, but I don’t want to find out the hard way that he might.”
“He’s a good kid,” Roy defended.
“He’s a great kid, and one has nothing to do with the other.” Karen turned. “Why do I suddenly feel the need to defend a position that we’d already agreed on?”
Roy wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in for a hug.
“I’m sorry, you don’t. He just-”
“Pushed your buttons like no one but Joshua can.”
“Yeah,” Roy sighed. “Something like that.”
They stood, listening to their eldest child bang about in the room adjoining theirs for several minutes before Karen ventured, “We could let him go to that museum he’s been bugging us about. Maybe Diane and Jim would let Lance go with him.”
“Do you think that’d appease his highness?”
“Probably not, but it might get him to stop destroying the hotel room.”
Roy winced at the next crash. “There is that.” Still. “Do you think it’s wise to have the two of them wandering around alone?”
“Mm. I don’t see why not.”
“You have noticed the way Josh looks at him, right?”
Karen had. “I’m worried about someone else influencing Josh, Roy, not Josh influencing someone else.”
“I wasn’t trying to say that he was going to jump the kid or anything, Karen. Jesus, give me a break, will you? I merely meant that the two of them are – they – well – hmmm.”
“Yes, hmmm. I’ve noticed.”
“You don’t think they’ll…” Roy looked pained so Karen couldn’t help but tease.
“Rent a room and spend the afternoon having wild passionate sex?” She pretended to give it some serious thought. “Nah, I think we’re safe.”
“Ha, ha. Very funny.” Roy play swatted his wife’s backside. “At least I know Josh came by his bratty ways honestly.”
Karen rolled her eyes. “They’ll be fine, Dad. The museum isn’t all that far, they can walk, which will help our maniac child calm himself, roam around the museum for the day and be back in time for dinner. They’re both good boys, they’ll be fine.”
“Our parents would kill us if they knew we were doing this.”
JC smiled at Lance, “Probably, but they’re never going to know, so we don’t have to worry about it.” He held up the brochure and the tickets they’d purchased to the special exhibit the museum had going on. “We’ll show them these, plus make sure we get back there to at least walk through the exhibit and they’ll never know.”
Lance didn’t have the heart to tell him that he’d only have to tell one small lie for his mother to know; instead he shyly bumped his hand against JC’s, smiling when JC took the hint and grasped it.
This was more adventure than Lance had dreamed of having in New Orleans, and he wasn’t going to let thoughts of what his mother would do to him once she found out he’d followed JC into the French Quarter spoil it.
“I’m glad that your parents asked mine if I could go with you.”
JC flung an arm over Lance’s shoulder, not in the least bit self conscious of being out in public. “Me, too.”
To the casual observer they looked nothing more than two friends sharing a brief moment of affection. After the previous night, Lance knew better. They’d kissed for the first time, nothing major – well okay there was tongue involved but that’s as far as it had gone – but still, his hear thumped solidly in his chest at the thought of it. He couldn’t really remember how they’d ended up alone in JC’s room – especially as it’d seemed to him that JC’s dad had been making sure that didn’t happen – but they had been, and he’d turned from the TV to find JC lying beside him on the bed, staring.
It had seemed perfectly natural to Lance to lean over and press his lips against the other boy’s, just as it had seemed natural to open his mouth to JC when he’d licked at his lips. Lance flushed now thinking of it; he’d whimpered a little at the feelings their slick mouths sliding together had brought him.
He’d wanted to touch, but hadn’t dared do more than run his hands over JC’s back for fear of Mr. Chasez walking in on them. The thought of what might have happened had they truly been alone made him shiver, and had JC tightening his arm.
“You alright?”
“I’m good.”
“Are you sure, because if you’re not okay with this we can go back to the museum and just forget about it.”
“No, I’m good, honestly.” Lance smiled, “So, tell me about this place we’re going to, what’s it called again?”
“Café Du Monde, it’s great. They’ve got the best beignets, and it’s like been here forever. All of these great musicians used to hang out there, and this one guy, his name was Bix Beiderbecke, they have one of his coronets on display there, and-” JC stopped when he noticed Lance grinning at him. “What?”
“Nothing, I was just thinking.” Lance took a page out of JC’s book and leaned in for a kiss. “That this is probably the best vacation I’ve ever been on in my life.”
The café was crowded, still JC managed to snag one of the small wrought iron tables inside. They were just settling in, their knees bumping under the table, when the waitress approached. She took their order, café au lait and beignets for both, and then scurried off, leaving the flushed pair behind.
“I –uhm,” Lance struggled for something to say as he adjusted his legs under the table, conscious as he’d never been before of the people surrounding them. “So, this is the place?”
“Yup.” It had hit JC when they’d sat down that this was their first real date, and he was suddenly shy with the knowledge of it.
“So – ah,” Lance’s eyes roamed the room. “Which instrument is that-” Lance searched frantically through his mind for the name of the musician that JC had been going on about but came up with nothing. “I, uhm, don’trememberhisname.”
“Bix Biederbecke,” JC supplied, before much to Lance’s dismay falling silent again.
“Bix Biederbecke.” Lance slowly pronounced the last name, not wanting to screw it up and look like an idiot in front of JC. “Okay. So, which one is his?”
Their knees tangled as JC swiveled to look around the room and this time Lance scooted his chair back, knowing as he did that he’d probably end up with powdered sugar all over his lap and how would they explain that to their parents?
JC’s soft, “It’s over there,” brought him back from that worry, and he squinted at the picture fastened above the gleaming instrument.
“Maybe before we leave, we could,” Lance shrugged, “you know, go over so that I,” Lance took a deep breath, “so that you could tell me about him.”
Their eyes met and they smiled before both ducking their heads as the waitress placed their coffees in front of them.
“Here you go, boys. Can I get you anything else?”
“No, thank you,” they replied in unison, their cheeks turning crimson as they did, and this time when the waitress hurried off Lance was pretty sure she chuckled at them.
“This is, uhm, weird, huh?”
“Yeah. I mean, no. I mean…” Miserable, JC trailed off. When he looked up a few minutes later, it was to find Lance tearing one of his beignets to shreds. He nearly groaned, but the old guy sitting next to them was already looking at them strangely and JC just wasn’t up for that sort of confrontation.
“You want to get out of here?” he asked, though he was tossing money on the table even before Lance could answer. “C’mon, let’s head back to the museum, we’ll walk around the park or something.”
“But. You. And.” Lance threw his napkin down onto the table and hurried out after JC. “I’m sorry,” he finally mumbled after they’d been walking for a few minutes. “I know that you really wanted to go there.”
They collided when JC abruptly stopped.
“Ow.” Lance rubbed his shoulder where it had connected with JC. “Sorry.”
“Will you stop saying that!?” JC took a deep breath when Lance blanched at his tone. “I’m sorry,” he offered, then smiled sheepishly at Lance when he realized what he’d done. “I mean,” he looked down at his feet, then peeked up at Lance through his lashes. “Can we just go to the park, please?”
“Okay,” Lance agreed, and this time when they started out again, JC slowed down so that Lance could keep pace with him. When they reached City Park, JC headed for the Botanical Gardens. After paying the entrance fee, he and Lance made their way inside and began to wander through the brick pathways.
“It’s beautiful,” Lance whispered, looking around him in awe.
“We came here our first day,” JC explained, “but all Tyler did was complain that it was stupid, so we didn’t stay long.”
“Did you?” Lance paused, suddenly mortified that maybe JC had thought the same and he’d just sounded like a total nerd by calling it beautiful.
“I think it’s beautiful, too.”
Lance would later think that his face had been redder that day then ever before in his life, but still he couldn’t seem to stop the blush that stained his cheeks when he looked up to find JC looking at him – like that.
“Oh.”
“I wanted to go to the Café, Lance. I wanted to show you, but it was.” JC paused, thinking of the old man that had been staring at them. “It just didn’t feel right, you know?”
“It was crowded.”
“Yeah.” JC looked around, making sure they were alone before he stepped closer to Lance. “It’s our first real date.”
It was a toss-up as to who was more nervous when JC wrapped an arm around Lance’s waist. They’d kissed before, but this was somehow different, this was their first official outing as a couple and this kiss meant something.
In the future, when either of them looked back on this moment, they would remember the sun warm on their faces, the buzz of insects in the air, and the heady scent of the flowers surrounding them. Neither would remember how long the kiss lasted, but they would remember the steady beating of the others heart against them, and the soft sound their mouths had made when they’d drawn apart. And years later, when they walked the same paths, with a little girl in pig tails trailing between them, they would smile and remember that this was where it all began.