Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2000 00:01:00 -0500
From: Kathrine <storykath@operamail.com>
Subject: Eternally Yours 12

Legal disclaimer: not true, all fiction. Don't read if you're not allowed to.

Author's note: here's number 12. Enjoy :)

 - Chapter twelve -

"So where are we going tonight?" Joey asked as all four of them were ready to
go. "How about going clubbing?" Lance suggested. "Sounds good to me," Justin
said, pulling on a black leather jacket. "Don't forget we have to be back
early, Lance," JC said, "have you decided what you want to do with your room?"
"I like it as it is," Lance answered, trying to locate his beloved denim
jacket. "All I need is another set of curtains," he added. Joey handed Lance
his jacket. Then he looked at JC. "Josh, I love you, but I said it from the
start. The curtains in Lance's room are scary." "Nobody likes the curtains, I
get it," JC sighed. He smiled. "Honestly, I can't stand them either! I have no
clue what went through my head when I bought them. Lance, I'll make a call to
the store I used when we first moved in here. I'll make them drop by with some
fabric and colour samples and such..."

Justin looked at Joey. "Promise me that if he makes me go over fabric samples
with them tonight, that you'll save me?" "I will," Joey promised. "As long as
he doesn't get me too." "JC never bothers you with any of that stuff," Justin
said, "so you get away easy." "My sweetheart knows that I have absolutely no
clue about interior decorating and no taste either, so he just ask me if I
like it and I say yes, and that's it," Joey answered. "Lucky bastard," Justin
mumbled and followed Joey out the door.

"Can I drive?" Justin asked as they reached the car. "Sure," JC said and
handed him the keys. "But do try to get us there in once piece, Just?" Justin
looked at him. "Are you insulting my ability to drive, Josh?" JC patted
Justin's curls. "Not at all." He earned a stare from the younger man who
clearly said that he didn't believe him.

JC dragged Joey into the backseat with him, and Lance took the other
frontseat. Justin started the car and sped down the way leading from their
home. When they reached the club they had agreed to go to, Lance was ready to
get out of the car and kiss the ground. "He is NOT driving back home!" Lance
said as Justin pulled into a schreecing stop. "Hey!" Justin protested. "At
least I got us her before morning! JC drives like an old women." "I heard
that!" a voice answered from the back seat. "And I recent that...and I'm going
to think of something else to say later." "When you're not making out with
Joey," Justin finished for him. "Which is sometime around never."

The evening was un-eventful. Justin kept his promise and behaved perfectly.
Lance wandered off on his own a bit. It was both strange and nice. Even after
the short period of time he had spent with his new family, he had grown so
dependant on them already. Still being on his own, just talking with people
who had no idea what he really was, felt soothingly normal. JC and Joey had
done with they usually did, happy just to be with each other.

"It's still early!" Justin complained when Joey suggested that they headed
back. "So we'll spend some time together just the four of us. And JC has those
curtain thingies coming over, and I think Lance wants to make sure that he
doesn't get anything worse than what's already there. And you and I will have
to help them decide...and..." "Stop it" Justin was laughing now. "Just tell me
please, can I go out tomorrow on my own then? Please?"

Lance noticed the little look Joey gave JC before he answered, and the way JC
silently nodded. It was like watching two parents dealing with their child.
"Ok," Joey said after JC had agreed. "Tomorrow you are free to do what you
want." A gigantic smile spread over Justin's face. "Thanks, Joe!" He threw
himself at Joey in another crush-hug, after that it was JC's turn. "I get the
feeling you're glad to get rid of us, Justin," JC smiled after Justin had
released him again. "No!", Justin hurried to say. "It's just that... "I know,"
JC said, "you have more fun on your own, it's allright." He was rewarded with
another bright smile from Justin.

**********

Lance knew this had been a bad idea. He really didn't care what kind of
curtains JC put up in his room, as long as the ones that already were there
disappeared. "You know," he told JC, "I think you're getting a little too much
into this stuff." Placing a hand on his chest, JC looked back at him. "You're
saying I'm feminine? And I thought I was a vampire-stud!" "You're weird,
that's what you are!" Lance said. "And I'll take those blue ones over there."
"What?" JC asked confused. Lance smiled. "The blue curtains." "Jerk!" JC said,
pushing him gently. The smile on his face told Lance that he was only joking.

They were sitting om Lance's bed. JC scooped all the tiny pieces of fabric and
colour-samples into a plastic bag. "So, then that's taken care of. How are you
holding up, Lance?" A little surprised by JC's question, Lance sat up instead
of laying across the bed like he had been.

"I'm fine. Still getting used to a lot of stuff, but I'm fine..." "But there
is something bothering you, isn't it? JC asked softly. "How can you tell?"
Lance asked, "I never told... I thought..." "You have been hiding it well," JC
said, looking at him with those compassionate blue eyes of his. "But I have a
way of knowing even so. It's tough to love someone that doesn't love you back
the way you want him to, isn't it?"

Lance sat properly up and fearfully examined JC's face. "You know, don't you?
You know who..." "Yeah,"JC nodded, "I do. And maybe it would have bothered me
if it was another guy, and if I wasn't so sure about the fact that I'll always
have Joey's love. But I can also see that you didn't choose this, and that you
would never try to break us apart, so I'm more concerned about you."

"You shouldn't be," Lance said, wrinkling his brow. "You should be mad at me,
calling me names, even throwing stuff at me...you shouldn't be this nice to
me." "Hmmm,"JC said. "Come here, Lance." He held out his arms and Lance leaned
into the hug with a sigh. "I'm sorry, JC," he said apologetically. "I'm trying
to get over it, but it's difficult." "I know," JC soothed him, rubbing the
other's back with his hand. "Someday you'll find the one that is perfect for
you. And you'll fall madly in love and not think back for one minute." "You
think so?" Lance asked, hopefullness creeping into his voice. "I'm sure of it,
Lance," JC told him.

"Wish I was that sure," Lance answered, leaning his head against JC's
shoulder. "JC?" "Yeah?" JC answered him. "Tell me about Joey and you," Lance
asked. "How you met, how you knew that it was going to be the two of you
forever." He could hear the smile in JC's voice when he started. "I remember
the first time I saw him. I just wanted to stand there and stare. Then I
realised he was there to kill me."

"But he couldn't," Lance said. "I guess he felt the same way then." "He did,"
JC said, resting his chin gently on top of Lance's head. "I knew he was a
vampire, but I still felt something that I had never felt before, and I didn't
want to loose it. You can imagine how I felt when he told me he was there to
revenge that little girl I had slayed... The man of my dreams had finally
shown up, and he is telling me that he is going to kill me."

Lance could feel how JC was taking a deep breath. " What I had done, was
already eating away at me, and I missed Chris like hell too. I felt it was my
fault that he had been sent away, and it probably was too. So I told Joey that
if he wanted to kill me, he should just go ahead and do it." "You really told
him that? Lance asked, trying to play the scene out in his head. "I did," JC
continued, "and than he just gave me this look..."

"But you were a slayer," Lance said, "I thought you were taught your whole
life that you should kill vampires." "I was, but she was still a child," JC
answered. "And I guess I never really was any good as a slayer, you're not
supposed to feel bad for those you slay, like I did." "I think that's a good
quality," Lance commented. "Well, my watcher didn't think so, neither did any
of the other people I was around. So when Joey entered my life, I was already
looking for a way out. I just never expected the way out would be falling in
love with a vampire and becoming one myself."

"Did you ask..." Lance wasn't sure how to ask the question. "Did you ask him
to turn you?" JC paused a little. "Yes, I did," he then said. "I knew that I
was going to ask him that the second time I met him. We talked for hours the
first night. The next time was when we first kissed. There and then I knew I
was going to spend the rest of eternity together with him. But I didn't ask
him right away, even if I knew. I wanted Joey to be sure too. So after we had
been together for about two years, I told him to turn me into one of his
kind."

"What did he say?" Lance asked, turning a little to find a more comfortable
position in JC's arms. "He wasn't sure at first. Once you're turned, you can
never go back. But I said that if he didn't do it, I would find somebody else
that would. But we both knew that we would go through with it. We are going to
be together forever, Joey and me." For the first time the love in JC's voice
whenever he talked about his boyfriend, didn't hurt Lance, at least not as
much as it had done.

"I ran away the night after we had made our decision. Joey's maker, who was,
still is, like a father to him, set us up in this house. And this is where it
happened. Joey had gotten the intructions for what to do from his maker, and I
wanted Joey to be the one who turned me. So he did, and ever since..." "You
don't have to tell me," Lance laughed. "You're as happy as somebody can be."
"We sure are," JC said, hugging Lance warmly. "That man is everything to me,
my heart, my life, my all. And you'll find somebody like that one day, Lance,
I promise you."

There was more question Lance wanted to ask, and there was still other things
he wanted to know more about. But right now he as more than content sitting
safely in JC's arms, finally feeling that everything would work out. He just
needed to give it time.