"Better"

Better

Rating: NC-17

Pairing: Nick/Brian/JC/Justin

Disclaimer: The young men who comprise the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC are their own people. The author has not met anyone here described, nor does the author mean to suggest that these people act this way in real life. These writings are works of fiction. I make no money from this venture.

The past two weeks had been interesting as hell. Justin was sharing one of the upstairs bedrooms with Nick, which was sort of oddly domestic. They went to bed together, they got up together, they brushed their teeth together, they licked each other's tonsils and talked about what Brian and JC might be doing downstairs.

Brian and JC were doing a lot downstairs. All of Brian's sexual focus now had to be channeled into JC, which meant that JC spent a lot of time walking crooked with a dazed look on his face. JC also spent a lot of time stalking Nick, licking his lips and staring with an intense, obessive expression. Nick was encouraging it, too, giving JC a lot of "I know how badly you want to fuck me" looks that had to be illegal in most states.

JC wasn't very good at wanting something he couldn't have. He was used to getting whatever he wanted, sexually. Now that Nick was off-limits, JC was so hungry for Nick he looked almost starved for him. Any time the two of them were in the same room, the air was so thick with unrequited lust, Justin could almost taste it. Usually he settled for tasting Nick.

JC missed Justin, too, which meant that Justin could count on getting at least half an hour every day of serious JC time, curled up together in JC's studio upstairs. They'd start out talking, but conversation distracted them from the experience of being together. Justin would be on his back on the sofa, JC on top of him, and he'd close his eyes and breathe JC in, feeling the weight of JC's body on his, the press of JC's hands to his flesh, the intimacy of JC's cheek against his. Sometimes they'd stay there for hours, and he'd be hard, and JC would get hard, and that would make him even more hard - - and then eventually he'd have to excuse himself and take Nick behind a closed door, because there was only so much of that that Justin could take.

Physically, most of the time, Brian was keeping his distance. He seemed to know himself well enough not to risk a lot of touching. He watched a lot, watched Justin and Nick's every move, which made Justin oddly aware of his own body. Justin would be standing at the kitchen counter, making himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and he'd suddenly notice that Brian was standing only a few feet away, watching intently, taking in everything, and Justin would start to notice the way his hand curled around the knife handle, the way the tendons in his forearms flexed as he spread the jelly, the way his hips shifted as he turned to walk to the refrigerator, the way his shirt rode up a little as he reached up to put away the peanut butter. The whole time, Brian would be gazing at him with this look that said, "You're the hottest thing I've ever seen, and I want to lick you until you come." Finally he'd sit down to eat, relieved not to be moving anymore, but then he'd have to start chewing, and then things would get even worse. It was getting hard to walk across a room without being self-conscious, and it was very hard to eat anything with Brian sitting right across the table eyeing him like that. Especially finger food.

The crazy part was, Brian stared twice as hard at Nick, and Nick didn't even seem to notice. Finally Justin had asked Nick about it. Nick had simply shrugged and said, "I'm used to it."

Things between Justin and Nick were great. Justin was realizing quickly that he could talk to Nick about anything that ever popped into his head. They talked about the present and the future and the past and their friends and their families and their fans. After a few uncertain days, now Nick was completely relaxed around him, all of their tension draining away. They were establishing a whole new dynamic, one where they actually liked each other and sought each other out and couldn't spend enough time together. Nick gave the best foot massages Justin had ever had in his life, and Justin made the best spaghetti Nick had ever tasted, and Nick didn't even act like it bothered him at all anymore when Justin leeched onto him in bed, and Justin could make Nick laugh so hard he cried.

And the sex was fucking phenomenal. Upstairs, downstairs, in the bed, on the couch, on the table, on the floor, in the shower, against the wall. Every position, every possibility, coming so hard it hurt and still craving more. There was something powerfully addictive about having Nick all to himself. Justin wasn't a naturally jealous person, and he was happy to share, but these weeks of being exclusively Nick's were reminding him that there was something very special and excitingly intimate about a one-on-one relationship.

They tried not to have sex directly in front of JC and Brian, but it was hard to stay off of each other, so they did make out in front of JC and Brian occasionally. Sometimes. A lot. And once Nick had been giving him head on the kitchen table, and he'd come so hard he'd actually screamed with it, and when he'd managed to get his eyes open again and sit up he'd seen JC and Brian standing right there, JC licking his lips, Brian rubbing JC's thigh and eyeing Justin like he was lunch.

They hadn't even mentioned Justin's naked ass being on the kitchen table.

At dinner that night, no one had had much to say, and everyone had been looking at the table like the plates weren't there at all, and Justin had started to wonder if maybe a whole month without Brian and JC was cruel and unusual punishment.

All in all, it had been a great two weeks. Not nearly enough JC and Brian, but incredible Nick time. A lot of unreleased sexual tension, but a lot of fantastic sex. And great foot massages. And finally someone who acknowledged that he might be able to cook.

Nights had developed a certain pattern. In the hours after dinner, they'd all drift towards the couch to pretend to watch TV. One by one, they'd pile up, until all four of them were on the sofa together, stroking, nuzzling, whispering things that were completely inappropriate for primetime. Nick would start licking things, usually JC, and Brian's hands would start wandering to places like Justin's ass, and what with JC moaning and everything, Justin would start to get that "if somebody doesn't get me off now I'm going to explode" feeling. When he just couldn't take it anymore, he'd work his way down to Nick's end of the couch, and Nick would kiss him until he was so close to orgasm he could feel it start. Nick had an internal orgasm sensor, or something, because he always knew just when to back off and take Justin upstairs.

Upstairs was where the fun happened. Hot, sweaty, wild, passionate fun. Getting fucked by Nick was so good sometimes Justin came so hard he thought his back was broken from the climax of it. Fucking Nick was even better.

Nick didn't even mind being bitten. Maybe that explained why Brian kept eyeing Nick and licking his teeth. That, though, Justin was afraid to ask.

After the sex, when they were tangled in a sated knot of sweaty limbs, Brian and JC would come in. They probably knew when it was safe to come upstairs by listening for the screaming to stop. JC would sit on the edge of the bed and curl around whoever was closest. Brian would climb right on top of them, nuzzling Justin's naked hip, licking sweat from Nick's neck. JC would wait however long he deemed an appropriate time, sometimes a few minutes, sometimes a few hours. And then he'd say good night, and kiss their foreheads, and pull Brian off of the bed and downstairs, to where round two began.

Two weeks had gone by. There were two more weeks to go. Justin was loving it and hating it at the same time. He missed JC, he missed Brian. But he was learning Nick in whole new ways every day.

This morning, he was learning that Nick had a lot of jewelry he never wore. "Where did you get this?" he asked, lifting a silver necklace from the box. Not a lined jewelry box, no, a shoebox. Nick had to start taking better care of his stuff.

"Uh..." Seated on the foot of the bed, Nick leaned forward to see better. "A fan gave me that one."

"I like this one," Justin said, picking up an elaborate silver shark on a black cord. "JC would love this."

"You can have it," Nick said. "He can have it."

"You should wear some of this shit," Justin said. Hey, nice. "Can I have this watch?"

Nick glanced up, tugging on a sock. "Sure."

Justin closed the watch around his wrist. Nick sure had some high-quality shit for someone who wore beach bum beaded shit. "You ever trade jewelry with Brian?"

"Uh, yeah, sure, sometimes." Nick looked up again, eyes growing suspicious. "Why?"

"You've been wearing his necklace for two weeks now." Justin leaned back against the dresser casually.

"You wear JC's clothes," Nick said. "Hell, you wear my clothes. You wear Brian's clothes! Do you own any of your own shit?"

"We're not talking about me," Justin said.

"You own more clothes than anybody in this house, and you still borrow our shit," Nick said.

"Brian's not even my size," Justin said.

"You're wearing his shirt," Nick said.

Justin looked down at his chest. Oh. Yeah, actually, he was. "Yeah, but it looks great on me," he said, flashing Nick a grin.

Nick laughed, standing. "Let's go," he said, reaching for his wallet behind Justin on the dresser. "I'm starving."

"Hey," Justin said, catching Nick's wrist. "You didn't answer my question."

"Which question?" Nick asked, not even seeming to notice that they were standing so close, Justin could have licked him.

Justin tugged the silver necklace free from Nick's shirt, tangling the chain around his fingers. "Why do you have this?" he asked, watching Nick's eyes closely.

Nick shrugged uncomfortably. "He gave it to me."

Maybe it was human curiosity, or maybe Justin wanted to understand Nick and Brian better, but he pushed a little harder. "Why'd he give it to you?"

"I gave this to Brian when he turned twenty-three," Nick said. Justin did the math in his head; Brian turning twenty-three meant that Nick would just have turned eighteen, and that had been the year that Nick and Brian had become more than just friends. If Justin had his facts straight, in the month between their birthdays, they'd had sex for the first time. Then this had been Nick's first birthday gift to Brian as his lover.

"It's... I love it," Justin said honestly. It was fucking gorgeous. Brian wore it all of the time, sometimes for weeks straight.

"When we broke up, I took it back," Nick said.

"You did?" It'd been Brian's for years by that point. "What else did you take back?" There was a certain amount of guilt involved in hearing about Nick and Brian breaking up, since Nick had dumped Brian for fucking him.

"Nothing," Nick said. "Just that." He loosened Justin's grip and stepped back, out of Justin's space. "I ripped it off his neck. The chain broke."

"You ripped it off his neck?" Justin asked. He realized that he was stupidly repeating Nick's words, but he was surprised.

"Okay, yes, I hit him, and yeah, he hit me, and JC already knows, and we haven't hit each other since then, so it's not a big deal," Nick said.

"You what?!" Justin couldn't picture Nick hitting Brian. He really couldn't picture Brian hitting Nick.

"When we were... Sometimes we got, I don't know, maybe you could call it passionate, but I guess sometimes it got violent. We got over it, we talked about it, and now that you and JC are around I wouldn't... I guess I hit you, though."

"Yeah, I guess you did," Justin said, tempted to roll his eyes. "Do you need anger management?"

"No, I don't need - - Brian and I got into some bad fights sometimes, but we don't do it anymore. You're standing here shocked because you never saw it happen, which means it's over. And I only hit you because you liked it."

"I didn't like it!" Justin said.

"You acted like you did," Nick said.

Nick had a point. Letting Nick shove him around, and getting hard from it, had seemed pretty encouraging. And Nick was right, he'd never glimpsed any hint of violence between Nick and Brian. "You took the necklace back."

"What? Yeah," Nick said. "When we got back together, he asked me if he could have it back. I fixed the chain and gave it back to him. When he sent me up here, I told him to give it back to me. He said no, because we weren't breaking up. I said it sure seemed like we were about to, and I wanted it back. We argued about it. Then he said he wanted me to have it, because it was part of him and me, it was tied to a lot of our history, and if I felt like I didn't have him anymore, then he wanted me to have this, at least. So he took it off and gave it to me."

Justin reached out, touching it again, stroking Nick's chest. "You should give it back to him." He met Nick's eyes. "He's not going to feel right until you do."

"What's that mean?" Nick asked.

"It means... You know Brian, he's getting a whole month to tease us, to make us want him and JC, to get everybody hot and bothered. That's right up his alley. He's all about sex games. But he's not doing it, he's quiet and serious all of the time, he barely touches us all day. You've made him feel guilty. You're great at that, but you could tone it down a little."

"It's just a necklace," Nick said.

"If it's just a necklace, why have you been wearing it every single day for two weeks?" Justin asked.

"You think he's been acting weird because of me?" Nick asked.

"Yes," Justin said. "You idiot."

"Fuck you," Nick said, but his heart wasn't in it. "Okay, I'll give it back to him."

"Good," Justin said, and kissed Nick quickly, backing off before temptation sucked him in. "He's downstairs."

Nick gave him a dirty look, but left the room.

Justin counted to two hundred, then followed. When he got downstairs, Brian and Nick were standing in the middle of the living room in a close embrace, the necklace dangling from Brian's fist, Nick's head bent to Brian's, Brian's face against Nick's neck. Justin watched them, lingering by the bottom of the stairs, not wanting to interrupt.

Brian lifted his head, backing up just far enough to hand Nick the necklace. Nick put it on him, kissing his neck. Brian murmured, "I love you, I love you," and kissed Nick's cheek, Nick's jaw, Nick's ear. Nick murmured, "I love you, too," and they rubbed noses gently.

Justin grinned. He loved it when they got mushy.

Nick turned his head and narrowed his eyes at Justin. "What do you want?"

"Nothing," Justin said, making no effort to dim his smile.

Nick rolled his eyes and kissed Brian's cheek, letting go. "I'm taking Justin out to lunch. You want to come?"

"No, you two should have time together," Brian said. "I'll just-"

"You're coming," Justin said. "If you're changing clothes, you have two minutes, because we're starving."

"Where are we going?" Brian asked, toeing out of his sneakers.

"Jersey's," Nick said.

"You always go there," Brian said. He pulled off his shirt, handing it to Nick, rubbing idly just below his navel, across that thin line of hair that... Justin's mouth was watering.

"Where do you want to go?" Nick asked.

"I don't know," Brian said, popping open the top button on his fly. "What do you think, Justin?"

Justin watched with base fascination as Brian slowly slid down his zipper. Brian's jeans were already beginning to slip down his slim hips, and he was wearing light gray boxer-briefs, and his nipples were so pink, and he wasn't even close to hard but Justin would have been happy to take care of that for him.

"Justin?" Brian was coming closer, smiling innocently, putting a hand on his arm. "What would you like to eat?"

Everything had been so different lately that Brian almost never touched him before nightfall, when they got into sofa nuzzle time and then post-sex nestle time. But now Brian was close, and touching, and smiling, and when Brian got this close and started touching with that smile on his face, it meant one thing. "You," Justin said, pushing his hands down the back of Brian's opened jeans, cupping the curves of Brian's ass in two hands. He pulled Brian in and up, lowering his head to kiss Brian's-

-cheek. "Naughty, naughty," Brian murmured, licking a spot on his neck where he knew a love bite was fading. "You know we're not allowed to do anything interesting."

"I won't tell," Nick said. "Go ahead."

Justin licked Brian's ear, kissing his way down Brian's neck, inhaling against Brian's skin. He wanted to run his hands all over Brian's half-naked body, but he wasn't willing to let go of Brian's ass. He settled for exploring with his mouth, kissing across Brian's shoulders, licking Brian's hard, pink nipples, going down on his knees and nuzzling Brian's stomach, licking Brian's navel, guiding Brian's hips forward with his hands and mouthing Brian through soft cotton. Brian's dick was hardening in there, and Justin moaned, craving the taste of it, the hot-

No! Furious, Justin smacked Nick's thigh as Nick dragged him back and up, away from Brian and onto his feet. "What the hell's wrong with you?" Justin demanded.

"I think Brian's feeling better," Nick said.

Brian was feeling a hell of a lot better, if that smile was any indication. "I'll go get dressed," Brian said, hitching his jeans back up and going to the bedroom.

Justin watched Brian's ass until it left his view, then turned and glared at Nick. "You told me to go ahead!" Damn, he was hard. Fuck, he wanted Brian's dick.

"I was telling him to go ahead," Nick said. "He wanted to mess with you, and he did."

"How am I supposed to eat lunch now?" Justin asked. "He's going to be touching me the whole time and playing footsies under the table."

"I'll fuck you when we get home," Nick said.

Justin grinned. He loved Nick's straightforward approach. "Okay."

Nick kissed him. "Brian! Starving!"

Brian came out of the bedroom, button-down open over his T-shirt, shoes in his hands. "I'm coming," he said, stopping to put on his shoes.

Nick tugged him closer, buttoning his shirt for him. "You going to lose that before we get to the restaurant, or do you need a few minutes to yourself?"

Brian smiled. "I'll be okay, but if you want to help Justin, I can wait."

Justin personally wouldn't have minded getting a little personal assistance from Nick. JuJu didn't go down easily, and Brian seemed ready to torment him all through lunch.

Nick trailed his fingers along Brian's jawline. "What do I get out of it?"

Brian kissed right beside Nick's mouth, lingering, licking. "If you give him head, I'll give you head," he promised in a low, seductive tone.

"Now who's being naughty?" Nick asked, kissing Brian's cheek, running the tip of his tongue along Brian's cheekbone. "You know we can't do that."

"It would be fun to see if we can get away with it," Brian said, rubbing his thumb across Nick's lips.

"We can't keep secrets from JC," Nick murmured, turning his head to kiss Brian's palm.

"He can watch," Brian said breathlessly.

Nick kissed Brian's cheek. "Let's go eat." He kissed Brian's other cheek and turned to go. "Hey, and stay away from JuJu," he added.

"Nick, I would never do anything in public," Brian said, following him.

Nick snorted. "Yeah, right. Come on, Justin," he said, picking up the keys.

"I'll drive," Justin said.

"No way," Nick said. "I pay, I drive."

"You can sit in the back with me," Brian said to Justin, putting a hand on his hip, squeezing.

Close, touching, smiling, danger! Danger! Justin looked at Nick in desperation. "I want to pay. Let me drive."

"Okay," Nick said, handing over the keys, "but he's just going to start rubbing you down as soon as we get out of the driveway."

The front door opened, and JC came in, looking pleasantly surprised to see them all standing there. "What's," his gaze fell on Justin's hard-on, "up?" A smile twitched around his lips, but he didn't comment further.

While Justin was busy being embarrassed, Brian said, "Justin's taking us to lunch. You haven't eaten yet, have you?"

"I was just about to see who was hungry," JC said, giving Brian a brief kiss. "Where are we going?" he asked, putting an arm around Justin's waist.

"We haven't decided," Justin said.

"Brian says anywhere but Jersey's," Nick said. JC kissed Nick's cheek, then ran his fingers across Nick's collarbone. He frowned slightly, then reached out, tugging Brian's collar aside. A shift of fabric revealed Brian's necklace there against Brian's chest, and JC smiled, letting go. That was just like JC, to know everything, to notice everything. "You pick a place," Nick said to JC.

"We could order in," Brian suggested.

"Brian's feeling better," Justin murmured by JC's ear.

"Justin's feeling horny," Nick added.

"You're instigating shit," Justin said.

"You were the one on your knees for his dick," Nick said.

"You were?" JC asked Justin, eyes lighting with interest.

"Did I ever mention to anyone that I'm starving?" Nick asked, ignoring Justin's blush. "We still have two weeks to go, and we're not going to make that easier by ordering in and feeding each other. I'm taking my boyfriend to lunch, and if you two want to come and ogle us while we eat, then get in the car. Come on, Justin," and Nick took his hand, pulling him away from JC and outside.

"Forceful," Justin said, and grinned at him. "Sexy."

"The sooner we eat, the sooner I stop starving," Nick said. "The sooner we finish eating, the sooner I can come home and fuck you."

Justin jerked the car door open as JC and Brian stepped outside. "Hurry up, get in!"

matthew@matthewtime.com
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