crack_van | Papa Was A Rodeo (R) by Phaballa

I don't seem to have done my usual share of recs this month, so here's another one.

Fandom: POPSLASH
Pairing: Chris/JC
Author on LJ:

phaballa
Author Website: http://phaballa.livejournal.com/tag/popslash
Why this must be read:

I love reunion stories. I especially love reunion stories where someone is balking at getting the group back together, and it's not Justin.

In this one, life has changed quite a bit for JC. For one thing, he's with Chris. For another, they're married, and have two kids. (No, not MPREG, there's a much more plausible explanation.) JC has achieved an entirely new balance in his life, and he's happy, and then the whole idea of getting back together as Nsync comes up, and he's... he's not at all sure why he should do that. And there are lingering resentments to be dealt with.

It's beautifully done. I like this JC, who's settled and enjoying his life. And it all seems very in-character for the JC we know, cos I'm not at all sure he'd want Nsync to get back together...

It was just supposed to be a mutual hook up thing. Random and unimportant and keeping it in the family so no one got hurt or accidentally outted. But after a while JC ended up back in Florida more than in LA. Dance Crew went off the air after the third season and JC never really had a reason to stay in LA when Florida had his house and his siblings and Chris.

JC's still not sure when it turned into a relationship, but sometimes it feels like Chris somehow tricked him into it. He woke up one morning six months after the first hook up and realized that he hadn't slept with anyone but Chris in months, and that he hadn't really wanted to. He saw Chris every day and Chris had a toothbrush at his house. He went to family dinners at Chris's mom's house on Sundays and when he went out, he thought about going back to wherever Chris was and fucking him instead of taking up the offer of whatever starfucker came onto him that night. He was in love with Chris.

And it was more than that, of course. It was a hundred little things that he never realized before, when he was spending all day on the bus with Chris and just trying not to kill him for being such a selfish jerk sometimes. Chris could still be a selfish jerk, but he was loyal and kind, too. He loved his family more than anything, and whenever JC had a particularly bad day, Chris would let him pick a cookie recipe out of his giant cookbook and Chris would make them, even if he hated whatever JC chose and mocked JC the entire time. He was loud and annoying sometimes, but he was smart, too, about a lot of different things. He watched the discovery channel with JC and they had long debates about politics and the uselessness of the HRC over dinners out. Chris made really good sandwiches with the crusts cut off and when he came, he let out a sigh like he just got everything he wanted.

Papa Was A Rodeo