Memorable
by Shine

Joey had had a lot of memorable moments in his life.

There was the day when he first met Chris, running through the backstage area ten minutes late for makeup and tripping on a cable, falling into a short, brown-haired guy with crooked teeth hanging out by one of the buildings. He'd been frazzled and mortified and distracted, but Chris had just laughed at him and slapped him on the back, soda dark and wet down the front of his shirt, and then gave him his phone number. Joey had been twenty minutes late to makeup, and almost got fired. He almost didn't care.

There was the time he ran into Chris at Pleasure Island, along with JC and one of the kids from the Mouse Club that he didn't really know, one of the younger ones who'd come in later. Joey laughed when he saw him, because the kid was so obviously underage it was cute. Chris had asked him to be the fourth in the group he was putting together, with JC seconding him enthusiastically, while the four of them leaned on the bar and drank Cokes and ate stale peanuts.

Joey still remembered how Chris was that night, gesturing wildly, hair in his eyes and his chunky punk jewelry and weird t-shirt, all grin. Joey didn't know Justin, the kid, so Chris introduced them, telling Justin what a great voice Joey had, and a freaky motherfucker of a range, and a kick-ass sense of rhythm, and a sweet ass, while JC laughed and teased Chris about not talking like that in front of the baby. Justin sputtered indignantly and Joey dumped his Coke over Chris's head, and they stood there grinning at each other while Justin and JC whooped with laughter.

There was the night he slept with his first guy--Chris--in Europe, with better teeth and wierder hair but still basically the same, laughing even as he moaned, and making a huge mess on his shirt when he came. Joey didn't come, because he was nervous and a bit freaked out, and slightly put off by Chris's enthusiasm level, but Chris made it up to him.

There was the day Brianna was born, and Kelly swore at him for four hours nonstop in the delivery room, gripping his arm with blunt nails making white crescent moons in his skin. Lorraine, Kelly's girlfriend, had agreed with her instantly, no matter what she said, and made apologetic faces at Joey whenever Kelly wasn't looking. When Joey went outside after Brianna arrived, stunned and giddy, Chris was waiting in the hall, and gave him a coffee--triple mocha latte with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkes. Super grande. It was stone cold, and Joey drank it down fast, then kissed Chris faster, leaving him with a whipped-cream mustache.

There was the rehearsal from hell, where Joey was tired and bored and his back and thighs were sore from practicing riding those damn bulls, and so he was slower and maybe a bit dumber, and he didn't even notice the world had stopped until he looked down and saw his leg, caught in machinery. It was Lance who got him calmed down and held his leg together, and Justin who called the paramedics, face twisted and voice tense and sharp with worry and fear, and JC who held his hand when the they were examining him. It was Chris who went with him to the hospital in the ambulance.

But there was another moment that Chris thought somehow might be better than all of them. When Chris turned to him one day when they were waiting outside by the bus in some rest stop on the highway, a million miles from nowhere. He was smiling, eyes bright and happy, and he was wearing a t-shirt that said Your Mom Was Good, But I'm Better. "You wanna do something later?"

"Like what?"

Chris grinned, and leaned back against the bus. He didn't say a word.

And Joey had grinned and grabbed him around the neck, holding him in the crook of his elbow while they wrestled and tussled and finally Joey dragged Chris down to the asphalt, held him there with a single hand on his chest, knees digging into the uncomfortable ground. "Yeah, okay. Sure," he said, breathing hard. Chris was a tough guy to fight, powerful and wiggly and tireless, and he used his whole body.

Chris leaned up for a kiss. It was sweet and clean and hot and burned him up on the inside. It was like nothing Joey'd ever felt. And now it was his.

"Good," Chris whispered, and kissed him again.

Fin