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Noah Explains it All

Disclaimer: I came up with the idea for this chapter well before the JC/Chace Crawford rumors began. I am by no means implying that JC is or isn't gay.

Over the next few days Justin settled into a comfortable routine. When he first woke up in the morning he would lie in bed contemplating why on earth he was sleeping on an air mattress in a poster on a fan's wall. Blake knew to leave him alone in the mornings, so she left him his breakfast (Cap'n Crunch, a glass of orange juice, a banana, and a microwaveable egg patty) on the kitchen counter. When he'd requested chocolate chip pancakes, Blake had laughed in his face. "Who do you think I am? Room service?"

After eating, Justin would ride the stationary bike in the basement for an hour or so to get his exercise in. While the bike was a far cry from the full scale gym he was used to, it was at least new and had a TV attached to it with a jack to plug in headphones. Blake assured him over and over again that the house was locked and neither her parents nor her brother were expected to return any time soon so really, he could leave her room for more than just a half hour and everything would be fine. Then he would shower and sit down to work on some song ideas he had come up with while exercising. Some days, Blake would come home and she and Justin would eat lunch together. Other days Justin watched whatever happened to be on at the time (having gotten over his issue with daytime television) while he ate.

After lunch Justin lay on Blake's bed reading Harry Potter. He was growing quite fond of the series; he was already halfway through the second book. When Blake first walked in on Justin reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, she rolled her eyes and snorted. By the time he reached Chamber of Secrets, she had come to accept the weirdness that was Justin Timberlake and discussed the books with him over dinner. She learned that his favorite character was Dobby and he thought Ginny Weasley and Harry should hook up. Blake refused to give anything away.

As mundane as his new life had become, Justin found he was adjusting surprisingly well. He still didn't know exactly why he had ended up there, but he figured it probably had to do with his fans or something, seeing as he'd landed in an almost twenty-year-old fan's room. Did he not treat them well? It was kind of hard to weed out the sane fans from the teenies, so Justin tended to approach all of them with his guard raised. Justin thought about this until his head hurt.

On the fourth day of this routine, Justin lie on Blake's bed with Sam at his feet, a few pages into Prisoner of Azkaban when he heard a thump against the side of the house. Dropping the book in surprise, he hoisted his leg into the poster in panic when a face appeared at the window. For a moment the two men stared at each other - the pop star with one leg clearly embedded in the wall and the young man who seemed to be levitating outside Blake's second story window.

"Holy fuck!" Justin saw the young man mouth. They both seemed to be frozen in place. Finally, the stranger spoke again, shouting to be heard through the window. "LET ME IN!"

"No," Justin shook his head stupidly.

"GET BLAKE!"

"She's at work!" Justin realized after he had said that that he probably shouldn't have. What if this guy was a robber or a murderer or something? Now he knew he was essentially helpless.

"DAMN IT, TIMBERLAKE, LET ME IN OR I'LL CALL US WEEKLY AND TELL THEM YOU'RE IN THERE!"

This, Justin thought, was a stupid threat. Who would believe him? But he was afraid the stranger's shouting would attract unwanted attention to them, so he reluctantly opened the window, springing back in fear as the young man climbed into the room.

"Where the hell is Blake? She told me she'd be home for lunch!"

The stranger, who he noticed was wearing a shirt that said tell your boyfriend I said hi, put his hands on his hips and stuck his bottom lip out in a pout that was all too familiar to Justin. Justin looked at him, thoroughly confused but a lot less scared. "Um. Who are you, how did you get here and what are you doing?"

The young man looked at Justin as if he wasn't the crazy guy who had just climbed through Blake's second story window. "First of all, I'm Noah, Blake's BFF - Best Friend Forever, not Boyfriend because, hello," he said, motioning to his shirt. "Second, I got here by climbing the ladder; what - did you think I could fly?" Justin didn't respond. "And third, shouldn't I be asking you what you're doing here?" His hands flailed as his voice rose with each question.

Justin tried to process all of this information; Noah had said it all rather quickly. "You're Blake's friend? And you came through her window because...?"

Noah shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "Nuh-uh, Mr. JT. I won't talk until you tell me what the hell you're doing in Blake's room. And did I see your leg in her wall?"

Justin sighed. "It's a long story," he said.

"I've got time," Noah said, sitting down at Blake's desk. Justin sat on the edge of Blake's bed. There didn't seem to be much point in lying and the guy seemed essentially harmless, so he told Noah what had happened to him.

"Holy fuck," Noah repeated when Justin finished his story. "I totally wouldn't believe you if it wasn't for the fact that you had your freaking leg inside that freaking wall!"

"You believe me?" Justin asked, relieved.

"Um, yeah. Why? Should I not?" Noah eyed him suspiciously.

"No, it just took Blake a little more convincing," Justin explained.

"So you don't have any idea why you're here?" Noah asked.

"Nope," Justin said, the familiar sense of emptiness overtaking him as it always did whenever he thought about it.

"Hmm…" Suddenly, Noah snapped his finger, as if a great thought had just occurred to him. "Ohmigod, you know JC!"

"Yeah…" Justin said, not really sure where Noah was going.

"So you can totally hook us up, right?" He asked eagerly.

"Huh?"

"Oh come on. Homeboy is so gay. Or at least bi."

"Um … JC's not gay," Justin said slowly.

Noah rolled his eyes. "Please, he and Lance had been setting off my gaydar for years. C'mon, the dude wore sparkly pants and carried a manpurse. Plus he is way too cute to be straight. And the way he moves … pure sex."

Justin tried to shut out the disturbing images his mind had conjured. He shook his head to clear his brain. "Look, as far as I know, JC's not gay. He's just really … sexual."

"It's okay, I won't tell anyone - you can admit it," Noah went on as if Justin hadn't said anything.

"No, really, I don't think he is," Justin said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Noah looked skeptical. "You guys have never had any JuC moments?"

Justin almost didn't want to know what a JuC was. But Noah continued. "Nothing slashy?" Justin raised an eyebrow in confusion. "You're telling me there was no boy-on-boy action going on in all your time spent with those four other guys?"

"Fuck no!" Justin exclaimed, thoroughly creeped out. "Look, can we please change the subject?"

"I guess," Noah sighed. "But this conversation is not over!"

"Let me ask you a question … why did you feel the need to come into Blake's room through the window?" Justin asked, eager to move on from their previous topic of discussion.

"Dude, I am the Sam to Blake's Clarissa," Noah said, as if that was supposed to make total sense.

"You're Blake's dog?" Justin asked, his confusion returning.

"No! Sam and Clarissa were BFFs too! Y'know?"

Justin gave Noah a blank look.

"Clarissa Explains it All? Ringing any bells?"

Justin continued to stare at Noah like he was an alien.

"Oh, right," Noah said dryly. "You were a Disney person. Clarissa Explains it all was an old school Nickelodeon show. Clarissa and Sam were best friends, and Sam always climbed through Clarissa's window to …"

A voice from downstairs cut Noah off. "Justin! Sorry I'm late, there was an emergency. But I got the rest of the day off! You might wanna get into your poster because my friend Noah is supposed to be here…" Blake appeared in the doorway and looked from Justin to Noah and back again. "… any minute," she trailed off.

For a moment, the three of them just stared at each other. Finally, Blake spoke up. "Noah, this isn't what you think …"

Noah arched an eyebrow questioningly. "You mean I haven't spent the last half hour conversing with Justin Timberlake who came out of a poster on your bedroom wall?"

Blake bit her lip. "Oh. You know already." She paused for a moment to think about what this meant for the strange arrangement she and Justin had come up with. "Noah, you cannot tell a living soul that Justin is here. If you do, I swear to you that … uh … something really bad will happen," she trailed off, realizing her argument was weak.

Noah snorted. "First of all, who would believe me? Second of all, why would I want to share this fine piece of man candy with anyone else?" His eyes roamed Justin's body.

Justin took a few steps away from Noah, trying to resist the urge to cover himself up. It was usually times like this that made him happy to have security with him.

"Oh my God, Noah, please tell me you have not done anything to scar him for life."

"Too late," Justin said before Noah could even open his mouth to defend himself. "Do you know what a JuC is?"

"NOAH!" Blake exclaimed.

Noah raised his hands defensively. "What? So I asked him to hook me up with JC. Big deal!"

Blake groaned.

Suddenly, Justin's phone started to ring. He picked it up off the bed and read the caller ID. "It's Johnny," Justin said, eager to remove himself from the situation. "I've gotta take this call. Why don't I leave you two alone for a few minutes?" It had been two days since he called his manager and he had promised him that while he was "writing in Montana" he would still keep in contact with the outside world.

"Go ahead," Blake said, glaring over at Noah. "Noah and I need to have a little conversation about what things are and aren't appropriate to talk about with certain people."

Noah finally had the decency to look a bit sheepish as Justin backed out of the room and pressed the phone to his ear.

For some reason, Justin had the strangest feeling that somewhere far, far away, someone was laughing at him.

omg...I already love this Noah guy!!! Great job.

Thanks.

Shunda84 wrote:

---

Okay, I just finished reading and I'm loving this story.



Sooooooooooooooooo.........when's the update? Huh?

Yay! A new reader! Um...update...probably not until I get out of school next week.

The Notebook

Noah's visits soon became a regular part of Justin's routine. His impression of Noah had changed quite a bit now that the younger man wasn't, as Blake put it, "forcing the sparkly love on others."

"We've been best friends since we were partnered up for speech class in middle school," she explained. We had to give a persuasive speech and we discovered that we both liked *NSYNC so we would convince the class that they - I mean you - were the best band ever."

Justin sniggered.

"We were thirteen years old!" She exclaimed. "Anyway, when I told him I thought the only guys that liked *NSYNC were gay guys he said, and I quote, 'Honey, I came out of the womb flaming.'"

Despite Noah's frequent visits, Justin still had a lot of time to contemplate life's most important question; namely, why on earth he had ended up there, in Indiana, of all places. Having settled into a comfortable routine, he wasn't as frustrated so much with why he had ended up in a fan's house in general. He was more concerned with why he had ended up at Blake's house in particular. He felt like there was something he was missing and he knew he had to figure it out in order for it to all make sense.

Justin lay on Blake's bed one day staring absentmindedly around the room. He was bored. He was currently boycotting the Harry Potter books because he, like Harry, refused to accept that Sirius was dead. Blake had rolled her eyes at him when he told her this and said, "Feel free to read something else. I do have more than just those books."

His eyes scanned the bookshelf even though he had the titles memorized at this point. Beside the Harry Potter books there were: Beginner's Biology, College Pre-Calculus I, College Pre-Calculus II, Writing Better Fiction, Español Para Leer y Hablar, and European History. Fun stuff, Justin thought and yet he still approached the books and pulled out the science textbook. He was surprised to find the large volume weighed much less than it looked like it would. He flipped it open and rifled through some of the pages. He found that the middle of pages eighty seven through three hundred sixty nine had been cut out and a small notebook placed inside the cavity it created.

Something told Justin that he should probably put the textbook back on the shelf. So naturally he brought it towards the bed, sat down, and pulled the notebook out. He opened it carefully; afraid of what he might see.

I know what you're thinking. Aren't you a little old to be writing in one of these? Yeah, I'm probably also too old to sitting on my bed in an *NSYNC t-shirt listening to I Want You Back as I write this. So I'm having a teeny moment - shoot me. Anywho, the only reason I'm even writing in here is because I'm tired of having all of my random thoughts jotted down on post-it notes and scattered throughout my room. Ever since Sam ate the one with my latest (and greatest) fic idea on it, I've decided that such works of genius require a more secure - and private - storage location. So yeah, I defaced my dreaded bio textbook - the only book I've ever committed such a heinous crime on - and voila: instant hiding place! Um … I guess that's all I've got to say for the moment. Peace!

Common sense told Justin two things at this point:

1) This was Blake's diary and he should respect her privacy.

2) After the horrifying fan fiction experience he'd had earlier, he should really just close the book, put it back where he found it, and act like nothing ever happened.

Justin was obviously lacking in common sense at the moment because he continued to read. Most of the entries were story ideas, usually involving Justin meeting and falling in love with a fan. As time progressed, so did Blake's creative abilities. But, with the memory of accidentally seeing some of Blake's most recent work still fresh in his mind, Justin flipped past those pages quickly lest he see anything that would further scar him for life.

Other entries were random thoughts Blake must have had and descriptions of things that had happened to her.

One entry read:

What, you might ask, is the purpose of writing all of this stuff down? It's a combination of wanting to preserve these memories and also to have something to look back on and laugh at.

Finally Justin reached a more recent entry, one written a few days after he had shown up on her wall.

Justin fucking Timberlake is in my room. Sleeping. I'm sleeping with Justin Timberlake. Okay, I'm not really sleeping with him, but I can dream, right? I mean, who would've thought he'd be in my room? If that much can happen, who's to say I won't sleep with him? Yeah, this probably doesn't make any sense but nothing has this past week. I really should get around to writing about all that has happened - it'd make a great fic - but things are kind of hectic between going to work, dealing with the fact that Justin. fucking. Timberlake is in my room. Not to mention trying not to hump him.

Justin snorted. He flipped ahead a few more pages.

Okay, so I always dreamed of falling in love with Justin, right? I mean, I knew it would be easy if he was anything like the guy I thought he was like. And he is. He's like that and so much more. This is more than just a celebrity crush. This is real. I mean, I've liked the guy since I was prepubescent for God's sake. But now that I'm really getting to know him, this longing I've had for him for so long has grown a bajillion-fold. I thought if I ever met him this ache in my heart would go away. But it hasn't and fuck do I sound cheesy or what? But it's true. Cliché as it sounds, I've never felt this way before. Definitely not with Scott or David, and certainly not with Caleb. No, this is so much more…

For a moment, Justin stared down at the page. Was this the Blake he knew? Sarcastic Blake who seemed to get great pleasure from insulting him?

A loud tapping noise startled Justin. The biology book fell rather painfully onto his foot. "Shit!"

He looked in the direction of the noise. It was Noah at the window, waiting to be let in. Justin limped over and opened it for him, hobbling back to the bed as Noah fell in and lay on the floor, clutching his sides as he laughed so hard he cried.

"What the fuck is so funny?" Justin asked angrily, rubbing his sore toe.

"You should've seen your face!" Noah gasped out. "Fucking priceless!"

"Hmph!"

"What were you even reading?" Noah asked a few moments later after he managed to catch his breath.

"Nothing," Justin mumbled, trying to push the textbook out of the young man's sight.

Too late. Noah's eyes widened as they landed on the notebook, still opened to Blake's most recent entry. "Holy shit. Did you … how much did you read?"

"Huh? I didn't read anything," Justin said, trying to give Noah a look of mild confusion and complete innocence.

Noah arched an eyebrow at him. "You're a shitty liar, Timberlake. Fuck. So now you know. Blake did not want you to find out this way. Hell, I don't think she wanted you to find out, period."

Justin hung his head. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to," Noah said softly, joining Justin on the bed and putting his arm around him. Justin tensed and Noah rolled his eyes. "Will you fucking relax? I'm not going to try and grope you. At least, not today."

Justin couldn't control the small smile that crossed his face.

"Now, we can just put this stuff away and pretend the last five minutes never happened. How does that sound, honey?"

Justin looked at Noah. "Dude," he said, unable to control his own laughter. "Don't fucking call me honey."

Noah rolled his eyes again. "Whatevs, man. So, should we do that?"

Justin nodded. Noah got up and put the notebook back in the textbook. Just as he was about to replace the book on the bookshelf, a thought occurred to Justin.

"Were Scott, David, and Caleb Blake's boyfriends?"

"Unfortunately," Noah said.

"I take it things didn't go so well?" Justin asked.

"Let's just say that if you hadn't beaten her to it, Blake might've written Cry Me a River," Noah said, sitting down at Blake's desk and crossing his arms.

"They cheated on her?"

"Not all of them; just Scott. The other two might as well have, though."

Justin looked at Noah, eager for more information. Noah stared back at him. He seemed to be contemplating whether or not to divulge more information. Finally, he caved. "Okay, if I tell you do you promise to act like you don't know anything?"

"Uh, yeah," Justin said in a tone that clearly meant 'isn't that obvious?'

Noah took a deep breath and sighed. "Okay. Let's just say that Blake hasn't had the best experiences with love. Which means if you break her heart I'll fucking kill you," he said, trying his best to look intimidating.

"Dude," Justin said, "I'm not in love with Blake."

Noah arched an eyebrow at him, as if to say, "Suuuuuuuure you aren't, buddy," but Justin ignored him.

"I'm pretty sure you know my track record with relationships. I'm usually the one who gets burned, remember?

"True," Noah conceded, though he still didn't look completely convinced that Justin wasn't going to confess his love for Blake only to rip her heart out later. "So anyway, let's start with Scott. Blake met him online summer before freshman year of high school. I don't remember exactly why they started chatting, but I know they bonded over their mutual love of Florida - that's where Blake was born. She lived there until sixth grade, when she moved here. Scott said he lived here in Indy too.

"After talking to him online for about two months, Blake, being the genius that she is, asked if he wanted to meet her. I was a little suspicious when he said he 'really liked' her and he'd 'never felt this way about a girl before' and I thought it was a little soon in their relationship to be saying things like that to a person he'd never met.

"So I started privately chatting with him myself, pretending I didn't know Blake at all. Well, he seemed to like me too because two weeks into our 'relationship,' he said he'd 'never felt this way about a guy before.' So I said, 'Oh, are you bi?'

"He was confused as fuck when I asked that so I explained how I knew he knew Blake. Next thing I know, he's confessing to me that he's actually a freaking girl! Who lived in Alaska! And was bored! Of course she claimed she didn't mean to hurt Blake's feelings, but she didn't know that Blake would actually like her. She begged me not to tell Blake, but, hello, BFF Code of Honor Rule Numero Uno: Thou shalt not let your friend be fucked over by bored Alaskan girls! So there went 'boyfriend' number one."

Justin didn't know what to say. "Um. Ouch."

But Noah continued. "Then there was David. They started going out sophomore year. Everything was fine until prom junior year. Now, I really shouldn't be telling you this. Do you promise not to tell a living soul? Not even your dogs?"

"Dude, I already promised I wouldn't tell anyone!"

Noah eyed Justin warily for a moment before continuing. "Okay, so David convinced Blake to have sex with him after prom. The very next day he told her she was bad in bed and broke up with her. Blake cried for three days straight and she wouldn't talk to anyone for almost two weeks."

Justin looked shocked. A wave of anger overtook him, and he wished he could find David and beat him to a pulp for what he did to Blake. For a moment, Justin was confused where such strong emotion had come from. Because he did not like Blake like that.

"But he's not the worst of them," Noah continued, noticing Justin's face. "No, the Number One Asshole Award goes to Scott."

"He's the one that cheated on Blake?" Justin asked, seething with anger at the thought of someone doing such a thing to his Blake. His Blake?

"Yep. She met him during spring break of senior year while she was visiting her friends back in Florida. So they hooked up and started doing the long distance relationship thing and it worked for a few months. Until they both went off to college. Blake got a text message from one of her friends saying that she saw Scott making out with her ex-best friend at a frat party. Blake was freaking out as it was, but the pictures just made it worse."

"There were pictures?"

"Oh yeah. Scott's friend from the fraternity put the pictures on his MySpace and Blake's friend - the one who texted her - sent Blake the link. So yeah, that's the twisted tale of Blake's love life."

Justin sat in stunned silence. And he thought having to live out his relationships in front of the entire world was bad. Jeez. He needed a moment to digest all of this information. But of course, he couldn't have it. He and Noah turned towards the doorway when they heard the garage door open and Blake called out, "I'm back, Justin!"

"Remember," Noah whispered quickly as he flipped open a magazine and tossed Justin a copy of People. "You didn't hear anything."

Underneath Her Clothes

Justin lay awake that night pondering the recent twist that had developed in his already complicated life. Blake liked him. So what? Justin didn't like Blake. At least, not like that. End of story, right?

Wrong.

Justin tossed and turned for what seemed like hours, sighing every once in a while. Finally Blake chucked a pillow through the poster at him. He still insisted on sleeping in there, just in case.

"Ow!" He whined. At this point, he could almost feel Blake rolling her eyes.

"That can't have hurt. It's just a pillow," Blake said.

"Well why'd you throw it at me?" Justin asked.

"Because some people, namely myself, are trying to sleep here. But you're making it very difficult with all of your moaning and groaning."

"I'm not moaning and groaning!" He protested.

"Justin!" Blake said loudly over him.

"What?"

"Shut up! It's nearly two a.m. and I have to be up in five hours for work!"

"Hmph." Justin crossed his arms over his chest and tried his best to stay still. But his mind was so restless, still trying to soak in everything he had found out in the last twenty four hours. Suddenly, an idea came to him. Blake was a very direct person most of the time - why shouldn't he be too?

"Blake?" He asked cautiously.

"Justin, I swear to God that if you are not in need of immediate medical attention, I will get in that poster somehow and make it so," Blake growled.

Justin sighed again. Never mind. "Good night."

Blake let out a deep breath. "Good night, Justin."

Justin heard Blake turn over in her bed. He did the same, closed his eyes, and willed himself to sleep.

Both Justin and Blake were exhausted the next morning. They ate breakfast in silence and as soon as Blake left for work Justin collapsed back onto Blake's bed.

An hour later he was pulled from what had promised to be a nice restful sleep when Blake stormed into the room. Justin did not like being woken up from naps, especially not when he was already tired to begin with.

"What the hell, Blake?" He mumbled, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "What're you doing home already?" He asked, noticing the time.

"I got sent home," she said angrily, yanking open her closet door and fumbling with the tie on her apron.

"Why?"

"Because first I picked up Rosie the Jack Russell Terrier too fast and she threw up on me. Then Sandy the Siamese cat nearly mauled me to death because I was brushing her too hard. After that, I nearly fed Kimberly the cockatiel to death due to the fact that I almost fell asleep while filling her IV." She angrily tore her shirt over her head.

Justin's eyes bulged and for a moment he couldn't turn away. "Blake! W-w-what are you doing?"

"What?" She asked angrily, putting her hands on her hips.

"You just took your top off!"

"It has dog barf on it! And I'm wearing a bra! Besides, it's not like you've never seen boobs before!"

Justin covered his eyes.

"Oh for God's sake," he heard Blake mumble as she searched for something in her closet. "You can open your eyes now, I'm going to shower" she said a moment later. He heard footsteps as Blake pattered into the bathroom and started the shower. He cautiously peered through a gap in his fingers and saw that he was alone again. He lay back down on the bed and wondered when the last time was that he had refused to look at a topless girl.

This was a mistake. Visions of all the women he had seen topless scrolled through his mind, followed by fantasies of women he would like to see topless. And then came an image of Blake topless and when did it get hot in there? Justin reached down to adjust himself in his pants, which were starting to feel a bit tight.

What the hell? He thought. He shook his head to rid himself of these images. Obviously his lack of contact with any female other than Blake was getting to him. Why else would he be imagining himself joining her in the shower? It wasn't that Blake was ugly or anything, but Justin certainly didn't see her in a sexual way. Nope, not at all.

He took a deep breath. Justin really needed some fresh air. Yes, that would stop these crazy thoughts from filling his head. He had just resolved himself to take a nice walk and was almost to the bedroom door when he nearly crashed into Blake, who was wearing nothing but a towel.

"Jesus!" Justin exclaimed.

"I forgot my clothes, sorry!" Blake said apologetically, scurrying past Justin towards her dresser. She stopped midway. "Justin!"

"What?"

"Stop staring at me!" She yelled while hastily grabbing a new outfit.

Justin stood in the doorway, frozen. He had been staring at Blake?

"I'll just, uh, I'll be outside," Justin stammered, trying not to stare at the stray water droplets making their way down Blake's neck towards the towel wrapped around her heaving chest.

"Sure," she said, moving to close the door after him.

Justin had made it to the top of the staircase before Blake wrenched open the door again. "WHERE did you say you were going?"

"Outside," Justin said.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!"

"No?" Justin said. He intended for it to sound a bit more confident than it did.

"You can't just go outside!"

"Why not?" Justin asked, his earlier grumpiness at having been woken up returning.

"Do you WANT people to see you?"

Justin waved his hand dismissively. "No one's gonna see me."

Blake's eyes bulged. "Justin! I live in a fucking cul de sac! Everyone on the street can see you!"

"Not if I go in the backyard," Justin retorted.

"That's not any better! My yard backs up to five other houses!"

Justin was getting irritated by the whole situation. "Look, you're the one who's always telling me to stop being so nervous that I'm gonna get seen. What the hell is your problem?"

If Blake was a dog, Justin was sure her hackles would have been raised. "My problem? I don't think you're in any position to be asking other people what their problems are. You're the reason this day has been so shitty to begin with!"

"What?" Justin said, his voice rising in anger.

"If you hadn't kept me up all night with your moaning and groaning, I wouldn't have been sent home because I wouldn't have made so many mistakes because I wouldn't have been exhausted and we never would have had this argument!"

"What the fuck does that have to do with me going outside?" He yelled.

"The crazy ass idea to leave the house would never have crossed your mind and none of this would have happened!" Blake shouted back.

"Blake, that is the dumbest fucking thing I think I've ever heard. I'm going outside!"

"No you're not!" Blake sped past him and blocked his way down the stairs. Justin moved to the right to walk around her, she blocked his path. He moved to the left, she followed. Blake smirked. "What're you gonna do, push me down the stairs?"

Justin rolled his eyes. "Get out of my way!"

"Not a chance," Blake said.

Justin sighed. "Well then I guess you leave me with no choice."

"What are you talk-"

Before Blake could finish her sentence, Justin had hoisted her over his shoulder and started to make his way back to her bedroom. He dropped her unceremoniously on the bed and used the few seconds it took her to resituate her towel to make a beeline towards the bedroom doorway.

He was almost home free when something heavy and hard hit the back of his head. "Oof!" He turned around, rubbing his head and looked down at his feet. "You threw a fucking shoe at me?" He asked, looking up at Blake just in time to duck as its partner came flying towards him. "What the fuck?"

"Don't make me throw another pair," Blake warned threateningly.

"Jesus Christ, Blake, you could've given me a concussion! Ow." Justin hung his head and wiped at his eyes, sniffling a bit. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the look of triumph on Blake's face drop.

"Oh my God, Justin, are you okay?" She rushed towards him and put her hands on his arms, trying to get him to look her in the eye. "I am so sorry! Do I need to call a doctor? I didn't mean to throw it that hard, I was just really angry. It's all my fault. I was taking my bad mood out on you and I …"

Blake continued to ramble but at this point Justin wasn't listening. He let her guide him to the bed and sat down next to her as she started going on about concussions and getting him some ice. And for some reason, the absurdity of the situation suddenly didn't seem so … absurd. Here he was, being fawned over by a fan (whose poster he had been living in) who had thrown at shoe at him in anger because he wanted to go outside when going outside meant running the risk of being spotted by … fans?

No, Blake wasn't a fan in the fanatic sense, Justin thought. Blake was a fan in the sense that she cared about him. And somewhere along the way he had come to care about her too. Did that make him a fan of Blake? Was there something more to their relationship than just fan-celebrity adoration? Suddenly Justin felt like he knew the answer.

"Blake!" Justin said loudly to stop her rambling.

"What?"

"Shut up." Justin saw a confused expression come over her face as he leaned in and his eyes automatically shut as his lips met hers. Blake's grip on his arms tightened and he braced himself for the punch to the stomach he was sure he was going to get. Instead, she sighed against him and kissed him back.

And beneath the voice in his head that was shouting, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?" Justin could have sworn he heard another tiny voice cheering in triumph.