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JC Chasez sighed to himself as the professor called the end of the class period and all of his classmates began clearing up their art supplies. He slowly began to pack up, avoiding looking at his third and final drawing of the day, which was just as unacceptable as the first two. He hoped the professor wouldn't come over to see what he'd been doing; they were supposed to be working on full-body drawings utilizing the light and shadow techniques they had learned about earlier that week, but JC had spent the whole time drawing portraits of the model.

It wasn't that he was a bad student. On the contrary, he was one of the best in the class. The professor often singled out his drawings to use as examples of fine work in whatever technique they were currently exploring, but every time they had this model, JC found himself deviating from the objectives of the class and simply staring in rapture at the man's expressive face.

This model wasn't physically perfect by any means—he was actually about three inches shorter than average and just a tiny bit overweight—but JC liked his men with a little meat on them. What really attracted him were the man's smile, his laugh, and his amazing eyes. His eyes were an absolutely beautiful shade of deep brown, just slightly almond shaped, and seemed to hold a wisdom much beyond the man's age, which JC guessed to be somewhere in the late twenties. They'd had this model three times now, and though he was one of the best—he hardly ever moved, even for the 45 minute poses—JC hated it when he walked into the room. It only meant he wouldn't get any real work done and would have to make up the time at home. It was a good thing Joey had skipped class today; he never missed a chance to tease JC about his "elementary school crush" on the man he called "Elf-boy," probably because of his short stature and the slight points at the tips of his ears. "Hey, at least you don't spend the whole class drawing pictures of his naughty bits," he'd said once, much too loudly for comfort. JC was almost positive he'd seen the model's lips twitch.

He nodded halfheartedly at the professor as he exited the classroom, unable to wave because of all of the supplies he was carrying. That was the one drawback of being a full-time art student; it meant he had to carry his drawing board, portfolio, and artbox wherever he went. He adjusted his hold on the portfolio and board, feeling them slip a little, and struggled to push the button for the elevator. As usual, no one came by offering to help. Most of the other students had too much to carry as well.

The elevator doors opened and he stepped aside to let the exiting student pass. Unfortunately, as he did so, the other student's elbow hit the latch on his artbox, and he could only watch in dismay as the whole thing flipped open, sending all of his supplies to the floor.

He stood there, staring numbly at the mess on the floor, barely hearing it as the other student kept right on going, shooting a hurried, "Sorry, man!" over his back. JC sighed as he put down his portfolio and board and knelt to begin gathering the spilled supplies. It was a good thing that was his last class of the day. He didn't think he could handle much more.

"Hey, need any help?"

JC froze. He knew that voice. He looked up slowly, feeling himself blush to five shades of red when his eyes lit upon the smiling face of the model from his drawing class. "Um...."

The man didn't wait for an answer, simply knelt down beside JC and started to pull the scattered supplies into a more controlled pile. "You're in that figure drawing class," he said, his inflection making it more a statement than a question.

"Um...." JC forced off his paralysis and began again to clean up. "Yeah, I'm.... Yeah. JC Chasez."

"JC, huh? That short for something?"

The Elf-man turned a broad grin on him, and JC's heart nearly stopped. His mouth suddenly felt very dry. "Um...." Why did every single sentence have to start with 'um'? "Yeah, it's... Josh. Joshua Chasez. But there was already a Josh in my class, so the teacher...." He trailed off, feeling incredibly stupid.

"Okay, Hi Josh-or-JC. I'm Chris. Kirkpatrick."

"Hi." Well, his voice squeaked, but at least he hadn't said 'um' again. "Um...." Damn! "Thanks for helping me."

"No prob." Chris handed him the last of the colored pencils and stood, brushing off his jeans before offering JC a hand up. "You looked totally miserable."

"It's been a hard day." JC picked up the rest of his stuff as Chris pushed the button for the elevator.

"Yeah, you looked frustrated during class." Chris reached over and took the artbox from him, waving away JC's protests. "Forget it, it's not heavy. You got a car or do you have to bus it with all this stuff?"

"Oh, I have a car. I bussed last year, it was hell."

"I'll bet." They stepped onto the elevator and Chris selected the ground floor. "You headin' out, or you got another class?"

"I'm done for the day," JC answered, closing his eyes and leaning back against the wall of the elevator.

Chris nodded. "Okay, I'll walk you out to your car."

"You don't have to do that—" JC started to protest, but Chris just shrugged.

"No big deal. My bag's light, and I gotta walk through the parking lot to get to the bus stop anyway."

"Oh." JC didn't really have a response for that, and besides, why talk Chris out of it? It meant he got to look at him some more. "So, um...." There was that word again. "How long have you been modeling?"

"Oh, I guess about two years now," Chris answered as they stepped outside. "I got into it by accident, really. A friend of mine was doing it, and he knew I needed some extra cash, so he introduced me to his scheduler. The rest, as they say, is history."

"Wow. You're, uh... you're really good at it."

"Thanks." Chris grinned at him again, and JC began to think that his heart rate would never get back to normal as long as he was around this guy. "I really sucked when I started. I moved, like, every two seconds."

"It's hard," JC nodded, forcing his mind away from its threatened detour into the gutter. "I had to do it once when our model didn't show. I think my whole body fell asleep. Everything started itching, and my fingers twitched for no reason."

"You think that's hard, try doing it naked. Any time your mind goes places a man's mind is hardwired to go, you have to force it back, like, right away and think about dead kittens, or your Mom, or something. You can get fired for popping a boner in an art class, you know."

There went his mind into the gutter again. "Really?" he squeaked, internally cringing when his voice came out an octave too high. He cleared his throat and refused to look over at Chris, knowing he was blushing again. "Um... there's my car." He pointed to it and hurried ahead, hearing Chris chuckle behind him.

"Hey, sorry, didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," the model said, putting a hand on JC's shoulder as he fumbled with the car keys. "Sometimes my mouth just keeps going even after my brain tells it to stop."

"No, I'm not... I mean.. it's, um... I didn't... you don't... I mean, because okay."

This time Chris laughed outright, then slapped a hand over his mouth, trying to stop. "Sorry! Sorry. Not laughing at you.... Well, I am, but it's a good kind of laughing at you. I'm laughing with you, really. Even though you're not exactly laughing."

JC just stared at him, the car door hanging open, his portfolio and board leaning against the side of the vehicle. "Would you like to have lunch with me?" He blinked. Had he really said that?

Chris' eyes widened a little bit. "Lunch? Like... now?"

"Um...." JC looked down at the ground, shuffling his feet. Oh well, he'd already asked, why not just go for it? "Yes, now. If you... don't have plans."

"I don't." Chris went quiet for a moment, then grinned again. "Sure, I'll have lunch with you. That is, if you're not a mass murderer, or something."

"What? Oh, no, I.... Not unless you count massacred drawings."

Chris barked out a laugh. "No, I don't think that counts. Cool."

"Um, so, do you like sushi?"

Chris made a face. An absolutely adorable face.

JC swallowed hard. "Okay, how about just Japanese food? They have a really good chicken curry...."

Chris cocked his head to the side. "You really want to go to this place, don't you?"

JC blushed yet again. "Um... yeah."

"Okay. Let's go, then." Chris walked around to the other side of the car and opened the passenger door, slipping inside and twisting around to place JC's artbox on the back seat.

JC took a moment to calm himself down before getting into the car himself. "Have you ever had sushi?"

"Nope. Come on, JC, raw fish? Euw."

He smiled as he started the car. "Tastes better than it sounds. Maybe I can get you to try a little bit."

"Hmm, maybe. If you're very persuasive."

This time, JC's mind went to the gutter and stayed there.

~*~

"Joshua, welcome back!" JC accepted a handshake and pat on the back from Tsushima and a chorus of hellos from the wait staff and sushi cooks. "You are late, we did not think you would come today."

"Hello, Tsushima, hello everybody," he greeted them as Chris stood back, amused. "Tsushima, this is Chris, he... works at the college."

Chris stifled a grin as Tsushima solemnly shook his hand. "Hello, Christopher. Any friend of Joshua is friend of ours. You have sushi before?"

"Um, no, I... don't think I like the idea."

"Raw fish sound disgusting to you? We will start slow. Steam shrimp and salmon sushi. Shrimp is cooked, everybody like the salmon. Okay?" Before Chris could answer, Tsushima was already ushering him and JC to a table by one of the front windows. "You have your usual, Joshua?"

"Yes, thank you, Tsushima."

"I will bring it to you. You sit, enjoy the view. Man got arrested over there a few minutes ago."

JC giggled as Tsushima hurried away, leaving Chris staring after him, open-mouthed.

"You know all the waiters here?" Chris finally asked, glancing out the window down to the street to where a few police cars still idled at the curb.

"Tsushima's not a waiter," JC explained. "He's the owner. I come in here every Friday after school, and he noticed me after a while. Everybody's really nice in here."

"Seems like it." Chris looked around, his eyes lingering on the high, wooden beamed ceiling. "Really nice décor, too."

JC looked around as well; having been there so often, he'd almost forgotten to appreciate how nicely maintained it really was. "Oh, yeah. It's the best Japanese restaurant in the city. It's been mentioned a million times in local papers and magazines. I won't eat sushi anywhere else. Well, unless I'm out of town, or something."

"Of course." Chris picked up his chopsticks and started fiddling with them, beating out a rhythm on the tabletop. "So, what year are you?"

"Oh, um, I have one semester to go," JC answered, just as Tsushima returned to the table.

"Here you go, two green tea, two plum wine, two green bean. Sushi will be out soon, okay?"

"Thanks," Chris said dubiously, eyeing the green beans.

Tsushima laughed as he walked away.

JC grinned at Chris as he picked up one of the beans and squeezed it, eating the peas directly out of the pod. "I'm going for my M.F.A.," he continued, as if they hadn't been interrupted, "but I'm not really sure what I'm going to do when I graduate. I could teach, you know, but it'd probably be better to go into the graphic arts, you know? Computers."

Chris hesitantly followed his lead and tried one of the beans, his eyebrows going up comically when he realized he liked it. "Oh, yeah. There's a lot of work in graphic design nowadays, and a lot of good money. You know Macs?"

"Oh yeah, I hate PCs." JC made a face as he sipped his wine. "I've used Macs all my life. And I have all of the programs, you know, Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark...."

"Whoa, you have Quark? That costs, like, eight million dollars!"

"Closer to a thousand, actually," JC chuckled. "But I got it at the student price for $400."

"Oh, yeah." Chris sipped his own wine and once again looked surprised at how good it was. "Still expensive, but...." He shrugged. "If you know what you're doing, it pays for itself."

"Exactly," JC nodded. "I've done a bit of freelance work already, and I held a job for a couple years before I went back to school, so I have the experience I need. Just gotta build up a portfolio."

"How old are you, anyway?" Chris asked suddenly, "If you don't mind me asking."

"I don't. I'm 25."

"I remember 25." Chris tried the green tea next and made a sour face, pushing the mug away. "It was a good age. I'm... 29. And 13 months."

JC snickered as Tsushima approached again, this time with two servings of miso soup and salad. "Twenty-nine forever, huh?" He nodded his thanks at Tsushima, who simply smiled before hurrying away again.

"Exactly. I will still be 29 when I'm 60."

"Hey, you're only as old as you feel." JC stirred his soup with one of his chopsticks, then picked up the bowl and sipped directly from it. Chris imitated his actions, but only after making yet another face at the cubes of tofu floating in the almost-clear broth.

"My mom gave me a good bit of advice," Chris said, putting down the bowl and reaching for the salad instead. "She told me, 'you don't stop playing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop playing.'"

"You have a very smart mother," JC agreed, watching, impressed, as Chris expertly handled his salad with the chopsticks.

Chris noticed his scrutiny and grinned at him. "I eat a lot of Chinese food," he said by way of explanation. JC grinned back.

"Okay, sushi is ready!" Tsushima appeared by the table, waiting expectantly with two trays of food. JC and Chris pushed aside their appetizers, and Tsushima placed the trays down in front of them. "Okay, Joshua, Sushi A for you. Today is ebi, toro, sake, sanma, hirame, and ika.* For you, Christopher, one piece salmon, two pieces shrimp, three cucumber rolls. You try it, okay?"

Chris swallowed hard as he eyed his tray first, then JC's, which looked considerably more... fishy. "Okay...."

"I'll be back to see how you liked. Enjoy!" Tsushima bowed at them quickly, then moved away again, disappearing into the kitchen area.

Chris sighed as he watched JC pouring soy sauce into the two small bowls by their trays. "I don't know about this, JC," he said, wrinkling his nose. "Raw fish...."

"The shrimp is cooked," JC reminded him with a smile. "Besides, you can ease into it with the cucumber rolls. That's just rice, cucumber, and wasabi wrapped in seaweed."

"Right. Okay." Once again, Chris watched JC first, imitating him as he picked up one of his cucumber rolls with the chopsticks and dipped it into the bowl of soy sauce before putting the whole thing in his mouth. "Wasabi, that's hot, right?" he asked, the roll hovering just in front of his lips.

JC nodded, eyes already tearing up.

Chris smiled. "Okay. I can handle hot." He dipped the roll once more in the soy sauce, closed his eyes, and shoved it in his mouth. His eyes opened, surprised. "Hey, that's not bad!"

JC just laughed.

~*~

"...so I said, 'hey, it's a fumanskeeto!' which really wasn't all that funny, but we were half drunk anyway, so there you go."

JC grinned into his third mug of tea. "I think it's funny."

Lunch had technically been over about 45 minutes already, but Tsushima seemed in no hurry to kick them out, so they simply stayed, nursing mug after mug of green tea. Once his mouth had been numbed out by the wasabi, Chris had declared, the tea wasn't half bad. Both of them would have loved to have seconds (and maybe thirds) of the plum wine, but since JC was driving and Chris didn't want to drink alone, they had foregone that idea.

Chris had ended up loving the sushi, so Tsushima had brought a few more pieces for him to try. The fatty tuna had met with his approval, but the mackerel had been declared "too fishy" for his tastes. The two of them agreed that, the next time they came, if the Sushi A came with mackerel, Chris could swap with him for one of the other pieces. JC didn't really care for the mackerel, either, but he was so excited that Chris wanted to come out with him again, he decided that it didn't matter.

"So, anyway, I have a logo for it and everything," Chris continued, "but no company to use it with. I mean, I use it for my freelance stuff, you know? But it's not the same thing."

"I can't believe we have so much in common," JC marveled, draining the last of his tea. "I would've never thought I'd have a chance in Hell with you." Then he froze, unable to believe what he'd just said. "Um... that is...."

Chris was grinning widely. "Really? You were thinking about... having a chance? With me?"

"Um...." JC put down his mug and fidgeted, wiping suddenly sweaty palms on his knees. "Well, I wasn't... I just thought you were... it wasn't like I was... I wouldn't ever assume... no, well I guess I because yes." He jumped when he felt Chris' hand cover his under the table.

"Good," Chris said, smiling kindly. "Because I was kind of hoping all of your blushing and stammering meant I had a chance with you."

JC blushed, and smiled back.

* JC's sushi selection consists of shrimp, fatty tuna, salmon, Japanese mackerel, halibut, and squid.

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