NOTES AND DISCLAIMERS: All made up. Part of the *nsoap AU, plotted extensively with Younger. Thanks to Younger, Katie and Kel for the wonderful betas.

THE BEST MAN FOR THE JOB

Joey was definitely in over his head. He looked at Justin and looked at his feet and back at Justin. Justin made his little face, the one that said, "please please please" and said quietly, "Seriously, yo, can you get me porn? You know, um, the gay kind?"

Joey swallowed. It really had been a seriously bad idea to tell Justin about his ex-boyfriends. Joey thought about risks, his job and decided, well, probably none of the bad things he imagined would happen. So he said yes.

*

Joey sat across from JC in the commissary and felt the weight of the three pornos he'd gotten in his backpack. He must have been holding it in a weird way, because JC poked it and said, "Isn't twenty a little old for a backpack, Joe?"

Joey grinned. "No, it's not. Man, I got my shit in here."

JC smiled and looked down at his food. JC ate like a fucking horse and stayed skinny as a rail. Joey took a bite from his hamburger and thought it was a good thing he could do the same but unlike JC, Joey was pretty sure that wouldn't last. JC was super skinny and he just burned calories. Joey already had to work out to keep fit. His mom and dad were big, loving, round people and Joey would end up the same way if he didn't watch out. And he had to watch out, because he was a soap actor, no round allowed.

JC said, "Are you ready for the scene this afternoon? I'm a little tired of getting these rewrites the day of, you know?"

"Well, Lou. He probably convened a focus group and thought it worked better if, you know, we said 'darn' and not 'heck' on the third page."

JC laughed and covered his mouth. "Okay, okay, man, I'm eating."

Joey looked up and saw Justin walking in. He clutched his backpack closer and said, "C, gotta go. See ya this afternoon." Joey walked quickly back to his dressing room and stashed his backpack under his coat. He threw a towel over the coat, just in case. Then he felt stupid, because why would anyone look under a towel and a coat and look in his backpack and see the pornos and think Joey had gotten them for his sixteen-year-old costar? He was being stupid. He only moved the towel, though.

*

JC leaned in and said, "Look, she's just someone I'm seeing. I'm not going to marry her."

Joey leaned in as well. "Just someone you're seeing? God, Josh, you're a heartless jerk. How can you be like this?"

JC leaned back and looked shocked. "Heartless? I'm heartless? What's wrong with you?"

"How can you say that? Savannah's pregnant, Josh!" JC looked even more shocked and held that expression for a count of one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand, four-one-thousand and then the director called "Cut."

JC said, "Holy fuck, no one told me she was pregnant!" He started laughing and they both stood up. Done for another day.

Joey liked his part. "Steve" was just a guy, some friend of Josh's who wasn't connected to any of the families on the show, but Joey knew enough from Janine that sometimes guys like that ended up on soaps for years. And Lou wasn't the greatest writer or executive producer in the world, but he kept writing scenes for Josh and Steve, so Joey wasn't about to complain. Lou had given Joey his break, upping his part from three lines to a day player and now on contract, if only for four months at a time.

JC spotted Tony at the other end of the studio and walked off in that direction. Joey turned the other way and saw Justin. He threw his shoulders back, looked the picture of resolve and walked that way.

Justin smiled tentatively and said, "Hey."

Joey said, "Come to my dressing room, young man." Justin grinned wide and practically scampered behind Joey. He got his backpack out and handed over the three videos. "Okay, and you gotta get 'em back to me by tomorrow morning, okay? I'm not working, but I'll come in the morning to get 'em. They're all overnight rentals."

Justin blanched. "Um. I thought I'd have longer."

"Justin, I don't own any, I mean, I actually don't own any porn, you know? It gets boring after the first time."

"The first time having sex or after seeing the video once?" Justin looked down at the three videos. No covers, just plain plastic cases.

"Seeing the video once. I'm not bored with watching hot people get it on even after getting it on myself. More than once." Joey sat down and rubbed his forehead. "So, wait, uh. You can't just watch 'em tonight?"

Justin shrugged. "Well. It's just, um, my mom. See, I have a VCR in my room and stuff, but the walls are kinda thin. She can hear. And I could turn 'em down, but then she'd wonder why I was so quiet."

"Well. And she's home tonight?"

"She's home every night. It's just, she has this thing on Saturday. But, um, I could pay the late fines?"

Joey sighed. "It's on my credit card. They'll just start charging when they're not back and actually, I need to send that payment in and frankly, it'll be denied and um, that would be bad."

Justin nodded. He said, "Could I watch 'em at your place tonight? I could convince my mom to let me stay the night with you, I bet."

Joey looked down at his hands. There was a reason Justin was a star at sixteen and had more experience than Joey did, even though Justin was younger. He asked for outrageous things and had all that pretty and charm to back it up. Joey said, "Dude, I live in a two bedroom with my girlfriend. You know, uh, it might be awkward."

"She's not your girlfriend, is she? I thought she wasn't." Justin said it quietly. And he was right. Kelly was his girlfriend sometimes, but not right now. She'd agreed to get the apartment with Joey when they weren't dating and now she blew him off whenever he tried to turn two nights of sex with each other into something else. She said things about his inability to commit and other things like that. She was right.

Joey nodded. "Actually, um, she's out tonight. She's got a date."

Justin said, "Please?"

Joey sighed. "Go ask your mom."

Justin scampered out again and then ran back in and shoved the videos in Joey's hands. He ran out again. He came back ten minutes later with an expensive backpack slung over one shoulder and his big wide grin. "She said okay! She thinks I'm, um, watching basketball or something and you know, that you're gonna let me have a beer and we'll be done too late for her to come out and get me. So, if she asks, we did that."

*

Joey's apartment looked clean, so Kelly had had a test. She was in cosmetology school and before every test, she compulsively cleaned the apartment. It was a really nice quirk in a roommate. Even Joey's room looked good. Joey pushed Justin into his room and turned on the TV. "Okay, you can operate all this, right?"

Justin nodded. He said, "You're not gonna watch with me?"

"Ah, no. Probably not."

"Um, are you hungry? I can pay for pizza."

Joey said, "That's a good idea." They actually watched basketball until the pizza came. Joey went to the kitchen for a beer.

"Can I have one? Just one."

"You're sixteen. It's, like, wrong."

"You're twenty, it's, like, illegal." Justin pressed his lips together. "My mom lets me have one once in a while."

"Your mom gives you beer but she's gonna freak about the porn?"

Justin hunched forward a little. "Well, it's gay porn. Also, um, I think she wouldn't. Like, not freak."

"Your mom lets you get away with murder." Joey threw a beer at Justin which he naturally caught neatly.

"She doesn't. She makes sure I'm always polite and she always tells me not to treat people badly and she gets really pissed if I act all arrogant and stuff. She's just, she doesn't freak about certain things. So, um, I though, it'd be nice to do something she didn't know about."

Joey nodded. "Okay. Is that why the gay porn?"

Justin shook his head. "Nah, that's um, you know, figuring things out. See if I like it. You know?"

Joey nodded again. Joey got that things were complicated sometimes, things needed to be found out. Joey had figured out when he was fifteen that he just liked sex. Any flavor, any time. He liked it like he liked acting, which was to say, he loved it. Acting and sex were Joey's favorite things in the world.

Joey clapped Justin on the shoulder and said, "Go forth, young man, and explore!"

Joey went to Kelly's room and watched some stupid drama on NBC for about half an hour. He wasn't necessarily watching too closely; he kept thinking about Justin one room over, watching porn. He was probably jerking off. Joey pictured it for a moment and then rubbed his eyes. Bad idea. Justin was pretty hot.

On television, some girl started crying. Joey watched and thought she was a pretty lousy actress. Definitely glycerin and it didn't even look like she was upset, more like constipated. He snorted and changed the channel.

Justin could cry really well. He didn't have to cry so much anymore, but Joey had seen tapes from when Justin had started a few years ago and back then Justin had had to cry every other week.

He hadn't been hot then. Thank God, Joey thought, because thirteen year olds should never ever be hot. But Justin at sixteen looked older than that, and lord knows, Justin never really acted like a kid. He was one of the most professional actors on the show. He was always on time, he didn't complain about crap he couldn't control and he never stepped on people's cues or anything like that to make other actors look bad.

And hot. Joey sighed. He went to the kitchen and got another beer for himself. He figured Justin must have finished his first one, too. And two beers weren't going to kill the kid. Hell, he'd eaten half a large pizza; he wouldn't even be drunk unless he had the tolerance of a gnat. Joey knocked on the door of his room and opened the door right after, because he was stupid and not thinking.

Justin's pants were around his knees and so was his underwear. Joey thought, huh, boxer-briefs. And he was holding his dick, and that was. It was something. Joey put down the beer and closed the door behind him. Joey rubbed his dick through his jeans and banged his head against the door. Much hotter than he pictured, damn it.

Justin opened the door. He was wearing his pants and everything, and blushing bright red. "Um. Thanks for the beer?"

"Sure. Good. Thought you'd want it." Joey nodded because he thought he should do something.

Justin nodded back and Joey thought they must have looked ridiculous. A matched pair of woodpeckers or something, minus a tree or anything to peck but still bobbing away. Joey squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. "How's the porn coming, uh, how's it going in there?" Joey needed someone to write his dialogue.

"It's good. I like it." Justin smiled.

"So, things figured out?"

"Definitely. Yup. Kinda like I thought, but all confirmed. You know. Um, do you want me to stop or something? I'm, uh, I haven't finished the first one yet." Justin rubbed his forehead.

"No, no, go, you, uh, you watch all of 'em. I'll leave you be."

"You could watch with me." Justin did that thing, that looking up from under his lashes thing that was really mean. It went straight to Joey's dick.

"Next movie. I hate missing the first part of something." Joey smiled. This was maybe a really bad idea. But most of the bad things Joey could imagine happening wouldn't. "You know, um, come get me then."

Justin nodded again, and Joey closed the door and walked back to Kelly's. The show was still stupid, everything on was. And really, Joey probably should have considered the many implications of what was almost definitely going to be making out with Justin in a half hour or so. It wasn't like watching porn wasn't going to lead to that. Mostly, Joey thought that he might just jump Justin right after the credits. Porn was good, but it was nothing compared to actually making out with a real live hot person. Justin was really hot, even with the being only sixteen thing.

Joey finished his beer and watched scenes from three stupid sitcoms. He went into Kelly's bathroom and washed his face. Gargled some of her fluoride rinse. Then he washed his hands. He was staring at his hair, feeling stupid for being nervous when he heard a knock on the door. He turned and saw Justin, wearing his pants and big t-shirt, shifting his weight from foot to foot and staring at the floor. Justin said, "Um. Movie's done. Wanna watch this one?"

"You know it." Joey wasn't nervous at all.

He followed Justin back to his room and Justin sat on the floor in front of the bed. Joey saw one of his hand towels balled up on the floor and grinned. Joey waved at the bed. "Justin, sit on the bed."

Justin scooted up on the bed and grinned back. Joey sat down next to him and patted Justin's knee. Joey said, "Which one is this?"

"It's, um, 'Notorious B.I.G.' -- um, from Bad Boy. Bad Boy, that's, uh, a company?"

Joey nodded. "Falcon and Bad Boy, those are the best for gay porn."

Justin swallowed. "I liked the Falcon one."

Joey grabbed the remote and hit play. "You put it in?"

Justin covered his mouth and giggled. "I did, sorry, that sounds obscene. I've been watching porn, man."

Joey leaned back and rested on his elbows. The movie had started. It was stupid. The guys were hot, so far, but right now they were just talking and dressed. Then, thank goodness, the guys on screen started to get naked. They were kissing at least and then more. Justin leaned back on his elbows. They were about the same height, Joey realized. For now. Justin used to be so much shorter, and now they were the same height.

Joey looked up again at the movie. A big blond guy had tugged down his own pants and a built black guy was kneeling down in front of him. Joey said, "You ever done that?"

Justin started. "Um, no. No. I, uh, my girlfriend, this girl I was seeing? She did that to me."

"How much you done with girls?"

"Everything." Justin paused. "I mean it, like, I've had sex, and gone down on girls and they've gone down on me. And once, this girl I was seeing, she, um, you know, with her fingers?"

"She fingered you?" Joey tried not to smirk. Justin nodded. "And you liked it. Nothing wrong with that. Sex is a glorious thing."

"You know it."

"So you've done all sorts of things with girls and what have you done with guys?" A chorus of grunts and "suck that hard cock, big boy!" came from the TV.

"Um. Nothing. I was, kinda, you know, deciding if I wanted that. And then, you know, find a guy who won't punch me if I try to kiss him."

Joey watched more of the porn. The two guys were sucking away, and mostly Joey was thinking that that must have been really hard on their backs. It was a pretty tangly sixty-nine. Joey rubbed his dick through the denim. Justin clenched his hands in the bedspread.

Joey thought, fuck it. Worst-case scenario was Justin punching his lights out, calling his mother and the cops and Joey ending up in jail. Joey felt strongly that wouldn't happen. So he sat up and put his hand on Justin's jaw, pulled Justin towards him and kissed him.

Justin kissed back and rolled on top of Joey, pushing Joey flat on the bed. Oh yeah, the kid was hard. Justin pushed himself up and said, "Um, are we gonna?"

"We're gonna whatever you want. You're pretty hot, J." Joey put his hands down Justin's pants, gripped his ass. "Except, um, just tonight, okay? I'm not dating material, um, not for you."

Justin smirked. He arched his back; ground his crotch into Joey's. "I don't wanna date. You're hot, dude. But, we're okay."

Joey smiled back. Joey squeezed Justin's ass again and rolled them both over so he was on top. He dipped down and licked Justin's neck, even nipped once or twice until Justin mewled. Mission accomplished. Joey said, "What do you want to do?"

Justin said, "I want. I wanna do the things I can't do with a girl, you know? I want to," Justin licked his lips. It was actually hotter than anything on the porno. "I want to give you a blowjob."

Joey flipped over again, onto his back and shucked off his jeans in five seconds flat. An acquired skill, but one he was proud of. "Go for it." He slapped his stomach. "Blowjobs rock." He was laughing, he knew, and he hoped Justin didn't take it personally.

Justin shimmied around and laid down on Joey's legs, his head just right over Joey's dick. Justin rolled his eyes and did his Joe Pesci imitation. "You think I'm funny?"

"I think this isn't what I expected to be doing this morning." Then Justin got to the task at hand. It was sloppy, incredibly sloppy and wet and Justin kept looking up with these puppy dog eyes. Joey loved it, every second of it. He gripped Justin's head and pushed up into his mouth. Justin gagged a little. Joey pulled back but then Justin said, "Nuh uh" and tried again. It was endearing. It was also incredibly hot. Fuck, that red mouth, Justin's big hands when he figured out how to use them, all of it, and the way Justin sucked, Joey was having a great time.

Justin stopped and sat up. He wiped his mouth and Joey had to stop himself from coming from that. Justin said, "I want, um. I'm sorry. I also want, um, you to uh, you know." Justin pointed with his thumb at the screen.

Joey closed his eyes. "I'm not doing anything you can't say. You can't say it, you don't get to do it."

Justin laughed and sprawled across Joey. Warm and sweaty, that was really nice. Justin whispered in Joey's ear, "I want you to fuck me. So don't come until you're, you know, in me. How's that?" Then he licked Joey's ear and Joey had to think about his mother and slaughtered cows so he didn't shoot his wad right then.

Joey said, "I got to get up. I got, you know, got to get things."

Justin rolled off and actually clapped. It was sort of scary. Joey found the condoms easy but he couldn't find the lube. He'd bought it ages ago, and he'd hid it from Kelly during one of her cleaning sprees. Justin said, "You need some help?"

"No, no, I was looking for something." Joey threw the condom on the bed. "One more thing and we're good to go." Joey started flipping through his collection of Superman comics. Not in there. Also not in with his yearbooks. He finally found it, the lonely looking tube; underneath a framed picture his mother had given him of Janine in her confirmation dress. "I was looking for this." He held it up and did a little dance.

Justin was still laughing when Joey belly-flopped on the bed and grabbed Justin, pulling him close. "Dude, you sure about this?"

Justin nodded and kissed Joey. "I really wanna, with you and stuff. It looks hot."

"It feels hot, but, um, you know. Hurts, too."

Justin rolled his eyes. "Dude, they're making me bleach my hair practically white because of this stupid storyline, I can handle pain."

"Okay, this is different from that, but let's do it anyway." Joey smacked Justin's ass and nudged Justin to lie on his stomach.

It wasn't like the porno, because it was real, it was happening. Pretty squirmy guy on Joey's bed. And he thought 'guy' not 'boy' because that made it less weird. Joey took his time, and when he pulled Justin up on his knees and made that first thrust in, Justin just grunted and said, "Keep going, man." Joey's first time doing this with a guy hadn't been that nice, it had mostly hurt. Joey had persevered anyway. He tried to make it nice for Justin, but he was mostly focused on himself and hot and tight and the way Justin would just take everything and the sweat shining on Justin's back and the slide of Justin's hips in his hands. It was pretty fucking awesome.

He came like a house on fire. Then he was on the bed with Justin, tangled sheets and the VCR was rewinding the tape. Joey looked up and said, "Um, we should sleep now."

Justin nodded. "Good idea," he murmured. Justin rolled over and hugged a pillow. "Me sleep now."

Joey turned off the VCR after ejecting the tape. He turned off the TV and straightened the apartment and kitchen. He checked in Kelly's room to make sure he hadn't left anything in there and then back to his room. Justin was asleep, covers tucked around him. It was really cute. Joey straightened his room and got in next to Justin.

He woke in the morning and felt Justin nudging his shoulder. He grunted and tried to go back to sleep. Justin said, "Dude, when's your call today?"

"Don' have one. I'm not mister four day a week storyline, man, let me sleep."

Justin went from poking to stroking. "Good. Me neither. I'm only on three days, man, and uh, there's a third movie."

Joey opened his eyes. Justin was right across from him, hair smushed, bright and grinning. "I was, you know, thinking we could watch that one."

Joey blinked. "You know, um, that's fine. But, uh, so, Justin, I really like you --"

"I really like you, too, goober. I don't wanna go out with you, or anything, I mean, if you're worried about that. You're too old for me." Justin smirked. "And, you know, it'd be kind of weird. Um, you know, My First Boyfriend and it's you. Because you're my friend. I think, uh, your first boyfriend is supposed to be all mean and break your heart and teach how awful the world can be. You'd be really bad at that. You know, being mean to me. Or anyone."

Joey thought about the way Kelly looked when she and Joey first broke up. He said, "Justin, you're sweet, but you, I can be pretty mean. But if you're okay --"

"Okay with hot sex with my good buddy Joe? Yeah, I'm okay with that." Justin moved closer and kissed Joey. "Shouldn't we get to it?"

"Yeah. But, uh, when does your mom think you're coming home?"

"When I get up. But I usually sleep later than this on days off."

So it all turned out okay. Joey got the videos back by noon and Justin home right after that. Justin kissed him in the car and said, "You're the best, man."

Joey said, "Good enough," and swatted Justin's ass as Justin got out the car.

THE END

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