J: Colleen said she made JC get down on his knees and eat her out on the deck of the room in Miami.

“Get it, girl!” Michael exclaimed as he read Joey’s text over Lance’s shoulder.

“You know, I really like her, Michael,” Lance smiled as he texted Joey back cat, tongue and noisemaker emojis.

“I’ll just pack my things and move out then,” Michael said sarcastically as he began gathering up random plates and cups. “Which twin do I get to take?”

“Shut up,” Lance laughed, smacking Michael’s butt with a dish towel. “She is so great for JC. I don’t get it, but it works.”

“What don’t you get?”

“Just the whole S&M aspect of it. Like, I get playing around every so often but it just seems like all they do is that. Do you think they ever have just normal sex?”

“Well, many religions think their kinky sex is still more normal than the regular sex we have so I don’t think it’s our place to judge.”

“I’m not judging, I’m just…wondering,” Lance tried to explain.

“Maybe you just need a reminder,” Michael came up behind Lance and kissed his neck as his hand slid under Lance’s waistband.

“Mmmm, you are an evil man,” Lance groaned, letting his head fall back and his eyes close.

“Yes I am,” Michael whispered as he removed his hand and smacked Lance’s ass. “Go call Chris and Justin before you get all worked up.” Lance huffed and stormed off to his office as Michael laughed and continued cleaning up.

“What up, Bitch Ass?” Chris answered Lance’s FaceTime call, shirtless and beer in hand.

“How are you so sure I’m Bitch Ass?” Lance asked.

“Process of elimination,” Chris stated assuredly.

“Why are you naked? Where are you?” Lance inquired.

“I’m not naked. I got my undies on,” Chris said, panning the camera to show off his Steelers boxer briefs.

“Well, put on clothes and grab Justin cuz I got something to tell you both.”

“I’m right here,” Justin shouted as Chris turned the camera to reveal Justin standing in only his boxer briefs as well, holding a beer identical to Chris’s.

“I knew I rode the wrong bus,” Lance shook his head and said quietly to himself. “Why are you two naked in a hotel room together?”

“We aren’t naked,” Justin corrected him again. “We played two rounds of golf in uncharacteristically hot weather for April over here. We’re cooling off.”

“And I’m not made of money like other people I know so we’re sharing a room,” Chris confirmed.

“I literally can’t tell you how much gay porn starts off like this,” Lance laughed.

Chris held out the camera to show more of the room. “There are two beds, see? One. Two. One for Justin and one for me.”

“What are you, at the Motel 6?” Lance asked as he surveyed the room.

“It’s a Marriott, you fucking snob,” Chris snapped back. “Just wait until you have kids and have to start budgeting again.”

“That is actually exactly why I’m calling,” Lance smiled. “Guess who’s pregnant?”

Chris and Justin stared at the screen and then at each other. Finally, Chris gasped, “Holy shit! You’ve got to be kidding me?!”

“I know, I can’t believe it either!” Lance beamed.

“I’m not following. Who’s pregnant?” Justin asked as he took a swig of beer.

“Colleen, obviously,” Chris explained.

“Holy shit,” Justin grew wide eyed, now chugging his remaining beer and getting up to get another one.

“What? No!” Lance decried. “Why would I be calling to say Colleen is pregnant?”

Chris considered the question then turned to Justin. “Is Jess pregnant?”

“She better not be,” Justin replied as he sat back down.

“Wait?! Is Karly pregnant?  Am I having another kid?!” Chris asked excitedly.

“Hey, congrats man,” Justin gave Chris a pat on the back.

“Are you two that drunk or just normally this stupid?” Lance huffed with growing exasperation.

“Both?” Chris turned to Justin.

“Both,” Justin confirmed, “and a little high.”

“I’m pregnant, you morons!” Lance finally yelled.

“Now that can’t be right,” Chris scratched his head. 

“I hate you both. I’m taking screenshots of this call and sending them to the National Inquirer,” Lance threatened.

“Lance, we’re fucking with you,” Justin started laughing. “Congratulations! When is Michael due?” Lance shot him a look. “Ok ok, seriously, amazing news, man.”

“Congrats, brother,” Chris raised his beer. “Do you know boy or girl yet?”

“Both?” Lance questioned the air, mimicking the two men from earlier. “Both.”

“Hold up, twins?!” Justin exclaimed.

“Yep, it actually worked. A boy and a girl, due in November,” Lance confirmed.

“Aw man, tell Michael to give you a hug for me. I’m really excited for you both,” Chris smiled.

“I will,” Lance promised. “Alright, I’ll let you guys go. I know it’s late and you boys like to cuddle before bedtime.”

“Shut up,” Justin laughed. “Hey, how was the rest of the party?”

“It was good. Felt a wee bit bad kind of usurping the attention from Colleen but it actually served as a good distraction because no one saw the announcement coming.”

“I’m now officially the only one that hasn’t met her yet, right?” Chris said. “That’s some bullshit.”

“Next golf weekend we can do Cali and we’ll make it happen,” Justin told him.

“I was just saying to Michael how much I like her. She really brings out the best in JC,” Lance stated. “You know how he’s been the past few years, just laid back and watching everything happen around him.”

“Well, to be fair, he’s always been like that,” Chris offered.

“Yeah but it’s definitely been more prominent the past 6 or 7 years. She had him dancing and laughing…he even got in on one of my Tik Tok videos.”

“Now I know you’re lying,” Chris laughed.

“My editor sent me back a super cut of the footage a bit ago. I’ll put it on my Instagram since you’re too old to work Tik Tok,” Lance teased.

“I’m sorry…JC agreed to be filmed doing, well, anything?!” Justin said in disbelief.

“Fans are going to lose their minds,” Lance laughed. “They always want to know how he is.”

“Same here,” Chris confirmed.

“This is why Colleen is good for him. Getting him to show his face more gets everyone off our backs a bit,” Lance reasoned.

“True, but it’s gonna start another wave of reunion rumors,” Chris countered.

“As long as we all stick to our same stories, no one will be the wiser. We’re nowhere near done with an album, we don’t even have a timeline for whatever it is we’re actually doing,” Justin stated.

“Exactly. I’ll drop the baby news once we are good to go public with it and that’ll distract people,” Lance told them. “Alright, let me get this thing up so you two can see for yourselves. Have a good rest of the trip.”

“Thanks buddy, congratulations again,” Chris told him.

“Yeah Lance, give my best to Michael as well,” Justin waved.

“Will do, love you guys,” Lance waved and ended the call.

“Fuck,” Justin breathed and laid back on the bed. “Twins.”

“That’s what he wanted,” Chris chuckled, finishing his beer. “No matter how much help he has, he’s gonna find out exactly how hard this will be twice over.”

“Shit gets a lot harder when kids enter the picture,” Justin lamented, thinking of his own situation.

“I know,” Chris said, giving Justin a few slaps on the back of encouragement as he grabbed another beer. “You’ll figure it out, you always do.”

“Have you and Karly ever had to go to marriage counseling?”

“Marriage, no, but we did take this six week pre-marriage counseling course. It was honestly super helpful,” Chris sat back down next to Justin and clinked Justin’s bottle with his own. “Remember in Germany when you used to ask me what sex was like?”

“I knew what sex was like, I just didn’t get to have a lot of it since mom was around constantly. I just asked you to tell me what you did the night before.”

“Yeah, then we weren’t allowed to room together anymore when Miss Lynn caught the girl I snuck in for you leaving. It took me hours to convince her you were asleep and she was with me.”

“I’m still not sure she was ever fully convinced of that,” Justin laughed. “You sat in the bathroom the whole time. You were awesome.”

“If only we had smart phones back then. All I had was two magazines we were featured in. I spent the whole time trying to translate what we had said.” Chris’s phone buzzed and he checked it. “Ah, Lance’s video is up,” he said and clicked on Instagram.

The caption simply read “t.A.T.u. Challenge” as Chris pressed play. The two cracked up at watching different sets of alternating people sing to each other and water cascaded down them in dramatic fashion. “Oh my God, there’s JC!” Justin shouted, pointing at the phone.

“Of course he got the crescendo,” Chris laughed. “Look at him whip around his hair!” They watched the video multiple times, picking up different things with each rewatch. The video has already amassed 20k views by the time they finally put the phone down. 

“God, it is really good to see him let loose again,” Chris said, moving to put his phone on the charger. “This Colleen chick? You’ve met her, she seems good?”

“Look at him, Chris. He’s not this sad sack of sorrow anymore. I get it, I do, life post the group has dealt him a lot of blows and he’s managed but he’s let it eat at him. Somehow she’s showing him the light again.”

“She’s a witch, I tell ya,” Chris joked, “or a voodoo priestess. Either way, whatever spell she’s got him under, I hope she keeps it up.”

“She’s got him straight up hypnotized,” Justin smirked.

“I thought that worked the other way around with them?” Chris said offhandedly. Both men then paused and looked curiously at one another.

“What do you know?” Justin asked cautiously.

“What do YOU know?” Chris pressed.

“The question you need to be asking,” Justin curled his lips into a devious smile, “is what did I see?”

Mistress Raina walked into her dungeon to find Joshua kneeling in his underwear and waiting. “To what do I owe this last minute visit?” she questioned, looking down at him.

“I needed to see you, Mistress,” Joshua gulped, not knowing how to explain what drove him there tonight and feeling like there was no turning back from the decision he’d made.

“Did you now?” Mistress Raina mused. “Fight with the Mrs.?”

“No Mistress,” Joshua confirmed.

“Just what exactly is it you’re looking for tonight, Joshua?” Mistress Raina asked him. Joshua couldn’t say the words, he just turned his head towards the wall of toys to the right of him.

“Show me what you need, baby,” Mistress Raina encouraged him, getting mildly concerned where this was going. JC rose and walked over to the wall. He examined a few items before selecting a cat o nine tails off the rack. He turned back to Mistress Raina and walked over to her before kneeling and presenting the implement to her.

Mistress Raina took it from him and returned it to the wall. Joshua didn’t get off on pain. They had tried it once early on and he was not a fan so it was normally off the table for their play. What she had learned though was he used it as a distraction for a different type of pain. She could count the times he had asked for this on one hand: his rejected proposal then the subsequent love triangle scandal that ensued, him cutting ties with his record label and his second album being indefinitely scrapped, his musical tour getting cancelled right before opening, his girl group failing…all incredibly hard setbacks for him so she knew whatever had happened must be bad.

She selected another cat o nine tails with much thicker cords that wouldn’t hurt him as much. She knew what he was doing, replacing his emotional hurt with the physical kind but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to do her best to keep him as safe as possible. 

“Stand,” she commanded him firmly and he quickly did so. She circled around him, eyeing him up and down, checking if he had any existing cuts or bruises she needed to avoid. She met his eyes and found a sadness she hadn't seen in nearly a year. If this wasn’t about Colleen, she had no clue what could have caused this. Yet, he hadn’t gone to Colleen though, he had still come to her to make himself feel better.

Mistress Raina reached up and kissed him tenderly. “Underwear off, face the back wall,” she instructed him.

“Yes Mistress,” Joshua replied and did as he was told. Mistress Raina got out a step stool and proceeded to cuff Joshua’s arms over his head. Once she was satisfied, she got down and grabbed the cat o nine tails, swinging it in the air, far away from Joshua, reacclimating herself to the weight and feel of this particular piece.

Once she felt comfortable, she started slow, letting the leather loosely slide over Joshua’s back. When she felt satisfied he was ready, she sped up her actions then gradually increased the intensity. She watched closely as Joshua’s skin began to turn pink and tiny welts started to form.

The exercise was completely silent save for the sound of the leather hitting Joshua’s flesh, his biting breaths, the rattling of the chains as he tugged. There was nothing sexy about this, this was purely about control, Joshua’s current lack of it and his fight to take it back.

Joshua gritted his teeth as the pain on his back started to spread. He’d asked for this, he reminded himself. He’d call his therapist on Monday, he’d talk it out, he’d get through it he kept telling himself. For now though, this is what he needed. He pulled at the restraints and tried to imagine what kind of pancakes he’d be having with Colleen the next morning.