"I really have to be bored."

"Oh come on you know you're as curious as anybody."

"I think you're just trying to snoop and get the details on me and her. You could just ask, you know."

"I am asking! I'm just using a pre-formatted structure which allows for more specific answers plus gives you a test score at the end. Everyone's a winner."

There were moments when sometimes Justin really did forget which Renee he was looking at. This was no mean feat, given that this version was blonder, skinnier and generally a little more miserable. It was just that sometimes she would say or do something which was completely indistinguishable from his girl. That was entirely understandable; it just happened to be incredibly creepy.

Trace had wound up staying with them for the night after the awards show. How precisely he was managing to pull off the charade in front of the guy who might as well be his Siamese twin he wasn't sure - he was merely grateful. They had stayed up late drinking beers and being fairly evil about some of the performers and acceptance speeches, and then there had been a crazier moment when somebody had decided a midnight dip was in order and the ensuing splash war had made so much noise the neighbours had complained. Trace had waved them off that morning with a quiet whisper to Justin that he was glad to see him looking so much happier.

When Justin thought about that, he felt kind of bad. Everybody seemed so happy that the guy they thought was their Justin was looking less down in the mouth. It was going to be a real let down when he came back.

He didn't know why such a thought had slithered into his head, but it wasn't the only one. When he compared the nervy thing that had first walked in to the more relaxed Renee who now saw fit to tease him whenever she felt like it, he felt bad for her that he was dooming her to relationship hell again. Every time he looked at the platinum discs on the wall and remembered the sub par music that had won them, he felt bad that this world hadn't been shown the full extent of JT's capabilities. Perhaps that was purely arrogance talking, but he liked to think he knew what he was capable of and that it was better than this. All in all, he'd had a few too many of these thoughts.

Renee Anderson (or the brunette version, anyway) was the only thing keeping his mind on track. He refused to sit back and let another woman he loved get stolen from beneath his nose.

"Fine, go ahead," he sighed.

"Okay… don't worry, only a few more questions to go." Renee shifted in her seat, tucking her legs beneath her on the sofa and brushing a lock of hair out of her face. "In how much detail do you remember your first date: A, perfect detail, B, a lot but not everything, C, general detail, or D, not very well?"

"A." The response was immediate.

"Umm… you know what, Justin?" Renee was twisting her napkin nervously in her hands, obviously feeling awkward. "The restaurant and stuff has been real nice and everything but I don't think this is working."

"What? Why?" He wished his words weren't blurting out the way they were, but what she had said was his worst nightmare.

"It just… I don't know, we… I mean, we've barely talked all night," she said quietly, wincing even as she did so.

Renee couldn't help it; not only was she sorely disappointed but now she had to be the one to do the horrible 'let the other person down' speech. She hated having to do that. As much as she had resisted going out with him, her shying away hadn't been down to lack of want on her part. Although she had feared what would happen if this date went perfectly, she had still desperately wanted it to. The stiff, uncomfortable evening they'd had was the last thing she had expected; normally they were so relaxed and flirty with each other, she didn't get this.

"We've talked!" Justin insisted.

"You asked me if you could take my jacket and if I was ready to order, that was about the extent of it Justin."

"But the night's not over yet!" Justin was aware that after six months of pursuit that desperately begging her not to walk out on a date put him firmly in pathetic loser territory, but he just couldn't cope with the idea that he'd so royally loused this up. He'd spent far too long trying to score this date with her, it had to go perfectly. He was far too attached to the woman at this point to give her up so easily.

"Not over? It's a complete non-starter. I mean, I'm so sorry to be blunt like this Justin but you can't be having too good a time either."

"Shit. Shit, shit, shit…"

"Justin…"

"Fucking shit…"

"Justin…"

He was actually starting to alarm Renee at this point. It was the look on his handsome face that was doing it - the normally amiable expression was screwed up into an ugly collision of anger and upset. As he sat there in his pristine suit with his currently signature waistcoat, he should have looked drop dead gorgeous but was in fact looking highly unattractive. She assumed he was angry with her, but none of it was directed at her.

Justin 'Perfectionist' Timberlake was trying to deal with the reality that he'd completely screwed up on something he'd worked hard for and had really wanted. He never dealt with that too well, and normally busted his butt making sure that didn't happen - but from the word go nothing had gone right. He'd been nervous, he'd struggled to make conversation, he had somehow forgotten every dating skill he had ever learned and might as well have been a fifteen year old for all the suave he possessed.

"Justin…" Renee reached out to touch his arm but was unsuccessful as instead his head was put into his hands and a few more choice words came out.

"Shit I did this so fucking wrong."

"No, I mean this is all really nice and everything…"

"Spare me the lie, Renee, I know you're just trying to make me feel better but I fucked this up so bad and we both know it."

"Justin…"

Maybe one of these days he would let her get a sentence out, but now was not the time.

"I'm sorry, I just spent so long trying to get you on this fucking date and after all that I just really wanted it to be nice for you and you to enjoy everything. All I wanted was for this to go well so I could ask you out again because I can't stop fucking thinking about you and I can't even fucking do that right, no wonder you didn't wanna go out with me the last zillion times I asked and even as I speak I'm sounding like the neediest loser ever, please somebody shoot me."

She wasn't quite sure what had happened to her throat when he had accidentally blurted out that she was constantly on his mind. It was quite possible her heart had leapt into it. It made no sense - this was perhaps the worst date she had ever been on, and yet in the last thirty seconds somehow she wanted to go out with him again more than any guy she'd ever dated in her life.

"Justin you didn't fuck anything up you just… you're just trying too hard." Renee told him gently, running a gentle hand over his bicep in what she hoped was a comforting manner. "You're making this into hard work and it's supposed to be fun, remember?"

"How is that not fucking up? This whole thing's a disaster, you're right."

"I didn't say that!" She protested. "Look, let's… you wanna just get the bill and then maybe we can go somewhere you can relax a little more? Or you wanna just go for a walk or something?"

Did Justin's ears deceive him, or was she actually asking to spend more time with him rather than begging to be taken home? It was true - wonders never ceased.

"Wow," Renee said. "I don't think I even remember my first date that well, though in my defence it was years ago. Okay, next question… how often do you fight: A, never, B, occasionally, C, regularly, D, non-stop?"

"Never. As of yet, anyway, we're both just waiting for that to turn into occasionally," Justin joked, trying to shake off the overly vivid image he had of Renee on their first date.

She'd still been blonde, at the time, and had turned up as a vision in lemon yellow. It was a shame that the cute, sunny little dress hadn't really matched her expression for the first part of the evening, but once they'd left the overly stuffy restaurant it had much improved. She still had the dress but never seemed to wear it - when he got home, he'd have to ask her to.

"I'd need a clearer definition of what qualifies as regular and what equals non-stop." Renee was clearly trying to crack a joke in the same light hearted manner he just had, but it didn't quite work. It was a good effort, but fell just that touch too short.

"Can we hurry this up?" Justin changed the subject. "I wanna do something less girly."

"Oh shut up it's the last question anyway. What do you rate as the most important thing about your relationship: A, being part of a couple, B, a healthy sex life, C, spending time together, or D, the compromises you make?"

Justin's eyebrow rose involuntarily. "Dang. Would've said all the above - that's weird, normally these questions have a really obvious top answer."

Renee very charitably neglected to tease him about how familiar he must have already been with such quizzes. "That's the point - they have to throw in a couple of hard ones to make sure you're not completely cheating with the answer you know you're supposed to give."

"Is it really up to Cosmopolitan magazine to decide which of those is more important in a relationship and score them like that? Just because you don't agree with them they're telling you you're not prioritising right?"

That did it - she rolled her eyes very obviously in his direction. "It's a magazine quiz not a law babe, nobody's holding you to it."

"Okay, fine… umm…"

Did it make him a terrible boyfriend or just a typical male if he was tempted to say the sex life? He considered sexual chemistry pretty important, personally, but he had a feeling that a publication for female readers might not necessarily place the same emphasis on sex a guy would. Possibly he shouldn't be so concentrated on giving a good answer. In fact, scratch the 'possibly,' he knew he was being anal retentive. The problem was that with so much time having ticked by and being faced with the scenario that he might be stuck here permanently and never see his girlfriend again… Justin didn't know. Maybe he just wanted to think that he'd been a good boyfriend. He was already having enough guilt over having taken her for granted, and that was before the agonising fantasies of her deciding actually she preferred the other guy anyway.

Let alone the guilt he had over sometimes thinking this Renee needed him more than she did. So Justin really needed to believe that she loved him and he was good to her and that none of this meant anything.

"C, spending time together: probably because I haven't since this damn switch and may never again."

"Are you okay, baby?"

Justin's eyebrows furrowed together in a look of concern. His girlfriend had been uncharacteristically quiet. Normally their 'comfortable silences' were punctuated by just the odd random comment, a couple of sentences here and there. This time she actually had remained silent. She was by no means a chatterbox, but this was a little extreme.

"Huh?" Her eyes blinked before shifting in his direction, looking at him somewhat blankly.

"Are you okay?"

"Oh… uhh, yeah, just thinking to myself is all."

He took this as his cue to get up from his armchair and drop himself onto the sofa next to her. Pulling her towards him, he brought her body down with his until they were both stretched out in a mess of limbs. Had it not been for his big feet, it might have been difficult to tell one person's denim clad legs from the other one's ( it was the peril of your boyfriend owning a clothing line, you tended to go for the same washes).

"What cha thinking about?"

Renee smiled softly to herself, wondering if that wasn't supposed to be the woman's line. "Oh, just more recording and stuff. We're both off and away again."

"What musicians do."

"Yep. That they do."

"So why the long face?"

As if to hide said face from him, Renee buried it in his neck. A perk of this was that while one arm hugged her to him the other started swirling strands of chocolate hair around his fingers, and it was very soothing. She liked it when he played with her hair, toes, fingers or whatever; it made them feel close, somehow (her and Justin, that was, not his fingers and her hair).

"I just… it sucks. We're together five minutes and we're gone again. I think I spend more time missing you than actually with you and I know that's just what we do and I wouldn't have it any other way but… blah. You know."

"Yep, I do."

Funnily enough he did know what she meant. Renee was now the third girlfriend in a row who had been in the entertainment industry and thus had to take a lot of trips away - as did Justin. All relationships had their own difficulties but long distance ones came with a few ready made, before you even began to consider the individuals involved. He liked to think that he was pretty good at phone conversations (and he knew not all guys were, Trace in particular tended to keep them short and perfunctory), but they were nowhere near the same. It wasn't like the substance of their conversations differed much; they talked the same random way both in person and across wires. The difference was the simple presence, the physical affection - and that was before they even started on how much he preferred having a woman around to celibacy.

"Just a little depressing, that's all. Tomorrow morning we catch our planes and poof. Gone. Won't see each other for weeks."

"Unless…"

"Unless?"

"Give me a sec, I haven't thought of it yet," he joked as she smacked his arm playfully.

"You're not helpful."

"What if we worked it so we could record in the same place?" Justin finally had his light bulb moment. "We'd get to spend all our off time together, plus even when we're working we at least get to go to sleep next to each other. Is that helpful?"

"Wow…" she teased. "Finally you're good for something."

"I thought you said I was good for the sex?" He glared mischievously at her.

"I lied to spare your ego." It was a good thing he knew she was kidding, because her poker face was disconcertingly good. "That is a great idea though. Plus, I mean, our anniversary's coming up… I mean, I don't know whether you usually make a big deal of anniversaries or whatever but maybe we could go on vacation somewhere or something for a couple days?"

"Anniversaries are good with me." Justin kissed Renee's cheek. "I think I ought to celebrate the fact I've been tapping this fine ass for a whole year now."

"Say anything like that ever again and you will never tap this fine ass ever again."

"Understood. Witness me shutting up."

A much happier Renee reached up and planted her lips on Justin's. Taking his opportunity, Justin went for the make out - something she was more than happy to go along with. Loving the giggle she emitted when he cheekily pinched her butt, he took a moment to glow with couple-type bliss. He loved just even saying he was in a couple, but if there was one thing he definitely appreciated it was how easily they seemed able to compromise and make time for each other.

"Okay…" Renee broke away with a frown. "Is that Trace or did the dogs get loose again?"

It was funny how the second the memory went onto more everyday things he stopped paying any attention to it. He'd stopped paying attention to lots of things, but mostly to his companion who was muttering to herself and totting up scores in the margins of the magazine article. He wanted to tease her for her lack of mental arithmetic skills, but he thought better of it. Pissing off women was generally not a great idea.

"So what's the diagnosis, Doc? Is my relationship doomed?"

"Well… you're borderline."

"Huh?"

He looked so confused she had to laugh. Her Justin was the same way, sometimes they both just took things far too literally. It both amused and saddened her when she picked up on such silly mutual quirks like that.

"Well you scored as 'nearly there' but if you'd got one point higher it would be true love."

"According to The Bible that is Cosmo?"

"According to The Bible that is Cosmo."

Justin knew he should have said that his favourite thing about his girlfriend was her mind and not her butt, but he just hadn't been able to help it.