It kinda sucks that we have to rent out the whole pool, just to go swimming. I mean, in a way it's good because us and the crew have the whole place to ourselves, but there's a certain pleasure in cannonballing into a full pool, weaving around the other swimmers--and non-swimmers, for that matter--and playing the guessing game of which little kid is gonna pee in the pool next.

I don't think Dave-the-sound-guy is gonna be peeing in the pool anytime soon, and I couldn't spit and hit someone else in here right now, let alone run into them while horsing around. Eventually I just hopped out and sat on the edge of the pool, right over the slope where the shallow end slides into the deep end, and dangled my feet in the water.

Chris was still fooling around with Lance and JC near the diving boards and Justin was sitting on the edge of one of the lounge chairs on the other side of the pool, looking like he might jump back in at any moment. A moment later he did. There were a couple people from wardrobe heading back into the showers and a guy from lighting and a guy from sound were just getting out of the pool; I hadn't realized how late it had gotten. Just about everyone who'd been here earlier was gone now.

I watched Chris for a while, trying to hide the smile that kept threatening to spread across my face. Seeing him drenched now, his hair twisting into wet tendrils as he emerged and shook the water from it, reminded me of what he'd looked like earlier this morning. Wet. In the shower. On his knees. Sucking my cock so far back into his hot mouth I thought he'd swallow it.

Right now he was more interested in getting Lance back for dunking him, but the memory remained. In a few more minutes the five of us would be alone--excepting bodyguards--and I could touch him and hold him and kiss him if I liked. And I would, as much as modesty would allow. There's a fine line between what would make Lance smile, and what would make him blush, and I wanted to get as close to it as possible.

But there was something I needed to do, first. Something I'd been meaning to do for a while.

I looked back over my shoulder and saw Lonnie sitting there, close enough to the door to prevent intruders from coming in, close enough to us to be helpful if something else should happen. I motioned him towards me, getting out of the water entirely so he didn't have to worry about getting wet.

"What's up?" he asked, concern etched on his face. He really does care about us and our well-being. Not that the other security guys don't, but none of them have been here as long, or know us as well.

I took a deep breath. "Well, obviously you know that Chris and I have a thing going," I began, raising an eyebrow and waiting for confirmation.

"If I didn't know that," he replied, "I wouldn't be doing my job."

I nodded. "Well, I just wanted to tell you officially. That Chris and I are going out, I mean. I wanted to say it." He nodded, and I found it impossible to read his reaction. "Is that cool with you?"

"It's not my job to approve or disapprove. Whatever you guys want, within reason, is cool with me," he said, his face not changing. "And off the record? I think you're good for each other, Joey. Now let me get back to my post." He was smiling this time, and I felt a whole hell of a lot better.

We had security guys escorting us everywhere--obviously they knew what was going on between us, even if management hadn't spread the word to them. But it was different, telling them. It felt like it legitimized us, legitimized our relationship. And I wanted us to be legitimate to them, not just a dirty secret that they kept.

I sat back down at the shallow end of the pool and dangled my feet in the water, watching Chris again. He was currently fighting a losing battle against Justin; I laughed a little as I saw him go underwater, surfacing a few feet away. He smiled as he spotted me and swam over to the side of the pool, away from where JC and Lance were double-teaming Justin to bring him down.

I was suddenly very glad we were alone enough now to show a little affection, because with his sopping hair, his reddened eyes and that perpetual grin on his face, he looked adorable. I wrapped my legs around his thighs and held him close as he leaned in to give me a quick kiss.

"You've been watching me," he said, giving me half a smile.

I wondered what we looked like, when we were together. I knew he looked happy, and I knew I felt happy, but what did 'us' look like? Did we look like a couple? Did we look like one even if we didn't mean to?

"Of course I was watching you," I said, grinning back as I unwrapped my legs to let him go. "You think I'd be watching someone else?"

He shrugged. "Wondering why you'd rather watch than play," he said. For a moment I thought he might be hurt, but then I saw that smile come back again. We'd stopped touching now—there was no guarantee that one of the crew wouldn't come back in, but I could still feel him there.

"Oh, look at the lovebirds," cooed Lance almost mockingly as they all drew closer to where I sat. I rolled my eyes at Chris, who laughed and flicked water at me.

"Leave 'em alone, Lance," I heard JC say. "They get little enough time out together as it is." I wasn't sure we were supposed to hear that or not, but it was appreciated either way. My attention was already focused on Chris, and the devilish look in his eyes. His hands had a grip on my calves, and I knew what was going to happen about half a second before it did.

One moment I was sitting peacefully on the edge of the pool, the next I was underwater. I came sputtering to the surface and reached out blindly for Chris. "Damn you," I said, shaking my head vigorously and sending droplets of water flying everywhere. When I could finally see again, Chris had sought the protection of the other guys and was currently hiding behind them.

"Don't you drag me into your weird sex games," said Justin, swimming out of the way.

"Yeah, he has his own weird sex games," Lance called out at his departing back.

"Damn straight," said Justin, grinning as he momentarily turned back. "And none of y'all are invited to mine." He swam to the edge of the pool and hoisted himself out, grabbing a towel and drying off.

"I'm going to get you for that," I said to Chris through the wall that was now reduced to JC and Lance. "I was just starting to get dry, too."

"You didn't really want to be dry," Chris tried to convince me. "It's always so much more fun when we're wet."

"Oh, man," said Lance, making a face. "And I thought Justin was kidding about the sex games." But he didn't leave, instead moving closer to JC and blocking my access to Chris. "I don't know why we're saving your sorry butt, Kirkpatrick."

JC smiled at me. "I'm not sure he wants his ass saved, Lance. I think maybe we should..." He gestured with his shoulder to the side and Lance nodded. A moment later they broke apart, moving to either side, and I shot between them to grab Chris by the shoulders and dunk him.

He grabbed onto me as he went down and I found myself underwater again. Against all common sense, I opened my eyes underwater and saw Chris in front of me. He moved in to kiss me, and we were still at it when we both surfaced a moment later.

"For God's sake," said JC, laughing. "You're Joey and Chris. You're not supposed to be cute. Cut it out."

We both looked at him a little sheepishly and moved apart. It was just in time, too. A moment later two of the ladies who did make-up and hair stepped out of the dressing room and came towards the pool. I gave them a friendly wave, then swam for the ladder to get back out again.

Chris went back to horsing around with Lance and JC, but I caught his eyes a few times and I could see he was still smiling at me. At our kiss. At that single moment that we'd shared. I knew I was still smiling, too. In fact, I was still smiling foolishly as I sat down in the chair next to Justin.

He was reclined in a deck chair with his sunglasses on, looking like he thought he was laying on a beach instead of the deck of an indoor pool. "JC is right," he said. "You guys are being too cute."

"What's wrong with that?" I asked him defensively, reclining in my chair alongside him.

He shrugged non-committally. "You're both guys. It's weird."

I sighed. "Justin, do you have a problem with me and Chris being together?"

"No," he said. "Nevermind. Forget I said anything."

"I can't," I said, almost apologetically. "Just...when I first told you, you were totally cool with it. What changed? Why is it a deal now?"

"You gonna make me talk about this?"

"Yes," I said flatly.

"Okay, fine," he said, sighing dramatically. "I thought you guys were just...getting off. I think two guys together is fine--hell, I bet the sex is great 'cause you both want the same stuff and all--but...it's a relationship now. So it's different."

I frowned, only half-understanding. "You don't like that we're in a relationship, but you're cool with the sex?"

"I guess it's better with you than with Dani, 'cause at least you're in the group, but now it's like you two are, I dunno, separate from the rest of us. Because you're dating. I thought, with a guy, it was just gonna be about sex. Hell...I dunno what I mean. Let's just say everything's cool, okay bro?"

"Okay," I said slowly, not wanting to agree. "Do we act different now? Is that it?"

"You're not going to leave this alone, are you?" he said.

"I'm sorry, Just, I can't. I need things to be totally okay. I didn't think we'd been acting any different. I mean, yeah, Chris and I are sleeping together now and maybe we do stuff that we didn't do before...but we don't treat the rest of you any different. Do we?" Now I was worried that we did, and I hadn't noticed. Had I become so preoccupied with him that I forgot about everyone else? I didn't think I had.

"I guess not," he admitted. "It's just weird to think about one person being more important to you than anyone else. And it's weird to start thinking about you as gay."

"I'm bi," I corrected him.

"Either way," he said, shrugging again. "I mean sex is sex...and I bet it's great no matter who you choose to do it with. I don't give a shit about that. But I thought guys that, you know, went with other guys...you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do," I said sadly. "You're wrong, you know."

He nodded. "I know that now. I'm just getting used to it, okay? I'm totally cool with you guys. You're my brothers, man."

"Good," I said, squinted at the sunlight that was coming through the glass enclosure. The damn sunglasses had been a good idea, after all. Finally I just closed my eyes, knowing that our conversation was over, for now. A few moments later I felt drops of water splashing against my chest and opened my eyes to see Chris straddling my chair, almost ready to sit down on me.

"Hey," I said quietly.

"Hey," he said back, grinning. I liked the look he was giving me, full of promises to be fulfilled tonight.

"You gonna let him do that?" Justin asked from beside me.

I turned my head to face him. "Do what?"

"Be on top," he said. "I thought that was your job." My jaw dropped a little and I caught Chris' eyes. He looked equally stunned and confused, and maybe a little annoyed, too.

"Nope," said Lance. I hadn't noticed that he and JC had gotten out of the pool with Chris and were drying off nearby. "You've got it backwards."

I frowned again. Lance had seen Chris making love to me; maybe he thought it was like that all the time. But Justin? Where did he get that idea from? Was it something about us? "It's not like that," I began, but found I didn't know what to say. This time, it felt too personal to just blurt out like it was nothing. "I can't believe you guys are discussing this."

"You mean you guys don't fuck?" asked Justin, quite sincerely.

"He means we take turns," supplied Chris, turning his gaze back downwards to look at me, masking his annoyance at the subject with a fond smile. No matter what our friends thought our relationship was about, we at least knew what was going on. Or thought we did.

"Oh," he said. "I thought...you know...that one guy did one thing and one guy did the other."

I could see JC turning red as he moved a bit further out of the range of the conversation. It was about time to wrap this up, before we had a Lance to match. Already he was looking a little pink, though still intent on the conversation we were having.

"Nope," I told him.

"Ah," he said. "Another fucking 'relationship' thing, right?"

I had to laugh. "Yeah, something like that."

"Okay, cool. Just don't do it in the chair, okay? Or...wait until I leave. I've seen enough bad porn to know it's not something I want to be watching." He sat up and slung his towel over his shoulder. "I'm hitting the shower. I'll see you guys upstairs."

"It's not exactly safe here right now anyway," said JC, moving back closer to us again and gesturing at the pool. There were about a half dozen people in there--all of them people we knew, but also people who it'd be dangerous to tell about us. "I think maybe it's time we all headed back upstairs."

He and Lance gave us a wave as they headed towards the showers. Chris stepped over me to one side of the chair and offered a hand to help me up. "Chris?" I said as we started walking around to the other side of the pool.

"Yeah?"