by Zoicite

The early afternoon sun beat down on Justin’s face. It was hot, but a light breeze blew through the valley periodically, stirring up the sand so that it hit Justin’s calves, stinging a little. The sky was cloudless, pure unending blue, and Justin turned his head up, closed his eyes and frowned. “Timberlake. Your face is running,” Wayne Isham shouted from behind a camera. “JC. Get in there and take care of it. I want to get this filmed before we all melt.” “’Richardson and his trained field crew hoped to find,’” Justin murmured the line under his breath, his eyes still closed. He heard JC knocking things over nearby, and then felt JC’s cool touch on his skin. He knew what he was supposed to say. Justin always knew his lines. He rehearsed anyway, making sure the inflections were perfect. Justin opened his eyes, and looked past JC. He watched Joey, one of the crew guys, turn away from the camera he was fiddling with and wipe the sweat from his forehead with the edge of his T-shirt. Justin wished he could wipe his face. The make-up was hot and greasy, and sweat beaded on his forehead and clung to the back of his neck. He stood still as JC dabbed it away. It would be too hot to continue filming soon, and they would retreat to their tents, where battery generated fans at least circulated the air, and they could drink and play cards all afternoon. He wouldn’t stay in the tents. Lance would usher him off to his air-conditioned trailer, and he’d stay there with Justin, pretending he cared about what Justin was saying. “Justin, your shorts are dusty,” JC frowned and brushed at the khaki cargo shorts that Justin wore. It was like a uniform these past few weeks, the white button down, khaki shorts, and hiking boots. Justin felt ridiculous, like he was ready for a safari, but JC rolled his eyes, tied the tan bandana around Justin’s neck and told him that he looked the part. Lance had looked up from where he was writing in a notebook and speaking hurriedly into his cell phone. Justin was surprised that the phone worked this far out in the middle of nowhere. “Don’t cause problems,” he’d said, so Justin dropped the safari thing and wore the uniform. At least it kept him relatively cool. “I warned you about sitting down out here,” JC was saying, and Justin shielded his eyes from the sun, looked off at the hill, where he could see several people milling around and trenching the soft rock. He frowned and continued reciting his lines. Lance had pulled Justin aside as soon as they’d stepped off the plane, before Justin even had a chance to look around. “We’re here to film this documentary,” Lance said, “That’s it. It’s an honor that they asked you to do this at all, usually they go for movie stars, not soap actors.” Justin rolled his eyes. “Just let the scientists do their job. Stay out of their way, say your lines, and then let’s get back to LA.” Justin didn’t understand why they’d asked him to play host. All the documentaries he’d seen were hosted by older guys, men that might even know something about what they were talking about. Men like Sean Connery. They should have chosen him. All Justin really knew about dinosaurs, he’d learned from Jurassic Park. All paleontologists, therefore, looked like Sam Neill to Justin, so he was a bit taken aback when he was introduced to Kevin Richardson. Richardson was young for one thing. Couldn’t be much older than thirty, which for a scientist was incredibly young in Justin’s mind. And he was handsome, with his chiseled face, tall, built form, and long dark hair fastened at the back of his neck. Justin had expected gray hair and glasses. Some wrinkles, at least. “Dr. Richardson,” Justin said, displaying his most winning grin, and shaking Richardson’s hand enthusiastically. Richardson laughed, his thin lips pulling into a smile. “Just Kevin,” he said, patting Justin on the shoulder. “No doctors here.” Richardson held up a hand. “Yet,” he added, and then gestured to the tattooed man that stood beside him. “This is AJ.” AJ didn’t smile at Justin, just waved a little and frowned, his eyes dark behind his sunglasses, and then they both turned away, suddenly engaged in a heated discussion with one of the studio reps from the Discovery Channel. “Bagging rocks?” Justin asked the large blonde geologist when he happened upon him on the outcrop behind his trailer. Justin slid his sunglasses off of his face, squinting in the sunlight. He hooked them into the neck of his shirt and then shoved his hands into his pockets and frowned. “Collecting samples,” the geologist said, waving a dusty hand toward the rows of plastic bags filled with rock and reddish dust. He was on his knees in the dirt, but he turned and sat when Justin came over, a black marker sticking out of the corner of his mouth. He propped his arms on his knees and smiled up at Justin, his blond hair sticking a little to his forehead. The geologist had dirt streaked across his face, under his short fingernails. He was covered in it, but under all that dust, he couldn’t be much older than Justin. “Nick Carter,” the geologist said, extending a hand out to Justin, and Justin looked at it and nodded, but didn’t remove his hands from his pockets. “Justin –“ “Timberlake, I know,” Nick finished, pulling his hand back and wiping it on his shorts. Nick grinned and his teeth looked impossibly white. “Hey, could you hand me one of those cards?” Justin looked at the cards, weighted down by a rock and brownish when they should be white, but otherwise normal index cards, and he shrugged and plucked one from the pile, holding it with two fingers and handing it to Nick. “Thanks,” Nick said, still smiling, and his fingers brushed Justin’s hand when he took the card, leaving a faint trail of dust that Justin wiped on his khaki shorts. Nick was writing, the tip of his tongue sticking out from between his lips, and Justin watched, glancing only briefly at the card. It was covered in words and numbers he couldn’t understand, all in a harsh black scrawl. Nick finished, and shoved the index card into the open bag of rock. Justin didn’t really see how any of this was helping Richardson find dinosaurs. “You think there are any giant lizards in that bag?” Justin asked. Nick laughed. “No, I doubt it,” he said. “But I’m not really looking.” “I’ve been told that’s why you’re all out here,” Justin said, raising an eyebrow. “Well, yeah,” Nick said. “That’s the goal, but it’s mostly Kevin’s show. I’m a micropaleontologist. I get the fun job of taking these bags back to the lab, breaking them apart and dissolving them, and then checking out what’s left over.” “Oh,” Justin frowned. “Sounds exciting.” “It’s pretty cool actually. It’ll be mostly benthic critters, I think. Ostracods. Maybe some foraminifera. And if our guesses are right, and Howie’s clay analyses, the bugs will indicate that we’re in a marshy lagoon area. Salty, but not enough to support most marine organisms. Probably on the edge of an ancient sea. An inlet or something.” Justin stared as Nick leaned back against the outcrop as he spoke, his arms pushed back to prop him up on his elbows. His long legs were sprawled out in front of him, still bent slightly at the knees. He wore shorts and a thin T-shirt that stretched across his broad chest. Nick’s strong calves were marked with tattoos, and dusted with blond hair. “Over here we’re stratigraphically below the formation at the other side of the valley, where we’re digging,” Nick continued. “But the rocks are similar, so I thought I’d come over and check them out. Might as well be thorough.” Justin watched Nick’s lips form words he didn’t quite understand, and when Nick finished, Justin waved his hand above his head and shrugged. Nick grinned. “Yeah, sorry. Let’s just say it’s a great place to find big lizards.” Justin nodded. That he understood. Justin chose a path far from the large tents as he set out from his trailer. The sun had just dipped below the horizon, and Justin could hear the revelry of the group clearly from where he walked. Sound traveled remarkably well in the dry valley. Justin knew that the film crew socialized with the geologists. They all socialized, except for him and Lance, as far as he could tell. “You need your rest,” Lance said when Justin had made for the door. “JC will kill you if you have bags under your eyes. And if he doesn’t, Wayne will.” “No pain, no Wayne,” Justin mumbled. “What?” Lance asked. “I’m just going for a walk,” Justin said, slipping out before Lance could talk him out of it. As sweltering and unbearable as the days were, the evenings were cool and breezy. Beautiful. Justin headed away from the lights, toward darkness, and the stars that were just beginning to dot the sky. The moon was a tiny sliver against the deep blue, a thin crescent nearly swallowed. It would be new tomorrow. Justin hiked a ways toward the excavation site at the opposite side of the valley, but he kept getting drawn back by a particularly jovial chortle, a happy shout, a group cheer. He had asked Joey and Chris about it the day before. “What do y’all do in the evenings?” he’d said, blotting the sweat from his forehead with his handkerchief, careful not to disturb his perfectly arranged curls. “Drink mostly, talk, play games,” Joey shrugged. “Drink,” Chris added, grinning. Chris and Joey were Justin’s favorites among the film crew. They were always friendly, and Justin had worked with them before. Some of the other film guys were a little more distant, Justin found, like the kid with the dreads and bad facial hair that held the cue cards, scowling at Justin the entire time. Justin didn’t need the cue cards anyway so he tried to look at the kid as little as possible. “These guys are great,” Joey said. “They really know how to have a good time. You should join us.” “I don’t know,” Justin said doubtfully. Justin had run off in between scenes during filming a month before. Britney, cursing her co-star loudly, had found him in a dressing room with his legs spread for Jeff Timmons. It had been all over Soap Opera Digest and Entertainment Tonight within a week. Justin was out, so it wasn’t a big deal at all, except that Justin was with Lance. That was the part that the tabloids didn’t know, though it didn’t stop them from labeling Justin Timberlake as one of the television industries leading boysluts anyway. Even that didn’t bother Justin, not really, except that it wasn’t true. Justin got around, but no more than any other attractive guy in his early twenties. He’d only cheated on Lance twice before Jeff, but he knew that Lance hadn’t been so faithful. He was positive that Lance was seeing JC, or had been on and off throughout the past year. And since the story ran, Justin had had an endless number of people breathing down his neck, making sure he stayed in line. Lance was the worst. Justin understood that Lance didn’t trust him, couldn’t trust him, and so he listened when Lance warned him not to cause problems, stayed by Lance’s side. He felt guilty. He probably loved Lance. Not a forever kind of love, but love nonetheless. He knew that Lance wasn’t upset about the cheating. Not really. Lance wasn’t a hypocrite. Lance was upset that Justin had gotten caught. He also knew that they wouldn’t last much longer. He could feel the end, and he was sure Lance could too, it was so close, and he wasn’t sure why they kept going as if they were blind to it. “Fuck it,” Justin breathed, kicking at some loose cobbles. He began walking in the direction of the lights. It was much warmer beneath the tents. The fans were still set up around the perimeter, and they gave off a whirring sound that was pervasive beneath the spouts of conversation and laughter. Justin saw Joey and Chris, playing a card game with AJ and laughing. AJ still wore his sunglasses, despite the fact that the sun had slipped completely over the horizon. Joey noticed Justin and slapped Chris on the arm and then they were both waving him over. Justin waved back, but he shook his head and moved on. Justin didn’t think he liked AJ much. He saw JC, hunched over his beer and deep in conversation with a young blond boy that Justin thought was probably one of Richardson’s undergraduate field assistants. The boy’s hand was resting casually on JC’s thigh and JC was animated in his discussion, his hands waving in the air. Several coolers were set up at one end of a row of picnic tables, and a large group of geologists was gathered there, laughing and talking loudly. Justin recognized Nick and Richardson sitting at an adjacent row of tables, grinning over rows of rocks. Justin thought that Richardson was okay, and Nick was cute and friendly, so Justin headed in that direction. “Justin!” Nick said, when he saw him approaching. He was much cleaner than during their last encounter. He wore gold wire glasses, and a large grin, and when he ran his hand through his hair, the blond strands stuck up in short spikes. Nick’s cheeks were rosy, and it was obvious they’d been at it awhile. “Hey, Timberlake,” Richardson said, patting Justin on the back. Rows of small fossils were spread out in front of them, each resting on plastic bags and index cards. Richardson was rolling a small stone that sort of resembled a snail between his fingers, his other hand wrapped around a beer bottle. “You want a drink?” he asked Justin, and Justin was about to protest, but Richardson was already climbing off his bench. “Everyone needs a drink tonight,” he said, pointing at Nick with a questioning look. Nick shook his head and held up his bottle and Richardson headed toward the coolers. “Celebrating?” Justin asked, and Nick laughed. “You bet,” he said. “We found something today. Looks like it might be a large hadrosaur. We’ve only been here two weeks and we found something!” He looked at Justin and then said, “Oh, a hadrosaur is sort of like, you know, brachiosaurus, brontosaurus, that kind of thing.” Justin nodded, and crossed his arms over his chest. “Hey,” Nick continued. “Come over here. Sit down.” Justin eyed the dusty picnic table, and smiled when Nick brushed it off a little for him, rolling his eyes. “Just a little dirt,” Nick said, handing Justin his beer. “Thanks,” Justin said, taking a deep drink from the bottle. He saw Nick watching him out of the corner of his eye, his lips parted a little. Oh, Justin thought, getting it, oh. His hand brushed Nick’s when he handed the bottle back, and Nick blushed, ducking his head a little before turning to look at the moon. Nick talked a little more about the hadrosaur, and Justin nodded, following only part of what Nick was saying. Richardson returned with Justin’s beer and then wandered off again, and Justin told Nick what it was like acting in a soap opera. “And then we get up and do it all over again,” Justin finished, smiling. “It’s all very glamorous.” “Sounds it,” Nick said, finishing his beer. “So you’re with Bass, right? Lance, I think it is?” Nick picked at the label of the empty bottle, balling up the paper between his fingers. “What makes you say that?” Justin asked. Nick shrugged. “I saw you guys talking and it just seemed that way, I guess.” “Oh,” Justin said. “Yeah. I am. Sort of.” “Sort of,” Nick said, squinting at Justin. Justin felt a hand on his shoulder again, and turned, surprised, to see Richardson leaning over the picnic table. AJ jumped up on the table, careful not to disturb the fossils there, and then sat down beside Nick, tapping a beat against the table with his palms. “So,” AJ said. “Timberlake. Nick boring you with his ostracod babble?’ Justin shook his head and was about to speak when Nick said, “Come on, I wasn’t even talking about that. And anyway, osctracodes are cool. They have two vaginas.” Justin laughed and AJ snorted and said, “Lotta good that’s gonna do you.” “Yeah, well,” Nick shrugged. “They’re microscopic, anyway. And they bite.” They were quiet for a moment before Richardson and AJ began laughing. Justin grinned and shook his head. Nick was bright red. “The ostracodes!” he cried. “Not the – you guys!” He turned back to Justin. “I’m ignoring them now.” “That’s probably a good idea,” Justin agreed, nodding and trying to look serious. Nick turned his back to AJ, his shoulder blocking Richardson out. He looked straight into Justin’s eyes and said, “Hey.” “Hey,” Justin said. “Do you want to – “ “We were leaving anyway,” Richardson interrupted. AJ hopped off the table and waved before walking off. Richardson made to follow and then turned back, winking. “Don’t keep him up too late, Timberlake,” he said before heading in the same direction AJ had gone. Justin watched them leave, and then looked past them, squinting. “What were you saying before?” Nick asked, his hand warm on Justin’s thigh. Justin covered Nick’s hand with his own, but he kept looking past Nick and instead of responding he frowned and said, “shit.” Richardson and AJ had stopped to talk to someone, and as they moved away and the someone moved into the light of the lamps, Justin saw that it was most definitely Lance. Looking unhappy. “What?” “I don’t think that Richardson has to worry about me keeping you up,” Justin said, his fingers touching Nick’s wrist lightly. “I’ve gotta go.” Lance had spotted JC and the blond field assistant and he was making his way over to them, but Justin knew that Lance was looking for him. “Justin,” Nick started, moving to grab Justin’s arm, but Justin hopped up from the table before he could get a grip. He looked back, and Lance was closer, but still hadn’t seen him. “I’ve really gotta go,” Justin said, finishing his beer and setting it on the table. “Sure,” Nick said, still frowning. Justin smiled apologetically, and thought about touching Nick’s face as some sort of parting gesture. He didn’t though, it would have been cheesy, proof that he’d been acting in soap operas for too long. He shrugged and walked away instead, waved as he passed Chris and Joey and didn’t stop until he had his hand resting low on Lance’s back. Lance turned from JC and the blond boy who had just introduced himself to Lance as Ashley. “Justin,” Lance said, and he sounded surprised. “I was just looking for you. You’ve been gone for hours.” “Sorry,” Justin grinned. “I was just heading back. I got a little lost.” Justin hadn’t really explored the field site. Most of his introductions and segments were filmed with a view of the site from afar: Justin standing in the desert, with a crew of geologists working on the hill behind him. A few days earlier he might have complained that it could have been done back in LA on a sound stage in front of a dinosaur skeleton or something. Sean Connery would have gotten a sound stage. But recently Justin had begun enjoying his stay in the middle of nowhere, so he didn’t say anything. Richardson sat on a rock, bent over a stack of papers in his lap, a blue baseball cap pushed down over his long hair. AJ stood beside him, wearing a similar cap and dark sunglasses, along with another guy that Justin didn’t recognize. The guy was holding a large black and white striped pole and talking to AJ. He laughed, his eyes crinkled and happy, and AJ grinned, shaking his head. He looked up and spotted Justin, nodded when Justin smiled. AJ poked Richardson, who glanced up, frowning. He recognized Justin and waved before going back to his stack of papers. Justin figured that was as much permission to look around as he was going to get, so he headed further into the site. The area was blocked off into large squares, and most of the squares had people working in them. It didn’t look all that exciting to Justin, so he scanned the hillside until he found the familiar figure, hunched over one of the squares. Justin approached slowly, watching Nick work. Nick was picking at what looked like a large bone in the rock. He meticulously chipped stone off the surface of the bone, stopping only to push his sunglasses up on his nose. When a small gust of wind scattered sand across Nick’s work, he picked up a paintbrush and swept it clean. Nick chewed on his bottom lip when he concentrated, and he must have been concentrating hard, because he didn’t notice Justin was there until Justin was so close that his knees were pressed against Nick’s back. Only then did Nick pause, freezing for a second, and then he tipped his head back so it rested on Justin’s thigh and smiled up. Justin could see the smile, but most of Nick’s face was hidden beneath the brim of the red cap he wore. “Hey, you,” Nick said. “What’s a clean young man like yourself doin’ round these parts.” Nick did a horrible cowboy impression, and Justin rolled his eyes, knocking his knees a little against Nick. “How’d you know it was me?” Justin asked, moving to stand beside Nick. “I saw you heading over from the tents,” Nick said. “Figured you’d find me eventually.” “Maybe I wasn’t looking for you,” Justin said. “Well, you’re here.” Justin shrugged, and crouched down beside Nick. “So what is it?” “We don’t know,” Nick grinned. “Isn’t that great?” Justin smiled back, and set his hand on Nick’s shoulder to steady himself. “It’s huge. Look at this femur, Justin. We thought it was two when Kevin found it yesterday. We thought Kevin and Brian were working on two separate bones. But it’s just one. Huge. Kevin thinks it might be a new species. And it looks like we have about eighty percent of the animal still here. That’s great recovery. No skull yet, though.” “Wow,” Justin said, surveying what was uncovered so far. It was a really huge leg, he had to admit, but he was more interested in Nick. Nick was still looking at the femur, his eyes bright behind his glasses. Justin’s hand moved a little on Nick’s shoulder, sliding up toward Nick’s neck. The skin there was tanned, smooth and golden. Justin wanted to kiss that spot, the top of Nick’s spine, and he was pretty sure that Nick would let him. When his fingers slid over the skin at the side of Nick’s neck though, Nick laughed. His shoulder shrugged up and his head tilted down, and Justin’s fingers were nearly trapped in between. Nick, still laughing but trying to frown, said, “Hey, what are you doing? No neck grabbing. I’m ticklish, man.” Justin looked innocent, and held up his hands. He wanted to put his mouth to that spot even more than he had before, now certain that it would drive Nick wild. Nick shook his head. “You’re as bad as Brian.” Justin didn’t know who Brian was, and he didn’t care. He was about to suggest getting away for a few minutes, finding some shade maybe, when someone started calling from across the site. A small man with dark hair was waving and shouting further down the slope. “Nicky! Come check this out!” “Oh,” Nick frowned. “Howie must have found something.” Justin saw that Richardson and his tattooed sidekick were headed in that direction as well. Justin stood, and Nick brushed the dust off his knees. It was a perfect opportunity wasted, Justin thought. He should head back to the other side of the valley anyway. Lance was probably looking for him. Nick started to stand then, his shirt riding up to expose a line of skin, paler than that of his neck. Justin reached out to touch it. Fuck Lance, he thought, and ran his hand over the warm skin, dipped his fingers below the line of Nick’s jeans. The skin was smooth, silk against Justin’s fingers. Nick swatted Justin’s hand away, then gripped Justin’s shoulder. “I’ll see you later?” Nick asked, and Justin nodded. Nick released his arm, and started making his way to the crowd gathered farther down the rocky slope. Justin got caught up in business and in Lance and he didn’t see Nick later. He didn’t see him until he rounded the corner of his trailer the next morning and found Nick perched on the outcrop there. “Nick,” Justin said, surprised. “What are you doing?” “Hey,” Nick grinned, ducking his head and the sun caught in his blond hair, sparkled in his light eyes. Nick waved a hand toward his little plastic bags. “Right,” Justin said. “Sampling.” He glanced over toward the center of the valley. The cameras were already set up and people were milling around. Justin figured he had some time, so he smiled back at Nick, his most inviting smile, and leaned against the back of his trailer. “You didn’t come by last night,” Nick said, standing from his crouched position on the rocks. Justin shrugged, and scratched at his stomach, his hand slipping beneath the bottom of his shirt. Nick watched, blinked a little, then turned to toss his marker and index card back on the rocks. He moved closer to Justin and then stopped and said, “Howie found part of a skull yesterday. Eighty percent of an unknown species and now a skull too.” “Yeah,” Justin said. Nick moved closer, stopping just within reach, and opened his mouth to say something more. Probably about his rocks. Justin reached out and pulled Nick the rest of the way in. Nick looked surprised to find himself suddenly pressed up against Justin. He recovered quickly though, and then his mouth was against Justin’s, his large hands gripping Justin’s arms, his tongue slipping in past Justin’s lips. Justin’s hands slid down Nick’s sides, around to rest on the flat of Nick’s back. The noon sun was hot, and Nick’s back was warm and inviting beneath Justin’s fingers. Justin kissed Nick’s mouth, licked at the Nick’s bottom lip, and then trailed away, along Nick’s jaw, to that spot right behind Nick’s ear. He licked the tanned skin, and tasted salt and sweetness. The reaction was better than he’d suspected it might be. Nick’s moan in his ear was low and tinged with lust, and Nick’s strong thighs pressed Justin more firmly to the trailer, thrusting a little. Justin kissed and sucked at Nick’s neck as Nick writhed and whimpered against him. “Justin,” Nick gasped, and Justin opened his eyes, looked past Nick and saw the cameras set up in the valley, remembered that he was supposed to be there. He gently pushed Nick away. “How much longer are they gonna keep you over there?” Nick asked, pulling on his shirt, trying to straighten it. Justin swallowed, looking for his voice, and said, “Not too long. It’ll get too hot, and they’ll let us go. I only have a few setups to do.” “I’ll meet you here tonight,” Nick said. He leaned in again and his nose bumped Justin’s lip as he kissed along Justin’s jaw, and Justin tilted his head back against the wall. “No,” Justin said, “Lance.” Nick’s hands were back, trailing up Justin’s arms, rubbing softly. “My tent then,” Nick said. “It’s the blue one. With the yellow.” “Yes. Okay,” Justin said. The sun was hot and Justin fidgeted, bouncing on the balls of his feet. A cool breeze blew through the valley and the group gathered around the cameras let out a collective sigh, pausing to absorb the cool air. Justin turned his head up, felt the breeze hit his neck. He closed his eyes and smiled. “Hold it,” Wayne said. “Justin, is that dirt on your face?” JC was there then, fixing his make-up, rearranging the curls that were out of place. “Justin,” JC said, pointing to the dust on Justin’s sleeves. “What have you been doing? Rolling around on the valley floor? You’re a mess.” Justin shrugged and helped JC brush off his clothes. JC was still mumbling about the dust on his shirt, but Justin had stopped listening. Justin was basking in the heat of the afternoon, soaked with sunlight and filled with anticipation. The geologists worked on the horizon, and Justin knew his lines, so he turned to watch them. He was positive he could see Nick there, talking with Howie maybe, or AJ. “What time is it?” Justin asked. “What?” JC said, pausing to glance at his watch. “It’s one. I don’t think we’ll be filming much longer.” Justin nodded. He saw Lance standing beside Wayne, sipping from a water bottle. Lance waved when he saw Justin looking. Justin waved back and started making plans for his rendezvous with Nick. He thought he could make out the head of blond hair on the hill, the glint of hammer in hand, but he couldn’t be sure from this distance. He smiled anyway. Lance was probably right to warn Justin against socializing, because there was no way Justin was going to let this one get away. Back/Home/Feedback