Written for As Daylight Fades.

JoeC. 15k. Oh so loosely based on these lyrics:
Hearts grow weak and dreams grow cold
Even stars fall when they have nothing to hold.


Something to Hold
(Or, Giddy can't help being a big fan of hugs. *G*)

~~~~~

It wasn't any secret that Joey was a big hugger. Everyone knew. Friends, family, fans, Joey'd hug anyone. The thing JC couldn't figure out was how everyone assumed Joey was doing it for them.

So, ok, maybe it wasn't a completely unreasonable thing to think. After all, when you needed a hug and there Joey was, all warm smile and strong arms and reassurance, it was easy to just let yourself be tugged in and held on to and maybe later you'd make Joey a sandwich and quietly say, "Hey, thanks, man," and Joey'd give you half the sandwich back, smile and say, "Anytime," and yeah. The hug would seem like this big favor Joey had done for you, because he loved you and knew when you needed it. But when you were JC and you were on the receiving end of 53 million Joey-hugs over the course of seven years, you came to realize he was a phony and he was scamming you for sandwiches.

JC would never have admitted it to anyone but realizing that Joey's hugs weren't entirely given for altruistic purposes kind of ticked him off a little, and he started making all the sandwiches with lots and lots of Grey Poupon, which Joey hated. He liked yellow mustard way better, he'd eat yellow mustard on bread and call that a meal if no one was around to freak out about it, so the whole thing seemed like a thoroughly evil kind of revenge.

Unfortunately, Joey ate the sandwiches anyway. He didn't even grimace over the mustard. He just gave JC a slightly larger half than he otherwise would have and said, "My compliments to the chef," and after a couple days and three sandwiches, he bought JC a big poufy white chef's hat to wear.

Joey was always bringing him hats to wear. JC liked most of them. The PacMan one, he'd worn that until it was basically destroyed, and he had the rest of them for disguises and stuff. No one looked at a guy wearing a bad hat, he'd found. Not off the red carpet anyway.

He put on the chef's hat because it was kind of neat, and he hugged Joey back before he remembered he was annoyed. Then he went into the kitchenette on the bus and made Joey a bologne and Kraft cheese sandwich with at least half a jar of Grey Poupon, muttering the whole time. He cut the sandwich into perfect halves after it was assembled and put it on a paper plate and brought it out to Joey, who took it with a smile.

"Excellent," he said, one gooey bite in. "You want some?" and he offered the plate to JC, who plopped down on the opposite end of the couch and shook his head.

"No thanks." He watched mustard ooze out from the sandwich with a kind of fascinated horror. It was staining the bread. "I don't think I'm hungry, dude."

Joey looked at him for a long moment and JC pretended to look out the window at the oh-so fascinating scenery flashing by--stubby green highway trees, with the occasional different species of stubby green highway tree to spice things up.

"Are you feeling all right?" Joey asked, sounding concerned. It wasn't often that JC turned down food. He'd been hungry since he was fifteen, pretty much. But, eww, yeah. The sandwich really looked pretty nasty, so JC said, "I'm fine, dude, enjoy," and kept his gaze fixed out the window to avoid watching Joey plow his way through the soggy, dripping mess.

Which Joey did, and in record time.

"That was great," he said a couple minutes later, getting up to throw his plate away. "Thanks, JC."

"Thank you," JC said, and Joey patted him on the shoulder as he headed for the trash. He and Lance shuffled around each other as Lance came into the lounge, and one of them whispered something that JC didn't hear, but it made them both laugh. JC looked at them suspiciously but Lance just smiled at him and came to sit next to him on the couch.

"Great hat, C," he said. "Looks kinda like someone melted a marshmallow on your head."

JC poked him in the side. "You've been hanging out on the other bus too much," he said. "And thank you. I like the hat." Although maybe the hats were suspect too. Maybe Joey had an ulterior motive for bringing him hats. Maybe he didn't just enjoy the sandwiches, maybe he liked seeing JC look like an idiot.

He decided Joey was devious and that he wouldn't put that kind of thing past him. He glared towards the kitchen and Joey looked up just in time to see him doing it, gave him a wide-eyed look. JC looked away quickly and the hat wobbled on his head.

"This is the two-man." Lance shrugged and picked up the remote. Joey had been watching 'Fellowship of the Ring' for probably the seventeenth time, and Lance made a happy sound. He was behind by at least four viewings as of the last tally and had been pissed off by that. Consequently, Chris had hid the other bus' copy somewhere and refused to let Lance near it. Justin had played both sides in the battle that followed, then started referring to the DVD as his Precioussssss and hid it from both of them.

There was more than one reason why JC preferred the two-man. Or at least why he used to prefer the two-man, before Joey'd turned out to be so shady. "I can move my stuff back over there if you'd like," he offered, and Lance smiled at him.

"No, it's fine. Me and Chris have a new strategy, goes into action pretty soon. Won't be as easy to plan if I'm over here with Joey."

"Well, if you're sure," JC said doubtfully, and then Joey plopped down on the arm of the couch next to him and draped himself around JC with a happy sigh.

"Lance is sure," he said, and he shared a grin with Lance over JC's head. "They can't let Justin win, dude, you know that. He'll be insufferable for months. Plus Chris and Justin would make fun of your hat."

JC looked back and forth at the two of them, suspicious. But Joey was right and Lance was already lost in the movie, so he just sighed, straightened the chef's hat, and pretended he didn't notice Joey was hugging him again. He could always make more sandwiches later.

~~~

Later was an absolute nightmare of peanut butter and mustard. JC couldn't be in the room while Joey ate it, and he made a lot of noise in the bathroom as he was coming out so that if Joey hadn't thrown the thing away yet, he'd have plenty of warning and time to do so. When he went back into the lounge, Joey had moved on to 'The Two Towers' and the paper plate the sandwich had been on was sitting next to him. There were crumbs. JC stared at it for a long moment, and then dumped it in the trash, deliberately not looking in to see if the sandwich was there.

He sat back down on the couch. Joey gradually moved closer, until he could put an arm over JC's shoulder. Their knees bumped together companionably and every time Joey laughed, JC felt it from head to toe. He kept shifting away and Joey kept shifting with him, and JC was resigned to the fact that it was going to take more than an endless series of bad sandwiches to get Joey to stop.

It was going to take an intervention, and he was just the man to lead it.

~~~

Justin blinked at him. They were in his room of the hotel suite, and it was already piled with clothes and Justin's other stuff. He made out like he was a neat freak but his room always looked like a bomb had just hit it. "When you said intervention, I thought--but are you trying to say you think Joey's addicted to hugging you?"

JC blinked back. "Well, he isn't addicted to crack."

"Are you addicted to crack?"

"I'm addicted to being a good friend!" JC said, and started folding Justin's tee-shirts to prove it.

"You're an idiot," Justin said, shaking his head and watching JC work his way through the mess, randomly folding here and there. "Now, I've gotta go. Chris and Lance are plotting somewhere. I can feel it."

JC watched him stride out of the room, then slumped down in a pile of hopefully clean laundry and sighed. These things were never easy, but at least he wasn't going to be an enabler anymore, and surely Chris would see the light.

~~~

Chris put gum on the top strap of his sandal. JC was using an ice cube and a toothpick to scrape it off while he tried to convince Chris that Joey needed help. Neither task was going very well.

"I think you ruined my shoe," he said, holding it up. Chris stared at it, then at him.

"I think you're trying to ruin a good thing. Make Joey stop hugging you? That'd be like. I dunno, torturing a puppy or something."

"You like torture," JC said, flopping his sandal around. Getting the gum out of all the little crevices was going to impossible, he could tell.

"I don't torture harmless puppies," Chris said, grabbing at the sandal and tossing it behind him. "And those cost you three bucks at Target, so just suck it up and buy more next time we have to stop for your underwear."

"That'll take three weeks at least, Chris."

"So don't go commando and make it two weeks. Whatever. I don't care. Or hey, I know, don't fuck with Joey and his methods and I'll make sure there's a new pair waiting for you at the next hotel."

JC weighed the issue. "If I don't go commando at all, it'll be a week and a half," he finally said, sitting back and crossing his arms over his chest. "No deal."

"Your loss," Chris said, shrugging. "And I ain't just talking about the stupid sandals. Where should I hide the feather duster?"

"Under the couch. Easy access and Justin won't see it until it's too late."

"Perfect!" Chris beamed at him and got up, ruffled his hair. JC batted at his hands irritably but didn't really mean it, mostly just did it to make Chris laugh before he walked away to finish his set up. Then JC straightened his hair neatly and went to go find Lance, his last possible and most likely ally.

~~~

"No," Lance said, not looking up from his computer.

JC was dumbfounded. "But--"

"No. I love Joey just like he is, and if he needs to hug you because making you feel better makes him feel good, I will let you be smothered with hugs. I will let him make you sick with them, I'll let you be hugged until you forget what life is like when you're not being hugged. End of story."

That was all very sweet. Still. "Lance--"

Lance looked up. He wasn't frowning like JC had thought he would be. Although his eyes were calm and serious, he was smiling a little, maybe a little smug. He said, "You love it too, JC, and you know it," and they stared at each other for a while. Lance's computer was beeping madly, IM windows open all over the place, but he wasn't paying any attention at all. JC had known him forever and mostly Lance was a great big dork but sometimes he looked at a person and made their knees shake a little.

"I just want Joey to be happy," JC said eventually.

"He's happiest when he's loving you," Lance said. "Now, go away. You're being dumb and I have an assault to plan." He turned back to his laptop and brought up an IM with huge orange letters on a green background, which was Chris', and a second with baby blue letters in a swirly font, which was Justin's. JC shifted his weight from foot to foot, thinking and reading over Lance's shoulder.

"You could tell Justin you want to form an alliance to kick Chris' ass and need to meet to discuss it," he offered, and Lance typed the suggestion into the IM with Chris. He got a huge dancing smiley face in return.

"Thanks, JC," Lance said. "Chris likes the idea. Tell Joey you love him next time he hugs you, OK? And also, leave off with the mustard. That Grey Poupon shit gives him hives in bad places."

'Should we use the handcuffs?' Chris asked over the IM, and both Lance and JC shook their heads.

"Does he think all those years of pranking the crew have left me completely unable to hold people down for him?" Lance muttered, and JC sighed.

"I know when I'm defeated," he said, sadly.

Lance nodded. "Glad to hear it," he said. He typed a fast response to Chris, paused to wait for the reply. "Go let Joey comfort you. We have other defeats to plan."

"You're such mean people," JC said, even more sadly. He walked away at a very slow pace but was still well out of the room before Lance had finished laughing.

~~~

Joey's shoulders had always seemed made for sighing against. JC didn't even know why he'd been trying to fight inevitable things like that. He sagged limply against Joey's chest and wiggled until Joey was rubbing his back.

"I can chill a little if I'm bothering you," Joey said after a long, quiet moment. "With this kind of thing, you know."

JC slumped some more. He hadn't realized Joey had noticed, but maybe he should have. Joey wasn't nearly so oblivious as he pretended to be. JC wasn't either, really. At least not always. Just sometimes. He said, "Lance says you need it too. That you're not just in it so I'll make you dinner."

Joey laughed. "Well, I'm definitely not doing it because I need the sandwiches."

"Yeah. Sorry about the rash, by the way," JC said, feeling pretty guilty about that.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it. It'll go away in a couple days and after that I'll just avoid eating peanut butter and mustard on the same piece of bread."

Out in the lounge, something crashed and someone shrieked, and JC leaned back, startled, trusting the arm against his back to hold him up. "You glued a feather to my scalp," Justin yelled and JC could hear Chris saying, "And we've got most of a feather duster waiting for the same treatment, buddy, so why don't you just give up the DVD--"

"I can't figure out--why didn't they just buy another copy?" JC asked, leaning back into Joey.

"More fun for everyone this way." Joey shrugged, then winced as Lance said something that made Justin let loose with a long stream of cursewords. "I think we might be traded back to the three-man," he said, and JC shook his head, smiling.

"I don't think so," he said quietly. "You're right. Everyone is having too much fun."

"Even you?" Joey asked, smiling back. It was a little off, a little nervous. JC wasn't used to Joey being nervous, certainly wasn't used to being the reason Joey was nervous. He didn't like it. Just wasn't right. This was Joey.

JC smiled. "Even me," he said, and leaned in to brush his lips against the stubbly corner of Joey's jaw. Joey took a deep breath and JC said, "I always. Well. I thought I'd been wrong all this time, maybe. And I just really wanted it to be about love."

"It is." Joey nodded, eyes losing any trace of nervousness as he reassured JC. He rested his hand between JC's shoulder blades, fingertips kneading warmth into his skin. "It always has been."

There was no way he could pretend that his lips brushing the corner of Joey's smiling mouth was an accident so he didn't. He just sighed and did it again before murmuring, "Although it can also be a little bit about stupid hats."

"It was always about that too," Joey said. "In fact, that was most of it at first. Then you started looking good in them and I knew it was all over."

JC laughed and kissed Joey again, a lot more deeply. Joey held on tight while he was kissing back, and JC found that he didn't mind at all.

~~~~~