Pairing: Justin/Austin
Author: Rach
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I have no rights of any kind to these characters.
Summary: Justin manages to get a plus one for Betty's leaving party.
Words: 1,614.
Timeline/Spoilers: Set during the finale.
Justin smiled to himself as he watched Marc dance with Troy. Newly hatched he may be, but he wasn't blind. One of the things he'd learned recently was that often if you were too close to a problem, it would never get fixed. An outsider's perspective could sometimes be all you needed.
His phone buzzed and he smiled as Austin's picture popped up on the screen. "Hey you," he answered, moving away from the music. Thanks to Marc, he'd managed to get Austin's name on the guest list, despite his boyfriend not technically being a Modie.
"I'm outside. The guy on the desk is giving me the evil eye."
"It's floor 28 - come on up," Justin instructed, laughing a little. "I'll wait for you by the elevator." He put his cell phone away, and managed to help himself to two glasses of punch while nobody was looking. He was assuming they were alcoholic, because, well, it was Mode, and also because Amanda was here.
The elevator doors opened to reveal Austin looking gorgeous in a pair of stonewashed jeans and a plain white dress shirt. Justin handed over one of the glasses of punch, lacing the fingers of his free hand with Austin's. "You look hot," he grinned. "Very classy."
Austin took the glass and smiled nervously. "Seriously? Because this is Mode. I know you said 'wear whatever', but I just didn't know..."
Justin laughed at how adorably anxious his boyfriend was. "Seriously." Tugging on Austin's hand, he led them down a slightly darkened corridor. "Come on. I want to show you something."
As they walked along, leaving the sounds of the party behind, Austin began to relax and look around him. While he wasn't into fashion in a major way, definitely not like Justin, he was still in awe of the fact he was actually walking around more or less unaccompanied at Mode.
The place was an absolute maze. He subconsciously started to grip Justin's hand a little tighter, sure that if they were separated he would never find his way out. He wondered if he should be leaving himself a trail of bread or something. At least he could be sure nobody who worked up here would eat the trail before he needed to use it. Too many carbs.
Justin turned around to face Austin, blocking the rest of the corridor temporarily. "Okay. Don't laugh, but... welcome to The Closet." He slowly led Austin into the room, feeling around on the wall and turning on some lights as they entered. "I think this is my favourite place in the whole world."
Austin could see why. For Justin, this place must be heaven. He walked the rest of the way into the room, his mouth hanging open as he let go of Justin's hand and walked up to some of the clothes, reading the labels on each of them. The contents of this room must be worth millions of dollars.
"Are you sure we're allowed in here?" he whispered, unable to think of anything else to say. Justin smirked a little.
"No, not really. But nobody will come down here. Plus, sneaking around is fun."
Austin laughed, slipping back towards his boyfriend. He rested his forehead on Justin's, and kissed him gently with a smile. "I thought after the last few weeks, you would have had enough of 'sneaking around' with me in a place called the closet to last you a lifetime," he teased softly, fiddling absently with the corner of Justin's shirt as he did so.
Justin laughed. If anybody else had cracked a joke like that, except maybe Marc, he would probably have frozen up or found himself stumbling over his words. But coming from Austin, he took it as the joke it was meant to be. "I just thought we could have our own private party down here, but if you want to go back upstairs where there's loud music and tonnes of people..." he teased right back, tugging on Austin's hand and pretending to leave.
"No, no," Austin laughed, holding his ground and pulling Justin back towards him. "I like your idea better."
"You know," Justin mused, breaking away from Austin with a cheeky smile and heading towards one of the clothing racks. "You would make an amazing model." He pulled down a pair of silver sequined pants and a gaudy flower patterned shirt with an evil grin.
Austin backed away, hands in the air. "I am not wearing those!" He laughed, shaking his head firmly. "What's wrong with what I have on?! I thought I looked hot and classy?"
Grinning, Justin hooked the clothes back on the rack and turned to face Austin again. "Maybe I just wanted to watch you change..."
"Oh really?" Austin snorted, stepping closer to Justin. "Well, in that case..." he trailed off, leaning in for a kiss. "...I'm still not wearing the sparkle suit."
"Fine," Justin pouted, running his finger down Austin's cheek. "But you would make a great model. Your cheekbones are like, perfect."
Austin blushed. "I think that maybe you're a little biased," he laughed, kissing Justin gently.
As Justin opened his mouth to reply, the sound of somebody gently clearing their throat echoed through the room. They both spun around to see Betty standing in the doorway, smiling at them. "Sorry.... I, uh. I was just looking for Daniel, somebody thought they saw him down here earlier. I guess not." She turned to leave, not wanting to make either of the boys feel uncomfortable by staring. "It's just... if you do see Daniel, could you let him know I'm looking for him?"
Justin nodded. "Sure thing, Aunt Betty."
"Thanks," she smiled, and walked out of the room. As Justin opened his mouth to resume his conversation with Austin, she paused and yelled back at them. "And I won't tell anybody I saw you down here!"
Austin linked his arm through Justin's, and pulled him towards the door as Betty's footsteps faded away. "Come on. I think that was a hint."
Justin pouted some more, teasing. "But I like our party better."
"So do I," he smiled, dropping his arm down so that they were holding hands, lacing their fingers together. "And I would stay down here with you forever if I could. But isn't tonight about your Aunt Betty? I think it would be nice if she saw us back up there, instead of just using her party as a way to get access to the giant room of clothes."
"You're right, of course." Justin nodded a little, teasing. "But you're going to regret being so awesome and sensible. Now I'm going to have to make you dance until you can't stand up any longer."
Austin snorted. "All right. I guess that sounds like a fair deal." Justin took the lead as they walked out of the closet, turning the lights off as they headed back in the direction of the party. "I'm really glad you brought me down here. I like learning about the places you like."
Justin blushed. It made his heart do little somersaults when Austin told him things like that, especially when he was caught unawares, having gone from flirty to serious in the space of ten seconds. His breath caught in his throat as he tried to decide how to react.
"Grand Central Station," Austin blurted out, before Justin had chance to say anything at all. "That's my favourite place."
"Really?" Justin spoke softly, hoping that Austin would tell him more but not wanting to interrupt the flow by enquiring.
"Yeah," he nodded, smiling. They had stopped walking, and he lightly traced shapes down Justin's back as his arms slipped down to rest on his boyfriend's waist again. "I like to people-watch. The whole 'meet you at the clock' thing... so many people do that, for so many different reasons. Sometimes I stay there for hours, just watching people come and go."
"I'm so glad I met you." Justin leaned in to Austin's embrace, sighing happily as he did so. "I mean, I've lived in New York all my life, and I've never once looked at it that way. It's always just been a way to get from one place to someplace else." He grinned. "Let's go there. You can show me. We'll go at the weekend. Or tomorrow. Or now! Let's go now. We could-"
Austin interrupted Justin with a kiss, smothering his words until they could barely remember what they'd been talking about. As they pulled apart, Austin grinned. "We can't go now," he gestured upstairs. "There's a party."
Justin nodded and dropped his eyes to the ground. "Oh, totally. I mean, of course." Austin could hear the disappointment in Justin's voice, and he felt guilty. He pushed up Justin's chin with the tip of his finger, forcing eye contact.
"I want to go there with you so that I can show the things I see, don't think that I don't. I love that you brought me down here, and that you're so keen to go hang around in a train terminal for hours on end just because it's something I said I like doing." He smiled, and Justin couldn't help but smile back, nodding and feeling a little silly for sounding so disappointed. "Besides," Austin added, with a bigger grin. "We have plenty of time."