Pairing: Justin/Austin
Author: Rach
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I have no rights of any kind to these characters.
Summary: Austin is away on vacation, and Justin is bored.
Words: 1,396.
Timeline: Set after Hilda's wedding; I wrote it before I'd seen the finale but it doesn't contradict anything that happened.
Justin lay on his bed, surrounded by open books and pieces of paper that had been scribbled on and discarded. He had done half of his homework for every class, but couldn't concentrate on anything for long enough to finish a single one of them. He sighed, and picked up his cell phone for what felt like the millionth time, hoping that this would be the time that staring at it really hard actually did make it ring.
It didn't ring.
He idly scrolled through his text messages. Austin had been on vacation in Los Angeles for six days, with four more to go. His Dad had some kind of business trip, and had taken the family away with him. Justin was bored. He was starting to wonder what he ever did to fill his time, pre-Austin. He re-read the last couple of messages in their conversation, smiling to himself. Austin had been complaining about the heat at regular intervals ever since he stepped off the plane.
I'm melting.
Sucks to be you, Elphaba.
Does that make you Fiyero?
I guess it does. :-)
Whatever - as long as you're mine. ;-) Call you tonight? x
So by the time the phone actually did ring, Justin was unable to answer it with anything other than an excited "Hi!", no matter how many times he repeated play it cool, play it cool! in his head.
Luckily he was met by the same excitement in response. "Hey! Can you talk? You're not busy or anything?"
Justin looked around his room, taking in each of the half-completed projects strewn across the floor. His next project would have to be tidying up, before his Mom started throwing things out and he had to start everything over. "No, I'm not busy at all." Ignoring the mess for now, he curled up on his bed. "So how's-"
"Is that Justin?"
"Mom!"
Justin laughed, hearing a crackling sound as Austin had covered the receiver with his hand. Justin strained his ears to hear what the muffled voices were saying.
"Tell him I said hello!"
"I'm not telling him you said hello! You've never met him!"
Justin could tell that Austin's mother was laughing at her son's embarrassment. Austin uncovered the phone, mumbling "Mom says hello," into it.
Justin couldn't hide his amusement. "That was adorable!"
"Oh, be quiet!" Austin laughed a little, dropping his voice to a whisper. "She's a little pushy sometimes."
"Please, Austin. You've met my family. My Mom is the queen of interfering mothers. I can't wait to meet yours." He smiled, wishing that Austin was there with him so that he could reassure him in person, instead of on the other side of the country. "So," he started, deftly changing the subject. "Tell me everything. Have you seen anybody famous? Have you been down Rodeo Drive? Did you go in any of the stores? How about Bijan? I heard you have to be vetted to see how rich you are before you're even allowed in there. I bet Aunt Betty could have got you in, though."
"Not yet, yes but we were on a bus tour, so no I didn't go in any of the stores, and therefore no, I didn't go into that particular store. You have to earn a million dollars a month to make an appointment, or something! I thought of you when the tour guide told us that."
Justin laughed. "I can't believe you've been in Hollywood for almost a week and you haven't seen anybody famous." He was so pleased to hear from Austin he was tripping over his words. Texting was awesome, but as lame as he knew it was, he'd been missing Austin's voice. "So, since I know you're dying to bitch about it how's the weather?"
"Oh my God, Justin, it's so hot. It's hotter than too hot. I'm too white for this kind of weather. It's like a million degrees. I wish I was home with you."
"Austin, it's like seventy. You can survive seventy degree heat, you do it here every summer."
"Yeah, but not in April! And it feels hotter here." Justin had a feeling Austin was pouting while he spoke, and it made him smile. "I know I'm being irrational, but just I hate it! I'm burning. I know red is my colour, but come on. I want it to be my clothes that are red, not my skin."
Justin laughed. "Poor baby." He wriggled so that he was lying flat on the bed, and closed his eyes, lowering his voice a little. "Tell me what you're doing right now. So that I can picture it."
"Well," Austin started, choosing his words carefully. "When I first called, we were in a cab. Then after that embarrassing interruption from my Mom, she let me get out. So I got out."
Justin opened one eye. "You suck at this."
"I'm sorry! I'm, uh... walking? Down a street. There's a little bit of wind now, which is so nice against the back of my neck, you wouldn't even believe it. And-"
"JUSTIN!" Hilda bellowed from the bottom of the stairs.
"Oh my God, what is with our mothers today? Just hold on one second." He sat up and covered the phone with his hand, yelling back his response. "I'm on the PHONE." Without waiting for a response he put the phone back to his ear. "Sorry. Where were we?"
"I was describing stuff. Badly, apparently."
There was a knock on Justin's door. "Justin! Get out here this second." Hilda didn't seem to be accepting the call as a valid reason to ignore her.
"Wow, that was loud," Austin laughed. "It sounds serious."
"She probably made Mrs Lorenzo's hair go orange again and needs me to cover for her. Convince her it looks good and that she did it on purpose." Covering the phone again, he called out to her one more time. "Mom! I'm talking to Austin, I'll be out when I'm done!"
The knocking persisted, and Justin sighed heavily. "Austin, I'll be one second. Don't go anywhere, okay? I just need to tell my-" he flung open the door before finishing his sentence. "-Mom-"
He stopped dead in his tracks, and actually dropped the phone. Austin beamed back at him. "Yeah... I'm not your mom." Hilda was nowhere to be seen. Justin continued to stare and Austin just laughed, picking up Justin's phone and then stepping close enough to him that they were both inside the bedroom. He closed the door behind him, and leaned back on it. "If you don't close your mouth, I'm going to have to find a way to close it for you."
"How- what- why-" Justin breathed out, trying to regain his ability to speak in complete sentences. He couldn't stop smiling and his eyes were sparkling. "When?"
"We just landed a couple of hours ago. My Mom let me come straight here." He reached forward and carefully tucked Justin's cellphone inside its' owner's jeans pocket. "My Dad's last meeting got cancelled, so we came back early. I was in the cab on the way back from the airport when I called you."
Justin caught Austin's hands as they moved away from his pocket, and laced their fingers together. "Oh," he said, cheekily. "So you lied to me about where you were?"
Austin shook his head, with a glint in his eye. "No... I was very specific about not telling you where the cab was, or which street I was walking down."
"I see," Justin pouted, teasing. "So you're a dastardly schemer. I'm going to have to find a way to punish you for this."
Before Austin could respond, Justin reached forward and wrapped his arms around Austin's neck, pulling him in for a kiss. It felt like they hadn't been together in weeks, and they both could quite happily have stayed there all afternoon. As the kiss ended, Austin smiled, his arms still resting comfortably around Justin's waist. "If that's punishment, I'd love to see what you'd consider a reward."