Complicated ~ JC SS

~*Flashback - Right After the European Tour - The Guys Are Coming Home*~

"LOOK!  We're home!"  Lance exclaimed.  The commuters merely looked at him strangely and moved on.  "See that?  We're not even recognized!"

"I can't wait to see Mom and the girls!" Chris said with excitement.

"Hey look!  Its the airport caf�!  Let's eat!" 

"Joey, don't you ever think about anything but food?"  Justin asked.  "But speaking of food, I think I'm gonna make a trip to Grandma's...Peach Cobbler...Mmm!  Hey, JC, man, what's wrong?  You don't look too thrilled."  Justin quickly scanned the gate area.  She wasn't there.  "She'll be here...probably got stuck in traffic."  He said, trying to comfort his friend, who was slumped in a chair and looking more down with each second.   JC's phone rang.

"Hello?" He answered in a grumpy voice.

"Hey Gorgeous!  Why the long face?"  She grinned.  She was standing behind a sign so he couldn't see her.

"KEL!  Where are you!?" He asked, jumping out of the seat, suddenly alive.  She slowly came up behind him.

Grabbing him around the waist, she whispered in his ear, "I'm right here."  He spun around and kissed her.  "Mmm...I missed you too!"  She smiled.

"You look fantastic!  Good enough to eat!"  He breathed into her neck, while covering it with tiny kisses.  She blushed.  JC looked up and laughed.  "Sorry, Baby."

"Get a room!"  Joey squealed.

"Shut up, Joe!" Kelly said sarcastically.  She readied her camera, and took some pictures of the guys at the airport.  She was a photographer.  "Come on, Jace, I have something to show you."  Taking his hand, she led him first to get his luggage, and then out to the parking area. 

"MY JEEP!"  She took some more pictures of JC, then tossed him the keys.  "Geez, its been so long since I've driven it!"  He reached over the console and squeezed her hand.  "I love you so much, Baby Girl."  JC brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.  She smiled at him.

"JC, I love you too."

After all the love talk was finished, they began to talk about other things.  Like how grossed out Kelly was when she sat down at a picnic table to eat lunch on campus and a bird poohed on the book she was reading, and how embarrassed JC was when he ran out of the doctor's office in Italy because he didn't want a shot.  They kept talking back and forth, just like it had always been.  They weren't just lovers, they were best friends.  They loved their one-on-one conversations with each other.  It was like their daily therapy sessions.  Even when JC was in Europe, they talked every day.  The phone bills were through the roof, but they didn't care.  As long as they heard each other's voice.

~*End Flashback*~

"ASHLEY!  What is your problem!?  I have to wear these in the shoot!  You remember?  The shoot that begins in less than ten minutes??"  JC yelled at the new wardrobe mistress.  The zipper busted in his snakeskin pants.  He was furious.  Hearing all the commotion, Kelly came back.

"Sweetie, Cool it.  What's wrong?"  She asked.

"Ashley isn't doing her job!  Therefore my zipper busted, and we have to get this shoot over with because there's an interview right after it!!"  He screamed at Kelly, who, by the look on her face didn't appreciate it.

"Josh, you [i]don't[/i] yell at me.  And you [i]don't[/i] yell at Ashley.  Its not [i]our[/i] fault you're 'excited.'"  Kelly grinned, as she walked over and gave him a hug...purposely pressing herself against him.  He moaned.

"But.."

"No 'buts'.  If you'll stop complaining and sit still, she'll have you fixed up in no time.  She's done it before."  JC agreed and let Ashley begin to fix his zipper.  Kelly went to check on some other things.  Ashley's hands were shakey and she dropped the safety pins.

"Damn it Ashley!  Concentrate!"  He yelled.  She looked up and apologized, then started to cry.  "Oh, we're gonna cry about it now?  What is wrong with you!?  This is your job!  Get over it and hurry!!"  Ashley ran out of the dressing room sobbing.

"Way to be JC!  Scare the wardrobe chick!"  Justin laughed, as he high-fived JC.

"Ashley!  Hey...what's wrong?" Kelly asked, as she handed her a Kleenex. 

"He...He...yelled...I dropped the pins...and...and...I can't handle being yelled at after my relationship with Keith."  She sobbed.  Kelly calmed her, and told her to go on home.  With Ashley on her way home, Kelly went back to JC's dressing room where he was fumbling with the safety pins.

"Give me those!"  She said sternly, as she walked in and slammed the door behind her.  "Ya know, I don't know who think you are, but I don't like it!  You are [i]not[/i] the guy I met and fell in love with a few years ago!  More and more it seems like you're always trying to impress everyone...always trying to be their everything...except me.  The only time I ever get decent conversations, like we used to have, is when we're alone.  Just us."  She hastily pinned his zipper back together.

"Ouch!  Baby, be careful!"  He said, with a softened tone.  When she looked up, the tears glistened in her eyes.  He gently stroked her cheek.  "Baby, I'm...I don't know...I don't mean to hurt you...and I would never ever make you cry."

She sniffled, "Well, you did.  But that doesn't really matter now.  You have an interview in an hour or so..."  She stood up and turned around, looking him in the eyes, she let a tear slip down her cheek.  [i]Why do you have to make this so hard...so complicated?[/i]  She quickly got over the hurt, and moved on to aggrevation.  [i]Why is he acting like this?  He, of all people, should know that you are only what you are...nothing more and nothing less.[/i]

JC arrived on the set before everyone.  "Kel, Sweets, do you think I should smile showing teeth?  Or should I smile with my mouth closed?"  Kelly semi-ignored the question.

"Places everyone...Great...JC...Go get in your spot."  She said as the other four hurried from the lounge.

"Kelly," He said softly, ignoring her demand and intertwining their fingers.  "Baby Girl, I just want to know what you think...because some people say my teeth are too crooked to smile showing teeth."

"JC, I think that you should smile the way you want.  The way you used to, and not care whether or not someone else is going to like it.  You take what God gives you, and you should be happy with that...not trying to change it to make someone else feel better."  Her eyes began to well up again.  Seeing him in this false persona hurt her so much.  JC put his forehead to hers and asked what he could do.  "Promise me I'm never gonna find you faking."

"JC, smile wide...with your mouth open, Hon.  Show your teeth."  JC smirked and didn't follow her intstructions.  "JC, come on Babe, you've got an interview soon...cooperate.  You've been smiling tight lipped all day.  Lighten up!"

"Johnny says he doesn't like it..." JC argued.

"I don't give a shit what Johnny says JC!!" She yelled.  "You're on my time now!  And if I want you to smile, you better make for damn sure you smile!  I'm tired of you always saying "Well, so and so wants it this way, and someone else wants it that way..."  You sound like a friggin' broken record.  I'm TIRED of how everyone else wants you JC....I want you...the REAL YOU.  Not the you Johnny wants, not the you the magazine wants, not the you anyone else wants...I want YOU!"  Tears of rage flooded from her eyes.  JC and the other four guys stood there, not knowing what to do.  Finally, she cracked.  "GET IN YOUR PLACES, AND SMILE!"

~*~Later That Evening~*~

"...I know Jess.  I don't know what his problem is?  He's just being so fake."  Kelly said to her best friend, who was sitting opposite of her on the couch.  The small party whirred around them.  [i]I wish I had never agreed to this party for Erica.  I love her to death, she's one of my best friends, but I just want peace.[/i]

"Hon, I don't know what to tell you.  You and JC have been together so long, being apart would be too weird for everyone...including you and him.  You just have to go with the flow..."  Jessica was interrupted by the sound of Kelly's doorbell.  Kelly excused herself and went to see who was at the door.  It was JC.

"JC, what are you doing here?  And why are you dressed like [i]that[/i]?"  Kelly referred to his zebra striped suit.

"I just came to show you my new outfit.  I thought you'd like it, you always said you liked me in suits."  He turned around, then struck a pose.

"JC..."  She laughed.  "This is NOT normal...Baby,"  Kelly grabbed her long coat from the closet by the door and threw it around him.  "Let's get you out of these prep clothes.  If you're gonna hang out with me and the girls, you need to lose the 'rock star attitude.'" 

Kelly pulled out a pair of his jeans that he left when they were swimming the last time, and one of her sleepshirts, which just happened to be one of his old t-shirts. 

"Why do you want to change me?" JC asked, as he sat down on the edge of her bed.

"Baby, I don't want to change you...and I'm not going to.  But ever since you guys made it big in the US, you've been acting like someone else, someone I don't know.  It just hurts to see you as the man I fell in love with immediately change to some 'bigshot' that I don't know..."  Kelly said, looking out to the skyline.  JC stood up and went to her.  He wrapped his arms around her waist.

"I had no idea you actually felt that way.  I thought you were just mad earlier.  I'm sorry, Baby.  I don't honestly mean to be that way.  I'll try my best to stop...Will you help keep me in line?"  Kelly turned in his arms, so that she was facing him.

"You mean it?"

"I mean it..."  He smiled.  Kelly planted a deep kiss on his lips.

"Baby!  I'm so glad...I..."  He cut her off with a kiss.

"I just wish you had told me before things got so complicated."

[b]Based on the song [i]Complicated[/i] as written and recorded by Avril Lavigne[/b]