So knowing that there was not way JC was not going to be spending his birthday in New York, his friends had gone ahead with planning his birthday by renting a private room of one of the many restaurants in NYC for dinner as well as renting out a club so that they could later party, as they tried to keep JC’s mind off the fact that Lance was unable to be there for his special day.
“Come on JC! Open up your presents!” begged Chris pointing to the pile of gifts that sat near JC, while they waited for the waitress to bring the birthday cake.
“Sure,” grinned JC as he reached for the first package with his right hand which was adorned with multiple bracelets.
The bracelets, like the necklace that he wore around his neck with the Leo pendant, had been gifts from Lance. Ever since Lance had started training over in Russia, JC would receive a package every so often in the mail, gifts that Lance would buy for him after spending lonely nights surfing his computer wishing that JC would visit him.
The gifts at first had been a variety of things, mostly things which dealt with art, wine or music, but then all of a sudden Lance had started sending jewelry. At first JC had been confused why Lance would send him jewelry, seeing that Lance knew that JC hardly ever wore any jewelry besides the Leo pendant and more recently the pinky ring which most fans thought was a gift given to all the guys from JIVE. Little did the fans know that the pinky ring was actually a gift from Lance given to JC on their five year anniversary.
Nevertheless, JC had loved the jewelry since, well, it was given to him by Lance and he loved anything that Lance gave him. Eventually however Lance admitted to him that the reason he sent the jewelry was because whenever he saw pictures of JC out and about wearing the jewelry, he knew that JC was thinking of him. Since then, JC made sure to wear the necklace and at least one bracelet whenever he went out in case he was photographed and it wound up on the Internet.
The first few presents were gifts that JC had expected. Art supplies, music programs for his computer, various DVDs including the new Lord of the Rings one, then he opened a medium size box and discovered pink bunny slippers and matching pink, fluffy handcuffs.
JC beamed brightly when he saw the handcuffs, as his old fluffy black pair had been broken almost two months ago when he and Lance had met up together in London. It had been an accident really; Lance had been busy torturing JC with his tongue while JC had been laying under him and JC hadn’t realized how hard he had been pulling on the cuffs until he found himself suddenly free and grabbing at Lance to end the torture.
‘Who gave me this?’ wondered JC. Joey was the most likely choice, since JC remembered whining to Joey a week later over the lost. That is of course until Joey informed JC that he saw pink cuffs once and since then JC had been on a quest to find a pair.
Still wondering who had bought him the slippers and the cuffs, JC picked up the small plan, white card that was sticking out of one of the slippers and his smile grew larger as he read the card:
Baby, I know you’ll want to try out the handcuffs right away but leave them at home until after our reunion.
Lance. He should of known it had been one of the many gifts that his lover had given him. Already he had opened six gifts from Lance and he knew that slippers and the cuffs wouldn’t be the last for the evening.
Finally after all the presents were opened, Justin handed him another small package.
“What’s this?” quested JC as he started to unwrap the package.
“A little present from Justin, Chris and I,” explained Joey.
“We all came up with the idea individually to give it to you,” explained Chris. “Then we all found out that we were all going to give it to you and we didn’t have time for the battle of death before your birthday with Joey being here in New York and me and Justin being in LA for the Teen Choice Awards with you last weekend. So we agreed that it would be from all of us . . . even though I came up with the idea first.”
“No, I came up with it first!” protested Justin jokingly. “I think Chris discovered me looking at the information on the Internet and then blabbed about it to Joey!”
“I’m getting a little worried,” smiled JC as the lifted the lid of the small box and looked at what was inside. “A plane ticket?”
“Yep!” grinned Joey. “And it’s to Russia!”
“We figured nobody would notice if you went over there for a weekend,” explained Justin. “We’re not popular there, so keep a low profile and most people will probably think that you’re one of Lance’s assistants.”
“When?” asked JC excitedly.
“You leave tomorrow morning and come back on Monday,” informed Chris. “The Basstronaut doesn’t know so keep it quiet from him when you talk to him.”
JC smiled brightly as he clutched his plane ticket. Sure it would have been nicer if Lance had been able to be there for his birthday, but they would be doing their own celebration soon enough.