"Lance? Don't be like this. I'm sorry." Chris said. He held out his arms, offering a hug.

"Fuck you. Stay away from me." Lance slammed the door again, only to have Chris stick his foot in it.

"Jeezus! Lance!" he said as he hobbled into the room. "I said I was sorry."

"Do I look like I care?" Lance said and sat down on the bed to take off his shoes.

He only got one off before, Chris knelt at his feet and put on his best angelface. He knew Lance couldn't resist when he was before him like this -- vulnerable, cherubic, willing to please. "If you didn't care, you wouldn't be so mad." Chris grabbed at Lance's foot and took off the other shoe.

"Why do you have to be such an asshole?" Lance said, giving in a little and allowing Chris to rub his thighs.

"Because you like assholes, especially mine," Chris said and grinned.

"You're dirty, Kirkpatrick. You know that?"

"Yeah, I know," he said moving his hands up to Lance's waist. "You have quite the potty mouth yourself though."

"What?"

"What was that I heard earlier? 'Fuck you'? And I won't even mention the sweet nothings you always whisper in my ear when we make love."

Lance flushed and Chris took that as a signal to move his hands inward, towards his groin.

"Not so fast, hotshot," Lance said and pushed him away. Chris leaned back and Lance placed a foot squarely on his chest and pushed him further.

"What. I'm not forgiven?"

"No, Chris. Not exactly." Lance unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged it off then pulled his pants off, leaving him in a white t-shirt and boxers. "We need to talk about this."

Chris followed suit and undressed himself as Lance climbed into the bed. "What's there to talk about? I'm an idiot -- end of story."

"See, that's just it Chris." Lance settled against his pillow. "You think it's just cut and dry." Chris climbed onto the bed a crossed his legs. "It's not."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for example. Let's say someone said 'All boybands blow monkey chunks'..." Lance said, and Chris laughed. "That's just a universal positive proposition. It's a generalization and not necessarily true."

Lance continued, even though Chris looked confused. "You don't just apologize and are automatically forgiven. I know it's always seemed like that, but sometimes you do things that really suck, that really hurt me."

"Lance, why do you let me get away with it then?" Chris was stroking his hand now, a nervous habit that soothed both of them.

"I love you, Chris. And I know you love me. And I know that you'd never do anything to intentionally hurt me. But..." Lance shook his head.

"But what?" Chris said and kissed his hand.

"Sometimes I don't think you realize what you're doing until after you've done it. Like this afternoon."

"What did I do this afternoon?"

"See, you don't even remember," Lance said and pulled his hand away.

"Okay, just a second, lemme think..." Chris tried to grab Lance's hand again, but he had locked them behind his head.

Chris sighed and played with the blankets, trying to recall what he had done this afternoon. After a few minutes, Lance started humming the 'Jeopardy' theme.

Chris got up off the bed and paced. "Lance. Stop it." Lance stopped, but sat up and twiddled his thumbs.

"Lance. I do know what I did." Chris said, and grabbed a blue mesh hackey sack off the bedside table to squeeze in his hands. "It was when we were at lunch with JC and Bobbee. I told them about that noise you make when I touch you in the... uh... right places."

Lance's mouth dropped open. "YOU! You do know!" Lance kneeled up on the bed and yelled. "Don't fucking tell me you didn't do that on purpose."

"Lance," Chris said calmly, but simultaneously squeezed the stuffing out of the hackey. "Let me tell you something. Yes, I did it on purpose..."

"You bastard! Why the hell do you always have to embarrass me?"

"But...BUT!" Chris thrusted a finger in the air. "I'm not finished. You wanna know why I do stuff like that?"

"Why?" Lance was sitting back on his haunches and breathing heavily.

"Because couples like JC and Bobbee can be all lovey-dovey in public, and we can't." Chris threw the hackey across the room and it smacked against the balcony door. "So instead of placing little kisses on your cheek or rubbing your ears with my nose in public, I make little comments, so the people around us, the people we're close to, can see that I love you."

Chris flopped on the down on the floor and let out an his breath, exasperated. Lance was slowly laying back down on the bed, his face covered with his hands.

They sat still and silent for awhile, until Chris' energy returned and he sat up. Lance rolled out of the bed and sat next to him. "Chris?"

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry." Lance put his arm around him and rested his head on Chris' shoulder. Chris relaxed and wrapped an arm around Lance's waist.

"I just thought...I thought..." Lance sniffled. "I didn't know you loved me that much. I thought that was just something you did because you're Chris Kirkpatrick and you're annoying like that."

Chris laughed. "That's only part of the reason -- maybe just a generalization and not necessarily true."

"Do you forgive me" Lance asked, "for not understanding that?"

"Yes, I do." Chris rubbed Lance's neck and kissed him softly. "Peace on earth, good will towards Lance, all is forgiven."

Lance nuzzled against Chris, then stood up, pulling Chris towards the bed. "Can we make up now?"

Chris pushed Lance down on the bed and pinned his hands on either side of his head. "And how do you propose we do that?"

"We can start by maybe..." Lance thrust his hips up into Chris' groin and felt the barely restrained hardness of penis against his thigh.

"Ooo. Being a naughty boy, I see."

"Yup. Just how you like me." Chris covered any further comment from Lance with a wet, involved, lingering kiss.

End.

Originally written as an *Mprov on 12/18/00, with the words universal positive proposition, peace on earth, cherubic.