Pharrell/Justin and they're stuck in a moment.
For Life Through A Lens: the Robbie Williams hip-hop slash challenge.

Overlap
 

*

"I am searching for love and a family of my own. The right girl, having beautiful children, and just taking care of them."

Pharrell Williams - Thrasher magazine, October 2002

*

Justin tosses the football back to Pharrell and says he's gonna sit this one out.

"Cool, okay." Pharrell nods, shrugs.

Chad nods too but as soon as Justin's out of earshot he's jabbing Pharrell in the ribs. "Okay. You go talk to him. Go on." He lowers his voice though Chase and Rayna aren't even listening, too busy turning over starfish with a stick.

"What?" Pharrell rubs his side absentmindedly. Then he shakes his head. "Nah, man, he's just tired, he's been jet-settin' all over, promo shit." When Chad doesn't look too convinced, he gets a little more insistent: "I'm telling you, for real. It's nothing. "

Chad considers it, head tilted. "Yeah, probably," he says at last. "But you still oughta go talk to him," he adds, grabbing the football from Pharrell's slack hands. He slaps Pharrell on the back and flashes him a grin before taking off after the kids, hollering "I'm gonna get you!" as he splashes into the surf.

The sand on the beach is soft, so soft that it's impossible to tell that Justin walked the same route up the dune only moments before. Pharrell's feet sink in deep, ground slipping away formlessly beneath him so that he too leaves no footprints, just indentations like the markings of wind or rain.

What Pharrell gets, and Chad doesn't, is that guarantees were never part of this deal. He made sure of it right from the start. 'Love you, J, you're my boy,' Pharrell had said, 'but you know this won't be some kind of forever, you know this ain't gonna be the destination.'

He'd thought that would give Justin pause, forgetting that it'd been more than a year since they first met and Justin was different now. All Justin did was smile and roll his eyes. "Like, yeah." And if he had any doubts left after that, then the certainty of Justin's mouth opening against his own, the urgency of his hands slipping under Pharrell's shirt, those burned 'em away pretty quick.

Two months since last time - what was it, some award show afterparty? Yeah, a couple of months but seems like longer. Ever since Justin's plane touched down Pharrell's been jonesing for another taste and judging from the way that Justin's eyeing him off right now, well, he ain't exactly thinking about jetlag neither.

"Hey playa." Pharrell reaches the top of the dune. "Anything happening up here? Chad thought you looked kinda lonely."

Justin shrugs. "Nah. Just couldn't keep up the pace. Check it out - they're still runnin' their little tails off. Crazy."

"Yeah." Pharrell smiles at the scene on the beach, Chad running away whooping as Rayna and Chase cry cheater. "But ain't that just the life?"

Just a matter of moments now, Pharrell knows, before Justin suggests they leave and he says 'okay,' before they head back to the hotel and fuck. Pharrell rubs at Justin's arm with warm sure fingers and waits.

"Definitely," Justin says, "definitely."

*

"I'm not bitter. I'm better."

Justin Timberlake - MTV's Launch, c. June 2002

*

The sun's just starting to go down, throwing long shadows, when Pharrell jogs up the dune to the spot where Justin's been waiting.

"Hey playa," Pharrell says, a little breathless. He sits down by Justin's feet and brushes at the light dusting of sand on his calves, wriggles toes that are caked with it. "Anything happening up here? Chad thought you looked kinda lonely." He bumps his elbow against Justin's.

"Nah." Justin hasn't been lonely in a long time. He draws his knees up to his chest and shrugs. "Just couldn't keep up the pace." He nods towards the beach. "Check it out - they're still runnin' their little tails off."

Down on the sand, Chad and the kids run after the football for the fiftieth time. Chase makes a dive for it and ends up with a mouthful of sand. Rayna shrieks in victory but Chad makes a sneak attack, scoops her up in his arms and holds her high - "alley-oop!" - before setting her down again, grabbing the football himself and running away shouting, "Winner! Winner!"

Justin shakes his head. "Crazy."

"Yeah." Pharrell gazes down. "But ain't that just the life?"

Pharrell has it all figured out, had it figured out for years - the big house in the suburbs and the dog called Rex, the kids he's going to have with the girl he hasn't met yet - yeah, it's a nice list, but he's heard it more than often enough.

Justin used to have a list too, a long one, before he tore it up. He's got a new one now, one he adds names to instead of checking items off, and Pharrell's on there too for all that he talks about soulmates.

Soulmates, yeah right, Justin thinks, and he's on the verge of opening his mouth to say so when Pharrell's hand reaches out unexpectedly and circles Justin's wrist. With Pharrell's fingers rubbing small warm circles on his bare skin it's that much easier for Justin to remember why he's here, so he bites it back, swallows the sharpness.

"Definitely," Justin replies at last, "definitely."

He stares at the tattoo that curls around the side of Pharrell's neck, wondering if it will taste any different this time, if he should touch it when there could be photographers watching. He sinks his hands into the sand instead, grit digging deep beneath his nails, and tries to decide if it's too soon to politely leave.

Pharrell chuckles abruptly, his fingers stilling on Justin's wrist. "Damn. Check that out."

Rayna and Chase have tackled Chad to the ground, are rubbing sand in his hair and shoving handfuls down the collar of his shirt. Chad doubles up, alternating cries for help between spasms of laughter. "Hey! Get down here! Get 'em off me!"

"Those two are a holy terror," Pharrell says tenderly, waving back at Chad but not making a move. "Man, I just love kids at that age, you know? Before they get too cool to play around with their parents, when they still not scared to be silly, stuff like that."

"Uh huh." Justin glances over his shoulder at Lonnie waiting in the car. "Hey, man, I'm kinda tired. I'ma head back first, you coming?"

"Yeah." Pharrell looks up, his clasp light and warm on Justin's arm. "Be there in a minute, okay? I'm just gonna--" He tilts his head toward Chad lying prostrate on the ground and the kids running victory laps around him.

There used to be a time when Justin would've wanted more than this, two days in bed before flying back to Los Angeles alone, but maybe it's better this way, Justin thinks. At least it's simpler. They'll fit together so easily, fall apart the same.

"Sure." Justin stands up, smiles at Pharrell in a way that makes his meaning clear. "You know where I'll be."

*

You said we're fatally flawed
Well I'm easily bored, is that ok?

By Ro, November 2003
Thanks to SQ and Althea for their dope beats and phat rhymes - err, for beta-reading, I mean.

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