For Sandy - Justin/Pharrell and milkshakes

Down the road from the new Star Trak studios, there's an old-fashioned diner that Pharrell especially likes. When there's a break from recording, or if the Jive execs are calling and the atmosphere starts getting tense, he'll often as not disappear for fifteen or twenty minutes at a time, and come back sucking on a maraschino cherry, breath smelling faintly of chocolate and milk.

First time Pharrell brings Justin along is one grey day when the latest song is killing them both and they can't stand the sight of the recording booth for one more minute. Pharrell wraps up what they've done from that morning and sends it upstairs, where Chad's waiting with his blips and beeps and keyboards. "Work your magic, man," Pharrell says dramatically, before breaking into falsetto, "you gotta work it, work it..."

It's just two in the afternoon, before the kids get let out from school, and the diner is nearly empty.

"What's so great about this place anyway?" Justin asks as they settle on a booth, Pharrell finally choosing one by the window. It's always good to be hanging with Pharrell, he doesn't mind where, but it's just that there's a better cafe up the road, and a burger place across the street that makes the best fries. "Why do you always come here?"

Pharrell looks at him hard. "You really wanna know? Okay." He leans over the table and tips Justin a conspiratorial wink. "I got a crush on one of the waitresses," he stage-whispers, and then he looks up and over Justin's head with a smile, saying loudly, "And here she is now. Good afternoon, light-of-my-life, love-of-my-heart."

The waitress' nametag says 'Kristy Anne' and she's at least fifty years old, her hair iron-grey and calves criss-crossed with varicose veins. She rolls her eyes as she approaches - obviously she's heard it all before. "Afternoon yourself. What'll it be?"

"Two chocolate milkshakes," Pharrell says instantly.

She finishes the sentence herself, sighing, and sticks her notepad back in her apron. "With whipped cream and cherries, sure, coming right up."

"Thanks, sweetheart." Pharrell grins again, a big brilliant one that makes his eyes twinkle, one that not even dour Kristy Anne can quite resist - she walks away shaking her head, but her lips are twitching.

"See?" Pharrell leans over the table again, voice dropping again to a whisper. He thumbs in the direction of the kitchen, the swaying door Kristy Anne's just disappeared through. "That's my girl. That's the one I'm crushing on."

"Heh." Justin looks down at the table as he laughs, the shine of Pharrell's smile washing over him like sunlight. "Funny."

Justin thinks maybe he has a crush too.

By Ro, January 2004

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