Pairing: Joey and AJ
Words: purple fake fur; assent; more than that; Dre


"Hi, my name is AJ..." the speaker paused.

"Hi, AJ," the room chorused, as Joey slipped down lower into his
seat, hat pulled firmly down over his eyes.

Oh god.  Not this.  Not him.  Not here.  Not now.

Joey didn't want to be there.  He didn't have a problem.  Maybe
other people had problems, but he didn't.  At the most, he had a
preference.  And he could handle it.  So occasionally it got a
little out of control.  That still didn't mean that he belonged
here.

But Kelly had insisted.  And, despite everything, and all the
evidence to the contrary, he really did love her.  He could stop
for her.  He'd better, as she'd given him an ultimatum -- stop, or
it was over between them.

He could just break up with her.  Again.

No!  He loved her more than that.  He was reasonably sure.  If it
was love at all.  Joey was very good at falling in love with people
on short acquaintance.  It was what made him such a successful
flirt -- for the duration of the relationship, mean time: three
hours, he believed wholeheartedly that they were the one for him. 
The girl with the purple fake fur panties.  The million and one
groupies with pink lips and pink faces and pink glitter on their
breasts.  Carson Daly.  Dre.  Okay, so he wasn't sure what he'd
been thinking on the last two, but they had both seemed like a good
idea at the time.

All of his flings seemed like a good idea at the time.  Which was
one of the reasons Joey thought it might be the real thing with
Kelly -- it had been off-again, on-again so often that it wasn't a
fling so much as a series of flings and he'd been with her when he
wasn't in love with her as well as when he was, and she still
seemed like someone worth knowing.  Plus they had a daughter
together.

He would make it work with Kelly.  Because it was love, and it was
real.  And because he didn't have a problem.

AJ slid into the chair next to him as the meeting broke up.  "So,
Fatone, I have to say out of all the people I know, I'm not
surprised to find you here."

"I didn't know you'd be here."

"Yeah, well, it's something I do now.  I'm not embarrassed to admit
I have a problem.  How about you?"

"I don't have a problem."

AJ gave him a level look over the top of his glasses.  "You know,
Fatone, I think, when you get right down to it, most of the music
biz shares our problem.  When you get it shoved in your face day
after day, you're going to take advantage of it."

"That doesn't mean it's a problem," Joey said.  "Everyone does it."

"Yeah, they do.  Doesn't mean it's right, or that they take it to
the level that both of us know we have in the past."

"Yeah."  Joey gave his assent reluctantly.  He wasn't saying he had
a problem, but it was true that both he and AJ were near legendary
for their hedonistic lifestyles.  He couldn't be embarrassed by his
excesses when he *knew* AJ had done more and worse.

"So welcome to Sex Addicts Anonymous, and maybe next time you won't
try the hiding in the back trick.  'Cause, I got to tell you, it
never works."

"Whatever, man.  I don't need to be here.  Kelly--" Joey cut
himself off.

"Your girlfriend?  That's cool.  Hey, you ever want to talk about
it, you give me a call.  I'm getting married; I know what it's like
to try to settle down with one woman when you can have all of them. 
You gotta take it one day at a time, and all that.  I know it
sounds like bullshit, but it makes a lot of sense after a while."

"I don't--" Joey repeated, then shook his head.  "Yeah, fine,
whatever."

AJ clapped him on the shoulder and stood up.  "I'm serious, call. 
I could use the support, too, y'know.  I love Sarah, but," he shook
his head.

"There's lots of fish in the sea?"

"And lots of pussy too."