Space Cowboy

By Julie

The pensive man gazed at the sky, letting his blue eyes pan across the navy velvet of the heavens. The starlit, midnight sky was so beautiful… and yet, beyond its heavenly veil were so many unknown dangers. How could something that brought him so much peace also invoke so much fear deep within him? But perhaps that, in part, was the secret behind the sky’s beauty… the universe of mysteries that lay above and beyond it.

They were mysteries JC often wondered about… but never pursued. He preferred to keep his feet firmly planted on the ground, confident that one day, the answers to all of his questions would be revealed, even if it was not until the day he died and rose to pass through heaven’s shroud.

But others were not so patient, not so willing to hold back.

The hand that lightly touched his shoulder now belonged to one of those. JC turned, and the deep blue of the sky lightened to the pale blue of Lance’s eyes. These eyes, which normally expressed so much happiness, gaiety, and love, were clouded with concern.

“Joshua?”

JC always loved the way his given name rolled off of Lance’s moist, supple tongue, a tongue he had sheltered in his mouth many a time, a tongue which he had caressed tenderly with his own.

Lance spoke again, his rumbling bass voice now feather soft. “What’s wrong?”

A lump rose in JC’s throat as his eyes drank in Lance’s luscious features – the light, silken locks of blonde hair, the snow white albino skin, the perfectly sculpted eyebrows, the full lips of his rosebud mouth, painted with a soft shade of magenta. He yearned to lean forward and meet those lips with his own, to take Lance in his arms and hold him tight, never to let him go.

Never to let him go… up there. JC’s eyes darkened as he looked away from Lance’s sweet, feminine face and back toward the night sky. It was there that Lance wanted to be, not here on Earth, not here with JC. When he was with Lance, JC often felt as if his head were above the clouds, that dreamy, euphoric tingling that only a crush could bring about. But Lance really wanted his head to be above the clouds, high above the clouds and far from the Earth.

Lance wanted to go to space. It had been his dream since childhood, and sometimes JC felt that it was Lance’s one and only heart’s desire. He knew he should be happy for his partner, now that he was so close to living out this dream. But he could not be. Because JC’s one and only heart’s desire… was Lance.

Even though it made JC’s heart race and palms sweat with lust to picture Lance in an astronaut’s uniform, striding valiantly to his rocket ship just like Ben Affleck in Armageddon, the thought of letting his love blast off into space terrified him. So many things could go wrong… what if he never saw his Lansten again? 

“Joshie?” Lance whispered, his arm slithering around JC’s waist and pulling him close. JC’s whole body tingled as it pressed up against Lance’s soft, pudding-y physique.

“You know what’s wrong,” he said hoarsely and pulled away with reluctance, wishing he could just snuggle up against Lance’s bare chest instead and bury his face in its white Charmin (cha cha cha) softness.

“But, JC,” Lance said, touching JC again, “you don’t understand.”

“What don’t I understand?” JC exploded, roughly tearing himself from Lance’s grasp. “You’re going to go to space, where you’ll be alone in a small, enclosed space craft with a whole crew of sexy Russian men! Now if that isn’t tempting-“

“But JC!”

“-I don’t know what is. And then, what if something bad happen? What if you have to crash land on planet Kindor in the galaxy Kazakastan, and you end up falling in love with a big burly Kindorian and forget all about me?!” JC was distraught by now; he tried to blink back the tears that were rapidly rising in his eyes, but it was no use. They came much too quickly, and he had no choice but to let them fall, dissolving into sobs as his eyes overflowed.

“Shh,” Lance whispered soothingly, taking JC in his arms and running his tender fingers through JC’s hair. “Nothing like that is going to happen, JC, I promise.”

“But how can you-“

“Because I’m not going.”

It took a moment for Lance’s words to hit home, and then JC looked up in shock. “Are you serious?” he asked, staring at Lance through wide, tear-filled eyes. “You’re not going… just because of me?”

“Well, no,” Lance admitted. “Actually, I just didn’t come up with the twenty million dollars in time.”

“Oh.” JC tried to hide his happiness, realizing that Lance was probably disappointed. “Well… don’t feel too bad. Even if you never get to be a cosmonaut, you know you’ll always be my Space Cowboy.”

“Yippie-yi-yay,” purred Lance, waggling his Cover Girl eyebrows suggestively.

A seductive smirk spread over JC’s face. “Come on, partner, let’s head inside. I want you to saddle up and ride me all night!”

Lance giggled like a schoolgirl, clapped his hands together with joy, and then threw back his head and hollered, “Yeeeeeee-haw!”

See I've got my eyes on the skies
The heavenly bodies up high
And if you're in the mood to take a ride
Then strap on your suit and get inside (c'mon)

If you wanna fly, come and take a ride
Take a space ride with the cowboy, baby
If you wanna fly, come and take a ride
Take a space ride with the cowboy, baby
Why-yi-yi-yippie-yi-yay-yippie-yi-yo-yippy-yi-yay
Why-yi-yi-yippie-yi-yay-yippie-yi-yo-yippie-yi-yo
Why-yi-yi-yippie-yi-yay-yippie-yi-yo-yippy-yi-yay
Why-yi-yi-yippie-yi-yay-yippie-yi-yo-yippie-yi-yo

- “Space Cowboy” by *NSync

The End

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