Joey sighed as the Backstreet Boys left the hotel. Their ride was waiting for them just a couple of blocks away -management would kill both bands if the BSB bus was seen in front of where *N Sync was supposed to stay. Lommie had agreed to escort them, so Emily could go and pick up the passes AJ had promised her, and the girl couldn't be happier.
But without Emily around, that meant he couldn't monopolize Chris' attention, unless he wanted the others to notice. And even when Lance had reacted well to the news of his sexual preferences and his feelings for Chris, he wasn't really sure of how Justin or JC would take them.
He hoped Justin wouldn't have a trouble with it. Even suspected a little about his younger friend, because of the troubles he went through to make everyone believe he dated Britney and his constant escapades with Nick Carter.
But JC…
He knew that JC
wasn't going to take the news well. And a mad JC was the last thing the
group needed.
* * *
Chris was very nervous as he went with the band back to the floor where their rooms were. He hadn't thought much of it when they were on their way to the hotel, when he was next to Joey and the only ones were his AJ and Brian, who were paying attention to Emily and not to him, Lance, who had been really nice to him, and Howie, who was his friend and who hadn't changed much in the years Chris hadn't seen him.
Now, however, he was alone with Joey's band. And even when he was getting to know Lance, and Justin was a fun kid, there was JC.
Truth to be told, Chris was a little scared of JC. Before, when he had just meet Joey, during the dream date that had been only two days ago, Chris hadn't thought much of JC. He had been too busy watching Joey, trying not to be too obvious, trying to avoid JC's glares… But then he had thought that JC glared at everyone. At least, that was what it seemed like.
Things had changed. He had spend the night with Joey. And even when he knew it wasn't going to happen again, that Joey was leaving the next morning and probably wouldn't remember him once they crossed the state line, his heart still held hope that it wasn't just a one night stand for the singer. And if that was true, he wanted to try and be friends with Joey's friends. Which included JC. Who again was trying to see if it was possible to kill a human being just by staring at it and wishing it.
Thankfully, he wasn't the current subject to JC's death glare. That was reserved to Lance, who didn't seem to notice or care. Chris shook his head, he didn't understand at all the chemistry between the four singers.
According to teen magazines, JC was the responsible one, Lance was the shy one, Joey was the flirt and Justin was the cute one. However, even in the short time he had know them, Chris had seen that that wasn't exactly true. Well, JC was responsible, apparently, to the point of alienating himself from the band when they did something he thought was wrong. And he was the undisputed champion on the glare department, a fact that no magazine had catch, apparently, or that they were forbidden to divulge. Lance was everything but shy, and Chris had many things to thank him for, starting with the chance to see Joey again. He was almost certain that Lance had had a lot more to do than fate with Emily winning the contest. And that Joey and JC knew it too. Justin was cute, that was true so far, but Chris knew that there was much more to the younger man than a pretty face. More than that, Justin didn't act like a child star, used to have everything handed to him on a plate.
And Joey definitively wasn't a flirt. At least not for the female population, and Chris doubted that Joey was too prone to find one night stands of the male variation. His job didn't really allow for that. It was obvious to Chris that Joey had to be very discrete at all times, pretty much like Danny when he and Chris started dating.
But he wasn't going to compare Joey to Danny. They were as different as oil and water.
"You wanna play?" Justin asked, offering him the second control of the playstation, and Chris accepted it, sitting on the couch. The game was Marvel vs. Capcom, and Justin was clearly too good at it; Chris lost the first match in record time, but then he got the hang of the controls and soon he was giving the younger man a fair competition.
They were starting the third fight when Emily arrived, holding two golden cards in her hands, and happy beyond words. Then she sat between Justin and Chris, as she watched them play.
"Can I play with the one who wins?" She asked, just when Chris was finally managing to get the upper hand on the fight. However, his sister's voice distracted him, and Justin placed a three move combo against him.
"Sure!" Justin agreed, not taking his eyes off the t.v. set. "We can have a tournament or something."
"And we have the time." JC said, and for the first time Chris didn't hear a hidden recrimination, a glare or an insult in the singers' voice. "Johnny called, and we're not allowed to leave the hotel until tomorrow. Unless it's down to the lobby to sign autographs, we're arrested. Again."
"Again?" Chris and Emily asked, as Lance, Justin and Joey laughed.
"Joey has this nasty habit of disappearing when we are on tour." Lance explained. "And no one knows where he goes to. Last time was… What? A week ago? We were on our way here, made a pit stop, and suddenly, Joey was no where to be seen."
"I decided to go clubbing." Joey said, and his eyes meet Chris' for a second. Chris knew what day they meant. A week ago, before *N sync got to town, Joey had escaped to go to the bar that was just twenty minutes away from Albany, where Chris had seen him for the first time. "Which ended up with me being handcuffed to the bus for the whole week before our three concerts here."
"But now, since Justin did the disappearing trick too, and Nick came here to see him… We're being blamed as a group." JC finished, now sounding tired. "So, this time we're all getting handcuffed till the next stop."
"They don't really do that, right?" Emily asked, and Lance shook his head, smiling.
"They wish they could. Why did you think we called our album 'No strings attached'?" The bass singer said with a serious tone, that was ruined when Justin, then JC and Joey began laughing.
By the time the laughter ended, Chris had lost the round and he passed the control to Emily.
* * *
Joey watched with interest as Emily kicked JC's butt on the game, after having defeated Justin with just one fighter. Obviously, the 14 year old girl was much better at this than all of them together. The only one who still had to compete against the champion was Lance, who sat in the corner of the coach, while Justin demanded a rematch once they finished. Apparently, he had some troubles accepting he had been beaten up by a girl.
Joey hadn't fared much better, that was true, but the main reason for his quick defeat had been that he was too busy trying to see Chris without the others noticing. Now, he was sitting on his bed, with Chris at his side, their hands entwined. Since no one was looking in their direction, they could have that small contact, and for Joey it was enough to make his heart soar.
He needed to find a way to make it work.
So far, everything had gone more or less right: Chris returned his feelings -Joey refused to doubt that-, Chris' family liked him, and Justin and Lance liked Chris. Lance had even helped them to get together. The only one of Joey's almost- brothers who had yet to accept Chris as a friend was JC.
And even JC was mellowing down a little. Sure, he still glared a lot, but now his glares were directed at Lance or Justin, and he was still talking in monosyllabic most of the time, but he was talking.
Maybe everything was going to be all right.
"I'm hungry!" Justin suddenly declared, getting up. "C'mon Joey. Let's go downstairs and bring something for everyone."
"We can ask for room service." JC's answered, at the same time that his fighter got a severe beating.
"I'm also tired of watching the same four walls." Justin told him, and hit Joey playfully on the shoulder. "C'mon! Let's go, and we'll be back in a minute."
Joey looked at Justin, then at Chris, and at Justin again, before smiling and getting to his feet. He didn't want to leave Chris alone, but if Justin asked him to go, it was for some special reason. "Anyone has any requests?"
Once they had everyone's choices, they left the room and went to the elevator. JC was still playing, and that calmed Joey a little. He fidgeted, wishing that the elevator was faster, so he could be back to Chris' side.
"Can I ask you something, Joey?" Justin asked between the 15th and the 14th floor.
"Sure." But he wasn't really paying attention, because his mind was focused in the school teacher that was sitting on his bed, two floors up.
"What's going on between you and Chris?" And that brought Joey back to the elevator, that was now between 14th and 13th, where he was alone with Justin, who had know him for more than four years, who was like his younger brother, even more than his real brother, and who really didn't know him at all. And who was trying to know him.
"I love him." The truth came easily to his lips, because he had had all night to think about it. He still hadn't told the words to Chris, not outside the moments of passion when the words are meaningless anyway, because he was afraid that his lover wouldn't believe them, so Justin was the first to hear them.
He loved Chris.
And he wasn't going to let anything stand in their chance at happiness.
* * *
"Can we talk?" JC's approach surprised Chris, and he nodded. When the taller man pointed to the door, Chris just spared a glance towards Lance, who was deeply engrossed in his game with Emily- he was the only one making her sweat- and followed JC out of the room.
Once they were in the hallway, JC turned to see Chris, looking a little embarrassed, confused, and sad.
"Is
there a problem?" Chris asked, bracing himself for the answer. He
was very confused over JC's attitude towards him that day. "Can I…?"
"I just wanted to apologize…" JC finally said, meeting Chris' eyes. "I've been acting like a jerk. So, I'm sorry. "
"You had your reasons, I guess." Chris smiled, but his gesture wasn't answered. "No hard feelings."
There was a short silence, and Chris took it as the end of the conversation, turning around to return to the room. However, JC's voice stopped him.
"You're lucky, you know?" Chris looked back at the singer, who was leaning against the opposite wall. "You don't have to pretend for anyone. Your family, your friends support you… And you can do whatever you want. And everyone likes you… Joey, Justin… Lance… Backstreet… Everyone."
"No one is liked by everyone, JC." Chris shook his head, smiling. "Zeck hates me… there are a lot of people who can't stand me… You don't like me."
"I didn't want to like you, Chris." JC sighed, and closed his eyes as if he was going to make a big confession. "I knew there was going to be a thousand photographers at that date, and that even a smile could be taken the wrong way and the rumors would start again. I can't let that happen. I wanted to hate you. What's a guy doing in an *N Sync concert, anyway?… Most chaperones just wait outside… But you're impossible not to like. And you have… everything. So I was a jerk that night. And then Lance talked to you behind our backs, and Howie knew you before all this, and Nick thinks you're a great singer, and I ended up being the bad guy… and… and I still can't dislike you."
"Why you worry that much for gossip?" Chris asked, not wanting to even start wondering if it was true that the other guys liked him. "No one believes them, anyway. And you know they're lies so…"
"What if I know they aren't absolute lies?" JC muttered, so low that Chris almost didn't caught it, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. "What if I know part of it is true?"
Chris sat next to JC, surprised for this moment of sincerity in front of a total stranger. Because he was that. JC was confiding on him, after acting as if he hated him. "Which part?"
JC looked at him, unbelief written all over his face. "The part about *N Sync's singer not being interested at all in his female fans…" he mumbled, hiding his face on his hands. "The part about me being a sick pervert for not liking girls."
"Who said that?" Chris frowned. He had crossed paths with a few kids who were taught that certain believes and preferences were wrong, hating themselves for it, and every time he wished he had finished psychology, so he could help them properly. … but never more than in that moment, when Joey's best friend was on the verge of tears.
"My parents, my teachers, my agent… Everyone." JC didn't look up as he spoke, his voice trembling. "And if anyone knew, they would hate me, and that would be the end of *N Sync."
* * *
Justin couldn't believe his eyes when they stepped out of the elevator, with the room service trays since the hotel management had been kind enough to lend them those, and saw JC and Chris talking nicely to each other in the hallway.
It wasn't weird seeing Chris' talking nicely to someone. In the brief time he had known the teacher, Chris had never been angry at someone, not even to the Danny-jerk. What was weird was that for the first time in three days, JC wasn't glaring.
And if Justin wasn't mistaken, whatever Chris was saying right now, was making JC smile. A small smile, maybe a little too sad for Josh, but a smile none the less.
Score another one for the Albany teacher, Nick. Justin thought, and smiled, thinking on calling Nick first thing in the morning, so Nick could tell him all about the concert, and he could tell Nick all what had happened that day.
"Hey, guys!" Joey called out, maybe a little too eager in Justin's ears, and Chris and JC turned around to see it. In that split second, Justin realized two things: first, Josh was keeping a secret from them, because in the moment he saw them, his face was again the 'everything is all right' mask JC wore on interviews and photo shots. Second, Joey's feelings were reciprocated. Now he knew what he was looking at, Justin could see Chris beam in the presence of the other man.
That sure was going to make the tour interesting.
* * *
Joey couldn't stop the smile on his face when Chris looked up at him and their eyes meet again. Whatever that was going on in the hallway between his and Lance's room, and Justin and JC's room, didn't worry Joey anymore. The smile in Chris' face melted his heart and erased all doubts.
And it seemed that finally JC was coming out of his jerk stage, if Chris didn't look like a kicked puppy, and Josh was smiling. So maybe it wasn't enough reassurance to make Joey tell everyone about his love for Chris, but at least it was a start.
Now he only had to think on how to keep in touch with Chris, now that the tour was continuing and they were leaving Albany.
* * *
The afternoon ended too quickly for Chris' taste, as he had to leave the hotel at 6:00 to get his sister's ready to the long drive to Buffalo and the Backstreet Boys concert. He almost didn't made it, as he had been to busy enjoying himself in the company of *N Sync, but Emily didn't forgot her golden passes nor their promise to pick Kate.
He had said his goodbyes to the group, and was very surprised when everybody, including JC, hugged him. And, even when he wasn't sure if the others noticed, each slipped a piece of paper into his hands. With their cell numbers and e-mails.
Each had also written a message, that he read carefully as he waited for Kate in the car.
"We should do this more often." Read Justin's note, quickly scribbled in a napkin.
"I'd like to talk to you someday, Chris." Read Lance's. Chris knew that the talk was going to be about Joey, he really didn't think anything went past Lance's deep eyes.
"Thanks." JC's message was simple, but it made Chris' smile. After their heart to heart talk in the hallway, he had told JC that he would always be a friendly ear when he needed one, and it was nice to see that JC did believed him.
But the message that really warmed his heart, the one that made him want to jump out of joy, made his heart beat faster, was Joey's.
"I wish I could stay. I hope this is enough for now."
Because it meant that the singer wanted to see him again. That he wasn't just a one night stand.
And the thought
made him smile all the way to Buffalo, even when his sisters' spend half
of the way asking "Are we there, yet?"