Heyhey peeps! Sorry for taking so long. I was stuck in the middle and had to wait for Druid to come and help me out. :) I'm glad if you're still reading this. It means that you want to hear what I have to say, which is, basically, just crap. :)
I really like this story, and hope you do too! So you'd better email us about it!
Okay, disclaimer, disclaimer, read all about it!
Well, currently, the flavour of the month is Lance, and he's helping out with housework. Yeah right.
I don't know or own Backstreet Boys or *Nsync, and neither does Druid! This is just a work of fiction, yes?
----------------------------------------------------------------------- "Holy Mama! Look at the size of this place!" exclaimed Nick. It was truly colossal. A few shopping malls could have fit into the place with ease.
Across the hall, JC leaned sleepily on Justin's shoulder. Lance looked around the place and wondered where to go. Just then, he spotted Jared striding purposefully towards them. Walking a slight way away from the guys, Lance said, "Hey, what do we do now?" As if in answer to his question, a strident voice rang out.
"Okay, you guys, I want your butts here! NOW!"
He heard the pitter-patter of running feet and sighted the Backstreet Boys running like mad towards Fatima.
"You heard the lady," said Jared, raising one eyebrow in amusement.
Lance gulped and tried not the look nervous as they walked towards Fatima, then picked up their pace as Fatima stared at them, looking for all the world like the teacher from hell. JC was still a little groggy, but he quickly cottoned on the fact that there was work to be done, and woke up. As they walked towards her, Lance spotted someone behind Fatima. His heart sank. It was Wade. Lance wished that the ground would just open up and swallow him whole. To be tortured with the incessant teasing about his 'two left feet' from his bandmates was more than enough. Now he would not only have to face the sneers of the Boys, but he would have the two choreographers giving the drill over and over and over.
When they met, looking at the way the Backstreet Boys and *Nsync looked at each other, you'd have thought that you were back in the Wild West, and they were about to have a showdown. The tension was that palpable.
Kevin, still the tallest of them all, looked down at Lance from his height. Suppressing a giggle at how childish they were acting, and also from realising the reason behind Lance's terror, he turned to face Fatima with a smile, enveloping her in a hug. She smiled at him and pecked him on the cheek, welcoming the rest of the Boys in the same way. Standing back, she looked at Nick. With her head cocked to one side, she gave him a half-smile, and said, "Alright, Mr Tubby, 10 rounds round the hall. No arguing. The sooner you finish, the sooner you can dance." Nick grumbled a bit, pouted, but all Fatima did was to smile indulgently at him, then give him a shove. Setting off at a slow trot, he looked back pitifully at Fatima, who mouthed, 'It's all your own fault'. Sticking his tongue out at her, he jogged around the hall. He thought fiercely that it wasn't all his fault, it wasn't his fault that he grew fat so easily, as he heard Fatima give instructions to the rest of the Boys. 'Oh well,' he thought to himself.
Looking disdainfully at them, Justin patted JC, who was leaning against him again, and said, "Hey bro, time to get up." JC mumbled sleepily. Justin frowned and JC quickly woke up, but that only made Justin frown more. He knew that he had felt happy when JC had chosen him as his best friend back when they where both still in the MMC, but now he was starting to worry that Big Daddy was turning into the Baby, and the Baby into Big Daddy. Oh, JC still looked after the other guys, but it was now that he realised that JC was indeed overly dependant on him, as he had overheard Chris say to Joey.
It was after their concert, and Justin had been standing outside the bathroom backstage, waiting for JC to finish using it, when he heard his name being mentioned. Listening closely, he realised that it was a conversation about him and JC.
"It's, well, unnatural, Joey. I don't know how else to put it. I mean, it's like JC's attached to Justin with glue, and if Justin isn't here, he's not him."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. It's like, so weird. Whenever Curly's not around, JC either sleeps, or has this lost look on his face, unless he's writing something."
"Joey, Chris, going clubbing after?" Lance's voice carried in from the corridor.
Just then, JC flushed the toilet and opened the door. He smiled at Justin and said, "It's all yours."
"Thanks, man." said Justin as he went in. But no matter how he tried to forget it, he still remembered that conversation. The words "unnatural" and "weird" in particular came floating back into his mind.
The two choreographers had agreed to let the two groups practice separately for that day, on the insistence and pleas of the two basses. Now the Boys were practicing their routine for The One, while *Nsync danced to It's Gonna Be Me. However, no matter how he tried to hold himself together, Lance knew that that day's practice was shot when he made the same wrong move for what seemed to be the fiftieth time. He had gotten used to the teasing, and all he concentrated on now was his image in the mirror as they repeated the seemingly uncomplicated move for the umpteenth time.
"Come on, PooFu, surely you can do better than that!" teased Chris from the side, where he was taking a breather. In fact, all the members of *Nsync were resting, except for Lance and Wade. JC smiled, and absently watched the mirror, noting Lance's worried expression, and the whole... tenseness of his body, comparing it to Wade's smooth movements, precise, unhurried, fluid. Oh well, he thought. What do you expect from a choreographer? Then he realised that he was staring at Wade, who had taken off his shirt earlier on during practise. Hurriedly, he dropped his eyes, hoping against hope that he wasn't blushing. It was weird, the ... vibes that he was getting from Wade. He didn't know how to explain it. Finally, shoving them to the back of his mind, his reverie was broken by Wade's telling them that there was no getting around it this time, they had to practise with the Boys the next day. Immediately, the pout on Justin's face surfaced, and there arose a feeling of indignation within him. Strangely enough, though, he didn't mind the Backstreet Boys, it was just that Justin didn't like them, and he found it easier to copy the younger man.
A series of looks greeted Fatima when she revealed the news to the Boys. Nick's and AJ's faces clearly showed incredulity and disgust, and while Brian's and Howie's seemed neutral, she had known them long enough to detect the slight hint of hostility hidden underneath. Kevin wore a long, worried, but resigned face. Fatima really felt sorry for him, but she could do nothing, except give him a reassuring hug at the end of practice. Somehow, that seemed to do the trick, as Kevin smiled at her. She raised an eyebrow at him, and his smile grew wider and he gave her a bone-crushing hug, lifting her clear off the floor. As the Boys went out to the parking lot, Wade appeared and asked, "Are they out yet?" Nodding, Fatima gathered up her things and prepared to leave too. "Hey, Fatima, don't forget what we're gonna do tomorrow!"
"I'd rather not be reminded, but I won't forget. See ya 'round, Wade," said Fatima as she left, shaking her head as she thought of tomorrow.
Wade walked back to the studio that the *Nsyncers were occupying. "Okay. Class dismissed. See y'all tomorrow, bright and early." Justin stuck a tongue out at Wade as he passed by the choreographer, but Wade merely laughed. The sound made JC tingle, but he dismissed the feeling, walking out with the rest of the guys. Wade looked at the guys' disappearing backs, at JC's in particular, then shook his head and, picking his bag up, switched off the lights and left.
"Do you think they'll ever grow more mature?" Mat asked Jared wearily, "I don't really like bitching around with them. I mean, within each group, they are such nice people, and it's only when you put them face to face that they 'quibble', to put it mildly, that is. They're even nice to each other's choreographers, just not to each other. I really feel like just letting them have their way sometimes."
"Darlin', it's our responsibility to keep this show on the road. What's more, this is for all their fans out there. If this tour falls through, they'll know for sure that the boys are against each other, and in some small way, hell will break loose."
"Guess I played too much Happy Families when I was a kid, huh? Oh well, we'd better get started on those punishments."
She sat down on the sofa. "I'm seeing a change in the scheme. Like, timeouts according to age, one minute per year, and for every misbehaviour during that timeout, five minutes will be added."
"Okay," said Jared, scribbling it down, "but we'd better start with the rules first."
Mutter. Grumble. Glares and stares. Fatima sighed. They hadn't even started the day yet and most of the boys were in, well, bad moods. Even though Lance and Kevin had been pretty okay to each other, and even trying to get their respective groups to at least know the other, they were like ants trying to move a mountain. Each BSB member had been paired with an *Nsync member. It had been Jared's idea, and even though it had seemed like a reasonable request then, she didn't really like it now. For one, too much hostility. And that always affected how the Boys danced, at least. She didn't know much about *Nsync.
As for Wade, he wished that he hadn't agreed to Jared's request too. It would be hard enough concentrating with JC there. He had realised that he had some sort of feelings for JC some time ago, just that he thought that JC was straight. Stretching, he looked at the pairs. A few days before, he had met up with Fatima and the managers, Jared, and what's-her-name, Mat. The end result was that he and Fatima had put together ways that were unbiased to pair up BSB and *Nsync. There was, of course, by age, then by first names, then by various combinations and permutations of these factors. In the end, they flipped a coin, and Fatima got to pick out of the bag the combination that they would be using today. First names alphabetically. 'Well,' he reasoned to himself, 'at least it wasn't by age.' He couldn't exactly see Nick and Justin getting along, or Kevin and Chris for that matter, even though their ages were pretty close. So. AJ and Chris. Brian and Lance. Howie and Joey. Kevin and JC. Nick and Justin. Okay, so maybe it was as bad. After this, he swore, he would... well he didn't know what he would do. At least JC got Kevin, so he knew that JC would be treated decently.
It had been agreed that they would perform together Quit Playin' Games and You Got It, as well as two other songs that the groups would choose by themselves. "One each." was what Mat had said. The start date of the tour had been settled for next week, and all the tickets that had been released had been snapped up. "After all, you guys are famous for being fussy about the stage arrangements." Media coverage of the tour was going to be big, considering the fact that the rumour about the animosity between the guys was big. Photo shoots of both groups together had already been finished, thankfully. The photos had come out alright, and they were going to send them to the press come Monday. Jared muttered as he ticked off the items on his list. Photos okay. Songs okay. Dance okay. Stage okay. Now the only thing left to do was to wait for Mat to come back with dinner. He yawned and lay back in his chair in the office that overlooked the hall, turning around to peer at the guys.
Justin looked nervously at Lance as he stumbled yet again. They were really losing points to BSB in this area, and he winced inwardly as he saw the snide, smug smiles on the faces of all the BSB members. Well, almost all. Kevin was looking concerned. But he wasn't falling for Kevin's shit. No way man! He watched as Lance picked himself up, and tried the step out again. Yes! He succeeded! He shot a smug smile to the BSB members, and noted that Kevin was looking relieved. Well, well, well. Then it was his and Nick's turn. Nick. He wanted to spit on the ground at the mere thought of that.. that.. thing. Yet he knew that they might have been good friends, even best friends, if they weren't in "warring tribes" as Mat put it. They shared way too many interests. Too bad. Completing the steps with ease, they moved off and it was Howie's and Joey's turn. Practice went smoothly, except for Lance's mistakes that caused the smile on Brian's face to get bigger and bigger, and Lance seemed to grow smaller and smaller with each mistake. JC and Kevin were up now.
"Alright, I want more speed on that! Yes, that's fine Kevin, now you JC!" yelled Fatima as she watched the guys. Wade nodded his approval until JC spun too fast, tripped, and fell on him. They went crashing through props, narrowly missing the speakers and the edge of the stage.
"Whew!" said Wade. Then "Ow."
"Oh, god," said JC as he picked himself up, and extended a hand to Wade, as he had been on top. "Are you hurt? I'm really sorry for crashing into you like that."
"Never mind. You didn't do it on purpose anyway," smiled Wade, then he frowned in annoyance as he noticed the huge tear in his shirt. "Shit. And I don't have any other clothes," he said, looking around in his bag.
"Oh, I'm really, really sorry. Erm..." JC started to say, but Wade cut him off.
"I said, never mind. Go back to practice and I'll see if I can hunt up something to wear."
In the end, Wade decided to finish practice shirtless. Looking at him, JC could feel the heat rise in his cheeks and a funny feeling in his stomach every time he remembered the brief contact they had. Each time he glanced at Wade, he would get flustered and if he hadn't been paying extra attention, and Kevin hadn't been paying extra attention to him, he most certainly would have had another accident.
Justin looked at JC. After the accident, he looked, well, fine. Well, more than fine. But he really was behaving abnormally. The normal JC would be dreamy, but certain and extremely sure when he was dancing. But this JC was extra dreamy, and kept making small mistakes that he shouldn't have. He reflected on how he really knew JC inside out. That was, until this moment. Hmm.
"Alright, alright, Lance, take a break. You really need one," said Wade compassionately. Brian almost snorted but held it in, looking grandiosely over to Nick, who gave him a wink. Kevin looked worriedly at Lance. Years later, Nick would have termed this the 'mother hen' look, but at that point in time, they weren't paying attention to Kevin, but to Lance, laughing up their sleeves at him.
Finally, when he saw that Kevin had left for the bathroom, Nick started on him. "Wassa matter, boy? Have two left feet, don't we?" And after that, the attack on Lance by BSB was full blown. They prodded him, they jibed him, they teased him. *Nsync tried vainly to protect Lance, but were unable to do so. Sizing up the situation as he came back, Kevin immediately went into full-blown 'dad' mode.
"Off! Off, damnit! NOW!" Brian and Howie decided to scoot at the sound of Kevin's voice, but it took him longer to pry Nick and AJ off Lance. He was about to scold them when he noticed the looks on the faces of *Nsync. They were amazed, to say the least. He shrugged his shoulders and said to Fatima, "I think it's time we end practice. The monkeys are getting hungry."
She smiled at his remark and said, "Okay. I am too. Hey Wade, how about we end now?"
"Fine with me. I've got some things to attend to, anyway," Turning to the guys, he said, "Dismissed."
Immediately, Chris and Joey jumped up and ran for the door. JC tugged on Justin's arm, who looked back at Lance, sitting on the edge of the stage. Lance looked up and waved them off. Justin shrugged and let himself be led by JC to the limo.
Brian and Nick walked off, talking about the tour, while Howie dozed off and had to be carried to the limo by AJ, assisted by Kevin.
Walking back to ask Fatima about a dance step, Kevin found that she was gone, leaving a dejected Lance on the edge of the stage. He had told his band mates to get dinner first.
Looking at the blonde, Kevin ran his fingers through his hair and sighed, a soft sound that, nevertheless, caused Lance to look up.
"Oh, hi," said Lance glumly, looking back down at his hands again.
"Now I know why you looked panicked just now," said Kevin with a slight grin as he sat down next to Lance.
Silence.
"Look, why don't we go over the moves again. I'm sure you were just distracted back there."
A soft sigh. "Okay."
"Great! Now where's that CD-player..." said Kevin as he stood up and looked around.
"Fatima took it with her."
"Oh. Well, erm, we could just count then, I suppose?"
"Alright."
"Wait a minute." He dialled a familiar number and waited as it rang. "Hello, Rok? Yeah, sorry, go ahead, I'll catch up with you guys later. Bye." He smiled brightly at the blonde, who was now standing. "Where do you want to start?"
"I dunno."
"How about the part with the twist? It seemed that you were having the most trouble with that."
"Okay."
"Okay! I'll do it first, then you follow. Now, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, two, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Follow? Okay, now you, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, two, two, three, four, whoops!" Kevin caught Lance as he stumbled and fell.
"Sorry."
"Hey, no problem. I think I know where your problem is though. You see, you're not lifting your leg high enough." Looking into pale green eyes, he said, "You're tense, aren't you?"
"I suppose."
"Well, just relax, there's no one here but me and you, and I for one am definitely not going to laugh at you. If that's what you're worried about," Kevin added as an afterthought. "I've had worse students than you, don't worry." he smiled.
"Huh?"
"I'm a qualified ballroom dance instructor, and I took on a few students before I went to Florida and became Aladdin," Kevin explained.
"I see," a faint smile lit up the features of the blonde.
"That's the spirit!" laughed Kevin. "Why don't we try it again? And maybe you should hold on to me so that you won't fall again. I know how easily albinos bruise."
"I am NOT an albino!" said Lance indignantly, with a twinkle in his eye.
It was clear that the enthusiasm of Kevin had finally infected Lance after all. Laughter rang through the building as they went through the steps again and again.
Finally, when they decided to take a break, they realised dark had fallen.
"Thanks man."
"No problem."
Each of them left for their respective houses, reflecting on the day's events. But they dawdled most of all on the last part of the day. Maybe, just maybe...
Meanwhile, at the Backstreet Boys house, a conclusion was reached. "That's it! You're brilliant! I really take my hat off to the both of you!" said AJ as he slapped his palm on the table. Brian and Nick just sat there, grinning.
"You know, they don't call me Mr. Joker for nothing, Bone."
"Or me, Kaos."
Howie raised one eyebrow as he looked at his band mates. "And how, may I ask are you gonna do that?"
"Oh, you'll have to wait and see." smirked AJ.
"No fair!" pouted Howie. "Come on, tell me! Tell me!" He shook the neck of his brunette band mate.
"Alright, alright, calm down!" said AJ as he tried to pull Howie's hands from around his neck. "It's like this..."
"Ha! Then we'll have got them!" crowed Chris as he stretched, toppling his chair dangerously back.
"Yeah. Sweet, sweet victory," said Justin with a wicked gleam in his eyes.
"This'll be a tour they'll never forget," echoed from both the Backstreet Boys quarters and the *Nsync quarters, as AJ and Joey spoke, albeit unknowingly, at the same time.
"How true," said Mat, amused, as she watched the guys on the security cameras.
"Um," was all the reply she had from Jared, who was holding pizza in one hand, and writing with the other.
"So do you think we should stop them?" asked Mat as she sat back in her chair.
"What for? Let them have their bit of fun. It'll make for a good laugh," said Jared, looking up. "And it gives us a bit of an advantage."
"True. Do you think we have enough rules and punishments?"
Looking at the list, Jared nodded. "It should be enough, unless there are changes in their plans."
"Are you going to bring the handcuffs, or are we going to use rope?"
"I think nylon would be better. It doesn't leave marks."
"Well, in that case, I think I'll just go to the store tomorrow to get some new stockings. I don't want you using mine."
"Don't forget the duct tape. And I think you'd better put bricks in the hall, to be ready."
"You sure about making them kneel on the bricks?"
"Well, it won't show, and sure as hell is great as punishments go."
"And the one about making them face their fears."
"That's tentative. But we could use it to threaten them anyway. Do you want to read it to them tomorrow, or should I do the honours?"
"You do it. I'm going for a dental appointment tomorrow."
"Oh yeah. Them braces. When are you getting them?"
"Tomorrow. And today will be the last day I'll be eating pizza for a long time," said Mat wistfully.
"Don't let me stop you, then."
Mat just glared at him.
Okeydokey. Finito! Hah! This is the longest I've ever written a chapter to be. Hope y'all like it. But even if you don't, you'd better email me! And Druid. Otherwise, I'll have your hide. And I mean it. Thtpt! All emails will be much expected and much appreciated.
Next Chapter... by the ever so place suitable adjective here DRUID!
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MJ and Druid