Hey there! Thanks for waiting and sticking with me. First, the usual.... DISCLAIMER: Hey, guess what kids, this is fiction. That's right. Fiction. Made up. Not real. I don't know Lance Bass, nor the other members of N'Sync, so don't make any assumptions, okay?
Yes, this story is still copyright by yours truly.
And many, many thanks to all who have written in with comments about "The Maze of Moments." There is much more to come, and I appreciate your taking the time to drop me a line or two. As another author on here aptly states, this is the only reward we get. Feel free to send me a line at: KandLStories@aol.com
Thanks for waiting, and now on with the show!
--Tony
The Maze of Moments - A Kevin and Lance Story
Chapter 8 - It's Only Money
"Come on, come on, listen to the money talk..."
--from "Moneytalks" by AC/DC
Kevin walked into his room and saw Lance waiting for him on the bed.
"What are you doing here? I thought you weren't coming back until Thursday?"
Lance stood up and slowly walked over to him.
"I couldn't wait that long...I had to see you again."
They embraced, kissing each other softly at first, then with more passion. The heat from their bodies caused the temperature in the room, already somewhat warm, to rise even further. The early summer weather that Mississippi was experiencing was nothing compared to the heat being generated between them.
Breaking the kiss, Kevin stepped back to catch his breath. "Whoa! You must have missed me!"
"You know I did, Kevin." Lance was now unbuttoning his shirt. "I need you Kevin. Now."
"What? Lance, what are you talking about? I thought we agreed that we would go slow..."
Lance had unbuckled his pants and stepped out of them, standing in only his underwear. His erection poked through the fly of his boxer shorts, and he reached down to stroke himself. "The hell with slow," he said. "I have to have you, Kevin. Right here. Right now."
Kevin took a step backwards, and bumped into the door which was closed behind him. Lance walked over to him, pressing up against his body, rubbing up against it, while making a trail with his tongue from Kevin's neck up towards his ear. He moaned softly, caressing and fondling his lover through his clothing.
"Get out of your clothes....come on, Kev...let me see that big, beautiful cock..."
"Oh God." Kevin closed his eyes as Lance began to unbutton his shirt and continued to whisper sultry thoughts and ideas into his ear in a deep, seductive voice.
"Make love to me Kevin....take me....I want to feel you inside of me....Augustus Caesar....the Pax Romana....the Five Good Emperors........"
Kevin's head snapped up from his exam booklet with a start, and he dropped his pen. He, obviously, was not in his bedroom, and Lance was not there with him. He was, however, seated in a classroom on the campus of Ole Miss, and was attempting to take a final exam for his class on the history of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.
"Shit," he muttered as he reached down to pick up his pen. At the same time, he had to discretely adjust himself underneath the desk.
Taking exams was not exactly high on the list of favorite things to do for Kevin Douglas, like any good college student, and the distractions caused by visions of Lance doing dirty things did not help matters any. It had been like this all morning long, through one previous test and a quick cram session with some classmates. Every time he tried to concentrate on the task at hand, his mind drifted off to other things. More specifically, it drifted off to thinking about the blond haired, green eyed, deep-voiced young man that he had met only three days earlier, and with whom he now found himself in a new relationship. Those thoughts had started out innocently enough as they involved an aspect of the preceding weekend: their date, sleeping together, singing up on stage in front of a crowd. However, as the morning was creeping into afternoon, they began to take on a decidedly more, shall we say, lewd nature.
Shaking his head, he returned to the task at hand, and began to collect his thoughts as to why the emergence of the Christian religion played an important part of the fall of Rome. 'This is ironic,' he thought. 'Having sexy daydreams and I have to write about religion. Nice, Kev, real nice.'
Once he was finished with his test, Kevin went to the student center to wait on his friend and roommate, Eric Hagen. This was Kevin's idea, as he had something of importance to discuss with him. Entering the building and walking upstairs, he saw Eric already there, having finished his own exams slightly before his friend.
"Hey, bro, how did it go?"
"Not bad." Kevin dropped his backpack and sat down across from him. "The leadership class was a breeze. Rome...that caused some...problems. But I got through it."
"Cool. So, what did you want to talk about? You sounded all serious this morning."
Looking around to make sure he wouldn't be heard, Kevin leaned closer. "Okay, someone's birthday is on Thursday."
"Yeah, I remember."
"Okay, so I kind of have a problem here. What the hell do I get him?"
Eric gave his friend a look and began to laugh.
"Hey, it's not funny! What do you get someone who has....well....whatever he wants."
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh, you're right. Hell, I don't know. Why not just tie a ribbon around Big Kevin and say 'Here I am!' when he walks in?"
Kevin looked up over his sunglasses (which, as his trademark, he didn't take off when he entered the building), and scowled.
"Sheesh! What a look! I was only kidding ya know," Eric said.
"Come on, man, I'm serious!"
"Well, I'm done for the day. Why don't we go to the mall?"
"Yeah, Eric, and what? Go to Walmart? Like I should buy him a weed eater and some motor oil?"
"Hey, those are gifts that keep on giving right there."
"Oh, shut the fuck up!" Kevin laughed.
Eric laughed along before continuing. "I meant one of the malls in Memphis. I've got the rest of the day off, so I'll go with you if you want."
"Cool. Want me to drive?"
"If it's okay with you, I think I will. I'm all about the jeep, but I don't wanna pick bugs out of my teeth."
They got up and went downstairs, heading towards the parking lot where Eric had parked. Spotting an ATM, Kevin pulled out his wallet. "Hold up a sec, I need to use the money mover here."
Kevin inserted his card and punched the numbers to his account, and then entered the amount he wished to withdraw. After a moment, several hundred dollar bills were spit out by the machine.
"Shit, Kev, what do you plan on buying him?" Eric was a little shocked. He knew Kevin had a good deal of money, both from his family and from the sale of his grandparents home, but his roommate rarely, if ever, made it obvious. He usually took out enough from week to week to buy groceries or to pay utilities and rent, and once and awhile to buy some clothing or other items, but that was about it. In all the time they had known each other, this was probably the most Eric had seen him take out (except for the time they went to South Padre Island, Texas, for spring break one year, but that was different).
"Well, I just want to be prepared. You never know."
"I guess." Eric shook his head. "Is lunch on you then Daddy Warbucks?"
"Yeah. I'll even buy you an ice cream cone if you're a good boy."
Laughing, they walked to the parking lot.
At the same time Eric and Kevin were taking their exams, Lance Bass was working in the office in his home in Jackson. He had bought the house, in addition to the one he owned in Florida, some time ago, so that he could be closer to his family when the opportunity arose. He spent part of the morning looking over various documents and schedules for N'Sync, making notes in margins here and there, reminders to himself for further discussion with his fellow band members. Then, after a time, he did some work for his own company, FreeLance, planning various times when he could do some scouting for fresh talent.
Putting down his pen, Lance leaned back and stretched. The efforts he made in regards to FreeLance once again brought his thoughts back to the sexy young man he had met over the weekend, and who in that short amount of time, had started to fall in love with. He thought about Kevin all morning, making it difficult to concentrate on the various tasks before him. Every time he closed his eyes, it seemed, he could hear that sexy voice, either singing, or talking, or whispering. Most of all, he thought back to the night they had spent together sleeping in each others arms. He never told Kevin, but Lance had woken up very early Sunday morning, even before his run-in with Eric on the way to the bathroom. The sun had just barely started to rise, causing enough light to seep into the room on that perfect morning to allow Lance to watch Kevin sleep. He only did it for a few minutes at the most, but while it was happening, it was as if time itself stopped. The only two people in the world that meant anything that daybreak were he and Kevin, and he couldn't help but stare in wonder. The young man laying in bed next to him was so many different things at once. Sexy. Sensitive. Caring. Funny. Whether it was blind luck, or destiny, Lance had found him. Now, they belonged to each other.
Lance sighed as he remembered, and his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing. Clearing his throat, he picked it up and became all business, as this line was installed specifically for matters dealing with the band or FreeLance.
"Good morning, this is Lance."
"It would just figure that on your vacation you'd be in that damn office." The voice on the other end belonged to JC Chasez, another member of N'Sync, and one of Lance's closest friends.
"JC! Hey, good to hear from you man. What's up?"
"Not much, just chillin. Which, by the way, you're supposed to be doing also. Vacation, Scoop, remember?"
"I know, I know. I just have a few things to do today, that's all."
"All you have to do today is relax. And hang out with this new boy of yours."
"New boy....?" Lance's voice trailed off as he became confused for a moment. "Oh! You must have talked with Justin, huh?"
"Dude, he called me right after you talked to him. I don't know who was more excited about going out on a date, you or him!"
Lance laughed as he remembered Justin's reaction. "Yeah, he was pretty jacked up about it."
"So?" JC asked.
"So what?"
"So, how did it go?"
"It went great. We went out to eat, went to a club in Memphis...and I sorta stayed the night at his place. Twice."
"Twice? And here I thought Joey was the playa in our little group."
Lance laughed again before continuing. "It's not like that, Josh. It was...special. He's a great guy, he really is."
"That's great, Lance. I'm really happy for you. So when do we get to meet your little stud muffin?"
"Funny you should ask that. How would you feel about coming to Mississippi?"
"I guess I could. When?"
"I'm not really sure just yet." He paused as he looked at a calendar on his desk. "I was thinking after my birthday, like one night next week."
"Okay, just let me know when I suppose."
"You think the other guys would come too?"
"Scoop, you guys aren't getting hitched or anything, are you?"
"No, no. But...how would you feel about doing a concert?"
The Wolfchase Galleria was one of the trendier shopping malls that Memphis had to offer, and it was relatively close, distance-wise, to Oxford. Kevin and Eric arrived and walked the mall, stopping here and there at one store or another, browsing through a variety of different things. Yet, in spite of every suggestion his friend had to offer, Kevin was having a difficult time making up his mind on what to buy. On their third time walking the mall, Eric pulled his roommate aside with an exasperated sigh.
"Look, do you want to just come back later in the week, maybe think about it some?"
"We're here, I'd rather just get it over with now and save a trip," Kevin replied.
"Kev, dude, we've circled this place for two hours now, and have been in just about every store. Come on man, there's got to be something. What about from the Warner Brothers store?"
"What, a giant Taz? That's kind of cheesy."
"Okay. Well, what about the Disney Store?"
"That's even worse!"
Eric shook his head in resignation and turned away. "I give up," he muttered.
Knowing that his friend was starting to become more than a little annoyed, Kevin started to frantically pick his brain, trying to come up with something that Lance would like. 'Dammit, why didn't I pay attention more when I was surfing those sites,' he thought to himself. Then, looking to his left, one of the few stores they hadn't been in yet caught his attention.
"Eric?"
"What?" Eric's tone indicated that he was not in a very good mood.
"Didn't Lan...er, James say something about NASA?" Kevin made sure not to give anything away in case they were overheard.
"Yeah, he said he wanted to be an astronaut when he was younger. Why?"
"Come on, I think this may be my answer." Kevin walked off towards Natural Wonders, with Eric in tow. 'Thank God,' his roommate thought.
Walking in, they looked at a variety of things dealing with natural history, geology, dinosaurs, and a host of other sciences. There were models, jewelry, toys, shirts, puzzles, any number of things dealing with these subjects. But in the very back of the store was a section dealing with astronomy, and this is where Kevin felt he might find the answer to his problem.
Eric looked at some books and tapes. "Well, not quite having to do with being an astronaut, but I think I see your point here. What were you thinking of?"
"This." Kevin was standing in front of a very elaborate, and from the looks of it, a very expensive, telescope. Eric walked over and sized it up.
"A telescope, huh?" He hadn't seen the price yet.
"Yeah. Kind of appropriate, don't you think? He wanted to be out there in the stars, so why not at least let him look up there or something. I like it."
"Yeah, it does make sense." Eric picked up the price tag and let out a little gasp. "Um...Kev? Exactly how much money did you bring with you today?"
"Why?" Kevin had been looking through the lens and now came over next to his friend. "How much is it?" He took the tag from his roommate and read it. Then, he thought for a minute, looked back up, and waved over a sales clerk.
"So..uh, going to haggle over the price or something?" Eric asked.
"No, I'm going to buy it."
"WHAT?" The other patrons of the store turned at the sound of Eric's exclamation, but he paid no attention. Then, a little quieter, went on. "Kevin, are you kidding me? This thing is almost nine hundred freakin' dollars!"
"Yeah, so?" Kevin turned to the saleswoman who had now joined them. "Yes, I'd like to buy this telescope, please."
"Certainly, sir. The Nexstar 4 is an excellent choice. May I interest you in our Deluxe Gift Set to accompany it?"
"Why, yes. Yes, you may." Kevin flashed her a smile and walked over to the counter, while Eric stayed behind in disbelief. He watched his roommate and the woman talking and looking over a brochure. Then, she went to the back room of the store, apparently to get Kevin's items. Shaking his head, he walked over to join his friend.
"Kev, don't you think this is a little over the top? They've got other telescopes you know."
"Yeah, but Lori said this was the top of the line model for amateur astronomy, and that even some professionals have been known to use it."
"Lori?"
"Hey, she's being very helpful. And I'm probably winning her over with the famous Douglas charm." Kevin grinned at his friend.
"Oh, give me a break."
Lori, the saleswoman, came back out with the first of several boxes. In addition to the telescope, the gift set also contained a tripod, a hard shell carrying case, two eyepieces, and a planisphere. Now, Kevin had no idea what a planisphere was, but if it came along with it, it must be worthwhile. Once all of the boxes were out, Lori rang up the purchase.
"Alright then sir, that will be $1090.56. Will we be using our credit card today, or perhaps a check?"
"No," Kevin said, "we would be paying with cash." He took out his wallet and handed over eleven one hundred dollar bills, which caused the young woman's eyebrows to raise, and Eric's eyes to go wide. The transaction made and his change received, Kevin and Eric each took some boxes, and left the store, heading towards the exit where they had parked. Eric was silent as they walked, which did not go unnoticed by his friend. Once they were at the car and the boxes placed carefully in the trunk, Kevin turned to him.
"Okay, spill it. What's bugging you?"
Eric waited a moment before speaking. "Kev, don't you think this is a bit much?"
"Why? It's not like I don't have the money or anything. Hell, I hardly ever spend it except when I have to like for bills and shit."
"Yeah, I know...but..."
"But you think I'm going a little overboard on someone I just met, right?"
Eric scratched the back of his head. "Well, yeah."
"E, listen. I thought about what we talked about last night, about trusting your feelings. You're right man, I think I am falling in love with Lance. This isn't like Kris, though...I can't explain it. I've been thinking about him all day, I can't get him out of my head. No matter what I felt for Kris, I never did that."
Eric nodded as Kevin continued.
"So I know this seems like I'm going overboard, but I wanna show him what he means to me. And if that means buying him something really spectacular for his birthday, then so be it. He told me yesterday that he hates his birthday here lately, and I wanna make it special for him."
"Well, okay. I kind of understand, and I kind of don't, but as long as you're comfortable with it, then that's all that matters." Eric closed the lid of the trunk.
"Come on, let's go back in. I wanna hit the music store. And I promised someone lunch," Kevin said with a smile.
"Let me guess, you're gonna buy some N'Sync CD's?" Eric asked as they began to walk back to the entrance.
"Yeah, how did you know?" Kevin said in wonder.
"I'm just that good. Man, I can't believe you spent over a grand in like, less than ten minutes."
"Hell, it's only money. Remind me never to tell you how much I spend on you for Christmas then...."
Meanwhile, back in Mississippi, Lance was working the phones, making arrangements for a concert to benefit the patrons of the church that had burned down over the weekend. The paper that morning had revealed that the fire was, indeed, the work of an arsonist, and that an investigation had begun.
The state of race relations in the south has come a long way since the turbulence of the 1960s, so it seemed incredible to him that an act of such blatant hatred could still occur in this day and age. The more he thought about it, the more the idea of doing a concert appealed to him. When Kevin and Eric had first suggested it, he was a little apprehensive, but after discussing the situation with JC, and later with Justin, his resolve only grew. Both of them were on board with the plan. Now, the next step was to contact their other bandmates, Chris and Joey, and to get management to give their seal of approval.
Lance worked a pen in his hand as he spoke with a representative of Jive Records.
"Yeah, I know it's not part of the schedule, that's the point......uh-huh.....it's for a good cause, though.....okay, think of it this way then, just imagine all of the positive publicity we're going to get from doing it.....there, doesn't seem so bad of an idea now, does it? No, don't worry about that, I'll rent everything we need.......yeah, I can do it under the FreeLance name.....no, we don't have to worry about that either, I've got some people lined up who can play.....well, one of them is pretty damn good, Johnny, I wouldn't worry about it. Look, I can handle all of that from my end, okay? As long as we've got your go-ahead, I can take care of the rest. Right. I'll keep you informed. Thanks, Johnny. Bye."
Lance hung up the phone a pumped his fist in the air. "Yes!" Looking over at the clock, he noticed that it was nearly three in the afternoon, and that he had been working all day.
"Damn, JC is right, I do need to relax."
Shutting down his computer, he stood up and stretched, and went downstairs to his kitchen to fix himself a very late lunch. Making a sandwich, he sat down at his table and ate, once again thinking over the events of the last few days. He giggled, thinking that if the others knew that his mind was becoming more and more preoccupied with Kevin, they'd only be making fun of him, but in a harmless sort of way. Finishing his lunch, he went into the living room and laid down on the couch to try and take a nap.
Sometime later, Lance woke up and discovered he was no longer alone in his house. The darkness outside indicated that he must have slept through the late afternoon and well into the evening. Sitting up on the couch, he saw that seated in a chair near the living room table was Kevin Douglas. The room was illuminated only by a series of candles that had been strategically placed on various pieces of furniture.
"Kevin? What the hell are you doing here? How did you find my house?"
Kevin smiled seductively. "I drove up from school. It wasn't that difficult to find out where you lived. All I had to do was look up 'Bass' in the phone book. That kind of narrowed it down."
Lance paused for a moment. "Yeah, I never thought of that. I guess that would make it a little easier, huh?"
"No, it wasn't hard at all." Kevin stood up and walked over to Lance, taking his lover's hand in his own, and pressing it into his crotch. "But this is. I've been hard all day, Lance....thinking of you...wanting you. Wanting to feel your body against mine again." He leaned forward and kissed Lance passionately, his tongue probing and exploring the warm, wet confines of Lance's mouth. Their kiss seemed to last forever, and when it finally broke, Lance had to lean back and gasp for breath.
Kevin stood up and pulled his shirt over his head, then tossed it aside. He ran a hand over the hair on his chest, massaging his pectoral muscles. Then, he lifted his fingers to his mouth and wet them, and used them to toy with his right nipple. A soft moan escaped his lips as he closed his eyes.
Lance, meanwhile, was taking all of this in with his eyes and mouth wide open. The excitement he felt was obvious by the erection poking up in his shorts. Kevin leaned over again and gently pushed him back on the couch and lay on top of him. They once again began to kiss, and Kevin pressed his groin down, gently yet firmly, thrusting and circling against the hardness beneath it. This went on for several minutes, until Lance felt a pressure building up, rising slowly. He turned his head as Kevin nibbled and sucked at his neck, barely able to get the words out:
"Kev....Kevin...I'm getting...oh God....I'm getting close...Kev....I'm gonna...I'm gonna...."
The force of the orgasm woke Lance up. He was face down on his couch, and as he awoke, found himself unconsciously humping against the cushions. He felt the warmth and wetness spread across the front of his shorts, as he began to comprehend the fact that he had just had a wet dream during his nap.
"Holy shit," he muttered as he stood up quickly. Looking around, he saw no candles, no Kevin. It was still light outside, and the clock on his mantle indicated that he had only slept for roughly an hour or so. Looking down, he saw the wet spot on the front of his shorts, and he checked to see if the cushions were dry, which indeed they were. Sighing, he took off his shirt and used it to wipe the sweat off of his forehead, and then walked towards the stairs.
"Well, guess I better get outta these now. And take a shower. And maybe have some chocolate."
Rather than wrapping Lance's gift, Kevin decided to assemble it, and hide it someplace in the apartment. Then, all he had to do was come up with some kind of excuse for Lance to go wandering, where he would find it. He sat on the floor of the living room putting together the tripod, when the phone rang. Reaching over, he yelled "I got it!" in the direction of the stairs, as Eric was in his room.
"Hello?"
"Hey, sexy."
"Lance! Hey, man, I was just thinking about you! Actually, I've been kinda thinking about you all day."
"Yeah, me too. Well, I wasn't thinking about me....well, you know what I mean. Never mind. So how did your tests go?"
"Pretty good. Two down, three more to go. I think I did pretty good on them, too."
"Cool. So what else did you do today?"
"Oh, just did a little shopping for somebody's birthday present," Kevin said with a smile. The other end of the phone was silent for a minute.
"Kevin, you didn't have to buy me anything."
"Yes, I did."
"No, you didn't."
"Well, I did, and that's that. No arguments, Mr. Bass. I had to think long and hard on what to get for you."
In a deep, sexy voice, Lance continued. "I thought you already had something long and hard to give to me."
"Uhh....o-kay. I see where our mind has been today!"
"Well," Lance laughed, "yeah, kinda."
"That's okay, me too. It wasn't easy getting through my final today when all I could think about was you rubbing your body up against mine."
Kevin didn't realize that he wasn't exactly being quiet as he spoke. This fact was noted only when he could hear Eric shout from upstairs, "You two better not be having phone sex!"
"What did Eric say? I couldn't hear all of that," Lance asked.
"Nothing, he just said to say hello."
"Okay. Well, listen, I'm not going to keep you long, but it looks like our little concert is just about set. I'm thinking next Thursday night, the eleventh."
"Whoa...that's kind of quick, don't you think?"
"Well, with our vacation ending pretty soon after that, that was the best I could do. Can you find other people to play in a band?"
"Shouldn't be a problem. I already have a few people in mind. I even bought your CD's today, and some sheet music for some of your songs. I'm doing things from my end here, too."
"Cool." Lance waited for a minute, then spoke quietly. "I missed you today."
"I missed you too," Kevin replied with a smile.
"Well, I'm going to let you go. I'm sure you have studying to do. I'll call you tomorrow night, okay?"
"Okay, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Love you."
"I love you too, Kev. Bye."
"Bye."
Kevin hung up and smiled, then put the cordless phone back on the table. Picking up an instruction sheet, he went back to work. Now, if only he could figure out what the hell a planisphere was.....
End of Chapter 8
But Kevin and Lance will return in Chapter Nine, "Looking For Space" so stay tuned!