Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 02:57:28 +0200
From: Iconis Thaplayer <iconis@hotmail.com>
Subject: Irresponsible: Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Not implying anything about anyone... and so on. Just FICTION,
people. And if you're too young or doing something illegal, go play with
your... things.

Well, another chapter out. I was supposed to say this earlier but hey,
better late than never. I've been a really lazy researcher so the tour and
things like that are a figment of my imagination. Or if I mix their
girlfriends up or something, sorry. Those things just don't seem important
to the development of this little fairy tale - and no, the pun isn't
intended.

A big, big THANK YOU to the two people who gave me feedback (you don't count
Kaisa... sorry :). Still, I need all the feedback I can get.  Please? *gives
a dashing smile and bats her eyelids* Iconis@hotmail.com

To the one and only Katariina. Tampere and a pint of Guinness, ok? :)


Chapter 3



	I slept like a baby for three hours before something started to make this
god awful noise. Slowly regaining my consciousness, I was quite sure it was
an alarm of sorts. When I sensed Lance make speedy jump off of the bed and
noise stopped, I managed to groan.
	"Why am I awake, Lance? Would you like to explain that? Because I'm almost
a 100 percent positive that you're once again responsible of this."
	"Josh. Sorry. But the reason you're awake is that we have to be packed and
ready and by the bus in... 19 minutes and counting. And no breakfast."
	That kind of got me going.


	The bus had barely budged when my eyes started to close. I should be so
lucky - some self-righteous ass poked me right in the forehead. I opened my
eyes just enough to see Joey smiling at me.
	"Give me one good reason why you should live, Joe."
	"Because you love me. And because if you treat me good, I'll make you and
Lance some breakfast," he said simply, smiling at me. "Get your ass off that
bunk, Jayce. We're apparently having a group meeting."
	I begrudgingly raised myself from my nice, warm nest and shuffled to the
lounge area.
	"Late night, Josh?" I heard the smirk in Justin's voice.
	"No, Justin. No night at all, only morning," I yawned at him.
	"Someone's been a busy little beaver, hasn't he?" that brat continued.
	"No, Justin. No beavers, either," I stated, earning a ridiculous giggle
from Chris. I groaned. "Why I have to take this so early in the morning?"
	"It's a part of your job, Josh," Lance grinned, " and as we are all here, I
might as well get to the matters at hand."
	"So it was your idea to have this meeting, Bass?" I had to interject. "Oh
man, don't you ever rest?"
	"You know I do, Josh. Matter a fact, you made quite a nice pillow this
morning, thank you very much," he said, not raising his eyes from papers he
had in his hand.
	"You're so dead, you know that, right?" I managed to sputter in the midst
of the catcalls and woo's those three other jerks were making. "Shut the
fuck up, you idiots. Let's just get to business," I continued, smiling
slightly.
	"I bet that's just what you said to him last night, too, Jayce," Joey
snickered.
	This was going to be a long meeting.


	After the meeting, which consisted of Lance trying to tell us what the
agenda was for the following few days and the guys' attempts to distract him
as much as they could, we dispanded all over the bus. The whole group seemed
to be in a good mood, knowing that after this bus leg, we would have a night
off, meaning we could have a full night's sleep in a real bed. That was as
good as hard currency to us.
	I headed straight for my bunk after Lance finally got to the end of his
lecture. But the gods of sleep were not on my side today.
	"Could talk to you for a moment, Josh?" Joey said from behind me. "You can
have your precious beauty sleep after that."
	I turned in my steps and headed to the front of the bus that seemed to be
empty.
	"Okay, talk to me, Joey," I sighed, knowing fairly well what was coming.
	"I was just thinking whether you talked to Lance last night? I'm a little
worried about him. He was acting really strange after you left for your run
and this morning he kept staring me like something was bothering him. Do you
know what's the matter with him?" Joey wondered, seeming actually a little
anxious. It wasn't like Lance to not talk to Joey if something was wrong.
They were best friends and usually shared everything in their lives with
each other.
	"He's okay, Joey. I really just think he was too tired last night and
didn't have his emotions as in check as usual. And I told him about what
happened with you in Charlotte."
	Joey frowned.
	"You told him?"
	"Yes. He was worried and wondering..."
	"But you promised me, Jayce, that you wouldn't tell him!" Joe said, cutting
me short. "What were you thinking?"
	"He's your best friend, Joey. He deserved to know and you two need to talk
about it. Otherwise he'll probably start blaming himself for it or
something."
	"He's gonna blame himself anyway," Joe sighed, "and be so disappointed in
me."
	I knew what Joe was talking about. Lance could make you feel like shit when
you told him about your mistakes. I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose but he
could be a little judgmental sometimes. But Lance didn't make the same
mistakes as the rest of us did, so maybe he had the right.
	"I feel for you, Joey, I really do. But this isn't any of my business
anymore. You should talk to him."
	"I know, J. Thanks for the help," he mustered a smile.


	The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. I managed to get few hours of
shut-eye and returned to the lounge feeling a little less sluggish. I
grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge - despite all the warnings that
ice cold water could harm my voice - and sat down next to a reading Chris.
	"Whatcha reading?"
	"This book on management and business coordination."
	"Whoopee."
	"It's actually really interesting. The guy talks about different styles of
leadership and about how knowing about them can help in managing the
personnel. It's fascinating."
	"I'm sure it is. Just not my cup of tea, that's all."
	"What *is* your cup of tea concerning books, Josh? I've never seen you read
a book on tour," Justin joined the conversation, pausing his PS2 game for
the moment.
	"I read when I'm home. It just gets so tiring to be pulled away from the
book when I'm interrupted all the time."
	"I hear you," Justin nodded, getting back to game, "that's why I don't read
on tour, either."
	"No, baby, you don't read because you don't know how to," Chris said with a
small grin, not looking up from his book.
	"Haha, old man."
	We sat in the lounge bantering for the rest of the ride.


	We arrived to our destination a little over eight pm. We took our
respective things and unloaded ourselves from the confines of our little
hell on wheels.
      "Okay, Justin's the lucky bastard who doesn't have to share tonight.
Joe, you'll share with me, right?" Lance checked with a look.
	"Of course."
	"So, it's just you, me and the porn channel tonight, Jayce?" that little
elf smirked, hitting me hard in the back.
	"No, it's just JC and you *on* the porn channel."
	"Don't confuse your fantasies with mine, Lance," I had to guffaw.
	"Jesus, Lance, now I have this image in my mind about Chris in some cheesy
porn flick, in this stupid police uniform waving a pair of hand cuffs in the
air. Thank you so very much", Justin grimaced at his mental image.
	"But you have to admit, that he's the only one of us who could pull if off.
Lance, could you imagine JC starring in a porn flick?" Joe laughed poking me
in the ribs.
	The silence that ensued and the fire engine red blush that rose to Lance's
cheeks were enough of an answer for the guys. He'd never hear the end of
this. 	Wait a minute. Lance imagining me in porn flick?


	Chris flopped down next to me on the couch. If I knew the signs, there was
two options. Either there was going to be another serious conversation or
then we'd veg in front of the TV the whole night and end up in bed sometime
after waking up from the couch in the middle of the night.
	"Josh?"
	Here we go.
	"Yeah, Chris?" I said turning my attention away from the TV.
	"You'd tell me if there was something going on between you and Lance,
right?"
	That threw me off the loop.
	"Wow! Back up a little... me and Lance?"
	"Well, yeah. Don't pretend that there isn't any chemistry between you two,
JC. I'm just getting strange vibes off of you. Lance sleeping in your room,
making weird insinuations..."
	"That's called joking in this family, Chris," I snorted. "You're seeing
things that aren't there."
	"Call it what you like, dude. I'm just thinking out loud here."
	"Maybe you should stop thinking. There's nothing going on between us."
	"Would you want there to be?" he asked me suddenly.
	"Shit, Chris, what kind of question is that?" I burst out, not believing my
ears.
	"An honest one, Josh. You've been alone for so long and... well, I maybe
thought..."
	"Thought what?"
	"Never mind what I thought. But would you want it?" Chris repeated.
	"Want what?" I said, exasperated with his antics.
	"A deeper relationship with Lance?"
	"I'm going to bed, Chris. Good night, " I stood up, trying to escape the
situation. I was at the bedroom door when Chris said it, somehow
triumphantly.
	"I think you just answered my question, Josh."


	I walked back to the couch.
	"It's okay, Josh. You don't have to talk about it..."
	"I have no intentions on doing that."
	"Okay, okay, relax. Talk to me when you're ready..."
	"I know, Chris. Just let it be. I need to sort my head out, first."
	"That's fine with me, Chasez. Now where's the remote? We need to find the
porn. But wait, I really don't know whether..."
	"I know what you're going to say, so shut the fuck up before we have to
start a fight."
	"Ooh, you big macho bully..."
	We were rolling on the floor in an instant.
	"I'm gonna whip your ass, Kirkpatrick!" I stated between my closed teeth,
pinning the man to the floor.
	We rolled around in a full blown wrestling match, laughing. And then the
inevitable happened - a vase that had rested on the coffee table fell down
with a crash. That didn't stop us - matches between Chris and I were
"till-blood-pours"-type of things.


	"What the hell do you think you're doing?" someone bellowed at us from the
door. We were off each other in a flash, probably looking like naughty
school boys caught in the act, I thought. My shoulders slumped in relief to
see Joey standing in the door way. I had thought much worse, maybe Lonnie.
Or even worse. Lance.
	"What can cause this much ruckus, boys? It's like living next to battle
zone listening to you two!" Joey rated us. I could see Lance standing behind
Joey smiling at us.
	"We're really sorry. Aren't we?" Chris said emphasizing his words with a
poke in my ribs.
	I had to make a choice whether to stop this now or take it to the next
level. Unfortunate for Chris, I had no intention to get back to the
discussion we had had earlier. This was too good of an distraction.
	"Speak for yourself, Shorty," I grinned defiantly at him. I was running
before he understood just what I had exactly said. I ran past Joe and Lance
heading towards their room.
	"Get him, Lance!" I heard Chris yell. I was a couple of inches shy from
closing the door when Lance charged through the small gap. I fell back,
landing on my ass and before I knew it, Lance had pinned me to the floor. He
was sitting on my thighs and pinned my hands to the floor above my head. He
leaned in and smiled exultantly at me.
	"Gotcha!"
	His breath felt so warm on my face, my mind filled with a scent so
thoroughly Lance that my own breath caught in my throat. I was spellbound.
	And then the herd of elephants came crashing through the door. Chris had
his hands on me, then Joey and to my surprise, Justin as well. They started
to tickle me and kept going for so long I thought I was gonna piss my pants.
	"This'll teach you not to tease boys smaller than yourself, Chasez!" Chris
growled at me.
	"So that's what this is all about?" Justin giggled, "you called Chris short
again? I should've guessed!" And just kept tickling me.
	"Uncle! Uncle!!" I had to finally scream, tears of laughter running down my
cheeks.
	"Think he's had enough?" Joe pondered with fake seriousness. Appreciative
murmurs was heard all around and suddenly the agony stopped.
	I laid there, still panting and laughing when I realized Lance was still
pinning me to the floor.
	"Get off of me, you big lug!" I managed to gasp, feeling Lance's warm body
too damn near me. Lance's face first paled considerably, then got redder by
the moment.
	"Sorry," he muttered, scrambling to his feet. I didn't know what to say or
do. My head swarmed with thoughts but if someone had asked I couldn't have
named one thing. What the hell was I going to do? If it was going to be like
this every time we touched, I wasn't going last much longer. I cursed Chris
in my head. This all was his fault. Yeah, I could go with that - Chris had
brought all these thoughts back into my mind. He should've kept his mouth
shut. But if he had brought the thoughts back it meant they existed before.
I was doing fine before that asshole had to meddle with things he knew
nothing about. And at exactly that moment *he* spoke out.
	"You okay, Jayce?" Lance stood beside me. He was looking down at me and my
mind did another double somersault with a spin in the end.
	 I wouldn't survive this.


TBC...