Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 00:04:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Danny Planter <dlwb21@yahoo.com>
Subject: danny-and-lance

Hey everyone!  This is my first time writing a series for this archive.  A
few things first: 1) This is my story, and it will go the way I want it.  I
would appreciate your suggestions, but if you don't like what's goin' on,
then I'm sorry!  But this story is for me as much as it is for you.  2) I
don't know how often new installments will be made, or how many there will
be.  It all depends on how much time I have.  3) If you're looking for sex,
it will come but I don't know when.  It all depends on how the story
progresses.  I want to develop the relationship between Lance and Danny
first.  I think that's about it!

Email me with your comments!  I'd love to hear from you all.
dlwb21@yahoo.com

With that said: This is a fictional story.  I do not know any of the
members of NSYNC, I wish I did.  This story is not meant to imply anything
about the sexuality of Lance, Joey, JC, Justin or Chris, however, we can
always wish right??!


Chapter 1

"Excuse me?"

Lance sighed.  "I'm gay, JC."

"WHAT?!" JC exclaimed, "How could you.....I mean......woah, okay....calm
down JC," he told himself.  "Lance, how long has this been going on?"

"Me being gay?  Pretty much since I was born," Lance said, tears beginning
to form in his eyes.

JC looked somwhere between pissed and confused.  "I..uh....I need to get
out of here," he said as he stood up and rushed out the door.

Lance closed his eyes, fighting tears back.  He didn't want to cry in
public.  He put his head down on the table.  He was slowly regaining his
composure when he felt a hand on his back.  "Hey man," said a strange
voice, "you look like you need someone to talk to."

"I...." Lance said not really there in the moment.  "I don't really want to
talk to anyone."

"Yeah, I've heard that one before.  Listen Lance, I know who you are, and
I'd be kidding myself if I said I wasn't a fan, but if it makes you feel
any better, I'm gay too."

Lance looked up quickly.  "How'd you.."

"I heard you from my table over there."

He sighed.  "Please, sit down.  So you already know my name, what's yours?"

"I'm Danny," I said.

***

     I was sitting in a coffee shop somewhere in LA that day.  It was a
Saturday, and I was visiting my sister.  Over the past few months, my life
had changed a lot.  I had come out to a handful of my friends and was
starting to explore my life as a gay man.  It was the summer between my
third and fourth years of college down in San Diego, where I was working.
Life was going well for me, however, and i liked it.  It was still only my
close friends that knew i was gay, but after I told someone the first time,
it was such a relief, it gave me someone I could truly be myself around.
     My sister and I decided to go grab some coffee that morning.  I was
quite relaxed, enjoying my hazelnut coffee when I heard someone a few
tables down say "WHAT?!"  I looked over, and was stunned to see JC Chasez
standing up (and looking kind of pissed I might add), and Lance Bass
sitting down.  I had discovered NSYNC a few years ago, and will happily
admit that Lance is by far the one I consider the hottest, sweetest,
nicest, etc., one of them all, with JC a close second.  And there they
were, having some sort of argument.  My sister was talking, but I was
listening to what these two men of my dreams had to say.  I heard Lance
mention he was gay and almost screamed right then and there.  (It's not
like they were shouting it or anything, i was just listening really
closely.)  Now i had lusted after the man, sure, but I never would have
thought that he was ACTUALLY gay!  But I put that aside when I saw the look
in his eyes.  He had just come out to someone he trusted, and it apparently
wasn't going well.  I felt sorry for him, knowing that what was happening
to him was what I had worried about for years: one of my friends not
accepting me for who I am.
     As JC rushed out the door, I saw Lance put his head down on the table.
I knew that this wasn't the best time to be a fan, but I also knew that
this man needed some help.  I told my sister I'd be right back, and I went
over to Lance.  I put my hand gently on his back and said "hey man, you
look like you could use someone to talk to."

"I...I don't really want to talk to anyone," he said.  But I wasn't about
to let him get away that easily.

"Yeah, I've heard that one before.  Listen Lance, I know who you are, and
I'd be kidding myself if I said I wasn't a fan, but if it makes you feel
any better, I'm gay too," I said to him.

Lance looked up at me.  "How'd you.."

"I heard you from my table over there."

He sighed.  "Please, sit down.  So you already know my name, what's yours?"

"I'm Danny," I said.

"He smiled.  Nice to meet you Danny," he said and then sniffed.  I pulled
out a tissue from my pocket and offered it to him.  "Thanks."

"No problem.  So listen, I kind of heard what happened.  It was probably
rude of me to listen, but you caught my attention you know?  I know we
don't know each other at all, but do you wanna talk about it?"

Lance just stared at his hands which were playing with his coffee cup for a
couple of minutes before replying "I don't know...."

I could tell that he was deeply hurt by the way JC had reacted.  I reached
over and grabbed his hands.  "Listen." He looked up at me.  "I know what
you're going through right now can't be easy.  Is JC the first person
you've told?"

He nodded.

"I thought so.  I can understand if you don't want to talk right now, but
believe me, this is just the beginning for you, and I want to be there to
help you through it...if you don't mind..." I said sheepishly.

Lance's mouth curled up in a faint smile when I said that.  "Well i guess
you do already know something about me that no other fans know," he said.
"I don't know.  I'm not really supposed to meet with fans, but i guess this
is a different circumstance."

"Trust me man," I replied, "the second I figured out what was going on,
meeting you because I was a fan was the last thing on my mind.  I just knew
how difficult a thing you were doing and wanted to help you."

He smiled again.  "Well I appreciate that."  He paused for a few moments.
"I really would like to talk about this, but not here, not now. "

"No problem!" I said.  I asked if he had a pen and wrote my name and cell
phone number down on a napkin for him.  "Call me anytime in the next day or
so, okay?  After that I'm heading down to San Diego."

"Alright, that sounds great."  He looked me in the eye and smiled.  "Thanks
Danny.  Really."

"It's my pleasure Lance.  Now if you don't mind, I have to go, my sister
looks like she's getting bored!"  I pointed to my sister who looked a bit
annoyed with me for leaving her.  Lance and I said our goodbyes, and he
left the coffee shop.

Later that night, my cell phone started ringing.  "Hello?"

"Hey Danny, it's Lance."

"Lance man, how's it going?  How was your day?"

"Heh...it was pretty rough, as you can imagine.  I just walked around for a
while, I haven't been back to my hotel yet.  I just don't want to face the
guys yet. "

"I can understand that," i said.

"Listen, what're you up to right now? You wanna hang out?"

"Sure!" I exclaimed, a little too obviously as I heard Lance giggle on the
other end of the phone.  We picked a small coffee shop where not many
people went.  He said he went there quite often when he was in LA, and I
also went there occasionally.  But he needed me to pick him up, since he
didn't have a car there!  He told me where he was, and I drove over to get
him.

He got in my car and we exchanged hellos.  As I started driving, he started
asking me about myself.  I pretty much told him my entire life story right
there in about 30 minutes.  I just kept talking.  I told him how I grew up
in Northern California and moved down to San Diego to go to college.  I
planned on going into the entertainment industry, but I didn't really know
what I wanted to do yet.  I also told him that I had only been out for a
few months, so I knew what he was going through very well, and that I felt
for him and the situation he was in.

As we pulled up to the coffee shop, I asked him to tell me about himself.
He told me a little of his childhood and how he was a really shy kid.  He
grew up in a religious family, which made it even harder for him to accept
who he was for a very long time.  He had only fully accepted his true self
about six months earlier.  '

"So why'd you decide to tell JC?" I asked.

"I dunno," he said.  "He's the one I trust the most.  I thought that he
would be able to accept it and understand, but i guess I was wrong."

"You don't know that," I said.  "He might just need some time to adjust.
Especially if he had no idea.  I mean obviously you're very good at keeping
it to yourself, as he never knew and most of your fans don't suspect."

"MOST of my fans?" he asked, giving me a little grin.

I blushed a bit.  "Well....you know how it goes...people always pick a
member of a boy band to suspect as gay.  You from NSYNC, Nick from the
Backstreet Boys, etc."

He chuckled at that.  "Yeah I guess you're right....so you're a fan, huh?"

"Yeah I am," I replied.  "Kind of hardcore.  I mean not obsessive or
anything, but I have my share of NSYNC merchandise, although most of it was
given to me by friends who think it's funny that I like you guys so much."

"So which one of us do you like?"

His question caught me off guard.  "What?"

He must of recognized the shock in my eyes, because he leaned in close to
me and said quietly, "I may be in a boy band, but I'm still gay, and know
that chances are 9 our of 10 that when a guy likes us, he has a personal
favorite."

His smile was so cute that I started giggling.  "Well if you must know,
Mr. Bass, it's you that I find....captivating."

He leaned back in his chair.  "Captivating?  What, does that mean you think
I'm cute?"

I probably turned a few shades of red at that, but smiled nonetheless.
"Yeah I guess it does!"

"Well thanks!  If it makes you feel any better, the feeling's mutual."

Now if I was shocked before, THAT is what caught me WAY off guard.  Lance
Bass just told me that he though I was cute!  I didn't know what to say.
Luckily at this point his cell phone started ringing.  He took it out of
his pocket and his smile faded quickly when he looked at his caller ID.

"Hello?....Hey JC........gettin' some
coffee.........yeah........ok.......bye...."  He hung up the phone and just
stared at it for a little while.

"Everything okay?" I asked.

Lance jumped when I spoke, like I had broken him out of a deep trance.
"Uh....I don't know.  JC wants to talk to me, but I don't know if I'm
ready."

"Well you told him you were, right?  It's better you do it now so that you
don't spend more time worrying about it.  Maybe he's cool with it.  Did he
sound pissed?"

"No....but still.......hey, do you think......nevermind."

"What?" I asked, intrigued.

"Well I was going to ask if you would mind coming with me to talk to him.
I mean I know we don't know each other that well, but you've been a big
help today and would really appreciate it if you were there.  But you don't
have to, I mean you probably have other things to d-"

"Lance," I interrupted him, "Shut up and let's go already!"  He smiled and
got up from his chair.  We drove back to his hotel and he told me to drive
to the valet.  "What? I've never used valet before!" I exclaimed.  He told
me not to worry about it, and I handed my key over to the valet guy.

We got into the elevator, in complete silence.  I looked over at him and
could tell that he was stressed and petrified about what was going to
happen in a few minutes.  I reached over and squeezed his shoulder.  He
looked at me and gave me a smile that showed his appreciation.  The
elevator stopped at the fifth floor.  We got out and went down the hall to
room 516.  He knocked.

"Come in!" yelled a voice from the other side that I recognized
immediately.  Lance opened the door and walked in, with me following behind
him.  JC was sitting on his bed, and got up when he saw Lance.  His
expression was happy, until he saw me behind him.  "Uh hi," he said.

"JC, I'd like you to meet Danny.  Danny this is JC."

"Nice to meet you," I said as I shook his hand.

"Thanks."  He looked at Lance with a look that said 'I thought this was
just going to be the two of us.'  "Danny's been a big help for me today,
JC.  He knows about me, and whatever you're going to say, you can say in
front of him."

JC looked at me suspiciously, but then nodded his agreement.  "Lance, I
basically want to say thank you."

Lance looked at him oddly.  "For what?"

"For trusting me.  I know that I didn't react the way I should have, but
you gotta admit it is kind of shocking to hear one of your best friends
tell you that he is gay out of the blue like that.  I just didn't know how
to handle it.  I mean I have no problem with gay people, but I just didn't
expect it coming from you."  He looked like he was struggling for words.
Finally he just gripped Lance in a tight hug.  "I'm here for you buddy.
Nothing you ever do will ever make me like you less, especially not this.
Please remember that."

I could see tears forming in Lance's eyes when JC said this.  "Thanks JC.
You have no idea how much that means to me."  All the emotion in the room
was getting to me, and I felt myself on the verge of tears when he said
this.  The friendship that these two was real, something that nothing or no
one could break apart.

They broke the hug and just smiled at each other for a few seconds, until
JC looked at me, then back at Lance.  "So what's the deal with your
friend?"  ***

That's it!  Hope you enjoyed it!  dlwb21@yahoo.com