Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 07:03:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: Red <redfirewitch@yahoo.com>
Subject: Chances Are Part 2 (Boyband slash)

Disclaimer: This is just fiction and there isn't an
ounce of truth about the sexuality of the Nsync boys
in here. At least not as far as I know. If you're
below 18 or if you don't want to read fiction about
homosexuality, do not go further than this line.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part 2

JC put his hand on the handle of the bathroom door
then took it off. He turned around and again surveyed
the bathroom in which he
had locked himself in. He turned back and tried to
force himself to open the door again. Again he
chickened out and turned away from
the door.

"Great! I can't even get myself out of this bathroom!
How am I going to face Justin?" he muttered to
himself.

In the morning, along with the light of day came the
panic of realization of what had transpired between
him and Justin. He had tried
to convince himself that it was all a dream or fantasy
but the more he thought about it, JC knew it had been
real. He had turned to his
side to look at the curly-haired boy sleeping soundly
beside him with his arms around JC's waist and his
cheeks resting on his
shoulders. Desire, love, guilt all converged to make
him feel nauseous. Slowly extracting himself from
Justin's grasp, JC rushed into
the bathroom and locked himself in. That had been an
hour ago. He had brushed, showered, preened and done
everything possible to
do in a bathroom. Things that normally took him only
half an hour at most. He had spent the rest of the
hour trying to step out into the
room. But his hands weren't cooperating.

JC sat atop the sink counter and buried his face in
his hands. He still couldn't believe what had
happened. It was not that he didn't like
the kiss he had shared with Justin or that he felt
disgusted with himself. Sure he was confused about his
sexuality. He had thought
himself straight until he began to feel a certain way
around and about Justin. Feelings that didn't occur
around any other guy. But he
wasn't close-minded or hypocritical. JC had accepted
homosexuality in his friends and wasn't about to balk
at it just because he was
feeling similar emotions. He was scared but he was
also strong.

"Yeah right! Strong! So strong you can't even face
him!"

Justin. That was what.who making this hard. For a long
time he had had strong feelings for Justin. At first
it had been a brotherly
love. But soon he began to notice the way Justin
smiled, sang, danced, ate, touched him arm, laughed,
played basketball, sneezed.the
list was endless. And he didn't just notice it all in
a detached way. JC basically stared at his friend,
with a sappy grin on his face, lost
in thought until the other guys would have to
physically bring him out of his reverie. It didn't
take him long to figure out what was
going on. He had it bad. For a guy. A guy who was one
of his closest friend.

JC leaned back and rested his back against the wall.
Somehow his feelings wasn't what was keeping him a
bathroom prisoner. What
was running repeatedly through his head was that
Justin kissed him. * Justin * kissed * him *! For
weeks he was wondering if he was
reading too much into every little smile Justin gave
him, every little look, every little touch. Sure, if a
girl did the similar actions that
Justin did to him, JC would be 100% sure that she was
interested in him. He had never been wrong about that
with regards to a girl.
But this was not a girl and this was not a strange guy
either. This was his best friend. Someone who has been
around him for so long
that he kind of had a right to fond looks, smiles and
touches. But then why didn't Lance, Joey and Chris act
the same way? They were
just as good friends even if he hadn't known them for
as long as he had known Justin.  They didn't act
flirty with him. Or maybe he
just didn't notice it with them as much as he did with
Justin. Was he just reading too much into Justin's
action?

For weeks these questions would take up his quiet
time, with him ending up with a massive headache. He
didn't want to do anything
and find out that it had all been a big mistake on his
part. JC decided that he rather keep his feelings to
himself. For all he knew,
maybe he was just going through a phase! Late as the
'phase' may have come. Then last night had happened.

JC unconsciously ran his tongue over his lips. He
could still feel the way Justin's lips had felt on
his. Soft and insistent. It belied the
way the blond's hips had ground against him. JC could
feel himself getting aroused and stifled those
thoughts. At first it had seemed
like a dream. He was kissing Justin and Justin was
responding. Then the warmth and feeling of human skin
penetrated the fog of sleep
and made him open his eyes. Meeting Justin's blue gaze
had sent him into a momentary pause. All logic had
stopped. His head got
confirmation of what his heart had always known.
Justin * did * have feelings for him. With that, his
mind stopped functioning and his
body took over, doing what he had, until then, only
fantasized about doing. He had been lost in Justin.
His lips, hands, skin, body.

Suddenly there was a knock on the bathroom door,
causing JC to jump up and stand behind it nervously.
In a little corner of his mind,
JC noted that last night a similar knock had
interrupted them. Perhaps it was a omen. Perhaps it
was a sign of some sort. Or perhaps he
was an idiot.

"JC? You gonna be in there for long?" Justin's voice
sounded a little stressed.

"I-I'll be out soon." JC answered, wincing as he heard
his unnatural, fake, cheery voice.

"Ok. Can soon be like in five seconds? I really need
to pee."

Ah! That was the explanation for the stressed voice.

JC closed his eyes and shook his head. Then taking a
deep breath, he reached for the door.
"Ok. I can do this. Just grab handle, twist, pull door
and face ::gulp:: him."

With that said, JC swung the door open so abruptly
that Justin stepped back in reaction. The two of them
faced each other.

"Erm.Hi." JC greeted nervously.

"Hi." Justin replied, smiling. More like grinning.

Justin! Smiling! Before his cereals! Oh lord!

"So." JC said.

"So." Justin repeated.

"The bathroom's free." JC remarked.

"Yeah, I can see that." Justin responded, trying
unsuccessfully to hide his grin.

JC felt his face flush and stepped away. Or at least
tried to. Justin grabbed his arm.

"Josh, about last night."

"Don't you have to pee?'

"Desperately, but."

"I have a feeling this is going to be a long talk so
maybe we should talk later." JC explained. He kept
telling himself that he was not
avoiding 'the talk'. Nope. Not at all.

He saw a flash of worry in Justin's eyes as his grin
faltered and knew that the other boy was thinking that
he had changed his mind
about them. Wait a minute. There wasn't even a 'them'!
Was there?

"JC, are you regretting." Justin started.

"Justin. Can we just talk about this later?" JC
interrupted quickly, not wanting to hear Justin
complete that question. Hearing the
events put into words would just make him even more
edgy than he was. And JC knew that he needed to calm
down first. 'The Talk'
was going to change a lot of thing between Justin and
himself and he wanted to be ready for it. Ready as in,
dressed, sitting opposite
each other, calm and collected.

He looked up to see that Justin's smile had by now
completely disappeared and was replaced by a frown. JC
knew that he should say
something reassuring. Something to say that things
were ok. Anything to let Justin know that the kiss had
not been a mistake. But he
didn't. JC just shakily turned to the dresser and
proceeded to pull out his clothes from the cupboard
where he had hung them up. He
felt Justin gaze on his back for a long time. All the
while, JC's mind was screaming had him to say
something! Unfortunately his
mouth was in a rebellious mood.

JC winced as he heard the bathroom door slam shut.
This was not good. Ok. Understatement. This was a damn
disaster. He may just
had gone and screwed up something wonderful before it
had even began. Why couldn't he just talk to Justin?
Why did he have to be a
jerk? Why was his head aching so much?

Pulling on a black t-shirt and changing out of his
sweat pants into khaki pants, JC quickly headed for
the door. He had to fix things
quick. He didn't know how but talking suddenly seemed
like a good idea. And before he could talk he needed
to get some aspirin for
his headache. He looked towards the bathroom and knew
that he wasn't going to get the aspirin from in there.
That just left one of the
other guys' rooms.

JC closed the room door behind him and walked to the
room that Joey, Lance and Chris shared. Not that, on
hindsight, he would
complain about. But at the time when they had been
assigned the room, he hadn't liked the idea of sharing
a bed with the guy who was
constantly occupying his thoughts. However, now he was
glad for that. Only he had screwed it up.

He felt terrible and not just because of his throbbing
head. The look on Justin's face still remained on his
mind. Justin had been
smiling but because of him, he wasn't happy now.
Somehow the thought that he had hurt Justin made JC
feel like scum. It was scary to
think that he had the power to make or break Justin's
day.

"He smiled for you before his cereal and yet you
treated him like shit!" JC muttered to himself as he
leaned forward against the wall
beside the guys' room door and knocked his forehead on
it repeatedly.
"Idiot! Idiot! Idi."

A hand touched his shoulders causing JC to yelp and
whirl around. Lance and Joey and Chris yelled too as
they jumped back.
"Woah! What's the matter, C?" Joey asked.

JC sighed in relief and shook his head.
"Nothing. I just have an headache."

"I don't think that helps." Lance remarked, arching an
eyebrow. "Justin said you were sick last night? How
are you feeling today?"

"Fine. So.you were the one who.so Justin said I was
sick last night uh?"

"Is there an echo in here?" Chris quiped with a grin.

"Where's Justin? He didn't look too good either? You
passed it to him?" Lance asked.

"Huh? He's fine." JC knew Justin had * felt * fine.
Man did he feel fine! "He just woke up." JC replied,
rubbing his forehead.

"Aww! He'll take forever to get dressed and style that
mop of his! I'm hungry!" Joey complained.

"Where did you guys come from?" JC asked, looking at
the closed door of their room.

"We were at the Pack's room. They said to ring them
once everyone's ready to go for breakfast." Lance
answered.

JC saw an opportunity to talk to Justin without the
interruptions from the other guys.
"Why don't you three go ahead first. I'm just going to
get some aspirin from your room and I'll get Justin
and meet you guys later."

"That won't be necessary."

JC whirled around to see Justin standing behind him.
He hadn't expected the blond to have gotten ready so
quickly. Justin was dressed
in jeans, a blue turtle neck and had his hair covered
in a bandana. He had obviously not taken his standard
half an hour fixing his hair.
Usually this would send JC whooping for joy along with
the other guys. However, now, this threw a wrench in
his plans. Also the cold
blue gaze that met his eyes, didn't exactly give JC
cause for whooping. Justin was angry.

"Woah! Man the ark, Noah! The end of the world is
coming!" Chris exclaimed, referring to Justin's prompt
appearance.

"JC said you just woke up!" Joey added, surprised that
Justin was ready that fast. After all he had shared a
room with Justin before and
he knew all about cursing and swearing while the
younger boy hogged the bathroom for an hour.

"Yeah. And he knows everything, doesn't he?" was
Justin's only reply as he walked past the guys towards
the room of their
bodyguards.

Joey, Lance and Chris immediately knew something was
wrong. And it had to do with JC. However, the group's
code was to not get
involved until 24 hours had passed. If they still
hadn't solved their problems with each other, the rest
would mediate. However, their
fights had never gotten to that point. The three of
them doubted that JC and Justin would last for even 1
hour.

"There he goes. Mr. Hyde until we get some cereal into
him." Chris replied as he walked after Justin. Joey
shrugged and followed along with Lance.

JC just watched Justin go and sighed. Obviously he had
to pick another time to talk to Justin. One thought
ran through his mind as he walked behind the other
guys.

'Justin had smiled for me before his cereal.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
tbc