Love Thru Chat

Previously on Love Thru Chat

Bill walked by Lance and put his hands on Lance's chest, rubbing his pects and nips and smiling as Lance moaned from the tactile contact. "Well....how about nekkid and wet and laying on my bed with that cute innocent look you have on your face. That's a picture that usually works for me!"

Lance's jaw dropped and his eyes widened as Bill walked past him down the hall towards the bedroom.

"Coming?", Bill called out, the amusement audible in his voice.

Lance shook his head, giggled and whispered, "Oh my...I almost just did!"

Lance walked into the bedroom and smiled as he saw Bill stretched out on the bed, already half asleep. Lance got undressed and crawled into bed beside him. Lance turned and moved next to Bill, letting him spoon him.

"Goodnight B."

"Nite Lance."

Chapter 23: Getting Settled In & Coming Out...Again

The next 3 months were a blur of on-the-job training, making and fixing mistakes at work, coming under great amounts of stress and beating deadlines that kept Bill working til obscene hours in the morning. Bill's social life, which had been slow in North Carolina, was almost non-existant in Florida, with most of his free time spent sleeping, working or spending time with the guys if they were in town, which was not very often at all. But through all of this, Bill was very happy at his job, mainly because it was new, interesting, and something he enjoyed doing. Bill woke up as usual that Monday and headed into work, arranging in his mind the projects he had on his plate and what time he was going to allocate to each of them. Bill walked into his office and set down his stuff and pulled up to his computer when a light knock sounded on his door. Bill turned and smiled as he saw his boss John standing there.

"I am sure you have no idea what today is, do you?"

Bill looked down at his calendar and shrugged, "Um....I am sure this a pretty lame cop-out, but...is it your birthday?"

John smiled, "No. It's about you, silly, not me!"

"Oh! Well....then you are right, I have absolutely no idea what today is then."

John laughed, "Good! You'd probably have been worried and nervous otherwise."

Bill's eyebrow shot up and he reached into his desk and pulled out the large bottle of antacids. John rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"No...Really...let me assure you, you WON'T be needing those. Come with me"

Bill grabbed a few antacids from the bottle and put them in his shirt pocket as he got up from his desk and followed John to the door of the large conference room.

"Go on inside. I have to go grab a pen and a pad from my desk."

Bill nodded and walked into the room and flicked on the light.

"SURPRISE!!!"

Bill's head snapped up as he saw Lance, JC and Justin sitting at a table with Brian Littrell, Kevin Richardson, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, and AJ McLean.

"Hi y'all!", Bill said with a nervous smile as he walked over to the table and took the first empty seat.

John walked back in a second later with his own boss and smiled widely as they sat down in the remaining seats in the room.

"Bill. We wanted to bring you in today to sit you down and go over your role in the upcoming NSYNC tour and the art direction for the release of the new Backstreet album. As we agreed on when you were hired, you are going to go with the NSYNC guys and do some writing for their website and tour diary, the bulk of which will probably be sourced out for a tour magazine or an NSYNC collector's book. The Backstreet guys here have been looking through some of the work that you've done for your singles and stuff and have asked me to assign you to design and direct the art on their new album. Finally....today marks the end of your 90 day training period and after we go over your role with NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, I will be giving you your performance and salary review."

Bill looked at John and nodded his head, reaching to the middle of the table and grabbing a water pitcher and glass and pouring himself a glass. John and the guys tried to supress a smile as they watched Bill pop some antacids and chew them up and then swallow them with a glass of water.

The first part of the meeting was easy, discussing the upcoming NSYNC tour and his role as tour documentarian and website tour diary columnist. The meeting broke for a few minutes so that everyone could stretch, get sodas or use the bathroom, Bill grinned as Justin, Lance and JC came up and told him they'd see him this afternoon and that they were going to head out so that he could concentrate on "the other band". The second part of the meeting resumed as each one of the Backstreet Boys made a point of officially introducing themselves to Bill. Bill smiled and shook each one's hands and then John had them pull out their notes on what kind of look they were going for and the kind of marketing push they were expecting from the new album. Bill countered by asking what the tentative name of the album was and what slant they were hoping to take for branding and marketing purposes. As they explained it to him, Bill took copious notes and asked questions to clarify and focus the discussion. Bill looked down at his notes and then began to fire off questions about the "look" and "feel" of the band in this album as well as that of each member. The guys were not expecting this line of questioning and after had Bill show examples of what he meant so that they could better understand what he was looking for. Bill smiled and used the new album from NSYNC as example, pointing out how the entire marketing, video concepting and merchandising effort was going to center around the "puppet theme". Kevin nodded and then began to take the lead in the discussion, giving Bill the most precise answers he could think of at the moment. Bill nodded and took down what Kevin was saying and then ask the rest of the group to voice their thoughts. At the meetings' end, Bill threw out the idea of scheduling a follow-up meeting to go over and cement the ideas they had given him today. Bill added that he would write up his notes from the meeting and give them to John to copy and distribute to the guys so that they could review them before the next meeting. The guys nodded and smiled and then John got up and thanked them for coming. Kevin walked over to the table and shook Bill's hand and asked him if the guys could take him out to a late lunch after his review. Bill nodded and smiled, "Thanks!"

The guys headed out and John closed the door and smiled, "You did an incredible job with those guys Bill. I am so very much impressed. You asked all the right questions, and even a few questions that I wouldn't have even thought to ask.

John sat down opposite Bill at the table and pulled out a sample of every piece of Bill's work and for the next hour, they reviewed and discussed them. At the end of the discussion, John walked around to Bill's side of the table and pulled out a few forms from his folder and laid them down in front of him.

"OK. Let's see here...These pages here basically go over your work as a graphic artist and are essentially what I have been saying about your samples and work so far. This next part goes into detail about how you've met and exceeded our expectations and goals for you, and also goes into detail about your new raise in pay, bonus, and incentive pay as well as your new expense account for the upcoming tour. Finally...this part is for you to fill out, it's a sheet of general goals we will expect from you in the upcoming six months and you may add to this or take the ones we have and make them more specific. If you wanna sign the first two now, we can get your raise and stuff processed...you can take the last one back to your office and get it back to me by the end of the week."

Bill looked up at John and shook his head, "And you said I'd not need my antacids for this? If I hadn't been so engrossed in the meeting, I would have been a wreck!"

John laughed and shook his head, "Just sign the forms so you can go to lunch! I think those guys are waiting in your office....and I don't know about you, but I'd be worried to death if Nick Carter had spent the last hour playing on my computer.

Bill faked a frown and groaned, "I'll have to get that thing locked down with a password. As long as I don't hear the words, "oops" or "oh shit!" from my office when I get back there, I'll be OK. I think I backed everything up on Friday so he can't do much harm, can he?"

John laughed nervously and Bill quickly looked down at the first form and signed it, handing it to John to sign as his supervisor. Bill read the second one and stopped when it came to his review and salary.

"Is this RIGHT?!?" Bill asked incredulously.

"John peered over his shoulder at where Bill was pointing and smiled, "Yep. That's not a typo....that's your raise."

"JESUS! That's a lot of money!"

John smiled solumnly, "We reward excellence....and that's what you've shown us from day one."

If Bill's eyes didn't fall out when he saw his raise, they just about did when he saw his bonus and incentive pay.

"Um...not to sound repetitive...but..."

John chuckled, "Just sign it...it's not a typo."

Bill nervously picked up the pen and signed the sheet, then handed it to John to sign as well.

"OK...just stop by accounting today and they'll have your bonus check dispersed. Umm...don't spend it all in one place...unless its on a new car or on a house. Now go have a good lunch."

Bill walked back to his office, stunned by the amounts of money he had just seen. Kevin looked up and smiled as he saw Bill walk in.

"How was the review?"

Bill looked up at Kevin and smiled, "WOW! It was good. Really good. It was REALLY REALLY good!"

Nick laughed, "That good, huh?"

Bill nodded, "I got a raise in pay that is more than I made in the last 4 years...and that's before my bonus and incentive. I am just amazed!"

Brian smiled, "Well...they like to keep the good people working here....and your stuff is really good!"

Bill grinned, "Thanks! I am glad you like it...and I hope you like what I've already got planned out in my head for the look of your new album just as much."

"I am sure we will", Kevin said with a grin. "JC and the guys recommended you highly...they think the world of you."

Bill smiled, "Well..they're kinda biased I think....they've been my friends since I moved here three months ago..I don't think I'd have even have this job if JC hadn't gotten me an interview with John."

Nick looked up from Bill's computer, "So you're a writer too? That's neat that you'll be going on tour with them and doing the tour diary."

"It'll give me something different to do, other than art and graphics. I like to write and when I am not doing this or sleeping, I am usually sitting and writing my own stuff."

"Oh really?" Kevin asked. "What kinda stuff do you write?"

"Fiction." Bill smiled, "Funny you should ask. My writing is how I met JC and the NSYNC guys."

"Really?" Brian asked, his curiousity piqued.

"Yeah. I write fan fiction about...you guys and NSYNC."

Howie looked up and frowned, "Fan fiction?"

Bill walked over to his computer and leaned over Nick and double clicked on a folder and opened a set of files and printed them.

"Here. Gimme a second and I'll show you."

Bill watched as his office printer quickly printed off copies of a few of his stories. Bill stapled and handed a copy of a story to each guy and then sat down on the side of his desk and waited as they read them.

Kevin sighed and smiled as he finished reading his story. Bill had written "A Father's Love" right before he moved to Orlando and was ambivalent as to how the eldest band member would view it. As Kevin looked up from the paper, Bill saw his frown and moist eyes and exhaled.

"What did you think?"

Kevin sighed and stood up, "That was an awesome story, man....umm....could you excuse me?"

Kevin walked out quickly and Bill sighed as Brian reached over and grabbed the papers that Kevin had just abandoned and began to quickly read them.

Howie was next to look up from his reading. "This is kinda heavy stuff. I've read some fan fiction before but it wasn't like this at all. The other stories read like a porn movie...these are good!"

Bill smiled, "I write some erotic fan fics too, but have a bunch with plots and storylines as well."

Nick looked up, his face pale, "I got one of the porn movies ones. Jeesh!"

Bill tried not to smile, "Getting tied up and beaten and sexed over by your band fellow band members doesn't appeal to ya?"

Nick shook his head, "I can honestly say we've never done it....but...reading about it doesn't do much for me."

Brian looked up from Kevin's story and sighed, "This is really depressing....between the one you gave me and the one you gave Kevin....do ANY of your stories end happily?!?"

Bill shrugged, "Most of my stories are based on real life people, not fairy tales, and in real life, there really is no such thing as living happily ever after."

AJ coughed as he looked up from the much longer story he was reading, "That's a real "up" attitude you got goin' there man."

Bill smiled, "I believe that "Happy Ever After" should be the exception, not the rule."

Brian got to the end of Kevin's story and shook his head and sighed, "OK...that was really depressing, but it had a good ending...kinda bittersweet. Um...I better go find Kevin and see if he still wants to go to lunch."

The rest of the guys nodded as Brian handed the two stories he had read to Nick and got up and left.

"Guys" Bill said as he looked at them all reading, "I'll be back in a few minutes, too...I am gonna hit the bathroom and look out for Kevin as well."

Bill walked into the bathroom and was drying his hands before he heard the stifled sob from the stall at the far end of the bathroom. Bill walked down to the stall and knocked softly on the door. Kevin opened the door and looked at Bill with tear stained eyes.

"I....I...I"

Bill shook his head to silence Kevin and put his hand on his shoulder, and then slid it over to the nape of his neck as Kevin lowered his head onto Bill's shoulder and began to sob anew.

A few minutes later, the door opened and Brian walked in and saw Bill and Kevin standing there and cautiously approached them.

"Kev?"

Kevin looked up and sighed, "I'm OK Brian. I just miss my dad so much."

Brian sighed and walked over to Kevin and hugged him.

Bill stepped back and turned to leave when Kevin's hand clamped down on his shoulder.

"Thank you." Kevin said in a weak voice. "Since Dad died, I've been pushing my feelings down and ignoring them, hoping I'll forget them and everything involved with them. Your story made me see that I don't wanna do that, cause I'll lose all the memories of my dad along with them...Thank you."

Bill nodded and was a little surprised when Kevin pulled him in for a strong hug and whispered his thanks once more before letting him go. A few moments later, the Brian and Bill waited while Kevin got cleaned up then the three of them walked back into Bill's office and tore the other guys away from their reading and moving out to get lunch.

Lunch went really well and Bill got an even better idea of what the guys wanted for their new album before they headed back to the office. Bill smiled as he opened his office door and saw Lance sitting at his desk on the phone.

"...hey Paul...he just walked in, let me ask him and then I'll call you back."

Lance hung up and smiled knowingly at Bill. "How did your review go? Did you get a raise?"

Bill grinned and closed the door to his office and walked over to Lance and pulled him into a hug and kissed him on the lips.

"It went incredibly! I am still recovering from the shock of it"

Lance laughed, "John showed me your folder before you got here and I told him to keep an eye out just in case you fainted."

Bill giggled, "That's a LOT of money!"

Lance nodded, "Oh yeah...John just stopped in and reminded me to remind you not to forget to get your check from accounting before you leave today then you can treat me to dinner tonight. Oh....I was just talking to Paul...Paul Summerstorm, he wanted to know if it was OK for him to stay with you while he's here recording his demo."

Bill nodded, "Sure..I'll put new linens in the guest room and get him a key."

Lance smiled and placed a passionate kiss on Bill's lips as the door to his office swung open.

Bill stood up and broke the kiss with Lance and turned to the now blushing figure of Kevin Richardson in the doorway and smiled.

"Hi Kevin...whassup?"

Kevin stared down at the floor, "Ummm....Sorry about not knocking....ummm...the guys wanted me to get your cell number and see if you wanted to hang out some time if you aren't busy."

Bill smiled, "Sure. Come on in. Let me see here....." Bill opened the top drawer of his desk and grabbed a few business cards and printed down his email, cell, and home numbers on them and handed it to Kevin.

Kevin coughed, "I also wanted to kinda thank you again for your story about me and my dad. Umm...I liked it...alot. It really made me think of what being a dad would be like and made me appreciate the memories I have of mine more and more."

Bill's smile faded and he walked over to Kevin and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Like I said at the end, it was a dream I had one night when I was in bed and it just kinda wrote itself. I am really glad you liked it. If you want, I'll give you the copyright to it and you can put it on your website or do something along that line with it."

Kevin smiled and nodded, "Thank you. We'll give you a call soon."

Kevin smiled and squeezed Bill's shoulder once more before he turned and left.

Bill turned to Lance who was sitting quietly, still blushing.

"Well...if they suspected before...they know for sure now."

Bill laughed, "Yeah. No doubt, unless I explain that I was medically checking your tonsils with my tongue."

Lance chuckled, "I'm sorry."

Bill shook his head, "No reason to be sorry...I've always lived my life the way I am....if they have a problem with me being gay or you being gay or me being with you...well...to quote my Dad, 'they can go pound sand up their ass.' Know what I mean?"

Lance nodded and smiled and gave Bill one more quick peck on the lips as he got up and headed out to join up with the guys for some afternoon choreography practice.

"How about we get together for dinner tonight around six?"

Bill smiled and nodded as Lance grabbed a sticky off his desk and wrote down a few reminders and tucked them into his day planner.

"I'll call Paul and tell him that he can stay this weekend at your place."

Bill nodded as Lance leaned in and placed a parting kiss on his lips. Bill turned his attention to finishing up the pending work he had on his desk before walking over and getting his bonus check and heading out to the bank to deposit it and then pick up some groceries for dinner that night. Bill arrived home a little after five and had dinner finished just as he heard the sound of a key in the door. Bill smiled as he saw Lance come into the kitchen and sniff`appreciatively before smiling and pulling Bill in for a kiss.

Dinner, which consisted of gnocchi in a pesto sauce with some garlic cheese bread and a tiramisu for dessert, was quickly eaten and Bill and Lance spent most of the evening snuggled up on the couch sharing glasses of wine in between bouts of kissing. Bill took a sip of wine and smiled as Lance looked into his eyes. Lance leaned up and began to kiss Bill deeply when the ringing of a cell phone in his jacket pocket interrupted the kiss. Lance pulled back and sighed, "That'll probably be Paul. He had gone out when I called back and I left a message for him to just call the cell and I would give him all the details."

Bill nodded as Lance got up and answered the phone, grabbing his day planner and opening it on the dining table and reading off the information to Paul. Bill watched Lance talk on the phone until his eyes began to get heavy and droop from the dinner and the wine and then the next thing he knew Lance was pulling on his hand to get him up and move him to bed. Bill put his arm around Lance and the two walked into the bedroom and undressed and climbed into bed beside each other and snuggled close and fell asleep.

The week went by quickly as Bill began to concept his idea for the Backstreet Boys new album and he smiled when on Friday, Lance and Paul stopped in to pick him up from work and take him to dinner. The three sat together discussing some light business and thinking up ways to break Paul's songs into play on the radio. Bill put a few unconventional, yet commonsense means out on the table and they nodded and Lance wrote the ideas down as they discussed them. After dinner, all three headed back to Bill's apartment where Bill left Lance and Paul to continue their discussion as he went to bed. Bill fell into a deep sleep and barely roused when Lance slipped into the bed many hours later.

Bill and Lance both sat in the control booth with the controllers as Paul recorded several of the songs he wrote for his demo. Bill was impressed with each song and he and Lance each made a few notes which they brought to Paul's attention during his breaks. Paul listened attentively and nodded as he saw the logic of each statement, and then made the corrections to his sheet music and asked to re-record the track. Paul and Bill drove to the airport with Lance and the rest of the guys as they shipped out to New York for a two day promotional appearance gig. Lance smiled and waved at Bill and then was shocked as Paul pulled his handshake into a tight hug and thanks for getting him recorded and managing him and everything. Lance's smile disappeared as Paul leaned down and kissed Lance quickly on the cheek before ending the embrace.

JC watched with wide eyes as Paul kissed Lance. JC looked at Bill discreetly and was shocked to see him standing there watching, expressionless. JC made a mental note to talk to Lance on the plane and find out what was going on. JC knew Bill would be really hurt if Lance dumped him for someone else after all they had gone through together.

Lance looked over at Bill who was now looking at the pair of them with a odd, expressionless look before turning and heading onto the plane. Lance was glad for the seat because his face was still burning from the kiss Paul had given him as well as from the embarrassment it had caused. Lance sighed as he remembered the expression on Bill's face, and then frowned as he realized what that kiss must have looked like to Bill and wondered how he was going to explain it to him the next time they talked.

Bill watched as the plane taxied and headed off into the blue sky and then he and Pual walked back to his car. Paul's flight back to North Carolina was on Monday afternoon and he had plans to record until lunch and then head out to the airport. Bill smiled as Paul excitedly talked about his weekend and how he couldn't believe he was getting the chance to make music and get recorded. Bill's smile faded somewhat as Paul's talk moved onto the topic of Lance and it quickly became apparent to Bill that Paul had begun, even if unconsciously, to have feelings for Lance. Bill spent the rest of the evening wondering if Lance felt anything for Paul and how this would undoubtedly change everything in his life yet again.

Thoughts of Paul and Lance were quickly pushed from Bill's mind as the next two weeks began a grueling schedule of putting together the art for his idea for the album and getting some rough sketches made of other materials and ideas he had thought of that were spawned by the album art.

A week before the NSYNC tour began, Bill gave his album presentation to John, the guys in the band, and some of the high level executives in the company. His bosses were much impressed and the Backstreet Boys were stunned. AJ got up and whooped and grabbed Bill and pulled him off his feet in a tight hug as the guys all saw the outstanding work that was done on the concept and design. With a few incredibly minor changes, Bill had easily won over both the executives and the band to his idea. John took the initiative and explained that now the ball was in the court of the boys as they had to get their liner notes, pictures, and other information together so that it could be added and the final proof readied for inspection. Kevin stood up and shook Bill's hand and the guys happily made their way out of the office.

John's boss, Clive, knocked on Bill's office twenty minutes later and expressed his gratitude and amazement at the young man's seemingly deft handling of the project and told Bill that he'd be keeping an eye on him from now on. Bill smiled and grabbed a few antacids from his desk drawer and popped them as the door closed behind Clive. Bill was sure that having a high level executive tell you he was watching you was a good thing, but nonetheless, it still caused him to feel queasy.

Bill went home and packed up his suitcases, laughing as Lance insisted that he come over for a while and help him pick out clothes and stuff for the tour that Lance thought would be a necessity as well as a bunch of other stuff that Bill had totally not thought of that would make living on a bus for several months go much more smoothly. Bill visited his landlord and gave him the low-down on what was happening to him over the next several months with the tour and how his company would be cutting rent checks for him over the time he was gone and to expect them to make periodic inspections of the apartment to assure its safety and security.

Bill sat on the couch and tried to sleep some after he packed all his suitcases and bags into the car, unfortunately, the stress of his first road tour kept him awake most of the night. At 4 am, the phone rang and Bill picked it up on the first ring.

"Hello?"

"Still awake?"

Bill smiled and replied suggestively, "I wouldn't be awake if I had someone to snuggle up to and take my mind off this incredibly large knot of stress in the area that used to resemble my stomach."

Lance sighed and immediately hung up. Bill's eyes widened at the action and he shook his head and huffed.

"I hope that he was half-asleep and sleeptalking to me on the phone or that he had just gone temporarily insane or I'll have to kick his ass for hanging up on me like that. Southern Gentlemen.....Hmmmm....."

Bill's thoughts were interrupted by a key in the door and he looked up and smiled as he saw Lance walk in, followed by JC, Justin, Chris and Joey.

Lance shrugged and smiled a little as he walked over and hugged Bill.

"Well...we couldn't sleep either, so we all thought we'd come over here and try to....ummm..."

Bill grinned, "...collectively find some somnambulance in my apartment?"

The guys nodded and smiled as Bill shook his head and walked into the kitchen. A moment later, Bill yelled out, "I think I have just the thing to help us find our way into the arms of Morpheus."

A few minutes later, Bill emerged from the kitchen with a trayful of mugs.

"What's this?" JC said, sniffing the cup suspiciously.

"It's delicious. It's white cocoa with whip cream. Drink up, this is guaranteed to put you to sleep."

Bill watched as the guys all bottomed out their cups in short order then he drank his cup and took Lance by the hand.

"I set the alarm clock to get us up at 10 am so that we can get to the bus by 11:30 am. We'll be a half-hour early that way."

The guys nodded and Bill smiled as he saw Justin's head droop on JC's shoulder as they made their way back to the guest bedroom.

Bill grabbed two covers from the linen closet for Joey and Chris as they spread out on the sofas and then headed back to the bedroom where Lance lay half-asleep on the bed.

"OK....now that we're alone...What was in that cocoa?"

Bill smiled. "I crushed up a few Nytol and added the powder to the cocoa along with a couple shots of Godiva White Chocolate Liquor. It's not enough to put us out, but it should be enough to alleviate our nervousness and let our natural fatigue and tiredness take over and lull us to sleep."

Lance smiled, "Oh yeah...It's working..<yawn> REAL well! Thanks...We'd have been a wreck tomorrow if we didn't get some good sleep tonight."

Bill smiled and stripped down to his boxers and climbed into bed with Lance and fell fast asleep in his arms, dreaming of the new adventures of the upcoming tour. Bill and Lance slept soundly, blissfully unaware of the drastic life changes that lay in wait for them both over the next few weeks.

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