NOTES: For the Slash Across America challenge. Speed, Fugitive, and Enemy of the State. Older thanks Younger and Younger thanks Older. We both thank Tiffany.

WEST VIRGINIA

Justin thinks it's hilarious, they're eating at the Timberhaus cafeteria. The Timberhaus cafeteria at the Timberline resort and he giggles every time he reads it or hears it. He can't say it with a straight face. They have this house they're all renting called the Great Escape and that makes Justin laugh, too, it's just great that everything is named so appropriately.

Burgers and fries and the bodyguards are all around them with their meals and Justin sits across from Chris. "I love this place," Justin says with another giggle.

"Well, yeah, here we are in the Timberhaus, I imagine you feel right at home." Chris rolls his eyes. "At least the skiing's good, so that makes up for your incessant hyena laugh."

"I do not laugh like a hyena!" Justin covers his mouth so he doesn't spit out his fries while he laughs.

Chris is still ragging on him when it happens. Some guy, scruffy, and wearing dirty clothes, walks by and suddenly lunges toward the table. Justin stands up and the bodyguards are all around him. The guy stumbles over Justin's bag, falls to his feet and then looks up at the men surrounding him. One of the bodyguards is already starting to push Justin and Chris away. The guy says, "I just wanted ketchup. You had the ketchup." Which is bullshit, but the guy's clearly wiped and off, so Justin sits back down while one of the bodyguards escorts the guy out.

Justin and Chris ski a few hours more and then go back to the house. Justin has to pee but the bathroom door is closed, so he knocks. Joey calls out, "I'm busy, dude."

Justin sighs. "Joe, come on."

Joey says, "I'm busy" again and then Justin hears a girl laugh.

"We got, like, four bathrooms in this place. Why you gotta be using mine?" He leans against the door. The girl laughs again, then moans. Justin shakes his head, then pees off the front deck.

When he comes back, he sees Chris whisper something in JC's ear. JC actually fucking jumps up and down and actually fucking claps his hands. He and Chris race each other to their bedroom.

"Piece of work, man," Lance says from the couch and takes a draw off a bottle of beer.

Justin throws open the refrigerator. "Which one of them?"

"Take your pick," Lance says, and laughs.

In the morning Justin roots through his bag looking for a stray joint he might have left in there. And it's not there at all, which sucks. He upends the bag onto the floor. There's an unlabeled CDR, a disc that Justin doesn't recognize at all. He pops it in his CD Walkman but it doesn't play. It's some kind of data thing, he guesses, and Justin's completely confused how he ended up with it. He puts his ID, credit card and health insurance card in the disc sleeve and slips all of that into his coat pocket. Justin doesn't like to go anywhere without his essential things and he'll be skiing, so no bag.

Lance is the only one up and he's just sitting there watching Queer As Folk DVDs so Justin corrals him into going to breakfast with him. "We have no food, man."

"We have a ton of food, Just." Lance doesn't look away from Brian fucking some guy on the screen. Justin cocks his head to the side for a better angle of the sex on-screen and almost laughs when he sees Lance doing the same thing.

"We don't have anything good. Come on, just get up and come with me." Lance sighs and goes through this whole routine of stopping the DVD and ejecting it and putting it back in the holder before he even turns around and agrees to go with Justin.

They go back to the Timberhaus and some guy in a suit walks up to Justin and says, "Mr. Timberlake?"

Justin glances back at the bodyguards and says, "Yeah?"

The guy says he's with the resort security and he wants to ask about the ketchup guy from yesterday. He calls it "the unfortunate incident" and asks if the guy bothered Justin. Justin says not really, because he wasn't really bothered. Fans are scarier than crazy guys who never actually touched him. The guy asks if the ketchup guy gave him anything and Justin thinks, oh. The disc. The ketchup guy must have shoved it in his bag. It's way too fucking early and Justin doesn't want to deal with this, so he says, "No. Nothing." The guy narrows his eyes like he's figured out that Justin is lying but he walks away anyway. One of the bodyguards comes over and Justin waves him off. "It's cool, man."

"You want me to go talk to him?"

Justin looks at Lance, who shrugs and swirls a piece of French toast in a puddle of syrup. "Nah, dude, it's cool, really."

"Okay." The bodyguard, some new guy named Mark or Marv, cracks his neck and walks back to his table.

Lance takes a swallow of orange juice. "What was that about?"

"Nothing." Justin slides back his chair. "You about done here?"

"Yeah." He stuffs the last piece of French toast into his mouth. "Let's go."

They go to the house to get their equipment and run into Joey's girl. They introduce themselves. She ducks her head and says, "Nice to meet y'all," then slips out the door between them. They get their stuff and stop in the living room to ask Chris and JC if they want to come, too.

Chris says, "Later" and doesn't look up from the television. JC continues reading until he's finished with the page, then carefully holds his place with his index finger and turns to look at Justin and Lance. "I think we're staying in today. Maybe we'll see you later at Timbers Pub."

Chris smacks JC's leg. "You just wanted to say 'Timbers Pub.'"

JC laughs. "Yeah, I did. We'll be out in an hour or something."

Justin and Lance leave. When they get outside, Justin adjusts his gear. "Dude, do you have any pot?"

"I think Joey's got some in his room." Lance grins. "You want me to look for it?"

Justin does, so Lance disappears into the house and returns with a baggie of pot and papers. "We'll have to roll them and shit, but Joey always has good shit." Justin grins and unzips his coat so he can stuff the baggie next to the disc sleeve, then zips his coat back up and follows Lance to the mountain.

They ski for a while. A couple of runs. Justin grabs Lance's ass as they're walking back, the bodyguards right behind them. Lance says, "Man, don't grab my ass."

Justin says, "You're watching those hot TV shows, it's giving me ideas." Justin giggles. They only had two joints from Joey's stash, but they're both feeling giggly. Justin pats his coat pocket to feel how much more they have left. A goodly amount. Goodly, googly, giggly.

Justin turns around as Lance is calling Queer As Folk not even as hot as soft-core porn and the bodyguards aren't there. Justin grabs Lance's hand and says, "Fuck. Where'd they go?"

Lance turns around and says, "Huh. Let's, uh, wait. Fuck, where are they?"

Then the security guy is walking right up to them, his gun is drawn and pointed at them. Justin thinks he's gonna pee in his pants. He's scared shitless and all Justin can think is don't pee, don't pee, don't pee. The security guy says, "Give me what the guy gave you, you queer fuck."

Justin opens his mouth and reaches in his pocket. One of the bodyguards comes running out the trees and tackles the security guy. Lance grabs Justin's arm and yells, "Run!" He pulls Justin and they run even faster when they hear a gun go off. Trees, snow, legs pumping and Justin really wants to pee but he has no intention of letting go of Lance's arm or ever not running.

They get to the house and Lance throws every lock on the door. "Call, call - call fucking someone," Lance says, waving.

Justin says, "I have to pee." He's never been so scared in his whole life, even when that girl jumped him onstage on San Diego, even when he auditioned for the Mickey Mouse Club, even when he was on Star Search. Justin grabs Lance's arm and pulls him into the bathroom.

Lance says, "You don't need me to --"

Justin says, "I'm fucking scared here, just stay with me for a sec." Lance sighs and rubs his forehead, he's all sweaty, too. Justin pees and Lance opens his cell phone to call the cops or something. When Justin's done, Lance pushes him out of the way and pees, too. Justin takes the phone from Lance's shaking hands and dials 911. Justin's got as far as "In the woods, the security guy" when they hear the front door breaking open.

"Holy fuck," Lance says. Justin grabs his hand and they run out the back door. "Where are we going? What did you fucking do, Justin?"

Lance is panting as he runs beside Justin and they're both looking back to see if the guy is still behind them. Justin bleats, "Fuck, Lance, I have no fucking idea! I don't fucking know!" Justin looks back and doesn't see anyone, so he pulls Lance behind a tree. "Lance, fuck, what are we going to do? Where are we going?"

Lance leans his head against the tree. "You have the phone. It's still in your hand. Call the cops."

Justin opens the phone when they hear another shot and the security guy's shouting, "Where are you, asshole?"

Lance looks at Justin and closes the phone. Lance mouths "car" and Justin nods. They're still holding hands as they sneak around to the front of the house. Lance finds the keys under the wheel of the rental where they usually put them and lets go of Justin's hand. Justin rattles the handle on the passenger side until Lance opens the door from the inside. "Get the fuck in, Justin," Lance says.

Justin pulls on his seat belt. "I should be driving. I'm a better driver than you."

"You have more speeding tickets than I do, that doesn't mean you're fucking Dale Earnhardt." Lance snarls and turns the car towards the resort. "Did you see the fucking door? They broke the fucking door."

"Where are we going? I should call the cops now." Justin opens the phone and looks down. The battery's dead. "Oh, fuck. Does your phone work?"

"I don't have my fucking phone." Lance slams his hand against the steering wheel.

"Fuck!" Justin kicks at the floor. "Fuck, Lance, what are we gonna do?"

Lance takes a breath. "Okay, look. Look. Joey and Chris and JC had probably just fucking left when we got to the house, so when they get back, they'll see that the place is a fucking mess and they'll call the cops."

"Yeah."

"And then when we don't come back..." Lance trails off. "Because we can't go back, Justin, not with that fucking security fucker working there."

"No, I know, you're right." He reaches down his coat into his pocket for the baggie.

"You don't need another fucking joint right now, Justin. Jesus."

"Fuck you, Lance," Justin says, but leaves the baggie alone. "Where are you going, anyway?"

"How the hell should I know?" Lance is going 80 on the icy highway and changing lanes without using the mirrors. "In Florida, I know where I'm going. In Mississippi, I know where I'm going. But we're in West motherfucking Virginia!"

"Fuck," Justin says again, and looks out the window. "You don't think they'll. That guy, you don't think he's gonna hang around the house and hurt JC, do you?"

Lance's fingers tighten on the steering wheel. "No, I'm sure he won't. I'm sure he won't." He flicks on the radio, then turns it off and asks, "Why'd you just say JC?"

Justin looks at Lance. "Because he's the prettiest. They always hurt the prettiest one." He can't even say it with a straight face and Lance starts laughing, too.

"Dude, fuck, this isn't funny!"

Justin laughs hard and smacks the dashboard. "No, it's really not."

"We got chased," Lance gasps for air. "We got chased off the mountain by some freaky dude, and he shot at us!"

Justin collapses sideways, into Lance's shoulder. "And now, we don't even know where the fuck we are, and the only shit we have with us is a bag of pot and a rental car and our ski clothes!"

"And the rental car is almost out of gas." Justin slaps Lance's arm. "No, Justin, really. Check for signs cause we gotta pull off and fill up."

They pass a sign after another couple of miles, so they take the exit and end up at a gas station in the parking lot of some mall. "How much money do you have, J?"

"I don't have any cash, but I've got my credit card."

"I've got, like, two hundred bucks." Lance uncaps the gas tank. "So we should be okay for a room and stuff."

"Yeah, we're good." Justin looks for suspicious people around and tries to make it look like he's not. "We gotta get some different clothes, too, man."

Lance pays cash for the gas and a bottle of water, which he and Justin split and finish before they're out of the gas station. Justin uses his credit card at the mall for jeans and sweaters and tennis shoes for both of them. The guy at the mall info booth gives them directions to a motel and Justin uses plastic for that, too.

Justin bought a new battery for his cell but when he turns it on, it won't work. He bought a car charger and that's not working either. "Lance," he says, "my fucking phone won't work."

Lance looks at it and turns it on and says, "It's like, your account's been cancelled. Has this been paid up?"

"Of course, Lance. Of course." Justin rubs his forehead. He tries to call Chris's cell on the hotel phone but he doesn't even get the voicemail. He calls the house, but no one answers. Justin looks up at Lance and says, "We can't reach anyone."

"Did you try calling Johnny?" Lance reaches for the hotel phone. He dials and then hangs up. "No answer. What the fuck?"

"I'm hungry." Justin finds a menu for Chinese delivery and orders three different things. Lance sits with him on the bed and leans his head against Justin's shoulder. They sit in silence until the food comes. Lance pays with $20 of his cash.

While they're eating kung pao chicken and Lance is chasing a peanut around the box with his chopsticks, Justin says, "We should. We should go to the police here. I mean, we're fucking rich and famous. People would take care of us."

Lance says, "That's a good idea. But, uh? In the morning? I'm so fucking tired."

Justin nods. They finish half of the Chinese and Justin rolls a joint. "Want?"

Lance nods and they smoke two more. They eat more of the Chinese. They're lying on the bed, giggling, and Justin says, "This is so fucking insane."

"Word." Lance fumbles for something on the bed and ends up patting Justin's chest. "It's like a fucking chase movie. Someone tried to shoot you!"

"And we ran and shit and now my cell phone doesn't work." Justin sighs. "And no one's answering their phone." Justin covers Lance's hand with his own. "I'm glad you're here and stuff."

"And stuff." Lance giggles. Lance sits up and grabs the menu from the bed. "I think we need to take notes, in case we order again, what's good and what isn't from this place."

Justin watches Lance takes meticulous notes on the menu. He's giggling and writing very small. Justin says, "You're cute."

Lance says, "D'uh. I'm sooooooo fucking cute no one can resist me."

Justin giggles and rolls onto his side. "Sleepy," he mumbles. He thinks he falls asleep a little, because when he opens his eyes Lance is swearing and taking off Justin's shoes. "Whatcha doing?"

"You fell asleep. I was taking off your shoes and stuff so you could sleep." Lance scowls and flops down next to Justin.

Justin toes off his shoes. He puts his hand on Lance's stomach. "Why didn't we get a room with two beds?"

"Cause we're in West Virginia and the best we could do was a crummy motel. Am I crowding you?" Lance rolls over so he's facing Justin.

"Nope." Justin grins and kisses Lance's nose. "You're my partner in crime."

"We haven't committed a crime." Lance pauses. "Have you?"

"There's the pot." Justin kisses Lance's nose again.

"Okay, I meant real crime." Lance looks very serious and Justin pulls back. "Right?"

Justin says, "Right." He kisses Lance then. Soft and sweet and there's a hint of the Chinese still on Lance's lips.

Lance breaks off the kiss and says, "I saw Speed, too, Justin. Go to sleep." And Justin does.

He wakes up in the morning because the television is on. Lance has the volume low but it's still on. Justin scratches his stomach through his shirt and opens his eyes. The water's running in the bathroom, so Justin sits up on the bed and waits for the shower. He tries his cell phone again and it still doesn't work. He also tries to call everyone again, including his mom and Britney, but he can't get through to anyone.

Lance comes out of the bathroom and sits on the edge of the bed. "Morning."

"The phones are still fucked up."

"I know." He reaches into one of the shopping bags and begins pulling the tags off his new clothes. "I already tried them."

"Are we gonna go to the police station today?" Justin reaches past Lance and picks up the remote off the dresser.

"Yeah. I talked to somebody at the front desk and she gave me directions. I wrote them on the back of the Chinese menu."

Justin sees the menu sticking out of Lance's coat pocket by the door and smiles. "Are there free toothbrushes in the bathroom?"

"Toothbrushes, little soaps, the whole bit." Lance pulls on his new sweater. "Why?"

Justin bounces off the bed and kisses Lance's lips. "No reason." He hurries to the bathroom and shuts the door.

After Justin showers, he gets dressed and they go down to the car. Lance consults his notes, then drives.

"Why are you always driving?"

Lance rolls his eyes. "I'm not always driving, Justin. This is the second time I'm driving."

"Whatever." Justin looks at the menu on the dashboard and sighs. "Fuck, we should have brought the leftover shit from last night. I'm starving."

"There weren't leftovers."

"Seriously?"

"Yup. We were hungry. But we can get sandwiches or something after we talk to the police." Lance pauses. "This is fucked up."

"What?"

"The lady told me -- check what I wrote down. "

Justin does. "It says you're supposed to turn onto Spruce and it'll be on your left."

"Fuck." Lance sighs. "Because we're on Spruce and what's on our left?"

"A vacant lot?"

Lance sighs again. "Fuck."

"Did you follow the directions right?"

"Justin -- "

"Look, wait." Justin leans forward in his seat. "Here comes another car. Just flag him down and ask if he knows."

Lance throws on the hazards and rolls down his window when the other driver slows beside their car. He starts to speak and Justin whispers, "Fuck. Oh, fuck, oh, fuck, oh, fuck."

The other driver, the security guy from the resort, smiles coldly at them. "Hello, boys."

Justin digs his nails in Lance's thigh. Lance doesn't bother to roll the window back up, just drives as fast as he can. The other car does a U-turn and peels down the street after them.

"Son of a bitch!" Lance turns down an alley and the other car follows close behind. He tries another shortcut, but it doesn't work, either. "Tell me how close he's getting."

Justin slides down in his seat and looks in his side mirror. "He's pretty fucking close, Lance. Oh, fuck, he's got a gun."

"Why wouldn't he?" Lance asks, and grimaces as they hear gunshots. "He had one yesterday."

Two more shots and then the rear left tire gets shot out. Lance does his best to keep the car under control, but it scrapes the side of a Dumpster and crashes to a stop through the front window of an abandoned 7-11.

Justin yells "Fuck," and wiggles out of the car, sees Lance doing the same thing on the other side. They run through the 7-11 and out the back door. Justin looks back, looks at Lance beside him, looks back again and just wants to die. Lance pauses for a split second, grabs an empty glass bottle and drags Justin by the hand to an old car parked on a side street. Lance uses the bottle to break the window and reaches in to unlock the door. Justin says, "What the fuck are you doing?"

Lance is sitting in the car, bending down and fucking with something. Lance reaches around and unlocks the passenger door. "Get the fuck in," Lance says. Justin does it and then the car starts.

Lance guns the engine and they're off again. Justin says, "Did you, hello, did you hotwire this car? Do you know how to do that?"

Lance grunts. "Clearly I do. I did hotwire it, yes."

"Where the, what? How do you know how to do that?"

"Joey taught me." Lance makes a couple turns, gets onto a highway, 33 or something.

"Joey? Joey knows how to hotwire a car? What the fuck? How does Joey --"

"Chris taught him." And Justin shuts up because that, finally, makes sense.

They drive for a little while and then Lance sees a sign about the George Washington National Forest. "Bingo," he says.

"Bingo? In what fucking world? Let's drive somewhere with cops and shit so people stop shooting at us." Justin claps Lance on the thigh.

"Look, our new best friend seems to have been able to find us when we're on the beaten path. Let's try the not so beaten path. He'll think we're, uh, heading to the cops, and in reality, we're safe and snug in the forest. Then tomorrow morning, we go to the cops and get decent fucking directions and we're safe. Cause I don't know about you," and even Justin can hear the rising hysteria in Lance's voice, "but I'm really fucking tired of being shot at. I'm in a damned boy band. I sing, I dance, I like cute boys, I produce movies. None of those things should get me SHOT AT!"

Justin sighs. "Actually, in West Virginia, and really, lots of other states you can get shot at or beat up for all of those things except for the producing movies part. Especially the liking cute guys. So, the shooting at you part, really --"

"It's your fucking fault!" They're off the highway now and Lance has parked the car behind some bushes. He pops the trunk from inside the car and gets out.

"It's not my fault! I didn't do anything!" Justin gets out and makes sure the door isn't locked. "I don't." Justin pauses. "Oh, fuck. The ketchup guy."

Lance is rooting around in the trunk of the car and looks up. "The ketchup guy? Excuse me?"

Justin reaches in his pocket and gets out the disc sleeve with his ID and cards and the disc. "Yesterday, I mean the day before, there was a guy at the Timberhaus. He said he wanted ketchup but he was all crazy and I think he gave me this disc. It's not music, it's like, data. And that security guy was asking me about it."

Lance looks down into the trunk and says, "Double bingo." He pockets something and grabs a blanket and slams the trunk closed. "You have this guy's disc? He's fucking shooting at us because you have his disc?"

"I guess. Shit, I was gonna give it to him." Justin sniffles. This all fucking sucks. He watches Lance cover the car with branches.

"Fuck. Justin. Fuck." Lance grabs Justin's arm and pulls him into the forest. "You fucking drive me nuts."

Justin sighs and follows Lance. "Where are we going? It's cold. And when did you become Mr. Alpha Male?"

"When you played Mr. Stupid, Mr. No, I don't want give you your disc, Mr. Scary Security Guy who's now SHOOTING AT US." Lance keeps walking and breaking branches occasionally as they go deeper into the forest. "Also, stupidhead, some of us didn't spend our childhood auditioning for television shows, we went out into the forest and hunted and camped and we know our way around."

Justin grits his teeth and follows Lance. He looks around. "Fucking forest is big."

Lance's hand slides down Justin's arm and their fingers curl together. "If, at any point, you would like to stop talking, I would be so in favor of that."

"I don't want you to be mad at me." Justin smacks a branch away from his face.

"You don't want -- trust me, Justin, you don't want to know what I don't want."

They keep walking. They've gone maybe two miles when Justin stops. "I'm tired."

"We can take a break, I guess." Lance looks at his watch. "We should get somewhere comfortable before we stop for the night."

"Wait, what, the night?"

"It'll be okay." Lance kicks a spot clear of pine needles and dirt and sits down. "We have the blanket and body heat."

Justin sits next to him. "And the pot."

"Yeah, what are we gonna light a joint with, genius? Your lighter was in the rental car."

"Fuck." Justin fiddles with the laces on his shoes. "This sucks."

"Little bit," Lance agrees.

"I'm sorry."

Lance sighs. "You didn't know."

"Well, fuck, I mean, the dude asked yesterday morning if the ketchup guy had given me anything and I said no."

"You didn't know they were going to try to kill you, dude." Lance rubs Justin's arm.

Justin bites his lip and tries not to cry. "Fuck."

"Hey." Lance turns to face Justin. "What do you think Chris and JC are doing right now?"

He sniffles. "Probably freaking out because they don't know where we are."

"See, because I think they're doing this." Lance puts both hands on Justin's face and kisses him, slow and deep. He sucks on Justin's lower lip like he's hungry.

Justin pulls back. "Lance."

"What's wrong? Did that hurt?"

Justin shakes his head. "No, shit, I just. Like, last night and stuff, we kissed, but. I mean, do you want to fuck me in the forest just because you think we're gonna die?"

"I want to fuck you because you're hot." Lance smiles at Justin. "And I want to fuck you in the forest because that's where we are right now."

"I was just being funny. You really want to fuck me?"

Lance kisses Justin again and tugs at Justin's button-fly. "Yeah, I do." He breaks off the kiss and fiddles with the blanket. Justin pushes his hands up under Lance's sweater and then helps Lance pull it off. "It's cold."

Justin toes off his shoes. "Yeah."

Lance gathers up their clothes and piles them next to the blanket, then pushes Justin down onto his back. "I don't have, like, condoms or anything."

"We're on the run, Lance." Justin runs his fingers along Lance's collarbone. "Live dangerously."

"Seriously, the mood is so dead I'm going to have to dig a hole and bury it, but who have you been with?"

"Joey and JC, same people as you. Oh, and Brit."

Lance licks his palm and wraps his hand around Justin's dick. "Okay." He strokes Justin a few times, then puts two of his fingers into Justin's mouth. Justin moans and says Lance's name around them until Lance pulls them out and slips them into Justin.

Justin spreads further and digs his toes into the dirt. Lance's erection rubs against Justin's thigh and he says, "I'm ready."

Lance nods and pulls his hands away. Justin arches one leg up and over Lance's shoulder. Lance presses his hand against Justin's other knee and eases himself up and into Justin.

Ten thrusts and it's over for both of them. They come loudly and shiver, and Lance collapses off the blanket, onto the ground. They get dressed again, Lance handing Justin his clothes in silence. They curl up next to each other and Lance pulls the blanket over them.

Justin wakes up and thinks about crying. The only thing that doesn't suck right now is Lance pressed against his back, one hand across Justin's stomach. But the rest sucks a lot. Lance says, "You're up?"

"Yup. We should get a move on?"

Lance kisses Justin's neck. "Yup." They both get up slowly and Lance pats his pocket as they fold up the blanket.

"What's in your pocket?" Justin rubs his eyes. "If it's food, I'll fucking kill you. I am so fucking hungry, I'd blow you just to swallow."

"You wouldn't blow me just for the fun of it?" Lance raises an eyebrow and smirks.

"Okay, that too." Justin looks up. "What's in your pocket?"

Lance starts walking and Justin springs up and follows him. Lance says, "It's not food." Justin sighs and they walk back to the car.

Lance hotwires the car again and they drive back on 33 towards Elkins. They pass a McDonalds and Justin grabs Lance's arm. "Oh, god, please. Please."

Lance laughs. "Dude, I'm as fucking hungry as you are. Let's go." They each get three egg McMuffins and four hash browns and they eat everything sitting in the car in a few frantic minutes.

Justin wipes his mouth and says, "I fucking love you, Lance."

"Ha." They get to Elkins and Lance stops right near the courthouse. It's kinda pretty, a soaring white gothic thing, Justin thinks. Lance says, "Let's get out here. I mean, abandon the car. I don't wanna explain that."

Justin suggests that they just walk into the courthouse and find a cop. Lance claps him on the shoulder and says, "Good idea, Just." A one-block walk and Justin's nervous as shit. He keeps looking over his shoulder.

Which is when he sees him. The security guy. Justin grabs Lance's hand and hisses, "The guy. Guy who shot at us. Behind us, I don't think he's spotted us."

Lance looks over quickly and pulls Justin to him. "Let's try to get to the courthouse."

They don't. The guy spots them and sprints across the street. He has three guys with him and they're all running towards Lance and Justin. Lance says, "Shit, I am so fucking tired of this guy," and they both start running. They manage to make it into the same car Lance stole last time before the guys catch up to them.

Justin says, "hurry!" to Lance as he looks over his shoulder and sees the four guys in dark suits coming closer. "Okay, Lance, the one has his gun out!" Justin pushes Lance down as the first shot rings out.

The windshield breaks but doesn't shatter. Justin says, "Shit!"

Lance whips one arm out and pushes Justin down. Lance pushes him down more and Justin can feel Lance's body shifting back suddenly. Justin hears an incredibly loud sound and smells something burning. Lance ducks down again and the car starts. They take off with a squeal. Justin looks up and there's a gun between them. "You have a fucking gun? You shot at someone? Lance, what the fuck?"

Lance grits his teeth and takes a sharp turn. "Are they following us? And yes, and yes."

Justin looks back and doesn't see anything. "Where did you get a fucking gun? What, what the fuck, RAMBO?"

"Hey, I fucking hunt, Justin, I know how to use a gun safely. Also, in case you hadn't noticed, they're shooting at us. So, you know, fuck me for fighting back. And I found the gun in the trunk of this car. Some idiot even left it loaded, which I would never do." Lance makes another right turn.

Justin rubs his eyes. "Okay, I'm a little freaked here. Seriously." Justin looks at Lance, stupid action figure Lance with his big gun. "I reserve the right to be offended, man, we need fewer guns in this country."

Lance rolls his eyes. "Let's debate the second amendment later."

Justin sighs. "Let's go back to Timberline. We have friends. We have bodyguards. And Chris and JC and Joey must be shitting a brick."

"That's a good idea." Lance makes another turn. They start heading back to Timberline and don't talk. Justin fingers the disc sleeve and doesn't look at the gun.

After twenty minutes, Justin says, "Let's pull over to a gas station and try to call the guys again. Or the cops. On our way there."

Lance says, "Another good idea. It's kinda easy to just run on adrenaline, isn't it? Though, every time we try to call the cops, something happens."

They stop at the next gas station and Lance walks into the station to pay while Justin walks to a public pay phone. He picks up the phone and he hears someone behind him. Justin turns around and there's a man in a long black trench coat staring at him. Justin says, "Hi. What?"

The man says, "You have something they want. I can help you."

Justin hangs up the phone and says, "Lance has a gun. Don't try anything."

The man raises an eyebrow. He's older, older than Chris probably, so in his thirties, with a short haircut and stern eyes. "I'm trying to help you."

"We'll be fine. We're going to Timberline." Justin bites his lip because it was probably a bad idea to tell the guy that.

"You're messing with people who have a lot of power."

Justin crosses his arms. "Look, fuck you. I'm tired of this X-files shit. Just tell me what the fuck is going on. Tell me or walk away or, whatever, I'll get Lance to shoot you or something." Justin has no idea what he's saying.

The guy says, "It sounds like the X-files. I'm sorry. And your friend is walking up behind me with his gun in his hand in his pocket, so let's wait a second and let everyone catch up." The guy turns around as Lance walks up, hand in pocket.

Justin says, "Lance, this is mysterious trench coat guy. He says he wants to help us."

Lance walks over to stand by Justin and says, "Nice to meet you, mysterious trench coat guy."

The guy says, "Call me Brian."

Justin says, "Can we not? Unless it's your name, but man, I always think of Brian Littrell and he's a complete dork." Justin sighs.

The guy rolls his eyes and Justin likes him more for that. He says, "Fine, call me AJ. He's not a complete dork. Look, the man who passed you the disc was an agent of the NSA."

"He was an astronaut?" Justin's just incredibly tired and he's not even trying to look smart anymore.

"No, the National Security Agency. There are turncoats and double plays and all those things. Just trust me that, that he was one of the good guys. And now the turncoats are looking for the information he passed. They're very powerful. They've turned off your accounts, they're tracking your credit card."

Lance grabs Justin's hand behind Justin's back and squeezes. He says, "That sounds like bullshit. Why should we trust you?"

"I haven't shot you."

Justin thinks that's pretty convincing.

The guy says, "Come with me."

Lance looks at Justin and shrugs. Justin says, "Okay."

They follow the guy, and what the fuck, Justin will call him AJ, to his car and climb into the backseat. "Where are we going?" Lance asks.

AJ glances at them in the rear-view mirror. "Back to Timberline, to your old condo."

Justin rests his hand on Lance's leg. "At least we can get our shit and see Joe and everybody."

"No." AJ's voice is firm and this time, he doesn't look at them. "Your friends aren't staying in that condo anymore."

Lance grips Justin's wrist. "What happened to them?"

"They've been moved to another house. Your guy Johnny's there, too, and plenty of cops." AJ continues down the highway. "But they're fine. I can tell you that your friends are fine."

Lance's grip relaxes. "Okay."

The three of them are quiet until they get close to the resort. AJ says, "Security is incredibly tight around here. They're going to stop me at the gate. Just get down on the floor and don't get up until I say."

Justin and Lance slide down the seat and curl up on the floor of the car. Police lights flash against the windows. AJ stops at the gate. Justin and Lance hear someone ask AJ for his credentials, then thank him. The car moves again and AJ says, "You'll have to be careful getting out of the car and into the house. This place is crawling with cops."

"So why can't we just go to them?" Justin sighs. "I'm fucking tired of this."

AJ chuckles mirthlessly. "They can't keep you safe."

"And you fucking can?" Justin rolls his eyes. "Also, can we get up?"

The car stops again, in front of the condo. "Yeah. We're here." AJ tells them when to get out and they all run into the house.

"Fuck," Lance says. "This place looks worse than when we left."

"They trashed the place looking for the disc," AJ says. "And then the police went through here."

"How much time do we have?" Justin asks. "Like, can we take a shower, at least?"

AJ looks at his watch. "You have an hour. Gather up your things, take showers, and maybe I'll even make you something to eat."

Justin goes to his room and grabs sneakers and clean clothes. He thinks of it when he's in the shower, so when he gets out he grabs the lube he had stashed in one of the drawers. Which is kind of embarrassing, to think that the cops and the guys who wanted to shoot him saw that, but then he starts thinking that he's definitely some kind of perv anyway. He's being shot at, he can't go to the cops because AJ the super secret agent says it's not safe and the first thing he grabs after clothes is lube in case he and Lance fuck again. He still shoves it in his pocket.

He's packed a bag with clean underwear and another shirt and all the cash he can find hidden in pockets and other jackets. Pats himself down to make sure he still has his ID and the disc. He goes to Lance's room and Lance is rooting under the bed. Justin says, "Uh? We don't need your secret stash of porn or something." Then he blushes because he's the one with lube in his pocket.

Lance says, "HA!" and holds up his laptop. "I hid it cause I thought Joey would try to use to look for porn again." Lance tucks the laptop in his bag and grabs Justin's elbow to steer them both downstairs. Lance smells clean and his hair's wet against his forehead. Justin adjusts his almost hard-on and thinks he's a complete perv.

AJ has made grilled cheese sandwiches and they eat quickly. AJ explains that they should be safe here for a little bit while he contacts someone to help them end everything. He calls his contact "Ketchup" which makes Justin laugh a little. They've had two sandwiches when AJ shouts "Get down!"

Two days of this and Justin just hits the floor. He hears two shots ring out. Loud, close. Justin starts crawling to his jacket and bag and looks over his shoulder. The shots are coming from the doorway and AJ and Lance are crouched behind the counter in the kitchen, both of them with their guns out. Justin shudders and makes it to where he and Lance put down their coats and bags. He snags the stuff and crawls back to where Lance and AJ are as another volley of shots goes over his head. It's incredibly fucking loud and they leave that out of the movies, just how loud gunshots really are.

"We should get out of here," Justin says.

AJ says, "No fuck." He looks around and passes Lance something black and metallic, maybe, then says, "I'll cover you two, go out the back, there's a car parked behind the house. The key's in the door, if they haven't found it yet."

Lance nods, and grabs Justin's arm with the hand that doesn't have the gun. Lance hisses, "Let's go," as AJ stands up and starts firing behind them. It's just fucking loud and fast and Justin keeps thinking he's gonna die and they'll find the lube in his pocket and all he can do is hold onto their jackets and bags. They're outside and it takes Justin a moment to realize he heard AJ moan like he'd been hit and Lance fired off two more shots and fuck. Fuck. They make it to the car and Justin just gets into the passenger seat and clings to the bags and jackets on his lap as Lance peels out.

They're driving on some fucked up crappy back roads and the car jumps over stones and bumps every few seconds. Justin puts his seatbelt on and looks at Lance. "Do you know where we're going?"

Lance snorts and sounds a little ragged. "Nope. I figure out of Timberline. AJ said he was supposed to meet the Ketchup guy back in Elkins tomorrow night. So. I guess we show up there and hope that solves everything. He said the courthouse, right?"

Justin nods. Justin says, "So we need another place to hide, and we can't use my credit cards."

Lance sighs. They've made it to the actual road and avoided the security check-ins. Lance pulls over to the side of the road. "Look, Justin." Lance rubs his eyes. "Can I have my coat?"

They sit in silence in their coats and Justin pulls an energy bar out of his bag. "It's, uh, a few weeks old, but these things don't spoil. Want half?"

Lance nods gratefully. He says, "I'm not built for this. Give me a week of eighteen-hour rehearsals any fucking day. Cause, you know, I can handle that stress."

Justin reaches out and rubs Lance's shoulder. "I know, man. I know."

Lance swallows and starts the car again. They drive for a little while and stop for gas at a different station than the one where AJ found them. Justin tries not to think about how AJ must be doing now.

Justin stands against the car with his bag clutched close when Lance comes out and grabs his arm. "Dude," Lance says, "I think I spotted one of their cars. From the last three fucking times they've been chasing us. Maybe they don't know this car."

Lance gets in the car and drives it to the side of the gas station, then he gets out and drags Justin into the bathroom. When they're in the dirty room, Justin pulls Lance into a hug and they both lean against the door. "Lance, you'd be a good secret agent. You're rockin', dude."

Lance laughs. "I'd suck. I'm all crazy here."

Justin rubs Lance's waist. "Yeah, but you're doing, and I'm just being dragged along. I've turned into the girl here, and not one of those strong action girls. I'm like old school action movie girlfriend, like Linda Hamilton in the first Terminator movie."

Lance giggles. "You're fine. You haven't tripped and screamed like a girl, you got our bags and our coats while bullets were flying. We should stay here a while longer, I think, you know."

Justin grinds his hips against Lance's crotch. "I can think of something we can do."

Lance laughs. "Works for me." They're kissing, then, lazy, languid kissing and tongues just barely touching before Lance growls low in his throat and then it's much more lewd. Nicely lewd. Nasty. Lance pushes Justin's head back against the door with his fervor and Justin forgets that Lance is shorter than Justin, but his knees are bending a little so they don't have to stop kissing.

Justin sneaks a hand in his pocket and pulls out the lube. He presses it against Lance's chest and Lance breaks off the kiss. He looks down and takes the lube in his hand. "Justin, you boy scout, you," Lance says, his voice impossibly lower and completely aroused. Justin's so hard just from Lance talking, he thinks his pants are gonna bust open on their own. Lance takes cares of it, tugging Justin's jeans down and his underwear at the same time. "How flexible are you, baby?" Lance says grinning.

Justin smiles. "Dude, I'm damned flexible, but I'm not taking off my sneakers in this foul-ass bathroom." He pushes up against Lance, pushing them away from the door. "Against the sink, okay?" They shuffle over to the sink and Lance turns Justin around, pushes him down a little so Justin's bending over. Justin pants a little as Lance starts pushing his sticky fingers in and out. Lance's other hand is lightly stroking Justin's dick and Justin's on fire. Even in this cold and stinky bathroom with weird stains on the sink Justin doesn't want to think about, he feels warm all over and especially right where Lance's hands are. Justin closes his eyes and moans a little as Lance slips a third finger in. In and wow and nice and fuck, Lance better start fucking him soon.

Lance pushes in and Justin gasps and then it's just fucking awesome. A real fuck and thrust and thrust and Justin pushes back and Lance's hand is just this incredible grip up and down on Justin's dick. Justin hopes this is all as great for Lance as it is for him because fucking wow. Cold sink under Justin's hands and the rest of him is like an inferno and Lance is biting the back of Justin's neck and then wow. A major wow and Justin almost shouts. Lance thrusts two more times and then he moans low and sexy and they're done. Lance pulls out and mumbles, "Stay there for a sec," and then he's back with scratchy toilet paper, cleaning them both off.

They pull up their pants and sit on their coats on the wretched floor. Justin says, "We should, you know, when we're back to our safe, normal lives, we should do that more often."

Lance laughs. "Uh, first, there's nothing normal about our lives, Just, though the last few days have been the most un-normal of everything that's happened to us, and. Yeah, second, we never did that before. So once is more often." Lance kisses Justin's cheek. "But, yeah, maybe even more than once."

Justin smoothes down Lance's hair and says, "Definitely a lot more than once, okay?"

Lance nods. "Okay." He looks down at his watch. "Let's get out of here." Justin watches him tuck the lube in his jacket and grins.

Lance still has cash left and Justin found money in his pockets and stuff, so they buy candy bars and chips and water and soda in the gas station. The tank in the car is still pretty full, so they don't bother with buying more gas. Lance heads south again, but almost two hours past Elkins to Clarksburg, just to be safe.

"Do you want Snickers or a Butterfinger?"

Lance wrinkles his nose. "Gimme the Lays."

Justin bites off a piece of a Kit Kat. "Baked?"

"Hell, no. Open up the real fucking potato chips."

Justin laughs and hands the bag to Lance. "I could take over the driving if you want. That way, you could just lean out the passenger window and shoot at the bad guys, you know, like Clint Eastwood or something."

Lance tears the bag open with his teeth. "I don't know, Justin. Do you think you have the advanced driving skills that are required for a high-speed chase?"

"If I recall correctly, you crashed into a 7-11 during your first high-speed chase."

"Because somebody shot one of our tires out!"

"That's, like, the oldest excuse in the book." Justin finishes the Kit Kat and steals a few of Lance's chips. "But, you know, if you do want me to drive, just say the word."

"I actually don't mind driving," Lance says, and grins at Justin. "But thanks."

They buy gas in Clarksburg and pay cash for a small motel room that's not much cleaner than that bathroom where they fucked. But it has a bed and all they can do is assume that it's safe. Justin props a chair up under the doorknob anyway.

"Dude," Lance says. "That trick won't work for that kind of doorknob."

"Oh, who cares?" Justin sits on the bed next to Lance, who is setting up his laptop. "Do you think AJ's dead?"

"I don't know, Justin. Probably."

Justin pokes at the dirty comforter. "That's my fault, too."

Lance shakes his head. "You can't blame yourself for this. It's just gotten so fucking out of control."

"I was thinking about it, you know, and I can't even be pissed at the ketchup guy because he'd probably been going through this shit, too, and was sick of it." Justin sighs. "I'd pass this fucking thing off to somebody else, too, if I could."

"No, you wouldn't." Lance kisses Justin softly, like that's an answer. And it sort of is.

Justin sighs again. "Okay, so what's with the laptop?"

"Give me the disc. I thought I could stick it in my computer and see if we can figure out what's on it."

"Smart man." Justin digs through his coat and hands the disc to Lance. He tries to open it with different programs, but it doesn't work. "The thing's encrypted. I can't read shit."

"I'm not fucking surprised." Justin leans against the headboard. "At least you tried."

"Yeah." Lance closes the laptop. "My email doesn't work, either. No email, no Internet, nothing."

"How the hell are we supposed to -- dude, we have to get some kind of message to JC and Chris and Joey. Because fuck, if they were the ones who were gone and we were the ones waiting for them, I'd be going fucking crazy."

"How, Justin? We don't even know which condo they're staying in, and all the phones are turned off, anyway."

Justin looks around the room. "How about a radio dedication? You know, something stupid, like, to Josh from James?"

Lance chews on a Twix bar. "Seriously, Justin, that's not a bad idea."

"We could just go listen to the radio in the car until we find a station that sounds like something they'd listen to. I mean, like, they might not have the radio on at all, but it's worth a shot."

Lance agrees, so they go outside and find a station that plays all kinds of different stuff. The station's having some weekend contest, so the DJ says the number within a couple of minutes. Justin goes inside and makes the call, then climbs back into the car with Lance to wait for his song to play.

"What did you pick?" Lance asks.

Justin grins. "Pearl Jam, 'Alive.' I'm on the run, I'm allowed to be a little corny."

The DJ plays three songs, then "Alive" and Justin sings along, making Lance laugh with his Eddie Vedder impression. "You're a great singer, J," Lance says. "But you're no rock star."

"Suck it." Justin roots through the glove compartment and finds matches. "Motherfucking jackpot!"

"You still carrying Joey's weed?"

"Don't leave home without it." Justin bounces out of the car and back towards their room. "Come on."

They share two joints but Lance pulls the baggie away from Justin when he starts to roll a third. "We have to save some for tomorrow. We're gonna be sitting in this shitty room all day until we have to go back to Elkins tomorrow night."

Justin hooks one finger around Lance's belt loop. "I have an idea of something we could do now to pass the time."

"Oh?"

"Mm-hmm." Justin rolls over Lance and picks up a phonebook from next to the phone. "Pizza!"

They order a large from Dominos but don't tip the guy because really, they don't know how much longer it'll be before they're safe. "I feel bad about not tipping him, though," Justin says.

Lance folds a piece of pizza in half and takes a bite. "Just like Joey taught me," he says. "And you know, you could've given him, like, a couple of condoms or something."

"I think we'll need those more than the money."

They eat and fuck, this time with Justin on top, then sleep. In the morning, they finish the pizza and candy, then watch soaps and Oprah until it's time to go back to Elkins.

They're quiet for the whole time in the car and listen to the same radio station as the night before. When they pull up in front of the courthouse, Lance says, "This is it."

Justin rests his hand on Lance's arm. "Look, I don't want you to think that I'm condoning the use of firearms in any fucking way, dude, but. Do you have enough bullets in that thing?"

"Yeah, there was a box of them next to the gun in the trunk of that car I hotwired. Also, AJ passed me two clips." He pats his pocket. "I've got everything I need right here. Let's go."

They walk up the steps, Lance with his hands in his pockets, Justin wringing his hands and both looking over their shoulder every few seconds. Justin whispers to Lance, "What are we gonna do, walk around whispering 'ketchup?'"

There's a voice behind them suddenly. "Works for me." Justin whirls around and he can see out of the corner of his eye that Lance has his gun out. It's the actual ketchup guy, the scruffy looking guy who passed Justin the disc. He doesn't look as scruffy now, but Justin recognizes him.

"You want your thing back," Justin says quietly.

"Yeah, please? It's been a rough few days. I thought it would be safe with you, I didn't realize that they'd turn --" The ketchup guy gets that far before they hear running footsteps coming towards them. Another whirl from all three and Justin thinks it's like some whacked out repetitive choreography, turn, turn, turn. Shoot. Because it's the Security Guy again, with three guys and another hulking guy behind the pack.

The bad guys, and Justin thinks it's okay to call them that, because they're the ones who've been shooting at him and maybe this is the kind of thing with fifteen levels of double cross but Justin is pretty sure no good guy would ever call him a 'queer fuck' so the ones who've been shooting at them are now the bad guys and the bad guys have guns drawn. Justin and Lance duck one way and Ketchup ducks the other so the bad guys split off into two and three. Three are headed Lance and Justin's way and Lance fires off one shot that just makes them duck. Lance shoves Justin down behind a car and shoots again towards the threesome. The windshield of the car they're hiding behind shatters and Justin thinks another bullet just went whizzing by the side of the car.

"Look behind us so you can warn me," Lance whispers. Justin is clinging to Lance as much as he can without impeding Lance's shooting and he turns around so his back is against Lance's back. Nothing, nothing, darkness and one street light and then Lance shoots again, loud, another sound like someone shooting back but just hitting the car. Nothing, nothing, more shots farther away, the ketchup guy, Justin thinks and his two, nothing, nothing. Justin sees something then.

"Guy behind us," Justin whispers. "Walking this way, maybe, I don't know that he's seen us." And Justin pushes away from Lance because he can maybe do this. Lance hisses something but Justin is hunched over, not quite walking on all fours but close, along the darkness. The guy hasn't spotted them and Justin looks between the guy and back at Lance and the guy. So there's one thing all these years of being in a band with Chris has taught him and it's a flying tackle. He gets a good launch, a nice quiet jump and fuck, Justin's not a girl at all, he's 6' tall and in damn good shape and the guy goes down. The guy makes a woof sound and Justin brings his hands together and clobbers the guy on the back of his head.

He looks over at Lance. And Marv. Marv the fucking new bodyguard is coming up behind Lance. Marv the fucking asshole is one of the guys who were shooting at them and Marv is one of the three guys out to get them. The last of their threesome is still shooting at Lance from the front, or in front of the car and fuck. Marv is coming up behind Lance, Marv has a gun, and Marv is going to kill Lance. Justin grabs the gun from the guy he just tackled and fuck. Pull the trigger, right? Justin tries to aim as he shouts, "Lance! Behind you!" and squeeze and fuck, ow, recoil and Justin's shoulder jumps and fuck. Fuck. He blinks and looks and Marv is down, clutching his leg, so good, didn't kill him, just winged him, Justin drops the gun and runs back to where Lance is still crouching.

Lance runs his free hand over Justin's cheek and says, "Thanks." They both look back at fuckhead Marv who is just moaning and calling for his mama and then Lance presses his gun into Justin's hand. "Here, you distract that last guy. Just fire forward. Don't worry. And I'll try to sneak around the back or something?"

Justin grabs Lance's arm and says, "No. Fuck, no. We wait here. You've got, what, fuck, ammo. We wait here and be safe. No fucking heroics."

Lance hisses, "Pot. Kettle. Black, Justin. Come on, you think I didn't have a fucking heart attack watching you jump that guy? We don't even know how the ketchup guy is doing."

Justin bites his lip and then another car comes careening down the street. It manages just barely to not run over the guy Justin clobbered and then stops in the middle of the street. Lance mutters, "Wish you'd held onto that other gun, J."

Four guys spill out of the car and Justin can't breathe until he sees the driver come around the front of the car. AJ. Justin yells, "AJ!" Lance shushes him but he's grinning, too.

AJ waves and says, "Stay there!" Justin is happy to comply. He leans against Lance and grabs Lance's hand. He just looks at Lance's fingers entwined with his and waits. A few minutes, more shots and then AJ and the ketchup guy come around the corner of the car. Two other guys pick Marv up and another guy is checking the one Justin clobbered.

Lance says, "Let's hear it for the cavalry." He stands up and doesn't let go of Justin's hand.

AJ grins. "Let's hear it for the pop stars who took out two of the bad guys on their own."

The ketchup guy says, "We've subdued all of them, AJ and I will make sure they're dealt with appropriately."

Justin says, "Your name is really AJ?"

AJ grins. "My name is AJ Brian, in fact." AJ looks over at the ketchup guy and says, "Justin has your disc." Justin reaches inside his jacket and hands it over.

The ketchup guy says thanks and Lance hands over his gun to AJ. "I, actually I stole that gun from the car we stole, so. If you could, you know, return it somehow?"

AJ nods. He says, "You're free to go. Both of you. No one will be coming after you and you didn't know enough of what's going on to be dangerous."

Justin says, "Thank fucking goodness." Lance points out that they don't have a car and AJ says they can keep the one they drove up with. He tells them which condo the guys are in.

And just like that, it's over. Justin can't stop looking over his shoulder but nothing's there. They drive back to Timberline and get to the condo and it's late, it's past midnight. They don't talk on the ride home and Lance doesn't reach for Justin's hand. Justin wonders if Lance is over it now, with the guns and the shooting all over and now he's not that interested in Justin that way. It's not like they were so close before this. They were close, but not really in the way Joey and Lance are close or Justin and Chris are close. Justin sighs and thinks, oh, well.

Lance parks in front after checking with Dre on the perimeter and before they even get out of the car, the front door swings open and Joey, JC, and Chris are barreling out the door. Joey tackles Lance, and Chris pins Justin to the car while JC flutters around saying, "I told Chris, I told Chris that that dedication was from you guys!" They walk inside like a ten-legged beast because no one will let go of each other and Justin and Lance end up just saying that it was an adventure and there were these guys because the rest is fucking unbelievable.

They sleep late, all of them still in the living room sprawled on couches, still touching. It's a quiet day and Justin understands why action movies always end with the big bang because this part is boring. But it's precious, it's magical to play video games with Chris again and have Joey wrestle him until Justin gives back the pot and JC tries to braid Justin's hair back into cornrows, and it's all wonderful. They have one more day until they need to go back to Orlando for the endless parade of things and it's the best day of their vacation, just sitting around.

They sleep in their own rooms and Justin's glad to see someone had all his stuff from the old condo moved here and packed away in drawers. Justin lies down in his bed and rubs his shoulder. It's still kinda sore from the pistol recoil. Justin looks at the ceiling. Thinks about Lance.

He gets up and walks to Lance's room, knocks softly. There's a murmur from inside so Justin walks in. Lance is still lying on his bed, half asleep. Justin sits down next to him and says, "Hey. Lance, wake up."

Lance says, "I'm up. What?"

"So, I get. I get that whole Speed thing and relationships forged in, like, times of extreme duress. But, uh, I do really like you, period. Like, I liked you before. And now, I know you better, a lot better, really, and you fuck like a champ so there's that. And I thought we should, maybe, you know, try it out, you know, dating. Like, secret, of course, like Chris and JC. Because, yeah, Brit, but you know as well as I do that's all fake, not that she's not my best friend in a lot of ways, I mean, besides Chris, so, yeah. Chris and Brit are my best friends. But I think we would work, even without the gun and people shooting at us and stuff. And I guess you think I'm hot, too, so." Justin pauses. "Are you awake?"

Lance says, "Mostly. Chris and Brit are your best friends. I fuck like a champ."

"Do you, do you wanna? Like, try it?" Justin bites his lip.

Lance sits up and wraps his arms around Justin. He kisses Justin shoulder. "There is no try, Luke, only do. Besides, you saved my life."

Justin turns and kisses Lance. "Yeah, doofus, I saved your life so you owe me. So, let's do it. A lot, a lot."

Lance says, "Okeypokey. Talked me into it." They kiss again and it's the best rush in the town, Justin thinks.

THE END.

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