They arrived a little while later, and although Carrie and Alissa were totally wiped out from spending so much time on the bus, the guys seemed to bounce back really quickly and put on an amazing show that night.

Alissa voiced her amazement over their energy level to Lance who smiled. "It's all because you get used to living on a bus. Might not like it, but you get used to it. Besides who'd want to see us if we were all wiped out from traveling. There'd be no point to doing a tour." Alissa couldn't argue, he made total sense, but she was still amazed as they re-boarded the bus after the show.

Joey and Justin were still totally hyped, so they crowded into the back of the bus, where they could make the most noise for the least disturbance. Chris and Danielle disappeared immediately, and soon after JC and Carrie. Alissa was trying to convince Lance that she was fine, knowing that if she could stay awake, this was her best chance to spend time with him, but a huge yawn escaped her, betraying her. He pointed her to a bunk.

"Go sleep." He kissed her as she started to protest. "I'll see you in a while, okay?" Alissa climbed into the bunk and nodded, already half asleep, as he closed over the opening.

She didn't know how long she was asleep before she heard Lance again. "Alissa?" She rubbed her eyes quickly and then opened them to look at him.

"Mmm?"

"You okay?" Alissa nodded, lifted her head up off the pillow and patted the space beside her. Lance slid onto the bunk, and Alissa sat up far enough to lay her head on his chest. She looked up at him briefly, before his lips descended to meet hers. They'd never kissed so passionately, and a small moan escaped Alissa as they pulled apart. She felt his hands start roaming her body, and her own fingers tangled in his hair as they kissed again. Alissa's heart started to pound and her breathing quickened, and she pulled away.

"What about everybody else?" she whispered breathlessly, desperately afraid of what might be heard. He spoke quietly, reassuringly.

"It's okay. Everybody's asleep." Alissa was still hesitant, but she was soon caught up in the moment, as his hands slid under her shirt, across her stomach and then up to her breasts.

Unconsciously, her own hands caressed his chest, and stomach and came to rest at the waist band of his jeans. She fumbled momentarily, and her breath caught as his thumb brushed lightly over her nipple, then she deftly undid the button and zipper, and then slowly trailed one finger down from his navel pushing the boxers, uncovered by the open jeans, out of the way. She bit her lip as she concentrated on what she was doing, until she heard him groan her name. She stopped and ran her hand slowly back up his chest, pushing up his t-shirt, and then pulled it over his head, before kissing her way back down his chest, eliciting another moan.

His hand was tangled in her hair, and she moved back up to kiss him on the lips. She felt the material of her t-shirt moving up her back, and shivered as her skin was left exposed to the air. Smoothly her t-shirt was pulled over her head, and Lance positioned himself above her, leaning to kiss a trail across her neck and collarbone. Her back arched.

Suddenly the curtain moved. "Lance, man, I . . . nevermind." Alissa caught only a glimpse of Justin's face as he realized what he was interrupting and abruptly shut the curtain again. Lance seemed frozen as she looked at him, and then back at the now re-closed curtain. All was silent for a moment, until Alissa couldn't contain her giggles anymore.

"I think that's a sign." She ran one hand through Lance's hair, while she continued giggling. "I think we ought to save this for the hotel, baby." Lance smiled.

"You're probably right." He moved beside her and Alissa laid her head on his shoulder, still giggling softly. "We're gonna hear about this tomorrow."

"Did you see the look on his face though? Have to admit it was funny." He didn't answer her as he kissed her hair, and they each drifted to sleep.

Alissa spent a few minutes watching Lance sleep before she got up and left the bunk. She could hear JC and Carrie in the front of the bus, and since that was where her backpack was with her discman and magazines, she headed that way.

"Morning �Liss. Have a good night?" Carrie smirked at Alissa, who waved absently at her, ignoring her friend's innuendo and going straight to her backpack. She was digging through it to find a particular magazine when she was grabbed from behind. She heard laughter as she screamed in surprise and whirled around.

"Justin! Don't' you EVER do that again." Alissa tried taking a deep breath to calm her heart after the surprise. She was glad to see the sparkle back in his eyes since yesterday, and she couldn't help but smile back at him, even though she was expecting some remark about the night before. "You better watch it Timberlake, I've got almost a week to get you back." He smiled mockingly as he headed in the opposite direction, toward the back of the bus.

"Bring it on, Alissa." She reached out, smacking him on the arm with the magazine, she'd been searching for.

"Well, at least the old Justin's back." Carrie looked strangely at JC.

"And this is a good thing? I kinda liked the calm Justin, myself." JC and Alissa both gave her a strange look. "What? At least he wasn't totally hyper all the time." JC looked at her, shaking his head.

"Believe me, you do NOT want to see Justin calm for too long. Calm means depressed, depressed means whiney, and pouty. Worse than usual." Carrie nodded her head slowly.

"Ohhh, okay."

Alissa had settled into a seat and was absorbed in her magazine by the time the conversation ended. As she read, she smiled to herself. "Alissa!" She heard her name but wanted to finish what she was reading before looking up. "Alissa, you're reading about," Carrie looked around her and then whispered, "the Backstreet Boys, aren't you?" Alissa looked up at Carrie and blinked.

"How could you tell?"

"You've got that goofy grin on your face. You've gotta learn to control that." Alissa giggled.

"Aaw, but they're so cute." She flipped the page and flashed a picture at Carrie.

"AH! My eyes, ohmigawd, you just made me look at those other guys. AH! I'm blind!" Alissa rolled her eyes at Carrie's mini melodrama.

"Oh, give it up Care, your boys are in here too." Carrie stuck out her tongue.

"Doofus, my boys are on this bus, what do I want . . . WHOA!" Her train of thought ended when Alissa showed her the *NSync picture. Quickly she grabbed the magazine for a closer look. "Holy man. How come they don't look like that in REAL life."

"Three words." Alissa laughed when Carrie jumped at the sound of JC's voice. "Make up, stylist, wardrobe." He ticked off the three points with his fingers. Carrie still hadn't looked away from the picture. JC watched her until she suddenly lifted the magazine up to compare his photo to the real thing.

"Are you sure that's actually you?" JC grabbed her quickly pulling her into his lap before kissing her. "Oh, hell. Who cares what you look like anyway, when you can kiss like that?" She tossed the magazine back to Alissa before kissing JC again.

Justin rolled his eyes at Carrie and JC as he walked past, before taking a seat near Alissa and reading the magazine over her shoulder.

"Wait, don't turn that." Alissa stopped in the middle of turning the page, to give Justin a confused look.

"Why exactly are you reading an article about yourself? Don't you know all this stuff?" He gave her a sly smile.

"Checkin' to see if they got the latest news." It was obvious to Alissa that he had something to tell.

"Which would be?" She thumbed through the rest of the magazine trying to seem uninterested as she waited.

"Me and Brit." Alissa looked up as she closed the magazine to see the grin on his face.

"I told you it would work out." Then she stopped and cocked her head to the side as she thought. "So she dumped you for what? Like a week? What was the point?" He shrugged.

"Who cares? She's like that sometimes. She says she told magazines that we're dating." Alissa narrowed her eyes as she looked at him.

"And that's good? You're not worried about the extra press of being Mr. Britney?"

"Nah, there's press everywhere anyway. What's the difference?" Alissa shrugged.

"None, I suppose. I'm happy you're happy." He grabbed her in an impulsive hug.

"Thanks, �Liss."

"Anytime, Just."

The next couple days were relatively normal, or as normal as you can get when you're traveling with one of the most popular musical groups in the world. Justin was back to being himself, and Alissa and Carrie had gotten used to being stuck on the bus for hours at a time, and then going directly to the concerts in the evening. They stayed awake until all hours of the night, and slept most of the day, but neither Carrie nor Alissa would have taken anything to give it up. They were having way too much fun.

Carrie kept trying to corner Alissa into talking about Justin, while Alissa kept insisting that he was with Britney, and happy that way. Carrie was still convinced that he had a thing for Alissa, and she wouldn't give it up. Alissa was surprised that he hadn't blabbed to everybody about catching her and Lance. She had expected some jokes or something, but so far, nothing. For the moment, that overshadowed any nagging fears Alissa had about Carrie saying anything to Justin. But she knew eventually that she would have to talk to her about it.

After the second last show of the week, Alissa was sitting in the front of the bus, listening to her discman, with her back leaning against Lance, when she heard Justin boarding the bus. She watched him push his way past Carrie and JC to the bunks, saying nothing. She heard Carrie start to say something so she turned of the discman and flipped off her headphones.

"What's with him?" Carrie looked to JC for an answer, but Lance replied.

"Probably, didn't get his cereal this morning." Carrie looked confused as JC agreed, laughing slightly.

"Excuse me?" Alissa felt Lance shrug.

"It's a Justin thing. He has to have his cereal." Carrie looked annoyed.

"Oh ya, there's a reason to be a jerk." Carrie rolled her eyes at Alissa, and spoke in a sarcastic voice, "And I'm a bitch because I didn't get my Belgian waffle."

"Care, lay off." Everybody looked at Alissa because of the sharp tone in her voice. It was rare that Alissa raised her voice to anyone. Somehow she knew there was more to Justin's mood than a lack of cereal. She started to get up, noticing that Justin didn't seem to be coming back. Before she left, she turned to Lance, and gave him a quick kiss, hoping he understood where she was going, and more importantly, why. She was relieved to see him nod slightly, then she turned toward the back of the bus.

Carrie grabbed her arm on the way past. "Alissa."

"It's okay, Care. I'll be right back." Carrie raised her eyebrows, questioning Alissa without speaking. "It's all good."

She heard JC and Lance start talking as she walked past the bunks, noting that Justin's was still empty. From the hushed tone of their voices, she guessed that they were discussing either her or Justin, probably both. She walked quietly past the last of the bunks to where she could see Justin, staring blankly out the window.

"Justin?" She saw him blink, acknowledging that he knew she was there, but he didn't respond. "Just? What's up?" She walked over to sit beside him, where she knew she was partly in his line of vision.

He started to turn away from her, until she put her hand on his shoulder. "Come on Justin. Obviously something's going on. Spill it." Finally he turned, and Alissa shivered involuntarily under his cold stare. He didn't speak for a minute but when he did Alissa could hear the emotion in his voice.

"I THOUGHT you were a friend, Alissa. I'm not a pity case you know. If you don't want me around, you just had to say so."

"What?" Alissa was extremely confused. "Justin, what are you talking about? I don't pity you. Why would you think that?" He shook his head.

"Don't bother Alissa. Now I know. You can just pretend I'm not here, alright? I won't bother you." Alissa felt tears prickling at her eyes, amid her confusion.

"Justin, how could you even think you're bothering me. I love you just like a brother. How I will never know, because I haven't known you that long, but I do." Alissa tried to think through any ideas where he might have gotten this idea. Alissa took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, and giving Justin a chance to say more.

"I heard Carrie talking to JC about how you have a �tag a long' and how you couldn't say go away because you felt sorry for me. Who would know better than your best friend?" Alissa closed her eyes, trying to ignore the sharp edge to his voice, and planning how to kill Carrie.

"If my best friend actually spent any time with me right now, she might know. Unfortunately, she's a little occupied with a friend of yours and therefore she's prone to drawing her own conclusions which might not necessarily reflect mine. Will you at least let me tell you what I think?" She waited, the look on Justin's face clearly portraying how much he didn't want to let her explain, but he slowly nodded.

"Fine. Explain." Alissa suddenly realized she didn't know what she was going to say. She sighed, looking at the floor before lifting her head to look at Justin. She wasn't ready for the stone-cold stare in Justin's eyes when their eyes met, and she hated that her's immediately moved to avert his, making her seem guilty of something. She took another deep breath and began to speak.

"I'm not sure how to explain so that you'll believe me. Carrie often draws her own conclusions to things involving me, because she's always felt the need to protect me. I'm not sure why, but sometimes it's a comfort. And sometimes she screws up my life. But I love her because she's my friend, no matter how much she bugs me sometimes. That's how it is with all my friends." She paused for a second. "IT's the same with you. You're a good friend, and I could never tell you to go away because of that. It's not out of pity." She glanced up at him, before looking quickly back to the floor. She knew she needed to continue but she wanted to make sure he was actually listening. "The other day, at the club, Carrie asked me about my �tag a long' and I should have said something right then to her, but I didn't. Even if that day didn't turn out the way I thought it was going to, I wouldn't change it. And it wouldn't have been the same without you there. Do you know what I'm saying?" She looked at him again, to see he was now staring at the floor. She was about to say something else, when he interrupted her.

"I guess I shouldn't have listened to Carrie. She wasn't even talking to me, I just overheard it anyway. Then with you and Lance the other day, I just started thinking. . ." Alissa moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"Aw, Justin, thinking can be dangerous. I should have known it bothered you when you didn't say anything. No jokes or anything. I should have talked to you sooner, I guess. You'll always be special, �cause you're my little brother. Who knows if this thing with Lance will last." It was Justin's turn to reassure her.

"It will. I know Lance, and I've never seen him like this." Alissa smiled. "And if he ever hurts you, he'll have to deal with me." Justin put on a tough guy face, that made Alissa giggle.

"Thanks, little bro." She rolled her eyes, and pulled his hat down over his face, then squealed as he grabbed her unexpectedly.

"Hey, what's going on?" They both stopped when they heard Lance. Then Alissa giggled and looked at Justin conspiratorially. Justin shook his head vehemently.

"Aw, Justin, you're no fun." Justin looked at Lance, then back at Alissa.

"No way, I know what kind of revenge he gets." Lance grinned slyly before Justin spoke again. "You better be good to her, man." Then he disappeared down the bus aisle way. Lance and Alissa both watched him leave, before Lance turned to face her.

"What was that?" Alissa smiled and shrugged, before kissing him.

"Just the normal brother/ sister thing."

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