Nick nodded his head. "I know my parents are completely okay with it. Some of my dad's colleagues and friends are either bi or gay and he has no problem with it. And my mom, well she knows that you're gay," Nick said the latter part rather softly and bit his bottom lip when Justin looked at him horrified. "No, don't worry. I didn't tell her, she just found out this morning while you were on the phone with your mom. She saw your bracelet and figured it out. She's okay with it, so no worries." Nick reassured Justin before he brought his gaze down to look at the bracelet on Justin's wrist. He then brought his gaze up to meet Justin's eye, he gave him a soft smile. After a few seconds of silence Nick realized that he still had his arm around Justin and pulled away with a faintest hint of blush on his face. "Um, so. Uh, you ever... have you ever dated anyone or like are you dating anyone or something?"

Justin frowned when Nick pulled away but kept his gaze steadily fixed on Nick. "Yeah, sure. Who the fuck would date me especially with this hair?" Justin questioned with a snort and pointing at his hair. "Never had a boyfriend, hell, never even had a girlfriend. I mean, homosexuality isn't a well liked thing back where I'm from," he said turning his head so that he was staring straight ahead instead of at Nick.

"Oh," Nick said looking to Justin's left profile.

"Yah," Justin said. "You? You have anyone?" Sure Justin knew the answer to that question but Nick had never really come right out and said he had a girlfriend.

"Um," Nick looked over at Justin surprised that he would ask him that question considering he already knew the answer to that but then he had to remind himself that Justin didn't exactly know what had transpired in the last few days. "No. Don't have anyone at the moment."

Justin whipped his head to the side faster than the blink of an eye. "What? I thought you were dating Paris?" He questioned, surprised and shocked.

Nick crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. "If you knew then why did you ask me if I was dating anyone?" Nick retorted.

Justin blushed as he realized just what he'd gotten himself into. "I...um, I mean..." Justin stuttered not really knowing how to explain it.

Nick chuckled. "It's okay Justin but the my answer is still the same. I'm not seeing anyone at the moment," he said and then looked down at the basket ball suddenly feeling a sense of awkwardness between them. "How about we play some more one on one?"

Justin was too busy being shocked by Nick's answer and curious as to what happened that he completely missed Nick's question.

"Justin? Timberlake? Uwhoooo," Nick said as he waved a hand in front of Justin's face to bring him out of his trance. "You alright?"

Justin shook his head and stared at Nick. "But I thought you guys were hot and heavy together but now you're telling you aren't even dating. What happened, if you don't mind me asking?" Justin questioned out in a ramble.

Nick sighed as he placed the ball between his feet and ran his hand through his hair. "We were together but we're not anymore. It's a long story... How about we play some ball unless you don't want to, we could just head on back upstairs and do something else?" It's not that he didn't want to tell Justin what had happened it was more so that he was embarrassed about it. He didn't want Justin to think any less of him or to laugh at him.

Justin frowned. "I can go a few more rounds with basket ball," he said not wanting to pass up some more alone time with Nick. He got up and followed Nick to the section they were playing at before. They started the game with Justin having the ball and Nick paying defense.

They played for the next hour, both losing track of time and both lost in their own thoughts as they played the game. That's one thing they both had in common when it came to basket ball. They enjoyed the sport not just because it was fun... they enjoyed it because they got to be free at the same time as when all their senses are working.

"Wooo," Justin said as he bent down, his hands resting on his knees so he could catch his breath. "I'm beat."

Nick grabbed the bouncing ball and jogged over to Justin, sweating all over, the ball nestled between his arm and hip. "Yah, were you keeping count?"

Justin snorted as he stood up and walked over to the bleechers to where his half empty bottle of water was. "No, you?"

Nick shook his head before realizing Justin couldn't see him since his back was to him. "Nope. I was just enjoying the game," he said following Justin to get his own bottle. "You wanna head on up and relax for a bit or something?" He questioned once he finished off his water.

Justin looked over at Nick and bit his lower lip. Nick looked so gorgeous covered in sweat, his spikey blonde hair wet and sticking to his head now. He wanted to tell him 'no' and that he would rather have them sit there and make out but knew he couldn't just do that so instead he nodded his head and followed Nick out the doors of the basket ball court.

"So," Nick began when the silence between him and Justin was suffocating him. "What's up?" He looked around at the four elevators in the small room and frowned when they were all on the top floors.

Justin chuckled. He then remembered Nick had siblings but he hadn't seen any of them yet. "Where are your brothers and sisters?" He questioned. "I haven't seen them at all."

"Friday night's are usually family/movie nights...so, we kinda stayed up pretty late. Well, Brian and I went to bed earlier than the rest but for the most part everyone else watched a few movies," Nick paused as the elevator dinged and they stepped inside as Nick pressed the button to his floor. "They were asleep when you came, maybe now they'll be awake. It's about time that they are, anyways."

"Oh," Justin said. "How many siblings do you have?" He questioned as they stepped off the elevator on Nick's floor and walked down the hall to the apartment.

"You'll see in a bit," Nick responded and smiled as he heard laughter and voices of his siblings when he got closer to the door. He opened the door and let Justin walk in before him. Locking the door behind he walked up behind Justin and placed a hand on the small of Justin's back encouraging him to walk further inside.

Justin didn't have time to blink before there were two little kids rushing past him, squealing and hugging and clinging onto Nick's legs. By the time he did blink there were two, younger looking girls, pretty, Justin thought, standing in front of him and Nick. He had to take a step back because their sudden appearance was... well, just that. Sudden. Like...poof... there they were. In front of them.

Both Nick and Justin then toed their sneakers off and placed it on the shoe rack beside them by the closet.

Nick chuckled as he used all his strength and wobbled with Angel and Aaron, who were clinging to his legs, over to the couch and plopped down. He reached over and started to tickle them and they squealed with laughter. Looking up he noticed the girls walking over towards him before sitting on either side of him. Then he looked at Justin and smiled. "Get over here," he said nodding his head to the coffee table in front of him, for Justin to sit on.

Justin nodded his head as he walked over and took a seat on the coffee table like Nick had indicated. He smiled shyly at the kids who were watching his wide big wide eyes.

"Justin," Nick started to say. "The one here," he said putting his left hand on top of the small girls' head who was seated on his left leg, "is Angel and the one here," he said putting his right hand on top of the small boys' head who was not only seated on Nick's right leg but was hugging Nick's torso. Justin could have sworn he was staring at a younger Nick. "is Aaron. These two are twins and Aaron is the youngest of the two. To my left is Leslie, she's the middle child and to my right is BJ, the second oldest," he said. "Ladies and little man, this here, is Justin Timberlake."

BJ and Leslie giggled and leaned in closer to Nick before saying, "Hi, Justin..." in unison causing Nick to look at them funny and Justin to blush.

"Uh oh," Nick said giggling. "You already won my sisters' heart, bro."

Justin blushed some more and said, "Hello ladies." He then felt a tug on his jeans and looked down to see Angel looking up at him with her big brown eyes. "Hey Angel," Justin said. "What's up?"

Angel just looked up at Justin for a few seconds, searching for something causing Justin to squirm a little in his seat, and she smiles when she's found it. She lifts her arms up silently asking Justin to carry her.

Justin looks at her for a second before picking her up and placing her on his knee much like how Aaron was sitting on Nick. He looked over at Nick who was watching him with a look of... what was it? Relief? Awe? Pride? Justin didn't know but what he did know was that he liked that look and the way it was directed at him. It made his stomach flutter.

"Ustin," Angel said. "Ustin, Ustin, Ustin. Ustin." She chanted and giggled as if she's trying out his name to see if it sounded right or not. "Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick. Awon, awon, awon Beej and Lezwee."

Nick laughed at his sisters. "Great, there are five of you, four of me, three of Aaron, and one of each of you," he said looking over at BJ and Leslie. "Good grief!"

Justin chuckled as he looked down at Angel. "So, are there gonna be three Angel's too?" He questioned.

Angel beamed as she nodded her head. "Me fwogot me... Angwel, Angwel, Angwel," she giggled as he bounced on Justin's lap.

Nick shook his head and looked at his siblings and noticed that they all were still in their PJ's. "Why don't you guys all go upstairs, take a shower, and get ready... okay?" And before they could protest he said, "We have a guest in the house, you really don't want him to see you guys in your PJ's and remember you that way, now do you?" He smiled when he got the desired reaction from them and watched as they all scurried off of him and Justin and up the stairs to their rooms.

Justin looked over at Nick with an amused expression on his face. "I guess I just met them," he chuckled.

"Yes, you did," Nick said. "My sisters are smitten with you." Nick stated point blank. "They were the same way with Brian and now they're gonna be crushing on you too."

"Ohhh," Justin said. "But Brian isn't gay and I am..."

Nick shrugged his shoulders. He was about to say other wise but thought better of it since he didn't want to go around blabbing his best friends business. "It don't matter. They think you're hot and you're permanently on their 'crush' list, as far as I can tell." This was true. Nick knows his sisters, and from experience, 'cause they were the same way with Brian.

Justin just laughed and shook his head. 'Well, it's not the exact Carter I was hoping would feel that way about me,' he thought to himself and turned crimson when Nick looked at him as though he just heard and knew Justin's thoughts.

Nick watched Justin carefully for a few seconds but immediately looked away when Justin made eye contact. "Um, you like video games or something?" He questioned.

Justin nodded his head and stood up as he followed Nick over to the elevator shaft. "This is cool," he said as he got on. "That you have an elevator in your apartment."

"Yah, comes in handy," Nick agreed. Once they were on the third floor he looked over at Justin and said, "I didn't give you a tour, did I?"

Justin shook his head as he shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. "Nope."

"Well, then," Nick said as he pointed to the room at the end of the hall. "Over there, that's BJ's room." Then he pointed at the room that was in the middle of the hall. "That's one of the guest bedrooms room. There are only three rooms on this floor, mine, hers and guest bedroom. And mine's right here," Nick said as he showed Justin the door that was close to the elevator. He then opened the door to his room and motioned for Justin to go in.

Justin looked around the room, much like how Nick had done to his own, eyes wide. "Wow," he breathed out as he took in the main colors of the room; blues, whites, and greens. The walls looked to a blur of some sort of cascading water falls. A mixture starting off from the ceiling down to the bottom of the wall of dark blue to sea blue green. Looking up at the ceiling Justin noticed that it was painted with a very dark blue paint with glow in the dark stars and planets of different sizes. But they all seemed to lessen as it reached maybe about a foot down the wall.

The room itself was rectangular shaped and the door was on the right hand corner of one of the lengthy sides. On the opposite wall, Justin noticed that there were thick blue curtains that looked to be hiding two glass sliding doors which more likely that not led out on to a balcony. Looking to the right of the balcony door Justin saw that the corner wall had been made in to an angle, with a door in it but the door was closed so he didn't know just what that was for. A little further up from that door was Nick's all purpose big thick plexiglass desk. Justin marveled at all the high-tech equipment Nick had, and the fact that they were either silver, pure white, or clear transparent. Nick's text books, reading books, note books, and whatever else stationary he had were neatly placed or stacked on the desk and in its respective shelves and drawers. On either side of the big desk were similar plexiglass shelves that show cased Nick's trophies, awards, plaques, medals, certificates, and pins. Right above the desk was a giant, flat screen, silver framed plasma TV, angled so that it could be watched comfortably when seated or lying down on the bed. The top shelf of the desk was where the DVD player, VCR, play station two, and the main stereo system were placed. As he looked at the top corners of the room he noticed that speakers were set up, at all five corners. To his left, Justin noticed that there were big shuttered doors, probably for the closet, painted to blend in with the wall that it mostly occupied.

Justin walked further in and Nick closed the door behind them.