“I swear if you elbow me once more I'm going to knee you in the nuts!” Chris complained as he shoved his bandmate roughly away from the medium-sized mirror they were both trying – and failing- to share in the bus' tiny bathroom.

Joey snorted in amusement and shoved Chris right back, knocking him off balance so he had to take a step back to regain his footing. Joey, ever the opportunist, took this chance to get even closer to the mirror, blocking Chris' next effort to regain his position with ease. He flashed his bandmate a shit-eating grin and said, “I think you'd have trouble reaching that far, short ass.”

Chris narrowed his eyes at his friend's reflection. “There's only one mirror on this bus,” he reminded Joey with a whine. “Just let me finish sorting out my hair and then you can get back to styling your eyebrows, or whatever else it is you do in here for hours. Plucking your nose hair? Putting on your makeup?”

Joey's lips pulled up into a sneer and he scowled at Chris, who had somehow managed to sneak past his arm and block his view of the mirror. Chris began teasing the ends of his spiky hair this way and that until he was satisfied with the result. Joey allowed him a moment or two of tweaking before a smirk appeared on his face and he said, completely deadpan, “You've missed a bit.”

Chris' eyebrows shot up into his brow causing three deep furrows to appear across his forehead. He leaned into the mirror, dipping his head so he could get a better look at the top of his crown. He wasn't a vain man, but his hair... yeah, it mattered to him.

“Where?” he asked in a strangled voice. He'd thought it was perfect. Or nearly so, at least.

Joey's grin widened. Chris' reaction was exactly what he'd been hoping for and he chuckled under his breath as his bandmate continued to search through his hair with his fingers, pulling and teasing at the individual strands.

It took Chris a few minutes before he spotted Joey's reflection in the mirror. Or, more specifically, the glint in his dark brown eyes and the shit-eating grin on his face. He immediately turned away from the mirror and aimed a half-hearted, but still pretty meaningful punch directly into Joey's ribs.

“Ooouch!”

~~~~~*~~~~~

Justin lifted his head up from the magazine he'd been reading and scanned the front of the bus for signs of Melissa. He was lying stretched out on one of the couches, his sneakers resting against the arm rest across from him, and although his attention was half absorbed by the glossy pages in front of him, he'd been half listening to every word spoken from inside the nearby bathroom. He recognised the signs, and although he really didn't want to have to get up, he realised someone had to do something before things escalated further.

“Mel!” He called, leaning to the left so he could see past the rows of bunk beds ahead of him where he assumed Melissa was hiding. He hadn't made a mental note of when she'd disappeared, but he'd been happily reading by himself at the front of the bus for a good half-hour or so. She was probably napping, or reading, or tucked away on her bunk surfing the internet. Either way, she needed to do something to break up the knuckleheads. “Melissa?”

“What?” Came her answer a few minutes later.

“Dumb and Dumber are arguing again.”

Justin heard her let out an annoyed groan and mutter something under her breath, but he couldn't quite catch the words.

“Are you coming?” He asked, flicking to the next page of his magazine, his eyes settling on the full-page advert of the newest addition to the Air Max range. He could really do with some more sneakers. It'd been at least a few weeks since he'd bought some. But wait a minute... didn't he already own those in black?

“Handle it, Justin. I'm busy,” Melissa called back causing Justin to roll his eyes. He didn't want to have to handle it. Breaking Joey and Chris apart when they got on each other's nerves was her forte, not his. His role was was always the onlooker – watching, and laughing, from a distance

“I don't want to,” he whined, slouching lower onto the couch as if that somehow might plead his case more strongly. He was comfy, dammit. He didn't want to have to move. “Meeeeel...”

“Justin! Just handle it!”

“But I'll only make it worse. That's what you always say; that I make things worse.”

Silence.

He waited a second, his ears pricked for the sound of her approaching footsteps, but none came. After a moment or two he dropped the magazine dramatically into his lap and let out a loud and unnecessary sigh. “Fine! I guess I'll have to handle it then.”

~~~~~*~~~~~

“Melly...” Mel heard a weak voice call and her head snapped up from the laptop screen she'd been staring at with a concentrated frown. It'd been a good half hour - or even forty minutes - since Justin had interrupted her to complain about something Joey and Chris were doing. She'd completely zoned out in that time and couldn't remember what he'd even been prattling on about earlier.

She waited, knowing that a voice that weak and pleading would no doubt repeat itself.

And she was right.

“Mel...”

“Yes?”

“Mel...?”

“Yes...”

Silence, followed by an awkward clearing of the throat, then two mournful blue eyes peeped at her from around the privacy curtain.

“I made it worse...”

~~~~~*~~~~~

“What in the hell possessed you?” Mel practically shouted at them, unsure which of the two – or even three – men to direct her tirade at. She was furious at all of them. Equally. Okay, maybe not as furious at Justin. After all he had warned her that he always found a way to make things worse, and boy was he right!

“It's just... awful!” she cried, her voice squeaking in despair as she got right up in Chris' face. “Why would you think this is funny?” She ran her eyes over his face, from the tip of his ears to his now stubble free chin. Her eyes settled on the raised, red, blotchy patches of skin where his scruffles had once been and she swallowed hard.

“It wasn't meant to be funny. Just... you know, revenge,” Joey said, his eyes flashing at the word and his own perfectly groomed, bearded face pulled up into a grin. He'd escaped the war of razors completely unharmed, which had been his intention.

Mel turned furiously on him. “Revenge?” she shrieked, her brows furrowing so deep she looked almost comic. “How old are you?”

Justin opened his mouth to answer like the smart-ass that he was, but sensing the anger emanating from Mel decided at the last minute to close his mouth before uttering a word. It was a sensible decision and proved he could be mature... when his life depended on it.

“Seriously!” Mel exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air and letting out a groan of frustration. “You're grown men who behave like children!”

“That kinda is the basis of our appeal...” Joey muttered, sidling up beside her and giving her that sideways grin that he knew did funny things to her. It took all of Mel's strength to not melt under that look.

“It's pathetic!” she replied, although her voice was lacking a little of its previous venom. Damn those killer brown eyes, and that smirk... “You've broken Chris!”

Chris met her eyes in the mirror, where he'd been trying to analyse just how bad his 'new look' was, and pulled an apologetic face. He knew how much she usually loved his facial hair and hoped this wouldn't hurt his running in the ongoing campaign for her heart. No matter what he did, he couldn't ever seem to shake his competition enough to win her undivided attention, and he wondered if this would be a further setback. How would Mel have reacted if his opponent had been the one to lose his beard instead of him?

“Seriously!” Melly said, holding his gaze, her cheeks turning a little pink under his stare. “Whose crazy idea was it to start shaving each other's beards off?”

Justin crossed his arms defensively over his chest and shrugged. “You said to handle it...”

Mel turned on him with renewed fire in her eyes. “It was you?”

Justin raised his hands defensively and looked at Joey, then Chris, for backup. “Don't blame me. By the time I got in here it was already too late. If you ask me--”

“No one's asking you,” Joey interrupted, narrowing his eyes at his friend for ratting him out.

“Yeah, but if someone did ask me--”

“You know what, just...” Mel grabbed him by the shoulders and gave him a gentle shove out of the open door. The bathroom was cramped enough with her, Joey and Chris standing inside without Justin hovering in the doorway adding unnecessary and unhelpful comments. “This wasn't even meant to be about you,” she said, watching him stumble over his long legs. He turned and pouted at her slightly before cutting his losses and wandering off back to his magazine. It wasn't like he was that bothered anyway.

Mel turned back around and reached out a hand to stop Chris from scratching at the now red skin on his chin. It was itchy as hell, and he already regretted not kneeing Joey in the balls when he'd had the chance. If only he still had the reflexes of his younger self. He could've swiped the razor out of Joey's hands with one easy movement and still found a way to knee him in the balls. Or at least that's what he liked to think...

“Joe, you better find some way to fix this,” Mel said, scowling at him.

“Fix what?” he said, shrugging as though her words made no sense. “He looks better if you ask me.” He glanced at Chris and snorted a laugh. His bandmate looked ridiculous. He'd only managed to get one swipe at him before Chris had managed to knock the razor out of his hand and into the sink, but that one swipe had made all the difference. Chris' previously handsome goatee now looked like two devil horns on his chin.

“Fix it!” Mel hissed, raising a finger and poking him hard in the chest. “Now!”

~~~~~*~~~~~

“Had to shave it all off,” Chris said not fifteen minutes later as he dropped into the spare seat next to Melissa and let out a defeated sigh. Mel said nothing but twisted around in the seat so she could face him more comfortably. “But this time I was at least in control of the razor.”

“It's only hair,” Mel said after a thoughtful pause. She met Chris' eyes and noticed the half raised eyebrow and the quiver of his top lip that indicated he was fighting a grin. She knew by the glint in his eyes that internally he was laughing at her.

“That's quite a turnaround,” he said, snorting a laugh. “You feeling okay?”

“I'm trying to remind myself that it could've been a lot worse. You could've lost an eyebrow... or worse.”

Chris nudged her gently with his shoulder. “Careful. That's starting to sound a lot like concern.”

Mel giggled and nudged him right back. “For you?” she teased, reaching forward to press a tender kiss against his now smooth and soft cheek. “Never.”