“JC!”

JC moaned as he was woken from his slumber. He wished whoever was pounding at his door would go away. He was still exhausted and wanted to sleep some more. This proved difficult though because the pounding wouldn’t stop.

“JC! Get your lazy ass up right now!” a voice that JC recognized as Chris’ floated through the door.

JC growled as he got up. He stalked over to the door and opened it to see Chris’ smiling face.

“What?” JC barked.

“Morning to you too, Sunshine,” Chris said unfazed by his bandmate’s behavior because it was normal for JC to act this way.

JC sighed and rubbed his eyes. “What are you here for, Chris?”

“Johnny called and wants us all to meet in Lance’s room for breakfast.”

“Lance’s room?” JC asked.

“Yeah, you know, that blonde haired, albino kid that we sometimes hang out with,” Chris replied laughing.

“But I…oh nevermind. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Chris nodded and left as JC closed the door to his hotel room.

It was during JC’s conversation with Chris that he realized that Lance wasn’t in his room anymore. He must have left before I woke up, JC thought to himself. It wasn’t unlike Lance to wake up before everyone else even though he had barely gotten sleep the night before.

JC pulled on a t-shirt, changed into jeans, and looked into the mirror. His face was all scruffy from not shaving all week, but he would deal with that later. He pocketed his room key and left for Lance’s room.

By the time he got there, all of the other guys and Johnny were there.

“Hey JC. Nice of you to join us,” Joey joked causing everyone to laugh while JC stuck up his middle finger.

“OK boys, that’ll do. I want to welcome you all back and let you know that you have two weeks off to recuperate. Your food is on its way up, but while we’re waiting I would like to have a word with JC and Justin.”

Johnny went out into the hall and JC and Justin had no choice but to follow him.

While JC and Justin were getting lectured in the hall, the other three were in the living area of Lance’s room talking.

“You know what I just realized?” Lance asked as he looked at his watch.

“That you can’t tell time?” Chris joked seeing what Lance was looking at.

Lance rolled his eyes at Chris’ response. “No, dweeb. I realized that we’re eating breakfast at six o’clock in the evening.”

“So?” Joey replied.

“So?” Lance echoed. “Isn’t it a bit odd to be eating breakfast when you’re normally supposed to be eating dinner?”

Chris and Joey looked at each other and then replied simultaneously:  “No.”

“Ya’ll are only saying that because you only get in at five in the morning from clubbing and then sleep till two or three in the afternoon.”

“Well, you know Scoop we can’t all be like you and get up at six in the morning even when we don’t have to,” Chris said.

“It’s not my fault that my body runs on a schedule and that you two have nothing better to do than go clubbing and sleeping the day away,” Lance answered.

Joey was about to object to that when JC and Justin came walking back in with room service right behind them, but no Johnny.

“Hey, where’s Johnny?” Joey asked.

“He left because he had a few phone calls to make,” Justin replied as he tipped the room service attendant. The attendant bowed out and closed the door behind him.

Everyone got up and grabbed a plate full of food. They all settled themselves on the couch, bed, or floor. They sat there eating their breakfast and watching TV until Lance brought up the question he, Joey, and Chris had been wondering since JC and Justin came back into the room.

“What did Johnny say to ya’ll?”

“Well first he started off by congratulating us on finding you guys and getting everyone back to the hotel virtually unharmed,” JC said.

“But then he ripped into us about how we were so irresponsible for taking off like we did and how we could’ve gotten ourselves killed. Blah blah blah. He said that we should’ve left it to the professionals or at least brought someone with us,” Justin added.

“But if you guys hadn’t come when you did Lance could’ve been dead. Hell me and Joe could’ve died too,” Chris objected.

“We told him that, but he still gave us this whole speech about how it would’ve been better left to the professionals. Like they knew where the hell you guys were or where to find you,” JC mumbled.

“Oh but that’s not even the best part. You want to tell them, Jayce?” Justin asked.

“Sure. Johnny thinks we should be punished for us running off like we did, so we’re pretty much put under house arrest. He told us that we’re only allowed to go out for group functions like recording, touring, etc,” JC explained.

“What? You can’t be serious,” Joey said. He, Lance, and Chris were totally surprised by this. They knew their manager cared for them, but they never thought he would put any of them under house arrest no matter what they did.

“You’re right, Joe, we’re not,” Justin agreed as he and JC cracked up laughing. Joey, Lance, and Chris just looked at each other at first not believing they fell for this joke before they dissolved into laughter.

“You assholes,” Joey said after the laughing died down, “you really had us believing Johnny put you under house arrest.”

“You dorks. You actually planned that out?” Chris retorted.

“No,” Justin denied though Chris knew they were lying.

“You should know by now that I’m the master at jokes so there’s no point in trying,” Chris replied.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah!” Chris managed to say before being wrestled to the ground by Justin. They started wrestling each other on the floor.

“So Johnny’s not even punishing you guys?” Lance asked JC completely ignoring his two bandmates on the floor.

“He couldn’t even if he wanted to because he was so happy that we found you guys. All we got was that lecture and a scolding never to run off like that again,” JC answered.

They all fell back into a comfortable silence after Chris had Justin pinned and made him say “uncle”. They went back to watching TV and enjoying being together again. Lance started picking up all the discarded plates and cups and JC helped knowing that the other three wouldn’t touch them again. Lance and JC disposed of the plates and cups in the kitchen.

“We need to talk,” Lance said before JC had a chance to go back out into the living room where the rest of the guys were.

“OK. What about?” JC asked.

“Our…you know,” Lance said as he moved his finger back and forth between his head and JC’s, “and what we’re going to do about it.”

“What do you mean? I don’t think we can get rid of it,” JC said not following Lance.

“What I mean is the privacy aspect of it. We need to come up with a way so we’re not invading each other’s thoughts,” Lance explained.

“Oh I get it now.” JC thought for a minute. “How about we have some kind of a signal or something?”

“A signal?” questioned Lance.

“Yeah like a raised eyebrow. We do that if we want to talk without the others knowing unless say I give you the signal and you shake you’re head no. I’ll know that you don’t want to talk to me right then,” JC told him.

Lance thought about it for a minute. “Yeah I guess that could work and the guys wouldn’t be the wiser as to what we’re doing.”

“Right I mean none of the guys know,” JC said smiling.

“Is that a good thing?” Lance asked.

“Yes.”

“Why? Why not tell the guys, JC?”

“Because it’s just a special thing between me and you. I mean, how many people have this thing?”

“Not many,” Lance affirmed JC’s thought.

“Exactly. If the guys find out, fine, but I don’t want to tell them about it.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Lance agreed.

Unbeknownst to them Justin was in the living room watching them talk. He could clearly see them from where he was sitting. He could tell by their facial expressions that what they were talking about was serious stuff and was curious as to what they could be talking about.

Justin must have been staring longer than he thought because a few minutes later he heard Joey call his name. Justin turned to him.

“Yeah?”

“Dude, you were totally spacing. You didn’t blink for like five minutes,” Joey explained.

“Are you taking lessons off of JC?” Chris teased. Not another word was said as Chris and Joey turned back to the TV. Justin looked back at Lance and JC before turning his attention toward the TV.

Their TV watching was interrupted though when they heard Lance yell “You’re so dead, Chasez!”

The next thing they know they see a blur of JC running past them with Lance hot on his heels.