In the grand tradition of Las Vegas, the suite was enormous and wonderfully tacky. Everything was in overly bright colours and three times the size it needed to be. In contrast to the usual style of its current guest, everything was done in very modern fashion; it was full of sharp angles and bright lighting. There was also far too much furniture - three couches where one would suffice, side tables thrown into every conceivable crevice and copious vases around the place. It was a funny setting for some more old fashioned anxiety.

When Justin was nervous or impatient, he fidgeted. When he was both nervous and impatient, it went beyond fidgeting and into the realm of severe agitation. His feet tapped, his fingers twitched or his hands drummed out a restless rhythm against his knees - occasionally all three. There would be lots of little huffs or sighs, and much clearing of his throat. Luckily he was alone, or it might have been very irritating for somebody.

They might, however, have been momentarily cheered by the way he bolted up from his seat when he heard the sound of the door clicking; its lack of grace was comical. Being alone to think in a suite far too big for one person had wound his muscles a little too tight. Nervously wiping his palms on his jeans, he strode over to the door where a denim and leather clad Renee Anderson was pulling her suitcase through the door.

Justin wasn't sure what had surprised him most: the lack of a bellhop or the fact that she'd only brought one case.

"Hey…" Renee drawled slowly, perching her sunglasses on top of her head. Giving him a shy smile she set the suitcase down for a moment and unzipped her jacket, looking for somewhere to throw it down. It was just a quick flash of teeth, but it was comforting.

"Hey yourself," he responded, automatically picking up the suitcase for her. "You want me to stick this in the bedroom?"

"Thanks," she nodded, handing him her jacket too. "Is there a kitchen or mini bar in here somewhere? I'm desperate for some water."

Justin pointed haphazardly at the door to her left, and Renee disappeared in there while he hoisted the suitcase into the bedroom. It seemed too far away for the weight he was carrying. Now he understood why she only had one suitcase; she had clearly discovered some ingenious way to fit her whole closet into it. It never occurred to him to utilise the wheels or the pull handle, so instead he hefted it all the way across the master bedroom to put it down next to the dresser, glaring disapprovingly at it all the way.

When finally he took a deep breath and crossed back out into the living room, he saw Renee had already kicked her shoes off into a corner and was chugging almost compulsively on a bottle of Evian. Instead of sitting on the sofa she stood by it, one hand on its back to prop her up. Justin took a moment to observe her: the form fitting jeans, the tight sweater, the messy hair and the pensive expression. Her index finger tapped restlessly against the bottle, and her lips were pursed together in apprehension. It looked like she was as nervous about this as he was.

For a moment, he started rethinking whether the best time for them to reunite was a weekend trip; it might have been jumping the gun just a tad.

Clearing his throat and making his presence known, he began a slow amble across the room to where she was. Screwing the cap on the bottle and setting it down, her hands went self consciously to her pockets even though her gaze remained steady with his.

"Hi," he finally said as he got within reach.

"Hi," she echoed.

As though they were autonomous from the rest of him, Justin's arms reached out to take her by the waist, pulling her to him. One snaked across her waist, the other her back as hers reached up to lock around his torso. Her face went into his t-shirt clad chest as his hid in her neck, breathing in the scent of slightly faded Dior.

"God I feel like I haven't seen you in weeks." He gave a half chuckle that was muffled against her skin.

"Well, except for a twelve hour stretch there, you haven't," Renee reminded him.

"True."

Breathing in a little deeper, Justin's hand met her shoulder blade and readjusted its grip, bringing her in that little bit tighter. It was odd - having not seen each other for three weeks, they had managed to spend all of a morning in awkward silence before agreeing that they needed a break to think things over. It was odd that they'd chosen what was meant to be an anniversary trip as a reunion, but she was praying it was a good sign.

She hoped that if he'd come here packed and ready for an entire trip, he wasn't going to leave her - or at least he wasn't planning to. Funnily enough the same thought had occurred to Justin; the difference was that he had counted the number of hotels along the strip she could move to if she decided he wasn't worth it. Both of them were heavily aware that even if they both walked into the suite with all intention of working their relationship out and getting back to some semblance of normal, that didn't guarantee they could make it happen. There was much to discuss, and it wasn't all going to be pretty.

Releasing him from her embrace and pulling back, Renee took his fingers in hers and guided him to a seat on the sofa. When they sat down it wasn't as close as it could have been (and would otherwise have been), but the gap wasn't an uncomfortable.

"So… how you been?" She asked as she plucked at a loose thread on the white cushions.

"Umm… okay, yeah. You?"

"Okay." Her nodding was tentative.

"Recording going any better?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just a touch of writer's block, I think."

Justin's face wore an understanding expression. "Should have just called Louise, you know she's always got somethin' to say."

A chuckle escaped her. "Probably should have, but she's at home with Mom. She's swamped at work."

"Oh." He struggled for another nicety to fill the silence with. "What else you been doing?"

"Not much, just recording and I took a couple dance classes in my off time." Scratching at the back of her hand, running out of things to say, she decided to steer the conversation to him. There was a large elephant in the room with them, one that resembled the last month or so, but it was amazing how they were managing to avoid bringing it up. "You and Tim get anything done in the studio?"

"Actually, yes." It was as good an opening as any, so he took a deep breath and went for it. "We finished the song the other Justin started writing. Did you know what he was writing about?"

She shook her head, glad he'd been the one to bring the topic up. "Enlighten me."

"Not sure, but I kind of think he wrote a song about how you and me got together."

"Really?" Her eyebrow rose slightly of its own accord.

Justin nodded, scratching at his freshly shaven scalp. "Yeah. All about what a guy's gotta do to win his woman over. It's good shit, too, even if it was only half done. I was kinda surprised about that actually, from what I heard of his last CD. And it's also kind of weird because he kind of gave me an idea for a song about, well, them. I needed a ballad anyway."

Renee thought for a moment, struggling to come up with a response. An "oh" was all she could manage.

They sat there in silence for what must have been thirty seconds or so before movement resumed. At first her mouth merely twitched, her face struggling to remain impassive. The undoing was when her eyes met Justin's steel blue gaze, and his own lips were threatening the same. Soon enough they were both wearing wry, matching smiles.

"Clearly you're a bad influence on yourself," she teased.

"Clearly." He rolled his eyes before his chuckles subsided and a more meditative expression settled over his features. "So what are we doing, lady?"

"Having an awkward conversation," she replied sardonically before conceding to seriousness. "I don't know. I mean… have you been thinking what I've been thinking?"

When nothing else came out of her mouth, Justin had to do some prompting. "It's hard to answer that unless you tell me what you were thinking."

"Just… I don't know." She twisted in her seat, pulling her legs up beneath her and turning towards him. Nervously she twisted a lock of dark hair around her fingers. "Like… wondering what happened with you and what you've been thinking about it. And I guess I've kind of been wondering how much you and me are really like them."

"Like them in the sense that we're gonna make each other miserable?" Much as he hated to ask, the clarification was necessary. He winced a little at her unhappy nod.

From fiddling with her hair, Renee's fingers began picking at her cherry red nails instead. It was hard meeting his eye. "It's just weird, is all. I don't know what being around her has made you think about me, or anything like that. And even after all those annoying little speeches of Claire's I still don't entirely get this destiny thing or how much we're going to wind up being like them."

"I don't know about being like them, but I can really tell you that meeting her made me appreciate how much you got your shit together," Justin told her. "I mean…" he hesitated to ask the question, "are you, like, worried that I did something with her?"

"You already told me you did."

"Well yeah, she kissed me but I didn't do anything about it." Justin's palms were once again rubbing anxiously against his thighs, his fingers twitching. "You don't need to… she's not you, and to be honest I think she was just looking at me like I was him. I mean, I felt bad for her because she reminded me of you in a lot of ways and I can see how you guys are similar, and I admit it kind of confused me. For a while I felt guilty and like I sort of owed her something, but… she's not you. And what about you? I mean, you met him first."

A small, sad smirk twisted the corners of her mouth. "You know, it's funny. I always had that little question in the back of my mind, this little fear that I was using you as a substitute for him. And I know that's messed up, but the really stupid thing is while he was here I spent two weeks so busy worrying about how I might feel more for him I failed to notice that I didn't. You know, feel that way. And neither did he - there was never any danger of either of us hitting on each other or anything, once he stopped pretending he was you. It's really kinda dumb."

"It's like…" Justin struggled to voice his thought correctly. "Like you can be attracted to either but it's not the same as the one you've actually been with and that you know real well?"

"Yeah. Exactly." There was yet more head nodding. She wished it would desist, she felt like a novelty toy, but she couldn't stop.

Weighing up the moment in his mind, Justin concluded that somewhere in this conversation they had decided that they still liked each other. This he took as a licence to reach over and hoist her body across the gap between them. Renee snuggled in beneath his arm, nestling under his shoulder and laying an arm across his stomach. For a moment she was content to just feel the rise and fall of his breathing beneath her, but naturally her second question had to rear its ugly head again.

"Do you think we'll end up like them?"

Thinking back to the letter he still had tucked into the journal nobody knew he kept, Justin shook his head before kissing her temple. His hand rubbed her arm soothingly.

"Nah. I mean, we could if we're not careful, but… I think we know enough that we'll be careful."

"I just…" She ran the hem of his sleeve anxiously between her fingertips. "I can't help thinking that they started out all happy and thinking everything was perfect too, and now look at them."

"They were younger than we are," he pointed out, again thinking of his other self's words. "They knew a lot less about themselves, and this business and shit. And you already did a pretty good job of making sure you didn't go her way. Meeting her, I can see why you're so anti the commercial route. It's a choice, right? We can choose not to be them."

"I guess." She shifted uncomfortably, still unconvinced.

"And…" he hesitated, not wanting to admit what he was about to admit. "Seeing his life was kind of a wake up call for me too. That passive aggressive crap? I've been that guy. Looking at it from the outside kind of puts it in perspective - next time we have a fight, I'm going to fight it out with you 'til it's done instead of the endless unspoken punishment shit."

"Gee, can't wait."

"So does that mean you're sticking around to fight with me?" He asked, blatantly fishing. She paused for a moment, breath clearly hitching in her throat before she let out a long exhalation.

"Suppose." Renee tapped his nose with her index finger before asking the final question she had floating around her head. "Think we might make it yet… you think they will?"

"I think… she loves him." That was the best he could come up with.

"I think he loves her, but I'm not convinced it's enough," she said quietly, sadly.

Pulling her slumped body upright so that they were face to face Justin gently ran his hand across her face, brushing her hair back. His thumb stroked out the contours of her cheekbones.

"Maybe not. But I think it's time you and me stopped feeling so responsible for them; we're not them."

Her eyebrows creased in worry, she met his gaze with an anxious pout. It was a niggling fear that didn't want to go away. "But we could be."

Turning his face to hers, looking directly into her eyes, Justin gave her an affectionate little glare of admonishment. "Didn't you listen to a word I said? We're not gonna be. We are officially choosing not to go that way. So says me."

Finally, for the first time in what seemed like forever, he leaned forward and brushed his lips softly against hers. For a brief pause their faces hovered less than an inch from each other, pulled back so little that they were sharing breath. As their mouths met again his kiss became a little firmer, a little more resolved. As her body arched gently into his, his hand met the back of her head and his fingers tangled in her hair.

Briefly Renee pulled away to give him a grin. "Screw it, we're good. Made it to our anniversary so we can't be doing that bad, right?"

"Right," he chuckled.

She leaned towards him again, nipping at his lower lip playfully. Laughing into her kiss, Justin took it upon himself to surprise her by flipping them over, settling his body over hers. She continued to giggle as she tickled his sides, though it didn't seem to hinder the making out. Lips never separating, they prodded and poked and generally molested each other. They teased like they were back in the playground until Justin's hand began inching under her shirt and he pulled back to speak.

"I heard there's this unspoken rule that if you've been apart for a while you have to have a lot of sex to catch up."

"Isn't there one of those for anniversaries too?" She asked in mock seriousness. Predictably his response was to nod vehemently. "Gee. Guess I packed too many clothes."

As Renee kissed him again, Justin congratulated himself for a cunning plan and successful results. He'd been positive that taking her on what had been intended as a romantic trip would re-stoke the fires - almost 90 percent.