Nobody knew who had started the dare thing. It became a sacred word backstage and among the guys. It had started in Germany, but the things were mostly tame then. It eventually got to be so serious that simply mentioning the word immediately got everyone's attention.

Chris had been the one to dare Joey to dye his hair red. At the time, Chris had thought it was a great dare -- Joey would lose major points with the fans -- but it had backfired, and Joey had ended up keeping the red. It was funnier when Chris got Joey to bleach. Lance had had to be dared into wearing leather in photo shoots - he thought it made him look "like a gang person."

That had set off Justin and Joey, who had dissolved into a fit of giggles, whimpering "gang person!", wile Chris simply looked appraisingly at Lance and said, "You couldn't look like a gang member even if you were. You're so gay suburban white-boy!" By the time they'd stopped laughing, Justin had severe stomach cramps and Joey's face was a runny mess. Makeup had freaked with Joey's blotchiness, but more than a little concealer had hidden that. What makeup couldn't conceal was Lance's haunted look.

Lance had eagerly joined the little game, and had dared Justin to grow out his hair. It seemed that hair plans were destined to backfire, as Justin just got more popular. Eventually, the four of them realized they were leaving someone out. JC's first dare had been the pants. The red ones on the Strings tour that were just way too tight. Justin had thought JC was too conservative in his clothing choices. Not that he really was, but there weren't nearly enough sparkly tight clothes for Justin's taste. That was the first major disaster. The weird thing was, JC thought they were hot. And he tried to flaunt it. The other four laughed about it behind his back, and agreed that JC was more fun to dare than any of them, though Lance thought JC was the only one of the five of them who could even begin to pull it off.

The second major disaster for JC had been the VMAs, with the fur-lined coat. IT had been a dare from Lance, his first more serious suggestion. He had found it while shopping with Justin, and the two of them had a quick giggle about it, until Lance got a glint in the corner of his eye and Justin asked, "what?"

"Dare" was the only word Lance would say. He sprung it on JC the next day, right before they left. "Dude, you have to change!"

"What's wrong with this?" JC asked, gesturing to the tight brown pants and small yellow shirt he was currently wearing.

"Well, for one thing, it clashes with this."

"You can't be serious."

"Dare, man. You have to."

"Fuck. Give me 20 to find something to make that a little less horrible." JC sank to the floor with his head in his hands.

"Good luck!" Lance said cheerfully as he left JC's room.

Lance had to admit, later, that JC pulled it off while looking only mildly ridiculous, and he was even able to seem to like it when people asked. He was really a better actor than people gave him credit for. In the meantime, JC had proved that he could take it, but not dish it out - the best he could come up with was "dye your hair black" for Lance.

Joey, on the other hand, had no problem giving JC the third major disaster: the hair. "You have to grow out your hair, like, feathered and stuff, and a goatee. Dare." JC had only protested mildly, and Lance had seized the opportunity to suggest the chin-strip goatee. He thought it would be the funniest thing JC could do, and that it might take his mind off of what he was feeling. When JC actually went through with it, however, Lance was disappointed. He wanted to lick it.

Chris started creating more mischief, and suddenly he was whispering the next dare in Joey's ear: "Dare. Date the next girl who flirts with you."

Joey looked startled, and said, "like, what if she turns out to be an axe-murderer or something?"

"It's all part of the game, dude."

"Fine."

So Joey met a girl, took her out to dinner, and started dating her.

Her name was Kelly. Chris pouted. "Damn it, you weren't supposed to like her!"

"Hey moron, maybe it backfired. Maybe you suck at dares."

"What? I suck at dares, do I? You know what? Dare. Tell her about all the girls."

"Damn. I never pulled this before, Chris, 'cause I was hoping I wouldn't have to, but dare. Tell Dani about Ashley."

Chris scowled at Joey. "Fine. Cell phones ready?"

"Go."

JC's wardrobe suffered a huge change once Justin and Lance started in on the dares. By the end of the recording for "Celebrity", Joey had joined in the fun, slowly morphing JC into an unrecognizeable fashion nightmare. But Lance still thought some of the outfits were cute. Especially the ones that showed JC's lithe muscle.

Kelly seemed OK with Joey's past, so long as he was "willing to remain faithful," which he claimed he was.

Chris and Dani weren't so lucky. After a few days, Dani was still reeling from the news that Chris had cheated on her. She needed a few days to "think about their relationship," and told Chris she still loved him, but it would take time.

Unfortunately for Chris, Dani's definition of "time" had expanded to include "forever." Kelly, on the other hand, was expading in a different way.

The dares tapered off after that, but it seemed to everyone that they were the cause of the unspoken tension between Chris and Joey. Whenever Chris was missing Dani, he would get snarky toward Joey -- comments about "jumping in bed with some random girl" stung the worst. And when Kelly called asking Joey to send her something for the baby, Joey would get all misty-eyed, and Chris would sulk.

Once the dares quieted down for a bit, Lance kept noticing things about JC. Like, how after the dare had happened he'd become more outgoing, and wrote songs about lust and being unfulfilled, which were pretty bad, but Lance liked them anyway. And JC shaved off the goatee and Justin shaved off the curls, and Joey brought the baby to see them, and they all acted like starstruck morons. And Lance loved the way JC was the only one who could get the baby to go to sleep by singing to her.

Justin caught him staring one day. Lance blushed quite a lot, and sputtered. Justin sighed and sat down next to Lance. "Look, Lance, I know we haven't been the closest of us, but..."

Lance cut him off with a wave of his hand. "Justin, just... don't. You guys knew about me for a while, but I can't tell him. He'll never get it; he's so clueless. Just let him be."

Justin looked thoughtful as Lance walked away.

The music kept coming, and Lance kept liking JC's songs best. When nobody else did, and they never made the album, Lance started to like the ones JC had solos in. He kept staring, and Justin kept catching him and shaking his head. Once, at a party, Justin had gotten him to admit it to Joey, but Joey was too drunk to remember it the next day, and Lance was visibly relieved. Justin glared at Lance.

"You can't keep on like this. You have to do something," he kept saying.

And Lance was always there with his stock reply: "I'll do it when I'm ready."

The album came out, the tour ended, and the guys went their separate ways for a few weeks. Each of them had a routine he fell into while at home in order to relax, recharge, and get over the tour. Lance's just happened to be more boring than everyone else's -- his house, unlived-in during the recording and touring, needed to be more homey, so he was determined to stay there for the whole break. He spent a lot of time listening to country albums while talking to the plants in the den, hoping to make them grow faster.

Then one weekend, when Lance was staying at home, doing absolutely nothing, there was a knock on his door. He opened it to find JC there. "Justin said to give you this, and he said I had to be here, for some reason." JC looked bemused. "I didn't ask questions. You know how he can be so insistent sometimes."

Lance nodded, and looked at JC, leaning against the doorframe. He had never looked better. He glanced down at the card in JC's hand. It was simply plain white paper, and the inside of it was scribbled in Justin's only-mildly-legible scrawl.