He had come to realise that it was the plane trips he hated most. Well, they weren't that bad, but airplane had certainly become his least favourite way to travel. At least on the bus there was stuff to do: TV, movies, Playstation, and best of all, bunks to sleep in.

But on a plane, there just wasn't nearly as much entertainment, or as comfortable places to sleep. Sure, they were always in first class, which was definitely a bonus, but he was still stuck in a seat, without any interesting places to wander around.

Of course, JC could sleep anywhere. This was not a problem. But that didn't mean he particularly enjoyed the stiff neck and sore back that resulted from sleeping in a "fully upright and locked position".

Recently however, he had discovered something that helped with this: Lance's shoulder. It turned out that Lance had really comfortable shoulders.

He first discovered this by accident. JC was certain he had fallen asleep sitting up, being particularly careful not to get in the way of Lance, who was busy typing something on his laptop. But three hours later, when he woke up to the feel of Lance nudging him in the ribs, he realised that his position had changed a bit.

"JC... C... Come on..."

JC slowly opened his eyes and surveyed the situation. His cheek was squished firmly up against Lance's soft, fuzzy shoulder (the wonders of polar fleece). His right arm was hooked around Lance's left arm, hugging it as though it were a teddy bear. JC's left arm was draped loosely around Lance's waist. Lance's left arm, for its part, was resting on JC's thigh.

"Oh, sorry man." JC said, wiping a bit of drool off his mouth, which he hoped hadn't gotten on Lance's sleeve. He brushed at Lance's shoulder, just to make sure.

"No, it's okay, it's just that- we're here, that's all."

"Oh, okay." JC was constantly amazed at his own ability to sleep through landings. As he got up to get off the plane, he stretched, noticing that he was not nearly as stiff as usual.

So on the return trip, JC was quite proud of himself for subtly managing to sit next to Lance again.

"Hey, C, man, you wanna sit next to Lance? He gets pissy when I play Gameboy with the sound on."

"Sure."

At first, he'd intended to be good. To just suck it up and sleep in the uncomfortable, upright position. But Lance must have gotten irritated watching him fidget for, like, fifteen minutes, because eventually he said, "You can, um, lean on me if you want."

"You sure? I won't get in your way?"

"No, it's fine. Keeps me warm, actually."

And that was it. From then on, Lance and JC always sat next to each other, and JC always curled up against him and went to sleep, and somehow, plane flights weren't so bad anymore.

Needless to say, this resulted in much teasing from the rest of the band. Chris had taken to calling them "The Happy Couple". Invariably, they'd all get on a plane, look at the seats allotted to them, and he would say something like "And where would The Happy Couple like to sit today?" Justin would make snide comments every now and then, and sometimes say things like "Dude, you do realise how gay that looks, don't you?" Joey would just sit back and smirk.

JC didn't really worry about it. Lance was comfy and warm, and JC's neck never hurt anymore when he woke up. He didn't even really worry when he realised that he was starting to sleep *better* on planes than he did in other places. Or at least, other places that didn't involve Lance. Sometimes, on the bus, or in the Quiet Room before a show, he would fall asleep with his head in Lance's lap, and that was just as nice as on the plane. Especially if Lance sat there absently stroking his hair.

JC only began to worry when he started waking up with his hand in Lance's crotch.

Lance had come to realise that he really liked JC's new-found need to sleep curled up against him. He really, really liked it. And when JC's hand started creeping up his inner thigh, he was finding it increasingly more difficult to keep JC from finding out just how much he liked it.

After the second time in a row that he awoke with his hand in this precarious position, JC freaked. Or something. Lance wasn't quite sure. Basically what happened was that JC stopped sleeping on Lance, or sitting next to him, or really even talking to him.

Instead, JC started sleeping with girls. Lots of them. Usually a different one every night. And he always looked tired. Even when Lance *saw* JC sleep for several hours on a couch somewhere, or perhaps on the bus, he always looked like he hadn't slept a minute.

Lance wanted to talk to him, ask him if he was all right, but he couldn't really think of an appropriate way to say, "You know, ever since you noticed that your hand was comfy in my crotch you don't seem to be sleeping as well. Would you like to put it back? Cuz, you know, I kinda liked it there..." Yeah, there just wasn't a great way to say that to one of your best friends.

So for several weeks, Lance moped at the loss of his personal teddy bear, JC pissed off make-up because of the dark smudges under his eyes, and the rest of the band just looked on like passengers flying by on the interstate, wanting help the accident victims, but unsure how.

Finally, Chris pulled Lance aside and asked, with his usual tact, "What did you do to JC?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that he looks like shit, he's not sleeping, and Mr. I-Could-Never-Have-A-One-Night-Stand has slept with about fifteen different girls in the past three weeks. And, I would like to point out for the record, that it was about three weeks ago that you stopped letting him get all snuggly with you."

"Hey! That wasn't me! He's the one who stopped the snuggling. I'd be perfectly happy to-- Never mind."

"Look, I don't care what happened, or whatever the fuck it is that you'd be happy to do with him. Just fix it. He's fucking up the shows."

On the bus a few days later, Lance finally got up the courage to go talk to him. JC was curled up in the back corner of the leopard-print divan, but Lance could tell he wasn't actually asleep. Lance sat down, pulling his knees to his chest.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"Look man, are you okay?"

"I'd be a whole lot better if I could sleep."

Suddenly, this whole conversation seemed like a bad idea, and Lance started to get up off the divan. "Oh, sorry. Never mind."

"No, wait. I meant in general. I've been sleeping like crap, in general."

Lance sat back down. "Yeah, I know."

"You do?"

"It shows, dude."

"Yeah, I guess it does."

"Do you want me to, um, lie down?"

"S'up to you."

So Lance lay down next to him, and JC tentatively threw his arm across Lance's chest. Lance reached up and started stroking his hair. JC seemed to take this as a sign and snuggled in closer, putting his head in the crook of Lance's shoulder. Lance moved his other arm toward JC, carefully resting his hand on C's hip. When Lance started lightly running his fingers up his side, JC murmured softly in response.

After a few minutes, JC mumbled, "I'm not sleeping with them, you know."

"You don't seem to be *sleeping* with anyone these days."

"I mean, I haven't been having sex with those girls."

"Okay." Lance wasn't quite sure how to respond. Sure, he was relieved, but he didn't really think he should let JC know that.

"I'm not. I was just trying to, you know, sleep." He paused for a moment and neither of them said anything. "But they're not as comfy as you."

Lance let out and audible sigh of relief.

A few moments later, he noticed that JC was sound asleep. And smiling. And then Lance was fast asleep too.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Joey got up to pee. On his way back from the bathroom, he heard noises coming from the lounge area. He should have been able to identify the noises, but since he wasn't fully awake, he went to go check it out.

Upon entering the lounge, however, he woke up rather quickly. But seeing two of your bandmates doing what Lance and JC were doing *would* be a little startling. All Joey could really see was JC, naked and sprawled out on the divan. Lance, similarly unclothed, was curled up about half-way down. Joey could see the back of Lance's head moving rhythmically around JC's midsection. JC bit his lip and moaned softly. Joey was paralyzed for a few moments, but when JC's back arched up a bit, and his moans started sounding more urgent, Joey quickly turned and left the room.

The next morning, when Chris woke up and noticed that both Lance and JC's bunks were empty, Joey just looked up at him and mumbled, "I think Lance fixed JC's sleeping problem."

Out in the lounge, however, JC had thought of one more thing that was missing from airplanes: the leopard-print divan.