Author: pandora1017
Rating: PG-13
Content: Slash references
Characters: [Not mine, to my dismay]
Lance = Lance Evers = Lance Storm
Jay = Jason Reso = Christian
Chris = Chris Irvine = Chris Jericho
Adam = Adam Copeland = Edge
Jeff = Jeff Hardy
.
You never really realize how flat Illinois is until you're driving across the southern tip of the state at one a.m. Lance Evers was suddenly realizing how truly flat the state was. Flat and Boring. Luckily for him, he had the ever entertaining company of Jason Reso. Who, it seemed, was currently taking much more interest in watching the little white stripes on the road whiz by than keeping Lance awake. Lance and Jay had been traveling together for the past couple of weeks, which seemed to be working out well for both of them. They would meet at whatever airport they flew into, rent a car, alternate driving from city to city, wrestle, repeat for four days, then finally return to their respective homes. This trip just happened to be Lance's turn to drive the three hours between Evansville, Indiana and Saint Louis, Missouri. Lance absently reached for a styrofoam cup full of quickly cooling lukewarm coffee and grimaced as he took a drink. It wasn't the best coffee to begin with, considering that he didn't even like coffee, and any taste it possibly contained was sublimating with the warmth. Anything to stay awake, he reminded himself. No sense killing Jay and himself. Under a de facto rule, the driver, being Lance this time, got to choose the music. This, naturally, annoyed Jay to no end because Lance tended to not really care what was playing and leave on obnoxious top forty stations. Jay realized that Lance really wouldn't care if he changed the station, but he also realized that, seeing as how they were in southern Illinois, all the other stations were most likely bad eighties rock or country. Jay sighed, audibly.
"You can change the station, Jay," Lance said, breaking almost five minutes of silence. Jay looked up, slowly.
"If I have to hear one more Def Leppard song, I think I might stick the tire pressure gauge in my eye."
Lance chuckled, and slowly reached for the radio dial, taunting Jay. "No problem, I bet I can find some Johnny Cash..."
"The fact that you even know who Johnny Cash is scares the hell out of me."
Lance laughed again, putting his hand back on the steering wheel. "You're the one who didn't ask if there was a CD player in the car..."
"God, have I ever learned my lesson."
"Hey, I have a tape. A lesser known band, Luckie Strike. Want to try that? It's really good."
"Wait, you actually have a music preference for once?"
"Believe it or not," Lance nodded.
Jay raised his brows, impressed. "Where is it?"
"That little grey bag," Lance said, gesturing back with his thumb. "It's in the front pocket."
Jay turned to the back seat and dug around in Lance's travel bag for a second, producing a homemade tape. He examined it, curiously. "Man, you really need to get out of the eighties. Know what CDs are?"
Jay was mocking Lance, he knew that Lance was probably one of the more technologically advanced people he knew. He just couldn't pass up the chance to comment on the first tape he'd seen since, perhaps, '97. Lance responded by casting him a dull look.
"Ha ha. If it were a CD, we'd still have to listen to top forty."
Jay sneered, having been shut down, and stuck the tape in the player. "What kind of music is it?"
"Punk," Lance answered, as if that were normal.
As the harsh punk music started, Jay could hardly pay attention. He was busy staring, slackjawed, at Lance. "You like punk?"
Lance couldn't help but chuckle. "Some. Is that really that shocking?"
"Considering I caught you singing Destiny's Child in the locker room earlier today? A bit."
Lance grinned. "It's called 'being eclectic.'"
"Or really freakin' weird."
There was a pause. Lance broke the silence again.
"So what do you think of it?"
"Of what?"
"Luckie Strike."
"It's good," Jay shrugged. "Better than top forty."
"Oh, come on," Lance smirked and started singing off key in a horrible falsetto. "All the women who're independant..."
Jay turned up the radio to drown out Lance, which caused him to laugh again. He stopped singing and turned the radio back down to a normal level as the two men fell back into silence. It didn't seem to bother Jay that much, but the silence was starting to get weird for Lance.
"You're awfully quiet tonight, Jay."
"Yeah," he answered, distractedly. "I've just been thinking."
"You'd probably be better off sticking to what you're good at."
Jay cast Lance a mock dirty look that Lance didn't notice and shrugged. "Whatever."
"Sorry, man, I'm joking. What's up? Want to talk about something?"
"Well..." Jay dragged out the word, hesitating.
"...to keep me awake so I don't drive us off the road?"
"Well if you put it that way..." Jay smiled.
"So what's wrong?"
"It's just..." Jay stopped. "Nah, it's kind of personal."
"Are you all right? Is it something bad?"
"No, not really, it's just that..." Jay sighed again, looking away from Lance back out the window. There was a short silence.
"Jay?"
Jay didn't look away from the window. "Have you ever... thought... you liked a man?"
Lance started to speak approximately three times, but each was less successful than the previous attempt.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."
"No, no, it's fine," Lance finally answered, finding his voice. "It's just a random question. I didn't really expect it. Are you asking because... you..."
"No," Jay answered quickly.
"Oh," Lance looked over at Jay with a slight peripheral glance. He was leaning against the door, watching the road again. Falling silent again, Lance waited to see if Jay would speak again.
He did. "Maybe."
"Oh," Lance repeated, nodding his head, accepting that.
"I'm sorry, man, that's a lot to lay on some unsuspecting -"
"No, it's fine. There's nothing wrong with it. I hear Jeff Hardy likes that, too," Lance started rambling. Jay laughed shortly, under his breath.
"I appreciate that," he added, sarcastically.
Lance stuttered for a second. "I don't mean that... I mean that... It's just..."
"It's ok, man, I understand what you're not saying. No harm done," Jay informed him, with a half smile. Then it was back to the white stripes on the road for him. The two drove in silence for about another minute or so, until Lance could no longer help but ask the question he'd been thinking for the past minute or so.
"What made you bring it up now?"
"Because I -" Jay stopped speaking in a matter-of-fact tone and shifted to an innocent voice. "Um, I don't know."
"You can tell me, Jay. It can't be bigger than... what you just told me."
Jay rolled his eyes out the window. If he only knew, he thought to himself. "Oh, you think not?"
"Um," Lance started, trying to think of any innumerable things that would possibly make this worse. It wasn't that he was thick, it was just that he was selectively thinking of what he wanted Jay to say, not what Jay could actually say. "No."
"All right, you asked for it," Jay took a deep breath. He mistakenly decided that Lance must have guessed by now, so he might as well say it. "I didn't ask about my being gay. I asked about you."
There was a long moment of silence before Lance spoke.
"Just because I like Destiny's Child doesn't mean I'm gay. Is that what this is about?"
Jay laughed. "It wasn't originally, but now that you mention it, that is rather suspicious."
Lance smiled, too. "Originally? what was it then?"
Jay hesitated. "You haven't guessed by now?"
"I have a couple of ideas," Lance said, slowly.
"Oh, yeah?" Jay asked, sounding slightly hopeful.
"You want... advice?" Lance asked, way off the mark. Somewhere in the back of his head, Lance had unconsciously ignored the evidence of what Jay was getting at.
Jay sighed and set a hand on Lance's forearm. "I guess you could say that."
It was now unavoidable what Jay was trying to say, and Lance froze. So much that the car started to veer off the road. Jay jumped slightly and let go of Lance's arm. "Jesus Christ, Lance!"
He snapped back to attention and made a sharp jerk back into the lane. "Sorry, Jay, I just..."
Jay sighed and understood how Lance had taken that. He pulled away from Lance, leaned against the door, curling into almost a fetal position, and looked back out the window. "Sorry."
"Jay, it's just that... well, I have a wife -"
"A beard," Jay muttered, but Lance continued.
"- and kids."
"I know," Jay sighed.
At this most recent awkward silence, Lance realized that he had a half hour drive left with just him and Jay. He suddenly thought that this might be a good time to get a hotel for the night and started looking for billboards for hotels. The first one he saw confirmed his concerns that they were still about twenty minutes from the Missouri state line, which was what they had hoped to cross before crashing for the night. Lance realized that he might make Jay uncomfortable by changing the plans, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. So he decided to just wait it out.
Jay was still sitting silently, leaning against the door with a somber look on his face. Lance sighed. "Look, Jay, don't be upset..."
"Why not?" Jay sighed. "I just, in one stupid move, embarrassed myself, ruined our friendship, and made the rest of this trip incredibly awkward."
Lance couldn't help but smile. "It's not that bad, Jay."
Jay snorted. "How not?"
"You shouldn't be embarrassed, and you sure as hell didn't ruin our friendship."
"Right, so we're just going to pretend I didn't say anything?" Jay sighed. "Which I shouldn't have."
"No, it's fine, really. I appreciate your honesty. This doesn't change the fact that we're friends. It changes somethings, but nothing significant."
Jay finally turned to Lance, slowly, with a confused look. "You're being surprisingly calm about this."
"Did you expect any different?" Lance smiled, keeping his eyes on the road.
"Well, yeah, I guess..."
"It's not exactly the first time this has happened."
Jay hesitated, letting that one sink in. "Someone else has hit on you before?"
"You, of all people, shouldn't sound that surprised."
Jay blushed. "I'm sorry, it's just that..."
"Yes," Lance started, almost proudly, "someone else has hit on me."
"Who?" Jay was starting to smile now.
"I'm not sure if he'd appreciate me telling you," Lance smirked. "You know how it goes, it's hard being rejected by me. He probably doesn't want the word to get around."
Jay watched Lance's sudden cockiness with a half smile. "Spit it."
"Chris."
"Jericho?!"
"Before he was Jericho, but... yeah."
Jay started laughing again. "Oh, no way! That's too much."
Lance smiled, too. "Guess I'm just irresistable."
"And arrogant," Jay added, with a smile.
"You think I don't have the right?"
Jay just shook his head, still chuckling. "I don't know what to think, right now."
"I think you need to talk to Chris next time you get a chance."
Jay stopped short. "Why?"
"I've seen him talking with Adam lately."
"Adam doesn't swing."
"I don't think they're talking about Adam. Does Adam know you..."
"Are you trying to say that Chris has a crush on me?" Jay asked, smirking again.
Lance shrugged. "Could be. I just call 'em as I see 'em."
"And so you're trying to play matchmaker?"
"Hey, I'm just pointing it out. I didn't say you had to go for him."
Jay hesitated a second again. "Wait, wait. You think that I'm just going to turn around and jump on Chris because he's gay, too? Love works the same way for us as it does for you guys."
"I'm just informing you, that's all. If you don't like Jericho..." Lance shrugged, "that's understandable."
Jay just smiled, and the two fell silent again. After about a minute or so, Jay said, "Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for not making me feel like an ass."
"No problem," Lance smiled. "I think I'm getting pretty good at this, if I do say so myself."
"Maybe Jeff will be next."
"I'll have to be prepared if I ever start traveling with him."
Jay laughed. "We're bold, I guess."
"Hell," Lance shrugged, "I think I get hit on by more guys than girls."
Jay shrugged. "That's just because we have no respect for wives. Women do."
"I can only assume that's a compliment."
Jay shrugged. "Maybe."
"Hey, it sure keeps me out of trouble."
Jay just laughed again. "I'm glad I can help."
Lance chuckled and shook his head.
"So," Jay asked, hesitantly, "you think you're going to be looking for a new travel buddy?"
"After what we've gone through? C'mon, we're practically brothers."
Jay shook his head with a smile, "That make me feel real good, thanks. Can't you be serious for a minute?"
Lance cast Jay his stage 'serious' face for a second. "Ha ha."