AN: Two chapters in the same week? Yeeaaahhh...don't get used to this. I really can't promise such regular updates. This worked out nicely because of when my days off at work were, but my latest schedule isn't going to be great for working on this. The next chapter probably won't be out until the 23rd or later. In the mean time, enjoy!

Oh, also, there is an overdose of shippiness in this chapter, making up for the lack there of last time.

A pair of bright yellow high heels hit the stage, and Larry swore she was the most beautiful woman he'd seen in his life. Everything he'd ever been attracted to, she embodied. She was flat out gorgeous, to begin. But she was blonde, average height, slender build but had some curves, and even some of his smaller, more particular favorites, like blue eyes and freckles. She was…perfect.

So then, why wasn't she the one making his heart rate accelerate? Why was it that the minute the redhead stepped in behind her, he was mesmerized? She lacked everything he usually lusted after. Red hair, thin like a twig, green eyes, and perhaps the biggest deal breaker – she was taller than he was, and after being able to look away long enough to glance down, he realized her shoes only gave her an inch and a half. She wasn't the type of girl he would have ever found attractive. Well, to be fair, she wasn't attractive. No, she was absolutely enchanting.

And then she actually looked at him. Their eyes locked, and she gave him the smallest, most adorable smile he'd ever seen in his entire life. It was every horrible cliché they sang about in their cheesy tween pop hits. Sparks flew, and he felt like he was going to vomit. He immediately brought his eyes down to his shoes. He wasn't about to vomit in front of everyone. No one noticed how quickly the smile faded from her face as he did so. They had more important things on their minds.

"Boyz in the Sink," Ellen began, her voice bouncing around the empty auditorium. "May I introduce the Sugar Crystals. Vicki, Megan, and Petunia."

"Pleased to meet you." Bob smiled, doing his best to use any charm he may have. He knew the girls would be in for a bumpy summer, so it was best to put their best foot forward in order to land a good first impression. "Well, I'm Bob Williams, I manage the Boyz, so you'll be seeing me around a lot. As for the Boyz themselves, well I'm sure you recognize…"

"Never heard of them." Megan interrupted starkly.

That stopped the entire conversation dead in its tracks. Everyone was silent. Bob and The Boyz couldn't believe anyone hadn't heard of them. They were the current top selling pop act in the world! And Ellen, Vicki, and Petunia, well, they were embarrassed that Megan would say such a thing so bluntly. Not that it was a surprise.

"You've honestly never heard of us?" Jimmy was the first one to break the silence. His voice was wavering with hurt, as though it was a personal offense that she had never heard of his band.

Rolling her eyes, Megan merely countered. "I know you're band, and a popular one, at that." She stopped, reminding herself that the accent needed to be masked as best as possible at all times. Going over what she was about to say in her head, she continued, her American accent flawless "But I have no idea who you are, I've never heard any of your songs, and I couldn't really tell your faces apart from any of the other boy bands. Well, except for the little one."

"Um, thanks?" Junior replied, though he was more confused than thankful.

Bob stared blankly at the short blonde. She had to be kidding. No one could ever be that blunt while meeting the people they'd be working with, could they? He blinked, shook his head, and then motioned to the band behind him as he cleared his throat and announced "Well then, ladies, allow me to introduce you to The Boyz in the Sink!" Vicki smiled politely, Petunia looked on in interest, and Megan just looked bored. "There's Junior, and Jimmy, and Lunt, and Larry."

After hearing his name be introduced, Larry lifted a hand, waved a little, and let out a small "Hi."

Blushing and giggling, Petunia said "Hi" back. Vicki shot her a very unimpressed look.

"Well, as much as we'd love to stay and chat, the Boyz and I do have a lot of pre-concert business to attend to…" Bob explained, pseudo-apologetically.

Ellen nodded "Yes, Mr. Williams. I understand. Here's my number." She told him, handing him a very pink business card, "We can set up a meeting to discuss some important issues whenever is most convenient for you." Turning to the girls, Ellen instructed "All right ladies, we go on in three hours! We have a lot of work to do before then."

Megan followed Ellen offstage immediately. Vicki had too, originally, before noticing that the third member of the band was still making googoo eyes at Larry. Forcefully grabbing Petunia by the elbow and yanking her along, Vicki cried pleasantly over her shoulder "It was great meeting you!"

The girls sat in their makeup chairs, having their hair and makeup done by a team of eight people. It would have been a very luxurious experience, had Ellen not been constantly reminding them of the set list and choreography and all sorts of other tiny details that they'd need to commit to memory.

The dressing room was small, and was crowded as was. Which might explain while Ellen scowled when Bob popped his head in. "Would now be a good time for that meeting?"

"Now is about the only time that doesn't work for me, actually." The brunette snapped.

"Oh!" Bob was honestly surprised. Smiling sheepishly, he murmured a quiet "Sorry" and began to back out of the room.

Ellen shook her head, making a "tsk"ing noise as the door snapped shut. "How unprofessional. He should know better than anybody the right now is the most stressful time for managers!"

"That's probably why he came." Vicki offered with a shrug. "I mean, if you were negotiating things and you were stressed you'd be more likely to give into his demands."

Ellen paused for a moment. Vicki had a point. "Do you think he'd do that?"

Shrugging once more, Vicki sighed "It's not like we know him well enough to judge his character. But like, you aside, of course, Ellen, honey, it wouldn't be above most managers."

Petunia frowned. "I think we ought to give him the benefit of the doubt."

"I'm not getting less set time because you were naïve and trusting, Petunia." Vicki argued. "He wants the Boyz to be at the top. I mean, he's pretty much done it already."

For the first time in the entire conversation, Megan spoke up. "All I know is I wouldn't be opposed to having him in the dressing room more often." Of course, the room went silent. Even the hair and makeup crew stopped what they were doing to stare at the woman in absolute bewilderment. "What? He's good looking. All I'm saying is…"

She didn't get to finish. Vicki rolled up her gossip magazine and beat Megan's forearm with it. "You need to be neutered."

"Jimmy!" Junior squeaked, lightly slapping Jimmy's hand. Jimmy got preshow jitters a lot. And jitters made him hungry. However, eating right before he went on always made his stomach queasy, what with all the dancing. So, Jimmy gave Junior a new job. Whenever Junior caught Jimmy tying to snack backstage, it was his duty to prevent the food from being eaten. Which was often easier said than done.

Hands still covered in chocolate, Jimmy groaned "Come on, it's just a little…"

"Jimmy…" the 11 year old growled firmly.

Backing away slowly, Jimmy put the candies down. Junior was terrifying when he was angry, and he really didn't want to be the catalyst to the destruction of everyone's night. "Okay! Okay. No more candies."

Junior smiled, but his narrowed eyes remained in a steady gaze. "I got my eye on you, Fisher."

Jimmy nodded, backing away slowly. Finally making it out of Junior's sight, he turned to the closest person – who just so happened to be Larry – and finally let go of a shudder he'd been repressing. "Is that kid creepy or what?"

Larry nodded sagely "It's like he's adorable or haunting or there's no in-between."

Jimmy had opened his mouth to say something else, start a new conversation, when suddenly all that could be heard was the roar of twenty thousand teenage girls. "The girls must be on." Jimmy commented simply. "What was their name again? Something delicious sounding."

"Candy something or other?" Larry replied, one eyebrow raised as he thoughtfully tried to recall it. Normally he had a better memory than this. But he didn't want to admit that the only thing he remembered was that the pretty one's name was Petunia.

'She isn't even the pretty one' he mentally reminded himself. No, Vicki was the pretty one. She was aesthetically pleasing and was the one that, by rights, he should find the most attractive. But anytime he tried to remember the details of her face he'd just see Petunia's smile again and he'd get lost in a dreamy trance. She was wonderful. All he had to do now was figure out how to talk to her. He was sure that as soon as he figured that out, she'd be even more wonderful.

Soon, Lunt had found his way over to his bandmates, nodding as he offered "Those Sugar Crystal girls aren't too bad, are they?"

"SUGAR CRYSTALS!" Larry and Jimmy cried out at the same time, before high fiving, and each doing their own stylized victory dance.

Lunt looked at them for a moment, and then shook his head. "I don't think I'll ever fully understand you two."

"That's okay!" Jimmy smiled, moving to wrap Lunt in a hug. "We love you anyway."

Lunt sighed. They certainly were the odd bunch. Patting Jimmy on the back, he rolled his eyes while smiling "Yeah, yeah, I love you guys, too. Now let go."

There were moments where there was pitch problems, Petunia tripped over her own feet while trying to remember choreography, and Megan found herself adjusting her top far too often, but to hear the crowd cheer at the end of their set for the very first time? It was perfect.

They were all so high on the adrenaline rush that they immediately ran backstage and put their difference aside to squeal, jump and give a group hug. Of course, this caught the boys' attention, as their outfits were tight and low cut, and certain areas of the female anatomy tend to jiggle when bounced up and down. Instinctively, Lunt covered Junior's eyes. Junior had no idea why the girls being happy was something he wasn't supposed to see.

As the girls broke apart, still smiley, happy, tightly dressed and covered in body glitter, the boys tried to look as nonchalant as possible. Some did better than others. Lunt turned to get a bottle of water – he wanted to be hydrated to start the show, after all. Jimmy pulled out his phone, pretending to be very interested in whatever it was he was reading. Junior was never interested to begin with. Larry, on the other hand…

There was a small "ouf" as she walked towards him much faster than he originally anticipated. Their bodies slammed together and broke apart, and Petunia wasn't quite used to the three inch heels yet, so on the fallback she lost her footing. To prevent her from falling backwards, Larry grabbed her hand, yanking her towards him. She automatically put a hand on his waist to steady herself. It all happened very quickly, and in about a second and a half, they found themselves in a very intimate position.

"Uh, hi?" he tried, unable to stop the big, goofy grin from spreading to his face.

Doing her best to refrain from absolutely swooning, she nodded, muttering out a quiet "Hi." as a similar smile graced her lips.

"S-sorry about that." Larry muttered. "You look, um, really good by the way. Not that you don't normally look good. Not that I've seen you a lot, I mean, this is only our second time actually seeing each other…"

He was rambling and she thought it was the most adorable thing she'd ever seen. He was the most adorable thing she'd ever seen. But not strictly adorable. In his actions, yes. But in his looks, he was more than cute and boyish. He was a man, and he was breathtakingly gorgeous. And he was complimenting her. The world seemed to have tilted upside down. "Thank you." She smiled, as he continued to ramble.

Realizing the position they were still in, Larry dropped her hand, laughing awkwardly and rubbing the back of his neck as he slowly distanced himself from her. "I, uh, gotta go ready. I have a concert thing…"

Petunia, still entirely overwhelmed muttered a small "Yeah. Um, good, you know, good luck. I…I mean, break a leg."

The redhead was still dazed, practically floating even, by the time she made it back to the dressing room where Megan and Vicki had already started to remove the makeup and extra hair pieces. "Someone's happy." Vicki commented simply, while trying to remove a particularly stubborn bobby pin.

"Yeah…" Petunia sighed happily, sliding into her chair, making no move to start washing her face or fixing her hair.

Vicki turned and looked at her, giving her the once over, before muttering "Whatever" under her breath and got back to fixing her hair.

As the Boyz's encore ended, the girls had already changed into pajamas and were dozing off in their tour bus. Bob and Ellen had agreed that while the Boyz were winding down and getting ready to head back on the bus, it would be the best time to have their meeting.

"I think it's important that we create a friendly image between the two groups." Bob suggested. "Khalil was kinda seen as a fifth member of the Boyz, and I think it's important that they remain approachable. Not to mention being tied to them could help your girls' image."

The discussion went back and forth, often delving into things that Lunt was not even aware the managers had control of. Well, you learn something new when you hang around your manager's door waiting for the hot manager of your opening act to come out, he reasoned.

Soon, he heard the two get up, and he found himself sprinting in the opposite direction. He had to make it look casual, after all. There was no point in coming across as desperate.

He soon heard Bob's footsteps nearing, so he knew that was his cue to saunter over to the woman. "Has anyone ever told you your hair looks great like that?"

"Only when they want something." Ellen replied, not missing a beat. "So, what do you want?"

Lunt was taken aback. Girls usually swooned over the sight of him. It'd been a long time since he got outright turned down like that. He was going to have to rethink his approach. The direct approach. Girls in movies always seemed to like that, right? "Now, this may sound a little unprofessional…"

"It already does." Ellen spoke without thinking. Realizing her mistake, she shook her head, pretending it never happened, before prompting "Sorry, continue."

That didn't deter him this time. "I would like to take you on date." He explained simply. "I mean, we're both very clearly very attractive. And you seem very career-oriented, which is surprisingly very important to me. And it's not like we technically work together. Nothing really bad could come out of it."

Ellen paused, nodding softly. "You're right."

Lunt smiled. Yes, he still had it. And he had a date with the Sugar Crystal's very attractive manager. This day was getting better and better.

Or so he thought. Suddenly, Ellen's hand was on his shoulder as she told him "That was unprofessional."