Here's chapter nine! (: Enjoy!

o*o*o*o*o
Speak when you are angry
and you will make the best
speech you will ever regret.
-Ambrose Bierce
o*o*o*o*o

"What are we going to do about Gustavo?" Carlos asks as he grabs another waffle and douses it with syrup.

"I mean clearly we won't get much done if we try and go into the studio and you guys keep bursting into song." James adds as both the pretty boy and the energetic Latino turn to face their two friends.

Kendall shrugs. "I have no idea." He admits. "I agree that it would definitely be bad idea to go in today, but-"

"But Gustavo already gave us yesterday off so that we could have a three day weekend, so he's probably not going to be too thrilled about us asking for more time off." Logan finishes.

"But on the other hand, if we go in there and end up messing up the harmonies or dance practice or whatever, he's just going to kill us anyways."

"And with the way our luck's been going, we'd probably end up screwing up something really important."

All four boys sigh and turn back to their breakfast; clearly unsure of how to handle the situation they are currently in. As good as Gustavo had been to them, as patient as he had been, because, in all honesty, the record producer had actually been extremely patient with his "dogs," they all doubt very much that he'd find Logan and Kendall's little impromptu "jam sessions" (as they'd taken to calling them) very amusing. Especially since they still didn't have any explanation for why these jam sessions were happening.

Suddenly, from the couch in the living room, Katie starts coughing violently. All four boys immediately forget their current predicament and turn to the twelve-year old girl in concern. "Katie what's wrong?" They all leave the table and their food in favor of crowding around their little sister.

"You." She manages to gasp out in between coughs. "are all idiots!" And as suddenly as the coughing started, it stops, leaving Kendall, Logan, James, and Carlos looking confused and Katie looking smug.

"Say wha?"

Katie rolls her eyes. "Just tell Gustavo you guys are," She coughs once more for emphasis, "sick."

All four boys grin at one another at the idea and James pulls out his cell phone. Katie just rolls her eyes again.

"Idiots."

-0-

James winces and pulls the phone away from his ear. Even with the new distance between himself and the phone, he, and everyone else, can hear Gustavo screaming. "We're sorry, Gustavo," James tries his best to calm the older man, "But both Kendall and Logan are really sick."

"I think they got some bad Chinese food the other night." Carlos offers in jest, although from the way the producer falls silent, they can all tell he believes him.

"Fine." Gustavo sighs, clearly not happy about the turn of events. "There's really no point in you guys coming in if two of the dogs are too sick to do anything. But I want you here bright and early tomorrow."

"Right. We'll call you as soon as Kendall and Logan are feeling better!" James continues, completely ignoring Gustavo's last sentence. "Bye!"

He hangs up the phone and all four boys sigh in relief. "Well that's takes care of Gustavo for today." Kendall falls back onto the couch, glad to have one less thing to worry about.

"Yes," Logan, who was already on the couch, scoots as far over from the blonde as he can get, "but we won't be able to use the sick excuse forever. We've got to figure out what's going on." He pulls more books up onto the coffee table and the other three boys groan.

"Not more reading!" James cries, throwing an arm over his face. "I don't think I can handle anymore books!"

"Yeah," Carlos chimes in, "we've spent basically the last two days looking for an answer. My brain hurts."

"But-"

"The answer might not be in a book, Logan." Kendall looks over at his friend.

"That's ridiculous." The genius tries to argue. "There has to be a logical explanation for why this happening. I can find it if I just look hard enough."

"Logan." Carlos' voice is soothing as he speaks to the brunette who is starting to show the signs of a typical "Logan panic attack," "have you ever thought that maybe there isn't a logical explanation for all this. Nothing about this situation seems logical."

Logan's already tense from the past few days, from saying more than he feels comfortable saying, even if it is in song. He's on edge because this, well whatever, this is, is causing all kinds of tension between himself and his best friend. He's frustrated because he's never not been able to find the answer to a problem before and he hates this helpless feeling. He doesn't mean to snap at the Latino, he knows that it's not Carlos' fault and that his friend is just trying to help. But he does all the same. "There has to be a logical explanation, Carlos," he snaps, sounding meaner than he'd intended to. "There just has to be."

"There's not always a logical explanation!" Kendall snaps back, in defense of their friend, pushing himself up into a sitting position and turning to face the genius.

The tension in the air is so thick that all four boys feel like they could choke on it. It's different than the awkward or embarrassed silence that has been following their sporadic singing. Neither Kendall or Logan can look away from one another and neither James nor Carlos want to be the first to break the silence.

Luckily, Kendall does it for them.

"When it doesn't matter who's right."

James and Carlos both fight to hide their smiles as their blonde leader starts signing and wait eagerly for Logan to join in.

"Fight about it all night."

"Had enough!" They sing, or well it's more like yelling, together.

"You give me that look…"

And this time Kendall finds himself waggling his eyebrow, quite unable to help himself. "I'm sorry baby, let's make up!"

And then there's more silence. Fortunately, it's the same awkward, embarrassed silence that all four boys have gotten familiar with over the past three days. Both Kendall and Logan, being fully aware of the kind of making up the song had been describing, (Kendall's involuntary eyebrow waggle had left little room for doubt), are a bright red. James and Carlos are trying to desperately to hide their snickers.

Katie walks in, back from the lobby, pack of Fruit Smackers in hand. She takes one look at the four boys before her and smirks. "What did I miss?"

-0-

Later that evening Kendall joins Logan down by the pool, where the genius is engrossed in a book about Physics. The bookworm barely even registers as Kendall sits down on the empty pool chair next to him.

"Hey."

At the blonde's voice the genius finally looks up. He flushes as soon as he makes eye contact, but doesn't break it. "Hey."

"Look," Kendall sighs, flopping back and stretching out onto the chair, "I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier."

Logan sighs and rubs his hand across his face. "I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to snap at Carlos and I've already apologized to him. This is just… it's really freaking me out."

Kendall nods. "Trust me. I know what you mean. But whatever this is, I don't like what's it's doing to us. I don't want things to be weird. Especially since they just started getting better."

"Yeah." Logan nods in agreement. "It might hard though. This is waymore weird than I'm used to dealing with. And that's saying something because two of my best friends are James and Carlos."

The blonde chuckles. "Tell me about it." He sits up suddenly, his face serious. "We're going to be okay, aren't we Logie?"

The genius hesitates for about half a minute before smiling gently at his friend. "Yeah, Kendall. We're going to be okay."

"Good." He stands up, all traces of seriousness gone from his features. He even grins as he bends over and picks up his smaller friend, carrying him bridal style to the edge of the pool.

"Kendall!" Logan realizes what his friend is about to do and quickly throws his book back onto the pool chair to keep it safe. "Don't you da-"

His threat turns into a shriek as Kendall, still carrying the bookworm in his arms, jumps into the famous Palm Woods pool. They both pop up a minute later, Logan sputtering and Kendall laughing.

"Oh," Logan glares from under his bangs, which are now hanging limply in his face. "You think that's funny, do you?"

Kendall is laughing too hard to reply.

"Oh, it's on now!" Logan gives a war cry before tackling the taller boy.

They laugh and wrestle for the next hour and it's almost like nothing has changed. It's enough to make them forget, at least for now, that anything is going on at all. They're just Kendall and Logan: no songs, no labels, no awkward tension. Just two boys on the edge of more than best friends but less than lovers.

And Logan will allow himself to have this…just this once.

Hope you guys enjoyed this! As always, reviews are greatly appreciated.