Pairing: Chris and Lance
Words: electric; so pure; clamour; imbalance


The clamour wakes up Nick.  It's December 24th, and he's at home
only because he needs the sleep and there's nowhere else to be.

What with his parents' divorce, he doesn't want to go near his
family this year.  And the person he'd like to see most there,
Aaron, has a show tonight.  And Nick's got a show tomorrow, hence,
the need for nappy time.

Except there's the clamour of little feet on the roof, and he knows
he didn't order any fucking reindeer.

"Fum fum fum," Lance mutters.

"No!  's Fe Fi Fo Fum!  Duh," Chris says.

"No, dumbass.  On December five and twenty, fum fum fum," he sings. 
"Haven't you ever heard that song?  You ignoramus."

Chris elbows Lance hard and laughs as he slides down and off the
roof.  A moment later he stops laughing as a levitating Lance lands
on his stomach.

"Inside, dickhead."  They start for the chimney again.

Nick rolls over, grabs the cell off of his bedside table and calls
his security company.  No, Mr. Carter, no alarms.  Yes, Mr. Carter,
the alarm's on.  No, Mr. Carter, no activity in the neighborhood
other than the usual holiday stuff.  No, Mr. Carter, reindeer on
the roof would not be the usual holiday stuff.  Yes, Mr. Carter,
we'll send someone right over.

Lance climbs up on top of the chimney and holds out his arms for
the bag.  Chris passes it over silently.  With a wriggle and a
small bounce, Lance slides down, landing noiselessly in the fire
below.  He steps out carefully, grateful his black clothes don't
show the soot.  As it is, Chris appears with several dark smudges
on his face.  Lance grins.

Chris rolls his eyes.  "Dork.  Where's the cookies?  I want
cookies!"

"Shut up, buttmunch," Lance insists.  "Besides.  You got Nick's
cookies last year.  I want Nick's cookies this year.  No fair,
hogging all the Nick cookies for yourself!"

Nick gets out of bed, puts on clothes and gets a baseball bat.

Chris rolls his eyes and levitates over to the tree, so as not to
leave sooty footprints on the oh so pure white rug before the fire. 
No one would ever mistake Chris's dainty little footprints for
Santa Claus.  Lance follows him over, and Chris starts working at
the knots of the bag, which he ties himself in a special code.

"Why do you have to make this so complicated?" Lance asks, voice
bored.  Chris never tells him.  He's not quite sure why he keeps
asking.  

"I don't criticize how you wrap, Bass.   Don't be dissing my
knots."  The last silken tie comes free, and Chris pulls the bag
open.

"You criticize how I wrap all the time.  Like this morning, when
you said, 'No, Lance, you have to tape the paper *to* the present
so it doesn't slide!'"

"Yeah, and like when I said, 'Wrap your pretty little mouth around
this, bitch.'" Chris agrees.

Lance hits Chris.  Hard.  "Shut up.  You ever say something like
that again, and you're not getting any for centuries.  I'm
serious."

Lance is indeed wearing the serious face.  Chris tries to look
angelic.

Nick comes downstairs cautiously.  When he sees who's looting his
Christmas setup, though, caution turns into indignation.  "What the
fuck?"

Lance carefully puts the present under the tree.  Chris is tapping
his shoulder annoyingly.  "Knock it off or I'm not sharing Nick's
cookies with you."

"I don't think that'll be a problem.  Nick's here and he doesn't
look like he wants to share his cookies," Chris says cautiously.

Lance glances over his shoulder.  "You can see us?"

"*Yes*.  What the hell are you guys doing here?"  He throws up his
hands.  "Never mind."  He heads back to his room for his cell --
and, wow, real bright there, Nick, because he really should have
taken it with him and calls his security company.  "Hey.  This is
Nick Carter.  I called you earlier.  Forget about what I said
before.  It's just some stupid friends of mine playing a prank."

They keep him on the line until they can find and verify his safe
word, but he's not about to cause a panic over NSYNC doing some
breaking and entering.

When he comes back though, Chris is sitting in his comfy chair,
eating Santa's cookies.

"Hey!" Nick says, grabbing the plate.  "Those aren't for you. 
Those are for Santa."

Lance's head pops into view over the arm of the chair.  "Yeah, but
I'm sharing them."

"And what's that got to do with anything?"  Nick puts the plate on
the mantle.  The milk is, hopefully, still in the mini-fridge along
with the chocolate syrup.  Nick doesn't like warm milk, and he
doubts Santa does either.

"I'm Santa, I brought your present, give back my cookies!" Lance
wails, bouncing to his feet and trying ineffectively to reach
around Nick.  "Nicky!  Cookies!"

"You better do like the man says, Carter.  He'll make me write you
on the list."

"No," Nick says, batting at Lance's hands.  "You're Lance Bass. 
You sing.  Remember?"

"Not tonight."

Chris nods violently.  "Tonight is special!"

"Yes, because it's nearly midnight and I've got maybe six hours to
sleep before I do a show tomorrow, and instead, I've got the Two
Stooges breaking into my house to eat my cookies."

Lance sniffles tearfully.  "Fine.  Be that way.  C'mon, Chris." 
And, laying his finger alongside his nose, he vanishes up the
chimney.

Chris shakes his head in disgust.  "Now I'm not gonna get a
blowjob!  Damnit, Carter!"  And he follows Lance.

Nick blinks.  People don't go up chimneys by lying their fingers
aside their nose.  Not normal people.  Celebrities or not.  So
either he's dreaming or...

They left a large red velvet bag lying on the floor.  Santa's bag
of presents.  He grabs it and runs outside, and looks up on the
roof.  There's a sleigh.  With reindeer even.

"Hey!  Come back!  You forgot something!"

Chris zooms down to Nick.  "Lance says you can keep it, he's got an
extra bag."  Chris zooms off again, knowing that as soon as the
sleigh takes flight, the bag will be rendered empty and ordinary.

Great.  He's pissed off Santa.  Aaron's gonna kill him.  "Hey!  I'm
sorry already!"

"On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer, on Vixen!  On Comet, on Cupid,
on Donner, on Blitzen!" Lance cries.

Nick watches the reindeer lift off and the sleigh move away.  His
shoulders slump and he walks slowly back into the house.

He feels sad and mad all at once.  This could only happen to him. 
He wants to do something about it right now, but Santa.  Santa's
magical and it's not like there's anything Nick can do.

But it's not like he can sleep either.

Nick finishes getting dressed, grabs his wallet, and heads out.  A
man on a mission.  He takes the bag with him.

~~~~

Aaron calls Nick at seven in the morning.  "Merry Christmas, Nicky! 
You'll never guess!  I got exactly what I wanted from Santa!  It's
great."  And he proceeds to describe, in exacting detail, how
perfect his gift is.

Nick rubs the sleep out of his eyes.  He'd managed to get
everything done that he wanted to do -- the bag has been returned
to Lance's Orlando house, along with a case of the cookies.  He'd
left a case of the cookies at Chris', too.  He'd left a card, as
well, but the only thing he could think to put on it was, 'I'm
sorry.  I'm an idiot.  Nick.'

Then he'd come home and passed out on the couch, bathed in the glow
of the electric lights from the tree, too tired to move.  He'd
spent more money on getting the stores to open that late on
Christmas Eve than on the cookies themselves, and a *lot* of energy
on finding the right people and convincing them.

"That's great, Aaron.  Listen, I'm really tired.  Can I maybe call
you back after the show?"

"Yes.  But first you have to tell me what Santa gave you!"

"That's a long story, buddy.  I think I'm permanently on the
naughty list now, anyway."

"Nuh uh.  I know you got a present!  What *is* it?"

Nick sighs and stands up.  There's exactly one extra present under
the Christmas tree.  A small, square, brightly wrapped box with a
bow on it.  "I'm pretty sure it's a lump of coal."

"Why?"

"I kinda sorta pissed off Santa Claus."  Nick sits down under the
tree with the box, then gives in and lies down.  He's really tired.

"How did you piss off Santa?" Aaron asks, voice plainly relaying
his confusion.

"Well, see.  Y'know how me and you know Santa's real even though no
one else believes it?  And how I always leave out cookies and milk
and it always disappears?"

"Uh huh."

"Well, last night, I woke up and Santa and one of his elves was
here."

"Really!  Wow!"

"Uh huh.  And then I took the cookies away from the elf and tried
to throw them out of the house.  Santa and the elf.  Not the
cookies."

"Um.  Why would you do that?"

"Because!  They were NSYNC!  I thought they'd broken into my house
and were eating Santa's cookies!"

"NSYNC is Santa Claus?  All of them?"

"No.  Just Bass and Kirkpatrick."

"Which one is Santa?" Aaron asks, focusing on the important things.

"Lance."

"Cool!"

Nick looks at the brightly wrapped box of coal.  "Yeah, well.  It
was cooler before I got in trouble."

"Did you throw them out before they gave you the present?" Aaron
asks.

"I don't remember.  They left the bag here, though.  But, it was
*Santa*.  He could've come back and switched the presents."

"I don't think so.  Open it!"

"I gotta get ready.  I'm supposed to be onstage in a couple of
hours," Nick says, trying to put off the inevitable and hearing the
whine in his own voice.

"Okay.  Love you, Nicky."

"Love you, too, buddy."

"Bye."

"Bye."  Nick sighs and clicks the phone off.  He puts the present
back under the tree.  It'll still be there when he gets home

~~~~

Chris and Lance are all nondescript and teenyboppery at Nick's
concert.  They dance and laugh and don't yell.  It's sort of
like... disrespectful.  An ingrained taboo they don't break.  When
the concert's over, Chris sends back a note saying good job and
Merry Christmas and awesome show and they start flowing out with
the crowd.  Floor seats mean a good view and being one of the last
to leave.

Nick gets the note.  There's only about fifteen million of them and
he doesn't usually read them, except there's way too many people
here for him to be able to leave safely yet and he's already done
showering, so he might as well kick back.

It's the little cartoon of an elf on the note that catches his
attention first.  He unfolds it, reads it, and then stops cold at
the scrawl at the bottom.  Because he knows that scrawl.  A few
seconds later, he's on his feet, hollering for his security team.

The security guards catch up with Lance and Chris in the mess that
the vendors have created.  It was supposed to be a holiday special,
with all sorts of different performers, which should've meant no
vendors, but even then, well, who could resist last minute
Christmas shopping?

Discreetly, they separate Lance and Chris from the crowd.

Delivered to Nick's dressing room, Chris sprawls over a couch. 
"Hi!"

Lance sits on the floor in front of Chris and draws his knees up.

Nick finds himself feeling shy now.  Stupid inhibitions.  "I really
wanted to say I was sorry for earlier.  Really really sorry.  I
mean, if I'd had any idea that you guys were really real, then I
wouldn't ever have taken the cookies away.  And.  Um, Aaron says he
really liked his present.  And I'm a goober because I just said
really way too many times."

Lance smiles timidly.  Chris is petting his hair, which always
makes him all soft and purr-y.  "It's okay, Nick.  We know you're
a good boy, really."

Nick chews on his lip for a minute.  "Did you get the cookies?  I
can get you a different kind if don't you like those."

"Nick cookies," Lance says, and giggles.

Chris rolls his eyes.  "We got them.  They rock."

Nick nods.  "Okay."  He doesn't know what else to say.  Awkwardly,
he stands.  "So, um.  Thanks.  For the present.  I'm sorry.  And,
I'm glad you liked the show."

"It was a great show," Lance says quietly.

"You like your present?" Chris asks.  "JC and Lance spent forever
picking it out."

"Yeah, well," Nick looks down.  "I didn't open it yet.  I figured
all I was getting after last night was a lump of coal and I didn't
wanna, y'know, fall apart until after the show."

Lance frowns.  "I wouldn't give you coal.  You're a good boy."

"Chris said he was gonna have me put on the naughty list."

"Chris is a great big bully," Lance says.  "Just because he's head
elf, he thinks he can boss people around and throw out idle
threats."

Chris shrugs.  "Sorry?"

It's dawning on Nick that there's a real gift waiting for him at
home.  He starts smiling.  "You gave me something!  Thank you!"

"I always give you something," Lance says with a shrug.  "You're
always good."

Nick's smile loses some of its shine.  "Well.  I'm still glad."

Lance crawls over to Nick and kneels up.  "Don't you see?  You're
always good.  The reason older people, big kids, don't get presents
isn't because they don't believe, it's because they sacrifice the
innocence of their hearts and minds.  They give up on being good. 
You never have."

Nick reaches out.  He wants to touch Lance, to pet him like Chris
was doing.  Like he sometimes does with Aaron.  But he drops his
hand, because that's like presumptive or something.  He shrugs
instead.  "It's just the right way to be.  I don't see why I should
be any other way.  Besides.  I have to be an example for Aaron." 
He doesn't say that it wasn't always like this for him, that there
was a long in between while where he'd been too grown up and he'd
hated it.  He figures Santa Claus can't help knowing that.

Lance nuzzles Nick's hip.

"Better pet him," Chris says.  "He'll get all pouty if you don't."

"It's okay?" Nick asks, even as he starts running his fingers
through Lance's hair.

"He likes you," Chris says, waving his hand idly.  "Are you okay
with that?"

Nick scritches Lance's head.  "Uh huh."

"Can I go back to JC?" Chris asks hopefully.  "If I tell him you're
all happy now, he'll blow me."

Lance rolls his eyes at Chris.  "Yes.  Go.  Tell Mrs. Claus that
this is taken care of.  The elves' compensation is in that chest on
my desk."

"Yes, Santa."

"Mrs. Claus?" Nick asks, not stopping his petting.                
                                                                  
 
"JC!"

"Oh."  Nick feels sad again.  He thinks he knows why, but it's
stupid, because he just found out about Lance being Santa
yesterday.

Chris smirks.  "The title doesn't include the marriage.  The
original Santa and Mrs. Claus were married.  Now it's just a title. 
JC's *my* boyfriend."

"Oh!"  Nick slides onto the floor, sitting next to Lance.  "See. 
I kinda like you," he says to Lance.  "'Cause you're more like me
and not as imbalanced and stuff."

"Than what?  Or who?  Balanced by what?" Lance asks.  Chris laughs
and Lance flips him off.

"Bye, boys," Chris says, and vanishes.

"Most people," Nick says.

Lance grins.  "Yay!  Um.  A-are you gonna stay here?"

"Not permanently.  Just 'til they tell me I can leave.  There's too
many people," Nick explains.

"Um.  I-if you want, I can take you home.  Tonight, anyway."

"Okay."  Nick gets up.  "Gotta tell people I'm going," he explains. 
He steps outside and lets them know.  No one quite believes him,
but he doesn't mind.  People laugh at him for leaving cookies for
Santa, too, and he's always known that's a good idea and that other
people are stupid.

He closes the door and comes back to Lance.

Lance stands up.  "Um.  Anything you wanna take?"

Nick looks around.  "Um.  The notes.  'Cause I haven't read them
yet.  And my bag.  That's it."  The stuffed animals get donated,
and, in any case, he's not supposed to take any of the things
except the notes until they've all been checked.

Lance grabs the bag and Nick grabs the notes.  Lance wraps his free
arm around Nick's waist.  "Close your eyes," he whispers.  Nick
does.  Three seconds later, Lance says, "We're here."

Nick opens his eyes.  They're in his living room.  "Wow," he says,
awed.

Lance laughs.  "It's only for today."

"Still."  Nick looks at the tree.  "Should I open my present now?"

"If you want to, sure!"

"Of course I do!"  Nick scrambles to get the present and then comes
back to sit by Lance, who's sat down on the couch.

Lance grins.

Nick grins back, because of course, the best part of Christmas is
giving people gifts and seeing how much they like them.  He enjoys
trying to find exactly the right present for people.

Lance bounces slightly.

He pulls the bow off and tears the paper off.  The box inside the
wrapping paper is red velvet.  Nick's grin gets bigger and he opens
that.

Inside is a tiny gold key.

He looks up at Lance.

Lance bites his lip.  "It's... it's what you wanted, right?"

Nick thinks he knows what the key's for.  The loop half is a heart. 
"Was this in here the whole time?"

"Of course."

"Wow."  Nick plucks the key out.  "This isn't anything I knew I
wanted, but yeah.  It's exactly what I want."

"Good."

Nick puts the key carefully away and reaches for Lance.  "So, um. 
Are you going to show me how to use it?"

"I think I'll let you try out some of your own ideas, first," Lance
says, sliding into Nick's arms.

Nick grins and starts nuzzling his best Christmas present ever.