Darren was wide-awake by six, bouncing on the bed like a restless four year old. Daniel groaned, rolling over and pulling a pillow over his head. Darren would have none of it, grabbing the pillow and bashing it onto his partner's head.

"Come on Jonesy...We gotta get ready for the bus!"

"The bus isn't going to be here for another four hours...Go back to sleep."

"I'm too hyper to sleep...Too excited. I mean, I'm going to meet Chester!"

"Shut up about Chester already. You make it seem like you love him more than you do me..."

He stopped suddenly, becoming deadly serious.

"You don't really think that, do you?"

"Well, you haven't said one thing to me since yesterday morning that didn't involve 'Chazzy' in some way. Sorry Dazza, but that kinda hurts when I'm standing right here, waiting for anything you say."

Daniel didn't even look at him while he talked, simply stated it and fell back into trying to sleep again. Darren laid down, spooning against Daniel's back and caressing his arm.

"I'm sorry...I shouldn't have gone off like that. It's just one of my dreams, and I can't believe it's going to happen."

"It's alright, go back to sleep...The sooner we get through this, the better..."

**

*Four hours later...

Ben grinned manically as Darren opened the door, dashing to throw his stuff on the bus. Daniel walked out behind him, locking the door and pulling it closed behind him as he studied the smiling guitarist.

"Oi, what are you so happy about?"

"Linkin Park!"

Dan rolled his eyes, realizing that this was going to be one long tour, and that there wasn't much he could really do about it. Slipping into his bunk, he hoped that he could just disappear, but to no avail. Karl poked his head through the curtain, offering a warm smile to the slightly bent co-lead.

"You alright Dan? Lookin kinda beat around the edges...Anything I can do?"

"Just kill me now, please? I don't think I can take an entire tour with Darren and Ben wetting themselves whenever they think they are going to see this band we're going with."

"Your nightlife that bad?"

"No, it's just he hasn't shut up since yesterday about it...It's always Chester this, and Chester that...I can't take any more of this...I'll explode."

Karl's smile grew larger.

"You telling me that you are jealous, Mr. Jones?"

"Never...I just want to string him up by the neck, anything to get him to shut up for a couple minutes."

"Maybe there's a good reason for why he's acting like this...and just maybe, you should give them a chance. It's not like you to judge like this, but I know that's what you're doing. Just meet them first, get to know them before you decide you hate everything about this, okay? I mean, things could be worse...Could you imagine trying to tour with the Backstreet Boys or N*Sync? This is by far the lesser of two evils."

Daniel couldn't help but laugh at that, trying not to vision the mass hysteria that would have consumed them all in it's wake.

"Yeah, maybe you're right...Maybe it'll all work out fine, and I'm just thinking overtime. Guess it's time for it to all come down..."