"Um, has anyone seen my top?" Anna was trying not to panic as she ran around the small hotel room in a light blue, diagonal cut, calf length skirt and a t-shirt.

Katie, Kristin, Leighanne, Anna, and Howie's date Jenna were all in one room, attempting to get ready.

"Omigod there's not enough room in here.  This was not a good idea," Jenna panicked.  She was at the bathroom counter in her black strapless, knee length dress.  She was trying to get her hair to do what she wanted it to do, but with two other girls trying to do their thing in the same place...it wasn't an ideal situation.

"How did we let them talk us into all being in here?" Kristin questioned, standing in her long yellow dress as she applied make-up in the badly lit mirror in the room.

"Um, ladies, top, anyone seen it?" Anna asked again.

"Or my left shoe?" Leighanne asked from the floor where she had been searching under the bed.  She stood up and straightened her dark purple dress.  The dress came to just below her knees and left one arm bare, having a strap on only her right shoulder.

"I can't find my bra either," Katie groaned, hands on hips.  She had pulled her short, pale yellow dress to her hips, ready to put on her bra before fastening the halter-style straps around her neck.

"Nikolas Gene Carter!" Kristin yelled as she went to the door that joined the room they were in to Nick's room.  The door swung open, no one in sight.

A half dressed Anna, one-shoed Leighanne and braless Katie followed Kristin into the room, hands on hips.

"Nikolas Gene Carter!" she yelled again.

Brian's head popped out of the bathroom, "Nope, no Nick here."

Leighanne glared at her husband, "If you had anything to do with this..."

Brian's eyes got wide and he stepped out of the bathroom, the door closing behind him.  He held out Leighanne's shoe, trying not to laugh.

"Brian Thomas Littrell...you are lucky I have to finish getting ready."

He kissed his wife on her cheek and stepped out of the way.

Anna banged on the bathroom door.

"Who's in there?" Leighanne asked Brian.

He knew he was in trouble, so he figured he should cooperate, "Nick and Age..."

"Nickolas Gene Carter!" Anna yelled this time.

Katie didn't know what to do, so Kristin stepped up for her, "Alexander James Mclean!  Get your ass out here!"

"Damn, what's with the middle names?" AJ asked as he slowly opened the door.  Nick could be heard protesting from inside the bathroom.

"Give the girl back her bra," Kristin demanded, trying not to laugh but finding the situation quite amusing.

At the same time Anna went into the bathroom and Nick was heard again, "Ow!  Stop!  I'm sorry!"

He exited the bathroom pouting, joining AJ and Brian on the couch.

"Where are Kevin and Howie?" Kristin asked.

"Your room," AJ offered up.

"Join them will you?  We need more room to get ready."

"Anymore jokes and you might find yourselves dateless tonight," Leighanne added as the boys left the room.

As soon as the door closed behind them there was laughing and high-fiving.  They were quite proud of their practical joke.

The girls were finally able to spread out and finish getting ready.  They were already running late.

Forty five minutes later, after fifteen minutes of the guys waiting in the lobby for the, Kevin was volunteered to get the girls.

"Why me?"

"You're not in trouble," AJ stated.

"So...you're trying to get me into trouble, too?  Just because you three jackasses decided to steal the girls stuff doesn't mean we all have to be in the dog house tonight."

"Fine, you sleep on the couch anyways Bone, you get them.  How much worse could it get for you?" Brian asked.

"I don't sleep on the couch," AJ said before thinking.

"Ah, so there is something going on there."

"No, there isn't.  We're just friends."

"Just friends who sleep together?" Nick wiggled his eyebrows.

"Sleep.  That's it."

"What are you hotties talking about?" Anna smiled as she and the other four girls joined the guys in the lobby.

AJ froze before he said anything more, hoping that Katie hadn't heard the conversation that was beginning.

"Took you long enough," Nick groaned.

"Hey, it wouldn't have taken nearly as long if we hadn't have had to search for certain important items," Leighanne glared at the three pranksters.

"We never did ask...what did you three take?" Howie wondered.

"Leigh's shoe, Anna's top, and Katie's bra..." Brian offered.

"Did you just randomly grab the first things you saw?  Or was there a method to your crazy madness?" Howie continued his interrogation.

"Pretty much just grabbed shit," AJ admitted.

"Can we get moving now?" Jenna asked.

The guys nodded, took hold of their respective dates and braced themselves for the short but undoubtedly crazy walk to the limo.

Once in the limo Katie cuddled up to AJ.

"You look so...hot," AJ whispered to her.

"You covered up all your tattoos," Katie pouted.  The guys had each donned tuxedoes, adding their own twists to them though.  AJ added his ‘bad boy' flair to it, adding a fedora to the outfit.

"Thought I'd better not piss Kevin off by cutting the arms off the tux or anything," he laughed.

"You know, you're not the only one with a hidden tattoo," she smirked.

"Yeah, Brian and Nick have the, too," AJ played dumb.

"So do I..." Katie was getting braver with her flirting.

"You have a tattoo?  And why haven't I seen said tattoo?  When did you get it?"

"Beth and I went a few months ago.  I was going through an ‘independent, I'll do what I want' phase with Dane.  If you're good..." Katie started, AJ watching her expectantly, "maybe I'll let you see it."

Things were definitely heating up here.  Brian and Leighanne watched the quiet exchange with great interest.  It was beyond obvious that these two needed to date.  Each time Brian made a move to say something to the blooming couple, Leighanne stopped him.  She'd just met Katie, didn't really know her, but she could tell any kind of jostling as far as relationships went would send her running.  Leighanne couldn't tell what it was, if it was just Katie being shy, but she was not going to let Brian be responsible for that one.

The limo came to a stop and the guys each got out, helping their dates out and leading them down the red carpet.  Katie's eyes widened.

"This is John Norris on the red carpet here at the VMA's.  We're still waiting to see some of the night's biggest stars...and it looks like some have just arrived."

The Boys were leading their ladies down the carpet, stopping for pictures and short interviews.

"AJ Mclean of the Backstreet Boys!  Quite the lady you have here," John smiled, "Who might she be?"

AJ knew what the reporter had meant by the question, but he hadn't had the opportunity to discuss with Katie what they would say.  The flirting in the limo had indicated that she might have been ready to step things up, but he still wasn't sure.

"This beautiful woman would be my lovely date Katie," AJ smiled, his arm wrapped around her.

"Katie, nice to have you join us here.  Is this your first VMA?"

"Yeah," Katie began, still a bit wide-eyed, "It's amazing.  You see it all on tv, but it's not the same thing in person!"

Getting back to his original probing question, trying to be more straight about it, "Are you the newest girlfriend?"

"I...um..." Katie hesitated.  She didn't know what to say.

AJ took over quickly, praying to the gods above that he wasn't stepping over the line when he announced to John Norris and the entire home viewing audience, "Katie is my beautiful girlfriend."

He pressed a kiss to her temple, John thanked them for the interview and the couple moved along the red carpet, finally entering the theater.