Chris locked his car and turned, but instead of going straight to the building and out of the heat, he took a small break. He just needed a second to compose himself. He had almost called in sick, hell, he had felt sick, but he would rather eat JC's underwear than admit cowardice. Not cowardice, a need to avoid confrontation, his therapist had once said. At some point, he had managed to develop that, and as for a proof of it, he stopped going to the therapy. He wasn't ready to be a whiny pop star. Chris adjusted his sunglasses and walked to the entrance and to the air conditioned darkness. The first recording day had begun.

They all had been surprised when Justin got busted. The pictures of him on his knees, giving a blowjob to some anonymous guy on a nightclub bathroom spread like a fire. The papers went wild with it, the respected rags only differing themselves by giving the other guy the courtesy of a black block over his eyes. The HE IS GAY! - news wasn't PC anymore, (because hey, it's not supposed to be a bad thing anymore, right?) so the papers played the "Public sex, oh my!"-card to sell the story. Justin Timberlake gay? It was like Mel Gibson denying God, or Beyonce being a transvestite.

The guys were not only surprised by that he got himself caught, because after all this time, he really should have known better, but because he honestly didn't do guys. At all. Not once had anyone seen Justin getting it on with a guy. Justin's private cell had been full of messages from his friends, all versions of Joey's message: "Dude. What the fuck? I thought you were straight!

Suddenly, Jive had been interested in Nsync again. Having one more group album written into their contracts they had never officially disbanded, but really, what they had been waiting for was the new group effort to become so potentially unprofitable that Jive would have let the contract go. Still, even after years, they hadn't yet managed to reach that point. When the Justin Scandal hit the stands, Jive's lawyers were ready to go. Even bad publicity was good publicity and so on. Justin might have lost his credibility as a solo artist, but as a boybander, he would still do. Apparently their former target audience had grown up to have their own money, and unlike their parents, they had no problems buying CD's from gay idols. Justin was okay with it. None of the others were asked.

Outside the album conferences, done mostly over the internet, there had been almost complete radio silence from Justin. Chris didn't know why, but he felt somehow guilty about it.

When Chris entered the studio, only Joey was already present. Not alone, because the new producer kid was there too. The kid was trying not to spin on his chair on the corner. To Chris, he didn't count. Chris nodded a wordless hello to Joey and retreated back to the hallway in a search of coffee. When he returned with two burning hot cups, there were still only two of them.

"If I've known they would be late, I would have stopped to buy doughnuts."

Joey looked as rumbled as Chris. He took the offered coffee. "What were the odds for this to ever happen? I was kinda counting on C." Joey sniffed the coffee, trying to decide if it would scald his tongue if he'd drink it now. "Oh, well. That gives you a head start on convincing me to give my two-song slot for you to use."

Chris spat his mouthful back to the cup. "Joey, you will be giving the slot to the highest bidder? That's so... Actually, that is a fucking great idea. Why didn't I come up with that?"

"Because you are one of my bidders."

Chris looked back to Joey and smirked. "That's true."

They had forged the album together in a numerous conference calls and net sessions. Or not really. As for what Joey thought about it, the album was far from being together and would possibly never be. They had put their own lawyers to go through the contract again, especially the parts about artistic integrity, and had come out winners on that. As long as they would make an album, they could record what ever they pleased. If they wanted to do the album full of Argentinean tango, they could do that and there was nothing that Jive could do about it.

Even the strategy for choosing the songs was a kind of a joke. After hours of battling over the net, they had decided that everyone of them plus Jive could choose two songs each for the album with Jive having a veto right on choosing the singles. Joey had really thought about demanding some tango just out of spite, but in the end, he decided to shop his two-song slot to the highest offer of favors between Justin, JC and Chris. Even without his two dimes the musical diversity would probably result a mess that no one would be able to digest.

After 45 minutes, Lance was the next to arrive. He stormed in, dropped his bag, sat and shed his sunglasses. After all that, be really took in the poor turn out.

Chris looked at Lance's blinking eyes. "What, you really thought that we would be all here, ready for working by now?"

"Not really. I just thought that I was more late than what I obviously am." Lance was usually never late, but today it didn't really matter. The chances for actually getting anything good recorded in the first day were from slim to none. Still, the recording would have to start from somewhere and there were no way for skipping the first days of eventual garbage.

"You saw that paparazzi in the bushes?"

Chris hadn't really paid attention. He looked at Lance and them at himself. Yep, Lance had definitely been styling.

Joey lowered his second cup. "I saw two. Do you think that it's time again to bring the bodyguards?"

Lance didn't have to think of the answer. "Probably."

None of the three of them had used bodyguards for a daily basis for years. Joey and Lance hadn't suffered from that decision. Chris had had one serious stalker scare that had forced him to rely on a bodyguard for a while, but he, too, had gone back to his newfound freedom as quickly as he could.

"It is for the best. Fans, haters, you can't be too careful with them, especially now."

Lance had put some good time in reading the media research reports and surfing on the net, just to get the picture of where they were standing with this odd reunion. Justin's fans took it like it was - as a reaction to his outing. Some of the fans were not fans anymore. Still, - if the Jive's marketing researchers were right - most of the fans seemed to stay with him and some of them even embraced the new Justin that the PR people were spinning to save as much as they could.

JC's fans weren't happy. There were heated threads on discussion boards about whether or not he would be taking a step down and to a "back-up singer". The ones that welcomed Nsync back were blamed to be unfaithful to JC.

Chris' fans were the ones that were the most on the warpath. He had gained a small but enthusiastic group of followers that were the most passionate to voice their opinions about the reunion. Chris was selling himself out, Chris was forced to do it, Chris would hate it, Chris had been fake from the beginning.

Joey's fans seemed to have forgotten that he sang, too. To them, one album would just be a welcomed side project. Lance didn't really have his own fans, and he was just fine with that. No one would be sending him hate mail. Some of Chris' fans, though, were pretty obsessive. Chris had forwarded them some of the letters he had received when the news of the reunion had spread, thinking that they were pretty funny. Lance had seen nothing funny in them.

For Lance's great relief, all but Justin had always made sure to not to speak against Nsync. Now, when Justin's every interview had been dug up, the others were quite proud of themselves for not burning any bridges behind them. Even when Chris' new fans unsubtly fished his opinion of Nsync, he refused to be anything but proud of what he had been part of. As for them, Justin would be simmering on a low heat all on his own.

To Lance, the first day of recording, it all felt almost disturbingly familiar. Here they were, killing time and waiting the others to show up. Nothing out of the ordinary, like they wouldn't have been half forced to this, like they were in the same page with Justin and his plans. It had all happened so quickly that Lance hadn't had time to think if this was what he really wanted to do.

The arriving of a text message pulled Lance back from his thoughts. He checked his communicator.

"Hey guys, Justin says that he's going to be late. A holdup, apologies, yadda yadda."

"No matter. Gives us more time to talk about him behind his back."

Lance settled down to listen Chris' and Joey's conversation. In his backward way, Chris had just voiced the problem. Instead of their natural gossiping that would be now mostly about Justin because what had happened, they weren't talking about him at all.

The producer was silently freaking out and the guys present were talking about where from they would be ordering lunch when JC appeared. They only had one producer scheduled to be on the set, this one new and talented kid. He was great; JC and Justin had picked him unanimously. Still, he was young and lacked the talent of handling the talents, so he would eventually end up taking in all the shit that JC and Justin would throw at him. Chris was sure that the poor kid didn't know what he was getting into when he heard that he would be co-producing with the wonder twins.

Despite of the time nearing a mid day, JC looked like he had just woken up. Chris threw him a Redbull.

"Late much?"

JC diverted his attention from opening the soda can for the seconds it took him to pointedly look around the studio.

"Okay, yeah." Chris smirked, amused. Nowadays it was almost impossible to make JC feel guilty of anything.

"So have you already decided your songs?" Joey launched his half joking, half serious sales speech to JC, the other two listening to hear what modifications he would make to it to fit it for JC.

JC's eyes were only half open and he seemed to be staring at space, but they new he was listening. A year ago, some third-rate journalist had had the idea to "expose" JC as a borderline autistic genius. JC had been at lost at what to do with the unauthorized book; He was the last person to want more exposure by defending his mental health status. In the end, he just released a statement denying the book's accusations. Now, a year later, he was still facing the questions about it in the radio interviews and the internet gossip groups treated it as a fact.

At least he got the musical genius-part of it with the dirt. In the end it sure was better than other singers being labeled as hermaphrodites or wife beaters. Definitely better than what Justin got. Admittedly, JC had gone even more spacey during the years, and it sometimes looked like he had troubles keeping up with other people's emotions and responding to them accordingly. Still, he was still as normal as he had ever been, and quite fine with it.

Justin arrived in early afternoon, his two bodyguards left standing just outside the studio doors. Chris sputtered his drink when he saw the appendixes: Justin was dragging his two boxers and Pixie, the teacup poodle inherited from an ex, with him.

"You bought the dogs?"

Justin released them from their leashes and turned to face Chris. "Why not? They were lonely."

None of them used dog sitters. That would only mean one more person to steal their shit, and using dog sitters was really lame. It would have been like they would have to admit something that they rather wouldn't.

Justin hesitantly smiled at Chris. "You could bring Layla."

"Unlike your dogs, my dog isn't freakishly dependent of me. She is just fine where she is."

Joey whirled in his chair to face Justin. "J, you brought your dogs! We know that we'll end up with jack shit today, but really. Some professionalism is needed here, or have you forgot that too?"

Justin froze, his hands still petting his dog. "What do you mean?"

"Okay! Now that we are all here, let's do some work!" This time, JC's jump in the middle of the situation worked and they all turned to face him. "I have an arrangement ready for a song I'm sure will end up to the album. Pretty sure. So let's hear it out."

No one asked Justin what had really happened. The gay thing was an issue that they should have talked over before this, but with Justin keeping his distance, the chance had never occurred. Still, after a couple of hours, they all felt better. Even Joey had to admit that the album, despite it's dooming diversity, could possibly work out. Joey decided to save his song choices to something really fun, like accappella rock or something. If it wouldn't fit with the rest of the songs, who cared? At worst, they would be laughed at, but that was nothing new. At best the Rolling Stone would call it experimental.

As it was only the first day, they tried to avoid the really heated arguments that they knew were coming soon. Still, JC was getting anxious. They were working with the bridge of one of his own songs and it just wasn't going anywhere.

"Joey, Lance, I know that you want to stay out of this, but help me out here! Now it's like, two against one." He crouched towards Joey and Lance. "I give you solos?"

"What do you mean against us two?" Chris wasn't feeling very conspirational, or patient, today.

JC was not keen on explaining what was so obvious to him. "I mean, you two have exactly the same opinions when we are trying to make a decision about anything. Or, you know, Justin backs you up in whatever you say." JC ran his fingers through his shaggy hair, frustrated. "What did you exactly promised him for doing that, anyway?"

"What?" Chris was honestly surprised. He turned to face Justin, who, to their amazement, blushed.

"Justin, why are you following me on this?"

Justin made pointless gestures, trying to explain himself. "I just wanted... You know. To make you happy."

Justin was left to watch his friends stare at him, aghast.

"And they were good opinions, too!" Justin tried to back out from his statement.

"Justin." Chris was watching him intently. "From witch point on did you decide that you wanted to make me happy? "

Justin looked panicked. "It was a joke!"

"No, it wasn't."

Justin took a deep breath. "Since six months ago."

"And now it's our time to leave!" Lance rose from his chair and grabbed a hold of both Joey and JC. He nodded at Chris and Justin. "You two, you settle this whatever it is between you two, by tomorrow morning. We three will continue at Joey's, I have this really interesting idea for a Barry White pastiche that I want to share."

With that, Lance dragged his two friends away without much a fight. The producer almost tripped over his feet while going after them.

Chris was left to face Justin alone. He watched as Justin wringed his hands and looked at lost on what he was supposed to say. The dogs surrounded their master, nervous. If Chris would have been a person who had a habit of kicking dogs, he would have been aiming at the smallest one right about now. "Okay, what is this really about?"

Justin just looked at him. 27 year olds weren't supposed to look so fucking young. "Just, throw it out. Quickly, don't think it."

"I'm wooing you."

That took Chris by surprise. "You want to woo me? You want to date me?"

Justin nodded enthusiastically, his eyes glimmering.

Whoa. "Justin, where this all came from all of sudden? You are straight, man."

Justin sniffed. "Well, I decided to not be straight anymore."

Chris had troubles on trying to wrap his mind around that. "It's called sexual orientation, Justin, you can't just ignore it!"

"I'm not ignoring it! On the contrary!" Justin rose to space around on the studio floor. Roused by the voices, one of the bodyguards peeked in to see if anything was wrong. Justin gestured him to back away. Then he stopped in front of Chris.

"I already tried it out, and it was fine."

"Fine? Of course it's fine, it's friction! But do you really think that from now on, you could settle for just fine?"

"With you, I could."

"Justin... I just don't understand you. To my knowledge, and I thought that I knew you well, you been pretty much straight for all your life. And suddenly you are outed as gay and after that, you decide to be one and go after one of your oldest friends? Justin, what the fuck?"

"Actually, it didn't go like that, but-."

Chris stared at him. "You planned the coming out. Nothing less than a scandal would be fit for a star like you."

"I didn't plan it! Not... exactly."

Chris was getting mad, not able to keep his volume down anymore. "You been always really strict with the media finding out anything about your sex life and now all of sudden, you got reckless. You knew that you would be busted eventually! That was your plan!"

Justin got even more agitated. "I did it like that because now when it's done I can't back out of it again. You can't believe how much shit I've got from everywhere, even from my mom! Maybe, if it would have been just a gossip, they could have pressured me to back to the old me. I couldn't do that to myself, or to you!"

"You out yourself with some dimwit and you say it was FOR ME? Do you live in some kind of alternative reality that differs from everyone else, because that sure didn't look like wooing me!"

"Being busted with you would have led us in all kinds of trouble, and I had to do it with somebody!"

"How on earth could you ever think that I would have went with you in it! Even if you got in your head that you were somehow in love with me or whatever, it isn't enough!"

Now Justin got quiet. "I don't want to end up like Lance."

What the guys knew but never discussed was that Lance was in love with Joey, had been over ten years. It had never gone anywhere and it never would. Joey was really, really straight, and as of late, monogamous. Lance hadn't pined after Joey since the first crash-and-burn, one sided love fest he fell only a couple moths after they met. Still, they all knew that the l-word thing hadn't gone anywhere. No one ever wondered why Lance had never engaged himself in a serious relationship.

Chris was stunned for Justin even mentioning it. "That's totally different."

Justin looked back at him, now serene. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure." He had to think about it. The hero worship thing in the beginning, the praise seeking from him that had continued to this day. The lack of private, serious relationships. "...Justin?"

"Lance couldn't turn to a woman for Joey, but I can turn gay for you".

Chris raised his hands to his face. "Just. Stop. Talking."

"Chris-." Justin was stopped by Chris' abortive gesture towards him.

"I don't know. I just don't know."

Justin just stood there, his posture hunched.

Chris grabbed his keys and wallet. "I have to go. I see you tomorrow, all right?"

"Yeah. See you." Justin almost whispered.

Chris was already halfway out of the studio when he stopped on the door. "I promise I come tomorrow."

"Okay."

Chris left him there with his dogs and bodyguards, the studio time still running. He drove home, sat down, nuked a TV dinner. He almost called to his mom and Ray, but didn't. The Doctor Who marathon was on TV, but he didn't notice. He had to think.

The next morning, Justin was early. He locked his car. No dogs today. The bodyguards were keeping their distance. Instead of going straight to the building and out of the heat he stopped for a while. He had almost called in sick, hell, he had felt sick, but this wasn't a right day for cowardice. He adjusted his sunglasses and walked to the entrance and to the air-conditioned darkness. The second recording day had begun.

Justin was way too early, but he hadn't been able to sleep anyway. He walked briskly and entered the studio. Justin barely dared to hope-.

He wasn't the first to arrive in that morning. Chris was waiting for him, with a coffee cup and a smile.