The thing was, making this movie was reminding him more and more of the Celebrity tour. It felt like a last-ditch effort to preserve something that was at its natural end.

He and Cameron weren’t fighting, exactly. That would have made it almost unbearable. But Cameron was sad, and Justin felt responsible for that.

“You’re my best friend, Justin. I can tell you anything. And so I’m telling you, I think my boyfriend is in love with someone else.”

The two of them were curled up on opposite couches in the living room of the house they were renting, running lines. It was late, and Justin was tired, which is why he flipped back a couple of pages in his script at Cameron’s quiet words, wondering if he had missed something. Her voice was light, but her eyes were troubled.

“What?”

Cameron sighed, and smiled sadly. “I never thought I’d say this, because I really do love you, but you need to make a choice. And then convince me that you mean it, either way.”

“I’m not sure you’re ready now, but you’re getting closer to it. I know how hard what happened last year was for you,” she said gently.

She meant what had happened to Lance at Clive’s party last February. Justin didn’t think he’d ever been more angry, or felt more helpless than he had during the legal proceedings that followed. Joey had been reluctant to tell him much about what was going on, for some reason, but between Chris and JC, Justin had been kept completely up to date on all the behind the scenes stuff that didn’t make the papers.

And it had nothing to do with him, and that was the hardest part. Somebody had hurt Lance, and Justin had been a mere bystander. He thought maybe he was tired of being a bystander in Lance’s life.

Cameron was talking. “I saw you today, Justin. You were watching those two guys, the ones who were walking down the street holding hands.” She put her script down on her lap, her finger marking her place.

So Justin made his choice, and he and Cameron broke up on the set of Moonlighting the Movie. The press was absolutely rabid, relentlessly hounding their friends for the inside scoop, and offering huge sums of money to whatever “inside sources” were willing to divulge the sordid details. There really weren’t any details, though, sordid or not, and so the tabloids resorted to making things up more than they usually did.

Justin and Cameron didn’t care in the least. They said goodbye when the shoot was over, and Justin realized he was luckier than he deserved to be.

“Justin?” his mother said, when he went home afterwards.

Justin kissed her on the cheek. “She told me to make a choice. I chose Lance,” he told her simply.

Her eyes widened and her mouth formed a silent “oh.” He waited while she thought it over. Then she nodded. “So, what’s the plan?”

He grinned at her. “I already called JC.”

~~~~~

“You came all the way to LA to tell me this, Joey? You, like, got on a plane, and everything?” He shook his head. “You shouldn’t have bothered. Go back to Orlando. Kiss Kelly and Bri for me,” Lance said dismissively.

“Just listen a minute, willya?” Joey paused, apparently to gather his thoughts. Lance glared at him over his bottle of Dansani. They were sitting out by Lance’s pool, which Joey always enjoyed, in spite of the fact that it was rather miniscule compared to his pool in Orlando. It must have been the view.

Joey took a big swig of his beer, set the bottle resolutely down on the table, and then eyed Lance’s water uneasily. “Are you sure you don’t want something stronger to drink, man? Some vodka and Red Bull? Hey, let’s open a bottle of champagne. I know you have to have some around here somewhere.” He smiled hopefully.

Lance raised his eyebrows at him. Joey sighed. “Okay. Apparently Justin and JC both decided this might be a good time, for, um, NSYNC to get together and make a new CD.”

“You said that already. I’m waiting for the part where you either tell me you’re kidding, or you assure me that you told them both not in a million fucking years.” Lance waited, his water bottle sweating in his hand. He gazed out over the pool, watching the sunset. Maybe Joey was right. Maybe this conversation required alcohol. Abruptly he got to his feet. “I’ll be right back. You’d better start making sense when I get back here.” Joey frowned at him indignantly, and Lance flipped him off as he went into the house to find something to drink that would get him through the upcoming discussion.

He stood in his pantry, staring at the array of bottles on the shelf, and finally chose the bottle of Grey Goose he’d bought for when his mom came to visit. It seemed fitting for this conversation.

“So,” Lance said, as he sat back down, putting the bottle of vodka and a glass on the table in front of him, “Let me get this straight. Justin and JC want to make another NSYNC album. And then they actually want to go on tour? As in, all five of us? Together?” Joey was nodding enthusiastically at him. “And you think this is a good idea?” Joey kept nodding. “You’re all out of your fucking minds.” Joey frowned and stopped nodding.

“It’s perfect timing, Lance. JC’s just come off the last leg of his tour. Justin just finished up the movie. Our show just got cancelled. Chris is still just screwing around with his Emo bands.” He snickered a little, but Lance wasn’t that easily distracted.

“Yes, well, that’s all very nice, Joey, but you’re forgetting the part where Justin and I aren’t… we haven’t… we can’t-” He broke off. Joey knew what he meant. He didn’t have to explain.

Again Joey took his time answering him. Finally, he said, “I’m not forgetting that part, Lance. I just think maybe it’s time to put that aside.”

Lance stared at Joey a minute, then sat down again and poured himself a double shot of vodka. He swirled the colorless liquid around, and then said, “So I’m outvoted, is that it?” He waited to see if Joey was going to actually point out that NSYNC was a business and that they all had an equal vote, and had always only needed a simple majority to make decisions. And hey, four to one, it didn’t get much simpler than that.

And then Joey did look at him. “If you want to put it that way, you can.”

“Goddammit.”

“Lance-”

“No, Joey. You did what you came here to do. You can go back and tell them that.” He waved dismissively at Joey. “It’s fine.”

Lance and Joey hardly ever fought. There wasn’t much about Joey that Lance didn’t love. And he loved him too much to do anything as dramatic as kick him out of his house at sunset on a Thursday night in the middle of May. But they spent the rest of the evening watching TV in silence, and when Joey wrapped him up in his usual goodbye hug the next morning, Lance returned it perfunctorily and only nodded when Joey said, “Think about it. And Lance? I’m sorry, man.”

He couldn’t do it, and it was inconceivable to him that Joey of all people didn’t get that. Go back in the studio, with Justin? Tour again, with Justin? Had they all lost their minds, or at least the parts of them where their memories were stored?

And then Chris called him. “We’re playing good cop/bad cop here, Bass. Try and guess which one I am.”

If there was anyone who should be on Lance’s side, it was Chris. He couldn’t possibly want to be within ten miles of a Justin and Lance working reunion.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Chris snorted, when Lance said as much. “But in case it’s escaped your notice, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now. I was hoping you and Timberlake could finally be adults about your tragic romance and co-exist long enough to give me, JC and Joe a fucking break.”

Lance sighed. “So if you’re the bad cop, I should be expecting a call from JC any day now, am I right?”

“Yep. Try not to be a dick.”

“Hey, honey,” JC said breezily the next day.

“Hey, JC,” Lance sighed. He braced himself.

“Lance,” he said seriously. “We all know what we’re asking. Believe me, we do. But, well, the time just seems right. J doesn’t have anything else lined up right now, and I-”

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Lance sighed again. “Sorry, C.” It wasn’t JC’s fault things were the way they were.

“It’s okay. Will you at least think about it?”

“I’ve already been outvoted, JC. What’s there to think about?” Lance asked.

“The state of mind you approach it with, I guess,” JC answered, which as good as told Lance that he was right, he didn’t have a choice. He had indeed been outvoted.

The big NSYNC grand reunion was going to happen, whether Lance wanted it to or not.

“That’s not fair,” Lance protested.

“And you can give Justin a chance,” his mother went on, ignoring his interruption.

“Are you kidding me? You did not just say that.”

“No, I’m not kidding you. Think about it, Lance.”

So Lance thought about it.

And when Joey called him, he sighed, “Okay. I’ll try.”

~~~~~

“Goddamn Orlando traffic,” Justin muttered to himself as he fought his way to the WEG compound. It was just after lunchtime, and he’d forgotten that, as bad as LA traffic was, Orlando traffic still had to power to annoy the shit out of him. Being late to this meeting wasn’t a great way to start things off.

But Lance had never been far from his thoughts, especially since he had made the decision to push for a reunion, and knowing that they were finally going to be in the same room at the same time again had Justin’s heart racing and his palms sweating.

The minute Justin walked into the conference room, he was aware of Lance, standing off to the side, his eyes fastened hungrily on Justin. Justin knew right then that there was a chance, and his heart gave a little leap. When he finally disentangled himself from the others, and turned to say hello to Lance, they stared at each other uncertainly. Then Lance drew himself up and said coldly, “Hey, J. How you doing, man?” and Justin knew he had his work cut out for him.

He reached forward and they shook hands, and Justin said, “Good, good. You?”

Lance nodded. “Fine. I’m good. Real good.”

Justin couldn’t seem to stop saying, “Good,” and Chris made a noise like he was about to say something no one wanted to hear, so Justin shut up and sat down.

The rest of them followed suit, everyone but Chris looking uncomfortable, and Johnny in particular looking like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world than at this particular table. It took a little time, but eventually they relaxed and started to discuss the basics of a reunion CD and tour. It all felt very precarious to Justin, and he was careful and tentative about expressing his opinions, until Chris finally said with exasperation, “Jesus, we’ll never get anything done this way. Yes, Justin, JC is a genius in the studio, and yes, JC, Justin has the best ear for talent ever, but for fuck’s sake, express a fucking opinion or shut up and let someone else do it.”

They all laughed, even Lance, and after that, they actually got something accomplished. It wasn’t bad for a first meeting, and Justin felt pretty good about it. It felt completely right to be doing this again, to be one of five again.