Title: First
Author: Arsenic
Fandom: NSync
Pairing: Joey/JC
Disclaimer: If I knew them, I probably wouldn't write about them.
Rating: PG
Summary: Joey goes with JC to his high school reunion.
Author's Notes: Set when JC is 27, you can imagine them anywhere you want in the fame spectrum as long as you assume NSync is still together.
For Erin, because she sent me that picture, and really, that was all it took.

*

JC was laughing the way he did when a joke wasn't particularly funny but he didn't want to make the person telling it feel bad. Joey paused and looked up from the movie he was watching, because he hadn't been aware of anything being said. He frowned when he noticed JC shifting through his mail while Lance worked silently across from him.

"Um, Josh?" Joey turned the television screen off.

"Yeah Joe?"

"I don't think your mail is going to be insulted if you don't laugh at it."

Lance smirked behind his computer screen but didn't say anything. JC rolled his eyes and threw a perfectly square letter in Joey's direction. Joey picked it up from where it had landed and read. He grinned. "You should totally go."

"Nope, no way in hell." JC didn't even look up from the flowered stationary he was evidently engrossed in.

Lance's attention had been caught. "What should he go to?"

JC's belligerent "nothing" overlapped with Joey's "tenth year high school reunion."

Lance went back to typing. "C evidently doesn't wanna acknowledge his senility."

"Screw you, Scoop, it has nothing to do with my age. I just. I wasn't even there all that much, and really, why should I bother making time in a schedule where vacations are rare enough to begin with to go see a bunch of people who don't matter to me?"

Joey thought it was probably a little bit more complicated than that because he remembered what high school had been like for JC, but he wasn't going to get into that with other people in the room, not even Lance. So for the moment he shrugged, turned his movie back on, and stuffed the invitation in his pocket.

*

Joey had asked Lance if he would be willing to switch buses with JC after the show two nights later. Lance had agreed easily due to Chris having stocked up on new video games just days before. JC was pumped from the show for the first few hours of travel, finally settling down at around two in the morning.

Joey made the two of them hot chocolate with jumbo marshmallows and sat down across the table from JC. "I think you should go to your reunion."

"You're still on that?" JC concentrated on catching one of the quickly-disintegrating marshmallows with his tongue. He succeeded and said, somewhat unclearly, "Joe, you know I hated high school."

"I know, bud. But really, what the fuck are high school reunions for if not to go back and be a famous, rich, good looking popstar while all the people who made fun of you have gained sixty pounds and are trying to pay off a mortgage?"

"Evil, Fatone." JC smiled to let his friend know he appreciated his sense of divine retribution.

"Human, Josh. And you can try all you want, but you're never going to exceed that status."

"What those people think shouldn't matter."

"Shouldn't is a bad, bad word."

"You've been talking to Chris haven't you? Fucking psychobabble."

"I'll go with you."

"You're not invited."

Joey fished the invitation out from where he had hidden it under the bench cushion. He read aloud, "Mr. Joshua Scott Chasez and date are cordially invited-"

"You wanna be my date?"

Joey gave the closest thing to a blush possible without actually being one, "I wanna be your support system." More quietly, "I haven't forgotten all the reasons you don't wanna go back."

"And you still think I should?"

Joey nodded.

"Fuck."

*

JC picked up the name tag with his high school picture scanned onto it at the registration table and made a face at Joey. "Remind me why I'm here again."

Joey politely returned the face. "I needed a weekend off."

The woman at the registration table who had been busy helping another returnee turned to JC again. "JC, Joey, my six year old adores you guys, could you maybe…"

Joey smiled and grabbed one of schedules laying out, turning it over to the blank side, "What's her name," he read the woman's off her name tag, "Lisa?"

"Jessica. Thanks so much, it'll mean a lot to her."

JC scrolled off a message by rote and signed his name after Joey, smiling at Lisa. He grabbed the larger man's arm and pulled him away heading back to where their guards stood, waiting. "I hate you."

"Mm hmm."

*

Joey was glad to see that when JC stepped out of his hotel room to go to the first night event that evening, he was as sparkly as ever. "Lookin' good, Chasez."

JC pretended to think about his response, "You too."

Joey knew his friend was nervous by the way he turned the music up too loud to have a conversation in the car, but let him get away with the evasion technique.

They arrived about an hour later than the starting time, so social hour was well on its way when they stepped in the doors. JC made a beeline for the bar and ordered a coke with Malibu. Joey took this to mean he was the designated driver. He ordered a cherry coke.

Joey took a sip. "You recognize anyone?"

JC tilted his head and considered. "The guy who beat me up on the first day of school is standing over by table 14, talking with someone else. The girl who laughed at me when I asked her to my freshman year homecoming is sitting down the bar aways with a guy. The guy who made fun of me in math class for knowing the answers is walking in the door as we speak." He looked around again. "That pretty much covers it."

Joey considered his options. "The girl was Julia Firenz yeah?"

"You remember scary things."

"Let's start with her."

"What?" JC started. "Oh no, Joe. No."

"Josh, your only friends during your high school years were the MMC kids, are you just gonna sit around and talk to me this whole time? We can do that while on the buses."

"You're the one who dragged me here."

"Okay, well, you trusted me enough to come with me, can you just let me take you a step further?"

JC glared, but he followed Joey to the end of the bar. Joey nodded encouragingly to JC who cleared his throat softly and said, "Excuse me."

Julia turned around and smiled nervously. "I was kinda hoping you'd come down here. I saw you over there and wanted to apologize, but was pretty sure you'd have forgotten all about me."

"No, uh, I have a surprisingly good memory when it comes to psyche-scarring moments."

Julia grimaced. "I was a total bitch, huh?"

JC gaped. "Um, well. If I ask you something, will you answer honestly?"

"Depends."

"Fair enough." JC sat down in the bar stool on the side of her that the man wasn't on. Joey stayed standing. "Are you just saying that because I grew up to be JC Chasez?"

Julia understood. "No, I'm saying it because when I was a freshman in college this frat guy did basically the same thing to me and a few days later, when I'd gotten over feeling like my life was gonna end I realized I kinda deserved it." She paused. "Although, I have to admit, it would be kinda cool to say you took me to homecoming one year."

JC grinned. "Why don't you? I mean, can't hurt my image any, you've gone from pretty to beautiful."

Julia blushed and Joey leaned in to whisper, "Go, Casanova, go."

JC whispered back, "Shut up and I'll tell you later that you were right about coming over here."

Joey felt more assured there would be a later when Julia introduced the man sitting next to her as her husband.

*

People were unsure of what to say to JC. Most of the men and women who had attended were graced with the good sense to know that a reunion was probably not the best time to pester the man for his autograph, but none of them really had any school memories of him, so it left for a lot of "congratulations, man" type greetings with an accompanying awkward silence. Joey bailed them out after the guy who had beaten JC up approached them with a friendly grin and a "So, Chasez, I was right after all, you did turn out to be a fag."

Joey got them into the car and started apologizing, stopping when JC shrugged and said, "It’s not like he's wrong."

Joey pulled over prompting a call from the guards which he answered with a "wait a minute" and hung up on. "Joshua Scott Chasez."

"Don't act like you’re my mother, I'm still older than you."

"So you're bi, Josh. So what? You think any part of you is hateful enough that it deserves to be called a name like that?"

JC picked at one of the frills on his jeans. "How long've you known?"

"Dunno, since you left the bar in Lichtenstein with that guy Andrew and he showed up at another bar in the next town, I guess."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Why did I need to? Women are beautiful, men are beautiful. Fun is fun, sex is sex, love is love. What's to say?"

"Then you- Um, guys do it for you?"

"Every once in a while. Am I a fag?"

JC looked angry at the suggestion.

"Now you know how I feel." Joey pulled back onto the road.

*

They skipped all the day events on Saturday. Joey had told JC that if he came he could sleep in and chill as much as he wanted so long as he went to the two evening events. JC wandered through the door connecting their rooms somewhere around one o'clock that afternoon, cocked a still-sleep dazed grin in Joey's direction with a slurred, "morning'," and picked up the phone to order room service.

JC took his time eating before devoting an hour to showering rather than his usual forty-five minutes. When he showed up completely dressed and one hundred percent awake, Joey queried, "Mind going somewhere with me?"

"Somewhere fun?" JC did his best imitation of Chris after a Pixie Stick or two.

"You used to think so."

"After you, my friend."

Joey reached out to ruffle perfectly placed hair strands. "Spazz."

*

"Holy-" JC laughed. "Home sweet home."

It was just a parking lot. It stood behind some sound stages, littered with crushed beer and soda cans, old fliers advertising everything from triple x clubs to foreign films and discarded set pieces. It was right next to what had once been the Mickey Mouse Club filming studio. They had met there, JC taking a shortcut to the dressing rooms, running late; Joey trying to find a way to sneak onto the set. JC had nearly run into him and asked, somewhat confused, "Are you lost?"

Joey had shrugged, having been caught and said, "Just wanted to see what goes on inside."

JC had grinned, for the first time in quite awhile feeling just the tiniest bit cool. "C'mon, I'll take you in. You can see the glamour of communal dressing rooms, widescreen edition."

Nearly thirteen years later, JC was looking around wildly, like the rest of the Club kids were going to round the corner any moment. "The parking lot of Firsts, man. First kiss, first joint, first chocolate-dipped ice cream cone-"

"What kind of freak makes it to fifteen without having one of those, huh?"

"Sh'dup." JC giggled and fixed his gaze on Joey. "First real friend."

Joey thought that if he were the blushing type, he probably would have created a new shade of red right then.

*

Joey was pretty sure JC was wearing skin glitter when he walked out in what was otherwise a relatively normal outfit, especially for him. The cuffs on the blue Oxford shirt were rolled up to reveal thin brown leather bands encircling his wrists and the top was unbuttoned down to the third button, so that his Leo sign hung visibly in the hollow of his throat. His jeans were rolled up in eighties-style cuffs at the bottom, but were otherwise unadorned. So, other than his teased up hair and the way his skin was sparkling colors that just weren't natural, JC looked pretty much like any guy you'd meet on the street.

Joey wanted to lick the glitter away. He resisted. "You're goin' all drab on me."

JC grinned. "Makes the glitter more noticeable."

Joey didn't tell him that he would glow in neon yellow pants. "It looks good."

JC did a girlie twirl for effect. "I was hoping you'd think so."

*

The event Saturday night consisted of a dance that was akin to recreating Prom with everyone ten years older and doubly excited over the possibility of a one-night stand. JC got out onto the dance floor early with Julia and pretty much made his way through women he didn't recognize after that, which constituted the large majority of the female population in the room.

Joey made small talk with an entertainment lawyer and several journalists before discussing with Dre the possibility of not having to drive home and diving head first into small talk with the bartender. He was half way to pleasantly inebriated when he noticed a conglomeration of sparkles heading his way. He raised his glass to JC. JC shook his head disparagingly and leaned over Joey to whisper, "Dance with me."

The song playing filtered into Joey's brain and he smiled before following his friend out onto the dance floor. JC gave tribute to Cyndi Lauper, gliding easily across dance space, up against Joey one moment, four feet from him the next. Joey could barely hear him over the music, his voice floating almost as high as hers, "Oh, when the workin' day is done-"

Joey gave up and joined in, "You know, girls they wanna have fu-un. O-o, girls just wanna have fun."

Afterwards, when the same guy who had called JC a fag the night before came up and taunted them with a rather drunken, "That's an appropriate song for you," JC laid a hand on an increasingly-close-to-violence Joey's arm and said, "Let's go have some fun."

Joey didn't shake the hand off as he said, "Yeah," and thought that the dance had been worth it.

*

They ended up at a coffee house because it was quiet and they said they would put honey in JC's latte, the way he liked it.

JC licked at the tip of his steamed milk. "Thanks for sticking up for me."

Joey shrugged. "I brought you here. Least I could do."

"I'm glad you did. Bring me here. 'Cuz, before I knew what they thought shouldn't matter, but now I know it actually doesn't."

Joey warmed his hands on the outside of his espresso cup. "My job here is done. I must be on my way."

"I see now. You introduce me to chocolate-dipped ice cream cones and self-confidence and you leave me. Is that it?"

"There are other children who need me."

"I hate that movie, don't quote it to me."

"What kind of a deviant hates 'Pete's Dragon'?"

"This deviant," JC's eyes flashed defiance. "It's sad. Pete loves the dragon, but he sets Pete down somewhere where he'll be happy and then takes off. If the dragon loved him back, he would stay. You're supposed to stay with the people you love."

For the first time since Nikki had broken JC's heart, Joey was pretty sure it wasn't her JC was talking about. "Um, Josh?"

"Tell me this weekend means what I want it to mean." JC's eyes were bright. "Stay with me."

"I think," Joey said slowly, reaching under the table to lightly touch JC's knee, "that we should go back to the hotel and make some more Firsts between us."