Title: Two Weeks
Fandom: NSync
Rating: G
Length: 664 words
Content notes: Twilight Warrior is my creation.
Author notes: This was a blast from the past...
Summary: Just a chance for Chris to see an old friend.


Chris received JC's voicemails so seldom that each one came as a surprise. He didn't mind them, just sometimes the timing could be better. Still, it didn't bother him as much as it might have at another time in his life.

Of course, he never expected to get JC when he called back in answer to the voicemail, so this time it surprised him to actually get the live person. "What do you mean, you need me?" Chris asked after they'd caught up and Chris had teased him about actually being a real person and talking to him.

"I mean you've got the right range," JC explained.

Chris snorted. "You've got women to sing your guides for you," he said.

"It's distracting, and it makes the girls think they have to sing it exactly like that, and I want it more like their own style. Just... come down for a couple of weeks. I'll make it worth your while."

"You don't have to do that," Chris said.

"I do if I want you to keep coming back," JC pointed out.

Chris laughed. "When do you want me?" he asked, because it had never been a question of not going.

They worked out the time and everything, and then Chris hung up and stared at his notes. Yeah, a couple of weeks away from home sounded amazing. He shook his mouse to wake up his computer, and started looking for flights.

He spent those couple of weeks brushing up on his skills, warming up and singing to the melodies JC had sent. He made notes, kept working, and just... enjoyed looking forward to spending some time with JC.

The two weeks sped by, and he found himself sequestered away in JC's guest room, in a house that looked more like a museum than a house. "I'm not here much," JC admitted that night over beers and the remnants of a steak dinner that had been delicious.

"You're busy," Chris said. "I get it."

JC laughed and took a drink. "It's too big. I should sell it and get something less... ostentatious."

"You wanted ostentatious," Chris pointed out.

"I did. I don't anymore." JC shrugged. "I keep thinking about it, but it's just too much work, and I have more to do away from here, so I don't worry about it."

Chris raised his beer. "To work that we love," he said, and JC clinked his bottle against Chris's with agreement.

Chris hadn't been to JC's company in a while, and it didn't surprise him to see how much it had grown. Just walking down the hallway with all the posters of the artists that had recorded at his place made Chris's eyebrows go up. Then he stopped dead in front of one of the posters. "You've had Twilight Warrior in here?" he asked, hands clasped behind his back.

JC laughed. "Yeah. Are you a fan?"

"Yeah," Chris said. "They're good, man. I know J was salivating at a chance to work with them, and he was crushed when it fell through."

"Oh, yeah," JC said. "I remember that. They were pretty disappointed, too."

"Why'd it happen?"

JC shook his head. "Someone with a stick up their butt told them they couldn't because it would cheapen their music. The way those ladies laid into that man... I'm glad I wasn't involved, because I'm pretty sure he was fired as well as finding out he had no right to tell them what their music should sound like. By then it was too late, and neither of them had time."

"Bummer," Chris said, and turned away from the poster. "That would have been something to see. And I could have hounded J to get me an autograph of the CD from them."

JC snorted. "If you're nice, I'll get one for you."

Chris turned on him. "Hey. When am I not nice?" he demanded, and just to prove it, didn't push JC down the hall past the poster.