Title

Chris isn't really sure when it was he became the comic relief. He supposes it may have always been that way, but he never noticed it until recently. Right around the time Joey's daughter became public knowledge, and Justin was acting again, and Lance became a business man, and JC was always writing music. Chris had FuMan, but that was childs play compared to the other guys' projects. And besides that it was going broke and Dani pretty much handled it lately. She got it mostly after the breakup, it was really just his in name only.

He didn't mind it at first, being the comic relief. He'd always been a bit of a clown, so it wasn't like he'd suddenly acquired this new role in life. But then it was like he had. Maybe he hadn't gotten a new role, but really just kept his old one while the other guys stepped into newer bigger ones. He started to wonder if he really had a thing like they did. Something that made him not just the S in NSYNC.

He confessed this to JC before bed one night. He was serious for about five minutes and then he brushed it off, claiming all the stress of their careers had brought on an early mid-life crisis. But JC stopped him, and hugged him and told him he could help, if Chris really wanted to try and grow into something else. JC was always looking for someone to work on his songs with, so maybe Chris would like to co-write something with him some day next week. And Chris thought JC was only pitying him, but the gesture was real and he nodded, because it actually sounded like fun.

But it was harder work than he thought, and he ended up just goofing off or fiddling with something really expensive in JC's studio instead of actually writing. After Chinese delivery lunch, Chris was really just there for JC to bounce his ideas off of. It was better that way, Chris thought, because he'd never really been inclined to write music or prose before, so why try now. At the end of the day, JC had some strong ideas, and he thanked Chris for all his help. But Chris could see from the way JC smiled like in magazines that his help hadn't been needed and JC was only being nice.

Chris thought JC had an idea though. Maybe what he needed was to look for something to do, rather than waiting for it to just fall into place for him. After that, he went to Lance. He thought he might start with what he already had, a business, and get involved again. He sat down in front of Lance and his laptop and was really quiet until Lance asked him if he needed something. And Chris just wondered if maybe Lance could help him understand the numbers for the last quarter with FuMan. Lance was more than happy enough to drop what he was doing and help Chris.

Thanks go here