One

One. One whole million. It was unheard of. No one had ever done it before. They had sold one million albums in a single day. Justin still wasn’t sure he wasn’t just dreaming it all. He kept telling the guys to pinch him. Except Chris. Because Chris pinched hard. The shock still hadn’t worn off by time he and JC finally went back to their room for the night.

“Is it really real?” JC nodded with a huge smile on his face as he stripped his shirt off and tossed it in the general direction of his suitcase before coming over and wrapping his arms around Justin.

“Kinda makes up for all the shit we went through before this album doesn’t it?” Justin thought about it for a minute. Almost. It almost made up for the law suit and the whole Lou ordeal. Almost but not quite.

“The only thing that makes up for any of that is the fact that I have you here with me every night now.” He leaned in and kissed JC softly, their lips sliding against each other with an ease that had been there from the very first kiss.

Somewhere in the middle of the law suit, with the pressure bearing down on all of them, JC had snapped. Justin had been there as he screamed and yelled, punched a wall, and proceeded to grab a suitcase full of clothing and tossed it in the back of his SUV, saying he was taking off for awhile. Justin had barely gotten in the car as JC took off. And he’d done as he’d said. He drove and drove and drove. He had no specific direction, no set destination. And Justin was only there because he’d been worried and run after JC as he left the house. Justin had no clothing of his own, no toiletries. All he had on him at the time was his cell phone and wallet. And they’d driven for close to three hours before JC had even said a word to him. But when he finally opened up, they’d both broken down about the law suit and what it was doing to all of them, but by breaking down they’d had the chance to rebuild, recharge, and a few days later go back with a stronger handle on the situation. They also went back with a new respect for each other and that respect had turned into a love deeper than either of them had ever known.

Now, not 6 months later, they had sold one million albums in one day.

“I would have been happy with one hundred albums sold as long as I get to go to sleep with you next to me every night,” JC said softly. And Justin tried to keep a straight face. He really did. But as sweet and dorky and so JC as that was, there was no way he was buying it.

“You’re full of shit. If we’d only sold a hundred albums you’d be pissing and moaning and staying up all night wondering what we did wrong while I slept in that bed all by myself.” And just for a moment JC looked offended. Until he realized it was entirely true.

Two

Justin Timberlake. They’d called his name. His name. At the Grammy Awards. It was a surreal moment as he stood up and walked up on stage to accept his second award of the night. Two Grammy Awards. Granted, one of them wasn’t televised, but still, two Grammy’s.

JC was on his feet cheering, down at the other end of the auditorium, a grin big enough for both of them on his face. And as he got behind the podium, all he wanted to say was how much he loved JC and how thankful he was that JC was always there, always supportive. But of course, the world didn’t know about that and this place, this night was not the place to start a scandal. Especially considering it had only been a week since the Superbowl incident with Janet.

But now none of that mattered because he was up here in front of everyone holding a Grammy in his hands. It was heavier than he thought it would be, and he’d through about it a lot. It was heavier than any other awards he had sitting around his house at home. Now he had these to add to his collection.

He was still feeling on top of the world later that night as he finally made it back down the red carpet and to his waiting limo only to find JC already sitting inside.

“I always knew, someday, you’d be holding a Grammy Award in your hand. And you deserve it more than I think you even know Justin.” JC leaned across the seat to kiss him softly. “You told me once, when you first talked about doing a solo album, that the thing that scared you the most about it was me resenting you if you got too big, if you got bigger than the group ever did.” There eyes met across the seats and Justin could see the smile, the happiness shining in JC’s eyes. “That night is here and resentment isn’t even close to anything that I’m feeling. All I can feel for you is happiness. You work hard for your success and that alone is worth those two Grammy’s going home with you tonight.”

Three

This was the third time they’d performed at the VMA’s. Not to mention all the other award shows they’d performed at over the years. And then throw all the tours with shows every single night in there and one award show should be a piece of cake. But even though they had all that under their belt, JC was nervous. More nervous than he could ever remember being. Yet, he wasn’t entirely sure why. Sure they were performing with Michael Jackson. Sure there were millions of people watching on TV, and a few thousand people sitting in that very auditorium. But none of that had ever made JC nervous before. He was a seasoned pro at this by now. Or at least, he was suppose to be.

But for some reason his stomach was all in knots and he felt like throwing up. And they weren’t even backstage ready for their performance yet. The show had just started and they were still safely in their seats watching the opening act perform.

It must have been his leg bouncing that gave it away because suddenly Justin leaned slightly closer and whispered.

“Relax C. It’s just Pop. We’ve done it a million times. You’re not going to forget your words. You’re not going to forget the dance steps.” And then, ever so subtly after making sure absolutely no camera’s were pointed in their direction, he squeezed JC’s knee ever so slightly. And just that quickly the nerves went away and JC knew he was right. He had nothing to be nervous about.

Later, after they walked backstage after the performance, he walked up behind Justin and squeezed his shoulder slightly.

“How is it you always know what to say to calm me down?” Justin looked back at him over his shoulder and winked.

“In this case, it’s because you said the exact same thing to me the first time we were on MTV performing ‘I Want You Back’ and I was so nervous. And it worked for me then, so I figured it’d work for you now.” They were ushered through the dozens and dozens of people rushing around backstage and there was no more chance to talk after that, but as they moved back to their seats and JC returned the favor of squeezing Justin’s knee, he knew Justin understood the thank you loud and clear.

Four

JC was confused when he looked at his caller ID and saw the name of a local hospital on there. He was even more confused when it was Justin’s voice on the other end, considering he was suppose to be at dance rehearsal.

“I broke four bones in my foot.” And then, before JC could substantially freak out, he cut in again. “Relax, C. I’m fine. They took good care of me. It’s all casted up. I just can’t drive. Can you come pick me up?”

When JC got to the hospital, he found Justin still sitting in a private room back in the ER and just stood at the door shaking his head.

“You scare the crap out of me sometimes. You know that?” But Justin just grinned.

“Wanna be the first to sign my cast?” He held out a sharpie and JC couldn’t refuse. He moved over to Justin and took the sharpie, sitting down in the chair next to him and bending over the cast. He was careful not to press too hard against Justin’s leg in the process as he opened the sharpie and began to write, his tongue peeking out of the side of his mouth just like every other time he wrote or drew anything from music to the pictures he called art and Justin called ‘colors on an easel.’ Finally he pulled back so Justin could see what he’d written, handing him back the sharpie. And as Justin looked down he saw a little stick figure with a cast attached to one foot. The words below it read ‘My name is Justin. I am a klutz. You may all point and laugh.’

JC could only laugh harder as the top of the sharpie hit him square in the forehead.

Five

It was Justin’s 24th birthday. But more importantly it was their fifth anniversary. This afternoon had been spent with Justin’s family at dinner. The evening had been spent with friends at a club, dancing late into the night. Tomorrow Justin was leaving to start shooting on another movie. But for now, for tonight, it was just the two of them.

Justin was sitting against the headboard, flipping through some magazine JC had sitting on the night stand waiting for JC to finish showering. He had this thing about going to clubs. He couldn’t come home and just climb into bed. He needed to shower first.

Justin heard the shower shut off and a few minutes later the bathroom door opened and steam billowed out from inside. And there standing in the middle of it was JC, fluffy towel wrapped around his waist as he moved across the room, grinning, toward Justin.

“I have a present for you.” He slipped the towel off and crawled across the bed toward Justin, their lips meeting somewhere in the middle. A slow grin spread across Justin’s face as he pulled JC closer, pressing their bodies together.

“My favorite kind of present.” But JC’s giggle told him that sex, indeed, was not the present he’d been talking about. Instead, JC reached over and pulled open the night stand drawer, pulling out a small box. “You didn’t have to, you know. It’s not like I need anything.” But JC just shrugged.

“This is way more of a sentimental present than anything flashy or expensive.” And that intrigued Justin enough for him to tear the wrapping paper off the small box and lift the lid off. And there, laying inside the box, was a small penny, crushed and imprinted with a logo for the Motown Café. A huge grin lit up Justin’s face as the memories came flashing back. For their first date they’d gone to City Walk for dinner and had ended up eating at the Motown Café. Afterwards, Justin had seen the penny machine in the front of the restaurant and had wanted to make one, to remind of them of their first date forever, he’d said at the time.

Over the years it had gotten misplaced and forgotten about but cleaning out the hall closet one day, JC had found it in a shoe box with some other stuff that had meant something to them at one time or another. And as small and insignificant as it actually was, it had meant a lot to them at one time.

Now, five years later, it had made Justin smile. Sure, it would probably get put back in a box and misplaced and forgotten about for another five or ten years, but for this night, it had meant something again. And that was what mattered.

Six

It was the sixth show on JC’s tour. Well, if you wanted to get technical, he had done shows before this but had then gone over to Europe to open for Britney. But he was back now, and it had taken until the sixth show for Justin to be able to make it out to see him. He sighed as he sat up in the upper balcony at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City. They were both so busy these days and didn’t have near as much time for each other as they’d like to. Justin had wanted to make it out to the first show back in Chicago, since JC’d been in Europe for a couple weeks, but then he’d had something on his schedule and things just hadn’t worked out until now. But he was here now and that was what mattered.

JC was down below, doing a meet and greet and Justin didn’t have the courage to peek over and see how long the line still was because, while during a show all the attention was on the music, on the performance on stage, during a meet and greet, it was probable that fans’ eyes would wander and possible they’d wander right up to where he was looking over the side of the balcony. But he could tell the line was thinning out because it was getting more and more quiet as the minutes ticked by. And soon, all that was left was JC and his crew down below. Justin finally looked over the side, just as JC was looking up at him, their eyes meeting and grins spreading across both their faces.

“It’s safe to come down now for awhile.” Justin nodded and headed from the balcony, making his way up toward the stage and JC. This was really the first chance they’d had to talk all day, and the last chance until after the show tonight back in JC’s hotel room.

“Sorry it took me so long to make it out to a show.” He felt worse about it than JC was aware of. But JC just shrugged.

“Hey, it’s no big deal. The point is, you made it out.” He winked at Justin. “So our schedules have clashed a lot lately. Doesn’t mean I think you don’t care anymore, J. Until we both settled down again, I’ll survive with the nightly phone calls.” Because that was something they were both adamant on. Every night, before they went to sleep, no matter where in the world they were, one of them called the other. Even if just for a couple minutes. Sometimes it was the only connection they would have for weeks on end.

Tonight they’d get to curl up in bed together, and in the morning they’d get to wake up next to each other, but after that they’d be back to just a nightly phone call. And if that was all they had for awhile, then they’d make it work until they could see each other again.

Seven

It had taken him seven shots to get his ball to finally go in the hole. He hated golf. And he wasn’t sure why he ever let Justin talk him into coming along. Sure the sun was shining and it was gorgeous out. Sure he got to spend time with Justin. Sure there was generally beer involved. But that still didn’t erase the fact that he hated golf. Luckily for him, Justin didn’t say a word about how many strokes it had taken for JC to make the shot as they climbed in their golf cart to head to the next hold.

“We’re only playing nine holes right?” JC asked as he marked a seven on his scorecard. Justin chuckled and if it wasn’t so cute, JC was sure he would have choked him.

“Yeah, we’re only playing nine. Beer?” He held out a cold can of beer for JC which JC took thankfully and took a long swig of. “You know what you’re problem is?”

“I’m sure you’re going to tell me,” JC responded dryly.

“You think too much. You over analyze it like you do with putt putt. With putt putt there are walls that you can figure out exactly where to hit the ball off of to make it go where you want it to go. Here, you don’t have any walls. You can’t use that same theory and you still try to. Just, relax. Just let it flow naturally.” JC tried. He tried on the next three holes but things didn’t turn out much better for him. It wasn’t until the eighth hole that he finally remembered why he always agreed to come golfing with Justin. Justin lined up to take his first swing, hit the ball with a good amount of force, and landed his ball right in a sand trap. Justin hated sand traps. And as JC watched Justin’s frustration grow and grow with each attempt to get it back out, it was his turn to chuckle. And from his place a few yards away, a cold beer in his hand, he called out to Justin.

“You’re over thinking it, J. Just relax. Just let it flow naturally.” Yes, the glare Justin sent his way and the grin he returned was exactly why he always agreed to come golfing with Justin.

Eight

The eighth day of the eighth month of the year. More importantly, JC’s birthday. And Justin had surprised him with quite the party.

JC hadn’t had a clue it was coming. It wasn’t, after all, a specific milestone birthday. He was turning 26. If it had been 30, he knew JC would have definitely expected a party. But for 26, he hadn’t been expecting a thing. So when Justin had said they were simply going out to dinner, JC had believed it and gone along willingly. He’d definitely been surprised when they’d walked into the building to yells of surprise. But he’d taken it all in good fun and had been smiling and laughing all night. Of course, the high consumption of alcohol could have something to do with that.

When they’d brought out the cake shaped like a naked woman, JC had grinned, his eyes disappearing, and met Justin’s eyes over the top of the cake.

“How very, not fitting.” And he’d winked that wink that could just about knock Justin over breathless every time. And then he’d bent over and blown out each and every last candle, saving the one right between the legs for last. After they’d cut the cake and passed it around, JC had slid up to him, his piece of cake already half gone.

“I was going to go with a male figure, but since everyone here doesn’t know, I figured I’d play it safe.” Justin winked. “Besides, you get the real thing at home later so I figured you didn’t need it in cake form too.”

As the night had progressed, more alcohol had been consumed and finally, Justin pulled out his final surprise of the night. A blow up doll which was really just an excuse to be able to dance with JC. He made his way through the crowd, gaining onlookers along the way, and pressed the doll up against JC as he began to dance against it from the other side. JC laughed hysterically but finally found the rhythm, and there, in front of everyone, they danced together with a simple barrier between them.

Yes, all in all it had been quite the party, but both of them knew the fun was just beginning for them.

Nine

He’d worn the leo necklace for nine years. Nine years and one day he happened to have a pair of scissors in his hand and for whatever reason had cut the leather cord it had hung on for most of those years. And now it was laying before him on the sink in the bathroom and he wasn’t exactly sure how he felt about it.

He was still staring at it, laying there innocently twenty minutes later when Justin came in the front door and called out to him, following JC’s reply to the master bathroom upstairs.

“JC?” Justin peeked his head around the doorframe. “What are you doing?” But it didn’t take long for Justin to see the necklace laying there. “You cut it off?”

“But now I’m not sure why.” There eyes met, confusion rushing through JC’s. “I just had a pair of scissors and the next thing I know it was laying there on the sink.” Justin came over and stood behind JC, his hand sliding to JC’s hips, their eyes connecting in the mirror in front of them.

“Maybe it was time. Maybe it’s like you said about my hair when I chopped it all off. The end of an era, you know? You had that thing what? Nine years? Maybe it’s just a way of moving on, growing up a little bit more.” He smiled softly. “And I can tell you’re freaking out now but it’s not like you have to throw it away. You can still keep it. Put it in a drawer somewhere, or a shoe box up on the top shelf of the closet. It can still be there if and when you ever need it again.”

“It brought me a lot of good luck in life. You, the group, a lot of great times, great memories.” But as JC spoke Justin shook his head slowly.

“It wasn’t the necklace that brought you all of that. It wasn’t just luck. It’s the choices you made, the choices we all make everyday that make us who we are and what we become. It’s the choices we make that decide how our lives turn out. We just made some good choices in life.” He leaned in and kissed the side of JC’s cheek. “No necklace in the world could have told me that all those years ago when we met that you and I’d have what we have together today. It was simply a feeling inside of me that told me that.” Their eyes connected again and Justin could see the confusion clearing from JC’s eyes, instead replaced with the love that always shown for Justin alone. And in that moment they both knew that the necklace, though important for so many years, would be put in a drawer or shoe box and be left there. It was time to move on to the next phase of his life. He had a new album he was working on, and a few other projects on the horizon. And taking off that necklace, though such a small thing, was the beginning of that new phase.

Ten

From what they could understand of the local evening news, it was ten degrees outside. And it felt almost as cold as that inside their drafty, cheep hotel room. The heater tended to only work for a short time before shutting off and staying off for longer than it was on. It also had the downside of not warming up the room at all. The beds in this hotel were actually decent. They were comfy at least. But the blankets were rather thin and didn’t do much to keep out the cold temperatures of a German winter. They’d tried hot showers but the water only stayed warm for about five minutes so since JC had let Justin go first, Justin had five minutes of pure warm bliss followed by another two minutes of freezing water as he tried as quickly as he could to get the shampoo out of his hair. JC hadn’t even bothered with an icy shower.

They were suppose to be going to sleep. They had an interview bright and early the next morning. But it was really hard to sleep when all you could do is lay there and shiver. Or listen to someone else lay there and shiver. JC wasn’t shivering, but Justin was in the bed next to his. His teeth were chattering and JC could see he was curled in the fetal position to find any extra warmth.

“I have three pairs of socks on, two pairs of sweat pants, a tee shirt, a long sleeved tee shirt, and a sweatshirt and I’m still freezing,” Justin said, curling in on himself even more.

“I think I can see my breath,” JC mumbled back. They quieted down for a few more minutes before finally Justin flopped onto his back with a loud sigh.

“This is ridiculous.” And without warning he climbed out of bed, grabbing both his pillow and his blanket, and made his way over to JC’s bed, tossing the blanket over JC and the blanket he already had covering him, pulling back the covers just enough to crawl under them, and pulling them up to his chin as he slid his body against JC’s. JC’s initial reaction was to tense up automatically, but Justin’s voice slid through the darkness. “Calm down C. It’s just for body heat. So what if we’re two guys and one of us happens to be underage. It’s not like you’re doing nasty things to me under these covers. The door is locked and no one can get in. No one will ever have to know, we’ll have two blankets and body heat to keep us warm, and we’ll be able to hopefully get a good nights sleep.

So JC took a deep breath and calmed down enough to realize Justin had a point and curled his own body back into Justin’s. And by time they woke up to the alarm in the morning, he had to admit Justin had been right. They’d both been warmer and had both gotten the best nights sleep they’d had in quite a long time.

Eleven

JC still had his number eleven jersey on and was sitting on a bench in the locker room. They had to go back out for more pictures as a group but they were letting the crowd clear out first. Justin came up and sat down beside him, his matching Daze jersey with the number 1˝ on it.

“You know why they had us on the same team this year don’t you?” Justin asked, a basketball still in his hands. He twirled it around as he looked up at JC. JC shook his head and Justin grinned. “They didn’t want us guarding each other. Apparently last year we got a little too...frisky. So Johnny figured it’d be safer if we were on the same team. Of course, that meant that I just had a reason to be able to smack your ass out there.” JC chuckled.

“Not to mention tickled the hell out of me when I came out onto the court. I’m sure Johnny loved that.”

“Hey, the fans loved it.”

“I loved it too,” JC said, pressing his shoulder against Justin’s. Justin grinned and tossed the ball up into the air in JC’s direction.

“Come on, we gotta go look pretty for the camera’s.” He stood up and grabbed JC’s hand, pulling him along as they headed back out to the court with the rest of the guys and posed for picture after picture after picture. And somewhere in the middle of it, their eyes met and they grinned at each other just as JC saw a camera flash go off and he knew he’d be looking specifically for that picture. He liked to have memories of all the moments their shared in their lives and their careers and he already knew that picture was the perfect on to capture this day.

Twelve

To say there hadn’t been some resentment there at first would have been a lie. The kid was TWLEVE. And here JC was, almost seventeen and jealous of a twelve year old from the moment he opened his mouth to sing and started dancing. JC just knew he wasn’t going to like this kid. He was probably cocky. Probably a show off.

But then they’d been properly introduced and Justin had worn this huge grin and had the most adorable southern accent and somehow you just couldn’t NOT like the kid. So JC had taken him under his wing, showed him the ropes. And soon, Justin was coming to him for help with his lines, help with his songs. JC secretly thought he didn’t quite need the help, but he kept letting Justin pretend he did anyway. The truth was, he liked the times they shared working over a scrip or working on a song. And after awhile he figured that’s why Justin kept coming back to ask for help. Because he liked the times they shared together too.

They never hung out much outside of work because of the age difference. JC had his group of friends, and Justin and the other younger cast members quickly formed their own group. But occasionally, the two of them would have a few minutes to share and would head out back to play a quick game of basketball or something. Something else Justin Timberlake was extremely good at. But after a few months JC stopped resenting that and learned to appreciate the fact that it was simply that if Justin wanted something bad enough, he’d put in the time and effort and hard work to accomplish it.

When, after two more seasons, the show got cancelled, he knew he’d miss each of them in their own way. Some of them he still planned on seeing, like Tony and Dale who he was moving to LA with. Some of them he knew he’d probably never see again. And then there was Justin. He and Justin had never been as close as he was with Tony and Dale, but somehow he knew that someday, their paths would cross again. That someday he and Justin would run into each other again. He somehow just knew that even though this was goodbye for now, this was far from the end for them.

Thirteen

Before the album had come out, at the last minute, Justin had worried because he’d had thirteen track on there. Never Again was a late edition and afterwards, by time it was too late, he started to rethink it. Thirteen was an unlucky number. Having thirteen tracks on an album was like a kiss of death.

He’d had a minor freak out about it until JC reminded him that Nsync’s debut album and ‘Celebrity’ both had thirteen tracks on them. After that he’d calmed down considerably but it had still been on his mind the day the album was released and he did interview after interview after interview and in between, while was traveling from one place to another, he was on the phone with Johnny who was reading him off the latest numbers. It wasn’t until that night when he finally got back to his New York City hotel room and got the last numbers for the night, the final first day sales, that the worry over having thirteen tracks left him completely.

And when he called JC, who answered on the first ring as if he’d been waiting for Justin’s call, the very first thing JC said was about the thirteen tracks.

“I told you having thirteen tracks wasn’t unlucky.” Justin could hear the grin in his voice.

“How do you know it’s not unlucky? You don’t even know the first day sales yet,” Justin teased back.

“J, you don’t think I’ve been doing for your album exactly what we did for all our albums? You don’t think I’ve been keeping up a running tally with Johnny all day too?” That caught Justin off guard. He knew JC wanted him to do well, knew JC hoped his album sold well, but he’d had no idea that JC would go as far as to check up on it all day. And it meant more to Justin than he knew he could ever express in words. But the soft ‘thanks’ he whispered into the phone was enough and JC knew exactly how much it meant to Justin.

Fourteen

“Do you realize we’ve known each other for fourteen years?”

They were out at dinner. Not for any particular reason. Neither of them had felt like cooking so they’d gone out to eat. And they’d been talking about the Lakers when out of nowhere it had hit Justin just how long they’d know each other. Usually JC was the king of non sequiturs but tonight it was Justin who had JC looking at him like he’d lost his mind with the out of nowhere statement. When JC’s brain finally caught up with the change in conversation he grinned.

“And we’ve been together for half of that time. It’s kind of amazing with you think about it. I’m not sure how I’ve survived as long as I have dating you.” He winked, and Justin grinned back at him.

When they both stopped to think about it though, it really was pretty amazing. Aside from their families, there was no one else either of them had know longer that they were still friends with to this day. Except Trace, but Trace didn’t count. And they’d been through so much together. Way back on MMC they’d both been so young and so naive to how it all really worked. They’d had stars in their eyes and all they knew at the time was that they were on a TV show doing what they loved to do. It had been cancelled and a part of each of them had been devastate.

But then another opportunity had come up and it had been the best seven years any of them could have asked for. There were low points of course, like the law suit for one. But most of it had been this fantastic ride they’d all loved immensely, a ride none of them would have given up for the world back then, no matter what happened.

Nsync had also given them each other. It had given them an opportunity to grow with each other and fall in love. It had, so far, given them seven years of happiness. Sure there were fights, but what relationship didn’t have a fight here or there. The rest of the time made up for the occasional fights. And neither of them were looking to call it quits any time soon. Because there was love there, a deep, real, true love that both of them knew they’d never find with anyone else. There was support there, in everything each of them did in their personal lives and their careers. And there was a trust that ran so deeply in both of them.

Fourteen years of friendship, seven strong years of love and respect and admiration in a relationship. And a future so bright for both of them, both in their careers and their personal life together and separate. They were both on top of the world and would remain there with each other even if the rest of the country forgot their names tomorrow. Fourteen years and knowing a lot more were to come.....