They were piled on the couches in the suite's living room, watching the footage from the 'Atlantis' concert.

"Guys. For the love of anything you hold dear, don't make me watch this. I was there. I know how the concert went," pleaded JC.

"This from the guy who is forever nagging us to watch our game tapes of every concert we do. What's gotten into you, Jayce?" asked Lance.

"Seriously, C. You're the one who always bitches about how we need to watch if we're going to perfect our craft," Chris snarked.

"Look. We sorta watched it the day after on Johnny's camera. Isn't that enough?"

Joey leaned over Lance to place a hand on JC's forehead. "Dude, are you running a fever? You don't sound like yourself at all."

"It's...I'm fine...totally fine. Health-wise. Really..."

"I know what's wrong," piped in Justin, looking smug from the loveseat. "JC has teenage girl syndrome."

"Shut up, Justin."

"Make me. I have the remote, so I guess you're just out of luck," Justin replied, pushing the play button.

JC lunged for him, but Lance and Chris held him back. "Take it like a man, Chasez," Chris ordered.

"He does like to take it," Joey laughed.

Lance smacked him. "Joey, you're such a dick."

"Shut up, all of you," Chris said. "It's starting."

JC sat back down and tried to pout the way Justin did when he didn't get his way. Then he realized that he was lousy at it and probably looked pretty stupid too. The first few notes of "Pop" played and then there they were. JC groaned. "Ugh. Just...look at me. What a nightmare."

"You can say that again," Chris agreed helpfully.

Lance kicked at Chris from his position on the couch. "Play nice, Kirkpatrick. I remember somebody kicking up a fuss a few weeks ago over a photo shoot we did."

"Playing nice sucks, Bass."

"Do it anyway, dickweed," Lance retorted.

"Do I have to separate you two?" Joey laughed. "Oh my god, I sound just like my dad! Brianna is so in trouble."

They all laughed at that, and watched in silence for another minute before Chris started up again. "Jayce, can I please set up an oil derrick on your face? I think I could make a fortune in case this gig don't work out." And he began singing softly, "Well, boy, let me tell you 'bout a man named Jed..."

JC threw a couch cushion at him. "Fuck you Chris. Jesus. You were the one who decided that white clothes would help with the sweat thing. Why the hell did I listen to you?"

"I warned you, Jayce. Never take advice from Chris. He's the one who thought it would be a good idea to bleach my hair when we first started, remember?" Lance commented.

"It's not my fault I sweat. Most non-pod people do, for your information," JC added.

"Fuck you both. Didja ever stop to think about how much hotter you would have been in un-white clothes, you ungrateful bastards? And when I said bleach, I just meant to lighten it up, not go all albino boy," Chris replied.

"Chris, it was sweltering down there. We were gonna sweat no matter what. Especially JC. And who the hell looks good in fucking white anyway? Besides me that is." Justin gave them a shit-eating grin. "If you're gonna mention anything, maybe it should be that crazy fro JC had going on."

"And whose fault was that, Justin?" JC asked pointedly.

"I was trying to help. How was I supposed to know your hair would react to all that shit. It always worked for my curly hair."

JC pawed at his new shorter locks. "Maybe cause yours was naturally curly."

"I guess that rules out a career in hairdressing for you, Ju. You must be so disappointed," Joey laughed.

"Tears" replied Justin. "And I apologized for that one, C. Didn't I try to help you after the first time it came out huge?"

"And it made it twice as bad," added Lance.

"Only twice?" Chris asked.

"Maybe four times," Lance replied with a grin.

"Fuck you, Kirkpatrick. At least I'm not losing mine," JC retorted.

"I am not losing mine!" Chris ran to the mirror and began to inspect his hairline. "You are such a fucking liar, Jayce. My hairline isn't going anywhere."

"Deluded," JC whispered to Lance.

"I heard that, fuckwad," Chris hissed, tossing the pillow back at JC.

"Calm down, Chris. JC is kidding," said Justin, giving JC a sharp look.

Joey cackled, interrupting them, as he pointed at the tv. 'Up Against the Wall' was on. "JC, your beard. Or whatever that's supposed to be."

"Okay. Can we stop now? Ego is in the gutter. And Joey, you jerk, you know that was a dare."

Chris leaped onto JC's lap and began petting his curls, "Poor wittle JC. Evewybody's picking on the wittle snookems."

JC dumped him on the ground.

"Ouch, fucker. Warn a guy before you throw him on his ass. It's basic courtesy."

"What dare? I thought JC was trying to be trendy or something," Lance asked.

"Fucker. The chin stripe was trendy." repled JC.

"And we all know you live on fashion's cutting edge," giggled Justin. "Now tell us about the dare."

"Joey said I couldn't grow a real beard." JC mumbled.

"Questioning the manhood. Joey's specialty. I'm surprised you fell for it, JC. He's said the same thing to me about 800 times," said Lance.

"You don't need to prove your manhood, Lance. Your voice pretty much does that all on its own," JC pointed out.

"Porn voice!" Justin, Joey and Chris exclaimed in unison.

Lance blushed. "So...JC's beard. What brought that on, Joey?"

"Does Joey ever need anything to bring on stupidity?" JC said.

"Well, you're the one who accepted the dare, you idiot," Joey replied.

JC recoiled. "You said I was wimping out of growing a real beard. You said I couldn't. What was I supposes to do?"

"Ignore him, like the rest of do pretty much all the time," Chris said.

JC shrugged. "You didn't give me enough time, Joey. I could have grown a proper beard."

"JC, honestly. It's really not that big a deal. We're just giving you a hard time," said Justin.

Chris turned to Lance, "So big guy. Apparently I made JC look bad by choosing white costumes, Justin made him look bad by fucking up his hair, and Joey caused the horrid facial hair debacle. What was your contribution to our grand conspiracy to make JC look bad, Bass?"

"Nothing. I left poor JC alone."

They continued to watch in silence for a while, making sure to keep their comments focused on anybody but JC who was looking sullen on the couch. Finally they got to 'Bye Bye Bye.' Lance rolled his eyes. "Who came up with that stupid 'Don't say it' line? Lord."

"I did, and it's not stupid. It was cute," Justin declared.

"Whatever, Justin."

"Ju, has anyone ever told you that your idea of cute is totally fucked?" Chris asked.

Justin bristled. "Hey wasn't this supposed to be 'pick on JC' day? Not 'pick on Justin' day."

"Now who's being a baby," Joey smiled.

"Justin is always a baby," added JC.

Justin gave Joey the finger and turned on JC. "You know, not only did you have huge hair, a bizarre beard, and were sweating like a pig, but um...you looked really tired, Jayce. What's with that? You always go to bed disgustingly early before concerts."

JC blushed and looked down. "I don't know, Justin. I was up all night. Couldn't sleep."

Justin popped out the video and Joey and Chris wandered into the kitchen to get more beer.

"Hey JC," said Lance. "About that up all night thing?" He leaned in and kissed JC's neck softly. "Sorry about that."

"Any time," JC grinned before kissing him back.

~end~