"So, who's the biggest liar?" - Jay Leno, July 23, 2001

Lance was huddled over his laptop, checking figures and writing the next of a hundred emails that had to be responded to immediately. He looked up, eyes squinting a little bit from the smallish type on the computer screen.

The bus was empty except for Joey, who had the unenviable ability, in his stranger moods, to make enclosed places seem smaller and quite full. Lance squinted at Joey, who was flopped down and staring at the television. He didn't radiate the breathless energy that Chris did, but he still seemed restless.

Joey was the most idealistic of all the guys. Lance thought that if Joey could really answer the questions they were asked in interviews about where they would be, who they would be if they weren't NSYNC, he'd say that he'd be Superman. Instead, Joey spouted out their canned answers and once in a while he smiled to himself while the others chimed in.

Trapped in his reverie, Lance didn't notice when Joey stood up, flicking the television off and stood behind him, solid presence seeming to eat up the space in the small kitchen area.

"You're going to go blind if you stare at that screen for much longer." Joey smirked when Lance whipped around to stare at him. "Take a break and watch a movie or something."

"Yeah, cause staring at a different screen would make that much difference."

He was saving and exiting though, unwilling to spend one more minute that day engrossed in meaningless work. And really, curling up next to Joey, watching something funny and mindless sounded like the best idea in a long time.

It wasn't that Joey wasn't friendly, just that he seemed to respect Lance's work ethic. So Lance would watch as he suckered JC away from his composing or Justin away from his pushups, and then he'd turn back to the laptop and the endless stream of correspondence that had fallen by default into being his free time.

Standing, stretching, Lance snapped the laptop closed.

"So, what's on the agenda?"

Joey's face looked briefly hopeful, and then he shook his head.

"If I'm gonna finally get you to put that thing away," gesturing to the laptop, "the least I can do is let you pick the movie."

Lance shrugged. "No preference, man." Walking over to the rack of DVD's, he scanned the titles, rolling his eyes at the complete set of Superman movies. He remembered when Joey picked them up at a small video store at a mall in the Midwest. They'd played over and over until everyone was sick of them and Chris threatened to throw them out the window if he saw them one more time.

Lance stopped and picked the first one up. It didn't look bad, and anyway, it wasn't so much the movie he was agreeing to, as much as the chance not to think. The opportunity to zone, honed in a hundred boring classes, was still proving a valuable skill to this day.

"So, um, you like these, right?"

Joey looked as if Lance had suddenly kissed him, his face glowing and shocked. Snatching the DVD out of Lance's hand, Joey had it in the VCR, and the opening playing before Lance even sat down.

Lance made it through the opening credits, before he started thinking about other things. He pondered how exactly Joey could generate that much warmth, and what the others were doing. When Joey laughed out loud, and started muttering lines with the television, draping an arm around the back of the couch and sprawling, Lance thought about other times that he'd been alone with Joey. He segued into reviewing steps in his head and into the latest deal he was involved in.

It seemed like the movie ended far too soon, and when the rest of the guys trooped back on the bus, yelling and exuberant, the confined space seemed even smaller. Joey was still smiling when Chris picked up the DVD and pretended to flick it out the window.

Joey draped an arm around Lance's shoulder. "No worries, little man. Lance and I already watched it. He's not sick of the man of steel, right?"

It was the easiest thing in the world to smile and shrug and sit next to Joey when they all went out for dinner.

After that, it seemed like Joey went out of his way to grab Lance and pull him away from the laptop every chance he got. Lance started to like being left behind, if it meant that Joey would look at him with that halfway hopeful look, and gesture toward the television.

Lance knew that Joey was just waiting for him to start rolling his eyes or looking bored when he'd hesitantly point toward the Superman movies. Lance knew that he should explain the whole principle of zoning, but it seemed too difficult and almost insulting.

So, they watched Superman or one of its sequels and Lance zoned, and everything was better than it ever had been. Joey would catch his eye randomly and chortle some obscure dialogue and Lance would crack up. The rest of the guys would just sit back and shake their heads. Lance lived for those moments.

Everything was fine until the day that Joey threw out a participatory quote.

They were in the middle of a costume change and Joey was bareass, struggling into pants that were just a little too tight. Lance was already dressed, checking his hair in the mirror and Joey poked him as he zipped his pants.

"What color is my underwear?" And Joey grinned, his whole face lit up and waiting for Lance's response. Chris shook his head, and Lance smiled at Joey, hoping that there was no response necessary.

The silence dragged on and on. Joey's grin faded to confusion. Chris quirked an eyebrow. Justin checked his makeup. JC was huddled in the corner gulping water, not paying any attention, as usual. Their cue came, and Chris smacked Joey on the back, "Pink. Um, your underwear is pink." They all ran out onto the stage, and Lance couldn't meet Joey's eyes.

The rest of the show dragged for Lance. He fumbled a turn and missed a step and he kept catching Joey looking at him.

They smiled and waved, and finally they were headed off the stage and toward the bus. Joey grabbed Lance's arm and yanked him back to him.

"Dude. How the hell can you watch Superman, um, " Lance could see Joey thinking, "twelve times and not remember the funniest bit?"

"I must have zoned?"

"Zoned, like, you just didn't watch? Zoned, like you were humoring me?"

Joey's face was blank, and Lance could see him drawing his own conclusions.

"No, zoned, like I was tired, and I just wanted you to be happy."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Lance wished that he could take them back. Joey didn't look angry like Justin had after the cereal incident. He looked embarrassed, like he thought that maybe Lance was too kind to threaten to hurl a DVD out the window.

"Sorry." Joey draped an arm around Lance's neck and really did look sorry, which made Lance feel even more guilty, but the words to explain just kept getting tangled up, until Joey just looked at him and said, "It's not up to you to make me happy, Lance, especially if you're bored out of your mind."

"I wasn't really bored."

Joey untangled his arm from around Lance's neck and fake smiled. "S'all right. Let's catch up and see if the rest of the guys want to go grab food." Lance smiled back, and hoped that things were okay between them. He vowed to pay attention the next time they watched movies.

Somehow, the chance never came. Joey still pulled Lance away from his laptop, but he picked different movies, Phantom Menace once and Billy Madison the next time. Lance watched each of the movies carefully, but Joey never picked the same one twice.

One time Lance waved toward Superman, and waited for Joey to look all excited. Lance was disappointed when Joey only lit up for a few seconds and then didn't meet his eyes, silently shaking his head, picking Silence of the Lambs and flopping down, further away on the couch than usual.

~end~