Of the four guys he went into this with, JC always thought of Joey as his best friend. Joey would say that Lance was his best friend, and those two did share a peculiar bond over animals and more. Joey was everyone's best friend though. He felt like a piece of home, even when they were working their asses off in that warehouse all those years ago. Chris and Justin had each other, a bond that went way beyond the one that the fans thought he shared with J, the "mouseketeer" bond. Like that was thicker than blood or something. But the four of them all seemed to gravitate towards Joey.

There may have been "No 'I' in *NSYNC", but if JC had to pick one of them to be the rock, it would have been Joe. Joe was the first one he went to for advice on something, unless it was business then it was Lance, but anything else, he asked Joey first. Joey got to listen to his songs first, and he had to admit, he valued the opinion of his Italian friend more than that of the others.

On the times he got to see photos of them, usually when they were being shoved under his nose for a signature by a fan, he had to laugh to himself over how much they all seemed to lean on Joey. Never Justin, he was never 'allowed' to by the photographers, no, Justin had to be front and center in every photo. The one with the looks, the one they marketed to the fans. It stung a little that he wasn't the favorite, but, he realized pretty soon, he valued his privacy a bit too much for it to really bother him.

They joked around for the fans, and on this day, the awkwardness was there, simply because they were revealing 10" versions of themselves. How weird it was to be handed a plastic action figure that was molded to look like you. Lance's looked like shit, like he half-expected it to, since they never managed to capture Lance just right. Like Lance was blurred around the edges in real life, like they couldn't get him into focus -oh that was good, he'd have to remember that bit, about the focus, he could use it for a lyric sometime - and his turned out alright, if a bit more angular than he was. Was his nose really that big? Was his cheekbones that pronounced? Those fingers, well, he supposed the fingers were close enough.

Joey took it all in stride. When they handed him his, he immediately started undressing it. "Gotta see if it lives up to the legend," he joked. Which made them laugh for a moment before they all started lifting shirts and undoing pants. They discovered they all had the same body, it was just the heads that were different. They all had "JC's pianist fingers" as Chris pointed out. They all had Justin's torso, as JC thought of it.

When they revealed them, they all held them up, smiled for the cameras, and tried not to feel weird that they were now larger than life with action figures, I mean, marionettes, of themselves. Joey held his up and joked about it being anatomically correct, and they all started laughing again, like he hadn't just joked about it backstage.

Yes, JC loved Joey, his best friend in the crazy life they led.