Title: Normality
Fandom: *N Sync
Characters: *N Sync
Universe: N/A
Prompt: 3. Ends
Word Count: 711
Date finished: 04/03/2006
Rating: G
Summary: Time to admit the group is over.
Author's Notes: Another idea from the prompt itself! Wow! How fun is that? It doesn't make sense with the title, I know, but so it goes.
Disclaimer: I do not own and am not related to anyone in *N Sync.

The end of his group was almost… anticlimactic. It was a simple parting of the ways, something he'd done for so many years, with different groups of people. But this one was harder, and he couldn't have said why.

Chris Kirkpatrick stared at the amber colored drink in his hand before swallowing it in one gulp. It was frightening, how well he'd learned to drink. He set the glass down and turned away from the bar, surveying the club before him.

Not one person there interested him; he wasn't sure why. Maybe because he wasn't drunk enough? Maybe, and this was more likely, because none of them were interested in him. He gave it up as a bad job, and headed for the door.

"Leaving already?"

He turned to face his friend and shrugged. "Not much for me here, Justin," he shouted to be heard above the music. "I'm not as wanted as you are."

Justin Timberlake regarded him seriously, his blue eyes glinting strangely in the lights. "That's not why you're leaving."

"No," Chris admitted. Justin had always known him best. "At least, not really, but it's part of it. I don't really belong to this place anymore." To this scene, to this crowd… he could go on, and on, but he didn't want to. He was, suddenly, tired.

Justin nodded. "Okay. I'll call you tomorrow."

Chris nodded and smiled as he turned away. Chances were good that he wouldn't; Justin was a busy man, with a lot of things going on, and this… He paused once more and turned around. He looked long enough to find the rest of his friends; Joey on the floor with some girl, JC close by with another. Lance was at a table, speaking earnestly to someone about something; Chris would have bet it was business related. Everything he did lately was business related.

He left the club, wondering if the others had known why he'd invited, cajoled, and threatened them all out tonight. There wouldn't be another night like tonight, not initiated by him; he'd wanted to feel that closeness one more time, only to find it was already gone. But it had been enough.

Did they know it had been a wake for their time together? The wake for *N Sync? He didn't know. But it had worked for him; he was able to put that part of his life behind him, to think about what he'd do next. And if the others were in his life occasionally, who was he to argue? It had been a great ride; they'd had fun, some ups and downs, but in all, it had been good.

He got into his car, started it, and headed for home.

It was a bit of a surprise, to arrive sober and in his own car. He hadn't done that in a long time. He turned off the engine and sat staring at his front door, not quite ready to get out. Tomorrow would be hard, he knew; he needed some kind of motivation to get moving, and all his energy had been focused on *N Sync and FuMan Skeeto. He'd already had his wake for that; it had died some time ago.

Lights in his rear-view mirror made him get out of the car, and he stared in surprise at the two cars that pulled into the drive. One was Joey's, the other Justin's, and the other four guys got out. Justin laughed at his stunned look.

"Oh, we knew why you called us," he said, slugging Chris in the arm. "Dani told me about your wake for FuMan, and we've been watching for something like this for a while now."

Joey Fatone appeared on his other side. "So, lets go in, and do this wake justice," he said. "There are a lot of memories for us to share."

Still stunned, Chris led them in, and knew, as he shut the door behind Lance, that he was going to miss these guys a lot more than the crew at FuMan. But that's what wakes were for - to ease the passing. At least none of them had protested this; they all knew it was over. And now they were going to celebrate their lives as *N Sync.

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