The following morning, Marshall and AJ woke, still on the couch, to the sound of the front door shutting. For a second both of them froze, holding their breaths.

“Yo, Marshall! Forget how to lock your door?” Came a familiar voice from the kitchen.

Marshall bit back a groan as he recognized Dre’s voice. Fuck. He’d been in such a hurry to find out what the dare was last night that he hadn’t locked the door behind him when he came in. Stretching, he opened his mouth to call out to Dre that they were in the living room when he looked down the length of his body and realized he was still in the outfit from the night before. Jumping from the couch like there was a fire under his ass, he looked around frantically for some way to keep Dre from seeing him still dressed as Britney Spears.

AJ realized the problem at the same time Marshall did and jumped up too, yanking his pants back up from their half falling down state and zipping them. Not bothering to button them, he started searching around for his shirt that he’d somehow lost during the night.

“What the fuck am I gonna do?” Marshall whispered harshly.

AJ gave up looking for his shirt and took in Marshall’s appearance, willing himself not to get hard all over again. The man looked hot. Even after sleeping in the outfit all night.

“I’ll distract him in the kitchen. You sneak past and go get changed.” AJ whispered back.

Marshall nodded and before he could say anything, AJ pulled him in for a hard, quick kiss before disappearing from the room.

AJ skidded to a halt in the entryway to the kitchen, taking a deep breath. “Hey, Dre.”

Dre turned from his perusal of the contents of Marshall’s refrigerator to look over at AJ, noting that he was only wearing a pair of jeans, the button at the top undone, no shirt or socks, and mussed up hair. It was obvious he’d slept over. “Hey. Marshall around?”

AJ stepped into the room further trying to figure out how to get Dre to look away from the direction of the doorway so Marshall could sneak past and down the hall. “Yeah, just getting up. He’ll be out in a couple minutes.”

Dre nodded. “Cool.” Pausing to grab a can of soda from the refrigerator, he closed the door and popped the lid. “I’ll just go hang out in the living room until he’s done.”

Leaping forward in a panic, AJ grabbed Dre’s arm, nearly knocking the soda out of his hand. “No! Uh…I mean, why don’t you stay here with me. Keep me company while I scrounge up a bowl of cereal.”

“Why?”

Seeing the suspicion cross Dre’s face at his weird behavior, AJ urged him further into the kitchen, steering him around so his back was to the doorway as he added, “Cuz, you know, we don’t know each other hardly at all, and since I’m his boyfriend and you’re one of his best friends, we should maybe…talk a little?”

Dre studied his face for a second, noting a smudge of something red at the corner of his mouth, and another one just under his ear. If he didn’t know better, he would have sworn it was lipstick. Huh.

Deciding to play along until he figured out why AJ was stalling him, he let out a half chuckle and said, “Yeah. Okay. Sure. What do you want to talk about?”

AJ let out a breath of relief, catching Marshall rushing down the hall and out of sight out of the corner of his eye. Turning away from Dre under the pretense of searching for cereal, he shrugged. “I don’t know. Just…anything.”

“Anything.”

“Yeah. Anything you want to know about me maybe? Or uh, something you want to say to me?” AJ asked, making a show of digging through Marshall’s cabinets.

Dre smirked. AJ was spinning his wheels trying to find an excuse to keep him in that kitchen. “Not really. Know all I need to. Look. I’m gonna just go back to Marshall’s room and light a fire under his ass. Sometimes he takes forever to get up.”

“Don’t I know it.” AJ blurted before he could stop himself. When what Dre had just said sank in though, he jumped up from his crouch under the counter, knocking his head on the inside of the cabinet in his haste to stop Dre from leaving the kitchen.

“Ow! Motherfucker! Shit, that fucking hurts.” AJ cursed, standing and squeezing his eyes shut against the pain as he held a hand over the area of his head that had taken the worst of the hit.

Dre chuckled. “Spending a lot of time with Slim, huh?”

AJ forced his eyes open and blinked at the older man. “What?”

“You’re swearing as much as he does.”

AJ chuckled. “Was doing that long before I met him. I just control myself in public. Can’t have anyone thinking I’m not the perfect Backstreet boy, now can I?”

“Thought you were the token bad boy of the group.”

AJ turned toward the freezer to find something to put on the knot he could already feel forming on his head. Opening the door, he grabbed the first thing his hand came in contact with and rested it against the lump. He sighed in relief as the cold immediately dulled some of the pain.

“Yeah, that worked out so well I found myself in rehab. Now I have to watch what I do and say otherwise it ends up in the tabloids that I’m spinning out of control again. The group’s had enough negative publicity because of my sorry ass.” AJ said flatly. He watched as Dre suddenly refused to look at him.

Brows knit together, he asked, “What’s the matter?”

Dre cleared his throat and said, “Uh, just um…you’re choice…for an ice pack. It’s uh…”

When he trailed off, still refusing to look at AJ, the younger man pulled the make shift ice pack from his head and looked at it. His jaw dropped. A dildo. One of those soft but firm ones with the balls attached. He blinked, sure he was delusional. He wasn’t. It was still there after several blinks and a vigorous headshake.

“Uh, I have no idea…”

“Listen. I don’t really need to hear about you and Marshall’s sex life, so you know, no explanation required.” Dre said uncomfortably, trying very hard not to let images of what they’d done with that thing enter his head.

“But it’s not…” AJ tried again.

“Any of my business.” Dre finished, his tone of voice convincing AJ to just drop it.

AJ cleared his throat uncomfortably and gingerly set the dildo back down in the freezer…next to a tube of lube. A dildo? And lube? In a freezer? What the fuck did Marshall have that stuff in there for? He made a mental note to find out later.

His throbbing head pulled him back to the matter at hand, and he glanced around in the freezer for something else to relieve the pain, half expecting to find a cock ring or a butt plug in there next. Instead, he thankfully found a bag of frozen diced carrots and quickly grabbed it, shutting the door and leaning against the refrigerator as he pressed it against his aching head. After a minute of tense silence, AJ turned back to the cabinets, more for something to do than anything, and dropped down again, searching for cereal.

After a minute, Dre said, “I’m gonna go get…”

Before he could finish, AJ stood and turned around with a box in his hand and interrupted him, asking, “Grapenuts?”

“Huh?” Dre asked, his train of thought once again lost.

Was AJ asking him if he wanted some or asking why Marshall had Grapenuts? And why in hell did Marshall have it? It had to be one of the most disgusting, horrible cereals known to man.

“Grapenuts. Want some?” AJ asked, now searching around for a bowl and spoon.

“Oh. No…thanks.”

AJ shrugged. “No problem. More for me.”

Dre watched as AJ poured himself a bowl and got out the milk, putting some of that in too. When he was about to again try to excuse himself, AJ again piped in.

“So, were you at the movie awards last night?”

Dre shook his head, giving up on going to track down Marshall. He had a sneaking suspicion this wasn’t the first time AJ had to distract someone. He was too damn good at it. “No.”

“Oh.” AJ replied, setting down his bowl and pulling the chair out to sit in.

“Why?” Dre asked, sitting too.

AJ shrugged and took a bite of cereal, forcing himself not to cringe at the taste. He hated Grapenuts. He just couldn’t find anything else under the cabinet, and Dre had been in the middle of trying to take off again, so he’d had to say something quick to distract him. The awful tasting cereal had been his only option.

“Just wondering how his performance went. I asked him about it last night and he sort of hedged…wondered if something went wrong.”

“Other than Brittany Murphy practically throwing herself at him from the audience?”

AJ’s grip tightening on his spoon as he lowered it back to the bowl for another spoonful was the only sign that that bothered him. “That so?”

“Yeah. Everyone at the after-party I ended up at was talking about it.” Dre watched as AJ’s jaw tightened imperceptibly. Belatedly he realized he was jealous. Oddly enough, despite the dildo he’d just seen AJ press to his head, he’d forgotten for a second that he and Marshall were lovers. He wasn’t used to having to watch his step around a guy friend of another guy friend. “Know what had everyone laughing about it though?”

AJ swallowed another mouthful of the crunchy cereal and asked casually, “What’s that?”

“He totally blew her off. He ignored her while he was performing, then backstage she tried to corner him and he walked right past her without a word.”

AJ had to fight the ear to ear grin that threatened to take over at that bit of information. He was glad. He knew they had a fling a while back, knew it was ridiculous to think Marshall might be tempted to cheat on him, or leave him for someone else, but his insecurities were louder than his logic sometimes, and that was one of them.

Sensing he was again about to loose Dre to the search for Marshall, AJ thought fast and asked, “So, did you hear about Marshall’s ‘coming out’ party?”

Marshall rushed around his room, pulling off the school girl clothes and pulling on a pair of sweats, before racing to the bathroom to wipe off the left over makeup. His heart was pounding thinking about the fact that he’d almost gotten caught, and still might. Dre wasn’t an idiot. He’d see through AJ’s attempt to keep him occupied, so Marshall had no idea how soon Dre would come looking for him. He needed to get out there.

Rubbing frantically at his eyes with a damp washcloth, he managed to get rid of most all of the eye makeup, only faint shadows under his eyes were left where he had a hard time with the mascara. He studied it for a second, deciding it could pass for dark circles from lack of sleep.

Hurriedly he rubbed the remaining blush off his cheeks and threw the washcloth aside, not bothering to check his reflection one last time. He needed to get out there, and fast. As he made his way down the hall, trying to look for the world like he’d just dragged himself out of bed instead of spending the last five minutes running around like a chicken with his head cut off, he picked up on laughter coming from the kitchen. As he got closer, he recognized it as Dre’s. He started to smile when he heard AJ’s animated voice telling him about the coming out party.

“So then I was like, ‘Oh, they just walked in on me naked and riding JC on the hotel room couch.’ You should have seen their faces. Rondell’s jaw hit the floor.” AJ said in an amused voice.

Dre was laughing so hard he had tears collecting in the corners of his eyes just picturing the whole of D-12 standing there listening to AJ’s sex life. Somehow, between gasps for breath he asked, “What did they say to that?”

“Denaun said, ‘I knew it! That boy’s too pretty to be straight.’ Which of course, made everyone crack up.” AJ said with a chuckle.

Dre kept laughing and Marshall said from the doorway, “Pete still doesn’t believe it. He swears you were pulling everyone’s leg. After the nail polish comment he said he can trust what comes out of your mouth as much as he can trust what comes out of mine.”

Dre wiped at his eyes and turned to look over at Marshall. “That’s because you’re the biggest bullshitter around, Slim.”

Marshall grinned his agreement, walking over to stand next to AJ’s chair. “What brought your sorry ass over here at this time of day?”

As Dre and Marshall started to talk business, AJ sat back and slowly ate his Grapenuts, fighting his gag reflex as he swallowed each mouthful reluctantly. He figured he had to eat at least half a bowl’s worth in order to keep up the pretense. With every spoonful he thought up a new and inventive way for Marshall to make it up to him.

He really hated Grapenuts. They were tiny, and crunchy and pebbly, and damnit, cereal should be only a little crunchy and crammed full of sugar, like Lucky Charms. That was his favorite. Next time he came over, he was bringing a case of the stuff so he would never get stuck eating Grapenuts again.

Dre standing up and reaching across the table for a file caught AJ’s attention and brought him back to the present. He lifted the spoon to his mouth just as Dre looked at him, then turned his attention back to Marshall.

“Just one thing, man.”

“Yeah?”

“What the fuck were you thinking when you had them take this picture?”

AJ’s lips closed around the spoon full of cereal just as Dre tossed the picture down on the table in front of them. Completely taken off guard by what Marshall was wearing in the picture, AJ spewed milk and cereal out of his mouth all over the table and promptly started choking.

Marshall didn’t even have time to check out the picture before AJ was suddenly coughing and gagging next to him, cereal all over the place. Reaching out, he smacked his lover on the back, asking him if he was all right.

Finally AJ managed to take a deep breath and rasped out, “Oh yeah, just peachy.”

Marshall chuckled. “What the fuck was that? You forget how to swallow?”

AJ didn’t say anything, just pointed to the now messy picture of Marshall smiling, with a t-shirt on that said, ‘I fucked a Backstreet Boy’. Marshall glanced at it and realized what had set off AJ’s near death experience.

Chuckling, he said, “Oh, that. Took that picture when we were in New York. It’s gonna be in that magazine I was there doing the interview for.”

Dre shook his head. “Nope. They backed out.”

Marshall scowled. “Why the fuck did they do that?”

Dre smirked. “Afraid they’d get sued.”

AJ laughed then, finally getting over the shock and finding it highly amusing. He should have figured Marshall would do something like that. “Leave it to you. You come out and admit you’re fucking a Backstreet Boy, and you can’t get them to print it because no one believes you.”

Marshall grinned. “Why do you think I did it? Reporters are always getting me to talk about shit in interviews that I don’t mean to. That’s why I hate them so much. I always end up spilling shit when I should just keep my mouth shut. Figured this way, everyone would think it’s a joke and not take it seriously.”

Dre laughed. “Yeah, and then if it ever did come out that the two of you are…you know…you could just say, ‘Hey, I did tell everyone, but no one fucking believed me,’ right?”

Marshall’s grin got bigger. “Better fucking believe it.”

Dre shook his head in amused wonder. “Slim, you are something else, you know that?”

Marshall just smiled.

A while later, Dre wrapped up the last of the business he had come over to Marshall’s house to take care of and said his goodbye’s, heading for the door. Marshall shot AJ a look of relief that they had managed to keep Dre from finding out he had been dressed in drag. At the same time, AJ took a good look at Marshall for the first time since he had entered the kitchen, having been too preoccupied with forcing down the cereal and then the surprise picture to notice what Marshall had missed in his clean up in the bedroom.

Before he could say anything about it though, Dre paused in the doorway and looked back at the two of them, saying, “Oh, and Marshall?”

“Yeah Dre?”

“Next time you decide to dress in drag, take the lipstick and the earrings off afterwards, they’re a dead giveaway.”

Laughing at the way the color drained out of Marshall’s face, Dre turned and made a quick exit.

AJ tried not to laugh at the horrified expression on Marshall’s face, but he just couldn’t manage it, and was soon clutching at his stomach, with tears rolling down his face. It seemed Marshall was doomed to having Dre be in on all his kinks.

Finally Marshall found his voice and said, “Motherfucker. I should just cut out the embarrassing discovery shit and invite him over to watch us have sex. He finds out everything that’s going on in my sex life anyway. First, finding out about you, now he knows I fucking cross-dress…shit.”

That sent AJ into a new round of laughter, which made Marshall glower at him, sending him into even more fits of laughter until he was out of breath and his stomach hurt. Finally he managed to stop and suck in sharp breaths.

After a minute, he said, “Marshall, baby, you don’t even know the half of it.”

“What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?” Marshall asked irritably, sure there could be nothing more embarrassing than what Dre had already found out.

AJ tried for a straight face as he asked his next question and failed. “Let’s just say you need a better hiding place than the freezer for you dildo and lube.”

Marshall’s mouth opened and shut comically several times and he suddenly lost the will to stand, flopping down heavily in a seat that was thankfully pulled out nearby. “I can never fucking look him in the eye again. It’ll be too fucking embarrassing.”

After a short pause, AJ asked casually, “Uh, Marshall?”

“Yeah?” Marshall asked distractedly, missing the gleam in AJ’s eyes.

“Why do you have a dildo and lube in your freezer?”

“Motherfucker.” Marshall muttered as AJ dissolved into another fit of laughter at his expense.