If you’d like to read this in an easier colorized version, it’s up on my webpage.
Title: Unknowingly Part Two
Author: Granitite Stone < granitite@yahoo.com >and CandyGurl
Summary: They were just looking for someone to write with. They never thought it would be each other.
Web Address: www.angelfire.com/weird/cobalite/index3.html
Pairing: Nick/AJ
Rating: NC-17
If you’d like to read this in an easier colorized version, it’s up on my webpage.
The beat filled the club, and if there was one thing AJ was good at, it was feeling the beat. Nick watched from the catwalk, a hungry look on his otherwise blank face. A voice startled him from his silent worship. "You should just tell him already. This has been going on forever."
Nick almost fell over the railing. "Brian, don't do that! I swear, I'm sewing bells onto your socks."
Brian leaned against the railing next to Nick. "We know he's bi, Nick. He's dated more guys than what I had in my graduating class. It's not like he's gonna punch you out. Just say something."
"No!" Nick looked terribly frightened for a moment. "If I say something, he'll never talk to me again. How would you take it if one of your best friends had a crush on you?"
"I think I took it rather well." Brian grinned at him.
"I was fifteen!" Nick smacked Brian lightly. "And you avoided me for three weeks until Kevin called you a homophobic idiot."
"But AJ isn't the straight country bumpkin. He's the wild bisexual one." Brian looked down into the crowd as Howie joined AJ. "I bet he'd take it better than I did."
AJ barely noticed Howie's presence as he joined the seething mass on the floor. He was too busy watching Nick in the mirrors. "You're so pathetic, AJ."
"Don't rub it in." They automatically fell into step together, and AJ wondered if in a few more years all five of them would even be breathing in sync. "You act like I'll tell him, he'll miraculously fall in love with me, and we'll have happily ever after. It doesn't work that way."
"Why shouldn't it?" Howie was sick of arguing about this. "It's not like you have a crush on Brian. Nick's just as queer as you are. Maybe more."
"You cannot work with someone you're fucking!" AJ's voice was just loud enough to draw looks. "D, don't make this any harder than it already is. He doesn't want me, and even if he did, we couldn't do anything about it."
"You got the lecture too?"
They had moved towards the end of the dance floor, and AJ adopted his 'Kevin' pose. "You do not fuck your band mates. You do not fuck any of the musicians. You ask for ID before sleeping with fans."
"You know, I'm straight, Brian's straight, and he could never get the nerve to talk to Nick about it. I don’t know why we got lectures on the dangers of same sex relationships to our careers." Howie sat down at a table, and AJ followed him. "Maybe he was afraid you and Nick would be a bad influence on us. "
"That, or he was afraid we'd fall for each other and he'd have to watch us make out all the time." AJ stared up at the catwalk again. "Half right."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BSBFreak: Good evening. Have a nice time last night?
KaosShark: <sighs> Not really. I got to dance with him a few times though.
BSBFreak: Me too. God, we're really pathetic.
KaosShark: So sad. Unrequited love is the worst. Course, yours might not be unrequited.
BSBFreak: Same to you. Neither of us has ever said anything to the objects of our affection.
KaosShark: I would have to be crazy to give up such a good friend on an outside chance he'd want something more.
BSBFreak: So would I. Don't act like your situation is unique.
KaosShark: Hold on. BRB
Nick typed quickly as Brian opened the door to his hotel room, and shut the IM window. "Hey, what's up?"
"I think you have one of my bags. The dog toys?" Brian looked at the computer, a slight grin crossing his face. "Talking to someone?"
"Leave it alone, Rok. I'll go look for your chew toys." He headed into the adjoining room of the suite, where they'd dropped his luggage.
Brian couldn't help himself. He took a peek at the laptop screen.
BSBFreak: I have an idea for the next scene when you get back, Kaos. I think it's time to bring the other Boys into this.
"Oh shit." Brian closed the window as Nick walked back into the room.
He threw Brian a suitcase. "Here ya go. I'm talking to someone, so…"
"Yeah, I'll be going." Brian made a swift retreat from the room, hoping he hadn't ruined whatever Nick had been doing online.
KaosShark: I'm back.
"You're kidding me." Howie laughed. "How bizarre is that?"
"Forget bizarre Let's go with impossible. Something like 90% of pop slashers are female." AJ was looking through the print-out of their conversation. "Both of us just kept our mouths shut, until his friend let it slip. I wonder if it's the same guy."
"Who?" Howie had grabbed part of their story, and was skimming it.
"I wonder if it's the friend he's in love with. I’m gonna ask."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Brian read as Nick bounced nerf balls off his head. "I said I was sorry! Stop throwing things at me."
"I guess I'll forgive you." He threw the ball again, and missed. "It's kinda cool, that Freak is a guy. We get along great."
"He could be a fat forty year old." Brian hit the sex scene, and stopped, setting the papers down, ears turning red. "You could have warned me!"
"What would have been the fun in that?" Nick retrieved the papers and threw them in a drawer. "Besides, how many fat forty year old guys do you think are in out fanbase?"
"How would I know?"
KaosShark: So, where are we going with this next?
"Calm. It's not like he knows what he's saying." Nick took a deep breath. "It's not like he's one of the guys making fun of your ill fated affair."
KaosShark: I guess that'll work
"After all," AJ grinned at the screen. "We should keep this as true to life as possible. Wonder what Nicky would say if he knew I was going to broadcast his love life on the internet?"
KaosShark: The guy he met at the club?
KaosShark:
The guy, as it turned out, was not named Billy, Bobby, or Ben. It was Justin, and he was from a nearby dance institute. Nick was infatuated. Apparently, he fucked at least as well as he danced."We need to fix you up." Nick was rifling his closet, looking for something to wear. "Justin has a few friends."
BSBFreak:
"All of whom will try to get me drunk so I'll put out." AJ reached past Nick and handed him a blue shirt. "It's not worth the effort to find the right guy. Especially not with midterms coming up, Mr. I-Can't-Pass-Math-To-Save-My-Life."KaosShark:
"Hey! I'm not doing that bad, and besides, I don't see Justin often enough. Maybe I should call before I show up. He might not even be home tonight." Nick pulled off his shirt, and AJ looked away.'Oh, this is so not fair.' Lusting after one's roommate was never a good idea. "Call the dorm. If someone answers, he's home."
Nick grabbed the phone, dialed, and hung up with a smile. "He's home."
BSBFreak:
AJ watched him bound for the door. "Uh, Nick?""What?" He grabbed his key.
"Pants might be a good idea."
KaosShark:
"Yeah." Nick turned red, and grabbed a pair of pants. "Don't wait up.""I won't, but your homework will." AJ was talking to a closed door. "He's right. I really need to get laid."
BSBFreak: It's that time again, Kaos.
"I just hope Justin never sees this." Nick closed his laptop. "Scratch that. Hope the bastard does see it. Or Britney, little Miss I'd Never Put My Mouth There, and I'll Pretend Juppy Hasn't Either." He already knew what the next scene was going to be.
AJ saved the conversation, grinning. He'd have to track down Timberlake's email, and make sure he knew that thousands of teenage girls were about to read what kind of scum he was.
End of Chapter Two
~ When I look into the mirror and see a face I don’t recognize, I am no longer surprised.