(c) Kat Morgan
Last year I wrote Mascot for a friend's birthday. Well, her birthday rolled around this year and I thought I'd do a second part for this fic.
"We have GOT to stop meeting like this!"
Giggles erupted on her right and she smiled, recognizing the familiar Frick and Frack-ness of them.
"Hey, don't look at me," AJ protested. "It was Kevin who pressed the button."
"Only because you hit the wrong one, dumbass." Kevin sighed heavily. "I really didn't need this today."
Deb rolled her eyes - not that anyone could see her doing it. "Gee, Kevin, and we are having so much fun being stuck here. Why'd you have to ruin the ambience?" she retorted.
"Yeah, Kev. I was just gonna order another margarita and chill, but now you got me all uncomfortable," Howie chuckled on her left. Then he remembered AJ's presence. "I mean a lemonade."
"Don't change on my account, D." AJ rasped. "Need all some salt with your sweetness."
Brian made a gagging sound. "That's it, Bone. No more reading slash fics for you."
"Awww," Nick whined jokingly. "But I so want to get it on with Kevin."
"Not in this lifetime," Kevin retorted, ignoring Brian guffaws.
"You read that shit, Nick? Man, I just read the N'Sync stuff." AJ chuckled. "Those pussies are probably up to it anyway."
"Hey! I like N'Sync," Deb protested trying hard not to laugh at the thought of the Boys - and N'Sync - reading fics about themselves. She had a few friends who wrote fan fiction and she was certain they'd find the thought that the guys they wrote it about had actually read them frightening.
"They are nice guys," Howie replied, ever the peacemaker.
"Are not," AJ grumbled.
"Justin's an asshole," Brian said.
There was dead silence for a moment and then Kevin sensed a chance to get back at his cousin for his earlier laughter. "Brian? Is that word in the Bible?" he teased.
"If it isn't it should be," was Brian's rejoinder. "Good word. Rolls of the tongue and describes lots of people. Especially Justin."
"Um? Did I miss something?" Deb asked quietly.
Nick leaned over and put his head on her shoulder. "Justin tripped Rok last time we played ball. Did it on purpose - though Curly says not. Bri said something about Britney and, well, it's gotten, like, worse since then."
"Little shit made fun of my wife!"
"You started it, Rok," Nick reminded him. "You should have just elbowed him or something instead of making fun of his squeeze."
"He still shouldn't have…"
"Nick, I thought you were the whiney one," Deb cut in, then yelped at Nick elbowed her.
"See? Elbows good, talking trash about girlfriends bad," Nick said succinctly.
Quiet descended and then continued.
"So," Brian started when the silence had gone on longer than he could stand. "What you been up to, Deb?"
"Well, strangely enough, not getting stuck in elevators." Even Kevin chuckled at that one. "Nothing much. Okay, well actually a lot, but still life as usual. I moved up north, trying to find a better life, you know?"
"How's that going?" Howie asked.
"Good some days. Sucks others."
"Know the feeling," AJ replied.
"I kind of figured you did," Deb said sympathetically. "How's it going?"
"Like you said, 'good one day, bad others.' Gotta do it day by day."
She sighed. "True. I guess when I made the move I thought it would all be great because it was a smaller town, which I prefer, and I had some friends up there. Problem is that a smaller town means that opportunities are tighter and friends tend to have lives of their own."
"Sounds like it didn't go so hot," Nick said, reaching over and giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Hot, it ain't," she chuckled softly. "Might be great in the summer, but so far I've only lived there in winter and that was freaking cold!" She squeezed back. "Overall, it's been pretty good. It's just… I'm not a solitary person, you know, and it's hard adjusting to a new place."
"And finding friends," Brian agreed.
AJ snorted. "Finding someone to trust enough to be friends is damn near impossible."
"'J? Something you not telling us?" Kevin asked quietly.
"Nah," AJ sighed. "Just Sarah, you know? And all the usual shit."
"I hear you," Howie said. "It's not like it used to be."
"What do you mean?" Deb asked, glad that the conversation had moved from her.
Howie made a small humming sound, indicating he was thinking about how to phrase things. "Okay, don't get me wrong, I love being a Backstreet Boy and a celebrity and all, but you just don't know who wants what from you. I mean, even close friends from school or from growing up, they all want something from you now."
"Family too," Nick put in bitterly. "Don't forget family."
"Yeah, them too," Kevin said, picking up the conversation thread. "I know I have my 'agenda' and all - I really do want to do good things for Kentucky's environment - but finding people who really want to work with me on that and not just want to hang around me…"
"DLF stuff is the same. There're a few people who've gotten past the whole Backstreet thing, but most just want to be seen being helpingful."
"Helpingful?" AJ made fun of Howie's new word, before continuing, "We all get the same thing. I just want people I can chill with and even the ones closest to me want shit from me."
"Yeah, but you want 'shit' from them too," Brian said. "I mean, I love you Bone, but you do have a habit of picking the same type of women. Like you're using the way they want to get into singing as a way to get them dependent."
"You're one to talk!"
"Man, I'm not saying Leigh's not like that, but we've worked it out, you know? She does a picture or two, I help her with getting publicity and stuff, and we just work around it. It took us years but we figured it out. I know she honestly loves me, not just the Backstreet Boy. You sure you have that?"
"So you're not getting her acting roles?" Deb asked, trying to help AJ avoid the loaded question.
"Well, yeah, sort of. We aren't that stupid: we know that just her being my wife helps. But there's stability, you know? She can actually work on her craft without having to concentrate on that whole 'trying to get a break' stuff," Brian replied.
"Still sounds like you're getting used, Rok."
"Cous', you do the same for Kristen. Don't bother denying it."
"Yeah, but she can always do some dancing thing and do just fine," Kevin said defensively.
Nick snorted. "'Just fine.' Yeah right, that's why we have to put up with you being pissed off every time you two argue because she's not on the road with you 'cause she's trying to get a movie role."
"Two words, Nick," Kevin snapped. "Willa Ford."
"Fuck, Train, I'm not saying I haven't been there," Nick protested. "'Sides, she's MTV's problem now."
AJ laughed. "Think they'd take Sarah?"
Howie laughed. "After Jackass and the Osbourne Show?"
"Hey! That's my fiancé you just insulted," AJ growled.
"Ah…"
AJ laughed. "Chill, D. It's not like I haven't thought of it myself."
She couldn't hold back anymore "So why marry her? If you are that unhappy with her…"
It was quiet for a second then AJ swore. "Man, I keep forgetting there's no lights."
"I love it," Brian quipped. "I can give y'all the finger and still come off as the good one."
"But God can see," Deb said in a sonorous voice.
Brian squeaked comically then laughed. "Yeah, right. Like God is a woman."
"Oh man, Rok! Deb's gonna kick your ass for that one." Nick burst into laughter, rolling on the floor of the elevator. It made the car shake and elicited several surprised swear words from the others.
"Nick, you make this damn thing fall and I'll be kicking YOUR ass. Brian, God's gonna make you come back as a toad in your next life for that. And AJ, you were saying why you are gonna marry Sarah anyway," Deb summed up.
"Rok's already kind of toad-like," AJ replied. They could all hear the smile in his voice. "Why am I marrying Sarah…" He sighed. "Cause I love her." The truth of it was also in his voice.
Kevin finally broke the silence. "Then you have to trust her. Sure, she has ambitions and you can help her with that, but if you love her you have to trust her."
"Yeah," Brian murmured.
"Well said," Howie whispered.
"Bone? You ever thought of putting it down on the line for her?" Nick asked timidly. "I mean, like, you get all freaked 'cause you aren't sure she's for real, you know? Why not just make her spill it?"
"That work with Willa, Kaos?"
Nick sighed. "Not until I didn't care much anymore what her answer was."
"See my problem?"
"Better now than later, though," Howie said.
"You're one to talk Mr. 'I'm-always-single,'" Nick snorted.
"It keeps me safe," Howie protested.
"Sounds like you all have the same problem," Deb interrupted, trying to avoid a fight - or Nick shaking the elevator car. "The trust thing. Whether or not the person you love loves you."
"I'm okay," Brian said, then sighed. "But it was really hard getting there."
"I think I'm there," Kevin replied. "Except sometimes," he amended.
"That'd be a 'no' then, Train," Nick said. "Me? I know I'm not. But that's cool 'cause I'm not really looking for love right now."
"They say that's when it happens," Howie mused.
"Bite your tongue! I'm having fun, man," Nick chuckled nervously.
"Sometimes I wish I had your lives," Deb said. "Or at least your back accounts. But that kind of insecurity is more than I could take, I think. Friends, love, all that… it's hard enough without all the extra crap you have."
The lights suddenly started to flicker, then came on and stayed. Brian looked around at the sheepish looks on his group mates' faces. "And on that note…"
Deb snorted. "Yeah. Been one hell of a reunion, guys, but you're bringin' me down."
"You changed your hair!" Nick exclaimed as he looked at Deb. Then he looked at Kevin. "You got a dead rat on your head!" he teased, referring to Kevin's pseudo-mohawk.
"Don't be a dumbass, Nick," Kevin growled, then swore as the car shook and then started to move.
"What do you say that next time we get a chance to see each other we do it on the ground floor in a one-story building?" Deb said.
"Amen to that," Howie smiled as the door opened to reveal a very frantic concierge and two annoyed bodyguards.
"It really does look like a dead rat, doesn't it?" Brian whispered, watching his cousin move forward to calm the hotel staff.
Deb nodded and Nick grinned, but it was AJ who had the last word.
"Dude, no body ever gets to diss MY hair again."