Fall From Grace

Chapter 31

By Danielle

Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it inflames the great. - Roger de Rabutin, French soldier and writer.

Nick just stared at Kevin, unable to wrap his mind around seeing him there in Alex's backyard.

His breath caught in his throat as he looked at the beautiful man he hadn't seen in six days. The way the sun washed over him and caught his eyes in just the right way and made them sparkle stunned Nick speechless.

"What the hell is so interest…..ing." Alex came up beside Nick at the window and lost the words as he stared at Kevin too.

Kevin just grinned at Nick, "Stunned him speechless. That's triple points." He wiggled his eyebrows, "I'm on a roll today!" He put his hands in his pockets, the smile still playing over his lips. "Sully gave me the "ok" to come to see you as long as we were ten feet apart and you were inside and I was outside. It works for the astronauts, so it should be ok for me."

Nick put his hand on the screen, "I don't care what the reason is, it's just so good to see you. It would be better to touch you, but this is good…." He was babbling, he knew he was, but the joy at seeing Kevin there, so close yet impossibly far away, was overriding his brain.

It was Alex who saved him from himself by placing a hand over Nick's mouth. "Breathe, Babble Boy." He kept the hand there, "Inhale."

Nick obeyed and took a lungful of air from his recently non-stuffy nose and held it.

"Good, now exhale."

Nick breathed out and Alex took the hand off his mouth, "Ok, now just stare at him moonily and let Kevy talk until your brain unmushes." With a cackle he ruffled Nick's hair and was gone from the window, knowing they needed time alone.

Kevin was chuckling to himself as Nick swatted at Alex before turning back around. When Nick turned back around Kevin had a wicked grin that could match one of Alex's more mischievous ones, "You know, doing the video and everything, I got behind in my reading material. So I started out with the newspapers and got all caught up. Then the magazines, Time and Newsweek, and when they got too serious, I checked out the funny stuff, like the Enquirer.

By the way, you'll be happy to know that Rosie O'Donnell is just ecstatic about you being the secret father of her third child. But, Kathie Lee is pissed that you are stepping out on your "torrid, sex-driven affair" " He even made the quotes with his fingers, causing Nick to roll his eyes.

He groaned and banged his forehead on the windowsill, "Ugh." He banged it again, "Kathie Lee?" He made a face. "Sex with Kathie Lee?" The face got worse. "Happy place. Find your happy place. Happy, happy place."

Kevin laughed softly. Nick's disdain for the overly perky tv host was legendary among the five of them. Precisely the reason Kevin brought it up.

Nick opened his eyes again and gave Kevin a mock glare, "You are an evil man." He shook his head like he was trying to dispel the last traces of the bad mental images from his head. "I assume you had some other reason besides torture to bring this up? And how is the video going?"

Kevin had decided that since Nick was gone for the week and Jive wanted to release one last single from Millennium, that they would use stock footage taped during the tour and put together a video. Kevin had asked the other four to trust him to do this as a thank you for the fans being there for him and even though they didn't know it yet, as his goodbye to them.

They could do nothing but agree. Not trusting Kevin would be like not breathing to the other four.

Kevin tilted his head to the left. "It's in a bag on the front doorstep. We finished early this morning."

Nick opened his mouth and Kevin stopped him from speaking, "And yes, I am getting my rest, we finished at 9am after starting at seven am today. I'm taking care of myself and my dear nag of a cousin has me timed and scheduled within an inch of my life." He rolled his eyes with a sigh as Nick tried very hard not to laugh. He found biting his lips together the best bet, but Kevin knew that inside his husband was pretty much rolling.

"Anyway," He changed the subject, "I did have a purpose for bringing that up besides the oh so fun aspect of torturing you." He grinned goofily as Nick shot him the finger, "I finished up with the scintillating story in the Enquirer and started on the People magazine. Well imagine my surprise when it was the 50 Most Beautiful People In The World issue and well flipping through I caught site of a few familiar people. Faith Hill, Tina Turner, I'm still flipping through and who do I see but my very own husband smiling up at me from the pages. "

Nick blushed a very interesting shade of pink and buried his face in his hands, "I forgot about that."

Kevin smiled, "It's comforting to know that the rest of the world is finally catching up to what I've known all along." The smile turned into a grin and Kevin's face lit up so much that Nick was sure his heart was going to gallop out of his chest. With the sunlight playing off of him, he looked like an angel to Nick. His fingers dug into the windowsill as he bit his lip. 'Please God, if I have to remember him in only one moment forever, let it be this one.'

Kevin could see Nick lost in thought. As much as he was teasing Nick about the People Magazine, all he wanted to do was wrap his arms around him and inhale the scent of his hair and feel Nick's breath on his neck, hoping it would wash away the words he had heard through the window.

The torment he'd heard in Nick's voice telling Alex that if he broke down he wouldn't stop just grabbed his heart in a vice. And the nagging in the back of his head that Alex spoke a truth that he too had questioned. He had also wondered if a part of Nick had died in all of this. But then, in moments when Nick didn't know he was looking, he would see a sadness and grief in Nick's eyes that would take his breath away.

He shook his head and cleared away what he'd heard. He would deal with it later. "Hey Sexy. What'cha thinking over there?"

A smile lit up Nick's face and Kevin found himself smiling back, basking in the glow that it brought out of him, "How much I would give to be able to kiss the hell out of you right now."

Kevin blushed at Nick's response and a wide grin came to his face, "When is your doctor's appointment?"

Nick rolled his eyes upwards as he thought about the exact time, "Tomorrow morning at seven. He's going to squeeze me in before his office opens."

Kevin nodded and Nick knew he was committing it to memory like everything else that concerned any of them. "Has Alex been keeping you busy?"

Nick grinned and nodded, "Yeah. He's been keeping my mind occupied when I wasn't sleeping. Today he's insisting he can beat me at playstation. You know, that is if he CAN HOLD THE CONTROLLER THE RIGHT WAY UP." The last part of the sentence was yelled over his shoulder, making sure Alex could hear it.

Kevin laughed out loud when a leopard print cushion fwapped against the window and slid down the glass to boink Nick on the head softly.

Nick took the cushion and wiggled his eyebrows at Kevin, "Thanks Alex, my knees were getting kinda sore."

Kevin shook his head with a grimace, just knowing that sentence was not going to go by without some sort of remark from Alex. He held up five fingers, then four, then three, then two, then one. "I'm sure Kevin's heard THAT sentence more than once."

Nick laughed and turned around in the window to look at Alex, "I'm sure Amanda's never had the occasion to use it, you being a minute man and all."

Nick was cackling when he turned back around and grinned at Kevin. "Tell me again why I came here?"

Kevin was beaming at seeing Nick laughing and smiling. "Because Howie would have been dousing you with Lysol on an hourly basis and ironing your grubbies."

Nick rolled his eyes with a groan, "Oh yeah."

Just as he finished saying that, a hand clamped across his throat and around his midsection and with a "Hutdafuk?!!!" He was dragged to the floor.

Kevin was almost doubled over laughing at the look on Nick's face as he went down. He could see Alex sneaking up on him through the window and knew better than to say anything.

He could hear some knocking around and cussing before Alex popped in the window, leaning his elbow on the windowsill and resting his face in his hand, "Hey Train, how ya doing?"

Kevin chuckled and put his hands in his pockets, rocking on the balls of his feet, "Can't complain. What about you?"

AJ wiggled around a little bit and Nick yelped, "Well, I'm sitting on your husband and if he doesn't stop moving around, I'm going to have to remind him in a not so nice way that I had Taco Bell for lunch."

Kevin had to sit on the ground when all he heard from Nick was "MEEP?!!!" Which probably meant he was ducking and covering, with the cushion on his face.

Alex let out his trademark wild cackle and bounced on Nick a little, "Oh yeah, that gordita is just not sitting right."

Kevin was having to gasp for breath, he was laughing so hard. "Oh Alex, I beg you. Spare my poor husband's life, or at least sense of smell, and turn him free!"

Alex laughed at Kevin wringing his hands and looking at him imploringly like a damsel in distress. "Well it's very simple. I will go walking for the Beano if nick says what I want to hear."

There was a muffled voice coming from below the window, "And what is that?"

Alex wiggled his eyebrows at Kevin and rubbed his hands together, "Well that's simple. Alex is master of all things and king of the known universe plus mars and is undoubtedly the most talented Backstreet Boy and was too dead sexy for People Magazine's 50 most beautiful so they took pity on Nick."

Kevin snorted and then covered his mouth, giving Alex an innocent look.

Alex rolled his eyes with a grin and bounced on Nick again, "I'm waaaaiiiiittttiiiiiinnnngggg." He sing-songed.

Nick groaned, "Forget it."

Alex sat silently for a second and cracked his neck in both directions before letting fly with a long, low burp. "I can reroute the next one if you wish."

"AlexismasterofallthingsandkingoftheknownuniverseplusmarsandisundoubtedlythemosttalentedBackstreetBoyandwastoodeadsexyforPeopleMagazine's50mostbeautifulsotheytookpityonNick."

Alex cackled, "What was that, Junior? I didn’t quite catch it."

Nick grumbled, "Alex is master of all things and king of the known universe plus mars and is undoubtedly the most talented Backstreet Boy and was too dead sexy for People Magazine's 50 most beautiful so they took pity on Nick. Happy?"

Alex laughed and stood up, "Yep. Very. You may now continue making kissy faces at your stud muffin."

Nick rolled his eyes and shook his head, getting back in the window. "God help me get through this night."

Kevin smiled, "Just think of tomorrow morning and if you get the go ahead from Sully you don't ever have to come back here."

Nick looked to the heavens, "God, please let me get the go ahead and please let Alex have some Beano in this house somewhere. Amen."

Kevin laughed and echoed him, "Amen."

TBC