Chapter Four

~``~``Nick``~``~

It was 5pm. The concert was due to start at 6:00pm and finish at around 9:00pm. I sighed and closed my eyes, trying for the umpteenth time to relax my body. I felt as tightly coiled up as a spring. I moved my shoulders around a little trying to loosen up my stiff muscles. But of course I didn't feel better. The noise level around us wasn't helping either.

If this was how I was going to be before the concert, I shuddered to think how I was going to feel after the concert.

~``~``Kevin``~``~

I smiled and watched Nick, who was standing on the other side off the room while he put on his belt. I walked up behind him and put my arms around his waist.

"Hey," I whispered in his ear.

He sighed and leaned against me a little, "Hey yourself."

He finished with his belt and turned around in my arms and smiled at me. I leaned forward and brushed my lips against his.

"You ok?" I asked him.

His smiled wavered for a second before he asked, "Why?"

I moved his hair away from his face, "Because you've been very quiet and generally when we have a concert, especially the first concert of any tour you can't stay in one place longer than one minute," I said quietly.

He sighed and closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them again and looking at me, "I'm ok. I just have something on my mind."

"You know you can talk to any of us right?"

He smiled, "I know. Maybe later."

I tightened my hold on him a little; "Nicky I'm not trying to push you into talking about whatever's bothering you until you want to talk about it ok? And you don't have to talk to me about it, you can talk to one of the other guys if you want, you know that right?"

He leaned forward and kissed me softly and tenderly for a few seconds before pulling back, "I know. Don't worry so much Boo. I love you," he said softly.

I smiled and kissed his forehead, "I love you too."

``~``~``Brian``~``~``

I looked around the room for Kevin and Nick. I saw them standing off to the side, kissing. Kevin had his arms around Nick's waist and Nick had his arms on Kevin's chest. Well as much as I didn't want to break up their intimate moment, we had to go on stage in a few minutes.

I snuck up behind them and heard them exchange 'I love you's'. I smiled and waited, then tapped Kevin on the shoulder and quickly ducked moving to stand behind Nick. Kevin turned around while Nick hugged him.

"Hi Frick, what's up?" Nick asked without turning around.

Kevin smiled at me while gently running his hands up and down Nick's back.

"Oh nothing much. We just have to be on stage in 10 minutes. Just thought you guys would like to know."

Nick sighed and Kevin released his hold on Nick, but not completely. He held Nick's hand in his and Nick entwined their fingers together. He raised their hands up to his lips and kissed Kevin's hand. This was like a ritual between them, a comfort to each other.

The three of us walked out of the dressing room and towards the stage where Nsync was in the middle of a song. We said a group prayer after which we got fitted with our mikes and had to wait for Nsync to finish.

I looked around. AJ was hyper; Howie was talking to Kevin and Nick. Justin, Joey, Chris, Lance and JC exited the stage and our band played a medley of a few of our songs then played the music to the extended version of Backstreet's Back as we went onstage.

The next three hours were a lot of fun, but also tiring. (I'm sorry I'm not describing the concert. I'll most probably do that a few chapters later. Sorry :) ) After every few songs we would go offstage and Nsync would come on, then they would go and we would come. We had to do three encores before we could end the concert.

We took a final bow and started coming offstage. Unfortunately Joey didn't see some wires, which were on the ground and tripped. He banged into me and I banged into Lance who was in front of me. Kevin and Nick had been standing in front of Lance and taking off their mikes and battery packs and saw what happened. Nick moved forward and caught Lances arms before he could fall down. After Nick had steadied Lance he looked at me and raised his eyebrows. The rest of the guys were laughing at the sight of Joey and me on the floor. We quickly stood up and dusted off our clothes. We took off our mikes and battery packs.

"I'm sorry Lance," I apologized to Lance.

He smiled, "It's ok."

Joey turned to me, "I'm sorry Brian."

I waved him off and smiled. I turned around saw JC, Justin, Nick and Kevin waking towards the dressing rooms.

``~``~``Kevin``~``~``

I followed Nick into the dressing room and closed the door behind me. Nick tossed me a towel. After wiping my face, I picked up a bottle of water and started drinking it. AJ, Howie and Brian came into the room and quickly picked up bottles of water to drink.

20 minutes later, Nick and I had finished our shower and were waiting for the other three to finish. Nick was rubbing his hair with a towel, trying to dry it a bit. When he was satisfied he picked up his hairbrush and brushed his hair.

He was pacing around the room. He was still in a rush after the concert and still had to calm down. He saw me looking at him, smiled and raised his eyebrows. I shook my head and went over to him, gently pulling him into my arms and kissed his forehead. He put his arms around my back and hugged me. He kissed me and pulled away from me.

"Let me just put everything back into my bag. The guy's are ready," he said and started putting his hairbrush and clothes back into our bags.

When I went to help him he shook his head and motioned for me to sit down. A few seconds alter AJ came into the dressing room and was jumping up and down. Nick zipped up our bags and stood up, looking at AJ with smirk on his face.

"Didn't feel like taking a look in the mirror Alex?" he asked.

AJ looked at Nick confused then turned to me, "Why? What's wrong?"

When I saw him I couldn't help but start laughing. AJ looked even more confused and turned back to Nick who was standing there and grinning, but he wasn't looking at AJ he was looking at me.

"Nick, stop looking so lovey dovey at Kevin and tell me what's wrong?" AJ said, but with a smile on his face.

Nick smiled at me and then looked at AJ, "You had used hair mascara remember?"

AJ nodded his head, "Yeah so?"

"So, I think you should look in the mirror."

Brian and Howie came into the room and after taking one look at AJ started smirking. AJ looked at his reflection in the mirror and slapped his hand to his forehead. He had not washed out the hair mascara from his hair properly and there was a red streak from his forehead leading to his neck. It wasn't really funny as it was silly. But this was AJ; he used these things in his hair so much he should be used to having to wash them out properly.

Nick poured some water from a bottle into a towel and handed it to AJ. AJ smiled his thanks and started rubbing at the red streak on his face.

Lonnie and Ted came in a minute later.

"Guys come on, get your things together. Has anyone left anything at the hotel?" Lonnie asked us.

Nick looked at me.

I shook my head, "No, everyone's bags are in the bus already."

Lonnie nodded, "Ok guys, then lets get going."

We picked up whatever bags we had with us and started leaving the dressing room. Lonnie opened the doors and AJ ran out, followed by Brian and Howie. After they were on the bus, I ran through. Once I was in, Nick came out between the fans and Carl and Q pushed him onto the bus and shut the door, hitting it thrice to let the driver know we were all on.

I took Nick's hand and went to our bunks. After we kept our bags in the extra bunk, Nick turned to me.

"What do you want to do now?" he asked as he stood in front of me.

Suddenly the bus went over a pothole or something. I had been holding the side of a bunk so I didn't lose my balance but Nick did. He was thrown forward; fortunately since he was right in front of me I caught him in my arms and held him to me to steady him. He put his arms around my back and hugged me.

"Baby are you ok?" I asked him while gently rubbing his neck.

He snuggled closer to me and started kissing my neck, gently biting my neck.

I closed me eyes and sighed.

"Hey guys," suddenly we heard someone say.

I opened my eyes and saw AJ standing a little in front of me, grinning. I groaned and tried to pull away from Nick, but he wouldn't let me move. I pulled his face away from my neck and kissed him then looked at AJ.

"Yes AJ?"

AJ laughed then said, "Sorry to ruin your moment, but we're going to be stopping in a little while so just wanted to let you guys know."

I smiled, "It's ok. Thanks."

AJ smiled and went back to the lounge area, closing the door once he was in the room.

"Nick?" I softly said.

When he looked at me I leaned forward and kissed him. I pulled back and smiled at him. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at me, smiling.

"What do you want to do until we stop?" I asked him.

He wouldn't meet my eyes, "I want you to hold me. Would you?"

I held his chin in my fingers and raised his head, "You just have to tell me that you want me to hold you honey, not ask me. I love you and love holding you. Come on," I took his hand and led him to our bunk.

After he climbed in I settled in next to him and took him into my arms and held him. When I felt him shiver a little, I took our blanket and covered us with it and pulled him closer to me.

We had been lying together for a few minutes, when Nick said, "Kev, I love you too."

He settled with his head next to mine and put his arm on my chest. I realized he was going to fall asleep any minute.

"Nicky?" I said softly.

"Hmm?"

"When we stop wherever we're stopping to get anything to eat, do you want me to wake you up if you're asleep?"

He tightened his hold on me and snuggled his head into the crook of my neck, "Yes please."

I could feel his breath on my neck and his lips moving against my neck as he spoke. I shivered slightly, which caused him to laugh softly at my reaction.

"Ok baby."

A few minutes later I could feel his steady breathing against my neck and knew he was asleep. I closed my eyes and moved my hand up and down Nick's arm. A little while later my cell phone started ringing. I quickly pulled it out of my pocket without moving too much so that I wouldn't disturb Nick and answered it, not bothering to check the caller id so that Nick wouldn't get disturbed and the ringing would stop.

"Hello?" I said softly.

"Kevin?" a voice on the other end asked.

I smiled, "Hi mom, how are you?"

"I'm fine dear, how are you and Nick?"

"We're fine mom," I said softly.

"Dear, why are you talking so softly?" my mom asked.

I looked at Nick and smiled, "Nick's sleeping so I don't want to disturb him."

"Oh honey I'm sorry."

"It's ok mom."

"You call me back when you are free ok? And I want to talk to Nick too. I called him the other day but Brian had picked up the phone and said you were in some meeting."

"Yeah, I had to go for some meetings that day so Nick had spent the day with Brian and AJ."

"Ok honey, call me when you are free."

"I will mom. Bye, I love you."

"I love you too dear. Give the boys and Nick my love, goodnight Kevin."

"Goodnight mom."

I clicked off the phone kept it aside. A few minutes later I felt the bus slow down and then stop. I stayed where I was. I knew we had to wait for security to give us the ok to leave the bus that would take a few minutes. AJ, Brian and Howie came towards the bunks and stopped in front of our bunk.

Howie smiled, "You guys coming in?"

I smiled back, "Yeah. Where are we by the way?"

AJ smiled happily, "McDonald's."

"You guys go ahead. I'll wake Nick up, then we'll join you guys."

They nodded and went to the front of the bus, where I heard them talking to Q. I sighed and looked at my angel. I put my hand on his neck and slowly starting rubbing it.

"Nicky, come on baby wake up," I softly starting talking to him, knowing he would wake up in a minute.

He opened his eyes and looked at me. I kissed his forehead.

"Come on baby, we've stopped," I said while moving my hand up and down his back.

He shook his head and said, "I don't want to go anywhere Boo. I want to sleep, I'm feeling very sleepy."

I frowned and put my hand on his forehead to see if he had fever.

He smiled at me, "I'm fine, just too tired. You go on, I'm going back to sleep."

I realized he wasn't going to be able to stay awake much longer so I agreed.

"Ok, but before you go back to sleep at least take off your jeans first. You'll be more comfortable."

He nodded so I helped him sit up and get out of the bunk. I removed his jeans and helped him climb back into the bunk in his boxers and t-shirt. I covered him with the blankets and lightly kissed him.

"Goodnight baby."

He smiled sleepily at me, "Goodnight Boo."

I stood next to the bunk for a few minutes until Nick was asleep again and then I stepped off the bus and went inside McDonald's to join everyone else.

I joined the rest of the guys at the tables they had occupied. Howie got a coke and burger for me.

"Where's Nick?" Chris asked.

Everyone was looking at me, "He's asleep. He didn't want to come in."

A little while later when we had almost finished eating Mark Jennings came over and stood there waiting for us to notice him by clearing his throat a few times. We of course, saw him but nobody wanted to pay attention to him.

Finally he had to speak, "Excuse me?"

Justin smiled, "Yes?"

"Where is Nick?" he asked looking around at all of us as if we were hiding Nick.

"He's sleeping," Brian said.

Jennings frowned, "Why is he so tired?"

Lance looked at me and shook his head in irritation. I shared his feelings. It wasn't any of his business why Nick was tired. We were done for the day so its our wish what we want to do with our time.

Before I could say anything AJ very calmly said, "Because he was having sex whenever he could today."

He said it with a completely straight face, but I could see the laughter sparkling in his eyes. AJ will be AJ.

Jennings looked at me and waited for an explanation I guess.

I calmly took a sip of my coke before answering, "He was tired so he fell asleep."

Jennings sighed, "Yes Mr. Richardson, he was tired so he's sleeping, I've heard that. But why is he so tired, is what I want to know."

I leaned back in the chair, "Mr. Jennings, its really none of your business why Nick or any of the other guys for that matter are tired. I don't see why and how it concerns you when Nick has done his job for the day. Right now is the time we relax after a concert or go out or sleep. So Nick is doing nothing wrong."

``~``~``Lance``~``~``