Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 17:13:25 +0000
From: James
Subject: Boy Bands - On The Streets - Part 22

	Firstly, I want to say I do not know nor do I make any presumptions about
the sexuality of the Backstreet Boys nor any other celebrities who may
appear in this story. This story is entirely the product of the sick
imagination of the author.

	Secondly, there's also a couple of things I'd like to say to any authors
out there, read a couple of stories like Forever, Josh and Just, My New
Life, Brian and Justin, JC's Hitchhiker, and My Surprise Romance and there's
probably a few others I can't think of, but they are great stories,
especially Forever (but I advise you not to read Equilibrium - it's a bit
too depressing for my liking, and it hasn't been finished which is really
annoying), it is a really beautiful story and addresses so many emotions
it's incredible - trust me, it is the Holy Grail of the Nifty author.

Chapter 22

	"Whoa  - no way Kev!" I said firmly. His face dropped.

	"Why not Jared? You said you loved me. Prove it." Did he really just ask me
to prove my love for him?

	"What did you just say?" Kevin stood up from the end of the bed where he'd
been sitting.

	"You carry on saying you love me, well prove it, say you'll marry me." He
said.

	"I can't believe you're even saying this! Kevin listen to yourself! You're
saying that if I don't agree to marry you, then it will prove I don't love
you." I said solemnly, but getting worried.

	"Jared, I've waited all my life to meet someone I love as much as I do you,
now why won't you marry me, it will show me how much you love me if you say
yes."

	"Kevin, I've waited so long for someone like you in my life, but please
understand me, I will not get married to someone who needs me to prove my
love to them - that is not a reason for marriage." Kevin sighed and sat down
on the end of the bed again.

	"You're right, I'm sorry. That was selfish of me, I didn't think how that
would make you feel." I knelt down in front of him. "But if I had just asked
you, and hadn't made all that fuss about it proving you love me, would you
have married me?" I paused.

	"No." Kevin sat back a bit and nodded. He looked up again into my eyes, and
looked like he was about to cry. "No, Kevin it's not like that." I said
exasperatedly. "Kevin, there's a lot of stuff we don't know about each other
yet, and I don't know about you, but I want you to know everything about me,
before we get married, or do anything like that. There is some stuff I don't
feel I can tell you yet, and I think those things I'm just gonna have to
tell you in time, so until then, we should just carry on finding out stuff
about each other. Ok? Kevin?" He looked up at me and smiled, then took my
hand and kissed the palm.

	"I love you Jared."

	"I love you too Kev." I reached up and ran my hand through his hair before
leaning in to kiss him softly on the lips.

	"Can we get your bags unpacked though?" Kevin asked.

	"Sure. Come on I'll help you sort out the cupboard." I answered. Kevin and
I spent the next hour trying to get all our stuff to fit in his closets and
drawers. It was a tight fit. About 12:30, we were done.

	"We should probably try to get to bed, but I'm really not tired yet." Kevin
grumbled. It was gonna be hard adjusting to the weird time zone change.
"Shall we go and watch some TV Jared?"

	"Ummm, sure." I was actually pretty tired, but I didn't want to grumble
about being with Kevin. We went and sat on the couch in his living room
together. We lied down together, him with his back to the couch, and me in
front and he flicked on the TV with the remote control. He started passing
through the channels and I noticed after a while that he was still going up
through the channels and he hadn't stopped yet. "Kevin?" No answer. "Kevin?"

	"Yeah?"

	"How many channels do you get here?"

	"Ummm, I've got satellite, so, almost 500 I think."

	"What? Why do you need so many?"

	"Cos there's hardly ever anything good on. Don't blame me anyway - loads of
people have satellite TV."

	"Oh, well, I guess it's just been a while since I really watched TV. Oh
yeah, except for when we watched that stuff in China, that was just funny."
We both chuckled a bit.

	"Here, do you want to choose something?" He said as he handed me the remote
control.

	"Ok, so what channels are good?" I asked as I sat up on the front of the
couch with Kevin lying behind me. Kevin started to list off a few, and I
flicked around a bit, soon enough though I was used to the constant flicking
up and down, and I was looking through for something I wanted to see.

	"Do you want something to eat?" Kevin asked as he sat up next to me.

	"Um sure, actually could I get a drink please?"

	"Sure, be right back." Kev said as he retreated to the kitchen. I carried
on flicking through the channels. There were a load of music channels, and
sports channels, movie channels and some black and white films were showing.
Kevin came back and handed me my drink. We sat together watching whatever
happened to be on. I have to admit, it was a little attractive, being able
to turn onto one of the other 499 channels whenever something bad came on
the channel you were watching. "You know Jared, we've been down here for a
couple of hours already, it's almost three. Do you want to go up yet?" Kevin
asked, obviously tired. I leant over and kissed him, trying not to take my
eyes off the TV screen.

	"You go up, I'll join you in a bit, I promise I'll be up soon." Kevin
nodded and went up the stairs. I turned my head to see his legs disappear as
they retreated to the upper floor, then went back to channel surfing, once I
had turned it down a bit.

***

	Before I realised it, it had been almost two hours, and I was still in
front of the TV screen. It was 4:30 already, and I had promised Kevin I
would be up soon after he went up. I turned off the TV and went upstairs. I
saw Kevin lying in bed, I couldn't tell whether he was asleep or awake,
though a quick snoring sound soon told me. I climbed in and saw the clock on
the bedside table red 4:45. I would have to make it up to Kevin tomorrow.

***

	I woke up before Kevin. It was only 9:30, but I was pretty much wide awake.
I got out of bed, and pulled on a pair of boxer-briefs. I went downstairs
and into the kitchen. I decided to make breakfast for Kevin. I looked around
the kitchen, and there was quite a bit of food, I was surprised seeing as
Kevin had been gone for a few months, but then I thought he probably had
someone bring in some food for when he got back. I saw bacon, and some eggs,
there was some milk and bread I found in another cupboard. I soon had the
food started and on the stove. I saw a radio in the kitchen, and turned it
on quietly so as not to wake Kevin.

	"Thing you've got to realise what we're doin' is not a trick, we got the
gift of melody, we're gonna bring it till the end, doesn't matter, bout the
car I drive, what I wear around my neck, all that matters is that you
recognise that it's just about respect." The radio blared out. I started
dancing around the kitchen, I know I probably looked stupid, but hey no
one's around to see me, and I don't know - it's fun dancing while you're
doing something like cooking. I put on the eggs, and I realised it probably
wasn't a good idea dancing around while they were frying as the oil could
spit, so I just swayed my hips to the music. As I put on the second load of
eggs, I felt a set of hips grind against mine from behind. I turned around
with a shock, and there was Kevin, looking incredible. I loved the way he
looked in the morning. His hair was just on the border of being too long,
and it had this tousled look first thing in the morning. His eyes had a
passion in them first thing in the morning, and it was his favourite time to
'fool around'.

	"Hey, what you doin'?"

	"I was cooking you breakfast, but by the looks of things, you want other
things." I said with a grin as I pointed down to the bulge in his crotch.
Kevin smiled and looked down, then cast an eye over the food that was on the
stove.

	"What happened to your healthy lifestyle? Bacon, eggs, fried toast? This
all part of your regular..." His voice trailed off. "Do you know what you're
listening to?" I looked at him confused for a second before I realised he
was talking about the radio, I listened for a moment, then shook my head.
"It's N'Sync."

	"What you mean those guys we met a couple of weeks ago?"

	"Yup."

	"Oh. So?"

	"Well, you're not supposed to listen to them, you're supposed to listen to
us! They're the competition!" He said.

	"You're kidding? You guys seemed to get along quite well with them, I
thought Nick and Justin were close friends anyway."

	"Actually, we're all pretty close, but according to all the papers and
media and the fans we're actually in this huge war to see who's the best
boyband, it's quite funny really. If they knew that we're actually pretty
close friends I think our sales would drop quite suddenly." Kevin chuckled.
I shook my head and went back to cooking breakfast. "So, what is up with
this meal? What happened to all the healthy stuff?"

	"Well, I kinda felt bad about last night, I stayed up a bit late watching
TV, I didn't notice the time." Kevin chuckled. "What?"

	"I was too tired to do anything anyway, I didn't even notice you come to
bed. I must have fallen asleep the moment my head hit the pillow."

	"Oh, well, I might as well throw this fatty food out then."

	"NO! Hey, you came to bed late last night, I think I deserve a nice
breakfast." Kevin grinned wolfishly. He started munching on the bacon that
was sitting on a plate with kitchen roll on it that was soaking up the
grease. I whacked his hand with the back of the spatula and he went off with
a mock hurt expression on his face, and he was rubbing the back of his hand.
He turned off the radio as he was leaving the kitchen. I was about to go
over and turn it back on when music started coming from somewhere, and I
realised it was the Backstreet Boys. I looked around for speakers, and
finally saw two little black boxes located in opposite corners of the
kitchen. He had a full home system, nice. He came back in grinning as 'The
One' came on. I served up breakfast, and we ate it at the kitchen table.
This was our first meal together in our home - it was wonderful.

	"The guys want to meet up later." He mumbled as we cleaned away the plates
into the dishwasher.

	"What for? You've just seen them for the last few months, all day every
day!" I said with a grin on my face so that he knew I was kidding.

	"Oh, we have this kind of tradition thing - we always go and get a meal
together once we get back from a tour. Just a sort of celebration that the
tour's over. Then we don't see each other for at least two weeks - just so
that we don't start getting on each others' nerves too much." Kevin grinned.
We went back upstairs and got showered together. I was starting to love
doing this: we didn't get to do it much while we were on tour, we were
always either too late getting up, or the showers were too small for both of
us to fit into. We washed each others' hair, and had a bit of fun while we
were in there, and we were ready and out of there by 11 or so. We were
meeting the guys at 12:30. While I sat down again to watch TV, Kevin went
and sat in front of a desk and I watched him open up a laptop computer and
power it up.

	"What're you doing?" I asked him.

	"Just looking over my website." He answered while he clicked on some of the
buttons on the computer.

	"You have a website?" I said as I stood up and leant over his shoulder to
see what he was looking at, even if I had no idea what he was doing.

	"Well, there is the Backstreet Boys website, but I'm actually looking at
the Just Within Reach website, it's the charity I run." He had mentioned
this before, something to do with the environment.

	"Oh. Ok."

	"You don't remember what my charity does do you?" I squinted for a second,
trying in vain to remember. I finally shook my head. He smiled and wrapped
an arm around my waist, and I sat on one of his legs. He started showing me
his website, pictures of him took up a lot of it, but there was some
information on things to do with cleaning up the environment. Apparently
there was a new section showing examples of Just Within Reach projects, and
pictures of students who Kevin's charity had put through University because
they were studying Environmental Sciences. I think that impressed me most:
investing in young people - there's the teacher in me coming out, but the
picturesque scenery that Just Within Reach had worked to clean up was
incredible too. Once we had looked at all the pages, Kevin shut down the
screen, and a picture of me was on the screen, I sat back shocked at the
sudden reflection.

	"What's that?"

	"My desktop background." He grinned at me as I sat back on to his leg more.

	"You have a picture of me on there?" He nodded. "How did you get it in
there?" I asked. He reached over to the desk and picked something up.

	"Digital camera, plugs straight into the computer." He said. I still didn't
understand, but just accepted it. "You don't mind do you?" I shrugged. It
was just like having a photo of someone on your desk. He smiled at me, and
put his arms around me, and rested his head on my chest, then just hugged me
tightly, really tightly. Once he let me go, I took a deep breath, relieved
to have my breathing capabilities back.

	"What was that for?" I asked.

	"I'm never gonna let you go Jared, remember that." He said as he stood up
and took my hand, and we headed out to meet the guys.

***

	Lunch with the guys was really relaxed. All the guys, Leighanne, Kristin,
and Howie and AJ's girlfriends were there. I was starting to feel kinda
sorry for Nick, he was always the odd one out at these things, or he was
lumped with Kristin cos Kevin was with me. I spent most of the meal talking
to Brian for some reason. He was telling me how good it was to be back, and
how he and Leighanne had been up for hours talking, and how good it felt to
be back in his own bed. I suddenly heard Kevin yawn very loudly from behind
me.

	"Late night Kev?" Brian asked with a smirk on his face.

	"Well I wouldn't have had one if this idiot here." He grinned wolfishly as
he pointed at me. "hadn't got to bed at 4:45 after a TV marathon!"

	"You were awake! I knew that snore sounded fake!" I shouted back to him,
though quietly enough so that no one else where we were could hear us.

	"You were up till quarter to five watching TV? What was on at that sort of
time in the morning?" Brian asked, not quite sure if Kevin was kidding about
the time.

	"Um, well most channels, they were like advertising stuff on, like um,
cooking utensils and stuff like that. Then there were some old films on some
channels, MTV was playing songs constantly, and a few re-runs of programmes
from yesterday that sort of thing. A few channels hadn't started yet, so I
just flicked through them. There was the God channels, they were all
running, don't those people get tired? I suppose they're all re-runs too."
Brian had his mouth hanging open. I'm pretty sure he thought Kevin was
kidding. I had to laugh at the cute expression on his face.

	"Couldn't you just wait till this morning to watch TV?" Brian asked. I
blushed a bit - maybe it was a bit daft of me.

	"Hey! He hasn't watched any TV in a long time - give him a break!" Kevin
cut in for me. Brian chuckled and went back to eating.

	"So, what did you end up watching?" Nick said. I could see he was trying to
get into the conversation, having obviously been ignored from the one that
Howie, AJ and their girlfriends, and Leighanne and Kristin were involved in.

	"Well, I watched those God channels for about an hour, then I watched the
beginning of some old film, but it got boring, and there was some straight
porn which kept me interested for about 10 minutes!" I chuckled. Nick
blushed and went back to eating, probably wishing he hadn't tried to join
our conversation.

	"So, what did you think of the tele-evangelists?" Brian asked with a grin
on his face.

	"Well...I think I'll reserve judgement until I've seen them in the light of
day - I think I spent most of my time staring at their hair - how do they
blow dry it like that? Probably the most outrageous hair I've ever seen!" I
said with a grin.

	"Have you looked in the mirror recently?" Kevin said as he leant over and
whispered in my ear. I turned to him with a confused expression on my face.
"You haven't exactly got the most normal of hairstyles!" Kevin said with a
smirk.

	"Oh...yeah, I was gonna talk to you about that - I think I'm gonna have it
cut off." Kevin sat back, surprised. We both had similar hair, though his
was slightly darker than mine, and when mine was out of the cornrows, it was
only slightly longer than his.

	"Oh, ok." Kevin said then went back to eating. I frowned at his reaction,
then finished off my meal. The guys all hugged one another, and we all said
goodbye for at least a week as Kevin had ordained over the end of the meal.
He had actually set restrictions - No one band member can see another one
for seven days. There shall be no gathering of more than two band members
for 10 days and there shall be no more than three Backstreet Boys in any one
place for another 14 days. After that, they were free to meet in any size of
group they wished. I reckoned he had actually practised that speech so he
got it right. Then I had to wonder to myself if Kevin was violating some
sort of Freedom of Association rights? Kevin and I left the restaurant,
having said goodbye, and Kevin said he'd see Brian next Tuesday - that was
the first chance he'd get to see him, according to his rules. We drove most
of the way home in silence, it was quite a long drive, about 40 minutes, but
I guess we were still both pretty tired.

	"Can you leave your hair Jared?" Kevin asked.

	"What?"

	"Can you not cut your hair off?" He said.

	"That's what I thought you said, why not?" I asked back.

	"This is gonna sound so stupid." he said as he pretended to keep his eyes
only on the road and ignored my face. "But Jared, I like the fact we're the
same, and I like your hair that way. Can't you leave it?" He asked with a
pleading expression on his face.

	"Sure, I guess, I didn't realise you felt that strongly about it!" I
answered back. I thought he was going a little bit mad, but I didn't care
really - I've had my hair like this for years, and if it makes him happy, so
what? We arrived home a little bit later, and parked the car in the
driveway. Just as we were walking up the drive and into the house, two
police cars pulled in behind us, and we turned and stared at them for a
second, then looked at each other. Two police men jumped out of each car and
came up to the house.

	"Mr. Richardson?" He asked. He was tall and blond haired - a combination I
never found very attractive.

	"Yes?" Kevin answered.

	"Um, sir, your silent alarm was triggered and we were alerted. We believe
someone has tried to break into your house. Would you care to open the door,
and we'll check it out for you." Kevin obligingly unlocked the front door
and stood aside. Once two of the police had gone in, we followed them in.

To Be Continued...
End of Chapter 22