Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 06:41:12 +0000
From: N D <pytn18@hotmail.com>
Subject: nick and ashley-chapter 24

DISCLAIMER: I don't know O-town or the Backstreet Boys or N'Sync and am not
implying anything. This is just fantasy and if homosexual content offends
you or is illegal for you to read, please leave. I am not affiliated with
them, J records, Jive records, MTV, ABC or anything.

The only thing I have remotely in common with these boys is that Ashley
Parker Angel and I were born on the exact same day-August 1, 1981.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: As I have said before, Jay Vascardi (author of "Nick
and Brian" and head of the BBSA awards) has agreed to do a side chapter
focusing on Dan and Devon. It will follow the same history and storyline as
this story but it will be a "day in the life of..." type of thing but
containing Dan and Devon. He is almost done with it as we speak...but of
course my computer sucks again so it might be a while.  Also, Kyriel2
(author of "The One") has agreed to do the same type of deal but with AJ
and Jacob and that should be out by the end of the month. Just a little
treat for you guys to spice up Nifty a bit.

I leave for school on Saturday (19th) and after that the updates will slow
down a bit. I am sorry for this but I will try to keep up as much as
possible. I will still continue to check my email though so keep the love
coming.

http://jcv.5u.com/all/worldofslash/ --Jayson Vascardi's website that
features my story and many other slash fiction stories. Go check it out.

Pytn18@hotmail.com for suggestions and comments

Nick and Ashley-Chapter Twenty-Four

Brian Littrell walked through the tour bus after another grueling concert.
The tour was passing through the California section and then moving back
across the country. They just finished up Los Angeles and were heading
out. He had just gotten changed after the concert into something that he
could finally be comfortable in. He wasn't really tired and decided to go
and see if anyone was doing anything.

As he walked through the tour bus leaving from his bed, which was at the
front he noticed that most of the guys were not there. 'I wonder where
everyone is? I guess in the back.' Brian thought to himself. He continued
on down the bus and stopped near Nick and Ashley's bed. The curtain was
closed and Brian didn't hear anything so he assumed they were sleeping and
continued on. 'Maybe everyone's sleeping already? It was a tough concert
but no more than usual' Brian continued to think as he finally came to the
back room and saw a light coming from under the door.

He decided to knock on the door and see who was watching TV or playing
video games.  He heard Nick's voice say 'come in' and Brian opened the door
and walked in.  He was immediately greeted with 9 other people screaming
something that he could only make out as "Happy Birthday".

"Guys, my birthday isn't until tomorrow." Brian said with a laugh

"Nope, it's after 12:00, which means you are officially 27 years old." Nick
said as he came and put his arm around Brian's shoulder.

"Thanks guys." Brian said

"C'mon old man let's celebrate." Kevin said as he poured Brian and everyone
else a glass of champagne, except for AJ who he poured a glass of orange
juice for.

"Old man? Look who's talking grandpa." Brian shot back at Kevin

Everyone had a good laugh and started to raise their glass.

"Wait a second, not yet. Someone else wanted to join us in this
celebration." Nick said as he hooked up his digital camera to the TV and
pressed the play button.

Brian watched his friend work the gadget until a blue screen popped up and
it was filled soon by a woman. Brian had a smile come to his face as he
recognized it as his wife Leigh Ann.

"Hey baby I just wanted to say Happy Birthday and that I miss you when
you're out on the road and can't wait for you to come home." Leigh Ann
started as she raised her glass and everyone followed suit. "To New
Beginnings." Leigh Ann said as everyone replied to the pre-recorded
video. Just as Nick was about to shut off the video Leigh Ann began to
speak again.

"Hang on one second there Nick." Leigh Ann said as Nick stopped and gave
the camera a questioning glance. "I have one more thing to say."

"Go ahead Leigh Ann." Nick said with a laugh.

"I have some news for Brian and I might as well say it as you are all
watching cuz you guys are like family to us." Leigh Ann started.

Brian stared at the camera and admired the way his wife's blond hair fell
on her shoulders. This was the woman that he knew was the one for him. He
spent most of his life looking for her but she was finally here and Brian
was truly happy, especially in this past year or of marriage.

"Brian, I'm pregnant." Leigh Ann said. "You're gonna be a father. I can't
wait to see you when you get home. I love you and Happy Birthday." Leigh
Ann said as the camera faded out.

Brian stood there and thought about what his wife had just said. He let it
all sit in and finally the group knocked him out of this trance as they
began to cheer and hug him.  Tears came to Brian's eyes as he was
surrounded by friends celebrating something good in his life. Never did
Brian think that it would go this far. When they started this 8 years ago
they would have never thought that they would be sitting in a tour bus with
the boy band of the future celebrating Brian and his wife having a baby. It
had come this far though and there was no turning back and Brian wouldn't
change it for the world.

Nick and Ashley lay in their bed together just holding each other in the
dark. The tour bus was on its way to the next stop and everyone was
sleeping. These boys were one of the two lucky couples that actually got to
spend time on tour with each other.  This was the privilege that Ashley and
Jacob had due to the fact that they were on tour and dated men from
Backstreet Boys. Devon had to go start shooting the new movie, Kevin and
Brian's wives were at home, Mandy Moore had to go start working on her new
album in the studio, and Lance had his own life with N'Sync. This left Nick
and Ashley as a very fortunate couple that got to see each other. They knew
this however and treasured the fact. They knew that eventually the tour
would be over and they would have to spend time apart as their two bands
separated but their time was now and they knew that it had to be
cherished. They had a few scares especially lately with Shellie but the
conversation with Clive had calmed them both down as if he was a father
after his son just had a car accident.

"I'm so happy for Frick." Nick said to his boyfriend.

"Yeah me too, he's a good guy and he'll be a great father." Ashley
responded.

"He's prayed for a family of his own for so long. He's truly been blessed."
Nick said spiritually.

"If you pray long enough for something it's gotta come true, right?" Ashley
asked rhetorically.

"You came into my life didn't you?" Nick asked back.

Ashley simply smiled. "Yes I did Nicky and I'm not going anywhere." Ashley
said as he kissed Nick very gently.

"Have you ever thought of someday being like Brian and Leigh Ann?" Nick
asked

"You mean like get married?" Ashley asked.

"I don't know, maybe." Nick said.

"Nick, I'm just not sure...I love you so much and one day I can see myself
with you forever but I just don't know." Ashley said.

"I understand, it's ok I was just daydreaming." Nick said as he looked
away.

Ashley saw that his boyfriend was hurt by this conversation. He knew that
nothing he said had hurt him but what really hurt was the fact that he had
to worry about the public and his career and things that shouldn't have to
factor into love. He wanted what Brian had but he knew that it would never
be that easy. Ashley pulled Nick back to his face and looked him in the
eye.

"Nicky, this ring on my finger says that someday we will be married. Let's
take it slow though. We're both young. Someday Nicky, someday." Ashley
said, which seemed to calm him down and soon they were off to sleep.


In the bunk across the way there was another couple who were also just
enjoying the moment. AJ lay on his back with his hands behind his head as
Jacob lay on his chest, listening to the heartbeat of his boyfriend.

"I can hear your heart beating." Jacob said with a laugh.

"What's it saying?" AJ responded.

"It says...Jacob, Jacob, Jacob." Jacob responded with another laugh.

"Ok cheezball." AJ said as he slapped Jacob on the arm.

"I think it says it loves me." Jacob said as he looked up at his
boyfriend's face.

"You know it does J." AJ said in his raspy voice as he kissed Jacob's
forehead.

"You happy for Brian?" Jacob asked him.

"No one deserves it more than B-rok." AJ said

"Yeah I agree." Jacob started but was cut off by Ashley knocking on the
side of the wall next their bunk.

"Jake, can you come out here for a second?" Ashley said out loud as he went
and sat at a table near their bunks. Nick already sat there as AJ and Jacob
came out and joined them.

"What's the matter guys?" Jacob asked as they entered the room.

"There were three packages that arrived today. One for me, one for Dan and
one for you." Ashley said as he passed out the packages as Dan arrived into
the room rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"This couldn't wait until tomorrow?" Jacob asked.

"It's from Lou." Ashley said gravely as all the men started to pay a little
more attention.

"What do you think it is?" Dan asked

"I don't know." Ashley said.

"What if it's like a bomb or something?" Nick asked

"I had management check it out. They said the police said it was too flat
to be anything to be afraid of." Josh, their choreographer said as he
walked into the room.

"I guess we should open them." Jacob said.

"You go first Ash." Dan said as Jacob agreed.

"I knew that was coming. Alright, but if I die I swear to God I'm gonna
come back and haunt all your asses." Ashley said with a laugh as he opened
the package. He pulled out what was in it, which immediately took the smile
off of his face. He pulled out black and white enlarged pictures. He saw
that the pictures were of him and Nick, one on the beach, one out to
dinner, one of them holding hands and one of them kissing.

"Oh God." Ashley said with a gasp as he held his hand over his mouth.

"What is it Ash?" Nick said as he looked at the pictures.

"What do you think this means?" Ashley asked.

"I don't know but I can give you 3 guesses as to what's behind door numbers
2 and 3." Dan said as he and Jacob opened their packages and saw pictures
of them with their boyfriends.

"Security has kept Lou out of our lives since we fired him. There's gotta
be someone else involved in this." Jacob said with anger.

Jacob's words echoed through Ashley's head but those words soon turned into
someone else's words. Two words remained in Ashley's mind..."I know".

"It's Shellie." Ashley said as he sat down and put his head in his hands.
"She was at Nick's birthday and the same restaurant as us in the Bahamas,
and god knows where else that you guys have been." Ashley said as tears
started to form in his eyes.

"Of course! And Lou is helping her...he always kept an agenda for 3 months
ahead of time. We fired him on New Year's. He knew exactly where we were
gonna be for 3 months after that." Dan started. "Look none of these of me
and Devon are in Key West because we made the plans last minute."

"I can't believe they teamed up to backstab us like that." Ashley said
through tears. "Why can't this world just let us be?!" Ashley screamed out
a statement that echoed throughout the entire tour bus.


Brian was on his cell phone talking to his wife Leigh Ann, discussing how
great the news was and already contemplating baby names. He heard a scream
come from the other room and told his wife that he loved her and would talk
to her tomorrow as he got out of his bunk. He headed to where the news came
from. He walked in the room and Nick came running up to him.

"Brian, everything's ok go back to bed." Nick said as he tried to shield
Brian from all of the drama.

"What happened Nick?" Brian asked.

"Don't worry about it...It was just..." Nick started but was cut off by
Brian.

"Nick, what happened?" Brian asked much more sternly this time.

Nick put his head down and gave up. "Lou and Ashley's ex-girlfriend teamed
up and took pictures of all the gay couples." Nick said as he looked back
up at Brian to see his reaction.

What he saw was nothing less than pure anger.

"Brian please I didn't want you to have to worry about this, especially not
on your birthday again." Nick pleaded with him.

"Nick this bullshit has to stop." Brian yelled as he ran back to his bunk.
Nick put his head down and stared at the floor.

"What was that all about?" Ashley asked.

Nick turned around as if to address everyone. "Well as you guys know, Lou
was our manager first. Brian was the first person to realize that he was
really screwing us out of all our money and he was the one who took the
proper moves in court to get him fired. He found out everything about Lou
on his birthday about 4 years ago." Nick said.

"I remember that Frack but do you think it's a coincidence?" AJ asked

"It's a message Bone. It has to be." Nick said

Brian took out his cell phone and searched through his cell phone until he
found the number he needed. The phone rang a few times before Clive Davis
picked up on the other line.

"Clive it's Brian of the Backstreet Boys." Brian said

"Hello Mr. Littrell, something I can help you with?" Clive asked

"We need to talk..." Brian started

Lance laid in the couch in the recording studio with papers on his face and
pencils and other papers all over the floor. The sunlight was peering
through the windows but Lance was ignorant to this, as he had done this
many times before. His cell phone rang, which brought him out of his state
and he fumbled for it and eventually answered it.

"Hello?" Lance said very groggily into a candy bar as he continued to hear
the phone rang. "Damnit" Lance cursed and eventually found his phone and
turned it on.

"Hey Lance it's me. Sorry I woke you up" Trevor said.

"Hey Trev, nah don't worry about it I fell asleep in the studio again, I
needed to get up anyway. What's up?" Lance answered.

"I have some bad news. Lou Pearlman and Shellie, Ashley's ex, teamed up and
took pictures of all of the couples together, except for us, we've kept it
pretty DL so he doesn't know about us." Trevor said.

"Holy shit that's terrible." Lance said with a half-sigh that he wasn't too
involved.

"Yeah, so what we're trying to do is have all of our friends that have any
kind of pull in the business to come out and defend us. It would be
especially great if you guys can help cuz you guys fired his ass too and
you guys are really hot right now." Trevor said.

"I'm sure it won't be a problem. I'll run it by the guys today. I gotta get
a quick shower and then I'll probably meet back with them here in a few
hours." Lance said as he started to get his things together.

"Thank you so much Lance." Trevor started and then switched tones. "Shower
huh? Mind if I join you?" Trevor said seductively.

"Sounds great except for one thing. Where are you guys now?" Lance asked.

"Santa Fe, New Mexico." Trevor said.

"Ding ding ding." Lance said

"Alright I got your point. Thanks again Lance. I'll talk to you later."
Trevor said as he ended the conversation with his boyfriend.

Lance picked up his keys and headed out for his car. He knew he made it
sound easier to Trevor then it actually was going to be but this seemed
very important and he didn't want it escalating past what it was so he
needed to talk to the guys. There's a time in your life where you had to
stick up for your friends. This was running through Lance's head as he sped
back to his house in Orlando.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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