Master Plan part 2
Title: Master Plan part 2
Paring: AJ/Nick
Rating: Mostly fluff, some language
Disclaimer: I don´t know, don´t own and made everything up.
Thanks: A BIG thank you to citruslover that did and amazing job with the beta. The story is so much better thanks to her. Any remaining mistakes are mine and mine alone.
There was a knock on the front door at the same time as someone opened it with a key.
“I´m here now,” Kevin said from the hallway. “And I found this strange creature lurking in one of my spare bedrooms. So I thought I´d bring him along, maybe he can be good for something.” With that both Kevin and Brian stepped in to AJ´s kitchen.
“Brian, what are you doing on the sunny side of the country?” AJ gave both Brian and Kevin a hug.
“We get plenty of sun in Atlanta, thank you very much, and I´m here because I have some business with that Healthy Heart Club to take care of. So I left my home and family for a brave exploration of unknown territories out west.“ Brian was smiling, but soon sobered up and asked, “How is he? What did he say?”
AJ took a deep breath before he started to tell them about his morning and how he found Nick on the beach. He was just reaching the point where he was telling them about the document falling out of Nick´s hoodie when the doorbell rang and they could hear Howie´s voice.
“Hey, I´m here! Where are you?”
“We’re in the kitchen.”
A moment later Howie appeared in the doorway. He looked a little taken aback when he found all three of them there.
“Oh, hi Brian, didn´t know you were in LA.”
“Likewise,” Brian said.
“I had some meetings here today, was on the morning plane from Miami. AJ left me a voicemail so I got here as soon as I could.”
Brian nodded “I came in last night and was crashing at Kevin´s, so I woke up when AJ called and Kevin started to swear all over the house.”
Kevin interrupted them. “Well if we have established how everyone came to be here, maybe we should get down to business and try to fix this mess. “
As the others made themselves comfortable in his kitchen and got to work around him, AJ could only watch; he felt like he couldn´t keep his thoughts straight. This was so fucking wrong, how could someone do this to their son? Parts of him wanted nothing more than return to his bedroom, lock the door, and protect Nick from everything that could ever hurt him, and other parts wanted to find Nick´s mother and beat the shit out of her. Then he felt a bit guilty for that, you should never hit someone’s mother even if she could very well be the root of all evil in the world.
Well it was no use thinking about that now; AJ rolled his shoulders and went over to Kevin, ready to help find the right arguments to win this thing.
----
It was the sweat running down his back that woke Nick up. He was buried under the thick comforter in AJ´s bed and on top of that was the quilt AJ´s grandma made him before they went to Europe the first time, that AJ treasured more than almost anything in his life.
At first Nick wasn´t sure why he was there, especially alone, and when he reached over the sheets were cold, so that meant AJ hadn´t just rolled out of bed. Then last night started to come back to him and the night spent at the beach. He hadn´t known where to go, but apparently something in him had wandered in AJ´s direction. He was a little disappointed that AJ hadn´t stayed in bed with him. But then again he had no idea what time it was. Maybe he had been asleep for a long time. He didn´t really know what to do so for a while he just lay there watching the ceiling. Suddenly his stomach made a loud rumbling sound. It probably was time for something to eat.
He sat up and threw the comforter aside. Squinting he tried to see what time it was, but as he wasn´t wearing any contacts, and thinking about it he actually had no idea where his glasses were, so he didn´t see much. Rising and walking over to the bedside table he picked the clock up, it read 3:26 pm. Ok, where did all that time go? It didn´t feel like he had been asleep for that long. After a quick trip to the bathroom Nick went in search of AJ and some food.
Nick hadn´t much more then left the bedroom when he heard raised voices. Shit did AJ have guests over? Looking down at himself, Nick shrugged, he didn´t really have anything else to change into anyway. When he came closer to the kitchen he recognized the voices and relaxed some. The sight that met him in the kitchen made him tense up again.
Kevin, AJ and Brian were sitting with their heads together around the breakfast nook, and they were loudly debating the statement lying on the table in front of them. Howie was standing in the corner with his phone glued to his ear obviously talking to the lawyers. Nick could not believe his eyes.
“What are you doing?”
The question wasn´t especially loud but all activity in the room came to a complete halt. Four eyes turned to him and no one said anything until AJ stood up and started to walk closer.
“Hey, you sleep well? Were we too loud so we woke you up? We are trying to sort this out, we are almost done I think. Howie is checking with the lawyers one last time and the rest of us are trying to decide what kind of statement we should put out.” That was all AJ managed to get out before he registered the anger in Nick´s eyes. “Babe, what´s wrong?”
“What´s wrong? What´s wrong?” Nick´s voice was hard and started to pick up volume as he continued until he was almost screaming. “I´ll tell you what´s wrong. I don´t remember asking you to do anything.” He crossed his arms over his chest. Suddenly he was cold.
AJ walked closer, trying to lay a hand on Nick´s arm, but the stare he received stopped him before contact could be made.
AJ felt helpless. He had not been on the receiving end of one of Nick´s cold glares since before rehab and he didn´t like it one bit.
“Nick,” Kevin said, “don´t take your anger out on Alex. We are only trying to help.”
“No you’re not. You are trying to decide what to do without as much as asking me what I want. I know this is news to you but I am not a little kid anymore, someone you all need to protect. I am almost 30 years old, for God´s sake. How am I ever going to be able to handle life if the four of you step in as soon as something happens that might be hard or hurt me? Huh?”
Nick stared at them for a moment, but no one said a word. Howie had hung up on the lawyers as soon as Nick had started talking, Kevin had put on his blank face, the one Nick never had been able to read, and Brian was staring, not at Nick but at AJ. Nick slowly turned his head; AJ looked like someone had slapped him, hard.
The two of them locked eyes for a moment before Nick tore away, turned around and left the kitchen.
“What have I done?” AJ whispered, staring at the spot where Nick just left.
Howie walked over and put his arm around AJ´s shoulders. “You didn´t do anything wrong.”
AJ was freaking out. “Of course I did! Didn´t you just hear him? I overstepped every boundary there is, I didn´t ask him what he wanted, I just assumed I knew what was best and then I ran with it. Oh God, I have to go talk to him, apologize and see what I can do to make it up to him.”
AJ made a move as to follow Nick but was interrupted by Kevin taking hold of his arm. “OK, calm down a bit.” He didn´t get to say more before AJ stopped him, “No Kevin. Let go of me. I fucked up and now I am going to go and see what I have to do to make it better.”
AJ tried to get his arm free from Kevin´s hold. Could things get any worse? Not only did Nick have to deal with his mother, he also had to deal with AJ, who really should have Nick´s best interest at heart, not making things worse. Why didn´t he think before he acted?
“AJ, stop this.” Kevin still tried to get AJ to calm down, but he wasn´t getting any response. Brian hadn´t said anything since Nick´s appearance in the kitchen, but now he walked over to AJ, who had started to swear at Kevin to get him to release his hold of AJ arm. Brian put both his hands on AJ´s cheeks and made him look into Brian´s eyes.
“Alex, you didn´t do anything wrong.” Brian´s voice was calm and steady. He had a way that would just calm everybody down.
“But Brian you heard him!”
“Yes AJ I did, but think about what he said, we didn´t ask him what he wanted, we assumed we know best, we overstepped our boundaries. But really AJ, since when have we ever respected each others´ boundaries, or not jumped in and tried to fix things so that the one hurting won´t have to? That is what we do. I´ve done it, you´ve done it and Nick most certainly has done it. This is Nick lashing out because he is scared and things that he can´t control is happening. You know this if you would just calm down and start to think straight again.”
AJ stared at Brian, sure he had always been the calm center, the guy to go to when things were spinning out of control, but surely Brian was asking the impossible. AJ couldn’t even begin to understand how he was going to calm down right now. Looking over at Howie and Kevin, who were both nodding their heads, maybe he should make an effort, and yeah maybe Brian had a point. All they wanted was to help Nick, and it was not like this situation was new. The freak-out they witnessed could very well be Nick´s way of letting some steam out. Yeah, Brian might have a point.
“Ok, I see how it is possible that he was overreacting some,” AJ said, “but he is still upset and angry, so maybe we should wait until he´s ready to make some decisions.”
Howie started to collect the papers they had spread all over AJ´s kitchen. “I think that is a good idea. I also think that the three of us should leave you and Nick alone for a little while. Give you an opportunity to make him calm down some.” Howie smiled at AJ, “You seem to be able to do that pretty well lately. Meanwhile the rest of us will invade Kevin´s place, then Nick can decide if he wants the two of you to join us there for dinner.”
AJ thought about it for a second. Yeah, it sounded like a good plan. Perhaps he wasn´t totally sold on the idea of dealing with Nick on his own, but really it was mostly he that needed to make amends.
Kevin and Brian agreed with Howie. “Sure that sounds like a plan,” Kevin said looking around and starting to get his things together. Brian only nodded and gave AJ a big hug, whispering in his ear, “Everything will be fine. Just have faith in the two of you.”
When everything was collected AJ followed the others to the door. Kevin looked at him one more time before he left. “Are you sure you can take it from here? I can go and talk to him if you want.”
“Really Kevin, it´s ok. I´ll take care of it. I´ll give you a call when we are on our way, you know that´s what´s going to happen. Nick can´t stay mad at us, but I´m sure I have some apologizing to do before he´ll listen to me. Now go, and we will see you later.”
Kevin nodded in agreement and left, AJ shut the door and made his way to the bedroom.
----
Nick lay on the bed, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. He was pissed! How could they do that? They loved him, that’s how, and he loved them for it, but he was oh so pissed. He was an adult, they should know that, they just didn´t want anything bad happening to him ever, but he was still oh so pissed.
There were a soft knock on the bedroom door. Nick rolled his eyes.
“You know this is your house and this is even your bedroom, you have the right to walk into it whenever you like.”
“How did you know it was me?” AJ didn´t really meet Nick´s eyes.
“Wasn´t that hard to guess.”
“Could have been Brian, Frick and Frack you know.” AJ was still standing just a step inside the door. The way he was holding himself told Nick he was kind of expecting a fight.
“Nope, ten years ago absolutely, five years ago probably, today nope couldn´t be anyone but you.”
“The others went back to Kevin´s. We can follow them if we want to later.”
Nick didn´t say anything but he hummed to let AJ know he heard him.
“I´m sorry,” AJ said looking up at Nick for the first time.
“What for?” Nick tried to read AJ´s expression.
“Eh, well for you having to go through this again I guess, for making plans without asking you first, or asking what you want, for not realizing you are now an adult and can take care of yourself. Um, I don´t know, yeah.”
Nick sat up and his eyes were still hard, which did nothing to make AJ think that things would be ok anytime soon.
“How about you are sorry you didn´t trust me?”
“What? Of course I trust you. What do you mean? I…I…I, no I don’t know what to say to that.” AJ was absolutely floored.
Nick gave a huge sigh and lay back down. “You didn´t trust me to know what to do and how to deal with my own family. So you called in the reinforcement before I even had the time to process what happened. But you know what? I have for several years now not only taken care of myself but also all of my siblings. It was years there when you were all so sick of everything Backstreet that you´d do anything to get away, I was all on my own, and you know what, I did everything I had to survive without the rest of you.”
AJ toed his shoes of and crawled over the bed until he was looking down into Nicks face, their eyes locking.
“Nick, this is not about us not trusting you, or thinking you can´t take care of yourself. You scared the crap out of me this morning. You would not say anything; I was starting to actually contemplate taking you to the hospital. I know you constantly try to show us that you are a man now, but you don´t have to. We don´t take care of you because we don´t think you can do it yourself. We do it because we don´t want you to have to. Just the same as we all took care of Howie when his dad passed away or how we took care of everything we could think about and then some when Baylee got sick. I know you feel like it is only you, but it is not. We do it for all of us. If you twist my arm I might agree that we jump in a little more quickly when it comes to you,” AJ stroked a hand over Nicks forehead, “but baby it is only because we want everything to be the best for you.”
“Oh God! You sure know how to deflate an angry huff.”
“Well I have lived with you for almost twenty years. I have had some practice. Does that mean that you´re not angry with me anymore?”
Nick let another huge sigh slip before he put his arms around AJ and drew him down until he was lying on Nick´s chest.
“I love you. Last night I knew the one place I could go and be perfectly safe was here. I didn´t make it all the way inside, but then I didn´t have to because you found me anyway.”
AJ knew that if he tried to say anything he would get emotional and embarrass himself, so instead he kissed Nick with all the emotions he was feeling. Somehow it seemed to be working, because Nick kissed him back and that kiss echoed his emotions back to him. Finally Nick broke the kiss and drew AJ´s head down to rest at his shoulder. The two of them lay like that in comfortable silence, only expressing what they were feeling with slow caresses wherever they could reach.
Breaking the silence Nick said, “So tell me about this master plan the four of you came up with.”
The end!