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A few days later, Brian and AJ found themselves walking into the hotel with Nick in tow, both thankful that his parents gave them permission to keep night with them overnight away from SunValley. Gone was the concern that the two older men had was whether Bob and Jane Carter would allow them to take Nick away. The new concern was how Nick would react to being away from the 'home he's ever known at SunValley.'

Things seemed to be going so far so good, Brian decided as they stepped onto the hotel elevator until he gazed over at Nick and discovered that he had a finger in his mouth. He visibally jerked and immediately reached the taller man's forearm.

"Nick, take your finger out of your mouth, that isn't polite."

Brian's words caught AJ's attention.

"Geeze Nick, I hope you weren't walking around with your fingers in your mouth!" the tattooed rebel rasped.

Nick felt embarrassed and cast his eyes down at his feet. "Sorry," he mumbled quietly.

AJ immediately regretted his actions and shook his head. "I'm sorry Nick, I didn't mean to sound like I was mad at you....I guess I keep forgetting that you're not you right now....if that makes any sense. Maybe this wasn't a good idea after all," AJ muttered.

Brian smiled as he placed a protective arm around Nick's shoulder. "It's gonna be fine. We're gonna hole up in the hotel room, eat tons of junk food, watch movies and mess around, just like old times, right Nicky?"

Nick shrugged his shoulders, not certain what Brian was talking about. "I guess."

"See? Nick knows exactly what I'm talkin' about."

AJ shook his head, grateful that the elevator finally arrived to their floor.

Brian pulled out the room card from his billford. "Hey Nicky, you wanna open the door?"

Nick nodded his head yes.

"Okay let me show you what you have to do," Brian explained as he showed how to slip the card into the lock. "See you do this and the red light turns green and then you can turn the handle---"

"And hopefully no one will come down the hall and watch you talk like a moron to another adult," AJ interrupted.

Brian cast a dark look toward the rebel. "Ignore AJ, he's being grumpy for some reason....okay, here Nick, you try."

It took the blonde three tries but he finally got the door open. A smile lit his face.

"I did it!"

AJ pushed his way past Brian and Nick and immediately flopped his body onto the first bed.

Nick stared after AJ. "Is he mad?"

"No he's just being a jerk tonight for some reason," Brian replied, staring at AJ as they walked into the room. He smacked AJ's foot as he walked by. "How about you get out the games we got?"

"Do I look like a butler to you?"

"You might as well do something good since you want to be all moody for some reason. Maybe you'll start to feel better," Brian replied.

AJ ran a hand over his face in a tired manner. "I'm sorry I don't mean to bring you guys down....just some issues I'm still having."

"What's issues?" Nick asked innocently.

AJ dismissed Nick's question with a shrug of his shoulders. "I just feel bad sometimes."

Nick put a hand on AJ's arm. "It will get better."

"Yeah kid, I guess you're right. Okay Carter, what game do you want to play?"

"Do you have Candyland?"

Brian couldn't help but catch the distressed look that crossed AJ's face.

"Nah not Candyland Nick, I thought we'd play something a little better," Brian replied.

AJ rolled his eyes. "We have something better than Candyland?"

Brian ignored AJ's facial expression. "Yes we do....we have Sorry or Trouble or Uno."

"I like Sorry....lets play that one!" Nick said quickly. "I almost always win that one."

"Probably cause you cheat," AJ teased.

"I do not!" Nick defended.

"You do too!"

"Do not!"

"Yes you do!"

Instead of shouting back in defense, Nick turned around and buried his face into the side of the bed. This had Brian and AJ caught by surprise.

"Nick?"

"Go away!" Nick cried into the bed.

Brian gently touched the young man on the shoulder. "Nicky, AJ didn't mean that, right AJ?"

"I was teasing you Nick....we always accused you of cheating."

"C'mon Nick....I'll let you pick the color you want for the game," Brian said as he opened the box and started setting up the game.

Sniffling, Nick turned around, his eyes red from crying. "I'll be the blue guy."

AJ looked at the young man in surprise. "Not green?"

"I don't like that color....I like the blue one."

"That's weird...you always took green."

"I've never played this game with you before so how would you know?"

Noticing Brian's warning look, AJ dropped the subject. "Okay, blue it is."

******

After little over an hour had passed with the trio playing board games, Nick announced that he was hungry.

"How about we order a pizza?" Brian suggested.

"Yeah that sounds good to me," AJ agreed. "How about it Nick, a big, greasy pizza?"

Nick nodded. "Yeah I want lots of cheese....we don't get pizza at home that much."

AJ scowled at the remark. "Are you kidding me kid? You're the king of pizza eating!"

"Yeah it's probably hard to make pizza for all you guys," Brian quickly added before AJ opened his mouth and added more about he might regret.

"Oh...yeah Brian's right I didn't think about that. So do you want onions and mushrooms too?" he flashed a hopeful smile toward the blonde.

Nick stuck his tongue out. "Bleech.....onions! Gross!"

"Alrighty then....lets make it one large pepperoni.....boore-ing!"

"It's Nick's night he can have what he wants," Brian defended.

Sighing, AJ pulled hotel booklet from the nightstand, looking through their recommendations of good pizza delivery places in the area.

"Have you guys ever sang songs together at your home?"

Nick nodded, slipping a finger into his mouth.

"FINGERS NICK!" AJ said loudly.

He immediately pulled his finger out of his mouth.

"Sorry to harp on you but that is really a bad habit Nick," AJ said and stopped himself from continuing his lecture, focusing back toward his telephone call.

"He really is grumpy," Nick remarked, gesturing at AJ.

"Yeah, well you know how AJ is," Brian smirked. "So back to singing. How about we start this thing and see what you got."

Nick watched as Brian turned the television set on and then the Karaoke machine. "We got two mics and I whole crapload of CDs to sing along to."

"Pizza won't be here for forty-five minutes," AJ stated as he threw himself face down toward the foot of the bed. "So Kaos, you gonna sing?"

Nick looked at Brian waiting for a reply.

"Jay's talking to you Nick."

Nick shook his head. "He didn't say my name...he said yours."

AJ chuckled. "Naw....I called you by your nickname, don't you remember it?"

"I have a nickname?"

"Yeah.....it was Kaos."

"Kaos....thats a funny nickname. Why Kaos?"

"Because wherever you went, trouble was sure to follow along, not to mention you're such a klutz."

"Klutz?"

"English AJ....speak English!" Brian said in a British accent.

"You trip over your own two feet kiddo.....I can't stand this anylonger, I'm gonna smoke in here," AJ stated as he reached for his pack of cigarettes on the nightstand.

Brian tossed a stern look. "This is a non smoking room!"

"I'll pay the fine....a little Glade and they won't know I smoked in here.....just open the sliding door to the deck."

After a few moments with neither Brian or Nick moving, AJ grunted as he got off the bed, lit cigarette dangling from his lips. "Geeze, ask for a little courtesy...."

"I smoked," Nick announced to no one in particular.

Brian and AJ exchanged glances.

"Yeah buddy you did," AJ agreed with a nod.

A confused look crossed Nick's face. "And someone told me not to do it in front of people?"

This time Brian answered. "Yep that was bad PR."

Nick gestured at the television. "So are we gonna sing together?"

"Sure...if you want to, we can," Brian agreed.

"Yeah I don't wanna sing alone," Nick said shyly.

"This machine is cool," AJ announced as he looked over Brian's shoulder at the CD collection. "It shows the lyrics on the screen so you can follow along."

"Lyrics?" Nick asked with a confused look on his face.

"You know Nick....lyrics, the words to the song."

"Okay I found one Jay," Brian said as he placed a CD into the player. He handed a mic out to AJ and cued up the music. "Just jump in if you wanna."

The music that started to come from the machine was Backstreet's Larger Than Life. Brian watched Nick from the corner of his eye as he sang the beginning of the song. The young man stared at the tv screen with a puzzled expression. Before long, Nick was sitting on the floor next to him. Brian automatically placed an arm around Nick's shoulder as he sang.

"Do you remember this song?"

Nick nodded yes.

"Do you want to sing with me and my mic?"

Nick shook his head no.

"Aww c'mon Nick," AJ encouraged, "It'll be fun."

"I-I don't know all the words," he admitted.

"Just make up the words that you don't remember," Brian said.

"Yeah....like Kevin."

"Kevin didn't sing that much," Nick replied.

AJ flashed a cheesy grin. "Yeah...Kev was pretty much a bridge singer."

"Bridge? He stayed on a bridge?" Nick wondered as a mental picture of Kevin standing alone on a bridge popped into his head.

AJ lightly smacked the younger man on the shoulder. "Kaos! A bridge is the chorus to the song..."

"Yeah....like the song thats playing....All you people can't you see, can't you see......How your love's affecting our reality," Brian pointed to the screen as his sang the words.

"Oh," Nick said dully. "Can we play some games again?"

"Nick, we just started playing the karoke machine, don't you wanna take your turn?" AJ asked.

Nick shook his head. "No I wanna play some games."

Reluctantly, Brian turned the machine off. "We'll do this maybe after the pizza. It's okay."