SUMMARY: Backstreet Boys, Howie/AJ, Howie/Nick.  The Backstreet Boys
have a secret code they use to communicate.


Sekrit Code, by Mercutio (mercutio@europa.com)


It started with Nick.

He was young and blonde and pretty, and just a little naive.  Easy
prey for the vultures out there, and there were a lot.  Everyone
watched him, the group as well as his mother, but they couldn't be
everywhere, and in any case, it was only Nick who could say when
something was making him uncomfortable.

Since having "pedophile" shouted at them tended to make record
executives uncomfortable, as well as pretty much everyone else in
the vicinity, and since there were situations in which
photographers and make-up assistants and half a dozen other people
touching them intimately was actually legitimate, they came up with
a code.  Because, sure, shouting "pedophile" took care of the
immediate problem, but if the person in question had been either
not doing what Nick thought they were doing, or had a professional
reason to do it, it tended to polarize the situation instead of
keeping it manageable.  And no one wanted to tell Nick to just suck
it up.  The smart thing to do was to get Nick out of the situation
and then deal with it in a mature, rational fashion.

So they started the code.

Whenever Nick felt uncomfortable, he was supposed to hum a bit of
"U Can't Touch This"; however much it took of it to get the
attention of one of them, and then they'd take care of whatever was
happening.  They thought it would work fairly well, aside from
leading people to believe Nick had a fondness for rap music.

The only problem was, when someone touched Nick and he started
humming that, it was obvious to all but the slowest of the slow
what it meant.  Particularly when Kevin would start in Nick's
direction, a murderous gleam in his eyes.

Howie suggested that they switch to 'Quit Playing Games', and that
worked better, because there was always a good reason to be singing
one of their songs, and if you didn't know what it meant, it just
sounded like Nick was thinking about love.

Nick got older, and it got to be less of a problem.  As he grew up
and got bigger, people were less likely to take liberties with him,
and they all relaxed.  Howie was smaller and nearly as pretty with
the long hair, but, unlike Nick, he had good judgment about those
kinds of situations and better methods of coping.

The song code, though, remained in effect, because it was useful. 
No one ever suspected them of anything for singing their own music. 
NSYNC might have been suspicious, MC Hammer definitely, but their
own work?  People just thought they were narcissistic or
perfectionists, and there wasn't anything wrong with that; you had
to be a little bit of both in their profession.

Brian inadvertently started the present-day incarnation of the code
when he saw Nick head off by himself right before a show and, Nick
already half-out the door, asked where he was going.

AJ grinned wickedly and hummed "Show Me The Meaning Of Being
Lonely."

Brian gave him a blank look.

Nick let the door shut and came back across the room to punch AJ in
the arm.  "Shut up.  I am not."

"I don't get it," Brian said.

"And neither does Nicky," AJ said, dancing back away from Nick. 
"He's on his way to go to jerk off."

"So... oh, ew.  That's a nice song.  It doesn't mean that."

"Yeah.  What Frick said."

AJ shrugged unrepentantly and walked off whistling the song.

"You think he's gonna go... y'know?" Nick asked.

"I think I really don't want to know."

****

The new version of the code remained useful, particularly in
certain situations, because it was still as true now as it had been
before that they couldn't just say what they meant in public. 
Being able to trade secrets -- and insults -- in public was
invaluable.

Particularly when two of them were carrying on a secret
semi-relationship under everyone's noses.  It was understood
between Howie and AJ that their thing was a matter of convenience,
something to do when they didn't feel like picking up random
groupies, or couldn't find anyone worth picking up.  Like tonight.

Howie rested one hand on AJ's shoulder as AJ flirted with the girl
in front of him.  The after-party was dull and there was no one
there he felt like going home with.  Other than AJ.  He listened to
the conversation and sang "I Need You Tonight" quietly to himself.

AJ craned his neck around and grinned at him.  "How you doing? 
Meet Cynthia.  She's an assistant at Warner Brothers."

Howie held out his hand and introduced himself.  AJ was humming
"Everybody" and grinning at him, rocking back and forth on his
toes.  Howie raised his eyebrows.  A threesome?  He wasn't feeling
quite that adventurous at the moment.

He let AJ take the conversation over again, hummed a few bars of
"Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely" and walked away.  AJ didn't
even look around.

Lonely it was then.  Howie found a place next to Nick at the bar.

"AJ find his victim of the night?" Nick asked.

"Yeah."

"Y'know... the thing you got going with him..."

Howie looked sharply at Nick.  "I'm not talking about that here."

"No... I just wanted..."  Nick squirmed and looked uncomfortable. 
"Does he love you?"

"It's not about that."

"Oh.  So you don't...?"

"No more than any of the rest of you."

"Oh.  I wish... I mean -- I do, you know?  I always have.  As long
as I can remember."  Nick wrapped his arms around Howie and leaned
his head on Howie's shoulder.  Something he'd done a thousand times
before, on and off camera.

But this time he was singing, "I Want It That Way" very softly into
Howie's ear, and it was very new and very old all at the same time. 
Nick holding him, loving him... that was all very familiar, and
yet, not the same at all.  There was something new and precious
about this.  Different than what he had with AJ, maybe better, and
he'd never let himself see it because it would have been wrong then
-- but Nick was older now, and singing a different song.

Howie leaned back into him and sang along.