Little snippets, written spontanously (I call it ‘on autopilot’) using five given words. Four so far.

Howie/Nick | Howie/AJ | AJ/Robbie Williams | Howie/AJ

Mprov #1 (Howie/Nick)

Unbeta’d, not even spell checked - this was spontaneously written into my fic journal (so please excuse any suckiness *g*)…
I asked for five words to write my first mprov - and Ian provided me with:

obsessive-compulsive, drawl, Burgundy, spacey, beans

Nick had always had a big soft spot where Howie was concerned.

That was not surprising, since Howie had always treated him like a friend, not like some annoying kid he was forced to babysit. Also Howie had never seemed to mind Nick’s habit of invading other people’s personal space.

So Nick would explode at the slightest sign of Kevin’s obsessive-compulsive protectiveness of him, or get sulky when AJ ditched him to go out to clubs Nick wasn’t able to get in, or bitch out Brian for spending too much time on the phone with Leighanne. But he hardly ever lost his temper around Howie.

Nick didn’t mind Howie being protective of him, because Howie didn’t make him feel stupid about it, only loved and taken care of. He understood when Howie wanted to go out on his own, specially if Howie apologized by cooking Nick Paula’s famous soup, containing tomatoes, beans, onions, potatoes and several secret spices. And when Howie was on the phone — which was almost all the time when they were not working — Nick simply curled up next to him and rested his head in Howie’s lap, enjoying the feel of Howie’s fingers in his hair.

Although he loved all of his bandmates, sometimes Nick suspected that maybe he loved Howie just a bit — not more, but different.

So when he heard the question “Say, Nick, not to pry into your affairs - but are you in love with Howie?”, asked in Kevin’s familiar drawl in one of their daily phone calls during a tour break, Nick was not really surprised to hear himself answer that he might be.

What did surprise him, just a bit, because he was not normally that good with words, was something he said just a couple of days later, again on the phone, this time with Howie.

He must have been quiet for a while, because Howie’s soft voice woke him from his daydream: “Nicky? You still there? You seem kind of spacey — something the matter?”

And before Nick had had time to think about what he was saying he heard himself answer.

“Sorry, D — it’s just that I think I’m in love with you.”

Silence. But not for long enough for Nick to get worried. Then Howie’s laughter filled the line.

“And you think that’s something to be sorry for?”

Nick couldn’t help but laugh in answer. “Nah — I’m just sorry that I did it over the phone.”

Another laugh, soft like a caress.

“There you’re right — because now you’ll have to wait until I’ve driven over to your place.”

“Wait for what?”

Nick was not really afraid of the answer — he knew from the tone of Howie’s voice that things would be okay, no matter what.

“For the kiss I’ve been wanting to give you for years…”

“Then you’d better hurry, don’t you, D?” Nick tried unsuccessfully to keep his voice calm, because all of a sudden he felt giddy and lightheaded.

“Take the Burgundy out of the cooler, love — I’ll be there before you know it!”

Love. Nick thought the word had a really nice ring to it.

***

Mprov #2 (Howie/AJ)

Michele provided me with five more words and I wrote this at work, again with hardly any editing:

Angel, precious, evil, doubtful and slash

“Howard!”

Slowly Howie became conscious of someone calling his name, but he was still too close to sleep as that he’d been able to identify the familiar sounding voice.

He blinked and his sluggish brain tried to pinpoint who the hell was calling him by his full name. No onedid that, except for his parents, sometimes. But Paula and Hoke were at a cousin’s wedding this weekend. Plus they always called before driving over.

“Howard!”

Howie buried his head under his pillow. Maybe if he ignored the annoying sound it would go away and he could go back to sleep…

“Howard Dwaine Dorough! Open that fucking door or I’ll kick it in!”

That got Howie’s attention and answered the question of who had interrupted his peaceful dreams. He got out of bed abruptly and went to the door, not bothering to get dressed. He planned on getting back to bed as soon as possible.

Howie could practically feelthe intruder getting ready to shout again and quickly threw the door wide open, causing the person on the other side, who’d been lounging against the doorway, to almost fall inside.

“Alexander! What a — doubtful pleasure to see you this early on a Saturday morning!” There was not a jot of Howie’s proverbial sweetness in his voice as he fixed AJ with a level stare.

But AJ was not easily disturbed. He just grinned and looked Howie up and down, fixing his gaze pointedly on the purple boxers, which were everything Howie was wearing.

“You always open your door like that, Howard? Or were you expecting someone special? Like moi?”

Howie refused to be goaded by AJ. His friend would tell him soon enough why he was here.

“Don’t flatter yourself, McLean. — And what the heck is up with the ‘Howard’?”

AJ’s grin widened into a very bad parody of an innocent smile.

“What? Can’t I just feel the urge to give my favorite Backstreet Boy and bestest friend in the world a special name? Something only I call him?”

Without a word Howie turned on his heels and walked back inside.

Laughing AJ called after his retreating back, before hurrying to catch up with him: “Or would you prefer if I called you my angel?”

Howie had made his way back to his bed, giving it a last longing glance before continuing to the balcony and sitting down there to soak up the morning sun. With AJ in that kind of mood there was no chance in hell he’d be getting any more sleep.

“Call me whatever you want, Alexander, just please, not at seven in the morning!”

With a loud ‘plop’ AJ sat down next to Howie.

“Now who’s the one using full names here?” he asked, but the look on Howie’s face obviously convinced him not to push his luck any further.

For a while they sat side by side in peace and Howie slowly started to feel like a human being again. Maybe he should have been nicer to AJ — after all, he probably had a good reason for his presence here. AJ was not completelycrazy.

Howie finally broke the silence and said charitably: “And now, Aje, tell me why you’re here. Because for your own good I hope that it’s not just an evil plan to ruin my Saturday morning!”

He smiled at his friend for the first time, and AJ visibly relaxed and smiled one of his rare smiles in return.

“That’d be a good idea, really — need to remember to do that another time, just to see you show your claws again! Really sexy!” AJ laughed at Howie’s face and continued quickly: “But seriously, I just had to tell you something and didn’t want the other guys around.”

“Why — something happened that the big bad AJ McLean is embarrassed of?” Howie couldn’t help the teasing, which earned him a good view of AJ’s tongue.

Howie laughed. “Precious, just precious — but maybe once you’ve remembered that you’re twenty-four…”

AJ mock-scowled at him, but got to the point: “Well, you know, it’s just kind of private… Someone’s been sending me those slash stories — you know, the kind where they write about two of us together…”

Howie had to hide a grin at AJ’s floundering. “Yes, I know what ’slash’ is, Aje — but I still don’t see why you’ve come to me. I mean, we see that kind of junk all the time — like those terrible ‘Mary-Sue’ stories — so what’s gotten you all riled up?”

Howie had not thought it possible, but AJ actually blushed, a strangely endearing thing to see.

“Well, you know… Those stories. They were all about you and me — and well…” He looked to the ground, then suddenly met Howie’s eyes. “Shit, I’ll just say it — they got me thinking about how maybe you and me… Just a thought, nothing more. But I wanted to tell you, you should know because-”

AJ didn’t get any further because Howie leaned forward and shut him up with a kiss.

At first AJ’s lips were still beneath his, but then AJ started to respond, at first hesitating then more and more enthusiastically.

Howie let himself get lost in the kiss and decided that this was well worth the lost sleep.

Finally they broke apart and AJ stared at him with wide eyes.

“What?” Howie asked with a laugh.

“Why weren’t you the least bit shocked?” AJ demanded to know almost accusingly.

This caused Howie to laugh even harder. In between fits of laughter he leaned forward and kissed AJ’s poutingly pursed lips softly.

“Well, angel, who do you think sent you those stories?”

~~~

Mprov #3 (AJ/Robbie Williams)

Märrie sent me words and said “Do what you like - but I for my part would enjoy to read Robbie again.” The explanation to this is that I have one of those celeb LJs, where I amuse myself with writing Robbie. And because I’m one of those people who like to do nice things for their friends… *g*
But no fear, there’s Backstreet around as well! LOL

couch, silk, twilight, brooding, clock

Brooding was not an attractive look on himself, Robbie decided as he caught sight of himself in the mirror behind the bar. All around him were people having obscene amounts of fun — everyone seemed to be having the time of their lives. Except for him.

He was aware that this was mostly his own fault — he should have known better than to go out by himself (except for the mandatory well-trained bodyguard keeping himself discreetly in the background), specially to a bar that served alcohol.

Sometimes staying sober was still the struggle it had been right at the beginning.

Robbie glanced at the clock in the corner. Not even midnight. He was tempted to call it a night anyway — but then where was he supposed to go? After all the only reason he had gone out in the first place was because Johnny was in one of his ‘maybe we should stop fooling around’ moods, and Rachel had decided (again) that he was too high maintenance.

High maintenance my foot! Robbie snorted in contempt. Rachel’s way of telling him that she was tired of his strayings.

Fuck, seemed as if all of his relationships ended that way! Maybe there really was something wrong with him, something that made him hook up with always the wrong sort of people.

Even Rachel, who’d always been so understanding about the fact that he needed his freedom like oxygen, had turned out to be just like everyone else. Wrong for him.

But although Robbie knew this, it still got to him — and put the already mentioned broody look on his face.

Disgusted with himself Robbie stood and looked around. He had to get away from that bar — even if it was only to the other side of the room.

He noticed that there was a free spot on a couch in the back and pushed through the crowd. He mumbled some words of excuse and squeezed himself between the people already seated, just glad that no fan seemed to have wormed their way into this high profile bar. He was not in the mood to be ‘Robbie Williams, superstar’ tonight.

Making himself as comfortable as possible he settled in to be the observer for a change — not the observed. In the process of doing that he managed to dig his elbow into the side of his lefthand neighbour.

The man turned around to growl at Rob in an American accent: “Ouch! Fuck, give a man some space, would you?”

“Sorry, mate, didn’t mean to…” Rob trailed off as he got a better look at his neighbour and he started chuckling.

“What the fuck is your problem?” the other man said, his voice still grumpy but yet he seemed ready to join in the amusement.

“Well, who’d have thought that I’d end up in this god-awful bar next to fellow ex-boybander…”

The stranger seemed to get a bit annoyed now, but at the same time it was obvious to Robbie that he was intrigued.

“Maybe if you’d take off your bloody sunglasses you’d recognize the people sitting next to you,” Robbie suggested and grinned as the other man did just that.

Wow. Robbie swallowed drily. Nice eyes. Really nice eyes.

“Oh yeah, now I recognize you!”

A really sexy gravelly voice, too. And a shivers-down-your-spine laugh.

“You’re right, it is pretty funny that we’d both end up here — specially considering that so far we’ve managed not to bump into each other anywhere.”

Robbie forced his thoughts out of the gutter long enough to reply: “Yeah, and now we meet in mucky London, my beloved hometown…”

The other man gave Robbie an obviously appraising look and Robbie started to think that maybe, just maybe, this evening might turn out to be not quite that bad…

“Yeah, figures… Although I think I should mention for the record that I’m not per se an ex-boybander — we’re just taking a break.” But there was a twinkle in his brown eyes (eyes a beautiful chocolate color) and he laid a casual hand on the silk of Robbie’s shirt.

Robbie couldn’t suppress a grin. Seemed as if rumours were true — him and AJ McLean really had a lot in common…

“So,” he therefore said casually, “do you have any specific plans for tonight Aye-Jay?” He drew out the two letters and gave AJ his patented ‘How can you help but want me?’ smirk.

It seemed to work because AJ fixed him with an equally cock-sure smile and replied, his voice even lower than before: “How ’bout you show me ’round your ‘ beloved hometown’, Robster?”

Robbie laughed at the moniker and moved his leg so that it was resting comfortably against AJ’s.

“How ’bout you show me to your hotel room and I’ll show you a good time there?” he grinned, no trace of his earlier bad humour left. This was a game he enjoyed and was good at - damn good.

AJ was obviously not easily flustered because he simply grinned back. “Sounds good. So why don’t we?”

Robbie got up and started walking towards the exit, feeling AJ’s lean body right behind, so close that AJ’s hot breath made the hairs on his neck stand on end in anticipation.

Yeah, this night had definitely turned out way better than he’d expected he repeated to himself later, as AJ was licking a leisurely path over his tattoos, making him shiver.

And yet later, when Robbie stepped out of the hotel into the twilight of dawn, he thought to himself that maybe, just maybe, being high maintenance was worth the benefits…

~~~

Mprov #4 (Howie/AJ)

Haven’t done one of those in a long time… Curtsey of the Mprov Machine, for giving me Howie and AJ on the first try! *g*

dazed; girl; puddle; aghast; gritty

Howie found AJ standing in his room, staring in front of him with a dazed look on his face. Curious to find out what had his best friend so aghast he followed his gaze, only to find — nothing. There was nothing at all in the spot AJ was staring at. Howie started to feel slightly worried. Not too much so, after so many years together, but a bit.

“What’s up, Aje?” he inquired, carefully approaching the younger man and lying a soft hand on his shoulder.

AJ jumped violently at the touch, starting to swear: “Fuck! D, were you trying to give me a heart attack?”

Howie couldn’t help but grin. “Of course, which is why I asked ‘What’s up Aje’ before coming closer.”

AJ rolled his eyes, obviously not amused, and proceeded to pout in silence.

Howie didn’t pay any attention to AJ’s attempts at ignoring him — that had never worked before, so why should it now? “Now, stop being silly, and tell me what had you so fascinated…”

AJ gave him a look that said that he was only indulging Howie’s nosiness, another thing Howie easily ignored, knowing that AJ couldn’t keep quiet about anything. “Well… There was this girl…” AJ’s voice petered off and he began to stare off into space again.

Howie rolled his eyes. A girl, what else! Sometimes it was really painfully obvious that AJ was only 17. “And? Was she hot?” he inquired, getting ready for a long, drawn-out story about yet another sexy fan. But AJ surprised him by starting to sniff at himself, his nose twitching as he smelled his armpits. Any other time Howie would have found this weird but adorable, in a very very AJ way, but right now he simply wondered if his friend had lost his mind.

“What’s wrong now?” he asked, just a hint of impatience creeping into his voice.

AJ looked up at him and gave him one of his rare open smiles, smiles that only special people got. “Sorry to act like a nut case, D - but I feel really gritty, I think I need a shower.”

Howie, unable to resist the smile, found himself relaxing despite of himself. “Well, then take one - I’ll be here, waiting for the rest of your story.” He was not quite sure why he said that, but AJ’s grateful smile convinced him that he didn’t really mind AJ acting like a lunatic and making him wait for some probably boring story. He settled down on AJ’s unmade bed and prepared to wait, but he had barely sat down when he the bathroom door opened and AJ appeared, totally wet, wearing only a towel and a determined look on face.

“Umm, Aje - don’t you want to turn the water off?” Howie asked, now totally confused.

AJ only stood there looking at him, as if trying to make up his mind. A puddle of water was slowly forming beneath him. Finally he spoke: “I have to tell you now, before I chicken out again!”

Howie didn’t know what to say, so he just looked at AJ, whose eyes seemed to burn with something — but Howie didn’t want to get his hopes up, so he squashed that thought ruthlessly.

“I was with this girl last night, and she was very pretty, dark with beautiful brown eyes…” AJ paused and took a deep breath. “… and I, I called her ‘Howie’…”

Howie couldn’t help the grin that was spreading on his face now, threatening to split it in two. He stood and did what he had dreamed of doing for so long — he kissed his best friend.

~~~