Title:Claiming The Prize

Author:Jules

Part:1/1 (Sequel to Call In To Win)

Pairing:Nick/Kevin

Rating: PG

Disclaimer:Still not true.

Warning: Slash warning

Feedback: Sure. I'd love it thanks. mailto:slash_me_baby@yahoo.com

Notes:Now I have no idea what time the interview is. They haven't announced it yet, and if they have, I haven't heard it. So I'm improvising here. JJust some more fluff.

Claiming the Prize
by Jules

Much Music had gone surprisingly well the day before, something he had been both excited for and nervous about. He loved visiting Toronto, found it refreshing and an escape from everything and everyone. But he had been afraid that no one would show up. That he would be there to promote the single and new CD and there would be like 6 people waiting to see him. Just to watch him fail. Of course, it had been the complete opposite and there had been hundreds of fans, both outside and inside all in hopes of catching a glimpse of him. He'd done his hour on MuchOnDemand, the wannabe TRL but for Canadians, and found that he'd really e njoyed himself. He'd signed autographs until his fingers cramped, took pictures until he was nearly blind and smiled so much that he thought his face was seriously going to crack. It was wonderful and made him feel great. The feeling that people were in fact behind him, supporting his decision to go solo and break from Backstreet, even if for just a little while.

But there was something missing. Someone missing. Granted, the guys hadn't been all too excited when he'd decided to do the solo thing. No one could get their head out of their ass long enough to decide what they wanted to do with the new album. They fought over producers. Sounds. Names. Songs. Even the fucking thank yous. They fought over everything, no one able to come to any sort of agreement on one aspect of the new album. So Nick did what he had to do for him and started working on his own album. Kevin had had Kristin and his marriage. Granted, it was over now with no one particularly forthcoming with details, but at the time they'd been quasi happy. He had JWR as well. Brian had Leigh and the dogs. Healthy heart foundation. A family to start. Howie had Tabu and the real estate. He had his own thing that he'd been doing a lot more now and was focusing less on the group. And finally AJ had Sarah. Their huge wedding and his sobriety to focus on. Everyone had something to fall back on but him. So he figured that it was high time that he started looking out for himself, knowing that there wasn't anyone who was going to do it for him.

The last thing he had counted on was them disowning him. He knew they'd be upset. Hurt. Confused. But never in the time he'd planned on doing his CD, did he think that they would completely write him off, cutting all ties with him. It was hard because now he was all by himself. He was now ompletely on his own for the first time and found that as hard as it was, it was making him stronger. He needed their support and love, but now that he didn't have it, it just showed him that he could do whatever he put his mind to. He was strong enough.

Climbing out of bed, Nick stretched and shook off the headache that was threatening. After the interview at Much the night before, he'd called up a few friends and went out clubbing, just to relax and enjoy his time in Toronto. He had to be at the Z103 radio station at 1pm so he could meet the contest winner and her friends before going into the hour long interview he was scheduled for. Plus he wanted to be there a little early so he could sign a few autographs and take a few pictures before hand for the people who couldn't get in. Now that he was on his own, it was almost like he had to start all over again. Doing the things that they'd become accustomed to skipping due to lateness or just because they didn't feel up to it that day, but he wanted to get into the habit of getting back out to the fans, thanking them for sticking by him and supporting his solo efforts.

Nick checked the clock to see that it was nearly 11am. Plenty of time to have some breakfast before heading over to the studio. Calling his driver, he arranged for the car to be ready for noon, giving him an hour to go down to one of the cafés in Yorkville for something to eat. The entire time he was out, there was a nagging feeling in his stomach. He'd gotten it when he arrived at the hotel the day before and it hadn't left the entire time. As if there was something going on that he didn't know about. Something that he was missing. There had been fans waiting for him which he had e xpected, but that wasn't it. He would search the crowds as if something would give him a clue as to what it was, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Shrugging, Nick played it off to nervous energy and tried to forget about it. He would be staying in Toronto a bit longer than

he had planned. Originally it was just supposed to be the one day, Wednesday. But then he had found out that Aaron was playing a few hours away in London on the Saturday, and the Film Festival was going on until the 14th, so rather than rush his trip, Nick decided to take his time. Something told him that there was no need to rush out of Toronto, so he didn't.

The car arrived at the studio to find as many people waiting outside there as had been at Much Music. And Nick noticed that it was almost the exact same crowd. Chuckling to himself, he figured that they'd just gone from Much Music to the hotel, to the radio station, following him. Stalking him. With a huge smile on his face, Nick stepped out of the car and waved to the screaming fans, blinking as multiple cameras started to click and flash in front of him. It took him a while, but he made his way into the doors, waving one last time to the disappointed fans who couldn't go into the station with him. He smiled as he was led dow n the halls towards the location of the interview, stopping as he heard a heated discussion taking place.

"What do you mean there's a problem?"A masculine voice Nick was sure he recognized spoke.

"Well ....you see ...it's not a problem perse, but just ...."A woman answered, clearly rattled.

"It's just what? He phoned in. He was the fifth caller. He won. What is the problem with that?"A loud female voice said annoyed. "You can't say he can't win because of who he is, because it shouldn't matter. He WON. Fair and square."

"I understand that, but imagine how it will look to everyone listening."The first woman tried to rationalize with them.

"How it will look? No one can see him honey. They won't know who he is. But I will tell you that if you revoke him winning this contest, I know how it will look when I march out there to the hundreds of fans waiting outside and tell them what's going on!"The other female voice threatened, causing Nick to laugh slightly. He had no idea what the hell was going on, but this girl was ballsy. Something he could appreciate.

Nick heard a sigh of frustration and the male voice speaking again, assuring them that it was all done in the utmost legal way. He hadn't pulled strings to get there, he'd just phoned and been the fifth caller. Curiosity was getting the better of Nick, he had to know who that voice belonged to. It was suspiciously similar to someone he knew very well, but figuring that there was no way he was there, it had to be someone else. Smiling at the girl who was trembling beside him, watching him with wide eyes, Nick knocked on the door waiting to be let in. Seconds passed before the door opened, a room full of people staring back at him. He heard a few gasps and figured that they had been from the winners of the contest. His eyes roamed the room but stopped as soon as the woman in front of him grabbed his arm and led him into the room.

"Nick. Thank you for coming. We're happy to have you here,"she spoke, a little too enthusiastic for Nick's liking.

"Well thank you for inviting me up for an interview. I appreciate it,"the nausea in Nick's stomach was back ten fold and he had no idea why. There was just something going on that he hadn't noticed. Looking to the far corner of the room his breathing stopped and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head.

He was there.

Kevin.

Staring at him.

Kevin's eyes were wide, a brilliant shade of green. His mouth slightly open, chest heaving from shallow breathing. It had been his voice Nick heard. What the hell was he doing there?

"Kev?"

"Nick."

They stood there staring at one another, neither knowing what to say. A million emotions were floating in the room and everyone was holding their breath, anticipating the next move. Until a loud cheery voice interrupted everything.

"Nick. Nice to meet you. We've been waiting forever,"Nick turned his head to see the owner of that voice, a tall girl with short curly hair and a big smile on her face. He couldn't help but smile back and extend his hand to shake hers. "I'm Julie. Kevin won the contest to meet you here and they're going apeshit figuring that it was all planned and there was some big scheme involved. Like we all don't have better fucking things to do on a Labour Day Monday than screw fucking Z103 or something."

"Julie, nice to meet you as well,"He tried to hold in a giggle but the look on Kevin's face was priceless, not to mention the station executives. "So what's the problem?"He turned to face the station manager with that

question, seeing a look of pure frustration on her face.

She moved to say something, but closed her mouth. Finally, she spoke, "Nothing is the problem. Nick, Kevin here has won the opportunity to 'meet' you and sit in on our interview with you this afternoon. These are his five guests."She threw her hands up in the air and shook her head. "Whatever."

Nick couldn't the small smile that covered his lips at Kevin's discomfort. He looked a cross between embarrassed and shy, something that Nick had never seen from the older man before. Their eyes met and Nick saw an emotion flash in those green orbs, but before he could interpret it, it was gone. Realizing that he had five people staring at him wide eyed, Nick shook out of his daze and smiled at them, introducing himself to each of them individually. He prompted them to take out their cameras so that they could take pictures and he could sign stuff for them.

"Well, since we've got TWO of you here ...can't we get Kevin in these pictures too?"The one that had introduced herself as Andrea spoke up. "I mean, damn... two for the price of one here."

Everyone laughed, breaking the tension between the two men who had yet to actually say more than one word to one another. Once the pictures were done and everyone was getting settled into their chairs, Nick finally turned to Kevin, wanting to say something but unsure of what it was.

"You ...won tickets to be here?"He whispered shyly, turning his head so Kevin couldn't see the blush on his cheeks.

"Well you know..."Kevin found himself blushing as well, not realizing how awkward it was going to be. He watched as Nick gave him a once over, goose bumps covering his skin.

"You look really good Kev. That outfit looks great on you."

Kevin couldn't help but smile at Nick's comment, his pulse racing madly. He'd been obsessing over what he was going to wear since he'd won the contest, finally settling on a pair of loose fitting jeans and a white tee shirt. Casual but nice. Julie and Andrea had tried to convince him of how 'fuckable' he looked, but he wasn't so sure. But now looking at Nick's reaction, it seemed as though he'd made the right choice. "Thanks."

"So... You know you could have called me and I'd have got you in."

"I wanted to win them. Show you that...."Kevin paused to take a deep breath. "Can we talk about this later?"

Nick nodded and felt his stomach lurch. Kevin wanted to show him something. By winning tickets, listening to the radio all day and actually having to call in and win them, like everyone else, he was showing him seomthing. Nick could only hope that it was what he thought it was. That Kevin was possibly interested in him. He'd been aware of Kevin's sexual preference for a while, and knew that the older man knew of his. But not once had Kevin shown any interest in him as more than a friend, a brother, a bandmate, so Nick had long since given up any hope of mutual attraction.

Until now.

Kevin was watching him with almost hungry eyes, a nervousness that Nick had never seen in the older man. It gave him hope. He felt a pair of eyes watching him closely and looked up to meet Julie's hazel eyes. He blushed slightly and broke the eye contact before looking back up to see she hadn't moved. She was still watching him but now a big smile was on her face. He saw her look at Kevin and wink before looking back at him and giving him the thumbs up. Again, Nick blushed and looked away, noticing that Andrea was rolling her eyes at her friend and threw him a look of apology.

Before he could talk to either of them, find out what was going on, Nick heard the DJ announce that they'd be live on the air with Nick Carter in less than three minutes. The phone lines had been blowing up all day and suddenly he was hit with a case of nerves. He took a few calming breaths, nearly jumping when he felt a hand cover his. Looking down, he saw that the hand belonged to Kevin and squeezed, happy that he was there with him.

The interview went by rather quickly, and before Nick knew it it was over. They did their good byes and thank you's. They'd taken questions from listeners, questions from the girls in the studio and questions from the DJ. But the entire time, Nick's mind was far from the interview and directly focused on the man sitting beside him. The same man who's hand had been discreetly on his thigh supportively, squeezing every so often as a reminder that he wasn't alone anymore.

"So ...Kev. What's going on now?"Nick questioned, biting his lip nervously.

"Well the girls are gonna go for dinner or whatever. And I was thinking that maybe we could go somewhere and ...ummmm talk,"Kevin was obviously nervous. It gave Nick hope that maybe he had been wrong that his

attraction was one sided.

"That would be great."

They said goodbye to the girls with promises that they'd hook up with them later at Fluid, a club in the Entertainment District. Their names would be on the list and Nick would ensure that they'd get in with no problems at all, meeting somewhere in the VIP room after dinner.

"So. Kev ...what's up?"They were in the car, driving back downtown to the hotel. Kevin had informed him already that they had been staying at the same hotel for the past day and Nick finally understood the odd feeling he'd gotten upon checking in. It was clear that they needed to talk about things, but were unsure of how to approach doing so.

"I'm here. To see you. I flew in on Sunday and have been staying here all week because I knew you were going to be here. I sat at my computer all afternoon on Monday trying to win tickets..."

"Why?"

Kevin paused to think about his answer. "Because I'm an asshole. Because I haven't supported you at all about this when you were right to do what you did. We couldn't agree on anything and we're selfish to think you should have waited for us to make the deicision to go on with your life. We have to remember that you're not the baby anymore. And I'm sorry."

Nick felt the tears prick his eyes and he smiled. "Thank you."

"So you know, Brian was sitting in Atlanta listening online trying to win as well. He called in like a million times to request the song,"Kevin admitted.

"Wow."

"We've been assholes. We've been so wrapped up in our own lives that we couldn't see anything but you betraying us. But if you hadn't have done what you needed to, you would been betraying yourself and that is worse. I never wanted to hold you back, and I never wanted you to think that I don't support you."

"Thank you,"Nick reached over and grabbed Kevin's hand, squeezing it tightly. "But you could have just told me. You didn't have to win the tickets."

"I wanted you to know how much you mean to me. How much I'm willing to do to show you that. Anyone could have called you and pulled strings to get in there, I wanted to do it on my own. Show you that you're worth the effort to do so."

"Why?"Nicks eyes were full of unshed tears, waiting for that last straw to break the dam. Suddenly he was in Kevin's arms, their faces inches apart.

"Because I love you. I've been so afraid to tell you that I've pushed you away. But I do. So I'm here, acting like a fifteen year old lovesick girl to show you how much I love you."

As the tears fell down Nick's cheeks, he couldn't surpress the giggle that was building. "A fifteen year old?"

Kevin nodded. "You should have seen me when I won. I screamed like a little girl and danced around the room. It took me three days to find an outfit to wear that didn't make me look fat or gross. I've been obsessing about everything from my hair to my clothes to how I'm supposed to tell you how much I love you and how sorry I am. But most of all I've been freaking, because there's the possibility that you don't feel the way I do."

Kevin closed his eyes, not wanting to see the expression on Nick's face as he blurted out everything in his heart. On his mind. Just as he was about to say something, he felt a pair of soft, plush lips against his and sighed. Nick was kissing him. Nick's mouth was on his, their tongues gently reaching out to touch one another and their arms were instantly around each other, pulling them closer together. When they broke from one another, both were breathing heavily, foreheads pressed against one another.

"I do."

"Huh?"Kevin was lost in the feeling of Nick's mouth on his. Finally tasting what he'd so long been dreaming of.

"I do feel the same way. Always have Kevin. Just didn't think you were interested,"Nick cupped Kevin's face in his palm and lowered his mouth once again to softly press their lips together. He felt Kevin sigh into the kiss before deepening it, their lips parting to give way to eager tongues.

"I'm so sorry Nick. Sorry for everything..."Kevin began, stopping only when Nick's finger covered his lips.

"It's in the past. I don't want to think about it. This is what matters. Here and now."

Their hands remained locked together, fingers linked tightly. When the driver pulled up to the back entrance of the hotel, it was then they separated, knowing that people would still be able to see them. They were just figuring out themselves what was going on, the last thing they needed was hundreds of fans speculating based on them holding hands. The ride up in the elevator was silent, Kevin joining Nick in his room just a few floors down from his own. Again, as the door closed and they were alone, there was awkwardness.

"Why is this weird?"Nick asked nervously, pacing the room. He fought the urge to bolt, and instead looked directly at Kevin's face, into his eyes. He was shocked at the nervousness he saw there, relieved he wasn't alone.

"Because ...fuck. It's weird. I mean, I love you. I've told you that a million times in the past 10 years, but now ...it's like you know I'm IN LOVE with you. And from the way you were kissing me ..."

"I love you too."Nick was instantly by Kevin's side. He got strength in Kevin's words, knowing that the older man felt how he felt. That Kevin wanted him. "So, what now?"

Kevin took a deep breath and closed his eyes before answering. "Now we take it day by day. See where it takes us."Their lips met in a passionate kiss, eyes locked the entire time. As Nick felt Kevin harden against his thigh, his eyes fluttered shut and he moaned into the kiss, still unable to believe that this was happening. This was his life.

They began to amble backwards towards the bed, stopping as Nick felt the firm surface at the backs of his knees. He broke the kiss and fell back, moving so that Kevin could join him. "Please Kev. I want to..."His sentence broke as his mouth was covered with Kevin's, the older man sucking his tongue playfully.

"I know Nicky. Me too,"Kevin rolled so that they were side by side, pressed together tightly in the center of the bed. Their legs were tangled with one another, arms wrapped around the other's waist. He placed one last kiss on Nick's mouth before pulling his head back slightly. "I want to hear about everything Nicky. Everything I've missed in the past 8 months."

"But you don't want ..."Nick asked, his voice soft as his hands squeezed Kevin's ass firmly.

"We've got tons of time Nick. I don't want to rush this. I want to get to know you again. Hear about the CD. Relearn everything I used to know about you and find out new things,"Kevin's fingers traced over Nick's face, outlining his lips and nose with a gentile touch that elicited jolts of pleasure down Nick's spine. "And then, when it's right I want this. I want it all."

Nick relaxed into Kevin's embrace, losing himself in the feel of the strong arms around him and the love filling him. Kevin wanted it all and Nick was more than happy to comply.

Finis