Brian gave his lover about a five minute head start. After AJ had left, Brian had double checked the time AJ had prepped for the oven. Then, out of habit, he rinsed out the tea cup AJ had left in the sink, making sure it was clean before setting it in the strainer. He didn’t bother making up his own cup as he normally would have, but tidied around the kitchen for a few minutes while Kevin, Kristen, and Jackie all chatted by the coffee pot.
But once those five minutes were up, Brian smiled. He brushed a kiss on top his mother’s head as he went past her, a gesture both familiar and casual. The look that she gave him was both amused and full of love. “I’ll watch the food so it doesn’t burn.” She offered impishly.
After a seconds pause, Brian couldn’t help but laugh. “You know me way to well, Mom.” He told her as he headed off.
“It’s not hard. You’re just like your father.” She teased him. The only response he gave was another laugh before he made it to his room.
Once he shut the door behind him, Brian grinned and grabbed what he wanted out of the dresser, then headed straight to the master bath. He could hear the water running and AJ singing softly to himself. That made his smile grow. It was just another of the little things that no one else knew about AJ. The man could rarely resist singing in the shower.
As quietly as possible, Brian shut the bathroom door and proceeded to strip out of his clothes. He snuck over, hoping AJ wouldn’t turn around. This end of the bathroom was set up different than most houses. Done in Spanish clay tiles, it looked very earthy and cozy. There was an enormous Jacuzzi tub built into an alcove, with a single raised window to let in sunlight. Right by the steps to the tub, on the right side, was a glass door that led in to the shower.
Peeking in the door, Brian saw that his lover was on the far side of the shower. The stall sported multiple shower heads and was large enough for three people to comfortably stand with room to move. Satisfied that AJ wouldn’t see him, Brian slid the door open and stepped inside. With the water running and his own singing, AJ didn’t seem to hear a thing as Brian shut the door again.
As stealthy as he could be, he moved up and wrapped his arms around AJ’s waist. He was rewarded with a very satisfying jump and what could only be termed as a loud squeal. Brian had to hold tightly to AJ to keep him from falling when he jumped, though it was hard to do because Brian couldn’t stop laughing.
“You ass hole!” AJ swore, punching his arm. “You scared the shit outta me!”
“Your face!” That was all Brian could manage to get out past his laughter.
A pout settled on AJ’s lips and he crossed his arms over his chest, trying to step backwards. Brian just held on and stepped with him, his grin growing. “Aw, you upset with me now, husband?” he asked, chuckling. The pout on AJ’s face grew. He took another step back, and Brian stepped with him. AJ’s eyebrows curved down as he tried to glare. “You made me squeal.” He grumbled. “Like a fucking girl.”
“A good squeal it was, too.”
“Fuck off, Brian Littrell.” AJ cursed him. Underneath his glare, Brian could see the amusement and love in AJ’s eyes. “It was just a fluke. I’m not a squealer.”
Oh, now that was a challenge Brian just couldn’t resist. “Bet I could make you squeal again.” He said playfully. The look AJ wore almost had Brian laughing aloud .It was half amused and half annoyed.
“Don’t you dare, Brian.” AJ tried to back up again, but Brian walked with him. “Brian, I’m warning you, don’t…no…” He took another step back, those brown eyes sparkling, and had to work to muffle another squeal when Brian slid his hands up under AJ’s armpits and lifted him off the ground. Instinctively AJ gripped around Brian’s neck and shifted his legs to brace them around Brian’s waist.
In the next instant, when Brian pushed him against the wall, the surprise on AJ’s face shifted quickly toward lust. The hands that had been gripping Brian’s neck now slid up to run over his wet hair. Brian grinned at him. “Bout time you caught on, husband.” He teased AJ huskily, shifting his grip to AJ’s hips.
“I may be a little slow sometimes.” AJ said, rolling his hips and making Brian moan lightly. “But I usually get the point.”
“I’m going to avoid the obvious ‘point’ jokes I could make there.” Smirking, Brian gave his own hips a roll. “But I can think of better ways to spend my time.”
AJ didn’t waste time with more words. Holding Brian’s head between his hands, he leaned down and pressed their lips together. Moaning, Brian kissed him back, flicking his tongue out to trace AJ’s lips. The water splashed over them, adding to the sensations.
They both knew that they only had so much time here in the shower. There was company in the house and so they needed to be quieter and faster than normal. Not that their company wouldn’t know exactly what they were doing anyways. That was actually part of the problem. Lord knows how long they’d have before someone, like Nick, would take it into their mind to come and break things up. He wasn’t exactly shy, and never had been, about banging on a door until the two people inside came out, no matter how long it took.
Brian pulled up the packet in his hand, the one he’d grabbed from the nightstand. He broke their kiss so that he could use his teeth to tear open the foil wrapper. Once it was open, AJ captured his lips again. The legs around his waist tightened, allowing Brian to keep his hand free so that he could slowly roll the condom over AJ’s throbbing erection. He swallowed down his lover’s moan.
Once he had it in place, Brian wrapped his hand around AJ’s length, stroking him, pulling another moan from him. AJ threw his head back, letting it rest against the shower wall. “God.” He whispered roughly. “God, Bri, I need you.”
“You have me.” Brian whispered back to him. His body was already painfully ready. It only took a moment of shifting to situate himself where he needed to be and then he was pushing in, sliding into the familiar warmth. Their moans twined together, echoing inside of the shower. Once he was all the way in the two men stayed like that for a moment, both trying to control their reactions. Brian moved both hands to AJ’s hips and spread his feet to better brace himself.
With the back at AJ’s wall they used that as another brace as Brian started to move. AJ’s hands locked on to Brian’s shoulders, clenching and unclenching as he started to raise and lower his hips in time with Brian’s movements. It didn’t take long before their moans and sighs seemed to fill the shower stall. They fought to keep their noise down, but as always, the passion was taking them away.
Their movements grew faster, more frenzied, as the passion built stronger and stronger. Brian leaned forward, burying his face against AJ’s neck as he climbed higher and higher toward that final peak. He felt AJ go stiff in his arms, felt his body bow and his muscles clench. Feeling his husband come undone in his arms was enough to spark that last fire for Brian so that he too was clenching and stiffening, joining AJ as they came apart in one another’s arms.
After a few minutes spent clinging to one another, they finally had the energy to break apart. To stand underneath the shower spray and clean themselves off. AJ removed his condom, tying it off before setting it in the far corner to be taken out and thrown away on their way out. Then he turned back to Brian to grin at him. “I guess I forgive you for making me squeal before.” He teased.
Brian couldn’t help but grin. “Twice.” He reminded him.
“Yeah, yeah.” Something crossed AJ’s face. He paused, looking over at Brian. “Do you think we could, uh, keep that to ourselves?” He asked, his cheeks going a little red. “Last thing I need everyone to know is that I squeal like a girl.”
Laughing, Brian deliberately turned his back to AJ so that he could grab the shampoo. As he poured some in his hand he heard AJ move up behind him. “Bri?” Still Brian didn’t answer. He started to hum to himself as he lathered up his hair. “Dammit, Brian! Come on!” Now Brian moved, rinsing his hair off. He peeked over to see AJ standing there, hands on his hips, an annoyed look on his face. That only amused Brian even more.
When AJ caught sight of Brian’s grin, he sighed. “You’re such a shit, Brian.”
“You love me anyways.”
AJ paused, shampoo bottle in hand. “That,” he stated clearly. “Is completely irrelevant.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the time they were dressed and had come back out, the rest of the house was awake. Everyone was gathered around the table in the dining room, drinking their coffee and finishing up what looked to be omelets. Brian headed to the kitchen to make up more tea and AJ went and sat in the open chair next to Mikayla. Grinning, he used his fingers and stole a bite of her food.
“Gee, Age. Help yourself.” She said dryly.
“Don’t mind if I do.” Winking, he stole another bite.
Jackie reached over and slapped his hand as he went back for a third bite, never pausing in her conversation with Harold and Howie. AJ jerked his hand back, sticking his tongue out at Mikayla when she grinned at him. “Brat.” He whispered.
“Jerk.”
“Nitwit.”
Mikayla wrinkled her nose at him. “Shit head.”
“Whiny little princess.”
“Conceited prig.” She shot back.
Mumbling mockingly, AJ made a face at her. “Self-righteous snob.”
“There must have been an end of season sale at the cerebral store the day they bought your brain.” Mikayla snapped, taking a bite of her omelet to deliberately annoy him.
“Psh.” AJ leaned back in his chair. “You have high delusions of adequacy.”
“You’re so narrow minded that if you fell on a pin it would blind you in both eyes.” She shot back.
Brian walked in about then, bearing a tea tray. He chuckled as he heard their insults. Well used to it, he simply set a teacup in front of AJ, prepared the way he liked it, and then took the chair next to him. Leaning toward Howie, he elbowed him and said “This’ll be good. They can get some good ones when they get going.”
Picking up his teacup, AJ got comfortable in his chair. Moments like this with Mikayla could last for a while and took quite a bit of wit to keep up with her. “Your mind is so open, Kay. So open, ideas simply pass right through it.”
“Your ignorance could cover the world in a blanket without a single hole anywhere.”
“Your mind is like a soup dish, wide and shallow. It can hold a small amount of nearly anything, but the slightest jarring spills the soup into somebody's lap.” AJ took a drink after delivering that one, enjoying the laughter that echoed around the dining room.
Mikayla dipped her head at him, acknowledging his words. “Sometimes AJ I need something only you can provide. Your absence.”
“The trouble with you is that you lack the power of conversation, but not the power of speech.” He fired right back. God, there was nothing he loved more than matching wits with his best friend. No one else he had ever come across that could come up with such creative insults as she could.
She rolled her eyes and sneered at him. “I can’t believe that, out of 100,000 sperm, you’re the one that won.”
“Your asinine simian countenance alludes that your fetid stench has annulled the anthropoid ape species diversity.”
The laughter in the dining room was so loud now that they had to stop insulting one another because they couldn’t hear each other. It wouldn’t have mattered, though. Mikayla started to laugh too. Proud of himself, AJ took another drink of his tea.
When everything started to quiet down, Mikayla leaned in and kissed AJ’s cheek. “You win this round, AJ. I’ll hone my wit for future encounters.” She said cheerfully. AJ smirked at her. “Good luck. Eventually you’ll realize that your wit is no match for mine.”
Satisfied, and in a very good mood, AJ picked up the teapot and poured more tea. He had to smile even more when Mikayla pushed her plate toward him. “I’m full anyways.” She said, her eyes sparkling. As conversation picked back up around him, AJ picked up her fork and at the small part of the omelet that was left. Even though it wasn’t much, he was full by the time he was done.
So, with a full stomach and a cheerful mood, AJ let his hand rest on Brian’s leg and turned to look at Kevin. “I’ve got something I want to show you later, Kev.” He told him. His older friend turned toward him. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. I just finished writing a song and I thought we could put it on the next album.”
That seemed to silence the table. To his surprise, AJ found most eyes turned to him. Only Brian and Mikayla were looking at everyone else. “What?” AJ asked curiously. There was something going on here. Why did everyone look so weirded out?
Howie ran a hand over his hair. “You want to make another album, J?” he asked softly.
Even more confused, AJ looked over at his husband. Brian wore the same confused look that AJ did. “Well, we figured it was about time. I mean, it’s been a few years.” Brian said as he looked back out at everyone. “We’ve been kind of surprised management hasn’t said anything about it yet.”
Ok, now AJ knew something was up. Nick, Kevin and Howie were exchanging looks that seemed to say so much, but AJ felt like he was in the dark about what was going on. “What is it?” He asked, his voice gone low and hard. It was a defense against whatever was coming because he knew it couldn’t be good. His grip on Brian’s leg tightened, only easing up when Brian slid his hand down and laced their fingers together.
“Well,” Kevin said. He took a deep breath. “See, the thing is, management has been on us about a new record. We’ve just been putting it off. When you guys told us that the virus had progressed, we kind of assumed that you wouldn’t really be up to much more with the group.”
AJ couldn’t stop the surprise from showing on his face. His mouth dropped open and his eyes grew wide. What? Not make any more music?