Fighting Spirit
It was early afternoon. Three out of the four Backstreet Boys were sitting in Nick’s hotel room as they waited on Howie to arrive. They were planning to have a meeting about their upcoming tour, just to toss around some tentative ideas.
“Nick, will you turn off that anime shit?” AJ said while Nick sat in front of the TV. “It’s starting to drive me nuts. How can you watch that stuff without taking a break?”
Nick shrugged. From time to time, his inner geek liked to take over, and once in a while he enjoyed plowing through a good boxset. “You should watch this one, J. It’s really good!”
AJ rolled his eyes, not believing Nick for a second. He had fallen into that trap before. “That’s what you said about that show with the robot girl. Instead of a cool action plot, it was a sappy romance. No thanks.”
Nick shrugged. “This one’s about a boxer.”
AJ considered that for a moment. It did sound kind of interesting. “A boxer? Really?”
Nick nodded. “See? I told you all anime wasn’t bad.”
So the three men sat and intently watched Hajime No Ippo while they waited for Howie to arrive.
Two episodes later, there was finally a knock at the door. Getting up from his seat, Brian quickly answered the door to a very annoyed looking Howie.
“Way to be on time, Howard.” Nick snickered, not taking his eyes of the screen.
“Can it, Nicky. I was nearly out of gas and needed to fill up before I could get here.” Howie retorted, collapsing into a chair on the other side of the room.
“Maybe if you’d drive a car that ran on normal gasoline, instead of diesel fuel, you wouldn’t have so much trouble finding a station.” Brian teased, and the others all laughed.
Howie rolled his eyes, but ignored their comment as he was used to their jokes by now. “What’re you guys watching?” He asked, noticing the cartoon playing on the screen. He guessed it was probably something from Nick’s collection.
“Some cartoon about boxing.” Brian shrugged. “It’s Nick’s. What do you expect?” He laughed.
Nick glared at Brian. “I’d totally kick your ass in the ring, Rok.” He said.
AJ laughed, imagining Nick as a boxer. “Yeah, they’d play I Need You Tonight as you walked out onto the ring.” He joked, ruffling Nick’s hair as he used to when they were younger.
Nick rolled his eyes, but laughed as well. The prospect of them as boxers instead of a singing group was an interesting image. “Nick “Kaos” Carter KOs Brian “B-Rok” Littrell in just a single round!”
“His next opponent will be a bit more of a match, Howie “Diesel” Dorough!” AJ joked, and Howie playfully threw a pillow at him.
“It makes for a more efficient car!” Howie defended himself, shaking his head.
“Weren’t we supposed to be discussing the tour, and not Nick’s obsession with Japanese cartoons?” Brian wondered, trying to get the group back on topic.
Nick smirked. “I’ve got an idea…”
Story Notes:
Written for the second February challenge in the AC forums
