Hey Nicky, I'm probably the last person you want to hear from right now, but call me, okay?

Nick deleted Howie's message from his voicemail, then thought about calling AJ to tell him to tell Howie not to call anymore. But he didn't, because Howie would get the clue soon enough on his own.

Nick had just broken one of his guitar strings when Kevin called.

"Yeah, what's up Kev?"

"Look, I'm not going to lecture you but..." Kevin said.

"Great, what did I do now?" Nick sighed heavily and chucked the broken string at the wall.

"Nothing, Nick," Kevin said. "It's more like what you haven't done. Call Howie. You're going to have to talk to him soon enough."

Nick rolled his eyes and was glad Kevin couldn't see him. "Why don't you call Howie and tell him that I'm not interested in anything he has to say."

"I think he knows that, Nick," Kevin said. "He didn't ask me to call you."

Nick pulled his cell phone away from his ear and stared at the off button.

"Nick, are you listening to me?" Kevin asked.

He put the phone back to his ear. "Not really."

"Just call him. For me," Kevin said. "Or else you might have to start ignoring my phone calls too, because I will call you every day, several times a day if you don't say you'll call him."

"Okay, okay fine," Nick said. "I'm only doing this to get you off my back though."

"Good."

Howie, it's Nick. Yeah. Uh, I'm going to be in L.A. shooting a video in a couple of days. And, you know, if you wanted to come see me then... that would be okay with me. Later, D.

Nick hung up the phone and felt a little sick, and a little relieved.

Howie got to the video shoot around lunch, the MTV cameras in his face. He and Nick were cordial to each other as MTV filmed, but Nick hoped that no one could tell that there was underlying tension and apprehensiveness in the way they talked to each other.

Before Howie left, he pulled Nick aside, away from the cameras.

"Why did you have me see you with all the cameras?" Howie asked. "This wasn't quite how I pictured our reunion."

Nick was looking at Howie's shoes. "Because I wanted to see you and I knew we wouldn't argue if there were a lot of people and cameras around."

"Hey, look at me." Howie reached for Nick's hand, loosely linking their fingers. "We should talk about this sometime. We need to."

Nick looked up. "Yeah, I know. I know."

"When you're done here, come over to my place, okay?" Howie said. "We can talk then."

"Okay."

"Okay. Later then," Howie said. "I miss you."

Nick pulled him into a hug. "Yeah, me too."

Howie was busy cooking something that smelled spicy when Nick came to the door, so Howie let him in and then rushed back into the kitchen. Nick leaned against the doorway between the kitchen and living room and watched Howie work his culinary mojo.

"Making us dinner?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, you want something to drink?" Howie asked.

"Sure," Nick said. "Beer if you have it."

"Of course." Howie opened the fridge and took out a couple of Coronas and handed one to Nick. "You want lime?"

"No thanks." Nick positioned the bottle so the cap was just above the edge of the kitchen counter, then slammed the top of it with his fist, the top flying off.

Howie turned around a second too late, bottle opener in his hand. "I forgot that you always do that," he said.

"Sorry D, I hope I'm not ruining your counter." Nick smiled and drank his beer.

"Not any more than usual," Howie said. He smiled too and went back to cooking their dinner.

Nick remembered Howie's place well. It wasn't too long ago that he was occasionally spending his time off here. Nick thought about it a little more and came to the conclusion that he'd left a lot of his things around Howie's house. He probably would have asked for everything back by now if he had actually talked to Howie in the past couple of months. Nick sat down at the table and picked at the label of his beer. Everything was a little too familiar, and he would have shrugged it off, but for the first time he thought that maybe he and Howie could reconcile.

Halfway through dinner, Howie finally said something about what had been bothering them both.

"I just want to tell you I'm sorry," Howie said.

"I know you are, that doesn't change what happened though," Nick said.

"Yeah."

"I guess I should be sorry too," Nick said. "We never said that we were exclusive..."

Howie cut him off. "I know we didn't. You don't have to be sorry. We didn't never said that we were, but we didn't talk about it at all, and we should have. Or I should have told you I was seeing someone else instead of having you find out after the fact."

"Yeah." Nick picked at his food.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," Howie said. "I guess we weren't communicating very well."

"I know you didn't mean to, now at least. I didn't know that months ago," Nick said. He paused. "Are you still seeing him?"

"No," Howie said. "He kinda dumped me."

Nick laughed, and then coughed when he decided he shouldn't have. "I'm sorry I laughed."

"No, it's okay," Howie said, laughing himself. "I don't think I really liked him that much."

"What, was he bad in bed?" Nick asked, smirking.

"Actually? Yeah, he was," Howie said and grinned. "He just couldn't compare to some other people."

"Oh really," Nick said. His face felt hot then, and he wondered if he was blushing or if the alcohol had finally found it's way through his body.

"So I guess we're okay now? Friends again?" Howie asked.

"Yeah," Nick said. "Friends again."

Later, Nick fell asleep on the couch while he and Howie were watching TV. Nick had propped his legs up in Howie's lap, and Howie lifted them carefully before getting up. He put a blanket over Nick, kissed his forehead, and then went to bed.

In the morning, Nick rolled off the couch, forgetting where he was. His back felt a little sore, but otherwise he felt well rested and unburdened. He stretched and looked over into Howie's kitchen. He hoped Howie had some coffee, if even only the instant kind.

When he set the coffee to brew, he heard the water go on down the hall. Howie was probably taking a shower. Nick beamed just the slightest knowing that Howie would have fresh coffee once he was out of the shower. He walked down the hallway and poked his head into the bathroom. He hoped that Howie wouldn't mind some company.

He kicked off his shoes and took off his clothes, throwing them in a pile on the bathroom floor. He slid into the shower behind Howie and scared him, making him nearly fall over from the shock. Fortunately Nick was there to catch him.

"You scared the shit out of me, Nicky," Howie said, rinsing his hair. "What are you doing in here anyway?"

Nick smiled and reached for the shampoo. "I'm showering," he said. "I smelled a little funny so I thought you'd appreciated it if I bathed."

"I appreciate it." Howie smiled.

Nick picked up the bath pouf and flicked it at Howie. "Do you think we can try this again?"

"This as in us?"

"Yes. Us," Nick said. He leaned down and kissed Howie's wet mouth.

"Okay," Howie said, and kissed him back. "But just so we're clear, we're going to be exclusive this time, right?"

"That's the plan," Nick said. "Although I hope you realize I'm going to have you make up for lost time."

Howie wrapped his arms around Nick's waist and gently bit one of his nipples. "I'll start on that right away."

End.

Originally posted here as a secret santa fic for don we now our gay apparel 2002.