is it the end of it all?

As Nick woke up from his sleep and gazed lazily out of the airplane window, he adjusted his earphone and tuned the Discman to the loudest volume. His muscles were tired from the hour-long flight and his heart rate had been going on a speed ride for the whole journey. The rain outside made it even worse for him. Flying in an airplane had never been his cup of tea, but the feeling that he was flying high above the world was something which he loved. Ironic.

Besides being tired, he was pissed too. They had some arguments in the resting room, after the end of the press conference that they held at the conference room. Kevin and him are always being the buttheads, bringing ridiculous topics up for arguing.

This time around, Kevin was at it again. He had been pissed at the performance of Nick. It appeared to him that Nick's mind had been drifting during the press conference. When Nick got angry at the bossing that Kevin was showing, he literally blew up and started a fight with him. Their security guards and the other three guys tried their best to separate the two and calm them down. Had it not always been for them, Kevin and him would have ended up killing each other. Instead of being grateful, Nick threw a string of obscenities at his friends. Right after that, he didn't speak a word for the rest of the day.

He reached up to his face and touched the painful bruise at the corner of his mouth. There will be a pretty black and blue patch but he could care less. If the media or any fans asked about it, he could just joke it off by saying that it was for promotional purpose, in conjunction with their latest album. He chuckled a little at his thoughts but wrenched at the pain a second later.

He wondered how Kevin was. He didn't even want to look at Kevin when they arrived at the airport and went on the plane. With the state he was now in, he figured that Kevin wouldn't be any better off. Nick wasn't all muscles and tough built, but he was a tough fighter.

A very tough fighter who always fought for the wrong reasons.

Feeling the dizziness coming back, he groaned a little. Everything was just going wrong for him during these past few weeks. First, he had been sick for random times and it usually happened before an important event. Next, the dizziness had been attacking him ever since they were at the Bahamas. He wondered what would come next. Nintendo company shutting down?

Brian had been concerned and kept telling him to visit the doctor. However, he refused and gave his best friend umpteen excuses. When his condition got real bad, he finally decided to go. Even after seeing the doctor, his dizziness was still the same. At this point, he began to wonder if his current condition had to do with his bad temper these days.

Nick looked away from the window and back to his surroundings. He noticed a look of despair on AJ's face as Howie was talking to him. Nick figured that Howie was probably comforting him. AJ had been really down ever since Amanda left him. Poor AJ. He had really loved her but Amanda just couldn't deal with the crap she had been receiving from their fans. At least that was what Amanda told Nick before this 'Around the World' tour started.

He wanted to join them at their little chat, but his dizziness was torturing his vision. He slouched deeper into his comfortable seat and looked around for the last time before closing his eyes.

He felt sleepy again.


On the other side of the airplane, Brian was busy dealing with the static in his hair while talking things out with Kevin. It seemed to Brian that Kevin was really sorry for what he had done but he just couldn't utter a simple 'sorry' to Nick. It had been registered as the most different word to say in Kevin's book. Or maybe the most difficult word to say to Nick.

"Eight fights in less than a month." Brian noted. Kevin wrinkled his forehead and turned to another page in the magazine. Brian rolled his eyes at his cousin and grabbed the magazine out of his hand.

"Hey!" Kevin exclaimed. "Gimme back the magazine!"

Brian only gave a smirk and flung the magazine straight into the rubbish bin like a basketball. From a distance, AJ whistled at the perfect shoot and Brian flashed a proud smile as usual.

"Okay, so you got my attention. What do you want?" Kevin asked and slightly threw his hands up, starring at his cousin.

"You know what?" Brian said. "I'd rather you get back into full brother loving mode than bossing. Okay, maybe that sounded a little harsh." he said, looking over at the seat where the younger man's blond hair was sticking out. "He doesn't need all that bull crap, ya know?"

Kevin snorted and shifted his sight out of the airplane window, looking over the beautiful ocean. "Tell that to the blondie. His mind has been drifting while we were at the press conference and I was just reminding him that he needed to stay focus. Was I wrong?"

"You're right, Kev." Brian sighed. "But you can never be right forever." he said and waved for both AJ and Howie to come over. "He just needed a break at times. And I think you needed one too."

The older man continued to admire the ocean and let Brian's words played in his mind. He was aware of his high expectations towards Nick and the fact that he can never be too strict on that. However, this was Kevin. The perfectionist who wanted everything to be perfect. Not even a good could replaced being perfect. Being perfect was being at their best and Nick just turned the table on that one.

AJ sprawled himself over on the sofa and did a little bouncing action. "Man, wish that this plane was mine." he joked.

Howie agreed. "I second that. I could spend my entire life on here!" he laughed.

Brian coughed a little to bring their attention back and Kevin let out a snigger for the first time since he stepped on the plane. "It would be cool, huh?" he commented before turning serious again. "Brian, you're right. Maybe I should just need to take a break from being perfect... But that little man over there need to keep his fist and tongue from being loose again."

"I had to agreed that Nick can be-"

"An ass at times." Howie chimed in before Brian could end his sentence. "But who wouldn't be if they had to watch what they say and be careful of their behavior in front of the public eyes each time? I think Nick is just too stressed out and we need to take a step back on him. Let him be himself for a while..."

Kevin sighed. All his friends were right. They had always been right from the beginning. After their conversation ended, AJ went and took a bath while Howie went to the kitchen to search for food. Brian decided to watch ESPN to catch up on the latest sports happenings and went back to his room.

While the rest were busy at doing their things, Kevin decided to have a talk with Nick. He was still feeling a little pissed at the words, which Nick hollered at him earlier on but he knew he had to talk to Nick. A heart to heart talk. That's what they needed.

However, he had no idea that the talk will not happen. Not today.


At the cockpit, the two pilots were enjoying a cup of coffee when the radar began to show something different from the usual.

"Gerald, this is not looking too good." one of the pilots said while looking at the radar. "If this continues on, we are gonna go through some turbulence." He put down the cup and pressed on a button on his side of the panel.

"And a serious one too. Just look at the horrible weather, Jim." Gerald, the other pilot, said. He reached over to the top right side and flicked a few switch on the panel. In the process, he almost fell out of his seat when the plane suddenly gave a startling shook.

"Damn. Curse the weather!"

"Better don't. It's not gonna be good to you if you do that." Jim joked.


Outside, Kevin was cursing at the sudden jerk of the plane and Nick woke up with a start. He almost burst out laughing at the position Kevin was in and decided to lend him a hand. However, when he tried to stand up, he felt as if the world around him just did a 360-degree turn. The dizziness made him fell back into his seat and the last thing that Nick heard was Kevin yelling his name.

AJ, Howie and Brian felt the strong jerk and things around them were falling off from its position. They stopped what they are doing and quickly advanced their way to the main room.

'What the hell is going on?' AJ wondered.


Back at the cockpit, Jim decided to give a warning to the passengers. "I'd better give them some warning now. This is getting bad..." he said to Gerald and reached for the intercom speaker. "Attention all passengers, attention all passengers. This is Jim, your faithful pilot speaking," he said, apparently still in his good mood. "We will be facing some strong turbulence throughout the rest of the journey. We are currently flying at around 9,000 feet above the ocean and should arrive back to United States approximately an hour later. We advised that you had your..."

Just before Jim could finish his announcement, another strong turbulence threw the both of them out of their seat. As they struggled to get up, Gerald hit the emergency button without giving second thoughts and grabbed the speaker to ask for immediate assistance. Jim, on the other hand, hit the other button to release the life jackets.

They knew that things are going on a real roller coaster this time.


"Ow... Ouch..." they yelped out loudly as they came crashing down onto each other. Life jackets were being hauled around and it dawned on them that the plane was going down. Nick was still on his seat and it was a miracle that he hadn't been thrown out of it. Kevin quickly grabbed their hands and pulled them to their feet before running over to Nick.

"Wake up, man... The plane is gonna crash! NICK!" Kevin yelled at him helplessly. When it didn't work, he tried shaking him with all his might before Nick let out a soft whimper. Seeing the little response, Kevin grabbed a life jacket and put it on Nick. He ordered the others to do the same.

Brian was grabbing onto a seat to prevent himself from sliding down to the cockpit as the plane angled a little. Everything was happening too fast and surreal for him. He felt like he was filming an action flick. AJ and Howie, who was trembling beside Brian, did the same as they hold onto each other tightly. "Come on, Nick! Wake up! Nick!" Brian yelled and he had no idea why his best friend could still be in such a deep sleep at this point. All of a sudden, another turbulence hit and sent Nick flying out of his seat like a piece of bacon. He hit the cockpit and completely passed out again.

Kevin attempt to slide down to grab Nick but he failed. Instead, he was being flunk away from his position and hit himself against some passenger seats before reaching the cockpit. By this time, the plane was almost going at an impossible angle. Brian was too scared for his cousin and best friend's safety and slid himself down to the cockpit too. Both AJ and Howie followed closely behind. They didn't want to leave their friends.

As Brian tried to gather themselves together, the systems around them began to shut down. Yellings from the cockpit asking for help became intense as they felt the plane started to plunge. The guys held on tightly to each other, especially to Nick. They had never been so scared of losing each other until now.

When they were saying their last prayers, the emergency door suddenly flew opened. The first thought that came through Brian's mind was to get his friends out of the plane. "AJ... Howie... Jump!" he screamed. AJ kept shaking his head and Howie just sat there, grabbing tightly onto whatever came into his sight. "Damnit! Jump!" Brian ordered and without warning, he pushed AJ and Howie out of the emergency door before they could protest. He looked over at Kevin, who was still holding tightly onto Nick. Brian's lips trembled a little as he struggled to speak. "Kev... Hold on tightly to Nick. If you let my best friend go, I'll personally come and kick you in the butt..."

Kevin swallowed hard and tears were already messing up his vision. "I won't let him go... We're going to survive through this..." Kevin said through his shaky voice before Brian grabbed his hand and threw themselves out of the plane.

The next minute, eternity took over.

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