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Title: Camping: Chapter Two: The Royal Awakening

Author: Allison Wonderland

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Princess wakes up and gets a phone call.

Warning(s): Language, brief nudity but not for obscene purposes.

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

Note(s): None.

In the penthouse of New York City’s oldest and most expensive apartment buildings, an old reddish brown brick building that dated back to the early 1900’s or late 1800’s – no one was really sure and word-of-mouth gave the date of construction as several different years – the heavy purple velvet drapes were still pulled shut over the windows of one bedroom even though red numbers of the alarm clock on the nightstand showed that it was nearly half past ten in the morning. A diminutive, elf-like figure lay in the enormous king-size bed, barely making a lump beneath the heavy royal purple and lilac striped comforter. Said comforter was pulled so far over him that only the top of his honey colored blonde hair and one fake baked arm, thrown up over his head on the lilac-covered pillow in a dramatic pose even in his sleep, showed. The sound of Gwen Stefani’s Bubble Pop Electric played softly in the background over the speakers of his boyfriend’s 60 disc CD changer. Through the music of his favorite CD, a cell phone rang, playing the same first few notes of Harajuku Girls over and over again. Had it not been so much louder than the soft sound of the music coming from the CD player the beautiful boy in the bed never would have noticed it.

Though the ring tone of his cell phone penetrated the sound sleep he had fallen into sometime around five o’ clock that same morning it still took several minutes for him to wake up enough for it to be called even semi-conscious. Last night had only been Thursday and the weekend did not officially start for one more day but his last final exam had been yesterday and he had gone out last night to celebrate successfully – or he thought so anyway – completing another quarter of fashion design classes at the New York School Of Fashion And Design. He had gone out with Raven – his boyfriend’s best friend from the days when they were both ice skaters – and Taylor – Raven’s ex-cowboy boyfriend - who were both fashion designers already and owned the highly successful label ‘Fantasticka’ where he would be doing his summer internship next summer. Raven and Taylor had dressed him for his first New York City party as a favor to Nicky and he had been friends with both of them ever since, enough so that he felt comfortable going out clubbing with them without Nicky there as well. The night out made waking up even harder than usual and the first thing he noticed upon waking up was the pain. He was quite sure there were little drag queens wearing extra pointy stilettos doing a floorshow inside his skull. The second thing he noticed was that the CD he had turned on before he had gone to bed last night – or rather about four o’ clock this morning – was playing two different songs. Bubble Pop Electric, one of his favorite Gwen Stefani songs, was still playing –

Tell your father I said hello.

Johnny, get outta here.

or the end of it was playing anyhow but the first few notes of Harajuku Girls, his absolute favorite song ever, Gwen Stefani or otherwise, kept playing over and over again. He pushed himself up on his right elbow, blankets falling down around his waist, and used his left hand to rub his sleepy, green-flecked blue eyes. Already the day was ruined and he was not even out of bed yet. The combination of a hangover and Nicky still being on tour was enough to ruin any day. Add that to the fact that Sarah too had left the city – his sister had gone back to Shady Lake, Virginia to visit their family; a place Princess was no longer welcome – and the day just sucked so much it could not possibly get better later on. He turned his head – carefully to avoid having the drag queens in his head do an encore – to look at the alarm clock on the nightstand. His eyes fell on his little pink, fake diamond embellished camera phone and he realized that it was not his boyfriend’s sixty disc CD changer somehow playing two songs at once but that his phone was playing the first few notes of Harajuku Girls over and over again. He frowned and reached for the offensive object.

Princess flipped his phone opened and pushed the button to answer the call without looking at the screen to see whose name and number had appeared. “What?” he asked whoever was calling in his best ‘I-just-woke-up-with-a-hangover-don’t-mess-with-me’ voice. He was well aware that his attempt to sound menacing came out more like a high-pitched whine similar to the ones his Shih-Tzus made when they were hungry. He lay down and snuggled under the comforter again, pulling it back over his head to block out some of the revolting sunlight that filtered in even though the curtains were still closed. The hand not holding the phone automatically reached for his boyfriend even though he knew Nicky was still on tour. His fingers found only a giant stuffed dog covered in pink faux fur. He hugged the dog – who he had named Penelope when his boyfriend had bought it for him just after their first meeting in Las Vegas two years ago – close anyway. Penelope always lived on the bed but he rarely needed her unless Nicky was going to be away overnight.

Nicky laughed and Princess frowned. He was neither amused nor amusing. In fact, he was in rather a lot of pain and not at all happy that he was being laughed at by the one person who was supposed to love him more than anyone in the world. “Did you have fun last night, Princess?” the rock star asked.

The sound of his boyfriend’s voice almost made up for his laughter earlier. Almost. But it made the drag queens in his head stop dancing quite so wildly. He rolled over onto his stomach, letting the blanket fall away from his head again to stop and lie somewhere around his shoulders. “It was the best,” he said, giggling. “The only thing that could have made it better is if you were there.” Princess gave his boyfriend his best pout even though he knew Nicky could not see him. “Everything is better with you there, Nicky. But I went with Raven and Taylor. We had fun.”

“You went clubbing with Raven?” Nicky asked. He laughed again. “That’s always fun.” Raven had been a club kid briefly – for no more than a year or so - between his stint as a competitive ice skater and the time when he and Taylor hooked up and started Fantasticka. Princess seemed to be a little happier now that Nicky had reminded him of the fun he had had the night before and the last thing Nicky wanted was to ruin that by mentioning Ayame’s phone call to him that morning and her plans for Nicky to go camping and especially not her plans for Princess to go camping. And yet…perhaps it was best to get it out of the way. “Ayame called me this morning,” he said. “Just a few minutes ago, actually.”

“Really?” Princess asked. He loved Nicky’s only older sister and had since their first meeting a little more than two years ago. Nicky had taken Princess to his mother’s house because he was ill and one day while Princess was sleeping – and had been for quite some time – Izumi had sent Nicky to the supermarket for chicken noodle soup so he could try to feed Princess when he finally woke up. While Nicky was gone Princess had finally woken up and had at first been terrified at being alone. Then Izumi had sent Ayame upstairs to see if he was awake yet and she helped the ‘oh-my-god-Nicky-left’ fear go away by persuading him that Nicky was coming back, he had only gone to the store and by generally treating him like one of her own children who had hardly been more than toddlers at the time. “Why?” Princess was perpetually curious.

“She says Leon is sick-“

“With what?” Princess interrupted. Princess always interrupted. He was a very social creature and loved to talk.

“Fuck if I remember.” If he were forced to be honest, Nicky would have to admit that he had not exactly been listening to that part. “Probably the flu or some shit.” He would have continued but-

“Icky.”

“Yeah, sweetheart. Icky. But the point is, Leon is sick and won’t be able to go on the camping trip they had planned. Remember the trip to Yellowstone I finally told Minako she could go on?”

“Yes. Camping,” Princess complained and shuddered. “God. I don’t see why she’d even want to go. She’ll need a flea bath before she comes back in the house.”

Nicky could not help it. He laughed. Rather loudly. Princess could be such a little bitch when he wanted to.

“It isn’t funny, Nicky! There are bugs out there!” To Princess there was nothing worse than bugs, particularly spiders. He was deathly afraid of them.

He held back his laughter this time. Barely. “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he said. When Princess was in one of his bitchy moods and had a hangover at the same time it was easiest to just agree with him or give him what he wanted so he would be happy – at least for a little while. “Anyway,” Nicky continued, “Aya says Leon is sick with whatever the hell it is and won’t be able to go camping but she and the girls are going anyway.”

“That means…” Princess paused as his sleep and vodka and whatever the hell else he had had to drink last night fogged mind tried to process what Nicky was telling him. “Ayame is going to take Miki and Ginny and Mimi camping out in the woods far from civilization and…and…and…all things civilized? By herself?”

Nicky nodded then remembered Princess could not see him. He was used to talking to his boyfriend via web cam. “Apparently that was the-” But he was cut off again before he could explain that he would be going too.

“But that’s ridiculous!” Princess said quite loudly. It did nothing for his headache and even less than that for Nicky’s ear pressed to his own cell phone. He moaned softly in pain then continued, “Aya is so tiny! She can’t watch all three of them on her own. If I were you, I wouldn’t let Mimi go. She’s soooo going to come back with fleas. Or worse, spiders.”

Nicky wanted to tell Princess his daughter was not going to get fleas from going camping with her cousins but he wisely chose to let that subject drop. “She isn’t taking the girls alone, Princess.” This was sooo not going to end well.

“But you just said she was!” Or maybe Princess’s hangover was telling him that. He could not quite be sure.

“I said Leon couldn’t go with her. I didn’t say she was going alone.” Nicky paused to take a deep breath. This was sooooo not going to end well. In fact, he was probably never going to hear the end of it. “I’m going with them.”

“What?!” Princess shrieked, his own voice only serving to send the drag queens in his head into a wild encore of the dance they had been doing when he had first awakened. “Nicky, you promised!” He felt tears welling up in his eyes – whether from the pain in his head or Nicky’s betrayal he was not sure - and forced them back. He was not going to cry. He was going to bitch at Nicky until his boyfriend came back to New York to be with him like he had promised.

“Shh, honey,” Nicky said, holding the phone away from his ear in preparation of another shriek. His ear was still ringing from the high-pitched sound of moments before. He was not looking forward to another one. There were times when Princess’s little squeaky, shrieky noises were cute but there were other times when they were the most irritating things Nicky could imagine. When they came over the phone it was always the latter.

“But Nicky-“ he began. But the mini-drag queens in his head chose that moment to kick the tempo of their dance up a notch and Princess moaned softly, rubbing his temples with the hand not holding the phone to try to take away some of the pain. His stomach, which had up until now kindly kept its opinion of its owner’s activities the night before to itself, chose that moment to make its views known. Princess felt a brief albeit painful sort of cramp in his abdomen followed by the intense nausea that only came after a night of drinking. He dropped his phone, leaned over the side of the bed, and vomited into a plastic trashcan conveniently placed there for just that purpose.

“Shaun? Shaunie, honey, are you okay?” Nicky only ever called Princess by his real name when he was angry or concerned.

Princess heard Nicky’s voice, sounding thin and far away as it came through the speaker of the cell phone he had dropped, and reached over the side of the bed for it, his other hand going for the box of tissues on the bedside table. He wiped his face on the tissues then rolled over onto his back. His throat hurt now too but he opened his mouth to reply anyway but was cut off before he even got a word out.

“Are you all right, Princess?” Nicky asked again. He knew his voice sounded panicky despite trying to push aside the fear he felt at hearing his Princess being sick. Princess hardly ever threw up and on the rare occasions when he did he completely freaked out.

Princess wiped at his face again. He felt icky now, sort of unclean and soiled and his head still hurt but his stomach felt marginally better now. “I…I’m okay,” he said hesitantly. “I think…”

“No more drinking right now, okay?” Nicky asked. He was always there to take care of Princess when he had a hangover. Nicky often had them too but he was more used to it than Princess and knew what to do for it by now. Princess, on the other hand, did not and Nicky hated that he was not there to take care of him this time. “Hair of the dog and that shit doesn’t work.”

“I know, Nicky,” Princess said weakly. The last thing he wanted right now was another drink anyway. Even the thought made him want to vomit again.

“No coffee either,” Nicky continued. He had no idea if Princess was capable of taking care of himself the morning after a night of illegal underage drinking or not but the first thing he did every morning after waking up and showering was head for the nearest coffee, in the kitchen if Nicky was there to make some and Starbucks if he was not.

“’kay,” Princess murmured. He was being surprisingly docile now compared to the little bitch he had been earlier.

“Is there still vitamin C in the cabinet over the sink? And vitamin water?” Nicky asked. If he could not be there for Princess at least he could help him make himself feel better over the phone. Although Nicky supposed phone sex could do the same thing but he doubted Princess felt up to that just now.

“I don’t know. I think so. I know there’s vitamin water.”

“Good. Before you go out today-“ because no matter how bad Princess felt he would go out, even if only for retail therapy. Plus, Nicky had something for him to go out for if he could talk Princess into going camping with him and Aya and the kids first “- I want you to take some vitamin C and drink a vitamin water. All of it,” he clarified. “Then take some Tylenol for your headache. And for god’s sake, eat something.” Princess rarely ate without being reminded first. It was not that he had any eating disorders or was consciously starving himself or anything. It was just that he had so many things that he would rather be doing than eating, liked being skinny, and had an almost unhealthy obsession with gourmet coffee.

“I will, Nicky. I promise.” And he had every intention of doing exactly that. But first… “Nicky?” he asked hesitantly. “Do you…”

“What is it, Princess?” Nicky asked, wondering when they were going to get back to the topic of the camping trip, the reason he had called Princess in the first place.

“It’s just…” Princess had no idea how to bring up what was worrying him. “I was wondering…” He sighed. “Never mind.”

“Tell me what’s wrong, sweetheart,” Nicky commanded gently. He was so proud of his Princess. He had changed so much from that terrified teenage boy who had clung so tightly to Nicky the day his rental car had pulled away from the only motel in Shady Lake, Virginia for the last time. Looking at Princess now one would never see Shaun in that long golden blonde hair and blue green eyes, the almost innate fashion sense, clothing from only the best boutiques, and, best of all, the self confidence he seemed to radiate. And yet now he seemed so insecure again.

“It’s just that…you…you promised,” he said, trying for his normal drama queenish self. He failed miserably but attributed that to the hangover he was experiencing rather than any insecurities that were plaguing him. “You promised,” he continued. “You said that you would be home tomorrow afternoon and we would have half of tomorrow, all day Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday together before Aya and Leon and the kids came for your mom’s birthday party Tuesday night and we all drove up there Wednesday.” Princess loved his boyfriend’s family, especially Nicky’s not-quite-three year old daughter Minako. He had been there when she was born two months early, weighing only three pounds and the doctors had all thought she would die. Still sometimes he felt…not jealous exactly and he would never resent her because he knew exactly how much Nicky loved her but it was times like now when Nicky was spending so much time with his daughter, time that he could have been spending with Princess, that he felt a little…envious. And he felt guilty that he was envious because Nicky only had a few days with his daughter but Princess was coming along on the European leg of the tour.

“That’s actually part of why I called, baby,” Nicky said. “Davis was drunk again last night and got hit by a car. He’s okay, I guess but the last concert tonight was cancelled. I should be home sometime around six o’ clock.”

“Tonight?” Princess asked breathlessly. “You’re coming home tonight, Nicky?” Please, please, please, he thought, please let Nicky be coming home tonight. Nicky was scheduled to come home tomorrow anyway but Princess suddenly felt as if he could not wait another minute to be with his boyfriend.

“Yes, honey. I’m coming home tonight.”

Despite the dancing drag queens in his head, Princess made a sound that could only have been described as a high pitched squeal. It did nothing to help his headache and even less to help Nicky’s hearing. “Tonight!” he shrieked. “You’re really, really, really coming home tonight?”

Nicky laughed. This squealing, shrieking, drama queen was the side of Princess he loved the most. “Yes, Princess. I’ll really, really, really be home tonight. I should be home between six o’ clock and seven o’ clock tonight. We’ll have tonight to be alone together then early tomorrow morning I’ll fly back out to Colorado and get there sometime tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be gone all weekend and fly back early Monday morning so we can have most of Monday, Monday night, and all day Tuesday alone together before Aya, Leon, and the kids get here sometime Tuesday night. Then on Wednesday morning I’ll have Clifford drive us up to Mom’s in the limo.” The limo had not been part of Nicky’s original plan. He had already bought train tickets for all of them to go up to Segundo on the train. But he felt sort of guilty, sort of like he was abandoning his Princess. So to make up for it he had decided to spoil his boyfriend a little bit and Princess loved the limo.

“I like the limo,” Princess admitted. He was silent for a long moment and Nicky knew there was still something wrong. “But what about me?” he asked finally in a small voice. “Where will I be while you and Aya and the girls are going camping? I thought you were going to be here with me this weekend so I didn’t make any plans to go out with anyone or anything ‘cause I wanted to spend the whole weekend with you.”

Nicky really felt guilty for leaving his Princess alone now. Because he probably was going to be leaving Princess alone even longer than he had planned because there was no way Princess would want to go along with their plans. How could Nicky suggest that a boy like Princess go camping with himself, his sister, and three little girls? “Come camping with us,” he said, deciding the quickest way was best.

“Camping?!” Princess shrieked again. He winced and on the other end of the line Nicky did the same thing. “Honestly, Nicky,” he continued, “You can not be serious!” At least he hoped his boyfriend was not serious. “You expect me to go camping.” He shuddered involuntarily at just the thought of going out there. “Camping, camping, camping,” he muttered to himself. God. The idea of such a thing. He might almost have thought Nicky was trying to do away with him in order to get a newer, younger version except that there was no newer younger version of Princess – he was one of a kind and he knew it – and Nicky loved him; that he would never doubt. But still. Camping. Ugh. There were bears and bugs and spiders and mad men with axes, and families of human flesh eating inbred cannibals out there. Oh, yes. He had so watched House Of Wax and Wrong Turn and…well, lots of other horror movies Nicky had insisted they watch that took place in the woods and he knew exactly what kinds of things to expect from a camping trip. No way would Princess end up covered in wax while he was still alive to sit in a nasty, icky, dirty museum or be cut up while he was alive and eaten by butt-ugly, deformed cannibals. He shuddered again. No fucking way!

“Princess!” Nicky had to struggle not to laugh. He knew his boyfriend was being serious but sometimes Princess’s drama queen behavior, even when he was deadly serious, was just amusing. He over reacted so often Nicky had thought it would be tiresome by now. But with Princess, nothing was ever predictable or dull or tiresome. “Calm down, sweetheart,” Nicky said when he felt he had his laughter under control. “It was only a suggestion. It seems like your kind of thing.” They would be traveling, which Princess loved. It seemed as if spending the first seventeen years of his life in one town and leaving only once – incidentally, the trip to Las Vegas his family had been selected to go on so his father could represent the local branch of the farmer’s guild was the same trip to Las Vegas when he had seen his first Triple Flip concert and met Nicky – had given Princess an insatiable thirst for seeing the world. So far they had been to forty eight of the fifty states, Paris, Milan, Rome, Moscow, Ibiza, Canada, Brazil, and to Mexico several times because Princess loved the vacation resorts there. But they had never been to London, which was where Nicky’s tour wrapped up later that summer. Then there was the whole tent thing. Nicky could understand why Princess might not want to sleep in a tent. That part really might not be his thing but they would be alone together most of the time they were in the tent at night. Except for Minako. But she was hardly more than a baby and although Nicky would not have sex with Princess while his daughter was in the same room he would not mind – would not at all mind – spending Saturday and Sunday nights just holding Princess while they slept. Yellowstone was beautiful too. Nicky should know. He had been there often enough as a child. He also knew that Princess liked beautiful things, although his idea of beauty consisted mostly of himself, Nicky, and pink sparkly things rather than natural, outdoors beauty. But pretty was pretty to Nicky and he was sure Princess would like some of the waterfalls and geysers and those sorts of things at least. He knew his boyfriend would like the animals that were occasionally seen wandering through the park. Growing up in the country, Princess had been exposed to animals, both wild and tame, at an early age. He still loved animals, although now he preferred those of the small fuzzy variety and snakes. Nicky had been astounded when Princess had revealed his love of snakes, the bigger the better. Rats, spiders, and all manner of other creatures stereotypically deemed ‘icky’ terrified him. It was one of the many things about Princess he would never understand. Plus, in the closest town of decent size to the park there were several upscale boutiques and a Louis Vuitton store. Princess lived for Louis Vuitton. That, if nothing else, would probably convince Princess to come along. If his fear of creepy crawly things and ax murderers was not stronger than his desire to go shopping at a new store.

All thoughts of his hangover were long since forgotten. “Camping in the woods seems like my kind of thing?” Princess asked incredulously. Nicky was fucking insane. There was no way he was going there. And Nicky knew it. “Sleeping outside in a place with no air conditioner and no room service when it’s almost one hundred degrees out there and getting up every morning and stepping in bear shit seems like my kind of thing? I’m sorry Nicky. But…No fucking way!”

Nicky smiled. And there goes Princess over reacting again, he thought, biting his lip hard enough to taste blood in an effort not to laugh. “All right, Princess,” he said. “I only thought you might like to come with us. It’s really beautiful out there. There are geysers-“

“What’s a geyser?” Princess asked, cutting Nicky off yet again.

“Um…” Nicky began. “It’s like a sort of…” He knew exactly what one was because he had seen plenty of them and yet he was unsure how to explain it to Princess. “See, there’s hot water under the ground, like really deep down and it gets really hot then…it, I guess, sort of erupts like a volcano.” That sounded dangerous. “Only it’s a hell of a lot smaller. It just looks like a little hole in the ground that water shoots out of and it’s only dangerous if you get too close.”

“Oh,” Princess said, not at all impressed.

“There are waterfalls too,” Nicky continued in an effort to persuade Princess to come with him.

“I like my water in the bath tub,” Princess reminded his boyfriend. “And all hot and stuff.” He was so not going. Not going. Not going. Not going, Princess thought defiantly. And there was no way Nicky was going to persuade him to. No fucking way.

“There are animals. Like moose and bears and…stuff.” This was not going the way Nicky wanted it to. So not.

“There’s animal shit. Like moose shit and bear shit and…stuff shit,” Princess countered.

Nicky almost choked as he suppressed his laughter. So their conversation was not going exactly the way he wanted it to. But Princess was so stubborn it was funny sometimes. “Are you sure you don’t want to come, Princess?” he asked one last time. No, he was not giving up. He was just going to have to think of something else if promising to go shopping didn’t work. “The inn out there is beautiful,” he continued. “It looks like a huge log cabin and it’s right beside Old Faithful. And a few miles from the inn is a town with a shopping district.” Nicky hesitated just long enough to create an appropriate amount of suspense before saying, “They have a Louis Vuitton store there.” He was sure he had Princess with that.

“Shopping?” Princess asked. “Really? Shopping like in stores? With your credit card? For clothes?” He sat up on the bed again, a little too fast, and the drag queens in his head started to dance again.

“Yes, Princess,” Nicky confirmed. “Really shopping in stores with my credit card. And for clothes if you absolutely have to.” Princess, he knew, would absolutely have to. If he could, he would live in a mall or one of his fancy girls’ clothing boutiques.

“And there’s a Louis Vuitton store?” If there really was…well…maybe…

“Yes, there’s a Louis Vuitton store.” Nicky knew he had Princess with that. Although he had at least one of every Louis Vuitton bag currently in circulation – and his name was on the waiting list for a few that were limited edition or simply impossible to find – Princess was always on the lookout for one he might somehow have missed.

Princess frowned. He thought of his closet full of Louis Vuitton luggage and handbags and all his Louis Vuitton scarves. Shopping in Wyoming would be a new experience for him. He had never been there. Well, he had but he had only seen the hotel room, a few streets, and the concert hall where Nicky was playing. Waterfalls were always romantic – or so he assumed because Niagara Falls was said to be the greatest romantic spot ever but Princess had never been there either – and how bad could it be if there was an inn? They were staying at an inn! That meant inside! It was so not fair. If Nicky had mentioned that earlier he would have jumped at the chance to go then slept off his hangover until it was time to meet his boyfriend at the airport. Nicky had told Princess about going camping with his family when he was little a long time ago. Princess had always thought Nicky’s idea of camping was going out into the woods in a tent with bear shit and lack of air conditioning where no one had ever heard of room service. It seemed that he was wrong and Nicky’s idea of camping more closely corresponded to his own: a lovely log-cabin type inn with air conditioning and nice plush carpet to sink his toes into and room service and a beautiful king-size bed where the two of them could make love far into the small hours of the morning – because Minako was so sharing a room with Ayame and her children. Yet, Nicky was a rock star now. He was used to a life of luxury, just like Princess was. The whole so called ‘camping trip’ sounded magnificent. And there was shopping! He could further his attempts to max out the credit card Nicky had given him. “Are you sure there’s shopping?” he asked Nicky. Because Yellowstone was a park, or so Princess had been told by…someone. The only shopping in parks – the ones in New York City at least – was the stuff food vendors sold and Princess would not be caught within ten feet of one of those. Unless one of them happened to be selling gourmet coffee, of course.

“Yes, there’s shopping. Honestly, honey, would I lie to you?” Okay, he would but just those little white lies that would never kill – or for that matter even hurt – Princess. Like, yes he had killed that spider or no, he had not watered down the vodka.

“Of course not.” Nicky would never lie to Princess. They had spent two years together and Nicky had never lied to Princess. Except for those little white lies that he was not supposed to know about like yes, he had killed the spider or no, he had not watered down the vodka. He was, however, prone to exaggerating when he really, really wanted Princess to do something. “And are you sure there’s a Louis Vuitton store?” Because that last shit hole little town Nicky had dragged him to for ‘a kick ass rock festival and of course there’s shopping, Princess’ had not had the boutiques Nicky had promised. Instead, there had been a Wal-Mart that had nothing more than Kate Spade knock offs.

“I’m sure, Princess. My whole family used to go there for a week every summer and Aya and I spent half of it skating and the other half shopping.” But Nicky had liked going shopping with his sister. She hit a few stores, made him try on a few different outfits, then they snuck off to the Dairy Queen for milkshakes, something their ice dancing diets did not allow them to have.

“Hmm…” he murmured, having already made up his mind to go – it had been the shopping thing that had done it, particularly the Louis Vuitton part – and only wanting to keep Nicky in suspense for a little while longer. “I’d like to go, then,” he admitted. “But only as long as you’re sure there’s going to be shopping somewhere besides Wal-Mart.” Princess was so tired of Bergdorf’s and Barneys and Macys and the rest of the stores and fashionable little boutiques he frequented in New York City but the stores he frequented there were, in his own esteemed opinion and that of Raven Reyes as well, the only ones worth shopping at and the only ones with the exclusive designer labels he adored.

“Yes, Princess. There is going to be shopping,” Nicky assured his boyfriend for what seemed like the bazillionth time in the short half hour of their phone conversation. And his plane was still not boarding! “I’ll take you shopping and you can try to max out my credit card again. The black card.” Even though he had the coveted black card and it was impossible to max it out, as it had no limit, Princess loved to try. Nicky rarely took Princess shopping. Instead he preferred to say, “Here’s my credit card, have fun” and send Princess out on his own or with Raven. He had gone several times way back in the beginning of their relationship when he had first brought Princess to live with Izumi during the year before he turned eighteen. Back then Nicky had had to persuade Princess that no, they could not go shopping at Wal-Mart and the boyfriend of Nicky Narcissus had to have the latest styles from the hottest stores even if they were not going to be seen in public until after his eighteenth birthday. But then Princess had turned eighteen and come to live with Nicky in New York City. Nicky had taken Princess on tour with him that summer – that had been last summer – and by the time they had returned home from his first tour with the band, Princess had needed no encouragement to go shopping whenever and wherever he wanted to. Nicky had considered his ‘get Princess out of those damned hand me downs and Wal-Mart clothes’ mission complete. Since then Nicky had left Princess to do his shopping on his own – or with Sarah or Raven – and they had only gone together on a few special occasions and for Christmas shopping.

Princess squealed rather too loudly. The sound was not good for his own headache or, he supposed, for Nicky’s ear pressed to his cell phone somewhere out in Las Vegas. “Fuck,” he muttered. But even his not-so-small hangover could quell his excitement. He loved those rare occasions when Nicky handed over his black card and let him buy anything he wanted. Hmm…Thinking of which, he was going to have to take a few extra empty suitcases… But even better than getting the black card were those even more rare times when Nicky actually volunteered to take him shopping.

Nicky laughed. “We don’t have time for phone sex right now, Princess. My plane is going to start boarding sometime this century.” Besides, Nicky hated phone sex. Sure, it was okay when he had been away for weeks on end and had not seen his Princess for far too long and had no hope of doing so any time in the near future but other than that he felt it was too impersonal and preferred to see and touch his Princess. Although he did like to hear that innocent sounding voice whispering things that would make a seasoned sailor blush with shame. Still, he liked nothing more than having his hands on that soft, smooth skin and-“ Nicky stopped himself before he could let his imagination get carried away. That happened far too often for his own comfort, particularly when he was in those boring meetings with the record company executives.

“I know.” Princess sighed. “But I can’t wait for you to get here. I want the real thing.” It had been almost two weeks since Princess had flown out to spend the weekend in California with Nicky but it seemed like a lot longer; it seemed like years. For the first sixteen, almost seventeen, years of his life Princess had not known what he was missing by not having sex. He had never experienced that level of intimacy with anyone else before and now that he knew what he had been missing and what it felt like to be that close not with just any other person but with Nicky he wanted that experience as often as possible. He could barely wait two weeks between encounters with his boyfriend, never mind that Nicky was sometimes on tour without a break for weeks, sometimes as long as a month or more, without a break. “When will you be here?” he asked. He was sure Nicky had told him earlier but what with the hangover and the vomiting and all the other unpleasantness of – quelle horror – camping, he had entirely forgotten.

“Umm…Wait a minute. Let me look again.” He thought it was six o’ clock but it never hurt to look again. Nicky searched through his carry on bag, one of Princess’s Louis Vuitton ones he had made off with because he was unable to find his own small bag before leaving home and Princess had – or at least it seemed as if he had – at least a million or two Louis Vuitton bags that were just the right size for Nicky to carry on the plane with him. He was sure he had placed his ticket on top where it would be easiest to get to without getting lost. He found it under his IPod and a painting his daughter had done in her preschool class and given to him when the tour took him to a town in Colorado less than two hours away from where Minako lived with Ayame and her family. “I’m leaving here whenever the plane takes off-“

“Are you in the airport now?” Princess asked, interrupting his boyfriend again.

“Yes,” Nicky told him. “And my flight is already late. “It was supposed to take off at eight o’ clock but so far I’m still sitting here. There hasn’t even been a boarding call yet. But if everything goes right…or at least as right as it can now…I should be in sometime around six o’ clock tonight. But the way things are going…I’ll probably be there around seven.”

“Do you want me to meet you at the airport?” Princess asked. It was almost a rhetorical question. No matter if Nicky wanted Princess to meet his plane or not, Princess would be there, ready to jump into his boyfriend’s arms at the first opportunity.

“Of course I want you to meet me at the airport. When have I ever not?” Well, okay there was that one time when he had brought Princess’s Christmas present – two Shih Tzu puppies – home on an airplane in his carry on bag. He had not wanted Princess to meet him at the airport then but that had been the only time and he had had a very good reason for that. Besides, Princess had forgiven him when he had seen the reason for Nicky not wanting him there. Then something else occurred to him. “But I need you to do something else for me first,” he told Princess. “If you aren’t too hung over, that is.”

“I am not hung over!” he stated defiantly. The slight display of anger made his head throb again. He added as an after thought, “Much.”

Nicky smirked, so happy Princess could not see him. “Sure, Princess,” he said. “Whatever you say. Since you aren’t hung over, do you want to do something for me before you come to the airport?”

“I don’t know. It depends on what you want me to do.” He never knew exactly what he would be doing if he agreed to do something for Nicky without having prior knowledge of what exactly his boyfriend wanted him to do.

“I need you to go shopping for me. I’m not going to have time to do it when I get home if I want to spend time with you before we leave tomorrow and I don’t dare leave to go shopping here in case they finally make the boarding call.” Nicky would be one of the first people boarding the plane; he was, as always, flying first class.

Princess almost squealed again. He loved going shopping when Nicky sent him out after something. When Nicky asked him to go shopping for a specific thing he never complained when Princess went a little overboard and came back with a few more things than what he had gone out for. There would be no, ‘Honestly, Princess, do you really need another one of these even if it is in a different color from the other twelve?’ or ‘You spent two thousand dollars on one fucking pair of shoes!’ However, he managed to stop himself from squealing just in time. The state of his head would not tolerate too many more loud, high-pitched noises. “Where?” he asked instead. “For what?”

“I need you to go to FAO Schwartz for me,” Nicky told his Princess, knowing Princess was hoping he would say Balenciaga or Roberto Cavalli or Barney’s New York or Ari or, god forbid, Louis Vuitton, or some other upscale boutique Nicky had never heard of before. He really needed to go out shopping with Princess more often but shopping was really not Nicky’s thing. He preferred swimming or running or watching a good movie. He loved working on new songs and reading music magazines and even reading books more than shopping. Hell, he preferred anything to shopping. “I always have something for Minako and Miki and Virginia when I see them. I don’t know, like some toy or…you know, something like that.”

“Mmmhmmm…” Princess nodded. Then he yawned. “I can go sometime this afternoon.” He was considering taking a nap now. Partying all night was such exhausting work and his head hurt and his stomach was starting to get in on the act again too.

Nicky looked at his watch. It was going on nine o’ clock now and he was in Las Vegas. The east coast where Princess was at was running on Eastern Standard Time. So that meant it was almost noon there. “Honey, it’s already afternoon where you are.” Well, it was close enough. By the time Princess actually got out of bed and showered and did whatever else it was that he always had to do before he could possibly leave the apartment it would be far into the afternoon. “You can not go back to sleep,” Nicky said as if he were reading Princess’s mind. He heard Princess groan and, although the sound was not meant to be sexual it went straight to Nicky’s cock. It had been far too long since he had last spent time alone with his Princess.

Princess stuck his tongue out at the phone; happy Nicky could not see him. Most every part of Princess’s body was ticklish and Nicky knew the worst spots from a lot of experience. Sticking his tongue out at his boyfriend while said boyfriend could see it was an offense that merited being tickled until he absolutely had to pee.

“Get your tongue back in your mouth, Princess,” Nicky said. He knew what look Princess was giving him. It was the ‘Princess has just been denied something he wants and is cutely pissed off’ look. And Nicky was more familiar with it than he really wanted to be.

Princess made another face at his absent boyfriend. It took several half-hearted kicks at the blankets to get them down to the bottom of the bed. When they were Princess rubbed the hand not holding the phone across his face. Mornings so suck, he thought. Except when Nicky was there. When his boyfriend was there it was not the harsh buzz of the alarm clock that woke Princess but the creative endeavors of his boyfriend not wanting a bitchy drama queen on his hands for the next several hours. “I’m up,” he complained. Never mind that he would still rather go back to sleep. He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. His perfectly pedicured bare toes dangled several inches above the rich purple carpet and his sleepy blue green eyes fell on a piece of crumpled baby pink and lime green harlequin print fabric lying in a heap on the floor next to the bed. He gasped. The day had just gotten many times worse and he was not quite out of bed yet. “Oh, God! Nicky!” he moaned.