This past Sunday, the Backstreet Boys celebrated thirty-two years together! As most fans know, one of the reasons this group has stood the test of time while so many of their contemporaries have broken up or fizzled out is that they truly are a band of brothers. The genuine brotherly love AJ, Brian, Howie, Kevin, and Nick show for one another is something I have always appreciated, both in real life and in fanfiction. For my last Throwback Thursday blog of April, I’m looking back on some of my most “bromantic” stories.
5. Heroic Measures
My ER crossover, Heroic Measures, was started in 2012 and finished in 2020, but it actually takes place way back in 1995, toward the beginning of BSB’s career. Since I didn’t start writing until 2000, I had never really portrayed the Boys as boys rather than men. Writing about them being in their teens and early twenties was both a fun change and a fun challenge for me. I drew inspiration from old videos I’d seen of them, as well as old fanfics from the ‘90s. Two of my old favorites that had an influence on this story are Come Together by Izzy and Cecilia, a fic about the group’s formation, and Where Can We Go From Here by Whitney, the defining bus crash fic of this fandom during the Millennium era. The common element that made me enjoy both of these stories back in the day was the way the writers portrayed the guys’ close relationships and – particularly in the case of WCWGFH – the care and concern they showed for each other in the face of tragedy. I wanted to capture that bromance in the aftermath of a horrific crash that sends all five guys to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Of course, medical drama is my forte and was a major focus of the story, but I also tried to show the human drama and the deep bond that had already developed between the boys at this early stage in their career. You see this in the way they continually ask about each other after the accident, the way Nick fights so hard to free Brian from the submerged van, the way Kevin holds Nick’s hand and refuses to leave Brian’s side, the way Howie reacts when Kevin tells him what happened the others, the way AJ encourages Nick to get out of bed after surgery, and the way Brian responds to the sound of his brothers’ voices. While there aren’t many scenes that feature all five guys together, I made sure to pair them up in different combinations as much as possible to weave that thread of brotherhood throughout the fabric of the story.
4. A Heart That Isn’t Mine
Like Heroic Measures, A Heart That Isn’t Mine is heavy on the medical drama, albeit with a much more horrific twist. But, at its heart, it’s also a bromantic Frick and Frack fic. After choosing to make Nick the main character of AHTIM, my decision to include Brian as a secondary character was partly influenced by other thrillers I’d read that put two of the Boys in a dangerous situation together, like Scared of Reality by Susan, It Stays With You by Mare, and Nowhere to Run by Whitney. Making one Boy suffer is bad enough, but making two Boys suffer – while also watching each other suffer – is even worse. And when you’re writing whump, worse is better! Putting Brian in the same room with Nick not only gave me another perspective from which to tell the story, which was nice for when Nick was unconscious, but also added another layer to the drama. Nick worried for Brian’s wellbeing as much as his own, and vice versa. Chapter 27 is one of my favorite examples of this, especially with the way it goes back and forth between Brian’s and Nick’s perspectives. While the story focuses mostly on Frick and Frack, Howie, Kevin, and AJ also become involved in the second half, which brings the brotherly bond between all five of them to the forefront. This is especially apparent in Chapter 42, in which the Boys rally around Brian and Nick. While I would never want anything from A Heart That Isn’t Mine to happen in real life, I’d like to think the guys would really drop everything and rush to be with one (or two) of their brothers in the midst of a crisis, like they do in this story and the next one on this list.
3. The Call
The Call is a short story I wrote in between early drafts of what would become A Heart That Isn’t Mine. That’s relevant because it partly explains why both stories have Brian and Howie hurrying to Nick’s side after hearing that he’s been hospitalized. In fact, one of those early drafts had Nick running into trouble at a horror convention in Atlanta, much like he does in this story. Had I made it further into AHTIM first, I may not have written The Call. But I’m glad I did because, obviously, it’s one of my favorites. The idea came from me wanting to write something that focused on the friendship between Brian and Howie, which I hadn’t seen explored much in fanfiction. Their relationship is interesting to me because, while Brian and Howie have a lot in common, they haven’t always seemed as close to each other as some of the other guys do. In fact, it was difficult to think of a scenario that would bring the two of them together without the other guys around, which is why Nick became involved. Nick felt like the common denominator between Brian and Howie, who have both been close to Nick at different times over the years – Frick and Frack in the early days, Howie and Nick in more recent history. While Brian was Nick’s legal guardian on tour, Howie was a groomsman at Nick’s wedding. In some ways, it seems like Howie replaced Brian as Nick’s bestie within the group, just as Brian replaced Howie as a lead singer when he joined it. This story explores Howie and Brian’s history, their similarities and differences, and their relationship with Nick and with each other as they react to the news that their baby brother has been hurt.
2. My Brother’s Keeper
As you’d expect from a story with the word “brother” in the title, brotherhood is a major theme of My Brother’s Keeper, which focuses on the relationship between Kevin and Nick. AJ also plays a prominent role in this novel, although he’s not one of its main characters. Partly inspired by the In a World Like This bonus track “Take Care,” MBK is about the aftermath of a car accident that leaves Kevin paralyzed from the chest down, prompting Nick and AJ to temporarily move in and take care of him as he adjusts to his new reality. In the process, Kevin helps Nick overcome his substance abuse issues and get his own life and health back on track. I love the big brother/little brother dynamic in this story and the way the guys’ typical roles are reversed. Kevin has traditionally been viewed as the reassuring older brother, always looking out for the younger guys in the group, but when he gets injured, the two youngest members step up to take on the responsibility of caring for him. This leads to a lot of sweet, bromantic scenes. One of my favorites is in Chapter 27, when Nick and AJ help Kevin float in his pool for the first time since the accident. It has the perfect blend of humor and poignance and really shows that role reversal in the way Nick worries about everything while Kevin is totally chill. It’s little moments like those that make this story one of my favorites.
1. The Road to Bethlehem
It’s no surprise that I put my Covid project, The Road to Bethlehem, at number one on this list because the power of brotherhood was kind of the whole point of the story. Sure, it’s also a survival story, but the Boys may not have all survived without each other. I love this story because it’s one of the few I’ve written that is just about the five guys – no families and no major fictional characters. The pandemic gave me a good reason to have them quarantine themselves together in a secluded location, which was the perfect set-up for a survival story with a focus on the relationships between its characters. I enjoyed showing different facets of those relationships, from the banter to the bickering and everything in between. Like with MBK, it was fun to put the guys in different roles from what I usually do. I made AJ the sick one instead of the comic relief. Kevin, who’s usually cast as the fearless leader, spends the second half of the story lying flat on his back, unable to move. Nick and Brian get to be heroes for once, instead of my perpetual victims. (Well, okay, poor Nick eventually ends up being a victim, too. Sorry, Nick.) Howie gets to be a hero, too! One of my favorite chapters is Chapter 14, in which Nick finds AJ, who’s unconscious in the crashed SUV, and Brian, who’s been crawling down the road (to Bethlehem) with a broken ankle to get help for AJ. Brian can’t walk, so Nick carries him on his back until… well… cliffhanger! The drama escalates from there. One reason I love putting the guys in these life-threatening situations is because they bring out such powerful emotions related to love and loss. I’ve always enjoyed reading and writing emotional stuff, and in the Backstreet Boys fandom, nothing brings it out better than bromance!
One interesting realization I made as I was putting this list together is that I published these five stories all in a row: The Call in 2017, A Heart That Isn’t Mine in 2019, Heroic Measures and The Road to Bethlehem in 2020, and My Brother’s Keeper in 2021. As I wrote at the beginning of this blog, I’ve always enjoyed stories that focused just on the Boys and their brotherly bond, but apparently this was the peak of my bromance era.
Do you prefer reading bromance or romance? Leave a comment below and let me know!