"Army of two."

[moveslikejasper]

Who: Jasper Cho and Leighton Kent
What: Crazy fucked up day
Where: Outside Mount Sinai
When: After THIS

It had been an awful day. They probably should have just all stayed home in bed and waited for the next morning before bothering to move. Like everyone else, Jasper was reeling and there was just too much going down to have time to process it all. There was no way he could just let Leighton bugger off alone. They were too close to fall apart at the seams at the first sign of something painful. They hadn't had to deal with anything like this has a group before, so it would be a learning curve. But the lessons could wait for another day. Everyone was hurting incredibly with the shock of Lance falling ill and collapsing on stage in the middle of a performance. The audience had been huge, and everyone had their own theory.

All the guys cared about was Lance. They were worried and scared, because this had come out of the blue. They had, of course, known that Lance had been ill throughout the course of the day. But he had also been floor with jetlag this time, so the general consensus was maybe he had picked up a bug on their trip. He was a trooper, he tried to see it through. Then he was collapsing and people were screaming. He had even stopped breathing for a brief time where Jasper had to give him CPR right there in front of the whole fucking world. No one knew what was wrong, and that was the hardest part of all.

And now this. A bolt from the blue, all of them completely blindsided. Simon had just called his husband after decking Leighton for trying to intervene and no one knew what the fuck to think. Before they could even try to figure it out, Leighton was storming out - bleeding - and even if Jasper just hung there for an epically confused few moments, he soon took off after Leighton so he couldn't get too far away alone. That wasn't what they were about. They had to stick together, so if Leighton needed to be angry and upset, Jasper wasn't going to let him do it alone. He knew Leighton and Lance were very close, the bond probably the tightest in their group (save for Axel and Chase, who were dating). Jasper wasn't surprised how upset he was.

He ignored the throngs of people, pushing through them to shoot outside after Leighton. It was risky. They could be freaking mauled. "Leighton!" he called out, seeing him moving further up the street. "Wait, we'll get a cab!"

Comments

[cowboycasanova]

Leighton stopped and looked back at Jasper who was calling out for him. He didn't have the energy to put up a fight. His head was thumping and it was making him feel dizzy. He needed to get home from hospital, and if Jasper hadn't followed him, he probably would have just walked the whole way without thinking how weird it looked for him to be stalking the streets of New York City with blood dripping down his face and a black eye starting to form. That was the last thing they need the paparazzi to get their hands on and make up their own stories again.

"I don't want to talk about it," he told Jasper through a hoarse sob, still hating on himself for crying. It was emotional overload and he had no idea how he was supposed to be feeling. All of it was only exacerbated by the fact they had no idea what was wrong with Lance. What if he was dying? That thought his Leighton hard and fast, and he was stumbling to the edge of the sidewalk to throw up in the gutter, hand braced on his knees to keep himself upright.

[moveslikejasper]

As soon as Leighton was sick, Jasper quickly looked around to make sure no one was going to jump out at them with a camera and came up beside him to rake his hair back off his face while he threw up. Next thing they would know would be that Leighton was on drugs too and throwing up in the gutter was proof. Jasper was pretty convinced none of them had touched illegal substances, not because it was a clause in their recording contracts, but because it just wasn't them. He didn't think even the crazy lifestyle they had been leaving would push them to it, but the industry was known for it. Was it a chance Lance had been using? Fuck, did he hope not.

Leighton was coughing and choking, like his body was trying to throw up even more but there wasn't much left to come up. "We've got to talk it out, mate. We have to. You can talk to me. I know you're generally not much of a D&M talker, but this is serious shit. Are you okay to get in a cab? We'll go home. No one else will be around there. We don't have to be here, he's in good hands. They said Riley's one of the best ER doctors around."

[cowboycasanova]

"Yeah..." Leighton confirmed breathlessly with a cough because his stomach was still contracting uncomfortable, leaving him unconvinced he was done puking. He tried to wipe his mouth on the back of his hand, but there was still a mess of blood smeared there. The question was whether a cab driver would let him in with the state he was in. "No, just call one of the drivers. I can't deal with questions from a taxi driver."

He crouched down on the footpath, waiting to make sure he wasn't going to hurl again. He felt like hell and was in a complete mess. Maybe as an ex-sheepshearer, he should be used to feeling dirty and grimy, but he had gotten used to the creature comforts that came with the salary they were now earning. The country would always be in his blood, but none of this was what he bought into. Was it all even fucking worth it when he was miserable? "I wanna fucking go home. Not here. I hate this fucking place. I wanna go home," he mumbled nursing his head in hand.

[moveslikejasper]

Jasper took his mobile phone out to put a call in to get one of their drivers here, and ASAP. It was probably the better option because the drivers were all under strict confidentiality contracts so any of them could do anything in those cars and if anything leaked, the drivers would have their arses sued off them, and then some. The drivers were all really cool though, and the guys were friendly with them. It would be a few minutes before they could navigate through the chaos surrounding the hospital, but they would come as soon as they could.

He stood there, hand resting on Leighton's shoulder which he softly squeezed. "I know, mate. Me too. Trust me, I've never been more homesick than I am right now," he sympathised, still trying to stay on the look-out for any wankers who would try to invade their personal space. Fans would be hungry for more information, but they were just going to have to fucking wait until the shock abated and they knew what the hell they were supposed to be giving information about. "Are you done? I don't even have any tissues for you."

[cowboycasanova]

Leighton had probably been the one out of the group who had suffered with homesickness the most. His uprooting winning the competition had been the most drastic because he had been born and raised in the Aussie outback and hadn't ever been to a city before the auditions. He was a country boy through and through, so he had the most adapting to do. He coped and even though he had done a lot of talking about the homesickness to Lance, who had been amazing with listening, he still felt like a fish out of water on the regular. But he still thrived on the experience, so this had floored them.

"Done puking or done with all this shit? I dunno. I dunno anything right now." He moved to sit on the edge of the gutter with his feet on either side of the mess of vomit. He couldn't walk further if he tried. He was completely drained and once again he was breaking down in tears, hands up over his face. "I can't believe he got married and didn't fucking tell us. That fucking cunt, how dare he! How dare he fucking go and get sick when he's supposed to be the one that's the most okay of the lot of us."