Dream Like New York

Who: Leighton Kent and anyone who wants to join him
What: Night on the town
Where: The Bondi, Soho, NYC
When: Sunday night

Leighton picked up the schooner of beer Luke placed in front of him and held it up with a, "Cheers, mate." He, Lance and Jasper had decided to hit the bar, while Chase stayed home with Axel, who had exploded with Chicken Pox throughout the day. They had been working hard lately, poised to get back into the recording studio for their next album and, in the meantime, doing some intense charity work for Shades of Violet in Justin's absence. Leighton took that new title really seriously. He hadn't ever thought much about the charity thing before and left it up to their managers to where they performed for charity and what. Then Presley was inviting them to come on board as Ambassadors with Justin, and just seeing how much it meant to Justin made it all the more rewarding. As a result, they had been working more with the teen, which was pretty cool in itself.

But Leighton needed some chill out time, and he was going to do it with some good home-grown beer in a cool bar, and just see how the night played out. With Axel sick, it also meant he wasn't there to try to hook him up with some random chicks. Leighton still hadn't been able to tell any of his band mates that he was pretty sure deep down, he might be gay. He was still sleeping with chicks casually, but since it came to the forefront of his heart that he had deep feelings for Lance, it hadn't been feeling the same.

Lance was a whole other issue. He was Leighton's best mate in the whole world, their friendship really solidifying since they met each other with the competition. Lance had gone and fallen in love with another guy called Simon, and eloped with him without a word to anyone. It had been a huge shock to Leighton's system, and the only way they found out was when Lance had a brain aneurysm and passed out unconscious in the middle of a performance. Simon came to the hospital, and it came to light that he was Lance's husband. But the condition left Lance with a form of amnesia. He didn't remember any of his friends in the band, and didn't remember Simon, let alone marrying him. He went home to Australia with his family, and it looked like they would lose him from the band. Their future had been in the balance.

When he was away in Australia, his memory began to come back and he soon returned to them to get back in the saddle with Electricks. But he never remembered Simon or his marriage, so Simon applied for a marriage annulment and Lance never knew he had been married. Simon didn't have the heart to force himself on Lance when he didn't remember him. Technically, Lance was single, but knowing that he had been in love with Simon so much he married him, Leighton had shoved his own feelings away and convinced himself it was wrong to think about acting on it. No one knew that, inside, he was questioning his sexuality and whole identity. It lead to him brooding more than he normally would, and that was why Axel wanted to matchmake him.

Still, as he sat there at the bar alone, he found himself subtly scoping the guys in the bar that night. It was open mic night, so it was busy. There were some really hot guys there that night, but he couldn't quite push himself to act on it. He was scared what might happen if he did. He also caught himself accidentally in a lingering perve on Lance, who was dancing. He turned his head back to his beer and took a long drink.

Dude, get your fucking arse home already.

Who: Leighton Kent with Lance Valentine, Simon Sinclair and the other Electricks guys
What: Tensions rise
Where: Emergency Department, Mount Sinai
When: After THIS

Absolute shock was the only thing Leighton and his bandmates had been able to feel up to this point. Everyone knew Lance hadn't been well before the concert. They all tried to get him to give it a miss, but he wouldn't. None of them expected things would take a horrible turn like this. They were tight, just like brothers, but there was no denying the stress of the job they did had been wearing on some of them. Lance was just the most obvious because he usually just rolled with the punches. He was the comedy relief, the one to make them laugh with a bad joke. Something had been off, and even though they had all teased him for being a moody bitch, this wasn't how it was supposed to turn out.

Drugs. Fucking drugs. Leighton wasn't going to believe it. He felt sick inside and his heart and stomach were coiled up in a tight knot of fear inside while they waited in the Emergency Room for any news of Lance. Of course they all wanted to be taken to the hospital after he was carted off in an ambulance unconscious. But it was a paparazzi nightmare. As soon as it hit social media, it was chaos and security was immediately set up around all entrances of the hospital and the ER strictly monitored to only allow patients and loved ones through whilst Lance and the group were there. The last thing any of them needed right now was to face the media or having people staring at them.

( Not that it could be avoided... )

NARRATIVE, COMPLETE

Did Lancey even come home last night...?

Axe fell asleep in the elevator standing up. Funny as fuck.

Photoshoot proof. The rest of us can all go home -- with Jasper Cho

Who: Leighton Kent and Lance Valentine
What: Jetlag's a bitch
Where: Their new bachelor pad, New York City
When: Saturday morning

Leighton wasn't much of a morning person at the best of times, but he was about a million times worse when he had no sleep the night before. It just seemed that his mood was in the red that much more when he wasn't a morning person, was jetlagged, and just when he thought he managed to doze off last night trying to get his body clock on Yank time after the long haul flight from Australia the day before, fuck central had started in the room next door to him. He was now sitting at the large island counter in the middle of the fucking huge kitchen aggressively stirring 5 sugars into the coffee he had just brewed. His long hair was all over the place from fruitless tossing and turning to try to get to sleep, even trying to shove his pillow over his head to invite some silence for his ears. Now he was just a grump and honestly, fuck Yank time. If he crashed after this coffee in the middle of the day, so be it.

They had been in New York about 24 hours now. It wasn't long enough for him to figure out if he liked it yet. It was loud and full of concrete and people rushing all over the place. It smelt funny too. It was a far cry from the station back home, but he was okay with it. He knew it would take a lot of adjusting and acclimatising to the new surroundings. Plus, this was only a base. They would see all over America soon enough, and like his mum told him when his family saw him off at the airport - it was all part of the adventure. He just would be feeling particularly celebratory about new beginnings until he could manage some decent sleep. The coffee even tasted weird. It was no Nescafe Blend 43, that's for sure. And with a couple of social things book in their schedule that coming week - meeting with Angel and his twin, a photoshoot around New York to publicise their arrival - he needed to at least try to get his body clock adjusted to the new time zone.