But it's Only the Chorus
Mar. 27th, 2012 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinkauTitle: But it’s Only the Chorus
Prompt: “Alt Fandom: Musical Theatre”
Fandoms: Stargate Atlantis / A Chorus Line
Medium: Fic
Rating: PG
Warning: No standard warnings apply
Word Count: 2,817
Characters: Lorne (Lor)/Parrish
Series: A snippet from the Goddess ‘verse
Summary Lor tries to leave David in a safe place, doing something he always dreamed of doing. For his own good.
♫ “Who am I anyway? Am I my resume? That is a picture of a person I don't know.” ♪
“Are you sure this is what you want to do David, a bit part?” Lor asked as they got to the doors of the theatre. Placing a palm on the wood he kept Parrish from opening it and held it until David looked up at him.
“You made me choose. This was your idea in the first place,” there was heavy accusation in the tone and Lor dropped his hand away and took a step back. “This is the best I could come up with, okay? So let’s just do it.”
Lor followed him into the theatre, he’d insisted on coming along when he sent David into this reality because he had not liked the feelings he was getting off his lover when David had finally, grudgingly made his decision where to be sent. Until he was sure David was happily settled and safe, Lor wasn’t leaving him anywhere, and he especially wasn’t taking any memories away from him as he had with the others when he’d hidden them to protect them from the beast that was stalking them all.
“I’ll need your headshot and resume, please,” the young girl at the table said to David. He handed her the folder he had brought with him. “And yours sir?” she looked at Lor expectantly.
“Don’t you dare,” Parish whispered under his breath as he saw Lor raise his hand and start to wriggle his fingers.
“You don’t need to see my resume,” Lor said with a cheeky smile at David.
A blank look came over the young woman’s face. “I don’t need to see your resume.”
Ignoring David’s glare, Lor pointed to the sign that labeled the entrance to the mezzanine and added, “I’ll can sit in the theatre and wait.”
“You can sit in the theatre and wait.” She printed a number on David’s folder, handed him a safety pin and a sign with a large number ‘147’ across it, corresponding to the number she had written on the folder. “There you are, Mister Parrish, pin that on, join the others in the orchestra seats and wait for your number to be called.”
“I hate when you do that, Evan!” David hissed at Lor.
Lor smirked. “Oh, come on, you love it when I get all Jedi.”
His smirk faded when David grabbed his arm and squeezed. “Promise me you’re not going to do any finger waggling in there. I need to do this on my own. I can’t do this if it’s fake, Ev. I need to do this because of who I am, not because I know… someone like you that could fix it for me.”
Carefully, Lor pried the fingers off his arm and gave them a squeeze before releasing David’s hand. “I promise. No monkey business. Go break a leg. But seriously, if you want a lead role instead of the chorus…”
“On. My. Own. Evan.”
With a sigh, Lor nodded and watched David go off to join the rest of those auditioning.
♪ Right! Let's do the whole combination, facing away from the mirror. From the top. a-five, six, seven, eight! ♫
Why had he thought he could still do this? Sure, he had stayed limber and did plenty of yoga and exercise classes and took the occasional dance class when they were offered, but he hadn’t done anything like this since college. College had been a lot of years ago, before the SGC, before Atlantis, before Evan Lorne had come into his life. Before he’d found out that everything he thought he knew about reality was bent and twisted.
It was all coming back to him quickly though; he’d managed to get through the first two major cuts. His thighs burned like hell. The stage manager that was running the audition was making them do a hell of a lot of ballet moves. If it hadn’t been for Doctor Molov’s bi-weekly workshops back in Atlantis keeping him in form, David doubted that he would have been able to get this far.
Thank heavens the concentration wasn’t heavy on ballroom; he was very out of practice on his ballroom moves. He could fake something if he had to, but there was no way he could churn out something at a competition level. And his Latin moves were so rusty, they would be laughable, gods help him if they asked for a rumba. He shook his head as he realized he could very easily have a god help him, should it come to it, he had one sitting in the audience watching over him.
The stage manager had called for yet another ballet combination. Was the man a sadist or was he simply trying to grind them down to weed out the whiners and weaklings first? Surely a musical about a socialite hitting the town wasn’t going to have full ballet sequences in it? C’mon, it just required a little song and dance, some soft shoe, some choreographed background dancing. Why all these cabriole and jete combinations? It was overkill, as far as David was concerned.
Still, he dragged himself up after rubbing his insole one last time and joined the line with the rest of his dwindling group of hopefuls.
♫They all felt something, but I felt nothing. Except the feeling that this bullshit was absurd! ♪
More hoops to jump through? They had to be kidding. Five torturous hours of watching David and the other people auditioning was making Lor’s fingers twitch. It took all of his concentration to tamp down the urge to muck about and make things happen. He knew it was barely contained chaos energy driving him, boredom tended to bring those energies to the fore and he had learned since acquiring the burden to recognize the signs and deal with them. He had promised David, and that promise was the only thing keeping him in check.
Lor thought the selection process was over, but now the stage director and some chump sitting at the back of the orchestra were making the remaining actors-slash-singers-slash-dancers line up at the front of the stage for some sort of heart to heart chat.
What did someone’s story about stealing their first tap shoes have to do with the here and now of how well they followed direction and performed today? David looked wiped out. He also looked a little nervous. The girl before him was telling a story about some movie Lor had never heard of and how it made her long to express herself in dance and how it had changed her life forever. The rest of the people in the line were nodding. Except David, he was looking up at the mezzanine, directly where Lor was sitting in the shadows.
Damn, how could he do this? How could he go away and leave David here? If David didn’t get this job, Lor doubted he could leave him here in this reality to fend for himself. Even if it was a pocket of reality, at the core it was still New York, still Broadway, still a dog-eat-dog world. His resolve to stick to the plan was weakening and that angered him, he had never questioned his judgment in the past..
♪All I ever needed was the music, and the mirror, and the chance to dance... play me the music…♫
“147, why are you here?” the disembodied voice with a microphone asked from the audience.
David looked in the direction he presumed the man was sitting and replied, “I want to dance, when the opportunity arose to try again, I chose to take it.”
“According to your resume, you haven’t done a production in eight years. What have you been doing with yourself?”
“Botany.”
“Botany?”
“Yes, sir. I love plants.” David’s answer sparked a few chuckles from the others on the stage. “I went for my doctorate after college and I’ve had to shift dancing to my spare time.”
That admission earned him a glare from a few of the devoted youngsters on the stage. How dare he not live and breathe dance? “I missed the music and the theatre. I wanted to get back to it, so here I am.”
There was a grunt over the microphone. “You’ve been keeping up, obviously. Studying ballet?”
“With a retired soloist from the Bolshoi, I suppose a crack about her keeping me on my toes would fall rather flat?” David gave a small chuckle.
“Rather,” but there was mild humor in the reply. “What happens to your botany while you’re off dancing, 147?”
David kept his gaze steady; he hated this whole stupid plan. Evan had assured him that when he and Allie and Laura came back from these pocket realities, nothing will have changed in Atlantis, no time will have passed, everything would be the same in Atlantis. David had a hard time believing that.
But Evan had asked him to do this, to hide here for a short time while he did what needed to be done elsewhere. He answered the voice in the dark honestly, “It will still be there when I get back. My staff will surely remember to water the plants.”
♫Tits and ass, orchestra or balcony, what they want is whatcha see. ♫
After the horribly personal interviews, they put the poor hopefuls through yet another round of dancing, this time quick solo bits to music they had brought along. Lor had to admit that some of the kids down there were pretty damned good at this.
He got very annoyed, however, when the stage manager told David and the other guys to take off their sweatpants and dance in their tights. David was his boyfriend, he wasn’t sure he liked everyone down there oogling him.
The blonde bombshell with the number 223 plastered beneath her boobs did her song and dance, and Lor knew she’d be getting a part. She was the type one saw on the posters that lined the sidewalks around the city; broad smile, long legs, big boobs and she possessed enough talent to carry her through the auditions so far.
Did David? Had Lor made a mistake making the promise not to interfere? What if David didn’t get the part? Would his lover be devastated? David had put so much into this audition, so much energy and effort. It was making Lor itch not being able to manipulate the situation.
Lor liked David’s ass, but did the producer sitting down in the theatre below?
“Shake it baby,” Lor whispered as David took his spot at the center of the stage.
♪Kiss today goodbye, and point me toward tomorrow... ♫
The dance solo had been a breeze; David knew he’d nailed it. Four more people got cut from the line before the second round of singing and David found himself still standing there.
But as he finished singing, David knew that he’d blown it. He’d chosen the wrong song, and his pitch had been off. Damn, he had thought the dancing would be what lost him the shot, not his singing. He should have practiced the lyrics more, or maybe chosen a different verse.
“165, 147, 240. Sorry, thank you.”
And just like that, he was cut.
David sighed and went backstage to collect his bag. He waved to Evan when he walked into the lobby and saw him standing there waiting. Walking over to him, he dropped his bag on the floor and clasped Evan’s face, kissing him full on the mouth. After a moment’s surprise at the public display, Evan returned the kiss.
“What was that for?” Evan asked, as David pulled back and smiled.
“Keeping your promise. Letting me do it on my own.”
Evan chuckled and shook his head, clearly not understanding. “But you didn’t get the part, David.”
“But I didn’t get it because of how I performed. Not because of you and your twiddly fingers and stupid Jedi mind tricks. I’m cool with it.”
“Really?”
Nodding, David reached down and squeezed his hand then gave a shrug. “Really. I’ve been away from this too long. It isn’t my thing anymore, I guess. Those kids up there eat, sleep and live music and dance in a way I never did, even in college. I can’t maintain that level of commitment to it anymore, if I ever could. Maybe that’s why I chose botany, I loved plants more.”
♫One smile and suddenly nobody else will do; you know you'll never be lonely with you know who. One moment in his presence and you can forget the rest. ♪
“Don’t leave me here,” David whispered suddenly, still holding Lor’s hand. “Please, let me stay with you.”
Lor groaned, what David was asking was exactly what he wanted to do, and exactly the opposite of what he needed to do. “David, we talked about this. We decided.”
“I undecided, I changed my mind. You can’t go off and face the boogeyman by yourself. I’m staying with you.”
“No.” Evan had a stubborn set to his chin as he shook his head. David grabbed his arm and tugged him aside as a group of people came out of the theatre, chattering loudly.
“Yes,” David insisted.
Evan sighed. “I’d be distracted. I’d be worried about you the whole time. I’d make a mistake and you’d get hurt.”
“I’m a random element, something unexpected. You always work alone; they would never expect you to have a backup. Don’t do this to me. I’m not like Allie and Laura; I can’t pretend my life away, even for a short time. I’m too worried about you, it wouldn’t hold, you said yourself if I didn’t believe in it, the illusion couldn’t hold up for long. Evan, you’re the best thing that ever happened in my life. I can’t let you walk away from me.” David was clutching both of Evan’s hands now, and he knew he was coming off desperate, but he didn’t care.
“David…” Evan raised his fingers, brushing David’s hair back from his face. “If I lost you. If I did something that caused you to be hurt…”
“Please, Ev. Leaving me here would hurt me. If you care for me, please, don’t do this to me. Don’t take my memories away; don’t leave me here in this place.”
♫Won't forget, can't regret, what I did for love. ♪
Why was he allowing David to sway him? This was the plan. Everything had been discussed and decided, everyone would be safer if they were tucked away. But the thought of leaving David here, of possibly stranding him in this reality forever made something deep inside Lor’s gut twist and hurt.
“Let me help. Teach me something, give me something to do. Change the plan, Lor.”
David never called him by his real name; he was always Ev or Evan to David. “Change the plan?” Did David understand what he was asking? It would be going against his nature to suddenly up and change a plan midway through the undertaking. He was Order. It wasn’t done. He started to shake his head, rebelling against the idea.
“You aren’t what you were, Lor. You’re more than what you were before. Take what Laru gave you and use it. What does it mean to have the power of Order with the unpredictability of Chaos behind it? Stop thinking the way you always thought, you aren’t that being now, not while you have all of this stuff inside you.” David had a hand spread on Evan’s chest now as he looked up at him with a pleading expression.
“I can’t risk you.”
David huffed out a breath, “I’m asking for this. I’m offering. I can’t go back without you, I don’t want to stay here, so that leaves only going with you.”
He should wipe David’s memory and go, now. Stick to the plan and keep David safe.
He raised a hand and cupped David’s cheek. David was the first person in centuries to know what Lor was, and the first to have accepted him for it and the only one that had stood by him when everything went to hell. Granted, he had not offered Allie or Laru much choice in the matter, nor had he offered one to David, he realized. He had designed the plan, dictated it to everyone and enacted it.
“I love you, David; I can’t ask this of you,” Lor whispered, one last protest.
His botanist smiled as he saw Lor’s determination crumble. “Idiot. I love you too, that’s why I’m offering.”
“We could both end up dead.”
“And we could both end up alive,” David countered.
Lor smiled and conceded, “Fair point. Come on then.” Lor held out his hand. “”If we both end up dead, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The End
of David’s Broadway Dreams, anyway
Prompt: “Alt Fandom: Musical Theatre”
Fandoms: Stargate Atlantis / A Chorus Line
Medium: Fic
Rating: PG
Warning: No standard warnings apply
Word Count: 2,817
Characters: Lorne (Lor)/Parrish
Series: A snippet from the Goddess ‘verse
Summary Lor tries to leave David in a safe place, doing something he always dreamed of doing. For his own good.
♫ “Who am I anyway? Am I my resume? That is a picture of a person I don't know.” ♪
“Are you sure this is what you want to do David, a bit part?” Lor asked as they got to the doors of the theatre. Placing a palm on the wood he kept Parrish from opening it and held it until David looked up at him.
“You made me choose. This was your idea in the first place,” there was heavy accusation in the tone and Lor dropped his hand away and took a step back. “This is the best I could come up with, okay? So let’s just do it.”
Lor followed him into the theatre, he’d insisted on coming along when he sent David into this reality because he had not liked the feelings he was getting off his lover when David had finally, grudgingly made his decision where to be sent. Until he was sure David was happily settled and safe, Lor wasn’t leaving him anywhere, and he especially wasn’t taking any memories away from him as he had with the others when he’d hidden them to protect them from the beast that was stalking them all.
“I’ll need your headshot and resume, please,” the young girl at the table said to David. He handed her the folder he had brought with him. “And yours sir?” she looked at Lor expectantly.
“Don’t you dare,” Parish whispered under his breath as he saw Lor raise his hand and start to wriggle his fingers.
“You don’t need to see my resume,” Lor said with a cheeky smile at David.
A blank look came over the young woman’s face. “I don’t need to see your resume.”
Ignoring David’s glare, Lor pointed to the sign that labeled the entrance to the mezzanine and added, “I’ll can sit in the theatre and wait.”
“You can sit in the theatre and wait.” She printed a number on David’s folder, handed him a safety pin and a sign with a large number ‘147’ across it, corresponding to the number she had written on the folder. “There you are, Mister Parrish, pin that on, join the others in the orchestra seats and wait for your number to be called.”
“I hate when you do that, Evan!” David hissed at Lor.
Lor smirked. “Oh, come on, you love it when I get all Jedi.”
His smirk faded when David grabbed his arm and squeezed. “Promise me you’re not going to do any finger waggling in there. I need to do this on my own. I can’t do this if it’s fake, Ev. I need to do this because of who I am, not because I know… someone like you that could fix it for me.”
Carefully, Lor pried the fingers off his arm and gave them a squeeze before releasing David’s hand. “I promise. No monkey business. Go break a leg. But seriously, if you want a lead role instead of the chorus…”
“On. My. Own. Evan.”
With a sigh, Lor nodded and watched David go off to join the rest of those auditioning.
♪ Right! Let's do the whole combination, facing away from the mirror. From the top. a-five, six, seven, eight! ♫
Why had he thought he could still do this? Sure, he had stayed limber and did plenty of yoga and exercise classes and took the occasional dance class when they were offered, but he hadn’t done anything like this since college. College had been a lot of years ago, before the SGC, before Atlantis, before Evan Lorne had come into his life. Before he’d found out that everything he thought he knew about reality was bent and twisted.
It was all coming back to him quickly though; he’d managed to get through the first two major cuts. His thighs burned like hell. The stage manager that was running the audition was making them do a hell of a lot of ballet moves. If it hadn’t been for Doctor Molov’s bi-weekly workshops back in Atlantis keeping him in form, David doubted that he would have been able to get this far.
Thank heavens the concentration wasn’t heavy on ballroom; he was very out of practice on his ballroom moves. He could fake something if he had to, but there was no way he could churn out something at a competition level. And his Latin moves were so rusty, they would be laughable, gods help him if they asked for a rumba. He shook his head as he realized he could very easily have a god help him, should it come to it, he had one sitting in the audience watching over him.
The stage manager had called for yet another ballet combination. Was the man a sadist or was he simply trying to grind them down to weed out the whiners and weaklings first? Surely a musical about a socialite hitting the town wasn’t going to have full ballet sequences in it? C’mon, it just required a little song and dance, some soft shoe, some choreographed background dancing. Why all these cabriole and jete combinations? It was overkill, as far as David was concerned.
Still, he dragged himself up after rubbing his insole one last time and joined the line with the rest of his dwindling group of hopefuls.
♫They all felt something, but I felt nothing. Except the feeling that this bullshit was absurd! ♪
More hoops to jump through? They had to be kidding. Five torturous hours of watching David and the other people auditioning was making Lor’s fingers twitch. It took all of his concentration to tamp down the urge to muck about and make things happen. He knew it was barely contained chaos energy driving him, boredom tended to bring those energies to the fore and he had learned since acquiring the burden to recognize the signs and deal with them. He had promised David, and that promise was the only thing keeping him in check.
Lor thought the selection process was over, but now the stage director and some chump sitting at the back of the orchestra were making the remaining actors-slash-singers-slash-dancers line up at the front of the stage for some sort of heart to heart chat.
What did someone’s story about stealing their first tap shoes have to do with the here and now of how well they followed direction and performed today? David looked wiped out. He also looked a little nervous. The girl before him was telling a story about some movie Lor had never heard of and how it made her long to express herself in dance and how it had changed her life forever. The rest of the people in the line were nodding. Except David, he was looking up at the mezzanine, directly where Lor was sitting in the shadows.
Damn, how could he do this? How could he go away and leave David here? If David didn’t get this job, Lor doubted he could leave him here in this reality to fend for himself. Even if it was a pocket of reality, at the core it was still New York, still Broadway, still a dog-eat-dog world. His resolve to stick to the plan was weakening and that angered him, he had never questioned his judgment in the past..
♪All I ever needed was the music, and the mirror, and the chance to dance... play me the music…♫
“147, why are you here?” the disembodied voice with a microphone asked from the audience.
David looked in the direction he presumed the man was sitting and replied, “I want to dance, when the opportunity arose to try again, I chose to take it.”
“According to your resume, you haven’t done a production in eight years. What have you been doing with yourself?”
“Botany.”
“Botany?”
“Yes, sir. I love plants.” David’s answer sparked a few chuckles from the others on the stage. “I went for my doctorate after college and I’ve had to shift dancing to my spare time.”
That admission earned him a glare from a few of the devoted youngsters on the stage. How dare he not live and breathe dance? “I missed the music and the theatre. I wanted to get back to it, so here I am.”
There was a grunt over the microphone. “You’ve been keeping up, obviously. Studying ballet?”
“With a retired soloist from the Bolshoi, I suppose a crack about her keeping me on my toes would fall rather flat?” David gave a small chuckle.
“Rather,” but there was mild humor in the reply. “What happens to your botany while you’re off dancing, 147?”
David kept his gaze steady; he hated this whole stupid plan. Evan had assured him that when he and Allie and Laura came back from these pocket realities, nothing will have changed in Atlantis, no time will have passed, everything would be the same in Atlantis. David had a hard time believing that.
But Evan had asked him to do this, to hide here for a short time while he did what needed to be done elsewhere. He answered the voice in the dark honestly, “It will still be there when I get back. My staff will surely remember to water the plants.”
♫Tits and ass, orchestra or balcony, what they want is whatcha see. ♫
After the horribly personal interviews, they put the poor hopefuls through yet another round of dancing, this time quick solo bits to music they had brought along. Lor had to admit that some of the kids down there were pretty damned good at this.
He got very annoyed, however, when the stage manager told David and the other guys to take off their sweatpants and dance in their tights. David was his boyfriend, he wasn’t sure he liked everyone down there oogling him.
The blonde bombshell with the number 223 plastered beneath her boobs did her song and dance, and Lor knew she’d be getting a part. She was the type one saw on the posters that lined the sidewalks around the city; broad smile, long legs, big boobs and she possessed enough talent to carry her through the auditions so far.
Did David? Had Lor made a mistake making the promise not to interfere? What if David didn’t get the part? Would his lover be devastated? David had put so much into this audition, so much energy and effort. It was making Lor itch not being able to manipulate the situation.
Lor liked David’s ass, but did the producer sitting down in the theatre below?
“Shake it baby,” Lor whispered as David took his spot at the center of the stage.
♪Kiss today goodbye, and point me toward tomorrow... ♫
The dance solo had been a breeze; David knew he’d nailed it. Four more people got cut from the line before the second round of singing and David found himself still standing there.
But as he finished singing, David knew that he’d blown it. He’d chosen the wrong song, and his pitch had been off. Damn, he had thought the dancing would be what lost him the shot, not his singing. He should have practiced the lyrics more, or maybe chosen a different verse.
“165, 147, 240. Sorry, thank you.”
And just like that, he was cut.
David sighed and went backstage to collect his bag. He waved to Evan when he walked into the lobby and saw him standing there waiting. Walking over to him, he dropped his bag on the floor and clasped Evan’s face, kissing him full on the mouth. After a moment’s surprise at the public display, Evan returned the kiss.
“What was that for?” Evan asked, as David pulled back and smiled.
“Keeping your promise. Letting me do it on my own.”
Evan chuckled and shook his head, clearly not understanding. “But you didn’t get the part, David.”
“But I didn’t get it because of how I performed. Not because of you and your twiddly fingers and stupid Jedi mind tricks. I’m cool with it.”
“Really?”
Nodding, David reached down and squeezed his hand then gave a shrug. “Really. I’ve been away from this too long. It isn’t my thing anymore, I guess. Those kids up there eat, sleep and live music and dance in a way I never did, even in college. I can’t maintain that level of commitment to it anymore, if I ever could. Maybe that’s why I chose botany, I loved plants more.”
♫One smile and suddenly nobody else will do; you know you'll never be lonely with you know who. One moment in his presence and you can forget the rest. ♪
“Don’t leave me here,” David whispered suddenly, still holding Lor’s hand. “Please, let me stay with you.”
Lor groaned, what David was asking was exactly what he wanted to do, and exactly the opposite of what he needed to do. “David, we talked about this. We decided.”
“I undecided, I changed my mind. You can’t go off and face the boogeyman by yourself. I’m staying with you.”
“No.” Evan had a stubborn set to his chin as he shook his head. David grabbed his arm and tugged him aside as a group of people came out of the theatre, chattering loudly.
“Yes,” David insisted.
Evan sighed. “I’d be distracted. I’d be worried about you the whole time. I’d make a mistake and you’d get hurt.”
“I’m a random element, something unexpected. You always work alone; they would never expect you to have a backup. Don’t do this to me. I’m not like Allie and Laura; I can’t pretend my life away, even for a short time. I’m too worried about you, it wouldn’t hold, you said yourself if I didn’t believe in it, the illusion couldn’t hold up for long. Evan, you’re the best thing that ever happened in my life. I can’t let you walk away from me.” David was clutching both of Evan’s hands now, and he knew he was coming off desperate, but he didn’t care.
“David…” Evan raised his fingers, brushing David’s hair back from his face. “If I lost you. If I did something that caused you to be hurt…”
“Please, Ev. Leaving me here would hurt me. If you care for me, please, don’t do this to me. Don’t take my memories away; don’t leave me here in this place.”
♫Won't forget, can't regret, what I did for love. ♪
Why was he allowing David to sway him? This was the plan. Everything had been discussed and decided, everyone would be safer if they were tucked away. But the thought of leaving David here, of possibly stranding him in this reality forever made something deep inside Lor’s gut twist and hurt.
“Let me help. Teach me something, give me something to do. Change the plan, Lor.”
David never called him by his real name; he was always Ev or Evan to David. “Change the plan?” Did David understand what he was asking? It would be going against his nature to suddenly up and change a plan midway through the undertaking. He was Order. It wasn’t done. He started to shake his head, rebelling against the idea.
“You aren’t what you were, Lor. You’re more than what you were before. Take what Laru gave you and use it. What does it mean to have the power of Order with the unpredictability of Chaos behind it? Stop thinking the way you always thought, you aren’t that being now, not while you have all of this stuff inside you.” David had a hand spread on Evan’s chest now as he looked up at him with a pleading expression.
“I can’t risk you.”
David huffed out a breath, “I’m asking for this. I’m offering. I can’t go back without you, I don’t want to stay here, so that leaves only going with you.”
He should wipe David’s memory and go, now. Stick to the plan and keep David safe.
He raised a hand and cupped David’s cheek. David was the first person in centuries to know what Lor was, and the first to have accepted him for it and the only one that had stood by him when everything went to hell. Granted, he had not offered Allie or Laru much choice in the matter, nor had he offered one to David, he realized. He had designed the plan, dictated it to everyone and enacted it.
“I love you, David; I can’t ask this of you,” Lor whispered, one last protest.
His botanist smiled as he saw Lor’s determination crumble. “Idiot. I love you too, that’s why I’m offering.”
“We could both end up dead.”
“And we could both end up alive,” David countered.
Lor smiled and conceded, “Fair point. Come on then.” Lor held out his hand. “”If we both end up dead, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The End
of David’s Broadway Dreams, anyway