Tess O-Meter -- Green.
You can dip in and out of this unexpected series, but for a richer read and character development they are best when read in the order of writing.
Therefore, I would suggest, if you enjoy this, then go back to the beginning.
Correct order is, Broadway Lust Story, Broadway Love Story, Broadway Luck Story, Broadway Beginnings, Broadway Bust, Broadway to Vegas, Broadway Betrayal, Broadway Battle, Broadway Break, Broadway Threat, Broadway Baby, Broadway Darling, and Broadway Moves.
-X
Tony shifted restlessly. He felt breathless. Agitated.
Something was wrong.
Something was, "Shit, Ty!"
Ty pulled his nose from where he had been nuzzling Tony's balls, in-between long wet licks of his cock, and looked up. His expression innocently curious. "Yes, my love?"
"Ha!" Tony half laughed, half sobbed out a breath. His cock was throbbing and leaking. "How long you've been down there?" he slurred, slightly incoherently.
"Long enough I was wondering if you were ever gonna wake up," Ty grumbled, before lowering his head again.
"Whoa." It was a gasp, Tony's hips jerking up from the bed, as he clutched the sheets in his fists.
Still slightly disorientated he laughed and flooded down Ty's throat. Laughing harder at the exaggerated 'Hmmmm, Hmmmm, Yummy, Munchy' noises that Ty was making.
"Christ, you're such a clown," he confirmed on a long shaky breath.
Ty grinned and nuzzled until Tony was squirming, and then kissed his way back up tight abs and damp skin until he finally reached Tony's sleepy smile.
"Hi."
"Good morning beautiful husband. Thanks for the wake up call."
"You're very welcome. I need coffee now though. Up you get, lazy bones."
As Ty's hair was still slightly damp, Tony knew he had already showered. He rolled to look at the clock and swore, staggering out of bed. "Damn it, you let me sleep too long."
"We've got time. Shower. I'm making pancakes."
Tony paused as he entered the bathroom. Wake up blow job and pancakes. 'And it's not even my birthday' he thought as he went, whistling, into the shower.
Fifteen minutes later, hair dripping, he kissed Ty then slid onto a stool and attacked his pancakes. "Weeliegoobe," he muttered.
Ty shovelled in the last of his pancake, and rolling his eyes, went and fetched a towel. Rubbing Tony's hair dry as he ate, pausing only to let him deliver another mouthful.
"What time are we meeting them?" Tony asked when he finished. Referring to their friends who were moving apartments today.
"Nine-thirty. We'll have to go in five minutes," Ty confirmed. "You okay?" he asked as Tony yawned.
"Hmm? Yea, just a little tired."
Tony grabbed his phone and then they left. Walking under fifteen minutes to the new apartment, holding hands all the way.
Ty felt that he had hardly seen Tony the past two weeks.
Since the Tony Awards, it had been non-stop interviews and TV appearances.
Last night he had gone to Frank's apartment to watch Tony and Randall appear live in a late night chat show.
Tony had spoken eloquently about how honoured he felt to be able to bring his character's, Jackson, story to life. And they both talked about their meetings with Jackson's daughter and grandson (who had written the show's book and developed it with their director MC), and being allowed read the original diaries which had prompted the show.
Jackson Derby had nearly been a huge Hollywood star, but at the age of thirty-four, in 1960, having been in the movies since the age of nineteen. Dancing and/or acting his way through over fifty movies.
Always the best friend, the hoodlum, the background character. Or often, doubling for the lead, as Jackson was an outstanding dancer.
While filming his last movie at an old ranch, miles from California, he had attempted to take his own life. Which was the sad and poignant starting point to the show.
As his diaries revealed, it wasn't so much the lack of recognition. It was more that after fifteen years stuck in the studio system. A closeted gay man. At the mercy of the studio executives, directors, and more successful actors who knew he couldn't speak out.
Jackson had suffered years of abuse, repeated coercion, rape, enforced drug use, addiction and blackmail.
He had quite simply reached breaking point.
A man with immense talent, who should have been a major star, had been used up and spat out by the system.
Jackson had been found by the ranches' owner, Clive Blackson. He was a decade older than Jackson. Having agreed to let the movie use his ranch for location, he had not been impressed by the Hollywood types, but had taken their money to support the ranch where he bred horses.
He had saved Jackson and hidden him away. The production had wrapped that night, the cast and crew partying into the early hours. When they left the next morning, Clive had told a producer that he had seen a man matching Jackson's description walking down the ranch road in the dead of night.
Hollywood had left, and had never asked after Jackson Derby again. He simply vanished and was forgotten.
However, as his brutally honest and clearsighted diaries revealed. Jackson had stayed on the ranch. He had recovered, beaten his addictions, healed in no small part due to working with the horses, and fallen in love with Clive.
The musical, exhausting for Tony, but fantastic visually, zipped back and forth between Jackson's film carer and later life. Juxtaposing his early trauma with his later happiness and taking the audience on a whirlwind of emotion.
He had a daughter from a failed marriage in his early twenties, and had reconnected with her in the 1980's. Passing away at the age of sixty-six in 1992.
Clive had passed the diaries to Jackson's daughter. When he passed in 2002, at the age of eighty-six, the ranch also passed to Jackson's daughter. They were very close, and Clive considered Jackson's family his own.
Twenty years later, she had passed the diaries to her son, a successful and well renowned journalist, who had been looking for new direction.
He had found it in his grandfather's untold story. The grime and dirt under the golden age of the Hollywood musical. A story of redemption, self-enlightenment, and love. He had taken his idea to MC, and together they brought in the talent they needed and developed 'Finding a Way'.
Randall had also spoken about the honesty in Jackson's writing and how he had enjoyed bringing to life the love that had grown between the beaten-down Californian dreamer and the grouchy, weatherworn rancher.
He said the innate kindness that Jackson had spoken about in Clive, is what had drawn him to the role. Plus the chance to create a role from scratch.
When the interviewer had asked how much getting the opportunity to work with Tony again had played into it. Randall had shrugged and commented, "Well, no job's perfect!" Making Tony fake cry and the other guest choke on their drink.
But Tony had looked tired and they had hardly seen each other. Ty was glad he had a couple of days off.
-X
Tony and Ty arrived just as Colton expertly backed the large hire-truck into their allocated space. Sliding between two cars already in place.
"Did you see my man's skills?" Pip gushed as he squeezed out of the door and rushed over for hello hugs.
Ty eyed the slender gap between the vehicles. "What you do? Lube the truck?"
Colton eased through the gap, grinning. "Got me. Trick of the trade."
After hugs all round they pulled open the back doors and sized up the various boxes, suitcases and furniture. An eclectic collection, that had grown over the past few years that Pip and Colton had been living together.
"How much of this is yours?" Ty asked Colton. Who pulled a sad face and pointed at a small box.
