Broadway to Vegas

"No time in Vegas," Ty grinned and pulled him towards the exit.

It was quieter in the pre-dawn chill outside. The doorman offered them a cab, but Ty indicated a rundown car just pulling over. "I think that's our ride."

"Good Lord. Get it out of here," the doorman pleaded, but he was smiling and wished them a good morning.

Tony saw Martin, the band's keyboard player waving from the car, "Hey. Good morning."

He peered curiously at Tony, "How much sleep did you get? You look exhausted."

"Not enough," Tony admitted.

"About three hours," Ty confirmed, "But we'll take a rest this afternoon."

"Take the back, Tony," Martin advised. "You can grab another half hour now."

Tony crawled onto the back seat and gratefully slid back into sleep as they drove away from the bright lights of the strip and towards the edge of town.

It was the road becoming rougher and the car stopping that woke him. Glancing at his watch he saw they had been driving about forty minutes and as he stumbled from the car, disentangling his legs from Ty's jacket, he saw it wasn't quite dark anymore.

"Thanks," he said absently, handing Ty back his jacket, as he stared around. It was eerily quiet and completely remote. Everything looked grey in the half light.

"Where are we?"

"I'll tell you later," Martin said mysteriously. "Don't want to give away the surprise." He handed them both water and then unlocked a small metal box that was welded into his trunk.

Ty and Tony were both shocked to see him pull out a belt and holster that he wrapped around his waist.

"Is a gun a necessary running aid in Nevada?" Ty asked.

"It is since I came face to face with a cougar on the trail," Martin said with a grin at their stunned expressions.

He pulled the gun out. "I've seen a cat once, and that was nearly a decade ago, but I'm not going to deny, the shorts came back dirty that day!"

He laughed with them. "This gun is lightweight, but noisy. Noise is what I wanted. In the highly unlikely situation that we come into contact with a cat and that I am not able to plan our retreat, you take the safety off like this," he showed them the stiff safety switch.

"It's point and shoot like the movies. First shot in the air. The cougar will run, unless it's unable."

He looked at them, "Either of you held or fired a gun before?" They both shook their heads. "So you grip in both hands, aim centre mass and fire while counting. One to nine. If the cat hasn't stopped by then, it's probably already chewed your arm off." They both grinned nervously.

"At this point you have three shots left. Assuming the cat is down you get as close as you safely can and you fire two into the chest and one into the head." He rubbed Tony's arm as he looked upset. "You don't want an injured cat crawling away to die slowly, or becoming a danger to others. It's only sick or injured cats we need to worry about. Healthy cats won't get anywhere near us."

He made the gun safe and holstered it as Ty asked, "We're not likely to need this knowledge though are we?"

"Nah, it's just my boy scout training."

They started up a rough track. Warming up slowly and taking care where they placed their feet. Speeding up when they hit a smoother path.

Tony's lungs were burning after twenty minutes, but he admitted there was something beautiful about the landscape, barren as it was.

Suddenly, as the track started to dip, the sun came over the horizon and Tony stumbled to a halt, blinded. He threw up his hands trying to shield his eyes, "Jesus."

"Here," a ball cap was slapped on his head and when he squinted he saw Ty holding out his sunglasses.

"Thanks."

Ty then gripped his shoulders and turned him. Tony's mouth dropped open.

The mountain was lit up in flaming reds and golds. Shining colours that only nature can create.

"Holy Shit!"

"Wow, Martin. That's beautiful," Ty said.

"Welcome to Sunrise mountain," Martin grinned. "We got a good one today."

They stood for a while, feeling the sun warm on their backs as it climbed higher. Watching the mountain which seemed to breathe before them.

"It makes me think of fire, and dragons, and something," Tony paused, his voice awed. "Something so much bigger than us."

"Power," Martin stated. "It's makes me think of power. Nature, not that bullshit power than man throws around."

He turned and indicated Ty who had moved a short distance away, and was stood facing the sun, his eyes closed, lips moving.

"What's he doing?"

"I think he's praying," Tony said quietly.

Martin tipped his head, "That's not English?"

Tony smiled, "Not that kind of praying. Ty's Lakota. Well, half. His grandfather is very spiritual. I forget living in New York, but Ty's a lot like him."

Martin smiled softly. "That's as beautiful as this mountain," he said.

Tony's smile widened. They turned away slightly to give Ty his space. Continuing to watch the light show over the harsh rocks.

"Something else, right?" Ty said, coming up behind them.

"It's amazing. Thank you. And thank you, Martin."

"I love sharing it," Martin admitted. Then grinned when Tony's stomach rumbled. "Yea, back to the car."

The track was a loop and they ran back down to the car with the light now blazing in front of them.

Winded and exhilarated by the time they reached the road.

Martin handed them fresh water and towels and secured the gun, before they pulled away.

Tony sipped the water slowly, feeling nauseous from hunger and hoping he wouldn't embarrass himself before they reached the city, which was currently spread before them like a map.

Less than ten minutes later they swung off the road and into the car park of a diner. Pulling up next to a couple that Tony recognized from the band.

"Hey guys," Martin smiled as they got out. "Didn't see you on the track today."

"We walked the other way. Morning Ty. Tony."

They entered the diner to be greeted by a waitress who looked like the only reason she didn't have a cigarette hanging out of her mouth was because she had been fined one time too many.

She grabbed two coffee pots and reached the table as Ty, the last to sit, settled in.

"Morning Lou."

"Hey Martin." She filled their cups and then set the spare pot of coffee on a warmer in the middle of the table. Looking at Tony and Ty she added, "Oh. Fresh meat."

Tony snorted into his coffee as the rest laughed.

"Tony. Ty. This is Lou. This is basically her place. Lou this is Ty, he's the club's new chorographer, but mostly based out of New York. And Tony is doing a guest spot tonight."

"It's good to meet you, Lou. This is great coffee," Tony said. Ty nodded, already reaching for a refill.

"I'll put another pot on," she smiled and moved away as a younger waitress approached with butters, jellies, and spreads, along with a large jug of orange juice.

"Hey, Karen. How are the driving lessons going?"

The waitress grimaced. "Mom's taking me out now. Dad's refusing to get in the car with me." She caught Ty's eye and blushed prettily.

Ty flashed her his most charming smile, and then felt bad when she dropped her pad. Tony subtly pinched his thigh.

"Opps, sorry. Do you know what you want?"

Bill, the drummer looked at Tony and Ty. "You guys got any allergies, intolerances or anything weird like vegetarian." They both grinned and shook their heads.

"Five cardiacs then please, Karen."

"How'd you want your eggs?"

"Over-easy?" Bill glanced around the table. "Yea, over-easy all round."

Karen smiled, glanced again at Ty and still flushed moved away, passing Lou who was coming back with enough toast to feed a platoon.

"This'll get you started, fill the holes in those manly bellies. And yours, sweetie," she added with a wink to Suzie (Bass), who laughed and grabbed a slice.

Tony was already spreading butter. He was famished.

"Why was Karen blushing?" Lou asked.

"She liked the look of Ty," Martin managed around a mouthful of toast.

She raised an eyebrow at Ty who tried to look innocent. "Well, try and rein your hormones in. Her boyfriend could break you in half."

"Really?" Ty scoffed. I mean, at 6ft 2 and athletic he was no pushover.

"Here he comes now," Lou told him and nodded out the window. They all looked out and Ty's jaw dropped.

The man heading across the parking lot must have been 6ft 8 and about three times Ty's weight. He looked like he could bench press the truck he had just climbed out of.

"Huh!" Ty managed, and then realized Lou was laughing at him. She flipped her pad on his head. "I'm kidding. Karen's guy weighs less than her, soaking wet."

The door opened and the giant came in, "Morning, Lou."

"Hey, Sweetie. Be right with you."

He nodded and headed to a table.

Ty turned to Tony. "You would have protected me, right, Honey?"

Lou laughed as Tony chewed his toast and shook his head doubtfully, eyeing the large truck driver, "Nah, I don't think so."

A few minutes later, both waitresses came over with five plates, piled high with pancakes, berries, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, hash browns, mushrooms, beans, and sausages.

They all started squabbling over the maple syrup and ketchup.

Ty filled a fork and eyed it. "I can see why you refer to this as a cardiac. I can feel my arteries narrowing down already."

Lou, who had come back with yet more toast, laughed and ruffled his hair this time. As she was around the same age as his grandmother, Ty let her and just grinned.

"We come once a week" Suzie admitted. "It's payback for the early morning hike."

Ty looked at Tony, who just mumbled, "It's really good," around bulging cheeks.

Unbelievably, it was still not quite 11am when Martin dropped them back at the hotel.

Ty reassuring Tony in the elevator that sleep was the best thing this afternoon and they would have plenty of other occasions to do more in Vegas on later trips.

Indeed, Tony was flagging by the time they reach the room.

He stopped in horror as they entered. "The bed's been changed."

"Yea. It's called room service," Ty said, puzzled.

Tony ran into the bathroom and back out looking horrified, "The towels have gone."

"Good," Ty watched as Tony looked out into the corridor and then rushed back in, going to the safe and pulling out his wallet.

"What's wrong with you?"

"I'm so embarrassed. The state of those sheets, and Urghh."

"I think you'll find they've seen worse."

"Not the point," Tony claimed, pulling a fifty from his wallet and heading into the corridor.

Ty stood intrigued and watched him approach an open door with a trolley outside.

"Oh, Hi. Sorry. Did you clean room 1411?"

"Si, Senor," the maid appeared in the doorway. "Is there a problem?"

"No, no. I just wanted to, er, give you this." Tony handed her the money. "Thank you, and I'm so sorry." He walked away quickly and flushing red brushed past Ty into the room with a whispered, "Shut up!"

Ty and the maid grinned at each. She was clearly amused.

"Gracias, Señorita." Ty called.

"De nada."

Tony was already rolled into the covers and Ty just stripped, climbed in and pressed the remote to lower the light into a relaxing gloom.

He tugged some cover free for himself and kissed Tony's nose. "You're adorable."

Tony just wrinkled his nose before pressing it into Ty's neck.

-X

11pm and Ty perched on a bar stool for Tony's second performance. The first had been incredible. Tony coming up to him afterwards with wide eyes and shaking a little, "Was it okay?"

"No," Ty had replied before kissing him, "It was amazing. The clue is in the standing ovations."

Tony had then spent an hour and a half signing autographs, grinning in selfies, and chatting with audiences from both the early and late shows, before Milo and Ty could get him away for some food and a break.

Still, most of the 11pm crowd had already gotten their moment with Tony.

The lights dimmed and the room hushed. The stage was dark. Although the band was visible, stage left.

Tony's beautiful voice came out of the dark, unaccompanied. "Close every door to me, hide all the world from me."

The music gradually kicked in and the lights slowly came up, revealing Tony. Suited up, looking handsome as hell and like the loneliest man on earth.

Both Engagement clubs were intimate spaces, and even from the bar Ty could feel the anguish and pain pouring from him. The deliberately shaky breath before, "If my life were important-" and the fear in his eyes.

Ty glanced around and saw many audience members with tears in their eyes. Including most of Engagement's usual cast who were perched along the bar with him, Milo and Kevin.

This had actually been a challenging number to do in a small performance like this, as the middle of the song has a lyric free, climbing, rising centre which is usually performed by a choir of kids, basically 'lalala-ing' to make 'Joseph' feel less alone.

But Tony's 'Joseph' was very alone and they had no gang of kids.

The solution had been Martin's brainwave and, as it had in the first show, it took the audience's breath away.

A loan violinist (Martin's wife, Carrie) appeared from the dark stage. Recreating the motion of the sound with her violin and sending it soaring, as she and 'Joseph' circled, their eyes locked. She looked like an angel, dressed in shimmering, floating black.

You could practically see the hope and strength pouring into 'Joseph' until, as the exciting whine of the electric guitar took up the final cords and the song morphed into pure rock, he swung back to the audience, determination in his eyes. The angel fading back into the darkness.

No more an abandoned prisoner, this man was going to kick ass. The song climbed louder and louder, and a shiver ran down Ty's spine at the repeated, "Children of Israel, ARE NEVER ALONE." Which Tony belted with such power that people pressed back in their seats, and grinned with delight.

It had always bugged Ty that people only belted the final line of that song. Not Tony. Tony always belted from that point on, and it rocked.

When the final cords and echo of Tony's voice died away, the entire room jumped to their feet and went wild.

Tony should have been prepared after the earlier reaction, but he still looked slightly flummoxed. It was the cutest thing.

As the applause died down a little and people re-took their seats, Tony half waved a little awkwardly and leaned back into the mic.

"Wow, I'm getting such a great welcome tonight. Thanks so much. Hi, I'm Tony."

This led to another round of cheering and Ty grinned into his drink at Tony's bemusement.

He really had no idea that his simple, 'Hi, I'm Tony,' had the entire room falling just a little bit in love with him.

Tony then went into his brief spiel about how that song had been chosen for tonight as it was important to him being both his favourite audition number, and the first role he ever performed, aged fourteen in high school.

Tony was surprised when the audience started laughing, awwww-ing and cooing. That hadn't happened in the first show.

Of course it hadn't. Because the picture of Tony as 'Joseph' during high school hadn't been projected on to the screen at the back of the stage during the first show.

They had over a hundred people watching both shows. It couldn't be exactly the same.

Ty laughed in delight as Tony eventually glanced over his shoulder and saw the picture.

"Oh no," he said, blushing. "Oh Boy!" He laughed awkwardly and told the audience, "That wasn't there last time."

He glanced back again, "Jesus. I was so skinny. You should have seen the kid playing 'Pharaoh'. He was in the football team. Made me look about this big," he held his finger and thumb about a half inch apart.

Laughing with the crowd he unbuttoned his jacket and shook his head. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you introduce your boyfriend to your parents," he grinned.

-X

"Anyway," Tony continued, "When in Vegas."

The audience murmured in appreciation as the familiar (and very long) opening to Mr Bojangles started.

This had been another challenge.

You could hold a gun to Tony's head and he still would not be able to produce a whistle. Fingers in his mouth to hail a cab, no problem, but otherwise forget it.

Ty quite often teased Tony that his inability to whistle was a sign of terrible mouth and tongue control and resulted in horrible and sloppy blow jobs. Ty enjoyed teasing Tony this way because the result, every time, was that Tony would feel honour bound to prove him wrong.

Fun times.

Shit! Ty shifted on the stool uncomfortably. Why the hell did he have to start thinking about blow jobs? Now he was getting hard.

The problem was, the long introduction and the band master doing Tony's whistling for him, meant that Tony would just be standing there behind the mic stand looking like a dick. They had needed to think of a solution to that.

Cue, Miss Lola La-Sparkle -- stage right.

Lola was one of Milo's drag artists (although she preferred 'Drag Queen' and identified as female), who was cute as a button out of drag and downright beautiful when 'on'.

She was also very petite, so even in her eight inch glittery heels, she was a match to Tony's five-eleven, rather than towering over him which would have looked stupid.

Lola, instantly recognizable to most of the crowd, sashayed onto the stage, exchanging flirty looks with Tony who took the bowler hat she brought him. "Thank you very much," he told her in a sexy low tone.

In the earlier performance, Lola (who had been firmly instructed not to kiss Tony and leave lipstick all over his face), had given his butt a pat instead, which had not been in the rehearsal and made Tony giggle.

He tried to pull it back, but Lola paused and blew a kiss from the side of the stage, giving him such a blatant eye fucking that he completely lost it.

Standing with one hand on the mic stand, the other holding the hat, head down just laughing. The band, with an almost musical sigh, restarted the intro which made everyone laugh harder.

Tony took a breath, muttered "Sorry, guys," to the band then looked up at the room with a rueful, "I'm a professional, honestly."

It had been funny and unintentionally charming, but Milo and Ty had decided against trying to recreate it for the second show.

Thankfully this time Lola kept her hands to herself and Tony managed to stay on cue.

They hadn't created a character for this song. Ty just let Tony enjoy it.

It's a beautiful, sad song. Almost like a little journey.

Ty had given Tony just a little tap, and a little shuffle in a couple of places. Just enough to enhance the song. Deceptively simple, unless you knew dance. In which case it was clear how very talented Tony was.

As the song ended and the long exit began (the band master once again whistling for his super), Tony took the mic stand over to the edge of the stage. Slung his jacket over it, and tipped the hat at an angle.

Walking back to centre stage with just the microphone in his hand, the jacket and hat looked just like a bent, frail, thin old man. The light fading on it as the song ended.

It was surprisingly moving, and brought the audience again to their feet.

Tony shared a few words about how much he loved that song. And about his short time in Las Vegas. Choosing this evening to give the diner some free advertising. Earlier he had spoken about the sunrise run.

-X

"So, right now I'm doing a show in New York, 'Empty Nights'. Has anyone here been over to see us?" Tony shielded his eyes and peered out as a few people whooped and one lady yelled, "Four times!"

"Whoa. Four times? What are you like a mega-fan?" Tony called over.

The lady stood at the urging of her table and admitted, "I'm a huge Randall Wynter fan."

There was a scattering of laughter as she quickly sat back down, but she smiled with relief when Tony responded, "Oh Boy, me too. Randall's amazing."