Flame of Imagination, Ice of Reality (Ianthony One-Shot)

Flames of Imagination, Ice of Reality

It started by a chance run-in on set. 

Ian was a new actor who was relatively fresh to the game and had managed to score a fairly major role as the best friend of a main character in a brand new romance film. He really got lucky. The guy who originally got the role had decided to take part in a different movie, so they'd called Ian last minute to fill the role. Ian considered this to be his big chance to make it in the hard-hitting world of acting and film- and he was not going to fuck it up. 

But it was somewhat difficult to stay focused when you have a massive celebrity crush on your co-star. 

Anthony Padilla had been acting since he was in his very early teens, and it was hard to not know his name in this business. When Ian was figuring himself out, he found himself watching one of Anthony's movies and developing a weird sort of admiration for the guy. It wasn't all that strange really, they were around the same age and Anthony was a very attractive guy as well. 

It wasn't just his looks that made Ian so infatuated with him, it was his seemingly immaculate personality as well. He did a lot of interviews, and Ian liked to watch some of them. Anthony Padilla was one of the few celebrities who genuinely spoke out and cared about LGBT+ rights, and that just made Ian's heart go all warm when he heard Anthony's smooth voice speaking about something so passionately. 

Ian and Anthony had first met two years ago when they were both twenty-five. They were at some after party that Ian had tagged along to with his friend, Mari- and he nearly felt his breath get taken away when he saw Anthony Padilla out on the dance floor all drunk and sweaty. Most people being sweaty would be a massive turn-off, but Anthony could look good covered in blood and wearing a trash bag. They only talked for a brief few moments when Anthony came up to ask him where the bathroom was. It went something like this:

Anthony: "Hey, do you know where the bathroom is?"

Ian: "Yeah, through that door and to the left. It's where the big line is, I'm sure."

Anthony: *Laughs* "Okay, thanks dude." 

And that's that. Ian thinks it went something like that at least (that's a lie, he knows it went that way because he remembers every second). But at least they've spoken once, and Ian thinks he managed to not make an utter and complete fool of himself. 

Although, working to play Anthony's best friend who was the loyal sidekick doing his best to help his closest friend get the girl in the end was very different from speaking to him once at an after party. But Ian is an actor who's finally onto something big- and he isn't going to let a foolish little crush ruin that. 

~

The first day on set was two things: busy and nerve-racking. Ian was about two minutes from being late, and he really didn't want to make a bad first impression by making the castors think they'd chosen the wrong guy for the role. If you're not committed to the job then you shouldn't even try out. But Ian was committed, he just happened to run into a string of bad luck on this particular morning.

First his phone died during the night somehow, making his alarm not go off. Then he burnt his toast bad enough for his smoke alarm to go off, making him waste away several minutes making the damn thing stop deafening him. And, finally, he got stuck behind some stupid slow-walking guy wearing a hoodie while on the way here. He'd finally snapped after not being able to pass the guy for a bit. 

"For the love of God, please move out of the damn way!" Ian called, shoving past the guy accidentally roughly. "Sorry, in a rush!" He yelled over his shoulder to the guy donning a pair of sunglasses. But he made it on time to get changed before he had to have his makeup and hair done, which was much more important to him than being polite right now.