the thrill of first love ♔

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c × a

"It's like tech week all over again," Andrew stated, repeatedly throwing punches at the Nancy Reagan punching bag.

Brandon dropped the block he was holding and sat on it. "Tell me about it."

"Minus the drinking, though. Too bad Borle started to bring his booze collection back home."

"You guys drink a lot." Anthony said, fiddling with his 'Walkerman' prop.

"Yeah. You should join us when you're a little bit older."

"Christian," Stephanie warned, watching Tracie hit him on the shoulder. He raised his hands up in surrender.

"This is why I don't have kids."

"Guys, I know we have a schedule to follow but Spencer wants to run through A Day in Falsettoland for a bit. Fix the choreo or something." James announced, using the microphone that was turned on. "We'll do it in a few."

He received nods from the cast on stage.

"I'm kind of glad that we get to be filmed. At least the people who didn't see our Broadway run will get to see it in theaters." Betsy said as she helped in moving the blocks aside, watching the markers on the floor.

Tracie agreed. "Yeah. Hopefully I'll remember the new blockings though."

"You? Forgetting the blockings? Just watch me forget to watch my profanity." Christian scoffed, handing Andrew one of the racquets he was holding.

Andrew bounced the net of the racquet against the shorter man's head. "Just make the best of all the 'bitch' we say, then."

Christian laughed as he walked over to Brandon who was fixing his mic pack. "I can't do it, Brand."

"What?"

"I know that I said I'd ask him out. But I just can't. I always end up chickening out and walking away."

Brandon groaned. "Since when was the Christian Borle Nervous?"

"Nervous? I'm not nervous."

He wasn't in his mind anyway. He's never been nervous? Even at his Broadway debut, when he proposed to Sutton, when he auditioned for his first musical... never!

"You're in denial."

"No I'm not. I really am not nervous."

"Then go. Before I start the scene. I'll be watching."

Christian's eyes widened and Brandon smirked. I got him there, the Jewish man thought.

But the blue-eyed man didn't back down from anything either, so he turned on his heel and proceeded to casually walk to where Andrew was sitting. There was definitely no sweat dampening his face.

"You know, Chris, I typed out something cool earlier because I saw some video about it. You wanna hear it?" The man in the black hoodie asked, his eyes not straying away from his phone. Andrew knew that Christian was the one who sat beside him.

"Um, sure." Christian shrugged and crossed his arms.

"You can make your own versions of it. The one I made is called Bard vs. Marv."

The man in the black sweater narrowed his eyes at Andrew. "What's that supposed to mean
..?"

"I have here some lines from Something Rotten! and Falsettos and all you have to do is identify which is which. Fast."

A game Christian's never played before. He was intrigued. "Wow, okay. Go ahead."

Looking up at stage right, Brandon was looking at him like