#ask frani

I LITERALLY SPENT ALL DAY AT WORK THINKING ABOUT THIS AU THANKS FOR ASKING

a well known lyricist & composer discovers davey’s writing (davey writes the most brilliant adaptions & original stuff for regional theatre) and begs him to work together on something she wants to get to broadway 

davey is confused bc did he just hear his name and broadway in the same sentence. 

by the time it’s ready they have producers & a team of creatives who the get sent the script to begin designing and casting 

davey assumes he’s pretty much done w involvement unless they need some rewrites but then a producer is like “yo the set designer wants to see u”

this is where davey meets jack kelly. this young guy about his age who shows up to their meeting in a cafe w paint stained jeans and graphite on his hands. they introduce themselves & chat a bit about the musical then jack brings out his tablet and shows davey his designs 

“is this how you imagined it?”

davey will never say so but he pretty much fell in love w jack kelly then and there because no one has ever asked him that question before when visualising anything he’s written 

it’s beautiful. the detail and thought jack has put in honestly makes davey want to cry

(sure enough weeks later he sees jack’s copy of the script which is meticulously annotated with highlighters & sticky notes all colour coded)

jack insists they exchange contact info and he texts davey whenever he’s stuck on visualising something or has too many options 

“shouldn’t you ask the director this?”“still want your opinion first” 

they fast become friends and by the time opening night off-broadway comes around they’re pretty much best friends and drunk jack at the after party won’t stop talking about how he wants to work with davey again bc everything davey writes is “just so beautiful guys are you listening”

off-broadway goes really well; the show has criticisms but fact is audiences LOVE it and it’s not too challenging for the producers to get a broadway theatre after that 

jack & davey have been working on other stuff and still catch up occasionally but the director brings them both back bc stuff needs to be changed for the broadway run 

jack is helping davey change some dialogue when he asks davey out. the convo literally goes like this:“we should go on a date sometime”“jack these characters are siblings”“no davey, i mean us”“oh… i’d like that”

and thus broadway’s power couple emerges 

they “announce” their relationship when jack posts a silly selfie on insta of him kissing davey’s cheek on opening night on broadway and adds some cheesy caption like “so glad this project brought me to you” 

broadway.com loves them

alright so these two earn broadway’s fave couple title for a reason

like Jack’s instagram is mainly of art and sketches and pretty pictures of new york but occasionally there’s a picture of him and davey seeing a musical or davey on the sofa with his laptop and glasses slipping of his nose and jack is like “!!! look at my boyfriend!!! hard at work!!!” 

like i said before u know all the broadway websites eat this shit up

davey always gets questions like “oh are any of the characters based on people you know in real life?” (obvs hinting at Jack) and davey is just like “jack doesn’t need the ego boost”

their schedules are pretty insane like broadway and theatre is never a stable job so Jack’s always got like 3 design pitches going at once while helping with a bump in for something else and Davey’s working on scripts while doing press interviews while teaching writing workshops and these two can go like a solid week without seeing each other. 

free weekends are the biggest blessing ever and they stay in their pajamas and watch netflix and jack starts a “how not to bake with jack and davey” series of instagram stories (jack is the biggest musical nerd and always insists on baking musical-themed stuff)

please consider jack and davey in their pajamas making breakfast and singing showtunes at the top of their lungs

no matter how used to the broadway scene they get they absolutely never get over the whole star-struck stage 

davey will come home and be like “jack!!! guess! who! i! talked! to! today!” and they’ll freak out together

“Tie or no tie?”

Jack held the grey tie against his chest, looking in the mirror. Davey watched him from spot sitting on Jack’s bed, and snorted.

“Now I know why I’m here, you seem to be incapable of making a decision on your own.”

“I can make decisions!” Jack replied indignantly. He discarded the tie and undid the top button of his shirt. “There!” He did a little twirl for Davey.

“You scrub up well, Kelly.”

“Yeah? You’re not so bad yourself,” Jack sat down next to Davey and pulled him in for a kiss.

Davey allowed one and then pulled away. “Nuh-uh, you’re not going to mess us all up when Lillian and Mark could be here any minute.”

“We’ve got time…”

Davey’s phone buzzed. “No we don’t,” he laughed.

do I ever:

jack and davey meet half way through junior year of high school when davey moves to the newsies’ school

they meet in math class and bond of the fact they both hate the subject despite being reasonably good at it (listen jack is an art nerd & davey is a english nerd neither of them got time for maths)

there’s a lot of pining and friend interventions involved but eventually they do get together

they’re not big on pda but literally everyone knows what’s happened when they show up to lunch and davey has paint on his jeans AND in his hair. davey does not do art. 

they both adore the stars. jack thinks galaxies are beautiful and always wants to paint or draw them. they lie on davey’s apartment building rooftop and davey teaches him all about the stars they can see. 

they go on a roadtrip the summer after high school graduation to where they can actually see the sky and it’s the most beautiful thing ever. 

the first year of college is hard because they’re suddenly seeing each other and their friends a whole lot less in person, which is a change difficult to get used to. 

but then davey shyly brings up the idea of moving in and jack thinks it’s the best idea ever

jack and davey’s apartment is aesthetic okay davey has his neatly arranged bookshelf and jack makes sure the colour scheme of the place is calm and relaxing and there’s cute lil house plants everywhere. 

no you’re not a bother at all!!