#para:js

“Needs a little work my ass,” Xavier mumbled as his mind reeled from the talk he’d had with the musical director, Emma Pilsbury. She’d took him aside on the day of their practice run through before their four big weekend performances and critiqued him. Sh told the man that his performance was great, but a certain scene in the show he needed to possibly dial it back a little because with all of the emotion that he was giving, it was hard for him to transition into singing which made it hard to understand what he was singing as his voice was so full of emotion. Xavier rolled his eyes with a sigh. He was well aware of why the emotions ran rampant within him. Auditioning for this musical, he never thought about the fact that Mimi for a few minutes or seconds dies and the characters wait in anticipation, with hopes uplifted and prayers on the tip of their tongues for the limp body to just twitch, move just a centimeter to give them an indication that she was alive.

That scene was too close to home for him. To watch his girlfriend lay there, pretending to be lifeless hit too close. It took him back in his mind’s eye to when he’d lived a moment such as this. During Lynnie’s heart procedure  months ago, he’d watched as doctor’s worked over the woman and then watched them scramble as the woman had flatlined for what seemed like an eternity. His heart had plummeted and his mind was a mess. Xavier’s body rigid and all he could do was pray for his girlfriend to return to  him and when she did it was agreed upon that no one would tell her and wreck her recovery or her psyche. But here he was being tested with this scene. She had to be wondering why he was so extra with this one scene. No matter how great of an actor he was, this one personal experience always seemed to break through. It always seemed to change him. After taking a deep breath, he went to find his girl, preparing to rehearse the scene until he could dial back a little.

Xavier thought over his conversation with his daughter, and he had not a single clue how he was going to bring it up to Lynnie. How did one broach the topic of marriage, joint adoption and the future. He hadn't even proposed yet, wasn't really sure if the two were ready to plan a wedding as they tried to focus on getting their careers up and running and kids...well, they certainly hadn't talked about kids. There were so many things that went into that particular discussion. He wasn't even sure where he stood on having more kids, but when his daughter felt insecure and she worried about whether she would be loved, if another child came into the picture, he had to bite the bullet and speak up.

Xavier had had a pretty busy day with classes and musical practice, which he ducked out of early to see Josie and to help Tam make some baked goods for Lynnie. He'd grabbed some of the stuff he planned to take with him - get well things for Lynnie like cupcakes, one of his favorite blankets with screen shots of vintage comic book covers on the front. He'd run to the store and grab her some soup, since he knew that they didn't have any at home. After packing his bag just in case he decided to stay with her more than one night, he heard tiny footsteps entering his room. Xavier turned to see his daughter holding up a tiger with the words 'get well soon' written on the shirt. "Here," she insisted. Xavier recognized the stuffed animal. He'd bought it for Josie when she'd taken a bad fall and gotten scraped up pretty bad. It wasn't really called for to have the stuffed animal, but well he was a sucker for trying to make his daughter smile.

Frowning he asked, "Are you sure, Corazonita? That's yours." The child shook her head pushing the animal toward him once more. "No it's Lynnie's now. She needs him. I'm not hurt." Her gaze traveled the short distance to scrapes long gone and showed him that she no longer had 'boo boos'. When he didn't take the tiger from her quick enough, she sat it on top of his bag. A chuckle left Xavier at her persistence. "Okay, mija, I got the memo. I'll make sure she gets it." A smile brightened the round faced little girl's features. "Promise?" She stuck up her pinky promise and it made him laugh and think of the woman he was about to go see. She too took her pinky promises seriously. Hooking his pinky with hers, he nodded. "Cross my heart, sweetheart. Daddy promises." Putting the duffel bag on his shoulder, he picked Josie up. "You ready for girls night with Mommy? What are yall gonna do?" he asked the child. She put a finger to her lips. "It's a secret. No boys." Walking with her back into the living room, he handed her off to Tam in the kitchen, where she was packing up the cupcakes with cute little crutches on half and get well soon on the other half in the batch. Giving Josie a parting kiss on the forehead and Tam one on the cheek, head headed to the store to get soup, pudding and dog treats for Snickers.

Sebastian closed his laptop and threw on a coat, today was stupidly windy in New York and he didn't want to be caught outside in a gale. Throwing his heavy grey coat onto his shoulders and pocketing his phone and wallet, he took the elevator down and outside his apartment. After hailing a cab and beginning the drive to NYU, Seb began to wonder what had been on Jeff's mind. It had been well over a week since their impromptu kiss and since then Jeff had spoken to Nick and been to a concert with the talented street singer, which Seb hadn't been invited too. Of course he was angry at that, not being invited to something always hurt, but he had been so busy with uni work that it would have been unlikely he could have gone anyway.

What did play on Seb's mind as the taxi rolled on slowly through the main street was why was Jeff now asking him to come over? What could be so urgent? Was Jeff about to confess his love? was that it? No surely not, there was no way that would happen. Sebastian knew the answer to Jeff's predicament was Nick, it was always the curly haired brunette. Today was no different. This was a courtesy call to say that Sebastian you have no chance, you need to move on.

He pushed his hair into a perfect quiff  and popped his collar before paying the taxi driver and getting out of the cab. Now it occurred to him that he had no idea where Jeff lived in this maze of a university. He pulled out his tone and fired off a text

Sebastian threw himself onto the couch, flopping down gleely with his plan. It was going to be a Warbler party at his place. He quickly fired off several more text messages to Jeff, before turning the TV on and waiting for his friends to arrive. He smiled to himself, without Santana home, they would be free to talk about whatever they wanted, how ever they wanted, no having to watch what he said in particular.

He flicked to the comedy channel and watch some Colbert Report, laughing at the presidential race jokes in particular. It was about time they all finally got together again, it had been ages since they had seen each other and Seb really was missing the masculine side of his life. Having Jeff and Nick in town would mean they could do all the things that they used to together.