Chapter Text
In the three months that Jesper had been working in the Hadestown cast, he had never once had a fully positive interaction with Wylan Hendricks. The closest they had come was the first day they met: Jesper had just been hired for his Broadway debut as a chorus member in Hadestown. He had wanted to make a good impression for his first day after rehearsals, but of course luck was never on his side, and he had been running late to the theater.
Blustered and anxious, he hadn’t been paying enough attention as he went to change and simply opened the first door he had found that was labeled “dressing room”. Of course, it had been the wrong one.
He flung the door open, moved to drop his bag off his back, but never made it further than the crook of his elbow when he looked up to see the most gorgeous man he had ever met standing a few feet away from him. His nervous energy was only made worse when he saw that this man was only partially dressed.
Wylan had stood before him, the tan pants of his Orpheus costume sitting on the back of a chair and his shirt still in his hands, having been about to pull it on when Jesper walked in. That left him in only a tight pair of black boxer briefs that covered only the most crucial parts of him.
Jesper knew he had spent too long staring at all of the pale skin on display in front of him, dotted all over with freckles as if the saints themselves had used his skin as a canvas for a myriad of constellations. He found himself wanting to use his fingers to trace lines between all of the dots he saw in front of him. He was only made aware of his staring when Wylan cleared his throat.
Jesper tore his eyes away from where they had been cataloging the trail of light hair making its way into the waistband of Wylan’s boxers and forced himself to look into his eyes, only to find himself captivated by the most brilliant blue eyes he had ever seen in his life. “Hi,” was all he managed to choke out.
Wylan, who had been staring at him in wide eyed shock when he first entered, softened his eyes and sported two distinct dimples as a small smile crossed his face at Jesper’s obvious staring. “Hi,” he said back, gathering himself far faster than Jesper was and pulling his shirt over his head. “Can I help you with something?”
Jesper watched him use his hands to fix his hair, which really just meant ruffling it slightly as he took a quick look in the mirror to make sure his curls looked properly tousled. “Yeah,” Jesper choked out, only a little louder than a whisper. “Yeah, sorry. I’m new. Just looking for my dressing room.”
Wylan had moved to the other side of the room, grabbing his pants from the back of the chair and giving Jesper a brief glimpse at the muscles in his thin, yet defined legs. “You’re the new guy in the chorus?” he asked, stepping into his pants and pulling them up. Jesper wished he would have left them off for just a little bit longer. Jesper watched him, more accurately, stared at him, as he tucked his shirt into his pants and pulled the suspenders up over his shoulders.
“Yeah,” Jesper said again, mentally kicking himself for not finding something new to say. “Just finished rehearsals yesterday. Excited to actually be in the show.”
Wylan picked up a red bandana as he gave Jesper a kind smile. Jesper wished he could have stayed in the light of that smile for the rest of eternity, bathing in its warm glow. “You’re a swing, right?” he asked. “I’m always impressed at people who manage to learn different parts at the same time.”
“Thank you.” He said, making sure to say something other than ‘yeah’. “Currently they’ve got me in the chorus, but I’m also ready to take over for Eurydice or Hermes, depending on what’s needed.”
“Three parts,” Wylan said softly, almost to himself as he tied the bandana around his neck. Then he looked up again, his mouth turned up on one side in a smirk with an eyebrow raised. “Very impressive indeed.”
Jesper was grateful for the dark shade of his skin in that moment as he felt his whole face grow hot and knew that if his skin was lighter, he would be a bright red right now. “Thank you,” he said again. “You’re actually very impressive yourself. I saw the show last week and your vocals are… well, very impressive.”
Jesper had struggled to find words to describe what it had actually been like to see Wylan perform the other night. “Otherworldly” and “angelic” felt a little too intimate to be saying to his new coworker he had only just met. In actuality, Jesper had been close to tears during Wylan’s rendition of ‘Wait for Me’ during act 1.
“I appreciate you saying that,” Wylan said, only now being flustered in a way he hadn’t been when Jesper walked in on him practically naked. He then glanced at a clock on the wall. “Kaz, the stage manager, likes to have a quick chat with the cast before a show,” Wylan told him. “Chat starts in five minutes. Better go get dressed.”
“Ah, yes,” Jesper said awkwardly, reaching up to play with the tight coils of hair at the nape of his neck. “You wouldn’t happen to know where my dressing room might be, would you?”
Wylan’s smiled again as he motioned with his head behind Jesper. “Chorus get changed just down the hall.” He then reached up and pointed at the door that Jesper still hadn’t thought to shut, “The doors are labeled.”
Jesper turned and silently admonished himself when he saw that right below the plaque that had said “Dressing Room” that caused him to open the door in the first place was another, slightly smaller plaque that read “Wylan Hendricks – Orpheus,”
“Right,” Jesper said, giving Wylan a sheepish grin. “Yes of course. Sorry about that. I can read. I’m not stupid.” He pulled his bag back over his shoulder, turned to leave, then quickly turned back again, offering his hand out. “Jesper Fahey.”
But something had changed. He didn’t know what he had said or why it had turned Wylan off so much, but the radiant smile he had been wearing only moments before had fallen, his face now etched with what could only be described as a scowl that Wylan was doing his absolute best to contain.
“Wylan,” he said, his voice as tense as his eyebrows that had furrowed into a look he would be wearing almost every other time he looked at Jesper in the future. He barely even glanced at Jesper’s outstretched hand before resolutely ignoring it as he turned around to finish getting ready. “You better go. Kaz won’t be happy that you’re late on your first day.”
And that had been the end to the most positive experience Jesper had had with Wylan Hendricks. He had spent the next couple of weeks doing his best to make up for whatever he had done – smiling at Wylan any time he caught his eye, preforming his absolute best in each show they had together, listening intently to whatever Wylan said whenever they happened to be hanging out in the same group – but never again was he blessed with that comforting smile Wylan had given him on that first day before he had managed to mess everything up somehow.
After a few weeks, Jesper gave up on trying to be civil and instead resigned himself to just staying out of Wylan’s way. That, however, didn’t last very long as he found himself enjoying trying to get under Wylan’s skin any chance he got: sometimes it was small things like making a face at Wylan when the two of them were on stage, but the audience couldn’t see Jesper, other times it was more medium annoyances like taking the laces out of Wylan’s sneakers when he had forgotten to tuck them away in his own dressing room.
Wylan, for his part, was never necessarily rude to Jesper, but he just ignored him. Even when they were in a group conversation, Wylan never acknowledged anything Jesper was saying, even making sure to avoid eye contact with him whenever it was Jesper’s turn to talk. The only times Wylan actually acknowledged Jesper, looked at him or spoke to him were when they were performing and it was required of their characters.
So that’s how they had worked together: Wylan ignoring him, Jesper doing his absolute best to annoy Wylan into some kind of reaction. Three months of that, with nothing changing.
That was, until Kuwei Yul-Bo got sick.
Jesper had been rushing to the theater, late yet again when he had gotten the call. “Five whole days?” Jesper found himself yelling into his phone, a bit too loudly if the few people passing by him on the street turning to give him a weird look were any indication. “You can’t just pop a painkiller and hop on the subway?”
Jesper could hear Kuwei’s exasperated sigh on the other line before he heard the other man speak. “Jesper, I have COVID, that’s not really something I should be exposing other people to.”
Jesper knew he was being unreasonable, but he ploughed on anyway. “You could just wear a mask?” he offered as he jumped over one of the slush puddles gathering in the crosswalk ever since the snow began a few hours ago.
“A mask?” Kuwei questioned. “I could wear a mask, while singing in a Broadway show?”
“Exactly. Maybe your version of Eurydice could be, I don’t know, immunocompromised? Worried about getting infections?” Despite the fact that Jesper had all of the blocking and lines memorized, he had yet to have to step in for Kuwei and play Eurydice. He knew he could do it, Ghezen, he wanted to do it, but that didn’t stop him from being nervous.
“Listen, Jesper,” Kuwei said, his tone placating, but also tired. “I know it’s not ideal, but this is actually serious, and I’m sure you’ll do fine tonight, taking over for Eurydice. If you don’t, worst case scenario, I’ll be back next week.”
He had just about made it to the theater, so Jesper pulled his hood a little tighter over his head as he passed some of the people already waiting in line, despite the fact that the show wasn’t due to start for over an hour. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right,” he said. “I’m mostly just teasing you.”
He heard Kuwei laugh on the other side of the line, which quickly devolved into a coughing fit. Jesper pulled the phone away from his ear slightly as if he was worried about catching the infection through the phone line. “Hopefully you’ve used up all your teasing on me, then.”
“Whatever could you possibly mean by that?” Jesper said, knowing damn well what Kuwei meant by that.
Kuwei sighed again, barely audible over the sound of Jesper kicking the snow off his boots as he entered through the stage door. “Come on, Jesper. You’ve spent the last two months needling Wylan every chance you get. You can’t give him one night off?”
“But it’s just so fun,” Jesper whined. He made his way further into the theater and down the stairs on the way to his dressing room. For the night he would be using Kuwei’s room, his costumes for the next week of performances already having been brought in by one of the stage hands earlier in the day.
“Jesper,” Kuwei warned.
“Fine, fine,” Jesper threw his stuff down on the chair in his (Kuwei’s) dressing room. “One night, that’s all I can promise.” He changes quickly, not wanting to be any later than he already is for their pre-show meeting. Eurydice had been a woman in the original myth, but their version of the show had made Eurydice non-binary. While Jesper would have been fine wearing the black slip the original character had worn, he did have to admit he was slightly more comfortable in his black jeans and t-shirt. He did appreciate that they kept the vest, coat and neckerchief as a part of the costume.
He was just about to tie his neckerchief around his neck before he remembered that was something he was meant to do on stage during the first act. He shoved the fabric back into the pocket of his backpack instead and burst out the door to the changing room, crashing directly into another body who seemed equally as eager.
“Woah,” Jesper said out of instinct. He reached forward and held the other person by the shoulders, steadying them from falling over and helping them to stand upright while they got their bearings. “Sorry about that.”
Then he saw who he had crashed into. Wylan’s eyes were wide with shock, then narrowed in recognition when he, too, realized who he had collided with. “Watch where you’re going,” he snapped. The crash had left the two of them standing toe to toe, so close that Jesper could feel Wylan’s breath on his neck as he spoke – Wylan being too short for his breath to reach his face.
Wylan looked so annoyed at who had crashed into him that he hadn’t seemed to register just how close they were standing. “Oh, it’s you,” Jesper said. “Actually, I’m not sorry then.”
Wylan scoffed and shook Jesper’s hands off of his shoulder, finally stepping back to give some space between the two of them and actually brushing the front of his apron down as if Jesper had gotten it dirty just by being in proximity to him. “Great way to start out your first night as a principal cast member,” Wylan muttered. “Doesn’t give me lots of hope you can hit your marks during the actual show.”
Jesper felt his temper flaring, and not even in the good natured way it usually did when he got into tiffs with Wylan. “Hey, you crashed into me too,” he defended. He shook his head, trying to physically dislodge the annoyance he was feeling and painted a cocky smile on, trying to lighten his own mood while further souring Wylans. “And let’s not fight tonight, sweetheart.” He reached one of his hands up and gently cupped Wylan’s cheek, his thumb brushing against his smooth skin. “We’re supposed to be madly in love, remember?”
Wylan jerked his head away and Jesper let his hand fall. “Orpheus and Eurydice are madly in love,” he said, then used his hands to motion between the two of them. “Wylan and Jesper can be whatever the hell they want.”
“But what if I want to be madly in love with you?” Jesper teased.
Wylan just narrowed his eyes, not responding either because he couldn’t think of anything else to say or because he determined it wasn’t worth it to keep arguing. “I’m going to the meeting. Come or don’t. I don’t care.”
Jesper bit his tongue to stop himself from making another joke – probably something about helping Wylan come. It was too easy of a joke to make anyway.
Instead he bowed dramatically and waved a hand out in the direction they were meant to be going. “Lead the way, my lord.”
“Shut up.” Wylan strode past him, halfway to stomping down the hall.
“Sorry, do you prefer my prince?” Despite being a good bit taller than Wylan, Jesper had to jog to keep up with him. “Ooo I’ve got it: princeling. You know, cause you’re so tiny.”
Wylan stopped short, whirling around to face Jesper and it took every bit of coordination that Jesper had in his body to stop from crashing into him again. Wylan opened his mouth to say something, but then clearly thought better of it. Instead, he scrunched his face up, held his hands out in front of him in fists and seemingly forced himself to breathe out, letting all the tension leave his body.
“Do me a favor?” he asked. “We’ve got a two show day today, and we’re not going to make it very far if we’re at each other’s throats the whole time.” He held his hand out to Jesper. “Truce, just for today?” Jesper stared at him for a moment. He was about to say something sarcastic when he saw how earnest Wylan actually seemed.
Jesper sighed and clasped Wylan’s hand, shaking it up and down gently. “Alright, truce.” He said. Wylan gave him a small smile, and it was that, the calm in his face that made it so Jesper couldn’t resist. “Little princeling.”
“Ghezen you are impossible!” Wylan whirled around, stalking away.
Jesper just laughed, about to call after him when someone spoke behind him.
“Why must you tease him so much?”
Jesper jumped, letting out an embarrassingly high yelp at being startled. “All saints, Inej, why do you always do that?” His friend had a habit of showing up somewhere without making a noise to alert anyone. Jesper was pretty sure he had lost a few years of his life from the heart attacks she had given him since they met.
Inej stood before him, already in her shiny silver suit to play Hermes, a soft smile on her face. “Why do you tease him like that?” she asked again.
Jesper shrugged. “It’s fun.”
Inej rolled her eyes and started walking, either expecting Jesper to follow behind her or not really caring if he did. “Can’t you leave him alone, just for today at least?” she asked when it was clear that Jesper had started to follow.
“But Inej,” Jesper whined dramatically. “Today is the perfect day to tease him! Especially on stage when he can’t very well react.”
Inej tutted at him as they began their way up the stairs. “You do realize you two are going to have to kiss tonight, right?” she questioned. “It wouldn’t do well for either of you to have to kiss someone who’s been annoying you since you met.”
“We’ll have to do that anyway,” Jesper muttered. He knew, on some level, that he and Wylan were going to kiss tonight. He had performed the show over a hundred times at this point, usually watching Wylan and Kuwei kiss at the climax of ‘All I’ve Ever Known’, but he hadn’t really processed the fact that tonight it would be him and Wylan.
If he was being completely honest with himself, he liked the idea. Ever since they first met, when Jesper had walked in on Wylan more than half naked, he had been attracted to him. Somehow, he still didn’t know how, he had messed up so badly that he knew he didn’t have a chance with the other man, but that didn’t stop him from wondering what it would feel like to take his face in his hands and kiss his soft lips.
Tonight he was going to find out.
It wouldn’t be a real kiss: not Jesper and Wylan kissing, but Eurydice and Orpheus. It wouldn’t be one filled with passion or even curiosity or any of the other situations Jesper would never have admitted to thinking about. Instead it would be clinical, literally a part of their jobs. Hell, it would probably be one of the most chaste kisses Jesper had ever experienced.
He was still going to enjoy it, though.
He was brought out of his thinking when Inej cleared her throat. He looked at his friend and saw her staring at him with a single eyebrow quirked up. They had arrived at the stage where their pre-show meeting would take place and found everyone else already seated and ready. “One day,” Inej said. “Can you give the boy one day of peace?”
Jesper sighed. His eyes instinctively found Wylan. He was sitting on one of the steps, laughing at something Nina was saying, her arms gesticulating wildly as she spoke. Jesper was too far away to hear either what she was saying or Wylan’s soft laugh, but he could imagine the sound. Wylan’s face was scrunched up, the small amount of his eyes that were visible sparkling with joy and a hand on his chest as if to steady himself while he laughed.
Wylan looked up at that moment. For the briefest of seconds, while their eyes met, Wylan still smiled. Jesper let himself pretend in that moment that the smile was actually meant for him: that Wylan would ever look at him with that much joy and affection.
It didn’t last long. Once Wylan realized who he was looking at, his expression hardened into a frown, his eyes narrowing.
Jesper sighed. “Fine,” he said, speaking to Inej, but keeping his eyes locked on Wylan. “I already promised Kuwei anyway. One day. I’ll be civil for one day.”
He held his hands up; palms open in surrender. Wylan’s furrowed brows somehow deepened, but his mouth softened a bit as if he was trying to figure out what Jesper meant. Jesper held his hands back even farther for a moment, hoping Wylan would get the picture.
A single, curt nod was all Jesper got in return, but that was enough for him. Nina swatted Wylan’s arm once she noticed her companion was no longer looking at her and Wylan quickly turned back, his smile returning as she continued her story.
Jesper went to take his seat next to Inej just as Kaz clapped his hands together to start their meeting. He didn’t realize, but Wylan ended up staring at him for the rest of the meeting.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
“So, how are you going to play Eurydice?” Jesper almost didn’t respond at first, hearing Wylan’s voice without an annoyed lilt to it and assuming he was talking to someone else. But when he looked up, he saw Wylan standing in front of him, hands on his hips and a scowl on his face like he would rather be talking to anyone else besides Jesper.
The pre-show meeting had been quick: just Kaz giving everyone some quick notes from the last show they had done and announcing that Jesper was going to be playing Eurydice for the next week while Kuwei was out on sick leave. The show was set to start in about an hour, and the front of house was going to start letting people enter the theater, so most of the performers had already left the stage.
“Are you talking to me?” Jesper asked, one eye brow quirked up in question.
Wylan rolled his eyes. “Yes, Jepser, I’m talking to you. I don’t know of anyone else playing Eurydice today.”
One question. Jesper thought to himself. One question and I’ve already annoyed him. “Sorry, it’s just, I think this is the first time you’ve ever started a conversation with me.” Wylan didn’t react. “Just couldn’t resist, huh?” At least that got Wylan to start tapping his foot.
“Are you going to answer my question?”
Jesper didn’t like how Wylan was both physically and metaphorically looking down on him, so he stood up. With his natural height advantage, Wylan had to tilt his head up slightly to look at him, but that didn’t knock the haughty expression off his face.
“Well, I was going to play them to the best of my ability,” Jesper said simply. He hadn’t been exactly sure what Wylan had meant by his question, but he knew, at least, that his response was going to annoy the other man more.
Sure enough, Wylan reached one of his hands up to rub at his temple and let out a small sigh. “No, I mean,” he stopped for a moment, removing his hand from his temple, but not looking at Jesper as he started to explain. “Some people have played them as hardened and aggressive, some as scared and timid, Kuwei plays them as a mix of both.” He was moving his hands as he spoke, gesturing for each of the different ways people had played the character. “I just wanted to know how you were interpreting them, so I can know how to play off you today.”
Jesper was tempted, oh so tempted, to make some kind of joke just to rile Wylan up a bit more, but he remembered his promise to both Kuwei and Inej. Plus, this was the first conversation the two of them had had that was even slightly neutral. It seemed like Wylan really was making an effort to be civil tonight so that they could do their best work.
“Oh,” Jesper said, trying to get his thoughts in order. “Well, I guess I was going to go for someone a little jaded, but still playful” he finally concluded. “You know, angry at the word, convinced nothing is ever going to go right, but still trying to have fun with what life throws at them.”
He braced himself, waiting for Wylan to take that some sort of way or tell him his interpretation of the character was wrong and give him directions on how to do his job, but Wylan was nodding along, the scowl having lessened a little as he thought on Jesper’s words. “And what’s their attitude towards Orpheus?” he asked. “How do they react to his comparative naivety and him coming on to them?”
“Well, they’re going to have fun with it,” Jesper said. “They see Orpheus as someone else in life to play with.” Jesper couldn’t resist anymore. He stepped forward, into Wylan’s space so that the toes of their boots touched and Wylan had to lean back slightly both to look Jesper in the eye and not be so close their noses would have touched. “They like to tease him, try to get a reaction.”
To his credit, Wylan stood his ground, staring up at Jesper was as neutral an expression as he could manage. Jesper continued.
“But of course it’s all a cover. The teasing is just them trying to hide how they’re falling madly in love with Orpheus.” He reached a hand up and hovered around Wylan’s face. As lightly as he could manage, Jesper let the tip of his finger rest against Wylan’s forehead and drag slowly down the side of his face, across his cheek and down the length of his jaw. Wylan’s skin was so soft, so smooth under Jesper’s finger that it took all of his self-control not to press down harder, to commit the feeling to memory.
That did not get the reaction Jesper had been expecting. He was trying to push Wylan, get him to give up this game of chicken Jesper had initiated and step back to give the both of them space, walking away in frustration. Instead, Wylan smirked at him. Once Jesper made it to his chin, Wylan even leaned forward again so he was standing up straight, pressing his face into Jesper’s finger. Then he did something so uniquely Wylan, bobbing his head so his face came just within an inch of Jesper’s.
Jesper had to be the one to pull back so that their faces didn’t touch. “So kind of like you?” Wylan whispered.
Jesper laughed, but it came as more of an exhalation of breath. They were so close that Jesper saw a few of Wylan’s curls sway in his breath. He rolled his eyes to try and cover how flustered he was. “I’m not in love with you, princeling,” he said. It came out a lot breathier than he had intended.
They were so close that Jesper hadn’t noticed Wylan reaching for him. Two fingers found their way under the coat of Jesper’s costume, hooking into the waistband of Jesper’s pants to pull him forward slightly, their hips knocking together. Jesper was pretty sure he stopped breathing.
“Of course not,” Wylan whispered. His thumb started to stroke ever so gently across Jesper’s hip bone under his shirt. They were so close now that if Wylan were to try looking in Jesper’s eyes, he would practically be cross eyed. It didn’t matter though, because he was resolutely looking at Jesper's lips. “You just mercilessly tease me for some other reason.”
He didn’t give Jesper any time to react before he stepped back and away from him, a devious smile showing that he was just oh so proud of himself. He turned around and started to leave, not before turning to give one last look at Jesper over his shoulder and fucking giggled.
Well fuck. Jesper thought. Today’s game just got a lot more interesting.