Boy/Boy Problems

Trying and failing to act casual.

For Teddy Los Angles meant work more than anything else, which was usually fine because Teddy loved working. Sure there were aspects on the business side that were a little colder and more calculated than he would have liked but generally Teddy preferred to be working than anything. Still LA was a difficult place for Teddy and not his first choice to spend his down time in because he never really got a break when it was in this city.

Part of Teddy's job was to play a role. He had to be the Teddy King that had been cleared out, cleaned up and presented perfectly packaged to the world. Luckily the 'Teddy King' persona wasn't very far from his own personality, some aspects were exaggerated and others were down played but it was mostly just him. Still it was exhausting maintaining control and when he was in LA never really got the chance to let go because in LA he was always Teddy King, never just Teddy.

Teddy didn't love LA, but he didn't hate it either. The perks that celebrity offered were beyond anything anywhere else and as much as he wasn't supposed to admit it Teddy loved the attention that LA afforded him. He liked rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous, he liked being seen in places everyone wanted to be seen, he actually liked playing the game for the most part. But he could only do it for a short amount of time before it drained him and he had to head back to Sydney, or even out on the road for a recharge. He couldn't live in LA full time, not like Luke did.

Luke, as with everything in Teddy's life, was probably the most complicated aspect of Teddy's relationship with LA. Because part of him, no matter how irrational that part was, blamed the city for stealing Luke away from him.

When Luke told Teddy he was moving out of the apartment they shared and half way around the world it felt like it came out of nowhere. It made sense in hindsight, Luke's first big blockbuster wrapped shooting and he needed to go where the work was. Every Australian actor made the move eventually. Some of them, like Luke, genuinely loved the city and wanted to live there. Others moved in the hope that one day they'd be successful enough to move back to the ass end of the earth without it having a profound effect on their career. Either way Teddy should have seen Luke's move coming, but he didn't. For him it felt like Luke went to LA one day and just never come home. He might never forgive the city for that.

The first few days after Teddy got off the plane were crowded with money men. The creepy old guys that were in charge of Teddy's past, present, and future. They made homophonic comments while at the same time leering at Teddy in a way that complicated their words and at the same time made them more threatening. Teddy smiled and played the part they'd built for him. He was there to lend legitimacy to Rah's arguments because in an incredibly mundane reality, the money men were just as impressed by celebrity as anyone else. They often over looked Rah, but she was too good at her job and every time Teddy watched her work he thanked his forethought at picking her as his advocate when he was seventeen and in way over his head.

Teddy always remembered the first time he saw her, she was working as an assistant at the management company he'd been recommended by someone he didn't know. That, in itself had been Teddy's first mistake and Rah had told him so, when she'd followed him into the bathroom after he excused himself for a private panic. She followed him into the mens bathroom to yell at him and she hadn't left his side since. She'd been this brown skinned queer woman that swore more than anyone he'd ever met and she was the first person since he'd been plucked from his obscure youtube channel and dragged into the music industry that had spoken using straight forward, clear language. He'd ended up signing with the company, but only if he got Rah. Because they were both young, and both building their career together at the same time, there had been more than a few teething problems but it was worth it. Some people said that Rah would not have a career without Teddy but the truth was there would be no Teddy King without Rah, so he was happy to lend a hand in any way he could.