Todd Anderson was asleep, having fitful dreams about his boyfriend Neil, when a hand shook him by the shoulder.

"Todd, Todd wake up!" Todd opened his eyes and stared for a moment. Neil was sitting on the edge of the bed, by his hip.

"Neil? What are you doing here?" Todd muttered.

Neil smiled in his sweet way that made Todd's heart do the tango. "We...we're leaving, get your bag."

Todd rubbed his eyes and sat up, seeing a smiling Charlie and his boyfriend Knox arm-in-arm holding a bag each. "Are you kidding me?"

Neil's smile got bigger, "No. And if you are not packed and ready to get the hell away from this place in one minute, I'm dragging you bodily from this hell-hole in your bedclothes."

Todd had never packed so quickly in all his life, he finished and surveyed the room, hazel gaze falling on a picture of his family...which he wisely decided to leave.

The boys pooled their pocket money and hitchhiked to the bus station. Once there, the real question began.

"Where to, boys?" Charlie said, gesturing at the chalkboard with bus schedules writing on it.

"I think we should let Neil pick," Knox tilting his head in the direction of the boy.

Neil grinned and taking Todd's hand, pointed it at the list of destinations and closed his eyes, moving Todd's hand forward until he felt the pressure, brown eyes opened and Neil read the name of the place and announced triumphantly, "New York City."

Knox laughed and Charlie hooked arms with him, doing what could have been considered as square dancing, (were you to tilt your head, squint, and be very, very drunk) as Charlie sang (quite off-key), "Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today/I want to be a part of it - New York, New York/These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray/Right through the very heart of it - New York, New York/I wanna wake up in a city, that doesn't sleep/And find I'm king of the hill - top of the heap/These little town blues, are melting away/I'll make a brand new start of it - in old New York/If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere."

Neil and Todd linked arms and did the same.

A girl making phone call from the pay phone in the corner stated to her friend on the other end that there were four young men dancing about scaring the other 17 people in the station willy-nilly.

One bus ride and one trip to the bathroom for Charlie and Knox (*cough* sex *cough*) later, they arrived in New York at about 10:38 pm.

"Well...um, now what?" Todd asked, feeling bad for being the one to ruin the careless feeling, but they had no plans for shelter or money or anything.

"Uh, an apartment seems like a good idea," Knox nodded, playing the sensible one.

Charlie shrugged, got out a cigarette and lit it, took a drag, and said, "I got a place here."

The other three guys looked at him in disbelief. Knox spoke first, "Um, may I ask how and where and why?"

Charlie took another drag and replied, "My money from various birthdays and such, about ten minutes from here, and because I knew I'd leave some day and wanted to be ready when that day came."

"What if we hadn't come to New York, what if we'd picked somewhere else?" Neil asked.

Charlie smirked, "Got it covered. A two bedroom, one bathroom place just off Broadway. Now, forward to our new home sweet home." Charlie got a taxi, gave the address of the apartment complex, and they were in apartment B19, all in the time span of about twenty minutes.

"Nice," Todd commented, looking around at the sparsely furnished residence.

"Yes! Still here!" Charlie was racing toward a cardboard box with the enthusiasm of a kid at Christmas. He rummaged through and lifted high...a tri-corner hat. He placed it on his head and began to dance around.

Neil laughed, then poked around the box, coming up with a beret and a cowboy hat, the latter he put on Todd's head.

Knox sighed, dropped his head into his hands, and tried to not laugh hysterically.

He looked up just in time to see Charlie dancing towards him, trying to make Knox wear the hat. Knox dodged him and yelled, "No, Charlie, NO! I don't want to wear the tri-corner hat!" But Charlie had already crowned him with the old hat. Knox grimaced and closed his eyes sighing, only to reopen them when a bright flash passed his eyelids. "Who the hell brought a camera?" he bellowed.

Neil was laughing, pointing at Todd's back, which was currently retreating into their room. "Aw, c'mon, Knoxious. We love you, that's why we torture you." Then he followed Todd into the room.

Charlie placed his head on his boyfriend's shoulder, "And since I love you the most, I get to torture you the most." And sealed the statement with a sweet kiss, which he deepened, gently taking Knox's hand and leading him towards the bedroom. "Now, what do you say we give the bed a proper test run, huh baby."

Knox smiled and licked his lips, "Lead the way, sexy."