Day Two: Actor AU

Your Average Freak

Yuri was your average freak.

He was small and quiet and wore glasses that looked too big for his face. Every single kid in his year was twice his height and thrice his size. He'd been bullied so bad that his mum had actually gotten herself involved, but no matter what the school did, they never seemed to be able to get it to stop. So Yuri stopped telling them.

But when he got a part in Story Mode's second season, he'd been certain he was going to burst with joy, shock and downright anxiety all in the one go. It was, without a doubt, one of the best things that had ever happened to him. Not that any of the bullies actually believed him; all he'd got from telling them was his head dunked in a toilet. But it didn't matter. They'd see he was telling the truth when the first trailer came out.

Yuri wasn't sure whether or not it would make the bullying better or worse. There were some people who thought Story Mode was stupid, after all. As though they'd actually bothered to go see it.

But it was more than just that. Because Yuri was honestly finding himself having fun.

There were twelve different actors playing Jesse; Yuri was finding it a little hard to remember all their names (they were startlingly similar, though), so he sort of just ended up calling them all Jesse, to their amusement (but it was fine, because they had taken to calling him Radar; he was fairly certain they couldn't remember his real name either). They were all so nice as well. A lot like the popular version of the character they were playing.

Ashley was the actor that played Petra. Yuri had been embarrassingly excited when he'd first met her (okay, he'd been embarrassingly excited when he met every actor that played a role in the first season, he'll admit it), but the redhead (which turned out to be dyed) had just laughed and ruffled his newly gelled hair, telling him she liked him and completely ignoring the angry cries of the hair stylist he'd just left.

Lukas' actor (or Scott, although he responded to both) was just as kind as his character. He'd helped Yuri multiple times when he got lost and always shot him an encouraging smile whenever he screwed up his lines. Which was often. Embarrassingly often. To be honest, he was a walking embarrassment at this point.

But, at the same time, he had fun. An odd combination, but it was true.

Then there was Jack and Nurm. Or, rather, Fred and Mark. They hadn't known each other before auditioning, but the two had practically clicked. Fred actually had a blind eye, too; something about getting a bit of glass stuck in it and getting it infected a few years ago (Yuri was still trying to decide if that was cool or just really gross). Mark was even quieter than Yuri; and when he did actually speak, it was in a low muttering that only Fred seemed to be able to hear. Which was just downright coincidentally amazing.

Yuri hadn't really talked to Stella's actor, but from their few interactions, she'd been nice. Her name was Ashley, like Petra's actor, but she'd said that she'd always liked to have Stella as her name. Yuri hadn't even realised until way later that he'd taken to calling her Stella instead of Ashley; the actress didn't seem to mind, though.

JB was Romeo's actor; he'd already made multiple jokes about Shakespeare, mostly (of course) Romeo and Juliet. One particular joke had been during screening, when he'd been dangling five foot in the air from a harness, and had proclaimed his everlasting love for Jesse while quoting something from what Yuri was pretty sure was the balcony scene (the fact that it was a male Jesse that was steadily turning red had just made it all the funnier).

He didn't see Axel and Olivia's actors all that much (he was fairly sure they were called Brian and… Natasha? Yeah, Natasha), but that was fine; apparently, they were only appearing briefly at the beginning and then again for the final thing. While Yuri, as a fanboy, was a bit disappointed by this, he decided not to voice it. He was embarrassing enough as it is.

The familiar ring of the bell tore him from his thoughts. Yuri looked up from where he'd been doodling equations on the side of his notebook, blinking as the teacher tried to yell over the chaos of teenagers eagerly packing away their things to go home to remind them that their homework was due tomorrow. Of course, Yuri's mother had been sure that he was on top of his homework, especially with him needing to go to the studio for most of the day, pretty much every day. Then again, he'd always made sure he was on top of his homework. He just needed to make sure he did it faster and earlier than he used to now.

Yuri shoved his books into his bag and swung it onto his back, making sure to tuck his chair back under his desk before trailing after the other teens darting out into the hallway. His mum was still at work, so the Jesse's had taken it upon themselves to take turns picking him up from school. Something Yuri had tried to stammer his way out of, because he was fairly certain (still was) that they had way better things to do than pick up some teenager from school, but they'd insisted.

He slipped out the front doors, pausing at the top of the stairs so he could see (sorta) over the hundreds of teenage heads, trying to spot Jesse's car. He swore that they all shared one car, because he was sure it was the same one every time. Either that, or there were twelve identical cars parked in the studios parking lot. He wasn't sure which theory was funnier.

He must have been lingering too long. Maybe he'd been blocking someone's way. Or maybe they'd just decided the average little freak standing on the edge of the stairs had just been too good an opportunity to pass up.

He supposed it didn't really matter. All that mattered was that one moment he was standing there, and the next he was lying at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at the clouded sky in a daze. It was a considerably blurry sky. Where had his glasses gone? They were supposed to keep things from being blurry.

There was quiet laughter. Yuri groaned, pushing himself up and fingering the throbbing area where the back of his skull had met concrete with a grimace. His fingers came away wet with blood.

The laughing continued. Yuri looked to the top of the stairs, wincing again when he spotted the blurry figures of some of his particularly harsh bullies. Realising that almost everyone else had stopped to stare at him, Yuri ducked his head, heat rising to his cheeks. Spotting what he hoped were his glasses, Yuri reached out, half blind- a foot came out of nowhere and kicked them away. The laughing got louder. The uncomfortable heat crawled further up his neck.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

Yuri's head snapped around, somewhat useless eyes widening as his heart sank to his stomach. A blurry figure stood a few feet away, distinguishable from all the other blurs from the way they were inching away from them. But he didn't need to see them to recognise their voice.

Jesse. Well, one of the Jesse's. They must have seen what had happened from the car.

If Yuri had thought everything about him was embarrassing before, it was nothing compared to how he felt now.

Jesse marched forward, bending down to help Yuri to his feet. The laughing had stopped, but he had much preferred it when compared to Jesse seeing him get shoved down a set of stairs. They turned to him, close enough that Yuri could see the frown on their brow.

"Are you okay?"

Too mortified to speak, Yuri nodded. Jesse's frown deepened, but they didn't push, instead turning their attention to the teens still standing at the top of the stairs.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"It was an accident," one muttered, a tad weakly. Yuri could practically hear the sneer on Jesse's face.

"Didn't look like an accident," they said; so they had been watching. Fantastic. "In fact, looked pretty damn deliberate to me."

They didn't answer. After a moment, Jesse scoffed, before bending down to scoop up what Yuri assumed were his glasses. The actor shot the teens one last glare, before wrapping their arm around Yuri's shoulders and beginning to guide him away.

"C'mon, Radar," they muttered, handing him his glasses. Yuri took them in silent thanks and slipped them back onto his face.

Neither he nor Jesse said anything as they slipped into the car, or as Jesse pulled out of the lot and onto the road. Yuri kept his eyes glued to his knees, unwilling to look at the older actor. The back of his head continued to throb.

After a few moments of tense silence, the boy swallowed, finally dragging his fingers up to prod carefully at the back of his hair. It was still wet and sticky, and that blood was going to be hard to get out of his hair if it dried in, and just ow. Why did they have to do that? Why did it have to be then? Why couldn't they have done it when Jesse wasn't looking?

Angry, embarrassed tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. He blinked hastily, unwilling to cry in front of his hero. He'd already been shoved down a flight of stairs in front of them. He didn't need them to see him cry about it too.

"Radar?"

He jumped, hand jerking from where it had still been prodding at the back of his head. Jesse frowned at him, still keeping one eye on the road.

"You okay, pal?" Jesse's eyes trailed over to his hand, widening as they came to his blood coated fingers, "Is that from your head?"

Yuri swallowed. He wanted to wipe his hand on something, but he'd rather not get blood on his clothes and he wasn't about to wipe that, of all things, all over his co-worker's car. "Um, ye- yeah."

Jesse frowned, turning their eyes back to the road as they reached a round-a-bout, "We'll get you patched up when we get to the studio."

The boy nodded. With the amount of action that takes place in Story Mode, there was a lot of stunt stuff and heavy equipment with the potential to horribly injure someone. So medical supplies were often kept handy.

They shifted into silence. After a moment of hesitation, Jesse broke it.

"Does this happen often?"

"Does what happen often?"

"Radar."

Yuri sighed; it had been a weak attempt anyway, "Yeah. But- But it's fine, I'm used to it by now."

Jesse stared at him. Of course, they were only able to do so for a moment before they had to snap their attention back to the road, unless they wanted to crash.

"What do you mean you're used to it?"

Yuri shrugged, "It's been going on for years. I told my mum and the school, but they weren't able to really stop it. So I just stopped telling them. I think they're under the impression that it's stopped."

Jesse was silent. They didn't really seem sure what to say. Finally, they grunted.

"I don't understand people," they admitted, "What do they gain from hurting you?"

"I dunno," Yuri admitted quietly, "Maybe it's their way of desperately trying to find something they can actually control."

Jesse huffed, "Maybe. Either that or they're just jerks."

Yuri's lips twitched. The silence returned, but it was a bit more comfortable this time. He dug some tissues out of his bag (because allergy season was, unfortunately, upon them) to press again the back of his head. They were just turning into the studio's parking lot when Jesse spoke again.

"The other Jesse's are hearing about this, just so you know."

"What? Wait, no, I don't think that's-"

"Sorry, buddy. Jesse's tell each other everything."

Yuri groaned. But he couldn't have helped the little smile that twitched onto his lips even if he'd tried.

Whoo, Day Two! This one's a bit longer than the other one. Also, yes, their 'real' names are their actor's names. I was originally going to just make up a load of names (Radar was very nearly named Ryan), but I decided this was much better. Hope ya like.