Ellis grew up in the Bronx, in a dirty, cramped apartment with his aunt, his mom and dad, his five older cousins and his two sisters. Ellis had had a job since he was fourteen, just to help keep the house running. There was never enough food.
But everyone was cheerful. His parents and his aunt would sing while they cleaned the kitchen or when they got home from work. They'd pick up the littler kids and spontaneously take the older ones by the hand and lead them in a tango. Even Ellis would get torn away from his books for a few minutes of music. He'd smile when his dad would kiss his mom on the forehead, declaring to the rest of the room what a lucky bastard he was, didn't they know he'd married a queen?

So they struggled. But it wasn't so bad.

Ivy grew up in a spacious penthouse apartment on the Upper East Side. Her mother had already won a Tony by the time Ivy and her brother Jimmy were born, so money was never an issue. Ivy strutted around Manhattan in designer clothes as a five year old, Jimmy had gone through three new cars by the time high school was over.
But there was the fighting. Leigh and their father would scream and cry and throw things and the neighbors called the police at least twice a year. Ivy and her brother would sit in their separate rooms, crying. But their parents didn't get divorced. They glared and took off for days at a time and used Ivy and Jimmy as weapons against each other, but they didn't get divorced.
And the money kept rolling in.

So it wasn't so bad. But they struggled.

Ellis was bullied every day of high school.
Kids laughed at him, called him gay. They ripped his clothes and stole his books, mocking his grades. Ellis was a straight A student.
He knew the only way he could afford college was if he got a scholarship for his grades, like his mother did, but every time the teacher would congratulate him on his 102% in front of the class, he just wanted to crawl under his desk and die.
But he kept working hard. He studied under the counter when he worked at a convince store, he would stay up until three A.M memorizing every bone in the human body. When all the kids who teased eventually turned back to the streets and the gangs and the drugs, Ellis was one of the twenty kids in his class to graduate high school on time. He was going to be special. He knew it.
But the damage had been done. Bullied kids carry scars that can never really fade away. Ellis was angry now. Angry at the world, the people, the system he'd been born into. The system that started him out at the bottom. So that hot, righteous anger started building in him. He held onto it for a long time, even through college.
His was an arts school. He was fascinated by it. Everyone around him seemed to be infected with a love and reverence towards the theatre, the way it seemed to make all their problems go away. It was special. Just like he was special.
He vowed to keep that feeling going as long as he could. So he went to the theatre.

Ivy was a princess in high school.

She was enrolled in the New York Academy of Performing Arts, where everyone knew her mother's name, and everyone gave Ivy the same respect and awe they'd give Leigh. Ivy never tried in school, knowing her famous name would get her where she needed to go. And she was right, for a time. Teachers would add an extra fifteen points to her tests in exchange for an autograph, the director of the Musical Theater program never cut her from a show. Once she was out partying with her boyfriend, and arrived twenty minutes late to her SATs, and the teacher let her take them anyway. She was a spoiled brat, and it was all because of her mother's fame. Ivy knew that. And she vowed to keep this feeling going for as long as possible. So she went to the theatre.

Ellis has done everything he can to claw his way to the top.
Bribes, free swag, meet and greets with famous people, lying through his teeth-anything to get him where he needed to go.
He was going to be special. He knew it.
He'd even done a lot of things in the bedroom he wasn't proud of.
Ellis has slept with four men and six women to get what he wanted.
The first time he had done something like that was when he was nineteen, a sophomore in college. His Econ professor was a man not much older than himself, about twenty five, with sparkling green eyes. Ellis came to him, pleading him for extra credit to bring up his grade. He was getting a C, and if he got below a B- he lost his scholarship.
Professor Brassmint had smiled and patted the chair next to him, saying he was sure something could be...arranged.
It was the first time Ellis had ever slept with a man. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn't gay. He hated every moment of it, but knew it's what he had to do. He had to pass and graduate if he was ever going to do something worthwhile with his life. If he was ever going to be special. So he grit his teeth and did it.
The lying, the flattery, the poisoning people, it's something he can do without blinking.
And in the past four years, it's gotten easier to do...the other stuff. When Rebecca's assistant pushed him up against the wall of her hotel room, kissing him, moaning, he didn't think of his girlfriend once.
He's numb now. And he hates it.

Ivy has done everything she can to claw her way to the top.
She didn't used to be so ruthless. When she first started out, she was determined to become a star on her own merits, to work really hard and hope that paid off. When she got into the ensemble of Les Mis when she was just nineteen, she was estatic. Finally, she was on her way to the top. This show would lead to a supporting role, and that would bring her the leads, and soon she'd be a star like her mom.
But the ensemble is a lot like the Mafia. Once you're in, it's next to impossible to get out.
Ten years of chorus roles made Ivy cynical and frustrated and bitter. She started to realize if she wanted to start climbing up, she'd have to step on a few toes. Sending someone to the "wrong" audition location, handing out tea that really made your throat raw and itchy...sleeping with anyone who'd promise her fame.
Ivy has been doing this for a long time. But it's not so hard, anymore.
She hates it. And she's numb now.

Ellis wanted Ivy from the moment he first saw her.

Ivy didn't know Ellis' name until his lips went crashing into hers.

This thing they were doing, it wasn't about love. Ivy had long forgotten how to do that.
Ellis would never be hers, he'd never show her off the way his father had, announce what a lucky bastard he was, didn't they know he'd married a queen?
They were just what each other needed at the moment. He used her to manipulate the balance of power. She used him to make sure some of that power was hers.
The sweat and screams and kisses stolen in dark theaters and borrowed beds, it was all a game. A game they had to play to be rich and famous and special..
But she knew that. And he knew that.
So the pampered, bitter Broadway baby fell into the arms of the smart, angry boy from the Bronx. People who had nothing in common. Except that ambition.
Do what you have to do.
Anything.