Hey hey hey everybody! Welcome back to this story!

I'm glad people seemed to enjoy the first chapter, so here is a second one for ya! I will post chapters of this story every Friday, to go along with my other story which is updated every Monday, so stay tuned!

Disclaimer: I do not own RENT: The Musical (or movie), Austin & Ally or anything you recognise from the show in any way, shape or form, nor do I own any recognisable brands, songs or lyrics within them.

I hope you guys enjoy chapter two!

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Chapter 2

Meanwhile, out in the streets, Austin and Dez's friend Elliot was walking towards their apartment block to spend the evening with them.

Elliot had known the pair since they moved into the area, having already been there when they arrived. Elliot was a professor and computer genius, and as he was slightly older than Dez and Austin had always been somewhat of an older-brother character towards them.

Elliot had blue eyes and thick brown hair, which was always styled up (if he could afford the hair gel). He also had a warm, deep smile and had a very caring, friendly attitude which made him widely well-liked by those he met.

He was about two blocks away from the apartment building and was searching around in his pockets for the spare key to the boys' apartment he had, when two men dressed in black emerged from an alley on his left and began to walk towards him.

Elliot gulped, immediately realising the situation he was now caught in, as he could make out baseball bats held in the unknown men's hands.

He tried to retain a confident appearance and try and walk past the men in the hopes that they would do the same and leave him alone, but unfortunately that is not what happened.

As Elliot was walking past the first, and smaller, of the two men, he felt an icy cold hand on his shoulder, before he was violently span around to face them, punched in the face once and then thrown to the frozen, solid concrete pavement.

What followed for the next couple of minutes was a frenzy of kicks and baseball bat swings, as the two darkly dressed men beat Elliot up for all he was worth. Thankfully, before any real major damage could be done to Elliot, the three heard someone else approaching and they all knew that time was up. The two thugs quickly grabbed Elliot's wallet, which was empty anyway, from his tattered jeans pocket before running off down the street, almost immediately disappearing into the mysterious shadows of the dark night.

Elliot gathered his composure and stood up, before limping towards Austin and Dez's apartment. You see, this kind of thing was not exactly an uncommon occurrence for Elliot. He was pretty widely known to the community as a gay man, having always been very open about his sexuality and generally not caring what other people thought. Although this was in many ways a good thing, it could however also attract the attention of those who did not agree with the entire concept of being homosexual, such as the two men he had just encountered, and they would sometimes seek him out and… demonstrate their disapproval of him being gay.

But Elliot didn't let that stop him from being true to himself and embracing who he really was.

He continued staggering towards his destination, but when he was no more than a block away, the sound of street drums filled his ears. Elliot followed the sound around the corner, to find a man, seemingly of a similar age to him, sitting on the sidewalk drumming on some upturned bins.

The man was wearing a black beanie which covered most of his brown hair, apart from a sweeping fringe across his forehead. He had deep brown eyes and was completely lost in his world of music he was creating.

Elliot crossed the narrow street and began to walk along the sidewalk directly opposite to where the drummer was, however when he was pretty much exactly level with the man immersed in his music, Elliot's injuries suddenly overcame him and he tripped and fell to the hard ground for a second time within ten minutes. He let out a loud groan as his body made contact with the floor, which caught the attention of the man behind the bins.

"You okay, honey?" Elliot heard him call across the road, before getting up from behind the bins and crossing the street to kneel next to him and help him up.

"Uh, yeah, thanks. Just in a bit of pain… I was mugged a few minutes ago." Elliot explained bitterly as he brushed himself down, wincing slightly when his hand went over his stomach, which was almost certainly a deep purple colour from bruising.

"Oh no, you poor thing!" The man said, glancing over Elliot to check for any noticeable injuries. "Did they get any money?"

Elliot laughed, again bitterly. "Ha, they wish. I had no money to lose, just a completely empty wallet. Joke's on them I guess."

The man smiled warmly at this. "I'm Dallas, by the way." He said in a tone to match his smile.

"Elliot." He replied. The two stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds, starting to get lost in them as they both felt a powerful connection between them.

Eventually, Dallas snapped out of it as he remembered that Elliot was injured, and once again looked over him, noticing a tear in his jeans and a large scratch on his knee. "Well, come with me, let's get you a band-aid for your knee." He said as he offered Elliot his arm and they began to walk down the street again. "I needed to go home to get changed anyway, I have a 'Life Support' group meeting at nine-thirty."

Elliot looked over at Dallas in confusion. "You go to 'Life Support'?" He inquired.

"Yep, that's right. This man has AIDs." Dallas said, pointing to himself, causing Elliot to smile and chuckle lightly.

"Well, so do I. I think we'll get along just fine." Elliot responded and the two laughed. "But I just need to call my friends quickly, they're waiting for me, I'm meant to meet them at their apartment soon." He said, pulling out his phone from his back pocket, which the thugs had surprisingly managed to miss.

And so the two men continued to walk, arm in arm, down the street towards Dallas' apartment.

. . . . .

At a well-loved community performance space, three blocks away, a lawyer named Trish was busy trying to set up equipment for her girlfriend Kira's performance. Kira was performing as part of a campaign by locals against the wealthy, greedy and cruel landlords, such as Jace, who were in the process of getting rid of all these spaces to make room for more houses and therefore make more money. Needless to say, Jace and his fellow landlords were not the most popular amongst the locals.

Kira, on the other hand, was loved by pretty much everyone who went to see her performances, feeling that she really represented the spirit of the area and the thoughts and feelings of all those who lived there, even though her performance style was very often more than a little… abstract. Still, she had a good voice and she certainly knew how to use it well to get her point across.

As a lawyer, however, microphones and speakers were not Trish's area of expertise, and she was really struggling to get everything done correctly. As Kira's boyfriend at the time, Dez had always done this and, unlike Trish, he actually knew how everything worked. However, when he was dumped he of course stopped this and the job instead fell to Trish… who was hopeless.

She was very short in stature, with thick black curly hair which ran almost all the way down her back, and was usually tied back in a ponytail. Her wardrobe consisted mainly of suits, because of her job, but during the cold winters she would often pair this with a scarf.

She was currently on the phone to Kira, who was getting increasingly annoyed at her girlfriend's inability to do a job that she had absolutely no knowledge in… her logic there would never be completely clear to anyone.

"Yes, Kira, I did do everything you told me, but it still doesn't work!" Trish said loudly, getting equally frustrated with Kira for expecting her to be able to do this easily.

"Well then how come Dez could always do it so easily?" Kira replied in a sassy tone.

Trish was instantly infuriated. Even hearing Dez's name made her mad, due to the awkwardness and levels of hostility between them created after Kira dumped him.

"I don't know, Kira, why don't you ask him?" Trish responded in a clipped tone.

"Ooh, great idea pookie!" Kira responded in a cheery tone.

"What?" Trish questioned.

"I can call Dez and ask him to come and help you set up!" Kira continued happily… she didn't fully understand the whole situation between her girlfriend and ex – but then again, Kira didn't fully understand most things, really.

"No, Kira, no!" Trish shouted back in a panic. The last thing she wanted on Christmas Eve was to have to spend some of it with the man she disliked most in the whole of Miami, setting up equipment for Kira's stupid performance.

Kira didn't hear, though, as she was already replying with: "Great, I'll ask him now, see you later Trish babes! Mwah!" Before hanging up the phone.

Trish moved her own phone away from her ear and glared viciously at it, before shoving it into her suit pocket and continuing to desperately try and figure out how everything worked, just so that she wouldn't look like a complete idiot when Dez turned up.

"How the hell do you do this?" She mumbled to herself as she looked, puzzled, over the mess of wires and microphones and amps in front of her.

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That's the end of chapter two!

I know these chapters are shorter than they normally are in my stories, I guess that's just the way the story is working itself out.

Ally will be introduced in the next chapter! Leave a review if you're excited!

Remember to follow, favourite and review this story and check out my others whilst you're at it!

Catch you later! :)