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“We are in Vegas. City of lights and bad decisions. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Why the fuck are we going to magic show at Circus Circus?”
“Because the Mariah Carey show costs as much as both my kidneys and I hate the strip clubs here.”
“Okay but…Circus Circus?”
“Think of it as payback for Chuck E. Cheese.” Eren chuckled to himself, walking a step in front of Jean and tugging a hand to keep him in step as the night turned dark around them. The homeless would soon be stepping out of their dark corners and neither him nor Jean had an interest in running into smelly men with a penchant for the naked lady cards thrown all over the ground. The first time Eren had found one of those was during a family vacation when he was around nine and he swears by it as the day he realized he was too gay to accept the nipples on full display.
They’d stopped at Las Vegas on the excuse of needing gasoline for the rust mobile and Eren’s small bladder and large appetite had managed to extend the stay a couple of hours. But once the sun had started to dip into the horizon and the bright, white lights of the strip lit the night sky, getting the two boys to leave the small city had become impossible. They both agreed that this would have to be a one night thing, a little pit stop in their map towards the Grand Canyon. The hotel room and bottle service down at the bar had been a little reward of sorts for making it two nights away from home.
But the night was still young as of now, drifting between 6 PM and 7 PM, and Eren wanted to hit the night hard. So, obviously, a magic show was the top choice.
Jean hated magic shows. The creepiness and uncertainty with how magicians presented their skills gave him the heebie jeebies. The stupid card tricks and disappearing bunny acts wasn’t natural and Jean hated it. And Eren knew this.
Eren latched his hand onto his boyfriend’s hand – dragging him across the floor through slot machines accompanied by old white people with bustling tourists with young kids thrown into the kids’ areas. The penny games they passed occupied by groups of people working on a conveyer system of pushing a coin in and pulling a lever until a profit showed up big enough to get them to leave their machine. It was a Tuesday but the crowd that loitered around the poker tables and dice games didn’t give two shits as they threw down their chips in succession and let out loud whoops whenever the odds turned in their favor.
Neither boys cared for the world of gambling and it worked well as they zoomed their way around floor girls with drinks in hand and the adults that were too distracted by someone else’s winnings to watch where they were going as they made their way towards the escalators the signs pointed their final destination to.
They made their way, standing quietly on two sets of escalators it took to get to the lower floor of the building, the golden nugget of what is Circus Circus.
Motherfucking Midway.
Nabbing tickets to the Adventuredome on the top level of the casino would’ve been a decent idea, probably a more fun night out, but according to the schedule for the night, the magic show was free down at Midway and free was something both of them could do. Also the circumstances of their surroundings was just hilarious.
They shoved their way through the throng of children running around loaded with cups of quarters and little stuffed toys. The scene brought out memories that were years ago and Eren smiled wider as he turned back to see the scowl on Jean’s face as he tried to measure his steps to not run into a kid. There were a couple appearances of the lone teenager forced to hang around the games with their younger siblings as their parents had fun gambling away their college funds and Jean forcefully scowled as dirty looks were shot for no reason at all. They were all kids dammit. No need for the snippy attitudes when everyone liked playing games.
Eren tugged on Jean’s hand, driving him forward into his chest and away from the staring contest he was holding with a quiet little girl clutching a fabric flower to her chest. “I know you hate magic shows but c’mon. It’s kinda funny that this basically mirrors our first date.”
Jean huffs as his eyes roam over the heads of bouncing children and he sucks his teeth as the frown graces his lips. “Tch. I didn’t mean for that to be our first date. This is just – it’s a lot. I’m fine though. Let’s just get this over with.”
“Good! Because the show’s about to start and I want front seats just in case he asks for volunteers.”
“Wait, what?” But it was too late, Eren had already turned and started shuffling faster through the lingering kids at the bleachers’ entrance and Jean had to mumble apologies and keep the scowling to the minimum as he tried to keep up with Eren and keep one of the parents from dropping their baby as he accidentally tripped over a step and faceplanted himself into the lady’s back. He spouted out a bunch of apologies as the little baby stared curiously at the two-toned hair Jean had and how the light seemed to reflect well on the dim lights over the stage area on his ear piercings.
He finally made it over to where Eren was sitting and jittering in his place – excited for the show to get started. Jean slumped into the space next to him, folding his arms over his chest as he eyed the groups of families that stood on the other side of the stage waiting for the show to start. The bleachers were already filling up and the sudden bounce of feet and the appearance of small body next to him shifted Jean closer to Eren who laughed as the same girl with the flower stared up at the two of them.
Her mother was busy settling a baby onto her lap and sticking a bottle of formula into its mouth and she took the few seconds of freedom and opened her mouth to address Jean. “How did you get your hair like that?”
Jean startled at the high pitch of her voice but relaxed as Eren placed a hand on his thigh and leaned over him to respond with a smile on his lips. “He says he doesn’t dye it but I think he secretly buys hair dye by the buttload.” Jean scowled as Eren laughed and the girl’s eyes blew wide at how open-mouthed Eren’s smile was when he was in the moment.
She looked shy as she spoke again, her free and that wasn’t clutching hard on the flower digging into the fabric of her Las Vegas tee shirt and Eren smiled at the little red bow on her head that really put her outfit together aesthetically. “Are you his boyfriend?”
Eren and Jean were both surprised at the question, their eyebrows shooting up as they stared at each other and then back at the little girl. They probably resembled an oldies comedy as they sat open-mouthed and tried to answer the girl. Jean was the one that fell back to planet earth and he cleared his throat and managed to relax his voice to not sound accusatory or venomous to a girl that probably only seven years old. “Yeah he is actually. Um – you know about”
She cuts Jean off before he can ask how the fuck a seven year old could be so liberal to understand boyfriends. “My daddy has a boyfriend too. Mommy says that people can’t help you they love and daddy really loves Mr. Smith.” She smiled happily up at them, turning to look back at her mother and Jean and Eren followed her eyes and sat upright when they say the amusement on the lady’s lips as she watched them flounder for something to say.
The lady, baby still in hand and slowly falling asleep, patted her free hand over her daughter’s head and turned back to Eren and Jean. “Sorry my kid is a bit chatty when she’s excited. I hope she didn’t say anything bad.”
“No no. She was fine. Rather interesting stories to tell in fact.” Eren said quietly. Single parents usually scared him as they were double the intensity of a couple and the two kids just meant more volatile if provoked. But he relaxed as the lady smiled again, her expression sincere.
“Mhm. I heard the little rugrat mention Mr. Smith. That’s the guy my ex-husband is dating. Name’s Hanji by the way.” She pushed her free hand out to shake the boys’ hands. They both took it, gripping tight as hers was just as forceful and told her their own names. She nodded and mumbled their names in repetition, seemingly memorizing their identifications. Hopefully she wasn’t keeping it as records for when she needed to file a police report for pedophilic behavior.
The lights around them dimmed down and the little girl in-between them jittered in her seat excitedly. Hanji chuckled and with a quick nod, turned to face the stage. Eren and Jean just say dumbfounded for a second at the suddenness of everything. And as the show began, the music starting and bringing out cheers, Jean forgot all about his fear of stupid magic tricks and clung onto the hand that Eren still had over his leg. This was going to be just fine.