La Luna (BoyxBoy)

The Audition

Kyle jittered his knee up and down nervously as he surveyed the room around him, as well as the other participants, clutching his application in his hand. There were definitely more than a hundred and fifty of them in the large room, and this was only the second day of interviews out of the five days that had been assigned. The other young men were all chatting amongst each other, most of them sprawled out on the floor due to the lack of chairs.

       He tried desperately to ignore the large stage on the other side of the room, taking a deep breath and jolting when a door to the side of the room opened. Three of the stars introduced on the La Luna website entered the room, followed by Satzki himself.

       The room seemed to go quiet as the four of them made their way to the stage at the front, with one of them murmuring about how there were less people today than there were yesterday. Kyle couldn't help but appreciate how Satzki's body looked in those tight black jeans and the black and white striped t-shirt which, although covered his entire torso including his arms, clung nicely to his body. In comparison to Caine's monstrous height, Satzki had looked quite petite in the video Kyle had seen, but even though he was slender, he was definitely taller than Kyle's 5'8 frame.

       Satzki took a deep breath and plastered a warm smile on his face, greeting the crowd of young men. "Welcome, everyone, I'm really glad to see that so many of you are willing to work here!" His peppy smile fell and the air in the room suddenly grew tense. "That being said, I know right off the bat that some of you aren't cut out for this work. First of all, this job is made for a five year contract; no more, no less. If you aren't prepared to handle that, I suggest you leave now."

       Kyle nodded to himself. He only had part time jobs, and he wasn't attending any form of tertiary education. Kyle looked around as a few people stood and left the building, before Satzki continued.

       "Secondly, there will be next to no chance that you will be able to see your friends and family throughout the time you work here. If you're lucky, it may be two or three times a year, and you'll barely have enough time for a five-minute phone call. If you don't think you can put up with that, you should leave."

       Kyle momentarily thought of his grandfather, but shook his head. The only reason his grandfather hadn't opted to put himself in a retirement home was because he was looking after Kyle. Again, people stood up to leave, more people this time, until they were left with about two thirds of the number of people they'd started with.

       Satzki nodded to himself. "Seems about right," he muttered to the others, before addressing the crowd of men still willing to stay. "We can conduct interviews now, though unfortunately, today we'll only be picking around twenty of you to join our program -- that's less than a quarter of you sitting in front of me. I'm sending these boys down to collect your applications and you'll receive a number. We'll go from there."

       As the three other men began to collect everyone's forms, Satzki made his way back to one of the side rooms, closing a door labelled 'OFFICE' behind himself.

       "Your form, please," a deep voice sounded beside Kyle, making him jump and crane his neck to look up at the man in front of him. The man was a giant, towering over Kyle's smaller frame at close to seven feet tall. He was muscular too, with blond hair, slicked back away from his face, and blue eyes which seemed to darken with his serious expression.

       Kyle winced at his own shaking hand as he handed the man his form, taking a laminated card from him and checking the boldly printed number: 35. He sighed and looked around again.

       Some of the others were still waiting to hand in their forms, almost all of them looking as nervous as Kyle was sure he did. Moments later, the first man was called in. Kyle's leg began once again to shake with nerves as he stared at the door, becoming so engrossed that he didn't realise one of the other applicants had moved to sit across from him at his table.

       "Boy, you really are nervous, aren't you?" a voice came from the other young man, making Kyle jump in surprise and glance at him. Soft blond curls framed a boyish, almost pixie-like, face and bright powder blue eyes watched him in anticipation. He flashed Kyle an entertained half-smile. "You didn't even notice I was here."

       Kyle stayed silent, only giving him a curt nod. He wasn't exactly used to people approaching him so openly -- especially with his eye patch; it actually kind of disturbed him.

       "My name's A--" the young man caught himself before he said his name, smiling sheepishly. "Oops, we're not supposed to give out our real names, are we?"

       This time Kyle shook his head, keeping his head low, trying to hide his eye.

       The man across from him was about to comment on his quietness when the office door opened and the whole room fell silent, watching as the first applicant scurried out and headed towards the exit, followed by Satzki, who smiled pleasantly as he stopped in the doorway.

       "Number two?" he called with a grin. All eyes were suddenly drawn to the other side of the room where a man in his early twenties stood up and made his way towards the office, holding himself confidently with a smile that Kyle thought was almost cocky.

       The young blond man leaned closer to Kyle as the door was closed. "It seems they gave out the numbers in a completely random order. Which one did you get?"

       Kyle held up his card. "Thirty-five," he said quietly, and the blond's smirk became a genuine smile.

       "He talks!" the man cheered, resting his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand. "You're lucky. I'm number forty-two. I'll be here for hours at this rate!"

       The door suddenly opened and the man who'd just gone in came out again, still trying to look dignified, though something told Kyle he wasn't as proud as he was trying to seem. Looking back at Satzki, Kyle felt himself flinch that the man's annoyed frown as he addressed the room, calling for the next number.

       "Or maybe not," the blond man murmured with a grimace. "Damn, now he's gonna be in a bad mood while everyone else is doing their interviews!" He slumped forward in mock defeat, his forehead hitting the table with a painful-sounding thud, but he didn't move.

       "Maybe someone will go in, completely amaze him, and instantly fix his mood," Kyle suggested, making the man across from him sit up properly again, frowning.

       "But that just means that we'll be that much closer to not getting the job," he hissed, sighing again as he lay his head back down. "We're the ones who have to amaze --"

       Before he could finish his sentence, the office door slammed open and the third man quickly made his way out, an irritated Satzki following behind.

       "Well, fuck," the blond man breathed, turning to whisper to Kyle. "That was even quicker than the last one!"

       "I'm going to make this very clear," Satzki said loudly, speaking to the entire room. "If you're applying for this job solely for the money, return your numbers to my staff and leave now. It saves you wasting your time and mine."

       The room was silent before almost half the remaining applicants stood up and made their way towards the building's exit, leaving the room almost bare compared to what it looked like when Kyle had first walked in.

       Satzki sighed and closed his eyes as he rubbed his temples, and the three men who'd come in with him looked like they were trying not to snicker to each other as they collected the cards. "You know what, screw the number system," Satzki said, more to himself than to the remaining few, before his gaze snapped up to meet with Kyle's. "You. Come in."