Brendon, Sinful Cyanide, and their band were finishing up their final song, the one they called 'Emperor's New Clothes' or something like that. Kobra could never keep track of their weird song titles that they gushed over. American Psycho, Arms Race, Novocaine Night, and Missile Memory (Jet had labeled him as a man with a wannabe afro) had already finished, though Novocaine had already joined the four Killjoys offstage. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night, perfecting the songs that the four had asked him to play. Kobra felt bad, but he also felt the same degree of tiredness. He hadn't slept well. Why?
Because he knew she'd be here.
She was a Killjoy that resided in Battery City, keeping a watch over the citizens and delivering news to the Zone Three Killjoys.
But she didn't know Kobra would be up on that stage. That partially terrified him.
Brendon and his group finished, while the dark-haired man gave a deep bow towards the audience before exiting the stage. Party took a shaky breath before looking at his friends. "Hey, we can do this. Right?"
"Yeah, we can," Ghoul said, smirking and nodding at Jet. The stage went dark, Jet walking out first and followed by Novocaine. Ghoul went out next, Party hesitating with Kobra.
"You'll do fine," the redhead said, smiling slightly before walking out. Kobra followed hesitantly, walking around Ghoul and taking his place closer to the back in between Party and Ghoul. He placed his fingers accordingly on the bass, looking up at Party as he began to speak. He didn't introduce them, just made a tapping sound with his foot for Ghoul to start.
They knew their first song would be House of Wolves. The scratching sound of the pained guitar was quickly joined by the other instruments and the lights, Party beginning to sing-scream into the crappy microphone he had. "I know a thing about contrition, cause I got enough to share," he started, the nervousness slowly melting away. Soon enough, Party just owned the stage and was overflowing with confidence.
Ghoul joined him in on the 'take this to my grave' parts while occasionally chanting 's-i-n, I s-i-n' in the background. Kobra hardly moved, but did get quite into it. The next song they did was the one Party affectionately referred to as 'I'm Not O-Fuckin'-Kay'. He had both Jet and Ghoul on backing vocals, each doing their own part to sing-scream along.
Everything was moving so fast, it was a blur. The rush of adrenaline, the pure joy of playing the instruments, the growing cheers of the crowd... It was something new. However, yet again when Kobra turned around once he could see Ghoul on the ground for five seconds just jamming out. They finished as soon as they started, Party taking a few steps back from the stage's edge. He shot a grin at his bandmates, clearly enjoying this.
They moved on to Sing, slowing down to get more heartfelt. "Sing it for the ones that'll hate your guts!" Party had completely changed his personality onstage until the chorus, even then it was different. He wasn't as energetic, as he was taking more passion into his voice over his movements.
"Cleaned-up corporation progress, dying in the process! Children that can talk about it, living on the web ways; people moving sideways!" Party was once again getting energetic, moving a lot more now. It was rather distracting to Kobra to see his brother doing this, but amusing at the same time. However, none of them had seen him put more emotion than into the one line 'keep running'.
Once again, they had finished. Brendon walked out onstage, shooting a finger gun and clicking his tongue at the audience. He seated himself at the piano, his fingers waiting a few moments before hitting the 'G' key first.
Party Poison's voice was hesitant, sounding almost broken emotional wise as he started. That, however, wasn't gonna stop him. "When I was a young boy, my father took me into the city. To see a marching band..." He began, continuing on as Brendon slowly left the piano on stage as Jet and Ghoul prepared for the pace to speed up. "Zone Three, lemme hear ya!" Party yelled unexpectedly, earning cheers that were even more unexpected.
"Sometimes I get the feeling she's watching over me!
And other times I feel like I should go;
And through it all, the rise and fall, the bodies in the streets!
And when you're gone we want you all to know..."
Kobra shot Ghoul a glance, looking at the younger Killjoy smiling like an idiot as he obviously enjoyed the attention and the stage. Jet began his vocal piece, obviously nervous but still enjoying it.
"We'll carry on!"
Party finished, the instruments stopping. "I'm Party Poison, this is Jet Star, that's Fun Ghoul, and this is the Kobra Kid....and we're My Chemical Romance." He gestured to each of them in turn, returning the microphone to it's proper place before exiting the stage.
"Holy shit that was amazing!" They had barely gotten backstage before Ghoul was already gushing. "That was so awesome! They liked us, we sounded great, and we finally preformed some of our own music!"
Party was chuckling. "That was a lot better than I thought it would be," he agreed, "and now, when you think of it, we can get those great cheeseburgers that Bulletproof makes after these shows."
Kobra stayed quiet, simply nodding whenever someone addressed him. He returned the bass, getting a drink before anything else. He just asked for shots as soon as he got to the bar, ignoring the questioning glances. Yes, that was probably one of the most fun things he'd done in his life, but he hardly wanted to talk about it. He was on the second shot when she arrived next to him.
"Whatever he's having," she said, sitting next to him. He knew her to be called Blue Bullets, though she was a brunette and incredibly shorter than him. Gently curved, most of the time Kobra saw her in the white clothes of Battery City. Now she was in a loose fitting tank top and extraordinarily tight jeans.
"I haven't seen you in more than a year," Kobra said quietly, glancing at her with his recently refilled glass.
"What number is that for you?"
"Three."
Bullets rolled her eyes, "slow down." She downed hers, grabbing a second. "You guys sounded great up there. Why haven't you done it sooner?"
"We're not professional at all. We've hardly done anything for people before," Kobra said. When he glanced back, he saw Party looking around. Presumably for him. He averted his gaze, lighting one of the cigarettes he had stolen from Ghoul and making short work of the shot.
"Is something wrong?" Bullets asked, looking back and spotting Party Poison quickly.
"I just don't want to talk to any of them right now. Is that so wrong?" The 'Kid took a long drag from the cigarette, staring down his fourth shot. He was getting slightly dizzy already, but why would he care? Everything was starting to come back at once, his parents, his friends, his brother... Bad and good memories, but the bad outweighing the good. He hardly knew how or why he could remember all of this, but he wanted to forget it.
Blue Bullets looked at the blonde, taking her shot quickly and obviously already feeling slightly tipsy. "I suppose not-" she took his cigarette, taking a drag and blowing the smoke in his face. "-but there is only so much you can do about it."
Kobra took back the cancer stick, glaring slightly. He could feel his head reeling after the next shot, but he was gonna keep going. "We should get away from the bar if you don't want to be seen by them," the brunette said.
"You mean if I want to keep half of my integrity," Kobra muttered.
"Who's to say you can't just lose it for once? It's your night." Bullets shot him a wink as he took the final shot he had gotten.
He hesitated, sighing. "Whatever. Sure," Kobra said, dropping the cigarette and crushing it under the heel of his boot. "Let's go before someone stops me-" he paused to grab two beers, paying and following Bullets upstairs as quietly yet quickly as possible.
"Where'd that little shit go?"
Jet was the only one who wasn't completely wasted. He looked at the redhead that had asked the question, shrugging. "Who knows?"
American Psycho and Arms Race were already practically eating each other's faces off as they kissed, but that wasn't mentioning Brendon and Sinful Cyanide. Party Poison was trying to stay on the same drunkness level as Jet (basically next to none), but that wasn't really working out. Ghoul was the worst, slurring and smoking and having lost any sense of shyness he once had.
"Seriously, where is he? He's just vanished."
Ghoul looked at Party, taking a long drag and blowing out the smoke with a rather amused expression. "Who are you looking for?"
"The Kobra Kid, who else?"
Fun Ghoul paused. He didn't know whether or not to tell Party Poison where his brother was. "Er..." Party looked over, glaring and quirking an eyebrow. "Last I saw he was at the bar," Ghoul covered, shrugging then bursting out into a random spasm of giggles. He returned to his conversation with Missile Memory, ignoring the redhead and the frizzy-haired Killjoy.
Jet glanced towards the bar. "He's obviously not there now. What's so important?"
"Well, he just fuckin' disappeared. I don't want to hear he got himself hurt when he's still getting over that wound-"
"You're overthinking it. He'll be fine," Jet said, grabbing Party by his shoulders and giving him a slight shake. "Stop worrying, stop drinking. Go to bed, you're drunk-" Jet stopped speaking when he could hear Brendon singing loudly. Crazy On You. Heart. "I'm surrounded by idiots..."
Kobra stared at the ceiling, his arms wrapped around Bullets. It had been nearly two hours, and at this point he was sure if he went downstairs Party would flip. "Mikes?" she asked, her head resting on his chest.
"Yes?"
"Do you have to leave again?"
The blonde hesitated, glancing at her once. "I...have to. Like you do. We can't stop fighting." Bullets frowned, knowing he was right. She kept her gaze away, shutting her eyes. "I mean, or you could just run away with me."
"What?! You would do that?!" Bullets bolted upright, an instant smile appearing on her face. "When?"
"After we get back from Battery City, will you run away with me? Away from all this bullshit?" Kobra hesitated, sitting up next to her. He ran his fingers through his hair, then asked again in his entire shirtless glory. "Will you, Charli, run away with me?"
"Well of course!"
He didn't know better, he was just a goddamn teenager. Mikey felt like he really knew what love was whenever he was with her. "I can't wait," he murmured into her ear, leaving a trail of kisses on her neck before meeting eyes with her. His hazel gaze was soft as a smile played across his lips. Bullets threw her arms around him, locking their lips in a gentle kiss.
"I love you," she whispered after pulling away, resting her head on his bony shoulder.
Kobra glanced at her, "I love you, too."
He moved to put on a sweatshirt, then got comfortable again. They didn't have to leave until tomorrow at the earliest (which, when knowing Jet is when they'd wind up leaving), so it gave Mikey a bit of time to himself with Charlotte and his hangover.
"God damn it," he practically announced, frowning and whining as he did so.
"What is it, darling?"
"I'm hungry, but food is so far away..."
"Get off your lazy ass and go get some."
There wasn't any arguing with the brunette at that point. Grumbling under his breath about not wanting to be recognized, he nonetheless went downstairs in the equivalent of sweatpants and a pullover hoodie. The blonde drew the hood up over his face, noting that some of the Killjoys were still awake as he reached behind the bar to grab one of the leftover cold cheeseburgers.
Hell, after eating Power Pup for so long he couldn't give two shits if it was cold or hot.
He started to eat it on his way back upstairs, a hand on his shoulder stopping him halfway up. "Party was looking for you," the voice of Jet Star said.
"Cool. Where's he now?"
"Passed out on a chair. You don't even want to ask about Ghoul..." Jet visibly shuddered.
Kobra rolled his eyes. "Of course. Now I'm gonna go eat and sleep and probably throw up in the morning. Good night," the blonde said bluntly. He returned to the room, only getting back into bed with Charlotte after he had finished the food. Mikey fell asleep with his arms wrapped loosely around the brunette.
- - - - - - -
A/N:
So, uhm, this chapter unpublished?
Like, what the fuck?
So this is just a repost, but I also wouldn't put it past myself to screw that up.