The show was fucking wild, riotous and loud, and Def March was on fire. Sweat ran down Tenho's face as he canted the backup lyrics into the mic with 777, BJ's voice running a low note along with them.

And then he was back a step, riffing the most badass solo ever, and just then, right there in the middle of his solo, he saw someone familiar in the audience: Phones and his posse, cheering and waving along with the rest of the packed house, but now that he'd seen 'em, they all stood out way more than even the flashiest Shibuya kid.

"You see who's out there?" he shouted to 777, and his band leader and friend flashed a huge white grin at him.

"Hell yeah, I see 'em!"

And he laughed into the mic before launching into the next verse.

The crowd completely lost it then, and later on Tenho would wonder how the noise didn't bring the house down. Not there there was any Noise in A-East today, not even the gnarly Vespertilio Canor, and the lights flared like a thousand psychs going off at once, and when 777 howled into the mic, it even sent chills down his spine.

The band came back for three encores, before 777 had to say,

"Enough, dudes. I'm all sung out. Thank you very much." And they'd finally floated off the stage (fucking floated, he'd swear, in the RG!)

"Hey man," 777 rasped to their security as they headed backstage. "That kid in the middle of the crowd? With the wild hair, and the blue headphones? Get him and his posse backstage."

Security-guy was surprised; they'd never had anyone backstage before, not once they started hittin' it big, but Phones and company were kinda special, in that way that only the guys who'd saved your whole damned world, and everyone you knew could be special, and there was no way to explain it to security-guy.

Tenho slouched all over one half of the couch, BJ taking up the other, and 777 was sprawled on the floor, flat on his back when the kids made it there, grinning like mad, and just as sweaty and hyped up as the band.

"Yo, that was tight," Beat said. Weird kid, Tenho thought; he'd been a harrier for like, a week, and then... Well, it was kinda fuzzy, but he was part of Phones' posse, so he was cool.

"You guys were great," Phones said, barely a beat (heh) behind, the grin on his face all bright in a way it hadn't been the first time he'd seen the kid. 777 sat up, grin just as big on his face.

"Yeah, we rocked the house!"

It got all chatty after that, with laughing, and greetings, and intro's all 'round, 'cause it wasn't like they'd all met formally before. And even Phones hadn't seen him and BJ face-to-face before, when they weren't on the job.

Several hours later, ex-harrier and his little sister were all passed out on the other couch, and 777'd lost his hoodie to cat-chick's needle, and BJ was just as KOed as the Skulls-kids, and Tenho was totally read to follow them.

"So, I noticed something," Phones said, from where he was sprawled near 777, and something in the tone of his voice that made Tenho sit up a little, and kinda pay attention.

"Yeah? What's that?" 777 asked. Phones looked over at him, and his eyes shifted a little, looking at--

Well, fuck me.

"We're all alive again," he said, gesturing at the rest of his posse. "And back in the RG."

"So?"

"So how come we can still see your wings?" Yeah, that sat Tenho right up. BJ grumbled, and Tenho elbowed him in the ribs.

"Pay attention, man," he said.

"...What?"

"Just pay attention."

Not that he knew the answer, or BJ, and, hell, 777 probably didn't either, but hell, if any of them did...

777 just shrugged his shoulders.

"Fuck if I know, man. Maybe 'cause you expect to see 'em. You shouldn't, in the RG, but, hell. Things got messed, and you fixed 'em. And Skulls over there was a fucking harrier, man, and that's gotta count for something."

Phones looked away again, eyes up towards the ceiling, right where a couplea Noise had been earlier, before he and BJ had shooed 'em out.

"Maybe," he allowed.

"Hey, whatever, not like it matters anymore," 777 said, thumping him on the shoulder. "You guys are coming to our next gig, right?"

"Of course!" cat-girl said. She had kinda a cute voice, and with those glasses... Yeah, give her a few years, she was totally BJ's type, and hey, she even knew about the UG stuff, so no worries there. Then maybe he'd stop mooning over that chick who dumped him.

If she didn't hook up with Phones, first.

Man, it was hard to find a girl.

"Wouldn't miss it," Phones agreed. And... Yeah, that was pretty cool. It was kinda cool to have friends who weren't reapers, too.

"Cool man, we'll look for you," Tenho said. His voice was almost as rough as 777's, and it cracked on the k, which got BJ laughing, which got the rest of them laughing.

Yeah, it was pretty cool.