AN: HAPPY 89 YEARS MICKEY AND MINNIE! (The AO3 version of this is the superior version)
Manfred Mouse is my OC. Everyone else belongs to Disney.
"Are you sure you don't need my help with anything?" Minnie persisted for the umpteenth time long before the show started. It was more out of her being uncomfortable with not being the one running the show behind the scenes than anything and she hated being left in the dark, even if this one time was for a very specific purpose.
"Minnie, I've got everything under control, and I've had it under control for a few weeks now. So please, for the love of Mike, scooch your booch on out into the audience and wait for Mickey, he'll be out any minute to join you, besides, everything's a surprise for you two, I can't risk you looking at my notes now of all times." Calmly replied Manfred, Mickey's white furred and otherwise lookalike of a cousin and occasional understudy for hosting in case of an emergency or special occasions such as this one. Donald was too unintelligible for the audience to understand him, Goofy was busy enough as is as head waiter, and Daisy…was not going to get her big break this time, it was too special of a night for any of her shenanigans, thus Manfred was the most reliable for the job.
It was Mickey and Minnie's anniversary, and by Mickey's decision since it fell on a work day, he gave Minnie and himself the night off but they'd stay in the club as audience members, and as technical back up should anything screwy happen (they never trusted the club with their friends alone again after the time they went on vacation).
"She doesn't hafta wait fer me, Manfred. I'm right here." Came Mickey's voice as he finally came out of his dressing room. Minnie's heart skipped a beat as soon as she caught sight of him, as he looked dashingly handsome in his champagne colored tuxedo with purple accents, interestingly enough he was wearing an old fashioned cravat with an orange Topaz brooch outlined in purple to accentuate it and the rest of his suit. "Hiya, gorgeous." He addressed Minnie as he drew closer to her. They had coordinated to each other, so she was wearing a champagne colored dress as well, which was lined with clear beads that sparkled in the light.
"Well, hello there, handsome." Minnie cooed back at him, wrapping her arms around him as soon as he was close enough, and soundly kissed him for good measure. "Happy Anniversary, Mickey." She sighed wistfully at him after she pulled away from the kiss.
"Happy Anniversary, Min." Mickey replied lovingly, and then he sneakily reached behind him and presented her with a red rose, which he had hidden behind his back and held by his tail. "For you, my lady."
"Oh Mickey!" She gushed in adoration as she gingerly took the rose and kissed him again. This time, however, they had to be interrupted.
"Okay, okay, as much as I adore you two, I'm on in literally two minutes and you will have the spotlight on you for a few seconds as I introduce why tonight is special! So please, for the love of Walt, get out there or I will beat you out there with a stick!" Manfred threatened and grabbed a magic broom that was innocently passing by for emphasis.
"Alright, Manfred, we're going…Where are we seated again?" Mickey sighed at his cousin and asked one last time.
"Oy vey, you're gonna be the death of me," Manfred grumbled, pinching near his eyes. "First booth closest to the stage, on this side of the stage mind you, it's got a reserved sign on it, you really can't miss it." He pointed behind them, since it was right out that door. But his countenance brightened upon remembering something for them to try. "Oh, and remember to order the special desert that was made in your honor at some point, I promise it's low on calories that you won't have to worry about making it a cheat day to eat it."
"Thanks Manfred, we'll keep it in mind." Minnie replied, cheerfully, and teasingly added, "Are you sure you don't need my help?"
"Positive, now get out there, wouldja?" Manfred shot back playfully, and turned to get ready for his cue to get on stage. Manfred was only nervous in his choice for the first cartoon, it was always something to hesitate about, but he calmed himself down with the lines he was going to explain to the audience about that too as he adjusted his red bowtie, the suit was purple, the same one Mickey wore on April Fool's day to present Donald with an award to show how good of a sport he was for taking the humiliation like a champ, regardless that he nearly retaliated with Pumbaa's stench wafting throughout the club. Mickey let him borrow the suit just for this occasion.
"He's everyone's favorite cousin twice removed, its Manfred Mouse~!" Mic introduced in his usual show biz way.
"Hiya, folks! And welcome to a very special evening at the House of Mouse! Tonight, we're properly celebrating the anniversary of the mice who continued what the rabbit and cat started, our very own, Mickey and Minnie Mouse!" Manfred cajoled and waved an arm in the direction of the two aforementioned mice, and as he had warned them, a spotlight shined on them to highlight their appearance for the occasion. They smiled and waved and the audience clapped, some even whistled in appreciation. Then, with another hand gesture directed at Horace Horcecollar in the tech booth, the spotlight turned off, leaving the lovers in the collective darkness of being fellow audience members.
"For those that are sitting closest to them, please try not to stare in starstruck awe, because I can guarantee they will give you cavities with their ushy gushy lovey doveyness." There was no way Manfred could stay sounding professional with those last four words, so he made them sound a sickeningly sweet as possible to get his point across, before returning back to his professionalism and Mickey-like aloofness (that the audience seemed to prefer) as he continued. "Now this first cartoon I heavily debated on because it was a matter of which came first and what would be appropriate to show off their love for each other having lasted through thick and thin even after all these years. In the end I decided that their rocky start in Plane Crazy was not appropriate, and that Steamboat Willie was the better option after all since it helped kick start our entire history as Toons." As Manfred finished his explanation he gave a humble bow and side stepped off stage while in that bow's position.
While Steamboat Willie played on the big screen, the honorary lovers were up to their usual antics in flirting with each other, as Manfred predicted and warned the patrons nearest to them. Not wanting to disturb said patrons with any giggling from their loving banter, they were as close together as a couple so clearly in love could be, as Minnie sat on Mickey's lap.
"I'm a bit surprised he even had ta debate between Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie, Steamboat was the obvious way ta go from the start." Mickey mused quietly to Minnie. Since they were so close to each other they only needed to whisper and not worry about having to raise their voices over the cartoon.
"I agree…How much you wanna bet Puppy Love is up next?" Minnie cooed back in his ear lovingly, discreetly taking a small nip of it while she was at it. He chuckled softly at it and she joined him since his laughter was contagious.
"I bet nothin' since there's no way it's not next, love of my life." Mickey cooed back affectionately, pecking a small kiss on her neck. He felt her shiver at it even though she giggled softly because of it. Then she countered by kissing him outright, practically melding her lips to his as she clearly had no intention of letting him go.
As much as he melted in her embrace, he still kept himself heavily aware of their surroundings and Steamboat Willie was almost over. He mentally sighed as he knew there wouldn't be any time to pry himself from Minnie's grip and excuse himself for any reason, so he reached into his pocket and hit a button on his pager.
Which alerted Manfred to go put on make-up to look exactly like Mickey.
"Couldn't pry yourself away after all, huh? I told you we should've scheduled it later, but no, now I have to do it while you lip sync to my impersonation of you." Manfred playfully complained to himself, as he applied his make-up.
Mickey was scheduled to do a song for his lady love, but it was an iffy scheduling so they planned accordingly in case Mickey couldn't pull himself away from her. Thus, it was extremely fortunate that though Manfred's natural voice was lower than his cousin's, he could still impersonate Mickey to perfection, and unlike a certain Miklos the grey furred scourge, Manfred only impersonated him when asked to, and when Mickey needed to be in two places at once. Though Manfred was capable of fooling even Minnie, his moral compass never let him fool her for too long, so he tended to steer clear of any drama with her on that matter.
In any case, he finished up his make-up in time to get back on stage and near Huey, Dewey, and Louie so he could musically coordinate with them accordingly. There was a hush in the audience as their applause slowly died out, herd minded from all the folks in the front row who were confused at seeing another Mickey, and only a handful knew it was still Manfred.
The hushed murmurs of confusion reached the mice's booth, and Mickey gave himself up to his beloved as she looked about ready to get up and help if something went wrong.
"I was supposed ta do a song, but there was no time fer me ta pull myself away from ya without it lookin' suspicious. So this is the next best thing Manfred and I could think of." He admitted bashfully, hoping she'd understand. Thankfully she did, however…
"Mickey, you can still get up and do the song now that you've told me…though I do have to admit that I did have Manfred schedule a song for me too, since we're throwing it out there." She told him honestly, scooting off of his lap to let him go. But he didn't dare move. Instead he chuckled and took one of her hands in both of his and kissed the back of it affectionately.
"Too late fer that, there's a big enough awkward pause as is, and besides…It wouldn't mean as much if I weren't right here beside ya." Mickey replied lovingly, then he glanced at Manfred and nodded at him to start the cue.
Manfred did see it and counted down from three for the boys to start playing, a little heavy on the bass because the song was not quite for the instruments the triplets had at their disposal. Regardless, in Mickey's voice Manfred sang I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face into an old fashioned looking microphone, and Mickey himself lip synced to it so perfectly that Minnie believed the illusion presented even if it weren't for the fact that she was already told about it.
Minnie mostly gazed into Mickey's gorgeous, gentle brown eyes but was otherwise pleasantly in awe of her personal entertainment. As soon as the song ended, of course Minnie kissed him several times over every area of his face that she could reach, resuming her position of sitting on his lap.
The audience roared in their applause especially those who didn't know that it wasn't actually Mickey on stage, but so didn't the ones who did and whistled loudly in appreciation for Manfred's brilliant performance.
A towel was tossed from somewhere to Manfred and he quickly wiped off the make-up to reveal himself for those who didn't know, and an extra round of applause rang through the audience at the reveal, it was very quickly a standing ovation and it even started with the mice after they finally pulled away from each other. Manfred was actually quite surprise when the applause turned into a standing ovation, but bowed graciously nonetheless. It came to the point where it lasted long enough that he actually had to direct the audience to settle down so he could continue with the show.
"Remember when I said we'd be showing off their love for each other through thick and thin? I wasn't kidding, because that's exactly how the rest of the night is gonna go, starting with a little short called, Puppy Love." Manfred announced cheerfully, still flattered from the standing ovation. As soon as he had said the title of the short, the big screen came to life again and Manfred ducked and walked briskly off stage to get any make-up he missed off of him.
Meanwhile, the honored lovers of the evening gave each other a small celebratory fist bump for totally calling it, before cuddling up together again. Minnie, happy as a clam in Mickey's lap now lay her head on his shoulder, and in turn Mickey nestled his cheek on top of her head (since he is taller than her). They chuckled here and there at their on screen antics, even at the ol' switcharoo Pluto pulled just to impress Fifi, Minnie's old dog before Walt replaced her with Figaro as Minnie's pet for one reason or another. As the short neared the end Minnie sighed wistfully at the promise her on screen-self proposed of never quarreling again. They've had plenty of quarrels since then, but thankfully none ever damaged their relationship to the point of no repair.
"We never did keep that promise, did we?" She asked him mostly rhetorically but she knew he would answer to the best of his ability anyway.
"Guess not, but it just goes ta show we love each other enough that we'd always work things out by talkin' about it, even if we'd hafta take a break from one another ta gather our thoughts properly." Mickey replied sagely, and it was deep wise words like that, that tended to throw Minnie for a loop because sage advice like that from him tended to come at the weirdest times compared to his usual personality. Regardless, she turned to him with a smile and kissed him deeply for a few seconds.
"Thanks sweetie, you always know the right things to say when I need to hear it most. And I still don't know how you do it either." She told him fondly after pulling away from the kiss.
"I don't know either, it just comes ta me when necessary, especially when ya feel down about somethin'." Mickey quipped nonchalantly with a small shrug. Minnie smiled and kissed him again for a little longer this time, and even when she did eventually pull away, she gave one last little peck to his lips.
"I have to go and get ready for my song, but you stay right here, because I will be singing it directly to you." She told him sweetly, as she reluctantly scooched herself out of the booth.
"Alright, Min. I'm lookin' forward to it already." He replied proudly. It wasn't often that she performed considering that she generally ran the whole show from behind the scenes and didn't have time to, but when she did, it was always a treat. He should've convinced her to do more duets together, after what could've been Daisy's big break with the different pronunciation duet, the audience certainly went wild after seeing him and Minnie perform together for the first time in a long while. Oh well, food for the thought on a rainy day.
He scooched himself over to the end of the circular booth so that he was as close to the stage as possible, childishly looking and leaning over the back of it, standing on his knees on the seat, so that he would literally have the best view in the house since the stage was right there a few inches away.
The audience applauded as Puppy Love ended, and as their applause faded out, Manfred dragged a stool almost to center stage, he was on the edge of the ear floor to be precise, and he had a guitar with him. Of course he sat on the stool with guitar in hand, and at the first chords he strummed, Mickey instantly knew what song Minnie was going to sing (he made the chorus his ringtone for when she called him after all), and he couldn't've been more flattered. And on cue, out came Minnie with the old fashioned microphone Manfred had used earlier, singing away, unable to help herself from doing her little comments in between certain lines as she did when she first sang Mickey's The Mouse For Me in recording.
"The first time I saw him I knew he would be someone who~!" She sighed romantically at him, giving him a wink as she continued. "Could capture my heart the way I dreamed that someone would do~! Small, dark, and handsome, and funny, and charming was he~! Oh, I knew from the start that Mickey was themouse for me! Whoa-oh-oh!
"M-I-C, I see him in all of my dreams. Oh~! K-E-Y, why he is as nice as he seems. (My mouse!) M-O-U, you know he'll always be mine~! S and E, even to the end of time~!
"It seems just like yesterday, Mickey and I had first met (What a day~!) We were drawn together, in a moment I'll never forget. (Oh he was so cute!)" She giggled and continued without skipping a beat, while the big screen did a little montage to visually interpret what she was singing. "Those little red shorts with the buttons and then each hand a glove, (oh that I love) and me in my polka dot dressed up for some mouse to love! Oh, oh, OH!" She had been close enough that one of her arms was within Mickey's reach and he sneakily kissed his way up her arm, earning that last squeal of an 'oh' when he kissed her neck. She cheekily pushed him away playfully so she could keep singing.
"M-I-C, I see him in all of my dreams (Oh yes I do~!) K-E-Y, why he is as nice as he seems~! (My Mickey~!) M-O-U, you know he'll always be mine~! S and E, even to the end of time~! Oh~! Mickey and Me, until the end of time~! (What a mouse~!)" She finished, gazing right at him with her last declaration that showed in her tone just how much she loved him. As soon as Manfred stopped strumming, Minnie gently tugged at Mickey's cravat and drew him in for a kiss as the audience once again roared with applause.
However, the show must go on there was still some show left, so after a few generous seconds, Minnie finally pulled away from the kiss and took her proper bow for the audience, Manfred had already bowed his head, not wanting to get up from his surprisingly comfy seat in the stool. Besides he still had another cartoon to introduce. Minnie handed Manfred the old fashioned microphone and walked the extremely short distance back to the booth seat and rejoined Mickey, who scooched back over to the middle so they could schmooze and flirt again.
"My sincerest apologies for anyone who's got cavities now because of that darling song, but I can guarantee that you're only going to get more even after this next cartoon." Manfred announced and with a gesture toward the screen the next cartoon started up. It was Locked in Love, a much more recent cartoon of internationally adorable proportions.
"Oh, I love this one!" Minnie cooed and nestled her head into Mickey's shoulder, sitting in his lap again.
"Aw, me too, though I love all of our cartoons together." Mickey whispered back sweetly.
"So do I~!" Minnie replied, pulling back momentarily just so she could kiss his cheek affectionately. He kissed her back of course, even if he knew it made her want more of his taste, as even when he tried to pull away from the kiss, she nipped his bottom lip and persisted in continuing it. She only continued it for a little while longer as she remembered the cartoon was still going and it was one of her favorites of the newer ones. She would have him all to herself much later after all, and she'd wait for eternity for him if she had to.
When the cartoon ended, the applause was as wild as it had been all night, and grew even louder than thought possible as Manfred pushed out the grand piano from backstage. It had a microphone attached to it, and though Manfred would have preferred singing this last song standing and with that old fashioned microphone again, but it was a matter of not having more jazz instruments and Donald's nephew's not being adapt to said instruments, so he had to make do with a piano alone for this song. Then he had a thought.
"Is there anyone in the house who knows how to play a bass saxophone and that particular harmony for As Time Goes By?" He asked the audience. They applauded for the song choice first, before dying down and looking towards each other for anyone who had the instrumental skills required. "A pluck of strings from an actual bass would also be nice." Manfred added.
After more murmuring throughout the audience by some miraculous intervention and after so many attempts to book them and have them stay booked, O'Malley and the Alley Cats hopped up onto the stage to help with the Jazz aspect. Minnie nearly fainted because she had tried so hard to book them numerous times.
"Holy smokes, thanks fellas!" Manfred greeted and thanked the cats in honest surprise, then gathered himself enough to introduce them. "O'Malley and the Alley Cats, everyone!" More applause from the audience.
"Anything for our two favorite mice in show biz." O'Malley cajoled joyfully over the applause of the audience.
Then Manfred instructed them briefly on the tempo, and quickly got to work at tickling the ivory keys of the piano for the intro notes before he finally started to sing in his proper tenor voice while he continued to play. The bass joined him as soon as he got to the word 'sigh' and the bass saxophone joined in as well when he finally got to the first title drop.
Needless to say the song was a huge success despite not having been rehearsed and extremely improvised. The audience loved it, and so did Mickey and Minnie, and it was another standing ovation. Manfred, and O'Malley and the Alley Cats graciously bowed, and collectively they all gestured to the booth Mickey and Minnie were sitting in.
"Another applause for our couple of honor everyone!" Manfred offered over the roar of the crowd, and on suggestion they got louder even as Mickey and Minnie bowed and curtsied respectively for the audience. "That's all for tonight folks! Thanks for coming! Take us outta here Mic!" Manfred had to shrill over the audience's roar of ongoing standing ovation of applause.
Regardless of the advertisement falling onto very deaf ears, Mic went on to advertise Manfred's Marriage Counseling, with the discretion of 'please don't sue if his advice doesn't work, he's just trying to help.'
"Until next time, see ya real soon!" Manfred shrilled again for an invisible fourth walled audience, because the audience in the house still hadn't died down.