Cross-posted from my AO3.

This has got to be one of the dumbest ideas I have ever had, and is really just an excuse to have Kat singing a Queen song. I regret nothing.

- Don't Stop Me Now -

Jirga Para Lhao visiting Hekseville always made things interesting. The weeks it spent beside the city built into the world pillar was hectic, travellers and merchants hopping between the two and making the marketplaces of both cities busier than ever.

Part of the attraction for the people of Hekseville was how everything about Jirga Para Lhao was different from the norm for them. The architecture, the food, the fashion. But perhaps the thing that had the biggest effect on the pillar city was the music.

Kat had found out about that one the hard way. Somehow a song she'd made up, what felt like a lifetime ago, had ended up becoming a number one seller in Hekseville. Even now it was hard to go a day without hearing it being played somewhere.

Sometimes she got annoyed at the fact that no one knew it was her, and that she wasn't getting paid for the song's success, but the story of the mystery singer in the red dress was part of the song's charm so it would have felt wrong to take that away.

Besides, she had other music on her mind. Whenever Jirga Para Lhao was around, she couldn't resist taking a flight around it again. Visit Banga Settlement, the Angry Centipede base, even the Sun Mansion. But the thing that had stood out the most during her flight the day before was, in the central park in the old settlement of Lei Havina, she'd seen a great crowd of people and curiosity demanded she go see what was going on.

She heard them before she saw them, the drums and guitars. The booming music that had the hundreds of people dancing and singing along. Kat had never witnessed anything like it before, finding a place to land and watching the concert with a sense of awe. The band, led by a singer dressed in a bright yellow jacket over all white, seemed to have the crowd in the palm of their hands, effortlessly getting the mass of people dancing and singing along to song after song.

Even Kat got caught up in the enthusiasm, not even noticing as the hours passed and the concert ended. Feeling tired but satisfied, she headed back to the pipe house, vowing to find out exactly who that band was tomorrow, when she could actually keep her eyes open.

Raven was staying in Banga Settlement while they were around so Kat had the place to herself. Not that she noticed, she was out the moment her head touched the pillow. The next thing she knew it was morning and she had to try and extract herself from the bed without waking up Dusty who'd decided to sleep on her legs.

The clawtips to the ankle she got in response to that attempt certainly proved an effective wake up call. She left her starry cat to sulk on the bed while she headed around the curtain to her makeshift shower.

Normally she found herself humming the red apple song as she washed but this time the concert from yesterday was still fresh in her memory. The humming quickly got louder and louder before her foot started tapping and Kat started singing along to the tune in her head as she finished up and started getting dressed.

"Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time,
I feel alive and the world I'll turn it inside out, yeah,
And floating around in ecstasy
,
So don't stop me now, don't stop me,
'Cause I'm having a good time having a good time"

The last of the gold bands snapped into place and she pulled her scarf on, turning to head back through the curtains.

"I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity-"

The song died mid-verse as she stepped through the cloth to find Raven and Syd staring at her. Raven sat on a wooden chair, chewing on a bagel from a paper bag on her lap, while Syd leaned up against the wall by the entrance. No one seemed to know how to react, the two new arrivals just watching as Kat slowly blushed redder and redder.

"Mornin' Gravity Queen," Syd piped up eventually, deciding that someone had to say something before she exploded. "We did knock but, y'know… guess you didn't hear us."
"Bagel?" Raven offered the paper bag, figuring food would solve the awkwardness, "Cecie made them, they're good."
"You didn't offer me a bagel," Syd pointed out.
"Nope."

Kat wordlessly took the paper bag from Raven, setting it down beside her as she sat on the bed. Dusty wandered over to investigate, while Raven held up the last bite of her breakfast for Xii. Once her guardian was finished, she turned back to Kat who was now having to actively keep Dusty away from climbing into the bag.
"You know," Raven said, looking at the feline, "Dusty's more of a panther than a tiger."
"Got the defying gravity down though," Syd added, smirking.

The smirk faded at the glare Kat was giving. One stasis field later and the two were unceremoniously dropped on their backsides outside the pipe house. Kat tried to angrily slam the curtains shut behind her, which didn't entirely work. Especially not when Xii immediately came flapping through them to land on Raven's shoulder.
"I guess we'll come back later!" Syd called up through the curtain before looking at his fellow evictee, "and people say you're the cranky one in the morning."
"...Who says that?"

Now Raven was the one glaring at him. Sensing defeat and possible pain in his future, Syd climbed to his feet and headed for his airbike, claiming he had to go and get work done, finish getting through the backlog from his three year absence from Hekseville and all. Raven let him go, dusting herself off as he headed back up to Auldnoir and vanished.

"Well today's certainly been an interesting morning," she mused to Xii as she stepped over to the edge of the platform. She looked back at the pipe house, just in time for Kat to step outside now she'd calmed down.

Raven wasn't going to let the other gravity shifter get away with throwing her out on her backside that easily though. Hands on hips, blue aura shining as she lifted into the air.
"See you later," she called, before grinning and adding, "If you wanna have a good time, just give me a call!"

She took off before Kat could react, and especially before she could realise that she hadn't gotten that far in the song for Raven to have gotten that line from her. If Kat had been paying attention during the concert, she would have spotted some very familiar black and red hair amongst the crowd.