The karaoke bar was crowded and quite noisy that night: they barely had found a table and they were also finished in the middle of someone's birthday party.
Saga sipped his beer, looking around bored. The two small strobe lights on the sides of the stage, combined with the long lines of colorful lanterns hanging across the room, were too troublesome for him: he found himself thinking, with regret, that he would rather stay at home in the quiet of his living room, reading and correcting the schoolwork of his students.
How the hell he could be persuaded to leave his house?
Around him, his companions and all the patrons of the karaoke bar were accompanying aloud Kanon that, on stage, after having sung Happy Birthday to a girl three tables away, was singing a rousing rock ballad with the same verve and energy of a consummate rocker.
"Ooh, we're halfway there, oooh, livin 'on a prayer ..."
He drew back from Aiolia -who sat next to him-, that began to shriek more than others, and raised his eyes to heaven.
Athena, do something to ends this evening soon, please.
Take my hand and we'll make it, i swear, ooooh, livin 'on a prayer ..."
Even a person as serious as Camus was singing aloud: okay, he had to find an excuse and to find it quickly, to get out of that pit of hell.
"Um... I'm going home, I have a bad headache." he cried after a moment, exasperated, raising his voice to be heard above the chorus.
"...what? You leave us already? Come on, the night is still young, wait a bit more!" exclaimed Aioros.
"No, really, but..."
The roar of applause that followed Kanon's performance interrupted him in half, forcing it to search quickly another way out.
Kanon took a long sip of beer, before taking up the microphone.
"Whoah! What a night guys!" exclaimed, load like never before.
The birthday girl seemed to appreciate his brother. Saga saw her whispering with her friends, indicating Kanon.
"BIS!"
"I'm flattered, sweetheart. But... I would say that now is time to leave this place to someone else... who wants to take a ride? Mu? Yeah? Oh, don't be shy! Come on guys, don't disappoint me! Camus! Come on, you wanna try?"
"For Athena's sake, no, or he will begin to sing one of his whining French songs!" snapped Milo.
"Oh yes I forgot! Camus... we love you but... Dalida would turn in her grave, and i cannot allow that. Um... let's see ..."
"Why not Saga?"
Kanon looked Aioros and Saga, who was sitting not far from their friend, looking at him with eyes of fire.
"Don't you dare."
"Saga? I don't know. Saga is my brother, by the way. My serious, responsible and conscientious brother and ... i love him, really. But he would never, and i mean never, have the courage to do something like that. Oh, no. "
"Oh yes instead!"
"Aioros, I'll kill you, I swear."
Still standing on stage, Kanon chuckled in amusement.
"No, no. He would not. In fact... to be honest he also made a scene in the car, because I have dragged him here by force: I have to correct the homework of my students he told me, and tomorrow a tremendous day in classroom is expecting me and blah blah blah. So trust me: he wouldn't do that. "
Goddamned bastard.
He swore to himself that before he would make it pay to Aioros, then it would be Kanon's turn: the next day he stopped being the older brother to become an only child.
"C'mon Saga, after all we're here to have fun!"
"You are here to have fun, i was forced!" he hissed in response to Aphrodite.
"Don't be a spoilsport and get on that stage!" Aioros urged him.
"We'll deal this tomorrow."
"What?! What?" Kanon pretended he had not heard what the crowd shouted, then looked back at him. "You say yes? Do you really think that he will come here? Okay. So I bet a hundred euro that he will not go up on this stage."
Camus cleared his throat.
"For personal experience i say that the more you remain seated, the more this thing will tend to get worse." he told him. "So go ahead, take your money and shut up your brother."
He took a deep breath then, after drinking a big gulp of the Milo's Long Island, he stood up to everyone's amazement.
"Let's bet two hundred euros." he said, narrowing his eyes, while the present resumed their voices, urging him.
"Oh, wow! Two hundred, okay." Kanon chuckled, going down from the stage, offering the microphone to Saga, defiantly.
Saga making his way through the crowd, grabbing Aioros for the sweater.
"...what are you doing?!"
"Don't you think that i would sing alone, right?" he hissed, with a sinister smile on his face while in the room all the presents were encouraging them. He pressed a few buttons on the screen next to them, choosing a song of his favorite band. "If I have to lose my face, I'll lose it with you, my friend."
"... What do you have in mind?!" Aioros whispered, recognizing after a while the unmistakable John Deacon's riff. "Oh no. Under pressure? Really?"
"Oh yes." Saga guffawed. "And to be fair i want to inform you that i will sing David Bowie's part. To you the honor of interpreting Freddie. Treat him well or you'll be sorry."
"You can't be serious!"
It was wrong: that night was proving more enjoyable than he expected.
This was inspired from a Ps:I love you scene and a Tumblr blog and one of his prompt (this one): Imagine your OTP singing "Under Pressure" together at a karaoke bar. Which one sings David Bowie's part and which one sings Freddie Mercury's part?
Kanon sings "Livin' on a prayer" by Bon Jovi.