She took another drink of her soda as Bambi downed another shot of liquid courage and Bryn took another, more reserved drink of her beer. Bambi had apparently talked the Howlers into letting the girls do a karaoke song, and since Bambi had arranged begged or pleaded her way into- the chance, she'd claimed to be able to choose the song and take the lead. She'd chosen a rock song- undoubtedly in an effort to impress the rock-band-members-Howlers- Any Way You Want It. Ali loved the song personally, but it was... obvious to say the least, given Bambi's penchant for getting drunk and throwing herself at the nearest unmated Were-Hunter, but whatever. She was only backup, which actually annoyed her. She and her sisters before they were separated in the divorce used to belt the song out together whenever Brynna was left alone in charge.
Bambi took another- which made it three total- shot and gripped the bar for a second before turning to the stage with a determined glitter in her eyes. Ali turned to the stage, watching the Howlers set up, and almost rolled her eyes before they fell on Angel. Gods, he was handsome. Totally out of her league, but so hot nonetheless. He was testing the mics, and she watched him drift from the back of the stage to the front and back, exchanging mics to test, resisting an appreciative sigh. She could just watch him move for days and not get bored. Sometimes she found it hard to believe that other mere humans that weren't up to speed on the Were- and Dark-Hunter worlds didn't catch on. The way Angel moved was anything but human. He practically prowled like he was in his original form, his strides long and languid, his head cocked for any out-of-place sound, his eyes occasionally glancing up to scan the crowd like the wild cat he was.
Before she could make a total fool of herself by staring longingly up at the stage like Bambi was still doing, Bambi had broken from Bryn and Ali at the bar and strode to the stage, obviously expecting the girls to follow. Immediately distracted from Angel, Ali shot an annoyed look to Bryn. "Well, I guess Bambi's backup bitches had better just follow her to her debut." She snapped, not surprised when Bryn raised an eyebrow at her. That comment was snide, especially coming from normally chill, peppy Ali. But Bambi's attitude and obvious ploy to get one of the Howlers in the back room was annoying her. She didn't mind playing winggirl, but at least have the decency to appreciate it.
But instead of calling her on her cattiness, Bryn simply smiled knowingly as Trip, Colt, and Angel suddenly appeared on their other side of the bar. She could almost feel Bambi change course to come back to them as the boys called for a beer each before going onstage. They'd be playing for the girls, even Angel, who'd be taking another bass alongside Colt. Trip slinked between Ali and Bryn, who both laughed at him. "So ladies, we gonna get any dirty dancing up onstage tonight? It's paining us to let you play up there, you can at least make it entertaining."
Ali opened her mouth to disappoint him, but Bambi's high-pitched laugh interrupted her as she finagled herself between Angel and Colt. Ali felt the unnatural urge to growl- a full throated, Were-Hunter type growl- at Bambi for being pushy around Angel, but she stamped down the urge, not made any easier by Bambi's proclamation.
"Maybe. I'll be singing lead, so I'll do my best to put on a good show."
Bryn's foot kicked Ali lightly in the shin, knowing how close Ali was to snapping aloud at Bambi. Her eldest and closest sister knew better than anyone how much Ali hated being talked down to- it was one reason Leo had waited so long to assign her a Hunter, wanting to make sure she had the ability to censor herself in the face of condescension. She'd always hated it, and she'd speculated more than once that it stemmed from being youngest and almost always talked down to.
But she had a control on it, and she simply grinned at Trip as he raised an eyebrow at Bambi and turned back to Ali and Bryn, to Bambi's annoyance. "So you both won't be singing for us?"
Bryn laughed and shook her head, and Ali rolled her eyes dramatically. "Nope. I can't sing."
"Aw, everybody can sing."
Angel snorted at Trip's declaration, and Trip ignored him as he and Colt downed their beers in a few gulps and headed back to the stage. "Well, our loss I guess. Shall we?" He offered an arm to each girl, and while Bryn took it, Ali laughed and used him to push off from the bar and skipped her way to the stage, following the other two to where Dame was already at his drums, spinning his sticks idly. The girls set up at the three mics, two toward the middle of the stage, one at the front, and waited for the boys to don their instruments and Dame to count them in.
"She loves to laugh, she loves to sing, she does everything..." Bambi broke into song and shimmied her hips seductively, trying to play to the crowd. "She loves to move, she loves to groove, she loves the lovin' things!" Her voice broke a little as she tried to go too high for the last line, and suddenly Trip's voice was in Ali's head.
~I take it back. Not everyone can sing.~
She shot him a 'be nice' glare. Even if she got on her nerves- and Trip was entirely right- Bambi was still her friend. He winked back at her and she turned to front to sing the few backup lines, and shot Bryn a grin, starting to enjoy herself despite the backup dancer role.
"I was alone, I never knew, what good love could do..." She tried to shimmy up to Colt, who grinned gamely but edged himself out of her range, and even oblivious Ali could tell she was dangerously close to hip-checking his guitar entirely out of his hands. "Ooh, then we touched, then we sang, about the lovin' things!" She'd moved away from Colt and back to the front.
~So which of us, exactly is she trying to fuck?~
She shot him another brief glare as she locked her jaw to keep from laughing aloud. She could tell he knew what she wanted to do because his grin grew from where he stood to her right, and he didn't stop.
~Can we just cut off the power and put us out of our misery?~
Another glare, and he took pity on her for a second. She took the opportunity to glance at Bryn, who looked back to catch her eye. She raised an eyebrow at Bryn like 'Should I?' and to her immense surprise, Bryn grinned widely back at her, giving her permission to take the stage and audience by surprise for her favorite parts.
Bambi, oblivious to all the silent conversations going on behind her back, was still playing it up to the crowd, who were captivated, at least by the Howlers, if not the girls. She took the solo parts as Bryn and Ali chanted their "Any way you want it that's the way you need it"s.
"Annnnny waaaaay... Any way you want it that's the way you need it, annnnnnny waaaaaaaaay..." Her voice broke drastically, like her voice was changing mid song, and Ali barely refrained from wincing to avoid embarrassing her friend. She could almost feel Trip about to smart off again, but then the familiar note struck, and Ali suddenly opened her mouth to belt her own solo,
"Any wa-aay..." A note was actually skipped on Trip's and Colt's guitar when she caught the two of them off guard, and the crowd was momentarily struck until Griffe suddenly swung the spotlight from Bambi to Ali, letting the crowd know exactly who it was that had actually hit the high soprano. Bambi went slack-jawed as Bryn and Ali stage whispered together, "Any way you want it that's the way you need it," until the next two solo lines, which Ali belted out with not a professional voice, but one that suggested she was more than a little familiar with the high solos.
The song ended, and Ali laughed delightfully as Bryn practically tackled her in a hug, laughing her own energized laugh. Bambi had a forced smile and came over to hug the girls- at least while they were still on stage and within earshot of the Howlers, and Bryn mouthed 'Bathroom!' and the three girls danced their way off stage as the jukebox took over. Ali blew a kiss to a deviously surprised looking Trip, and her good mood lasted all the way to the bathroom, when Bambi finally dropped the fake smile and glared at Ali. "The hell was that?"
"I was just having fun." Ali laughed, which only seemed to piss Bambi off more.
"You basically took my solo's."
"Bams, the entire song is basically a giant solo. I took three lines. Literally. Of the whole song."
Bambi looked to Bryn, who went to wash her hands in order to stay out of the conversation, and she seemed to realize she was alone in her anger, and turned to sulking, poking out her bottom lip as her voice dropped a pitch. "I'd just have liked maybe some warning."
Ali was tired of Bambi's manipulative nonsense. Though she didn't normally play female bullcrap, she could play as well as anyone. Two older sisters, and two female cousins all with their own sets of friends and frienemies gave a girl a lot of practice. "I honestly didn't think you'd care so much. It's a stupid karaoke song, Bambi. It's not like I shot your puppy." She turned on her heel and flounced out of the bathroom, letting Bambi know she wasn't sorry and she wasn't forking over an apology. She didn't care what the girl said to Bryn in Ali's absence.
She must've not had a chance, because she and Bryn were almost immediately behind Ali when she reached the bar and asked Serre for another soda. The girls put in their orders, water for Bryn, another shot for Bambi, but they'd barely had a moment of peace when the men descended again. Trip was the most handsy, though he wasn't the only enthusiastic one. Colt was grinning, Angel was smirking in satisfaction and even Dame had deigned to leave his drums. Trip was the one that grabbed Ali's hands and spun her away from the bar to face him. "And here I thought you couldn't sing!"
She laughed, playing along. "Oh, I'm sorry did I say I COULDN'T sing? I meant I DON'T sing, often. But when I do, I ROCK." She grinned as Bryn and the boys laughed, Bambi's more forced one joining a split second too late.
"Well, on that note, we-" Trip grinned at the others, "Have a proposition for you. Aimee refuses and Zar won't let Kara, and we need a female to sing with us."
Ali grinned in surprise. "Oh?"
Colt spoke up from Bambi's other side. "We're doing a mashup of We Built this City and We're not Gonna Take It. You know the second?" She nodded. "You wanna sing it?" She pretended to consider, then grinned widely and nodded again.
"Like I'd say no!" She laughed as Trip and Colt grinned and thanked her. Trip grabbed her hand and tugged her back to the stage, Colt next to them and Angel and Dame following on their heels. Angel took up his place at his mic- the other two gone- and she lingered toward the back of the stage, waiting for her cue. She got to have fun with this one, singing alongside Angel. She pushed her boundaries with him like Bambi had with Colt, and he played to her while on stage, but she couldn't help but wonder if he was biding time until he could push her away like Colt had with Bambi. The song eventually ended and Colt helped her off the stage so the boys could continue singing.
She skipped back to the bar to join her sister and Bambi, and both were smiling and laughing, though it was obvious to anyone that knew them that only Bryn's smile was real. "Ta-da!"
Bryn clapped sarcastically and handed Ali her soda, which she took gratefully and downed. "How was it?"
"Awesome." Bryn assured her, and before Bambi could say anything to kill her mood, Griffe spoke up from behind the bar. "You weren't bad. You got lucky, though."
Ali cocked her head, smiling bemusedly. "Excuse me?"
"Oh, c'mon squiregirl. You sang a song your friend picked and who doesn't know Twisted Sisters? You, my darling little human, got lucky."
She squeaked in indignation. "I did not!"
The Howlers started Pour Some Sugar On Me, and Ali suddenly grinned. "What about this one?"
He thought about it for a second, then shook his head. "You probably know it, but it's too fast for you to keep up."
She pressed her tongue against the inside of her cheek, grinning deviously. "Oh?" She waited for the words as Brynna started laughing at Griffe's expense, and he shot her a look. "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"
Brynna nodded. "What can I say? She has a thing for rock music. It's a trait of our dad's."
Suddenly the music lulled, and swelled back up along with Ali's voice as she leaned over the bar to sing in Griffe's face. "Love is like a bomb, baby, c'mon get it on, livin' like a lover with a radar phone, lookin' like a tramp, like a video vamp, demolition woman, can I be your man?" She spun around to lean her back against the bar, getting into the beat of the music and dancing in place. Griffe laughed and clapped for her and she turned back around to face him. "Razzle 'n' a dazzle 'n' a flash a little light, television lover, baby, go all night, sometime, anytime, sugar me sweet, little miss ah innocent sugar me…"
"I get it little girl! You can sing! I give!"
Ali laughed aloud and grabbed Brynna's hand. "I wanna dance! Come on!" She dragged Brynna to the dance floor and twirled under her sister's arm and they started dancing together. She twirled again so her back was to Brynna's front and the girls laughed and danced, half putting on a show just because they could and half simply letting the beat take them away. Ali didn't stop singing, though her voice wasn't nearly so appealing as Angel's, singing the same lines up on stage, growling roughly into the mic.
"C'mon, take a bottle, shake it up, break the bubble, break it up… Pour some sugar on me, ooh, in the name of love, pour some sugar on me, c'mon, fire me up, pour your sugar on me, oh, I can't get enough…"
~Dibs on the squiregirl.~ Trip's voice echoed through the heads of Colt, Angel and Dame as he eyed Ali. There wasn't a question to which squiregirl he meant; it was common knowledge even in Were-Hunter circles that Brynna was off-limits to anyone but her Hunter Xander. The two of them refused to admit there was anything there, but anyone with eyes knew they were basically mated, just without the marks.
~Not happening, man. We're letting HER decide.~ Colt's voice echoed in response. Angel resisted a growl. He'd like a taste of the woman himself; he'd been close to just taking one when they'd sung together, but had resisted the urge. Humans could be so troublesome and clingy. But his resolve was weakening the longer he watched her sway those hips of hers on the dance floor and shake her hair around, giving her a messy, just-sexed look that he'd be happy to compliment with actual sex. But he refused to play for her attentions like some cub going after a female in heat just so she could watch him and others bleed.
He knew that wasn't exactly what needed to happen to win the squire's affections for the night, but he still refused on principal.
"You got the peaches, I got the cream, sweet to taste, saccharine, 'cause I'm hot, say what, sticky sweet, from my head, my head, to my feet…" She took her sisters hand and spun down to a crouch and stood back up, gyrating her hips. Good gods, it had to be against squire rules to move like that. He wanted to bite the mic to keep back the images of taking her up to the back room, but somehow managed to restrain himself.
"Pour some sugar on me, ooh, in the name of love, pour some sugar on me," She glanced up at the stage, her eyes flickering over each Were until they came to rest on Angel, and her lips curled in a deviously delicious grin as she mouthed his words back to him in tandem with him. "C'mon fire me up, pour your sugar on me, oh, I can't get enough…"
~Angel! What the fuck dude?! I call foul!~ He wasn't the only one who noticed that she'd obviously made her pick, and the leopard in him growled in satisfaction. He'd apparently get to avoid the competition and get the hot little squiregirl in the back room, despite Trip's protests. The night was starting to look up.
~Kyle.~ He snapped a closed mindlink to the Youngest Peltier brother, who looked up in alarm, like he'd done something, which he normally had. He looked up to look at Angel, who didn't bother taking his eyes from Ali. ~Get a song ready on the box.~ He ordered. He was done playing for now. Once the last note hit, he was as good as in the back room.
"Yeah! Sugar me!" That was it, he didn't have an instrument to set down, and he didn't bother going around, but simply hopped off the front of the stage and through the crowd as the opening strains of Guns n' Roses 'Welcome to the Jungle' started playing. He'd hit Kyle for the too-apropos song later. Right now he had a squire to fuck.
