KAREAOKE NIGHT
Ricko lay on the couch, a pack of ice resting on his forehead. The man who had mistaken him as the enemy had been apologising to him for the last half hour, then he had gone to talk to Angel in his office. The other people, a green demon in a fluro suit and a shy girl were sitting on the other couch with Gunn, casting curious glances his way. No one said a word for a while, then Gunn, who was thinking the moment was getting way too awkward for him, broke it.
"So I think introductions should be made," he said giving a weak smile to them all, "Guys this is Ricko, Ricko the guy that hit you on the head is Wesley, he was a former Watcher, who Cordy and Angel met back in Sunnydale. Then, after he lost his job, he became an unsuccessful demon hunter until he found Angel and scored a job. Now he's our boss. The bright and colorful demon over here is Lorne. He's an empath demon,"
Ricko frowned at the unfamiliar term but didn't venture to ask for an explanation.
"He used to own a karaoke bar until we trashed it several times, now he lives here and helps some of our clients. The shy, but beautiful girl sitting at my far side, Fred, used to be stuck in a horrible demon dimension until Angel saved her and we brought her back on one of our many ventures. She's really smart, helps us with a lot of the sciency things." he finished his monologue, finally realising that it might have been a bit too much. Both the demon, Lorne, and the girl, Fred, were looking at him as if he'd grown two heads. They obviously though he had given too much away, especially to a complete stranger they didn't know. Gunn couldn't help it, he babbled when he was uncomfortable. Ricko was still trying to absorb all the information Gunn had given.
"Nice to meet you," he finally said quietly, sitting up.
"Nice to meet you too," Fred said, smiling at him shyly.
Lorne smiled at him, showing white teeth, "So prince charming junior, what brings you here."
Ricko shrugged, he'd already given so much away to Cordelia, Gunn and Angel, he had been too trusting and forgotten where it had led him last time. He didn't want to tell anyone else about things, be couldn't afford to forget to be cautious. There was more silence for a while, one party trying to think of something to say the other wishing they weren't there.
"I think I'm going to go see what's taking them so long," Lorne said, "I wanna know if Angel cakes has heard from Clarice."
"One of his clients," Gunn explained as Lorne got up and headed to the office. There was some more of the awkward silence, Ricko's head began to throb.
"Do we have any aspirin" Angel asked, holding his throbbing head.
"Angel there are more pressing matters to think about then aspirin." Wesley said, "Do you realise the seriousness of this case, you should have contacted me immedietly."
"Look Wes it's no big deal," Angel said, looking up, "We were handling it."
"Angel we don't even know if this child is genuine, he could just be playing us." Wesley reasoned.
"Are you telling me that I don't know someone with power when I see it," Angel argued, "Wes in case you've forgotten I have been around a bit longer then you, I know magic when I see it and when a kid holds a ball of fire in his hands, well you kinda realise that it's definitely magic your dealing with."
"It wasn't his powers I was referring to," Wesley said.
"So what is it Wes, what are you referring to." Angel asked, exasperated.
"Do you know anything certain about this kid, anything at all beside his name?" Wesley asked quietly.
"He's a bit closed up okay Wes, it's not his fault, I think he's had a pretty tough life." Angel began to argue again.
"Yes, but Angel all you can do is speculate, until we know more about this boy I think we should be cautious about him and what we tell him. We should be watching him, not becoming friends with him.' Wesley said firmly.
"Look Wesley," Angel said softly, " I know another thing about this kid for certain, he needs our help. If we don't give it to him now who knows what could happen to him. He's only a child, he needs to be shown the good guys, that's a good enough reason for me to take on his case and to protect him, even if it isn't for you."
"Can someone please explain to me something"said Lorne, walking through the door and breaking through there argument. "Why is a kid, who's radiating power that's equivelant to a nuclear bomb and making my head hurt, sitting in our lobby on our couch."
"He's a Free Lancer," Wesley explained.
"Ahhh, one of those, you know Pylea had one of them once, decades ago. That still doesn't explain what he's doing here." Lorne said.
"He needs our help," Angel replied.
"What he needs is up for debate," Wesley said firmly, "What we should be doing is keeping watch of him and making sure we have control."
"He's not some object Wesley," Angel voice rose slightly with anger, "He's a kid."
"And a powerful one we know nothing about," Wesley's voice rose in response.
"I think I may be able to help," Lorne said, raising his hand, "I'm not getting a read of him but if we can get him to sing somehow ..." he left the sentence unfinished.
"How are we going to make that happen?" Angel asked, dumbly.
"We could use Connor," Wesley said, pacing, "Get him to sing a lullaby?"
"Yeah and why don't we have a karaoke night." Angel said sarcastically.
"What's wrong with my idea?" Wesley asked defensively.
"Well nothing besides the fact Ricko won't go anywhere near Connor," Angel replied.
"Well what's your idea then," Wesley asked, raising his eyebrows.
"I think he just put one forward," Lorne cut through again, "And we just may be able to pull it off." Wesley and Angel both looked at him as if he was crazy.
"Hey kid's," Lorne said, his voice bubbling with enthusiasm, coming out of the office with a disgruntled Angel and a slightly miffed Wesley in tow.
They all looked up brightly from there positions on the furniture. They hadn't exactly been having a bundle of laughs, the silence hadn't been broken at all.
"Well you all look like you've been having some fun," he said tightly. He headed towards Ricko, who quickly stood up, he didn't know what to make of these other associates and what they were like. He found politeness and staying out of people's way mostly worked with new acquaintances, especially staying out of their way. You never knew when you'd find them drunk and in a bad mood, stray shoes heading your way,
making a perfect arc through the air.
"Okay then," said Lorne, giving a laugh, "Is it my green skin, or is it that tabacco smell, I thought I got it all off but it kinda sticks on you."
"I just thought you'd like it to yourself," Ricko muttered, shrugging.
"Don't be like that Teeny Bop," he said, putting his arm around Ricko's shoulder, "In this big hunk of a hotel we share. Well... not with outsiders, it's not like you can just walk in from the street and take a room... although come to think of it it would be charitable if we shared, it's not like Angel wings is using the extra space. Maybe we could turn part of it into a karaoke bar, I can see it now," he let go of Ricko to gesture with his hands as if reading an imaginery sign.
Ricko slunk away gratefully, standing away from this boistorous character unlike anyone he'd ever met. Heck, as far as he could tell they were all unlike anyone he'd ever met, especially in the adult category.
"Lorne's Karaoke, No yawns, just a lot of hokey pokey," Lorne said dramatically.
"Lorne were not turning part of the hotel into a karaoke bar, especialy with our record," Angel said.
"Okay, okay dark one, it was just an idea," Lorne flopped down on the couch, then the wailing came.
"What the," he said quickly jumping up.
"Oh you must have been sitting on the baby monitor," Fred said, quickly retrieving it from it's position on the couch.
"Looks like Connors awake," Angel said quickly, "I'll go get him."
"No I will," said Wesley, "I haven't seen him in ages, I really miss the little fellow."
"I said I'll go," Angel said, giving him an evil glare, "I am his dad."
"Well I'm his uncle," Wesley said, giving an evil glare of his own.
"I'll go," Fred said, getting up, "Geesh I thing your both a little high strung. I mean I love him too, but isn't fighting over changing his nappy and probably spending an hour trying to get him to sleep a bit much."
Before either of them could object she gave them one final weird look and was disappearing up the stairs.
"Now that both the girls are gone how about we do something daring, out of the ordinary, fun?" Lorne said brightly. Both Wesley and Angel's face fell, here it was the moment they had been dreading, the horrible word about to pass from Lorne's lips.
"Who's up for a game of poker," Gunn said, getting up and stretching. "We can use jelly beans, since we got a minor here. Their always funner to play with anyway."
"What are you stupid, teaching a minor how to gamble. You'll traumitise the poor child, he'll start a life of crime... are you out to destroy his life Gunn? Are you?" the dramatic speech came from Lorne.
"Actually I like poker," Ricko piped up, interested, "I never played it with jelly beans though."
"Your only a kid, your confused about the world, you don't know what you like," Lorne said extravagantly, "I got a better idea, why don't we do karaoke, I got the old machine in my room." he was met with blank and unenthusiastic stares. "Whoever wants to do karaoke say I," he said. "I," he piped up loudly and after meaningful looks to Wesley and Angel two more I's followed. "So that's it then, who's gonna' carry the machine down here? Any volunteers?"
The Karaoke machine stood in the lobby, it's surface shining, connected to the T.V.
"Who wants to go first," Lorne said delightfully, smiling. He was looking into three unenthusiastic faces. "Right be party poopers then," he said his smile vanishing. "You know karaoke can be a very important thing." He gave a meaningful glare Wesley and Angel's way. Wesley dug Angel with his elbow, torn between listening to the horrible sound that was about to emmit from Angel's voice box and singing himself he decided the former was slightly better then the latter.
"Angel loves karaoke, we all know he does. Let him go first." Wesley said quickly, pushing Angel forward. Angel, unsure of what had happened, found himself with a microphone in his hand and a bunch of CD's stuck under his face.
"Your selections more limited then before," Lorne said, "Seeing as most of my good CD's burned in that fire. Oh yeah, and I was wondering when you guys were going to give me some compensation for that?"
"You volunteered to help us," Angel said automatically, "You weren't in employment with us."
Lorne sighed heavily. "Worth a try," he muttered.
Angel sorted through the songs, there wasn't much to chose from. "This is your selection," he said, raising his eyebrows, "AQUA, The Monkey's or The Backstreet Boys?"
"I don't have the others on karaoke," Lorne shrugged, "I told you most of the good ones burned. Now just choose something already and sing."
"Backstreet Back alright," Angels voice wavered, emitting from the microphone the last words to the song. Lorne clapped loudly, and Ricko did a little less enthusiastically.
"I think you deserve a clap for finally finishing man," Gunn said, laughing.
"That's not funny," Angel said, "I mean what kind of stupid band is this anyway, and the song. I'd like to see you do better with it."
"From that collection I don't think so," Gunn shook his head, "It's not my style."
"Hey, hey, hey," Lorne said, "Custom dictates it should be guests first why don't we give Ricko a go?"
"Yes," Wesley said, "Let's hear our guest sing."
Ricko looked slightly doubtfull.
"Come on man, Gunn said, "It's fun." There was more cajoling from all sides, everyone grinning enthusiastically.
"You can't get any worse then him," Gunn proclaimed, getting a protest from Angel and friendly threats, Ricko finally yielded, grinning and rising from his perch.
"I'm not singing one of those songs though," he said, retrieving the mike from Angel.
"That's okay, sing whatever you want," Lorne said.
"Someone could have said that a minute ago," Ricko heard Angel grumble.
Ricko looked nervously at his bright eyed audience. His throat felt extremely dry. "Um..."
"Sing whatever you want," Angel encouraged, "Choose anything."
Ricko opened up his mouth, and started to sing.
