Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale

A tale of a fateful trip

Charlie had started singing soon after they had left the locker room. They were still moseying along the course way but it seemed like it was just the four of them at the beach now. The sun was just beginning to set and it was only moments before the glare hit the water. It was maybe the most beautiful thing Dave had ever seen. Too bad he couldn't relish it.

That started from this tropic port

Aboard this tiny ship

Howe put his arm around Charlie's shoulders and began to sway in time until they were actually singing together. They didn't sound half bad to Dave, when he wasn't listening to the echo in his own head. How had what just happened actually happened?

The mate was a mighty sailing man

The skipper brave and sure

Didn't he have a girlfriend- that girl Jenny? And even if he didn't, guys just didn't do that sort of thing, did they? I mean, how many other guys had he done that with? Dave tortured himself with the thought of Kaz's attractive nature. Hell, if I looked like that, Dave thought, I would have.

And then Kaz's arm was around him, slipping around his tense shoulders. Kaz was pretending like nothing had happened, like nothing in the axis of the earth had changed. All while singing a goddamn tv show intro. Kaz found Dave wasn't as compliant in the whole singing and swaying thing as Charlie and Howe.

Some passengers set sail that day

On a three hour tour

A three hour tour…

The song petered out then due to a lack of general enthusiasm and the foursome lapsed into silence, though for Dave it wasn't exactly comfortable. He tried concentrating on the ocean he was falling in love with but all the while his thoughts turned to Kaz. The parts he hadn't seen, the things that had gone unspoken. The things he had seen and that grin. The weight and tension flowing out of him with his orgasm.

And yet…

There was something abnormal about sitting down to New York style pizza after it all. They had come to this place called Pizza My Heart and the slices were obnoxiously large-not that Dave was complaining, just stating a fact, almost bigger than the plates themselves.

The topping selections were simple (the most exotic looking thing there was the Hawaiian pizza) and they sat on a concrete patio adjacent to the actual restaurant. There was a sound system set up and it looked as though some guy was crooning to his girlfriend, maybe proposing to her? Dave wasn't sure he wanted to be interfering with that but then he did seem kinda drunk too. Trashed. Singing. It hit Dave like a ton of bricks in the back of a cement truck running along a highway of black ice after a winter rain storm.

They were at a karaoke thing.

Dave's body reacted to this information with a slight panic attack. And then Kaz's arm was draped over his shoulder, the slice of pizza Kaz was eating almost under Dave's nose. Kaz lacked table manners just ever so slightly, but the pizza was definitely a contributor to the chaos.

"So, what'cha think Dave? I don't think he's half bad. Bit hokey for my taste thought."

"I…uhhh," Okay. Dave could admit that it helped having Kaz there. He tried to get up, but Howe intervened from the other side.

"Where ya going? You can't be hungry for another slice, you've still got most of your pepperoni."

"I…uhhh," Apparently, Dave was feeling particularly verbal this evening. His brain clicked into gear enough to find the word bathroom but it was too late at the point. Charlie was piping in then.

"You aren't trying to escape to the bathroom before you sing, are you Dave? You can't do that. It's against the rules."

"Singing? Rules? I don't…"

Charlie and Howe looked at each other. "Wait until you hear us. Then you'll be just fine. Sit down, you're embarrassing us. Ooh, he's going for the high note."

Dave couldn't tell you if that guy hit his high note. He was concentrating hard on the fact that this may have been the living embodiment of his worst nightmare. Second worst. Okay, third worst nightmare. Even the phrase "karaoke night" at Scandals had made him shudder and some of those people had been marginally worse than the most awful singing life form on the planet.

But Dave was really stuck at the whims of his hostes. Howe and Kaz were blocking him in and it looked like they had no intention of letting him go. Worst yet, when the books came around, Howe had grabbed the black binder of choices from Dave's hand.

"Oh no," Howe had quipped, "you don't get off that easily."

Dave toyed momentarily with telling them he needed his inhaler, which would be a hard lie to pull off considering he'd been traveling cross country with them and they'd never even seen as much as an asthma attack from dust. No, Dave had to settle miserably into his fate but he voiced a protest every now and again.

"But, can I just…"

"No…."

"I promise I won't…."

"Stop arguing Dave. We're doing this for your own good."

"C'mon guys, I…"

"You're just making it harder on yourself. Hey! I want to…"

"No," the two others had said in unison.

Dave's palms got sweatier and sweatier by the moment. He thought he might actually have an asthma attack from the anxiety of it all. But then they were at least kind enough to let him go last. Which he was grateful for when he heard Charlie and Howe's rendition of Summer Lovin' from Grease. When they were trying to sing, they were…well, they were awful. If he sounded like a dying walrus…

The thought trapped him for a moment. Guilt. He was here, enjoying karaoke and pizza and the company of at least one gentleman he found attractive and Skye was….Skye was gone. Skye had sacrificed for him and maybe he'd want Dave to enjoy this but that wasn't…what was the point of what Skye had done for him?

"Who wants to hear some rock n' roll?" Kaz's voice boomed through the microphone. The chair next to Dave was suddenly vacant. He could bolt for it. He wanted to bolt for it. But, in the end, he couldn't. He just couldn't do much more than enjoy Kaz acting like a rock star. He was a crowd favorite, crowing before the start of his song with his hands pumped victoriously in the air.

No one got louder claps and whistles during a rendition of "Welcome to the Jungle" than him.

And then someone was shoving the microphone of doom into Dave's hands. Dave's eyes went wide. The entire room seemed to be both stopping silent and spinning loudly at the same time. His knees and hands felt shaky. Was he breathing? Was he alive?

Well, he must be alive because he found himself being lead up onstage by his friends. Howe had to practically pry the microphone from his tightening grip in order to give him an intro.

"Okay, everyone. This is our friend Dave. He's new to California and he's a little bit shy, so give him a warm welcome and let's show him some sunshine state hospitality!"

"What song am I doing?" Dave hissed in a moment of clarity.

"You'll know it. And we'll be your back up dancers. You'll be fine, even if you sound like a dying walrus or something," Charlie spoke low as he moved back.

Dying walrus. More coincidence or fate? And just what made them think that Dave would know the song? The music was starting and it did sound kind of familiar. But the only singing he'd ever done was with Mr. Schuester's class and he didn't know to really, you know, start on his own.

Sometimes I feel I've got to

The first notes crackled darkly in his throat. He had to clear to get it right but then it started to sound okay.

Clap. Clap.

Dave was startled to have people clapping for him in the background, but Charlie, Howe, and Kaz were being as good as their word.

Run away, I've got to

Stomp stomp

Had…had someone in the front row joined in the clamping with a stomp?

Get away from the pain that you drive into the heart of me

The love we shared

Background echoes: Woah

Seems to go nowhere

And I've lost my light

And I toss and turn, I can't sleep at night

Dave felt his intense frowning brow lighten a little as he let go. He did know this song, kind of. And their were lyrics. And no one felt like killing him, so that was a plus. It was…maybe…was he having…fun?

Once I ran to you

Now I run from you

This tainted love you've given

I give you all a boy can give you

Dave felt his grip on the microphone lessen just a bit, the feeling in his hand beginning to return. He was beginning to look out into the audience. There were no pitchforks. Maybe it was just karaoke, not the end of the world.

Take my tears and that's not nearly

Oh, tainted love

Tainted love

Now I know I've got to

He clapped along with "his background dancers".

Run away, I've got to get away

You don't really want anymore from me

To make things rights

You need someone to hold you tight.

Then Dave did something he didn't expect. He moved the microphone so he could mimic praying.

And you think love is to pray

And he was shaking his head.

But I'm sorry I don't pray that way

He pointed back playfully to his "background dancers". This elicited a chorus of whoos from the audience that Dave wouldn't so forget.

Once I ran from you

Now I run to you

The screen suddenly went blank and the music dark. In fact, the entire block looked like it had suddenly been cut off. There was a chorus of awwws from the audience but no immediate demands for more artificial light. There were enough from the tiki torches. And then they were clapping.

They were clapping for Dave Karofsky.

And Howe and Charlie were giving him bro hugs.

"You were great!"

"You've been holding out on us you big jerk!"

Dave shook his head. "I'm not…I don't…"

And there was that smile. That Kaz smile and a clap. Dave was glad it was almost dark because Kaz couldn't see how he was affecting Dave.