Chapter 11
Night time at Paris has many fun things for people. Mostly the adults as they're the main people awake in the darker hours. And usually it's for purposes of entertainment that wouldn't specifically not be for the younger folks. But there are some things for the teens, and the preteens that were out on dates at night or just wandering around. One place in particular was a little music place.
"This was the karaoke place that Alya mentioned?" Marinette asked out loud as she and Adrien arrived.
After the week had gone by with nothing major happening, the team decided to stop by the place known as Beats and Treats. It was apparently a little restaurant where people could go to perform and whatnot as well as get a bite to eat. The restaurant was only a couple months old but it became fairly popular in that time. However, once it became known to the whole group that Marinette and Adrien could sing, the others began badgering the couple into spending a night at this place. This is what led to the group hangout at this time.
"Not exactly what I expected," Adrien said as they walked up to the front door, "But let's give this a shot."
Adrien opened the front door, and the two immediately took notice of the quantity of patrons in the place. So far, no one was at the karaoke stage but they were certainly everywhere else. For a second, they felt like they were at a bar which already wouldn't do wonders for Adrien if his father found out. That changed when they saw three hands wave the pair over. One of the hands even called out, "Hey guys, over here."
The couple made their way over to the table to find Chloe, Nino, and Alya sitting around the table. For some reason, Alya was sitting in between her boyfriend and former enemy. It wasn't clear why at first until Marinette put it together that it gave her unobstructed view if she did anything romantic with Adrien. Either way, they took their seats with Marinette sitting next to Chloe, and Adrien sitting next to Nino. A second later, they noticed Trixx, Wayzz, And Pollen on the table who were immediately joined by Plagg, And Tikki.
"What took you guys so long getting here?" Chloe asked opening up a good topic for her.
Until Nino gave a following statement, "Feel free to leave out any romantic details."
Adrien simply scowled at his friend, "If you must know, I had to tell my father what was happening, and had to pick up Marinette afterward."
"Aw," the girls looked at the couple with expectations for a romantic kiss.
"So why are we hanging out here?" Marinette asked, moving things along.
"Well I've been wanting to hear you sing so here's your chance," Alya answered as she pointed towards the stage.
"Absolutely not," Marinette said with a deadpan tone.
"But what if I want to hear you sing?" Chloe chimed in, "The only time I heard you sing was when you were Scheherazade and even then it was brief."
Suddenly all five kwamis knelt in front of her with pleading eyes, and said, "Pleeeeease?"
Marinette knew that they had worked together on this for sure. Whether Adrien had a hand in any of it though was beyond her. But she couldn't turn down the kwamis when they gave the same baby doll eyes that Manon would give. So she decided to come to an agreement and get her vengeance at another time. She then gave her answer, "Fine but only on one condition."
"What condition?" Nino asked, looking worried.
For all the time they knew her, Marinette wasn't one to always concede without getting something in return. This was something Adrien came to find out throughout the time they were together. And usually Marinette's conditions weren't easy to agree with so they would sometimes decide to nix the plan altogether. But this time, like the kwamis with her treats, the condition might be worth it. And this condition was more simple, "You all have to get up on that stage individually at least once."
Adrien gave a light look of smugness while the remaining three faces had paled. None of them had any experience on how to deal with something like this. Sure they all had been known to the public eye before, Alya with her Ladyblog, Nino with his DJ gigs, and Chloe being the mayor's daughter. But none of them had to sing in front of a group before. However, this was a moment that they couldn't pass up so the three nodded, "Deal."
Marinette noticed the smug look on Adrien, and said, "That includes you too tomcat."
"I already sang in front of my two idols," Adrien said before giving her a peck on the cheek, "I can handle a crowd like this."
"Dibs on recording," Tikki said, trying to stay subtle so to not draw attention to their table.
Once the matter was settled, Marinette made her way to the sign up for performances. There sat a stage manager who she began to have a discussion with. The others couldn't hear what she was saying except for Plagg, and Trixx. When she looked back over at her table, she gave a thumbs up indicating that they were good to use the stage. What they didn't know was that she had set up different performances at an unknown length of time since the stage was free for anyone to participate. And when she was ready, the announcer introduced her and got ready to play her song so she could sing.
The song began playing, she began singing, and the whole room turned to watch. Every conversation had silenced so that they could hear the young bluenette sing. Even the employees, and stage manager were in awe of her performance. A few of the patrons were dancing with the romantic music with their partners, something Adrien wished he was doing with his girlfriend who was currently singing. Alya had to hand Tikki the phone to record so she could dance with her boyfriend, which is exactly what happened.
When it was over, the whole room filled with cheers and applause from everyone, minus Tikki who was still holding the phone. A few of them had cheered for an encore but instead Marinette glanced at Adrien, signaling for him to take the mic. This was after a couple of the patrons had thrown flowers up on the stage in praise of her performance. While Adrien was making his way up to the stage, he overheard some light chatter from a few of the male patrons who were commenting on how cute she was, though it wasn't done in a way that he liked all too much. As he was handed the mic, he heard Marinette whisper, "Top that pretty boy."
Adrien gave his song choice to the stage manager, and began singing a more upbeat romantic song. He got the same attention almost to the same degree. And boy did the crowd love to hear singing from the boy. During all of this, Marinette noticed a couple of guys stop by the table, and give her their numbers, one of which was on a business card for a record company. When he finished, there was almost an equally loud applause from everyone except for those at the table with the kwamis, because they knew that one of them was next.
During the applause, Marinette decided who would go next, "You're up Foxy."
Alya began looking nervous, "Can we skip me because we're such good friends?"
"What do you guys think?" Marinette said looking to the others at the table.
"I think I want to know what this fox says," Chloe replied with a grin.
"Sorry babe," Nino shrugged with a smile of their own.
"Consider is karma for trying to push me into Adrien's arms," Marinette added.
"That was meant to be helpful," Alya was almost begging.
"The sooner you get up there, the sooner it can be done," Marinette simply pointed at the stage this time.
Alya nervously made her way up to the stage and grabbed the mic from Adrien. It was clear that she noticed his Cheshire grin proudly adorned on his face. The stage manager walked over to her and whispered some words of encouragement to her to try and boost her confidence, something none of the teens at the table had even remotely thought would be something that would happen to Alya. Eventually she took a deep breath and gave her song choice to the stage manager. When he let her know that he was ready, she nodded and began to sing.
As she sang, she noticed her friends all looking shocked at what they were witnessing. Her singing, while probably not on the same level as Marinette's, was absolutely breathtaking. They couldn't believe that she could sing as well as she was currently, but certainly didn't mind the surprise. Alya's song wasn't romantic but it certainly was energetic, and upbeat. But like with all good things, her song eventually came to an end, and it was time for the next victim.
"Know any good songs shellboy?" Marinette asked as she glanced to Nino.
Nino looked less nervous since he put himself in the mindset as if it was one of his gigs. And he already had a song choice in mind before walking up to the stage manager. But it was still clear that Nino was nervous since he was use to performing with a sound board in front of him. Eventually he did grab the mic from Alya, and gave his song choice to the man in charge. And the whole room had a boost in their mood when he began his song.
Nino's song choice was a classic from decades prior and was more bouncy than the last. It almost got all of the patrons to dance along as if they were at a Jagged Stone concert. However, the patrons did make recording a little more difficult for Tikki so when the moment was best, she and the rest of the kwamis flew up towards the hanging lights to record. The song ended with some more enthusiastic cheering which also came from the same table. Until Marinette spoke once more, "And now the queen must take the stage."
Chloe felt her legs almost become linguini after that statement. She did appreciate the words of encouragement from Marinette who gave the blond a chance to say no. She almost took it out of fear that her performance wouldn't be able to measure up. But she decided to walk up anyway with her friends cheering her on. She gave her song choice to the stage manager, and readied herself to perform.
Chloe began her song and noticed how the audience was reacting to her singing. When she saw the pleased looks, she developed a little more confidence in her performance. She even began to dance a little herself with the music. When she finished, she heard a few voices calling for an encore as she began joyfully giggling. Eventually she noticed Marinette dragging her, and her friends up for one more song.
This time the song was a five voice song (AN: Think like a song from The Wanted, Steps, or One Direction. Five members = Five voices) and it happened to be one that they all knew. Each agreed to take a part in the song and all began to sing in perfect synchronization with each other. When it was over, there was an even larger round of applause and the teens went back to their table. All of them were obviously proud of their performances, and began praising each other. During the applause, the kwamis returned to the table with Tikki returning the phone, saying, "Got it all on here for the memories."
"Maybe you should start a band together," Plagg suggested as a joke, "Call yourselves the-"
The kwami was interrupted by a loud noise from outside. All five teens grabbed their kwamis, and ran outside to see what had just happened. Looking down the street, they saw that it was another akuma who was given yet another absurd name. The teens began making their way towards a small empty alleyway which they knew had no one else around. Once they knew they were alone, Alya spoke first, "Can't we just have more than a week without Hawkmoth sending out an akuma?"
"Unfortunately villains don't take vacations," Adrien pointed out, "And there's no rest for the weary. Being us in this case."
"Let's get this done while we can," Marinette said as they all transformed to fight the akuma.
