Velvet Song

by J. Daystar

--

October, 1991

--

Curt Wild, in an amazing show of temper, picked up a wooden chair from his dining room and threw it violently across the room, where it hit the wall with a sick crunch, shattering on impact. Staring at the chunks of wood that littered his dining room floor, Curt dropped to his knees and started to cry.

"Mia...oh God, Mia!" he whispered, curling into a fetal position. "Why?"

--

Two years earlier..

--

"Curt!" Arthur Stuart laughed as his best friend and lover continued to tickle him mercilessly. Curt laughed wickedly as he picked up Arthur and tossed him onto their bed.

"Mwa ha ha..." he cackled evilly, nuzzling his neck. Arthur moaned softly, but before Curt could continue his fun, the phone rang loudly beside them.

"Damnit!" Continuing to curse under his breath, Curt grabbed the phone. "This better be fucking important."

"Well, hello to you too, Curt." Jack Fairy laughed eloquently into the phone. "I suppose I'm interrupting you."

"Yeah. You've got five minutes before I hang up and go ravish my lover." Curt leered at Arthur, making the younger man blush.

"Wonderful. This will only take a minute. I've got a young friend who's coming to America to work on her music. She needs a place to stay, with someone I can trust to keep an eye on her and give her a hand here and there. You're that man, Curt." Jack sounded absolutely confident that Curt could handle whatever this girl would throw at him. "Her name is Mia Jax."

"So...you like, want me to mentor her or something?" Curt twisted the phone cord around his fingers as Arthur moved to lean against him, sighing. Curt pressed a quick kiss to his lover's forehead as Jack spoke.

"Yes, and no. Mia's young and naive. I'm afraid I've sheltered her a bit, but I trust you to teach her what to avoid when it comes to the music scene." Jack's amusement was evident, as was his hope that Curt would accept. "If you don't want her to live with you, I'll find her an apartment close by..."

"No, Jack, it's okay. I've still got the whole second floor that I haven't leased yet. She can live there." Curt rolled over so that he could play with Arthur's hair as he talked. "When's she getting here?"

"Well...she should be there in two hours." Jack's voice was sheepish.

Curt swore, startling Arthur out of a half-doze. "Fuck, Jack, you're shitting me!"

"No...her flight from London took off almost twelve hours ago. She should be there any time now. I gave her your number just in case."

Curt laughed, rolling away from Arthur, who had begun to nibble at his ear. "Alright...I'll go and pick her up. Next time, Jack, try and give me a little more warning, okay?"

"Yes, Curt. Now, here's what you need to know about Mia..."

--

Curt and Arthur stood at the terminal, waiting for the passengers of the flight to disembark, Mia among them. Curt shifted from foot to foot, checking his watch every few moments.

"Nervous, love?" Arthur asked, smiling at the hyperactive blonde beside him.

"Yes." he snapped, but there was no anger in his eyes. "I mean, jeez...this is Jack's adopted daughter! If I fuck this up..."

Arthur kissed him gently, much to the shock of the attendant at the door. "Relax, Curt. It will all work out."

"Yeah." Curt hoped his lover was right. He had a feeling that if he screwed things up with Mia, Jack would never forgive him. Suddenly, the attendant opened the door and passengers began to step out. He watched for Mia, whom Jack had described as "a very Plain Jane" sort of girl. When the flow of passengers stopped, Curt began to get worried. He'd seen several girls, none of whom fit the description Jack had given him.

"Mr. Wild?"

Curt and Arthur turned to see a very non-plain young woman standing near them. Dressed in a long flowing dress of purple gauze, her dark black hair curled all the way down to her waist. A purple-dyed leather messenger bag was slung over her shoulder and she was smiling timidly at them from behind lightly applied lipstick and lavender-glitter mascara.

Curt almost fell over. Of course...Jack Fairy was an extravagant person. Where as he might see Mia as someone to take a couple good looks at, Jack would pass her without a second thought.

"You must be Mia." he said with a shaky smile. "This is Arthur...come on, lets get your stuff. Are you hungry?"

"Sort of." Mia followed Curt's quick pace towards the baggage claim. "I had a light lunch on the plane."

"Great. There's this little place right by our house...best pizza around." And Curt was off again, much to the amusement of both Arthur and Mia.

"So, you're from London then?" Arthur asked as Curt walked ahead of them, unaware that the two were paying him no mind.

"No...I was born in Dublin. Jack adopted me when I was four, and raised me wherever he happened to be at the moment." Mia stopped as they reached the baggage claim, immediately snatching a battered guitar case from the carousel. Seeing Arthur's questioning look, she smiled. "It's Jack's old case...he gave it to me as a going away present."

She quickly grabbed two suitcases from the pile of luggage and pointed out one more to Curt, who had joined them again. "That one too...care to grab it?" Curt did so, and together, they hauled her luggage to Curt's car, which had barely enough room for all of them, much less the luggage. Somehow, they managed to fit everything in without too much pain, and set off for their house.

--

Another round of fighting with the luggage began as they hauled her trunk and two suitcases up the stairs to the studio apartment above Curt and Arthur's home, which had been empty since they moved in. Mia hadn't brought much, just clothes, her stereo, music collection, and some bedding, as well as a credit card that Jack had given Mia to buy furniture with. It was decided that Arthur would take the next day off from work and take Mia shopping, while Curt started looking for places for Mia to play.

As they sat over dinner, which was a large pepperoni pizza (for Arthur and Mia) and pasta (for Curt), the two men fired questions at Mia left and right, which she happily answered.

"Well, as I already told Arthur, I was born in Dublin...my mother and father divorced shortly after I was born, and since my mother was a friend of Jack's, when she had her mental breakdown, she asked Jack to adopt me. I'd never met my father, so until I was about twelve, I thought Jack was my real father."

"How'd you find out?" Arthur asked, pulling the cheese off his pizza.

"I met my father, of course." Mia's eyes grew hard with anger. "Stupid bastard."

"What happened?" Curt set down his beer and leaned forward, interested.

"Well, I was thirteen, and Jack was about to send me off to boarding school again when a lawyer showed up at the estate we lived on outside of London...my father wanted custody of me." Mia toyed with a chain that hung around her neck. "Since Jack knew my father and knew he'd be a terrible parent to me, he refused, and my father sued him for custody. Of course, my father was in the grip of a cocaine addiction, so he was forced to give up the case. But he never left me alone...he thought that having a daughter would solve all his problems."

"What an ass." Curt mused, picking up his beer again. He looked at Arthur. "Sounds like something Brian would have done if he'd ever had kids."

"Yeah." Arthur agreed, and let Curt claim his mouth in a kiss. Neither of them heard Mia's sigh as she turned her attention to her pizza.

--

Arthur and Mia spent their day together shopping at antique stores and flea markets for furniture. They picked up a wrought-iron bedframe, an antique chest, an antiqued copper coffee table with a glass top, and a luxurious red velvet couch. On their way home, in a pickup truck borrowed from Arthur's boss Lou, they stopped to get a bite to eat and a mattress for the bed. Curt was waiting for them when they finally got home, and helped them bring everything upstairs and arrange it. When that was finished, they celebrated by having a home-cooked meal (courtesy of Mia) on the floor of the apartment.

As Curt helped clear the last of the dishes, Arthur browsed through Mia's record collection. So much of it was familiar...The Venus in Furs, Jack Fairy, Polly Small, Iggy Pop, David Bowie...even a few of Curt's albums, including the only one he'd recorded with The Rats. At the very bottom of the pile, Arthur found two records that made him stop and think for a moment: Brian Slade's Lipstick Traces and Ballad of Maxwell Demon. Both looked like they'd never been touched, and as Arthur opened the Maxwell Demon record, a slip of paper fell out. Knowing it was wrong, he unfolded the paper and read what was written...

My Dearest Mia,

Happy 14th birthday, sweetheart. I know you like music,

so I'd thought you'd like to have these. Someday you'll be

a big star, just like I was. Keep reaching until you make it,

my Mia.

Love always,

Daddy

Arthur's hands trembled as he slipped the letter back into the album cover. How could Jack have done this to them? Jack had to have known that Brian was Mia's father, so why had Jack sent Mia to them? Unless Mia didn't know about what had conspired between Curt and her father...which was probably true. From what he knew of Jack, he never would have told Mia about Curt and Brian's relationship. Or that Curt was the reason Mia's mother (obviously Mandy Slade) had divorced Brian.

"I wish you hadn't found out this way."

Arthur jumped and guiltily looked up at Mia, who looked very sad. She sat down beside him and shook her head when he opened his mouth to ask where Curt was.

"In the kitchen." she said, taking the album from Arthur's hands and replacing it at the bottom of the pile. "Curt can't find out. He'd never let me stay, whether I hate my father or not."

She looked so distraught that Arthur reached out to touch her shoulder. "I won't tell him. But...why did Jack send you here then?"

"If Curt and I could get along and be friends...Jack hoped that I could help Curt find his music again, since it was my father's fault he lost it." Mia toyed with the hem of her skirt, sighing. "If he got his music back, then I could tell him who I really was."

Arthur nodded. "So...your real name's not Mia Jax?"

"No...it's Mia Venus Slade Fairy. Mia Jax is my stage name."

"Venus?" Arthur hid a smile. Mia scowled.

"Yes, I know. Venus. Blame my mother."

"I think it's adorable." Arthur wasn't able to hide his smile this time and gave a snort of laughter. "Venus...sure there isn't an Aphrodite in there somewhere too?"

"Piss off, or I'll show you why Jack nicknamed me 'Bitch Baby'." Mia's laughter was enough to draw Curt out of the kitchen, a wet plate in hand.

"What's going on out here?" he asked. Arthur and Mia erupted into laughter again and Curt rolled his eyes, returning to the dishes.

--

End Part One