TITLE: "Adventures in Clubbing"

AUTHOR: Doctor Strangelove (strangelove317@hotmail.com)
RATING:
SPOILERS: Um, I don't know. No particular spoilers. Visser Three is still Visser Three.
FEEDBACK: I'd love it.
DISCLAIMER: K. A. Applegate owns the Animorphs.

"Adventures in Clubbing"

Written by: Doctor Strangelove

My name is Marco. I can't tell you my last name, alien invasion, blah blah blah, you know the story. You know all about Jake, Cassie, the other Animorphs, the Yeerks, Controllers, all that stuff. And if you don't, please kindly ignore everything I just said.

Anyway, Cassie had called me under the pretense that she was looking for Jake. She said she was supposed to meet him at the barn and he hadn't shown up. Code. Cassie and aren't good friends publicly so she had to make up an excuse to call me about the Animorph meeting at the barn. Normally Jake handles that sort of thing, but he was sick with the flu and thus in no shape to be running a group of shape-shifting alien fighters. He let his girlfriend handle it instead.

Cassie was handling things fine so far. She had called the gang and... that's about all she'd done so far. But her calling was excellent. I demorphed outside her barn and walked in to find Cassie shifting around uncomfortably, Rachel with a smug look on her face, Ax contently chewing what appeared to be hay, and Tobias perched in the rafters. He's a hawk so I'm not exactly sure how he was feeling. I turned to Cassie, "So, Mrs. Fearless Leader, what's all this about?"

Cassie shifted uncomfortably so more, she was clearly not taking this leadership thing well, "Well..."

Erek contacted us. Apparently The Sharing is branching out. Tobias piped up.

I didn't get it and now really regret asking, "Branching out how?"

Erek said that in an effort to recruit more Controllers, The Sharing is going to have more facilities. One of them is going to be opening tonight and it'd probably be a good idea to check it out. Tobias said, officially taking over for Cassie.

"What kind of facility?" I should've kept my mouth shut.

Tobias turned his head away as did Cassie. A way too happy Rachel decided to spill the beans, "It's a gay club."

If I had been drinking something I would've comically spit it out right about then, "A what!?"

Rachel's smile got bigger, "And you're going."

In a once in a life time event I was stunned silent. "What?" Except for that. "I'm whatting the gay what?"

Rachel kept on smiling, "Going to. Club."

I turn to Cassie "Please tell me she's kidding about this!"

Cassie just gives me a sad look, "I'm sorry, but she's serious. And you have to go because my parents want to do some family thing tonight and Rachel has to go to gymnastics."

I'm looking for anyway to get out of this, "So, we've blown of stuff like this before!"

Cassie sighed, "Okay, the real reason is we decided the last person to show up would have to go."

Rachel's smile had gotten so big I think it was actually starting to spread off her face, "And Ax is going with you."

I turn to Cassie for help, "AX?"

She shrugged apologetically, "Well, we need to people there and Ax will probably be more useful than Tobias. Plus, you know, you may not get on as much if people think Ax is your boyfriend."

"Absolutely not!" I shouted, "This is not fair at all! I've got to infiltrate some gay club run by Yeerks and pretend an Andalite is my boyfriend! Plus, Rachel is getting some perverse pleasure from all this!"

"Marco, that's not true."

Rachel looked over at her best friend, "No, Cassie he's right."

What does "gay" mean? We all turned to look at Ax's sudden outburst.

Since I was going to have to be pretending to be dating this guy later I figured I should explain, "Rachel, you wanna take this one?" Should explain. Never said I would.

Rachel's smile faded as she struggled for the words, "Well, you see Ax, usually men like women. But there are some men who like other men, and some men who like men and women, and some who don't-"

I was kidding," Ax said in a voice that really didn't sound like he was kidding, I know what it means.

Yes, Tobias added from his position up in the rafters, I had the pleasure of explaining that when Ax started watching Queer As Folk with me.

Rachel's smile faded a little more, "You were watching Queer As Folk?"

My smile perked up, "You get Showtime? Cool. I need to come over more often."

Maybe after your little excursion to the Yeerk club tonight.

That brought me back to reality. "Oh, no way. I'm not going. There is no way I'm going."

*****

Guess what? Yep, I ended up going. Even though I didn't want to. Okay, I'm gonna level with you. My reasons for not wanting to go were a little more complicated than the average straight guy fragile ego thing. You see, okay, it's not I am gay or anything. I mean, sure I've had the occasional erection in the locker room or erotic dream about our Fearless Leader but, it's just those aren't any feelings I really want to explore. I'm different enough as it is with the whole morphing, alien fighting thing. No need to add the whole sexual orientation thing to it.

Anyway, it wasn't really a gay club like you think of. It was like a cross between a regular Sharing facility and a nightclub. There was pool, some pretty good music, and maybe about forty people. It was a dual-gender club, so there were about twelve lesbians there, which didn't suck, but there were also plenty of guys too, which bothered me in the fact that it didn't bother me. Stupid, I know, but hey, I explained it above.

Having Ax there wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, he was good company and kept sharing his hot wings with me. Plus, Cassie was right, as long as the two of us stayed next to each other people thought we were together and left us alone. All in all I was having a pretty good time.

I was scanning the area, looking for anything suspicious or Yeerk related when Ax tapped me on the shoulder. I looked at him and discovered he had about three hot wings stuffed in his, bone and all. He was pointing at the dance floor.

"What," I asked, not understanding, "You want to dance?" He nodded. "Um, I don't think that's-" He looked at me with the saddest puppy dog eyes I've ever seen. Where did he learn that? Probably on TV. He's kind of cute like that. No! That's the club talking. But I guess some dancing couldn't hurt. It'll pass the time. I sighed, "Alright. Just swallow the hot wings first."

Ax swallowed and started to head off when he suddenly stopped, "It's been nearly two hours I should de-"

"Shh," I put a finger up to his lips, "Watch what you say around here. Go to the bathroom. I'll guard the door."

I walked Ax over to the bathroom door and waited until I heard the lock click. I'd been there for a few minutes and was starting to wonder what was taking so long when I heard a voice behind me, "Is there someone in there?"

"Yeah, it's-" My sentence fell flat when I saw who it was. Tom. Jake's brother Tom. Controller Tom. Standing in a gay club. With a very tight shirt showing off- No! Stupid club!

Tom was staring at me, "Marco."

"Tom."

"What are you doing here?" We asked simultaneously.

Tom shifted around. He was either nervous or had to pee. I'm not sure which. "Look, Marco, we're both probably here for the same reason and that's good. I mean The Sharing opened up this club for teens like us and they're really helpful. There's going to be a guy speaking in a little bit. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, I won't say anything to Jake if you won't."

"Deal." I reached out to shake his hand when Ax decided to leave the bathroom.

"Marco, I am ready to dance now," He said not noticing Tom.

Tom looked at the two of us, "Is this your..."

"Yes!" I nearly shouted. "He is!" I decided to prove my point my leaning over and kissing Ax on the mouth. I panicked, sue me. I couldn't look suspicious. "Tom this is," You cousin Phillip who you've never met. "This is No."

"His name is No?"

"He's foreign," I stammered.

"Excuse me, could I have your attention please?" Thank God. We all turned to see a speaker getting up on stage.

Tom seemed to forget about No, "Oh, this is guy I was telling you about. Go on over. I'll see you later." Tom headed into the bathroom and left Ax and I alone.

Ax was staring at me, almost as shocked as I was that I had kissed him. I grabbed his hand, "Come on, Ax. The night is young."