Disclaimer:Pete belongs to Marvel, unfortunately. Pretty much everything else in this story is mine. Except the basic idea, which belongs to JB MacDonald. Much thanks to her for letting me run with it. The song is Elvis Costello's.
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A Brilliant Mistake
by RhiannonAmaris a Luba Kmetyk birthday fic
"Love adventure death and glory
the long goodbye the..."
Other than the blaring juke-box the Raven was uncharacteristically quiet for a Friday night. The filth had actually been somewhat active lately, so only the most legitimate drinkers (which was to say, the ones that could probably pass for eighteen and had good fake IDs) were evident. Well, that and there were a lot of good concerts that night and everyone that could score tickets was seeing the real deal instead of Desolation Angels making a pretty much tolerable cover. The band had gone through two sets in front of the half-hearted scattering and was now taking over a corner of the pub with their mates.
"Well, that was exceptional." A young black man with dreadlocks drawled sarcastically.
"Shut it, Jimi!" A boy with red hair and freckles snapped. "If you lot would take this seriously--"
A bark of laughter cut him short. "Yeah, right. Face it, Eddie, old son, 'cepting young Morgan there, none of us are the least bit talented music-wise. Yeah, we're okay at coverin' stuff, but that's it, right. An' Rock isn't even really Morgan's deal." The boy with raven black hair and electric blue eyes lit a cigarette. He didn't use a lighter or matches. "It's good fer a laugh, but don't get too full a' yerself mate."
"Fuck you, Pete."
"Yer not me type, Eddie."
Everyone but Jimi, Eddie and Dave broke out laughing at that. Jimi rolled his eyes, Ed scowled and Dave -- a young woman named Amelia Davis, who hated her first name -- glared at Morgan for moving. She was drawing on his arm with a ball point pen. Morgan looked like he wanted to run away.
As it died down, a girl none of them knew walked over to them. "How about me?"
Wisdom turned to see a girl a year or so younger than him, fifteen or so. He gave her a onceover. She was damned good looking, but...
They were a matched set almost. Both wore torn white T-shirts and black torn jeans, boots and jackets. He shrugged. "Maybe. 'Ave a seat...?"
She paused for a moment. "Zoe," she said uncertainly. And then, with more strength, "My name's Zoe Pierce. And you would be?"
"Pete Wisdom. That's Jimi Hawkes." The young man smiled in a friendly manner. "The bird with blue an' brown 'air is Kim Sharpe an' the strange cleancut lookin' kid is 'er brother Morgan. The bird drawin' on 'im is Dave Davis. Carrot top over there is Eddie Higgins."
"Nice t' meet you." Despite the effort she sounded strange to them. The image she tried to present didn't quite mesh with her mannerisms or itself. For instance-- Her boots were bleeding shiny, as was the leather jacket. The rips in her jeans were deliberate, the product of a pair of scissors and more than a bit of effort. Both of their shirts were snow white, but in Pete's case it was the kind you got in London half a day after it came down. His jeans and denim jacket looked like they wouldn't last out the week. 'Poor little rich gel?'
"So, where abouts ya from?"
The reaction wasn't at all what he expected. She slumped against the table and leaned on her hands. "It fucking shows, doesn't it? God fucking damn it!" she moaned.
"Well, you do sound a bit posh comparatively." Pete shrugged. "But the whole classism thing cuts both ways an' I don't buy into that. If that was what you were goin' on about."
That produced a wan smile. "Thanks, I think. Well," her voice brightened a bit, "This place is certainty jumping."
Kimi looked up from the wall art the Raven was getting free of charge. "Pigs have been around lately. It'll die down before too long. I think they're trying to catch up to a quota or something." She hid the Sharpie as a waitress came around.
Zoe started shouting out pints for them. "It's my friggin' parents' money anyway. Allow me some petty revenge."
In another couple of hours they were completely soused, had taken over the jukebox, had started a pub brawl and been kicked out.
After they had sprawled down the street a bit (only very locked teenagers can make that a method of movement) while singing for the most part off-key "First time I saw lightning strike I saw it from the ground..." Kim thought the better of it and dragged her brother home. Against his better judgment, Jimi stayed.
They got barred a couple more times, got into it with some illiterate skinheads-- Wisdom holding his own quite nicely despite his arm being in a sling. One of the prats ran off and brought back reinforcements though, so they exited stage left.
Nursing their bruises they wandered around, and as far away as possible, until they found a seedy off-license. After a bit of haggling, they got four huge bottles from the bored and pimpled clerk. The bargaining consisted of Dave and Zoe flirting shamelessly with the clerk while Pete and Eddie snuck out the door. Jimi waited outside, shaking his head at them. He didn't object to partaking of the ill gotten goods, though.
"Wuss."
"Madmen."
"And women, ya toerag." Dave glared at him goodnaturedly.
"And women," Jimi agreed.
God alone knew how they had ended up over by the waterfront, but there they were, around two AM. At first they just watched the men in the fishmarket work; haggling, checking wares, tossing merchandise to one another.
If they had just watched, the night probably would have faded away without much further ado. But, of course, they didn't.
Eddie snickered drunkenly.
Dave punched him lightly in the arm. "Wot?"
"S'like that guy on the Muppets, tha' throws fish at people." They were far past the point where this was considered hilarious, so no one got a coherent word out for nearly five minutes.
"Would ya look at that," Pete said, "'s one a' them watcha call it's, swordfish."
"Cool. We should get one a' them." Dave was leaned up against Zoe with her eyes half closed.
"Why?"
"'Cause they look bloody cool."
"An' they taste good." This was from a completely smashed Zoe.
"'kay." Pete stood up, extremely easily considering. "Well?" He looked down at the others.
"Well wot, mate?" Eddie slurred.
Pete sighed dramatically and gestured at the market.
They blinked at him for a moment, then, grinning insanely, got up and began to run. They sprinted into the market, grabbed a fish and ran like hell, chased by at least fifteen large men. Very luckily most of them smoked heavily and, in some cases, 'large' wasn't the same as muscular.
About half an hour later, walking and out of breath, Eddie nearly tripped over a girl in an alley. She glared at him with large brown eyes, stuck a largish wad of money in her pocket and went back to nursing cuts and bruises, black hair hanging in her face.
"Fuckin' hell, Mary gel, you all right?" Jimi exclaimed. They went to school with her and, though none of them were really friends with her, they were nearer to it than she let anyone else be.
"Yeah, fine." She wiped something that looked almost green off her arm. "Bloody odd night is all. Why're Eddie and Dave carrying a swordfish and a meat cleaver?"
"Meat cleaver?" Pete said, puzzled. Everyone turned and stared at Davis.
"Where did we get a meat cleaver?"
"I dunno. Don't you remember?"
"No. I thought Zoe knew."
"You're carrying it. How can you not remember? And I thought Pete--"
"I didn't know we had the bloody thing till Mare mentioned it."
Mary shook her head and laughed. It was a pure clear sound that didn't come out of her nearly often enough. "Sounds like you've had an interesting night yourselves. Not half as weird as mine, I'd wager, but mine's hard to top."
"How's that?" Pete leaned against a wall and grinned at her.
"You wouldn't believe me." She stood and brushed herself off. "I'm off then."
"Aw, come on, hang out with us a bit, it'll be fun." Wisdom cajoled.
"Thanks, but I've got to go make sure my Mum hasn't OD'ed or anything. See ya 'round." She smiled shyly and walked away.
Pete followed her out of the alley. " 'Ey, Mare. I was wonderin'..." She turned and looked at him. "Maybe we could go out some time. It'd be a laugh."
She was taken completely aback. "I... Sure, why not."
"How 'bout next Friday?" Pete grinned like a cat that had eaten the canary.
"I can't..." A stricken look crossed her face. "Or Saturday either. This or next."
"What about Sunday then?"
She relaxed visibly. "That'll work."
"Good. Great. I'll see you then. It'll be great." He watched her walk away before he went back to his friends with a satisfied smirk on his face, whistling "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out".
"What was that about then, mate?" Jimi asked.
Pete just smiled.
Dave narrowed her eyes, then broke into a huge grin. "You finally asked her out? It's about bloody time." She slapped him on the back.
Eddie rolled his eyes. "It's not like it's that big a deal. I mean, she'd probably say yes to anyone who asked."
"What the hell are you going on about?"
"Oh, for God's sake, her mom's a pros--"
"You are so full of shit, Higgins." Dave said, clearly disgusted. As one they turned their backs on him and began to walk away.
Ed trailed behind them. "Listen, guys..."
"Shut up and I won't hurt you," Zoe growled.
"It's true! And you don't even know her."
"That doesn't matter." They walked in akward silence for quite some time.
"Oi! You lot, over by the car, now!" They nearly jumped out of their skin at the barked order. The harsh voice belonged to a rather old bobby. Most cops his age had long ago given up walking beats. "You 'eard me, you lot of little freaks. Over by the car. I'll deal with you when I'm done sorting out these Paki bastards."
Pete's eyes narrowed as the man went back to hassling a pair of Indian teens. "I saw you. Sneaking about on a fire escape in the middle of the night. An' now yer tryin' ta tell me ya ain't up t' no good? I wouldn't believe you even if you weren't both heathens. An' as fer your little accomplice..." The young man and woman were both frantically trying to explain and make the bobby speak more softly. "What the two of you would be doing out here at this time of night, I don't know--"
"At your age. Really? That's a pity." Pete said just loudly enough so that the man would hear him.
The couple turned beet red and the cop glared at Wisdom until the meaning sank in. "Oh." He was obviously deflated at no longer having even the vaguest illusion of a reason to hassle the two young lovers. Then he grinned as he remembered Pete's lot.
The commotion had finally woken half the neighborhood however, including both of the teens' sets of parents. The group of kids by the squad car were forgotten in the following shouting match. The parents yelled at each other, their children, and the 'awful hoodlum' and the 'little tart' respectively; the young people yelled at their parents; onlookers called out advice, encouragement or screamed out for quiet; the bobby belted out racist remarks at the top of his lungs, and everyone yelled back at the cop.
Wisdom felt a finger poke him in the side. "What, Zoe?" He was still glowering at the cop, who seemed to be doing his best to start a riot.
"The keys. They're in the ignition." Everyone turned and stared at her. And then looked at the car. Then the cop. And the car again. And back at the bobby.
He began to preen when he heard the siren, until he realized it came from his car which was peeling away. More than one of the locals began to cheer.
Twenty minutes later...
"We're dead, we're dead, we're dead..." Eddie moaned. Jimi was hiding his head in his hands.
"Shut it an' let me do the talking. It happened like this, right..."
They were never really sure who, but someone began to sing. "He thought he was the King of America, where they pour Coca-Cola just like vintage wine, now I..."
"...Now I try hard not to become hysterical
but I'm not sure if I am laughing or crying
I wish that I could push her but can't talk
in the past but not the present tense
it was this hurting feeling
disappear like it was common sense
it was a fine idea at the time
now it's a brilliant mistake..."
THE END
'Venus (of the Hardsell)' by Mucus Membrane, the 'hit' song by John Constantine's punk band in the seventies. In DC canon it's written by John Constantine and Gary 'Gaz' Lester. In reality, unless I'm mistaken, it was written by Jamie Delano.
'Hot, Hot, Hot' by the Cure, off the Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me album
'There Is A light That Never Goes Out' is, of course, by the Smiths
'Brilliant Mistake' by Elvis Costello and the Attractions