It's My Life
Okay, as promised, here's Lena's side of 'For Rel' and 'Get Rel'.
Relena enjoyed this song, it was cute and up-beat; very up-beat. Plus it was among the first songs that the group had chosen, and even though it was actually meant to be sung by a male the group had decided that Draca would sing it for she had the right range for the song. There was only one minor detail about their songs that Relena didn't enjoy, and that was that the songs were in Japanese. The language just reminded Relena too much of Heero.
Watching Draca and Adam take turns singing the verses, Relena smiled at the ease both of her friends had with the songs and loved the way Draca moved about the crowd, trying to get their small audience into the music.
Resting for Lynn's guitar solo, Relena eyed the 'Preventer table' and examined how Duo, even Hilde and Catherine seemed to be the only ones truly enjoying themselves other than Vice Foreign Minister Sylvia Noventa.
Snapping out of her momentary feelings of envy, Relena made her entrance into the song on time. If she had lapsed into thought and examination any longer she would have completely missed her entrance, throwing off the rest of the band.
Despite the fact that they as musicians weren't supposed to rely on each other for where they were in the song, the 'For Rel' band did.
Draca ended the song and people applauded in the typical manner, very softly; almost as though everyone was at a golfer's tournament. It came to the band as no real surprise until they heard someone whistling and stomping.
Scanning the room, Relena saw that it was Duo who was whistling and stomping his feet. The sight made her grin broadly, for that was among the greatest compliments that could be given to them as a band.
"Thank you all for your unenthused gratitude as always, except for the guy with the braid. Are you giving out clapping lessons at all?" joked Draca, a common tactic that the band used after the first song. It was a way to try and liven the bar up a bit, especially as a couple of people entered the bar.
"Since we're boring you all," Draca stated, her sarcasm very apparent, "I'll take a short time and introduce ourselves. I am Draca Ison, lead vocalist, thank you! On bass we have Adam Cole!"
Adam, being himself, held up the rock'n'roll signs from the twenty-first century. It had somehow become Adam's signature sign, as that was what he always did when Draca introduced the members of the band. Relena really had no idea where he got the 'rock'n'roll' sign from.
"Yeah, he's the insane one," Draca remarked teasingly. "Then we have our electric guitarist, Lynn Voc. Say 'hi' Lynn."
"Are we really that boring people?!" Lynn asked through her microphone after playing a few cords, another trademark.
No one in the bar answered Lynn's question, so she turned it into a positive response. "Silence is to be taken as a no, then."
Rolling her eyes, Draca continued, "Sage Cole on drum set and small percussion."
Choosing not to stand up, Sage held up his drumsticks in the form of a cross.
Covering her mouth with a hand, Relena giggled a bit for she knew now that the cross was basically symbolizing 'back evil thing'. Sage, becoming hyped up with adrenaline, would suddenly become very playful during performances.
"Not cute Sage, they're not evil!" scolded Draca in irritation. Shaking her head ruefully, Draca turned to Relena with a wink. "Last, and the least," Relena made an offended expression, "Salimar Reigns, our keyboardist and pianist! I sincerely hope that did just come out correctly and not in some sick form."
Since everyone else had some sort of trademark gesture when introduced, Relena felt that she should have one for herself. It was the classic bow and wave, which Relena got from the stereo-typed gesture pianists made when introduced.
Looking up from her bow, Relena noticed that Sylvia and Heero were talking to each other. Somehow it bothered Relena, not making her necessarily jealous but rather annoyed.
Sure, he can talk to her in a public place around friends but he couldn't do that with me, she thought bitterly, while exchanging her music for the next song.
Making eye contact with everyone in the band, Draca nodded her head and the entire band started off together strong and softened so that drums were the main feature for a moment until the keyboard kicked with the setting as 'trumpet'.
Changing the settings of the keyboard again, Relena quickly got back in with the rest of the band.
For not being people who took chorus in school, Adam had a pleasing voice. A voice that Relena really liked as it was much more pleasing than the voice that Duo used in the shower. Relena involuntarily shuddered a bit as she remembered the time when she walked into Duo's room one night in search of Hilde only to hear Duo from the shower.
As the band entered into another instrumental break, Draca approached Relena, much to Relena's surprise.
Draca leaned toward Relena's ear while Relena played the chords of the vocal-less section, she had it memorized.
"Hey, do you want to take the English part for me this time? I'm still stuck in the Japanese language that I'm afraid I might forget the entire English verse or switch to Japanese in the middle!" Draca shouted in Relena's ear. "I'll give you the signal to sing!"
Understanding where Draca was coming from, Relena nodded. Singing so many songs in Japanese that had English breaks was a bit difficult because the singers were so used to singing in Japanese that they forget the English parts.
Watching Draca for her cue, Relena didn't have to wait long until Draca gave her a thumb's up.
"The sun sets and a new day comes
Repeating is one change
Don't avert eyes from differences
Your nerve and soul to the limit
Go forward NOW!"
Relena loved that part of the song for it was so catchy and really profound if a person just took the time to examine the words and their meanings.
Hanging onto their last note of the song, 'For Rel' waited for Sage to do a short roll of the cymbal until cutting off all sound.
Having been too engrossed in the singing and playing, Relena hadn't noticed that the number of people had almost tripled by the end of the song. At least she wasn't aware until the thunderous applause was heard.
"Whoa! Where the hell did all of you come from?!" Sage cried out, standing up from behind the drum set and leaning into his microphone.
"They came to hear Lynn!" answered Adam, giving Lynn a playful wink when she turned and glared while adjusting the tuning of her guitar. "Let's turn it down a notch and have Lynn give you all a wonderful experience, eh?"
Most of the men in the bar, including a very overactive Duo, were cheering supportively for Lynn to sing.
Relena smiled, happy that it wasn't her who to sing, but even more happy that Lynn was being 'tortured' by having to sing.
Starting up the next song by playing a series of eighth note cords repeatedly for five seconds, Relena was joined by Lynn while Adam put down his guitar and headed to the back of the stage. At the same moment, Lynn began singing while Relena adjusted the keyboard sound to bell chimes and Draca escaped back by Sage.
Draca returned with a tambourine, and began to hit on counts one and three while adding some little shakes every now an then and extra little beats.
"Kimi wo, kimi wo ai shiteru
Kokoro de, mitsumete iru
Kimi wo, kimi wo shinjiteru
Samui yoru mo," all three of the girls sang.
Relena enjoyed this song a lot, even if it wasn't exactly a 'slow song', it was still an easy-going sort of song that happened to have a light, sort of up-beat tone to it. Plus, it let Draca have some fun with small percussion for a while, something that wasn't common.
Another reason Relena really liked this song was that she picked it out and Lynn had volunteered, after some persuasion, to sing it.
Adam entered with his bagpipe solo, which he had learnt to play when he was ten. Lynn was his only accomplice during the entire solo.
Relena, Draca, and Sage shared knowing glances as people were applauding Adam, for it was not often that people got to see someone who knew how to play the bagpipes and play them well. The instrument, bagpipe, became a rare thing to hear or be taught as many people found the instrument not to their tastes and found no interest in it.
"Samui yoru mo," the girls sang, ending the song with bell chimes from the keyboard and cymbals decrescendo. Relena decided to do something fun with the finale, running her fingers across the entire keyboard to make a wind chime sound.
Before Relena had no idea she could generate such a sound until she found herself diddling around with the keyboard and settings at the Noventa house before she had to pack up for the bar.
Looking up at the enthused crowd, Relena saw, much to her delight, that Trowa and Quatre were among the masses of people giving the band a standing ovation.
"Oh…look at all those pretty girls in the crowd boys!" Relena commented into her microphone.
Both boys immediately understood where she was taking the comment, and the brothers just shook their heads with pleading eyes. Anyone could see that they were in fact twin brothers as they gave Relena identical imploring, puppy-dog eyes.
Smiling mischievously, Relena suggested, "Wow, I think they want to hear you two sing a solo. What do you two say?" The question had been asked towards Lynn and Draca only because they were going to concur with Relena.
"I agree," stated Lynn, looking pointedly at Adam. Making Adam sing again was revenge for him making her sing.
Draca nodded slowly with an evil smirk on her lips that told the band that the wheels in Draca's head were spinning with inspiration. Adam and Sage cringed in fear, Adam shook his head vigorously as he put his bass guitar back on while Sage held up a silver crucifix.
"The power of God compels thee!" yelled Sage so that everyone could hear him.
Laughing in delight, Relena shook her head Sage. Only he would say such a thing and with the use of archaic words like 'thee'.
Most of the girls in the bar stood up and yelled for the boys to do a song, including the gundam boys' girls, much Relena's pleasure, and Sylvia, much to Relena's discomfort.
"I do believe they think otherwise guys," teased Lynn.
"Come on, don't be shy," chided Draca, purposely luring the boys into a trap where their courage was to be challenged.
"Fine," agreed Adam giving Relena a playful glare, which Relena returned with an innocent smile. Turning to Lynn, Adam gave her a nod and she started up on the electric guitar, after returning the nod.
"FLASH BACK! . . . FLASH BACK! . . . DON'T STOP! . . . DON'T STOP! . . ." Relena sang with the rest of the band as Adam responded in Japanese.
This was another song Relena really enjoyed. It was a fun song and was a bit misleading in the beginning as far as the vocals, for the band would have the quick call and more flowing response, then the rest of the lyrics were sung in a very flowing, easy manner that some people had called 'soulful'.
Relena had found Adam's voice pleasing, and Sage's voice was much different except that it was a tad bit deeper and had a more rich tone to it.
Electric solo entered with the faint sound of the drums in the background. Skillfully Lynn played high cords on the guitar with speed and grace as she had walked up in front of Sage and Adam, showing off her skills a bit. Near the end of her solo, Lynn backed off so that the boys could sing the final verse together.
Drums pounded heavily while the electric and keyboard followed closely behind; closing the song with a bang!
"Beautifully done guys!" commented Draca as she returned to the stage. She had, as usual, been grabbing unsuspecting people in the bar and getting them to start dancing with her, then switch partners. "I think you two brought a tear to my eye!"
"Our mission in life, eh Sage?!" Adam replied, jokingly as he turned and gave his brother a teasing wink that had several meanings behind it.
"All right people, we're going to take a break then it's the finale!" announced Draca.
Groans were heard from the crowd as they applauded for more music, causing the band to share in a secret smile of gratitude. It was an amazing feeling to experience when people actually request for more music from a band. One of the highest compliments in Relena's opinion.
"Demanding crowd," grinned Draca, "we'll be back in five, five, minutes! While all of you are waiting, buy a drink or two from that handsome signore there. Wave Giorgio!"
Giorgio numbly waved then went back to placing drinks on the counter, he always tried to look indifferent about the bands that performed in his bar, but the 'For Rel' members knew that he held them in high esteem.
Turning her keyboard down to a minimum, Relena adjusted the settings for the next songs while the others set aside their instruments and turned off the amps and microphones; no need to waste electricity.
Draca chattered quietly with the boys causing them to lift their heads in the general direction of the table where the gundam pilots and girls were sitting, idly speaking with each other.
"Hey Salimar," Lynn greeted, coming over to Relena with a cup of warm water, which Giorgio had brought over while the band was performing, and stirring in a spoonful of honey. "What was that guy, Claudio, saying to you in class today?"
Relena shrugged a bit, "He just asked if I would go out with him."
Lynn's eyebrows rose from behind the cup she was sipping. "And…?"
"And, knowing that he already had a girlfriend, asked him how much he was willing to pay me," answered Relena.
"Nah-uh! You did not say that, did you?!" Lynn exclaimed, trying her hardest not to have her honey water spraying out of her nose as she laughed.
"How much you want to bet on that?" challenged Relena, turning around to Lynn with an over-confident smirk on her face.
"Oh Draca," Lynn called out, motioning for Draca to come over, "our little baby Salimar has grown to be such a fantastic heartbreaker! She turned down going out with one of the more popular freshmen from campus, believe it or not. Her response was, "How much are you willing to pay me?" No more teaching her how to turn guys down." Lynn said as that while chuckling at the thought.
"Go Salimar, ow-ow-ow!" Draca grinned, giving Relena an impressed yet approving expression. "Then again," she continued with an air of false conceit, "you did have the best teacher in the world of rejecting the male species, me. How I have taught you well!"
"Yeah Draca, you're just the queen of rejecting guys, that maybe why you never had a boyfriend," commented Sage getting an elbow strike into the abdomen by Draca's evil elbow. "Down pussy cat." At that, Draca began to crack her knuckles in warning.
"Just think, that's coming from a guy who thinks he's so smooth," Adam remarked to Lynn and Relena.
There were lots of shouted threats in Italian and Japanese as Draca chased Sage around on the stage a bit.
"Told you, they couldn't get along for more than two or three minutes, Lynn," Adam pointed out, returning to a conversation that Lynn and him had while in the van that day. "Your best bet is to give up on trying to get them to actually be civil with each other."
"Never! It'll just take some time is all. Time and a lot of work," reassured Lynn waving off Adam's advise.
Personally, Relena agreed with Adam only because Draca and Sage had that love-hate-denial relationship. It was sometimes annoying and caused a lot of incivility between the two, but the moments when they were civil were often times very sweet and cute.
"Ahem! Excuse me, may I have a word with Sage Cole?" asked an aoristically.
Relena almost jumped at the voice, she didn't need to turn around to know who it was but she still did. It was Sylvia Noventa, current Vice Foreign Minister and Heero Yuy's girlfriend.
Be nice, Relena reminded herself, what would she want with Sage anyways? "Sure thing." Looking over her shoulder, Relena shouted, "Hey Sage, get your cute self over here, pronto! Someone's here to have a word or two with you, for whatever reason!"
Faster than lighting, if possible, Sage with among the small group with a fuming Draca following behind him muttering something about stupid drummer boys and shoving a drumstick up his behind before the night was through.
"A fan?! For me?! Oh! Oh! Where?! Who?!" babbled Sage jumping up and down like a little child.
Relena usually would have found Sage's actions cute if it wasn't Sylvia who had requested to see him.
Sage stopped his jumping when he saw that it Sylvia before him, immediately his face broke out into a full blown grin.
"Sylvia! Amica, how are you?! Where have you been?! How long has it been?!" he questioned rapidly, jumping off the platform and pulling Sylvia into a giant bear hug, beginning to swing her around much like how he had when he saw Relena again.
"Amica?" Draca muttered, looking towards Lynn and Relena as thought they would know the reason behind Sage calling Sylvia 'girlfriend'.
Both girls just shrugged and gave a perplexed look to tell Draca that they knew no more than she did.
"One question at a time, Sage," giggled Sylvia when Sage finally set her down on the edge of the platform in a sitting position. "I've been quite well, thank you. Traveling from colony to colony and all over Asia is where I have been, and it has been three years since we last saw each other."
Relena suppressed the urge to glare at Sylvia. Oh, so it's not enough for her to interject into my life and break through to Heero without my knowing, now she has been friends with my friends and I never knew!
"Wow, three years huh? Really, that long? Uh…it felt longer," remarked Sage deciding to sit beside Sylvia and avoid eye contact with Relena despite the fact that he felt her eyes upon him. "Why are you traveling so much?"
"Maintaining the peace," Relena tried not to cringe, "since Vice Foreign Minister Darlian had ran away someone had to do something, so I volunteered to do so," explained Sylvia with much boastfulness in her tone.
Relena shook her head ruefully to hide doubtful look that was no doubt in her eyes while Draca rolled her eyes and Lynn let out an exhausted sigh.
To let off some of her pent up irritation, Relena interjected in on the conversation, "Are you going to be introducing us to your friend, Sage? Or are we just supposed to be left in the dark on who she is and who he is?" Relena vaguely gestured to Duo when she noticed that he was standing there waiting for someone to say something.
"Course, Adam you tell them," Sage suggested, still trying to avoid Relena.
"Right bro," sighed Adam rather annoyed that his brother wasn't going to introduce the girls to his friend. "Girls, that there is Sylvia Noventa, the grand-daughter of the former Grand Marshal Noventa of the Alliance. That dude there is…I don't know. Some dude with a long braid, a goofy smile, and is really scaring me."
Relena laughed silently knowing the Adam was putting on an act for everyone knew that the 'dude with a long braid' was Duo Maxwell.
"The name's Duo, Duo Maxwell, I may run and hide, but I'll never tell a lie. That's me in a nutshell basically ladies," corrected Duo, stepping onto the platform grinning his winning grin.
Not disappointed at all with Duo's manners, Relena bit back her laughter and stood there with amused eyes and a secret smile.
"I'm technically with Sylvia, but I just really wanted all your autographs," Duo told the band.
Unreadable glances were exchanged throughout the group, excluding Sage. Someone asking for their autographs was not an everyday occurrence, in fact it had never happened before. As usual, Draca was the first to recover and break out into a devious smile.
"That all, because we don't have any pens on us, and it doesn't look like you have a pad of paper for us to sign," Draca pointed out.
"Easy," claimed Duo unclipping his white priest collar and pulling it off, much to Relena's surprise. "All of you can sign on this and I'm certain someone here will have a permanent marker somewhere."
Again, there was an exchange of looks. What were they to do? It wasn't as though they could really deny him their signatures. So, the group finally decided 'to hell with it' and shrugged.
"You got it, go find that marker while we perform," winked Relena playfully, nodding to the side as a gesture that Duo had better get going. "We'll see you after our finale."
Relena found it amazing how Duo's whole face lit up, literally, as he smiled like a little child. She hadn't seen him so happy since the day he had asked Hilde to go out with him and she said 'yes'. That was last year too.
"Really?!" Relena nodded her assurance. "Awesome!" he cheered, leaping off the platform and doing a mixture of walking and dancing back to his table with a large smile on his features.
Watching Duo leave, Relena couldn't help but be amused and even a bit saddened that he had left. It was great to talk with Duo again, even if he didn't know that he was speaking to Relena rather than some girl named 'Salimar'.
"Sage, time's up," Draca notified the last band member as the others went to get their instruments, except Relena who stayed by Lynn.
"I can't believe Sage," Lynn told Relena turning on the amps and adjusting the volume, "calling her 'amica' and in Draca's hearing. Not to mention that he and Adam don't even bother to tell us that they knew Sylvia Noventa as a friend rather than someone who they heard about from the news!"
"I didn't wish to make everyone in the band mad at me and think of me as a traitor. Besides, I thought it would be best if I kept the friendship with Sylvia so that perhaps Heero and Relena would meet up again," Sage whispered in Lynn's ear after having come up behind her unknowingly.
Eyes wide, Lynn looked across the room at the table where Preventer Yuy sat talking with his girlfriend. A grim expression hid Lynn's disgusted emotions toward the man.
Why bother when he seems content with Sylvia? Lynn wondered.
"Lynn, what did Sage say?" Relena spoke up, interrupting Lynn's thoughts.
Shaking her head, Lynn plastered on a smile. "Nothing, just told me to stop talking trash. You better get to your keyboard for it looks like Draca's ready to announce us," Lynn said.
Nodding her agreement, Relena returned to her keyboard but stared at Lynn with questioning eyes. She knew that Lynn was hiding something from her but it would have to wait until later, when the band was back at the Noventa household.
Just concentrate on playing and ignore the fact that everyone's here. Especially ignore the fact that Sage hid the fact that he and Sylvia are friends, Relena told herself, sighing a bit.
Thank you to: DogDemonK9, Ulitheal, Morrighan of Crimson and Sable (of course), and Lynn-Minmay (as always). Thank you all. It's good to know that people want to read Lena's point of view on the entire event.