"All right. Now a one, a two, and a..."
Mishmashed beats and noises filled the small room where Quatre and the others were holding band practice. A strange twanging broke out, and everyone looked over to stare at Duo, who was plucking crazily at an electric guitar.
"OOOoooOOOoohhh...!! BABEE! I NEED your LOVIN'!!" The long-haired boy crowed, making stranger faces by the second.
"DUO!!! GIVE ME BACK MY GUITAR!!!" Wufei punched Duo on the head, reclaiming the guitar. "Just what do you think you're doing?! You're gonna break the strings!!"
"Guys..." Quatre sighed and hung his head. "Calm down! We'll never make that song good enough in time for the Battle of the Bands if you keep acting like this!"
"Well, why did you have to use MY song?!" Wufei glared in Trowa's direction, but Trowa just looked away, humming quietly to himself.
"Because it's better than anything the rest of us can do." Heero sat down on the band's only amp and stared at the floor. "Besides, we can't think of anything else on such short notice."
"Let's face it. We're hopeless." Quatre let out an uncharacteristically loud moan of despair. "We'll never win! We'll get kicked out! We'll all be homeless!!! Auuugh!"
"Guys... I think Quatre just snapped." Duo walked over to his blond-haired bandmate and tapped him gently on the head. "Hellooooooo? Quatre? Buddy?" He waved his hand in front of Quatre's face, but to no avail. "Anybody home?"
"I think you guys need some help."
Everyone turned to look at the dark-haired girl who had suddenly appeared in the doorway. Smiling coyly, she said, "How ya doin', Quatre?"
Quatre stared, his mouth agape. Blinking, he tried to say something, but all that came out was a small noise somewhere between a gasp and a scream. He couldn't believe it.
"Hey! It's you!!" Duo grinned and bounced over to Shy. "You're Quatre's girlfriend! The one who brought him home after he got drunk and passed out!!"
Heero, Wufei, and Trowa stared. Heart blinked. Quatre's face turned scarlet.
"DUO!!!!!!!" He screamed, arms flailing wildly. "SHE IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!!! AND I WAS NOT DRUNK!!!!"
Duo looked at Quatre, his expression full of innocent confusion. "Then why did she bring you home after you passed out? You sure looked like you had been drinking."
"And smelled like it," muttered Wufei unhelpfully, smirking. That was it for Quatre. He snapped.
"GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUYS!!!!!!!!!!!"
Shy, who had been watching silently the whole time, suddenly burst out laughing.
Everyone stopped yelling and looked at her. She was doubled over and was laughing hysterically.
"You guys... you're so funny! Haha!" She wiped a tear out of her eye and stood up straight. "But back to why I'm here. You guys-"
"We suck." Said Heero loudly, cutting her off. His voice echoed through the now-silent room.
"We're not THAT bad!" said Duo heatedly, whirling to point at Heero accusingly.
"Well, who was the one trying to break my guitar earlier, hmm?" asked Wufei icily, holding up his battered guitar.
"Don't start that again-"
"My point is," cut in Shy forcefully, causing the arguing bandmates to stop talking once again, "that you guys need some help."
"Yes," said Trowa, Heero, Wufei and Quatre in unison. After a moment, Duo added quietly, "Sure, fine, whatever."
"Great!" Shy clapped her hands together in glee. "First off, these guitars." Without hesitating, she immediately grabbed Wufei's guitar and began showing him how to tune it properly. Wufei was a bit taken aback at first, but eventually Shy won him over and he sat quietly, listening and only asking the occasional question. After Wufei was taken care of, Shy moved on to Heero, who would be supplying the band's lead vocals.
Quatre stood back from the others, mouth gaping open in shock. Shy had magically appeared again, just as she had the first time they met. How did she know that they were entering? Sure, she had given them the flyer, but that didn't mean they were going to enter. Had he said something stupid when he got drunk?
"Shy..."
"Yeah?" Shy turned and stared Quatre, her deep brown eyes meeting his own. For some reason, he got a strange, intense feeling all of a sudden and stepped back instinctively. Unfortunately, he was standing in front of Duo's drum kit, and when he backed up he toppled onto it.
"Quatre!!"
"Oww..." Sitting up, the blonde man rubbed his head. It seemed that whenever he was around Shy, something happened to cause him pain. Perhaps she was a jinx?
Don't think about stupid things, Quatre mentally reprimanded himself. Looking up, he saw Shy standing over him with a concerned look on her face.
"Are you okay?" Shy stuck out a hand to help the blonde man up.
"I think so." Quatre smiled and reached for Shy's outstretched hand. However, when their palms met, he felt a sudden burning sensation ripple through his entire body, causing him to gasp in surprise.
"Quatre...?" Shy shot him a quizzical look. "Are you sure you're okay? Maybe you hit your head a little too hard..."
Feeling a blush creeping into his cheeks, Quatre quickly turned his face away from Shy, pulling back his hand at the same time. Walking past her, he stammered, "I-I'm fine. I'm fine..." What was wrong with him? Just because someone had touched his hand, he was getting all flustered!
It wasn't just someone. It was her.
Quatre shook himself slightly. Stupid inner voice, bothering him at a time like this. Besides, it wasn't because of Shy. It was just - something. Something was wrong with him. Maybe he was still hung over? He didn't really know how long those kinds of things lasted.
Shy stared at the blonde's back for a moment, a strange look on her face. Then, shrugging, she said off-handedly, "Okay. As long as you're sure. Now, back to teaching you guys how to play!"
They spent the rest of the next week practicing, learning Wufei's song, and getting to know Shy a bit better. After all, she was still pretty much a mystery to everyone except Quatre, and even Quatre didn't now that much about her.
"So, why are you helping us again?" Heero asked one day. Quatre, Duo and Wufei stopped in their tracks and stared. That had been really unexpected, especially from Heero, who had been even quieter than usual lately.
Shy looked up at him and smiled. "Because... I feel like it. I don't really understand it myself." She shrugged nonchalantly. "There's just something different about you guys that makes me want to be around you." Grinning, she cast a glance in Quatre's direction. "Just think, none of us would have met each other if Quatre hadn't wandered into my bar accidently." She winked at him.
"Uh..." Quatre turned away, facing in the opposite direction in order to hide the slight blush that had crept into his cheeks. "Yeah, just think. Shouldn't we get back to practice?"
Shy smiled. Quatre scratched the back of his neck. The others just gave each other knowing glances and returned to their instruments.
It was finally time for the Battle of the Bands. Well, it was the night before Battle of the Bands, but close enough. However, to the five young men who were betting their survival on winning the competition, the night wouldn't go by fast enough.
"Auugggggghhhhhhhh!!!"
"Shut up."
"Auugggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!"
"I said, shut up."
"AUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
"DUO!!!!"
"Ow!"
Wufei glared at his long-haired bandmate, fists clenched and a vein throbbing in his temple. He was getting really fed up with Duo's constant complaining. "Why can't you ever just be quiet?"
"But we're going on stage tomorrow!" Duo whined. "Our very survival is on the line here!"
"No it's not," interjected Trowa. "The only thing we're putting "on the line" is our apartment."
"And my dignity," muttered Wufei darkly.
"But without our apartment, we can't survive! We're all gonna be homeless! Uwaaaah!!" Duo flung himself upon the couch, burying his face in a pillow.
"Don't talk like that!" said Quatre, frantically trying his best to calm his crying bandmate down by patting him on the back. "If we believe we'll win, then - then - "
"Then we'll be crushed when we lose." said Heero emotionlessly.
"No!! We've got to think positively!!" Quatre shot a pleading look at the non-crying members of his band. "Come one, guys! Please?"
"I'll give it my all, but only because I don't feel like moving out in the middle of December." With that, Heero walked off to his room and shut the door quietly behind him.
"We should all get some sleep." Trowa followed Heero's lead, stretching and yawning a bit before entering his own room.
"And don't let Duo into my room again!" Wufei shot an accusing look at Quatre before turning and walking down the hall to his room. After he closed the door, the clicking of bolt locks could be heard for a full thirty seconds. It seemed that Wufei really, REALLY liked his privacy, Quatre thought before turning back to Duo.
"C'mon, Duo... we gotta rest up..." Quatre reached out to pat his weeping friend on the back again, but before he could Duo leapt up and ran around the room three times before yelling,
"LET'S WIN THIS THING!!!!"
Then he ran into his room, slamming the door behind him. Quatre thought he heard maniacal laughter coming from behind said door, but he couldn't be sure. Sighing, he dragged himself to his bedroom. His limbs suddenly felt very heavy. So heavy, in fact, that he barely had enough energy to shut his door. Throwing himself onto his bed, he sighed heavily. Dealing with his friends always seemed like such a chore to him. He had forgotten how difficult it was to manage an insane idiot, a silent emo-kid, a narcisstic Heero-wannabe, and a guy with a fuse as short as his desired length for Duo's hair. Shy had really been a big help. Without her, Quatre was sure that they would've never made as much progress as they had in the last couple of weeks. Thinking of Shy made a now-familiar blush creep into the skinny blonde's cheeks. Why did he turn red whenever he thought about her? Just because of the one day when she had held his hand? And even then, she hadn't actually been holding his hand. She had just been helping him up. It was nothing to get so flustered about! Sighing again, he rolled over and fell into a fitful sleep.