Smokes and Punk Clothes
A USUK fanfic
Blaring punk music, cigarette smoke, people around me with tattoos, piercings, wild hair and different-trend clothing, busty chicks and lean guys. That's what Valhalla Viking Hall is. Dimly lit, with the exception of stage lights. Packed like sardines, which made it pretty hard to move, not to mention, pretty hot. I tried as best as I could to follow Arthur and the rest of his band members to the backstage without bumping into people every three steps or so. Even with these glasses, I never really did well in the dark.
We got to the backstage, thankfully unscratched or whatever. A cheerful, yet somewhat small-looking blonde guy was giving them a pep talk. He was kinda different from everybody else. Less hostile.
"Let's do our best, okay, guys? We've already done it three times a row— oh! Hey Arthur!" He turned, mid-talk, to us. He grinned and caught sight of me. "Is that Jones? I had no idea he could play!" He jogged over to me and eyed me properly.
"No, he can't, he's our photographer." Gwyneth was quick to cut in with a slicing tone, sounding like she was ashamed being seen with me here. In a way, I'm just ashamed of being seen and recognized in here in general.
Another blonde guy looked up with a scowl when Gwyneth spoke. "Is that so? You guys are really stepping up, getting a new photographer! I'm Tino!" The first blonde guy chirped, walking over to shake his hands with me. I blinked like an owl and shook back.
"Tino's the keyboardist. He's Finnish." Emil said with a yawn. Wow, my city's United Fucking Nations.
"Gwynnie. We meet again." The other guy who scowled at Gwyneth spoke, an emotionless face showing.
Gwyneth hissed. "Don't call me that, you tosser."
Arthur told the two to stop it, and that they shouldn't get into another fight before the competition. The two reluctantly stopped retorting at each other, but I think I heard Gwyneth say something like, "meddling shitface squirrel" and the other kid say something in some weird, European language or some shit.
Emil spoke. "Anyway, since we got a newbie here, I'm Emil, vocalist and guitarist. He's Leon," he pointed to a black-haired guy who was pretty much quiet the whole time, "the drummer, Lukas, my brother, is the bassist," he pointed to the kid who was getting shirty with Gwyneth, "and there's Tino."
"Nice to know, thanks." I nodded.
"Anyway. Show starts in 10 minutes. We'll be given two songs each — one cover and one original this time. Voting will be based on audience impact." Emil spoke to all of us. I was getting the jitters, even though I wasn't gonna perform.
Everyone started moving to their respective bands and started to fix up. Emil walked to me and leaned up to whisper into my ear, "Alfred. Make sure you capture on video their humiliation, yeah?" I could practically feel his evil smirk on his words.
"Be careful what you say, dude. Maybe it's your humiliation we'll be filming tonight. Besides, I work for them, not for you." I sneered before walking to my group.
The show started and I stood up front, well, as front as I could go. I tried getting a nice view of them, but everyone was jumping around and cheering. Didn't exactly help that they were all screaming and squealing. I could barely hear my own mind.
So Arthur's band was up first.
"First up, The Sissy Pink Unicorns!"
The entire audience laughed. My eyes were wide with disbelief. Arthur never told me that's what their band was called.
"Our band's name is Kiwi Koala Sheep Scones!" Jett shouted angrily from the backstage, and everyone laughed harder. What the fuck? It sounds like a three-year-old gave birth to that band name. Now I know they weren't serious.
I could hear Jett yelp as Arthur smacked his head pretty harshly.
"Just kidding. Give it up for: Adversary Annihilation!"
I gaped. What kind of band name was that? Damn, it was so badass but at the same time, kinda weird. Why would you name your band something as deep as that? Eh. It doesn't matter, I suppose. It's still badass. Even though I wasn't completely sure what the words meant.
The crowd cheered for them as they came out of the backstage, Jett shining his sun-powered smile and wildly waving his arms around, Arthur giving a smirk (which was... kinda really nice to look at, I must admit), Gwyneth scowling at the crowd and William chuckling happily and waving to some of his fans. They positioned themselves on the instruments now, Jett taking a seat behind the drums, and William flexing his fingers and calmly resting them on the keys of the keyboard. I turned on my camera, getting ready to document this shit.
Let me tell you something about them. They came off as wild. They blew me away with their performance, and it sounded like the audience found it pretty awesome too. Not to be a poophead, though, I was thinking Emil's band would be better because they always win.
After their first song, they smiled, waved and went back to the backstage. I hurried over to them, huge-ass camera in hand. "Oh my God, you guys were fucking awesome!" I practically yelled at them over the noise of the entire hall.
"You think so? Wait till the next song." Jett grinned at me and patted my shoulder.
"No time for relaxing. You guys get some water or whatever and relax a bit, the ice douches are coming up." Arthur sneered, but at the same time, his face had this challenged, amused smirk to it, like this whole battle-of-the-bands thing hurt so good. "No cold water for you, though. You're gonna sing later." He told Gwyneth, pointing a finger at her.
"Eh? Surprise motherfucker, much? You never told me I was gonna sing the next song!" She snarled, jabbing a manicured finger into Arthur's chest. I was getting really worried about their relationship now. They'll probably end up hatemarrying each other which would be kinda weird since they're siblings.
"Surprise motherfucker, indeed. You can go with the flow. It'll be all right." Arthur raised a brow and waved it off dismissively before walking over to the water dispenser whatever.
I heard the redhead half-Welsh girl (or so I assumed) mumble something like, "Fucking asshole, he's lucky I like him or else he'd be singing the next song with his head between the strings of his guitar." with her cheeks flushing pink. Damn. She's kinda creepy.
I found out that Emil's band was called Blank Face, which seemed right for them, with the exception of Tino, because he was like a ball of sunshine.
The whole night went on, party with booze, music and whatnot. Arthur seemed to be having fun, and at the same time, worried for the results. After the last song (by Blank Face) was played, they were cheering for tonight's best band. Afterwards, the host-guy-whatever announced that tonight, for the first time, breaking Blank Face's 10-win-streak through popular vote, Adversary Annihilation was the best tonight.
"Congratulations, man." The host-guy clapped Jett's back afterwards. The party's still going on outside, but they stayed in the backstage for a while after all that, cooling off and whatnot. I just finished showing William and Arthur the photos and videos of their performance tonight. Arthur just nodded appreciatively and William commended me for the nice angle.
"Thanks, mate! Damn, never thought we'd win. It's a nice feeling." Jett chuckled. From the corner of my eye, I could see Emil and his band approaching us.
It was obvious that they were less than pleased that their winning streak had been broken (C-C-C-COOOMBO BREAKEEEERRRR!), but they tried to act as amicably as possible. They tried.
"Congratulations, Arthur, and you guys." Emil nodded to the rest of them, apparently he doesn't give two shits about everyone else's names.
"Thanks." Arthur nodded curtly. "It's nice winning for a change." He smirked.
"It won't happen the next time, though." Lukas scowled at us. "It was just luck."
"What? Well, don't blame your lack of improvement on us, you're just bitter about your loss!" Jett laughed, but I saw a flicker of annoyance pass his face. Just great. We can't win it all.
Tino and William laughed nervously and tried to make them stop arguing before it escalated. "Lack of improvement. Huh. Well, after ten losses, I could safely say you cheated to win. It wouldn't make any sense; Adversary Annihilation was always the butt of the joke and the perpetual loser when it comes to these things, and suddenly you win the favour of the audience and judges?" Lukas raised a brow. They weren't joking when they told me Lukas took these things seriously, huh.
"Cheat? Why would we even do something so petty for this? You know what I'm-" Arthur exclaimed, but he was cut off by Gwyneth's fist meeting Lukas' cheek. Oh, damn, that girl packs a punch, and I mean literally! "Gwyneth! Jesus fuck, what's gotten into you?"
Lukas held onto his hurting face, braced himself for another punch, but it never came. "I'm fuckin' tired of hearing their cocky shit! Cheated? Who do they think we are, eighth graders? God, he deserved that punch! Fucking sissy cunt."
Arthur shook his head in pained annoyance and disapproval before pulling her away, his sister seething with rage. Lukas sat down and Tino ran to fetch an ice pack for him. "We're going to get going after this." Emil said civilly and calmly.
"Y-you should, yes." William gulped.
Gwyneth was angry, angry at how the other band insinuated such idiocy. She wrenched her arm out of Arthur's firm grasp, her face red with rage and probably humiliation. I backed a bit to hide behind a wall so they won't see me. I don't even know why I followed them here, but I just did. God knows what might happen.
"Would you please just calm down?" He shouted, cutting her off mid-rant. "I don't give a bloody fuck, okay? What matters is that we won and we had fun."
"He's just pushed too far, okay? Don't even act as if you know our relationship outside of this whole band gig. You don't. So shut the fuck up." And with that, she walked out, but she passed by where I was hiding and snapped at me, "You eavesdropping idiot!"
Arthur walked and saw me as well. "What're you doing here?"
"Making sure nothing else happened. We've had enough trouble for a day."
Tino ran to our spot just then, panic-stricken and wide-eyed. "Your sister fainted!"
"Apparently not. Get her out into the fresh air, I'll deal with this." Arthur commanded and he went with them, and of course, I obligingly followed.
Her eyes fluttered open, a few minutes after we took her outside. "Are you okay?" Jett asked her, his face genuinely worried.
"No, duh..." She said weakly, her breathing shallow and quick. She was lying down on a bench and we were all Indian-sitting in front of her bench.
"Do you need anything, Gwyneth...?" William asked. Arthur was still inside, dealing with Lukas and the others. Although... I don't know what he meant by that.
She tried shaking her head, but she winced in pain when she did. "No, no, I'm okay."
"You just said you weren't a few seconds ago."
"Smartass." She scowled a bit, before shutting her eyes again. Arthur came out of the hall and frowned down at Gwyneth.
"I think that's enough trouble you'll be causing for all of us. Let's go home now." He said firmly, car keys in a tight grip in his fist. He looked like he was hanging on to a small shred of patience before he lashes out at someone.
"Tch. Okay." Arthur helped her up, and though her knees were wobbly, she managed to make it to the car. Arthur waved before driving away, leaving us all behind.
"...Damn, and I thought I'd be able to hitch a ride with Arthur tonight." Jett laughed and grinned at us.
A/N: I think I walked into a huge writing road-block with this story. I'm so sorry.
I'm this close to actually quitting on this and discontinuing it, ugh. I need ideas.