A/N: *waves* Hi everybody! Once again, I know it's been a while, but I'm keeping with my rotation, and this is also my second week in a row updating something, so yay for that. Anyway, I don't have anything story related to address yet, so just thanks for all of your continued support and I'll shut up and get to the story.

Enjoy!

Chapter Five- Again

You make me come
You make me complete
You make me completely miserable
-Lit, "Miserable"

EPOV

I clicked out of the internet browser I'd been looking at when I heard music start to thump from the basement. I'd just favorited some websites of companies that soundproofed; I just needed to show them to Bill.

Pam hadn't returned from her lunch run, so I knew practice hadn't restarted without me, but I was curious anyway, so I made my way down the stairs to investigate. The first thing I noticed was that the door to the room was slightly ajar, which explained why I could hear the music even more loudly than was the standard around here. I nudged the door open with my foot, seeing as I was currently double fisting a beer and my laptop, and I nearly dropped the whole lot of it when I saw what was doing in Bill's basement.

The previously unidentifiable song turned out to be Marilyn Manson's 'The Beautiful People.' But that wasn't the important part. Hell, it wasn't even the first thing that I noticed, which was surprising considering that the stereo was turned up as loud as it could go without blowing anything. No, the first thing I noticed was Sookie.

She was shaking her ass around the basement. Well, I think she might have been tidying up too…who knew? Regardless, she was bouncing around in leather shorts and fishnets, fishnets that were tucked into little black leather ankle boots. Her shirt might have been green. Maybe.

Pulling my eyes away from Sookie, I noticed that Bill was sprawled out on the couch, smoking a cigarette. Bastard was down here getting a free show while I was upstairs looking at AcoustiPack online.

"Hey," Bill greeted. Sookie spun around at the additional sound. Oh, yeah, her shirt was green alright. Dark green, in fact. A button-down. She had one button done, right under her chest, and a black lacy bra on underneath. Someone was ready to be a video vixen today.

"So which one of you is subjecting your arthritic neighbors to the musical stylings of Manson?" I asked, looking between both of them.

"That would mostly likely be Sookie," interjected Pam, who was entering the basement with several bags from Subway. "She makes me endure that shit in her car."

"Manson isn't shit, Pam," I replied, looking over at Sookie, who had her mouth open in preparation of spitting out a similar retort. She closed it and smiled before walking over and grabbing a bag from Pam.

"Like making me listen to Duran Duran when you're driving is any better," Sookie laughed as she started spreading out her bag's bounty on the card table we'd unfolded in the basement. I barked out a laugh of my own before sneaking over to see if Sookie's bag held my sandwich as well.

We'd been spending the last four days at Bill's continuously, leaving the basement only to shower and sleep, or in cases like this one, waiting for whoever's name was drawn to return with food. We finished our other two songs for our demo, and recorded it yesterday with Tray. For our original video, we decided on one of our first songs, the first Pam had written, 'Again.'

Pam had deposited herself on the couch opposite Bill after unceremoniously dropping his sub and chips on his lap. He grunted a thanks in response. That left me sitting with Sookie at the little square table. I watched as she lifted the bread lid off her turkey sub and layered half her bag of Lays' Salt and Vinegar chips onto the levels of turkey, cheese, and pickles inside. Sookie's sandwich tastes were far more simplistic than mine, I noted as I looked down at my own BMT, loaded with almost every vegetable that Subway offered. Except cucumbers. Who the fuck puts cukes on their sub?

I looked back up at Sookie when her sandwich made that tell-tale crunching noise. She caught me looking and smiled again. The song playing on the stereo now was Blue Oyster Cult's 'I'm Burnin' For You.'

"Is this your iPod?" I asked.

"Uh huh. Got a problem with that?" she sassed.

"Not at all," I returned, taking a sip of my beer. "Just an interesting mix you've got there, Stackhouse. Manson to Blue Oyster Cult, who knew you were so diverse."

Sookie smirked. "There's a lot you don't know about me, Northman." She stood up from the table and my eyes traveled down to her leather shorts again. At the moment, I wanted to know if her panties matched that fuckhot lace bra she was showing off. Sookie tracked my line of sight with her own.

"They'd match…if I were wearing any." She winked and sauntered off to get another soda.

Fuck. Me.

…

SPOV

Spending four days non-stop with my bandmates taught me a few things. One, Subway was the restaurant of champions, what with their infinite amount of choices and their five-dollar footlongs. Two, five-dollar footlongs lead to an infinite amount of dick jokes. And third, it is really, really fun to mess with Eric.

When, I'd told him I wasn't wearing any panties, I wasn't lying. There wasn't a single pair of panties I owned that didn't cause a visible panty line, or VPL, as Pam would say. And I owned a lot of panties. But Pam insisted that the leather shorts were the way to go for the video shoot, so there I was. If memory serves me correctly, she was also the one who convinced me to buy them, saying that "everyone needs a pair of leather pants." Obviously, I'd got her compromise. I mean, we live in Florida for fuck's sake.

After nabbing a second soda from the cooler we'd brought down two days ago, after we'd decided that not even beverages were worth leaving the basement for, I sat back down across from Eric, who hadn't said a word in the three and a half minutes it took me to get said soda. If Pam and Bill weren't so engrossed in their sandwiches, they would have said something. They got as big of a kick out of me fucking around with Eric as I did.

'Amber' by 311 and 'Cherry Pie' by Warrant had played through by the time Eric spoke again.

"So, um, Bill," he coughed. "Did you get the keys to your neighbors' van?"

As ancient as Bill's neighbors were, the couple that lived to the right of him were just the sweetest things ever. I mean, hell, they haven't complained once at any of Area Five's practices. They were also nice enough to let us use their Chrysler Pacifica.

"Yep. As soon as we're done with lunch we can head over to Crave."

…

Forty minutes later and we were on the road. Pam and Eric rode over in the Pacifica while Bill and I followed in my Sentra, with all of our clothes chilling in garment bags in the backseat. Pam had demanded that we wear two different sets of outfits, one for our original video and one for our Nickelback video. Bill and I had changed during the break before lunch, and he was currently wearing a black and grey striped Henley and black jeans. His studded leather jacket was hanging in the backseat. When I asked where his second outfit was, he told me that he was wearing the jacket in the Nickelback video, but not in the one for 'Again.' It wouldn't have made much of a difference anyway, Bill's wardrobe was rather uncomplicated and monochromatic. He made it look good though.

After we parked, the guys started to unload the equipment while Pam and I moved the clothes inside. That didn't take very long, so we went back outside to meet the guys (now plus Tray, our cameraman) and take our own guitar cases indoors. The only other person present for our shoot was Crave's owner, Steph. She was standing at the bar when Pam and I reentered, guitars in hand. After we put our cases down, she waved us over.

"You guys are more than welcome to use my office as a dressing room. I know how cramped those stalls can be." She smiled before passing Pam and I a beer each. Then she leaned in conspiratorially. "The guys can just suck it up." We all laughed.

Bill, Eric, and Tray finished setting up our equipment and Steph rewarded them with beers of their own. When we attempted to pay her, she waved her hand at us, saying that "all the beer in the world couldn't compare to the publicity we were bringing the bar."

…

It was a little after five by the time we'd rehearsed both numbers a couple times and everyone changed. We'd also filmed a couple interior shots of us practicing and playing and just interacting. The bar needed to be empty for those shots, but the bulk of our performance videos were going to be shot with us playing to a live audience.

Apparently, people really come out of the woodwork when you advertise that you're filming a couple of music videos. The house was packed by six-thirty. "Wow, people," I said out loud to no one in particular.

"Nervous?" Pam inquired as she slid up beside me. She'd changed before we started shooting the empty bar shots. She traded her jeans and 311 shirt for a white tunic dress that was covered in huge multicolor flowers. It was decided earlier that she wanted to be barefoot for the first number.

She stepped up to the mic as everyone got in their places, and thanked everyone for coming out and explaining what the hell was going on in case they weren't aware. I could see Tray perched on a chair, on top of a table, in the back of the club. I could also see my cousin with a camera of her own in the front row, with the rest of her band.

"This one's called, 'Again,'" Pam introduced before turning to look at us. Eric and Bill began to play, shortly followed by Pam. Pam had told me earlier in the week that when Area Five originally played this song, she loved it because she could really move around while she was singing. She still loved it though, as it was her first song.

Towards the end of the song, I turned around and got a good look at Eric. It was during a chorus, and the drumming was really forceful, so I could see all of his muscles working double-time underneath the tight navy v-neck he was wearing. His hair was loosely pulled back, and he looked fantastic. I swallowed roughly and turned my way back around so as to not fuck up any of my chords. Yeah. Right.

Once the song finished, Pam excused us for a ten minute break to get changed. She and I retreated to the office, while the guys executed a two-second quick change, much to the delight of the female audience members. Eric stripped off his t-shirt, changing it out for a black wife beater, while Bill decided to forego the Henley and slipped his jacket on over his naked torso.

Once we were back in the office, Pam whipped off her tunic dress and slid into a pair of leather pants that had two lace panels on the sides in place of side seams. On top she put on a sequined bolero jacket, buttoned the one button it had, and she was set. Her stomach was toned, and all that black stood out against her fair skin.

I waited until Pam had scooted out of the office before changing my pants. Pam was my best girl friend and all, but there were some things even she didn't need to see. I swapped my leather shorts and stockings for a pair of white and red pinstripe capris, and slid my feet into a pair of four-buckle red patent leather Mary Janes. For my top, I picked out a white halter top corset that had a pink plaid print and cherry all over it. It was sweet, but my more-than-generous endowment made it sexy in a classic kind of way. I pinned part of my hair back before leaving the office myself.

I was positively stoked for our Nickelback song. It took us a while to decide on which song to pick, and we pretty much went through their entire catalogue before deciding on 'S.E.X.' We wanted something provocative, and of course something that was going to get us noticed, and we figured having a girl singing those lyrics would be just the thing. Pam was explaining our song choice to the crowd without actually using the title as I made my way on stage. I heard a couple a wolf whistles, one of which came from Pam. I laughed it off and picked up my bass.

I was also excited about this song because I was the one who got to start it. Actually, it was mostly Eric and I on the melody for the majority of the song. The crowd cheered loudly once they realized what song it was, and they stayed pretty hype for the whole thing. Pam had taken to clapping out the beat when she wasn't playing, and some of the audience had taken to copying her.

For this performance, someone had moved a second mic next to Pam's, and it was for me. On our, like, second time rehearsing this song, Bill had suggested that I "yeah" along with Pam when the song called for it. Everybody liked it, so that's what we went with. I'm by no means a singer, but I guess everyone can "yeah."

We finished our second song to even more applause than the first one, and then we decided to break for some drinks. Hadley and the girls hopped up onstage to keep the natives from getting restless.

I was sitting at the bar when I felt a pair of hands slide onto my shoulders. Swiveling around on my stood, I turned to see a man I didn't know. "Hi?" I tried lamely. He wasn't unattractive, he was just kind of off-putting.

"That corset is very becoming on you," he started.

"Um, thanks?" I really thought he'd either just leave post-comment or offer a drink or something. But then he had to go and talk again.

"But, then again, if I was on you, I'd be coming too." I think I just passed beer through my nose.

I couldn't form a coherent thought for all the laughing, which turned into coughing and sputtering, and my would-be Romeo still couldn't take a hint. He even went so far as to place a hand on my thigh while I was trying to keep the beer in my mouth. Maybe spitting it all over him would've done the trick. I'd never know, because the minute his hand made contact with my leg, Romeo was being hauled backwards off of the stool he'd perched himself upon.

I managed to stop laughing long enough to see Eric holding Romeo by the collar of his denim jacket. "When the lady is no longer laughing with you, it's usually the time to cut your losses, and not molest her further," Eric stated smoothly before tossing Romeo to Tray, who unceremoniously kicked him out of the bar.

"I was handling that just fine, you know," I admonished Eric, setting my beer bottle on the bar and secretly being thrilled by his little display of chivalry. "Although it was mighty nice of you to defend my honor and virtue," I continued, laying on a cheesy southern accent.

Eric leaned over me, which wasn't hard to do at his height, his chest coming in contact with my back. "We both know that there is little that is virtuous about you, Stackhouse," he whispered, his hot breath tickling my ear. Before I could issue a retort, Eric plucked himself a beer of his own and disappeared back into the crowd.

…

EPOV

Later that night, Bill, Tray, and I packed our equipment back into our borrowed Pacifica. "Did something happen with Sookie? She seemed…different when I saw her on her way to the office," Bill inquired.

So I finally did get to her, and it looked like she couldn't take it as well as she could dish it. "Some frat boy with a cheesy pickup line tried to hit on her, and I stepped in. My chivalry could have pissed her off?"

Bill and Tray both laughed. "Probably. She really doesn't like the suggestion that she can't take care of herself." I shrugged before sliding my floor tom into the car. I looked up and back towards the bar at the sound of feminine giggling. Sookie and Pam were making their way over with the clothes, and Sookie appeared to be telling Pam the story of her drunken suitor.

"…then he said, 'But, then again, if I was on you, I'd be coming too!'" she said before pitching forward in another fit of giggles, Pam following behind her. Sookie was still wearing her second outfit, and the way she was leaning forward gave me a nice view of her cleavage peaking out from her corset. She stood back up straight and continued walking over to her car.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time; it was a little after two a.m. "Anyone up for heading back to my place?" It probably would have been a good idea to call it a night, but I didn't usually go with the good ideas.

I'm putting up pictures of Pam's two outfits, Sookie's corset and the inspiration for Sookie's leather shorts. I'm also going to post two banners that I've been sitting on for awhile. One is of Hadley's Comet, and the other is of Area Five as I'd imagine them. And I'm proud to say that everyone I've cast (so far), with the exception of Askars, is a musician. Most of them don't play the right instruments, well actually all of them except for Dahlia and Bill *shrugs*. Also, every single song mentioned in this chapter is going on the playlist.

Anyway, Rock-tionary:
-Just a thought: I know I said in ch.3 (?) that Pam couldn't scream like Lacey Mosley (Flyleaf), but here I have her singing a Flyleaf song. I imagine her voice to be the closest to Pam's, Pam just can't scream (musically, that is ;)). Just wanted to clear that up.
-AcoustiPack is a real soundproofing material. I googled it, lol.
-Also, I personally have nothing again Duran Duran. In fact, I like them quite a lot.

Special thanks to beatlechicksteph for volunteering to be a character :)

-Sydney