Chapter 8: Music and Love

Chapter idea: The Indigo-Go's come to Clocktown to play their new song and Gill joins in on the action. On the side, Romani's feelings blossom for Gill and likewise. This is a filler chapter.

The next morning, Gill was suddenly awoken by Teak, who was shaking him vigorously.

"Gill!" Teak shouted. "Gill! The Indigo-Go's are coming back to Clocktown today!"

Gill was still too sleepy to understand what Teak was saying and he just laid back down and in a matter of seconds, he dozed off again. With a surge of fury, Teak went to the small well by the house and filled up a bucket of water. He then took some ice from the icebox in the kitchen and broke it up with one of Gill's hammers and he put the ice in the bucket. Even though Teak was still a small boy, he did have the strength as the Swamp Master to carry the bucket upstairs to Gill's room. Teak then dumped the bucket of ice water on Gill and he was immediately awake and furious.

"What the hell was that for!?" Gill shouted.

"I tried to wake you up, but after trying to shake you awake, you just went right back to sleep." Teak replied.

"Well, what if I wanted to sleep?" Gill asked.

"You won't be sleeping after you hear the news." Teak said. "The Indigo-Go's are coming to Clocktown and they are going to be playing their new song!"

"What?" Gill said, stunned at what Teak had said. Gill's anger seemed to vanish on the spot. The Indigo-Go's are were of Gill's lifelong friends before he was banished from Zora Hall.

"I know, right?" Teak rhetorically asked. "Everyone has been waiting to hear their new song for months now and they are playing it tonight here in Clocktown."

"Teak, what time are they going to be here?" Gill asked.

"Around seven o'clock to set up their gear and they start playing at nine." Teak replied.

"And what time is it now?" Gill asked.

"Eleven." Teak replied once more. "I had earplugs to keep Kendall's snoring from making it a late night for me, but I see that it kept you up."

Gill suddenly remembered why he wanted to stay in bed. Kendall had been snoring for a couple of hours before Gill had fallen asleep at around four in the morning.

"Well, since it is nearly noon anyway, I might as well get up and prep the forge." Gill said.

"Not until Romani wakes up and cooks breakfast." Teak told him.

"Tell her to take it out to my forge for me." Gill said. "I need to earn our income somehow."

"Take a break today." Teak said. "I have enough fight winnings to keep us going for a year."

"All the same, I find comfort in working in my forge." Gill told him.

"The only people who are working today are those who live off of the income that they make during the carnival." Teak said. "I can handle the money issues for the rest of the week."

"If you insist." Gill said. "But I am going to be at my forge after breakfast to upgrade my fins."

"Alright." Teak said.

They waited for about an hour until Romani woke up and they then ate their breakfast. As soon as Gill was done, he put his plate in the sink, washed his hands, and went out to his forge. His goal today was to get his fins to target moving objects while they were coming back to him. After two hours of work, he was ready to test the upgrades. He donned his blue shirt, blue leggings, black boots, mask, and fins and went out of Clocktown to practice his targeting on Chuchus. When he found it to be successful, he decided to go back into town and change into his everyday clothes.

"There you are." Romani said to Gill. "Where were you?"

"Killing two birds with one stone." Gill replied. "I was testing my upgrades and doing target practice."

"How did the upgrades perform?" she asked.

"As I expected them to." Gill said. "They were right on target."

"Good." Romani replied. "Since I can't find Teak or Kendall and I am busy, I need you to go pick up a block of ice from West Clocktown for me."

"Sure." Gill said.

"Oh, I love it when he sweats like that." Romani thought. "I could just drag him into his dirty little forge and make out with him until the concert."

Romani suddenly thought about what she was thinking and she silently scolded herself. "What am I thinking?" she thought. "I must be out of my mind!"

As Gill was walking to West Clocktown, he was having similar thoughts. "If I could just get her into my forge, we could be making out until the concert instead of having nothing to do. What am I thinking? Shut up, Gill!"

Gill went into the butcher's shop and bought a block of ice for the icebox and as he was walking home, he started to think again. If I were to burn myself with a hot iron rod from my forge, could I get her in? What!? Did I just consider that!?

Back home, Romani was still thinking about Gill. "Maybe, I will entice him with a little booty action when I put the ice in the icebox. Yeah, he will soak that up."

Gill finally arrived home and handed the ice to Romani, letting his eyes linger on her for a little bit while she was putting the ice into the icebox. He couldn't help but stare at her backside and he even could have sworn that she was shaking it. Gill immediately dismissed that thought. When Romani went to turn around, he stopped staring and said as he was going out the door, "I'm going to the forge for a little bit to put up my tools."

"Can I come with you?" Romani asked. "Stupid!" she shouted to herself. "Why don't you just throw yourself at him while you are at it!?"

Gill's heart skipped a beat as he heard those words. He allowed himself to savor them before saying, "Yeah, sure."

The two of them went out to Gill's workshop and Romani sat down and watched Gill work up a sweat from the still hot forge while he put up his tools. Romani couldn't take her eyes off of Gill and she blushed every time he went to wipe sweat from his forehead. In a few minutes he was done and he sat down beside Romani and closed his eyes in a desperate attempt to make her think that he was just tired. In reality, he was secretly cheering because he found an excuse to sit right by her. Romani nearly jumped in her seat because she was faced with the opportunity to jump on him. They sat there for a few minutes before Romani woke Gill from his similar dreamland.

"Gill," Romani asked. "Could you keep you eyes closed, but face me for a minute?"

Gill obliged and Romani stared at that tempting face and an the inner conflict escalated within her. Eventually, her lustful side beat her controlled side and she moved her face closer to his and she reached his ear and whispered "Pucker up."

Gill immediately opened his eyes and Romani went in for the kill, hugging him and passionately giving him the kiss. Gill was just shocked as she was doing this and when Romani noticed, she stopped.

"Oh, god! What have I done!" she shouted. "Sorry!"

She rushed toward the door of the forge before Gill got up out of his seat and grabbed Romani by the arm and kissed her. Romani was surprised by Gill and she kissed back, engaging in a fervent union of their two souls who are meeting each other at the mouth. The duel between their tongues lasted what seemed forever before they broke apart and smiled at each other. No words were necessary to say that they loved each other and they knew it. Soon, they were kissing again with zeal and each time they broke the spell, they were soon doing it again. It wasn't until five o'clock in the evening before they realized that they had a concert to go to. They quickly tried to sneak inside but they were met immediately in the kitchen by Teak and Kendall.

"There you two are." Kendall said. "What took you so long?"

Gill quickly thought up a lie. "We were just discussing tactics."

"Make-out tactics, more like." Teak said.

"What are you talking about?" Romani replied.

"We peeked in on you two inside the forge." Teak said. "I was wondering when that was going to happen."

"You peeked!?" Romani shouted.

"Well, we were looking for you, but when we found you, it turned into peeking, so it wasn't exactly a bad thing." Kendall said.

"Just don't hide it anymore." Teak told them. "Keeping secrets from us can only lead to discord."

"We won't." Gill said, taking Romani's hand into his.

The four of them then went to their separate rooms to change into fresh clothes for the concert in South Clocktown. Gill told them that he was planning a surprise entrance for himself and he needed the others for crowd control. Romani said that she would talk to the guards and she was out of the house. She was back in about thirty minutes and told Gill "They are expecting you before the first song, so you might want to make your entrance before seven."

"Good." Gill replied. "What did you tell them?"

"I told them that a friend of the Go Go's is planning to surprise them, so you have been okayed." she replied.

"You are half right." Gill said. "They are more like family."

"I suppose that is true." Romani said.

They waited until six before going. Romani, Teak, and Kendall went into the already forming crowd to help with crowd control. Gill waited on one of the roofs where he couldn't be seen. The Go Go's did their sound check ten minutes after they arrived and Gill used his powers to create a very light mist to signal the others that he was ready to go when they were. The crowd had already grown enormously when the others told the guards that they were ready. On cue, the guards started to clear a path for Gill. Gill then made the mist even heavier before making it into a full-blown fog just visible enough for people to see. Kendall produced the illusion of a flash of bright light just before Gill appeared at the end of the path. The fog shrouded him enough to make him unrecognizable as he somersaulted and then flipped towards the stage with fireworks shooting upwards as he went by, thanks to Kendall. He then spun around at high speeds only a master could produce to clear away the fog to let the Indigo-Go's know who has arrived.

Evan saw him and couldn't figure it out for a minute before he shouted his name.

"Gill!"

Lulu noticed that it was indeed the human boy raised by Japas.

"Gill." she said as she went to hug him and give him a kiss on the cheek. "How have you been?"

"Getting better." he replied as he went up onto the stage.

"Glad to hear it." Lulu replied. Turning her attention to the crowd, she said into the microphone "Everyone, this is Gill. He will be our guest lead guitar player this evening."

Gill was shocked. He thought that Mikau's replacement for fifteen years now was going to star in the show this evening.

"He came down with the Zora flu a few days ago." Lulu told him in private. "Michael told us you were here in Clocktown, so we counted on you to show up this evening."

"How are you even playing?" Gill asked. "Did you find someone to replace…" Gill didn't want to say his name.

Someone stepped onto the stage and waved to Gill. It was Vivi, Lulu's oldest daughter.

"After Japas died, I told Mom that I had been secretly practicing bass for a while now and at first, she was disappointed that I wasn't content with singing, but after awhile, she and the band got together and decided that I would be playing bass from now on." she said. "After a couple of rehearsals, they decided that we were ready to play this evening."

"That's great, Vivi." Gill told her.

"Since you are doing lead this evening, I think that the most appropriate song to play is the one that you composed shortly before [i]that one thing[/i] happened." Lulu said, implying the banishment of Gill from Zora Hall.

"You mean you learned it?" Gill asked.

"We always learn each other's songs." Lulu replied. "You know that."

"We brought you fishbone guitar." Evan told him from his keyboard.

"Thanks." Gill said.

He got it from Evan and started to play it a bit. When he saw that he wasn't content with the sound, he tuned it a bit and gave it another go. Since it was playing perfectly now, he used one of the band's magic crystals to connect his guitar to the sound horns onstage. Testing it and seeing it was in good order, he took his place on the stage and said "Hey everyone!"

The crowd screamed for him with joy.

"Is everyone ready for some music!?"

The crowd screamed again.

"I have one of my own composition that I would like to play first." he told the crowd. "It has a new style to it that I like to call Zora Rock. The song is called Hurricane!"

The crowd looked at each other with confused looks.

Gill started off the band with a one-two-three-four and then played his opening riff. Vivi and Tijo then joined in with the bass guitar and the drums. Evan then did a piano roll and the song got to rolling.

LULU: Ooooooooo Yeah!

GILL: (Softly) Hurricane!

LULU: Winds are blowing!

GILL: (Less Softly, building to Moderate) Hurricane!

LULU: Lightning splits the skies!

GILL: (A little more Moderate building up to Semi-loud) Hurricane!

LULU: Waves crashing on the beach!

GILL: (Semi-loud to Loud) Hurricane!

(Pause before playing the normal beat.)

GILL: I'm mad as hell!

LULU & VIVI: (Background) He's mad as hell!

GILL: More than you can tell!

LULU & VIVI: More than you can tell!

GILL: You have taken everything that's dear to me!

LULU & VIVI: Dear to him!

GILL: You've brought this on yourself!

LULU & VIVI: You've brought this on yourself!

GILL: Revenge will be mine!

LULU & VIVI: Revenge will be his!

GILL: I have become the eye of the storm, I am a Hurricane!

(Evan does a nice little piano roll.)

LULU & VIVI: (Background) Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo (continuing until their next part.)

GILL: (All males sing the first word.) Hurricane, high speed winds are blowing me all around! I'm taking it out on everyone about, You had better not get in my way!

LULU & VIVI: Oooooooooooooooo Oooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

GILL: (All males sing the first word.) Hurricane, crashing waves are dragging me down to hell! I got stabbed in the heart by nothing more than a dart, it is becoming a very dark day! (Grows softer on the last word. And Gill falls onstage.)

LULU & VIVI: (Prolonged) Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Romani was told to come up onto the stage by some of the guards. She was handed a piece of paper and she was told to quickly memorize it. She did so and she walked onto the stage, with microphone in hand.

ROMANI: (Softly) Hurricane, please don't go, please no no no no no! You have to stay with me and you will always be the wind behind my wings!

LULU & VIVI: La la la la la la la la!

ROMANI: (Loudly) Hurricane, when you wake up I am going to kick your ass! If you want to live it, then you can't give in, I said WAKE UP!!!

(Gill slowly gets up and plays a soft guitar solo that becomes increasingly louder as he rises.)

GILL: (All males sing the first word. Softly.) Hurricane, I heard your call, babe! I'm back in the game, babe! I'm ready to save the day! (Drums in between words, getting Louder.) Hurricane, hurricane, hurricane, hurricane!

I'm mad as hell!

LULU, VIVI, and ROMANI (Romani singing separately.): He's mad as hell!

GILL: More than you can tell!

LULU, VIVI, and ROMANI: More than you can tell!

GILL: I have taken back what you have taken from me!

LULU, VIVI, and ROMANI: Taken from him!

GILL: You have brought this on yourself!

LULU, VIVI, and ROMANI: Brought this on yourself!

GILL: Revenge is mine!

LULU, VIVI, and ROMANI: Revenge is his!

GILL: (Slightly softer.) I am the eye of the storm, I am a Hurricane!

LULU, VIVI, and ROMANI: Hurricane!

GILL: (Louder.) I said I am the eye of the storm, I am a Hurricane, Hurricane!

As the song ended, the crowd was just silent. They all liked the music and each of them thought that they were the only people who liked it. It wasn't until Kendall started applauding that Teak joined in and the crowd soon followed. Gill and Romani beamed at the audience. Romani had been singing for a long time and had been complimented on it many times, but this was the first time she got so much recognition at once. Gill thought that he had gotten rusty by this time, but his guitar playing was still in top form.

"Great job, Gill." Vivi said.

"Aw, it was nothing." Gill replied. "And how did Romani get to come onstage?"

"Between my keyboard parts," Evan explained, "I signaled one of the guards and told him to have her memorize the lyrics and get up here. I saw how she looked at you when you were singing. She seems to really love you."

"Well, we did share a moment together before the concert." Gill told him.

"Enough of that now." Evan said. "We have more songs to play."

"Alright." Gill said.

He looked at Romani and told her, "You did great."

"Thanks." she said.

Romani hopped off of the stage, but stayed at the head of the crowd.

For the rest of the concert and to the dismay of the crowd, the Indigo-Go's played their normal brand of music, including their hit song, Ballad of the Wind Fish. At the end of their concert, they played their new song, Serenade of Water. Gill and Romani enjoyed that one especially. It seemed to convey the feelings that they had for each other. At the end of the song, they both had the impulse to kiss, so they did.

After the Indigo-Go's packed up their equipment, Gill and the others were invited to a VIP party that evening. Teak and Kendall happily declined, but Gill and Romani wanted to go for a little while, so they went with them to the Milk Bar and enjoyed a special after-concert performance. Gill sang a softer version of Hurricane with one of the band's acoustic guitars while Romani did backup. After a few glasses of milk, Gill and Romani decided to go home. They and the band exchanged their good-byes and they went out the door.

On the way back home, Romani asked Gill a question.

"How long do you think we will be able to last together?"

Gill knew she asked the question because she didn't want the relationship to affect the mission that they were set out to do.

"We'll make it to the end." Gill told her. "I know we will."

Romani smiled at his answer and gave him a peck on the cheek. They walked the rest of the way home hand in hand.