...or big flop?
Duo - vocals
Heero - guitar
Trowa - bass
Quatre - keyboards; backup vocals
Wufei - drums
& Relena - the manager
What if they don't like us? What if they don't like our music? What if they don't like our hair? he asked himself, looking uneasily at Trowa and Duo.
Quatre examined his fancy duds, the ones that Relena personally designed and made them all wear. Usually a polite dresser, Quatre looked down at his frilly vinyl shirt in horror. What were they getting themselves into?
The G boys plus Relena were all waiting in a small, cramped room off the wing of the stage, anticipating their turn. They could hear the music of the Backstreet Boys reverberating off the walls.
"They're singing 'I Want It That Way'!" Relena exclaimed with starry eyes. Her hands were clasped together on her breast; she was about to faint. All day, she had been talking about how great N'Sync and the Backstreet Boys were, calling out "Oh, it's 'Show Me The Meaning'!" or something like "'It's Gonna Be Me'!".
Every time she did that, Heero's face darkened just another notch. Heero looked as if he wanted to strangle her right on the spot. She was talking even more than Duo was.
Duo was running around, trying to psyche everybody up.
"Oh, this is gonna be so great!" he was saying, braid whipping around dangerously in the tiny room. He was the only one who seemed enthusiastic about this whole thing. And guess whose idea that was? "We're gonna make the best performance...." he ignored Relena's glare (she still thought N'Sync was unbeatable) "...we're gonna be rich and famous, and you know what the best part is? We're gonna get all the girls!"
With that, Duo sighed and leaned against the wall. Wufei quickly made way for him and continued sitting on the bench, glaring all around. He tapped his drumsticks impatiently on the seat beside him, doing a little drum solo, sticks tapping all along his leg and finally ending on Duo's head. He tapped extra hard for that and at Duo's yell, Wufei said that his head was the cymbal.
Over in another corner, Trowa appeared to be carressing his guitar, fingers running up and down the frets and lingering all along the strings. Watching Trowa, Relena moved uncomfortably away.
Finally, it was their turn. They could all here the cheer of the crowd as the Backstreet Boys filed in. How sad, Relena thought. Even the shortest Backstreeet Boy was taller than Trowa by at least five inches.
Originally at the back of the lineup, Relena pushed her way forward.
"Hey!" Duo yelled when Relena elbowed him out of the way.
"Wow, can I pleeeeeaase have your autographs? I am, like, your biggest fan. I have posters of you guys ALL over my room and I mean ALL and...."
Relena continued babbling, completely ignoring her own group. Duo and Trowa had to hold Heero back to prevent him from bashing her head in, although that was what most of the people in the stuffy room wanted right now, including the Backstreet Boys.
"Oh, please sign, love BSB for me, will you please?" Relena begged, tugging on the blond guy's sleeve.
"What does BSB stand for anyway?" Wufei asked as they filed out. "Bull-Shit Boys?"
Duo laughed. Wufei still looked confused.
As they walked down the hall, the cheers of the crowd got louder and louder. Quatre's heart was pounding violently in his chest. Never in his life had he felt so nervous before. It was even worse than fighting in his gundam.
They finally reached the stage. Lights were shining in their eyes, blinding them. Quatre could vaguely see Duo do a cartwheel onto the stage and the people all cheering. Most of those people were girls. Quatre blushed and tucked in his shirt neatly.
Duo was in his mode. He started waving at everybody and shaking hands with the crowd, even though they had no idea who he was.
"Hey, isn't that guy over there cute?" Duo heard this girl ask her friend, pointing at Heero. Heero, of course, didn't notice. He was busy testing the strings on his guitar.
"Actually, that blond one's not bad," her friend answered.
"Hey, what about me?" Duo asked, flaunting his braid.
They completely ignored him.
Duo strolled to the center of the stage and picked up the mike.
"HOW ARE ALL YOU LADIES OUT THERE?" Duo asked, yelling into the mike.
Behind him, Trowa and Wufei had stood too close to the sound systems and had their ears blasted with the shockwave. They reeled about on the stage, confused.
"AND WE ARE THE G-BOYS! I'M DUO AND MY PERSONAL AD NUMBER IS 666 IF YOU WANNA GO ON A DATE!"
The crowd screamed and started jotting that number down in their palms.
"THIS, HERE, TO MY RIGHT IS HEERO!" Duo screamed, presenting Heero. Heero continued fiddling with his guitar.
"AND WE HAVE TROWA, AND WUFEI!..."
Behind him, Trowa and Wufei still hadn't gotten their bearings. They were holding their heads and bumping into the equipment.
"AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, THE BABY OF THE GROUP, QUATRE!!!"
All of a sudden, the lights all shone on Quatre. Quatre, tugging nervously on his shirt, didn't know what to do. He made a stiff yet polite bow, and quickly ran behind his keyboard.
"AND NOW FOR OUR FIRST SONG, TITLED 'JUST COMMUNICATION'!!"
Duo started singing off on his own, then wondered why no music was playing.
To his right, Heero was still doing his own thing. Quatre's keyboard part hadn't come up yet so that left Trowa and Wufei.
"Get to your places!" Duo hissed, then turned around and grinned apologetically to the crowd. "JUST HAVING SOME TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES, HERE, NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!" Duo lied. He turned around again.
This time, Trowa and Wufei were finally settled. But they were in the wrong places.
Trowa was holding Wufei's drumsticks in his hands, wondering why he was holding Wufei's drumsticks in his hands. Wufei had Trowa's guitar in his lap, trying to pluck it like a mandolin.
When Duo finally got them in their right places, they started. Duo's voice just soared while Quatre's background vocals helped to soften it. The crowd loved it.
They played "Rhythm Emotion", "Snow Planet", and "Endless Love". It was during "Endless Love" when the trouble started.
They were in the middle of the song when Wufei got bored and decided to change the beat. Hoping nobody would notice, he played a little faster, then deciding that wasn't good enough, played a little faster. The change was so gradual that no one noticed until Quatre's fingers slipped, his already flexible digits tapping even faster than a typist's. Quatre glanced at Wufei and tried to keep up.
Meanwhile, Duo was singing as fast as those people in charge of the auction houses. He was ripping around on stage, mouth a total blur. He didn't notice anything unusual. He always talked a mile a minute.
Finally, Quatre had reached his limit. Fingers stiff, he just couldn't play anymore. He looked up in horror.
In front of him, Heero and Trowa were gradually playing louder and louder. Again no one noticed until Duo realized that his voice was being drowned out.
"Hey!" he yelled in protest. Obviously, they ignored him. Pretty soon, it was just a three-person band.
All of a sudden, they launched into a different song. It was "Black Wind Invites To The Death", Duo realized, Heero's favourite song. It was an instrumental. Then came "Strength Of A Gundam", "Gundam's Assault", and "Wings Of A Boy Who Killed His Adolescence".
The crowd was beginnning to boo and throw things onstage. Duo looked around frantically, wondering how he was going to save all those dates. Finally....
On impulse, Duo ripped off his shirt, revealing his nice-looking bod. The girls screamed. Not seeing anything wrong with that, Heero, Trowa, and Wufei did the same. Quatre, the only one left, hesitantly undid one or two buttons near the top, and left it at that.
Duo finally managed to slow them all down. They went through a few more songs, "Last Impression", "Mind Education", and "I Don't Wanna Cry".
Duo was jumping around on stage, still as energetic as when they first got on. His sweat was flying all over the place, raining on the crowd. They didn't seem to mind.
"Duo, DUO, DUO!!!" They cried, louder and louder.
Duo, completely energized by this input, continued running back and forth. Reaching the middle of the stage, he stopped. He held out an arm to wave.
He fainted.
"Call the paramedics!" someone yelled. Quatre's hands halted over the keyboard and he ran over to Duo's prone body to see what had happened.
Duo's happy face was as red as a beet. Quatre quickly analyzed his body, then came to an abrupt conclusion.
Duo had hyperventilated.
Over in another corner, Heero and Trowa were trashing their guitars, repeatedly banging them to pieces on the stage while Wufei had punched several holes in his drums. Quatre, seeing all the destruction that his friends were making, carefully stowed his keyboard away in an inconspicuous corner.
Girls were climbing onto the stage, now that everything was becoming chaotic. The security guards were hustling Quatre, Heero, Trowa and Wufei off the stage. Quatre turned and looked back. He saw Duo's body lying there for one second and the next second it was swamped by girls.
The rest of the G-Boys were brought back to the changing rooms where Relena met them. When she saw them, her eyes widened, and then she started scolding them for taking their shirts off, especially Heero. Heero just crossed his arms over his chest and glared back stubbornly. Meanwhile, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei, taking advantage of the distraction, started taking off their tacky outfits.
Quatre had stripped down to his boxers when a knock came on the door. Looking up, he saw that Trowa seemed to be oblivious to the sound while Wufei was in the showers. Quatre sighed, walked past Trowa, and went to answer it.
Quatre unlocked the door, then...BOOM!, it banged open on its own. Quatre was knocked over backwards as a crowd of girls rushed in.
"Look, it's him!" they squealed and ran to engulf Quatre. Quatre, looking about frantically, tried to find something to cover up his semi-naked body.
Meanwhile, Trowa, also surrounded by girls, gave a disinterested look on his face as he indifferently signed autographs.
Wufei wasn't so lucky. They had caught him while he was in the shower. "Ooooooh, what a nice, tight, butt!" one girl exclaimed as they started taking pictures of it.
"My dignity!" Wufei cried. He tried desperately to get away.
Relena, seeing all those girls surrounding Heero, started fending them off.
"Get away from him, he's mine!" Relena screeched. Heero was just sitting behind her with an amused look on his face, watching Relena start a cat fight with one of the girls.
By now, the girls had backed Quatre up into a corner. Quatre, seeing no escape, crouched himself down into a tiny little ball and hid behind his hands.
"Is that little rubber duckies on your boxers? Awwww, that's so cute!"
The security guards took a long time getting there.
Duo was lying on the stretcher. Lipstick marks covered his entire face while telephone numbers with girls' names beside them were scribbled all over his arms and chest.
Duo weakly raised an arm and waved. The girls all screamed back and tried tugging on his braid to keep him from going. His braid was already five inches shorter than when he first came in. Each girl surrounding him held a snippet of Duo's hair for their mementos.
When Duo was in the hospital, he took up one room while the flowers the girls sent him took up three more.
They never played again after that, though Duo had dates to occupy him for the rest of the month.
=P