Getaway

[22] Save The Rave!

"Does Orlo really not want to keep it?" Phoenix is chewing on bubblegum now, suddenly turned sugar rush mad after all the good news started flowing in. He pops a massive blue bubble right close to her face, but it gets stuck to Jayy's lips. Disgusted, he pulls the sticky strands like baby blue silly string off his face.

"Yup! He wants it all for me." Jayla clambers onto Phoenix's studded skeleton belt lap. She starts playing with the fake bullets on the belt strap.

"And secondly..." Phoenix throws the bubblegum mess and a tissue in the bin beside the bar stools they are perched on. "What is on those CDs? Am I the only one dying to know?"

Phoenix reaches over and picks up a leftover beer off the bar, and checks his reflection in the curved glass for any blue bits.

Raven at once stands up and turns around to face them, "What's going on here?"

Phoenix smirks, swinging his leg a bit making Jayla bounce, so she holds it still. He makes a face at her and she pulls his hair. He bites her shoulder.

"Hey!" Jayla retorts, scowling at Phoenix. The two of them engage in a staring contest that seems to include a necessary component of growling at each other ferociously like yappy dogs. "Grrrrrrr," Jayla brings her face as close as she can to his, she can feel his nose ring against her cheek.

"Phoenix? Yoohoo!" Raven yanks his arm up and down bringing him back to reality.

"Um, yeah," Phoenix shakes himself out of dog-mode and explains how when the girls got the money out the machine, they happened to get about five or six CDs as well.

Moments later, the tall boy with tall shoes returns clutching them to his chest like a kangaroo with her baby in pouch. Except not so well designed, as the discs quickly begin sliding all over the place. Jayla races to catch them before the CDs fall to their death.

"What is on them?" Says Raven, turning one over. No writing. Nothing.

"Who knows," laughs Sapphire.

"Maybe it's the music out the dance machine!" Aspen giggles.

"I don't know, maybe, oh shit..." chuckles Phoenix.

"Yeah, haha" laughs Jayla, "those things are old... like from 2003! Who knows what technology they used back then?" They all join in with the joke adding more and more ridiculous comments, falling over in their seats from the hysterics.

"Okay," says Phoenix, trying to calm himself, snatching the CDs back off Raven, and putting one into the CD player Hi-Fi system. "Dance time!"

As the lights turn out, Phoenix sends the boat into disco mode. But at once he drops to the floor and in fact Raven also drops to the floor and before long Phoenix is cackling folded over in the corner. In fact everyone is now crying - it's so infectious. Finally Raven breaks the confusion...

"WHAT!! How? Is this... it's..." he blurts, not even able to finish his sentence.

Finishing where he left off, Phoenix coughs it out, "It's the songs... it's the ones Jerome... he tried to hi- ahahahahaha... he tried to hide. Jerome tried to hide these songs from Raven... but here they are!"

Literally. He is dying. Raven is too. Tears of happiness streak his face as he gets up off the floor and picks up the other CDs, his babies, in a new found awe and love.

This has definitely made his day. His year. His decade.

He high five grabs Jayla's hand and high fives Blu, man hugging him, a tear on his cheek.

"You know," Raven concludes, pouring himself another beer from the bar, "maybe this whole thing was worth it. If the whole damned thing hadn't happened, we would never have ended up with those songs. They would have been lost forever."

Phoenix chirps in, taking a sip from Raven's glass and kissing him on the cheek next to his unity stripes. "Yup. 'Cos those aren't any songs. They are Death to the Skies songs. And not just any Death to the Skies songs, but Raven's favourites. He was so sad to have lost them," Phoenix starts twirling his hand as he talks, his eyes on his tattooed arm occasionally, and every so often on his female audience. He goes on, "But he always claimed he had them anyway. He never wanted to admit defeat to Jerome when he deleted the music off Raven's hard drive. He knew he had it on CDs, and he had a good few... But somehow Jerome took these all and..."

Raven cuts him off, "And now, they're ours! Let Death to the Skies live again!"

Raising their glasses, they all cheers to Raven and Phoenix. Blu raises his dimly lit cigarette, spluttering a bit and Aspen raises her fist as she isn't drinking. All the same, they shout a cheer.

Jayy then notes, specifically to Jayla, "You have no idea how this has made Raven feel."

"Oh I think I do," she smiles, a bit wonky and her teeth show. She isn't perfect. This isn't perfect. But sometimes things seem that way. Like Phoenix. And like this moment. This very moment in time. When everyone is so happy there is not one thing to be down about.

"I'm just so glad this all worked out," she sighs, leaning over across the bar, hands out to him. He places his over hers.

"Me too," he smiles warmly back at her.

With that, Raven and Blu exit the room, turning the lights back to normal. Hastily but lovingly, desperate to never lose them again, Raven shoves the CDs into a case and puts them away into the zip pocket on the inside of his laptop case.

Just then, Raven lets out a massive breath, and runs towards Phoenix and Jayla.

"Oh my god, I don't care what happened any more with that prison shit, you know I owe you."

"No, no..." Jayla waves it off as if it was nothing, "Orlo, aha, he had them."

"No, you got me to this place. You got yourself in trouble on my behalf. Even if it was by accident, my fault even... it was in your heart to do me and Phoenix well all along. And as a consequence you and your friends ended up finding my lost songs. So, I do owe you. I do."

"Aw, Raven, I'm just so happy, I don't know what to say. I still feel bad though."

"No, seriously, don't. All the bad stuff... that's my own fault. Don't worry about me."

"Okay. At least thanks to Leya, now people know the truth that you're a lovely honest guy." She winks.

"Hey, haha," Raven kicks her a bit on the shin as they sit on the bar stools in low orange glowing light. Everyone has now left them here alone.

"I'll keep it a secret, I swear by my life on it. Otherwise I wouldn't have confessed to your lies and risked my life getting put in prison. I wouldn't have then broke the law by stealing from a travelling fair, and got Blu to pay my bail money. I did it to keep you safe." She smiles sweetly.

"That's my girl," Raven messes her hair and she winces, allowing it this one instance.

They get up and head off to the bedrooms.

"Oh and one last thing before I say goodnight," Raven scratches at his arm with all the Final Fantasy tattoos on it, looking a bit awkward. He looks up towards the wooden rafters of the ship. "Will I ever get to see... Leya again?"

With all her heart, she wants to say yes. But she honestly is in doubt. Remembering her last statement about keeping him safe... She can't give him an answer right now.

So she wraps her arms around him instead and whispers incandescently, "I- I don't know... Sweet dreams, Raven."