On With The Show

13

Vince made a face.

Whoever wired this up was high on the job, He thought, following one of the wires with his eyes to hopefully spot the loose connection. Scratch that, they definitely were. Or they were just stupid, which is worse.

He was glad at the same time, however - because that meant he could charge more for this. He deserved it - fixing the wiring so far in this house whose initial electrician was most definitely either a monkey or a moron had already cost him whatever sanity he had left. He bit his lip, trying to keep his hand steady as he soldered the wire back in the right place, before crossing his fingers and hoping the microwave finally worked again.

If this doesn't work I'm going to get stabby, he mumbled, removing his hand and turning on the power again.

He let out a sigh of relief - after not one but three hours of painstakingly finding every mistake in the wiring, Vince was finally done. He wiped away some sweat from his forehead, smiling at the fact that he got this batshit wiring to work (seriously - NONE of the wires were soldered in place, just jammed there. No wonder the adapter didn't work. And don't even get him started on the other appliances in the kitchen. Just the thought was enough to make him cringe.) He smiled, getting up and turning around to tell the lad who'd hired him that he was finally done.

She just scoffed. "Took you long enough."

Vince held back every urge he had to roll his eyes. "None of the plugs had properly fixed wires, and whoever set up the AC adapter was on crack."

"Fine. Payment in cash?"

He nodded as she started pulling out the money, tipping him an extra 10.

"That's for being the first electrician who didn't put his ass crack on display for the entire family to see while working."

Vince laughed, "Thank you," He said, taking the money and leaving. He ran his fingers through his hair, inhaling deeply as he started walking back home. He was thankful it wasn't too hot - he didn't want to spend the cash he'd just earned on a bus ride just because it was too hot to walk. He smiled to himself as the wind blew, his light hair slightly flying in the breeze.

After about half an hour of walking, he finally reached the building, stepping inside and heading to his apartment. He fiddled with his keys, shoving one in the lock and feeling the lock click as he swung the door open.

Vince walked in, still lost in his own world as he heard someone calling out his name.

"Nikki? Oh, uh - Tommy's not here, he's-"

"Got an extra shift at the coffee place, I know," Nikki said.

"Oh, okay."

"Here," Nikki got up off the floor, holding out a few papers in Vince's direction.

"What's this?"

"Lyrics."

"Huh?"

"For our band."

"Oh - Thanks, Nikki," He said, looking over it.

Plug me in, I'm alive tonight,
Out on the streets again.
Turn me on, I'm hard to stop,
Something you'll never forget.
Take my fist,
Break down walls,
I'm on top tonight.

"Your lyrics?"

Nikki nodded.

"They - They're good," Vince muttered, taking a pillow from the bed and sitting on the floor near Nikki. "We should use there. I'll figure out how to sing it, thanks, man."

"Yeah, you're a good singer, man. I mean, I'm assuming you want to be in mine and Tommy's band."

Vince beamed. "F.uck yeah, I want to be in your band! Man, that's amazing - I thought you and Tommy had some huge-ass plan about the whole thing. Thanks, Nikki," He said, steppig closer to Nikki to hug him, before remembering the things Tommy told him and instead playing it off as a high-five.

"Okay, then. Tommy wanted to rehearse after he got back - give it maybe an hour first, there's something I want to talk to Tommy about before."

The last part felt like a thorn on a rose for Vince - he was still option B, after Tommy. There was a voice in his head telling him he should just be glad he was even an option, and he was happy about it. But it still made him feel like shit - Nikki and Tommy were close. He knew that. Hell, absolute strangers could figure that out. Even the owner of the liquor store they usually stole from was able to figure that out. That didn't mean that it didn't hurt, though. Vince was used to it - even before... The Incident, he wasn't anyone's first choice. Third? Sure. But never first.

He still nodded at Nikki - he was going to sing for the band the two of them were forming. That had to mean something, at the very fucking least, didn't it? "Yeah, man, I get that. Sure Whenever."

...Yeah, if there was one thing Vince was bad at, it was downplaying how he felt.

Lucky for him, Nikki was one dense bastard who just left the pages with Vince and went back to his own apartment.

*

"Have a nice day!" Tommy said, smiling as his customers went away. He huffed. So far, only five people said it back, and mostly, they were awkward. He turned around - it was one of those mid-afternoon lulls for the coffee shop right now, and he sat down behind the counter. He was bored - there was nothing to do at all! His eyes roamed the shop, falling on a newspaper's classified section someone had left behind.

Oh, screw it, he was so desperate for entertainment, he may as well just read that. Not like anyone would miss it, it was the classifieds. Nobody reads that. Well, other than him. But like he said, he was bored!

He picked it up, opening it to a random page as a slip of paper fell out. Curious, he bent down to pick it up.

Loud, aggressive, rude guitarist seeks band.

There was a phone number scrawled on the bottom of the page, and he read it out loud to himself before grinning and folding up the paper and putting it in his pocket. Nikki's going to be thrilled, He thought, smiling to himself as he started the espresso machine again, humming under his breath as he drummed a beat on the counter.

He poured himself a glass of water, smiling at the thought of Nikki's reaction to the ad. He loved it when Nikki was happy - of course, he loved it when anyone was happy, but when it was Nikki, it just felt better than when it was anyone else was happy. Maybe it was because he was crushing on Nikki, or the fact that Nikki was rarely happy, or some combination of both. It wasn't relevant; the point was that he loved when Nikki was happy.

He already knew how the conversation would go – he'd head home, and show Nikki the ad. Nikki would be all "What's this?" and Tommy would tell him all about the guy he saw leave the ad there, and they'd talk about it for a while after which Tommy would feel prompted to give Nikki a hug. Maybe, just maybe, Nikki would hug back instantly. Or even better, he would melt into the hug and close his eyes, feeling comfortable in Tommy's arms. Just the thought was enough to make Tommy smile, only snapping back to reality when the alarm rang, signalling the end of his shift.

He grinned, hanging up his apron and heading back to his place.

*

Nikki was waiting alone – he'd gotten a glass of water for himself but couldn't bring himself to look at it, much less drink it without feeling sick to his stomach. He had to tell Tommy. There's no way this whole... band arrangement would work without Tommy knowing. He bit his lip, looking down at his lap as he waited for Tommy to get back. There was no going back from this now that Vince had the lyrics. He wanted to tell him anyway - now he just had a deadline. It made sense when he first thought of it but now...

Nikki was scared.

A/n:

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