Balls P1

He was still scowling over Jamie’s song - wants to be my friend, huh? - when an announcement demanded his attention.

“Our next singer is Alex.”
Alex snorted. Not bloody likely.

“A-lex, A-lex” some of the more rowdy male Dwarfers and rodents began to chant.
He scanned the crowd and eyed the Ball of Darkness, or whatever the smeg it was called. Didn’t really wanna go in there… Didn’t really wanna sing either. Hm.
He brushed down his dark suit and considered that he was nearly drunk enough to sing, mind… Ah what the hell? He adjusted his dark-red, gold-designed mask, snatched a drink from a passing tray and downed it, ignoring the tray-bearer’s proffered nose. Yep, that’d done it.

He stepped onto the stage and, horribly, the room quietened down. He swallowed and puffed, blowing air through his lips in resignation. He might as well enjoy it. He did like a good song, and his subconscious scan was obviously gonna bring up Bad to the Bone by George Thorogood and the Destroyers.

He sneered, waiting for the opening guitar riff to start, he knew the lyrics all right… wouldn’t matter that he couldn’t read well.
He mentally prepared them:
Well on the day I was born… the nurses all gathered round… and they gazed in wide wonder... at the joy they had found… The head nurse spoke up… said leeave this one alohone…. she could tell right away… that I was bad to the bone.

Bad to the bone,
baad to the bone,
b-b-b-b-b-baayadd,
b-b-b—bbaayed.,
b-b-b-b-b-baayadd,
baad to the bone…

Yep, he was ready, all lined up in his mind, and prepared to go.

Only… it didn’t quite work out like that.

The music started. It was the wrong music.
“It’s the wrong music.” He protested.
The host shook its head and gestured that he should lift the microphone to his mouth.

Seemingly having no control over himself, as if possessed, Solvay obediently lifted the mic. Oh shit, oh shit. No-nononono. Please…
But he couldn’t stop himself.

His stomach lurched and, against his will, but with great seriousness, he began to sing.

“Every time our eyes meet…
This feelin’ inside me.
… It's almost more than I can take.”

Dear Gods, help me.

He was singing this version, of this song (the newer Cody Collins one, not the original): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE5RMEQaBfs

“Baby when you touch me.
I can feel how much you love me.
… And it just blows me away.

I’ve never been this close to anyone, or anything. [Not for a long time.]
I can hear your thoughts.
I can see your dreams…

Ah dunno how you do what you do.
I’m so in love with you.
It just keeps gettin’ better…”

Plisken and Phi were seated at a table near the back of the room. They exchanged a surprised glance. “I didn’t know Solvay could sing” said the medic. Plisken shrugged and pulled at his pipe. The young woman leaned a bit closer so the older man could hear better over the music. “I’ve only ever heard him caterwauling when he was off-his-face…” she told him. He nodded.

“… Every little thing that you do…
… Baby I’m amazed by you.”

Alex’s eyes were closed now, he was really getting into it, looking like he was almost kissing the mic as he sang. Oddly tender, for Solvay.

“The smell of your skin…
The taste of your kii-iss.
… The way you whisper in the dark.”

Winston Whiskers and Nibole were swept up in the music. They looked lovingly at each other and slipped into a furry embrace, rocking in rodent romance.

“Your hair all around me.
Baby you surround me.
… You touch every place in my heart.

Oh it feels like the first tahm… Every time.
I wanna spend the whole ni-ight, in your eyes.”

He opened his own eyes, they came to rest on Jade, who was standing there… in that green dress.

“... I’m so in love with you." He told her.
It just keeps getting better.”

“I didn’t even know he spoke.” A young guinea pig told Plisken and Phi. Plisken chuckled.

“… With you by my side.”
“Forever and ever.”

Alex looked directly into the eyes of the woman he was singing to, and for a moment it was as if there was a spotlight on both of them and no-one else was in the room.

“Every little thing that you do.” He sang again, unable to keep his true feelings hidden any longer for some Gods-awful reason.
“… Baby I’m amazed by you-o-oou.”

Then he closed his eyes again, getting into the marginally rockier climax.

“Ohhhhhwwooohhwww.

Every little thing that you do…
I’m SO in love with you.
It just keeps gettin’ betterrr,
ooohhh girl.
I wanna spend the rest of mah life, with you by my sayhde. Forever and EEeevverr

Eeeevery little thing that you do.
Oohhh.
Every little THING that you do…

… Baby I’m amazed by…

... Byyy yoOooouuu…”

He opened his eyes.

There was silence. Someone coughed. Then there was applause and a gentle murmur of speech which soon thankfully turned into rowdy noise again.

“Thank you very much Alex.” Said the host, above the hubbub, and Solvay was ushered off the stage.

Oh Gods.

He’d respected her goodness, and niceness from the moment he’d met her. Who wouldn’t? Surely everyone liked Jade.
But… The entire truth was, that from the moment the sparky doctor had bizarrely and unexpectedly tiptoed and kissed him on the chin after their return from Fernandos, he’d been staggered. She’d have never known it - and she wasn’t supposed to ever know it - but a certain part of his heart had melted at that instant.
And it had scared the hell out of him.
He’d pushed it away, slammed it into the bottom drawer with all the other dangerous stuff he kept there. But tonight she’d found the key and unlocked it, with that damn song of hers.

He’d watched, admiring from the darkness of the audience. Smoking, drinking, thinking that the things she were singing were probably the loveliest things ever said to him. He could feel that they were for him. She loved him.
It’d never been his plan, to tell her his own feelings. All kinds of complications could, and likely would arise. It was safer to say nothing, but...

What was he supposed to do now?
He looked around for her.

A flash of green. His stomach lurched again. Ah there she was, with that lot.
What would she do? Would she deny her feelings so clearly illustrated in her song? Would he deny his? Was there any point denying anything?

His drunk, loose, brain told him that no, there was no point denying anything any longer and that he should just be a normal human being, not an automaton, and go sweep her off her feet. Kiss her like he ached to.
The honesty was liberating, and with a warm glow, he realised he was feeling much better all of a sudden.

He headed towards the green dress, keen to tell her, keen to hold her hands and pull her to him. Wanting that kiss. Wanting to tell her again that he was falling in love with her.
He was smiling, and sheepish, and excited. Recent traumas forgotten in the teen-like glow of finally being able to tell her how much he wanted to wrap his arms around her.
Maybe these gerbils were onto something.

“Jade…” He called, a crooked, almost dorky, half smile underlining his mask.

In the background, Whiskers began a jolly rendition of “Master of the House” from Les Misérables

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<End of Part 1, continued in Part 2, shortly -->

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Notes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c52qR9wqs4E <-- Bad to the Bone - what he thought he’d sing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE5RMEQaBfs <-- Amazed - What he actually sang.
http://www.simplymasquerade.co.uk/masqueradeshop/prod_2385101-Commedia-Masquerade-Mask-Red.html <-- And his mask is kinda like this.

Part 2, next…

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