Nezushi in bloom

Revengers

Safu met them beside Nezumi's car. She had taken the bus there. Shion had told his lover about the girls talent on multiple musical instruments. He beamed at his friend as Nezumi opened the car door. Shion lifted up the seat to allow the girl to climb in back with her guitar. Once inside he handed over his own.
Nezumi had Shion pull up the directions to the address Dogkeeper had given them. They drove out of town. "It's nice to finally meet you." Safu told Nezumi. "Shion talks about you all the time." She beamed at the white haired teen. Nezumi reached over to take the boys hand.
"Good, that means he thinks about me all the time." They smirked at each other. The directions led them further out of town on a back road. They ended up missing their turn twice, but finally found the place. It was a farm of sorts. There were dog everywhere. A fenced in area housed smaller ones on one side of the long drive. On the other was another fenced in area that looked to be separating rescue type dogs.
Maneuvering the car carefully along the rutted drive, Nezumi made his way up to the house. Dogkeeper stood on the wide veranda encircling the large white building. When she saw the car she smirked. Walking down she waited for them to all climb out.
"Hey, you found my place, and are only five minutes late." She scolded. Then she glared at Safu.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded.
"Shion invited me." Safu jutted her chin out. Dogkeeper snorted.
"Little miss perfect wants to be in a band? This I gotta see!" The small brunette laughed.
"I'm not perfect." Safu fumed as she took her guitar case from Shion. "You do have amps?" she demanded.
"Yeah, yeah." Dogkeeper waved her hand. "I have everything needed for a band, except band mates." She stated.
"Wonder why that is?" Safu rolled her eyes. Nezumi dropped his arm around Shion's shoulders.
"Something seems a little too real here?" he winked at the blushing boy. Shion sighed elbowing him lightly.
Dogkeeper walked them to a smaller barn beside a larger one. She took out keys and unlocked the double doors in front. Inside was a treasure trove of band equipment. There was a drum kit all set up, surrounding it were mike stands, amps speakers, lights... literally everything needed. Also the space was large enough for it all with room to spare.
"Nice!" Nezumi exclaimed as he walked up to the main mic. It was an old fashioned looking one. However he could tell it was practically brand new.
"You have quite the set up." Shion agreed. He headed over to the left side of Nezumi. Setting his guitar case down he turned to fetch an Amp and drag it over to his spot.
"What are you doing?" Safu asked.
"Oh, did you want this one?" Shion paused seeing the amps looked identical.
"No, but why are you moving it?" she asked.
"Feedback." Nezumi stated. "If you have the amps too close they will squeal. The feedback would be unbearable." He answered. The girl frowned but said OK. Shion continued his journey.
"Huh, that explains a lot." Dogkeeper muttered. Shion and Nezumi exchanged looks. With a shrug the pale teen opened up his case. He pulled out the shiny blue and black bass. The long neck had his arms stretched out. Safu's mouth fell open in an 'o' as she watched the boy grin at the beautiful Fender guitar.
Shion hung the braided leather strap over his thin shoulders. He plugged in the cords and set up his foot pedals. Then frowned.
"Nezumi, why are the dials moved!" He pointed accusingly at the first pedal. The boy he was talking to grinned.
"Because it makes a cool clicking sound when you twist them." He chuckled. Shion groaned.
"Stop messing with my stuff!" He whined. Nezumi snickered as Shion bent to fix the dials.
"Mm, love that view." He smirked. Looking over he saw Safu was set up. She hung onto a plain white Les Paul guitar.
"Where's your strap?" he asked. She looked up at him.
"I don't need one. I play sitting down." She looked around not seeing a suitable sized stool to sit on.
"Not in this band sister!" Nezumi marched over to pull out a nylon black strap from Shion's case. He hooked it to the Les Paul and adjusted it to fit her.
"Oh, um ok." She blushed a little as the strap touched her bare shoulder. Nezumi waited as the others tuned up their instruments.
"Do you play anything?" Dogkeeper asked him.
"I can play harp and stand up bass. Been learning keyboards, not that great at it yet." He offered.
"Oh. What happened to your hands?" she noted the scraped knuckles.
"Fight." Nezumi shrugged. Shion was ready. He looked over to Safu. She had gone through her check and nodded. Nezumi went to the sound board.
"Let's check the mics." He flipped the board on. Pointing to Shion he figured out what mic was whose, where the drums and guitar mics were as well as the amp controls. He set it up so they wouldn't override each other.
"You know how to run sound?" Dogkeeper looked impressed.
"Yeah, I told you I do a lot of stage work. Knowing how to run sound and lights helped to get me into a lot of gigs." He shrugged.
Finally they were all set up. Shion had given Safu the music to learn for three songs. Dogkeeper stated she knew them. Nezumi knew two and learned the third. Shion only needed to practice since he knew them. They began to play.
By the time they finished the first song, children had appeared out in the yard to listen to them. Nezumi began to preform for his audience. He sang and danced, moving into the throng of children. They appeared to be aged from preteen up to older teens. All of them got into the music with him.
The band finished playing. The kids clapped. "What's with all of them?" Safu asked.
"We are foster kids. The people who own this house have taken us in. They really support us learning and trying new things." Dogkeeper stated.
"Like the band?" Shion asked. Dogkeeper nodded.
"Well, I think we sounded good. Could use more practice, but it's your call, Dogkeeper. Do you want us?"
"The stiff needs to learn to move around more." She glared at Safu. "But yeah, I think we're good." She smiled. They went out to decided on new songs to learn. As they sat on the porch and the kids hovered around, Nezumi asked about band names.
"Well what kind of music do we want to play?" Safu asked. The other three looked at her as if she had lost her mind.
"Punk!" Dogkeeper cried.
"WHAT, I AM.NOT A PUNK!" Safu yelled standing up placing her hands on her hips.
"Safu, that is the genre of music we are going to play." Shion explained patiently.
"Oh." She sat back down. "Well what are some names of popular punk bands?" She asked tugging on the sleeves of her sweater.
"Green day, The Ramones, The Clash..." Nezumi informed her. She nodded looking down at her sneakers.
"What about The Darlings?" Shion asked.
"Isn't that the family from Peter Pan?" Dogkeeper laughed.
"White hot poker?" Nezumi said. Dogkeeper was hiding her stomach. Her laughter echoing around them.
"Butt hurt?" Nezumi continued making Shion giggle.
"Revengers?" Shion offered. Dogkeeper stopped laughing. Safu looked over at him with big eyes. Nezumi squeezed his leg.
"I like it." He purred.
"So do I." Dogkeeper agreed.
"I can live with it." Safu answered.
"All right. Until someone comes up with something better, Revengers it is!" Nezumi cried. They cheered along with the dozen or so kids milling around them. It was after eight already, so Nezumi took Safu home. Only after they established a schedule for Saturday nights to practice.
"You live here?" he asked pulling into the Sunny Acres retirement home.
"Yes, with my grandmother." Safu said. Shion got out of the car to let her out. He handed her the guitar case.
"Thanks for joining with us." He smiled at her. She beamed.
"Yes. It was a lot of fun." She grinned. Shion walked her to the door holding it open as she went it.
"She's a weird one." Nezumi offered.
"Like you're normal." Shion teased.
"I think she likes you." His boyfriend stated.
"I suggest you don't think too much. You're not good at it." Shion rolled his eyes watching the other drive as he leaned his head back against the seat.
"Don't make me punish you." Nezumi teased lightly.
"Mm, you enjoy that all too much." Shion giggled. Nezumi took his hand kissing his fingers.
"You're damn right I do." He smirked as he drove them home.