“Awww but. It’s. Too cute!!” Katie squealed as she ripped the tag off the aqua cat hoodie you had purchased for her while you had been out. She had been the first person you had run across once you had made it back to the venue. Which was beneficial for you since you needed a radio to get a hold of Steve to tell him of the two girls you had given temporary VIP status too for tonight’s show. It’s not something you did often even though you had the right and the privilege to do as often as you liked, you just didn’t do it much. Which led you to be in high standing in Steve’s point of view, much higher than your brother or any of the guys who seemed to waste that little privilege on any floozy in a tight cut up A7X shirt. And wasted it over and over again. You were hoping that your brother would be cutting back on his abusing of that privilege since the addition of Katie into your little A7X family.

“It’s the greatest Kales!” Katie grinned as she danced in a circle with the hood up on her head, ears pointing skywards.

“I thought you might like it. The color just screamed you, and I thought you’d be okay with the cat ears on top. They’re tiny so I thought they’d be acceptable,” you grinned back as you watched her do her little dance in the shade of a pavilion.

“I do!” Katie answered enthusiastically as she finally stopped dancing wildly.

“So, I uh, heard,” Katie started as you lit a cigarette but was cut off by a not so manly squee from off in the distance.

“KITTY!!!” a male voice squealed as it came barreling towards the two of you, more so towards Katie. There was only one male on the planet, let alone this tour, would could squeal like that. It was highly unnatural and it was why you loved the body attached to it, regardless of the people he knew and called friends.

“Kitty, kitty, kitty!” the voice squealed as it zeroed in on Katie’s head with outstretched hands and eager fingers.

Katie being Katie simple turned on her heel real quick and stared down the intruder with a look of steal that made them stop dead in their tracks.

“Bert. No.” Katie said with a stern voice, a pointer finger shaming him into being still.

Sighing like he had been deflated and defeated Bert turned on his heel and went back to wherever he was going or had come from before he had spotted Katie’s aqua kitty ears from a distance. You chuckled a bit at the exchange, Katie really was getting a handle on dealing with the people you knew and called friends. She seemed to be adjusting to the life quickly as witnessed by her handling of Bert. Some people couldn’t handle him, in any of his forms, but that made you love him even more. The more misunderstood a person was the stronger you felt about them. Part protectiveness, part like calling to like. And the fact that Katie was adjusting so well was also an added benefit where your brother was concerned, as you liked the subtle changes in his mannerisms you had been seeing since she had come into your lives.

“You so have that man figured out to a T,” you laughed once Katie was back facing you.

She simply grinned at you before pausing and touching her ear piece. The universal sign for God is talking to me and I’m totally schizo, or the universal sign for I’m kinda important and people are yakking at me because they can’t do their jobs without me holding their hands through the entire process. Either or, you take your pick.

“I gotta jet Kales, something about a wire fire outside the sound booth,” Katie groaned grabbing her radio and blabbing something into the microphone attached to her headset, a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo you didn’t understand. But you didn’t need to understand the lingo to understand that she was needed elsewhere.

“No probs Katie, your idiotic plebeians need you. Go. Before they burn the place down,” you replied as you took her by the shoulders and turned her back towards the venue.

“Are you sure?” Katie asked over her shoulder, all the while half listening to what was going on in her ear piece.

“Promise. Besides there is an espresso machine that just came in that Brian is setting up in the mess area and I’m dying for a good espresso coffee that I don’t have to send someone out to get. Now go, shoo. Shoo!” you urged as you pushed Katie away from you, miming a kick to her ass as she started jogging away, a wave over her shoulder at your general direction.

“Silly goose,” you muttered to yourself as you shook your head, deciding to go in search of said espresso machine. Though why they were having Brian put it together and not someone who knew actual shit was beside you. Maybe he had a special knack for coffee machines. Who were you to judge eh?
-xXx-
“So you think we should try it?” Johnny asked skeptically as you both stared at the new espresso machine for tour.

You had been wrong in your assumption beforehand, there was indeed a new espresso machine but it wasn’t in the mess hall. Or at least the one bequeathed to Brian for assembling wasn’t in the mess hall. It was currently in the guys green room, where you and Johnny were currently staring at it with perplexed and worried looks on your faces.

“I don’t know. Does it look right to,” you started to ask but were cut off.

“It’s perfectly fine. I followed the directions perfectly. You’d think I’d never put anything together before. Hello, massive bass player over here! Thanks,” Brian huffed as he came out from one of the smaller rooms of the main sitting area of the green room. More then likely his dressing room.

“But is it suppose to look like this? Is that piece suppose to be there?” you asked, pointing to a strange silver piece sticking out of the side where the espresso grounds were suppose to go in.

“Just turn the bloody thing on and quit your bitching, you sound like my mother,” Brian gruffed as he reached between you and Johnny to flip the scary looking contraption on.

Shrugging your shoulders you and Johnny turned around to face the couches, leaning against the counter on either side of the machine to wait.

“How long is this suppose to take?” Johnny asked after about thirty seconds of silence as he cleaned his nails. Brian looked up from where he had been sitting, well half sitting half leaning, on the back edge of the couch across from you two reading a magazine. You hid a chuckle at the look he shot Johnny.

“What are you like three? Or Bert?” Brian asked with a questioning look as he absentmindedly flipped the page of the magazine he wasn’t even looking at.

“No I’m just impatient and want my coffee,” Johnny pouted as he crossed his arms across his chest and sighed.

“Well if you want fast coffee go to the mess hall and grab some of theirs,” Brian said without looking up since he had gone back to scanning the magazine in his hands. You thought it was an issue of Tattoo that you were featured in if you saw the cover correctly, though you could be wrong. It’s been known to happen on occasion.

Johnny simply sighed and turned his head upwards to stare at the ceiling tiles or some such thing you presumed since you weren’t aware of what was going on inside his head precisely. You decided that it was a good time as any to pick off the remainder of your black and white nail polish, something inane to pass the time till the espresso was done doing whatever it was doing. The three of you got so absorbed in what you were doing in fact that you all jumped when the door opened and Jimmy stuck his head in.

“Uhh, well hello jumpy people. Up to no good?” Jimmy asked, well his head asked since it was the only part of his body in the room and visible to any of you.

“No we’re waiting on our espresso from the new machine,” Johnny replied, his eyes going back to the ceiling.

“Isn’t someone suppose to, oh never mind. Has anyone seen my starter drumsticks?” Jimmy asked, his eyebrows raised in hope.

“Nada.”

“Nope.”

“Nyet.”

“Okay then, good day. . .” Jimmy answered as he gave the three of you a strange look before backing slowly out the door.

After Jimmy closed the door it was a few moments or so before anyone opened their mouths again to fill the silence that was starting to feel like an eternity.

“What do you think Jimmy meant about someone,” Johnny started to ask but never got to finish. He never got to finish because he was cut off by a loud, gear grinding, ear deafening explosion from between the two of you. The three of you screamed simultaneously and went to cover your ears or head from whatever had caused the ear killing sound and explosion. It wasn’t until the sound had died down and the door to the green room had burst open that any of you had uncurled and looked around.

“What the, baahahaha!!” your brother broke out into a fit of laughter, cutting off whatever he was going to ask.

“Is everyone ok? Holy shit. . .” came the voice you least wanted to hear ever, but at the moment were paying no mind. Paying no mind in fact due to the fact that you had just realized what everyone who had barged in had noticed. You were incredibly, unimaginably, thoroughly, 100% soaked to the bone in espresso!

“Oh. My. God!” you swore loudly as you shook off your arms and spit particles out of your mouth. Looking around you saw that you weren’t the only one covered head to toe in a layer of hot brown liquid. Johnny and Brian were both standing around with similar shocked looks on their faces as they spit out grounds and shook off various body parts.

“What. The hell. Happened?” you heard your brother asked in-between fits of laughter as you got excess espresso off your eyes.

“I think the espresso machine exploded,” Johnny supplied as he tried shaking off his boots, to no affect you believed if he was soaked like you. Your feet were swimming in your shoes.

“It what?” your bother barked with a laugh.

“Dude, look up,” a giggling evil voice from beside your brother spoke. But regardless of who had said it everyone present, including yourself, looked up as if on cue. And as you saw what they were pointing at you joined in the sudden laughter. All over the tiles, like the entire ceiling, was a sheen of dripping coffee. It was covered! And consequently dripping down onto yours, Johnny’s and Brian’s heads.

“Dude the cleaning people are going to KILL us!!” Brian laughed as he began wringing out his shirt.

“I told you that you didn’t put it together right! I told you, I told you!!” you sang at Brian as you pointed at him as if you were six years old, totally forgetting about your brother and Satan spawn next to him.

“Pfft, whatever,” Brian huffed, like it was nothing.

“Oh pfft yourself! Mr. Can’t Follow Simple Directions Haner!!” you jeered at him, forgetting you were covered in coffee somehow.

“I’ll show you can’t follow simple directions. Get her Johnny!” Brain yelled, making a lounge for you.

Squealing you danced out of his grip just in time to be grabbed with the steal grip of a very coffee soaked Johnny. You forgot sometimes how strong he was due to his height, which was very apparent as you struggled to break from his grip.

“Ready?” Brian asked as he grabbed a hold of your face in his ginormous hands for some reason, holding you steady even though you were slick from the explosion.

“Ready!” Johnny affirmed, his grip on you tightening.

“Go!” Brian yelled before diving in at your head.

You scrunched your eyes shut and prepared for the worst. Which was a good thing too.

“Awww gross!” you squealed as you finally wiggled free of their grasps only to start wildly wiping your face off on your shirt, even though it too was soaked beyond belief.

“I can’t believe you guys licked my effing face!” you shouted as you continued wiping like a maniac. All you got from Brain and Johnny in response was peals of ridiculous laughter.

“You both suck,” you grumbled as you spit out more espresso grounds.

“Yeah, and you taste like coffee,” Brian shot back with a shit eating grin on his face.

“You know you guys are gonna stink the whole show right? Because you only have enough time to change, no time for showers,” you brother listed off. You had totally forgotten he was there.

“At least we’ll stink like good coffee!” Johnny chirped in with, wiggling his eyebrows all over the place in a ridiculous fashion.

“Idiots!” you sighed as you pushed passed everyone to go find a shower and new clothes. And hopefully borrow a sink to soak your clothes in so they wouldn’t stain. It was nice, there was no stage requiring your presence so you could at least get clean. And besides, there was a trash can fire still to be lit calling your name.

Notes

Yay for coffee "perfume"!!!