Chapter 5 – Hey Mikki

Raelena St. John

 Rae groaned as she looked at the messages on her phone. In the past few weeks she actually done her best to change her set list up, well a Rae's version of the best. As she had been told she'd been mixing up the songs. There was a mix of some that she had written herself as well as covers that she'd always been popular with. Yeah, sure, she'd been selecting a lot of songs that were not... appropriate in the strictest sense. But hey, "Forget You" was something of a classic after all, and her version was decidedly different from the popular version.

 Yet despite this Mikki kept sending her text insisting that she change the set list. Or if Mikki didn't do it she had one of her innumerable minions do something instead. Seriously how could that girl managed to get so many people to do precisely what she wanted? It was if she had some sort of crazy mind control powers. The few times Rae had actually tried to counter this with, say, flirting or something along those lines, she'd been grossly disappointed.

Currently Rae was between sets, which of course meant that she was somewhere engaging one of her frequent habits, in this case smoking a strange strain of something that apparently they sold along the fairy grove. Really it was kind of impressive how many alternate substances this place actually sold. This stuff gave Rae a sweeter high and just about anything else, though it did have the strange degree of detachment that she was growing increasingly fond of. At any rate she certainly enjoyed hiding out amongst mushrooms and reading the various texts even if they continue to irritate her.

As Rae took another puff of the weed a purple cloud of smoke leaving her lips, a rather attractive young woman with glittering wings and equally glittery skin approached. Naturally Rae's eyes started wandering because they always did. As was often the case the girl looked more appreciative than anything else, not that Rae could really blame her. She flashed a little smile and wiggled a few fingers and raise direction which generally had one meaning.

Rae returned the smile in kind leaning forward a little and puffing her lips creating an old smoke. "I don't believe I've seen you around here" she drawled her smile growing lazily.

"That actually should be what I say shouldn't?" The fairy asked tittering as she did.

Rae gave a cheeky wink, before leaning back hands lacing behind her head. "Maybe that's why I said it, maybe I just happen to know exactly what you're thinking and what you need. Willing to bet that's why you wandered over here," Rae leaned forward again this time pressing her arms together a bit, not that she had a lot to show off in that regard, "you must have heard of who I am after all."

The fairy giggled, lacing her own arms behind her chest. Of course she had a lot more to show off the move having a good deal more effect on Rae than hers had on the fairy. "I've heard that you're really bad for people. That there's something almost contagious about you," she said the adjective as if it was something desirable.

Rae stood up slightly still leaning forward as she did. She took another quick drag of her rolled leaves, before puffing her lips and another perfect oh. The plume of sweet smelling purple smoke wafting around the fairy's sharply formed face as Rae leaned a little bit further in. "Don't you want to see if you can catch it and find out?"

The fairy leaned in lips already starting to part a telltale way. Just as they were starting to brush, Rae tasting the others breath, she heard her phone start buzzing. Groaning she reached down to the table more determined to shut it off then to pick it up and start a conversation, only to have the fairy intercepting instead. Fingers brushed for a moment with the cute little creature instead had Rae's phone.

"Oh wow you're getting a call from Mikki? I definitely don't want to interrupt that," the fairy held the phone out to Rae. By now hearing her own voice seeing one of her hit songs wasn't quite the thrill that Rae usually had.

"I don't generally go for threesomes on the first date, and really you don't want to involve Mikki. She's so stiff we might as well throw a guy between us," drawled Rae reaching a hand up to gently caress the fairy.

Of course Rae should've figured of the fairy would lean into her whole costume, particularly since she was clearly enjoying the flirtations, and the playacting that went along with it. Rae's target flicked her finger and then raise the phone to her own ear. "Oh hey Mikki it's Dandelion speaking. Yeah you definitely called Rae's number," those previously oh so playful eyes now flicked to read the smile quirk to the edges of the fairy's lips. Suddenly this Dandelion was looking a lot less hot than she had just a few moments ago. "She's sitting right in front of me smoking some of our toadstool."

By this point Rae was really considering just standing up and leaving the phone as a lost cause. Probably would be better than facing whatever was on the other end right now. Of course she just had to sit there and listen as Dandelion chatting amiably with the woman who had become the bane of Rae's existence.

"I'm not hearing any discussion of getting her to drop her pants," said Rae tapping her fingers against the table before her. "Maybe you should threaten to break some park rules unless she has mad lesbian sex with us or something," Rae giggled, more smoke wafting around her, "kinky," came out with a purple cloud.

"Actually Mikki's over here saying that you should probably act more mature," teased Dandelion, the fairy giving a little wiggle of her hips as she spoke. She began speaking slowly, clearly repeating everything said on the other end of the phone as she spoke. "This is supposed to be a family establishment. You're supposed to be a member of our new family. As such it would be best if you set yourself as an example people should be following. Dozens if not hundreds of young girls enter this park looking up to you. With your rainbow hair and utter cool, for some reason," Dandelion paused for a few moments clearly fighting off laughter, "you're not supposed to say what I just said there, you're supposed to use common sense to not just completely repeat everything I say is a soon as I say it. You're doing it, again aren't you? Dandy, this is funny, please stop. You're going to embarrass me and yourself," the fairy actually lapsed into silence for a few moments though Rae swore she could still hear talking on the other end of the phone. Dandy covered the receiver with her mouth giving Rae a conspiratorial wink, "she's now trying to throw a few insults at me no doubt thinking I'm just going to repeat like some sort of cartoon character. What did you do to get her this ticked anyway?"

Rae shrugged taking another puff of her fairy mushroom. "Pick my own songs or something, you how know how Mikki gets."

Dandy giggled bobbing her head a few times, "looks that you're not can hand the phone over why don't you just tell Rae that she should stop singing songs that are inappropriate for a family audience and that she should consider spending her free time doing something besides drinking, smoking, or having inappropriate relations with other family members," as Dandy said this last bit she pointed towards herself and performed another little hip wiggle. "There are several other things that I need to be focusing on right now, so I don't need to be spending more time babysitting you."

"Come on you're not a babysitter," insisted Rae leaning forward to make sure that Mikki could hear every word, "babysitters have a tendency to ignore the child and have sex with their significant others. At least all my favorite babysitter certainly did."

By this point Dandy couldn't quite keep things together. She'd lapsed into a fit of giggling that sounded downright musical. The noises coming from the phone came off as nearly comical by this point. Rae swore she could actually hear a huff of exasperation before the phone went dead. Still smiling dandy set the phone down, and slid it towards Rae. As Rae reach for it their fingers brushed together, and soon their lips followed suit.

"Not bad, not bad at all," teased Rae. "Wasn't quite sure what with you answering the phone and all. Was beginning to wonder if you are thinking you have more fun with Mikki than me."

Dandy shrugged, "Mikki is great and all, but she is really uptight. Honestly she could use somebody to tell her to loosen up more than a little," as the fairy spoke she looked to Rae as if she knew just to would be a great candidate for that task. "Having something fun happened to her might just be what she needs in order to become really fun, you know?"

Without the fairy leaned forward again and the two kissed for some time though, Rae's mind wasn't exactly on the kiss. In these words kept hovering around in her mind pinging off the walls. As they broke, mostly to get air, Rae smiled up at the fairy. "Don't suppose that you have some friends that also happen to think like that?"

Did he tilted her head to the side, obviously wondering if they're going to get to the fun part of kissing. "Yeah there's probably a few people in the park would pitch in for something fun like that. Why?"

This time when Rae sprang for the kiss she couldn't quite contain her excitement nearly missing dandy's lips. The kiss for good several seconds before Rae pulled off eyes dancing with utter delight. "I think I know just what to do. Let's have some fun here first," Rae ran her hands along dandy's arm, "but when we do I think if you can get yourself in a couple of your more agile friends together we might be to do something to help Mikki loosen up a bit."

The two kissed for a few moments before Rae realize something, breaking off. "Oh you wouldn't happen to know where I could get a cheerleader uniform do you?"

Rae found herself facing yet another nearly rabid crowd. By now she'd sung a couple of bangers and gotten everyone more than a little in what she'd term the partying mood. For a change she actually had an audience that seems totally into the music and what she was doing. Each time her gaze swept the crowd she could see a veritable sea of rainbow bracelets. Unlike so many of her performances before, this one appeared to be filled mostly of fans. Sure, Rae may have put out something on social media hinting that she could use a few more fan support for this current performance, but even she couldn't've expected a turn out quite like this.

It was however slightly surprised to see that the "guest of honor" had shown up a little bit late to the performance. Rae could see Mikki moving in already which let her know that her plan was just about ready to go into full action. Though she supposed that her current outfit, a weird combo and mishmash of punk and cheerleader regalia, probably gave away that there was something unusual going on here.

The last riff of "Can't Cut Me Off" had just finished playing, and Rae gave the signal, raising a hand towards the ceiling of the slight outstretched stage upon which she usually performed. "You all rocking it out today or what?" asked Rae leaning forward and raising a hand to her ear, as if she really needed to encourage this currently raucous crowd to start shouting. Several whoops of delight and sheer joy met her which just had her bobbing and swaying already. "Gotcha I hear you," she said bobbing her head again, "you're all here to hear a real banging performance from your 'American dream', am I right?" Again the roars, with Mikki seeming definitely disturbed. Weirdly enough she almost seemed to have some sort of bodyguard, a rather large black dude with a few visible tatts standing just a few feet behind her. What, did she expect that Rae was going to incite an outright riot against her? Of course now that she was thinking about it, Rae almost wish that she had planned that instead of what she had in mind.

Well, this would probably work better in the end anyway.

"What you are probably don't know is that we've got ourselves a guest of honor in the house tonight," Rae said gesturing towards the crowd. She raised a hand to shield her eyes leaning forward as if seeking through the crowd. As if she didn't already know exactly where said guest of honor happen to be. "We have none other than the face of the secret lands herself here in the audience my awesome Rae-nbows! That's right we have Mikki Dubois right here in our audience. They can we get some lights on this girl? Yeah, there she is sitting right there," as if the lights that Rae had arranged to point right on Mikki weren't enough, she pointed straight at the girl. Mikki for her part didn't even look all that surprised, giving a winning smile and waving towards the audience if she were in a parade.

"In fact, it's because of our guess that I'm wearing this particularly appealing outfit for you all day," drawled Rae gesturing towards her admittedly rather risqué outfit. Turns out that the only cheerleader uniform that dandy had on hand looked more like a sexy Halloween costume than as something an actual cheerleader would wear. Not that Rae didn't appreciate showing off her legs, but it did border on the obscene. Fortunately, her long torn stockings help with that. "We've got a song on hand just for our darling Mikki."

With that Rae raised her hand snapping her fingers. As she'd arranged, several of the fairies, mostly friends of Dandy or ex conquests of Rae herself, started filling out behind her. Drumbeat started kicking in with a severe percussion that made even Rae's blood pulse a little. It began kicking up more and more as Rae started swaying her hips the skirt flaring with each little movement. As if her movements weren't already a little flirty she added a few winks and one blown kiss that Mikki couldn't have mistaken for heading for anyone else.

Then Rae raised the microphone, letting out something that was yes, an actual giggle. Almost in time all the fairies behind her giggled as if they were in on the joke, because, y'know, they were. But Rae tilted her head giving an almost airy grin and she actually started to sing, "Oh Mikki, you're so fine; You're so fine you blow my mind, hey Mikki," the rocker gave another jaunty wink while her backup singers repeated the chant a few times. She started strutting her way around the stage, utterly owning it while several of the audience members began to clap along, the beat easy for an excited crowd to pick up.

"Oh Mikki, you're so fine; You're so fine you blow my mind, hey Mikki," she teased again, moving her hands toward her head while she tossed. Blonde and rainbow strands bobbed behind her, forming an almost halo while she started all but dancing around to the very much approved, and very old cover song. Hadn't even taken much research to find.

"You've been around all night and that's a little long" Rae almost drawled the lyrics, adding a bit of the teasing pop from the original while dragging her own sharper voice against the lyrics. At the next, she gave the coordinator a smirking look: "You think you've got the right but I think you've got it wrong," Rae practically slammed the last note, and her backups made a great pound of the drums to further emphasize. She swayed a hip in that direction before turning, "Why can't you say goodnight so you can take me home, Mikki?" Rae asked. She moved along the song from there, the usual lyrics intending for the singer to flirt with a guy.

Like that was hard to change.

The chorus in particular was just ever so much fun for teasing Rae to sing while bouncing in place, rainbow hair waving about her: "Oh Mikki, what a pity you don't understand; you take me by the heart when you take me by the hand. Oh Mikki, you're so pretty, can't you understand. It's girls like you Mikki, oh," and of course Rae had to make the noise almost sexual, bucking her body slightly, "Oh, what you do Mikki, do Mikki, Don't break my heart, Mikki!" she almost squealed the last, which had her fans going crazy.

Which, of course, had been Rae's point the whole time. She kept strutting around the stage, swaying her hips, truly getting into the music. The track was definitely old and more than a little lame, but something that she could easily put her hips and legs into. Rae had the moves to sauce the lyrics till she was practically making musical barbeque of the mouthwatering kind. And she kept right on going, blasting her way through the entire song, even as she saw Mikki sort of edging her way toward the exits. Rae followed her tormentor beat by beat, body swaying, making it abundantly clear precisely who she was singing and of.

Toward the end, Rae bounced on stage, arching and practically screaming the words. She couldn't quite help but let the performance wash over her, throwing her emotions into her revenge song. The totally "PG" lyrics had been warped, and the crowd was going absolutely wild. Best yet: even the kids and families couldn't help but get involved, even with all the fun little homosexual hints that Rae draped all over the song.

By the time she finished, Rae had actually built up a sweat, drawling the last "Don't break my heart, Mikki," before smirking, moving to take the mic. She'd pushed Mikki out of the area, so now it was time for her to finish her set proper. Time to really perform the way every Raelena St. John performance should go.

Rae realized only after the fact that maybe she over done it just a little. It was less in the immediate reaction or the fact that Mikki herself seemed put out, and more the fact that she got almost immediately overwhelmed when the set ended. Again, this was very much something that Rae not only expected but actually wanted. Part of the awesome part of being a musician, particularly one such as Rae, was getting all the attention afterwards. She loved hanging out with people who loved her music and just love music in general; not to mention this was prime opportunity to get a few people to kinda keep her company as it were.

But since she'd pretty much blasted a song that all but declared her eternal love from Mikki DuBois things got a little bit more personal than she normally liked afterwards. They swarmed her not only asking for audience her flirtations of the like, but asking a little bit more probing questions than Rae was comfortable answering.

"So how long have you in Mikki been a couple?"

"Is that why you decided to come perform at the Secret Lands for an entire year?"

"I hadn't even heard that Mikki is gay. Did you turn her gay?"

Then came the big one: "hey, I can't help but notice that Mikki is, like, an Indian or something. Was it your big girlfriend one you are on the show one of those?"

"You should try out for one of those reality singing shows," suggested Lucky. As was their usual the petite brown skinned girl had stretched out on the couch nestled within Rae's arms.

Rae raised a brow. "You're kidding right? Like, one of those shows where there's an annoying judge who tells you how awful you are every time? Where they spent half the show reminding you of your stupid back story about how you lost your dog, parent, truck all in one horrific accident?"

Lucky rolled her eyes, "Well, yeah, though I imagine yours is gonna be more about how you have this awesome girlfriend of color whose family took you in after yours decided they didn't want you parading your overwhelming gayness around the house."

As this always did it had the two of them chuckling. Of course, they both knew that things could have been significantly worse. Under different circumstances Lucky probably would've been the one tossed out, or disown at the very least. After all, most families weren't exactly thrilled to have someone like Rae brought home with all her rainbow colored hair and determination to be a "rock 'n roll star". Just at a glance one would assume that Rae was the one who was out proud with all the parental support, while the decidedly more conservative looking Lucky would probably be the dragged along girlfriend who'd only reluctantly left the closet.

The truth of the matter was that Rae had been out on her own for a good year or two, barely making it by through a combination of busking in regular gigs at coffee shops in small clubs and such. She managed to keep her guitar along with all the stuff she needed to keep it in good shape. Since she'd come out her parents had pretty much decided that if their adopted daughter was going to be a homosexual she could do it somewhere else. So, at the bold age of 16 she done precisely that.

Then she'd been playing at a club when she noticed a particularly appealing curvy young woman. By that point Rae had already got a little bit of a local reputation as someone who slept around at least a little bit. Not like a huge slut or anything like that but perhaps the next half step down. Which left her thinking that the buttoned up looking Indian girl was probably some bored, bicurious girl out for a quick fling to see if she was even interested.

So imagine Rae surprise when she sauntered up to the coffee bar to find an almost sinfully sweet coffee drink sitting in their next to the girl. Lucky had given Rae a smile, and patted the seat next to her. "Figured that you'd be coming over here for a drink, since you spent most of the last set staring at me and apparently trying to get into my pants to the sheer power of your music."

Rae took the offered seat, "but you can't really blame me. I mean have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? Leaving out the whole dressed like a soccer mom think you're pretty much everybody's idea of an exotic beauty."

It had of course been flirting, but Rae had actually meant every word. Lucky's dark brown hair had been twisted into a rather intricate style. One braid laced around her top almost like a hairband holding the rest of the strands back to fall around her shoulders. All of which frame the slightly rounded face due to a little bit extra weight. Yes, Lucky happened to be caring perhaps a few extra pounds but she carried it in the best way. It seemed to have settled around her hips and chest in a way that happen to drive Rae's eyes, and she knew she could be the only one looking. While she literally just teased Lucky about the clothes, they did accent the body fairly well. Most importantly there was a look in those chocolate eyes that seemed to look straight through Rae, something that usually made her uncomfortable, but here made her feel almost challenged.

"That's really the best you got, this definitely isn't going anywhere," said Lucky. "I did figure the least I could do is buy you a drink, since your show definitely was pretty good," she shifted slightly in her seat tilting her head to the side, "though felt like it was lacking a little something," she locked eyes with Rae, "you really need a band."

Rae shrugged, "yeah, I figured I could at least use the backing music. Kinda nice to not have to share the stage with anybody though. Me that on fighting went off when it comes to picking up chicks afterwards," she said with a flirty wink. She took a sip of the drink, utterly delighting in the sheer shock of sugar that hit her system. Lack of food meant this much sugar was sure to give her something of a rush.

"Yeah, but it would mean your music would be that much better. Something tells me that something you care about little bit more than chasing tail," said Lucky. She paused to consider for a moment before holding up her hand pointer and thumb only a short distance apart, "at least a little bit."

Rae smiled, "Wow, got me in one. I'm super impressed. You should take me now. Here on the floor of the coffee shop. In front of all these witnesses. Make me cry out in girlish joy for you. Inspire new songs!" Now Rae leaned forward actually setting her head on the other girl's shoulder.

"Yeah I've heard that one about how you have notches on the bed post," said Lucky shrugging her shoulder a few times to attempt to dislodge Rae, "rather not be just known as another notch."

"Ah, so you've heard my finest work," said Rae. "Clearly we've got a fan here."

"Of your music, yes. Of you," Lucky held up her hand wiggling it back and forth a few times.

Rae winced clutching her chest.

"Look, if you want to talk music, I'm definitely interested. However if you're just trying to get my pants," Lucky pointed nearby where there were several girls who are looking towards Rae with a mixture of embarrassment and open desire.

"You know if you're trying to make yourself less sexy, you're failing miserably" Rae teased, "And you know, if you don't swing that way you could just say so."

"Who said anything about not swinging that way? Just because you get a super sexy voice and love doesn't mean I'm just going to jump in with you from the first flirty words," said Lucky. "You have even asked my name yet."

By now Rae was too intrigued back down. "All right, I'll bite, what is your name?"

"Lucky Korrapati."

"You're joking right?"

Lucky shook her head, "No, that is actually my given name. I know Korrapati's a little weird, but it's a perfectly common name among my people." She smiled as she took a sip from her own much darker drink.

Rae couldn't help but start giggling. "Well, you already know my name," she tossed her hair behind her shoulders letting the various rainbow tips back against the small of her back, "Raelena St. John.

"Sin gin? And you said I made up my name? That's obviously what you use for performances right?"

Rae shook her head, "No, it's about the only thing I got my parents I prefer to keep. Well, besides my amazing good looks, but I'm at least responsible for half of this?" She gestured towards her body with the utmost confidence.

It had filled Rae with a good deal more confidence to watch Lucky's eyes traveled along the gestured path. The flirtations continued from there with the two of them continually growing upon one another and most obvious ways. The chemistry had an almost palpable sensation between the two of them. So by the end, when Lucky coyly suggested that Rae should at least buy her dinner (and Rae had hinted that unless Lucky wanted McDonald's it would be better if she paid), it had all been but been concluded that the two were about to start a decent relationship.

Fast-forward a little over a year, and here they were collapsed on Lucky's parents couch talking about reality music competitions.

"So basically, what you're saying is that you want me to sell out?" asked Rae, quirking a little smile as she did. She threaded her fingers through Lucky's giving her hand a quick little squeeze.

Lucky rolled her eyes, "It's less selling out and more actually making money for the music you're already producing. You know," she looked up to face Rae directly, "so we could actually move out of my parents' house sometime this decade."

"Why would we ever want to move out?" asked Rae. She gestured around her, "we could live in this palace for the rest of our natural lives."

"Oh yes, and have our parents walking on us anytime we try to do anything more than gently cuddle with one another," replied Lucky adding a little snort.

Rae tapped her girlfriend on the nose. "Did you notice that you said our? But yeah," she shifted slightly, "I can see why that would be something that we want to have sometime in the near future. I'm just not sure that my trying out for one of the stupid reality shows is really the way to do it," She looked down at Lucky, "you do realize that if we do this, you're going to end up going through the reality TV show wringer too? They're gonna want my hot Indian girlfriend plastered all over national television. Particularly since I have such a devastating story," she could help at the least a little bit of sarcasm in that last sentence.

Lucky batted at her girlfriends hand. "Yeah, and I'm the one suggesting it. So that's probably can end up in that package too. But let's face it, you got a voice that's made from winning stuff like this. Plus your totally out there personality," as Lucky said that she ran her hands through her girlfriend's hair obviously trying to add a little bit of a double entendre into the mix.

Rae chuckled, leaning down to lightly kiss Lucky. "All right all right if you insist. But you know I'm not gonna make it past the auditions."

Lucky tapped her girlfriend on the nose. "Good thing at least one of us has faith in your ability to do this."

If only Lucky knew.

Though was now occurring to Rae that having a traumatic flashback in the middle of being mobbed by a group of fans probably wasn't the best thing that could've happened to her. She'd seized up enough that some of them were almost actually pawing at her. She batted at their hands, but she didn't exactly want to hurt her fans. This went doubly since they'd helped make her little show for Mikki pull off so brilliantly.

It was just that the barrage of questions was making her remember how almost every barrage of questions went while she'd been on that show. And while she knew that she shouldn't attack her fans, and that at some level she really didn't want to, she couldn't quite help herself from feeling that rising panic inside. Her heart had started beating at a faster pace, her moves growing more and more erratic. Noises kept rising her throat that were quite forming screams, but only because she kept swallowing them before they could actually become fully formed. To Rae's growing consternation she could tell what was happening to her: she was having something akin to a panic attack.

It was only made worse by the fact that there were a few normal park goers who apparently weren't aware of just how homosexual Rae happened to be. So mixed among the crowd were couple of angry people making noises about how she shouldn't besmirch Mikki's pride or her honor or her chastity or her virtue or some such positive characteristic like that. It was all forming a toxic mental cocktail that was sure to have her twitching in moments.

It was then that she saw the massive form of Mikki's bodyguard parting the crowd. The large dude didn't exactly shove anyone to the side, but you kinda parted when someone that big went your way, particularly someone with that skin color and some ink on his thick arms. He turned to look over the crowd, and with a surprisingly soft voice said, "sorry folks, but Raelena is needed elsewhere."

With that he turned to Rae, nodding and extending in hand. The sudden intervention had stopped Rae's heart from fluttering completely, or at least buying her enough time to kinda put on the rest of her usual performance. With a smirk she bobbed her head towards him, walking past and flicking a few fingers almost dismissively towards him. "You heard the big hunk of chocolate, gotta be somewhere else my darling rae-nbows," she turned and wiggled a few fingers towards the crowd adding another few hip wiggles as she did the cheerleader skirt flaring a little bit with the motions.

Big guy kept taking Rae a little bit further. They moved away from the little auditorium area to a small circle of food stands. The smells made Rae a little queasy, but the people had thinned out to just your normal amusement park crowd. Taking a breath she looked up at the large guy. "This is the point when I call you my knight in shining armor or my superhero. You do look a little bit more like Black Panther than Captain America. Or, you know, like the muscles some gangster has to make the perp squeal. Like," she tapped the dude on a pretty impressive bicep, "these gun should require some sort of permit or something right? Plus you look like you spent the last several months pumping iron. Don't think I missed the ink either… that looks…"

As Rae squinted and leaned slightly, the guy shifted. His arms moved, but he mostly just… sort of shrugged, still not quite speaking more than he absolutely had to, or putting on an expression that differed from his own mild amusement.

"So, yeah, am I just supposed to attend a didn't see you guarding Mikki back there?" asked Rae jerking a thumb behind her.

"Wasn't doing that," said the dude. "Heard that you put on quite a show, and that you are supposed to put on a pretty impressive one. So, I figured I'd see with this one was. Recognized Mikki," he shrugged as if that was all the explanation he needed. Which Rae supposed did make at least a little bit of sense.

"Wow, that's an awesome cover story. How long did you and Mikki spend making that one up? I'm betting it took you at least a good 15 minutes."

The dude gave her a quirked eyebrow expressing more been used amusement with that little facial tick than Rae could've with three sentences.

"Whoa whoa," Rae held up both hands and backed up a step, "don't go overwhelmingly with the barrage of words there. Your spit and more fire than some rappers do."

To Rae's surprise and delight the guy actually cracked a smile at that one. Not a bad looking smile either really, though the guy wasn't too bad looking himself, you know, if you were into big muscular black dudes.

"I get it, I'm going to be the one doing most the talking here. So pretty much like my last four relationships," Rae raised her arms lacing her fingers behind her head. "I don't suppose I at least could hear a name or something? No wait," she lowered her arms, "let me guess," she stroked her chin looking up at the dude, "gotta be something big and impressive. Like… Tyrone," dude shook his head, "Jamal," another shake, "Elisha," another, "Ezekiel," there was another shake, "Abednego."

"Have you just drifted in the prophets from the Bible?"

"Do I look like I read the Bible?" Rae put her hands on her hips cocking them slightly.

The guy shook his head.

"Can I just get a name or my going to keep guessing for—"

"Kennedy."

Rae had to pause for a moment, not quite sure if the dude it just made some sort of verbal ticker was actually answering her question. She looked up at him, both brows raised slightly as she did.

"My name. It's Kennedy Cavan," he offered with a slight nod.

"Sounds Irish. Not that I'm one to judge, my names about a Scottish as it comes," Rae reached up and patted the dude on the shoulder bobbing her head a few times. "Well Kennedy it's nice to know that I've made a new fan and that were about to start a beautiful---"

"Not really a fan," he said which gave Rae pause. "Seems like you are setting out to humiliate Mikki for some reason. Your voice might be good, but your attitude sucks."

Rae stared up at him blinking a few more times. "Wait, so you came to hear my show, sat by Mikki for no apparent reason, said I have talent, protected me afterwards for a bunch of idiots. I'm allowed to call my fans that; they know I'm an idiot too. And now you're what, calling me out or something?"

Kennedy shrugged. "Seems like somebody has to. I don't know what's going on between you and Mikki, but it seems like you escalated it a few ticks too far."

"Hey, you don't know the whole story here. She was attempting to control my entire life. Tell me what I had to wear who I could hang out with like she was some kind of psychotic soccer mom."

"Or a boss at your place of employment."

Rae snorted. "I'm less employed here and more trapped. It's sort of like slave---" she stopped herself from finishing the word looking up at Kennedy as she did.

"Look, I'm not saying Mikki was in the right. Sounds like she crossed a line too. I'm just saying your retaliation was more than it should've been. And I helped you because you look like you are about to have a mental breakdown. I know the signs," Kennedy rolled his shoulders and looked around the park.

"Okay, well, I do have a tendency to overdo it a little I guess," admitted Rae. She smiled up at Kennedy, "you do have to admit it was one banger performance though."

She again saw the twitching at the end of Kennedy's lips. That of course made her hips wiggle and she threw an arm around Kennedy's shoulder, which was slightly awkward cuz even with Rae's impressive height Kennedy had a good few inches on her. "Like I was saying earlier Kennedy Cavan," she gave him a squeeze, "you and I are about to start on a beautiful friendship," she looked up at him giving him an almost mournful look, "so sorry it won't amount to anything more. You see, I have a secret to tell you," she stood up on her toes to whisper in his ear, "I am super gay."

And what looked to be despite himself, Kennedy started chuckling, letting Rae know that she had definitely chosen correctly in finding her first real friend at the park.