Chapter Text
Douxie and Krel soon made it to the concert area, where people were still rearranging the props, lights, speakers, amps, and various more things that would be on stage for tonight. Krel hopped out first of the motorcycle, followed by Douxie who is parking it beside more motorcycles. They eventually got to the stage area, where someone of a familiar voice was calling the wizard, “Hey Doux!” He was greeted by non-other than his friend Zoe, she walked over to him as they shared a fist bump together, “so glad to see you come here to help us out”.
“And miss out the set up and the free seats front… wouldn’t miss it for the world”, Douxie respond as a chuckle escapes his mouth as he said that.
She looked over to Krel as curiosity fills her up to the brim, “And who’s he?” she asks as she pointed over Krel.
Douxie soon looked over on his companion by his side, he slid his arm around Krel’s shoulders patting it gently. With his signature sly smile he said, “This is Krel Tarron… he’s the roommate I told you about…”.
“Wait really now…?” she responds as she observes him more, which her expression changes to a gentle and friendly vibe, “well then pleased to meet you… the name’s Zoe, and any friend of Doux here is a friend of ours…” she finished it by extending her hand to him.
‘Was that how I introduced myself to him? Good Lord what a cringy move from me’.
Krel accepted the hand as she shook it, a small smile was plastered on his face “… a pleasure to meet one of Douxie’s friends”, he said with a joyful tone in him.
Zoe soon turned to me, still held onto Krel’s hands. “Why didn’t you tell me that this guy was your roommate, we could’ve had a drink fest together at the apartment…”.
If only she knew about the Argathon that is living with him in the apartment, who is getting an uno game with his familiar. If only she knew that his roommate is an extraterrestrial royalty from somewhere far from here, who ran away just like Douxie and some of the population of wizards also.
Douxie snapped back to reality and respond to Zoe, “… yeah uh, he’s quite underage to drink alcohol…”.
“Oh really…?” Zoe spoke with a disappointing tone in her voice, “… well that’s alright, I guess”.
Douxie lets out a relieving sigh, but as soon he lets go of Krel’s shoulders, he started wandering around the stage area, Douxie following behind him bolting to him. He manages to catch up to him up on the stage all of a sudden, Krel squatted down to a speaker. He looked over to Douxie and pointed at it, “Douxie, what is this…?” he asked.
“That’s a speaker…” he replied as he also squatting down to his level, “… it’s a device where you plug in something with music, to boost the volume in it, that way everyone can hear the music even on the back of the crowd”.
“Only this speaker has been broken due to Clay’s guitar solo at San Francisco 2 months…”, a feminine voice can be heard at the lower part of the stage, carrying a box full of wires. She had a pretty tanned skin but not too tanned, looking like Krel’s tone, but a little lighter, which she had black hair with green fades to her ends, gray eyes with heavy mascara, and a pink tee with white and black sleeves to her top, and a mini skirt with high boots. “Honestly… does he think that this speaker is made of money, that he could just break it”, she started complaining.
“Oh, you know him, Megan…” Douxie spoke as the girl or Megan, looked up at him “… he’s just full of his own pride”.
Megan just scoffed at that, putting the box down, “Well then, he might as well drown in his own pride then to damage the speaker that is pretty expensive to buy”.
Then all of a sudden, music was now being played. Everyone turned to the sudden music’s source, so did Megan and Douxie. To both of their surprise, the once broken speaker was now playing music, Douxie knows who did that. Krel. “There you are, your once broken speaker, is now fixed”, Krel said as he stands up and grabbing his phone back to which what the music came from.
Douxie just chuckled at him, amused about his talent to fix things that are, somehow, beyond repair. Douxie walked to him as he slinged his arm around his neck, “oh you never ceased to surprise me, Krel”.
A lot of Douxie’s friends came up to the once broken speaker, inspecting the speaker more further. And they were so shocked that a 14-year-old, or so Douxie thinks he’s 14, would fix a speaker that was beyond repair for 2 months.
Then Zoe stepped toward the Latino, maybe asking him how in Merlin’s name did he fixed that. “…How did… how did you fixed that?” she asked.
‘Called it’.
“It wasn’t difficult to repair that, since it was just child’s play to fix a snapped wire and coil…” Krel respond he explained how he fixed that, “… and that’s nothing compared to Douxie’s motorcycle, just a readjustment to the connectors of his cycle, and it was better than before”.
They all looked over to Douxie, disbelief in their faces, to which he shrugs, “…it’s true, he really did fix my motorcycle”.
Zoe was somehow speechless as she pushed her neon pink hair back for while, “Wow… like, never thought that someone so young would know engineering” she said. She then leaned in to Douxie with some pleading eyes, “hey Doux… could you perhaps, convince your friend here to like, oh I don’t know, help out with some repairs on some broken amps, lights, wires, and maybe that smoke machine”.
Douxie, who would accept it immediately, thought of a prize for Krel’s help, or else he would complain him about not getting anything about this. He looked back at Zoe, who had a grin on her face, and finally said “… Sure, but in return you give me and him payment, let’s say; $60 for repairs”.
Her grin soon faded, and her eyes now with an ‘are you serious’ expression, “how about this; I’ll tell Cassandra, Emery, and Aria to give you and your friend tickets to the concert with backstage passes, which are more valuable than just $60 for payment…”.
‘You pay a hard bargain’ he thought, he stayed quiet for a while, until he catches Krel’s attention. He might as well consult this with him since he will do must of the work here, he gestured him to come to him, as Krel did so, Douxie pulled him far from Zoe.
He formed themselves into a huddle, basically just placed his hands on his shoulders. “What is it, Douxie?” he questioned.
“So, uh… Zoe and I had an agreement to, if you could fix some broken stage equipment, and in exchange she will provide us some tickets to the show, with backstage passes for us to go backstage to meet the band members…” Douxie said as the air felt silent for a second.
Then Krel had that expression on him that makes him want to crawl into a cave and die alone for this agreement, “you have to be joking with me”.
“I-I’m only doing this one time only, I swear to Mordax himself”.
He glared back to him, like shoot fire at his eyes directly, then it eased down letting him go from their huddle. “Okay, I will do this…” he said as he paused for a while, “…but in return of this, you will buy me desserts from Runaway’s Coven for a wardon”.
‘Oh you also pay a hard bargain’. Douxie just raised his hands for surrendering, ‘cuz there is no way he would ask for anything else than the desserts in Runaway’s Coven, “Alright, deal”, they both shake each other’s hands. Krel had his victory smile on and went to Zoe.
As he was about to catch up on Krel and Zoe, he somewhat got this feeling again with Flinge, the feeling that someone is spying on you right now, creeping somewhere at this very moment. Since he knows that this Morando guy is looking for Krel, taking his core or something, he knows that Krel is in danger 24/7. So he might as well try to protect him at any cost, he was about to scan around the place until a hand was gripping unto this wrist.
He turned around to see Krel, which it got him to return him to earth right now. “Douxie… are you alright?” he asked “… I have been calling you a sekton ago, are you sure you want this offer?”.
Douxie blinked rapidly to feel Krel’s skin on his, he immediately blushed slightly, then Krel realized what he was doing at he also blushed slightly too. They both into an awkward situation as Krel lets go of Douxie’s, and Douxie’s feeling was being replaced by this feeling that he doesn’t know what it is. “Uh… yeah, and yeah I agree with the offer… I guess my mind was just in the clouds for a while”, he responded as he eased up a bit and his blushing slightly faded a bit.
Krel then smiled a bit, as his blue hue slowly faded as well, they stayed silent for a while until he broke the silence. “Well then… I have started with this ‘amp’ thing, and Zoe said that I should do next to fix is this thing called a ‘smoke machine’, whatever that is…”.
They soon proceeded back to where they soon meet the amp, the amp was so busted and rusty even. Guessing that this thing hasn’t been used for so many years, then a familiar face soon appeared in front of them. They had a unique feature on them, an African-American man appear with very long dark brown hair into braids, half cut to be precise, eyes with two different colors on each one, the right with a brown eye and in the left a white eye. They wore a jean-like jacket with sleeves that were chopped out to reveal his muscular arms with an eagle tattoo, with a brown-red shade pants that were tattered to the knee, and finishing it up with shoes with some chains to the ankle to the heel part.
“Yikes, that might’ve been my fault…” he reclaimed as an expression that had some guilt in it.
“Wait… you did this? Mason what did you do to this?”, Douxie spoke as the man, or Mason, rubbed the back of his neck.
He finally surrendered himself, and spoke “…I spilled some diet coke on the amp when it was band practice, and it didn’t operate normally ever since…”.
“How did it operated when you spilled diet coke”, Krel joined in as he looked at Mason.
“Well… whenever the sound needed to boost up, it got frizzy and sparks were now flying out of it…”, he said.
Krel then kneeled down to the amp, he pried it open as Douxie kneeled down to see the inside, it was all rusty inside and had dried puddles, probably from that diet coke Mason was telling them about, and by the looks of it the wires got chewed up and fell apart. “And I still haven’t told anyone that it was my fault, and blamed it on some kids that were trouble-makers…” he said after he covered his face with his pair of hands, “…ugh, I’m supposed to be the one who is honest to things, not blaming it on kids that didn’t do anything”.
Krel and Douxie retracted back up from the rusted amp, Douxie step forward to Mason and placed his hand to his shoulders gently patting him, “it’s all cool Mason…” Douxie spoke with a tone of comfort to him, which he lifted his face up to meet his gaze, despite the high difference between him and Mason (Douxie was the tallest… shocker I know), “…because you’re in luck here, my other companion here can fix this amp in no time”.
“I think it might need to be cleaned first… oh Douxie!”, Krel called out to him as he came to him, with Mason on tow. “Could you clean this for me, because I cannot be sure as to where the nearest faucet is here…” he finished it of with a grin he is all too familiar about.
‘Ooh you are a cheeky buttsnack’.
“I could clean it up for you…” Mason said as his face lit up a bit “…I mean, it’s the least I could do for busting this thing for years”.
“And how many years?” Krel asked.
“About twelve years or so”.
The two were silent from that comment, after that Mason brought the amp to a faucet near the stage. Douxie just sat at the edge of the stage, and so Krel. Both sat beside each other, watching the sky turning to different shades of oranges and reds. “Wish this had the same view like the flower cliff we been to”, Krel said, eyes still up in the sky.
Douxie chuckles to what Krel said, “…well, without Flinge to bomb the whole cliff, it would’ve”.
To what Douxie said, the two started laughing. Which made him got a fuzzy feeling on his stomach whenever he gets to hear Krel laugh, or makes him laugh. The laughing session soon pasted and been replaced with a growling noise, Krel’s growling noise. “Woah… didn’t I give you lunch earlier?”, Douxie asked.
Krel soon held his stomach with a hand, with a confusing look “…I could have sworn that I have been eating properly earlier”, then another second later and the growling came back again. “Is there something wrong with me all of the sudden?!”.
At the corner of Douxie’s eyes, he spots a taco truck the was serving one of his friends also. He then turned back to Krel, “Maybe a quick snack is just something you need”, he suggested “…I’ll buy you something, maybe that will quiet down your stomach”.
Douxie soon walked towards the truck, and was greeted by a guy who was stubby and looked like he hasn’t shaved for a long time, he just had a shirt with stains on it, with a bath robe at it. “Hello mate, welcome to Stuart’s Taco Truck, the only taco truck in Arcadia”, he spoke with his Australian or New Zealand accent. “So what will it be for you, mate?” he asked as he leaned over to Douxie at the window.
He thought of what would be best for someone who hasn’t tried all the food on Earth, well he might as well try something old but classic. “I’ll have one Bean and Cheese, and one El Diablo”. ‘I swear to Mordax, Krel will kill for this’.
“You got it, mate!” he then retreated back inside on making the burritos.
The clattering of a lot of silverware, the sizzle inside that he doesn’t want to guess, and the humming inside following a rhythm that he couldn’t follow. He just stood there as he looked over to the stage area, where Krel was sitting there as he looks over the view he is having. Seeing him being eased from where he sat, still got him that same fuzzy feeling. Whenever he ever sees his face, or anything he does, a tint of pink could slightly be there on his face, and a smile would be on his face.
“Here you are, mate…” he man inside the truck said, which made Douxie a bit startled “…one beans and cheese, and one El Diablo”. Douxie then stuffed his hand around his pocket to see if he had any spare change on him, and lucky for him he has. Douxie handed him $13 and exchanges with a bag of burritos, thanks him, and walks towards the stage area with a visible cheeky grin. Sure enough, Krel is really gonna kill him for this.
Just as Douxie walks over to the stage, he suddenly hears a snap of something. It felt like time was much slower than before, the bar lights fell down towards the stage. Towards Krel. In an instinct of Douxie, he dropped the bag of burritos on the grassy floor, reaches out to his enchanted bracer, and said the incantation “Flastidious!” and his speed soon increased in a second. He swooped in through people and finally made it to the stage, he sprinted even more as he tackled Krel out of the way, tucking his head on his chest and arms when they both landed on the same grassy floor and rolled for a while. As time soon went back to normal, a loud crash followed along, a lot of people were now gathering around the stage.
Douxie and Krel soon got up from where they landed, shocking eyes darted at the stage and the broken bar lights were all scattered and broken. Krel breathing quite fast for Douxie’s pace, bullets of sweat formed at the top of both their heads. All he wanted was to say if Krel was alright, but it looks like he got to it first, “Douxie, are you alright!”.
He just went silent for a while, blinked continuously before responding “…Hey! I should be the one asking you that question!!”.
As they both got up, dusted themselves off, and was soon approached by Zoe who dashed all the way to the storage area from them. “Hey, you two!” she exclaimed as she ran towards them. She soon stopped right after she catch her breath, “…you guys alright?”.
“Yeah, we’re fine…”, Douxie respond back at her. He looked at the stage with a bar lights again, then back to Zoe, “It’s all good Zoe, we’re fine”.
She managed to breath properly now, wiping the sweat away from her head “…Well then, how about we continue the repairs when this is all cleaned up, here I’ll give you my number, Krel”. She then took out her phone out, typing something and asked Krel for his phone, for them to exchanged their number.
As they finished with that, Douxie walked towards the burritos then picked the two up, and good thing it was wrapped in foil before they were given to him. His gut feeling still got stronger, maybe someone purposely cut the bar lights and made it fall towards Krel’s direction, he doesn’t need to worry too much since that would make Krel more worried than him. He walked towards the smiling Latino as he held the phone, “…Douxie, could I really exchange cellphone numbers with anyone?”.
“Yeah, you can...” Douxie replied, “It can be someone that you want to talk to everyday”.
Krel just responded with an ‘ooh’ and nothing more, as they got to the parking lot with helmets in tow, Douxie kinda forgot about the burritos. “Oh and here are the burritos, almost forgot about it”, he reached in the bag and grabbed the El Diablo one.
They both got on the motorcycle, keys jammed in, helmets on, and the sound of unwrapped foil.
... “AAAAAAAH IT’S BURNING IN MY MOUTH!!!”
To be continued…