Quad core Snapdrake processor, lithium ion battery, boombeat audio, aluminum casiing with enamel details for optimal antenna performance... Jude wasn't sure what most of that meant, but damn was that phone sexy. And he wanted one like nobody's business.

The problem? It was not to be released in America except for testers until December. DEMEBER!

The solution? A couples contest put on by the manufacturers where the winners walked away with two functional phones.

That posed its own problem, of course. Svetty was off on one of her "errands" that he would not talk to him about. So, he probably shouldn't call her. The crowd was dense around the display on the street, though. There were plenty of people who wanted that phone with no one to sign up with them.

>> "Last call for participants," the man with the microphone announced to the crowd, "if you want this phone, this is your last chance before December."

In a blind panic, Jude grabbed the hand of the person standing next to him and raised their joined hands. "We volunteer!"

>> "Yes, the couple in the back! Make some space, guys." The man with the mike turned to Jude and Jude in turn turned to his brand new honeybu- oh. Oh dear.

"Ahem. Come on, sweety." He tried for a smile that said please don't kill me.

Persi had no idea what the phone's features were. He also didn't care; he had a phone. Well, not one that worked, but that was just an issue of lacking a power cord to charge it with. Frankly, he didn't need a phone either; he'd prefer a camera, really, since that was all he'd use a phone for at this point, and an actual camera would be better.

He hadn't even known phones were involved at all when he stopped; he'd just seen the crowd and paused to see what was going on. Once he figured it out (sort of, there was a phone, and people were competing to get it, somehow), he stayed to watch the spectacle. And within a minute, was wincing at the yell in his ear as something pulled on his arm. Something stronger than him; Persi followed.

It took a second to sort out what had just happened. When he did, he jumped to catch up to the--yeah, that was a guy--who'd grabbed him. A significantly older guy, on that note. "What the hell are you doing?" Persi had not known he could hiss that well.

It did not seem to make a difference, though, since they were still moving toward the stage. Persi went along without any visible resistance, it clearly wasn't going to make any difference. Nor was there visible sulking; confusion, surprise and annoyance occupied all the room there was in his expression.

What was he doing? Apparently getting himself set up for some kind of charges. Of course, was it illegal for a 13 year old to date a... whatever this kid was? Probably. But no one seemed to be asking questions just yet. Maybe it was the kid's silly hair.

Bonus. Jude seemed to be stronger than the kid.

He dragged them both on stage for introductions that started on the other end of the platform.

"Hi my name is Joan and this is Mark."

Jude ignored everything but the guy for a moment. "Hey, I'm sorry, but I really want zis phone. If we win you get one too. Or I could buy it from you. Please? Just... play along? For now?" Please, please, please, please?

The man moved through the couples and then it was their turn to introduce themselves, starting with Jude's new friend.

He was on a stage. Why was he on a stage? Persi had no particular affection for stages. He didn't have anything against them, either, but it wasn't a place that he ever expected to find himself. Especially not one surrounded by people and set up in a random city park. Why was he on a stage?

Oh, right. Because a crazy guy had dragged him onto it, and was still holding him. That was why. He eyed the guy, then gave up, shook his head and rolled his eyes. If he was going to do this, he was at least not going to obviously be faking. "Fine, now quit crushing my arm." Which might be a bit of an exaggeration, but still, it didn't look very coupleish.

Why was Persi pretending to be part of a couple? He was way too young for this. Well, apparently he'd be pretending he was older than he looked....

And there was a microphone. Persi gave it a second's worth of a look that was still questioning what he was doing here and why, then gave the guy a pointed you-owe-me look and answered. "I'm Alex."

If he was going to lie anyway, why not lie about everything?

Jude saw the exact moment when his new bestest friend in the whole world caved in. Jude nodded. Yes! Jude would owe him big time.

>>"It's nice to meet you, Alex and your boyfriend?"

Jude tried so hard not to twitch. Technically he had nothing against having a boyfriend, he just had never found a boy worth befriending like that. He smiled instead in a syrupy smile that drew the announcer in like a fly. "Jude."

>>"Alex and Jude, everyone! These are our contestants. Give 'em a round of applause." A poor smattering of applause for the unknown people on stage heralded the announcer's relocation to front and center stage.

>>"As you know, the R.A.P. Boss® is a phone for music lovers. Our contestants today will have to pick a song to perform. We'll be filming each couple and the best will have a chance to star in our national commercial. Sound like fun?"

The applause was a little more believable this time, especially since guys in black "STAFF" tee shirts were wheeling large speakers, an electric keyboard and other instruments on stage.

Mmm. Singing? Jude leaned forward to look over the other couples on stage. He did not feel exceptionally strong as a singer in front of people. In the shower? Yeah. He rocked it out, but this was different.

>>"And, to make sure you guys do a great job, we've invited the band OK Win!"

What!? Jude swiveled his head around and, sure enough, he recognized the quirky band that had reached stardom thanks to their ViewTube music videos.

This time the crowd went bonkers.

Boyfriend. Eeeeew. Persi thought he did fairly well keeping that expression off of his face. Why did everyone think he was old enough to be a boyfriend? Maybe he really did look older than he was.

Aaand crazy guy's name was Jude. That was... not the name Persi would connect to someone who looked like they belonged in the background of some sort of advertisement for office work, but whatever. Those advertisements tended to go for quirky anyway. He caught Jude's expression, and smiled at the crowd too. At least they seemed not to actually care that much, maybe he could get out of this without...

...Okay, so it was clearly too late to involve an attack on Persi's sanity. Maybe he could get out of this without too much humiliation, at least.

No, really, Persi didn't know the phone was for music lovers. He barely knew it was a phone. Apparently he was supposed to know, though. And supposed to sing. There went the chance of no humiliation. Not that Persi was a terrible singer, he'd sung some when Irri needed singing for his music and he wasn't that bad, but he wasn't anything like extraordinary either. Also, that whole learning to sing a song. An entire song.

...Well, half of a song. Crazy guy and all. Still.

Now, the band Persi recognized. He wasn't that big a fan of them, but he did know them, and didn't really have any objections to them, so that was good. The resulting cheer was less good, and Persi covered his ears with his hands. His sanity was being assaulted anyway; his hearing did not need to be.

All of the contestants except the first couple (Persi kind of felt sorry for them, but not really) were shooed behind the stage to pick songs, while someone else brought a list over to the first couple for them to pick from. Persi took advantage of the time out of anyone's attention to hiss at Jude again. "You so owe me for this."

Yes, yes. Jude owed him. He waved the notion off because right now they had a song to pick out.

Jude flipped through the pages for something well known and remember-able. "Rick Astley?" Too obvious. Uhhh... "Queen? Cash? Zes guys know how to play a lot of songs." Or maybe it was the musician's equivalent to being dubbed and they just played the music out of the speakers?

The lyrics were printed clearly between lines of music of which Jude only had a beginner piano student's understanding. "What do you know? What do you like?" This would have been easier if they really had been a couple.

The first couple's song was starting. Celine Dion? Mariah Carey? Jude always got those two confused, but it was one of them. Bold choice. They had to have a great female singer to pull that one off.

Jude watched his new pal Alex read through the list. He wasn't running. He had the chance to out Jude for dragging him into this in front of the crowd and he hadn't. Jude was going to have to like give him his first born or something.

"Next!" The next couple tried to look cool as they turned in their song choice, but Jude at least could feel their nervousness. Not too long now.

And the reminder was waved off. That figured; of course the guy wouldn't actually pay attention. Oh well; Persi could focus on making that clear after they humiliated themselves. He sighed and looked at the list. "Why not pick one of OK Win's? I doubt anyone else will. And unless you're a really good singer, we're going to be embarrassing ourselves anyway." So their only chance to win would be to embarrass themselves even more than everyone else did.

The first couple... did not have as good a singer as they needed. Not a terrible one, but not the best. Which probably gave them a better chance.

...They had better win. Persi was not embarrassing himself that much for no reason.

The second couple did have a good singer. They also had a singer who might be good, but couldn't seem to remember the words. Persi glanced back at Jude. "Let's not pick something we'll forget, anyway."

Hm. The idea had merit. "Okay. Zis one. You know zis one?" Jude pointed. It had to work. Beneath the Stars was their greatest hit. Everybody knew it. Everybody.

Plus is had the fortunate dynamic of stanzas sung in answer to other stanzas so they could split it up like they were singing to each other and then do the chorus together. "I like zis part, can I sing zat?" They conferred for a bit, it was actually good that they were last to go up.

By the time they were done, the third couple came off stage and the fourth went on. Only one more before they went.

"Should we practice or somesing? Jazz hands maybe?" It was a joke! Really!

Jude handed in their song and then there was nothing left to do but wait. He tapped his foot in time with the song they were currently enduring. Ugh. Country.

And then it was over.

"You ready?" He offered his hand to the other boy. Err, man. Not that he had to hold it or anything, but it was a love song.

"Everyone knows that one." Mostly for being so sappy everyone started giggling upon hearing it, but everyone knew it. And the lyrics were a conversation, which would be much easier than trying to turn a regular song for one person into one for two.... "Sure." Jude could sing whatever part he wanted. It wasn't like one was less embarrassing than the other.

Persi stared at the jazz hands suggestion. Then blinked, looked down at what they were singing, and shrugged. "Sure. It's not like we can be more embarrassed. Basically the only chance we have to win is to be so shameless they forget everyone else, anyway." Put into that context, jazz hands actually sounded kind of restrained. "Can you think of anything more ridiculous?" Persi generally tried to not draw attention or publicly embarrass himself, but considering Jude was willing to drag someone completely random and possibly half his age onto a stage and claim to date them, Persi was guessing Jude was a lot more shameless than he was.

The offered hand got a similar response. Persi stared, then sighed and took it. He couldn't be more embarrassed....

...You know, except when a few minutes later they were on the stage, and people were staring at him. That was a bit embarrassing. Whatever, though; it didn't matter. He didn't know any of them, and they didn't matter. He repeated that to himself while the song started. And, because why not at this point, leaned toward Jude when he started singing. "Beneath the stars, the world has changed, but in the sky, it's still the same. Ages come, they pass and die, but we're all beneath the same dark sky."

Could he think of anything more ridiculous? "Can you tango?" Jude could. Well, at least, he knew the basics and a few flairs to throw in to keep things interesting.

Hand in hand they walked into the lime light. With Persi in tow, Jude stopped to shake the hands of the band before they went up to the microphone. The band's singer, who was playing back up singer for the contest, was a mutant. Jude took a chance and copied his ability without knowing what it was or what it did. Hey. It had to be better than super speed. That wasn't going to get Jude anything in a singing contest.

>> "Alex and Jude will be singing Beneath the Stars"

The man passed a cordless microphone to each of them in turn and then turned to the band to cue them.

1, 2, 3, 4!

The band started playing with more life than most of the other songs Jude had heard. Maybe it was the speakers and being up on stage, or maybe it was the fact that it was their own song. Persi had given some great advice either way. It sounded great.

"Sweetness, sweetness never suited me,
Somethings never change,
Did I ever tell you when you met me,
I thought maybe it's love,
Love at first slightly drunk"

Jude started the song off strong. His vocals were clearly not professional, but he was putting his heart into it. Also it was fun, being up here and having all that attention. He could almost feel the eyes on him, feel it ramping up his energy.

The power copier pulled Alex into a twirl that ended in a half-dip that left the two boys close together and set up for a sensuous tango during Alex's verse. Jude would try to keep the maneuvers light to help his pal focus. He would only have them open up to the audience so they could see them better.

That was… not what Persi had been thinking of when he asked about something ridiculous, but he could work with that. Maybe. “Uh… I might, but not very well….” He’d had to learn for a gym class, once, a few years ago, and not thought about it since. Apparently that was what they were doing, though; it probably wouldn’t matter, since it wasn’t really like they were aiming to look professional anyway… hopefully it wouldn’t matter.

Shaking the band’s hands wasn’t something Persi had thought of. So that was convenient that Jude pulled him over in time; it would have been awkward if he’d ignored them.

The people watching… weren’t cheering like it was a famous band’s long-awaited concert, but then, Persi and Jude weren’t famous, a band, or long awaited. So that wasn’t really a surprise. They did seem to be having fun, even if a lot of it was in the form of amusement. So… that was about as good as Persi thought was realistic.

It was fortunate that the song was structured so easily; the first verse went well, though Persi wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as Jude, and he remembered to shut up for Jude’s verse, and then sing the chorus. That he had no trouble with, except that he was beginning to have to resist the urge to laugh; the chorus was catchy, and most of why people liked the song. So remembering that was no--wait what that was close. Persi had kind of forgotten that about tangoing. Tangoes. Whatever. Jude got a shocked look, then Persi closed his eyes to cover it and focus on singing the next verse. “Sparks have set the clouds alight, caught the dark and turned it bright. Glowing gold and diamond sky, make a wish, I think we’ll fly.

And it was Jude’s turn again. Persi was torn between surprised he’d survived this long, and shocked that he was starting to kind of enjoy it. He didn’t remember having a bunch of people staring at him and having it be a good thing before. It was a lot more fun than he’d have guessed.

Okay. So tango was meant to be smooth and sensuous and all they were really pulling off was something like maybe they didn't hate each other. Well, it was too late to stop that now. It was time to just roll with it to the end.

Or at least until the chorus. Jude lifted Alex (well, only a little Jude wasn't all that strong) and then let him slide down in his arms so they were even closer and could share a mic for the chorus.

"Beneaths ze stars!" He belted out the chorus like he would in the shower with no regrets and no heed for the crowd. He had eyes only for Alex.
"In ze moonlight,
We were laughing hard and fighting 'til it feeeeeelt right.
Looking around,
Instead of above,
You're my shining star, my best friend and my fiiiiiiirst love."

There was a short instrumental bridge where Jude let some space between the two of them again after a turn and another dip. He was totally caught up in it. Perhaps he should have been a rock star.

A verse for Jude, another for Alex. Truth be told, Jude couldn't remember singing any of that, but they did. Before he realized it, the end of the song had arrived and he was totally energized from what they had just experienced.

The music started to fade and the crowd began to cheer. Jude dropped the mic with an audible thunk sounding through thsoe fancy speakers and grabbed Alex's face between his hands and swung him around in a deep dip.

His thumb covered the other boy's lips so they weren't actually kissing, but no one more than 3 feet away should be able to tell.

The crowd went berserk. In a good way, Jude hoped.

Wait wait wait. What? Tangoing. Tangos. Whatever. And chorus and personal bubble please, thank you, Persi appreciated having that. And yet, as much as the back of his mind freaked out and lost language for how weird and unexpected and what did he just do?! this all was, Persi was still going along with it. Automatically, sure, so he wasn't doing the best impression of enthusiasm ever, but he wasn't doing bad. And somewhere between the back of his mind that was freaking out and the front that was going along with it, then middle started laughing. Chorus, verse, Jude's verse, chorus, chorus, end--

And they were done, except technically for a little bit of music that went longer at the end of the song than the singing did. Persi thought he remembered they were going to do jazz hands. Apparently, Jude disagreed. Persi's startled squeak was caught by the microphone before it followed Jude's to the floor.

What? Just--even the back of Persi's mind had blanked entirely at this, and he stared at Jude, too shocked to react to the fake kiss. It took several seconds for the cheering to filter through.

...Oh. Apparently it had worked. Or something had.

Persi was still dazed from shock when he got to stand up again, but managed a hesitant wave (and a blush he was entirely unaware of) to the crowd before grabbing Jude and fleeing the stage as soon as he possibly could.

...Oh. Slight problem with being off stage, now. What exactly did you say to a fake boyfriend you fake kissed who was possibly twice your age, and who there was a slight chance of winning a phone and being made into a commercial with? If there was an answer, Persi certainly wasn't finding it.

Ehehe. Jude let Alex pull him off stage to a chorus of 'Awwww's from a couple of girls in the area nearest the stage. Apparently they had seen Alex's pink cheeks and mildly panic at the PDA. Better than that, they had seen it and loved it. Ehehehehe.

"I sink we 'ave a chance!" Jude was practically giddy. Technically he whispered, but it was more like a stage whisper which was a little louder than talking.

The announcer collected all the participants and had them sign some quick paperwork allowing the release of any footage they shot today and then it was time to parade out on stage again. Jude and Alex went last so they were last on stage.

Was it Jude's imagination or did he notice the crowd's cheering get sliiiiiiightly louder as they came on stage?

>> "And now, to announce the winner of two new R.A.P. Boss® phones and the feature in our National commercial..."

Drum roll.

Jude squeezed Alex's hand in his.

Was it them? It was totally them. What if it wasn't them!?