Elke lifted a dark, thick brow at the offered hand. She might not have ever been to a show like this before but she was still clued in enough to know that this wasn't the type of place you just danced. She looked away without comment, toward the front of the show area where people were forming a very small whirlpool of bodies.

The song shifted to a cover from another more popular band. Ignoring the offered hand Elke left her spot against the pole and shoulder shoved her way toward the forming moshpit.

She was going to absolutely enjoy turning the night around by showing some wanna-be punks how it's done. She turned not too far away from Xavier, grinning widely and eyes promising nothing but trouble.

"C'mon you big dork!"

She... Let his hand linger there. He looked down to his hand, and looked up to her, and awkwardly lowered it to his side, looking down at the ground for a moment. Wow... So... Like. She really didn't like him, huh? He tried not to wallow too much, looking up at the band to watch his best friend play.

He paused as he saw her step away out of the corner of his eye, and looked up to her speaking to him.


A smile formed as he realised that this was going to be trouble. Still... It wasn't like he didn't know what he was getting into, inviting his dangerous girlfriend to a room full of people being physical. He jumped into the crowd with her, focused mainly on preventing her from hurting anyone too badly as the room started to get more kinetic.

She was already a few songs in before the lights and her coat started to get to her. No one had warned her that wearing full sleeves and pants could get a little hot.. but oh boy was she! She could feel sweat starting to form on her face, and reminded herself to shed the blazer in between songs.

Aside from that things were going really well! Well, she thought, anyway. Nobody had booed at them yet, not that she had expected that to happen... but Xander and Leena had both warned her separately that the last backup singer had been a fan favorite, so unti she had settled in and proven herself she was probably going to be the target of some hate. Juniper didn't mind, perse, but the notion did make her feel a little nervous.

They ended one song and paused briefly to change instruments, get water, and Xander riled up the crowd some more with his apparent charm. Man, girls really seemed to love him! It didn't upset her or anything, he'd always had that character from what she could tell. And he was in a wildly popular band with a small cult following, so... there was that as well.

She slid her coat off and kicked it off to the side, left in the full black bodysuit with painted bones. It was immediately cooler, and that was a relief, but she went an extra step by messily tying her hair back at the nape of her neck. The last thing she wanted was face paint leaking into her eyes.

Xander started up the next song slowly, The Hearse song, which had been tossed in with a few others to break up the tension that some of their set had.

She plucked away as a backup tune while seeking out her tall blond fried in the crows below. What did he think? She had to admit to herself that she was a bit nervous about how he would take a lot of the songs Xander chose. They got pretty dark in some places.

She locked eyes on him just about the same time his terrifying girlfriend full-body hefted a much smaller male from the crowd up over her head and proceeded to toss him out to any waiting hands. Jesus @#$%in christ, dude...

She'd seen videos of mosh pits. Some were a bit tamer than others, but the general theme always seemed to revolve around rocketing yourself in a circle and trying to deal out as much damage as you would without explicitly punching anyone. Elbows, knees, feet... they all seemed to come into play at some point, and while she wasn't a fan of the weird flailing of limbs some people were doing, she was having a blast just checking people as hard as possible as she passed.

Some didn't seem to like it, some came back and tried to one-up her efforts. She liked the people who came back.

Currently, she was up against a much scrawnier guy who was a fan of flailing his feet around and trying to high kick people. It was funny looking, but she could kick higher. That standoff ended quickly when he stumbled away holding his jaw and looking rightly dazed.

She could spot Xavier now and then trailing after, occasionally yanking people out of the way of her flying elbows or saving them from being fully shivered under the trampling circle of death. Since she'd joined the intensity of the pit had grown to the point where it wasn't even trying to match up to the beat of the music anymore. It was a wild thing all on its own.

Someone tried to bowl her over with a shoulder from the side, but she got her feet set and locked up against him. He was decent sized, but not nearly as muscular as she was. The Amazing Amazon snagged the collar of his loose shirt, leaned down and in so that she could wrap an arm around his leg, and then lifted him up and onto her shoulders like she was a freshly slaughtered deer.

"Holy sh-!" Apparently that had never happened to him before based on him swearing and stiffening up in surprise.

"Catch!"

He couldn't have been any heavier than about 120-130 pounds maybe. It took a bit of effort to get the right grip on him, but once she was able she fully intended on throwing the boy (couldn't have been any older than her, really), into the crowd beside her.

Whether they wanted to participate or not.

Were the lyrics of these songs bothersome, and would they bother Xavier a little bit? Maybe, if he was even close to paying close attention to them. Right now, Something else had his full attention... or someone.

Elke approached this sitation like a brawl with rules. Xavier, on the other hand, approached the pit as politely as humanly possible. It would be slightly offputting, watching a giant of a man walk through the chaos of a moshpit completely calm, gently deflecting people away as they collided with him. At one point, Elke knocked someone over, and he hopped on over to help them up. He looped another young man's elbow and swung him out of the way of one of the native's more brutal looking swings.

The reality of the situation, was that none of the people in this pit were prepared for the wrath this woman could deal out. It became crystal clear when she LIFTED SOMEONE ABOVE HER HEAD. Crap. Whyy did that get his attention? Like... He liked that. It was like she was a force of nature.

As she tossed him, he swept in to catch him by the armpits and set him down gently, brushing him off and pushing him back into the rotating crowd with a smile and a nod. "Elke! Too much! Just a little too much!"

He chased after her once more.

The only response he got was her cackling at him like a madwoman as she went about wreaking more havoc on the dancefloor. Maybe she liked shows like this now. Maybe. Maybe she just liked leaving a wake of chaos wherever she went just a bit too much.

She was greatly disappointed when the song ended and pit slowed and eventually stopped. Not everybody was afraid of her after, seeing as lots of people joined in to mosh to cause a little chaos on their own. She was left standing with a small group of people who were animatedly talking to her. She didn't pay much attention to them, they didn't matter to any degree, and instead, she turned to seek out Xavier.

The plucky sounds of Banjo (really, why on earth had the annoying blonde gone with Banjo of all things?), distracted her though and she looked toward the stage instead.

"How's everybody feeling?"

The emo Xavier clone was addressing the fans, trying to rile the crowd back up. From the cheers and screaming of fan girls, she guessed he succeeded.

"I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you fine folks for coming out. It's a very special evening tonight with, ya know, Halloween and all... but also we get to finally formally introduce you to our newest bandmate over here! Juniper!"

There was drastically less cheering from the crowd as the short woman waved awkwardly at them and shuffled on up to stand beside her boyfriend. Did the rabid fans know they were dating yet? Probably not if he relied on his teenage female fanbase as much as she suspected.

"Juniper is our newest backup, vocal singer... but, I wanted to get her up here for a song on her very own just to show you all what she's bringing with her to the band. Everybody give her some love!"

For being a complete d*ck, like she suspected he was, he played nice pretty well. Elke watched as Juniper switched mics with the other X, and cleared her throat and set about lowering the microphone down to her level, much to the entertainment of many in the crowd.

"...Yo." She paused, adjusting the strap on one shoulder, and leaned into the mic again. "Thanks for the warm welcome!"

It didn't escape her that the Blonde immediately sought out Xavier in the crowd again, almost nervously? It was an annoying habit of hers that was seriously starting to grate on Elke's nerves.

She turned as the girl started singing and sought out the tall hero herself.

"I'm bored." For once in the many months they had been dating, she reached for his hand to grab it firmly. "...Wanna come entertain me?" She did wonder if that was too vague to get through his thick skull.

She proceeded to try and drag him with her out of the crowd and eventually out of the building.

"Juniper is our newest backup, vocal singer... but, I wanted to get her up here for a song on her very own just to show you all what she's bringing with her to the band. Everybody give her some love!"

Ah, god, it was time wasn't it? Normally she wasn't afraid of singing in front of people... to a degree. Sometimes it could get a bit overwhelming if she got too much attention since she mostly played for herself. But... this was a crowd with her best friend in it, and she was a giant bundle of anxiety because of it. She'd never actually sang anything in front of him before. SUre, he might have heard a bit through their shared wall. But like, not face to face and for realzies.

She cleared her throat a bit to try and swallow some of her nerves. "Yo.... Thanks for the warm welcome!"

The chuckles she got for being comically short compared to the rest of the people on stage helped a bit, too.

She didn't waste any time and jumped right into the opening chords of the song. It was a cover, and typically sang by a deeper voice... but she had a decently deep voice for a girl so in practice sessions it had worked out just fine.

"Went to the bar to get a little closer to myself and learn-"

The lyrics continued on and at some point she stopped seeking out Xavier, choosing to let her gaze rove over the rest of the faces in the crowd. It was a good sign that nobody had booed and people at least looked interested. She'd picked the song out and Xander had given it his blessing since it still fit with the theme of the band. It had reminded her a bit of her times with Mason, but also a lot of her time with Blue. Just enough to draw her interest, and she liked the plucky tune of the Banjo as well.

"-I love the shitty things we do together, live with me in this sin forever-"

Juniper was not fearful of being the center of attention what it came to music. It was one of the few things she allowed herself to feel in her soul... When she put her all into playing that love, that drive, certainly came to the surface. She could croon with the best of them, reach a level of huskiness if called for, and when push came to shove she could make a lyric as powerful as it needed to be. She had thoroughly studied other singers to emulate what they did and how they seemed to do it, and even though she hadn't been professionally trained she liked to think she pulled it off pretty well.

"-I'd crawl in bed with you, even on someone else's blood, on top of someone else's love... in the worst motel we find. Cuz home is the last place I'd stand to be with anyone but you-"

Guiltily, she sought out the tall blonde. He was probably the only person in her life that the song didn't fit at all. She didn't look for long, instead choosing to shift back to scanning the crowd.

"Hell and you Hell, and you- I know you want it too. I say, take the shot, see this chance... Feel the fire and let me have this
Dance... with you." Xander stepped away from the Casio keyboard he had been playing background music on, the others slowly let their own instruments die out, and with a last mournful strum of strings, the song ended.

She stood there for a moment slightly out of breath as the people below cheered and clapped, and a broad grin broke out on her face.

"Woo! What a way to break out, huh?!" Xander moved up to reclaim center stage and immediately tried to ruin her good mood by attempting to swat her on the butt as she moved back to her own mic. It was an attempt because there wasn't physically there for him to slap. She stuck her tongue out and mean mugged him in response. This was why she didn't trust him enough to be fully physically there around him yet.

"Alright, let's get right into the next song... I'm sure many of you will remember this one. Sing along if you do!"

And with that, they jumped right into another cover.

The man who looked nothing at all like Xavier asked how everyone was doing, and Xavier let out a loud, woo! What? He felt woo! This was fun, and it felt nice to chase after Elke and undo all of her violent mischief. It felt like a strange, warped couples activity. He could tell she was having fun, though, and she wasn't actively trying to maim people. They'd signed up for this sort of thing, after all.

His eyes went wide with excitement as Juniper was called up for a solo, and everything slowed down a bit. He reached up a hand and waved excitedly at her from the crowd. How cool would it be to play on a stage like that, and know your friends were there to support you? The thought made him feel happy, and he wasn't even the one experiencing it!

She started singing, and oh boy were those lyrics... uh... something. But his friend was singing them! So awesome! He paused in a moment of shock and dawning as something... grasped his hand. Elke...

Elke grasped his hand.

Oh sh- Were they. Was this?

She... Wanted him to leave. He paused for a second, and frowned just a little bit. "But... Elke... my friend is singing... I mean... I want to, but I can't leave during her set."

Her eyes narrowed minutely, just a smidge, and she stared at him. Didn't wanna leave while she was shrieking up on stage? Fine. She could wait a few minutes for the brutal murder on lyrics and vocals up there to end, and then they could go.

"Fine, we wait for her to finish and then we go." She wasn't letting go of his hand, either. In fact, she gripped it harder.

The song wasn't very long so it wasn't like they had to stand around all day. Almost as soon as it finished she renewed her effort to tug him away. "Oh look, it' over. Let's go before something else gets dragged up." Quickly, before the little rat was done entirely and wanted to bound over and bother him some more, or, dog forbids, tag along.

"Let's go to your apartment or mine." He'd never been to her's before... maybe that would tempt him a bit more effectively than his. He always seemed to be a super huge nerd when it came to learning more about her.

This... was all so... strange. Had he somehow hit his head in the mosh pit, and fallen into a fever dream in which his girlfriend was actually interested in spending time with him?

No, no that was too unrealistic, even for a dream. She gripped his hand harder as he came up for her own terms for them leaving, and waited patiently. He shifted uncomfortably, losing sight and sound of the song itself. She started talking, and then tugged at him, and he looked to her with furrowed brow.

The offer to go to her apartment was incredibly enticing. All of this was enticing. ALL of it. SHE WAS DRESSED AS AMAZING WOMAN. IT WAS THE 1964 SCANTLY CLAD EDITION. IT HAD BEEN DEEMED TOO LEWD AND EDITED BEFORE THE RELASE OF HER SECOND LIVE ACTION SHOW, ONLY TO BE RE-RELEASED IN THE 80's!

And yet. It was all so... wrong. "Elke... You... aren't acting like yourself... Are you okay?" He stood there, frowning over to her, hand clenched in her own... He looked... worried, more than anything else.

For the billionth time, she looked at him like he was a few eggs shy of a full dozen. "How exactly is it off character for me not to want to stand around watching four people massacre one of the fine arts, while also having to put up with your friend shooting bedroom eyes at you the whole time?"

Okay, so many that was a tiny bit of a stretch. They were eyes of desperate acceptance mostly, with only a pinch of very obvious want. But still!

"I agreed to come with you to this sh*t show because it sounded mildly interesting and it was a great way to rile my dad up some more. I didn't agree to stand here all night so that little miss needy over there can puff up her ego a little bit more."

She was getting irritated hit him now, for questioning her. It wasn't her fault he was willing to overlook all the signs of having a friend who desperately wanted to be more than that. People like that annoyed her.

"Elke, she's not doing that. She's anxious. She's on a stage and she's looking for her friend. I did the same thing when I did sports. I looked for my dad in the crowd. Why are you acting like this?"

And there it was. The reason. She wanted her dad to be mad. He looked down to the ground for a second, and then slipped his hand out of hers.

"Then go... I'll see you later." He looked up to the band again, crossing his arms over his chest. It would be a lie to say he didn't look to see if she was still there a moment later.

"Her having some weird parental fixation on you is still not great and an entirely different kind of weird."

But, try and she might he had apparently decided to put his foot down. He wasn't leaving. She didn't bother scoffing loudly like she wanted to because with how much noise was going on around them it wouldn't carry any weight. Instead, she just did as he had recommended.

She left.

She waited at least half an hour after leaving, breaking into his apartment and stealing some of his sweats, to send him a text letting him what where she was. Tossed in a slightly snippy bit about his cat being super annoyingly affectionate too, just as icing on top.

And then she waited. Biding her time and riling herself up for an argument that she had all planned out in her head.

Has Juniper caught sight of the little altercation in the audience? No. It was hard enough just picking out one person from the crowd with lights stabbing her in the eyes.

But, as they wound down toward the end of the show, she did spot Xavier again, and.... he didn't look happy at all. What had happened?! The last time she'd spotted him he'd looked super happy with a big dopey grin on his face. Now he was frowning and... wait, where was Lucifer?

Ah, @#%$.

She spent two songs agonizing over what to do. Had Elke left? Was she off harassing some other guy? Had she punched someone and gotten kicked out? If so, to any of those really, why was X still down there looking so miserable?

At the end of the song they were currently on, while they took a short break and Xander was going to talk to the crowd, she stepped in to catch his attention. After a brief exchange of words away from the mic she hauled ass off the stage toward the back and the band started up a different song without her. They had been a 3 person group in between back up singers anyway, so it didn't cripple the sound at all.

A few moments later with her instrument still slung around her shoulders, Juniper covertly appeared at X's side in the crowd and tugged on his comical ketchup costume.

"Shh! Don't let on that it's me!" She was wearing a large, black hoody that clearly did not belong to her. She directed a thumb at the exit, "Wanna leave?"

Xavier felt good about his decision. He let his grumpy girlfriend speak her part, and then... well... she stormed out. He tried to ignore it for now. It, being the feeling of deep, deep dread that he'd messed this up. Still... He had to stick to his values. That was a place he wouldn't compromise on.

He was a good friend. Juniper needed a good friend. He frowned, in spite of himself. Maybe Elke needed a good boyfriend, too... Then again, wasn't it better if he didn't let her manipulate him? Would she even have respected him if he was the type of person to turn down his morals for a night of incredible, amazing, super hero themed hanky panky?

Jesus, he was insane. This was the worst. AMAZING WOMAN. Out the door.

He blinked, and Juniper was missing from the stage. Crossed arms went uncrossed as he started to look around, and jumped when he heard a voice nearby.

Wanna....leave? He looked at the hooded figure for a moment before it dawned on him that it was Juniper...

...WHAT?! But... But he'd just stayed to watch her perform! "Wh... But... Why... aren't you up there?" He pointed at the stage, and looked up at the exit, dumbfounded at... all of this.