¨That voice ... Sam! it seems that they like the song, unfortunately I will have to risk it again. I liked the first song, well who doesn't like rock and roll ,but the second song is a bit more soft ... ¨

¨I see many familiar faces around here, many of them from the mansion. I suppose that a lot of you recognize me.I want to dedicate the following song to a person i appreciate a lot . Most of you may know her , this song is for Katrina. ¨

the singer seek with the eyes as he spoke but he couldn't find her among so many people, the place was completely full. it was difficult to walk there, and more difficult to find someone. anyway she will surely listen to him.
Cielle smiled from his place in the background, with the soft lights probably nobody would notice it but Fausto knew what she was doing. he had already talked about Kat a bunch of times and she always insinuated that she would love to see the little couple together. to what Fausto answered with the face completely red .
Everyone in the band knew what the song he had chosen, just because they had already deducted it . they sang a song and between the two left to sing only one could be dedicated to a girl like Kat. Takumi started playing. the pua was left aside and he was using his beloved Fender again. the other, the one destroyed had been retired a few minutes ago. the music was slow pace and gentle now, the precision and smoothness could be very well obtained with bare hands.
It was almost impossible to guess that the guy who had played a few minutes ago was the same that now was playing that melodious music. Takumi was very good, he was able to move at an incredible speed of almost uncontrollable speed to a gentle caress. he had to practice these very soft melodies, he never liked them but Fausto insisted that he had to practiced a lot for that song. now Takumi know why.
Cielle didn't use Charm again, if she drowned watching Fausto it would be very easy to see because the guitar sounded a soft and could not fill the hollows generated by the drums. she should trust that the public would put the necessary attention without her assistance .
the drums sounded following the rhythm of the guitar, it was easy to follow . the guitar wasnt going at a unhuman speed, Takumi took the time to play each note delicately. Fausto began singing when Cielle started playing.

the claws of a terrible creature
were pulling out the feathers of an angel in the sky
i saw him fall from there
into the wasteland of mysteries
i ran to him, desperate,
and i felt the heat of his open wound
the angel was laying there
and his eyes spoke to me with sorrow

Fausto walked a few steps toward Cielle giving his back to the public, the music started to sound more strident. The guitar and the drums rushed a few seconds while Fausto continued showing his back to the public even with the microphone in his hand. he turned around with a slide kick, when he was facing the audience he made a leap backward without using his hands . he made it good without any problem .
the music was calm again and the soft melody started again . Fausto began to sing again, singing again the last line.

and his eyes spoke to me with sorrow

don't look at me like that
god made me to fall
don't fell sorry for me
now nothing i dreamed of
will become a reality
that angel who took care of you
is the one that fell here

The music changed again from a soft melody to a loud noise then it returned to the gentle melody quickly.

the spikes of the holy ground
embrace him in his downfall
with the smell of garbage all around
the angel was fading
i felt a hollow at my back
and i felt that i was left alone
in the wasteland of the mysteries
with those sad eyes speaking to me

The singer left the microphone on the base while the music was slowly disappearing and the last notes faded into their minds perhaps to the oblivion , with a little luck they would remember that show for a long time ..
¨ thank you all ! Hope you like it! ¨ Fausto was red, a lot of people were watching him . Takumi and Cielle greeted with the child, and all disappeared behind the stage.all was what he was expecting ,the public answered were encouragious, many had cried out asking for the second song. he felt proud, he felt lke he could do whatever he wanted. he was the king, and everyone would be happy to follow him ... but those thoughts were quickly displaced by a single question .Where is Kat?

"When you're uncertain or worried, I'll be there for you. I may have no power, but you called me here to you. If you need me... ...I'll give you... the strength of my soul."

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” She waved behind her at the red Tuxedo Mask as she made her way toward the fun-sized version. The not-red Tuxedo Mask seemed like a squishy, a push over compared to her actual date. He appraised her outfit with eyes that spoke of experience of the actual series. An actual fan. Shouldn’t he be bleeding out the eyes or something?

“If, by evil you mean energy thieves and people who dip twice. That’s some costume you’ve got there.”

Lori’s eyes widened at funsized’s response. ”Energy thieves! There are thieves here?” She looked around rapidly and her ponytail and bow swished back and forth. Funsize struck a pose and Lori tried not to give him a ‘are you reaking kidding me’ look… and failed… a bit.

“So, introductions right? My name’s Shin. And you?”
”Venus! Hence the costume.” She beamed oozing cheer and sunshine from every pore. It was sick, really.

“Who’s he?” Sailor Venus followed funsize’s eyes until she saw Pluto grabbing up anything that looked remotely alcoholic. Bless him.
”That would be my date, Pluto. We have nicely themed codenames if you ask me.” She winked at funsize. But of course this was all quite the bull honky.

”I’d love to take you out for a spin.” She motioned to the dance floor. ”But if you’re busy…” Would Pluto get jealous? Who cared. She was in her costume in public surrounded by their peers no less, he ought to be a happy man because she hadn’t bashed his head in yet.

Shin tilted his head, taking in the situation. Pretty girl, asking him for a dance? Good music in the background, Fausto pouring out his soul, a red man in a matching costume getting drunk. Nope, didn’t get much better than this. If only there were waffles.

“Ah, so now we’re adopting the names then? In that case, let me rephrase my earlier pronouncement. I am Tuxedo Shin, and Tuxedo Shin…” Shin opened his mouth to finish off the thought with ‘never turns down a pretty lady’s invitation’, but coughed into his closed fist instead. “Er, actually this act’s kinda wonking me out. Let’s just dance. It’s too much work putting on the show for the cameras.”

Shin smiled, taking a step towards the dance floor and offering her his hand. “And do you have a name beyond Sailor Venus?” He gave a faint laugh. “I mean, a secret identity is great and all, but since I already blabbed mine, it just wouldn’t feel right to me calling you ‘Sailor V’. Maybe you’d prefer Minako instead?” He frowned a bit at the idea, but laughed it off. “Nah, that’d just be weird.”

Fausto’s song ended, and the ballroom dancing music welled up anew. A waltz. Shin’d never waltzed before… ah well, there was a first time for everything.

“Anyways, let’s dance~”

When the music died down the first time Sam was both impressed and proud of Fausto, not only was he an excellent singer but also he could move. He didn’t know if his lessons with Fausto influenced his dancing at all but Fausto looked good. Either way Sam was going to have to complement him on his job well done. He was proud of how far Fausto had come, to think he used to be shy.

Nodding to Leila’s comment about him being her playboy he responded ”If I have to be a playboy, guess I am better off as yours than anyone else’s.” he flashed her a small wink as he looked back to the stage and was happy Fausto looked like he was having so much fun, then he let out a small laugh, “To Katrina?” Fausto was defiantly getting brownie points in Sam’s book for saying something like that in a crowd this large; “Fausto is so getting a kiss tonight!” Sam laughed jokingly.

Glad Fausto heard his request Sam swayed a little as he grabbed Leila by the waist and said, “How about we say hello after a little bit? Think I owe you a dance then a few drinks.” it wasn’t that he didn’t want to see Streak or Ari, it’s just with what just happened he figured he’d pay a little more attention to Leila before he cuts on Ari’s and Streaks alone time. Then a thought occurred to him, ‘wasn’t Arielle here with Shin?’

As he was twirling Leila during the song Sam pulled Leila in close to him to dance and said, “I owe a few girls a dance tonight, so don’t get mad okay?” he said with a smile as he looked her in the eyes, “Remember you're the one who is going home with me tonight.” Sam said as he nodded, “They are only friends…”

Isabel was still tugging his sleeve and still he didn’t mind, normally by now he would have gone out of his way to unleash one of his ‘tricks’ and out of spite do exactly the opposite of what he was asked to do. But tonight was supposed to be different, no fighting, and no pants being lost or torn. That immediately cut almost all the trouble he could cause. The pants stunt was one of the best ways to cause trouble for anyone around him, which is why he did it so often, not to mention the great breeze sensation.

Adding quickly to Isabel’s comment, “Your name would have went in the paper anyways, our earlier bet which I won,” he grinned as he rubbed salt in her pride, “only cut down the story of you and put the focus on my rather large backside, if anything I did you a favor!” smiled Bacchus as he felt himself be pulled to the stairs leading to the balconies.

Walking up the stairs Bacchus fought the urge to push people out of the way, he was very careful not to purposely walk into anyone, which was hard to do. One thing he did like however was when a smaller man walked down the stairs and told him to move, Bacchus smiled and said, “Certainly!” stepping out of the way Bacchus pulled a piece of gum from his mouth and put it in the man’s hair which he was sure was once an animal of some kind what it was now he didn’t exactly know. Grinning and liking his finger and putting it into the mans glass before he realize what was going on Bacchus waved to him and said, “Have a pleasant evening sir!”

Once getting to the top of the stairs Bacchus caught up with Isabel and looked to the obvious mutants she was now talking to. One happened to be one of the big red brothers and the other was, “Sheila!” Bacchus said as he picked Sara up in a bear hug, “How are ya?” he asked as he set her down gently with a big smile on her face. Sure he had only met Sara once or twice he couldn’t remember but the maze incident was enough to make anyone his friend.

Bacchus being introduced smiled and extended a hand to the big red guy, “Never had a chance to meet this bloke, seen him around a few times well him I think could have been one of the other ones.” He shrugged and then looked over to the small kids near them then looked back to Isabel as the second slow song started to play, “Your aware that your dancing with me tonight right?”

Leila laughed, squeezing Sam's hand. "I remember Katrina! She's this pretty blonde girl isn't she? About Fausto's age... Aww that's cute." she laughed again, grinning in Iron Mouth's direction. And with that, she let Sam lead her to a spot, and then wrapped her arms around his neck. The night had suddenly gotten a whole lot better, not to mention hotter. (Or, in Sam's case, shouldn't it be chillier?)

"I don't mind you dancing." she said, her tone a little embarassed as she thought of earlier. "I'm sorry about earlier. On the up side, we had our first couple's fight." she smiled at him, holding on even tighter. "Plus, we got through it without any scratches to our relationship, which is good." she added.

The dance was too short, but she kept hold of him, not intending to let go until the other girls had to steal him away. When that happened, she'd go say hi to Ghost, and apologize for the way she'd acted. Oh, and maybe thank Aura, and apologize to her too, for just asking her to leave like that. This Valentine's day was going to be fun, she wouldn't let the small breakdown ruin it all.

Especially not Sam's night.

"Adopting the names? Oh no, no, no. These are our names. Oh look! There's Marsy~!" She wiggled her fingers at him. He should really not come over.

She wasn't drunk, just oozing sunshine. The whiskey was proooobably helping things along, but really it was just the undeniable need to not be recognized by people as the same person later. She needed to be entirely different. So very different. And it had to be.

She shook her head. "No Secret identity, Tuxedo Shin." She laughed. "My name is actually Lana Venus, that's why this costume is so great don't you think? Spreading love and peace practically as myself."

He said dance. Lori glanced toward Mars, he should know Lori would never... "Yeah! Let's go!"

She hoped the song would be short because her extent of dancing was either dirty or some kind of lame two-step that was more like just standing... she could stand and kinda do something. Hey look! She was dancing! Right? Right?

They were dancing. Right? Right. And just as they started dancing an awkward walts, the music switched and the waltz was over, which really wasn't the worst thing for Shin. He had a confession to make. He did not know how to waltz! He did, however, know how to dance to what started playing after the waltz. It sounded like a mix between a techno dance beat and a polka. Shin did the robot to it for about five minutes. After that, he got tired of it.

“Well that was fun,” He smiled at mystery Lana woman. “But I promised dances to some other ladies too. I’ll leave you to spread peace here and there and everywhere. Later!” Slipping off, he vanished into the crowd looking for his next dance partner.

Arielle had told him to find Ghost. Where was Ghost? He couldn’t find her. He could, however, find the girl he’d talked with earlier—the one with the gift to give.

“Wanna dance?” He asked her, holding his mask up to cover the upper half of his face. His lower half wore a smile that could melt glaciers, it was so bright. He offered her his hand with a slight bow.

“Wanna dance?”

Cailyn was a bit sunken into her own little world. She didn't know any of the people, and socializing wasn't her expertise to say the least. However someone with a mask asked her to dance. First of all she had never danced before, well not really dance dancing. Dancing was frowned on in the mental institute and mostly resultated into punishment. She looked around for guards of somekind to make sure she could try it out. Dancing was exciting for her, another new experience she never had in childhood. "Ok." she said a bit hestantly and if she didn't have her mask on everyone could see that she had a blush on her face. She accepted his hand and she was lead to the dancefloor away from everybody she didn't know and towards (suprise) everyone else she didn't know.

The music was cheery, a faint bopping melody as he led her out to the middle of the dance floor. Around them, people turned in circles, swirling their partners ‘round in concentric circles that seemed to drill towards the ceiling. One or two people stood nodding their heads to the beat, while others swung heads from side-to-side. Light hung on the side of an ice sculpture of a duck as the band strummed out their hearts, brightly-colored banners bouncing along with the music’s vibrations. One beast-man did a handstand, spinning along. Shin began to dance.

It wasn’t much of a dance- the song wasn’t much to dance to. He just moved his arms, bent as they were at 90 degree angles, side to side as he moved his legs in the opposite direction. Right left, right left, and turn. He did his little jig. It was the kind of happy music one did jigs to, and there he was doing one. He kicked it into overdrive, legs moving as if detached from his body. He drew his arms inwards, then flung them out like a swan spreading its wings. The dance floor became a sea of swirling colors.

Shin smiled at her as they danced; he hoped she was having a good time.

Yes, he was dancing like an idiot. That was half the fun of dancing.

Saturn glared at the little musician, if that was the Katrina that was whispering in his ear about having bad habits he might not like this band as much as he thought. He put out his cigarette in his hand and tossed the butt into a nearby empty glass. As he thought about the ballad being sung to Katrina, he lit a second one up.

-----

"Hello Abyss. You look very dashing tonight. I love the suit," “ Thank you Goregous, I cant help but notice that dress is cut a bit shorter than usual.

"Oh, this is Bacchus, by the way. He's the one that dragged me all the way down here,"

“Never had a chance to meet this bloke, seen him around a few times well him I think could have been one of the other ones.”

“can say we actually got to meet, its sad that I have to meet a member of my house at a ball but I have heard all about you. Well met Bacchus”

“Your aware that your dancing with me tonight right?”

Abyss raised his eyebrows and looked at Isabel. He waited to see what how she responded it was almost enough to not have notice that Calley had already made his exit. They woud be having a talk about Miss Katrina and this boy. It was about then she was having a song dedicated to her….Boys. He had to keep a better eye on her.
----
Pluto sat and amassed more alcohol then the six of his brothers and he could put away. The goal here was to get her drunk enough to sleep through the morning paper and hopefully long enough for the pictures to die down. If he had to go down with her, then so be it. How dare that tuxedo knock off dance with his date.. Grrr.
----
Mars wiggled his fingers back at Lori and then turned his attention to the trickster. He paced over to his brother and took a shot of something clear off his table.

“ You had better hope that she has a good time, because if you are up to some crap then I will have you know you are biting off more than you can chew. I hope you can hold two fronts as well as one.”

-----

Jupiter thanked Hymn for the present; he even asked her what she wanted to do…but no. she was leaving with the little asain guy that had the same fashion sense as Pluto. He shook his head and took a seat and opened the book to the first page of ‘the once and future king’ and so the tale began with the King Uther Pendragon. He read slowly, there was plenty distract him and the book seemed a little dated but he liked it. It wasn’t long before the first chapter was finished.

Isabel smiled widely at Abyss upon hearing the returned greeting, her cheeks going a light shade of pink at the complimenting name and the observation about the length of her dress. She really hadn't fussed too much over what she should be wearing to the ball before she had left with Bacchus. Compared to some of the women wearing floor length gowns, her shorter dress did stick out a little more than she'd realized. Not that she really minded. Sticking out of a crowd was something she was fairly good at doing. "Well it's a special occasion if a ball's being held, so I think I'm in the right to show off a little," she replied, her smile shifting into more of a smirk. As introductions and approvals were swapped back and forth between the Big Guy and the Giant, she fell quiet. For the moment her gaze drifted down to the band that had begun to play another song, her attention briefly held in watching them play their instruments and move around on the stage.

Her expression very nearly mirrored that of Abyss' at the question Bacchus directed at her. "Dancing?" she repeated, as if the very thought hadn't yet crossed her mind. In all honestly, she'd pushed the idea toward the back of her mind. She'd expected the majority of the night to be spent milling around in the crowd and focusing on behaving, or possibly teasing her opponent in their little bet to see if the set conditions would be broken with any kind of ease. "Well I guess it couldn't hurt, just so long as you behave," she decided on as a reply. Bane was more likely to tease her than she was to do the same to him, particularly when her side of the bet was probably easier to break, especially with her temper. She didn't really think the span of a dance would do any harm, but it never was safe to underestimate the Giant when it came to causing trouble.

the young man knew how to dance. Sadly for Cailyn, she didn't. She wasn't quite able to keep up with the young man as he did his part. She almost stepped on his toes quite a few times though. It would be funny to see what happened if she did that but it would make her look more stupid then she already did. As the dance came to a end she let go of the youngman. She gave him a short bow as a token of grattitude and skitted of. It was fun to dance for once with somebody who knew how dance but she definantly needed more work.

As she plowed through the crowd she saw the big red man reading a book. It was her gift and she was glad he liked it. She snuck up from behind and raised herself to look over his shoulder. He seemed pretty into it and she kept watching with him over his shoulder. Maybe he would notice at some point but that was half the fun of it.

Yeah the robot wasn't really doing it for her and she definitely hadn't had enough to drink to join in. She tried a little hip waggle maneuver, but nothing fancy. She was a complete novice after all and the smile plastered across her face hopefully meant she was having fun enough that she wouldn't need to dance again all night.

Tuxedo Shin scampered off to the girl Lori had seen cower away from laundry and Sailor Venus felt quite silly standing alone on the dance floor. Luckily Pluto had amassed all the alcohol at the ball... and more. Where had all those hip flasks come from?

And Mars... She could tell it was him by the way he stood and the set of his shoulders. Wow. Had she really become that familiar with that particular brother? Sailor Venus sighed and flicked her hair over her shoulder. If she smiled much harder her cheeks would explode, she was sure of it.

She pranced over to the most flammable table at the party and took a shot of something dark. "Evening, Gents. I see you found the libations~" Sunshine. Out of every pore. "Who's your friend?" She didn't really expect to pull teh wool over Mars' eyes, but she could sure as hell try it.

"Well, that was fun." Shin noted, watching his dance partner skitter off. Now he had no one to dance with. Slipping through the crowd like a clownfish through sea anemones, a glass of wine vanished from a nearby waiter's tray. The symbiotic relationship was working out mighty fine. Shin downed the drink in one gulp, setting it back down on a nearby snack table. He climbed a flight of stairs to a balcony to get a better view of the room. There were so many mutants and people he'd never met.

Across the way, Andy Dick was talking to a spiky-haired mutant with yellow cheeks that flashed and bulged outwards like an electric pufferfish. Between the pair, a neurotic-looking mohawked mutant floundered. "Wonder what the story is with them..."

Shin turned his attention back to searching, eyes moving back and forth across the room like the mechanism on a typewriter. With every finished line of inspection, there was an inaudible ting, and he snapped back the other way. No sign of who he was searching for. For the moment, Shin abandoned the search. He turned to glance at who else was on the balcony, and saw Kasumi dancing with someone.

"Mind if I cut in?" He smiled, walking up to talk to them.