Chapter Text
Jay wasn’t sure why he was walking to this weird underground concert.
Actually, scratch that, Jay does know why he’s going to a weird underground concert, it’s because he’s been getting a lot more free time ever since Carlos started doing “stuff” with “some people” at “that place around the corner.” Which in short means it’s because Carlos has abandoned him for some secret meetings with secret friends. Probably some dorky science meeting with Auradon’s biggest nerds. (Jay totally wasn’t jealous or annoyed at the fact that Carlos was hanging out with some other crowd. Honest.)
In any case, disappearing best friend notwithstanding, Evie’s been telling him of this new band that suddenly showed up in Auradon’s lesser talked about scenes and he’d heard whispers of their name in dark corners and hidden alleys so when Evie said she knew where they were going to hold their next show, Jay thought it was better than sitting around doing nothing.
So, here he was, in front of a rusting door in an alley that made his fingers twitch in a way that he hasn’t felt since he left the isle, waiting for a certain blue haired princess to show up like she promised to.
The click-clack of heels on pavement echo behind him and he turns to see Evie walking up in her pristine and princess-y way. Perfectly proper save for the glint of mischief in her eyes and the sly tilt in her smile. Honestly, if Jay didn’t think of her as a sister, he’d be chasing after her like a dog with treat in front of its face.
“Hey Jay,” She says with a grin, showing off straight teeth under stained-red lips, “Ready to go to your first illegal concert in Auradon?”
Jay laughs, “Illegal, huh? And they say Auradon’s only fun activity is tourney.”
“Tourney and balls you mean.” Evie grins,”But, nah, it’s not really illegal. More… frowned upon. I mean, you can see from the state of this place that it’s not really unimaginable to think we’re seeing an Isle band.”
Jay nods, “It’s weird to think you could find a place like this in Auradon, it makes my fingers twitch.”
Evie hums in response and knocks on the dirty door rhythmically. “Yeah. But then, I think all places have places like this, if you know where to look. Oh, you should put this on your face, by the way.”
Evie throws Jay a dark red bandanna and tugs on a silver eye mask that covered the upper half of her face.
jay manages to tie the bandanna on to cover the lower half of his face as the mail slot on the door slid open to reveal a pair of dark eyes. Evie just smiles at the person on the other side and the eyes light up in recognition. The slot slides shut again and the sound of multiple locks clicking open resound behind the door.
The door opens to reveal a boy that looks slightly older than them, brown hair slicked back to reveal streaks of red and a black bandanna covering the lower half of his face like how Jay covered his.
“V. You made it.” he says, voice clear under the bandanna, “You brought fresh meat?”
“This is… J.”Evie says with a smirk. “I finally got him to come with me.”
“Cool,” the boy says, “Enjoy the show dude, the Scarred Devils are amazing.”
Jay just nods and follows Evie as she walks to a ballroom half filled with people in masks, everyone smiling at each other and talking excitedly.
“So… that dude looked like he’s seen you a lot.” Jay says as they navigate through the crowd, having to squeeze through a few groups while others seemed like they knew Evie and made way for her as they gave her a friendly wave or greeting.
“Yeah,” Evie says while she waves to a girl with a black cat mask on, “A lot of the people who go see the Devils are pretty tight knit, none of talk to each other outside of concerts but when you’re a fan group of like 50 people you end up getting to know each other. Most of us know each other by nicknames. I told Redshift that you’re J, the letter. And I’m V. It took some time to get used to answering to V, hah, not that you’ll have a problem with that.”
Jay snorts, “Yeah it’ll be so difficult to shift from Jay to J.”
Evie just grins at him as they manage to reach the front of the crowd.
“It’s good that we got here pretty early, we managed to make barricade before it got really tough.” Jay’s not sure why but he felt a scheme underneath Evie’s voice, he just shrugs it off because what could Evie possible be scheming about in the middle of a concert.
Half an hour later, the crowd has gotten larger and Jay was feeling a little impatient and bored.
“Evie when is this go-”
Jay is cut off by a loud riff of guitar and suddenly the crowd gets wild. Jay’s being squished from all sides as fans try to push and squeeze through to barricade and Evie just laughs at him when he grimaces as a stray elbow jabs him in the side.
The lights shut off and just as suddenly as the riff that interrupted him and frenzied the crowd, a soft crooning voice echoed from the speakers, sending chills down Jay’s spine.
I’m coming apart at the seams,
The pushing from the crowd and the heat from a room filled with a dozens of people disappear to the back of of Jay’s mind as the voice fills his head and resonates in him.
Pitching myself for leads in other people’s dreams
Spot lights shine over the crowd before focusing onto center stage, right in front of Jay where a boy that looked a bit younger than Jay stood, the upper half of his face covered by a silvery gilded mask that highlighted sharp cheekbones and pink lips and his eyes were shut, showing off beautifully long eyelashes. Simply, the boy was beautiful. Jay could feel a flush coming to his cheeks as the boy above him sang into the mike, eyes scrunching up.
Like buzz buzz buzz,
Doc… there’s a hole where something was.
Doc, there’s a hole where something was…
The boys eyes open, the guitar picks up and a grin graces his face as he shouts into the crowd, “How’s my favourite crowd doing tonight?!”
The crowd around Jay screams their excitement and Jay can’t help but scream along as the grin on the lead’s face grows.
The boy laughs and throws his head back in adrenaline-fueled joy and Jay can’t help but want to store away the sound and image of lights shining off of the lead as the lighting makes the tuft of hair showing under the beanie the boy is wearing turn red.
The lead starts clapping over his head to the beat and the crowd follows along.
Fell outta bed, butterfly bandage, but don’t worry
The rest of the night is a blur as Jay drowns in the voice of the lead and as the night ends the lead talks into the mic again, “This goes out to all of you for being the sexiest, most fucking amazing crowd we’ve had. We’re the Scarred Devils and this is our last song!”
Jay’s sure he’s imagining it but a shiver ran down his spine when the lead scanned the crowd and seemed like he locked eyes with the thief.
As the songs ends, the singer reaches out over Jay’s head and towards the crowd, fans clamber over each other, reaching for the lead’s arms as Jay is stunned by the sudden image of the lead’s lean body stretching over him. He looks up just as the lead looks down and their eyes lock. Jay really does feel a shiver run down his spine this time and the flush already on his cheeks intensifies as the lead grins wickedly at him and sends him a wink before drawing back from the crowd, the lead’s hand brushing against Jay’s face as he did.
The band leaves the stage with a flourish as the song ends and Jay is left stunned at the barricade. Evie finds him after a few minutes and pulls him through the dwindling crowd into the cold night.
“So, what did you think?” she asks him as they start walking back to the dorms.
Jay’s voice is raw as he speaks, “Holy fucking shit, I think I’m in love.”