One Night at the Daisy
This is a one shot that features ARI, a Lackadaisy OC by @ladybugkisses , and ARTHUR KEANE, an OC by yours truly.
The place seemed to sway as ROCKY walked downstairs. He was looking for someone, in the crowd.
"Shouldn't be...HARD to find." he looked through the place - the new business was good for money but bad for finding dates. Rocky could've sworn he'd seen her somewhere. He started to ask around.
"She's about this high on me, red hair, orange fur, this real cute lipstick that makes her eyes real vivid, like...no? Oh. Okay." He started to reach the edge of the place, and looked around the walls. She wasn't anywhere to be seen. He slumped on a table. "Well." He shrugged a bit. "She'll come...surely!" He smiled, and perked up, sitting there. "I'm right by the stairs. When she gets here, she's BOUND to see me!"
He scanned the crowd for her, still - maybe she WAS here, and he'd somehow missed her. He peered into the mass of people, and saw someone familiar - not Ari, but a shock of blonde hair and a blur of white fur - had to be-
-
LACY huffed and walked from the bar back to the caverns. She crossed her arms. "One night off." She sighed. "ONE. Just ONCE I want a night to myself, and what does that harpy of a woman say?" She mocked a southern Drawl "Well, ah need yuh t'catalogue those barrels back thayuh." She spat on the ground, and looked at her clip board.
"...Arthur's going to be awfully cross." She sighed. Arthur was her boyfriend, and she'd told him she'd be out on the floor some place tonight. She looked at the barrel room's vast expanse.
"Oh, you've GOT to be kidding me." She groaned. She looked down at the clipboard again, and started to write a few things down - mostly checking dates and numbers. She stared and stared, and wrote and wrote. Her hand began to cramp and her eyes began to strain. She leaned against the wall of a cave.
"...if someone was here to talk to, it would be nice." Her voice echoed gently off the walls. "Maybe a tall boy with cinnamon fur and a cute pair of glasses...with rough hands from guitar playing...and who'se supposed to be celebrating his ANNIVERSARY TONIGHT!" She kicked one of the barrels, and winced as she drew back her foot. "Shit!" She fell down.
"...shit."
-
"Shit!" IVY put the receiver to her other ear. "Well. That's not good. With a hammer?" She leaned into the phone. "He's okay, right? You're gonna tell me he's okay?" She sighed, pacing around the upstairs office. Her bright green dress reflected off the mahogany desk as she sat on it, and listened intently. It was Elsa Arbogast. Calvin was hurt.
"He'll be fine," the voice on the other line said, "but when he gets there he's not going to be too steady on that leg."
"So no dancing."
"None."
Ivy nodded. She sighed a bit, part relief and part frustration. "Thank you so, so much, Elsa. Tell him his sweetie is waitin' for him here." She said.
"Will do."
Ivy laid on the couch. "...I just got him back." Calvin had an...episode. It set him out about a week - it hurt to see him that way. This morning, he'd smiled, and he held Ivy, and kissed her a dozen times, and promised a dance, and even promised he'd get back from 'work' quick as he could. He was so happy - a happy Ivy hadn't seen on him for a while.
That was surely gone now.
"Something, I swear...something's just trying to make his life so damn hard." She muttered to himself as she walked back down the stairs. "...I can have a good time on my own! I mean, surely. I've done it before!" She grumbled a bit to herself. "Though, when you've had a good time with Cal, you never wanna have a good time withOUT him again..." She looked out at the street through the window of the Daisy.
"...it's really coming down out there."
-
"It's really coming down out there..." ARI was in a phone booth. She had no calls to make - she was just trying to get out of the rain. "Of course my umbrella's in that truck..." She looked down at herself. She was practically waterlogged. She was amazed she hadn't DROWNED on the way here - and she was still halfway from the Daisy. "Rocky's not going to want to dance with a puddle, surely...Ivy's about my size, she says she keeps stuff there...well." She looked down. "My hips...ah. It'll be fine for a night." She peered out the window of the phone booth. A man neared it, and knocked. She had to get going.
She rushed, struggling a bit with the heels in the rain. She tripped, and fell. She brushed herself off, and looked at her coat. "..." She looked down at herself. On top of rain, her new fur coat that Rocky'd spent all of his 'hazard pay' money on was covered in mud. She took in a deep breath, and a lucky roll of thunder hid the cavalcade of Portuguese swears that left her mouth. She kept going, and made it to the door of the club.
She looked at a small watch she had, ignoring the labored footsteps behind her. "Agh, it's getting late..."
-
"It's getting late." ARTHUR was still at the bar. He'd exhausted his talking points with the band, the people there he knew, and with Viktor. He was wondering where Lacy even got away to.
He got up from the bar, and looked around at the mostly empty club. A sad looking Rocky, still waiting diligently by the door, and a nervous, pacing Ivy. It was late. And almost everyone else was either necking in the corners, sitting and getting ready to head out, or gone. Arthur hummed a little tune to himself as he got up and walked to the center of the floor.
He heard very fast clicking heels, and a very flustered voice. "Arthur! Dear." Lacy walked over to him, and wrapped her arms around him. She was covered in dust, and one of her shoes was especially so. She purred so loudly when she hugged him that he felt like he couldn't hear his own thoughts. "I'm so sorry about that, I...if Mitzi even SEES me she finds something for me to do and-"
"It's alright." Arthur smiled down at her, and kissed the top of her head. "You're alright." He looked around. "...not many people left, huh?"
"No." Lacy took in a breath. "...not much of an anniversary, is it?" Lacy said.
"Well, you're here, aren't you?" Arthur smiled. Lacy did, too.
"...yes, I suppose I am..."
Their eyes turned to two people walking down the stairs - more so stumbling.
"There we are...bad way to meet, huh? Almost. No, no, just lean on the - lean on the wall, Calvin."
"I'm trying but yer coat is wet and-"
CALVIN was clinging to Ari as she helped move the boy down the stairs - both looked as if they'd swam here, their fur damp and dripping. Ari's new coat was covered in muck and must've weighed thirty pounds more than it had. Calvin's trousers were ripped, revealing a bandage over his leg, and his hat had a new hole in it, likely from a bullet. He got to the bottom of the steps, and collapsed to the floor, taking in breaths.
"CALVIN MCMURRAY YOU STOP SCARING ME LIKE THAT!" Ivy shouted, rushing over to him and propping him up on the wall. "How did that even HAPPEN to you?"
"I, eh...it's...there was a pig, and-"
"Shush." Ivy kissed him gently, and helped him up. "Eugh...what're you eating these days? Gettin' heavier." She winked. "All muscle, huh?"
"Probably rain water." He replied, fighting off his jacket, and letting it squelch to the floor. "Sorry this all happened so soon after-"
"Nope. No apologizing. You're here." Ivy let her fur get wet as she hugged Calvin, nearly wringing the water out of him.
On the other side of the stair case, Ari watched, sighing a bit. Shame she hadn't seen-
"Ari?" Rocky was there, sitting upright, with wide eyes, and a gentle, happy smile.
"...Rocky! I, ehm, I met your cousin - he...has some sort of wound." She said, getting her coat off, as well. "I'm so sorry about the coat, I...I know you spent a lot of money on it. I can have it cle-"
"Are you warm?" Rocky asked, holding her hands as she sat down.
"...well it was warm, yes, before it got soaked."
"Good!" Rocky hugged her, and squeezed her tight. Ari squeezed him, too. She purred, and stood. "...the band is still here. I hope you haven't danced too much?" She winked. Rocky smiled.
"I've just been waiting."