The Big Break
#2 of It's Fate
The Big Break
Part 2
Okay, this is that gap between 1 and 2, it's MAINLY plot and character development, there's not much yiffy stuff in here so if you're reading this you have been warned.
Disclaimer time, this story contains M/M themes, and although it isn't of an adult nature, should you take offence to such material, then please don't stay, if you are not offended by such material, then please, read on.
Character info: (so I don't have to incorporate it into every story)
Lance - Arctic fox, silver-white fur (all over), hazel eyes, 5'4"
Toby - Lion, brown fur, green eyes, 5'6", no mane
Nate - Fox, orange fur (cream colored stomach) black paws, ear tips, and tail tip, blue eyes, 5'7"
Drake - Raccoon, grey and black fur, grey eyes, 5'5"
This starts off 1 ½ weeks after part 1 ended.
Nate, Drake, Lance and Toby were sitting in Nate's garage, where they practiced. Lance was sitting by Drake, talking with him, and showing him the drum parts he needed to learn while Nate and Toby worked on lyrics.
"So you want to play it like this" Lance said, starting to play a section Drake had been having trouble with in one of their old songs.
"Ohh, I get it." Drake said, watching how lance played the section, "How do you know that?"
"I wrote and played all of the drum parts that you're learning." Lance replied.
"Then why do you play bass and not drums?" Drake asked.
"I'm the only person we know who can play a bass, and keyboards, and do it solo." Lance said, "Less people means bigger cuts am I right?"
"I like the way you think, here, let my try that bit again." Drake said, standing up, and sitting in front of the kit.
Drake started to play the section slowly, trying to get a feel for the way it was supposed to be played.
"That's better; all you have to do is keep working on it and getting faster and faster.
"Sweet, thanks lance."
Lance and Toby were sitting on swings in the park after their practice session.
"Ah, I remember when we would play here almost every day." Toby said, looking at the play set that seemed so small now.
"Yeah, those were the days weren't they?" Lance replied, "When we had all day to goof off and do whatever."
"Mhmm." Toby said, he was about to ask Lance something when Lance's cell phone went off.
"Hey, I think my dad's calling, he probably wants me to come home." Lance said, pulling out his phone.
"Hey dad. Yeah. Just at the park with Toby. Yeah. Okay I'll be back in a minute." Lance shut his phone, "Yeah, I gotta go home, wanna walk back with me?"
"Oh, sure." Toby said, getting up from his swing.
Lance pulled Toby close, embracing him, and planted a kiss on Toby's lips. Sparks and fireworks went off in Toby's head as Lance kissed him, and the entire world melted away for the duration of the kiss, which could have lasted a year for all Toby knew.
When Lance pulled away, Toby gave a small frown of disapproval.
Lance laughed, "We'll have plenty of time for that some other time, but for now, I have to get home."
The two walked back to their houses, paw-in-paw, they got strange looks, but they didn't care, they were on top of the world, and in love.
When they reached Lances house, Lance said his goodbyes to Toby, and walked into his house.
"Hey dad, what's up?" Lance said, as he walked into the kitchen, grabbing a soda out of the refrigerator.
"Not much, dinner should be ready in an hour or so." Tain said.
"Oh, why'd you call me to come home early then?" Lance asked.
"What, I have to have a reason to spend time with my son?" Tain teased.
Lance rolled his eyes dramatically, "Seriously though, did you need something?"
"Well I wanted to talk to you about this band of yours." Tain said, turning serious.
"Oh, what about?" Lance asked.
"Well, you know how I gave you my old bass and keyboards for it?"
"Yeah..."
"Well I was thinking..."
"Dad, you don't want them back... do you? I need them for the band." Lance said, sounding desperate.
"Let me finish." Tain said, Lance nodded, signaling him to go on, "I know my old bass isn't much, so I went out and got you a better one, I know you really love playing in that band, and that you don't really have much money to spend on that sort of thing."
Lance's tail started to wag, and his ears perked up, "Where is it?" he asked, curiosity and excitement filling him.
"I left it in your room, why don't you come on down and try playing around with it?" Tain said, smiling at Lance's enthusiasm.
Lance barely restrained himself from bolting to his room and grabbing the new bass.
When Lance walked into his room, on his guitar stand was another bass, after close inspection, Lance saw it was the bass he had been looking at, and was hoping to eventually be able to afford.
Lance carefully took the bass off of the stand, handling it like it was the most important thing in the world. When he brought it down, his dad had moved to the living room, where Tain had set up an amp to teach lance bass a long time ago.
Lance sat in the chair next to the amp, plugged the cord into his guitar, and turned the amp on.
Lance then began to pluck away at the strings, getting a feel for the bass, after tuning it and messing with the distortion a bit, he started to play and smiled, the sound was so much richer. Before Lance knew it, he was playing a bass line from one of the bands songs that he had loved.
"Sorry to interrupt you're playing son, but Toby's at the door." Tain said.
Lance looked up, and set the bass aside, going to the door.
"Toby? What's up?"
"Lance, can I stay over for the night? Dad's... you know..." Toby said.
"He's drinking again?" Lance said, knowing that meant Toby's dad would get angry and go after Toby if he was around.
"Dad, can Toby stay over?" Lance asked.
"Sure, but you have to finish what you were playing, it sounded great." Tain said.
Toby's head cocked to the side slightly, "Were you playing bass?" Toby asked.
"Yeah, let me show you." Lance said, smiling, and dragging Toby to the living room.
Toby's eyes lit up when he saw the bass, "Dude, when did you get that? Isn't that the one you've been looking at for like 3 months now?"
Lance smiled, "Yeah, dad got it for me, that's why he called and had me come home earlier."
"Nice! Let's hear it then."
Lance picked the bass back up carefully, and started the bass line he had been doing earlier, improvising a bit when the slower parts came up.
"Does your dad have a guitar somewhere?" Toby asked.
"Umm, let me see..." Lance said, "Hey dad! Do you have a guitar Toby can play on?"
"Yeah, it's in my room, want me to get it?" Tain said, walking back into the living room from the kitchen, "By the way that sounded really good, guess it was just my teaching" Tain added with a small chuckle.
Lance just nodded, since he had learned everything he knew from Tain.
Tain went to his room and got his guitar for Toby, handing it to him carefully.
"Be careful with it, it's my only guitar." Tain said, handing Toby his electric guitar.
"Is there an instrument you haven't played?" Toby asked Tain.
"What can I say? I love making music."
With that, Tain started to walk away, "Go on and play, I like what I've heard so far."
Lance nodded to Toby, and then started to play the opening to their newest song. The two decided their old 3 minute version just wasn't enough, so they improvised, playing off of the top of their heads, and what was a 3 minute song turned into 12 minutes.
"Who plays that song? I don't think I've heard it." Tain said once the two finally finished playing.
"That was one of ours, but we added on a few minutes worth of playing..." Lance said.
"Ahh that's always fun, well I liked it, maybe someone else will pick it up one of your CDs and like it too." Tain said.
"Mhmm." Lance said, "Glad you like it."
Toby set the guitar down, "Hey Mr. Cairne, where do you want the guitar?"
"Oh just leave it there, I want to play it a bit before I go to sleep. Dinner's going to be ready in a minute so go grab something to drink."
"Okay!" Lance and Toby said in unison.
"Thanks for dinner dad, Toby and I are gonna go and hang out upstairs." Lance said, putting his dishes in the sink.
Toby followed suit, "Yeah, thanks for dinner Mr. Cairne."
"Oh it was no big thing. Just don't stay up too late." Tain said, "Oh and call me Tain, I like that better."
"Okay Mr. Ca- er, Tain." Toby said.
Tain walked over to where his guitar was resting against a seat, picked it up and started to strum some chords as the two went up the stairs.
"So, what do you wanna do Toby?' Lance said as he got into his room, turning to face him.
Without speaking Toby lunged at Lance, landing on top of him, and laying him flat on the bed in the room.
Before Lance could do or say anything, Toby started to kiss him furiously, as if he would never be able to again. Lance got over his initial shock and started to kiss back, opening his mouth and allowing Toby's tongue to enter.
Toby pulled back, and got off of Lance, "Sorry for being so rough, it's just I needed that, really badly."
"Mmmm, I don't mind, it was just a bit scary at first seeing you lunge at me like you wanted to tear my throat out."
"Heh, sorry, I guess I got carried away, but it's just... the second I got home... I just..."
"Shhh, I know, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
Toby's head rested on Lance's shoulder, and tears started to form in Toby's eyes.
"I can't stand it here. I have to get away from all of this" Toby said.
Tears turned into sobs as Toby rested his head on Lance's shoulder.
"Shhh, it's okay, I'll always be with you, no matter what." Lance said, stroking Toby's head fur.
The two sat on the bed, Lance petting Toby, and Toby sobbing. Lance pulled Toby into a hug, and held him as close as he could, trying his best to comfort the sobbing lion, but not quite knowing how.
Toby eventually recovered from his fit of crying, "*sniff* Thanks for everything Lance, *sniff* I'm lucky to have you."
Lance smiled, and kissed Toby lightly, "I'm lucky to have you." Lance said, loosening his embrace to look into Toby's eyes.
"Either I'm getting old and this is what 'hanging out' means now, or you two are in love." Tain said, standing at the doorway, looking at lance.
Lance's eyes went wide, and he looked straight at his dad, "Dad, err, it's..."
"Ah, don't waste your breath son, I've known you liked Toby for a while now, you don't have to freak out." Tain said.
Lance calmed down slightly after hearing that, "H-How'd you know?" He asked.
"Just the way you look at him now 'a days." Tain said, smiling.
"Oh... is it that easy to tell?" Lance asked.
"That and I saw a little love letter you wrote to him..." Tain said, giving a mischievous chuckle, and walking away, "Have fun, but not too much fun." He added, chuckling again.
Lance blushed at the mentioning of his letter, and went completely scarlet from the mentioning of 'too much fun'.
Toby looked at Lance, "So... a love letter hmmm?" He asked with a hint of mocking along with curiosity in his voice.
Lance looked down for a moment, "Err... It's nothing, just a letter I wrote for you a while back, I never intended to give it to you, and I thought I lost it..."
Toby didn't press it further, the fox looked like he was about to die of embarrassment.
Toby hugged lance, "That's sweet."
Lance relaxed in Toby's embrace, and looked up again.
"Let's get to sleep, I can't handle any more excitement today..." Lance said.
Toby nodded and lay down, Lance still in his embrace, and the two fell asleep holding each other with a smile on their faces.
"Guys, I found a bar that's close by that does an open mic night every Saturday, and we can spread the word about our band there." Nate said, after the entire band was assembled in his garage.
"I think we should play there, and practice playing on stage for the battle of the bands coming up in a month." Nate said, "What do you guys think?"
"I like it." Lance said.
"Me too." Drake said.
Toby just nodded, looking like he was in deep thought.
"Then it's settled, we'll play on Saturday, so we need to do all the practicing we possibly can, Lance, I know you're usually the one who has to go early, can you see if you can stay later and practice with us more?" Nate asked.
"I'll try." Lance said.
"Alright, what are we waiting for, let's get in some practice." Nate said, walking over to the mic.
Lance grabbed his bass, heading out the door, "I gotta go now. I'll see you at 6 for the open mic thing tomorrow!"
"Hold up Lance." Toby said, grabbing his stuff, "See you guys at 6." Toby added, looking at Drake and Nate, and then headed out the door.
"How are the songs going?" Nate said, looking at Drake.
"Great, Lance's been really helpful."
"Yeah, he's one helluva drummer." Nate said, "Maybe you'll see him play one day."
"Yeah, I hope so." Drake said.
There was a short silence, "So, you like him?" Nate asked, looking to Drake.
Drake blushed, although Nate wouldn't have been able to tell, "How did you...?"
"Hey it's no big deal, I just saw you kinda starin' at him earlier with that kinda look." Nate said.
"Oh... well I was thinking of asking him out or something..." Drake said, blushing deeper.
"Don't waste your time, he's with Toby." Nate said.
"How do you know?"
"You never saw him before they got together, or at least not long enough to notice the difference." Nate said, "He just acts different, and he's always glancing over to look at Toby, and then smiling for a split second before he looks away."
Drake's ears drooped.
"Ah don't worry, if he wasn't with Toby he'd probably like you, you're cute and you seem nice enough." Nate said.
Drake looked up at Nate, "You too...?"
"Kinda, I swing both ways, I just haven't found mister-miss perfect yet."
"Oh."
"Hey, don't worry, you'll find your mister right eventually." Nate said.
"Yeah... well, I gotta go, I'll see you tomorrow." Drake said.
"See you later, 6 tomorrow, don't be late"
Lance and Toby pulled into the parking lot of the bar hosting the open mic night, and grabbed their guitars, Lance closed the trunk, and locked the car. They walked over to Nate's truck and set their cases down. Lance looked at Nate and Drake.
"So, is everyone ready?" Nate asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be" Drake said.
Lance nodded.
"Definitely." Toby said.
"Okay, let's bring in our stuff, we're on at 6:30, and we can play until 7:00." Nate said.
Everyone picked up their stuff and brought it into the bar, setting up on the small stage that was provided.
Lance went back to his car and grabbed his keyboard case as well, bringing it into the bar, and setting it up on the stage near his bass.
Once they were completely set up, and finished their sound check, Nate stepped up to the mic.
"Hey, this is our band 'Of the Moment'" Nate said, "This song's called 'Stall in Time'"
With that, Lance started to play the keyboards, opening the song, and then quickly switched to the bass. With that, Toby and Drake started to play as well. Once the rest of the band kicked in, the audience started to move to the beat.
Nate's singing was slightly off of it's timing, and very minor mistakes were made, but the practice had paid off, and they played well enough to grab the interest of quite a few of the people in the bar.
Once they had finished, they hauled their stuff back to the cars quickly, and went back into the pub to watch the other bands.
When they sat down at a table, a wolf approached the table, "Hey, do you guys have an album out?" He asked, looking at the four.
"Umm..." Nate said.
"We don't have an album, no, but we do have a CD with the songs we played on-stage." Lance said.
"Oh, that would be great, how much do they cost?" He asked.
"Cost?" Lance asked, "They're free, here." Lance said handing one of the CDs he had made at home to the wolf.
"Thanks..." The wolf paused, not knowing Lances name.
"It's Lance, and no problem. Tell your friends if they want one too." Lance said.
With that, the wolf muttered 'thanks' again, and went back to his table, after that, a few people came up asking about the band, and if they had any more CDs.
When they were about to leave, one last fur came to the table, it was a panther, "Hello, you're the band 'Of the Moment' right?" He asked.
"Yeah, did you want a free CD?" Lance asked.
"Yes, and I wanted to talk to you about your future plans." The panther said.
"Oh? What about?" Lance asked, handing one of the CDs to the panther.
The panther took the CD, "Thank you, I was wondering if you have a manager for your band."
"No, we don't have a manager yet." Lance said, "Why?"
"I enjoyed your performance, and I'm interested in being your manager." The panther said, "I'm sure you'll want to think about this before you give an answer, so here's my business card, if you're interested then you can call within business hours."
With that, the mysterious panther walked out of the bar, and drove off.
Lance and Toby arrived at Nate's garage the next day at the usual practice time, and saw Nate and Drake waiting inside.
"Hey guys." Lance said.
"Okay, now that everyone's here, I wanted to talk a bit about this." Nate said, holding up the business card the panther gave them, "I want to ask you, do we want this? Do we want a manager for our band?" Nate asked.
"What do you mean 'do we want this' of course we want it, this is how it'll all take off right?" Toby said.
"That's what I'm hoping." Nate said, "What do you think Lance? I already got Drake's answer."
"I do." Lance said.
"Okay, then let's call the guy, I'll put it on speaker so all of us can hear everything." Nate said, dialing the number.
The phone rang, and then the panther picked up, "This 'The Brooker Record Label' you're speaking with Harrison."
"Hey, it's Lance from 'Of the Moment', we spoke with you at the open mic night on Saturday."
"Oh, hey, Lance, was it?" Harrison said, "So did you come to a consensus about my offer?"
"We're interested." Lance said.
"That's great!" Harrison said, seeming as excited as the band to be doing this, "Okay, when are you free to meet with me?" Harrison asked.
"Uh, Monday's good for us" Lance said.
"Okay, I'll see you Monday then." Harrison said, and hung up.
The band met with Harrison, and agreed on the contract he presented, and they signed it.
"Okay, I have all of your contact information, so I'll be looking for different venues for you to play at, and I'll tell you as soon as I have a gig booked." Harrison said, shaking everyone's paw, "I'll see you later then."
I'm no lyricist, and I'm not going to try to be what I'm not, so no lyrics for the songs.
Woo, another story done, I realized I never really did ANYTHING with Tain, and I just HAD to flesh him out a bit more, Toby's dad, not so much, and if you didn't pick up on this when you read it, he's an abusive alcoholic, and that's part of the reason Toby hates living in that town (I'd hate it too...).
I'll be choosing my favorite idea from the 'You choose the story!' journal on December 10th, so submit your ideas people!
Please tell me what i did right, what i did wrong, and how i can improve, it makes my next story that much better.
As always, thank you for everything, and keep your eyes peeled for the next story!