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Alright, this is my attempt at doing a completely new writing style, using first person narrative and shifting perspectives. Story is totally canon to RWB universe, not that it really matters, considering nothing happens on any large magnitude, this is just for fun and practice. So go into this expecting a not-really-RWB story with RWB characters, and yes, the first part here is mostly exposition, the third narrator is where it starts getting good, but i didn't want to make the submission too long, so here goes nothing. NOTE: If you haven't read Red, White, and Blue, lots of the references made in here will be lost on you. I'm trying to make it somewhat readable for everyone, but it would still behoove you to read Red, White and Blue first.

Part 1:We're an American Band

Alexei

Uh... Hey guys. The writer of Red, White, and Blue seems to have lost all interest in writing and has since moved to Australia to live with a pack of wild dingoes, so he kinda just left all the storytelling to US now, and to tell you the truth I don't think I, nor anyone else that will be narrating, really know what they're doing here. With that said, this is why a bunch of us are going to try to tell a more mundane story here so we can practice up before letting one of my big adventures get permanently mangled by our own stupidity. Think of it as kind of a filler between my first big story and a second one of similar girth, if that makes any sense. And here goes nothing. We'll try to make this bearable for you.

Hey. I'm Alexei Pavlov, and I kill people for a living!

... Christ, that was terrible. Hold on, let me start over: Hey, I'm Alexei Pavlov, and I'm a seventeen year old with a HIGH PAYING JOB! There we go, that sounds much better. So yeah, I'm basically a good high school student. I keep A's and B's in AP classes, I start at linebacker on the varsity football team, I run middle-distance in track in the spring, I'm surrounded by a good group of core friends, and hell I even participated in Model UN this year. Which sucked by the way. We all got these stupid little nametags for the countries we represented, and a certain six-foot tall Siberian Husky proudly wore the identification of Costa Rica on the crotch of his pants for the second half of the conference. Not mentioning any names.

But yeah, that's me. I'm a husky. Kinda bigger than average, white fur on the front, black on the back, messy black hair on top, and bright blue eyes that I've heard are quite attractive. So fairly normal athletic teenager, right? Go to class, do all my extracurriculars, hang out with friends, write love poems to my girlfriends for Valentine's Day, oh and did I mention that both my parents are dead, I live with a former Navy SEAL and I've already subconsciously figured out nineteen ways to kill you right now. Does that make me not a normal pup? There correct answer is yes, that makes me a somewhat messed up pup (heh. I rhymed.). Before you go call the cops, or the National Guard, or your uncle who knows a guy in the mob, or whoever, I do kill people regularly, but I work for the good guys, okay?

I'm a member of the High-Priority Urgent Response Task Force (H.U.R.T. for short), and more specifically in that outfit, Strike Team 13. H.U.R.T. is like a... shit, what did Mansfield call it? A... a "Special Forces Conglomerate", like an all-star team for soldiers. The best of the best from the USA and Canada all funnel into this one group that's designed to take out the most dangerous targets, all in complete secrecy. If you haven't heard of us, that means we're doing our job. Also, because we do really important shit and nobody knows about us, we get massive paychecks. I made more dinero in my first three months at H.U.R.T. than you statistically made all of last year.

Ooh, here's another fun frequently asked question, "Where did a kid like you get the skills to work with special forces dudes?" Well, daddy ran the Russian mafia here in D.C., and I was on track to inherit the family business. In addition to just learning management skills, I also became the organization's top assassin. So yeah, I pretty much knew what I was doing before I got to H.U.R.T. Except knowing how to use an assault rifle. _ _I most definitely did not know what I was doing there. But I figured it out, because I'm cool like that, and because my now teammates Manny and Kris told me I was shooting like a retard and promptly demonstrated how to do it effectively, which no one else thought to do.

While this sounds pretty great and awesome for me, you know, getting to play badass and getting paid a shitload of cash to do it, there are downsides too. Such as the fact that I was only recruited because my dad was assassinated by an asshole named Igor Kossenko who for some reason feels the need to create a global criminal underground, and that the local minion who planned and carried out the hit was one of my girlfriends' father. I use "was" here because he is no longer in existence. I shot him in the face. My girlfriend understands. Certain events had caused her to be not so happy with him as well. Having multiple significant others isn't exactly as fun as it sounds, either. I have one legitimate one (the one I just mentioned) that everyone knows about, and one not-at-all-legitimate relationship with the director of H.U.R.T.'s secretary that mostly everyone in the organization is aware of.

But you'll find out about all my socio-romantic issues later. Right now I have to introduce the plot of this filler! WOO!

For those of you who are knew to reading the details of my life, and for those of you who DID read Red, White, and Blue but inevitably forgot this trivial detail, I play lead guitar in a rock band called Hawt Proxy (Dex's idea. I have no feckin' clue what it's supposed to mean). So this little tale revolves around a concert we played sometime in February 2012, and we're writing this in early July so some of the storytelling might be a little screwy, but again, we'll see what we can do.

Hm... Maybe to give you an idea of what this is gonna be like... Have you seen Scott Pilgrim vs. the World? No? Dammit, me either. Actually, I have no idea where I was going with that. Um, okay... How bout that new 80's nostalgia-based musical with Russell Brand and that one short guy who likes to pretend he's a good action actor in it, Rock of Ages? Paws up, I won't judge. I'll admit to having seen it. Girlfriend made me, but still. Yeah this filler is going to be exactly nothing like that movie. But there will be some drama, lots of stupid humor, a whole ton of musical references, and maybe a little "reward" for me at the end. You know, nothing much, just a little somethin'-somethin', if you know what I mean. Giggity. And without further ado, I'll turn the narration over to my ex so we can get this show on the road. (I am HILARIOUS! ...No I'm not I suck.)

Stephanie

** **... Wait, what? Why am I the one starting the story? I'm not even that important (though if Dex calls me a "flat character" with that stupid grin on his face again I'll kill him. Seriously. I've "developed" more than HIS girlfriend anyway. Dickwad.). Jeez, where do I even start? Um... okay I think I got it... We'll start at Tony's house.

It was a Saturday night, much like any other Saturday night. The boys were all loading their gear into Tony's van, and I was just kinda chilling with two other girls in front of the Stryker residence, watching. Sound boring? It might, but I found looking at five football players carry heavy things around quite entertaining. So did my friends. The dumb blonde Golden Retriever was Leah Brighton, Tony's girlfriend. She didn't have much in the way of book-smarts, but she made up for that with a heart more golden than her fur and a weird innate knowledge of how to handle stressful emotional situations. Really, it's weird. She should be, like, a psychiatrist or something. She even helped bridge the gaping rift of hate that had existed between me and the girl sitting next to me that day, Natalya Romanova.

Uh-oh. I just set myself up for a flashback, didn't I? Crap. Well, background time.

Natalya's a red fox that looks like some kind of supermodel. She's got velvety soft fur, a big, bushy, white-tipped tail that always sways back and forth, never too fast, never too lazily, long, flowing, scarlet hair that cascades past her perky ears and down past her shoulders like a mystical waterfall, perfect body proportions, a set up top that really isn't that big, but is more than ample enough to make me feel slightly self-conscious, and these striking, big brown eyes that seem to captivate every male she talks to.

I'm Stephanie Hemingway. I'm a fairly skinny white cat with long, straight black hair and green eyes. Some people say I'm cute, but I don't know.

Yeah. There's a bit of a difference between us. But I didn't hate her for her looks or something stupid like that. In fact, I thought she was a slut. Everyone in the school thought she was a slut. So I didn't worry myself with her. Besides, she seemed crazy, even when I was just trying to help her. So with her basically out my mind, the first semester of Junior year went surprisingly well. I even managed to land a sweet, caring, very attractive boyfriend named Alexei Pavlov. He was the greatest. I'd never felt so cared for in my life, even if he wouldn't give me a damn detail of his "job" that he seemed to be at all the time. Everything was just amazing right up until Homecoming. Then I made a huge mistake. I gave him to Natalya, even if it was only for a few minutes. But that was enough. After that, it became a slippery slope, right up until that bitch ripped Alex right out of my paws. I was devastated, and I despised her.

But things change. I learned that Alex and Natalya had a long past, and she knew about what he did for a living. I still don't, but it must be pretty intense. It took a while, but Leah finally made us come to our senses; we had to sit down and talk to each other, give our side of the story. Turns out she wasn't that bad, and most surprisingly for me, she hadn't ever been a slut. She just put on a façade of one after she had a falling out with Alex years ago. With Leah's brokered peace, I wound up becoming really close friends with Natalya, even taking her in when her father died of medical complications. She had nowhere to stay since she had never known her mother. I'm not sure why, but she got really teary when I mentioned her.

So now Natalya's my roommate at home. We get along extremely well, and about 50% of the time I have the room all to myself anyway because she's always spending the night at Alex's house down the street. They're like, crazy in love. Even talking about mating and junk already. But that's totally fine, because I'm not jealous anymore. Not since I've got a new and improved boyfriend. Out of the guys we hang out with, Kurt Blackfoot, a 6'4'' high-200's lb grey wolf, is by far the most imposing in sheer size and muscle mass, but he's equally as philosophical and intelligent as he is big. He's great to snuggle up with on cold winter days.

Back at Tony's, Natalya stood up, and I politely inquired why she was breaking the moment. "Alexei always gets all nervous before a big event. I just wanna go calm him down a bit, that's all." She started to walk towards him, but I grabbed her tail and pulled her back, "Natalya, no. Don't you remember why Jen's not allowed to hang out here before shows anymore?" "Um... Because whenever she's around her and Dex go way over the top with PDA?" "Yup. So why do you think 'calming Alex down' is a good idea right now?" "Oh come on! It's not like I was gonna, like, up and blow him in front of everyone! I was gonna take him somewhere else. Wasn't even gonna be anything sexual."

"Natalya," Leah intruded, "I'd just like to remind you that the only people who get to fool around at Tony's house are Tony and me. Sit down, girl." Natalya grumpily sat down between me and Leah again, muttering, "God, you people..." "Oh relax," I countered, "Like you honestly expected us to believe whatever you two would be doing would actually be PG-13." Natalya's eyes shot open as she fumed, "HEY! What's that supposed to mean? Alexei and I haven't fooled around in like a month!" Leah and I were both openly laughing at her now as I continued, "Oh really? How do you explain your sleeping at his house like every other night?" "Look," the vixen said in a low whisper, "It's... that time of the year for me and there're some... complications I have with it, okay? I don't really want to have sex while I'm in heat, so I go over there because he's my future mate and it's gotten to the point where I feel more comfortable falling asleep with him than without him, even if we're not being intimate."

Okay, yeah, I kinda felt bad now. Leah looked sobered up too, though she looked like she had something else on her mind as well, "Hey Natalya?" The fox looked at the Golden and nodded. "Are you positive about you and Alex? Do you really think it's gonna work?" Natalya sighed and looked around as if she was waiting for the universe to give her an answer, then replied, "... Yes. It's gonna work. He hasn't actually proposed or anything yet, but it's bound to happen. There's something I really have to ask Jen about though to know absolutely for sure." I raised an eyebrow and asked what that was, but the red vixen just sighed again and said she couldn't tell me. Leah looked at the fox again, "Do you think it'd just work for you guys though? Could it work for other couples?" The vixen cracked half a smile, "You mean you and Tony? It could work, definitely." Leah beamed and threw her arms around Natalya, thanking her immensely for the confidence.

The retriever then let go, openly wondering where Jay's significant other Kim Jamison was. "She wasn't invited," I told her. She asked why not, and me and Natalya looked at each other and said simultaneously and matter-of-factly, "Because she's a total bitch!" Leah was taken aback by our forceful reply, but Kim really didn't deserve any sympathy. She had been making the past few months a living hell for Jay, and in my opinion, he should have dumped her straight on her ass way before that night. Kurt said they had something special planned for her though, which excited me, but also worried me. I love all those boys, but they can do some pretty crazy shit if they get the chance.

My thinking was interrupted by Tony shouting and beckoning us over. I guess they were done getting everything in there. They somehow stuffed four guitars, two basses, 3 microphones and micstands, 3 guitar stands, and Kurt's entire elaborate drum kit into the van, incredulously still leaving room for four people inside (the venue already had amplifiers, cables, etc.). Tony Stryker waited at the driver's door of the van, his orange and black tiger fur bristling with excitement. He was a pretty big guy. Bigger than Alex, anyway. But not nearly as big as my big grey bundle of fluff. Um, please don't tell Kurt I called him that, actually...

Anyway, speaking of things not to call people, you might find it funny that we're friends with a tiger named Tony. He doesn't. Seriously. If you call him Tony the Tiger he will fuck you up. But that's really the only thing that sets him off. Other than that he's a really chill guy. Jay and Dex were climbing into the rear of the van, and as you might guess, those weren't the names they were born with. Ja'qavious "Jay" Jefferson is a hyena, and a pretty funny one at that. We sometimes joke that Jay personally keeps the stereotype of the incessantly laughing hyena alive. He always wore his dreads real long, and though he sometimes tried to go for the gangsta look, that only hid the fact that he was a dependable guy in honors classes who listened to rock music. His only flaw was his inability to get rid of Kim. I'm not kidding, nobody likes her, not even Jay really. Though I did read somewhere that feral hyenas live in a matriarchal society, so maybe there's some genetic predisposition to obeying the female? ...Sorry, I'm kind of a logophile. It gets the better of me sometimes.

Dex is pretty funny too, when he's not being a douchebag. He's an insanely smart coyote from El Salvador (original name: Cuauhtémoc Dos Santos. See why we call him "Dex"?) with a sizable ego to match. As we mentioned earlier, he gets way too touchy-feely with his mysterious vulpine girlfriend Jen, but other than occasional outbursts, he's an okay guy to hang out with. Of course he is, or we wouldn't let him stick around. Duh. Fun Fact: Dex also looks like a Hispanic Richard Hammond mostly due to his hairstyle. We find this quite humorous.

So while those two were getting in the back of the van, Leah was led to the front passenger seat to ride with Tony, and the rest of us had to walk. Just kidding, Alex brought one of his adoptive father's black SUV's for us to drive over in. The husky obviously drove, and Natalya sat up front with him, while me and Kurt took our spots in the back. As we followed the van, Natalya asked Alex if furs from his work were going to come. She mentioned a couple of names, Pavel and Travis I think they were, excitedly, and Alex responded that his whole team should be there, as well as his adoptive father and sister. Natalya laughed and asked if this "Pavel" character was dragging someone named Stacey along, and Alex laughed back and said Stacey was going, along with Stacey's purportedly nuts roommate Antonia. I had no clue who any of these people were. I looked at Kurt and mouthed the word "what" to him, wondering if he knew, but he just flashed a sheepish grin and shrugged his shoulders. I may not notice everything, but I'm not daft. He knew EXACTLY what Alex and Natalya were talking about, but I didn't mind. I have ways of making Kurt Blackfoot talk.

Natalya carried on happily for a while, then appeared to remember something, and asked almost angrily, "Elise?" The rarely scared husky replied with a certain amount of intimidation that this Elise girl would probably be there, she just had to move her schedule around a little. "I hope you told her that it wouldn't really be too much of a tragedy if she had to miss the show," Natalya remarked scathingly. Whoever Elise was, Natalya was apparently not a fan. I'd never seen her so miffed at someone's possible appearance. I looked at Kurt uneasily, and he took my paw in his with a gentleness unbefitting his rough exterior, smiled at me, and simply shook his head.

We eventually reached the place, a sort of bar/restaurant thing that was well known in the area for its great stage and sound equipment, and pulled into a pair of reserved parking spots behind the establishment. The boys started unloading the van, and while 4 out of the five members were able to take in most of their equipment in one trip, Kurt just kinda stared at his drum kit in the van, wondering how he was going to move it all. I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist, playfully flicking my tail around, and casually mentioned, "Kurt, baby, if you tell me who Elise is and why Natalya hates her so much, I'll help you carry all this shit inside." Girls, protip: If you're gonna date the drummer, he better REALLY be worth it.

Kurt sighed and handed me a couple of cymbals on stands as he picked up the big bass drum and told me he'd explain as we walked. Over the course of the few trips we made back and forth, I learned that Elise worked with Alex in some sort of secretarial position, and despite being a little older than him, was completely smitten with him. She and Natalya had a phone conversation once that ended very... poorly, and they've hated each other ever since. He terminated his story as we were just finishing assembling his kit at the rear of the stage, and I asked if that was all. I mean, it basically just boiled down to a catfight over Alex, and I hadn't expected Natalya to stoop that low. He was already pretty in love with her and she knew it too, so why was she threatened by this chick? Kurt told me that that was the entirety of their feud, and I sighed, and getting as high up on my toes as I could, kissed him on the cheek and thanked him for telling me. With everyone else basically set up, we got off the stage, as the show wasn't for another twenty minutes.

Kurt walked me to the audience area, and as we were heading toward a table where Leah, Jen, and Kim were sitting, we noticed a writhing silhouette of to the side of us, and upon further inspection, found out it was Alex and Natalya making out in the shadows along the wall. Typical. As soon as they figured no one was looking they went at each other. Happened all the time. Still better than Dex and Jen though. Natalya pulled off of Alex and whispered something, then was about to carry on when she saw something past him and clenched her paws in rage. I followed her eyes until I saw four guys: a cocky looking fox, a bored looking raccoon, a joking cheetah, and a content Doberman. I was puzzled for a moment until I saw a blonde female dingo wearing stuff that could be considered "clothes" if you imagined really hard looking right at where Alex was. It didn't take me long to notice the mountains on her chest, either, especially because she wasn't doing much to cover them up. Nor did she make much of an attempt at modesty with her legs, wearing a miniskirt that made me pray she wouldn't bend down to pick something up.

"That's Elise," the low, quiet voice of my boyfriend announced from behind me.

My eyes opened wider as Leah approached us and told Kurt that Tony had just gone backstage and he should probably do the same. I saw Kurt nod out of the corner of my eye and he tapped me on the shoulder, causing me to finally avert my eyes from the apparent prostitute that had her sights set on one of my best friends' boyfriend. I turned around, and before I could do anything, Kurt swept me off my feet and kissed me deeply. Once he let go I blinked a couple times in shock, and he blushed beneath his grey fur and told me I was staring so intently at Elise that it was the only way he'd get to kiss me before he had to go. I wanted to tell him I loved him, but I decided against it. I didn't know how exactly that was gonna work out, so I hugged him and said, "I can't believe you just did that. But you set a pretty high standard for yourself, you know that? As soon as the show's over, you better come find me before you even think of doing anything else." He promised he would, and gave one last bone-crushing squeeze before heading backstage.

I thought I heard snickering, and lo and behold, I looked over at Leah, and she was covering her mouth to snuff out the rampant giggling coming out of it. The Golden Retriever exclaimed, "Like, oh my God, you two are so CUTE!!" I sheepishly thanked her for the compliment, and then asked, "Hey Leah, you've always been a good judge of character. What do you think of that dingo?" "Well... she looks... slutty. But that's not all there is to her! Look at the way she thumbs that heart necklace, and looks around herself insecurely. She's not open for just anyone, she's completely in love, but she just doesn't know how to show it!" "Leah, how the hell did you figure that out?" "I guess I just... notice things, I don't know... Anyway, she reminds me of someone we know not too long ago," the dog hinted, gesturing in Natalya's direction. I looked at Elise again, and Leah was right. Once you got past the superficial exterior, she was actually sufficiently pretty. "So Leah, you could tell all that just cus she's like Natalya was?" "Well, that and some other things. Like, wouldn't someone just looking to get laid be checking out all the guys in the room? She hasn't really looked at anyone except for... Oh jeez..."

I turned around just in time to see her rush over to Alex, calling his name and throwing her arms around his neck, leaving Natalya off to the side about ready to explode. Elise whispered something and moved her snout towards Alex's, with the husky evidently having no clue how to handle the situation. The now smoldering Natalya growled something vicious at the dingo causing her to back off of Alex, who uneasily said something to her, and she walked away. "... Ooooorrr she could just be another female with a big crush on Alex..." Leah commented. Also just like Natalya used to be. She would pull that same kind of shit while Alex was with me, and as bad as I felt for her, part of me believed that she kind of deserved it. But Leah did see something that worried me, "Steffie... (God dammit I hated when she called me that) Did you see the way she approached Alex? She was really confident about it. I think she was either drunk, or she was used to kissing him. Alex wouldn't... cheat, would he?" No, he wouldn't do that, right? I mean, even when I dated him and Natalya was all over him, he never gave in. They started up like, right after I broke up with him, but still. He was a good enough boyfriend to not let himself go.

Whatever, I didn't really even know anymore, and frankly I didn't care that much. All I could tell was that Alex spent the last couple minutes before he had to go backstage consoling his ticked girlfriend. Once Natalya calmed down, they exchanged their stupid lengthy "I love you"s with their dumb Russian pet-names, and they kissed and proceeded to look like the same fucking perfect couple they always appeared.

With only a few minutes before the start of the show, Natalya walked with Leah and I to the audience floor, getting pretty close to the stage. Natalya had assured us that "Alexei and I had talked about this before. There's no way he's being unfaithful, especially not with a fucking cunt like her." Both Leah and I were taken a bit off guard by her strong language, but the supposedly dumb (I really wasn't so sure anymore) Leah deftly changed the subject, bringing up how crowded the place was. And oh my was it packed. There was barely enough room to breathe on the floor. Somehow Jen had caught up to us, wading her way through the mass of furs, her fluffy snow white arctic fox fur still sticking out in the crowd. She tossed her black hair out of her entrancing bright green eyes and over her shoulder, commented she had no idea Hawt Proxy was this popular. Honestly speaking, neither did we. This was the biggest draw I'd ever seen, and they weren't even playing their own stuff that night; they were doing a dozen covers.

It's not even like people showed up by coincidence. From what we could overhear from other furs' conversations, almost everyone had come just to see the band. Most were there for the quality of the music, but I still remember one random fur Natalya talked to. The vixen asked the stranger, a puma in her early twenties, why she came, and she admitted that her friend told her the husky guitarist was really hot, and she wanted to see for herself. Natalya stared at her tight-lipped and eye twitching for a second or two, then said amiably, "He is very hot. But unfortunately for you, he's already spoken for." "Oh really? Who's the lucky girl?" "She's ME." The puma flashed an embarrassed look and turned away quickly as we laughed in the background. Natalya exclaimed, "God, WHY is everyone after Alexei? It's not like the other members of the band aren't attractive." The rest of us laughed even more heartily at her distress. We weren't actually trying to be mean or anything; her reactions were just too funny.

Looking around, I asked curiously where Kim was, and Jen relayed to us that she stayed back at a table and that she didn't want to get up close to the action with us. We all looked at each other, all feeling the same sentiment, and I finally spoke up, "Yeah. She really needs to go." The other three girls nodded, and before we could continue talking, the lights went dark in the room, and I remember we could hear the faint hum of the amplifiers over the roar of the crowd...