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Acara didn't sleep at all that night. Her mind just wouldn't calm down, and her thoughts were making her sick. She had read Alessando's song over and over, each time feeling worse about how she yelled at him, but not being brave enough to tell him what was going on. She had even tried to call Hunter and Nathan, but neither of them answered. The feline had realized this time she was alone, she couldn't get her friends help.

By seven in the morning, Acara had her thoughts pinned down and managed to make some sense of things. She had a vague idea of what she must do, and the feline dreaded it. The best course of action was to waste no time. By eight she was dressed and walking down the hallway.

Knock, knock. Acara held her breath and waited. Paws were heard padding across the carpet, the handle squeaked and the door opened. "Trent I'm...ready to talk now." She sounded defeated. Defeated and scared. The feline felt the dog's blue eyes bore into her; she practically sensed his anger from the day before. Regardless of that he still stepped aside to let her in. For a long moment, neither of them said anything. Trent stared at her and Acara looked at the floor. "I'm..." she sighed, "I'm sorry for yelling at you. I just..."

"I understand." Trent sounded just as nervous, and the same tiredness hung in his voice. He must have not gotten any sleep either. "I didn't know why you were mad at me. Now I do. You have every right."

Acara's face fell. "I didn't handle it right," she mumbled. "Listen. I thought about this." She took a deep breath. "I'm going to try and, and forgive you. I'll keep the baby but..." the cat finally looked up and made eye contact, "You have to stop drinking and all that stuff."

A small smiled crossed Trents muzzle. "I'm, heh, already working on that. I haven't taken anything since yesterday." It was quite apparent that he was telling the truth. The canine looked visibly sick, and Acara figured that might be why he had no sleep. "And I know it's been a problem with the band... and it's been messing up performances..." Trent added, not knowing what else to say.

The feline leaned against the wall, her eyes examining Trent, realizing for the first time that he was in bad shape. Her younger, teenage self was invading her brain, freaking out for a moment. The part of her that was madly in love with him. The part of her that would do anything just to get his autograph. She had to take a deep breath to calm herself. Acara was actually glad that part of her was still there, even after what had happened. Trent was such a big part of her life before all of this. Now that she thought about it, it was depressing she had shit listed her idol.

"You can sit if you want." The canine's low voice kicked the feline out of her thoughts. Acara nervously padded across the room to sit down by the little coffee table, her tail twitching nervously. Trent wasn't looking at her, he was to busy trying to calm himself. His urge to take a hit of something, anything, was overpowering his senses, Acara could tell. She stood back up and sat next to him, wrapping an arm around his back to comfort him. "What are you doing?" Trent asked, turning to face her.

"I..." Acara sighed. "You're struggling."

"I'm fine." He grumbled. That was a lie; it was an all to obvious one. "I think I just need to get outside. Do you want to take a walk?"

Acara nodded, eager to get out of the stuffy hotel room. "Sure."

Acara and Trent ended up at Vigelandsparken. Acara had gone here the last time she visited Oslo, and loved it. The park contained hundreds of statues by Gustav Vigeland. The most amazing of them all was a huge column of naked bodies that looked as if they were rising up toward heaven. That's were the two furs stood, just staring up at it in awe. Even though she had been here already, the feline still couldn't get over its size and detail. Trent was also amazed with it, his tail wagging slightly behind him.

The two had managed to find some sort of peace here. There was virtually no one around, except for a few tour groups. A few times Acara had run off to chase a magpie, something that caused Trent to smile. The canine was starting to notice that once she started to relax she became a lot less uptight and more carefree. He found it cute. He was starting to feel better also, the walk and calmness of the out doors had completely distracted him from withdrawal.

After their little tour of the park, Trent brought Acara to a small caf� near the city's center. The feline had managed to get her emotions under some control, and could now talk to the musician calmly. She actually felt content, a feeling that she almost forgot existed. Acara was happy. Her and Trent actually got along well, even though that one night still haunted her. No matter how hard she tried the fear was still stalking right behind. But she was trying, that's what mattered.

Trent felt the same way, he was surprised how well he got along with the feline. But somehow, that fact wasn't making him feel better. It only made him regret what he had done even more. He'd deal with that later, however. The Weimaraner watched Acara sip her coffee, a small smile on her muzzle, her tail flicking back and forth, it was good to finally see her like this. "So how'd you get into music?" Trent asked lowly, continuing their conversation.

Acara let out a small laugh, "Well, when I was in elementary school a group of us were picked to go to some assembly. They showed us all the orchestra and band instruments and we had to pick what we'd like to play. I picked bass because it was the biggest, and I thought it was important." She could clearly remember her fathers face when she had told him she was going to play an instrument. He was overjoyed. But then she dropped the fact that it was a double bass, and her dad went into shock. "And then I picked up electric bass later on, and it all went from there."

"So you play electric and double?" Trent said fascinated, "And you said you're a music business major?" Acara nodded. "That's cool. Well, at least you won't have to worry about getting a job when you graduate." The feline cocked her head. "Well, you know. I mean, if you want to keep working with us."

"Of course! If Rob wants to keep me that is," she replied quickly.

"Its not up to Rob," Trent laughed. "Finish up you're last semester. I'll have a job ready for you." The canine went to say something else, but his phone rang. "Fuck, hold on." He picked it up and answered with an annoyed, �Hello.' Trent listened and suddenly his face went from concerned to panicked. "What?" He growled, "How did he fucking do that?" Acara gulped, great something was wrong. "No! How are we going to cancel the show? Fuck, fine I'm coming." Trent shoved the phone in his pocket and quickly stood up. "Sorry, we need to get to the arena, Jeordie broke his god damn paw!"

"What?" Now it was Acara's turn to panic. "But sound check is in a few hours! There is no way you can cancel the show, we don't have time to go back! What did he do?"

The two shared their fear all the way to the arena. When they got there Josh was banging his sticks on the wall, board, Robin was pacing around, Jeordie was sitting down looking miserable and Alessandro was no where in sight. The fox gulped when he saw the canines sharp glare. "So... I fell down the stairs of the hotel last night when I was drunk."

"God damn you Jeordie!" Trent growled, "We have to do this show tonight! Is there any way you can play?"

Jeordie shook his head, "We just tried, I can't man."

Trent was about to let out a stream of curses when Rob and Alessandro walked in. The red panda saw Acara and his heart sank, but his face showed no emotion. The dragon, on the other hand, looked angry. "Everyone stop arguing and lets come up with a civil idea over what to do." He had obviously heard the canine yelling.

"Well, we have to cancel the show!" Trent snapped. "We can't get anyone to fill his spot... in... hey!" Why hadn't he thought of this sooner! The front man was staring at feline. "Acara. Shit, you play bass!" He grinned, starting to feel relieved already. At this discovery, the rest of the band was staring at her.

"N-No, I couldn't fill in for Jeordie. I haven't practiced in months!" She backed up nervously.

Trent shook his head, "No, you told me you had all of the songs memorized. Grab Jeordies bass and get on stage, we're doing sound check."

"But..." Fuck. Trent had already walked onto the stage. The rest of the band shrugged and followed, except Ally. He stared at her a moment longer, confused as to what was going on between her and Trent. Acara gave him a weak smile. He just sighed in response and walked off.

The entire band was shocked. They just finished practicing the first four songs of the set, and Acara had them all nailed. It was like she had been playing with the band all her life. Jeordie stood off to the side, nervous. He hoped this wouldn't become something permanent. The fox watched as they went into the next song, almost jealous at the way her fingers flew across the strings, getting the perfect tone and not missing a note. Jeordie knew he wasn't the best bass player in the world, but this actually got him uptight. How could some totally new, completely unknown intern come in and just completely outshine him? But for right now he had no say in the matter, he was the one that broke his paw after all.

Acara, on the other hand, was realizing how glad she was that she was forced into this. She hadn't played in months, and holding a bass again just made her felt complete. All the notes were just flowing out of her; she couldn't believe she still had everything memorized even though she hasn't practiced. Her body moved with the music and her tail flicked back and forth to the beat. At the moment, she could have been playing any other gig. It still didn't strike her that she was playing with Nine Inch Claws.

Trent was impressed, he was really impressed. Acara really didn't say anything about her playing abilities, only that she played for fun. But she held down the bass nicely, adding her own little quirk to the music in the process. If he had closed his eyes, he would have pictured a wolf playing the instrument. A big wolf, with muscles, an evil snarl, someone that he wouldn't want to mess with. Every time he glanced at Acara he was always amazed to see the small feline with innocent green eyes and fluffy brown hair. Trent couldn't help himself; he smiled softly as he sang. She really was something, and he was glad he didn't notice that too late.

Alessandro was not oblivious. He saw Trent flash that little smile, saw him staring at her. If he could, the panda would have smashed the keyboard over the Weimaraner's head. He hit the keys harder then he should, his playing sounding as livid as he was. He felt like he had every right to be angry. It seemed Acara had left him for the front man. His ears flattened back against his head as he watched Trent. This had to be his fault, he had to have said something to her, threatened her. Ally was going to fix the situation. Acara was in danger around the canine, after what he had done to her in the past the red panda didn't trust him one bit.

The band went though every song on the set list with only a few mistakes on Acara's end. As they were putting the instruments away, Robin and Josh came over to the feline to compliment her. A deep blush grew under her fur; that was the last thing she expected. To Acara, she played mediocre at best. But here were two extremely talented musicians just bombarding her with compliments.

"That fill you did in Terrible Lie sounded great!" Josh grinned, drumming on his legs as he spoke. "Fit in perfectly."

"Yeah," the raptor agreed, nodding his head eagerly. "It's like you add a ton with out putting yourself in the spotlight. Fuck if I knew you could get a tone like that. You've been holding out on us!"

Acara went to speak but she was interrupted by the monkey. "I know! Do you have any other hidden talents? Can you play like, hell, I don't know. You should learn some Rush shit, that would be epic."

"Actually, I can play a lot of Rush songs. I love Geddy." Acara bushed even more, she wasn't used to this.

"No shit!" Josh grinned. "Stop holding out on us, girl!" Finally the two walked away, talking gleefully about that night's performance. The cat let out a sigh of relief; she really didn't think she was that good. As she made her way backstage Acara felt a paw on her shoulder.

"You did well." It was Trent's voice. "I'm really impressed. Just amp it up for the show, to be afraid to run around the stage and cause hell." The feline noticed a slight tremble in his voice. She turned to look at the canine. His ears drooped and he had a far away look in his eyes.

"Are you ok?" She asked softly.

"Fine, just... you know." He sighed and walked off; he didn't want to be seen like that.

Acara did know. Maybe it wasn't a good idea for Trent to go clean during the tour. He'd only be getting sicker, and that would make each performance worse. But at the same time, the feline didn't want to have to deal with a drugged up canine. She let out a guilty sigh, it seemed things started to fix itself but then she fell headlong into another problem. Not only was it horrible to see anyone like that, it was also partially her responsibility. She had to help make sure each show happened, and to its fullest potential. Acara knew the last few weeks of the tour was going to be hell.

Show time. The nerves were grating down on Acara. After sound check she had run back to the hotel to get a change of clothes. She had to fit in with the band after all. The feline was glad she packed some of her �goth' clothes. Acara still had her pair of leather pants, and managed to find at the bottom of her bag a tight black shirt with red trim, D-rings on the shoulders with a low cut. She got a few stares on her way back to the arena.

But now the feline was backstage pacing around nervously. Josh and Robin both tried to calm her down, but that didn't work. The feline had tried desperately to talk with Alessandro, but the Red Panda just shrugged her off. It made her feel even worse. Trent wasn't talking to anyone, so the cat just left him alone. He didn't look good; he needed to rest before he went on stage.

The minutes ticked down to seconds, and all too quickly the feline found herself with the bass in hand waiting on the edge of the stage. She knew the format so well that she probably could have done this blindly. She knew exactly when to run out on stage, exactly when to hit the first note. But she was shaking worse then a Chihuahua in a blizzard. She clutched the next of the bass, breathing in short gasps. Ally stood next to her, just waiting impatiently, his tail flicking back and forth with annoyance.

The lights dimed, it was time. Acara heard Robin play his first chord and then suddenly, she was on stage. She didn't remember walking; she just suddenly appeared, playing her part nervously. The gate in front of her started to rise up; she could barely see the audience, which gave her some comfort. The final note of the intro rung out, Acara knew what was coming.

There was an explosion of blinding white lights around her. Trent ran to the center of the stage, grabbing his mic and screaming out the lyrics to �March of the Pigs.' Acara felt frozen in place, playing the notes aggressively but too nervous to let the energy out. The lights illuminated some of the furs faces, most of them rocking out and moshing, a few staring at her. Of course, no one would know who this strange new bassist was. The feline closed her eyes as they reached the end of the first chorus, she had to pull herself together, and do it quickly. What good was she if she could play good but looked like a robot? The feline took in a big breath of air. She could do this. She had to do this.

The music kicked back in, and this time Acara was ready for it. She tried to remember how she felt back home when she played. She remembered the adrenalin rush, the feeling of power that came with letting herself go into the music. And that's what she did. Acara let each note wash over her, empower her. The beat drove her, the lyrics pushed her.

Trent started singing again, and this time Acara was ready. She sprang up into the air, hitting the notes as hard as she could. The feline landed and head banged, and then looked up at the Raptor who looked rather surprised. She grinned and he grinned back, then they both darted across the stage, switching sides. Acara's ears twitched, she could barely hear the crowd screaming above the music. She snarled, looking up at them, her body moving in time with the beat just like during sound check. The feline then moved back to her side of the stage, her and Robin looked at each other, snarling. Then the raptor sprung up into the air, managing to jump clean over the cat to get back to his side of the stage right before the end of the second chorus.

The rest of the concert continued like this, Acara gave it her all once she got over the nerves. She and Robin messed around, charging each other, playing back to back and playing glaring at each other. The feline never realized that they had such chemistry, and from what she saw of the audience they ate it up. At some point Trent introduced her, and Acara could barely remember what he said. Something about Jeordie hurting himself, and her coming to the rescue. It was short and simple, completely expected out of the canine. He never spoke much to the audience.

Trent and Acara had their moments on stage together also. They had locked eyes during �The Fragile,' something that made the feline quiver. She had completely avoided Alessandro, and from what she could tell he didn't look at her the entire show. It caused her to growl at one point on stage. What crawled up his ass?

Like all things, the Nine Inch Claws show in Oslo had to come to an end. Acara felt like she could have kept playing for hours, even though her fur was drenched in sweat and her hair stuck to her face. The last song they always played was �Hurt' and it was strange for the feline to be on the stage for it, rather then in the audience waving around a lighter on the verge of tears. Though, now the song was even more powerful to the feline since she was the one creating the music for it. Acara had to bite her lip as she played, she wanted to cry. This song always made her cry. Somehow she managed to hold it back, how embarrassing would it be to cry on stage, even though...

Acara turned to look towards Trent. He was playing the piano, muzzle against the microphone. He sang softly, his voice cracking a bit as he sang the lyrics for what could have been the thousandth time. Her green eyes narrowed in on the canines face. She could see tears, he was crying. Acara looked down at the floor, biting her lip still. That was all it took, and now she felt a tear trickle down her fur.

The final chord rung out over the audience. The show was over, Acara had survived. Not only that, but she played on stage in an arena with her favorite band of all time. (The feline had finally swallowed her pride and admitted to herself that NIC was still her favorite band. She loved them for to long to keep them demoted.) The cat and the rest of the band threw picks out into the audience, and then made their way off the stage. Acara put the bass down on the rack and let out a sigh of relief. Now she was exhausted.

"Acara!" She jumped when she felt leathery arms pull her into a hug. "Fuck! I needed that! I haven't interacted with anyone on stage like that in ages!" Robin was all out of breath, but that didn't slow his excitement. "We need to jam when we get back home. I mean it. We really will."

Acara blushed and whipped the sweat from her eyes. "Uh... s-sure Robin." She gave him a big grin.

The raptor let go of her and pat her on the head. "Now go take a shower, you need one!" He laughed and darted off backstage.

Next, Trent came up next to her, his fur soaked just like her own. "Hey," he said softly, "Good job." The feline looked up at him; he still had streaks on his cheeks from when he was crying.

"Thanks," she replied softly. Her tail twitched behind her as she walked, and she suddenly got butterflies in her stomach. But deep in her mind, she still felt the dread. "It was fun."

Trent smiled, "Good, because we're going to need you for the next week of shows." The canine patted her on the back, "So you better get some sleep tonight." He gave her a soft smile then walked away.

Acara was alone now. She walked over to where the showers were backstage and eagerly stripped off her clothes and stepped into the soothing water. She actually felt relaxed. A small smile grew on her muzzle, and then quickly turned into a large grin. Yeah, she felt happy. She felt fantastic. The feline had just played to a huge audience. She had just played a show she had practiced for once, and the same day as the performance. She had sucked it up, acted like an adult and was working things out with Trent. She didn't have to fear the man she had idolized anymore. There was still doubt, it still haunted her, but she could work on that right?

Acara ran her paws over her hair and let out a sigh. Maybe things were finally starting to look up for her.