Page 54 of Broken Chorus

“None taken,” Micah replied. “I happen to agree.”

“But it’s not….” Aaron attempted to protest as he backed away from Hawk’s grasp.

“Whatever it’s lacking, we’ll find when we start adding out pieces in,” Kelly said. “This just proves that what you accidentally recorded the other night was no fluke. If you still have doubts, let’s ask our audience who should be signing for this band.”

“Aaron!” Cade said immediately, Rebecka chiming in beside him as the kids all pointed to their uncle.

Hawk saw Aaron’s throat working like he was having a hard time swallowing, the tears in his eyes shimmering even beneath the low lights they had on. “The jury has spoken. Now finishsinging the rest of the songs the same way you just sung that one.”

The tip of Aaron’s tongue darted out, licking his upper lip as he nodded and let Hawk take the acoustic from him.

From that point forward, he didn’t shy away from the songs, or letting them hear his voice, he gave his all, though interacting was still a struggle, even with Kelly. Hawk chalked it up to the trouble they’d been having lately and knew they’d work it out now that Aaron was peeking his head out of his shell and Kelly knew the things he was mentally struggling with. He also trusted that Aaron could forge bonds with the new members of the band too, though it might take some time, and a little bit of grace on Declan’s part. After seeing the way Aaron inched towards Micah and began interacting with him on the final three songs, he could see Declan getting frustrated again, mostly because Aaron never once looked in his direction. If it had been Jason back there, he’d have climbed up on the speaker and headbanged while playing beside the drum kit, the two of them interacting with looks and smiles and little nods that usually signaled that they were shifting into a different mode.

He'd get there. Hawk had faith that he could as long as no one pushed too hard, because pushing was starting to cause Aaron to unravel, and Hawk would be damned if it went any further than it already had. Whatever secrets Aaron was keeping, Hawk was convinced that they were wrapped up in the music, or more specifically, singing. He’d have to ask Kelly, see if he knew more, since they’d been thick as thieves since childhood, while Hawk had gone to different schools as a kid, not being funneled into the same one as them until they were teenagers and Aaron had gotten himself kicked out of the only private school in the county. It had been the start of Aaron’s open rebellion against the people who’d been raising him, but Hawk knew there was more that his lover never spoke about. He’d been content toleave it alone, since Aaron had sworn up and down that he and Kelly were making more of the things Aaron had done his best to hide. Only now he wasn’t so sure.

Stubborn bastard.

One day, he’d have the truth, if only to be certain that there weren’t any more landmines to be stepped on in their relationship. They’d created enough of them over the years, all on their own, without needing any old ones added into the mix.

The moment Aaron’s guitar was out of his hands, Ella rushed him, followed by Liam and Dani, who hugged his legs. Ella he scooped up and hugged.

“You were awesome!” She declared with all of the enthusiasm of an exuberant seven-year-old. “Rock on, dude!”

“We’re all gonna rock on,” Aaron said with a hint of a growl.

He’d stopped ducking his head and instead, turned towards Kelly with the kids still clinging to him.

“Don’t put your bass away yet, we’ve got one more song to do.”

“We’ve played all the ones we’ve practiced,” Kelly said, looking completely confused while Aaron reached out and placed a hand on Micah’s case to keep him from opening it.

“We need you too,” Aaron said, “And we’re definitely going to need a beat.”

Where Declan had been about to tuck his sticks away, now he froze, stunned at being asked to take part in whatever it was. Even Hawk was clueless, until Aaron inclined his head towards his green electric and Hawk realized exactly what he had in mind.

“Hey guys,” Aaron said as he set Ella down so he could kneel and be at eye level with the other two. “Do you still remember your parts to the Itsy Bitsy- Spider?”

“Itsy-bity, itsy-bity,” Dani chimed while Liam growledSpider.

“That’s perfect!”

“And I sing down four times!” Ella declared.

“You sure do.”

Hawk pulled his phone from his pocket to find the page he’d saved with the notes, then shared it with Kelly, who sent it to Micah and Declan. They studied it while Aaron lowered mic stands for the kids and positioned each one to face their audience of two. Out of the corner of his eye, Hawk saw Cade shake his head, but he was smiling and staring at Aaron with a look he wasn’t sure he wanted to spend too much time analyzing, considering the way Aaron had been staring at him earlier. A part of him wanted to ask about it, but the rest, yeah, he didn’t need to know. He was the one who’d thrown him and Aaron’s relationship into limbo, he didn’t get to ask about it now anymore than he should have given ultimatums about Kazzy. He was just glad that little attempt at a power play hadn’t blown the fuck up in his face.

“Alright guys!” Aaron growled like he was revving up the crowd at Rocktoberfest, it’s Itsy-Bitsy time!”

He played a stunning, improved riff to kick things off, and then they were singing, the kids playing their parts beautifully. Micah improvised on one section, which morphed into dueling guitars when Hawk and Aaron decided to get in on the action. Declan threw in a few drum flourishes, and Kelly popped the beat on the bass, leaving them with a lively, growly, bad-ass version of the song that the kids loved. In between their parts they were jumping up and down and singing along, even adding three claps in between rotations. As if the wings and the stamp set Kelly had set them up with while they were getting everything in the music room set up to have space for an audience, weren’t messy enough, now they were sweaty, even in the low lights. They’d need a trip through the tub, and soon, shit, it was rapidly approaching eight.

Almost their bedtime too, but before Hawk could figure out how to extract them from the fun without coming across as the worst uncle in the history of uncles, Aaron clapped his hands.

“And that’s a wrap. Thank you all for coming to our show, please stay tuned for the next family night where I’m sure we’ll introduce something new and exciting for your listening pleasure. Until then, I’m Aaron and these are the Itty-bity Chaos Machines. If you enjoyed what you heard here tonight, don’t hesitate to drop by our YouTube channel where we’ll be posting all our latest songs.”

He waved, then took the kids’ hands and lead them in a bow, before leading them right out of the music room. Talk about a mic drop without anything getting broken. Hawk followed and heard Dani declare that singing was hard work, while Ella flopped dramatically against the couch like a Hollywood starlet, back of her hand pressed to her forehead while she sighed dramatically.

“I need a nap!” Ella declared.

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