Kids Inc | You’re the One That I Want [I]: I’ve Done Everything for You

[luxken27fics]

Title: You’re the One That I Want
Author: LuxKen27
Fandom: Kids Incorporated
Universe: Season 1
Genre: Friendship, Romance
Rating: T
Summary: Mickey didn’t realize just how much Gloria had come to mean to him until it was almost too late.

Author’s Note: A (much belated) gift for gloriafan's fandom_stocking. This story was also written for a prompt in my 2012 Summer Mini Challenge table. Further author’s notes can be found here.

DISCLAIMER: The Kids Incorporated concept, storyline, and characters are © 1984 – 1993 Thomas Lynch/Gary Biller/MGM Television/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment/Disney Channel. Any resemblance to any person currently living or deceased is unintended (i.e., I am writing about the characters, not the actors who portray them). No money is being made from the creation of this material. No copyright infringement is intended.

---

I.
I’ve Done Everything for You
The day after Gloria joined Kids Incorporated, all of the other band members quit.

It blindsided Mickey, of course.

He arrived at the Garage for their afternoon practice, only to find Danny and Chris sitting on the curb outside, wearing matching sullen expressions. His heart started to thud heavily in his chest when he spotted them, and he slowed his step. “Hey, guys – what’s going on?” he called out, unable to completely smooth the trepidation out of his voice.

Danny and Chris exchanged a long look. “We’re quitting the band,” Danny announced, rising to his full height and crossing his arms over his chest. Chris hurriedly followed, mirroring his best friend’s movements.

Mickey gaped at them. “What?!” he yelped. “Why?!”

“You know we never wanted a girl in our band,” Chris sneered. “And it’s not like Gloria even asked – she just horned in on us, on stage, and declared herself a member!” He huffed a peeved sigh. “Whatever happened to the rest of us having a say?”

Mickey pressed his fists into his hips. “But she’s the reason we even have a regular gig, or did you guys forget that?” he returned.

“We would’ve won that audition, even without her,” Danny grumbled, frowning furiously.

Mickey eyed the two of them for a long moment, tension rising fast and thick in the air around them. He wasn’t about to give up on the band he’d worked so long and hard to put together, but he truly didn’t understand why Danny and Chris were suddenly opposed to Gloria’s joining them. Danny especially – he’d taken Gloria to their school dance that same evening, and seemed to be having the time of his life with her.

Not that Mickey was watching them or anything…

“I thought you guys liked Gloria,” he said, lifting a brow as he looked pointedly at Danny.

The blond-haired boy flushed under Mickey’s scrutiny. “Yeah, well, you were wrong,” he shot back hotly, the defensive brace of his arms tightening across his chest.

Chris rolled his eyes. “I never liked her,” he declared. “I was opposed from the start.”

“Hey guys,” piped up a new voice. “What’s going on?”

The trio turned, noticing their erstwhile drummer approaching, his expression lit with confusion as he gazed at them.

“We’re quitting the band, TJ,” Chris informed him, grabbing Danny’s arm. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“Wait!” Mickey cried, making a move to block their path. “Don’t I at least deserve to know the real reason you’re leaving?”

“It’s like we told you,” Danny insisted, scowling fiercely as he glared at Mickey. “Girls are a real drag.” He and Chris pushed past Mickey and started in the opposite direction from the Garage, neither one looking back as they stiffly walked away.

“Yikes,” TJ breathed, watching them go. “I guess Danny’s really mad that Gloria wouldn’t let him kiss her after the dance.”

Mickey’s jaw dropped as he faced his last remaining male bandmate. “What?” he groused, his eyes narrowing. “That’s what this is about?”

TJ shrugged. “I guess,” he replied carelessly. “He’s had a thing for her for ages, and he really put the moves on her. Didn’t you notice that he hardly left her side at the dance?”

Mickey’s mouth snapped shut. “Why would I notice something like that?” he queried coolly, feeling a traitorous flush creeping up the back of his neck.

TJ snorted. “I guess you were the only one, then,” he responded. “It was all over the dance. I heard it from Dwayne, who heard from Jennifer that Danny tried to kiss her when he took her home, and Gloria totally shot him down. Danny was pretty upset, and I guess he still is.”

Sounds like she has good taste to me, Mickey thought, his expression turning wry. Still, he couldn’t believe Chris and Danny would be so petty as to quit the band over something like this. “Jerks,” he muttered under his breath.

TJ eyed him curiously. “Now what are we going to do?” he asked. “We’re supposed to play our first show tonight at the Malt Shop!”

Mickey’s heart sank. “I don’t know,” he admitted with a frustrated sigh. “I guess we’ll have to cancel the gig.”

“Cancel?!” TJ squeaked in a horrified voice. “But won’t they fire us if we don’t show up?”

“Probably,” Mickey snapped back irritably, closing his arms across his chest. “Though that’d make Mike happy,” he grumbled as an afterthought. “He only wanted Gloria anyway.”

“Then tell her to sing tonight,” TJ suggested, visibly hurt by Mickey’s harsh reply to his innocent question. “By herself.”

Mickey rolled his eyes. “What good’ll that do?” he asked sarcastically. “She’s a member of our band.”

TJ narrowed a glare at him. “You know, I’m beginning to see why Danny and Chris wanted out,” he returned, clasping his drumsticks in both hands. “You used to be pretty cool, Mickey, but ever since Gloria inserted herself into our band – you know, the one we started, without her? All you’ve done is defend her. Why does she matter more than the rest of us?”

“I didn’t say that,” Mickey shot back, working hard to control his temper. He took a deep breath. “Look, what good would it do for only her to play the gig? It should be all of us, or none of us. We’re a band, we stick together!”

“Two singers and drummer? That’s not a band.” TJ shook his head. “Face it, Mickey – Kids Incorporated is over.” His shoulders fell as he turned, tucking his drumsticks into his back pocket as he started to walk away.

“Wait a minute!” Mickey exclaimed, calling after him. “Where are you going?”

TJ looked back. “To find Danny and Chris,” he replied, a sad note in his voice. “Maybe we can be a real band again.”

Mickey could only stare after TJ as he turned away, continuing down the sidewalk at a sedated pace.

Mickey whirled around, forming and raising a fist and slamming it down against the brick façade of the Garage. Pain instantly lanced his hand, but he paid it no heed. He felt completely, totally, utterly gutted at the loss of his bandmates, all for such dumb reasons. They’d worked so long and hard to get this far – and now, on the brink of real success, everyone else had deserted him.

Tears welled behind his eyes. He leaned against the wall, cradling his aching fist against his chest.

“Mickey!” cried a breathless voice.

He straightened, still holding his hand, and suppressed his tears as a range of footsteps pounded towards him.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” the voice continued, thin and reedy under heavy huffs of breath, “but I thought I’d never get away from my piano teacher. She made me stay and play the same piece five times.” A hand touched his shoulder. “…Mickey?”

He swallowed hard, forcing his mouth to form some semblance of a smile as he turned to look at his new companion. “Hi, Gloria,” he greeted her.

Her eyes were wide as she gazed at him, her breath finally recovering. “What’s wrong?” she asked after a moment. “Why are you standing out here?” She noticed the hand he still held protectively, her hand shifting from his shoulder to reach out for it. “Are you okay?”

He pulled away from her. “Yeah,” he replied, opening his hand and shaking it gently. The remnants of the pain pulsated up the length of his arm, but he shrugged it off with another forced smile. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

Gloria furrowed her brow. “I thought we had band practice at four,” she murmured, a slight blush rising to her cheeks as she glanced down at her watch. “Was I wrong? Am I late?”

“No,” Mickey sighed. “We were supposed to rehearse this afternoon.” His eyes fell away from her, fixating to a point on the sidewalk just past her sneakers.

“So what’s the problem?” Gloria asked pleasantly. She looked around. “Where’s everybody else?”

“Gone,” Mickey murmured.

Gloria sucked in a breath. “Already?” she asked sheepishly. “So I was late – I’m sorry, I’m still trying to balance my schedule.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s not that. I mean – they’re gone for good.”

Gloria’s jaw dropped. “What?!” she cried, well and truly shocked by the news. “What happened?!”

Mickey shrugged, lowering himself to sit on the curb. He tried to think fast – no way was he going to tell her that she was the reason his stupid bandmates had abandoned them. He wouldn’t know what to do if she started crying, and he didn’t want the chance to find out. “They’re all moving,” he said abruptly.

Gloria sat beside him, clasping her arms around her knees. “All of them?” she questioned softly.

He glanced at her, taking in her puzzled expression. Her curly brown hair framed her pretty face, her eyes wide with concern – and skepticism. His stomach churned, but still, he couldn’t bring himself to tell her the truth.

Finally, he nodded, swallowing hard. “Yeah,” he replied. “All of them.”

Gloria’s gaze fell to her lap. “Whoa,” she intoned. “This really sucks.”

“Yeah,” Mickey agreed glumly. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”

“What we’re gonna do,” she corrected him lightly. “And I do know – we’re going to start another band.”

Mickey swiveled towards her in disbelief. “What? With who?”

Gloria chewed on her lower lip, looking thoughtful. “I don’t know,” she admitted, “but I’m sure we can find someone.” She offered him a hopeful smile. “So many people wanted to be in Kids Incorporated – it wasn’t just me.”

Mickey, however, still felt glum. “I don’t know,” he sighed. “It’s really hard to find the right people, and besides…” He shrugged. “We have that gig at the Malt Shop – well, we did.”

“So we’ll give it up,” she replied, laying a tentative hand on his arm. “But we’ll find another one. The Malt Shop isn’t the only place in town looking for a band, you know.”

He frowned. “No, I didn’t know,” he murmured. “Where else is there to play, where actual kids hang out?”

Gloria shrugged. “You know, they’re restoring the old Coco Club,” she mused.

Mickey rolled his eyes. “Yeah,” he sighed, pushing himself to his feet and folding his arms over his chest. “But I doubt they’ll let kids play there.”

“So we’ll find someplace else!” Gloria suggested brightly, rising as well. “Come on, Mickey, don’t give up!” she cajoled. “You’re too good to not have a band.”

Mickey felt heartened by her belief in him. Who knows, he thought, maybe it won’t be so hard to put together another group… “Okay,” he relented with a smile, “we can give it a shot. But – who can we get to sing with us?”

The two of them lost themselves in thought, though Mickey kept drawing blanks. He’d invited Chris and Danny and TJ to be in his band precisely because they were the best musicians he knew. He glanced covertly at Gloria, hoping that she’d have better luck coming up with viable alternatives.

“I’ve got it,” she announced, startling him. “Renee and Stacy.”

Mickey’s heart sank. “Those pushy sisters?” he snorted skeptically.

Gloria fixed him with a teasing glare. “Oh, come on Mickey, they’re pretty good,” she coaxed with a smile. “Besides, what could it hurt to at least ask them?”

“You mean, besides my reputation?” he replied. “Me, with a group of girls? I’d never live it down!”

Gloria narrowed her eyes, clasping her hands on her hips as she gave him a calculating stare.

“Okay, okay, okay,” Mickey relented, throwing his hands up in defeat. “We can at least consider them.”

Gloria grinned, clasping her hands together with delight.

Mickey tried not to let her display of triumph bother him. “Do either of them play any instruments?” he asked pointedly.

That brought her back down to earth. “Well, no,” she admitted, rushing to add, “But we do – you play the guitar, right? And I play piano. We could teach them!”

That idea appealed to him about as much as eating ground glass. “We’d still need a drummer,” he countered.

Gloria seemed so absolutely enchanted with their burgeoning roster that she didn’t even notice the sour note in his voice. “So we’ll find another guy!” she laughed. “Come on, Mickey, have a little faith.” Her eyes sparkled. “Kids Incorporated will rise again, better than ever!”

He wished he had half her certainty. “If you say so…” he muttered, suppressing another urge to roll his eyes.

~*~
Amazingly, the auditions went better than he expected – at least as far as singers went.

Gloria brought the sisters to the Garage that following Monday afternoon. Renee and Stacy trailed behind her, their eyes wide with awe as they took in the cavernous practice space. Mickey had summoned every shred of patience as the girls descended the steps; the best he could hope for, he considered, was for them to not be totally tone deaf.

Boy, was he surprised.

Renee went first, standing in the middle of the space, clutching her microphone between clammy hands and watching Gloria anxiously as the older girl turned on the tape she’d brought along. She absolutely transformed under the music, however, her anxiety melting away as she swayed along with the peppy rhythm of her chosen track – “Mickey,” by Toni Basil.

Even Mickey had to crack a smile at this calculated ploy.

“Pretty good, Renee,” he acknowledged appreciatively when she swooped to a finish.

She beamed triumphantly at him before pressing the microphone into her younger sister’s hands and prancing out of the spotlight.

Little blond-haired, blue-eyed Stacy had none of her sister’s apprehension. She was all smiles as she powered through Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me with Your Best Shot,” with a little bit of help on the harmony from Gloria.

“Not bad, Stace,” he declared, earning a squeal of delight from the eight-year-old.

“So does this mean we get to be in your band?” Renee asked, as direct as ever.

Mickey’s eyes swept across the space, meeting Gloria’s pleading expression above the girls’ heads. He still wasn’t too enthused with the idea of bringing in two kids with no musical experience at all, but he had to admit, they were good. Better than he’d expected, even, by a long shot.

He drew a deep breath. “Yeah, sure, why not?” he replied nonchalantly, only to find himself buried beneath the high-pitched screeches of delight at his decision. Gloria, Renee, and Stacy hugged each other, bouncing around in a tiny circle in the middle of their practice space as they chattered excitedly, and then pounced on him, winding their arms tightly around him and trapping him in their girlish glee.

Not for the first time did Mickey wonder if he’d made the right choice.

~*~
He and the girls met at the Garage every afternoon that week, and the week after. They’d practice with their records instead of live instruments, concentrating on blending their voices together (and getting the lyrics right). There were some minor squabbles over who would sing lead, but otherwise, it was a mostly pleasant experience.

Mickey knew they’d get nowhere without an actual band, however – and it seemed Gloria realized the same thing.

She burst into rehearsal one afternoon, all smiles as she slid into her place on an overturned crate near the stairs. “You guys are never going to believe this!” she exclaimed, hardly able to sit still.

“What?” Mickey asked absently, thumbing through his records, looking for something they hadn’t already worked with.

“You know the P*lace? That soda shop across from the Coco Club?” Gloria bubbled.

“Sure,” Renee replied, tucking her hair behind her ears as she sat back on the piano bench. “What about it?”

Gloria’s eyes sparkled. “Well,” she continued excitedly, “I was just there, and guess what!”

“What?” Mickey inquired again, pulling down a box with his dad’s old cassette tapes and rifling through it.

“They have a stage! And instruments, and everything!” Gloria enthused. “There were even some kids there, fooling around on the instruments.” She sent Mickey a meaningful look. “Some of them were pretty good.”

Mickey shrugged. “So?” he queried blandly, handing a few tapes to Stacy and pointing her in the direction of the tape deck.

“So?!” Gloria echoed incredulously. “So we could totally join up with them, and have a real, live band to back us up!”

Mickey hesitated. “I don’t know,” he hedged. “Do we even know who these kids are? I don’t want just anybody in my band.”

The three girls exchanged a look. “Your band?” they drawled in unison, settling hands on hips in a simultaneous display of disapproval.

Mickey offered them a weak smile. “Our band,” he corrected himself.

Gloria relaxed her guard. “I recognized some of the kids from school,” she told him. “You know, the P*lace isn’t that far from our school – we should check it out one day.”

“They have a stage!” Stacy breathed, clasping her hands together, her voice full of awe. “Imagine being able to perform on an actual stage!”

“Even just for fun,” Renee agreed with a nod.

Gloria grinned at them. “So are we in agreement, girls?” she asked. “We’ll go over there one afternoon?”

“Definitely!” Renee and Stacy chorused excitedly.

“Hey!” Mickey cried indignantly, shooting up from his seat. “Don’t I get a say?”

“Sure you do,” Gloria chided him sweetly. “You can decide when we go over there to meet those other kids!”

~*~
Mickey wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic as the girls about going to the P*lace. He was worried about running into Danny and Chris and TJ, for one thing, and having his whole story about them moving out of town totally blown. Though he wasn’t completely sold on the idea of him and three girls as a viable music group, he wasn’t ready to lose yet another band in the space of two weeks.

Finally, after much pleading and cajoling – and numerous “reminder” notes from Gloria, stuck in the vents of his locker at school – he led the girls through the double glass doors of the P*lace one afternoon. He was pleasantly surprised to see the front room filled with kids, not only from school, but also from the neighborhood. They were clustered together in groups: some were doing homework at the tables, some were clamoring for ice cream and other treats at the counter, and some were up on the stage, playing around with the instruments.

Mickey set off across the room, the girls at his heels, and tried to listen to the low hum of music under the din of conversation that surrounded him. He drew to a halt at the stage steps, eyeing each kid on stage in turn.

“Hi,” he said by way of introduction.

The music immediately stopped. “Hi,” the boy on bass replied hesitantly.

Mickey climbed the steps, the heels of his motorcycle boots landing heavily on the stage. “You guys ever thought of playing a band?” he asked casually, surveying the group as a whole.

“Hey, I know you!” cried the boy on the drum kit, his eyes lighting with recognition. “Aren’t you Mickey, with the Kids Incorporated band?”

Mickey felt himself puff up a little bit at being recognized. “Yeah, that’s me,” he acknowledged, surprised but pleased when the others began to whisper eagerly amongst themselves. He glanced over his shoulder to find three excited smiles on the faces of his bandmates as well.

He turned back to the musicians, shifting his weight to one side and clasping his hands on his hips. “Any of you ever thought about playing in a band?” he asked again, with a bit more authority in his voice.

“With you?” squeaked the girl on keyboards.

“With us,” Mickey replied, gesturing to Gloria, Renee, and Stacy.

The bassist furrowed his brow. “What happened to Kids Incorporated?” he asked in a puzzled voice.

“We are Kids Incorporated,” Renee huffed indignantly.

“Version two,” Gloria added swiftly, clasping Renee’s shoulders and giving her a patient look.

“Oh,” the drummer mused. “Well, I’m Mario, and that’s Aaron,” he added, pointing to the bassist, “and that’s Shanice.” He nodded to the girl on keyboards. “We play together sometimes up here, just for fun, you know.”

“Sure,” Mickey nodded in response. “This is Gloria, and Renee, and Stacy,” he continued, pointing to each girl in turn. “Would you guys be willing to do a number with us?”

The musicians exchanged a glance, coming to a quick agreement. “Sure,” Mario replied. “What did you have in mind?”

Mickey hastily conferred with the girls. “You guys know ‘Jump,’ by Van Halen?” he asked, spying a red guitar next to the keyboards.

Mario grinned. “Sure,” he returned, twirling a drumstick as he watched Mickey pick the guitar up from its stand. “Count us off, Mickey.”

Mickey slid the guitar strap over his head, giving the instrument an experimental strum. Gloria, Renee, and Stacy found a cache of microphones just off stage and brought them out, joining Mickey to form a semicircle near the edge of the stage, the four of them facing the musicians already there.

“One – two – one, two, three, four!” Mickey cried, launching them into the popular rock anthem. Shanice struck the first chords on her keyboard, followed quickly by Mario on the drums, and Aaron completing the rhythm section on bass. Mickey began to sing as he brought in the guitar part, the girls falling into harmony at the chorus. The group’s hesitation melted away as they advanced into the song; they were in full rock-out mode by the guitar solo following the second verse. All of them joined in the reprise to the chorus, sharing excited grins and they began to move with the beat. They ended with a flourish, seven sets of hands shooting up in the air.

“That was amazing!” Stacy cried, clasping her microphone to her chest.

“Totally awesome,” Gloria agreed.

“You guys are pretty good,” Mickey said with a smile, nodding at Mario.

“Pretty good?” boomed a voice from the side of the stage.

Mickey and the girls whirled around to see the counter guy standing there, an approving cast to his expression. “That was more than pretty good,” the man continued, climbing the side steps. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a band on this stage, much less one with any degree of talent.”

“Gee, thanks, Mr. Paulson!” Shanice exclaimed. When she saw Mickey and the girls exchanging confused looks, she explained: “Mr. Paulson is the owner of the P*lace. He also owns all of this amazing equipment!”

“That rarely, if ever, is used,” Mr. Paulson added with a sad sigh. He walked over to Mickey. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen you here before,” he observed, sticking out his hand. “What do you call yourselves?”

“We’re Kids Incorporated,” Mickey replied, taking the owner’s hand and giving it a firm shake.

“Well, Kids Incorporated,” Mr. Paulson said, acknowledging everyone on stage in turn, “how would you like to have a regular afternoon gig, right here at the P*lace?”

Seven jaws dropped at the same time. “Are you serious?!” Renee breathed incredulously.

Mr. Paulson laughed. “Well, of course I’m serious! This stage hasn’t seen the likes of you in twenty, thirty years. It’s a shame to let it sit here, unused. Besides,” he added with a knowing smile, “I like a little music with my ice cream.”

Gloria, Renee, and Stacy rushed up to Mickey with such sudden intensity that he thought they were going to hug him again.

“Can you believe this?!” Stacy cried. “Oh, please, Mickey, say yes!”

“Please, please,” Renee pleaded, clasping her hands together over her microphone. “To the band and everything!”

Gloria simply smiled at him. “Told ya we’d get another gig,” she said playfully, looping her arm through his.

He couldn’t help but smile back. “Okay,” he murmured, holding her gaze for a long moment before looking at the others. He clasped the owner’s hand again. “I say yes – to the band, and the gig!”

Comments

[gloriafan]

Okay, so long comment is long.

First off - we saw so little of the original members in "The Beginning" that it's really hard to pinpoint character traits, but I think that you've done it perfectly. Danny always somehow struck me as obnoxious (perhaps even more so than Mick when it came to the band) and I love the idea that the Malt Shop and the P*lace are different places.

The scene where Mickey punches the brick is arguably one of the best things I've read in KI fanfiction. It shows Mickey exactly how I've always pictured him. He's smooth and calm on the outside, but on the inside he has real emotions. And I also think that bit shows that keeping this band together is a heck of a lot of work, and super ambitious for a bunch of kids.

The names you've given unnamed characters are brilliant (I'm absolute rubbish at inventing names...name generators are just no help sometimes).

Anyway, I'm super excited to see where this goes! I love fic that shows a what we saw in canon from a different perspective.

[luxken27]

Yay! I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter! I have to admit, I was a bit nervous, trying to knit together all these disparate parts of the canon. The show changed so much between the pilot episode and the first season (and then again with adding the scenes with the Kid to the rereleased pilot ep) that it was a lot to wrap my mind around, LOL. Like I said in my notes post, I needed to construct a pre-canon story that made some damn sense :P

First off - we saw so little of the original members in "The Beginning" that it's really hard to pinpoint character traits, but I think that you've done it perfectly. Danny always somehow struck me as obnoxious (perhaps even more so than Mick when it came to the band) and I love the idea that the Malt Shop and the P*lace are different places.

I'll admit, I watched these eps that I focused on over and over and over while I was writing the scenes. Chris and Danny both struck me as obnoxious, especially in their resistence to adding ~a girl~ to their band.

We saw so much of the Malt Shop in the pilot that I can't believe it was supposed to be the same place as the P*lace, you know? And if Mike was the soda jerk, why would the owner need to advertise for help in the first episode? (Well...not that Mike was the greatest with the customer service, LOL.) Mickey and Chris actually break into the old Coco Club and explore it, even though all that stuff Mickey said about it was later transferred to the history of the P*lace.

The scene where Mickey punches the brick is arguably one of the best things I've read in KI fanfiction. It shows Mickey exactly how I've always pictured him.

Whoa, thanks! =) That's wonderful! I totally re-read your fics, too, to get a feel for how you saw these characters, so I'm glad I got it right, LOL!

Bridging the gap between pilot!Mickey and series!Mickey (where he's a bit goofier) was interesting, to say the least. I wrote this with the idea that he & Gloria were around 14 years old, even though it's never specifically mentioned.

The names you've given unnamed characters are brilliant (I'm absolute rubbish at inventing names...name generators are just no help sometimes).

IDK, they just come to me? I know that doesn't help, LOL. I only named the erstwhile owner of the P*lace; TJ was a process of elimination from the credits of the pilot ep. I was kinda surprised that he wasn't given a name, considering he did have a speaking part. Hmm...

I love fic that shows a what we saw in canon from a different perspective.

Yay! This fic is definitely very firmly set in the canon universe =)