Forever Knight is not owned by me---for which the characters are grateful.

This can be archived by the www.fkfanfic.com archive, Steph's Ftp site, Lisa's CotK Library page, Fanfic.net, and likely whomsoever asks.

This popped out way too quick to be good, but...what the hey. Flames will be laughed out of the house. (I live in a desert.)

"Nick?"

"Yes, Nat?"

"Why are you dressed as Elvis?"

"It's part of my new life." <looks at watch> "I'm afraid its time for me to move on, Nat."

"As an *Elvis* impersonator?!"

<uncomfortable shuffle> "I lost an arm wrestling match with Urs. Seems she's always wanted to manage a traveling entertainment group."

"You lost a match with....Nick!---How could you, a big, strong, medieval knight, lose an arm wrestling match with a woman singer?"

<indignant snort> "She played dirty, Nat!. Kept bringing up stuff she *knew* would bring on a flashback."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Did the same kind of tricks with the others too. Hey, I'm not the only one whose prone to flashbacking,---All she had to do was bring up the new Pompeii findings, Afros, and some incident involving Mickey Mouse, and the others were sunk too!" <sigh> "Urs found out that I had fibbed a little about that 60's flashback. I wasn't really with the Grateful Dead. Next thing we knew, the whole sordid affair was out." <another sigh> Apparently, 'blackjack' isn't the only form of 'black' she's good at."

<blink> "Nick? What *others*? And what *were* you up to during the Golden Age of Rock & Roll?"

"I...uh..was actually part of the precursor to the Flying Elvises."

"Flying.. Isn't that the stunt parachutists who.."

"Yeah. It seemed a fun thing to do at the time. Me, Vachon, Screed, and LaCroix would put on our costumes, darken our hair---well, in the other's cases, more like get a hair cut or glue on a wig---anyway, out we'd go and buzz the commercial airliners on days like April Fools---when we knew the pilots' claims of seeing dogfighting, black pompoudored, besequined Elvises would not be believed."

"Okaaaaay..."

<defensive> "It was LaCroix's idea."

<skeptical look>

"Alright---so the sequined capes were *my* idea. But he planned the flight manuevers!"

"Can we back up some? How did Urs discover you all used to...play Elvis?"

"Uh...well...the suit. Janette thinks I look kinda sexy in it." And,...uh...she wanted to celebrate a 'past lives' party....pure coincidence that the four of us each chose the same episode of a past life." <mumbles> "Either that, or I'm not the only one she likes to play 'groupie' with..."

"Oh, Nick----you didn't go! You promised me you were going to stay away from the vampire lifestyle!

<guilty look> "Sorry, Nat. And you were right---the party?---it was a complete disaster." <flashback look> "Janette's Mae West wig somehow caught a spark from the karoake machine when I accidently spilled some bloodwine in its works when she started to nibb...never mind. Anyhow.. The blonde hair got fried right to her head. What's left of it, anyways. Some idiot vampiress made a crack that she now looked more like LaCroix's brother than his daughter---and that's when the cat fur *really* started to fly. Alma sure should have paid more attention to where her panther suit's tail was in relationship to the fan blades. Needless to say, I *had* to take my suit to the cleaners after it was over. How was *I* to know that Schanke used that same shop?"

<stifled laugh> "Oh God! What did he say?"

"Who?"

"Schanke!"

"Nothing."

<thwak!> "Nick! You can't come in here and tell me you're moving on without giving me the full, juicy details! So--spill!"

"He didn't say anything, Nat. ...He just sort of laughed. And snappedpicture."

"A picture!"

"Darn empirical evidence."

"So, Schanke's got a picture of you and this Elvis costume. Why didn't you just say you were picking it up for someone else?"

"I was still wearing it."

"Ah."

"Suddenly, acquiescing to Urs' blackmail was easier to accept than the thought of living with Schanke for the next year."

"So you're really leaving then?"

"Yeah. Besides, LaCroix said that if *he* had to honor this fiasco, *I* had to go too."

"And this is goodbye for a year?"

"Uh, huh. Unless... Nat?"

"What?"

"I need to ask you... Would you be my...?"

"Yes, Nick?"

"Roadie?"

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End