Chapter Text
"Illusion never changed. Into something real. I'm wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn."
2 years ago
"Who plays the most instruments?"
"Jordan!" The four all shout out at once. Kate pats the youngest member's perfectly parted braids, "She's our little prodigy."
"Don't touch my hair."
"Who gets the most numbers at the club?"
"Julia."
"Sophie."
"Uh oh. We've got some disagreement. Either of you care to elaborate."
Sophie answered the interviewer first, "Everyone loves an accent and she's way more of a people person than I tend to be."
Julia immediately shakes her head, "Girls love the whole 'Devil May Care' thing you've got going on, and you're a flipping giant."
Sophie ultimately shrugged.
"Wait, can we talk about that for a second? Why'd you suck up all of the tall genes in Mom's womb before I could make it in there?" Jordan inquired to the group.
Everyone stared at her incredulously.
"That's what you get for being straigt." Kate mumbled. Jordan pouts playfully.
"I have no accent. I have to pick girls up with my tattoos, leather jacket, and charm. I hate this." Kate mimicked the pout Jordan had just given.
"Who says that's not what I'm doing?" Sophie said loudly over her other bandmates.
They were more family than bandmates, which meant they were really comfortable with each other and frequently yelled and talked over one another.
"Shut up, Casanova."
Sophie made a face but pursed her lips in silence.
"Alright you guys I think that's enough fun for today. Check out The Crows newest single Torn. And watch the exclusive performance later tonight at the 2020 Video Music Awards. Then, don't forget to get your tickets to their world tour!" The interviewer thanked the band members then excused herself.
"Well she was nice. Julia, you should go get you some of that." Jordan voiced. She missed the look of disgust on Kate's face.
Julia just blushed and ran a hand through her blonde locs, "I'm not looking for a relationship, you know that." She got up from her seat and rubbed her arms, "Are you guys ready? We got to start getting ready for tonight. And you know how Luke gets when we're late."
Sophie threw her head back and rolled her eyes. She got out of the chair as slowly as possible.
Don't get her wrong, she loved her job with her whole being but she could do without the frequent award shows and interviews. It was draining. She hated having to be so...on, for lack of a better word.
"Does someone want a piggyback ride?" Jordan asked her older sister with a goofy grin on her face.
Sophie nodded to her surprise, "Only because I want to see how far you can get." Jordan shrugged and crouched so Sophie could get onto her back.
Kate laughed and pulled out her phone. She took a picture of the siblings and posted it to the band's Instagram page.
"You guys are cute or whatever, but hurry up. We really need to go. I don't need Luke being mad at me while he's holding a flat iron near my face." Julia flailed for a moment before her band members finally sped up their lackadaisical movements.
Quite frankly this awards show performance was coming at the most inconvenient time possible. 'Torn' was their last single off of the album, and they left for their first world tour literally the next day.
But, there was nothing any of them could do about that now.
~~
It was custom for the group to match. It hadn't always been that way, after a particular disaster (which had mainly been Kate's fault) their manager had acquired them a stylist, Luke, and he absolutely didn't play any of that tacky bullshit.
Luke stared at the group with a critical eye. He didn't scare any of them. Not really. Julia just hated conflict, so she rarely attempted to avoid getting on his bad side.
"Are you going to dress us or are we just supposed to stare at each other for the rest of the night?" Sophie snapped the man out of his staring contest. The suited man rolled his eyes but gathered the garment bags he had prepared. He thrusted them onto the hotel room bed.
"Well since you're so eager to get dressed Sophie, I suppose you don't mind if I take all of this back and you just go in that. I wouldn't want to waste your precious time or anything." Luke finished his speech with his hands clasped together and a harsh smile on his dark lips.
Yes, they weren't scared of Luke, but maybe they are a little frightened.
Sophie promptly shut up and apologized lightly. She silently grabbed the garment bag with her name on it and walked into the bathroom to change.
"Now, does anyone else want to bring up any discrepancies?"
The three bandmates shake their heads profusely.
"Great."
~~
"Well don't you guys look spiffy." Kate gestured to Julia's and Sophie's outfits.
Sophie and Jordan nodded at each other, "I think we ALL look spiffy. Wouldn't you say so, Luke?"
Luke took a step back to admire his work. He gave himself a pat on the back, "Damn, I am good. I'm so good I even surprise myself sometimes! My genuis. It's staggering me."
Sophie adjusted the collar of her navy blazer.
"There's too much overbearing personality in this room right now. I can only take one cocky asshole at a time." Kate eyed the man with a bemused expression. She adjusted her cufflinks then checked the time using Sophie's watch.
"Come on, the town car should be here by now."
~~
Nervous was not an emotion any of the four musicians had experienced. Even for their first decent gig back in Gotham they hadn't been nervous. Performing was just as easy as breathing. It just came naturally.
As it came closer to the time for them to go on stage, the band became more and more giddy. Jordan was practically bouncing off the walls in excitement.
"You guys ready? No one forgot any lyrics right?" Sophie pointedly stared at her younger sister. Jordan mock gasped out and placed a delicate hand to her chest.
"That was one time and doesn't even actually count because you guys changed the song and didn't tell me so I knew the words to the song just wasn't singing the right one. Also, fuck you." Jordan took a deep breath as a pout settled over her face. Sophie just stared at her as she ranted.
"Yeah. Anyway. The Crows on three?" The four nodded and placed their hands on top of each other onto a circle.
"One. Two. Three. The Crows!" The group threw their hands into the air with a loud yelp.
Kate frowned immediately after it was over, "That's the dorkiest shit I have ever participated in. Can we come up with something cooler? Oh! Like a secret handshake."
"Your definition of cool is very different from mine, but we'll discuss that after the performance." Sophie followed the stage hand that was frantically guiding them to their places.
Sophie grabbed her red fender stratocaster and watched as her fellow bandmates did the same with their own instruments.
"The Crows are on in five, four, three, two, one." The stagehand counted down with a hand to their ear piece. As soon as they hit one the platform started to slowly raise from their place under the stage.
Sophie can hear the audience cheer before she could see them. Their set was supposed to be dark so she assumed she wouldn't really see anything at all for the duration of the song.
There was a lone spotlight shining on her and the rest of the group as a red to white ombre background shown from behind them.
Kate counted off with her drumsticks and Sophie begins to sing.
I thought I saw a girl brought to life
She was warm, she came around
And she was dignified
She showed me what it was to cry
I couldn't be the one to adore
You don't seem to know
Or seem to care what my heart is for
But I don't know you anymore
The crowd begins to scream louder. Other celebrities stand up and attempt to sing along. Which in and of itself would be entertaining if she could see it more clearly, because the song had just released the day prior.
There's nothing where you used to lie
The conversation has run dry
That's what's going on
Nothing's right, I'm torn
I'm all out of faith
This is how I feel
I'm cold and I am shamed
Lying naked on the floor
Illusion never changed
Into something real
I'm wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn
You're a little late, I'm already torn
Sophie smirked as Jordan began to take over the next part of the song. Her voice possessed the same tone as her's albeit a bit higher.
She pulled away from the microphone stand and walked around a little bit. The band rarely stayed still during performances. That would have been boring. They normally ran and jumped and danced until they were sweating buckets.
So I guess the fortune teller's right
I should have seen
Just what was there
And not some holy light
It crawled beneath my veins and now
I don't care, I had no luck
I don't miss it all that much
There's just so many things
That I can touch, I'm torn
The rest of the group joins back in for the chorus.
I'm all out of faith
This is how I feel
I'm cold and I am shamed
Lying naked on the floor
Illusion never changed
Into something real
I'm wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn
Suddenly, water pours from the ceiling to mimic rain. It soaks the group instantly but they carry on like nothing's happening.
Sophie sings the last of the song alone, using a slightly lower tone then she has been. She wipes water from her face and brushes her hair back.
I'm all out of faith
This is how I feel
I'm cold and I am shamed
Bound and broken on the floor
Illusion never changed
Into something real
I'm wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn
The lights slowly fade out.
~~
The band high five each other after the performance, congratulating each other on the great performance.
Julia and Jordan run off to change, while Kate searched for their manager. Leaving Sophie alone to fend for herself.
As Sophie is drying herself off, a beautiful woman crosses her path. Like so beautiful Sophie's chest hurts.
Sophie immediately stops in her movements and begins to sputter all over herself. The woman is absolutely drop dead gorgeous, hasn't even looked in her direction and somehow managed to stop every last one of Sophie's thoughts. All except for one.
Oh my fucking God.
She ditches the towel, hoping that if she is still wet, it's the sexy kind of wet, and not the drowned rat kind of wet. She walked up to the unsuspecting woman.
"And what might your name be, gorgeous?" Sophie takes the women's hand and places a delicate kiss on her knuckles.
"Not interested."
"That's a beautiful name for a beautiful-wait what?" Sophie looks at the shorter woman in shock. That has never not worked on a girl. Or at least not until now.
"You heard me. Not interested. Look you're charming, I'm sure, but I'm not into the whole rockstar type. Nice try though."
"I'm not a rockstar type. Even if I was don't you think that generalizing isn't fair?"
"There's nothing you can do or say that's gonna make me change my mind, Sophie." The woman walks away with an extra sway in her hips that Sophie is sure is meant to tease her.
The guitarist glared at the woman's retreating form, "Challenge accepted."
So she does a thing that only creepy men do. She follows her and keeps trying.
"So you know my name, but I can't know yours?"
Maybe she did look like the drowned rat type of wet or something.
The woman turned around and rolled her eyes. She was annoyed beyond belief, and Sophie being the simple gay that she is decided that was hot.
"Ryan Wilder."
"Oh." She genuinely didn't think this far ahead.
"Bye. Sophie."
"Wait! Ryan. I like that. That's a nice name. You were in that movie? About the bat thing?"
"You're not very smart." Ryan's lips quirked up into an amused smirk.
"I can get even dumber if it means you'll keep talking to me."
~~
Sophie will be honest. She very genuinely has no idea what happened after that. But she does know that her back stinging indicates that she was mauled by a bear, or maybe just a woman named Ryan Wilder, and her phone is ringing so loudly next to her ear that she can feel her brain vibrating.
She picked it up as quickly as her heavy limbs could manage.
"What?"
"Good morning to you too, Big Sis. Where are you? Bruce says if you're not here in 45 minutes we're taking off without you."
"Where in 45 minutes?"
"The airport tarmac! It's time to fucking go!"
Sophie's eyes shot open, "Oh shit."
~~
2 years later, present
"Where's the new single, Soph?"
Sophie rubbed her hands over her face, "I told you, Bruce, I don't have it. I've got a block. Nothing to write about."
Bruce sighed. He owned Wayne Enterprises. An international record label. And yet he still chose to manage The Crows.
He probably saw them as his daughters. And then of course, Kate was his actual cousin. So he really had a stake in their success.
"Doesn't Kate help write sometimes?"
"Yes. But she's on punishment."
"I'm not even going to ask. Okay, so, we really need to capitalize on the success of the tour. If you can churn out a single within the next 3 and a half weeks. I can probably get you more time for an actual album."
"Bruce-"
"I wasn't done. I know you're having trouble with material. So, they execs and I thought it would be good if we assigned one of your labelmates to help you. To be your muse of sorts. I don't care what you do with each other. Hang out. Fuck. It doesn't matter, but you're contractually obligated to be in one of those booths with a song by the end of next week."
Sophie knew when to pick her battles and this was not one of them. Especially if it had been an entire executive board decision.
"Fine. Who is it?"
As if on cue the door to Bruce's office swung open with a flourish. Sophie turned around with a raised eyebrow. She instantly regretted doing so.
"Long time no see, Sophie." Ryan's smirk sent a cold shiver down her spine.
Sophie gulped, "Oh, shit."