Title: Oo-De-Lally!
Series:
Author: Sparrow
Fandom: The Who
Characters: Keith Moon, Roger Daltry, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own The Who
Author Note: This is a late birthday fic for Enola Jones AKA
jennytork. Happy belated-birthday dear girl! Thanks to
nesmith for the very quick beta.
Spoilers: Nothing really.
Summary: Keith Moon is bored and when he gets bored, watch out!
It was no secret that Keith loved to dress up, so when he saw the animated feature ‘Robin Hood’, he had a wonderful idea.
For the next couple of weeks The Who were treated to Keith whistling songs from the movie, singing them and randomly shouting ‘Oo-De-Lally’ and ‘A pox on the phony King of England!’ It was slowly starting to drive the others insane.
The Who spent the night at John’s mansion as they had been up half the night for a planning session. John was deep under his blankets and dead to the world. Small snores emitted from his throat.
Keith grinned and pounced on the unsuspecting bassist. John flung his body in random directions in hopes to get whoever was on him off. Keith landed with a thump on the ground.
John looked at Keith on the floor, revenge dancing in his eyes. But it slowly turned into confusion as he took in his friend’s attire.
Keith bounced onto his feet, standing before him dressed in green leotard, a green tunic, a bow strapped to his back with some arrows in a quiver and a jaunty green hat perched on his head. What was slightly unusual was that there was a fake fox tail attached to the back of the tunic and fake fox ears on a headband on Keith’s head.
John moaned and buried his head into his hands. “Are those fox ears on your head?”
Keith grinned and rocked back and forth on his feet. “Yep. Here, this is for you.” He tossed a similar outfit at John, except it was brown and had a bear’s tail and bear ears attached to a headband.
John raised one eyebrow in a ‘what the hell am I supposed to do with this’ look.
Keith grinned again. “Every Robin Hood needs a Little John.”
“Forget it.” John rumbled as he tossed the costume to the other side of his bed.
“C’mon Ox! It’ll be fun! We can go and attack Roger and Pete with our arrows, robbing the rich to feed the poor!”
“Arrows.” John stated flatly.
Keith pulled one out and showed it to John. It had a large rounded squishy end that wouldn’t hurt Roger and Pete too much besides a few colourful bruises.
“See! They’re perfectly harmless.” Keith bounced one off John’s knee.
John grabbed it from Keith’s hands and examined it. “I have some powdered dye we could soak these in. Leave a colourful expression on Pete and Roger if you manage to hit them.”
“‘If I manage to hit them’,” Keith said. “What about you? I’m assuming this means you’re in.”
John grinned ferally, a hint of fang poking out. “I’ve decided to be generous and join you in your quest. You have a Little John.”
“You just want to have revenge for that prank Pete pulled on you the other day. You’ve just been stringing me along!”
Keith’s answer was an amused quirk of John’s lips as he grabbed the costume and headed over to the bathroom to change.
“Well, that’s alright then. As long as I don’t feel used, cheap and dirty at the end of all this,” Keith sniffed.
“No chance of that” was shot through the door.
Keith bounced all over the room, examining the bed, the dresser, John’s millions of shoes. “Hurry up!”
John opened the door and walked out, clad in a mixture of browns from the leotard to the tunic to the hat. John turned around and wriggled a little as the bear tail flopped around a bit. Rounded bear ears were attached to a headband that was on John’s head. “One Little John, ready.”
Keith grinned as he bounced over and grabbed John’s hand. “Away to Sherwood forest!”
“Gotta make a quick stop to get those dyes first, Robin,” John rumbled.
“Tally-ho!”
Roger and Pete would never know what hit them until it would be too late.
~~~
To this very day, Roger and Pete still don’t know what prompted John to join Keith in his ‘adventure’ and that it took three days for that dye to come off. What they do know is that they were unprepared for the initial attack.
Roger was flipping through a magazine at the bar, while Pete was furiously scribbling lyrics on spread out sheets of paper.
“A POX ON THE PHONY KING OF ENGLAND!!”
*THWACK THWACK*
Roger’s eyes bugged out as a padded arrow found its way to his shoulder blade.
Pete yelled out something unintelligible as another arrow hit his thigh.
“SILLY SERPANT!” came a rumbled yell and laugh.
All Roger and Pete saw was a flash of green and brown as they tried to get their bearings.
“What the bleedin’ hell was that?” Pete snarled out as he tried to rub the dye out of his pants.
“I think that was Keith and his little Robin Hood escapades have just upped.” Roger grimaced as he rubbed his shoulder. “Looks like he dragged John into it as well. Told you shouldn’t have pranked him the other day.” Pete shot a glare at the singer.
“So now what?” Roger asked.
“We fortify ourselves in the bar. Let’s make this place into a fort.”
“At least we’ll have plenty to drink,” Roger said dryly as he gestured to the stocked alcohol.
“OO-DE-LALLY!!” came a twin yell as another volley of arrows found their way to Pete and Roger’s bums, on both cheeks of their pants.
“YER DEAD ENTWISTLE AND MOON! DEAD DO YOU HEAR ME!!” Pete yelled out.
A pair of giggles erupted down the hallway as Roger caught another flash of brown and green.
“This is getting ridiculous.” Roger said.
~~~
It was many hours later and Roger and Pete were still barricaded within the bar. Covered in many different colours, they almost resembled a rainbow. Pete had developed a twitch over his left eyebrow and Roger was silently fuming.
“I don’t know why the hell I got pulled into this,” Roger said for the sixth time.
“Roger?”
“Yeah Pete?”
“Shut the bloody hell up.”
It had been an hour or so since the last attack and they figured it was safe to venture out. Cautiously making their way out of the bar, they prowled down the hallways of the mansion and found John and Keith sitting at the kitchen table, having a snack. And out of costume now.
“Look who has ventured out!” Keith grinned.
John smiled around his glass of water as he sipped it.
“Moon. Entwistle,” Pete snarled out.
“Yes Pete?” they chorused together.
“Dead!” Pete launched himself at John as Roger tackled Keith.
It was a furious fight as bodies twisted around and somehow the food from the table became involved.
Pete and Roger, satisfied that vengeance was won, left the two on the floor and headed for their respective showers.
Keith shot a grin at the downed Ox.
John grinned back and they both started to laugh.
“Wonder when they’ll realize it’ll be a while before the dye can wash off?” Keith asked John.
John gave a rumbled laugh. “Who knows.”
They chuckled again admist their chaos, slowly getting up as they headed for their own showers and beds.
~~~
1999
John was in his attic searching for an old photograph when he came upon a battered box. Slowly pulling it open, tears prickled his eyes as he took in the Robin Hood and Little John costumes.
Smiling slightly, he took in the photograph underneath the clothes. There in colour were Pete and Roger spattered with different coloured dyes. Another one was of him and Keith dressed up.
Standing up, he held the ‘Little John’ costume to his chest as plotting began in his head.
It was a few days later and John had invited everyone to Quarwood to celebrate the successful tour.
Only he, Pete, Roger and surprisingly Zak were the ones left standing. Zak was laughing at some hilarious story that Roger was re-telling. John was smirking around his drink and Pete grinned. Zak fit in well with their brand of chaos.
“Roger, leave the poor boy alone.” John rumbled and stood up. “C’mon, I got something to show you I think you’ll like.”
Zak looked confused but followed the bassist.
Nearly half an hour later, Roger and Pete were still nursing their drinks as they waited for the other pair to return.
*THWACK THWACK*
“OO-DE-LALLY!!” came from John.
“A POX ON THE PHONY KING OF ENGLAND!!” came a yell from Zak.
Two arrows sailed through the air. One nailed Roger in the arm and the other nailed Pete in the thigh once again.
Two sets of blue eyes looked shocked, before an angry yell erupted from Pete’s lips. “ENTWISTLE!! STARKEY!!”
Roger moaned, “Not again.”
A flash of green and brown danced across the open doorway. Laughter erupted in the hallway. And for a moment, Pete saw Keith leaning against the doorway with an expression on his face asking ‘are you going to take that?’
Smirking, Pete readied himself for the battle yet to come while Roger just shook his head at the absurdity of his friends.
THE END