'So, what is it about Europapa that you think will bring Europe together?'

'Well, I mention a lot of countries. I tried to list as many as I could. Sorry if I missed yours.'

Joost giggled as he talked into the camera. The interviewer smiled as the Dutch representative charmed his way through their questions. His fluency in English was impressive and made it easy to keep the interview interesting.

'What's your history with Eurovision? Were you a fan before this?' The interviewer asked and Joost beamed.

'Yes, I've watched it many times. My dad liked to make fun of people on the ESC, so, I hope he'll make jokes about me... wherever he is.'

The interviewer nodded along, unaware of the real meaning behind Joost's words.

'And who are you here with? I see a big team supporting you on the sidelines,' the interviewer motioned to the group that stood off to the side.

Stuntje and Apson had accompanied Joost up until a certain point. Their personas caught a great deal of attention and interviewers wanted to hear what the blue bird and his accomplice had to say. But when the main representative had his own questions to answer, the two met up with Teun, Nathan, Fenne and Hanna.

They stood out of the way of the contestants and entertained themselves. They joked, shoved each other, poked at Apson's bird suit, and enjoyed being in the positive atmosphere. There was food and drink provided, so they didn't mind leaving Joost to be in the spotlight.

'I know. They're so amazing. They've come all the way from The Netherlands to support me and I'm very grateful to have them here,' Joost grinned, glancing between the group and the interviewer. 'I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. I think that's another great thing about Eurovision. It shows that the right people will stick with you and make your success even better.'

'That's a great answer. I'm sure they're really proud of you. I see two beautiful ladies over there. Is one of them your Euromama?'

Joost laughed heartily before answering.

'Yes, yes, the one on the right is my girlfriend. I love her very much.'

'That's so sweet! Did you want to bring her over?'

Fenne was torn from the feathers of Apson's suit by the calling of her name. She turned to see Joost and the interviewer looking in her direction. With a wide grin, Joost motioned for her to come over, making her stomach plummet. She tried to shuffle behind Hanna and act like she didn't see, but her friend was already pushing her into the firing line.

'Hello...' Fenne greeted quietly. She was painfully aware of the camera that widened to include her in the shot.

'Joost was just telling us about you. Sounds like he loves you very much,' the interviewer said in English and the microphone was held out to the Dutch woman. In a moment of panic, Fenne scrambled for a reply.

'Uh, yes. I love Joost Klein.'

The interviewer and Joost burst into laughter and Fenne followed along. She had said what she wanted to say, but she wasn't confident in her English to express her consesus in its entirety. It didn't seem to matter, because Joost's arm came around her shoulder and hugged her against his side. He grinned from ear to ear and the interviewer was getting the best footage they could have hoped for.

'You've trained her well!' the interviewer joked. 'Is there anything you wanted to say? You've got your country and the rest of Europe watching.'

'She doesn't speak much English,' Joost informed. 'I can translate if that makes it easier?'

'That would be great!'

Joost switched to Dutch and Fenne was grateful. He relayed the interviewer's question and she thought for a long moment. The cameraman and interviewer waited patiently, and once she was ready, Fenne tried to focus on speaking into the microphone, and not the blonde that stared at her from the side.

'Joost has come a long way. This is something that he's been waiting on for a long time and I know that he'll do amazing. I hope that Europe see who he is and know that this is his dream. I'm so proud of him and I ask that Europe accept him, even though he's a little bit weird.'

The interviewer was lost as Joost 'tsk'ed and shook his head. Fenne could see that he was getting teary-eyed throughout her speech. To lighten the mood, she added the last part to save him from the post-headline embarrassment. If he cried on television, Joost would be kicking himself when the reporters swarmed for an explanation.

'Do we get a translation?' The interviewer pushed.

'Just use subtitles at this point.'

Joost's comment went down well. The team that stood off to the side could see that the couple were shining in front of the camera. They expected to see news articles about the Dutch contestant's charming moment with his girlfriend tomorrow.

From where Stuntje drank his complimentary beer, he saw movement in his peripheral vision. He looked out of curiosity and noticed a group, much like themselves, stood in a huddle. Their heads were bent in their circle, mumbling in a language he couldn't hear nor understand.

He would have ignored it if one of them didn't look over their shoulder and meet his eye.

Stuntje was the type of person to stare back when challenged. The man with dark hair and stubble turned back to the huddle, saying something that made a few more glances meet Stuntje's unwavering eyes.

He was surprised when the group separated and a handful of them made their way over. Stuntje jabbed his elbow into Nathan's side, motioning his head to the attention.

'Excuse me?' an accent accompanied the English. The man who had first caught Stuntje's stare flashed a grin and Nathan, Apson and Hanna joined Stuntje with raised eyebrows.

'Can we take a picture with you guys?' he said, holding up his phone. 'Your costumes are awesome.'

Maybe Stuntje had judged too quickly. They were standing with a large blue bird, for Christ's sakes. Of course people were going to stare.

'Sure,' Apson said and trudged over, his large feet slapping against the carpet unnaturally.

Hanna took the picture of the group and snickered at her boyfriend in the centre. Stuntje and Apson pulled goofy faces. Teun and Nathan stood with her, smiling at the sight on the small screen.

As Hanna went to hand the phone back, Nathan caught sight of the huddle that had gathered once again. Where Apson and Stuntje couldn't see behind them, the group hid their faces with their hands as they laughed.

Being so loud and outgoing, Joost Klein's team were used to being laughed at. But Nathan couldn't help but cringe at the way the group looked Apson up and down from afar. There was a difference between laughing at something that was meant to be funny, and laughing at someone mockingly. From Nathan's point of view, it appeared that the group was doing the latter.

'Thank you, guys! Good luck on Friday,' a woman said from within the group. Apson waved a wing and they left to rejoin those who snickered from afar. Nathan made sure to watch closely as they started talking to each other with hands in front of their mouths.

'I'm really going to be all over social media now, aren't I?' Apson huffed and Hanna cooed.

'Aw, don't worry, liefje. You're the most handsome bird I've ever seen.'

'Yuck,' Stuntje said. He turned to Teun, who mirrored his expression for his benefit, before looking to Nathan. The Belgian didn't catch his eye and it made Stuntje follow to where he stared.

'What's up, Acid?'

'I didn't like that.'

Stuntje's eyebrows rose and Teun joined him.

'What didn't you like? The photos?' Teun asked.

'Just the way they're acting about it. Like they're laughing at us.'

'Of course, they're laughing at us. We look stupid.'

'Yeah, but... I don't know. Just rubbed me the wrong way,' Nathan sighed. 'I guess I'm being paranoid. There's a lot of intensity here, right now. It's putting me on edge.'

Now that Nathan mentioned it, both Stuntje and Teun looked around. Contestants were being interviewed and workers for the EBU were keeping things on schedule. Besides the normal business of such an event, there was a hint of unease and a tenseness in everyone's shoulders.

They noticed one of the contestants being ushered from reporter to reporter. A worker stood by their side, making sure that no reporters spoke to her for too long. They also noticed that the worker purposely would skip certain interviewers. The contestant would barely spare them a glance as she was moved to the next and smiled as she answered the interviewer's questions.

Even though the contestant was doing as all the others were, the thin layer of unease stemmed from where she stood. No other contestant had an EBU worker directly next to them. Joost and Fenne stood together with their interviewer just fine. It made Nathan, Stuntje and Teun wonder if the team that had asked for pictures were with the contestant, as Nathan's bad feeling seemed to blanket the two areas of the carpet.

'It's the same contestant again,' Nathan noted, pointing a finger as casually as he was able. 'She was the one who had the highest level of security back at the hotel. Who is she?'

'Let me look her up,' Teun pulled out his phone and began tapping around on his screen.

'Whoever she is, she can't be that important if we don't know her. Don't worry about it, Tantu. It's Joost we've got to be thinking about. I think we need to start writing him a script for the cameras so he doesn't keep pulling Fenne in front of them.'

'But that's the thing,' Nathan ignored Stuntje's last remark. 'I'm thinking the same. We want to make sure this works out for Joost. This is what he's been wanting for so long and he's finally here. Call me a simp, but I don't want anything ruining it for him.'

The trio looked to where Joost was being moved to the next interviewer. Much to Fenne's relief, he let her slip away before the microphone was held to their lips. She stepped to be next to Hanna and gave her an exasperated expression as she explained what she had to go through. It left Joost to charm his way through another set of questions.

Everyone had the same sentiment as Nathan. The one thing Joost wanted was to represent The Netherlands in Eurovision. He wanted to make his parents, especially his father, proud. He wanted to make people laugh at his alternative style and sing to the song that he was so proud of. Stuntje and Teun could see Nathan's concern, especially after seeing how much the break between Joost and Fenne effected him.

They would hate to see things turn sour at the most important moment.

'Her name's Eden Golan. She's the Israeli representative,' Teun read aloud from his phone.

'Never heard of her,' Stuntje said before looking to Nathan. 'Look, dude, I see what you're saying. But let's not plant anything in Joost's head. He doesn't need it right now. And don't let Fenne hear either.'

Nathan shifted his gaze to the woman in question. He didn't like to think that Fenne would blow things out of proportion but he also didn't want to take the chance. Just like the others, Nathan trusted Fenne to keep Joost focused and grounded. If they wanted to support Joost, they couldn't fill both of their heads with conspiracies and bad feelings.

'You're right. Let's just have a cig and forget about it,' Nathan mentioned and the two groaned in bliss at the idea.

'Appie? Cig?'

The mention brought the blue bird over at lightning speed. He was dying for nicotine and leaned close as pockets were rummaged through. As Nathan pulled out the pack and lighter, a worker with a headset appeared at their side.

'I'm sorry, guys. There's no smoking here. You'll have to go outside.'

'Oh for fuck's sake!'