Chapter Text
As expected, the place was crowded with different fans wanting to listen to the performances that night. Among the crowd were quite a number of fan girls, two of them openly ogling at the members of Given, who were part of the audience this time. “Look, it’s Kaji-san, Nakayama-san and Uenoyama-san!” One of them squealed to the other. “But wait, where’s Sato-san?” She questioned, looking left and right for the band’s vocalist.
Her friend let out a squeal of her own. “Didn’t you see the sign outside? He’s substituting as the vocalist for the last band playing later!” She fanned herself, her face looking flushed. “I can’t wait to see him. He’s so hot!” The girl sighed. “And his voice is just so dreamy!”
Ritsuka didn’t know whether to feel annoyed or smug with the squeals and compliments directed at Mafuyu. Regardless of his jealousy that his boyfriend (it still flustered him to say the word, but he’s trying) was the subject of other people’s fantasies, he mostly felt pride that Mafuyu’s talents were being recognized.
He felt someone nudge his side. It was Akihiko. “It’s starting.”
As different bands went up to perform, Ritsuka could say that he was enjoying the show. But at the back of his mind, there was only one person he was looking forward to hearing. The moment it was announced that it was the last band’s turn to head on up to the stage, Ritsuka could feel his heartbeat quicken in anticipation as he saw them step out with Mafuyu.
The band’s bassist went up to the mic, flashing the crowd a grin. “Hello, everyone!” The crowd cheered, hyped up. “Our vocalist may not be here at the moment, but we hope you’ll have fun listening to us play with Mafuyu-chan over here from Given!”
As if on cue, the fangirls went wild, one of them loudly screaming, “Mafuyu-sama! I love you!”
Haruki covered his mouth, holding back a laugh. Akihiko snickered. “Looks like you have a lot of competition, Uesama.” Ritsuka scoffed, glaring at nothing in particular.
The bassist gave a nod to the people in charge of the speakers and lights, signaling that they were finally about to start.
Ritsuka always knew just how talented Mafuyu was as a musician, especially with his vocals. His voice could send goosebumps to anyone, especially with the raw emotions that he sang with.
Still, nothing could prepare him for the intensity that Mafuyu voiced out in the form of music.
‘Ah,’ Ritsuka thought. ‘It must be because this is the first time I’m seeing him perform as a part of the audience. And not with him.’ Somehow, it left Ritsuka with a bittersweet feeling. While it was refreshing to see Mafuyu from the crowd’s perspective, he couldn’t help but think that it should be him standing there beside him. Playing music. Together.
Mafuyu sang with such passion and warmth, each line and emotion being expressed to the audience as if they were the ones with such feelings as well. From Ritsuka’s left, he could hear a faint sniffle. “I feel like a mother bird seeing her chick spread its wings,” Haruki murmured, eyes slightly glassy.
To their surprise, Akihiko responded softly, lips forming a fond smile. “Don’t we all.”
After a few more goosebump-inducing moments, the last note was finally played. Just as the crowd was begging for one more song, the bassist went up to the mic again. “Hold your horses, guys. The show’s not over yet.” The crowd whooped, still feeling a rush of excitement from the performance. As they began to quiet down, the bassist went on to explain.
“Now this last song will be a cover that was actually requested by Mafuyu-chan.” Ritsuka’s eyes widened in surprise. Although Mafuyu had been listening to the CDs he borrowed from Kaji-san, he wondered which song caught his attention enough to want to cover it. The bassist gestured to the vocalist, whose eyes were busy scanning the crowd.
“This song’s the perfect closing to such an exciting night! Have you guys listened to this American band called Cigarettes After Sex?” From beside Ritsuka, who was furrowing his brows trying to remember what that group sounded like, Akihiko grinned, remembering how that band’s CDs were among the many that he lent to Mafuyu. “The kid’s got good taste.”
Hearing some loud cheers of affirmation, the bassist laughed. “If you haven’t, we’ll make sure you’ll want to with our cover of their song: Crush.” Ritsuka didn’t know why, but when he glanced to his left at Haruki, the man had a slightly sheepish expression, whereas Akihiko chuckled in disbelief.
With that, the lights slightly dimmed to match the mood of the song. Soft chords began to play as Mafuyu lightly strummed his guitar for the intro. Ritsuka’s attention was automatically glued to him.
His boyfriend’s (it was still challenging for him to say the word out loud) chords were followed by the soft beating of the drums, along with the familiar sound of the bass. As Mafuyu sang the first few verses, Ritsuka couldn’t help but notice that Mafuyu’s eyes were closed.
“Can’t live without your love inside me now.” The song may have been in English, but it seemed to serve the purpose of placing the focus on Mafuyu’s raw voice even more as he sang the soft tune. “I’ll find a way to slip into your skin, somehow.”
Mafuyu’s eyes looked up and made direct eye contact with Ritsuka’s.
“I wanna fuck your love slow.”
Ritsuka had a sharp intake of air, his heart definitely skipping a beat as Mafuyu’s eyes focused on him with such intensity.
“Catch my heart, go swim. Feel your lips crush.” Without Mafuyu ever taking his eyes off of him, he sang, “Hold you here, my loveliest friend.”
Ritsuka wasn’t particularly fond of doing covers. But if it was his chance to hear more of Mafuyu’s voice sing like that, then he was willing to play anything. Anything. His breath caught when Mafuyu, maintaining eye contact, smirked.
“And now you’re all I think about when I’m alone.”
Ritsuka felt his face heat up at the intensity of Mafuyu's gaze. ‘Shit.’
“Can’t wait to feel your love inside me now. We’ll have a drink or two and we’ll go to your house.”
He’d like to blame it all on the lights. Or the crowd. Or the lack of stronger air-conditioning. But he’d only be fooling himself.
“Catch my heart, go swim. Feel your lips crush. Hold you here, my loveliest friend.”
Amidst the deafening cheers and cries of the audience as the last of the notes played, Ritsuka couldn’t help but hear the girl’s voice from earlier. “Is it possible to fall in love with him even more?”
‘It sure is.’
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Waiting for Mafuyu to finish packing up backstage, the three other members of Given were stuck in a stunned silence, which Akihiko was the first to break. “Damn.”
“Damn,” Haruki replied, speechless as well. But before they could attempt to gather their thoughts, a gentle voice spoke up.
“Everyone, thanks for waiting,” Mafuyu breathed out, clearly in a hurry to catch up to them with a new sweater on. That was all it took for them to break out of their daze, Haruki pulling him in for a tight hug, fake sobbing that his child has grown up, while Akihiko ruffled his hair to a mess, smirking, “I never knew you had it in you.”
Mafuyu let out a bright smile at their compliments as they made their way out of the venue, off to have a celebratory dinner at their favorite place. As Mafuyu and Haruki were chatting in front of them, Akihiko and Ritsuka followed at a comfortable distance behind.
Akihiko elbowed Ritsuka. Hard. “Ow!” The younger band member yelped, rubbing his side. “What was that for?” He glared.
“Say something to him.” Akihiko nodded towards the direction of Mafuyu, who was laughing at something Haruki said. “Go on. If there was a compliment he was looking for, it was most definitely yours.”
Ritsuka felt the tip of his ears start to redden. It was embarrassing for him to receive love advice from Akihiko, but it always seemed to be the one to give him a wake-up call. He muttered, suddenly feeling shy, “I don’t know what to say.”
Akihiko laughed. It was always fun seeing the serious Uesama lose his composure. “Well, you better figure it out by the time we get there.”
And Ritsuka didn’t.
As they settled themselves in their booth at the restaurant, Mafuyu was showing soft smiles his way, while Ritsuka could only bring himself to hopefully reciprocate those smiles instead of showing a grimace.
Akihiko wanted to sigh at Ritsuka’s hopelessness. But before he could give him a silent signal, Haruki interrupted by raising his glass of beer. “We’re so proud of you, Mafuyu-chan! To our baby chick—“
“To our not-so-innocent Mafuyu,” Akihiko interrupted Haruki, the corners of his mouth turning up. Haruki could only gawk at the former, but nonetheless clinked his glass, sighing at Akihiko’s antics.
“But, man,” As they dug in, Haruki couldn’t help but comment, “I was really surprised that you requested that song, Mafuyu-chan. Especially with those lyrics and how some lines—“
Once again, Akihiko interrupted him by covering his mouth, muffling what Haruki was about to say. He gave a pointed look towards Ritsuka. “Yeah, Mafuyu. Everyone would faint if they heard the translation to that song. I mean—hey!” Akihiko let out a cry of pain as he retracted the hand that Haruki apparently bit in a huff.
“Will you stop interrupting me?” Haruki exclaimed, beyond annoyed with Akihiko.
Akihiko examined his hand before turning towards their bassist. “Damn, Haru. If you wanted to play rough, you should have said so.” While Haruki stuttered out a retort, Ritsuka gagged at the display.
The only one left unbothered was Mafuyu, who was busy wolfing down the grilled meat.
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“This is us,” Haruki said as they reached the station. “See you guys at band practice. And once again, good job, Mafuyu-chan!” Akihiko gave the two boys a wave, but before he made a move to join Haruki, he raised his brows at Ritsuka, as if to say, “Just go for it already.”
After seeing them off, the two began to walk at a comfortable pace. Just as Ritsuka was scrambling his thoughts for something to say, he felt Mafuyu’s warm hand intertwining with his. He glanced up to see Mafuyu smile. “It’s dangerous.”
Ritsuka hoped he couldn’t hear the loud beating of his heart as he shakily replied, “Y-yeah.” It was now or never.
“Listen, Mafuyu,” he began, hoping at the back of his mind that his hands wouldn’t start to sweat profusely. Here goes nothing. “About your performance earlier, I didn’t get the chance to tell you this, but,” Ritsuka was doomed. He could feel his palms start to sweat but he continued anyway, “I’m really proud of you. Really. You were amazing out there. And not a second went by that I wasn’t thinking just how cool you were.”
Since Mafuyu wasn’t saying anything, he went on.
“And I’m really sorry that it took me this long to say something, but I just didn’t know how to express it.” He turned to Mafuyu, making them stop at a quiet, dimly lit street. “You were breath-taking.”
Mafuyu’s bright, warm eyes peered up at Ritsuka’s serious gaze. “But as much as I loved seeing you perform out there, I can’t deny that it would be even better if,” Ritsuka rubbed the back of his neck, feeling shy with his sappiness. “I’m by your side.”
There. He said it. Now if only he could find a hole to crawl into and hide. The hand that wasn’t holding Mafuyu’s made a lame attempt to cover his face in the hopes that it would mask his embarrassment.
“Uenoyama-kun.”
Ritsuka didn’t budge.
“Uenoyama-kun,” This time, Mafuyu’s hand gently pulled back the hand that Ritsuka was hiding behind. “Look at me.”
At Mafuyu’s soft tone, Ritsuka finally let their eyes meet, doing his best to push down his embarrassment. Mafuyu carried on. “For the record, as much as I had fun performing with that band, there’s no other place I’d rather be but with Given. Especially with you.” His eyes seemed so bright, even in the dark.
“And I didn’t sing that song expecting to be given praise. I sang that song to express some of the feelings that I have for you.” Mafuyu smiled his familiar smile, the one that always left Ritsuka feeling like the luckiest man on earth. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not happy that you complimented me. For once.”
Ritsuka couldn’t help but laugh at that. He had to admit that he scolded Mafuyu more than he actually gave out compliments when they were practicing. He had to work on that. Patting his boyfriend’s (there, he said it again) head, he smiled, his bashfulness forgotten as he slowly pulled him in for a hug. “You really were great out there, you know.”
Mafuyu leaned his head against Ritsuka’s chest, savoring the warmth. “Thank you.”
After they eventually pulled away, they settled back to a comfortable silence, content with each other’s presence and the warmth their intertwined hands provided. As they reached the part of the road where they usually separated when going home, Mafuyu turned to Ritsuka and whispered in his ear, “I still think you should read the Japanese translation to that last song,” As if he couldn’t tease his boyfriend enough, he went on to murmur, “Uenoyama-kun.”
And the cherry on top was Mafuyu kissing him on the cheek, adorably wishing him a good night. With that, the vocalist left, not once looking back.
Ritsuka could only look up at the moon, feeling his cheeks heat up rapidly as he silently malfunctioned.
‘Shit.’
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Before he went to bed, Ritsuka grabbed his laptop and headphones, making it a mission to listen to the original song and search up its Japanese translation. Once the song played, he was in the zone, a peaceful place he could escape to whenever music was involved.
After a few minutes of finishing the song while reading the lyrics, Ritsuka methodically shut down his laptop and then calmly set aside his headphones. He sat up, looking as if he was about to meditate as he processed the song, slowly remembering the times that Mafuyu’s eyes would lock on his at certain parts of the lyrics.
Out of nowhere, he violently grabbed his pillow and squished it against his face, screaming into it as he blushed for the nth time thanks to Mafuyu’s influence.
‘HOLY FUCK!’