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The Discord call had already started when Corpse sat down and plugged in his earbuds.
“—everyone, today is a super special stream. We’re going to be joined by our good friends Jack and Corpse, and— oh, Corpse! You’re here!”
He chuckled, smiling at Sykkuno’s enthusiasm. They’d spoken earlier and he’d seemed hyped then, but it was nice to hear that his excitement was the same when the stream was live. Anxiety had a habit of wreaking havoc on Sykkuno’s nerves when he felt like he was being scrutinized. Especially since Jack had moved into the house in Vegas with them just two weeks ago. The adjustment process itself hadn’t posed any serious problems, all three of them comfortable and secure enough in the relationship to bring up whatever potential issues they had and talk about them like adults, but this was the first time they’d streamed together since finally getting to live with each other in person as a polycule. Or triad, as Jack liked to call it. It was only natural to feel a little nervous.
“Hello, Sykkuno.”
An excited giggle sounded over the call. Corpse imagined his love covering that adorable smile with one hand, and had to bite back the urge to run into the other room to kiss him. “I hope your voice is doing okay. Are you ready for our super special stream extravaganza?”
Jesus, he was so cute.
“So it’s an extravaganza now?” Corpse leaned back in his chair, producing a satisfying pop from his spine.
He heard the muted bleep as Jack finally joined the call as well, a choreographed ‘lateness’ that they’d planned to make it seem as if he was still in a much later time zone. As comfortable as the three of them were with their relationship, outing themselves to the entire world — especially their sizable fanbases — had seemed like a little bit much this early in the game. So what happened inside the triad stayed in the triad, at least for the time being. Though, admittedly, they were sure to turn some heads with what they had planned today.
Corpse’s fingers flexed around his mouse as he thought about Rae, Toast, and his other friends learning that he and his partners were together from stans on Twitter. He loved the people who were genuinely interested in the music he made, appreciated that so many people liked to watch him stream, but they could get a little invasive. Part of that was his own intense paranoia, of course, and he could let some of those secrets go, but there were still a lot of things he wanted to share privately with his friends before making them public. Some, even, that he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to share with the world at large, despite being aware that he couldn’t ask Sykkuno and Jack to stifle themselves and keep who they loved a secret forever.
No. He was fine with them talking about it at their own pace, on their own platforms. He’d just made sure that they knew his preferences, that he wanted to keep his peace as much as possible once they were out, only answering the basics.
Then… he could tell everyone who tried to probe for more to fuck off, frankly. He didn’t owe anyone the details of what he and his lovers did when they were offline.
Reassured, Corpse tuned back into the conversation, relaxing the vice grip he’d been holding on his mouse. “What are we starting out with?”
“Oh, I vote colors all the way! Fucken phenomenal song, man.”
That playful tone pushed aside any lingering doubts Corpse might have had about this whole stream. Jack had mentioned one of the sweeter, more understated songs on their list as a starting point, so he was definitely vibing today. And who was Corpse to rain on his parade? It was a lovely song, though it was hardly the most complicated as far as lyrics or vocal tricks. They just had to harmonize and stay on beat — if one of them got off track, even by a couple notes, the whole thing would end up sounding ridiculous.
Not that that would be the end of the world, obviously. The title ‘Scuffed singing stream (gone bad bad bad)’ did have a great ring to it.
“Let’s go,” he agreed, not bothering to hide the smile that crept into his voice.
Sykkuno giggled. “Our friends are going to be so confused when we just join their call and start singing. Oh my God, we’re going full chaos mode!”
“Everybody knows you never go full chaos mode.”
Corpse almost choked on his spit at the surprise Tropic Thunder reference. “Wait, where was this life lesson when I was a kid?”
It took the three of them an embarrassingly long time to pull themselves together enough to stop giggling, in part because the second one or two of them had it under control, the other would start snickering again and set them off. Of all the things Corpse loved about his boyfriends — fiancés, technically, though when they’d get around to making it legal was up for grabs right now — this might be his absolute favorite. Jack and Sykkuno never failed to brighten the world when his own brain tried to turn it a dark and muddied brown, draining the life out of it like some bizarre breed of vampire.
“You’re right, you’re right, chat,” Sykkuno said as soon he finally managed to draw a full breath again. “We can get started now, people are starting to hop into the calls. Um, who are we doing first? Janet has an Among Us lobby set up to start at ten…”
Rubbing at the stitches in his sides, Corpse nodded, then remembered that the others couldn’t see him. “Sure, man. We have time. We can get everyone.”
Jack whooped. “Oh, hell yeah. Gotta share the love during Pride Month, right?”
“I–I guess— oh, Jesus, he’s already going in! You ready, Corpse? Let’s go, boys!”
Corpse couldn’t help a cackle as he joined the other call, watching his name join the others on the list. The sudden tidal wave of noise as twelve other voices started speaking at once almost overwhelmed him, and his hand twitched up, instinct taking over before he reminded himself not to take out his earbuds before the song was over. He’d committed to this. He needed to see it through.
“Guys?” Janet was asking, equal parts startled and amused. “Did you three get the wrong call?”
Then he made out the rhythmic snap as Jack started the beat.
He didn’t hesitate to jump in next. “What’s your color?”
“I wanna know, oh-oh!”
The sheer deepness of his voice had originally contrasted too much with theirs, and it had taken a while for Corpse to get comfortable warming up to take the parts that matched their voices best. Now, though, he knew exactly what to do as the three of them got into the meat of the song; a flirty tone that came out in all three voices at once, part tease and part promise:
“I could be red, I could be yellow, I could be blue or I could be purple~”
“I could be green or pink or black or white, I could be any color you like~”
Appreciative murmurs broke out among the others, Hafu and Ash even trying to sing along for a few bars despite obviously not knowing the lyrics. It was enough to make Corpse struggle to hold back the excited urge to wiggle, an impulse that ran down his arms and legs like wildfire. He almost choked when he realized how silly he must have looked, a grown man wiggling in front of his computer screen, but then again, there was nobody here to see it. Not even through his taped-up webcam.
Thankfully, the song went off without a hitch. The video later would show Sykkuno’s laughter, and Jack would tell them in private that he’d bowed like an actor on stage for the encore. Corpse was mainly glad that he hadn’t paused awkwardly or lost his place, destroying the cohesion that was so essential to a live acapella performance; he reserved the other space inside his heart for pride in his lovers, and how well they’d done when neither of them had been a singer at all, except now as a hobby. Jack’s singing voice took on a melodic element that Corpse knew he’d never tire of hearing — utterly different to the way he normally spoke — and Sykkuno’s reached a warm, deep timbre, one which had shocked his viewers and quite a few of their friends to boot.
A man of many talents.
Janet sent them a message once they’d left the Discord call, fleeing back to their secret group DM as quickly as they’d joined:
‘thanks so much guys! that was super cool!’
“That was awesome, holy shit. I’m glad she liked it.” A self-deprecating chuckle. “I was afraid we’d be derailing a bit or something. That’s why I joined so fast, I figured if we got in there right at the start they would still be setting up.”
Sykkuno, soothing, “Janet would never be mad at us, Jack. Your singing voice is amazing! A-and yours too, obviously, Corpse—”
Fuck. Corpse would never not melt when Sykkuno dished out such heartfelt praise, and made it all about them.
“Couldn’t have done it without you guys,” he purred.
Later, the three of them sat down on the couch and rewatched the stream, jumping ahead to whatever thumbnails looked interesting. And if Corpse and Sykkuno owed Jack three kisses each because he’d won their bet about how quickly people in chat started mentioning that they were acting more lovey-dovey than usual, that was for them to know and the internet to (never) find out. Though admittedly, the three kisses each turned into a rain of little pecks that made him flush, giggling helplessly under the onslaught.
The internet, Corpse thought smugly as he watched Sykkuno push Jack down onto the bed, would never know what happened when they took things to the bedroom a few minutes later, either.
FIN.