Chapter Text
“A choir festival at an all boys’ school, huh?”
“that’s so stupid”
“No, see… theres boy’s and girls’ parts. Soprano and Alto”
“I wanna practice with the girls!”
“you better forget about that. Its not gonna happen.”
Chatter among students offered the thought of a choir festival, it’s not that it was unheard of in the school, as second years always had to prepare for it every year. “Everyone, Quiet.” Conversation died down when Sensei walked in, Sebastian Michaelis. He had only been at the school for a few years, having transferred from another, and he taught choir, which probably brought the idea of a choir festival in the first place. He mostly went by ‘Seba-sen’, he found the use of ‘sensei’ too awkward. “Think about poor me, who has to get your boyish voices in shape, will you. I’ll have you singing good enough to bring tears to my eyes, just watch.” Chatter erupted once more, glossing over the idea of making a grown man cry just by singing, as Seba-sen shuffled his way toward the piano in one of the classroom’s corners. “Well then, lets give it a whirl. Stand up.” Student’s obeyed and Sensei began the tune on the piano, gliding to each key with grace. “For now, try to go along with me. Let me hear those voices.”
“The eyes which turned around, towards the young moyuru leaves" Following the guide of their teacher, each student paid close attention to the score upon the blackboard.
Well, except one Eric Slingby, who preferred to use his divided attention to another student in class, on the other side of the room. Ah. He thought to himself, still following the teacher with a half-assed attempt. This guy isn’t singing. Alan Humphries. Sure, he’s famous for his brilliance. Even as Eric began to pack up, he kept thinking about him, somehow coming up with the idea that Alan was too perfect to sing some song. ‘like I’ll sing some stupid song’, huh.
----
“Eric, we got the box today around 6,” Eric, rummaging through his locker for his books and bag, while chatting to a childhood friend, William. “Ronald is gonna be here for a jam session. Since he finally fixed his snares.” Will chuckled, which is a rare sight, especially if you don’t partake in a band with him. Eric, being the bassist alongside Will, saw it often. Mostly when Eric’s late and he has to promise everyone some Ramen, or if hes done something embarrassing, a big mac. Eric hummed and smiled, still rummaging his locker. “Kay- Damn, I left something in the classroom- you go on ahead, I’ll catch up.”
Will rolled his eyes, smiling gently at him regardless, “I’ll see you then.”
“Right on.” Eric quickly stumbled back to the choir classroom, rushing up the stairs and singing a cute little sing-song tune to himself “lunch bag, lunch bag… There’ll be some scary mold if I don’t get it~”. Upon his arrival to the classroom, Eric stopped at the door once he heard another student inside. Another student singing the song they first practiced a good hour ago to be exact.
“The eyes which turned around… towards…” looking closer, it was Alan, struggling with the first few lines, mixing up tones and stumbling over his words, “hm…. The… towards the… young moyoru leaves…” Eric didn’t even have the heart to move, simply listening in on the other mess up the score on the sheet, although shifting his weight to his other foot proved to be a mistake, as it creaked one of the floor boards and caught the other off guard, drawing his attention over towards Eric with an embarrassed tint on his cheeks. “Ah- S-Slingby-“ He only stood there, embarrassed at how he got caught staring. “Ah, yeah. I forgot something.” Eric simply walked through, granting Alan with an awkward silence as he reached for his lunch bag from under his desk, while alan just adjusted his glasses, avoiding any eye contact with Eric. secret training, huh? Eric thought, deciding it best to give the poor guy assistance. “Alan…”
“eh?”
“you messed up that part earlier.” The blonde walked over, peering Alan’s score sheet which rested in his hands, and pointed out the notes he was confused about. “It’s not ‘Towards the yo-oung moyuru leaves”, It’s “towards the young moyuru leaves”.
“towards the… young?”
“err, look here. There’s a pause.” He pointed clearly on the sheet the break in the score, showing the pause. “that’s why it’s ‘towards the young’ ah ‘moyuru leaves’.”
“towards the young… ah… moyuru leaves”
“exactly.” Eric smiled, continuing each line for him. “Coming with you one day…Till the day when you have grown a little. Until then, I’ll… want to see your eyes reflecting those young moyuru leaves…”
“… we didn’t do that part in class yet.” Alan was impressed, yet, he felt a little overwhelmed with all he had to learn, especially considering how hard it was for him to read the score, yet, Eric read it through so perfectly.“yeah, but looking at the score…”
“Ah, you’re in a band or something right?” Eric nodded, still with the smile on his face. “thank you… for teaching me, that is.” The two were quick to fall back into silence, which, to Eric’s credit, he let play out longer than it should have while Alan began to gather his things. “I thought you weren’t into it.” Alan halted at that, slipping his bag onto his desk, instead of letting it rest upon his shoulders, “huh?”
“well, I mean, rather than into it, I thought, maybe you were the type to think that singing is stupid.” Nice one Eric. “since you didn’t sing in class, you know?” Alan sighed, quickly thinking up an excuse so Eric wouldn’t press him further about it, finding it a bit shameful. “My glasses don’t match my current eyesight, so I couldn’t see the score on the blackboard.”
“Why didn’t you have Seba-sen place you in the front row?” Eric tilted his head, the smile gone and letting him move to a curious expression. “Ah, no. I don’t want to trouble sensei with this.”
“is that so…” Eric hummed, Is that why hes studying in secret? Wait, is Seba-sen even the kinda guy to be troubled by something like this? While Eric pondered, Alan finally managed to start leaving, slinging his bag over his shoulder, before eric could catch him. “do… do you wanna meet? To practice singing— until the choir festival?” Eric quickly sputtered on the spot, really, just finding any excuse to see him again.
‘Huh?’ was written all over his face. Then he leaned forward slighty and said…”
‘uh… sure’.
but honestly, I was more surprised by myself for making that offer.
--
“Oh, you got that note wrong.” Eric leaned back on the concrete, resting his elbow on the step above him while he practically laid across the others, listening to Alan try to go through the score once again, and having a small swig of a Pocari. “look, there’s a natural, so you gotta go back a half-tone.”
“so It’s a normal ‘mi’.”
“ “Mi”…” Alan had this cute concentrated expression on his face, one that Eric had to keep glancing at just so he could remember it, since his own memory fought against him sometimes. “Isn’t this a “mi”?”
“It’s the treble clef ‘mi’.”
“treble clef…” Alan went to face the notes again, truly having trouble reading the score. However, this time, Eric finally caught on, much to Alan’s dismay, “Alan… Could it be that you could see the blackboard just fine, you just can’t read the scores?” Immediately, Alan got defensive “I can read them!” but contrary to watch he just said, Alan returned with a few more questions. “this is a “do”, right? do si la sol…”
“Are you going to count your way through all the notes?” Eric smirked around his Pocari bottle, giggling a little “you’re awesome.” And he meant that in the most lighthearted way possible, yet, Alan still looked more embarrassed than anything. ah. Hes pouting. interesting…
“Well then, wanna leave the score aside? Just sing after me.”
--
“Eric, you’re a tenor, aren’t you?” Alan followed Eric to one of the school store rooms, watching him lock the door and quickly slump against it, flicking past all of Alan’s score sheets. Seba-sen had moved the class onto Alto and tenors, which, thankfully, Eric was experienced in.
“yeah, but I know how alto works too.” He pointed out one of the lines in the score, “Also, this part is in harmony, so it’s best if we practice together.” Alan smiled softly and let out a small chuckle, catching Eric’s attention and getting him to smirk. “ ‘Eric is amazing’, weren’t you just thinking that?”
“not really.” Eric just continued to look at Alan with that same, stupid smirk, making alan feel more nervous “well, maybe a little.”
“what do you mean ‘a little’?!”
--
No matter how much Eric enjoyed being around Alan, teaching his music scores and making sure his pitches are correct, Eric already has something else that’s music related. “Eric, you’re late, you owe us a ramen!” Will called out as eric slammed open the door to the rehearsal room, late due to Teaching and hanging out with Alan. “Make that a big mac!”
--
"... those young moyuru leaves."
“perfect.”
---
Finally, Alan had managed to perfect his voice, as well as read scores semi-well, since he just followed Eric’s voice. Now, they were at the community fountain, 9 pm at night with the quiet twinkling of moon and street light as the fountain sprung to life every now and then. Eric had sat himself upon the steps leading towards the fountain, watching as Alan walked back from the nearby vending machine, holding two bottles of pocari, handing one to Eric once he got back to his side. “My treat.”
“ah, thanks.” Eric gave a small smile, thankfully taking the bottle and immediately cracking it open, almost at the same time as Alan, which he found quite cute. “it’s nothing compared to what you did for me,” Alan chuckled gently, “but since this is the last time… you really helped me a lot. Thank you.” This sentence hurt Eric little, it was a bid deal, he swears, he’s sure it won’t be the last time they hang out. Surely.
“…say…” Eric started, “Did you work this hard on the song for Seba-sen’s sake?” He kept his gaze at the fountain, not truly wanting to see Alan’s expression until the fountain finally went down, leaving him to finally look at Alans surprised expression. “eh-?”
Eric watched the bottle fall from Alan’s hands and down the first two steps from where they were sat, gently getting up to fetch it for him “oh- whoopsie.” The other realised the situation and quickly got up after him, reaching out for the pocari just as Eric did, “ah, no, it’s fine. I’ll pick it up myself…” Once Alan’s hand was placed upon Eric’s, everything seemed to go slower, with his heart pounding in his ears and a sudden wave of courage overcame him, having him carefully place a hand behind Alan’s head, drawing him closer towards him and closing what space was left between their lips. Although, the courage was shortlived, and both students were left in shock and confused, eric being the worse of the two, feeling embarrassed almost instantly, quickly pulling himself Away from Alan.
“Ah- uhm- sorry!” Eric’s face went red, unsure if a ‘sorry’ would truly patch the situation. “…err, this is…” Eric’s heart rang in his ear’s again, “I’m off!” The blonde grabbed his bag, kicking his half full pocari bottle in the process, rushing and stumbling up the stairs in a desperate attempt to get away from the awkward situation.
“ah, E-” Alan stuttered out, unable to go after him, “Eric!” Even as he called out, Alan’s voice only fell upon deaf ears as Eric disappeared.
“Isn’t this… bad? Eric thought.
splish, splash. The fizzing soda. Alan’s voice breaking on that high note. But it was all… for he sake of that guy.
Even with these doubtful thought’s Eric only ran as far as he could. “Ahhh!! This sucks! Screw this! I wanna die!”
--
Coming closer to the end of Summer, the choir festival finally rolled around. Having the student’s perform in front of other classes, and a few other schools in the auditorium. “Err, next up is program No. 7, Class A of second year, “young moyuru leaves”.” The announcer called up the students, and Seba-sen got them started, with a calm piano backing the singing, just s Sebastian had played those months ago. Although, Eric had much different things on his mind, Alan being the majority of his thoughts. The poor boy couldn’t help but glance at the other every so often.
He’s singing without a problem… He let out a mental sigh of relief, thank god.
Why was he feeling like this? He shouldn’t feel so broken over something he didn’t suggest for them to start in the first place. Besides, what if Alan wasn’t into guys anyway? It would be a considerable stretch to even guess that.
Eric’s voice slowly trailed from the rest of the class’, only snapping into the present when he felt eyes drawing towards him, and a soft wetness gathering beneath his eyes, dripping down his cheek. In the moment, Eric just wanted to cry, but he felt embarrassed enough as it is. “ah-” Eric felt his cheek, rubbing away any tears that continued to fall. Soon he just pushed past all the student’s staring at him and took the side entrance as an escape.
“Eric!” The brunette followed behind, abandoning the very thing Eric taught him for, and put his safety over reputation. Even as Alan left behind Eric, Sebastian remained confused, clearly not expecting him to follow the blonde of all people.
“Eh—Alan?!” Seba-sen truly felt worried, especially with how much the remaining students began to heckle.
“haha, they really left.!”
“In the middle or the performance too! What is this, a soap opera?”
Tripping and stumbling through the courtyard, Alan tried to keep up with Eric, although, his little legs could only make him go so fast “hey, wait!” Alan huffed and panted, “Why’d you start crying, all of a sudden?!”
“You have to go back! Seba-sen is gonna worry!”
“Why are you bringing up Seba-Sensei?” Alan began to slow his pace when Eric stopped at the small, square seating area at the side of the building, gripping his hair and sounding like he was just about to sob more.
“b-because! It feels like I've just fallen in love with you!” Alan’s eyes widened at the confession, having him immediately stop in his tracks before he could even reach Eric. “Huh.?”
“But you, like... Did your best for Seba-sen and all...! Geez, I totally helped the enemy here- Aghhh!!”
“Eric?”
“And now I can’t stop sputtering like an idiot!” Eric only gripped tighter at himself, feeling everything just crumble around him as he finally gave in and sobbed, crouching in place, and getting emotional over the feelings he couldnt physically put into words. “Or something... ah.... just... ugh... It’s nothing...”
“Eric-“ The brunette approached the balled up, sobbing blonde, gently placing a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.
“It’s fine. I’m fine... I’m fine, I’m fine...”
‘Eric... listen... I didn’t say anything about it being for Seba-sensei's sake.” Eric seemed to collect himself at this statement, quickly looking over his shoulder to gawk at Alan, anticipating what he’s about to say next. “hm-?”
Simply put, Alan was cguard once more, jumping at Eric’s sudden change in tone “ah, as I said... It’s not for sensei... It’s not that... just... singing with you was...” Alan hesitated and debated the words in his head. “it was...”
“it was what..?”
“no, nevermind.” Alan cleared his throat, looking away in an attempt to hide his flushed cheeks, to which, Eric was left with his excitement, although, a little disappointed. “ehh! You can’t leave me hanging here now...”
“No no no...” Eric was about to continue his plea, when the echoing voice of a teacher came from the other end of the courtyard, clearly with the intent of bringing them back to the auditorium, and Eric couldn’t think about the embarrassment they would feel if they went back there.
“Slingby! Humphries!”
“ah- Alan, Come, quick!” Eric kept his voice hushed as he led Alan away into the store shed, where all the outdoor sports equipment was held, really, it wasn’t too special.
“huh? I was sure they ran this way...”
--
“we should go back...” Alan had his back to the door, peaking through the gaps, alongside Eric, to make sure the faculty had continued their search further away from their current location. Alan didn’t kind how close Eric had gotten to him, in fact it felt a little cosy, despite the thumping I’m his chest as well as the nervousness that followed when Eric spoke again. “Alan... let me hear that last part.”
“I told you already, it doesn’t matter!” Alan blushed at the gentle gaze he held with Eric it’s almost like he can tell that he’s nervous yet, he didn’t seem to mind.
“Hey, I was thinking... do you think the glasses get in the way during a kiss?”
“Huh?” Alan’s eyes widened as Eric gently held Alan’s chin with his thumb and forefinger, directing his face back towards him when he tried to look away, and gave him a sweet, tender kiss. Even at the risk of the teachers catching them, Alan just closed his eyes and nervously accepted it.
“I have to say I’m really not surprised about Eric, but even Alan behaved that way. I wonder what exactly is going on...”
No problem, huh.