Chapter Text
“One, two!”
With two words the sound of passionate music fills the room, loud but full of energy that you could only find in these highschool kids.
Alban’s sweat drips off of the side of his forehead, landing smack on the Tom-Tom’s surface before he sends it flying with a few beats of his drumsticks. Yugo grips tightly to the mic stand as he sings, eyes squinting with effort. Uki’s keyboard, switched to a different synthesizer, lets out loud harmonic tones with every press of his manicured fingers. The deep notes of Fulgur’s black and red bass guitar ring out, followed by Sonny’s melodic and quick electric guitar riffs on his bright lemon Fender.
They play in a frenzy until,
“Wait, wait, wait!” Alban calls out, stopping his taps on the snare. The band slowly frezees, letting out a few lone notes as they come to a halt.
Alban stands up, shaking his head before using his fingers to massage his creased forehead. Setting the drumsticks down, he moves past his kit and to where the band stands, waiting for him. “Guys, we’re so out of sync, what’s happening? It’s the regionals! We shouldn’t be so,” he pauses to let out a stressed exhale, “out of it.”
“What do you mean, Alban?” Fulgur asks with a quirk of his eyebrows as he lets his bass sling around his body.
“Yeah, I thought we were doing pretty alright,” Sonny quips, “Yugo was kinda off on the 2nd verse, though,”
“What?” Yugo starts, “But Alban, I was on pitch this time— you were going way too fast, Sonny,”
Uki lets out a sigh, “Guys—“
“I was following your lead, Yugo,” Sonny retorts in Japanese, attempting to make the conversation a little more private.
“Stop making stuff up, Sonny,” Yugo argues.
Fulgur walks forward to place a hand on each of their tensed shoulders, prompting the group to look at him.
“Guys, this is exactly what Alban’s talking about. We need to get our act together if we want regionals to go smoothly,” He says with a squeeze of his prosthetic palms. Uki nods with a frown.
“Yeah, I think we’re a bit too on edge right now anyways. Let’s take a break for a bit, is that okay?” He supplies. Yugo huffs, setting the mic stand down while Sonny resigns and walks off to grab some water.
Alban watches them scatter before turning to open his phone. June 25th. Exactly two months before the regional battle of the bands concert held in a fair in the big city. The boys had only done a couple gigs for the school and for their friends who worked at venues, so this was a big step. If they could get past regionals, they wouldn’t only win a huge cash prize— but recognition.
Noctyx was their band name, a cleverly crafted alias made by their keyboardist and songwriter, Uki. After Alban and Fulgur originally started the band (with Yugo joining after weeks of begging him to give music another chance), the group had been named Night Fury, but Uki’s arrival into the group clearly changed it for the better. Getting Sonny to join was even harder, considering he was already a student council member along with Nijisanji Highschool’s archery pro. Alban had his tricks though, and thus the band was ready to roll.
Uki leans on Fulgur’s shoulder as they stand, finding an oasis in his cool metal limbs. “Those two have been arguing for a long time to begin with. It makes it hard to keep up when they keep trying to drown eachother out,” He starts, giving Alban a pitiful gaze.
Alban knows. The resident delinquent and student council secretary weren’t bound to have a lot of shared ideals, but their passion for music was one of the things that brought them close. To see them like this makes Alban a little weary on the inside.
“Maybe, we should just take a day to hang out. I get that regionals are soon, but if we wanna be on our A-game, we need to come back as a team,” Uki offers. Fuck, why’s Uki always right.
“Of course I’m right,” Uki grins— wait how did he know that?
“So, beach night? If we go now, we could catch the sunset,” Fulgur proposes with a hum. They were staying at Luca’s beach house, but they’d only been using it for the space prior to this night. Having a rich step-brother comes with its perks, I guess.
“Fine,” Alban starts before cutting Uki’s small cheer off with, “but only one night!”
And with that, Uki walks off with a small dance in his step to tell the others.
——————
“Yo, Fuu-chan! Set it right here!” Yugo points to the small blanket on the sand where the snacks sit by the log benches around their small beachside campfire.
Fulgur sets down the cooler with a small grunt before sitting next to Uki on a log. The sun falls slowly in the sky, the waves in front of them crashing softly. Luca’s old acoustic guitar lays on Sonny’s lap as he tunes it with the aid of his phone, and Alban and Yugo forage the cooler for their drinks.
“Lemon Sour, anyone?” Yugo offers, with Sonny raising his hand. The two give eachother an awkward glance, their argument was mild but had been ongoing, and they both knew it.
“Alright guys,” Fulgur sighs amusedly, “go on, apologize,”
Yugo flushes red in embarrassment, “You’re making this out like we’re elementary schoolers!”
“You might as well be after all those petty little jabs,” Uki jokes, lifting a brow to challenge Yugo.
The pair share another awkward glance before Sonny breaks the silence.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry, Yugo. I’ll be more on top of things,” he offers.
Yugo shrugs, pushing the Lemon Sour in his palm, “I’m sorry too, yeah? Let’s do our best in regionals,”
Alban lets out a cheer, cracking open a sweet beer before Fulgur and Uki clap and shout in tandem.
“Shut up, you guys! So loud!” Yugo yells in half-embarrassment as Sonny cracks up next to him.
Fulgur passes Uki a Strong Zero in the chaos before picking up a beer of his own and raising it above the fire.
“Like Yugo said, let’s do our best at regionals! It’s our one chance, so we gotta give it our all,” Fulgur grins, watching as the group raise their drinks up in a toast.
“We got this!” Alban echoes.
“To Noctyx,” Uki smiles.
Sonny hums in support.
“Let’s go!” Yugo calls.
And with a click of their cans, the battle for regionals raged on. The sun fell into the sea, light shining on the waves and the five students who stared out into the water.
Two months, Alban ponders, I think we got this.