Chapter Text
Yasuo's phone buzzed as he did his best to avoid everybody swarming around the crowded television studio. Four texts from Akali, two missed calls from Senna, one from Qiyana, and notifications on everything from Ekko. He was late, he knew he was. Rain and wind had caused an accident on the highway, and he was late to an important appearance on a late-night show. Well, not actually late yet, but the group liked to arrive early to have time to get ready to perform together. Despite the clock having hit 10 P.M. almost fifteen minutes ago, the studio was still full of people, most of whom were too distracted to focus on where they were going. Being forced to watch out not only for himself but for everybody around him made him feel anxious and only slowed him down more. He swore under his breath as he pressed forward. Everybody around him blurred together, and he was so close to finally making it out of that crowd and to the set where he was supposed to be, until -
"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. I am so, so, so, so, so sorry," he heard somebody in front of him say, muffled through the headphones he was wearing. He hadn't processed what had happened, it was only after he felt a shock of heat on his chest that he realized somebody had knocked into him. And that somebody was the one profusely apologizing, holding a now-empty cardboard cup of coffee in one hand. Yasuo looked from his shirt up to the person in front of him.
The first thing he noticed was her eyes. Behind a pair of black rectangular glasses, her eyes were an electric, striking blue.
"I'm so sorry," she repeated, and he took his headphones off. "Do you - are you - oh, God."
The woman's eyes widened and her face burned bright red.
"You're part of the band, the one that's performing on Stage C," she muttered, and he wasn't sure if she was speaking to him. "They're waiting for you, and I'm only making you more late, and - "
"It's okay," Yasuo said.
"O-okay," she replied. She shook her head. "If you’re late because of me, because I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going…"
"I - I won’t tell anyone this happened,” he said, noticing the worry on her face. "I can say I spilled my own drink on myself."
"Just..." she began, pressing her fingers to her temples. "Here, follow me."
She took off, and despite being taller and having longer legs than her, it was difficult for Yasuo to keep up.
"Wait, where - "
"Wardrobe department," she said, cutting him off. "You can find a change of clothes there, before you have to go on."
What would have been a five minute walk if it had been only Yasuo took only one minute, thanks to the blonde woman's pace. The studio's wardrobe department was made up of multiple rooms, from what Yasuo could see, and there were a handful of people walking around holding clothes, wigs, and other accessories. Once the two stopped walking, the woman waved someone over and asked them to help Yasuo find something to wear, explaining what had happened as her cheeks burned red. The wardrobe assistant nodded and flitted across the hallway, popping into different rooms and grabbing something from each.
When there was a sizeable pile of clothing in the assistant's hands, the woman took the clothing as she thanked them, and handed the items to Yasuo.
"There should hopefully be something that works in there," she said.
"Thank you," he replied, nodding.
"Again, I'm really sorry for what happened. And I'm sorry that the clothes we have here probably aren't as nice as what you were wearing. I think that - "
The woman was cut off by a sudden beep coming from her earpiece. Her eyes widened.
"Oh, God. I'm really sorry," she said to Yasuo, taking off in the direction that they came from. "I have to go, but…I’m really sorry."
Before he had a chance to answer, she had broken into a run and had disappeared among the crowd of people. Yasuo sighed and looked down at the clothing in his hands before checking his phone again. He had fifteen minutes until he would officially be late to their performance, so he quickly chose a black shirt, similar enough to the one he was wearing, made his way to a bathroom, and changed.
After throwing his jacket back on, he finally replied to a text, telling Akali that he'd be there in five minutes, that he had run into a small problem. She answered immediately, asking if he was okay, to which Yasuo replied only with a “yes.”
Walking back into the hallway, Yasuo grabbed his dirty shirt in one hand and the pile of clothes in the other, and followed all the signs he saw leading him to Stage C. From there, it was relatively easy to find the green room, since there was a sign on the door that very clearly, in bold letters, said "TRUE DAMAGE."
"Yasuo!" Ekko exclaimed as soon as he walked into the room.
"What happened?" Akali asked, dropping her phone in her lap.
"Are you okay?" Senna asked, standing from the couch she was sitting on with Lucian. "Akali told us you ran into a problem."
"I'm fine," he said, dropping the pile of clothes on a coffee table in the center of the room.
How ironic.
"What happened to your shirt?" Qiyana asked, noticing the stain on the shirt he was still holding.
"I, uh," he said. "I spilled coffee on it. So I had to get a new one. Which is why I was late."
"Since when do you drink coffee?" Akali asked, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you liked tea."
"That doesn't matter, Akali," Ekko said. "At least he's here now."
"We still have ten minutes before we go on," Senna said, sitting back down and lacing her fingers through Lucian's. "Sit down, Yasuo. You look like you've been running. Are you sure everything is okay?"
Yasuo nodded as he sat down beside Akali, and while the rest of the group broke into light conversation or began to scroll on their phones, he turned his attention to the television, where the local news station was running. He squinted at the screen, and his eyes suddenly widened as he noticed the woman on the screen, standing in the middle of turbulent winds and pouring rain, was the same woman who had spilled coffee on him. She was wearing a heavy, bright raincoat with the hood up, covering whatever part of her hair wasn't whipping wildly in the wind.
"Can we turn the TV up?" Yasuo asked, and Senna reached towards the coffee table to grab the remote and turn the volume up.
"...and you can see, it doesn't look like the storm will be letting up any time soon," the woman was saying, holding a microphone in one hand. "Winds are reaching velocities of seventy miles per hour, and the government has issued flood warnings for some counties. People are advised to stay indoors for the duration of the storm."
The screen split to show a news anchor inside the studio.
"Well, that means you too, Janna," he said, and the woman laughed and nodded after a slight pause.
"Trust me, I'll be heading back to the studio as soon as I can."
"Alright, well, be safe out there," the anchor said, smiling. The woman - Janna - smiled. The screen then switched its focus to solely on the anchor, and just as he began to turn the attention over to a sportscaster, there was a knock at the door.
Senna turned the television off as somebody with a clipboard and headset poked their head into the room.
"True Damage? Ready to go on stage?"
Everyone stood and made their way out the door, except for Lucian, who pressed a kiss to Senna's cheek before she left.
"Good luck!" he called out. "You'll all kill it!"
The group was welcomed to the stage with thunderous applause and cheers, a sensation that Yasuo still found alien at times. The blinding stage lights took getting used to, as always, but he managed to do so rather quickly. The crowd came into view as his eyesight adjusted, and he gave the audience a small smile and wave as he sat down in one of the five chairs beside the show's host. He had never been as outgoing as the rest of his band, so he let them do the talking during the interview portion, and when it came to perform, he found the DJ booth at the back of the stage.
There, once the music began, he was able to ignore everything around him. The only thing that mattered was the sound, the sound he felt. As quickly as it had began, their performance was over, and once again, there was applause.
"Thank you!" Ekko called out, a beaming smile on his face. "You've all been a wonderful audience. The best one we've had, I think!"
Yasuo chuckled. He said that after every performance.
The lights on the stage dimmed and the five walked off, where they were met with even more applause.
"Great job, everyone," Senna said, wrapping all of them in a group hug.
"We killed it out there," Qiyana laughed. "Lucian was right."
Yasuo smiled as the hug broke up, the adrenaline from the performance dying down. Together, the five of them walked back to the green room to gather their belongings. Lucian stood as everyone walked in, and smiling, gave his congratulations. After giving everyone hugs, Lucian and Senna were the first to leave, hand-in-hand.
"The three of us wanted to head back to my place and get takeout for dinner," Qiyana told Yasuo. "You want to come?"
"Not tonight," he replied, shaking his head. "Next time."
"Boo," Akali said lightheartedly, giving Yasuo a thumbs down.
Yasuo smiled and waved goodbye to them as they left. Once it was just him in the room, he grabbed his dirty shirt and the other clothes Janna had given him, and made his way back out to the hallway. He was sure he knew how to get back to the wardrobe department, however, his certainty diminished as he tried to navigate the studio again. He looked at the signs, and unaware of the space before him -
"Oh, I'm sorry," he said as he bumped against somebody.
"It's - " the person who was speaking stopped themselves, and Yasuo looked down to see Janna staring up at him. Her clothes and hair were drenched, and some of the water had transferred from her to his clothing. She smiled. "We've got to stop running into each other like this. Literally, I mean. Running into each other. I'll ruin half your wardrobe if you spend any more time here."
Janna seemed much less stressed than the last time he had seen her, though he could tell that she was tired.
"I can take those from you," she said, gesturing to the clothing he was holding. "You're probably tired, and this place is a labyrinth."
"Oh. Sure," he said, handing the pile to her. "Thank you."
"Of course."
"Janna, right?" Yasuo asked. He held his hand out. "That's your name?"
"Yeah," she replied, shaking his hand. "And you're...Yasuo?"
"Yes."
The two of them exchanged a smile, before Yasuo realized he was still holding on to her hand and dropped it quickly, his cheeks warming. Luckily, Janna didn’t seem to notice.
"I watched your performance," Janna said. "You guys did amazing."
"Thank you," he said. "I watched your...your broadcast? It's really impressive what you do."
Janna laughed lightly. It was a soft, warm sound.
"I appreciate you saying that, because all the rain and wind definitely make the work feel less than glamorous at times."
A silence settled over them, and Yasuo looked down at his feet.
"Well," Janna sighed. "I won't keep you here any longer. It was nice to meet you, Yasuo."
"Likewise," he said. "Janna."
They smiled at each other once more, and went their separate ways.
Janna yawned as she walked back into the long hallway, after having put all of the clothing back. Her eyelids were heavy, and she certainly wasn't looking forward to driving home in the rain at night. At that point, she was one of the last people in the studio besides security, and the lights that illuminated the buildings had been lowered to the dimmest setting. She made her way to the break room where she had left her bag, where she noticed a cup on one of the tables. Tilting her head, she approached it, finding that there was not only a cup of fresh, hot coffee there, but also a note scribbled on a napkin beside it.
I'm sorry for having made you waste your coffee earlier tonight. Since I didn't really get a chance to say it, consider this my apology for also bumping into you. If it's okay with you, I'd like to get you another coffee.
- Yasuo
Beneath the note, he had written his phone number.