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no rules for me, I'm free

Summary:

Charlie recently came out to her friend Bizly as transfem, but hasn't quite had "the talk" with her Twitch chat yet. Bizly helps her gather the courage to go for a "girly" song on Karaoke night anyway.

Notes:

got really high and watched this slimecicle clip: https://youtu.be/WHO8nXkd1E8 and. well . yeah

Work Text:

They're streaming karaoke on Twitch, and Bizly recognizes a potentially insensitive sentiment that he worries Charlie might hear or hold doubts about in her, ("mm-hm-m, oh I just got a message that says "oh god not Frozen, dear lord.") so he calls it out in a mocking tone and immediately cuts it in the bud - "welp, too late! It's too late for that." 

Charlie laughs a little at the absurdity, "mmhehah, got bad news."

"Your message was a little too late. Okay, um.." No making fun of Frozen, a typically "little girl" interest. He won't tolerate that here, don't make fun of shit where your main gripe is "blehhh not manly or serious".

It makes Charlie smile, ("this is let it go from frozen" "alright you start it off" "am I orange?" "oh, yeah. Yeah, you're orange, go ahead." "Alright, I'm orange.") and as the music begins she throws in a toneswitch, lowering her voice out of training to balance out the upright defense of femininity in the stream with a bit of masculinity to keep chat from focusing to make potentially misogynistic comments. "Okay. Here we go..." 

"Although, the further we get into-"

Bizly, confused and dearly well-meaning cis ally, pauses and asks "why are you going deeper for this?", trying to communicate "wait, why would you try to act more like your agab in any willing context? Is something wrong?"

Charlie brushes past this sweet but unnecessary worry to focus on her timbre, ("here we go, the snow") and smoothly code-switches into the voice she's put so much work into training. She's a performer at heart, really, and knows a contrast and sudden jump in vocal range is more clippable. She's focusing so much on doing her hours justice that she doesn't bother breaking it once established to respond to Bizly's cough. 

Bizly is a bit astonished at Charlie's voice - he'd heard her neutral voice before, maybe even seen her put a bit more effort into a passing "girl mode", but never heard her singing voice since she'd started voice training. She's a little amused by how taken aback he seems, and can't resist teasing him over what's most likely just discord lag as he starts his part ("...." "it's your turn." ".....-a kingdom of isolation, and it looks like I'm the Queen."). She almost doubts her assumption as she hears the wavering in his voice, like a blushing teenager trying to impress his crush. He tries to save face and come off smooth and casual and jokey as he comments, "I'm a queen now," again a move to normalize casual femininity from their streamers to chat.

The song keeps going, though, and Charlie doesn't have a moment to respond to his quip as she works her vocal chords again. "The wind is howling..."

She finds her friend's to-be-desired timing and struggle to hold a note horrifically endearing, as he sings "couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I've tried..." and has to cough to keep her voice on-key as the song crescendos.

She and Bizly both crack their straight faces as they see the upcoming lyrics at the same time - Charlie is near giddy as she sings out the unbelievably tongue-in-cheek lyrics. "Don't let them in, don't let them see! Be the good-girl you always have to be!" She belts out the pre-chorus through a grin to his growing giggles, and pours her heart out as the chorus arrives. "YES!" Bizly shouts. "YESS!" She hears him cackling over her own voice in her ears, "let it go! Let it go!" "YES! LET IT GO!!!" he cheers, then joins her in clumsy joyous song: "LET IT GO!!! Can't hold it back anymore!" They sing through "turn away and slam the door" in their silliest falsettos together, until Charlie's training gives out and she has to lower her voice back down, and Bizly is admirably quick to follow her, deepening his voice to just under hers to let her lead on setting the pitch with her feminine voice. "...what they're going to say! Let the storm rage on..." and she dips back up into her head voice to end the verse: "the cold never bothered me anyway," Bizly mirroring her with the deeper end of his range.

They both jam out to the brief instrumental, and Charlie finds her voice warmed by the first part, now singing from a comfortable light chest voice that arcs up into her head range as they enter the second verse. "YES!" Bizly giggles, and misses his next cue as he relies on the on-screen lyrics for this unfamiliar stretch of the song. Charlie is happy to hop in to help cover his lines, and the pair of them are fully fumbling their way through the next chorus in crazed laughs together. ("I am one with the wind and sky, let it go... you'll never see me cry!")

Charlie half-heartedly carries them into the bridge, overcome with a wave of mild exhaustion from how long they've been streaming. ("And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast-!") She waits in silence for Bizly to reach the same point in the song as her over discord lag, anticipation building for the best line in the song-

A full two seconds after the cue hits on her end, Bizly's shaky soprano filters through her headphones. "I'm never going back, the past is in the PAAAAAST"

She breaks into laughter, before composing herself enough to squawk through the rest of the song in varying tones and very little seriousness, Bizly echoing after her every other line. "LET IT GOOO!... arise like the break of dawwawan!" "Here i stand, in the light of day! Let the storm rage onnnnn-!"

She pulls it together for one more line, and semi-seriously sings the closing: "the cold never bothered me anyway." "never bothered me anyway."

As the program plays the prerecorded applause and closes the karaoke stage interface, she laughs in exhausted mania.

"This stream has broken me, physically and mentally," Bizly informs her flatly, pain in his words that she feels as well.

"I am f-" she giggles humorlessly. "We're only, we're like halfway there, bro, we're like halfway there!"

"I knowhohoho :(", Bizly groans into his hands.

So far, this is honestly not the weirdest thing Charlie's felt gender affirmed by, but still - she considers for a moment - yeah, still top 3 for sure. Not many experiences have been simultaneously so unusual and so rich in gender euphoria.