Chapter Text
The air was electrifying.
Everyone was talking about different festivities that they would be attending that night, excited to make it through another year. Adults were dressed up in their fanciest clothes, teenagers were being ushered into one place by their parents, and most of the younger children were already in bed by now. But there was one hotel guest that decided that curling up in front of the fire in the main lobby was better than any party he could attend.
Carlos de Vil, a 15 year old with a (some would call strange) love for science, was just getting to the best part of his book when he felt it getting yanked out of his hands.
“Carlos, it’s New Year’s Eve! Enough reading,” Carlos looked up to see his mother, Cruella, standing above him with his book in her hands.
“Oh, but Mom! I’m almost done…” Carlos pleaded, already knowing that when his mother had that look in her eyes it was nearly impossible to argue with her.
Cruella scowled and said, “The teen party? You’re going whether you like it or not… for once I’d like to begin the New Year in peace.”
Cruella had started to walk away when her son meekly asked, “Can I please have my book back?”
Cruella glowers as she holds the book farther from Carlos’ reach, “First you are to get dressed, then we can see if you deserve to get it back.”
Carlos nods his head and murmurs, “Alright…”
“Carlos! Come!” Cruella calls, as Carlos hurriedly follows her to their room.
Jay has used the lodge’s gym to practice tourney every single day of his vacation, and today was no different.
He’s in one of the gyms that the lodge provides, practicing with his father, Jafar. Jay’s hair is tied back in a ponytail, his breathing coming quickly as he moves around his father to get a clear shot at the net. He swings and the ball sails to the center, Jay already moving away from the net so that his father could run through another play with him.
“Keep working left, Jay. Got a guard in the championship game we’re expectin’. You’ll torch em!” Jafar says.
Jay’s back is to his father as he asks, “By going left?”
Jafar nods as he replies, “Yeah. He goes middle, you take it downtown.”
Jay smirks as he asks, “Okay, like this?” Jay turns around, goes left, and takes the shot. They see the ball graze the side of the net, but not enough for him to miss it.
“Whoo! That’s it man!” Jafar says, “Sweet! I wanna see that in the game!”
Meanwhile Amara had been watching her husband and son as she waited for them to notice her. After a couple minutes she knew that they were too lost in the game and called out, “Boys?”
Jay replied to Jafar and chuckled, “Oh, you’ll see that in the game, don’t worry about me.” Jay walked over to take a drink of water and smiled at his mother, “Hey mom, you look especially beautiful this evening.”
Amara was having none of it, “Did we really fly all this way to play more tourney?”
Jay looks at his father as his father looks at him; they both nod and turn back to Amara as they say, “Yeah.”
“It’s the last night of vacation,” Amara says as she turns around, showing off a very fancy emerald green dress, “The party, remember?”
Jafar makes a facial expression that Jay recognizes; it’s the face he makes when he forgets about something and is desperately trying to pretend that he didn’t. Tonight the something he forgot being the party that Jay’s mom was talking about.
“Right, the party. The party. New Year’s Eve.” Jafar rambles as he looks from his wife to his son.
Amara smirks at Jafar, knowing that he forgot, and turns to her son to say, “Jay, they have a kid’s party downstairs in the Freestyle club.”
Jay groans as he says, “Kid’s party?”
Amara shushes him as she says, “Young adults. Now go, shower up!”
Jay gives his mom a pleading look as he backs up onto the court and says, “Come on, one more.”
Amara sighs, holding back a smile.
“Last one,” Jay continues.
“Real quick!” Jafar says, and Amara relents as she backs up off of the court.
Jay takes the ball and goes left, exactly as before, and this time the ball doesn’t even touch a side as it hits the back of the net.
“There we go!” Jafar said as he clapped Jay on the back, “That’s the way to end it!”
By the time Jay steps through the doors to the Freestyle club, the party is already in full swing. Teenagers had packed in and filled the place to a nice amount, not too many so you couldn’t breathe or move, but enough that you didn’t feel like the center of attention if you weren’t talking to anybody. Jay walks around the room casually, taking in all of the decorations as he hums along to a song that’s playing. He soon realizes that it’s actually a karaoke version of the song, though he can’t remember the name of it.
Carlos is making his way through the room as he looks around for a place to sit, he had managed to swipe his book back from his mother and hide it under his jacket without her noticing. He makes his way through a group of people, all of them wearing ridiculous hats that you could only wear on New Year’s without being mocked.
“Howdy, partner,” says a guy in an enormous foam cowboy hat, winking at Carlos as he passed. Carlos could feel a blush rushing to his cheeks and quickly hurries to the first open seat he’s seen, desperate to find out how his book ends.
The host for the night, really just the guy in charge of the karaoke, walks back onto the stage once the last song has finished playing.
“All right! How about that for a couple of snowboarders?” he asks the crowd. The crowd claps in appreciation, grateful for once that a couple could hold a tune.
The announcer waits for the clapping to die down somewhat before saying, “Yeah! Who’s gonna rock the house next? Huh?”
Everyone averts their eyes as they pray that they will not be selected, Jay included. Jay didn’t think he was a bad singer, but he didn’t wanna test that assumption in front of a bunch of strangers.
Carlos on the other hand, was too lost in his book to notice what was happening.
Suddenly Jay could feel the spotlight on him, the people around him started to urge him towards the stage as he said, “I can’t sing! No, you go.”
Carlos was just about to finish a chapter when a bright light brings him back to reality, he looks up to glare at the distraction when he notices that the host for the evening was making his way towards him.
“And you! Yeah, come on,” the host takes Carlos’ hand and leads him up to the stage, Carlos being too shocked to do anything other than do what the guy said.
“Look, I don’t sing. I can’t sing. No guys!” Jay protests as he’s practically shoved up onto the stage.
Carlos looks at his singing partner and tries to hide a blush from creeping onto his face. The boy was wearing some black jeans, a white dress shirt, and a maroon jacket that hugged his muscular chest in all the right places. His dark hair went a few inches past his shoulders; the top half of it pulled back to, most likely, keep it out of his face. Basically, he was gorgeous, and Carlos was so fucked.
Jay turns to take a look at his partner, and was surprised to find a somewhat-short, freckle-faced boy with black and white hair looking back at him. His eyes widen as he sees what the kid is wearing; on his top half he’s wearing a classy white dress shirt with a black jacket, but the inside of the jacket was blood red. As Jay’s gaze travelled lower he was surprised to find that the boy was wearing shorts. It was the middle of winter, there was snow on the ground, and this guy was wearing shorts. Jay is snapped out of his own thoughts as the host handed him a microphone.
“Hey you know what? Someday you guys might thank me for this.”
Jay is about to snort and say something snarky when the host continues, “Or not.”
Jay glares at the host as the music starts playing.
Carlos holds his arms across his chest, very aware that he was now the centre of attention. Both of them are relieved when the song turns out to be something they recognize from the radio, so they know the tune well enough. They both silently thank god for the TV though, because neither of them felt that they would get the lyrics right if given the chance.
Jay looked up at the screen and saw that he had to sing first, “Living in my own world, didn’t understand,” he clears his throat before continuing, “That anything can happen, when you take a chance.”
Convinced that the boy beside him was too terrified to sing, Jay turns his back and starts to step down from the stage. But then the boy starts singing and Jay stopped in his tracks. He looked back at the boy to see him timidly singing along while looking at nothing but the TV screen, and decided that this boy was braver than he had thought.
Carlos kept singing as Jay made his way back to his own microphone, “I never believed in, what I couldn’t see. I never opened my heart…”
“Ohh,” Jay sings.
Carlos looked over at his partner as he sings, “To all the possibilities, oh…”
Together they sang, “I know that something has changed, never felt this way…”
Carlos sings, “And right here tonight…”
“This could be the start of something new,” Jay looks over at the other boy as he sings the next line solo.
“It feels so right,” Carlos sings.
Jay joined back in as they sing, “To be here with you, and now looking in your eyes, I feel in my heart…”
They meet each other’s eyes as they sing, “The start of something new…”
As Jay looked into Carlos’ eyes, he realized that this boy wouldn’t judge him if he did something stupid. He didn’t know how he knew, but he would bet that any boy daring enough to wear dress shorts with red sneakers wouldn’t care if he had some fun.
“Now who’d’ve ever thought that,” Jay sings as he slides off his jacket and tosses it off stage. Carlos sneaks a look at him as he does so and blushes when he sees Jay wink at him.
They both sang, “We’d both be here tonight?”
Carlos smiles as he notices how much the song lyrics relate to their situation, “And the world looks so much brighter.”
Jay adds some background vocals as he sings, “Brighter, brighter…”
“With you by my side!” Carlos sings, daring to hold the last note.
The crowd is clapping along with them as they sing, “I know, that something has changed, never felt this way!"
Carlos closes his eyes as he sings, “I know it’s for real…”
They both sing, “This could be the start of something new! It feels so right to be here with you, oh! And now looking in your eyes, I feel in my heart…”
Carlos sings, “The start of something new…”
Jay decides to completely let go as he grabs the mic stand and leans towards Carlos as he sings, “I never knew that it could happen ‘til it happened to me! Oh, yeah…”
Carlos grins and looks around at the screaming crowd, too happy to be embarrassed.
They both sing, “I didn't know it before, but now it's easy to see... OH!!!” Jay’s heart skips a beat when he hears Carlos hit the high note, “It's the start, of something new! It feels so right to be here with you... And now looking in your eyes, I feel in my heart... That it's the start of something new!"
Jay had been moving towards Carlos and Carlos had been backing up, suddenly he stepped back onto nothing and started to fall back, but the crowd caught him and pushed him back onto the stage, now very close to Jay. All the while Carlos had kept singing and Jay was amazed by the kid's talent.
They both sang, “It feels so right to be here with you, and now looking in your eyes…”
Carlos sings, “I feel in my heart…”
Jay harmonizes with Carlos as he sings, “Feel in my heart…”
They both sing, “The start of something new…”
Jay moves closer to Carlos as he sings, “Start of something new…”
Carlos sings, “Start of-“
“Something new…” they finish the song together, somehow managing to end up a breath’s distance from each other. Jay saw the boys’ eyes flit down to his lips, and Jay started to lean in when-
“Well that was amazing!” the host interrupted them, causing them to move away from each other.
The crowd continued to cheer as Jay realized that he should probably introduce himself, “I’m Jay,” he yelled over the crowd.
“Carlos,” the other boy replied, and Jay smiled. Yeah, this kid looked like a Carlos.
“Do you wanna get some hot chocolate?” Jay asked.
Carlos’ smile got wider as he replied, “Yeah I’d love to!”
“Great! Follow me; I know where to get some…” Jay trailed off as he took Carlos’ hand in his as he led them off the stage.
Carlos was grateful that Jay had his back to him as he led him to the hot chocolate, because he didn’t know if he could handle Jay seeing him when he was the colour of a cherry tomato.
Jay finally reached the “bar” at the other end of the room, though no alcohol was being served.
“Two hot chocolates please,” Jay said as he reached into his wallet to grab some money. He noticed that Carlos started to do the same so he said, “Don’t even think about it, it’s on me.” Jay grinned when he saw the younger boy put his wallet away and smile sheepishly, a faint blush making his freckles stand out even more.
As they waited for their drinks they were silent, both too nervous to break the ice, despite the fact that they’d just sang together in front of a room full of people. When they got their drinks Carlos asked Jay if he wanted to go outside, Jay nodded as he followed Carlos to the door, desperately trying to think of something to say. Finally Jay decided to just do what he did best, and pick the cheesiest line in the book…
“Are you from heaven? Because your voice is like an angel’s,” Jay whispered into Carlos’ ear. Carlos flushed as he opened the door to go outside, thankful for the cold night air to calm his nerves.
Jay chuckled at Carlos’ embarrassment and said, “Seriously, you have an amazing voice. You’re a singer right?”
Carlos replied, “Ha! Not likely… my mom is… strict? She doesn’t like me being involved in things that aren’t school related…”
Jay looked at Carlos in surprise, “Really? Why’s that?”
Carlos laughed bitterly as he replied, “She thinks distractions will ruin my future, really I think she just likes to be in control.”
“Well with the way you sang tonight, that’s hard to believe,” Jay remarked, wondering how many more times this boy would surprise him.
“That was the first time I’ve done something like that! I mean it was so cool!” Carlos beamed as he thought back on it; he couldn’t believe that he’d even gotten through the song!
“I know!” Jay agreed, “Completely!”
Carlos looked up at Jay as he said, “Well you sounded like you’ve done a lot of singing too!”
Jay smirked as he replied, “Yeah sure, my showerhead is very impressed…”
They both turned towards the partygoers inside as they heard the countdown, although it was somewhat muffled through the doors.
9, 8, 7…
They both look at each other awkwardly, unsure of what to do.
…6, 5, 4…
Jay sees a faint blush on Carlos’ cheeks and wonders if it’s a good idea to kiss him…
…3…
Carlos sees Jay look at his lips and his breathing starts coming quicker.
…2 …
They both lean in until they’re millimeters apart…
1!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
They both jerk apart as someone waves a sparkler in front of their faces, hearing fireworks go off in the sky. They turn to look at them, knowing that whatever moment they had was lost.
Carlos is the first to break the silence as he says, “I guess- I guess I better go find my mom and wish her a happy new year.”
Jay smiles and says, “Yeah, me too. I mean, not your mom. My mom… and dad.”
Carlos looks down as he realizes that this will probably be the last time they’ll see each other, Jay seems to realize this too as he blurts out, “Uh… I’ll call you! I’ll call you tomorrow!”
Carlos’ face lights up as he says, “Yeah!” and reaches into his jacket for his phone.
Jay hands him his phone and says, “Here, put your number in.” Afterwards he tilts his phone up so it’s facing Carlos, “Say Cheese!” Carlos grins as Jay snaps a picture of him.
“You too,” Carlos says as he hands his phone over to Jay.
Jay puts his number in quickly and takes a selfie for his contact photo, “There you go.”
Carlos smiles as Jay turns away, his blush deepening as he thinks about what other photos Jay could take with his phone.
Jay looks back at his phone and says, “Just so you know, singing with you was the most fun I’ve had on this vacation… So, um… Where do you live?” Jay trailed off as he noticed that Carlos was no longer next to him. He spun around but couldn’t see him anywhere.
Jay looked down at his phone where the picture of Carlos was still being displayed, he grinned as he said to himself, “Carlos.”