Work Text:
Technically, it wasn’t server cleanup. It was more of a “Sett, this is the 12th time in a week that we’ve lost something we needed to save and finalize because you’re putting it on a full hard drive!” kind of cleanup. Normally, edited work went on Yone’s system, but one silent Aphelios joke too-far ended up with a surprised Yone and a computer full of cold brew that was now at the mercy of a tech support guru who probably did not expect a DJ with a katana to appear on his doorstep. Sett’s computer looked really nice, so everyone assumed it could store…everything. And in theory, yeah, it could. But Sett never deleted or uninstalled anything. Even if he got a new computer, he just transferred the exact same stuff from the old one to the new one.
Now, everyone was out for boba and Sett had been tasked to delete something, ANYTHING, probably MOST things, from the computer that he didn’t need anymore for everyone’s sake, since his bungle lost them a full day’s work in the studio. He thought it would be easy, but quickly got sucked into the rabbit hole of random memories, memes, rage bait, song inspiration, and other nonsense. A few minutes had become 3 hours of reading, watching, raging, pruning, musing, and so on. He got really into his old workout videos, cheering himself on before looking at the time. He was losing time that could be spent actually at a gym. He considered a flash drive Aphelios had left. “Put shit on them,” he’d whispered as they headed out. Fine. Drag andddd drop. Easy.
It was the videos with really old time stamps that got his attention. When he’d approached Ezreal about starting a band, he already had a few guys in mind. The co-leader of the band, K’Sante, was a gym regular with Sett, so there was no doubt there. But when he was scouting online, he’d found tons of music uploaded by a pale, skinny kid who did a lot of instrumentals. Sett was impressed. So impressed he downloaded the uploader’s entire archive to show Ez and K’Sante. After just a few songs, it was a yes, and they reached out to their now-main instrumentalist, Aphelios. But…Sett still had everything from Phel’s old account. They weren’t close back then so, Sett had only looked at what he needed to keep his music career going. But now, he noticed something.
These videos and audio files went back a while. Sett leaned back in his chair to look towards the door. Nothing. No one. He slipped his beanie off and popped some earbuds into his fluffy red ears before clicking on the oldest video.
It was a Phel scarcely different from the one he came home to most evenings, the Phel he loved, was overly protective of, and fawned over to make everything perfect, the Phel who couldn’t sing… anymore.
The skinny young man with long black hair, a black hoodie, and an electronic portable keyboard looked nervously up at the camera before putting his head back down and playing something. The audio was terrible, but Sett could make out that over the piano was a voice. The video was over the head and to the side, as though the young man had placed it on the tallest thing near him that could get the full keyboard in view. After 2 minutes, the video ended, and Sett sat in the silence, trying to get a full grip on what he’d just heard before the urge to click the next video file.
Phel. Singing.
It took a few videos before there was finally one where the vocals and music weren’t competing to the point of being unintelligible. Sett watched it once. Twice. He lost count. It was his Phel, singing. He’d heard Aphelios speak at a normal volume before, but it was nothing like this. Nothing prepared him for what the sound of that quiet, awkward, beautiful man of his would be like. He clicked to the next video in order and instead of more singing, it was the start of the Aphelios he’d discovered… mask over his mouth, just playing music. All of them were like that. This only video with the good audio was all there was. Hit bit his lip and pressed play again. Soon, he was lip syncing along with the words in time.
It was something Sett had never heard, and wondered if, maybe, this was something written on his own. He looked up the lyrics but got no results. They were so sad for Phel lyrics, too. Sett started the video over again.
‘Under this pale moon, in this snow far too bright,
I hold you close yet you’re just out of sight,
I whisper my love, but you just hear a sigh,
I’m lost in you…your mind passing me by.’
The lyrics conjured up a memory for Sett from around when they had officially become a couple.
“I confessed to you before, actually,” Aphelios had whispered, embarrassed, as the two lay in each other's arms on Sett’s couch.
“Did ya?” Sett had asked, surprised.
“Mhm. Montreal.”
“When I took just YOU out to dinner? I mean the dinner was my confession, I think.”
“Well, we were at the crosswalk, and it was taking forever. I just really needed to say it. I couldn’t get my voice loud… and there was suddenly a lot of traffic. You didn’t respond and I realized you never heard me or were ignoring it.”
“…What’d you say?”
“I love you...”
Sett blinked the memory back. It dawned on him once more that they would never really sing together. Sett mouthing the lyrics along with the video was the closest they would probably ever come. He pulled the earbuds from his sulking ears. Unfair. He clicked the video and began to drag it into the “KEEPING” folder on his desktop when he saw one of the unsorted videos on the desktop. It was him and K’Sante trying to do a song separately from other sides of the world before cutting each man’s lines into one choppy video, as though they were singing together. It was terrible and then and there, Sett decided that one was for the “DELETE” bin. But it also gave him a little idea. He grabbed a discarded production notebook on the desk and began to write.
“You’re already in bed?” Sett asked, finally back from his task at the studio. Aphelios nodded curtly, scrolling through his phone. He didn’t even look up at Sett. Fair, Sett thought. It was a lot of Aphelios’ hard work that hadn’t been saved that morning. “Guess it took me longer than it should have…heh,” Sett laughed nervously. Aphelios looked over and cocked his notched brow suspiciously before waving for Sett to join him on the purple silken sheets. Sett peeled his street clothes off and obliged, sliding up against Aphelios’ side.
Aphelios took the hand closest to Sett from his phone and wrapped it around the redhead, tugging him closer.
“So what were you really getting up to?” he asked in a hushed voice.
“Made you something.” Sett picked up the phone he’d tossed down alongside himself. “It’s cheesy but, I found these like really old videos you uploaded a while back. And…auhh…”
Aphelios was blushing deeply, cheeks nearly the colour of his eyes. “God…those…”
“You know, we don’t know when we finally will get the epic vocal team up of Sett and Aphelios. World probably can’t handle it.” He thought if he phrased it casually, it wouldn’t come off as sappy and embarrassing which…it probably was. “So I did a little Sett-magic.” He swiped the top bar of his phone down to the Bluetooth settings so Aphelios could connect the headphones that rested on his nightstand.
Aphelios, with some slight hesitation over knowing Sett had possibly embarrassing footage of him, connected his headset and pressed the play button on the video Sett already had up.
It was himself, in his old room when he’d gotten the better audio set up and was recording a stupid song he wrote. He cringed as he saw the younger him play less skillfully, and winced at how corny the lyrics were.
‘Under this pale moon, in this snow far too bright,
I hold you close yet you’re just out of sight,
I whisper my love, but you just hear a sigh,
I’m lost in you…your mind passing me by.’
The video cut to a new video from a similar angle, with the instrumentals the younger him played continuing on. Instead, there was Sett, leaning into a mic.
‘Under this pale moon and it’s silver glow,
I see all the love you think doesn’t show,
Your whispered words found home in my heart,
In this duet of love, we'll never be apart.’
The rest was Sett trying to adjust his voice right to also sing the chorus.
Aphelios didn’t move once the video ended. The screen ended up dimming, and then turning off. Sett swallowed nervously. Aphelios suddenly shoved the phone in his face.
“Unlock it,” he whispered. Sett typed in the passcode (4-3-2-1) (Aphelios knows it) and gave it back. Aphelios watched it again before burying his head in his arms.
“Whoa, Phel, uh,” started Sett, as his quiet partner turned to wrap him in a fierce hug. The headphones fell off. He felt something wet on his shoulder. He turned and wound his arms around Aphelios. “Hey, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry.”
“No,” came a whisper. “I just think about this every time you’re performing…singing with you.”
Sett pressed a firm kiss onto Aphelios’ head.
“I really love it.”