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The blazing sun rays pierced through the windows with a particular force that only tuesday evenings could give. Boxes of old paperwork, worn out instruments and lots of tangled cables characterized the room. Even though the space of the clubroom was the same as the one of a normal classroom, with all the “junk” and devices in there it felt like a claustrophobic space for many. The teacher manager -or who ever he was- had yelled at them a few too many times for not keeping the space clean, even though he wasn’t much in the club with them.
But even with all the flaws this space had, Naosuke has become quite fond of it. The music club has become for him the second home he always aspired to have, a place where he could hide of the world for a while and be himself when he needed it the most. He’d made a space for him in this tiny but also wide clubroom that he resided in.
Tucked away in the corner, the few dusted things that the clubroom had, aside from the ones other people were using, were a small keyboard, probably a cheap knockoff of another with more brand recognition, but it still did its job pretty well, a small desk that could held Naosuke’s computer and barely little else, a cubby where he stored his notebook with lyrics in them, an electric guitar with the name “Ichiro” carved in the back, a small amplifier that had almost no volume in it, and a very small mixing desk that he uses to record the stuff he comes up with.
Naosuke right now was sitting in his corner, strumming random notes in his guitar, trying to make sense of a pattern that he was looking for. For the last couple of days he has been trying to find the melody for a song he has been writing for his boyfriend, Tobio Kageyama, because he wants to surprise him with something for Valentines Day, and specifically the Valentines Festival held in their high school.
He had told Tobio that he was working on the songs that he would play on the festival, which had all been Taylor Swift songs, but he was hiding the fact that he was also writing a song for him. This made it very nerve-wracking for Naosuke, as he wanted to make the song as good as possible for his boyfriend, but the more he tried to make up something, the more he would end up playing Swift’s songs. This made Naosuke give up for the moment, and practice State of Grace.
His skills haven’t been the best yet. He started to play guitar and piano just a few months prior, when he first entered Karasuno. Actually, the sole reason he’s attending that high school is because he’d heard that Karasuno had a decent music club. That was actually a complete lie -the music club was trash when he entered-, but the fact that there were so few people in the club, made it so he could learn to play on his own. This discouraged him at first, but soon he would start to get his rhythm with YouTube tutorials and music forums on the internet, and the loneliness of the place has made it so he and Kageyama has had their little escapades in between classes right there.
Now, eight months in, playing guitar and keyboard almost every day made him somewhat okay with his skills, and with that, he started playing.
“I’m walking fast through the traffic lights…”
The winter winds have been giving Naosuke a pretty hard time, but the desire of walking home with his boyfriend was even higher, so he pulled his jacked tighter with him and waited a few more minutes. He had been standing down the stairs of his boyfriend’s clubroom for a while now, he wanted to tell Kageyama how he had some trouble with math, trying to convince him to convince Yachi to tutor him as well, and to invite him to a café that he saw near downtown sometime soon, but he was taking so god damn long you’d think Hinata killed him or something.
Fortunately that didn’t happen as he heard a door clicking and some people talking, Tobio’s voice mixing in as well. First person he’d saw was Hinata, who waved at him and turned to the stairs to yell “Kageyama! Your boyfriend’s here!”
Next person that graced his eyes was the marvelous and mystical figure that was his boyfriend, who quickly spitted at Hinata “I know, you scrub! He’d tell me that he would wait for me”
Naosuke laughed at their little bantering and walked to the base of the stairs to wait for Tobio, with his arms wide open. In a swift movement, Kageyama flopped into his boyfriend’s arms, resting his hands in his back.
“Hello, big guy” Naosuke teased, rubbing the back of his head. While doing that, his glance went towards Hinata, and greeted him too. His relationship with Hinata had been difficult from his part. He knows how much of a sunshine he is, but something in the back of his mind yells at him red alert, to be cautious with him, but he still doesn’t know why.
Kageyama wanted to stay like this forever. His body still warm for practice collided with Naosuke’s colder figure, but it still brought him warmth. He also was a little giddy because he was about to surprise him.
“Who knew the king could show affection to someone and not be creepy” Ugh, this guy. Naosuke could see Tsukishima and Yamaguchi walking down the stairs, with that stupid smug in his face. He really didn’t stand that beanpole of a guy, but fighting with someone was exhausting for him, so he just decided to leave with Kageyama towards the street.
Naosuke let go of his boyfriend, took him by the hand and walked to the school’s entrance. Kageyama just waved at his team, and left with Naosuke towards somewhere.
“Hmph, I don’t like that guy, he’s basically the king’s lapdog” Tsukishima spitted, crossing his arms and furrowing his brow.
“Tsukishima, what have we said about talking shit of people that isn’t here” Ennoshita remarked, putting his hand in the other’s shoulder to try and calm him down.
“Not talking shit if its true”
Ennoshita slapped Tsukki’s back head. “Stop it.”
“And then the club teacher told me to search the other guys in the club! Bitch that’s your job!” Naosuke shouted, waving his right arm, trying to express himself more, while the other arm was busy holding Tobio’s hand.
“But did you went to find the guys?” Kageyama asked, tilting his head.
“No I didn’t, I needed to practice some more for the valentines festival.” He remarked, quietly stuttering at those last words. He wanted to tell Tobio so bad that he was writing a song for him, but he quickly shut his mind, he needed to remember that it was a surprise!
“But if you don’t find those guys, the music club is in risk of shutting down.” Kageyama reminded his boyfriend, taking a sip of the milk he’d bought earlier “And I doubt they’d give the instruments to a rookie like you.”
“Ugh you’re right. But if it closes, that gives me the chance to join the volleyball club~” He winked and elbowed at Kagayema.
“But you’re bad at it” He stated.
“No worries~ I have the absolute bestest partner in the world who would teach me volleyball right??!” He fluttered his eyebrows and looked at Tobio like a lost puppy, trying to convince him in the off chance that the closing of the music club happened, which it would most likely not. “Also I did volleyball for a couple of years on my middle school, so I’m not as bad as you’d think!”
This piqued Kageyama’s interest. “Really? Which school?” Naosuke internally sighed to himself He really is a volley nerd first and foremost.
“Shiritsu Sanuma, in Tome”
“That far! No wonder I don’t remember you playing” Kageyama said sparkly.
“And also my team wasn’t super good so we didn’t get to play at the prefecture level” Naosuke remarked, his head hanging down a little. Those times seemed very bitter to him, but he still enjoyed what he can.
“So that’s why,” He stopped, stopping Kageyama with him also. Naosuke put his fist up and put it in Tobio’s chest “You guys need to go out there to nationals and prove what Miyagi, and especially you guys are made out of”
The air began to swindle again, making Kageyama’s bangs cover up his eyes. This gave him only the view of Kageyama smirking, a sight that was so rare it was so special for both of them.
“You betcha we will”
“Also, talking about volleyball” Kageyama brought up the conversation again. “I’m going to a youth camp in Tokyo when December starts”
“Really?!?” Naosuke lit up with joy, jumping towards Kageyama, hugging him and kissing him all over. This flustered Tobio a lot, heating up his face a lot and now knowing where to put his hands. They finally settled on his middle back, almost lifting him up.
“We’ll have to celebrate that!”
“I guess we’ll do” Kageyama replied, still flustered and shying away his face.
Random patterns were strummed by Naosuke’s thin fingers. These patterns made scattered sharp noises on the amp. He was lying back on his chair, keeping the guitar on his lap, and staring at the ceiling. Next to him lied his phone, which was recording whatever he hummed at it.
Oh god I hate self imposed deadlines.
Back when Kageyama went out to Tokyo, he promised to himself that he would write the song that he had been postponing for the past few months. He thought that because he had part of the chorus and some chords he could make it work right?
But now, a few days away from Tobio coming back, his mind had been hit with the so-famous writer’s block and now he couldn’t advance further into the song! Realistically, he knew that Kageyama wouldn’t mind if he didn’t finish the song by the time he came back to town -after all he didn’t know about the song at all in the first place- but somewhere deep down Saionji it screamed If Kageyama is pouring 200% of himself into becoming better with better people, why couldn’t do that yourself!
“Brightly stars… shining through… they couldn’t outshine you… Wait!” Naosuke popped upright fast, his mind was working again! Swiftly he took out his notebook and a pen, flipped through the pages towards a new one and started to furiously write.
Brightly stars shining through
I swear they couldn’t outshine you
The ocean in your eyes tell me it’s alright
Well, gotta believe them, it’s all I got
The sweet smirk that you got, gosh it makes you beautiful
Told me it’s time to be, even for a pocketful
Took you by the hand, ran all way through
And for the first time I didn’t felt blue
The dark strands in your face was a code for my rapid beats
Squeezed you way further for a sense of my entreats
Took you by the hand, ran all way through
And for the first time I fell for you…
The ocean in your eyes
Told me its alright
Its all I got
Its all we got.
“EUREKA!”
This was it! He didn’t know how, but he did it! Deep down he thought Wow, Miss Swift must be so proud of me.
But for now, he needed to figure out whatever his fingers were doing in that dirty guitar of his. With the lyrics written down, and with his mind in some sort of possibly copied tune, progress was starting to happen.
Soon his digits began to form some sort of music that was actually pleasant to listen, and not random spiked notes that peaked the amp. For the first time in a couple of weeks, he was having fun again with music.
Maybe too much fun. “Saionji, it’s late, are you going to keep practicing? If not to close the club room.” He knew it was too good to be true.
Because of the dark -Wow when did it become night?- he couldn’t see the figure standing at the door, but by the tiredly voice shouting at seemingly nowhere, it was his senpai Fujimiya. He was one of the few who lasted from the glorious Karasuno Music Club golden days, but now, as the leader of said club, it seems he doesn’t care about anything music related, instead trying to hit girls up from the volleyball and track and field clubs, always failing miserably.
He didn’t respect Fujimiya as a senpai because he didn’t respect Naosuke as a serious member of the club, labeling what his kouhai does as a “free way to not do actual club stuff” and “a waste of time”. But he also knows messing with his elder also may bring trouble with the manager slash teacher they had, and he was triple the pain in the ass than Fujimiya was, so he didn’t want to deal with that right now.
“Coming Fujimiya, give me five”.
This day was truly special in a number of ways. First of all, days were starting to get a little bit warmer, compared to whatever January had to offer, which was extreme fucking cold. Second of all, the school’s decorations.
Up the hill he was walking in, towards the school, he could see the whole school had been preparing for this for a long time. In the entrance, a giant pink, red and white balloon arch decorated the main entrance, with the katakana for “Valentines” decorating the top of the arch. Following that, a carpet made a path towards the entrance to the school, with various stands being built in the side of it. It was 7:30 am after all, and the event per se didn’t start until 10. You’d think “Wow, these students are really passionate about Valentines Day” but the reality was that today, because the event, classes were not held, and teachers gave extra grades to students who contributed, so the people you’d see building and arranging were actually saving the school year.
Student shenanigans aside, Naosuke made his way to the second gym. In his hand was a little box of homemade chocolates for his boyfriend, but that was not actually the reason he was headed to the gym. Later in the evening, in the stage the place had, a sort of talent show would take place, and not only him would participate, but Kageyama and his club would also participate.
From what he had said, the idea seemed to be from Ennoshita, who wanted to practice his camera skills for his short films, and Kiyoko, who wanted to sing a couple of songs she liked. Tanaka and Nishinoya, as obnoxious as they were, wanted to help her out, so in the end a sort of band was formed, consisting of Tanaka, Nishinoya, Tsukishima, Kageyama and Kiyoko as the members.
He told Naosuke that he signed up to feel what he did, which he thought was very sweet of him, but also meant he slept less, as he didn’t sacrifice any volleyball time to do his drum practice, as was sleeping almost all classes so he didn’t get to skip them to practice. So he needed to tell Tobio what to do one last time before he went up to do it.
As for Saionji, as part of the music club he needed to perform in all things art or music related, so he was going to do it whether he wanted to or not. Not that he didn’t want to not do it, quite the opposite, Naosuke thought that this was the perfect opportunity to sing to Tobio the song he wrote for him a few weeks ago, so the setlist consisted of State of Grace, Dreams, and Oceans, the song he wrote.
Before he knew it, he was inside the gym and heading towards the stage. He quickly put the chocolates inside his bag so no one could see it. Not like there were a lot of people in there. Naosuke scanned the place just to see a single group was there, ones from the women’s basketball club he believes, also with Sawamura and Ennoshita in the center, prepping the stuff for the camera.
Without much thought, he made its way into where the captain and the second year were. “Yo! Sawamura-san, Ennoshita-san.” He greeted.
“Yo, Saionji” Daichi lifted his head from the camera to see and greet him, quickly shifting back to where he was. Ennoshita only greeted verbally, keeping his concentration onto the camera.
“The other guys aren’t here yet?” He asked, putting a hand on his hip.
“Ugh they’re not” Daichi said, looking back to Naosuke. “I told them that they should be here by 7, but most of them didn’t comply. Only Tsukishima is here with Kiyoko right now. Specially your boyfriend, if its something not volleyball related, he usually doesn’t prioritize it.”
“Even if its for a grade?”
“Even if its for a grade.”
“Damn.” That was one silly quirk of Kageyama, Naosuke thought. He usually put everything mildly unimportant on second thoughts, and volleyball never came to that degree. With that individualistic life view of his, the older thought that it was a miracle that Kageyama was his boyfriend in the first place. Deep down, this excited him, thinking that his volleyball mindset gave him some sort of cuteness and silliness, but further down he didn’t want to recognize that he may put volleyball over him, if asked the question.
“Nee Ennoshita-san, Kiyoko’s set is the second to last one right?” the boy asked, tilting his head slightly, looking towards where Chikara was.
“Yes, it is.” He responded, lifting his had from the camera to see Naosuke.
“My set is the last one in the list” Naosuke said, his hands fidgeting and sweating a little bit. “Would you mind to also record my set?”
Ennoshita patted the boy’s shoulder and beamed a big smile at him. “Of course I wouldn’t mind!” Naosuke internally let a sigh from relief. “I was planning to record the whole show, so I would also do yours.”
“Thank you, Ennoshita-san” He blushed at the sound of those words.
“And I’ll be sending the finished videos in a couple of days, so I’ll be sending yours with Kaori, she’s in your class right?” He padded his shoulder even more softly.
“She is”
“Then it’s a deal! Also quit being so polite, we’re your classmates, not the police”
“Yes sir” Naosuke teased, saluting to them.
“You bastard”
Seeing Kiyoko walk away from her performance gave Naosuke chills in a way he hadn’t felt before. This was his big moment. Here, right now, he was going to prove to these people, and specially to himself, who he was and what he can be capable of.
“Good job Kiyoko-san!” Tanaka almost shouted at her. Naosuke shuffled his way to lightly hug her and congratulate her. “You did so well out there” the first year said.
“Thank you Saionji-kun, it’s now your turn” She said in almost a whisper. “I know you’ll do great”
“Hey! No fair that you get to hug Kiyoko-san!” Tanaka somehow shouted and whispered at the same time. Naosuke just shook off that and motioned him to give him the guitar he was using.
“And for our final set of the evening, we have a person who is rebuilding the music club from scratch, please welcome first year Naosuke Saionji”
‘I mean if you want to call it that’ the boy thought, unsure if the words were true or just woefully sugarcoated.
He made its way into the stage, trying not to trip with the multiple wires that connected to the speakers that were in the ground. For such a simple setup, the mess was quite noticeable, at least from his perspective.
Now he was in front of the microphone, slightly adjusting it to a comfortable angle. From here, he could see the audience, made out of about a hundred seats, which about three quarters were occupied. What stood out the most was the absence of liveliness. No movement, no sounds from them, nothing. The only two things he could see were the tiny LED lights coming from Ennoshita’s camera, and that Tobio was sitting kinda close to him.
Naosuke raised lightly his eyebrows, in an effort to get Tobio to wave back or something. He thought it worked, as he could kinda make our the figure of Tobio waving at him. Naosuke waved back.
“Hi guys, I’m Naosuke Saionji, from the music club” He could hear a couple claps in the crowd. “The first song that I’m about to play talks about how falling in love seems wild”
Nishinoya’s drums were what kick-started the song, the electric guitar following soon after. This first song, State of Grace, had a long intro, so he used it to scan the crowd and see if they were “in it”.
All he could see and focus on was on Kageyama’s wobbly smile, a sign that he was excited and proud of his boyfriend. Contrary to popular belief, Kageyama was a guy who wore his heart on his sleeve, and being with Naosuke for a while now had made him more expressive, specially in cases where his boyfriend was involved.
“I’m walking fast through the traffic lights, busy streets and busy lights, and all we know is touch and go”
Naosuke started to feel he was entering some sort of flow state. He felt the fingers controlling his guitar were moving by their own, and his voice was spilling out onto the microphone almost as if it was instinct.
Somehow, he felt safe and at home.
“This next song I wrote it for someone who is very special to me, my partner, who’s in the crowd right now.” He gazed towards where Kageyama, eyes softening and a smile creeping up his face. All Naosuke could see is Tobio blushing and shying away a little bit. A beautiful view, really.
“For you, I want you to take this song as my real Valentine’s Day gift.”
This time the electric guitar was the one leading the song, keeping tracks on when the drums should play and not the other way, at least in Naosuke’s mind it worked that way. The tune was a softer melody, contrasting with the other two songs and their more upbeat compositions. Along the guitar, the drums were also being played in a more chilled down tone, mainly consisting of the snare drum and the high tom. This made for a much softer and sweeter instrumental, which was exactly what Naosuke wanted.
Now that the song was playing, instead of setting himself into “the zone”, Naosuke let his mind wonder and reminisce on what he had lived with Tobio up until that point.
Brightly stars shining through
I swear they couldn’t outshine you
They did not
He swore that singing that for the first time almost made him cry. A glance was given to where his boyfriend was, and the look Kageyama gave him was one he could describe as pure love. Unfortunately, Tsukishima broke Tobio out of that trance, as he gave him a paper.
Coming undone with you
You have a knack that makes me fall into
Earlier in the day, he’d given Yamaguchi a couple of notes that contained the lyrics in both English and Japanese, as Kageyama wasn’t very proficient languages-wise. Somehow those notes ended up with the blond street light, and now he gave it to Kags.
Places I’ve never gone
I know you didn’t know them either
Naosuke remembered the day he met Kageyama for the first time, a time where he knew shit was really happening now in this new phase of his life, and his relationship with him was nothing but a proof of that.
The ocean in your eyes make me fall in love right
Ducking it in, free fall all of our best shots
The ocean in your eyes tell me it’s alright
Well, gotta believe them, it’s all I got
The one thing that captivated Naosuke the most about Kageyama was his eyes, his deep blue eyes that told him a million stories and secrets even if his voice didn’t want to admit it. He became weirdly obsessed with them -even naming the song after said blue eyes- but for Naosuke it was like a no brainer for him, Kageyama has pretty blue eyes, so he will write and sing about Kageyama’s big pretty blue eyes!
Told ya “I Love You”
Made my heart beat speed up until I die
Made ya smirk like you knew
Felt it up like I was high
He still thinks and laughs about the day he confessed to Kageyama. It was April, the sakura trees were fully bloomed and displaying their beautiful pink flowers. He gave Tobio a box of chocolates and a somewhat short explanation about why he liked him, and Kageyama took it as a fucking challenge.
“I’ve been always confessed to by girls, but a boy this time? This is a new one, and a month into high school nonetheless” Naosuke was very perplexed at that observation, his face turning into a clear ‘?’. “But you know what, I like your guts, I accept your proposal”.
That made Naosuke even more confused than before “Is that a yes?”
“Hell yeah it is” Tobio responded, his -now he knew- characteristic smirk on full display.
Above the sky
Took us by unimaginable breathers
The ocean in your eyes make me fall in love right
Ducking it in, free fall all of our best shots
The ocean in your eyes tell me it’s alright
Well, gotta believe them, it’s all I got
The sweet smirk that you got, gosh it makes you beautiful
Told me it’s time to be, even for a pocketful
Took you by the hand, ran all way through
And for the first time I didn’t felt blue
The dark strands in your face was a code for my rapid beats
Squeezed you way further for a sense of my entreats
Took you by the hand, ran all way through
And for the first time I fell for you…
His mind rushed him back to the time Tobio promised him to take his- no, their team to the national stage. Naosuke was still very fond of volleyball, even if music had stepped up to become a bigger motivation of his, but seeing his boyfriend so involved and even more passionate than him about volleyball just felt right with him. Even if it’d cost him everything.
The ocean in your eyes
Told me its alright
Its all I got
Its all we got.
For the entirety of the song, Naosuke felt like he was serenading Tobio personally, even if a hundred or so people were there too. That time felt like his vision just had no thought for external input but his boyfriend, his passionate, dorky, sometimes dumb, sometimes intimidating and cool, doting, cute and sweet boyfriend.
The thing that broke him out of the trance was noticing on the corner of his eye that people were standing up and… clapping? Soon he focused onto the crowd and realized he got a standing ovation?! A fucking standing ovation?!? This, for Naosuke, felt like the first time his work had finally paid off, and he sure would get addicted to it soon.
Hurriedly, Naosuke thanked the people and ran backstage, trying to find his partner and ask him what he’d thought about it. Sure enough, in between the people that were in the backstage trying to congratulate him, he found Kageyama, also making his way through the crowd.
“What did you think about that, Tobi-kun?” Naosuke asked, clinging his arms into the other’s back, in a desperate attempt of a hug.
Without much second thought, Kageyama’s lips clashed and meshed with Naosuke’s. For him this felt like the first time, him being bold, rough and jagged, and Naosuke melting into the other’s advances.
The kiss deepened, both of their lips messing with each other, spit messing and wetting everything, and the chocolate aftertaste danced right through them, sparkling the sweetness the kiss needed. Naosuke’s hands gripped onto Tobio’s hair like he needed to do that to live, and Kageyama’s arms met in the back of the shorter’s waist, pushing the boy further into him.
After a handful of seconds and a couple of side-eyes from the people that were still in the backstage *cough* Tsukishima *cough*, the couple finally parted their kiss, gazing into each other’s eyes like it was the only thing in the whole universe.
“You think that answered your question?”