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It was no secret that Kuramochi Youichi enjoyed singing; most of his friends learned that about him pretty quickly. What they didn’t know was that Kuramochi also kept a closely-guarded secret about his love for singing—one that he’d rather die than reveal to anyone.
Anyone.
When Kuramochi was little, his mom had decided she’d make their chores and cleaning around the house into a fun group activity by singing upbeat, sometimes silly, over-the-top songs together. They’d dance around with the vacuum to Spice Girls, or wash the dishes to Love Shack. Young Kuramochi had genuinely enjoyed it, and they’d made a lot of happy memories together that way...but once Kuramochi hit middle school and teenager-dom, he’d balk and protest at how embarrassing it was, and he’d adamantly refuse to participate until his mom ultimately dragged him into joining her.
Sure, he'd put on a good show pretending that he hated it, but his mom, being his mom, very likely saw through his bullshit and realized that he still secretly enjoyed it. And once he’d graduated from Seido and was living on his own, he’d continued the habit to make chores more enjoyable. I’m Too Sexy, Call Me Maybe, Barbie Girl; Kuramochi had a great time making his home his private karaoke stage for certain songs that he would never, ever let anyone see him singing, let alone dancing along to nowadays.
Then, once Kuramochi had moved in with Miyuki, he knew he had a decision to make about his little hobby. After considering the situation, he’d ultimately decided that he could still secretly continue his routine—it was fun, and it made the work go faster, after all. But he always made sure to be extra careful about timing, and was very cautious about covering his tracks so Miyuki would never find out. Almost all of the songs were highly embarrassing, but Kuramochi especially didn’t want him to find out about one of his favorite songs to sing: a particular song he’d discovered had its own unique enjoyment when Kuramochi twisted the lyrics...
Today, Kuramochi was home alone for the afternoon, taking the opportunity to vacuum their apartment while Miyuki was away at an extra practice for pitchers and catchers. He had his headphones in, and was dancing along to the beat of said favorite cleaning song while swinging the pole of the vacuum around the living room. Energetically moving the vacuum, he let the music guide his movements as he felt the beat invigorate his body. However, he was so engrossed in grooving to his music that he failed to notice the front door opening behind him...
Miyuki shut the door behind him and set down his equipment bag in the entryway, relieved that the practice hadn’t lasted as long as expected. Rest was an important part of a player’s regimen, too, after all; he was looking forward to a restful remainder of the day with his boyfriend, in the peace and quiet of their own home. Just before he called out to Kuramochi to announce his presence, Miyuki heard the sound of what was definitely Kuramochi singing at the end of the short hallway of their apartment. He could clearly hear his baritone singing voice, one that had a certain roughness to it that was both pleasing to the ears and also uniquely Kuramochi.
Confused, Miyuki moved down the hall to see what was going on, and as Kuramochi came into view, Miyuki thought there might be something wrong with his eyes. He could see that Kuramochi was vacuuming the living room, while...dancing?...more enthusiastically than he’d ever seen him dance before, all the while singing a familiar old song with some very particularly modified lyrics that immediately caught Miyuki’s attention:
Oh Miyuki, you’re so fine
You’re so fine you blow my mind,
Miyuki, hey, Miyuki
Hey Miyuki!
You've been around all night and that's a little long
You think you've got the right, but I think you've got it wrong
Why can’t you say goodnight? So you can take me home, Miyuki
Miyuki blinked hard. Was he dreaming? Did he fall asleep on the train or something? He blinked again. Nope, this was real. Kuramochi was swinging the vacuum around like a dance partner as he freely and uninhibitedly sang about how fine he, Miyuki, was. As much as Miyuki felt he really should announce his presence somehow, he found himself powerless to look away, to do anything; his Kuramochi was being so cute and adorable out of nowhere that all he could do was watch him continue to sing the modified lyrics to the song.
So come on and give it to me anyway you can,
Any way you wanna do it, I’ll take it like a man...
Miyuki felt himself slowly turning redder and redder as Kuramochi continued to sing and add some sexier dance moves into his routine, somehow miraculously still not noticing Miyuki out of his peripheral vision. He really needed to say something, he really needed to say something—
Oh Miyuki, what a pity, you don't understand
You take me by the heart when you take me by the hand
Oh, Miyuki, you're so pretty, can't you understand?
It's guys like you, Miyuki
Oh, what you do, Miyuki, do Miyuki
Don't break my heart, Miyuki
As he finished the last lyrics, Kuramochi finally turned around and saw a tomato-faced Miyuki standing there, listening in shocked and embarrassed silence. Surprised to see him suddenly there, Kuramochi immediately dropped the vacuum on reflex; it turned off as it clattered to the ground.
Kuramochi hurriedly pulled his headphones out of his ears and shoved them into his pocket as the situation quickly settled in as reality and not a hallucination, or a nightmare. Frozen by the shock of his secret getting out in the worst possible way, Kuramochi’s face flushed to a shocking shade of red, even darker than Miyuki’s, as he struggled to come up with something satisfactory enough to say. He knew he needed to open his mouth and explain, but the only thing he could think about was, Of all the songs he could’ve caught me singing, it just had to be this one... It made the embarrassment that much worse.
He tried to mentally snap himself out of it. Say something, dumbass! “I, uh...” Fortunately, Miyuki didn’t give him any more time to try and flounder out some words; after those few seconds that to Kuramochi had seemed like a lifetime, Miyuki rapidly crossed the distance between them and pulled Kuramochi roughly against his chest, squeezing him tightly.
“What are you doing, being so cute when I’m not home,” Miyuki admonished passionately into his ear, “You’re so adorable, I can’t bear it...”
This only made Kuramochi’s face turn redder, if that was somehow possible. He still couldn’t think of what to say; if anything having Miyuki’s arms wrapped around him was making it harder to think. “...I can’t move,” he finally said dumbly, inwardly wincing at his own inability to say something, anything helpful.
Miyuki, for his part, was unbothered by his partner’s sudden lack of intelligent contributions. “That’s okay,” he replied, “As long as you can breathe.”
“Barely,” Kuramochi retorted, causing Miyuki to laugh. “...Ideally, I’d like you to let me go so I can dissolve into the wall or something,” he said honestly.
“No, you can’t do that!” Miyuki said, alarmed, squeezing him even tighter.
“Okay, I won’t, I won’t! I gotta breathe,” Kuramochi pointed out, and Miyuki loosened his grip back to what it was before. Just as Kuramochi was finally deciding upon how to open his mouth and explain properly, Miyuki rubbed his nose against Kuramochi’s ear before he said in a tone that was half conversational, half pout:
“I didn’t know you liked that type of music.”
“No one did, except my mom. Until now,” Kuramochi replied, also in a half pout. However, Miyuki’s questioning finally gave him enough of a push to explain the whole story to Miyuki; how he’d come to like that genre of music, why he was dancing around with the vacuum, all of it. “...So I technically hide it from my mom now, too, but I don’t think she buys it. She’s never said anything, but I don’t think she ever believed I’d changed my mind in the first place, so...”
Miyuki had pulled back from their embrace far enough that Kuramochi could see him nodding along to his explanation, but at this, Miyuki interjected quietly, “You don’t have to hide anything from me, Youichi.”
Kuramochi winced inwardly. “I swear I wasn’t hiding it from you on purpose or anything; it’s just...embarrassing, and well...that song especially so...”
“I think it was perfect,” Miyuki declared, “I want to burn it into my memory forever.”
“Please don’t.”
“Too late,” Miyuki replied with a grin before he became serious once again. “But seriously; I get it, but you don’t need to feel embarrassed, okay?”
Kuramochi snorted. “Impossible.”
Miyuki gave him a squeeze in return. “I know, but still. I, for one, am happy that I got to learn something new about you.”
Kuramochi thought about it for a moment. Well, when he put it that way...there weren’t very many new things left that they could learn about each other. The thought of learning something new about Miyuki after all these years was appealing. “Then I’ll try and share new things with you, no matter how embarrassing, if you try and share them with me, too.”
Miyuki didn’t hesitate. “Deal. As for that song...I take it as the highest compliment,” he said sincerely, and Kuramochi groaned as he rubbed his face into Miyuki’s chest.
“I’m serious!” Miyuki insisted.
“Just stop; don’t remind me.”
There was a beat of silence in response before Miyuki suddenly started humming under his breath. Kuramochi furrowed his eyebrows momentarily in confusion, but he recognized the song’s refrain just before Miyuki started to sing, “Oh, Youichi, you’re so pretty, can’t you understand?” Kuramochi looked up at this, unable to keep from smiling back at Miyuki’s grin as he continued, singing:
It’s guys like you, Youichi
Oh what you do, Youichi, do Youichi
Don’t break my heart Youichi
Kuramochi’s gaze softened as Miyuki unflinchingly sang the lyrics back at him; when he finished, Miyuki gave him a warm, encouraging smile, and Kuramochi felt his heart squeeze with love for the catcher standing before him. And Miyuki had said that he was the cute one? Kuramochi begged to differ. His adorable, cocky, snarky boyfriend never hesitated to be sincere and supportive when he felt that Kuramochi truly needed it of him, and Kuramochi loved him all the more for it. There was then what felt like a long stretch of time, but was probably only a few seconds, where the two shared a quiet moment of connection, a silent, mutual affirmation of their feelings...but eventually, Kuramochi’s expression morphed into a grin, and he felt inclined to fire off some banter of his own. “Hm...maybe you should stick to baseball,” he teased jokingly.
Miyuki, knowing full well that Kuramochi had already admitted to loving his singing voice before, simply grinned in return, saying “Maybe, maybe not. But I’ll gladly be your entertainment while I do chores if you’ll be mine.”
“Shut up!” Kuramochi groaned inwardly. Just because his boyfriend was encouraging and supportive didn’t mean that Kuramochi was going to get away without being teased for a good long time.
“Maybe we could sing together, even.”
Kuramochi made a face, and was about to go off on Miyuki for continuing to tease him when he realized that he was actually being serious this time. Miyuki must’ve noticed his initial sour expression because he hurried to continue, “Don’t say no yet! I think it could be something fun we can do together. For example, I for one think that we could sing an excellent Barbie Girl duet.”
Kuramochi stifled a laugh at the image. That did sound fun, and it had been a long, long time since he’d shared this hobby openly with anyone else. “...I don’t see why not,” he acquiesced, and Miyuki gave him a huge smile before he leaned down for a happy, chaste kiss in reply. Kuramochi welcomed the kiss, and then a few more for good measure, but was surprised when said kisses moved to his neck in a manner that was decidedly less than chaste.
“Oi...” Kuramochi started to protest; even at this angle he could see Miyuki’s cheeky expression.
“What?” he replied with fake innocence, “You said you’d ‘take it like a man,’ didn’t you?”
Kuramochi opened his mouth to yell at him when he realized that was exactly what Miyuki wanted him to do; he wanted to rile him up with his good-natured teasing for as long as he possibly could. Well, two could play at that game. “You’re right...I did, didn’t I?” he agreed smoothly, causing Miyuki to pull back from his neck and meet his gaze with one of surprised astonishment.
“What?”
“Well,” Kuramochi continued as if Miyuki hadn’t spoken, “There’s still some chores left to do, though; let’s see if you’re still up for it after we’re done.”
Miyuki immediately let Kuramochi go and reached for the vacuum, eager to demonstrate that he had energy to spare. “I am at your service, sir.”
Kuramochi held back a laugh as he grabbed a dust rag—point for Kuramochi. And if Miyuki was indeed still up for it when they were done, Kuramochi couldn’t say that he’d mind, that’s for sure. He then fished his headphones out of his pocket, holding one out to Miyuki. As Miyuki took it Kuramochi put the other in his ear and toggled through the song selection on his phone as he asked, “Barbie Girl, huh?”
Miyuki flashed him a thousand-watt smile as he responded unflinchingly in a falsetto, “Sure, Ken!” He had a feeling that he was quickly going to learn to love this as much as Kuramochi did.
Predictably, his Kuramochi blushed cutely before he snapped at him, “Let me start the song first!”
Scratch that, he was definitely going to love this as much as if not more than Kuramochi did. How could he not, when it was a new way for them to make memories together, a new thing that they could enjoy together? He struck a pose as Kuramochi nervously started to sing the song, making him laugh hard enough and loudly enough that he had to restart it. That smile made Miyuki’s stomach flutter with happiness and more than a little love for his partner. He’d already felt so close to him before; it felt like a gift to be able to grow even closer through discoveries like this. And that closeness was something he’d never take for granted.
---((The End!))---