Work Text:
“If I add harmonies here, it might sound stronger… But maybe it would be better to let the raw vocals do the talking instead? No, then it might be awkward when it switches to the next verse… Hm…”
Toya loved to compose. Don't let the fact that he was currently hunched over at his desk in the middle of the night – hands, back and ears crying for mercy as he drove himself crazy trying to hammer out the quarter-finished WIP floating stagnant on his screen – fool you. Making music was something he was absurdly passionate about.
The problem lay in the stark difference between composing an instrumental track for a live performance versus having to mix in studio-recorded vocals for an internet upload. In a decent amount of cases, having the live edition on hand made the transition from physical to digital fairly easy, but this time? The dilemma of how to keep a consistent vibe between the two versions of the track was giving him a massive brainache.
Any sane person would've given up for the night and slept on it, but that simply wasn't how Toya's brain worked. Even if he tried to go to bed right now, he'd only end up tossing and turning the night away, and eventually daybreak would arrive with nary a wink of sleep nor an ounce of progress to show for it. He was stuck with little choice but to stay up until he could settle the issue.
“Let me listen from the beginning again…” Toya muttered aloud to nobody in particular. With his mouse having hovered atop the same position on his screen for the last 30 minutes, all he had to do was tap his finger against the left button for the song to make its way into his ears yet again.
Kohane's voice came in first, singing with a deceptive smoothness that made for a perfect intro. The end of her line marked a sudden pickup in the instrumental, allowing the listener a moment to get used to the song's melody – and, of course, create a section in which they could hype up the crowd with a dance break were they singing it live.
After the break's end, his own vocals arrived to begin the first verse. This part, alongside An's follow-up portion, flowed with relative ease. He'd done well to balance the volume of their voices against the instrumental, and the harmony placement was performed with surgical precision.
Next was Akito's section. Naturally, he was better than going in hard and loud than any of them – which was exactly what they were looking for in this song, and so that was how Akito played it. It made for a beautifully clean flow switch when the focus looped back to Kohane for the pre-chorus.
Then came the beat drop, after which the main problem presented itself in the chorus. Vocally speaking, it wasn't bad, but it was always such a pain to balance Akito and An's vocals when they sang in unison. One misstep and it suddenly sounded like the two of them were fighting over a singular mic, so they often had to rerecord their sections more than anyone else in the squad…
“...What if I changed the line distribution?” Toya mused to himself; a rather obvious solution that probably took this long to come to him due to a complete lack of sleep. While this epiphany remained at the forefront of his mind, Toya went clicking away to rearrange the related audio files.
“Shiraishi's higher register is a little weak compared to Akito's, so it would be better for Azusawa to sing this part with him instead.” He continued to monologue as he worked, the incessant patter of his finger against the mouse acting as the only other noteworthy noise in the room. “And conversely, my voice can comfortably reach a deep enough range to properly support Shiraishi, so she can trade places with Azusawa during my half.”
“Now, if I just…” Toya hummed with a certain confidence as he pressed the play button, only to groan with frustration when a singular voice came through rather than two. “Ugh… Did the file not load properly?”
Well… if nothing else, he could at least appreciate Akito's vocal quality. His unique singing style was perfectly suited to the aggressive, punchy sound they were going for. It was very much reminiscent of the days where they'd do spontaneous street performances, after which they'd often hear complaints of hearing ‘some loudmouth brat’ up and down the block.
Naturally, as someone who taught himself to sing through such performances, Akito's style had always been about capitalizing on momentum. Whenever he messed up in the heat of the moment, he'd double down on his efforts until the crowd was screaming his name loud enough to forget where he went wrong. It wasn't a very productive way of cultivating his vocal skills, but it certainly taught Toya a lot about interacting with a live crowd.
In comparison to their early days as BAD DOGS, the sound currently filling Toya's ears was like an apple to an orange. Akito's voice still retained its core qualities – energetic and fiery in ways that never failed to make Toya's heart pound – but this time, he had compounding experience from several years’ worth of rigorous training on his side.
Instead of focusing on covering up his weak points, Akito could now surpass his prior limits of expression to deliver a truly unforgettable performance. Toya knew he would simply mumble in flustered denial were it to be pointed out, but his seamless growls and vocal flips were genuinely impressive – especially when you considered he was only a high schooler with less than 5 years’ experience.
Toya couldn't tell you when precisely he gave up on mixing the group version of their track and retreated to playing back Akito's solo recording on loop, but that was currently where he'd landed himself. Some might find it strange that he'd listen to his partner's voice as a method of detoxing – or perhaps a guilty pleasure – but there was never a moment where he was any good at resisting the fire Akito lit inside of him.
In no way dissimilar to how he felt about the boy it belonged to, Toya had always loved Akito's voice – though, at first, he had trouble deciding what he was feeling. There was a time where he fancied himself envious of how naturally expressive Akito was, never afraid to speak his mind even when it ended up landing him into a palmful of unsavory arguments.
Along the line, Toya's chosen attribution changed to ‘admiration’. The two of them were both extremely talented in their own right, but Toya had always looked up to Akito in a way. When the two of them sang together, whether it was by themselves or with the squad, pride would swell within Toya's chest in a way no-one else on this planet could hope to achieve.
Still, neither of those words seemed like accurate enough descriptors for the warmth pooling inside Toya’s chest at present. As it hardly took a rocket scientist to guess, he was rather picky about his choice of words when it came to sketching out his feelings for Akito. He wasn’t very good at expressing his affections in ways apart from simply blurting them all out, so he often ended up in this position of uncertainty.
Part of him felt as though he wasn’t offering their relationship its due justice if he couldn’t pin down an adjective of the utmost specificity – which, of course, would never do even if it meant Toya had to rewrite the entire global lexicon. To this end, Toya rushed to condemn his partner’s recording to the fate of an indefinite loop moments before the audio cut. He was most definitely a fool for allowing himself to get this sidetracked when his original mission was already one he ought to be undertaking with a well-rested brain, but he could never help his instincts to prioritize anything that had to do with Akito.
Warmth. That was his starting point. Akito’s voice made him feel warm, like the smoothness of rich coffee sliding down his throat in the midst of the winter cold. With particular ease due to his headphones, it ran through the canals of his ears until they coiled directly around his heart, where it flexed with an urgent repetition that made his entire body light up. After a point, it felt like a gas fire had broken out atop the snow halfway through his drink.
The strangest part was that he never had any intention of fleeing from the blaze – only to teach himself how not to gag on the smoke. It might’ve been difficult to guess from their outward personalities, but lack of self-restraint was most definitely a shared flaw between the two of them. Though he was often the one yanking upon Akito’s reins, there were many instances in which Toya stood out as the significantly more bullheaded of the two.
Toya had fallen in love with the sensation of heat blistering his skin from the very first time he and Akito performed together. He liked the excitement that boomed in his chest whenever his partner sang... or who was he kidding, he loved it when Akito so much as talked. Not to mention what that mouth of his did when it didn’t have space to think of doing either, kissing Toya breathless until-
...Oh. So that was it.
If Toya veered down the wrong track before, his train of thought had surely crashed entirely off the rails by now. Still, that didn’t make his new object of contemplation any less tempting. Did entering a romantic relationship with Akito leave him with crossed wires, or did it simply awaken him to what he’d always felt but had never been able to put a name to?
When he put his mind to it, the answer was most likely ‘a little bit of both’. It was true that his affections for Akito had been soul-achingly powerful from the beginning, and it would have been a lie of the most idiotic sort if he said either of them were anywhere near a state in which they were ready to admit it to themselves back then.
In present day, it was with the utmost ease that they could express their love for each other in any – and oftentimes every – way they chose, but on that fateful day Toya made the decision to spite his father with a trip to Vivid Street? He could barely comprehend that Akito wanted to stand next to him, never mind any bubbling notions of romance.
However, that didn't mean his feelings for Akito had been deprived of any evolution. Shockingly, he wasn't always so pathetic that hearing his partner growl his way into a chorus made his breath shudder in ways it very much was not supposed to.
Discovering new sides of yourself was simply part of having a partner, whether it was the kind with which you shared a stage or your very life. It just so happened that the majority of Toya's awakenings could be summed up with ‘I find it extremely attractive when Akito does literally anything’.
Could he really be blamed, though? Toya might've been naïve, but he wasn't such a blockhead that he couldn't recognize his partner was, for lack of a better word, hot. Aside from having hit the jackpot in the genetic lottery – symmetrical features, ample height, slightly tanned skin, he could go on – Akito worked hard to maintain his appearance, sticking to his workout and skincare routines with far more diligence than he ever cared to offer his academic studies.
And, of course, there was that handsome voice of his – deeper and rougher than Toya's own, yet sometimes able to leap toward octaves An and Kohane struggled to reach. His throat was but another muscle he continuously fussed over with unmatched dedication; it got to the point that shopping for his birthday or any holidays was rather difficult, as he'd often just tell you he wanted lozenges.
Apart from that – and you can call him weird for this as many times as you want – there was something about Akito's thoroughly-honed vocal talent that was attractive in and of itself. Perhaps it was Toya’s inner synesthete conflating his romantic preferences, but it was impossible for a musician such as himself not to fall in love with a voice that could captivate its audience so completely.
“Hm… Actually, if I think about it from that angle…” Toya began to mutter to himself once more, a sudden rush of inspiration prompting him to close out the file and click away with laser-focused precision. Within just a few minutes, you'd have soon found it ridiculous to know he'd been agonizing over how to mix this for the past few hours.
“Alright… Let's give it a listen.” Toya spoke to himself, a small huff of effort akin to an anime character's battle grunt leaving his throat as he pressed play. However, his determined expression was quick to melt into gelatinous satisfaction as the needle progressed further along its track.
“As I thought… This was the right call. You're as incredible as ever, Akito.” Toya chuckled to himself – the same kind of airy giggle which almost always accompanied a hilltop's worth of flowery praise for his partner. “It might be a hassle re-learning the line distribution from scratch, but I'm sure it will be worth it in the end.”
“Now, let me export it…”
~
🌕☀️
~
As expected, Toya arrived at practice the next morning – or, more accurately, a few hours later – feeling refreshed and renewed. Perhaps he was just too used to running on empty, but being able to put all of his worries to rest had a way of energizing him, even if he ended up barely getting a quarter of a night's sleep as a result.
“Oh… Akito.” Toya greeted as he arrived at the park; apparently far from the only one to be filled with an eagerness to tackle the day ahead. “You're here early.”
“So are you.” Akito remarked fondly, stopping to extend a fist bump from where he was hunched over tying his shoes. Toya returned the gesture in a comparatively demure, far-too-polite notion, after which Akito pulled his leg up with the aim of removing his other sneaker.
“Did you get a chance to listen to the new demo?” asked Toya, eyes shamelessly transfixed on the way Akito's expression subtly pressed with focus as the younger discarded his old shoe in favor of the ones he always used for dancing.
“Yup. I was tossin’ and turnin’ most of the night, so I happened to catch it right as you sent it to me.” Akito explained as his foot landed back against the ground, allowing him to pull his laces sufficiently taut. “It's just, uh…”
“...You don't like it?”
“Of course I do, man!” Akito spat out like it was an actual offense to insinuate he wouldn't enjoy Toya's work, flicking his wrist in a dismissive gesture before resuming work on his shoe. “But how come you gave me so many extra lines…? An's gonna start accusing you of favoritism, you know.”
“Well… You are my favorite.” Toya delivered his reply in a far too matter-of-fact tone. Predictably, it was barely a nanosecond before Akito lost his ability to look Toya in the eye, a healthy dusting of red filling in his cheeks.
“You can't just say stuff like that, man…” Akito grumbled flusteredly, forcing himself to focus entirely on knotting together his shoelaces. The older had always found it as ironic as it was adorable – how Akito was so blatant in his affections for Toya, yet he could never handle having it thrown back at him.
“But anyway, the reason I increased your line count is because you're best suited to be the main vocalist for this song.” Toya explained with an abrupt seriousness to his tone. As much as it would be nice to remain engaged in teasing banter all day long, they had to talk business at some point.
“Your voice is loud and your range is expansive, so your style is perfectly suited to songs that require a ‘punch’ to them.” Toya continued, to which Akito let out a miniscule ‘Tch’ as he leaned back on the park bench.
“You're making it sound like I'm a total loudmouth…” Akito muttered, acting as though the day Ken told him he could ‘hear him shouting up and down the block’ wasn't essentially a core memory. “But alright. I'm always up for a good challenge. And I can't exactly say no if my partner's countin’ on me, right?”
“Ehe. I’m glad you see it that way.” Toya hummed with satisfaction, meeting Akito’s smirk of confidence with an affectionate smile of his own that would never fail to get the younger fired up. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure if you’d end up taking to the changes... I had an epiphany rather late at night, and before I knew it my hands were moving before my brain could get its feet off the ground.”
“Yep, that sounds about right...” replied Akito with equal endearment, tapping his shoe against the ground – which, due to their idle conversation, had taken way longer to tie than necessary – to test if it felt sufficiently sturdy on his foot. “You make it sound like you were fantasizing about me all night from the way you say it, though.”
“Well, that makes sense, since that’s exactly what happened.” Toya spoke blatantly, causing Akito to choke on a comically ill-timed sip of water. “I was listening to your solo recording when it hit me that I find your voice very attractive, which inspired the changes to the vocal direction.”
“I- That’s-” Akito began to hopelessly stammer, desperately trying to figure out how to get a word in without choking on his own embarrassment – and really, how could he dare to function after hearing that? “You think I’m…”
“Attractive? Of course I do.” Toya finished the thought with the polar opposite of hesitation, leaning down to meet his partner’s level as if wholly ignorant to the effect he had on him. “We’re partners, after all. It’s only natural that I’d love every part of you.”
“D-dude, that’s cheesy as hell…” Akito huffed in a meager attempt to dust off his ego, conveniently biting his statement in half and gulping down the part where he admitted to loving it. Toya then proceeded to obliterate all his efforts by offering a soft chuckle, during which he brought up a hand to cup Akito’s cheek.
“I like this version of you too.” Toya spoke sweetly, thumb stroking along the path of Akito’s blush as if intending to rub off the stroke of pink. “You have no idea how cute you look when you don't know what to do with yourself.”
“Dude, I’m not cute.” Akito retaliated with a pang of bite regained, though his words were instantly proven false when Toya brought his spare hand to his partner’s other cheek and squished, forcing them to chub out around his well-defined scowl.
“Hehe.”
“Toya...”
“Alright alright, I’m only teasing…” Toya conceded, though that slightly mischievous tone of his did nothing to stop the incessant pounding inside Akito’s chest. Toya often dumped out praise by the dipper load without an iota of intention, but every now and then he’d realize he had the power to turn his partner into a puddle with only a couple words. Akito was nearly ashamed to admit that it really did things to him when he was made to be melted.
“You…” Akito grumbled, catching both of Toya’s wrists in his hands right as they tried to part from his face. “...drive me completely insane.”
“Insane...?” Toya repeated back like a mindless echo. Lucky for him, the subsequent question of whether or not he actually made Akito upset was answered for him in a snap. With one easy yank, he’d been tugged straight into the perfect position to have his lips pressed into Akito’s.
The angle was a bit awkward, what with Toya barely bent down low enough to reach kissing distance without altogether collapsing, but he still reciprocated Akito's kiss in a snap. In the short span of time they'd been ‘together’, they'd already been through this song and dance so many times that Toya's body knew the proper way to respond before his brain could even comprehend that the music had begun to play.
Maybe that was precisely what happened the other night – complete muscle memory. When it came to processing his own emotions and preferences, perhaps Toya was a little bit slow on the uptake, but every other part of him already knew how he felt about Akito. He could take it as a long-overdue lesson in the curriculum of his heart, with this kiss acting as proof that he'd learned it well.
Despite being the one to initiate it in the first place, Akito was the one to pull away from their kiss. This – Toya thought – was exactly the side of him that made him so perfect to act as the centerpiece of this song. He was confident, collected, cool. Toya could feel the hypnosis kicking in just staring into those olive colored eyes.
“You're not the only one to…” Akito began, of course only lasting about half a second before his own embarrassment got the better of his demeanor again. “...feel stuff... w-when your partner sings.”
“Is that right…?” Toya nodded along in what he surely believed was contemplation. “I suppose Shiraishi does react rather strongly to Azusawa's performance sometimes.”
“Wh- No!” Akito immediately corrected, planting two hands into Toya's hair as if ruffling it up would release the fog within. “I like your voice, dumbass… It's been that way ever since you first came to Vivid Street.”
“You really thought of me like that back then…?” a bug-eyed Toya cocked his head quizzically, forcing Akito to sand down his reply to a microscopic nod. “But we weren't even acquainted until a little while later…”
“Yeah, but I've got eyes and ears.” Akito scoffed, taking a moment to drink in the sight of his partner from head to toe just to prove the point. “Honestly, it's weird that you don't realize how much of a pretty boy you are… I thought you would've figured it out when I introduced you to Mita and I had to basically pick his jaw up off the floor.”
“Is that what that was?” Toya chuckled awkwardly, never ceasing to amaze with his thorough naïvete. “I thought he was just surprised because of how out of place I looked… Lots of other people gave me similar faces when we passed each other on the street.”
That was definitely what it was, but Akito chose to let that thought remain in his head, lest a humiliating bout of jealousy get the better of him. Instead, he began to disentangle from the pile they'd effectively folded themselves into, forcing both of them onto their feet as they made their descent from that tawdry little pocket dimension reserved for their romantic encounters.
“So, about the song…” Toya cleared his throat, resuming the topic that had somehow spiraled into them professing their feelings on a park bench. “You're certain about taking on the main role, then? You don't have to do it just because it lends to my fantasies…”
“Haven't I made myself clear enough already…?” Akito groaned, playfully flicking Toya on the forehead in a last ditch effort to shake off the leftover air swelling up his pretty little head. “Of course I'm fine with it. It's like I said, you aren't the only one who curls up at night listening to your partner's voice.”
“Hm…? You didn't say that, though.”
“...Y-yeah. You're right, I didn't.”