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the-dalseum-duet · 3 months ago

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shambling

hi it’s your resident irl Mako Shirogane and i’m here to talk a little more abt sham. bc what else is a girl graduating in two months going to do? on her birthday? talk to her friends? please…

(update it’s been like two days since i wrote this I just haven’t posted it bc I’ve been busy so tag anyway @svwhssftr)

I say I hate sham’s plot but I don’t. I hate it in the format of prose. It’s too loose for that. The Dalseum Duet works as prose because it has more moving parts that fit together clearly. Sham is a spectacle. It’s not about the story. It’s about the vibes. It’s for entertainment. There’s not much to dissect outside of like… symbolism. And it’s all internal. It’s not making a statement about anything. It’s neutral on its own existence. There’s no clear-cut hero or villain. You’re really not supposed to root for anyone, but it’s enjoyable watching the shit show unfold nonetheless.

This doesn’t convert right to prose. But my first thought was “oh this would fucking hit as a comic book” because it has heavy roots in that scene. Gerard Way is a renowned comic artist. A lot of its atmosphere is inspired by Scott Pilgrim. And Strike and Crow are prime trashy comic book protagonists. Hot crazy bitch who flaunts her tits and a little emo guy with funky ass hair and recognizable silhouette? What else could one need?

And the drastic cuts between scenes also makes more sense as a comic book. You can get away with a lot more there. Bc it’s not linear, and you’re usually more focused on the dialogue and art to care about tiny plot discrepancies you would normally catch in a novel.

But I feel like the fangstitch plot wouldn’t hit right in comic format. They are much more intimate than Trader Joe’s emotionally. I don’t know actually. If trashy BL webtoons can figure it out, then we could figure out how to make them work in the Scott Pilgrim style. Because I can’t picture it as like… a manhwa or a manga. Killing Stalking has a very similar plot and makes it work very well. But I fear the crunchy 2000s atmosphere of sham is so much different than that iconic 2000s manga style. So I only see a Scott Pilgrim style working for it. Simple, but with options for funky accessories and dynamic poses. I need to read Scott Pilgrim so bad if someone wants to spend upwards of 200 dollars on a box set in full color for me please 🙏

So. That’s one option. Because this is very important knowledge because I definitely will be making this a reality obviously

And AT FIRST I was like “this shit would not work as a stage production” but then I thought

wait… no… it WOULDbecause when I think of my personal theatre favs I’m much more leaning on cabaret, hadestown, hair, all of these shows that are so serious. But no. Funny musicals are fucking GREAT. And sham has SO MUCH POTENTIAL to be HILARIOUS as a stage production. It was never meant to be taken seriously anyway.

Look Heathers is a great musical. But it is SO very 80s. It’s too tongue-in-cheek for sham and takes itself too seriously. It cannot be like heathers. I’m going to use a bit of an unorthodox approach here.

I see the Evil Dead musical setup working here. It’s a comedy but it is BLOODY. There’s a literal splash zone in the audience. Need to see this show so bad. I would love a splash zone for sham personally. Even though only three people die. But that’s a majority of the main cast so idk

note from me in the future: I had to cut myself off here bc I got a little TOO autistic about musicals so I’m just going to talk abt the part I think you would find actually interesting. abt like casting types and shit

This show. Could be so fucking funny. I love the Shirogane kids and the Sang kids DEARLY they are SO MUCH FUNNIER than the main cast of the Dalseum duet. And when they’re all put together it just. Agh it’s good it’s good

Bc we know Crow is funny. He’s clever. He’s witty. He’s an awkward poor little meow meow but also nonchalant enough to be funny about it. I picture the scene where Kai comes home vividly

kai, slowly opening their door: are you guys—

strike: GETTHEFUCKOUT

(he immediately slams the door and turns away. complete silence. give the audience a minute to laugh. he just casually checks his watch or something and clasps his hands or something stupid like that while waiting outside the door. dad ass behavior)

crow, very casually: we’re busy.

(audience laughs again hahaha how humorous they’re engaging in intercourse)

kai: yeah, uh, um. I could. uh. see that

(very audible squelch)

kai just kinda hits that “oh!” that you have to hit in this situation.

(strike and crow open their door very evidently wearing each other’s clothes)

strike: the hell do you want?

kai: I just wanted to ask about—no I cannot take this seriously anymore. Go fucking change and come back. Wash your fucking hands. That sounded like it hurt.

crow: no don’t worry I naturally have an excess of discharge

(dead fucking silence)

crow: it didn’t hurt that ba—

kai: go. go change.

(hey it’s me from like twelve hours in the future this. This isn’t as funny as anticipated it’s all about the timing and tone tbh. A lot of my favorite comedic things hinge on delivery and shit. It’s hard to get that down. But just trust here IT COULD BE FUNNY WITH THE RIGHT TIMING)

He also works well for physical comedy bits with his cane and he’s expressive enough to where he would still carry that stage presence when he uses his wheelchair. AND FUCK YOU WE NEED MORE ACTUAL DISABLED REP IN THEATRE. WDYM ONLY ONE DISABLED WOMAN HAS PLAYED NESSAROSE IN BROADWAY HISTORY GTFO

And mako is just PRIME mid 2010s musical protagonist. He’s lanky. He is also awkward but not in the deadpan autistic Crow way just in the nerdy teenage boy way. And he’s definitely a tenor. Because the current theatre scene needs another conventionally attractive awkward tenor lead. They’re so rare. That was sarcasm in case you couldn’t tell

And I love a good musical crash-out. They always hit. A michael in the bathroom type song with him would go so fucking hard. Like just losing his shit about his (thirty five year old…) boyfriend breaking up with him and his best friend fucking his clinically insane sister out of nowhere.

And the fangstitch subplot works so much better on a stage bc we get to physically see them interact. We get the tension between them that’s hard to capture in images and words. I think the scene where Marie catches them in the car would be prime comedy idk abt y’all though. Many physical comedy opportunities here with them like trying to position themselves in the back of a fuckin volkswagen. I think giving them a dead girl walking esque song could work pretty well too. WAIT. WAIT. WITH A REPRISE FOR STRIKE AND CROW? WAIT. THE FANGSTITCH ONE COULD BE LIKE. MORE WISTFUL. AND WE PUT IT IN A MINOR KEY WITH SOME MORE EMO INFLUENCES guys… guys that would be funny and also a banger. Half of sham is Crow making fun of Mako might as well embrace it.

AND STRIIIIIKE. STRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE EAGLE AS A CHARACTER ON STAGE SO HELP ME GOD

We do not have characters like Strike. Ever. I cannot name one. Maybe persephone in hadestown comes close but she STILL has to be feminine and submit to Hades. There is a severe lack of unhinged girls in theatre who have NOTHING holding them back. Strike’s fuckin dangerous and people know that. She has no restraint. And strike is fucking FUNNY. I picture her visibly pissed off the entire time. Borderline throwing a tantrum on stage everytime something doesn’t go according to her plan. Very estella hellpark core tbh. She occasionally screams and groans at random and is very played up. Ik throwing a knife at Mako is not supposed to be funny but we could make it very funny with her inflections and facial expressions. She is not meant to be pretty and ladylike. Which is so rare in theatre productions. She is not the male fantasy or the female fantasy she’s just fuckin. Strike Eagle. She lets herself be gross and ugly and kickass. 10/10 character. LET WOMEN BE FUNNY.

And don’t worry. We could make kohls interesting. I’m TIRED of all the boring dad songs in musicals LET THE OLD MEN HAVE FUN. kai was a fag in the 80s and noeul’s a grunge enthusiast we could let them be characters outside of just. Old man. Gay or european but it’s mako and marie figuring out what the hell is happening between them. Trader joes can’t be incest if they’re both dead so. Choosing not to worry about the implications there.

(twelve hour future satis again. Here is where i just lose all my sense and start yapping feel free to just ignore all this bc i gave up on it)

And now hear me out on this one. Moulin Rouge. A show that takes itself a bit too seriously. But I like the musical approach here. I HATE jukebox musicals I cannot stand them 99% of the time. I do not like the music in Moulin Rouge except for El Tango de Roxanne. But I mean if you give Aaron Tviet a ballad he’s going to cook no matter what.

But what I like about Moulin Rouge is the few songs that are combinations. Do the songs suck? Yeah. But the concept is great. They just picked terrible songs to combine.

But it’s so smart. Why don’t more shows do this? Sham already has a fire playlist we could cook with this concept. So allow me to yap abt this for a moment. I picked the songs on purpose. Let me be autistic

I think opening on Welcome to the Black Parade would be funny as fuck first of all. Emo sleeper agent code. And we need to get some time to build up that energy. Let Crow cook here. You know I love a good fourth wall break. We could have just him center stage during the first part as the crew builds the set around him and once the guitar part kicks in we’re officially In The Show. Like we can get Crow fumbling around in his locker and him doing his makeup and adjusting his gloves and shit just… emo ass bitch. And we can meet Mako here! Black Parade has strong duet potential. We could definitely cut the song down though it’s really long. It’s great. But it’s LONG. And like once the song ends Crow like slams his locker shut and that signals to the audience that the show is ready to kick off. We get the first scene where Mako and Crow have some banter and then the bell rings and shit and the lights lower first scene over

And strike. god I love her. as a character she is so unique. I cannot name another female character who packs a punch as strong as she does. Maybe Jinx from Arcane. But unhinged sleazy girls just here for a party are so rare to come across, ESPECIALLY in theatre. There are NO roles like strike. And she’s like precisely my casting type I would absolutely die to play her 🤞 (guys trust I’m Asian and also Russian guys trust me)

But here’s where we get a little silly by combining Maneater with Our Lady of Sorrows.

INSANE combo. INSANE. but I feel like it could work. like do the iconic maneater riffs on an electric guitar instead of vocals? and have crow with the first verse. cut the stand up fucking tall part for him to be like “oh but she’s a maneater whatever the fuck the lyrics are” I think it’s so stupid that it could work

actually I need to go to bed uh. I can yap later abt this. but rn I do not have the mental capacity to score a fucking musical

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littlemisslipbalm · 5 years ago

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“I am not going to join your band” Part 2

aka “I don’t know if I can join your band”

Part 2 is here with Mitch being a good best friend and slightly over protective + Harry jamming with you ;)

Word Count: 4.8k | Warnings: crying, makeouts, swearing - otherwise its pure HS1 album FLUFF

agh my Tumblr is being so complicated - I was finally about to post this and then the page quit on me and deleted the draft but we are here again so hopeful it works!! PLEASE give me feedback - I love to know what y’all think and let me know if anyone wants a part 3!

Part 1!

Later in the Day

It was nearing the end of the official workday, the day when you had played for the entire crew that was working on Harry’s album. The stress of the day and the work you had done with Harry and Mitch on the song had made you more tired than you had ever been after any previous day in the studio.

“Y/N, would you mind staying late tonight? I want to keep working on the song from earlier and I want your input since it’s your tune after all.”

You sat on an empty couch and looked up at Harry. “But Mitch is my ride?” you asked. “Oh...I mean I already assumed he was staying, but I can go check with him?” Harry gave a quick wink and then turned on his heel, quickly disappearing from your sight.

Of course, right then, Mitch walked through the opposite door, looking down at his phone. He glanced up and saw you, then he slowly switched his course to sit beside you.

You leaned your head on his shoulder, the sweater he wore today was soft with black and dark purple stripes. You had given it to him for Christmas this past year. He usually only wore it for special occasions so you had been a bit surprised to see it on him today.

“You look tired,” Mitch said as he reached around to your shoulder and gave you a light pet.

“Harry wants us to stay and work on the piece I played earlier,” was all you responded, ignoring his previous statement.

Mitch stiffened up, slightly, and rustled his body, making you lift your head from his shoulder and look at him inquisitively. “I can’t stay late tonight,” was all he said, his face unreadable and his eyes not willing to meet yours.

“Mitch, what’s up?” your eyes filled with concern, “Are you feeling alright? Do you think you’ve caught a cold?”

Mitch’s eyes flashed around the room, making sure the two of you wouldn’t be overheard. Then he turned to you, moving one leg to rest underneath him, the other hanging off the couch.

He whispered, “I’m going on a date with Sarah tonight.”

“Oh.” You didn’t know what else to say.

You still loved Mitch and he had found Sarah. Admittedly, they were perfect together, and you had never seen him smile so much with anyone else besides you - and Harry, now.

And you knew, you knew the way he looked at Sarah was never the way he looked at you. Maybe you had never had anything to compare it with before or maybe all this time you had been deluding yourself, but Mitch never looked passionately at you, with the fire of admirance and love in his eyes - it seemed to be reserved only for Sarah.

Sarah was wonderful, you and her got along well, and she put up with Mitch’s idiosyncrasies. If anyone was taking Mitch away from you, you guessed you had to be lucky it was Sarah. Still, you couldn’t help the lump in your throat that you had when Mitch told you his news.

“Well,” you looked away from Mitch’s gleaming eyes, “I’ll just ask Harry if he can give me a lift home when we’re done here. Enjoy your date, Mitch. You deserve to be happy.”

Mitch noticed the look on your face and he felt horrible. You were his best friend so he had wanted to tell you about how excited he was for this. It had been so hard for him to finally ask Sarah out rather than just hanging out with her in a group. He only had been able to do it with the help of Harry, who had kept encouraging him to go for it everyday. But Mitch knew how you felt about him. He liked to pretend he didn’t notice, he liked to think everything you did for him was just best friend stuff, but at the end of the day he knew it wasn’t. The look on your face just now confirmed that.

He wanted to say ‘I’m sorry’ but he wasn’t sure that would actually help the situation.

So he said, “Thanks, Y/N…” and you thought that was it, but then he continued, “You know what, you deserve to be happy, too. I know Harry’s been asking you to join the band and I know you’ve been saying no, but maybe, reconsider. This is our chance to do something with our lives, bigger than we ever could have hoped. C’mon, we say we’re happy living these boring, quiet lives, but I’ve known you your whole life. I’ve been with you when you were in high school, laying on the roof of my car, looking up at the stars, saying, ‘Ya’wanna’know my wildest dream, Mitch? My wildest dream is to get the fuck outta here and make a name for myself. Be somebody. Not be some forgotten name in this town’s tiny cemetery with a headstone that reads: ‘She lived a happy, boring, uneventful life here and now she’s fucking dead’.”

Silence.

Mitch wasn’t one to go on a tangent, more of a wise word interjected here and there man. Random thoughts sometimes, but a paragraph worth of words, almost never.

“That was a little hyperbolic of me,” was your only response.

Mitch looked at you, obviously not satisfied at your response. You sighed. “I’ll think about it,” you resigned.

Mitch said, “Good,” and ruffled the hair on top of your head before exiting the room.

You sat back and ran your hands over your face, it was hot in the room, the air feeling like you were swimming and couldn’t get to the surface. You let out a loud huff and closed your eyes.

“Mitch not staying?” Your eyes flashed open.

Harry stood just inside the doorway of the room. “I’m assuming you found him first and he told you he couldn’t stay.”

“How do you figure that?”

You sat up and looked at Harry, his arms were crossed over his chest, pushing his biceps up, making them look more prominent. He then moved quickly to sit in the wheely chair across from the couch. He sat in it and swiveled around, scooting closer to you and looking directly in your eyes.

“From the look on your face, you seem upset. And when I went to look for him, I couldn’t find him and then got held up on my way back to you. So, he must’ve found you first.”

You sighed again. You really didn’t think talking about it would make you feel better, but Harry obviously could tell there was something wrong and he wasn’t the kind of guy to just ignore it.

“Yeah,” you balked at the eye contact Harry was trying to maintain and looked at your pair of feet between the two of you.

Harry was wearing some black old skool vans, you were wearing checkered ones that looked a bit more worn in. “You have big feet,” you continued, trying to change the course of discussion, you suspected where it was going.

“Y/N,” Harry rested a hand on your knee, pleading for you to be serious, and you flashed your eyes back to his face.

“You’re in love with him, yeah?”

Harry’s tone was serious, but he asked it softly, scared that you might take offense to the intrusive question. The question echoed in your mind, bouncing off the walls repeating itself. Then tears welled up in your eyes, you couldn’t stop them and finally you couldn’t stop from blinking either.

The tears slid down your face, “I-I, uh, know he’s falling for Sarah.” You sniffled, but continued, “And I’m happy for him, I really am, all I’ve ever wanted for him is to be happy. He’s...my best friend, but I had always hoped that he’d want to be happy with me…”

You couldn’t stand this rush of emotion and the fact that you were now sobbing in front of Harry. You sank onto the back of the couch, leaning forward and covering your face again.

Harry looked on as you fell apart in front of him. It pained him to see you like this. He had liked getting to know your infectious spirit over the past weeks. It was quiet, but it was there below the surface, just asking to be let out.

He reached out and took your hands from your face. You looked up, eyes puffy and red already, as he cradled your face in one hand and held yours in the other.

“Hey, shhh, Darling, don’t cry please,” he whispered. His thumb ran over your cheek, swiping quickly away at the tears leaving your eyes.

You tried to stop, but you couldn’t.

“Oh, Darling, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.” Harry muttered after a few more minutes passed of your weeping and his attempts at trying to comfort you.

“‘S not your fault, really,” you choked out, still trying to take deep breaths and get yourself under control.

After one more deep breath, you felt the tears stopping their flow, and your watery eyes looking into Harry’s intense stare.

“I was ready to cry the minute Mitch told me he was going on a date with Sarah tonight. I was trying to calm myself down when you came in. You probably could’ve said ‘want some dinner?’ and I would’ve started sobbing about how Mitch’s favorite meal is dinner.” You weakly laughed and Harry’s lips quirked up slightly, still feeling terrible for you.

He ran a hand softly over your hair, “Do ya’ want some? Some dinner?” voice still staying low, yet taking on a lighter tone.

His voice helped soothe you out of your sadness. It was melodic even when he spoke, his accent could make anything sound good.

He starts to go on about how there’s probably some food left that would be good, but you cut him off, “Harry, I’m not really hungry.”

“Oh...well,” he sat silent for a moment, “What always helps me when I’m sad is pouring those emotions into my work. Write some of my favorite stuff like that.”

You began to smile for the first time, almost all day, “I’d like that.” Your voice cracked a bit, your throat was definitely sore from the sobs that you kept emitting while you had cried over Mitch.

“Alright, let’s get in there, then,” Harry jerked his head to the studio behind him and fixed his grasp in your hand. He pulled you to your feet and into the next room.

The two of you set to work, you on the piano and him on the guitar. You talked about the chord progressions and how it sounded, but otherwise you didn’t speak much.

You appreciated Harry for sticking with you in your rough time, for being there for you.

“Wait, play that again..” Harry heard you had tweaked the sound of the melody. You played it on the piano - “I like that, do you think you can play it on the guitar?”

“Yeah, I guess,” you rose from the piano stool and took the guitar from Harry. You shut your eyes and tried to picture the chords in your mind, you had never been as good at guitar. Mitch had taught you a little bit and you’d strummed a bit more these past few weeks, but it was definitely a challenge for you.

You opened your eyes after a minute and placed your fingers on the first chord and jumped into the progression.

“Keep playing that,” Harry said. Then, he began to sing, “Sweet Creature…” he looked straight at you.

You didn’t notice as you focused on keeping the progression the same and keeping the tempo Harry had liked from earlier.

“Had another talk about where it’s going wrong,” at these words you looked up from the guitar. Your playing cut off and your eyes met Harry’s.

He licked his lips and looked expectantly at you. “That was amazing, Harry!”

His brows knit together, he thought you had gotten upset from the words. He thought it was so obvious he was singing about you, but you simply complimented his art, oblivious to him drawing from you and Mitch and himself.

“Yeah, that was pretty good, I’ll write it down, but do you want to work on something else for now, don’t want to overwork this one. I’ll probably figure out the rest of lyrics on my own.” Harry said quickly, wanting to move forward, slightly embarrassed.

You nodded, but you were confused that Harry wanted to move one when you were making so much progress.

“We should probably get going,” Harry said after checking his phone for the time.

You knew it was late, but it hadn’t bothered you. Staying late, working on songs with just Harry, it had helped to take your mind off of Mitch and Sarah. This was the beginning of a new chapter for you. One where you weren’t going to pine over Mitch.

You nodded and began to gather your things scattered around the studio.

Harry and you had eventually ended up laying on the floor, heads towards each other, staring at the ceiling. The first few hours had been productive, honestly, you’d worked through some kinks in various songs in progress. But after hour three, the exhaustion was getting to both of you and the creative juices had run out.

You laid there, together, Harry strumming his guitar idly as you talked about nothing in particular, that is, until Harry saw the time.

“So…” you started after you had settled into Harry’s car.

Harry glanced at you, ready to drive off, but wanting to know what you had to say first.

“I’ve been thinking about your offer for me, for me to play keys on tour.” You expected Harry to say something, but he looked at you waiting for you to continue.

“I,” you stopped, taking a deep breath and sighing heavily, “It would be a great opportunity, I just don’t know yet- I don’t know if I can join your band.” You looked down at your hands, you felt silly, still not giving Harry a real answer, when he continued to ask you to join.

“Nothing has to be decided right now...it’s better than ‘I’m not going to join your band’ - it’s not a ‘no’ - and I can work with that.”

You laughed, slightly relieved at his response, and rested your head on your palm, your arm situated on the car door windowsill, a sparkle appearing in your eyes as you looked over at Harry.

After this, he drove you to your apartment, and you sat listening to the soothing songs of Harry’s playlist emit from the speakers. You spoke only when Harry needed directions back to your home.

“‘Ere we are,” Harry said as you pulled up to the front of your apartment. You noticed his voice got deeper and slower the later it got in the day.

You didn’t know how to get out and leave.

Like you did, of course, but usually when Mitch gave you a ride home you would give him a hug, but this wasn’t Mitch, it was Harry. You felt weird not doing anything to say a meaningful goodbye, especially after what Harry had done for you tonight - distracting you from your sadness and channeling it elsewhere.

Maybe Harry noticed your fidgeting because he grabbed your hand and gave it a squeeze. “Hope ya’ have a nice night, yeah?” Then he gave you one of his smiles that could make world peace possible.

“Thank you...for everything, really means a lot,” you gave his much larger hand a squeeze back.

“Ouch! Trynna kill me?” Harry yanked your clasped hands up as if he’d just been burned. He teased you and you both burst into a hearty laugh despite your sleepiness.

“Goodnight, Harry!” You sang as you pulled away from his grasp and exited the car. You gave him a little twirl and dance once you were out of the car. He then watched you practically dance into your apartment building, only driving off once you were safely inside.

If there was one thing you had learned over the past month, it was that you could trust Harry and he’d be there for you. It was nice to know you had someone you could rely on beside Mitch.

One week later

You rolled your eyes at Harry, “Oh my god,” dragging out the words. He was teasing you in the studio, chasing after you in order to pick you up and swing you around.

He had been being silly all day, constantly calling you in between takes, running around, making jokes. He was in a good mood today. You didn’t know why.

After last week's breath through with what Harry called Sweet Creature, the album work had gotten a lot easier. Things flowed much quicker and everyone’s moods were brightened by it. But, you didn’t think it constituted the way Harry was being today.

Lunchtime rolled around in the middle of a meeting in the soundboard room, you noticed instantly that Harry’s mood had changed.

He was hunched over the tech, fiddling with various buttons - even after the technicians insisted he let them deal with it, he couldn’t be stopped. “Just need to…” he mumbled to himself and then trailed off.

You all sat there in slight confusion because you had thought he had called everyone into the room for some specific reason. However, after a few moments of his inattention to everyone, you realized he had forgotten he had called the meeting.

“Hey, Harry, it’s lunchtime,” Adam said after people had to become restless with inaction.

“Oh? We can talk about the song later then, I guess,” Harry said, barely moving his attention away from his work.

People filed out, but you stayed put, only moving to Harry’s side when the room had emptied.

“What’re you doing?” He didn’t even bother with a response or a glance thrown your way. “You were so happy earlier, what happened?”

“Just want it to be perfect…” Harry finally spoke up, his voice coming out muffled but he still wasn’t paying attention to you.

He waved you off when you tried to get him to explain more, but eventually you grew annoyed. You puffed out an angry sigh and stalked out of the room with a gruff “Fine.”

Harry never joined you for lunch and your annoyance changed back to concern. Not only were you technically third-wheeling with Mitch and Sarah, but you knew Harry skipping lunch was a sign of him overworking himself. You excused yourself from the new couple and went to search for Harry, it was an hour into lunch now.

You finally found him in a back room, it mainly stored broken instruments and other random crap someone had forgotten to get rid of or fix.

“Harry,” you breathed out, thankful to find him.

He looked up from where he sat on the ground. You now noticed he wasn’t just sitting there. He had been crying, his eyes how yours had been just a week ago, bloodshot and filled with pain.

“What if it’s not good enough? What if...what if I’m not good enough?”

You rushed to Harry at the sound of his voice cracking. His voice filled with confusion, anxiety, and pain. His self-doubt pulled at your heartstrings. How could someone so wonderful not see that they were so talented and loved.

“Hey now,” you crouched down next to him and pulled him into your chest.

“Do not ever. And I mean ever,” you pushed his head back to force him to meet your eyes, “let anyone - including yourself- tell you you’re not good enough, Harry Styles. Because you are more than enough and this album, it’s gonna be amazing and people are going to love it. I just know it.”

You sat with him while his tears rolled down his beautiful face. Just one week ago, he had been there when you were at a low moment and now you were there for him.

“How’d you know to come find me?” Harry asked after a few minutes of shaky deep breaths attempting to calm himself back down.

You rubbed your hand across his broad back in circular motions. “Didn’t. But it’s an hour into lunch and if you’re late it’s never more than thirty minutes and if you plan to eat in the studio and work, you grab it first thing and go back. I noticed you were off in your head in the soundboard room earlier, so I thought I’d check around for you,” you said like it was the most logical thing in the world to know Harry’s exact habits.

Then you added, “I was concerned about you.”

Harry raised his head and you brushed his hair from his face once more. His green eyes appeared a darker shade in this moment, the room was dimly lit and his tears had tired him out. You liked touching his hair, it was soft and lush, your fingers combing easily through the locks.

You returned his stare and his eyes seemed to search yours. “I’m very thankful you’re in my life, Y/N,” was all he said after the silent stare.

“I’m very thankful for you, too,” you started sincerely, and then decided to poke some fun at him, attempting to lighten the heavy feeling in the room, “Even if you pester me constantly and are always incessantly talking my ear off…”

Harry’s face twisted into a smug smirk and threw his arms around you, “Oh, is that how you want to play it?”

He pulled you to him in a hug and then yanked the two of you back with a weird thrash of his body, you couldn’t contain the squeal that left your mouth. His movements caused you two to end up laying on the ground with Harry on his back and you right on top of him.

“Look at what you’ve done,” you said, mock exasperated, your faces extremely close together as you laid against one another.

As much as you didn’t like being yanked around, you were happy that Harry was moving past his self-doubt and feeling like his usual happy self.

“Looks great from where I’m at,” he stated proudly, his smirk now a wide grin, “How ‘bout you? How’s your view?” Harry’s words set your heartbeat racing.

Your noses could have touched if you let your neck relax a few millimeters. And his hands were around your waist holding you tightly, while yours were on his chest. You didn’t realize how warm he was until this moment. Had he always been this warm? Or was it the crying? Or the small room? Your mind raced alongside your heartbeat. Everything inside you was practically burning from your current position.

“It’s quite lovely,” you admitted. Your neck was starting to hurt from holding it up at this odd angle, so you decided to relax it. Now your nose was touching Harry’s. His skin brushing soft up against yours. You didn’t miss when Harry’s breath hitched at the contact. His arms encircled your body more and gripped you more tightly. Then you felt him begin to sit up and your legs fell around his body.

When you were fully upright, you were straddling him, your bodies closer than you thought possible in this position. Your chest was so tight to his you could feel your breasts aching from the pressure. It was silent, just Harry’s and your breathing filling the space. The air was thick to breathe. This tension you didn’t realize existed between you and Harry had become unmistakably clear in the past few minutes. Friends do not do whatever was going on right here, but you were okay with that. Harry’s nose matched up with yours again in this shifted position, his eyes trained on yours.

You parted your lips, wanted to say something to break the tension, but the movement caused Harry’s gaze to flicker down to your pink lips. They looked so sweet to him and you knew the look he gave you when he renewed eye contact. You fluttered your eyelids closed and one of Harry’s hands slipped up to brush at your cheek and tilt your head. Then, his lips fell onto yours.

They were soft, yet tasted a bit salty from stray tears around his mouth. You smiled, pressing back into his mouth eager to feel more warmth in your contact with him. He slipped his tongue into your open mouth, licking into you softly. Your body pressed down onto him and he shuddered from the movement. One hand traveled down to your hip to grip you in place as your kissing continued.

“Eager little girl, hmm?” Harry teasingly said, pulling away after the second time you practically rolled your hips over his during your makeout session.

You took one of your hands that was gripping the base of his neck and patted him lightly on the cheek, “Hey!” you giggled at his feigned look of shock.

You started to tell him to watch his mouth, but then the door opened, and Mitch’s figure appeared. He took in the sight in front of him. His childhood best friend straddling his new best friend on the ground of a glorified trash can of a room.

He shook his head and raised his brows at you both. “Lunch is over, neither of you were answering your phones. Should have known I would walk in on something like this.” Your jaw was dropped in disbelief. “I’ll leave you two to, um, finish up,” Mitch closed the door and walked away.

“We can talk about this later,” you said quickly and swung one leg from around Harry, fumbling to make yourself look more presentable and less like you had just had what was turning into a hot and heavy makeout session with the boss, technically. Then you ran after Mitch. He hadn’t gotten far, his long legs not meaning much when he didn’t really choose to utilize them.

“Mitch!” You grabbed his shoulder and he kind of shrugged you off.

He looked down at you, silent. Normally, you weren’t fazed by his silence, but right now you needed him to speak, you could tell walking in on you and Harry had been unpleasant for him even if what you had been doing wasn’t x-rated.

“Wait up, c’mon, talk to me, please,” you begged him.

He sighed and leaned against the hallway’s wall. His body slumped there and he crossed his arms over his chest. “Y/N, what the hell are you doing? I said ‘think about joining his band, not his harem.’”

“Ok, he doesn’t-” you started, but Mitch continued, cutting you off. “Like, I don’t get how you think it’s a good idea to be sleeping with Harry.” His voice was hushed, but his tone was angry. It was like he was whisper-shouting at you.

“Mitch, first of all, I am not sleeping with Harry. That was the first time, anything like that had ever happened between us. Second, I told him to wait so I could talk to you first about it, so if you’re really uncomfortable with it, I won’t kiss him again.”

It had only been a week since Mitch had started dating Sarah and loving him for your entire life wasn’t going to go away in seven days, even if it felt good to kiss Harry, you wouldn’t do anything that might hurt Mitch.

And Mitch knew that, and he also knew he couldn’t be with Sarah and tell you not to be with someone you were interested in. Harry and you could be a good thing for you, but if all it was was a coping mechanism for you to get over Mitch that wouldn’t be fair to Harry, who was also Mitch’s friend. He just wished he’d never opened that door now. Ignored it and kept walking, let someone else find you and Harry.

“You don’t need my permission,” Mitch responded.

“What?”

“Saying you wouldn’t be with him based on my opinion means you would change how you feel just because of me. You shouldn’t base your choices off of someone else.”

“I just meant, because you're my best friend and you're close with Harry, I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable with either of us.”

“Y/N, if you want my blessing, you’ve got it. Just make sure both of you are there for the right reasons.”

You smiled at Mitch, who still looked off put by the entire situation. You reached out to him and he pushed off the wall to meet your hug halfway. His substantial body enveloped you like a dark cocoon, Mitch had dressed head to toe in black today.

This was new territory for both of you, finding yourself people who might just be perfect for you. It was daunting, but you were excited.

—

Thanks again!! Part 3 is up!

#harry styles #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles x reader #harry styles fluff #harry styles x you #harry styles x y/n #harry styles fan fic #harry styles fanfic #harry styles angst #harry styles imagine #i am not going to join your band #mitch do be lowkey angry at the end #but his vibe is so chill you can barely tell #also he got to speak!!#yay #mitch x reader #mitch rowland x reader

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