Work Text:
The workweek lulled to a stop in an unceremonious fashion: just you and your work friends all finding the time within the short weekend to have a couple of drinks and share some laughs at a brand new karaoke spot that had opened up a short distance away from your communal workspace.
Specifically, Mashiro had been begging with her best puppy-eyes to check the place out and let loose with you all for the first time in what seemed like years.
You’ve heard a couple of different reactions from those around you, Muguruma had said he didn’t care much for karaoke but had heard the bar had quite lovely house beers on tap. Rojuro was instantly down to sing his little heart out, and Lisa wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to see beautiful women.
Which eventually left you, Hiyori, Love, Hachigen, and Shinji to make your decision.
Love was going as long as Rojoru let him borrow a brand new issue of shonen jump of which he immediately accepted.
Hiyori got a look in her eye after Lisa pulled her aside, clearly scheming something to happen that night— which made you think of a sandal landing smack dab in the center of Shinji Hirako’s face. She loudly accepted on unknown terms with Lisa.
And Shinji decided to go after he found out literally everyone would be there— well, minus Hachigen.
Hachigen had kindly bowed out due to other plans with family, deciding to spend his time not getting drunk with kids in their mid-twenties and early thirties. So with the vacancy, Shinji decided to extend the invitation to Ichigo Kurosaki, of which he accepted
And so, there was a party just short of ten that found themselves crammed into a karaoke booth with Mashiro’s thumbs tapping violently across the screen. There was a single table surrounded on all but one side by couches with end tables on both left and right sides. Everything was black, other than the copious menus and singular tablet of which the fate of the world stood upon.
“Oh! Oh! Rose, you absolutely need to sing this song I just heard the other day— it’s like, so you!”
And so, your night started. A flight of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks on the table, finger food, and a karaoke mic getting tossed between the lot of you. a perfect way to spend bonding with your coworkers whom you’ve grown extremely fond of: even those in different departments.
Ichigo and Mashiro were on opposite ends of each other with Kensei being next to Shinji. Hiyori and Lisa were sandwiching you while Love and Rose casually chatted with Ichigo on the other couch
Obviously Mashiro started, a very short but intense nasally song filled the room while she instinctively danced around as best as she could within the cramped room. It was as on brand as it could get— she in turn dragged Muguruma out of his craft beer tasting in which he chose an Alice In Chains song and barely sung which caused Mashiro to make fun of him for the entire night.
Between their intense bouts of playful insults, Lisa found her way next to you, determination dressed her features so potently that you nearly thought someone died. In her hands rested the karaoke tablet.
“You should sing something jazzy… you have a lovely voice for it. Maybe something like…”
Her fingers scrolled and scrolled under the jazz and blues section before landing on one called lover girl.
“It’s so cute, truly can’t go wrong with it.”
You raised an eyebrow only to still be met with her dead serious gaze, you shrugged and nodded along with whatever she chose. Picking a song was half the battle so why not let those who cared chose what you sing? Maybe you’d sound lovely singing a jazz rhapsody. Maybe it’d be silly to see how a certain blond man would react to you doing such a thing, who knows why you accepted her obvious set up.
“Sure, why not. It’ll still be fun and a good interlude between some other songs, right?”
Lisa smiled, obviously holding something back but you didn’t care: it was karaoke night! What could you ever have to worry about?
During that conversation, Hiyori had started to grumble to Shinji next to her, whispering in his ear about ‘making a move’ or some other dumb thing. It was karaoke night, with almost all of his buddies.
What could possibly be brewing at karaoke night? A normal time during their shared day job, of course there’d be some shinanegans but here? A fine public establishment? There was no way.
He would’ve said this if he was born yesterday and intoxicated
“Make a move? Ya sound crazy, Hiyori.”
Thankfully, she didn’t hear him over the music and the ongoing battle of Kensei balancing his beer tasting with Mashiro appeasement and in no time had the fated tablet within her hands.
“If you really wanna do something, you should do… this one!”
Her stubby finger pointed to a song called short skirt / long jacket.
“I guess? It is CAKE so… can’t go too wrong with it, right?”
Hiyori’s smile morphed into a wolfish grin as she had finally set the last piece in motion for her and Lisa’s plan.
Get these two bald idiots together. Create some light chaos during karaoke night and whoever’s idiot confesses first, the other owes them scrupulously.
There was absolutely no way Hiyori would ever spend that amount of money on adult magazines. Hiyori could only imagine how Lisa would feel about adding steel toed boots into her collection of throwable shoes— even if they were only for the most serious of consequences.
She silently hoped and prayed Shinji’s resolve would be the first to crumble and she’d get those lovely two-hundred dollar steel toed boots.
Finally, after the Olympian feat of getting Mashiro to give up on Kensei seriously singing ended the tablet found itself in the hands of Ross who decided to play a wonderfully bittersweet and musically complicated song filled with yearning, which in turn caused Love to shed a singular tear in reverence of Rojouro’s skill.
Hiyori took the tablet after, deciding to play an upbeat and snarky tune that fit her personality to a tee, ending up headbanging in the midst. Even though it felt like a personal jam session, it was quite lovely!
And then, Lisa took the tablet away from Hiyori and gave it to you. Before the music even turned on, she had a look of pure ‘do exactly what I said or so help me’ on her.
And who are you to not give the girl what she wants?
An upbeat samba filled the room while you carefully palmed the karaoke mic as the lyrics filled the screen before you.
There were obvious stumbles, but nothing so bad to say it completely ruined the segment. It was cute, melodic, and definitely bluesy. It was a song you couldn’t escape for a bit on the radio for good reason— it was just… a solid choice.
But what fun would it be if you didn’t play up it’s girlish charm by performance? Of course you wouldn’t do anything tacky.
Moments of light grooving and jiving between dramatic hand movements to really sell your performance had kept you so busy, you couldn’t even notice the hapless heap that Shinji became.
His mind was a roadrunner, going a mile a minute. He didn’t know you listened to modern jazz— well, Laufey does jazz, blues, and samba— but still! You deliberately chose a song that fit his music taste.
But was it even for him? There was Ichigo, the oblivious lady-killer, Rojoru who had a lot of sentimental charm, and Kensei’s rough-around-the-edges personality that made people flock to be by his side.
He finally escaped his exhausting mind palace only to be met with the most adorable expression on your face, head tilted slightly back with the back of your hand on your forehead feigning illness before doing a complete one-eighty to this lovestruck persona.
He’d either have to drink a lot more to make it through the night or follow Hiyori’s suggestion and beat you at your own game— especially if you wanted to be so cunning to hit him straight in the heartstrings!
Exactly, who was this for? If it’s for him, why? What could’ve possibly possessed you to make such a subtle move on him—
Hiyori had an unreadable expression while handing Shinji the tablet, but to everyone else it was a silent plea to find out exactly what would happen next.
“Do exactly what I told you to, or else I’ll whip you into shape, baldy!”
“Sheesh, I was gonna do it anyway, but if ya insist…”
He would absolutely rather pretend, at least for three minutes and twenty-four seconds that your song was about him. With newfound fervor to impress you, he gripped the karaoke mic with a glint in his eye— making a quick glance back at you.
The song started with a crescendo of a horn before devolving into a four bar rest. In which he psyched himself up for embarrassing himself in front of his friends.
He was shocked at how easily it was to sing these lyrics completely seriously and made a note to possibly thank Hiyori for her not awful song taste.
Between these moments of shocking clarity at the lyrics and his own boyish performance of dramatics you sat, your big jacket resting on the hooks on the wall while you reminisced on Shinji’s song choice.
You probably weren’t who this was about, right? It certainly wasn’t Lisa or Mashiro, they didn’t seem to be his type. It was not Hiyori, the ‘uninterrupted prosperity’ section confirmed that for you.
So, you sat fumbling around with the hem of your shirt wondering exactly when he learned to sing— well, it was basically slam poetry as it is a CAKE song— this well!
Now it was your turn to have your mind wander into the endless lovesick abyss that comes with crushes and their insatiable appetite and ability to drag your entire mind astray with a single thought;
Does he love me too?
The song finally ended and Shinji slumped down back on the couch sandwiched between Hiyori and Muguruma, a coy smile on his face and only a bit of nervous sweat.
He did in fact catch you staring, and you knew your face must’ve told a story because his grin only grew in size.
He must’ve felt so full of himself in that moment
Lisa found herself with the karaoke microphone next in which she spent two minutes talking about all of the types of women she likes, which is shockingly the whole lot of them.
Then when her song came to an end, she and Hiyori suddenly decided to grab drinks for everyone and send in an extra order of food.
This left you with absolutely no buffer between you and Shinji Hirako.
“Interesting song choice, trying to impress a special someone?”
“Don’t make fun of me when your song choice was clearly directed at someone too.”
But one loss wouldn’t deter Shinji!
“Fine, you gotta point… how about we get some fresh air? Away from all of this reekin’ testosterone, yeah?”
“I can’t complain about that.”
Somehow, the door to the karaoke room was also the thing that kept you from the ozone layer, as when you both left you realized how incredibly hot the sealed door made the room.
“I thought you’d tell me if ya had a crush on someone, doll.”
He chided you with a lopsided smile, his bobbed hair swaying slightly as he leaned towards you in a playful manner. His elbow lightly poking your ribs in a jest.
“I’ve said anything of the sort”
You could only smile at his mischievous antics while trying to ignore the fuzzy feeling bubbling up in your stomach from both the nerves and excitement
“That’s not what yer song choice said.”
His hands now resting behind his head in a (faux) leisurely manner. He side-eyed you, his signature smile now a coy smirk.
“Lisa chose the song for me.”
He whipped his head to look at you.
“You also had someone choose your song?”
“Are you telling me that your song was picked by someone else too?”
His face had confusion written all over it, only twisting further into it before confirming with you,
“Yeah, Hiyori chose it. I just didn’t want a sandal to my face on a weekend.”
“I see.”
Oh my god. He understood it now.
That was why Hiyori made him come to the karaoke bar. Well, she mentioned that you’d be there which obviously made him accept but he used a different excuse to her face.
She and Lisa were in cahoots with each other specifically to add more romantic tension to the group. It wasn’t extremely hard to find out that Shinji had eyes for you though, only Rose could deal with his squealing about jazz for so long. Which then devolved into squealing about you.
It would be a perfectly romantic time to confess, especially after his stunt but he still didn’t know if you felt the same way. He had to feel your emotions out before putting his neck on the line like that.
“Did ya think of anyone while singing yer song?”
Now it was your turn to contemplate confession. You absolutely did think of him while singing— about how much he teases you and the rest of the team, about how he looked before and after a particularly avant garde haircut, how he looks when it’s just you and him alone together and he truly smiles—
Shinji was cunning and perceptive, and part of you was thankful that you’d never have to say the words out loud if you wanted to yet… this seemed to be the one thing he was completely oblivious about—
Either it was his own ignorance, or his insecurity holding him back from the possibility of you having romantic feelings for him.
“I don’t think ya need to answer that question anymore… it’s just who is it?”
There are few reasons that Shinji would be asking you so passionately about if you have a crush and that’s because either: A) someone on the team does and he wants to be a wingman or…
The possibility that makes your heart stop. That he wants to be more than friends.
Yet you still wanted to feign ignorance and maintain your usual playful relationship, veering towards poking at the problem instead of directly addressing it.
“Why do you care so much? Someone want to ask me out soon?”
When you turned your head to meet his eyes, you were met with a deadpan. His usual smile closer to a frown while he looked down at you with an intensity in his eyes,
“Yeah, I guess ya could say that.”
That just about confirmed it for you. There would always be the small voice in your head that objected to this being sufficient evidence of him being interested in you.
“And what if it was you, Shinji?”
His heart nearly stopped beating— the pit in his stomach finally sinking deeper, his posture slouching, all the while he broke out into a cold sweat.
“Come again?”
His voice was shaky, and he was trying to maintain some of his persona.
You pressed further, accepting that today would be the time that you’d confess. His face was bright red and without its signature smile.
“What if it was you?”
He’s felt pretty good before but nothing compared to this. His heart was pounding, his head was fuzzy and he was nearly delirious to find out that you of all people had a thing for him.
“Yer serious?”
“Dead serious.”
It only took him a second to fully process everything, after which he took your hands in his with glee, a grin taking up more than half of his face.
“Well then, we gotta get outta here and find ourselves a great date spot! Everyone else will understand, right?”
He pulled you towards the door, slamming a wad of cash on the bar front to cover both of your tabs and shooting the bartender a look to cement their mutual understanding.
He deftly maneuvered to help you put on your jacket as he slung his jacket over his shoulders and hurried the both of you out of the karaoke bar.
…
“I should’ve never bet that baldy would ever do me a favor— even one that he wasn’t aware of.”
Hiyori grumbled from the corner of the bar, her drink almost completely drained from watching the hilarious romantic confrontation that unfurled before her. To her left sat a particularly perky Lisa, already reveling in her victory
“Oh, and those are vintage magazines from out of the country too. I’ve always wanted some in my collection…”
Lisa smirked and pushed her glasses further on the bridge of her nose.
“Fine! Just because I respect our bet.”
Hiyori scoffed, turning away from her in a puff of frustration.
“We have to do this again sometime. Maybe who kisses who first?”
Hiyori shot her head back to Lisa, her hand outstretched already to accept her offer.
“You're on, Lisa!”