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 Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 4:19 pm
There was a singing contest! A contest to be in a band. When Alexi saw the poster, they tore it down without a moment’s thought, of course, in doing so he absolutely tore off part of the date in the corner, but that was fine. Alexi could still tell what it said, obviously.
They gave a whoop. This was what they had been waiting for! Okay so maybe not literally. But an open audition for anything was better than no open auditions for anything!
Making it back to his childhood home was easy enough, but Alexi didn’t bother going inside, instead they headed next door, over to the window that held the room of his oldest bestie and partner in crime and after shoving their face against the glass, they knocked.
Rapidly and urgently, holding the poster up and pressing their lips against the glass. “Dude! Open up! Let me innnnn! This is life changing important information I have here!”
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 4:40 pm
Ty’s room was dark, but this was as usual as the visible mess through the window. Clothes were scattered on the ground, a stack of papers had been knocked over and there were some scattered soda cans and snack wrappers. There were boxes around his room and the
Tiberius had been up late last night, undoubtedly.
For a long moment, nothing in the room moved, and then a bundle of blankets on the bed shifted.
Ty’s hair was a mess and there were dark circles under his eyes, maybe worsened from old makeup he hadn’t scrubbed off with enough care. He groaned loudly, audible through the closed window.
He crawled towards it on his elbows and stretched as lazily as possible so he could open it with minimal efforts. “Why are you putting your mouth on the glass?” he croaked, voice raw in the way it got when he’d just woken up, or just come back from a concert.
This might have been from both.
He was squinting, hardly even opening his eyes. The window was open, but he was already pressing his cheek back into the pillow.
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 4:55 pm
“Ugh! This won’t do, Ty~” Alexi called, prying the window the rest of the way up and carefully removing the screen so that they could slip inside as they had done so many times in the past. The screen was replaced just as carefully and Alexi turned to their best friend, placing hands on their hips.
“There’s a contest! To be! In a! Band! And it’s like. Right now!”
What Alexi still didn’t know, or realize was that this had already happened. They had missed it but. Even so, it was important that Ty knew. That Ty got up! That they chased their dreams.
“I was putting my mouth on the glass to try and get your attention, obviously. It kind of worked. Anyway, come on! We have to go join a band and get so famous that people know our names!”
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 4:56 pm
Ty didn’t pick his head up. He’d rolled so his face was completely smothered in the pillow and laid prone on his bed.
Alexi had come into his room like this so many times that he didn’t even bother to say ‘watch the table’ or ‘don’t step on my stuff’ because Alexi was going to do it no matter how many times he reminded them. It was practically a miracle that they didn’t wind up sprawled on his floor.
Ty listened for it just in case.
For a moment, it looked like he might have fallen back to sleep.
“...Why do we want that again?” he asked, but his voice was so muffled that it was almost unintelligible.
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 5:21 pm
Alexi rolled their eyes and began making their way carefully across the room. A toe was stubbed on the corner of the table, and they nearly lost their balance tripping on something, but when they arrived at Ty’s bed, they were in one piece, and without any ceremony, plopped down on the mound that they thought was the other boy’s a**.
“We want it because money. Fame! You know how cutthroat Broadway is now, if you’re not already famous you’ll never actually get a leading role, and come on, you’re at concerts like, all the time. Can’t you just imagine all of those pretty and hot boys cheering for you? Hoping they’ll meet your eye or get hit with some sweat that drips off your brow? Ty, Ty! You’d be a God. We both would. We need this!”
Over dramatic as always, but Alexi thought there was some merit in what he said. Maybe. “So get out of bed and let’s go! The world awaits!”
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 5:37 pm
Ty grunted but didn’t immediately move. “...Do you think I go to concerts because I want some guy to sweat on me?”
He groaned, dramatically, but when it seemed apparent that Alexi was not going to leave, Ty gave up trying to bury his face in his pillow and go back to sleep. With expert skill, because he had done this countless times before, he bucked his hips and sent Alexi toppling onto the bed as he begrudgingly sat up.
Bleary eyed, he massaged his face and eyes with both hands.
He had no aspirations for the stage or the spotlight, but Alexi seemed fixed on it. Really fixed on it.
Ugh.
“If I go with you, are you at least buying me lunch?”
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 5:39 pm
“Look, your kinks are way different than mine, but I would absolutely sit in the front row of Hamilton if it meant that Jonathan Groff would spit on me as King George, so. Yes, I would assume that was part of the experience for you.”
Honestly, with how often it happened, Alexi should have been ready to tumble, but, as always they absolutely weren’t and yelped, sprawling out and rolling between Ty and the wall, where he always seemed to end up.
“Yeah I can buy lunch, that’s not any kind of problem at all. There’s a new ramen shop that opened up near the venue and I hear they have fresh mochi donuts all day long! Sounds like utter perfection to me. Now hurry up. Make yourself sexy, the stage awaits you lazy bum.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 5:45 pm
Ty groaned, low and guttural. He could have done a fine Lurch impression. Alexi was a perpetual stream of too much information, and Ty had not slept enough to recover his facilities in any reasonable way. He should have tried to sucker Alexi out of some coffee, too.
“I don’t want to think about guys spitting on you,” he grumbled, dragging himself to his closet. Ty did not particularly care to ‘make himself sexy’; he hardly even wanted to change out of the clothes he’d fallen asleep in. But, Alexi was passionate about this, so Ty would indulge.
He could always sleep later. It wasn’t like he’d be able to get back to sleep after this, anyway.
Trudging around his room, Ty gathered a clean outfit .He wasn’t particularly shy, so he changed right there. He didn’t bother applying makeup; the remnants of yesterday were fine. He didn’t bother brushing his hair, either but he did comb his fingers through it absently while fighting back a yawn.
“Good enough?” he asked, opening his arms and doing a slow spin.
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 5:53 pm
Alexi had rolled into the warmth that Ty had left on the bed and was burying their face into Ty’s pillow, stretching like a cat as Ty began to move around the room. Rolling enough so their mouth was out of the pillow, Alexi sighed. “One day, I’m going to get a mattress like this. Or I’m going to finally end up stealing yours. It’s just not fair that you get the world's best mattress and a pillow that literally cradles your head? Like. So rude, Ty. So rude.
At the question, Alexi forced themself to sit up, trying, and failing to hide a yawn as he looked his friend over.
“Perfect enough as always. You’ll kill it. Kill them all. It’ll be a mass murder and it will end up being all my fault because I brought you there. I should get ready for prison. Hope I get a hot roommate.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 5:57 pm
Ty scoffed but it wasn’t immediately clear which part of Alexi’s spiel had warranted the response. “...You are way too excited about this,” he said instead, sleepily rubbing his hands over his face to wake himself up.
“You’re welcome to take my mattress. If you can pick it up,” he said, obviously having little faith in Alexi’s ability to lift it. “Stop daydreaming about prison, too.” He squinted at Alexi like he was trying to decipher whatever was going on in their mind, but Ty quickly decided that he did not actually want to know.
He gestured vaguely, as if to hurry Alexi out of his room before they could find something else to get into. Ty slid on the pair of boots he kept in his room, for the nights when he wanted to escape through the window, but he didn’t have the energy to treat his room like an obstacle course right now. He dragged himself through the empty house, stifling one more yawn.
“...This had better be so good,” he grumbled. He missed his bed already. Maybe he’d bully Alexi into coffee, too.
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 6:00 pm
“If you can wake up fully it’ll be so good, and no, I won’t stop fantasizing about the moment I meet my soulmate, thank you. It might not be in prison, but it might be. I have to be ready at a moment’s notice. What will they be like? Will they have great hair? Oh I hope they’re at least a little famous, wouldn’t that just be the greatest?”
Alexi put a hand on Ty’s shoulder just to make sure that he didn’t bolt back to the bed…which, honestly. Fair. It was comfortable and warm, but this? This was their future.
“...Wait. What part had better be good? The audition or the ramen, because that could really change my answer, now that I think about it…”
Maybe they should stop somewhere for coffee, there was no way Ty could perform in the state he was in.
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 6:02 pm
Ty grumbled but didn’t try to shake off Alexi’s hand, as if he might absorb some of their energy simply by touch alone. It wasn’t important to Ty, not really. He had no aspirations for the stage.
He was used to Alexi’s eccentricity, but even this was a bit more than usual.
Was Alexi nervous? Maybe, if it was their whole future on the line. And they were already daydreaming about backup plans, like, you know, prison.
Ty didn’t bother lacing his boots, he’d just slid them on and pulled out his keys to lock up behind them. He held the door open for Alexi and then, with a longstanding sigh, answered, “The food. You’ll audition just fine, you know you’re meant for the stage.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 6:04 pm
“Well, obviously...but I’m not really sure what I should perform…what are you going to do? Honestly I had dreams of this going a lot differently, Ty, I’m surprised with you, I thought you also thrived on attention?” Good attention, bad attention, any attention.
Oh well. He was just tired. Obviously Ty would perk up after food, and obviously this would be a break for them both.
“Coffee first, how about? Get you out of your zombie state and more….alive. I’m embarrassed to be seen with you when you’re like this. Right now you couldn’t even cheer for me right.” Alexi rolled their eyes and nodded in the direction of the nearest coffee shop. It wasn’t too far from the ramen or the venue, and luckily, it wasn’t too far from here...which was really the most important bit. “I’ll get you something with like five shots of espresso. You need it. You’ll be hearing colors in no time.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 6:15 pm
Ty squinted at Alexi but only grumbled something unintelligible as he trudged along. Alexi’s silent instructions were unmistakable, and were enough for him to work off of.
“You’re embarrassed to be seen with me, but you’re going to get into a car with me?” he asked, unlocking his old beater. It was clean, it ran, it rattled like it was on death’s doorstep any time you turned it on or let it still for too long.
Ty liked that about the car. He’d been driving it for a little less than two years now but he’d bought it himself. It worked better after he crashed it into the mailbox. As per his ritual, he patted the dent over the light twice before sinking into the driver’s seat. He turned the car on and immediately turned the volume down, but not before it blared loud, briefly deafening music. That was good for him driving. Not good for entertaining company.
Ty hadn’t prepared anything to sing. Being on stage meant next to nothing to him, in any capacity. So far as he was concerned, he’d just wing it. He was probably only going for emotional support anyway.
“You sure you want me on a stage with five shots of espresso? I could hurt someone.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 6:18 pm
“If you’re going to hurt someone, hurt the best of the competition so that I get a rigged judgement.” The words came smoothly. All banter with Ty came smoothly. It was easy. Easier than breathing sometimes.
“You’re the one with the car, my friend. I’m the baby of my family and am far too busy with school to do mundane labor…besides. I’m saving the planet. Public transport! Going green! All the good stuff that you’re supposed to say.”
Alexi was a little jealous that Ty had a car, they always had been but…at least the city did have decent public transport. There were far, far worse places to live.
“Do you want the address or are you going to find this place on vibes?”
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