[MUCC] The Day After Miya Punched Me in the Face
Title: The Day After Miya Punched Me in the Face
Summary: Miya decides to apologize to Tatsurou after punching him in the face, but since they're both dumbasses difficult people, it gets a bit passive aggressive.
Warning: Nearly all dialogue, some swearing, no pairing. Just the boys being catty.
Disclaimer: MUCC is not mine, please don't sue, I'm a student and have no income...
Author's Notes: Purely my speculation on what happened during MUCC's ' difficult period' circa 2006. Apparently, Tatsurou wasn't singing well and Miya had a fist fight with Tatsurou over it. I was all, "whoa, I hope Miya was careful with Tatsurou's face! And I hope he apologized afterwards." (I know, Tatsurou probably threw in some punches too, but come on, his arms are like twigs...)
The doorbell rang once, twice, thrice. Tatsurou decided that enough was enough.
"FUCK OFF. NO ONE'S HOME!”
The ringing stopped. Tatsurou listened for the sounds of retreating footsteps, which were either not there, or the punch to his ear did more damage than he had feared. After a minute or so, the doorbell started ringing again, this time in a decidedly passive aggressive manner. Tatsurou had a pretty good idea who was on the other side of the door.
"Is that you, Miya?"
"…Yeah."
"What do you want?"
"Open the door.”
"No. Don’t think it’ll hold up so well in court if I let you in to beat me up the day after you, what, oh yeah, beat me up.”
"I came here to apologize."
"Go ahead. I can hear you through the door and all."
“Tatsurou, I’m sorry.”
“OK. I heard ya. Bye now.”
“For Christ’s sake, just open the door.”
“No. Also, fuck off.”
“Hey, you’re not being fair. You threatened to leave the band. How did you expect me to react?”
“Ah, yes yes. All my fault. Please leave.”
“No!” Tatsurou heard a deep sigh from the other side of the door. “I’m sorry. Just let me in so I can properly apologize and explain myself. You can decide afterwards if you can forgive me or not.”
“…”
“You haven’t been out today, right? I brought food.”
Tatsurou could hear the rustling of a plastic bag, and his mouth watered. It was true, he hadn’t left the house all day.
“… Fine. Do what you want. You always do anyway.”
Tatsurou unlocked the door, and in a moment of spite kicked the door out with force, half-hoping for the door to hit Miya. Miya dodged the door, not appearing all that surprised by Tatsurou's vindictiveness. He sidestepped Tatsurou and took a step into the hallway.
“Whoa, lights off and drawn curtains. You’re sulking in style.”
“Shut up. Kitchen’s to the left. Get cooking.”
Tatsurou turned on the lights and slunk inside the kitchen to put on the kettle and make tea, mostly to show that even if he was indeed sulking, he can still be a decent host. When he turned around, he noticed that Miya was hovering at the kitchen doorframe. “What now?”
“I thought I avoided your face…”
“Hm? You were trying to avoid my face? I couldn’t tell.”
Tatsurou knew from checking the mirror this morning that a purple bruise had blossomed on his jaw, and another on his right cheekbone. He glanced at Miya, and thought that it was nearly, just nearly, worth getting punched to see Miya suck in a breath through his teeth and looking thoroughly guilty.
Tatsurou rummaged in the Lawson bag and pulled out two packets of instant ramen. “When you said ‘food’, I expected curry at the very least.”
Miya jerked his head up. “Hey, you love ramen! I thought.” He rolled his eyes as Tatsurou snorted. “I bought some vegetables too, to add to the noodles to make it more nutritious. Hm. How do you work your cooker?”
“Eh, if it’s just vegetables, just nuke them in the microwave.”
“You can do that?”
Tatsurou heaved a sigh, shooed Miya out of the kitchen, and set about preparing the vegetables. He washed and chopped up the courgette and broccoli, put them in a microwave-safe bowl with a tablespoon of water, partially covered the bowl with clingfilm, and set the timer on the microwave. By then, the kettle started whistling, so he made tea and poured hot water into the instant ramen cups.
“Here’s your tea,” Tatsurou said as he set the mug down on the living room table, cursing himself for being polite out of habit.
“Thanks.” Miya wandered over, Teto trailing behind.
Tatsurou knelt down and held a hand out to the cat. “Here, Tetchan. Sit on my lap?”
The cat blithley ignored his owner, opting instead to climb up Miya’s leg and settle on his lap.
“Traitor,” Tatsurou mumbled. He had refused to play with Teto last night, and Teto was no doubt getting his revenge.
Miya wrapped his hands around his tea mug and cleared his throat. "I’m sorry about your face.”
“Yeah. I did think, since I am your precious MUCC’s frontman and all, you could’ve at least spared my face.”
“Well, I mean, I’m sorry about your face in general.”
Tatsurou blinked, and then bared his teeth at the guitarist.
Miya made whoa-whoa movements with his hands. “Kidding! Sorry. I’m sorry.”
The microwave pinged then, and Miya took that opportunity to escape to the kitchen. He emerged from the kitchen minutes later with two steaming bowls of ramen topped semi-attractively with vegetables.
The two of them mumbled “itadakimasu” and started slurping the noodles. Miya seemed disinclined to say anything, and Tatsurou couldn’t stand silence, so he spoke first.
“Hey. Way back when. Why did you ask me to start a band with you?”
Miya focused his eyes on his chopsticks. “I’ve been asking myself that a lot recently.”
“And?” Tatsurou couldn’t help the sharp tone in his voice.
“I thought your singing was good. Although we were all crap then, really.” Miya shifted his legs, which prompted Teto to whinge and jump off the chair. “Most of all, I remember being attracted by your stage presence. And you sang like you didn’t know what you wanted, but you wanted it yesterday. I only learned the term ‘larger than life’ later on, but that was what I thought of you then.”
Tatsurou mulled over this. He received compliments often, but not from The Leader, and he wasn’t sure how to take them. He opted for a joke. “So you weren’t impressed with my boyish good looks?”
Miya laughed then, and shook his head. “To be honest, I thought you looked like a frog. Your nose is flat and your mouth is really big…”
Tatsurou groaned, “Enough verbal assaults on my face already.”
“Not my fault you asked.”
“Tell me then, do you regret asking me back then?”
Miya’s eyes steeled. “No. Never. You are MUCC’s frontman. No one else could sing my songs. I mean, our songs.”
Tatsurou snorted. “It’s that arrogance, Miya. It grates on my nerves most of the time, and sometimes I can’t help but show it.”
“You’re not that easy to get along with yourself.”
“I thought you came here to apologize?”
“Yes, of course.” Miya coughed. “Tatsurou, I’m sorry for picking that fight with you in the dressing room yesterday. I know our schedule is really full-on, that we’re under a lot of pressure, and that you can’t help your voice failing.”
Tatsurou was about to start protesting, but he realised that if he didn’t accept this mediocre apology then he’d probably never get Miya out of his flat. “Thank you.”
Miya failed to take that as a cue to shut up and leave. “It’s just, MUCC is my life. When you threatened to leave the band, it was like… I was going to say it was like a slap in the face, but it’s worse than that. It’s like you took a dump on my songs, declared them crap and then set them on fire.”
Tatsurou pushed his empty ramen bowl away and started gnawing on his knuckle. “I said maybe I should leave MUCC because it felt pretty obvious to me that you thought I wasn’t good enough for MUCC. And I thought that it would be better for everyone if I offered to leave before you kicked me out.”
Miya shook his head. “You don’t get it. It’s not about you. Well, in a way, it’s all about you.”
“That sounds promising. Go on.”
“I’ve said it many times before. You are MUCC’s frontman and vocalist. Sure, there are other vocalists who can sing better than you, who have voices that are more reliable than yours, and who look less like a praying mantis when they’re performing...”
Tatsurou groaned.
“… But there is no one else but you who could be MUCC’s vocalist. It has to be you, Tatsurou. That’s just the way it is.”
“And why is that?”
Miya took a deep breath. “I’ve known you since we were 17. My music changed as I changed, but mostly it changed as I observed you change.”
The guitarist rubbed his eyes. “Mind you, that doesn't mean I'm particularly fond of you. But I feel like I know you. All my songs are written with you in mind. And I don’t just mean your vocal range. I mean my perception of you since I met you for the first time, and my expectations of you as MUCC's vocalist, as a musician, as a person. The lyrics especially are written for you to breathe life into and to make into your own. You are MUCC’s mouthpiece."
Miya heaved a sigh. He doesn’t like talking for so long, but this was for the sake of the band. “Do you get it now? Getting a new vocalist was never an option."
Tatsurou made to consider. “So… you need me?”
“Er… I leave that up to your interpretation.”
“Come on, just say it.”
“MUCC needs you, Tatsurou.”
“No no no. That’s not honest enough. Try again.”
Miya gritted his teeth. “Fine. I need you to sing in MUCC. Happy now?”
“Well, happy is a strong word," Tatsurou grinned wryly. "But consider yourself temporarily forgiven. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry my voice hasn't been holding up. I'll try harder to take better care of it.”
Miya exhaled with relief. “Then will you come back to the studio with me?”
“What, now?!”
“Yes, now. As you know, we’re on a tight schedule. Songs don’t record themselves, etc.”
“OK, OK. You slave driver. I’ll put on some concealer and get ready.”
As they made their way to the train station, Tatsurou said breezily, “You know. As a token gesture of your apology. I think you should write a song about me.”
Miya raised his eyebrows. “Actually, I’ve already started one.”
“Is that so? I’m looking forward to it.”
Author's Notes: So you all know the song, it's Bouzenjishitsu, which doesn't have the most apologetic of lyrics. My feeling is that Miya and Tatsurou have a truce going on most of the time, but they are who they are, they can't change that over a conversation, and they're probably going to continue grating on each other's nerves for a while. Please try to play nicely, boys!
Your thoughts are very welcome.
Summary: Miya decides to apologize to Tatsurou after punching him in the face, but since they're both dumbasses difficult people, it gets a bit passive aggressive.
Warning: Nearly all dialogue, some swearing, no pairing. Just the boys being catty.
Disclaimer: MUCC is not mine, please don't sue, I'm a student and have no income...
Author's Notes: Purely my speculation on what happened during MUCC's ' difficult period' circa 2006. Apparently, Tatsurou wasn't singing well and Miya had a fist fight with Tatsurou over it. I was all, "whoa, I hope Miya was careful with Tatsurou's face! And I hope he apologized afterwards." (I know, Tatsurou probably threw in some punches too, but come on, his arms are like twigs...)
The doorbell rang once, twice, thrice. Tatsurou decided that enough was enough.
"FUCK OFF. NO ONE'S HOME!”
The ringing stopped. Tatsurou listened for the sounds of retreating footsteps, which were either not there, or the punch to his ear did more damage than he had feared. After a minute or so, the doorbell started ringing again, this time in a decidedly passive aggressive manner. Tatsurou had a pretty good idea who was on the other side of the door.
"Is that you, Miya?"
"…Yeah."
"What do you want?"
"Open the door.”
"No. Don’t think it’ll hold up so well in court if I let you in to beat me up the day after you, what, oh yeah, beat me up.”
"I came here to apologize."
"Go ahead. I can hear you through the door and all."
“Tatsurou, I’m sorry.”
“OK. I heard ya. Bye now.”
“For Christ’s sake, just open the door.”
“No. Also, fuck off.”
“Hey, you’re not being fair. You threatened to leave the band. How did you expect me to react?”
“Ah, yes yes. All my fault. Please leave.”
“No!” Tatsurou heard a deep sigh from the other side of the door. “I’m sorry. Just let me in so I can properly apologize and explain myself. You can decide afterwards if you can forgive me or not.”
“…”
“You haven’t been out today, right? I brought food.”
Tatsurou could hear the rustling of a plastic bag, and his mouth watered. It was true, he hadn’t left the house all day.
“… Fine. Do what you want. You always do anyway.”
Tatsurou unlocked the door, and in a moment of spite kicked the door out with force, half-hoping for the door to hit Miya. Miya dodged the door, not appearing all that surprised by Tatsurou's vindictiveness. He sidestepped Tatsurou and took a step into the hallway.
“Whoa, lights off and drawn curtains. You’re sulking in style.”
“Shut up. Kitchen’s to the left. Get cooking.”
Tatsurou turned on the lights and slunk inside the kitchen to put on the kettle and make tea, mostly to show that even if he was indeed sulking, he can still be a decent host. When he turned around, he noticed that Miya was hovering at the kitchen doorframe. “What now?”
“I thought I avoided your face…”
“Hm? You were trying to avoid my face? I couldn’t tell.”
Tatsurou knew from checking the mirror this morning that a purple bruise had blossomed on his jaw, and another on his right cheekbone. He glanced at Miya, and thought that it was nearly, just nearly, worth getting punched to see Miya suck in a breath through his teeth and looking thoroughly guilty.
Tatsurou rummaged in the Lawson bag and pulled out two packets of instant ramen. “When you said ‘food’, I expected curry at the very least.”
Miya jerked his head up. “Hey, you love ramen! I thought.” He rolled his eyes as Tatsurou snorted. “I bought some vegetables too, to add to the noodles to make it more nutritious. Hm. How do you work your cooker?”
“Eh, if it’s just vegetables, just nuke them in the microwave.”
“You can do that?”
Tatsurou heaved a sigh, shooed Miya out of the kitchen, and set about preparing the vegetables. He washed and chopped up the courgette and broccoli, put them in a microwave-safe bowl with a tablespoon of water, partially covered the bowl with clingfilm, and set the timer on the microwave. By then, the kettle started whistling, so he made tea and poured hot water into the instant ramen cups.
“Here’s your tea,” Tatsurou said as he set the mug down on the living room table, cursing himself for being polite out of habit.
“Thanks.” Miya wandered over, Teto trailing behind.
Tatsurou knelt down and held a hand out to the cat. “Here, Tetchan. Sit on my lap?”
The cat blithley ignored his owner, opting instead to climb up Miya’s leg and settle on his lap.
“Traitor,” Tatsurou mumbled. He had refused to play with Teto last night, and Teto was no doubt getting his revenge.
Miya wrapped his hands around his tea mug and cleared his throat. "I’m sorry about your face.”
“Yeah. I did think, since I am your precious MUCC’s frontman and all, you could’ve at least spared my face.”
“Well, I mean, I’m sorry about your face in general.”
Tatsurou blinked, and then bared his teeth at the guitarist.
Miya made whoa-whoa movements with his hands. “Kidding! Sorry. I’m sorry.”
The microwave pinged then, and Miya took that opportunity to escape to the kitchen. He emerged from the kitchen minutes later with two steaming bowls of ramen topped semi-attractively with vegetables.
The two of them mumbled “itadakimasu” and started slurping the noodles. Miya seemed disinclined to say anything, and Tatsurou couldn’t stand silence, so he spoke first.
“Hey. Way back when. Why did you ask me to start a band with you?”
Miya focused his eyes on his chopsticks. “I’ve been asking myself that a lot recently.”
“And?” Tatsurou couldn’t help the sharp tone in his voice.
“I thought your singing was good. Although we were all crap then, really.” Miya shifted his legs, which prompted Teto to whinge and jump off the chair. “Most of all, I remember being attracted by your stage presence. And you sang like you didn’t know what you wanted, but you wanted it yesterday. I only learned the term ‘larger than life’ later on, but that was what I thought of you then.”
Tatsurou mulled over this. He received compliments often, but not from The Leader, and he wasn’t sure how to take them. He opted for a joke. “So you weren’t impressed with my boyish good looks?”
Miya laughed then, and shook his head. “To be honest, I thought you looked like a frog. Your nose is flat and your mouth is really big…”
Tatsurou groaned, “Enough verbal assaults on my face already.”
“Not my fault you asked.”
“Tell me then, do you regret asking me back then?”
Miya’s eyes steeled. “No. Never. You are MUCC’s frontman. No one else could sing my songs. I mean, our songs.”
Tatsurou snorted. “It’s that arrogance, Miya. It grates on my nerves most of the time, and sometimes I can’t help but show it.”
“You’re not that easy to get along with yourself.”
“I thought you came here to apologize?”
“Yes, of course.” Miya coughed. “Tatsurou, I’m sorry for picking that fight with you in the dressing room yesterday. I know our schedule is really full-on, that we’re under a lot of pressure, and that you can’t help your voice failing.”
Tatsurou was about to start protesting, but he realised that if he didn’t accept this mediocre apology then he’d probably never get Miya out of his flat. “Thank you.”
Miya failed to take that as a cue to shut up and leave. “It’s just, MUCC is my life. When you threatened to leave the band, it was like… I was going to say it was like a slap in the face, but it’s worse than that. It’s like you took a dump on my songs, declared them crap and then set them on fire.”
Tatsurou pushed his empty ramen bowl away and started gnawing on his knuckle. “I said maybe I should leave MUCC because it felt pretty obvious to me that you thought I wasn’t good enough for MUCC. And I thought that it would be better for everyone if I offered to leave before you kicked me out.”
Miya shook his head. “You don’t get it. It’s not about you. Well, in a way, it’s all about you.”
“That sounds promising. Go on.”
“I’ve said it many times before. You are MUCC’s frontman and vocalist. Sure, there are other vocalists who can sing better than you, who have voices that are more reliable than yours, and who look less like a praying mantis when they’re performing...”
Tatsurou groaned.
“… But there is no one else but you who could be MUCC’s vocalist. It has to be you, Tatsurou. That’s just the way it is.”
“And why is that?”
Miya took a deep breath. “I’ve known you since we were 17. My music changed as I changed, but mostly it changed as I observed you change.”
The guitarist rubbed his eyes. “Mind you, that doesn't mean I'm particularly fond of you. But I feel like I know you. All my songs are written with you in mind. And I don’t just mean your vocal range. I mean my perception of you since I met you for the first time, and my expectations of you as MUCC's vocalist, as a musician, as a person. The lyrics especially are written for you to breathe life into and to make into your own. You are MUCC’s mouthpiece."
Miya heaved a sigh. He doesn’t like talking for so long, but this was for the sake of the band. “Do you get it now? Getting a new vocalist was never an option."
Tatsurou made to consider. “So… you need me?”
“Er… I leave that up to your interpretation.”
“Come on, just say it.”
“MUCC needs you, Tatsurou.”
“No no no. That’s not honest enough. Try again.”
Miya gritted his teeth. “Fine. I need you to sing in MUCC. Happy now?”
“Well, happy is a strong word," Tatsurou grinned wryly. "But consider yourself temporarily forgiven. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry my voice hasn't been holding up. I'll try harder to take better care of it.”
Miya exhaled with relief. “Then will you come back to the studio with me?”
“What, now?!”
“Yes, now. As you know, we’re on a tight schedule. Songs don’t record themselves, etc.”
“OK, OK. You slave driver. I’ll put on some concealer and get ready.”
As they made their way to the train station, Tatsurou said breezily, “You know. As a token gesture of your apology. I think you should write a song about me.”
Miya raised his eyebrows. “Actually, I’ve already started one.”
“Is that so? I’m looking forward to it.”
Author's Notes: So you all know the song, it's Bouzenjishitsu, which doesn't have the most apologetic of lyrics. My feeling is that Miya and Tatsurou have a truce going on most of the time, but they are who they are, they can't change that over a conversation, and they're probably going to continue grating on each other's nerves for a while. Please try to play nicely, boys!
Your thoughts are very welcome.