AN: This entire fic was written with dictation through a speech to text website. There were a lot of technical difficulties, So I just want you to imagine me screaming Yuri at my computer screen Trying to get it to write what I'm saying.

It was Liz's 17th birthday. Last year, Kid spared no expense, so it was surprising to see Liz ask for something small. The Thompsons, who previously had no money to their name, had taken full advantage of living the life of luxury before. Now that the novelty had worn off, Liz seemed more preoccupied with her friend's comforts then showing how far she had come. All she had asked were for her friends came to a hole in the wall joint that she had found a couple months prior. It was, in her words, totally authentic, but Tsubaki was to be the best judge. Tsubaki had walked past her fair share of karaoke bars back home, but she had always been too young to step inside. Or at least that's what her father said.

The one word Tsubaki could use to describe the karaoke bar was small. In a brightly lit waiting room, her and her friends stood shoulder to shoulder, waiting for their own booth to be ready. Deep in her purse was her birthday present for Liz. It was a simple set of hair clips. She felt embarrassed by the idea that other people would see it. There was no way to tell by the wrapping how much care had been put into it. The only one who knew was Black Star and even he didn't understand the significance of how much research had gone into picking the perfect set. Hours spent scrolling on the internet, looking through past likes to see if anything was still on trend and to Lizzie's liking. There was no telling if by the time the package was opened that they would still be considered fashionable. To Tsubaki, even fake pearls would look like real gems in Liz's hair.

The group of them were led to a small private room. Inside was dimly lit with blue and purple lights. A menu sat on the coffee table. On it was a list of canned beverages and snack foods. Tsubaki was uncertain where her appetite had gone. There was a narrow couch that wrapped around the circumference of the room. In the corner, far away from where any guest would sit, was a rope porch swing wrapped in fake flowers. It seemed like the perfect place to sit if you didn't want to sing. The idea of standing up in front of her friends while her confidence was so low was mortifying to Tsubaki. She took heart knowing that Black Star and Maka would likely take control of the playlist. Black Star enjoyed being the center of attention too much to give up the microphone for a second and Maka was the best at finding What fake names the karaoke songs have been listed under to avoid copyright strike.

A large symbol of Lord Death's face bounced around the flat screen TV. Maka sat hunched over the keyboard With Soul whispering his song choices in her ear. All while she begged him to think of something the average child would know. Songs would be considerably easier to find than indie rock bands and the more time they took waiting, the longer Black Star had to make his own playlist. Of which everyone would have to find space for their choices in between. For some reason today of all days, every song in existence had been erased from Tsubaki's memory. Any songs she had recently heard She didn't know the words too confidently and one stumble over a syllable would surely ruin her entire evening.

With her purse in her lap she watched as their friends argued over what to play next. She felt guilty for feeling so out of place. These were her friends after all and she was here to support Liz. It seemed after the pier she oscillated Between guilt and frustration that any time she wanted to hang out with Liz, there was always at least one other person. It should have been easy to suggest the two of them go out on a private dinner or a movie or literally anything that would make it feel like Tsubaki cared deeply about Liz's birthday. Instead, she sat sulking in the corner, guilty for sulking and unable to picture a future where this wasn't the norm.

She hadn't realized how long she was staring at her lap, the present in her lap The present in her lap Until the swing jostled under her. With a start to see Liz sitting next to her Considering how the swing dipped She was half on top of her. All the singing, shouting and music Felt miles away.

"Hey, are you OK? " Liz asked as she wrapped her arm around Tsubaki's shoulders. Tsubaki tensed and in order to avoid further questions, shoved the package into Liz's hand. Liz looked down at it, a small smile forming across her face. She took back her arm, letting the AC hitting Tsubaki's bare shoulders once more. With childish Glee, she carefully picked apart the floral wrapping paper and slid out the white box inside. She lifted the lid and gasped. "Oh my God, Patty, look at these!" She pulled them out. Cartoonish in proportion, the line of pearls when clipped in her hair made her look like a Barbie doll. She immediately handed Patty her phone.

"Say cheese." Patty held up the device and tap the screen.

Tsubaki was caught by surprise. No doubt owlish looking next to Liz's bright smile in the photo. A month ago, she would have felt less distracted, but it seemed everything she did was now filtered through the theoretical view of five pairs of eyes. Eight if you were to count her rock-bottom self-esteem and the ghosts of her parents, still alive and well in Japan.

"One more." Patty waited longer this time, giving Tsubaki the chance to smile And Liz? A chance to pose cheek to cheek with her.

Patty handed Back the phone. Instead of getting up, Liz allowed the ropes swing to pull her deeper against Tsubaki side. No one questioned it. The longer no one questioned it, the more relaxed Tsubaki felt. With flashing lights and music to distract them, maybe what the birthday girl did hardly mattered to their friends. For a good 20 minutes Tsubaki racked her brain for what exactly she did to get to this point and how she could replicate it. She was coming up as blank as her music library.

"Maka, pick something easy for us, will ya?" Barely looking up from her phone Liz asked, barely looking up from her phone.

"Something easy, something easy." She scrolled blindly down the song list.

"Bohemian Rhapsody." Soul called from his spot on the couch.

"That is not easy." Maka said, turning on him in an instant.

"Sure it is. Everyone sounds equally bad."

Tsubaki had never been more thankful for a suggestion. Any time the song came on, Patty and Black Star would shout out at the top of their lungs. If this was the song she chose to sing, she wouldn't be singing alone.

"That doesn't sound too bad." Tsubaki said. As soon as the words left her lips, Liz took Tsubaki by the wrist from the swing to the front of the room. A microphone was unceremoniously shoved into her hand. On the screen, a dated blue video with white text started to play. She looked to Liz, her heart tight in her chest. This was just for fun; it didn't matter who was watching. Anticipation grew with each guitar string, her voice drowned out within the first few lyrics. It was a good thing she knew them by heart, since she couldn't keep her eyes off of her duet partner.

There was little room to dance or pose, but Liz tried her best anyway. Surely the next day her shins would be bruised from being hit against the coffee table. In that moment, none of that seemed to matter. Her hair reflected the purple and blue lights around the room, like a mermaid rising from the surf. For a few brief minutes, Tsubaki could shout at the top of her lungs with all the pent-up energy that had been building up since the beginning of the night.


The next morning, Tsubaki paced around her living room with phone in hand. The last few times they'd gone out was at Liz's request. So if she wanted any chance to be alone with Liz, it was up to her to make them the first move. Asking that much should have been easy. It shouldn't matter that they had just hung out the night before, and yet, she couldn't help but worry About coming off as clingy.

"Do you want me to do it?" Black Star asked. What exactly he was volunteering to do, but as long as Tsubaki was pacing, he wouldn't be able to watch TV.

"I need to be able to do this myself." She tried thinking of the most mundane thing to have them do together, yet at the same time, artfully discourage their friends from inviting themselves.

She got a text.

'There's this adorable cat cafe. Did you want to go?'

So much for spacing discomfort head on. Of course, she was delighted that Liz wanted to spend time with her. However, the window for casually asking Liz to hang out again was gradually closing. What was she supposed to do? Asked to go and do a thing right after being invited to doing something else? If she wanted to avoid coming off as clingy, she'd just have to wait.

"Change of plans." Tsubaki half carried on her conversation with Black Star. All the while, texting Liz in a string of enthusiastic emojis. "I don't think subtly waiting for my chance is working. At this rate I'll have gray hairs before I can even ask her out. I need you to find the most obnoxious, gooey, romantic thing I can't weasel out of, and I'll invite Liz to that."

"Prom?" Black Star asked After a long pause.

"No, people go to that as friends all the time I need something really, really big." Tsubaki said. "You think you can do that?"

Gooey romantic stuff was not Black Stars area. Large, obnoxious displays on the other hand, were. He may have been fuzzy on the details he could always fill the knowledge gap with a little help.

"You can count on me."