Dimly lit were the rows upon rows of the ample stadium, now emptied of an audience save for two. Flowing from the stage in gentle streams were the warm spotlights from atop the elevated platform, casting silky lighting into the otherwise smothering darkness opposed to it and onto you.

As piano keys and crooned notes flurried around your head, dipping you into a pleasing, drowsy fever that you welcomed all too eagerly, there was not a thing in your world other than that stage and yourself, attention wholly resigned to the tender voice ahead.

A hushed sigh snuck its way slily past your lips.

A reaction that completely slipped your mind.

Not however the vigilant, round ears of the man on the neighboring seat, pulling an all-too-knowing smile from his lips.

"Beautiful, isn't it? He sure is a real catch."

"Yeaahh", you breathed softly, drooping further into the cushy back rest of the theater seat, your eyes not once withdrawing from the figure at the piano.

He really was beautiful; in all his charming, little imperfections and that mesmerizing, doubtlessly perfect voice of his. His accent was a quirky detail you adored particularly. And each time you saw those couple pairs of canine teeth gleam between his soft lips terribly pleasant chills chased each other up and down your back.

You shuddered faintly when he hit the high note of the chorus, feeling your heart melt into a puddle in your chest.

Oh, you were so weak for that voice.

Sometimes you almost found it to be unfair the way he carelessly tossed that wobbly-knees-inducing voice around as if it was any other - there should be laws against this kind of magnetizing felony, really.

Not that you would ever ask him to stop.

Whatever it was he was doing to you, you indulged in it with every fiber of your being.

A second longer you feasted yourself on the dreamy performance in front of you before things clicked upstairs and you shot up straight as a pin, whipping your head around towards the koala next to you contentedly smiling to himself.

Exasperation crystal clear on your face, Moon took his time to meet with your wide open eyes.

He could only find amusement in your soundless stammering for words.

Oh, to be young ...

Answering your flustered fish gasping with that canny smile of his as he turned you only got thrown off balance more and felt a familiar heat creeping from your chin upwards.

Meanwhile, watching you come absolutely undone in front of him, Buster's smirk grew low-key teasing, almost impish in the way it fueled your dishevelment and, frustration making its way into your embarrassment, you found your voice.

"--Buster!! -- No!!!", you squeaked your brilliant comeback hoarsely in a whisper, still staring wide-eyed at the theater owner, partially because you felt unable to articulate yourself in anything more than a muttered pitch and partially because you really did not want for your piano-playing best friend on stage to hear you.

Buster Moon's smirk however could not be terminated.

He even went so far as to lower his eyelids suggestively at you, which caused you to let out a sharp gasp and scowl at your own feebleness in this situation.

"Buster! -- I swear, it's not--", came another hiss on your part, when the recognizable last notes of the song tore through the thick fog of bashfulness that had accumulated in your mind from your distraught defensiveness and his voice rang through the entirety of the arena one last time.

"- love me the same?"

For a brief succession of seconds that felt most bizarre in their deadly silence after music had filled this empty hall for the past hour everything had frozen in place.

Eyes on Buster you watched his smartass smirk tug the corner of his mouth just a teeny bit higher before he decided to migrate his attention from your agitated face to the stage.

The two singers were already waiting expectantly.

"Very, very nice!", Buster praised enthusiastically and gave two claps of applause, "This should be just the act we need to put a cherry on top of the cake!"

His voice spiraled a little out of bounds in his elation at the end.

"Alriiight", slurred the American bison, Richard, on the left, giving a lazy fist pump.

His partner for the number and main singer Johnny nodded cheerfully (cutely so, you noted) on his piano stool - a little tic he was prone to whenever a performance went nicely instead of giving a direct reply to the endorsement, you had caught.

As the theater owner continued on giving small pointers and more compliments, Johnny seemed fixated on his boss much like his collaborator, while in truth his eyes lay on you. Seated right next to Moon the shift of his orbs and focus was utterly inconspicuous to the eye as the gorilla ogled you excitedly and lent only half an ear to Moon's rambled speech, wondering about you instead.

You were sitting with your hands on the rest of the settle in front of you, bent over and shoulders drawn up high as if to sink into your own frame, forehead buried in the crimson cushion, attempting yourself at fighting off the lingering embarrassment burning in your cheeks.

A much harder task than you had imagined.

Even with your eyes closed, and thus Buster out of sight, and your mental mantra-like chastisement to calm down you could barely shake the flush and memories of that teasing smirk and the lidded eyes flooding in and out of your consciousness did not aid you in your objective one bit.

You knew exactly, after all, what the koala had aimed at with those gestures.

Darn him and his watchfulness, you tried so hard to hide it as best you could.

By that time your hunched figure and ever so soft defeated bumping of your forehead against the cushioned back rest of the row ahead of you puzzled the mountain gorilla greatly, having no way of knowing what had gone down prior to the end of his song, to the point where there was the tiniest falter in his sweet smile.

When you finally lifted your head after another minute however, his heart allowed the swelling, suffocating tension in his chest to ease up and his smile broadened with your eyes falling onto his own, all unbeknownst to the young man.

"- then that should be all for today's rehearsal! Great work you two, great work!", Buster's voice tuned back into Johnny's mind and he quickly gave another nod down at the koala, only now realizing he had spaced out for half (or more) of what the director had put out there as constructive criticism. Richard plodding off the other edge of the set went completely unnoticed even.

Shrugging internally in a laid back manner the ape assured himself he'd probably not missed all that much and kept on smiling, satisfied with himself for today's practice session.

"Oh, and Johnny, don't forget to oil that stool of yours- The creaking is unbearable!", the short koala dramatically remarked as a side note on his way backstage, already so deep in thought about other organizational business again he did not even turn around to check with the singer.

"You got it, Mr. Moon!", called Johnny over at him as he too left the stage, not quite sure if Buster had caught that the way he was mumbling to himself pacing up the stairs to his office.

Chuckling a little at the occasional dopiness of his boss the mountain gorilla wheeled his piano back to its rightful place behind the scenes.

With the deed done he plopped himself down on one of the vacant chairs, swinging his (in your opinion far too flattering) leather jacket from his broad shoulders onto the plastic back rest to cool down from the stage heat and took a long sip from his forsaken water bottle.

"Not bad, big guy~", you cooed, leaning onto the wooden handrail of the stairs Buster had just vanished atop.

Eyebrows rising in both momentary perplexity and the follow-up mirth, Johnny coolly spun on his chair to seize your eyes, a cheery smirk erupting on his lips.

"Oh, yeah, thanks", he replied in a nonchalant nature, a light shrug and shut eyes, almost as if the fantastic show he had delivered on stage previously was no big deal whatsoever and he had an ego the size of Nana Noodleman's villa. You knew however that your dorky monkey friend just played along with the tone your teasing approbation had set.

Cracking an eye open at you you couldn't help a hearty laugh at your friend's dottiness.

He really did go out of his way occasionally just to humor you.

And it got you everytime.

Infected by your laughter Johnny proceeded to join in grinning widely and you made your way over to him.

"Seriously though, you were amazing, once again", you commended earnestly, eyes fixed on him with a tender smile and motioned to sit down on the chair's rim next to your friend, to which he immediately obliged.

"Heh, thanks", he half muttered, brushing his palm over his nape.

With a sudden pang of jittery butterflies in his stomach Johnny's eyes fled to the side, a detail you were oblivious to as you lost yourself in your own thoughts. Your body loosened with your back against his shoulder, effectively provoking the bubble of comfortably sizzling shivers to burst within him.

Oh, geez.

What was he, 14?

Distrait and slightly bewildered the gorilla curled his slender fingers around the chair's ledge and waited for something.

In the meantime you sat there, eyes appreciatively closed as you drifted among your stream of thoughts and relished the soothing moment of calm you shared when a sudden memory came back to you and you could barely contain the playful grin that instantaneously washed over your features like a tidal wave.

"Hey, Johnny", you intercepted his nettling fluster, devilish friskiness swinging in your voice,

"So, did you get that skateboard of yours fixed yet?"

His eyebrows furrowed in response, at a loss for a second, before he recalled what you were getting at and he cringed visibly.

Oh, how he had hoped you'd forgotten.

But who was he trying to fool, an incident like that you would never let go of so easily.

Mentally bracing himself for what he had coming, Johnny replied against his better judgement.

" ... No, not yet", he drawled out grudgingly and blankly stared ahead, all signs of the prior sheepishness being no more.

What did he do to deserve this?

At least, dear lord, let this end soon.

Desperately sending quick prayers heavenwards to spare him as much predicament as possible the singer awaited your inevitable, impending wisecrack.

He could already take a good guess at what was to come from this after all.

He knew how much you loved to chaff him.

Affectionately, maybe, but nevertheless chaff him.

"Oooh? How come~?", you chirped, your intent to rib him plain unsubtle now, he was nearly offended by how openly you carried it.

He could practically see the mischievous smirk you wore through the tone of your voice.

Yep, he was definitely done with the topic right about now.

You on the other hand were only just getting started.

When your best friend said nothing in return, you probed him harder.

"Have you ... by any chance ... not even gotten it back yet~?"

Your voice quivered with impishness.

Rolling his eyes back into his skull instead of giving in to the urge of languidly dragging his hand straight over his face to keep at least part of his exasperation secret from you as to not give you more satisfaction than you were already getting out of this, Johnny groaned his words regretfully.

"No, (Y/N), I haven't gotten it back yet."

You could hardly hold yourself. You were being an awful tease, you knew that, but by god it was too much fun than to let him off without a second remark - or a third ... or more.

A brief laughter slipped you.

"So I take it Nana's still keeping it under lock and key, hm?", you snorted gleefully and turned in your spot a little to spy over at Johnny who correspondingly leant into the opposite direction, avoiding your eyes with firm dedication.

For a few moments there was prickling silence between the two of you, but he caved in.

Grunting under protest Johnny affirmed your voiced assumption.

This pulled and even wider smirk from your lips.

"Well, who can blame her, only you could manage nearly running her over- her out of all people on the street-"

You meant to add a few more stabs at his pride but burst out into amused cackling before your mouth could do so.

"'ey!", Johnny perked up now and flipped to face you with an unmeant big pout, finally manning up against your jibes, "That penguin butler fella didn't look where he was goin', okay, 's not my fault that-"

He intended to defend what teeny bit of dignity he had left further but your hollering laughter drowned him out.

Man, you loved the way his Cockney accent thickened even more whenever he got rushed and impulsive.

And you loved that you were the one who could tickle these exact reactions out of him.

Shaking in your exuberant hilarity you shifted around to meet you best friend's sulky, sourpussed gaze and nearly lost your gradually regaining composure once more.

He looked like a kid whose lollipop you had just swiped right under his nose.

You were absolutely euphoric.

"Oh, Johnny boy, you should be thankful Nana didn't have you play her cleaning maid for two weeks to repay the scare you gave her", you howled, holding your aching middle, "Be glad the old lady didn't have a real heart attack with your skateboard flying right by her head- Poor Eddie nearly fainted at the sight-"

Again you surrendered yourself to another stream of giggles that had you doubling over.

Johnny however was not so delighted.

Whilst you were cracking up next to him he was attempting to jab you with those chocolate orbs of his to the best of his ability, lips squeezed in a tight glower, slowly coming to be riled up and just about done with your unforgiving badinage.

Riled up enough to get a grip on his confidence and hit back properly.

Of course he knew this was all the usual fun and games between you two and would never hold it against you later but that didn't mean he wouldn't take his own stand against you - and give it everything he's got.

"Psh-", he sneered, mien suddenly adapting newfound poised, bold vibes, his eyes lidded and smirk charismatic, "I wasn't all that worried, charmed my way right outta there, I did!"

That cocky reply actually got you yielding for a moment.

Blinking at the gorilla's unforseen brash counter the amused tears pricking the corners of your eyes quickly dried out and you recovered from your initial surprise not a second later.

Oh, so that's the game he was gonna play, hm? Well, you could play it just as well!

Vying smirk racing the overjoyed crinkles to your eyes in your amusement you shot him a look he caught and for the blink of an eye you swore he looked like a deer in the headlights confronted with that expression of yours.

"Oh? You and charming?", you mocked, albeit you knew first-hand that Johnny was irrefutably, unrejectably charming (not that you'd ever give him that credit) and planted the give-me-a-break stare on him, eyebrows drawn up high, launching yourself off the chair's edge, twirling around to stand right in front of your best friend.

"P-lease! You're a walking, talking dork by nature- it's in your genes, it's not your fault-", you shrugged, jeeringly assuring him nobody cast the blame for his lack of allure on him, lifting one of your brows cheekily, "- don't try to act all cool now, big boy, you can't fool me~"

"Oh yeah? You haven't got a clue how charming I can be, trust me on that, luv ~", fired Johnny right back without thinking twice.

He regretted it instantly.

While your mind did not regard it in particular, Johnny's head went from his already hurried, rash thinking straight into utter chaos like the most awkward car crash, stripped of every bit of wit and reason within a split second, effectively wiping all emotion from his features.

His brain basically flatlined on him leaving behind a gaping void and a disastrous load of embarrassment that came surging at breakneck speed to fill the vacuum that was his head.

And he had no means to fight it.

Puny and widely open he watched himself derailing.

Lord, help him.

"Pfft- yeah, sure, lover boy~", you proceeded your lighthearted twitting, rolling your eyes at the gorilla and waltzing off a few steps.

At least Johnny was safe from your prying eyes in this moment of vulnerability.

What had he called you just now?

Luv? Seriously?

Under normal circumstances the singer wouldn't have even batted an eye at the pet name falling from his lips, it wasn't all that scandalous or peculiar after all, but under these specific circumstances he minded.

Oh, he minded a hell of a lot.

Anybody else he would've been completely fine with, but you?

No, you were an exception.

It was one thing purring heartbreakers at a cute girl he only just met, it was a totally different thing thoughtlessly babbling out this corny nonsense around the cute girl he so cautiously, devotedly maintained his friendship with.

Somewhere in the vast, dopey desert that once was his brain he did realize you had probably paid the little nickname no mind and he was having an internal meltdown for absolutely no reason, especially given that 'luv' really wasn't all that rare for a British guy like him, but his hormone-driven sanity had slammed the panic button nevertheless, in the unlikely anxiety that you were judging him for it after all.

However you really weren't.

You had barely even picked up on the name, let alone the flirt it embodied, to you it was just as much a part of the banter as all the sweet names you threw at Johnny to build on your tease.

But Johnny, boy, he was a wreck.

On the inside anyways, on the outside it seemed he had entirely frozen in time and space.

And this you did notice.

Cocking your head to the side in wary bemusement you eyed your best friend top to bottom and back up again, earnestly concerned what the heck was going on with the poor boy.

You were quite sure he had blown a fuse, maybe two - you almost felt bad, most likely being the cause for it.

Did things get too hot for him?

Nah, this was Johnny, no way he took these things to heart.

Letting your confusion take the lead rather than the empathy your stuttering heart sent through you you tailed back to the gorilla.

When he failed to respond in any way with you standing right in front of him you leant down, hands easily perched on your knees, and tilted your head even farther, pulling a face at him.

"Hello? Earth to Johnny! -- Hey, you alright there, dude?", you inquired, eyebrows crinkling above the bridge of your nose.

"Hey, Hey-", you prodded with a little more coercion as you snapped your fingers in front of his wide, unblinking brown eyes, "Cat got your tongue? -- Johnnyyy--"

You droned his name alternately to addressing him like a normal animal would.

"Ah--- Wha-?"

Johnny's eyes cleared up again and recovered their focus with the wittiest reply of the century.

There your eyes went rolling at him again. What a doof (an adorable doof though).

Straightening back up you skipped a couple steps backwards and stretched, deciding then and there the number he had coming he well earnt himself just now.

"So, yes, no?", stood your simple question. You were merciless, knowing exactly how your best friend would react to this.

"Huh-? Oh, uh, ah, yeah", he stumbled over his, more or less, words and nodded lightly in a dazed manner, slowly coming to remember the past few minutes and in a flash his large hands hasted upwards to feel his face, dabbing his cheeks and forehead to find them in normal body temperature, much to his solace.

God, if he had blushed as intensely as he had felt ... right in front of you ... yep, he would've drowned himself in the squid tanks next chance he got.

Thankfully it needn't come that far.

Lucky for the flustered, fidgety mountain gorilla you had your back to him, his silly abrupt, weird gestures and following body-heaving sigh of relief bypassed your attention.

However you were not done with him yet.

The instant Johnny sat up properly from his deflating discovery of remedy you spun on your heel and pinned his eyes firmly with yours.

Yet again the poor guy was suspecting he had done something off as you let time lapse away with relish, being fully aware how deeply it unsettled your friend and would have left him on the hook in your wicked playfulness was your body not stirring up the time.

Fine, you'd let him off for today.

"Then grab that jacket of yours and get your butt up, you got dinner to pay for!", you informed him, already beelining to collect your belongings and get out of the soaring building you'd spent the last few hours in.

"What-?", you heard him blubber perplexedly in that delightful accent of his behind you and a triumphant grin cupped your cheeks.

Success.