✦ Status: Finished?
✦ Date: 14/05/2023
✦ Chapters: 2/2
Thanks for your company!
I think writing a ship fic where at least one of the characters sing has become a staple of Yomielcore(tm) at this point. What can I say, I like singing a lot (I don't sound good though, don't be fooled).
You don't really need to read the first story to understand this one. There are a few references to it here, but it can be read by itself :]
Wally Darling stepped back from the canvas with a satisfied smile.
Another day, another painting. This time the little artist chose to paint the large clock in the middle of the neighborhood. Definitely a challenge, compared to his usual paintings of still life with fruit (mostly apples), but a fun challenge nonetheless.
Wally turned around to the big, red friend behind him. “What do you think, Home?”
The sentient house creaked the door a few times. He took Home's reaction as a compliment.
“That's good,” he said before turning back to the painting. “I hope our friends will like it too.”
Wally leaned down to turn off the small radio next to the easel on the grass, ready to pick up his tools and bring everything back inside Home. He liked listening to music while he painted. Not always, but it was nice to have a pleasant melody fill his ears and mind from time to time.
However, something curious happened. A funny little thing.
He turned off the radio. He twisted the dial off, he saw and felt his hand doing so. Yet music could be heard.
Wally was was nothing short of confused. Was the radio broken? Was this one of Barnaby's pranks? Did Home do something to the machine after that rainy day–
That's when he realized that it was not the radio. No, the music came from somewhere else. Along with a voice.
And that voice... it wasn't a singer from a time he experienced in passing and was only a fuzzy memory now. No, this voice was in Home. It was familiar.
Like a sailor at sea heeding a siren's call, Wally followed the voice. His curiosity led him to Sally Starlet's house. He spotted two of his friends at the star's window, Barnaby and Julie. Julie waved at him while Barnaby gestured him to come closer. No need to tell him twice.
“Hey bud,” Barnaby whispered. “You came for the voice too?”
“I did,” Wally replied with a nod of his head, matching the dog's whisper. “Why are we whispering?”
“We don't want them to find out we are here!” Julie pointed at inside the room.
Wally followed her finger, and he immediately joined the spot between his friends at the sight.
It was the Neighbor! He was beyond happy at the discovery, but why was she here? Usually she declined Sally's petitions to play a role in one of her plays. Maybe she changed her mind? Everybody knew that there was no escape from Sally: once you were marked as her target, you would eventually act for her. The star was truly determinated to make her ideas come true no matter what.
“That was pretty good!” Sally said while clapping. “But you need to sing louder. Project your voice, little nightingale! Everybody has to be able hear you clearly!”
Nightingale? He liked the sound of that nickname.
“Sally, there's only 9 of us,” the Neighbor stated with a dismissive wave of her hand. “It isn't like I have a large crowd to sing to.”
“But everyone in the crowd is your friend! Don't you want to gift your friends your best performance?”
The Neighbor sighed and gave the star an amused roll of her eyes. “Alright, you win. I'll try again. I will be the most,” she said, her last words pronounced in a silly attempt to imitate certain artist's rich voice.
Barnaby and Julie looked down at the artist himself, sandwiched between the two. Wally was glued to the window, dilated pupils completely fixated on the lady in red. They looked at each other with stifled laughter before steering their attention back to the duo inside as the star clasped her hands together with a big smile.
“That's the spirit! OK, let's take it from the top,” Sally grabbed the portable cassette player behind her and pressed the play button. A soft, acoustic track poured out from the little device's speaker.
After waiting several seconds for her cue, the Neighbor took a deep breath and started singing.
The trio at the window watched their friend's performance with pure awe. It was common to hear her humming, she did it so often after all. But they did not know that she could sing like this!
♪ Make me the only one
Make me become the one who chases away your sadness
Sing me that faithful promise
The world around Wally faded away. It was only him and the Neighbor in that moment.
He was no stranger to her singing. She did it from time to time. But the few times he was quiet enough to hear her, she sang low and mumbled, to herself. Such a shy nightingale. To hear her sing so clearly... he felt lucky.
♪ Now, let's tie the knot of this gleaming love
To become one, all egoes gathered as one,
Into the beauty of a strong togetherness
He could stay in that spot until the end of times. He didn't move an inch, he didn't dare to. That is, until Sally noticed the trio and called them out.
“Friends! This is a private rehearsal!” she exclaimed after opening the window. “You'll be able to enjoy the performance when it's ready.”
“Sorry, Sally! We didn't mean to pry,” said Julie apologetically.
“Yeah, just got curious 'bout the singin',” Barnaby added.
The Neighbor approached the trio at the window with a curious blink. “You could hear me from outside?” Julie and Barnaby nodded. She played with her heart-shaped brooch while averting her eyes. “Oh man, I didn't know that....”
“Hey, it's alright! You did super good!”
“Agreed. You sounded great, bud.”
The Neighbor laughed, still embarrassed and unused to the positive attention. Then her eyes travelled down to the little artist who didn't said a word yet, nor looked away from her for a single second.
“Hi, Wally.”
“Greetings, Neighbor.”
Barnaby, Sally, and Julie exchanged knowing glances. Those two were so obvious, it was kind of funny at this point. It was just a matter of time before they shared their deep feelings with each other. It happened with Eddie and Frank, no doubt it would happen again with Wally and the Neighbor.
“Wally?”
“Yes, my friend?”
“What-” she cleared her throat and leaned on the window frame, closer to him. “What do you think?”
“Are you talking about your singing?”
The Neighbor nodded. For once, Wally's eyes looked away from hers as he brought a hand to his chin in thought—thinking of how to convey all of the feelings inside him in a concise way. When the words finally came to him, his eyes went back to her, softer than before.
“I think you were the absolute most.”
I totally forgot how Sally's house looks, sorry if I made up some arquitecture LMAO.
Be informed that there is a short audio of me singing this song. But I don't speak Indonesian (original language of the song) and I can't sing, only the (un)luckiest ones will be able to listen to it. Perhaps Wally has poor hearing, so sad (this is a Joke).