MM fans gather to watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog... and this happens.
Jumin and V take their seats. Jumin is not at all convinced about this project. The fact that V talked him into letting Rika and Saeran be here tonight has him more than a little tense. He’s called in extra security, but his own eyes are being kept open.
V laughs, sitting next to his friend. “I know it’s not the fundraiser you wanted, but cheer up! This is going to be wonderful!”
Jumin just glances at the empty seat where MC should be. She isn’t there because she’s going to be performing. He has listened to songs and practiced lines with her for the past three months.
The curtain parts….
Act 1
Saeran wears a pair of oversized welders goggles and a lab coat. Jumin finds himself gradually taken in by the surprising talent of the young man. Jumin wonders if it’s talent, or just a good fit for the role?
V sits besides him and chuckles at “Captain Hammer is a corporate tool!”
When Saeran starts to sing, the audience is captured. Jumin’s eyes narrow a little. Had Saeran been watching MC before this project began? The entrance of Moist saves Jumin from thinking too hard about that possibility.
Yoosung breaks the song as Moist.
Seven and various rescues from Mint Eye sing the Bad Horse Chorus. Seven has the audience cracking up, and Yoosung carries the laughter forward by asking if Saeran needs anything made damp or soggy.
Despite himself, Jumin laughs. This is going quite well.
The scene shifts. The audience laughs again as MC startles Saeran half out of his skin. MC launches into her spiel about the homeless shelter and follows Saeran around the stage as he works on his heist.
When Zen leaps onto the stage as Captain Hammer, Jumin rolls his eyes. He knew this was coming, he’d been forbidden from coming to practices for MC’s nerves, but he had not expected that Zen would be the embodiment of Captain Hammer! It was like the man had been created for the role!
Jumin found himself feeling oddly sympathetic to Saeran as MC and Zen sang their duet. Saeran’s vitreous exclamation of, “Balls!” as he left the stage was a perfect expression of Jumin’s opinion of his MC and Zen pairing up.
Act 2
As the song “My Eyes” rotated through the three main actors on the stage, Jumin muttered under his breath, “I can’t believe my eyes either. I might need to scoop them out.”
V heard him and laughed a little too hard, drawing stares.
Fearing MC would think he wasn’t liking her performance, Jumin schooled his features and sat up straight. He hadn’t even realized he had been slouching to the side. In his thoughts, he was cheering for Saeran and wished he’d watched the entire show.
MC: “Sometimes people are layered like that. There’s something underneath that’s deeper than what’s on the surface.”
Jumin restrained the groan, but not the eyeroll. As he straightened himself again, V nudged him in the ribs, laughing silently.
When Yoosung admits that at his “most badass” he makes people want to take a shower, the entire audience chuckles. When he suggests murder targets for Saeran, no one laughs harder than V, who knows exactly how well these suggestions fit Yoosung.
“Penny’s Song,” made Jumin want to leap to the stage and hold his MC. That pained sound recognizing the difficulty of the past tore his heart. The audience was similarly enraptured by her performance, until Saeran asked, “How are things with cheesy on the outside?” Then everyone laughed, but no one as hard as Jumin.
As Zen begins talking about what he wants to do to MC, Jumin grips the arm of his chair. He wonders if he should offer to hold Zen for Saeran, or …
“… The hammer is my penis.”
Nope, Saeran can stand lookout. What Jumin wants to do to Zen for talking about his MC that way….
Jumin takes a breath and forces his shoulder to unclench. “It’s just a play, relax, it’s just a play” he tells himself.
Act 3
“So They Say” makes Jumin laugh until Zen’s lines start. The fanclub rips the hint of a frown from Jumin’s face and leaves him laughing loudly, his shoulders rocking through the song.
He was relieved beyond words when MC started to edge away from Zen as he sang “Everyone’s a Hero.” Whoever cast Zen as Captain Hammer had to have known him. Whoever was responsible for this, Jumin admitted, had picked the perfect person for the role. He didn’t even have to act. He just had to get up and deliver the lines.
Oh, thank god, there’s Saeran to shut him up!
As Saeran sings “Slipping,” the audience gasps. Jumin’s eyebrow quirks up when Saeran sings to the fanclub member about “pain you can’t suffer quietly.” The look Saeran gets in response from the girl he sings to leaves Jumin wondering if the young man has met someone.
Jumin smirks and feels avenged when Zen runs off the stage screaming for “someone maternal.”
And then it happens. Jumin was not prepared to see MC covered in blood. V grabbed his forearm to steady him. It was only a split second, but the idea of his precious, adored, perfect MC being injured, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything but rush to her.
Saeran rises from MC’s side and launches into “Everything You Ever.”
Now, Jumin is drawn into the song, and surprised to see the hint of tears in Saeran’s eyes as he sings.
The doors to Dark Horse’s chambers open and Jumin blinks, stunned. V is beaming at the stage.
Centered in the stage is Rika, wearing a Renaissance style horse costume. Her blonde hair has been pulled cleverly through the woven horse head and styled into a blonde cascade over black mesh. Saeran approaches and takes her hand, smiling in hollow victory as the curtains drop.
Backstage: After the show
Jumin waited through three standing ovations for the audience to let the cast retire. V promised to look after the guests until Jumin returned. Jumin vaulted down the stairs to the lobby and around to the backstage entrance. Bursting into MC’s dressing room with only a passing knock, he threw his arms around her.
“Congratulations, my love! You were absolutely fantastic!” he exclaimed, spinning with her in his arms.
MC laughed. “Jumin! Put me down!” Her eyes sparkled, finally, for him, and no other man.
Before he released her, he buried MC’s lips in a kiss that promised that he would be delivering his own “standing ovation” later tonight.
After she changed, they joined the others in the reception area. Everyone was back in their usual clothing. Zen’s fans were trying to rush him and Jaehee was doing her best to position guards to protect him. Seven and Yoosung came to tackle MC with boisterous hugs and congratulate her on her performance. Jumin wasn’t used to playing second string, but he’d have rather vanish into the floor than take MC’s victory from her.
Saeran approached nervously, watching Jumin with flicking eye movements. MC took his hand and smiled, and he relaxed instantly. Jumin had a hunch that he’d just disappeared, at least from the young man’s eyes. The way he looked at MC wasn’t quite the look of an adoring crush, but it was clear they’d become close during rehersals.
The girl Saeran had sung to during “Slipping,” bounced up to him and grabbed his arm, slipping it around her shoulders with a beaming smile.
“Anna! You were so cute tonight!” MC grinned at her. “I take it from your smile in ‘Slipping’ that things went well with your date last night?”
Anna blushed, burying her face against Saeran’s chest as she nodded. Saeran laughed and closed his arms around her shoulders. “We had a good time, at the park.” He looked down at Anna, still chuckling. “You dango. Why are you blushing?” Tilting her face to his own, he dropped his volume. “There won’t be any reason to blush until morning, if I remember right.”
MC laughed then, leaning back into Jumin’s chest. Jumin smiled, glad to see the young man opening and finding relationships. It had been a close thing, after the end of Mint Eye and the rescue of Rika and Saeran.
V approached, Rika under his arm. She looked nervous, but happy. Jumin was still getting used to seeing Rika as anything but completely confident. V told him that the fact that Rika was now willing to let her uneasiness show was progress on her therapy. Jumin only hoped, for his mint-haired friend’s sake, that it was.
“You did a wonderful job tonight, MC,” Rika said softly.
“You were fantastic in that costume, Rika!” MC replied. “I loved how you worked out the problem with your hair!”
Rika laughed shyly. “It just wouldn’t fit under the mask. I wanted to just cut my hair but V wouldn’t let me.”
“I wouldn’t have either!” MC exclaimed. “Don’t you agree, Jumin? Cutting her hair would have been a mistake!”
Jumin nodded, smiling at the girl he used to know. “Yes, I think so. I’m glad you found a different solution.”
V squeezed Rika’s shoulder. “Did you want to see anyone else before we go?” he asked.
Rika shook her head.
“We can’t stick around large crowds for long just yet,” V explained.
“Don’t explain,” Jumin responded, shaking V’s hand. “You’re find and we’ll see you both tomorrow for lunch, right?”
Rika nodded and V turned, guiding her away.
The rest of the evening went by in a blur of faces and by 10, the theater was closing down. Jumin was worn out from the socializing but the show had been a hit. No RFA party had ever raised so much money. They’d even managed to raise more than the last auction of V’s photos. Something still poked at the back of his mind though.
Once they were safely home, Jumin turned to MC, and asked, “Why did you look at Saeran the way you did when you were singing tonight?”
“What way do you mean?” MC asked, confused.
“Like you were, interested, or maybe more.” Jumin sighed, shaking his head. “I’m not exactly jealous, but I’d like to know, all the same.”
MC smiled as she slid her nightgown over her head. Walking to Jumin, she lifted her arms and draped them over his shoulders. “Jumin, you precious, precious muffin. I looked at him that way because I was thinking about how much you loved me before I realized I was in love with you, too.”
Seeing that gaze finally turned toward him, knowing that it was only he who could inspire that look in her eyes, Jumin spent the night demonstrating his love and appreciation of MC, all the while feeling as if he’d received some rare blessing.
Lmao I was browsing ao3 lookin for a good read, and I find a Dom!Roy fic that's explicit, and I thought "sign me the fuck up". I got up to chapter 7 without even checking the title, and when I did I lost my shit. May I feel is fucking GOOD
SKDJASHDJAKH
let me just say that is some commitment to read that far without checking the title is a feat my friend
Not enough! :( I only listen to music when I’m driving these days. Or when I’m really stressed (so, today at work...). Really gotta get into it more! :)
