Chapter Text
Monday 6:15am
Another typical day. His phone blared to wake him up and Lance groaned loudly, eyelids still feeling too heavy and the rest of his body still feeling too stiff. However, his phone clearly had no sympathy for him at all and kept making noise until he let out another groan and reached for his nightstand, tapping the snooze button before he buried his face in his pillow that still smelled like his favorite shampoo.
He had to record a bunch of videos today and he really didn’t feel like it because it meant that he had to get up early and look bright, which he definitely didn’t. Winter was getting closer, which made him want to stay in bed all day to stay warm, but he knew that if he didn’t get up and start filming soon that he’d regret it, so he rolled over a few more times to wake himself up and reached for his phone again.
The sound of a door opening and closing sounded from the living room. His roommate Hunk was up, too, and was probably on his way to make some breakfast. And yeah, the door of his own room opened and Hunk was kind (read: not) enough to turn on the lights.
“Lance, get up.”
“I am up.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Just scrollin’ through insta, leave me alone.”
“Well, at least you’re awake. Imma make some pancakes if you’re interested?”
Lance peeked out from under the covers and gave him a coy smile. “Yes, please.”
“But only if you get your butt out of bed in the next twenty minutes.”
“Fine, fine,” Lance mumbled and sat up to lean against the headboard, his pillow comfortably supporting his back as he grabbed his laptop and phone from the nightstand. He thumbed at his notifications while he waited for his laptop to turn on. “I’ll be out in a sec. Gotta check my emails and stuff.”
Hunk was satisfied, but still left the door open as a small reminder to get out of bed already. Lance was used to it by now and simply continued to go through his routine of deleting a few random emails, liking posts on Instagram, and scrolling through Twitter before he finally tapped the YouTube bookmark in his browser to check his statistics, subscriptions’ videos, maybe some inspiration and maybe some new songs to use for his videos.
The latter was actually something that he needed to work on because there were a few people, including himself, that had noticed his repetitive song choices and that he could use something new. Sure, there were some standard, bubbly songs that most YouTubers used and Lance would be lying if he hadn’t taken inspiration from that, but he also wanted to be a bit original. Then again, it was pretty hard to be original these days, especially when it came to creating content and using interesting background music.
Ugh, this was depressing. Lance clicked on YouTube’s own music library and listened to a few of their songs, looking for something that didn’t sound familiar, but he pretty much knew every song on there already, either from his own videos or from others, so that was useless. His personal favorite and like playlist didn’t offer a lot of instrumental music, either, and Lance’s eye had already started to twitch because it’d already been over thirty minutes damn it.
Finally, he decided to scroll through his recommendations and saw a channel he’d never heard of before. The title of the video was the name of a song and artist he hadn’t heard of before, so he clicked on it, intrigued.
“Keith Kogane – Ours”
Lance’s eyes continued to dart around as the soft guitar music started playing. The song was really chill and relaxing to listen to with just hint of happiness in it. Perfect background music actually.
Again, intrigue.
The video was posted a few months ago and had 1,4k views with a mere 15 likes and even a dislike, and the red square button under the video read: SUBSCRIBE 13K
Lance’s eyes softened. This was a really small channel. Had been for a little over two years, but was still going strong and posted new videos every two months or so with new music and/or covers. The channel had a bunch of playlists, sorted alphabetically by album and genre and woah, a few livestreams of him doing requests, improvising or literally writing music on the spot. They were all videos of his hands hitting keys on the piano or playing the guitar and Lance pouted at his screen because dang, he’d love to see the face of the genius behind all these wonderful songs.
The music ranged from chill guitar music to melancholic piano. Lance clicked on all of them, listening for about one minute before he clicked on the next video, cursing his short attention span and curiosity.
Lance couldn’t help himself and watched a couple of those livestreams, instantly noticing that this guy wore the exact same fingerless gloves in each video. Like, okay, how is one supposed to play the piano while wearing leather gloves? But he kept nailing it, moving his fingers naturally over the keys as if he didn’t need to think at all and stretched out his hands without even breaking a sweat.
Either this dude was insanely talented with his fingers or— Lance. Those are bad thoughts and he did not want to go down that road because he was just interested in this guy’s music, nothing more, nothing less.
He scrolled back up to Kogane’s channel banner and looked at the little corner of social media icons. Twitter, Instagram, Patreon, Snapchat oh okay, and Tumblr. Lance checked them all, going on borderline stalking him because he was just that curious to find out more about him, but alas, all his social medias were focused on promoting his music with little to no information about his personal life.
All his descriptions were the same:
Keith Kogane
Freelance musician
There weren’t many posts on his Twitter, either, just a few posts about upcoming songs and videos he was working on. His Instagram account was a little dead, pretty much only a few photos of his instruments, which was rather adorable in Lance’s eyes and a few of his—
“Dog!”
“What?” Hunk called from the kitchen, voice thick with confusion.
“Oh my god, a husky,” Lance whined out and leaned closer to the screen as if he was going to kiss it. “He has a doggie. What a cutie.”
“The hell are you on about, man.” Hunk poked a head into his room to give him an odd look. “Also, you still haven’t moved and the pancakes are gettin’ cold.”
Lance looked up with a small pout. “I love you for making breakfast, but hold on a second, okay? I found a freelance songwriter on YouTube and his music is pretty cool and I’m thinking about using his music for my videos.”
“Oh, really? Can you play me some?”
Hunk took a seat on the edge of the bed and Lance quickly went back to the YouTube tab to click on the first video he came across while he scrolled through the description box, which contained links to his other social media platforms and, most importantly, his iTunes page. He looked back at Hunk and saw a small smile on his face as the song continued down its bubbly path, obviously putting him in a good mood, which was the very reason why Lance really wanted to use this song.
“’s good, right?” Lance grinned with a little bounce in his voice.
“Yeah! Who is this guy?”
Lance looked down at his screen again. “Some guy named Keith Kogane. Started his channel a couple of years ago and has a few thousand subs. Think it would be really cool if I could help him out a bit because more people should know about his music, don’t you think?”
“Totally agree. You should email him.”
Right. It was a good excuse to stop ogling his social media posts and go back to his channel to look for— ah, there it was under the about tab.
Keith Kogane
Freelance musician
Business inquires only: [email protected]
Lance opened up his mailbox and started typing while Hunk got up to go back to the kitchen.
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To: [email protected]
Subject: Song Usage Request
Hey, man!
The name’s Lance McClain, I’m a YouTuber who does a bunch of stuff on his channel, including SFX make-up and lifestyle. I often play soft music in the background to make my videos a little more uplifting and am always looking for new music to buy and use for my videos. I stumbled upon your channel and I really like your style, so I was wondering if you’d be okay with me using your songs as my background music.
Obviously you will get a percentage of the money the video will make and I will put your name both at the end of my video and in the description box, accompanied by a link to your channel and social media. I think it’d be a great way to promote your channel and I hope you think so, too.
If you’d rather not have me use your music, then that’s totally fine.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Lance McClain
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A few more clicks.
[Subscription added]
[Follow Back]—
Hold the fuck up.
Lance frowned as his mouse hovered over the Follow Back button. He clicked on the [Following 50] button and only had to scroll for a bit before he saw his own account and his eyes widened because oh.
His heart fluttered anxiously as he went back to his mailbox, typed Kogane’s name in the search bar and yes, there it was: A two-year-old email from YouTube, confirming that Keith Kogane was subscribed to his YouTube channel.
What.
Oh, shit, that meant that Keith knew exactly who he was and he’d already sent that email and probably made himself look really stupid and shit. Lance did a rather comical facepalm and leaned back against the headboard with yet another loud-ass groan.
“Did you mess it up already?” came a rather menacing sneer from the kitchen and Lance flailed around, almost throwing his laptop off his lap. “That’s gotta be a new record, buddy.”
“He’s already subscribed to me!” Lance wailed and shoved his laptop aside so he could lay back down and bury himself under the covers. “Has been for two years, which means that he’s been there since my channel was, what, super tiny? I had, like, 50k subs around that time, so he’s probably a fan and I didn’t even check beforehand. I made myself look like a jackass. I introduced myself in that email.”
“Lance,” Hunk said oh so patiently, god bless. “it’s a good thing that he knows you because that’ll increase your chances of him letting you use his music. Plus, it’s always important to introduce yourself in a business email, isn’t it? I thought you knew that. If you don’t introduce yourself, you’re implying that the other person should know who you are that would make you look like a jackass. Honestly, you’re fine.”
“Okaaay,” Lance sighed and finally got out of bed. “So, pancakes?”
Lance wanted to wait for a reply, he really, really did because his waiting game would include making coffee, scrolling through his Instagram and Twitter while listening to Kogane’s music because he’d only become a tiny bit obsessed. Honestly, Kogane’s music reminded him of cozy fall nights where he’d be wrapped up in a blanket and watch the leaves fall from the trees and all that other hipster shit.
It was just really chill music.
But alas, he had to film, so he was busy setting up the camera and lights in his room, going over the videos’ scripts in his head. His notes were on his desk, right below the camera in case he had a brainfart, but he’d been doing this for over three years now, so he knew how to improvise.
His phone was playing Kogane’s latest album, Forbidden Dreams, because, well, he’d bought it on iTunes to be supportive and it was doing a good job at putting him in a better mood to film.
It had been a good two hours since he sent that email and, granted, it was eight in the morning and Kogane probably wasn’t even up yet (if he was American), so Lance told himself to be patient and just start filming.
“Alright, what’s up, McDreamers! Lance here with a brand new video for your,” cue his fingerguns. “a-pleasure.”
Okay, four videos in one day was just way too much. It usually took three to four hours to film one single video, so Lance seriously felt like death when he was finally able to do his last outro and hit the record button again.
“Uuuughhh.” He slumped against his desk and used his arm as a pillow for his head because he was too lazy to take those last few steps towards his bed. His brushes and pallets were poking his arms annoyingly and he knew that he was messing up his foundation like this, but damn, he was tired.
His half-eaten sandwich looked as lifeless as he felt because he still had to edit all those videos and find new music if Kogane didn’t reply soon. It’d be such a blast if Kogane said yes because then he’d have an excuse to talk to him again and maybe, possibly, hopefully get to know him a little better.
Lance was seriously a lost cause. He didn’t even know this guy. Kogane could be a forty year old dude who’d been divorced three times.
“But he has a dog,” Lance muttered out loud, trying to convince no one in particular (read: himself). “and he’s a musician.”
A somewhat pathetic sound came out of his mouth and he thumped his head against his desk. He had to focus on these new videos, for fuck’s sake. He’d been working on his December specials for a few weeks now and had to keep the ball rolling to keep the anticipation in the air.
He reached for his phone, opened Snapchat, picked a flattering filter because he looked tired as hell, and recorded a quick promo for his upcoming videos before uploading it on his Snapchat and Instagram stories. He also typed out a quick post on Twitter before going through the notifications he had gotten while he’d been recording.
And oh, one of them was an email from Keith Kogane.
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To: Me
Subject: [RE:] Song Usage Request
Hey Lance,
I’m flattered to hear that you want to use my music for your videos and am glad to see that you’ve bought a few of my albums on iTunes. Appreciate it.
Of course you can use my music but honestly, don’t worry about the money. Just put credit where it’s due because that’s all I need.
Look forward to your new videos.
Keith
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Well, then. At least they were on first name basis. But wait, wait, Keith didn’t want make any money off the video? That was weird. Most freelance musicians were pretty broke and could use all the money they could get their hands on, but again, Lance didn’t know anything about this guy, so maybe he was some kind of bored, prosperous dude who did music on the side.
But like hell Lance wasn’t gonna take the bait.
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To: [email protected]
Subject: [RE:] [RE:] Song Usage Request
Hey Keith,
Wow, thank you so much! I will definitely credit you and hope that people will like your music as much as I do :) I was thinking of using them in my upcoming videos, so you’ll see them soon enough!
You sure you don’t wanna share the profit? I don’t wanna toot my own horn here, but it’s not like I would lose money if we split it. Or would you be more comfortable if I paid you right now? Say, $150 per video?
Thanks again,
Lance
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Lance put his phone back down with a sigh, unplugged the lights because they were bright and plugged the camera into his laptop to upload the ginormous files. He dragged his ass towards the kitchen, past Hunk who was watching some random show on Netflix, and made some coffee.
“Hey, you done for the day?”
“Yeah, fucking finally. I can’t smile anymore,” Lance whined pathetically and leaned over their coffee machine, trying to breathe in the strong smell of the espresso in a lame attempt to wake himself up. “My cheeks hurt.”
“Thought we’d already come to the conclusion that four videos is just too much, man.”
“I know, but this means that I can take it easy for the rest of the week,” Lance said, a little brighter. The coffee machine beeped loudly and he gladly took his fresh coffee and was about to join Hunk on the couch when his phone buzzed in his pocket.
After plopping down right next to Hunk, Lance unlocked his screen and found another email from Keith.
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To: Me
Subject: [RE:] [RE:] [RE:] Song Usage Request
Hey Lance,
$150? That’s way too much, man. I’m an underdog artist and you’re an actual influencer, so it would be unfair of me to ask you for so much money. It may not be a lot to you, but it is to me. I don’t deserve such a huge amount of money just because you’re using it in your video as background music.
Don’t worry about it. You wanting to use my music is enough for me.
Keith
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That last sentence was enough to make Lance curl up with a shriek and Hunk nearly jumped off the couch.
“Dude, what?”
Lance pouted at his phone. “He… He doesn’t want my money. He literally said that he’s happy enough with me wanting to use his music, oh my god, he’s cute.”
“… Are you seriously crushing on a guy you’ve exchanged, like, three emails with?” Hunk stared at him accusingly and Lance jutted out his bottom lip even more. “Lance, don’t. Okay, he’s a gentleman and clearly cares more about his music than money, which means he does have some quality, but you don’t even know what he looks like or if he’s married or, has a kid— stop looking at me like that — just thinkin’ out loud here.”
“You’re right,” Lance admitted and slumped against the couch, tapping his fingers against the back of his phone. “Dunno what to say to him, though.”
“If he doesn’t want your money, then don’t give it to him. Simple as that.”
“Uhuh,” Lance breathed as he hit the reply button and thumbed away.
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To: [email protected]
Subject: [RE:] [RE:] [RE:] [RE:] Song Usage Request
Hey Keith,
Lmao @ all those [RE:]s
Alright, I hear ya. It’s cool that you value music over money, tho, I really like that
Talk to you later, man
Lance
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Sent.
Oh, god. Did he actually type that. Did he seriously go all buddy-buddy on Keith. The email was gone and Lance wanted to shove the couch they were sitting on down his throat because what the fuck, he probably scared Keith away with his lame attempt to lighten the conversation.
“Hunk, please kill me.”
“For the last time, Lance, no.”
“Fine, what’re we watching?”
When Lance went back to his room and tapped the spacebar on his laptop, his files had been uploaded and were ready to be edited. Lance saved them in individual files and went back to his iTunes library to pick the songs for his videos. He scrolled through Keith’s album playlist and listened to each one of them, notepad in hand and writing down suggestions under the name of each video.
He also kept staring at his phone, hoping that if he stared long enough he’d get a reply from Keith, but his last email didn’t really require a response, so he’d probably end up having to suffer through the unknown.
At least until he found an excuse to hit him up again.
Maybe through DMs this time.
It was time to edit his videos. Lance was peacefully sifting through his video with a cup of coffee in one hand and mouse in the other. Cut, select, delete, drag, cut, select, delete, repeat. His glasses got foggy every time he held the cup a little too close to his face, which made him chuckle unironically because he was looking at such a polished version of himself on his computer screen while he was sitting there in his bathrobe and untamable bed hair.
Pidge was sitting on his bed behind him, playing the newest Pokemon game and talking about her day.
“So, Matt’s got a new girlfriend and lemme tell you, he’s smitten. It’s crazy. He practically melts every time he sees her. Sure, she’s pretty, I’ll give him that, but still,” she babbled and Lance laughed along, happy to listen to her ramble. “If I ever get a boyfriend or whatever and start acting like that, I give you full permission to slap me in the face. I mean it.”
“Nah, I’ll just smack you in the face with a pillow,” Lance mused and continued to remove all the wrong takes. “’s been a while since my last girlfriend, but seriously, you’ll probably start acting like that. Everyone does that in the first phase.”
“Guess I’m the only normal person on this planet,” was the instant retort and Lance flipped her off over his shoulder, earning a chuckle.
“You working on your December series?” she asked and got up to look over his shoulder.
“Yep. You still on for next Tuesday?”
She squeezed his arms with both hands. “Definitely.”
They’d decided to celebrate Hunk’s birthday earlier this year because he’ll be visiting his family in the first two weeks of January, which meant that he’d be gone on his actual birthday. Pidge was gonna come over with a bunch of videogames and bring their presents and Lance was gonna invite Shay, that one girl Hunk’d been crushing on for the past few months, and make sure that they could finally get to know each other better. And of course, as soon as everyone’d settled, Lance and Pidge would retreat back into Lance’s room to give them space.
Hunk was not gonna like it, which was one of the primary reasons for organizing it, but Lance was like 87% sure Shay liked him back, so it was fine.
Pidge grabbed his cup and took a sip before she went back to sit on his bed again. Lance’s phone lit up with an Instagram notification and he almost threw his phone off the table because he was a bit too eager to see that Keith had posted something.
“Lance?”
“Yeah?” Lance looked up innocently, phone clutched between his fingers. “Sorry, almost dropped it.”
“Yeah, I can see that. What, did Jeffree Star finally text you back?”
“Shut up,” Lance grumbled and unlocked his phone to tap the notification. He was directed to a video of Keith’s fingers gliding over the keys of a keyboard, wearing those same gloves he always did.
The description simply said, “a snippet of something I’m working on” followed by a bunch of tags.
Lance smiled, plugged in his earphones and tapped the video to turn on the sound. Ah, it sounded really pretty and Lance was a bit disappointed to see that it was only twenty seconds, but Keith had done a good job at editing the video to create the perfect loop.
Which was actually really bad, because now Lance was gonna be listening to this song for the next fifty years.
He just kept staring at Keith’s addicting fingers. They moved so smoothly as if they were doing some kind of dance and Lance wondered if he’d already lost his last two braincells because he couldn’t stop watching that stupid video and Pidge was right there.
“You gonna tell me what’s up, or…?”
Ahem, he tapped the video twice, then the arrow and went back to his feed. He took a picture of his editing screen and uploaded that to his Instagram and Snapchat story, adding a messy “Editing!” in the middle and put his phone down.
“Nothing, nothing. Just managing my insta and snap story,” he said meekly, cleared his throat and went back to editing.
Pidge got off the bed again and leaned into his personal space. “Seriously, what?”
“A musician that I recently started following just posted a new video. Had to check it out,” Lance kinda blurted out, the white lie easily rolling off his tongue, shocking both him and Pidge.
“Oh? Cool, do I know them?”
Lance opened his music library and played the first song he came across: Forest of Stories, which was a little too soft and floaty to use for his videos, but it was nice ambience music. Made him feel like he was walking on the beach all by himself at night without a single care in the world and he could really use that right now, actually.
“Nice,” Pidge grinned after a minute or so. “Keith Kogane? Gonna google him real quick.”
“His channel is super tiny, so ‘m not sure if you’re gonna find anything interesting.”
Pidge was typing away on her phone, though, and didn’t respond, which Lance would’ve said something about, but his phone lit up again and he couldn’t help but look.
And oh boy. It was a private message from Keith’s Instagram account.
KeithKogane: wow you’re fast
Lance was officially dead.