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kaekae-x0x0 · 2 years ago

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Welcome Home - Phantom of the Opera AU

!BEFORE YOU READ!

This fanfiction can be preceded in two ways.

A Wally Darling x Reader

A Howdy Pillar x Reader

This AU (in this fanfiction at least) follows a gender neutral reader. I’m not the greatest with pronouns. Please correct me on any mistakes.

Two outfit choices will be given, one with a more feminine look, and one with a masculine look. You may also make an in between mismash, or even leave it to your imagination!

A Spotify playlist will be linked eventually to this fanfiction, so if you wanna listen to the music I feel fits this story, go ahead!

A master post will be pinned later on with all chapters.

Part 1/?

You stood on the stage with the patched up curtains in front of you. You tugged on the fabric of your pants/ skirt. Sally had heard your voice a few days before and insisted you put on a show with her, with you as the main focus as a great introduction to the others. Looking at her from center stage, she smiles and begins to pull in the mechanism that makes the curtain push to the side.

You squint as the sudden change of lighting surprised you. ‘Where in the world did a child get professional lighting?’ You wondered as the backing track began to play.

You close your eyes and blocked out the thought of the few people in the audience. Although you knew only Julie, Frank, Eddie, Barnaby, Poppy, and Howdy were in the audience, you still couldn’t shake off your strange fear of the stage.

As you began to sing, you finally warmed up to the audience and opened you eyes, even using your arms to express more. You scanned the audience and smiled. Everyone seemed to enjoy your voice, but Howdy was the most entranced, you weren’t sure why, but he seemed to give his full attention to you.

As the track began to fade, you slowed down your tempo and finally ended the final note. The curtain closed as you turned away.

You walked to Sally and she engulfed you in a hug.

“THAT WAS AMAZING!” She exclaimed, squeezing you tighter.

You smile softly, “It was?”

“YES! Before you know it, you’ll be as big of a star as me!” She let you out of the hug, and pushed you away.

“Now, go out that door and talk to your audience!” She demanded.

You followed her orders and stepped outside, the neighbors were already waiting for you.

“Oh neighbor, that was amazing! You have to give me some lessons sometime!” Julie said, smiling wide. She took your hands and squeezed them.

Eddie approached you next, Frank by his side, arms linked.

“You’re a pretty good singer for a rookie, neighbor.” Frank said jokingly.

“Oh Frank, did you even see the same performance? They’re more than great! That’s professional level!” Eddie replied, correcting Frank.

Frank rolled his eyes playfully at Eddie, “Of course you know professional, you musical geek.”

“Hey! You love me for it Frank!” Eddie bickered, walking away with Frank.

“Hi Miss. Poppy!” You said, greeting her.

“Oh Y/n, that was some of the best singing of heard in a while, your voice is that of an angels!” She gushed. She looked behind her to see a flustered looking Howdy, who seemed to be thinking of something. She turned back around and smiled.

“Oh, Miss Poppy, you’re too kind.”

“Dearie, I’d love to stay and chat, but Barnaby and I have some things to attend to.” She tugged on Barnaby to pull him away, but as she did, you could hear him yell, “GREAT SINGING Y/N!” As his voice faded into the distance.

You watched as the went away, and now it was just you and Howdy.

You heard the creak of an opening door, and turned to see Sally holding it open. You started to go towards the steps to talk to her, but heard Howdy clearing his throat.

“Y/n…?”

“Hmm?”

“When I was closing the shop to come over here, I noticed some flowers and they kinda reminded me of you, and… I wanted to give them to you.” He muttered as he pulled them out from behind his back. The flowers were a mix of blue, yellow, orange, and red. They were perfect

“Oh Howdy, they’re beautiful!” You said, timidly lifting them out of his arms.

“You’re beautiful too.” He muttered, but not loud enough to hear.

You hugged the flowers in one arm and grabbed one of his hands.

“Howdy, you’re hiding something from me.”

“What? What do you mean?” He swallowed nervously.

“Howdy, you can tell me anything, something’s bothering you. I can tell.”

He shook off your hand.

“I have to go open the shop, I’ll talk later.”

And sure enough, he just left you standing alone.

————————————————————

You walked the familiar road to your house, passing by the house in the center.

It was so run down and old, you couldn’t even tell what the exterior would’ve looked like from its early years. The windows were so caked with dust, the interior was left simply to the imagination.

When you first moved, some neighbors told you to avoid the house, but you were drawn to it as you passed. Was it curiosity?

You looked around, a few people were present outside, and you didn’t want to do something you could get in trouble for… so you decided you were gonna wait until midnight.

#wally darling #wally darling x reader #welcome home #welcome home wally #welcome home puppet show #howdy neighbor #howdy x reader #welcome home howdy #howdy pillar #welcome home Phantom of the opera AU #wally darling au #wally darling phantom of the opera AU

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chlstarrbaby · 2 years ago

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Neighborhood Academy AU Part 1

Part 2 Part 3 (Final)

It had been a very long time since you’ve been excited for the first day of school, but this time was extra special. You worked hard to beg your parents to let you transfer into Neighborhood Academy, purely because you loved the uniforms.

Like seriously, who could pass up getting to wear rainbow pants, shorts, skirts, or skorts with knee-high rainbow socks? And they had some variations that were supposed to be dependent on the season but they were all just so fashionable that the school relented in allowing the vibe of what the students felt best in so long as they wore their rainbows. Best Academy uniforms ever, even the shoes were neato, being old fashioned looking like from the 50s or so with the black and white pattern but having hearts on the bottom!

The only thing on the attire list that was absolutely mandatory was a little bolo-tie like charm to go around the red kerchief for the sailor suit part of the top. It was a little red house with cartoony eyes in its windows. Weird thing to make mandatory since it was literally a little plastic thing but whatever, RAINBOW SKORTS AND SUSPENDERS YO!

Which is what you decided to go with, not trusting the wind for anything, plus it was super cute and you were certain it looked good on you. You were careful to tie the knot of the kerchief nice and big so the little house could sit on it and not slip past it as you headed out the door to school.

Things started to get interesting the second you crossed the threshold of the Academy gates, you stopped to help a girl gather her script papers that was blowing in the wind, and made immediate friends with her as she handed an extra flier for school play auditions later after the last bell rang. Her name was Sally and you couldn’t help but happily agree to show up since her little ball of literal sunshine personality was just so infectious. You had to hurry though as you were gonna be late for Homeroom and first class.

You overheard a teacher gently scold a tall jokester looking student to hopefully make more of an effort this year and actually pass his classes. Then as you ran you found yourself neck and neck with a dude whose visage screamed that he was gonna be a mailman after he graduated as he football-carried his boyfriend to class. Well you assumed they were an item, they looked like complete opposites to the point of looking like there was no way they should even be friends. But opposites attract, you supposed.

"Well, we must not be too late if we're not the only ones running to Homeroom, Eddie." Grumbled the football-carried boyfriend.

Eddie, the potential mailman running next to you, finally took notice of you and brightened.

"Oh hey! You must be the new transfer student! Which Homeroom did you get?"

You say hello and introduce yourself in agreement to the assumption of the transfer student part. Then you go on to say, "I'm in Professor Pillar's Homeroom!"

"Hey, so are we! I'm Eddie, an' this is Frank!"

Frank uttered a grumpy, "Charmed I'm sure."

You followed Eddie when he turned a corner. Then he continued talking between the three of you.

"Hey, Frank, are Julie and the others still in our homeroom too?"

"Of course! They do it alphabetically by last name so Sally's the only one that ended up in Ms. Poppy Partridge's Homeroom again!” Frank replied. “Aside from Julie’s sisters anyway, they’re all in different Homerooms too for some reason.”

Suddenly you had to screech to a halt as a crowd of students blocked the way to your Homeroom. Mostly made up of girls but there was the occasional guy in the mix too.

“What’s this crowd for?” You couldn’t help but wonder aloud. It was rhetorical, and because of the squealing students, you didn’t expect to be heard and answered.

“Wally.” Frank and Eddie replied in unison in their own distinct tones. Eddie sighed defeatedly, and Frank had sighed disdainfully.

“How are we friends with him again?” Frank asked snarkily.

“Frank!” Eddie chided, “You know why, we’re in the same cul-de-sac as him. Nevermind that we’ve known him since Kindergarten.”

“You’re right!” Frank agreed defeatedly. “Figures puberty gave him its blessing to turn out more gorgeous than he already was!”

“He's really that handsome?" You couldn't help but ask curiously though cheekily. Another rhetorical question, if this crowd of fans were anything to go by.

The two boyfriends nodded anyway, Eddie finally putting Frank down since Homeroom was within reach.

And you were finally making out the squeals of the crowd calling Wally the prince of the school. Oh lovely, you're in an anime now. The transfer student thing should've tipped you off on that, but honestly this Academy was big enough that there's no way you're the only transfer. Right? Right.

Then Eddie finally saw an opening to allow you all to squeeze through, grabbing Frank’s hand, and in turn, Frank was nice enough to grab yours as they both dragged you through the sea of fangirling students and into the safety of your Homeroom proper.

Suddenly you accidentally bump into another student with your elbow, and quickly shout your apologies over the screaming fans, only for that student to silence everyone else single handedly by shouting back “OH HEY! YOU’RE THE NEW TRANSFER STUDENT!”

Every single eye in that crowd, especially the original center of attention, Wally’s were now on you. And it was dead quiet.

“Hi, how ya doin’! Get ta class we’re gonna be late otherwise ya dorks!” You greeted and kindly reminded back, you kept your eyes closed as you smiled at everyone so you didn’t see what Wally looked like.

Regardless, your friendly reminder was effective as everyone scattered, scuttling off to their respective Homerooms unless they were also trying to get to this one too.

Without opening your eyes, you about-faced and headed into the classroom.

“Well, so much for you keeping a low profile, sorry about that.” Frank apologized. Eddie also looked apologetic, rubbing the back of his head.

“No worries, I have to introduce myself at the start of Homeroom anyway, and if I’m the only transfer this year, folks are gonna know about me anyway when I audition for Sally’s play this evening.” You explain nonchalantly.

“Sally’s holding auditions already?! I thought for sure they’d be tomorrow!” Cried a new voice, feminine and bubbly.

“Hi, Julie. Hi, Wally.” Frank and Eddie greeted in unison over your shoulder.

You prepared a friendly smile as you turned to face them. Julie was as adorable as she sounded, and you nodded at her in acknowledgement. Wally on the other hand…holy shiitake mushrooms. Nobody had the right to be that pretty! He wore the blue cardigan that would definitely have been reserved for the fall and winter style of the uniforms, otherwise others just wear white button ups with large enough lapels for the kerchief. Speaking of which, Wally wore his as more of an ascot around his neck, but with the little house ornament on it, made it look like a choker almost. Your smile fell at the sight of him, just a little, if only because he had an intense gaze about him too.

You were about to introduce yourself properly, but Professor Howdy Pillar piped up to get everyone settled so you could introduce yourself to the whole class.

“All-righty, have a seat everyone, so our new transfer student can introduce themselves. Go ahead, kiddo.” Professor Pillar nodded to you to take the floor.

So you introduce yourself, adding a favorite hobby, which was in the arts of all kinds, and plugged in the small advertisement for Sally’s auditions this evening, and the hope to get along with everyone.

Polite claps sounded. Then Professor Pillar directed you to sit in the empty seat that was second to last and a window seat, but also happened to be next to Wally. Frank was in front of you though, so at least you had another familiar face, Eddie was next to him, and Julie was next to Wally on his other side. There was also that jokester student from your vague notice earlier, you later learned his name was Barnaby, he sat behind Wally.

You weren’t entirely sure what it was about Wally in particular that set you on edge. Everybody else seemed nice, even the rest of the classroom. However Wally stood out like a sore thumb, maybe it was his fabulous pompadour, not many folks could pull that style off let alone bother with the time and effort to set it up. No…it was definitely his gaze. His eyes were pretty…but also pretty unsettling.

You ran through the chain of events surrounding Wally in your head and came to an easy conclusion as to why he could be staring at you so intensely. You stole his thunder from him before he made it to the classroom. With fabulous hair like his, the nickname of being the prince of the school, there was no way he didn’t have an ego. He must be pretty peeved.

You shot him a quick apology for earlier as you sat down at your designated seat. Thankfully he seemed to accept your apology as you suddenly no longer felt the hairs on your neck stand on end from his line of sight. You chose to ignore him otherwise.

Professor Pillar went onto a few other announcements before heading right into his specialty, Marketing. Once his lecture was done, other teachers came, taught and went, you even got to see Professor Partridge, who preferred to be called Ms. Poppy instead, she taught Home Economics usually but the Kitchen lab was still being cleaned from the previous semester, as staff got around to it last or some other high up excuse, probably had something to do with the budget. For now at least she taught the Chemistry of Home Economics.

The next thing you knew the day was done, yet you craved more knowledge since all the teachers were so much fun. With a pout you packed up your things, before brightening up again at remembering that play auditions were happening.

Even better, Julie called out to you about it and was happy to show the way. By literally dragging you there, you felt the intensity of Wally’s gaze again, unsure what to make of it before falling out of his line of sight purely because of Julie’s speed down the hallways. Maybe he was jealous this time..or again? What was his deal exactly? Whatever it was, your brain came to the conclusion that he and Julie might be an item since they came into the classroom together, not that you were paying attention to that part, but she stole you away, and who knows? That might’ve been what set him off this time.

In any case, it wasn’t just you and Julie who went, Eddie, Frank, and Barnaby were there, Wally, naturally and from what little you could tell, literally the rest of the school just about. You could only assume that the entire fan crowd of Wally’s told all their friends in their respective classes and the word just spread like wildfire. It was to the point that both Professor Pillar and Ms. Poppy had shown up just to chaperone the whole ordeal.

The kicker was about 70 percent of the school were just there to spectate. After all, who wouldn’t want to see how the new transfer student was talent wise? And up against the prince of the school, ooh, spicy!

All in all a pretty good day, the play was…a musical, and it was The Phantom of the Opera. You auditioned for Meg since you didn’t have enough confidence in your voice to hit high E notes for Christine’s part, you were perfectly comfortable being a Mezzosoprano or an Alto thank you kindly. Which happened to be for the best, because you got the part just fine, but had you gotten Christine (which Julie did thank goodness), Wally would’ve played the direct important opposite of you as the titular Phantom. Raoul was played by Frank amazingly. Eddie didn’t actually audition, he had track meets to worry about later down the line, but he was there for support anyway. And finally there was Barnaby as one of the new Opera House owners, probably just so he could heckle.

“You could’ve gotten the part for Christine easily you know, so why didn’t you?” Wally asked you once after finally getting to know him through everyone else and eating lunch together in the cafeteria. This question was in private, he caught you by your locker, and none of the rest of either one of your collective friends had shown up yet.

“And have to hit high E notes for a month? No thanks, playing Meg is just fine, even if the poor thing gets written horribly in the sequel.” You answer honestly, even if you have no idea where he was going asking this though you had some suspicions.

Surprisingly your answer made him laugh, it was weirdly monotonous but charming, in a way that suited him.

“I suppose you’re right about that. But I guess I was really wondering if you also chose it to avoid me.”

His gaze was on you again, not as intense as the first few days of school, but for some reason, you could always feel it on you even if you weren’t looking at him and knew he was looking your way.

“At the time of the auditions perhaps, but even then I thought you would’ve refused to be the Phantom since you prefer to be so handsome all the time. But Raoul doesn’t sing much so I don’t blame you for preferring to show off either.” You reply earnestly, then added an afterthought. “Besides, I assumed you and Julie were an item, was I wrong?”

“Yes, actually. She and I are just friends, have been since Kindergarten along with Sally, Frank, Eddie, and Barnaby. Howdy and Poppy are our neighbors too so it's always weird having to refer to them formally in the school’s public.” Wally had chuckled monotonously again, quite mirthfully as if a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Did your simple answers really affect him that much?

“Fascinating to know, but it still sounds like you really want to ask me something deeper though, so what is it that you really want to ask?” You queried suspiciously.

“Why have you really been avoiding me since the first day of school?” He asked…darkly in his own suspicion. You could feel it in his gaze too, confirming your suspicions.

“Several reasons actually. First and foremost, I’m certain now that I ticked you off at least twice that very first day. Second, I didn't really want the drama of the ‘new transfer student’ and the ‘prince of the school’ and any rumors to follow, ‘cuz you know that’s gonna spread like wildfire. Thirdly, let’s face it Walls, you’re too pretty for me.” You closed your locker as you had retrieved all your stuff for the day. That last one was said in a slight agitation, as you had long since resigned to your fate of most likely being a single pringle since the idea of dating was just exhausting. Nevermind the slight insecurity you had about not seeing yourself as pretty either, a thought that still made tears well up enough to poke out the sides of your eyes.

A fact that Wally saw as you passed by him to get to Homeroom, no longer wanting anything more to do with this conversation and having no patience for the others at the moment. Apparently he wasn’t having it and kabedonned you, punching poor Joe Schmoe’s locker hard enough to leave a dent.

Of course you yelped, he punched a locker and stopped you in your tracks! You looked up at him in confusion all bleary eyed since the tears were a little more prominent now that you couldn’t help it.

Worse yet, fear kept you in place rather than shoving the open shoulder off and telling him that this wasn’t cool and you certainly weren’t in the mood for shenanigans. All you could do was wait for him to say something.

“You’re the one that’s too pretty for me, dear neighbor.” Wally replied calmly, the little pet name referencing the fact that you sat next to each other in class and your lockers were in the same area. You really wanted to laugh at his face for it, since he just punched a locker and pinned you to said lockers just to calmly voice an opinion that you couldn’t even take seriously because of how deeply rooted your insecurity about yourself was. But you gawked instead.

No, better, you came up with a witty comeback, self deprecating in nature, but at least it was something.

“If I had a nickel for every time someone told me that…I’d only be five cents richer but at least it's something, though it’s not enough to buy me anything these days.” You quipped rawly, making sure the frustration in your tone was obvious. Finally you broke away from him by going out the opening he left and around his backside to continue on your path to Homeroom.

He must’ve spaced out trying to process the meaning of what you just said as he suddenly looked around for you before finally spotting you on the stairs.

“(Y/N), Wait! I really do think you’re beautiful!” He called after you.

But you weren’t having it.

“Save it for your reflection, pretty boy!” You retorted over your shoulder with a quick, icy glare, hoping idly that it had the same effect as when you felt his intense gaze at least twice over.

It most likely worked…for a second anyway. The next thing you know he’s bringing you bouquets of flowers everyday, but when that got annoying enough that you had nowhere to put them and even the teachers told him to cut it out. So he settled for chocolates…which was better, since they were useful in snack sharing.

Then he got the Academy’s cheerleading squad to spell your name at certain intervals, but you turned that one right around on him with innuendos about how he got the cheerleading squad to do that for him at all.

Then he finally just settled for belting That’s All I Ask of You, under the very sneaky guise that it was for practice. You were never more eager for a musical to be done and over with.

Frank had asked first about Wally’s behavior that was clearly directed at you. And he understood the most when you told him the short and succinct gist of it. He took your side, but also encouraged Wally on this because, how far would he really take this? The entire friend group wanted to know too.

It came to the point that you brought a spritz bottle to school with you to threaten to droop his precious pompadour. He eased up on his antics, but still tried to prove his love in smaller ways. Such as passing you notes with a finger football flick, they had little drawings of the two of you together or really detailed and impressive drawings of your face, lots of love poems. The next play you auditioned for, he begged Sally to play opposite of you no matter what role you got.

Whether or not you relented is entirely up to you, it was entertaining either way, his antics raising in stakes in bursts, or him being an absolute smush of a lover boy should you finally take him on as a lover.

You did get even more frustrated with how gorgeous he looks even with his hair down when you did finally spritz him. It took months to forgive him for even looking that hot. Jeez!

#See on AO3 for other thoughts #Welcome Home ARG #Wally Darling #Wally Darling x reader #Frank Frankly #Eddie Dear #Barnaby B. Beagle #Julie Joyful #Sally Starlet #Howdy Pillar #Poppy Partridge #Reluctant!Reader #Phantom of the Opera #High School AU #GIMME FAN ART #I WROTE THIS FOR THE UNIFORMS

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