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Tendou felt absolutely awful tonight.
It wasn’t that uncommon recently for him to feel like a dumpster on fire rolling down a steep hill. But really it had been imminent that his partner was going to quit. He hadn’t shown up to practice the last three times, giving some cliche excuse of “Oh sorry, I’m sick” and “Oh sorry, I slept in” and “Oh, my father died last night, the funerals in three days, I’ll be out of town on a week trip, I apologize for any inconvenience”.
...And okay, yea maybe that last one could have been true, but he wasn’t that much of an ass to start questioning someone about the validity of whether a loved one had really passed away, or if they were just saying that to get out of lugging their cello all the way to the auditorium.
So tonight when Tendou’s phone was free of excusing texts, he arrived at the hall, violin strapped tight to his back. He was sure that it would finally be the first time they could run through their music for their upcoming competition.
But instead, all he got was a “sorry, I’m dropping out” said right to his face from some idiot with a patchy beard who he had been paired up with at the start of this semester. But maybe Tendou was the idiot now because the competition was in a few weeks, and he had no accompanist and absolutely no chance in winning what he had practiced so hard for.
As he dragged his feet and violin across campus, he couldn’t help but curse himself out. If he had just decided to apply for an actual music school then he could find a replacement easily. But no, he decided to cheap out and go to a college near home with a music program that was so ridiculously minimal he wondered why they even offered courses in the first place.
The moon held high in the clear sky, lighting up the pavements that trailed through dewy grass. His heart wallowed in the bottom of his stomach, full of retribution.
His disappointment surpassed the time he had tried and failed to get Shirabu to learn some anime theme songs on his piano. His disappointment surpassed the time he had eaten the rest of Semi’s ice cream and replaced the tub with solid ice, but found that the next night he tried to go to sleep, his pillowcase had been filled with toothpaste.
(He swore every time his head hit the pillow, he could still smell the unyielding fresh smell of mint).
His disappointment even surpassed the time when he came out to his girlfriend of one year to being gay, to which she responded with “I’m a lesbian”.
Actually, that was quite amusing and to this day he still wondered why all of his friends didn’t think it was funny.
So yea, this setback was a little immeasurable in terms of discontent. Especially since he happened to be walking back to his dorm on a Friday night. From every which way he could hear parties going on, each with their own rigorous music trying to overpower the walls of their neighbouring dorms.
On a usual day, he might be so happy as to treat himself to buying a bottle of tequila and joining in on one of Kuroo’s or Bokuto’s parties, which seemed to apparently happen quite frequently. But not tonight. Tonight he was going to go home, see if Semi had brought any more ice cream, and then hopefully curl up on the couch with it and watch Netflix till it asked if he were ‘still watching’.
“Satori”. A sudden deep voice called out from his right.
Tendou stopped in his self-pitying, pausing to look over to where somebody stood, cigarette in hand. Apart from that someone wasn’t just anyone leaning against the outside wall of a dorm.
“Reon, lighting up so soon?” Tendou grinned, skipping over to him.
Reon chuckled slowly. Smoke curled around him in lazy trails and up through the tainted yellow light from the open door behind them. Music pounded from the inside, low and heavy with bass.
“Don’t tell Shirabu. I told him I needed to use the bathroom” Reon shook his head.
“Hmm” Tendou squinted, smirking, picking up. “I think I will tell him”.
“You love to see me suffer don’t you” Reon laughed again, stubbing out his cigarette behind him on the wall. It left a scuff mark on the white and Tendou blinked at it, vacuous.
“No” he pulled his eyes back to look at his friend, and his lazy smile returned. “I just like to hear Shirbau yell at you. It's surprising how his voice can go so high. It sounds like Alvin the chipmunk if he were just 5% more unstable”.
“I can’t argue with that since I've never seen the movie” Reon shrugged his broad shoulders.
“Movies” Tendou corrected with a wink.
“So” Reon pushed himself off the wall. “You heading back or you coming in?” he jerked his thumb behind him at the illuminated hallway. Tendou could see groups of people, the sound of laughter and chat resonating around raised solo cups and smiling faces. It looked social...it looked happy and nice.
Tendou absently readjusted the strap of his violin case around his shoulder. He twiddled with the coarse material, rough under his fingertips.
“I dunno, haven’t been feeling like hot shit recently. Y’know how it is” Tendou haphazardly joked and he leaned forward to playfully punch his friend's shoulder.
Reon cocked an eyebrow in an expression that asked him what the fuck he was doing. He must have practiced in the mirror or something because it was really convincing.
“You get in another fight with Semi again?” Reon asked, folding his arms ever so casually across his chest.
“Ahhhh…..” Tendou sucked the insides of his teeth. “Well so okay, maybe It was my turn to make dinner last night and I...may have made spaghetti”.
“That-” Reon frowns. “Doesn’t sound so bad?”.
“No” Tendou pushes the palms of his hands into his eyes and grinds them. “You don’t get it. I made just spaghetti”. He drops his hands. “Like no sauce or anything. I think it was barely cooked”.
“Satori...don't tell me you ate it”.
“It was so crunchy” Tendou breathed the words out, voice sounding full of wonderment.
“But you usually love torturing Semi. Almost as much as the rest of us. Is there anything else negatively impacting you?” Reon tilted his head.
“You mean other than myself?” Tendou grinned wide and cheeky.
“Yes, other than yourself” Reon huffed with such an exaggerated eye roll that it nearly had Tendou grinning harder. Apart from he doesn’t.
Because now his mind is being dragged back to half an hour ago where his quitter of a partner had left him an empty auditorium that smelled distinctly like a whiteboard marker for some reason.
“Fujita told me he’s dropping out of the performance tonight, or wait” Tendou holds a finger out. “I think he’s actually dropping out of college all together”.
“Fujita? Isn’t he your cellist for the upcoming competition” Reon blinks, wide and questioning.
“He’s the cellist on my upcoming hit list more like it” Tendou pinched his eyes shut and let out a laugh. But when he peeled his eyes open again, Reon was looking concerned.
“Why’d he quit?”.
“I don’t know” Tendou shrugged. “You tell me”.
“Well did you make him dinner?” Reon asked, eyes crinkling at the edges with a teasing smile.
“Wow, bye, I’m going to go home and make an AMAZING dinner” Tendou frowned at him. “Well- a dinner of salad because I am looking to better myself...but like a fruit salad. Like mostly grapes. Actually all grapes… Wine. I’m going to have wine for dinner” he admitted.
“Nope, you’re coming inside with me right now” Reon turned on his foot, leaving no room for negotiations.
“Huh? Wait, hang on. No, I have a violin with me!” Tendou grabbed at Reon’s jacket sleeve. He swiveled his head to look directly at the black case on his back and then pointedly back at his friend to indicate.
“Hm? It’ll be fine, just leave it in another room” Reon brushed his hand away. “Come on, just for an hour or so. You look like you need it”.
“Do you even know what drunk people are like” Tendou scoffed, but a second of hesitation and seeing Reon disappear through the doorway made him quick to follow.
It was whatever. He needed a distraction anyways…
Inside the dorm was massive and immediately he remembered he was on the campus side full of students whose parents ...dare he say….literally paid for the path they walked on underneath their feet. Tendou’s and Semi’s dorm was average, with just enough room for two of everything. Beds, dressers, desks, and of course the massive poster of David Bowie. But there could only ever be one of those. But still, it didn’t make having to use the dorms communal bathroom any much better. Tendou was not a fan.
Leading to the question, whose party was this? With their well-decorated cream furniture, artsy hangings, and stained glass owl ornaments that put his own bank account to shame. It didn’t look like it should belong to a gathering of soon to be drunks.
Tendou followed Reon through the groups of chattering people till he managed to see a familiar face and a stern one at that.
“That sure was a long time in the bathroom” Shirabu huffed a perfect symmetric bang out of his eye. It looked to be growing a little too long.
“Well, I bumped into someone you see” Reon grinned, and Tendou stepped out from behind him.
“If it isn’t my favorite pianist!” Tendou exclaimed with a toothy grin. “Say, are you still unwilling to learn to Unravel for me?”.
“That song from your ghoul of Tokyo show?” Shirabu cocked a brow that was unable to be seen from behind his weirdly cut hair. Really, who styled his hair. Did he know what it looked like?
“It’s Tokyo ghoul, and I’m taking that as a-”
“No” Shirabu cut him off.
“Fine. Where’s Goshiki, maybe he’ll play for me” Tendou huffed and pinched his lips together, immaturely.
“Ghoshiki isn’t in the music program. You know that” Shirabu rolled his eyes. “And I sent him home with Yamagata because it’s not my job to stand around and supervise underclassmen getting drunk”.
“Pfft, come on Kenjiro, he’s of ageee” Tendou flung an arm around his shoulder. “ I remember I used to drink you under the table back in those days”.
“Shouldn’t you be off strumming your wood” Shirabu brushed his hand off his shoulder with a stern expression.
“Phrasing” Reon coughed.
“Oh, and you. You’re not let off either. I bet you went off to smoke” Shirabu pointed at Reon, his eyes narrowing till they were judgmental slits of brown-grey. “Did you get that link I sent you? The one with all the death statistics. Did you know that-” he started to ramble.
Tendou tapped at Reon’s shoulder. Neither of them took their eyes off lecturing Shirabu, dare they be lectured even harder.
“I’m gonna go get a drink, okay” he whispered.
“Sure, hopefully the next time we see each other I'll still have my ears” Reon whispered back.
“Hey, if Vincent Van van Gogh can pull it off, then so can you” Tendou wiggled his eyebrows.
“Really, an art joke?”.
“Well, I-”.
“Hey, are you listening!?” Shirabu interjected, sharply.
“As they say in the music industry- yeet!” Tendou quickly turned around and escaped. He weaved his way in and out of the crowd and only stopped when he was sure Shirabu and his oblong hair couldn’t find him.
Letting out a sigh, he made his way to the kitchen, giving a few “excuse me’s” as he was scared the literal instrument attached to his back might give someone a concussion. Because like hell was he going to leave his 5000 dollar violin to decorate some corner in a thousand pieces after being smashed.
Once in the kitchen, he grabbed the top cup off the red mountainous stack on the bench and poured himself whatever was nearest. Which was a… Malibu orange float rum?
He raised the cup to his lips. The alcohol coated his tongue, sweet and thick. Not really his preference, but whatever.
Hitching the case on his back a little higher, he walked over and leaned in the kitchen doorway. He could distantly see Shirabu and Reon who were now joined by a few others, but he wasn’t so keen on listening to Shirabu start off on a tangent about how Tendou didn’t wash his grapes before eating them.
Suddenly a fist hit him in the shoulder, knuckles hard against his skin and his heart jumped in surprise.
“Tendou, you made it!” Bokuto threw his head back and laughed. At what? He didn’t know.
Tendou sighed in relief, heartbeat calming, and he returned a tired smile.
“Mm, well you never invited me, really”.
“Come on” Bokuto scrunched his nose, waving him off. “You know you’re always invited over here, party or no party”.
“Well I'm glad for the invitation-” Tendou took another sip of his malibu orange mango tastic bombastic. “I’ve seen your dorm before and this place isn't covered in loose noodle packaging, so you can’t really invite me to a random person's dorm. Whoever’s place this is”.
“Huh?” Bokuto blinked widely before his eyes lit up in recognition. “Oh no, no, no. This is my boyfriend’s place. Keiji!!!”.
Tendou nearly spluttered his nectarous orange banana leaf malibu right back into the cup.
“Keiji as in Keiji Akaashi? Legendary saxophone player?” he blurted out.
“Yea!” Bokuto grinned, proudly.
“Since when” Tendou narrowed his eyes.
“Since like a month ago when he accidentally hit me over the head with a 13-kilogram tuba he was helping carry to the auditorium” Bokuto laughed heartily.
“So you guilt-tripped him into being your boyfriend is what you're saying” Tendou snickered from behind his palm.
“No way!” Bokuto’s face immediately dropped into a pout. “He’s around here somewhere. I’ll go find him and he’ll tell you how charming I was”. He raised a palm at him. “Wait here”.
“Hang on I-” Tendou couldn’t argue fast enough before Bokuto’s chalky hair was once again mingled into the crowd of people.
He was about to tell Bokuto that he was most likely going to head out, but there was that plan foiled. Maybe he could still slip away. He had heard enough “wait here’s” to be sure Bokuto had already been distracted and in fact was not coming back.
So he placed his cup down, adjusted his case one more time, and then set off for the door. He just wasn’t feeling it, and he didn’t think anything, in particular, could cheer him up right now.
Apart from, only a few steps towards the exit did he suddenly hear something that made his ears perk up.
“So you’re new here?” a guy's voice questioned.
Tendou paused, swiveling his head to look over his shoulder where a few meters away two guys were standing side by side, and then in front of them- Woah.
“Yes, the college accepts mid-year applicants”. The man standing in front of them was impossibly tall. Taller than Tendou, and Tendou was pretty tall.
His olive hair complimented his dark eyes, broad stature, and handsomely chiseled face. What the fuck. Were they just inviting greek gods to the party now or something. Maybe he was a male stripper? Although, he probably shouldn’t ask. Should he? No...
“Is that why you’re acting like that?” sniggered the second guy.
“Acting like what, per se?” the tall greek god replied, voice deep and smooth. Like rich, dark chocolate. Fuuuuck, Tendou could feel his knees weaken.
“Come on man” the guy elbowed his other friend. “Why so serious???”.
Tendou's eyebrows pulled down into a frown. Their tone was friendly and easy-going, but the question itself lay mocking.
Suddenly one of the guys caught Tendou’s eye, taking him by surprise.
“Uh, something to see?” he sneered, cocking an eyebrow.
“Well…” Tendou fully turned around. “I couldn’t help but notice that you’re chatting up my friend here and we really need to leave. So if you’re done trying to assert your fake male dominance in a counteractive wayyyy” he drawled.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” the guy's lips pulled down into a frown.
“It means you’re either too drunk to understand what I’ve said or you’ve never picked up a dictionary” Tendou smiled, tapping his forehead. Annoyance spilled under and throughout his skin. The need to tease and prod was too overwhelming.
“You redhead fucker-” the man stepped forward, gritting his teeth.
“I don’t fuck redheads, I am a redhead. Although I guess I could if I wanted to. It’s just so hard to find them nowadays” Tendou huffed. “It’s like waking up in the middle of the night and finding a raccoon in your shower. Can it happen? Yes, but it’s not very likely to find so”.
The man seemed to have enough of his insidious rambling because he started towards Tendou, raising his fist, but was stopped almost instantly when a hand grabbed his elbow.
“Don’t” the man with olive hair spoke lowly, but somehow still loud.
Then what surprised Tendou the most, was that he was walking over. All gathering irritation fled from him in a single sweep.
“You said you were ready to go?” he asked.
Tendou’s eyes widened unexplainably, heart jumping erratically in his chest.
“Uh y-yea, sure am”.
The two of them started for the door, careening their way through all of the people until they found the exit, all while Tendou was slightly in shock. Confused shock.
Outside the moon was still high in the sky which lay clear with blinking stars. The campus yard was bathed in moonlight and upon stepping outside the door, Tendou paused, closed his eyes, and took a large inhale of the air.
It was fresh and crisp in his lungs, unlike the stuffy air of inside which had started to become a little unbearable.
Flashing open his eyes again, he turned to see the handsome man still standing to his left, hands in the pockets of his jeans and waiting.
“Well!” Tendou chuckled and he leaned forward and patted the man on the shoulder. “Thanks for helping me out, er-”.
“Wakatoshi. Ushijima Wakatoshi” the man nodded once.
“Miracle boy Wakatoshi” Tendou’s lips ticked into a grin. “I'm Tendou Satori and I’m gonna head home now, but take pride in knowing you saved a musician from breaking his favorite instrument over somebody's head tonight
“That’d be a shame. It’s quite a beautiful instrument, a violin” Ushijima frowned, concerned.
“Ah, you know your case shapes” Tendou winked, playfully. He turned around to show Ushijima his back, jerking his thumb at it. “Ebony wood”.
“Impressive. Mine is made of only carbon fiber” Ushijimas eyes surveyed the case, appreciatively.
Tendou turned back around, eyebrows raised.
“You... play the violin?”.
“I play many instruments. I placed top three in the nation once” Ushijima shrugged a shoulder inadvertently as if the information was as casual as saying what he had eaten for lunch that day.
Tendou’s lips parted and he blinked furiously.
“Top three? For what instrument? Violin? Do you have any proof to back up that statement?” Tendou spouted, perhaps a little too inquisitively.
But surely if he had placed in the top three in violin, he would have known. Right? Besides, what would somebody so talented be doing at a school like this? It couldn’t be true.
“Come home with me”.
“Huh?” Tendou blurted out.
“To my dorm” Ushijima restated. “I’ll show you”.
“Show me what? Wakatoshi? Waka- god damn it” Tendou muttered as Ushijima started to walk away. What was with people doing that tonight?
He scrubbed a hand over his face, sighing before he picked himself back up and followed after him.
“So,” Tendou said as soon as he had caught up with him. “What exactly are you showing me?” he sang, folding his hands behind his back.
“Anything you want to see,” Ushijima commented.
“Haha, well I mean there’s a lot I wanna see” Tendous eyes dropped down his figure, but Ushijima only turned to look at his face with a lift of his eyebrow and a puzzled expression.
Tendou was confused as to whether he didn’t know he was trying to flirt, or if he didn’t understand. Maybe he was trying to ignore it. Made sense, tall masculine straight gay disgusted and or intimidated by redhead gay boy. A scene saw a lot around here on the campus if he said so himself.
“So, you’re new here?” Tendou asked, quickly changing the subject. “Why here and not a bigger college?”.
He noticed that both their strides were long, legs synchronized in their walking. It was weird to notice such a thing, right? Then again, his brain seemed to be working overtime tonight.
“I grew up around here, an hour west. My parents own a farm” Usijima scratched his cheek. “I guess after touring for music so much, I missed this” he gestured to the scenery around them. “Somewhere small, somewhere green”.
“You grew up on a farm???” Tendou tilted his head. “Like... with chickens?”.
“Yes with chickens” Ushijima nodded. “But we were a cattle farm”.
“Wakatoshi did you know that if you worked on a farm and you took care of chickens, then you were a chicken tender” Tendou smiled, nonchalantly.
And that’s when Ushijima surprised him by smiling for the first time, lips ticking up gently into a small grin.
“Very funny” Ushijima chuckled.
Tendou blinked.
Okay, so he got his joke, but couldn't tell when Tendou was obviously hitting him up. What kind of guy was this? And why did him being so oblivious make him like ten times hotter.
“Just up here” Ushijima pointed ahead, and Tendou’s eyes snapped to a row of dorms. They hadn’t walked so far and it wasn’t to any surprise that Ushijima should live in one of the fancier establishments on campus.
“It’s just the one to the righ-”.
“The green one” Tendou interjected.
On the lower level patio, there was only one door with exterior decorations. Green, elongated ferns decorated the doorstep, moss baskets hung in chains with bundles of colourful flowers and cutely enough, a ladybug sticker was stuck at the end of Ushijima on the resident label. He was surprised that there weren't about five types of wind chimes hanging around too.
“I didn’t know it was that obvious” Ushijima sounded a little confused as he searched his pocket for his keys.
Once the door was open, Tendou was more than a little dazed. Just like at the party, there was a wide-open lounge decorated with furniture (that honestly looked untouched). Everything was spotless. He wandered in, swiveling his head to look left and right and Ushijima closed the door from behind him.
He probably wouldn’t be able to tell it was Ushijimas if it weren’t for the succulents lining the window sills, the walls being decorated with cut out national geographic photos of wildlife and the sunflower unexplainably sitting in the kitchen sink.
“Come this way” Ushijima walked past him, beckoning him with his hand. Tendou snapped to, following after him with a little excited hop in his step.
He stopped in the doorway of what he obviously assumed was his bedroom as Ushijima knelt down and reached for something underneath his bed. Pulling his hand back, he brought out with him a large folder.
Ushijima patted the carpet next to him in invitation.
Tendou hesitated before obeying and falling to the floor beside him, crossing his legs, politely. He slipped his arms out of straps attached to his case and set his violin gently to the side.
“So, what’s that? Santa's naughty list?” Tendou joked as Ushijima hefted the folder into his own lap.
“I’d imagine it to be a lot bigger” Ushjima smiled gently.
“Let's hope I’m not in there. I forgot to send flowers to my ma on her last birthday” Tendou mumbled, watching as Ushijima turned the cover.
And suddenly- oh.
“Take as long as you need,” Ushijima gathered the folder and set it into Tendou’s free lap, which he eagerly took, eyes surveying.
The page bore a picture of Ushijima on stage, a great, magnificent piano standing behind as an announcer gestured to him. The article left no little detail unspoken as it spoke of his brilliance in the three-song performance.
Tendou flicked to the next page, and the next, all similar articles from different magazines, newspapers, printed websites. All of them read different appreciations, awards, etc.
“I save them all and send them to my own mother. Apart from...I actually do send her flowers” Ushijima scratched his cheek, absently.
“Wow, this just makes me despise you as well as admire you at the same time” Tendou shook his head, flicking through the folder. Ushijima was a world wonder…
“If you like water, you already like 60% of me?” Ushijima said, and Tendou looked up, a smile crawling onto his face.
“Was that a joke?” Tendou tilted his head.
“More of a somewhat inaccurate statement” Ushijima’s eyes drifted away, and so Tendou resumed to the folder where-
“Fuck. Fuck, fuck fuck” he breathed out as soon as he flipped the page.
“Satori?” Ushijima's eyes flickered back to see him looking downwards, lips parted and expression dazed. He shuffled over to Tendou and peered over his shoulder.
“You...play the cello?” Tendou asked, eyes jumping to look at him, wide and expectant.
“It’s the first instrument I ever learned to play” Ushijima leaned backward again.
Tendou gently shut the folder and placed it on the floor. He had to be careful not to jump into this too quickly.
“Can you uh..” he licked over his lips. “Can you show me?” he asked, gently.
Ushijima looked at him for a long moment, as if trying to read his intentions. But then he was shrugging and making his way back to the edge of the bed. He bent down and this time he pulled out something a little larger than just a folder.
“Carbon fiber” Ushijima knocked on the ginormous case twice.
“I can see that…” Tendou’s eyes glazed over as Ushijima unbuckled the doings and flipped open the case.
Inside lay a beautiful cello, the top made of rich spruce wood leading down to a high-quality maple bottom. It’s polish gleamed slightly from the cascading moonlight of the window bearing its elegance and flawlessness.
Large, but graceful Tendou thought as his eyes found their way back to Ushijima. Deep and passionate….very fitting.
“Would you like to hear?” Ushijima asked, apart from he was already picking it up and out of its case.
“Boy do I” Tendou breathed out. “Do you do duets?”.
“Hm?” Ushijima looked down at him from where he was setting up the instrument next to a chair. “I’ve done a few...but I admit, not many. I wouldn't be very good”.
“That’s fine, that’s fine!” Tendou exclaimed, more than excited. He dived for his violin case sitting beside him and nearly ripped open the top to reveal the instrument.
“We don’t have music sheets or anything but I mean we can always just go off of each other or I can lead if you want, or yea, yea” Tendou rambled as he pulled out the violin and his bow.
He eagerly jumped to his feet and looked towards Ushijima where he was adjusting the cello, now seated.
“Uhm, I don’t really know your style” Tendou spoke, pulling the violin up to rest by his chin.
“We can start simple,” Ushijima placed his own bow down on the desk to his right, confusing Tendou. Instead, he lay his hands to the tops of the strings, plucking them to a low, nimble beat.
“How about something like this?” Ushijima looked up at him. His hands scaled down the strings, pressing and strumming ever so delicately. “Or are you in the mood for something more aggressive?”.
“N-no, this is fine, more than fine” Tendou cleared his throat, and he set his bow back to his violin. “One two…” he trailed off, and then he pulled down his bow on the strings and started to play a sharp noise, dragging up and back down, angling it for the best sound.
It was an eloquent add on to Ushijima's deep, ominous drawing of strings. Slowly Tendou pulled the bow down, lingering for a quivering happy beat before continuing.
He chanced a look over to Ushijima and found him surprisingly looking at Tendou, a large grin to his face. Feeling a wave of confidence, Tendou smiled back and decided to enhance the song.
He slowed down the draw of the bow across the strings, calm and shrill until it almost stopped completely. Ushijima, getting what he was going for, slowly pulled away one of his hands, still plucking with the other, and reached for his bow.
Once Tendou saw he was ready, he quickly got back to work and pulled down the bow in a thin fast noise that transformed into a lively fast song just as Ushijima placed his own bow to his cello. The result of the noise was sensuous, vibrant, and soft.
Tendou was utterly amazed as Ushjimas eyes focused on playing just as fast as Tendou was, adding the throaty deeper parts to Tendous' glassy notes that started just when they stopped.
He couldn’t help but let out a sort of giddy giggle, letting it float along with the swell of happy music. The sound enveloped the room and vibrated through his chest, leaving him breathless.
Apart from maybe Tendou’s eyes were lingering a little too much on Ushijima, mind a little too distracted. Because that’s when they came across the first mistake.
Tendou’s bow was angled wrong and it made a large taut noise that dragged for too long, and immediately he jumped on the spot, flinging the bow away from the strings.
His chest heaved slightly and his eyes jumped to look at Ushijima where he sat, still smiling warmly.
“You’re amazing!” is what Tendou ended up blurting out after what seemed like an eternity of smiling at each other.
Ushijima's eyes slowly widened, lips parting, and Tendou immediately wanted to retract his words.
“Uh, sorry about that” Tendou brought his hand up to scratch the back of his neck but accidentally hit the back of his head with an “ow!”.
“No, thank you. You are very impressive too” Ushijima nodded. “Way more talented than I am at violin”.
“Pshh, whatever” Tendou waved his hand dismissively, and he lay his bow down on the bed, pulling the violin away from his chin.
“You must hear that a lot, my bad” Ushijima copied him and placed his own bow down.
“No, I'm just petty, I don’t try to hide that fact,” Tendou chuckled. “But um...I do have a question for you” his eyes darted to the floor.
“Of course” Ushijima sat back in his chair.
Tendou gulped and took one large inhale before looking back up and into Ushijimas eyes.
“P-please be my partner!” he burst out, speaking a little too expeditiously.
There was a moment of static silence where the two of them looked at each other, Tendou’s heart beating louder and louder in his chest with every passing second.
“I didn’t set out on getting a boyfriend tonight” Ushijima frowned thoughtfully.
Tendou froze completely, mind seizing up.
“What” was all he could say.
“But I have to admit that I am interested, so I will say yes” Ushijima nodded slowly.
“I-” Tendous throat felt scratchy with unspoken words. “I meant I want you to be my duet partner for an upcoming competition of mine. My partner... quit recently” Tendou choked out.
“Oh,” Ushijima blinked.
“But then...” Tendou set down his violin on the bed. “But then when we win, you can take me out on a date. Okay?” he turned to look back at Ushijima.
“Okay,” Ushijima smiled.
“It has to be somewhere fancy y’ know” Tendou grinned. He walked over to Ushijima and knelt down in front of the cello, looking up and into dark olive eyes. He leaned his elbows on his knees and cupped his own face, unable to hold back a grin.
“It has to have a live band so halfway through dinner we can steal their instruments and run around the restaurant playing them till we get our asses kicked out yea?”.
“Till we get our asses kicked out” Ushijima repeated in his low voice with a soft smile.
“Great” Tendou whispered. “Now move over so I can terribly try to play your cello until your neighbours file a sound complaint”.
“Only if I can play your violin?” Ushijima raised an eyebrow.
Tendou blinked a few times in amusement. Because fuck yea Tendou was gonna let him play his violin anytime he god damn wanted.
Slowly he pulled himself off the floor, Ushijima's eyes following him. And then. Then he was trailing a finger under Ushijima's jaw, pulling his chin gently upwards.
“Deal” Tendou grinned before he was leaning forward and placing his lips onto Ushijimas.
The kiss was something just like their music. Deep, but soft. Calm, but happy. The low strings of a cello being plucked accompanied by the shrill singing of Tendou’s violin as well as his overjoyed heart.
As they broke apart, Tendou couldn’t help think that it was definitely better than any music they could ever create together. Especially as Ushijima pushed his Cello out the way, pulling Tendou back forward into another crushing kiss. The kind of duet, he couldn't have asked more for.
Because music and rhythm always found their way into the most secret places of the soul.