Give It Some Words and a Sweet Harmony (Mother 3, Duster/Kumatora, Song 7)
Title: Give It Some Words and a Sweet Harmony
Fandom: Mother 3
Pairing: Duster/Kumatora
Rating: G
Warnings: None. Fic is set pre-game, with a small non-spoilery epilogue during Chapter 7.
Song: Hellogoodbye, "I Saw It On Your Keyboard"
Disclaimer: Once again, the characters and settings aren't mine.
Duster started practicing the song on his nightly rounds when he was seventeen, singing softly to himself as he paced around the graveyards and the periphery of Osohe Castle. There was something a little morbid about it -- what was the phrase? "Whistling past the graveyard?" -- but there was nowhere else to do it: nowhere else he would have privacy, and nowhere else the piano player in the Castle might hear him.
There exists a melody that
Just might change your mind
Oh! If only I knew the key to
Sing to make you mine
The piano song had been simple: eight notes, clean and sweet, and it had caught Duster's ear immediately. His father has always told him that a thief needed to be vigilant and prepared to use anything, and that song... he could tell, somehow, that it was important. It stirred things inside him he wasn't sure how to articulate. It was something beyond his loneliness -- something oddly like hope.
Then I saw it on your keyboard
You saw it on my sleeve
I never knew a heart existed
Outside of make believe
Then I read it on your keyboard
I knew at least that I might have a chance
To catch a shooting star
Of course, he didn't know who was in there playing the piano. He'd heard stories about ghosts... for all he knew, it could be old Nipolito the gravedigger in there playing! But the song wasn't spooky or creepy, not in the least, and that only made the hope stronger.
In the end, Duster didn't care where it came from. That it existed at all -- that there was someone in there capable of making it -- was enough for him.
There exists a star above that
Always steals my stare
And there exists a star on stage that
Never seems to care
Secretly, though, he rather hoped it was a girl.
It was a stupid dream, he knew -- the kind of thing a boy his age (a boy his age who'd never in his life seen a girl his age) came up with -- but there was something feminine about the song, how the sweet melody was played lightly on the piano. Maybe -- maybe if he kept practicing, maybe if his voice got stronger, maybe if he found the words that fit the song...
And then I saw it on your keyboard
you saw it in my eyes
I didn't mean to scare you
You just seem really nice
And then I read it on your keyboard
I knew at least that I might have a chance
To catch a shooting star
... well, the cynical part of him thought he'd probably alienate whoever it was for good, but the cautiously hopeful part thought it might just work out in the end.
It was something to hope for, and Duster's strange days and restless nights didn't provide nearly enough of those. If this prowling was really what he was destined for, didn't he deserve a dream of a pretty girl and a pretty song?
There exists a melody
That just might change your mind
If only I knew the key
To sing to make you mine
Somehow, as the nights went on and he puzzled out more of the song, Duster came to know it like he knew his name: the melody would guide him onwards.
oo oo oo oo oo, oo oo oo oo oo oo
(There exists a melody that I, know. oh oh oh oh oh oh oh)
***
"... y'know the funny thing?" said Kumatora.
"Oh?" Duster blinked, unsure what part of the story he'd just told was funny. He had to admit, there was something a little absurd about how he'd pined for a girl he'd only imagined, let alone how badly wrong he'd been about his boring life... but he wasn't sure he'd call it funny, exactly. Maybe funny-peculiar, at best.
"That wasn't me on the piano," Kumatora answered, grinning faintly as Duster's face fell. "It was one of the ghosts. ... but if it makes you feel better, Duster, I sang along too."
"You did? How'd yours go?"
"It's -- it's a song I remember from when I was little. Y'gotta promise me you won't laugh."
"I won't!"
Kuma shot him one last glare, but when she opened her mouth again, she'd switched to her warbly and strangely uncertain-sounding alto. "Take a melody, simple as can be; give it some words and a sweet harmony..."
Could it be? The words were the same -- the ones Duster had thought he'd made up, but maybe he'd just remembered all along. How they both knew them, he wasn't inclined to question, and as Kumatora began the second verse, he added his voice to the chorus.
The troubles of the world, the troubles he'd labored under all his life, fled from Duster at that moment. Above him was a clear sky full of stairs... but the only one that mattered was there, the shooting star he'd caught, his very own tough girl with a sweet voice. They had the night, and they had the song. That was everything.
Fandom: Mother 3
Pairing: Duster/Kumatora
Rating: G
Warnings: None. Fic is set pre-game, with a small non-spoilery epilogue during Chapter 7.
Song: Hellogoodbye, "I Saw It On Your Keyboard"
Disclaimer: Once again, the characters and settings aren't mine.
Duster started practicing the song on his nightly rounds when he was seventeen, singing softly to himself as he paced around the graveyards and the periphery of Osohe Castle. There was something a little morbid about it -- what was the phrase? "Whistling past the graveyard?" -- but there was nowhere else to do it: nowhere else he would have privacy, and nowhere else the piano player in the Castle might hear him.
There exists a melody that
Just might change your mind
Oh! If only I knew the key to
Sing to make you mine
The piano song had been simple: eight notes, clean and sweet, and it had caught Duster's ear immediately. His father has always told him that a thief needed to be vigilant and prepared to use anything, and that song... he could tell, somehow, that it was important. It stirred things inside him he wasn't sure how to articulate. It was something beyond his loneliness -- something oddly like hope.
Then I saw it on your keyboard
You saw it on my sleeve
I never knew a heart existed
Outside of make believe
Then I read it on your keyboard
I knew at least that I might have a chance
To catch a shooting star
Of course, he didn't know who was in there playing the piano. He'd heard stories about ghosts... for all he knew, it could be old Nipolito the gravedigger in there playing! But the song wasn't spooky or creepy, not in the least, and that only made the hope stronger.
In the end, Duster didn't care where it came from. That it existed at all -- that there was someone in there capable of making it -- was enough for him.
There exists a star above that
Always steals my stare
And there exists a star on stage that
Never seems to care
Secretly, though, he rather hoped it was a girl.
It was a stupid dream, he knew -- the kind of thing a boy his age (a boy his age who'd never in his life seen a girl his age) came up with -- but there was something feminine about the song, how the sweet melody was played lightly on the piano. Maybe -- maybe if he kept practicing, maybe if his voice got stronger, maybe if he found the words that fit the song...
And then I saw it on your keyboard
you saw it in my eyes
I didn't mean to scare you
You just seem really nice
And then I read it on your keyboard
I knew at least that I might have a chance
To catch a shooting star
... well, the cynical part of him thought he'd probably alienate whoever it was for good, but the cautiously hopeful part thought it might just work out in the end.
It was something to hope for, and Duster's strange days and restless nights didn't provide nearly enough of those. If this prowling was really what he was destined for, didn't he deserve a dream of a pretty girl and a pretty song?
There exists a melody
That just might change your mind
If only I knew the key
To sing to make you mine
Somehow, as the nights went on and he puzzled out more of the song, Duster came to know it like he knew his name: the melody would guide him onwards.
oo oo oo oo oo, oo oo oo oo oo oo
(There exists a melody that I, know. oh oh oh oh oh oh oh)
***
"... y'know the funny thing?" said Kumatora.
"Oh?" Duster blinked, unsure what part of the story he'd just told was funny. He had to admit, there was something a little absurd about how he'd pined for a girl he'd only imagined, let alone how badly wrong he'd been about his boring life... but he wasn't sure he'd call it funny, exactly. Maybe funny-peculiar, at best.
"That wasn't me on the piano," Kumatora answered, grinning faintly as Duster's face fell. "It was one of the ghosts. ... but if it makes you feel better, Duster, I sang along too."
"You did? How'd yours go?"
"It's -- it's a song I remember from when I was little. Y'gotta promise me you won't laugh."
"I won't!"
Kuma shot him one last glare, but when she opened her mouth again, she'd switched to her warbly and strangely uncertain-sounding alto. "Take a melody, simple as can be; give it some words and a sweet harmony..."
Could it be? The words were the same -- the ones Duster had thought he'd made up, but maybe he'd just remembered all along. How they both knew them, he wasn't inclined to question, and as Kumatora began the second verse, he added his voice to the chorus.
The troubles of the world, the troubles he'd labored under all his life, fled from Duster at that moment. Above him was a clear sky full of stairs... but the only one that mattered was there, the shooting star he'd caught, his very own tough girl with a sweet voice. They had the night, and they had the song. That was everything.