We Sound Good Together
Sakumiya. G. Fluff. Unbetaed.
Sho played piano. Nino joined in.
The sound of the piano drew Nino’s attention. He took off his earphone, directed his ear to the other room, and listened carefully, making sure that he wasn’t just imagining things. When he’s certain that it was the sound of the piano, he put down his console and searched for the source of the sound.
In one corner of the instrument room, the culprit was found. Sho was sitting behind the piano, pressing his fingers to one button and then another. The piano was the one that Nino usually used, but not as shiny as usual due to the piling dust. Nino found this a little bit funny, because to be honest he was a bit angry that someone was using his piano, but then it was Sho and his silly grin so Nino couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that.
Sho displayed a mischievous smile on his face. No one knew certainly why, but when Sakurai and Ninomiya were left alone, there’s always a surge of playfulness lurking around them. Sho’s fingers felt the keys and the notes formed a familiar melody to Nino’s ears that caused him to smile. Sho’s smile grew wider and he gestured with his head, inviting Nino to come in and join him.
“I begin to doubt that you can play anything other than that,” Nino commented while making his way to the piano.
Sho giggled and shrugged but he refused to utter any word. He kept on playing, scooting a bit to the right on the seat.
Nino took the wordless offer and sat next to Sho. The seat was not meant for two people, but they fit there perfectly nonetheless. Nino observed Sho’s play for a bit and realized that Sho kept repeating the intro part. He looked up and found Sho throwing a challenging look at him.
Nino shook his head and laughed soundlessly. He readied his hands on the piano and joined in to play Hatenai Sora with Sho. Sho smiled approvingly and finally the song proceeded past the intro part. Nino swayed a bit, following the slow rhythm that Sho had set, and giggled every time Sho struggled with the notes.
By the end of the first verse, the melody flowed flawlessly.
By the time they reached the chorus, Sho started to sing.
“Hatenai sora ga soko ni aru tte.”
Nino looked at Sho, amused.
Sho smiled and leaned closer to Nino’s ear as if he wanted to tease Nino, “Tobenai jibun wo kaete ikou ka.”
Nino rolled his eyes and laughed, finding it a little bit silly to sing with Sho at their break time. Nevertheless, Nino joined Sho in singing came the second verse.
Sho grinned triumphantly at that. They picked up the tempo a bit, partly because the excitement made them feel giddy and partly because singing it in slow tempo felt a bit unusual. Sho joined Nino swaying his body to keep the tempo and they both swayed with a ridiculously wide grins on their faces.
The second chorus came and they sang their hearts out. There was no audience, true, but they sang with all their might, as they always did. They exchanged glances from time to time and while no one knew exactly what those glances meant, they just felt that something was conveyed through it.
On the third chorus, the grins had reduced to smiles. The playfulness was dissipating and the song flowed with more and more feelings in every syllable. Their smiles were more of acknowledgement than excitement. A form of understanding was settling in the depth of their chests and neither of them bothered to think further about it. Instead, they just let it flow along with the song.
The final chorus was when Sho stopped swaying. He looked at Nino, marveling at how shining Nino was while singing. His voice was getting lower in volume and he completely stopped singing when Nino’s solo part came. He didn’t realize it, but he was intensely looking at Nino and playing the piano on auto-pilot. Then, Nino opened his eyes and looked at him, and he couldn’t help but to avert his eyes in apparent manner. His face was burning and his heart was beating fast.
It was obvious that their heads weren’t really on the song anymore when they wrap it up. Sho made one too many mistakes and Nino’s voice shook a bit towards the end. Sho felt a familiar feeling building up on the pit of his stomach-the particular one that he had only been feeling every time he was alone with Nino-and by the way Nino’s fingers missing some keys, he might be not the only one to feel that.
They laughed upon realizing that they equally messed up the end of the song. They succeeded in ending it decently and silence fell upon them. Neither of them said anything but neither of them was leaving too. It surely felt like they both were waiting, and Sho realized that one of them had to stop waiting for this to end.
So, he cleared his throat and moved his hand towards Nino’s which was rested on the bench right between them.
“We sound good together, don’t we?” Sho looked at Nino and waited for any respond.
“Well-” Nino tried to answer. His eyes met Sho and he looked away immediately.
Sho’s right hand caught Nino’s cheek, keeping Nino from turning away. Initially, he thought that it might be a wrong thing to do, but as his heart kept drumming and as the light that flickered on Nino’s eyes guided him, he found out that nothing was wrong in what he was doing. In fact, he had longed for this to happen since forever-he just ran out of guts every time. But not this time, he decided. This time he had gone as far as realizing what he wanted, so he leaned in instead of flinching away. With his eyes fixated to Nino’s, he leaned in closer and asked again in a whisper, “We sound good together, yeah?”
Nino gulped. He wanted to look away but he couldn’t. He was lost in the depth of Sho’s eyes-in the proximity of Sho’s being. It was apparent that he was nervous. He licked his lips unconsciously, but he didn’t make any movement that indicated that he was bothered by the development of the event.
Sho leaned even closer. His hand enveloped Nino’s and then moved to grip his arm. His other hand was still on Nino’s cheek, afraid of letting Nino go.
Then, he moved even closer.
And closer.
Nino licked his lips again, anticipating something that he didn’t dare to address even inside his own head.
Sho gulped, willing himself to keep on going.
Nino closed his eyes.
Sho did too.
Sho could smell the faint scent of cigarette from Nino.
Nino could feel Sho’s hand trembled a bit.
Sho felt his nose bumping to Nino’s.
Nino gulped.
And…
The door was opened rather abruptly, startling them both. They jumped away from each other out of reflex and Sho fell on his butt as the result. In the middle of chaos and panic, they looked at the door to find out who was it that disturbed their moment.
It was Aiba, peeking to the room with his head looming on the door.
“Oh, there you are!” Aiba, who was certainly oblivious about what was about to happen, exclaimed cheerfully. “Matsujun is searching for you guys.”
Nino snapped from his trance. He immediately stood up and rushed to the door, leaving Sho who was still on the floor.
Sho panicked at the sight of this. He tried to stand up but he failed. He knew that he would lose his chance the moment Nino crossed that door, so he shouted, “Nino!”
Nino didn’t turn to look at Sho but he stopped right in front of Aiba.
“We...,” Sho didn’t know what he was about to say-especially with Aiba being there-but he knew he had to say something, “We... sound good.”
Aiba tilted his head in confusion and averted his gaze from Sho to Nino.
Sho gulped when he didn’t get anything as a response. With uncertainty brimming on his voice, he added, “I mean- We do sound good together. Right?”
It took three seconds before Nino sighed and proceeded to push through Aiba, leaving the room completely. Aiba got more confused and he looked at Sho for a second before rushing to catch Nino.
Sho slumped. He thought that maybe Nino didn’t get it. Or maybe he misread the situation. Probably, Nino the spark that was there between them was just Sho’s imagination. Probably, he should ask it in a less implicit manner.
Sho let his back fell to the floor. He covered his eyes with his arm and willed himself to not scream out of desperation.
Just when Sho thought that it was the end, he heard a loud yell from the hall, “Of course we sound good together, stupid!”
Sho smiled.
Sho played piano. Nino joined in.
The sound of the piano drew Nino’s attention. He took off his earphone, directed his ear to the other room, and listened carefully, making sure that he wasn’t just imagining things. When he’s certain that it was the sound of the piano, he put down his console and searched for the source of the sound.
In one corner of the instrument room, the culprit was found. Sho was sitting behind the piano, pressing his fingers to one button and then another. The piano was the one that Nino usually used, but not as shiny as usual due to the piling dust. Nino found this a little bit funny, because to be honest he was a bit angry that someone was using his piano, but then it was Sho and his silly grin so Nino couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that.
Sho displayed a mischievous smile on his face. No one knew certainly why, but when Sakurai and Ninomiya were left alone, there’s always a surge of playfulness lurking around them. Sho’s fingers felt the keys and the notes formed a familiar melody to Nino’s ears that caused him to smile. Sho’s smile grew wider and he gestured with his head, inviting Nino to come in and join him.
“I begin to doubt that you can play anything other than that,” Nino commented while making his way to the piano.
Sho giggled and shrugged but he refused to utter any word. He kept on playing, scooting a bit to the right on the seat.
Nino took the wordless offer and sat next to Sho. The seat was not meant for two people, but they fit there perfectly nonetheless. Nino observed Sho’s play for a bit and realized that Sho kept repeating the intro part. He looked up and found Sho throwing a challenging look at him.
Nino shook his head and laughed soundlessly. He readied his hands on the piano and joined in to play Hatenai Sora with Sho. Sho smiled approvingly and finally the song proceeded past the intro part. Nino swayed a bit, following the slow rhythm that Sho had set, and giggled every time Sho struggled with the notes.
By the end of the first verse, the melody flowed flawlessly.
By the time they reached the chorus, Sho started to sing.
“Hatenai sora ga soko ni aru tte.”
Nino looked at Sho, amused.
Sho smiled and leaned closer to Nino’s ear as if he wanted to tease Nino, “Tobenai jibun wo kaete ikou ka.”
Nino rolled his eyes and laughed, finding it a little bit silly to sing with Sho at their break time. Nevertheless, Nino joined Sho in singing came the second verse.
Sho grinned triumphantly at that. They picked up the tempo a bit, partly because the excitement made them feel giddy and partly because singing it in slow tempo felt a bit unusual. Sho joined Nino swaying his body to keep the tempo and they both swayed with a ridiculously wide grins on their faces.
The second chorus came and they sang their hearts out. There was no audience, true, but they sang with all their might, as they always did. They exchanged glances from time to time and while no one knew exactly what those glances meant, they just felt that something was conveyed through it.
On the third chorus, the grins had reduced to smiles. The playfulness was dissipating and the song flowed with more and more feelings in every syllable. Their smiles were more of acknowledgement than excitement. A form of understanding was settling in the depth of their chests and neither of them bothered to think further about it. Instead, they just let it flow along with the song.
The final chorus was when Sho stopped swaying. He looked at Nino, marveling at how shining Nino was while singing. His voice was getting lower in volume and he completely stopped singing when Nino’s solo part came. He didn’t realize it, but he was intensely looking at Nino and playing the piano on auto-pilot. Then, Nino opened his eyes and looked at him, and he couldn’t help but to avert his eyes in apparent manner. His face was burning and his heart was beating fast.
It was obvious that their heads weren’t really on the song anymore when they wrap it up. Sho made one too many mistakes and Nino’s voice shook a bit towards the end. Sho felt a familiar feeling building up on the pit of his stomach-the particular one that he had only been feeling every time he was alone with Nino-and by the way Nino’s fingers missing some keys, he might be not the only one to feel that.
They laughed upon realizing that they equally messed up the end of the song. They succeeded in ending it decently and silence fell upon them. Neither of them said anything but neither of them was leaving too. It surely felt like they both were waiting, and Sho realized that one of them had to stop waiting for this to end.
So, he cleared his throat and moved his hand towards Nino’s which was rested on the bench right between them.
“We sound good together, don’t we?” Sho looked at Nino and waited for any respond.
“Well-” Nino tried to answer. His eyes met Sho and he looked away immediately.
Sho’s right hand caught Nino’s cheek, keeping Nino from turning away. Initially, he thought that it might be a wrong thing to do, but as his heart kept drumming and as the light that flickered on Nino’s eyes guided him, he found out that nothing was wrong in what he was doing. In fact, he had longed for this to happen since forever-he just ran out of guts every time. But not this time, he decided. This time he had gone as far as realizing what he wanted, so he leaned in instead of flinching away. With his eyes fixated to Nino’s, he leaned in closer and asked again in a whisper, “We sound good together, yeah?”
Nino gulped. He wanted to look away but he couldn’t. He was lost in the depth of Sho’s eyes-in the proximity of Sho’s being. It was apparent that he was nervous. He licked his lips unconsciously, but he didn’t make any movement that indicated that he was bothered by the development of the event.
Sho leaned even closer. His hand enveloped Nino’s and then moved to grip his arm. His other hand was still on Nino’s cheek, afraid of letting Nino go.
Then, he moved even closer.
And closer.
Nino licked his lips again, anticipating something that he didn’t dare to address even inside his own head.
Sho gulped, willing himself to keep on going.
Nino closed his eyes.
Sho did too.
Sho could smell the faint scent of cigarette from Nino.
Nino could feel Sho’s hand trembled a bit.
Sho felt his nose bumping to Nino’s.
Nino gulped.
And…
The door was opened rather abruptly, startling them both. They jumped away from each other out of reflex and Sho fell on his butt as the result. In the middle of chaos and panic, they looked at the door to find out who was it that disturbed their moment.
It was Aiba, peeking to the room with his head looming on the door.
“Oh, there you are!” Aiba, who was certainly oblivious about what was about to happen, exclaimed cheerfully. “Matsujun is searching for you guys.”
Nino snapped from his trance. He immediately stood up and rushed to the door, leaving Sho who was still on the floor.
Sho panicked at the sight of this. He tried to stand up but he failed. He knew that he would lose his chance the moment Nino crossed that door, so he shouted, “Nino!”
Nino didn’t turn to look at Sho but he stopped right in front of Aiba.
“We...,” Sho didn’t know what he was about to say-especially with Aiba being there-but he knew he had to say something, “We... sound good.”
Aiba tilted his head in confusion and averted his gaze from Sho to Nino.
Sho gulped when he didn’t get anything as a response. With uncertainty brimming on his voice, he added, “I mean- We do sound good together. Right?”
It took three seconds before Nino sighed and proceeded to push through Aiba, leaving the room completely. Aiba got more confused and he looked at Sho for a second before rushing to catch Nino.
Sho slumped. He thought that maybe Nino didn’t get it. Or maybe he misread the situation. Probably, Nino the spark that was there between them was just Sho’s imagination. Probably, he should ask it in a less implicit manner.
Sho let his back fell to the floor. He covered his eyes with his arm and willed himself to not scream out of desperation.
Just when Sho thought that it was the end, he heard a loud yell from the hall, “Of course we sound good together, stupid!”
Sho smiled.