Life's Melody
Title: Life's Melody
Rating: PG-13 (for now)
Pairing: Erik/Charles
Summary: AU Charles is a classical cellist. Erik is the base player in a rock band. The two have a chance encounter and a night of bliss. But when Charles has to leave Erik is left in love with a man whose last name he doesn't even know.
This is a collab fic with me and the lovely illeatyourpillow (Schach)
Life's Melody
Chapter 1: Moondance
Echoes filled the concert hall as the last chord rang through. Charles pulled his bow down from the strings of his cello and stood to bow. He smiled as he caught a glimpse of his sister in the crowd. Of course instead of clapping politely she was catcalling and waving her arms dramatically. He grinned to himself as he finished his bow and took his cello with him off the stage.
By the time Charles had finished placing his cello gently in his case a loud knocking could be heard from the door. Well, knocking would be putting it nicely. He opened the door to find his sister Raven’s fist raised and ready to slam the door again. She quickly recovered and enveloped her brother in a strong hug.
“Oh Charles, you were wonderful!” Her smile was a mile wide when she let him go.
“Was I? I thought it was a bit of a train wreck,” Charles chuckled as he bent down to clasp his cello case shut.
“Oh bullshit, that was the best I’ve heard you! And what a way to go for your last concert!” Raven was sifting through the pile of flowers and cards sitting on the dresser.
“I’m just glad it’s finally over. It’ll be nice to rest for a change. Hey, don’t open that!”
Raven had picked up a bottle of champagne. She scowled at him. “Why not? You’re done your concerts, it’s about time you let loose.”
“I really don’t think that would be-”
Raven scoffed. “Don’t give me that ‘I have to be responsible’ spiel. Everyone deserves to be irresponsible and stupid every once in a while, and you’re WAY overdue.” She clasped Charles shoulder. “Just one night? One night of shenanigans and I’ll leave you alone forever.”
Charles laughed. “I don’t believe that for a second.” Raven looked at him with pleading eyes. It was the same look they used to give their mother whenever she had wanted something. He sighed. “Fine. ONE night.”
Raven’s face lit up. “Allright let’s go then!” She grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the dressing room. Shouts of “Wait! Now??” echoed through the halls as a surprised Charles was dragged out of the only life he really knew.
~
“Erik, you’re coming to the party right?” Emma asked again, leaning into the hotel mirror and fussing with her already perfect make up. Even after a demanding show like the one they’d just finished, she always managed to look as if she had just been airbrushed and photoshopped.
Erik glowered in her direction, as she was fully aware that he had ignored the question the first time, before shrugging his shoulders and grumbling out, “I don’t know. Probably not.”
“Aw come on, Erik. Maybe it’ll be like a fucking fairytale and you’ll meet the one,” Emma pushed, putting emphasis on the last word, but managing to convey it as if she could care less. When Erik just acknowledged this with a smirk, she shrugged and tried again, “There will be beer...”
“Why do you just assume I’ll give in to everything you say when you mention any form of alcohol?” he questioned testily. Although he found he was already moving to put his bass guitar away in its case.
“Because you do?” she retorted, moving to shuffle through his duffel bag, pulling out random articles of clothing, throwing all the rejected items on the floor.
“What are you doing?!” he demanded outraged.
“Finding you something else to wear, you’re all sweaty from working that bass,” Emma explained, wrinkling her nose at his apparent smell, before hurling jeans and a turtle neck at him, “Go shower and then we’ll get the rest of the band and head out to the party.”
Erik took his clothes into the bathroom, muttering the whole way about lead singers.
~
Charles felt like he was being pulled through a never ending sea of bodies and sweat. The only thing keeping him grounded was Raven’s hand as she led him through the room. They stopped in the kitchen and Raven’s hand was quickly replaced with a red cup. He stared down at it, trying to discern its contents.
“Charles, for christ sake just drink it.” Raven rolled her eyes as she drank from a matching red cup.
“What is it?” he asked, still wary.
“It doesn’t matter! You promised you’d be irresponsible, and knowing what you’re drinking is too responsible!”
Before Charles could respond with how stupid that was, someone brushed against his shoulder. He moved to the side to let a tall man reach over for one of the full red cups. The man turned to face him, leaning against the counter lazily.
“She’s right, you know. Alcohol is alcohol. Take it for what it is and enjoy it.” He watched Charles over his red cup as he drank. Charles could feel his face flush under the intense gaze of those blue-grey eyes. He looked away, taking a sip from his cup to hide his embarrassment. He immediately regretted that decision. Whatever was in that cup was NOT anywhere near drinkable. He choked and spluttered; Raven quick to help, patting his back as he regained composure. He had heard the tall man’s melodic laugh, but when Charles looked up he was gone.
~
Erik could hear Emma’s mocking laughter as he stormed off, more than a little irked. She was in a mood tonight, determined to do anything that might even remotely bug him. And it was working.
He glanced woefully at the half empty cup in his hand, thinking of returning to the kitchen and grabbing a new one, but he didn’t know if the shorter well dressed man was still in the kitchen. That could be a good thing, or a bad thing depending on how Erik decided to view the situation.
If he took a good viewpoint, the man seemed interesting enough and maybe Erik could see where it all would go. But if he took a bad viewpoint, the man could glare at Erik for his ‘butting in’, putting him an even worse mood. Better not to risk it, he thought sullenly, downing the rest of his cup and setting it down on a random side table.
He couldn’t leave the party, or else he’d never hear the end of it, but he was sick of standing around in the crowded sweaty room. Stumbling upon a pair of stairs, he felt his spirits lifting. He’d go up to the roof, be alone and tell Emma later that he’d never left.
Slipping discreetly up the stairs, he pushed open the door, glad to find it unlocked and the rooftop void of people.
“Perfect,” he sighed, sinking down onto the only available piece of furniture, which appeared to be an abandoned mattress, random pillows and blankets thrown over it, apparently available for star gazing or moon bathing or whatever these people did when not having parties.
~
Charles was never going to listen to Raven again. Being irresponsible was NOT fun. All it had gotten him so far was a horrible taste in his mouth and a ruined sweater. (Some drunk kid had puked on him.) Unfortunately, he couldn’t leave without Raven. She was the only one that knew where they were in this stupid city. The only thing that had been mildly intriguing was that man with the blue-grey eyes, but after his choking fiasco the man had been missing in action. Just his luck.
What would he have done anyway? Use his cunning wit and charming smile to win him over? Who was he kidding, Charles had never successfully “picked up” someone in his life. Sure Raven had set him up on a few blind dates, but those never ended well. He sighed and resigned himself to a terrible evening. He just needed to find a place to lay low until Raven was partied out.
A couple pushed past him, their lips never breaking contact as they drunkenly stumbled onto a staircase nearby. He grimaced at the display. They had given up on going up the stairs, happy to start undressing each other where they had fallen. Someone else noticed this and rushed over to shoo them away.
“Sean, that’s disgusting. Take it in a room or something, please!”
The couple somehow managed to untangle the mess of limbs. “Geez, Hank, you think you’d be happy for me.”
The boy sighed. “I’ll be HAPPY if you don’t have sex on the staircase. People actually use that, y’know.” Sean grumbled, but pulled the girl away with him into the swarm of bodies that was the living room.
Charles could only laugh. Here he was contemplating his failure of a love life while this Sean kid was getting it right in front of him. He needed to get away. He went for the stairs, hoping that there weren’t more couples getting some further up on the staircase.
Luckily, there weren’t, and he opened the door into the cool night. He headed for the railing and leaned on it, staring into the night. He looked up to see a crescent moon smiling crookedly down at him.
Believing himself to be alone, he began to sing.
“Well it’s a fabulous night for a moondance...”
~
The moon was bright tonight, and Erik had found himself wishing for almost the first time in his life that he had someone of importance to share it with, when all of a sudden the man from the kitchen appeared on the roof. And he began singing.
Must not have seen me, Erik thought to himself as he quietly got to his feet, trying not to interrupt the other man’s focus or alert him that he wasn’t alone. He was planning on leaving the roof, sneaking off and leaving the man alone, and unembarrassed. Key word being planning.
He got half way to the door before whirling around and for some reason decided to join in.
“With the stars up above in your eyes, a fantabulous night to make romance,” he sang along, remembering for a moment why he was the bassist and not the lead singer, but he shrugged the thought away and strolled closer to the other man, stopping next to him and mimicking his stance.
The shorter man jumped in surprise, staring at him with wide blue eyes. Erik thought he looked like a deer in the headlights, and worried that he would make a dash for the stairs. Instead the man smiled and continued to sing.
“Neath the cover of Oktober skies.” Unlike Erik, his melody was perfectly pitched, the notes carrying off into the night.
They continued to sing together, Erik’s rough notes making a unique harmony alongside the perfect melody of the man beside him. He couldn’t help but realize how romantic the lyrics were, as he watched the man singing. His eyes were closed, losing himself in the song. Geez, if Emma ever caught him up here like this...
The song finished, and the man opened his sapphire eyes and looked at Erik. Erik definitely didn’t feel his stomach flip. That wouldn’t be like him at all.
“Charles.”
Erik shook out of his thoughts. “I’m sorry?”
“I’m Charles.” The man put out his hand. Erik took it, never looking away from those bright eyes.
“Erik,” was all he could get out.
“It was nice to sing with you, Erik.” Charles smiled warmly, “I didn’t think that anyone was up here.”
Erik ducked his head guiltily, but only for a moment because he found he really couldn’t take his eyes off of Charles, “I was trying to get away from all of that.”
Charles laughed at his vague hand gesture towards the door leading back in before he murmured quietly, “Tell me about it.”
Erik took a step back, aware that he was being watched and wandered back over to the mattress, sinking back down into it, “You’re welcome to join me. We can get away together.”
Charles’ response to this was to raise his eyebrow in amusement, but he smiled all the same and slowly moved towards a waiting Erik.
“But lose the puke sweater first. Please,” Erik ordered lightly, a laugh on his face.
Charles obliged, peeling the garment over his head, and dropping it to the floor by his feet.
The hand Erik offered to help him sit was accepted without a moments hesitation. And there they were suddenly, sitting comfortably side by side.
They sat in silence for a while, looking up at the night sky. There were a surprising amount of stars out for a city sky. Erik laid back on to the pillows, and Charles soon followed suit. He could see the rise and fall of Erik’s chest next to him. He wasn’t sure why, but there was just something about Erik that pulled him in. He could have stayed on that roof for hours without so much as a word being spoken.
Erik pulled him out of his thoughts. “Do you hear that?”
Charles lifted himself up onto his elbows. He searched for a sound that Erik might be talking about, but nothing seemed to stick out amongst the sounds of the city. “Hear what?”
“Life.” Charles looked over at Erik. His face seemed to have lit up. “Usually we can’t hear it, too caught up in the songs of our own lives. The melodies we create, and the harmonies of those we meet. Sometimes it gets jumbled. Too much noise, confusion. That’s why I come up here. It’s so much easier to hear an orchestra from a distance. You don’t get caught up in the winds or the strings. It’s just... life.”
Erik laughed. “You must think I’m crazy. I don’t even know what I’m saying half the time.”
Charles put a hand on his shoulder. Erik could feel the warmth through his shirt; comforting. “You’re not crazy.” Charles smiled. “I think it’s beautiful, the way you listen.”
Erik chuckled. “Yeah, well. You’re probably the only one that thinks so. I always end up on rooftops, talking to myself. Just... out here on my own...”
“...well, I’m here.”
Erik turned to be once again caught up in Charles’ ocean blue eyes. Even in the dim of the dark they were the brightest he’d ever seen. “Yes you are.” He hadn’t realized it, but they had been slowly leaning towards one another. Erik blinked and realized they were mere inches apart. He had a short intake of breath as Charles bridged the gap, grazing their lips softly for a moment.
“Erik... you’re not alone.”
Rating: PG-13 (for now)
Pairing: Erik/Charles
Summary: AU Charles is a classical cellist. Erik is the base player in a rock band. The two have a chance encounter and a night of bliss. But when Charles has to leave Erik is left in love with a man whose last name he doesn't even know.
This is a collab fic with me and the lovely illeatyourpillow (Schach)
Life's Melody
Chapter 1: Moondance
Echoes filled the concert hall as the last chord rang through. Charles pulled his bow down from the strings of his cello and stood to bow. He smiled as he caught a glimpse of his sister in the crowd. Of course instead of clapping politely she was catcalling and waving her arms dramatically. He grinned to himself as he finished his bow and took his cello with him off the stage.
By the time Charles had finished placing his cello gently in his case a loud knocking could be heard from the door. Well, knocking would be putting it nicely. He opened the door to find his sister Raven’s fist raised and ready to slam the door again. She quickly recovered and enveloped her brother in a strong hug.
“Oh Charles, you were wonderful!” Her smile was a mile wide when she let him go.
“Was I? I thought it was a bit of a train wreck,” Charles chuckled as he bent down to clasp his cello case shut.
“Oh bullshit, that was the best I’ve heard you! And what a way to go for your last concert!” Raven was sifting through the pile of flowers and cards sitting on the dresser.
“I’m just glad it’s finally over. It’ll be nice to rest for a change. Hey, don’t open that!”
Raven had picked up a bottle of champagne. She scowled at him. “Why not? You’re done your concerts, it’s about time you let loose.”
“I really don’t think that would be-”
Raven scoffed. “Don’t give me that ‘I have to be responsible’ spiel. Everyone deserves to be irresponsible and stupid every once in a while, and you’re WAY overdue.” She clasped Charles shoulder. “Just one night? One night of shenanigans and I’ll leave you alone forever.”
Charles laughed. “I don’t believe that for a second.” Raven looked at him with pleading eyes. It was the same look they used to give their mother whenever she had wanted something. He sighed. “Fine. ONE night.”
Raven’s face lit up. “Allright let’s go then!” She grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the dressing room. Shouts of “Wait! Now??” echoed through the halls as a surprised Charles was dragged out of the only life he really knew.
~
“Erik, you’re coming to the party right?” Emma asked again, leaning into the hotel mirror and fussing with her already perfect make up. Even after a demanding show like the one they’d just finished, she always managed to look as if she had just been airbrushed and photoshopped.
Erik glowered in her direction, as she was fully aware that he had ignored the question the first time, before shrugging his shoulders and grumbling out, “I don’t know. Probably not.”
“Aw come on, Erik. Maybe it’ll be like a fucking fairytale and you’ll meet the one,” Emma pushed, putting emphasis on the last word, but managing to convey it as if she could care less. When Erik just acknowledged this with a smirk, she shrugged and tried again, “There will be beer...”
“Why do you just assume I’ll give in to everything you say when you mention any form of alcohol?” he questioned testily. Although he found he was already moving to put his bass guitar away in its case.
“Because you do?” she retorted, moving to shuffle through his duffel bag, pulling out random articles of clothing, throwing all the rejected items on the floor.
“What are you doing?!” he demanded outraged.
“Finding you something else to wear, you’re all sweaty from working that bass,” Emma explained, wrinkling her nose at his apparent smell, before hurling jeans and a turtle neck at him, “Go shower and then we’ll get the rest of the band and head out to the party.”
Erik took his clothes into the bathroom, muttering the whole way about lead singers.
~
Charles felt like he was being pulled through a never ending sea of bodies and sweat. The only thing keeping him grounded was Raven’s hand as she led him through the room. They stopped in the kitchen and Raven’s hand was quickly replaced with a red cup. He stared down at it, trying to discern its contents.
“Charles, for christ sake just drink it.” Raven rolled her eyes as she drank from a matching red cup.
“What is it?” he asked, still wary.
“It doesn’t matter! You promised you’d be irresponsible, and knowing what you’re drinking is too responsible!”
Before Charles could respond with how stupid that was, someone brushed against his shoulder. He moved to the side to let a tall man reach over for one of the full red cups. The man turned to face him, leaning against the counter lazily.
“She’s right, you know. Alcohol is alcohol. Take it for what it is and enjoy it.” He watched Charles over his red cup as he drank. Charles could feel his face flush under the intense gaze of those blue-grey eyes. He looked away, taking a sip from his cup to hide his embarrassment. He immediately regretted that decision. Whatever was in that cup was NOT anywhere near drinkable. He choked and spluttered; Raven quick to help, patting his back as he regained composure. He had heard the tall man’s melodic laugh, but when Charles looked up he was gone.
~
Erik could hear Emma’s mocking laughter as he stormed off, more than a little irked. She was in a mood tonight, determined to do anything that might even remotely bug him. And it was working.
He glanced woefully at the half empty cup in his hand, thinking of returning to the kitchen and grabbing a new one, but he didn’t know if the shorter well dressed man was still in the kitchen. That could be a good thing, or a bad thing depending on how Erik decided to view the situation.
If he took a good viewpoint, the man seemed interesting enough and maybe Erik could see where it all would go. But if he took a bad viewpoint, the man could glare at Erik for his ‘butting in’, putting him an even worse mood. Better not to risk it, he thought sullenly, downing the rest of his cup and setting it down on a random side table.
He couldn’t leave the party, or else he’d never hear the end of it, but he was sick of standing around in the crowded sweaty room. Stumbling upon a pair of stairs, he felt his spirits lifting. He’d go up to the roof, be alone and tell Emma later that he’d never left.
Slipping discreetly up the stairs, he pushed open the door, glad to find it unlocked and the rooftop void of people.
“Perfect,” he sighed, sinking down onto the only available piece of furniture, which appeared to be an abandoned mattress, random pillows and blankets thrown over it, apparently available for star gazing or moon bathing or whatever these people did when not having parties.
~
Charles was never going to listen to Raven again. Being irresponsible was NOT fun. All it had gotten him so far was a horrible taste in his mouth and a ruined sweater. (Some drunk kid had puked on him.) Unfortunately, he couldn’t leave without Raven. She was the only one that knew where they were in this stupid city. The only thing that had been mildly intriguing was that man with the blue-grey eyes, but after his choking fiasco the man had been missing in action. Just his luck.
What would he have done anyway? Use his cunning wit and charming smile to win him over? Who was he kidding, Charles had never successfully “picked up” someone in his life. Sure Raven had set him up on a few blind dates, but those never ended well. He sighed and resigned himself to a terrible evening. He just needed to find a place to lay low until Raven was partied out.
A couple pushed past him, their lips never breaking contact as they drunkenly stumbled onto a staircase nearby. He grimaced at the display. They had given up on going up the stairs, happy to start undressing each other where they had fallen. Someone else noticed this and rushed over to shoo them away.
“Sean, that’s disgusting. Take it in a room or something, please!”
The couple somehow managed to untangle the mess of limbs. “Geez, Hank, you think you’d be happy for me.”
The boy sighed. “I’ll be HAPPY if you don’t have sex on the staircase. People actually use that, y’know.” Sean grumbled, but pulled the girl away with him into the swarm of bodies that was the living room.
Charles could only laugh. Here he was contemplating his failure of a love life while this Sean kid was getting it right in front of him. He needed to get away. He went for the stairs, hoping that there weren’t more couples getting some further up on the staircase.
Luckily, there weren’t, and he opened the door into the cool night. He headed for the railing and leaned on it, staring into the night. He looked up to see a crescent moon smiling crookedly down at him.
Believing himself to be alone, he began to sing.
“Well it’s a fabulous night for a moondance...”
~
The moon was bright tonight, and Erik had found himself wishing for almost the first time in his life that he had someone of importance to share it with, when all of a sudden the man from the kitchen appeared on the roof. And he began singing.
Must not have seen me, Erik thought to himself as he quietly got to his feet, trying not to interrupt the other man’s focus or alert him that he wasn’t alone. He was planning on leaving the roof, sneaking off and leaving the man alone, and unembarrassed. Key word being planning.
He got half way to the door before whirling around and for some reason decided to join in.
“With the stars up above in your eyes, a fantabulous night to make romance,” he sang along, remembering for a moment why he was the bassist and not the lead singer, but he shrugged the thought away and strolled closer to the other man, stopping next to him and mimicking his stance.
The shorter man jumped in surprise, staring at him with wide blue eyes. Erik thought he looked like a deer in the headlights, and worried that he would make a dash for the stairs. Instead the man smiled and continued to sing.
“Neath the cover of Oktober skies.” Unlike Erik, his melody was perfectly pitched, the notes carrying off into the night.
They continued to sing together, Erik’s rough notes making a unique harmony alongside the perfect melody of the man beside him. He couldn’t help but realize how romantic the lyrics were, as he watched the man singing. His eyes were closed, losing himself in the song. Geez, if Emma ever caught him up here like this...
The song finished, and the man opened his sapphire eyes and looked at Erik. Erik definitely didn’t feel his stomach flip. That wouldn’t be like him at all.
“Charles.”
Erik shook out of his thoughts. “I’m sorry?”
“I’m Charles.” The man put out his hand. Erik took it, never looking away from those bright eyes.
“Erik,” was all he could get out.
“It was nice to sing with you, Erik.” Charles smiled warmly, “I didn’t think that anyone was up here.”
Erik ducked his head guiltily, but only for a moment because he found he really couldn’t take his eyes off of Charles, “I was trying to get away from all of that.”
Charles laughed at his vague hand gesture towards the door leading back in before he murmured quietly, “Tell me about it.”
Erik took a step back, aware that he was being watched and wandered back over to the mattress, sinking back down into it, “You’re welcome to join me. We can get away together.”
Charles’ response to this was to raise his eyebrow in amusement, but he smiled all the same and slowly moved towards a waiting Erik.
“But lose the puke sweater first. Please,” Erik ordered lightly, a laugh on his face.
Charles obliged, peeling the garment over his head, and dropping it to the floor by his feet.
The hand Erik offered to help him sit was accepted without a moments hesitation. And there they were suddenly, sitting comfortably side by side.
They sat in silence for a while, looking up at the night sky. There were a surprising amount of stars out for a city sky. Erik laid back on to the pillows, and Charles soon followed suit. He could see the rise and fall of Erik’s chest next to him. He wasn’t sure why, but there was just something about Erik that pulled him in. He could have stayed on that roof for hours without so much as a word being spoken.
Erik pulled him out of his thoughts. “Do you hear that?”
Charles lifted himself up onto his elbows. He searched for a sound that Erik might be talking about, but nothing seemed to stick out amongst the sounds of the city. “Hear what?”
“Life.” Charles looked over at Erik. His face seemed to have lit up. “Usually we can’t hear it, too caught up in the songs of our own lives. The melodies we create, and the harmonies of those we meet. Sometimes it gets jumbled. Too much noise, confusion. That’s why I come up here. It’s so much easier to hear an orchestra from a distance. You don’t get caught up in the winds or the strings. It’s just... life.”
Erik laughed. “You must think I’m crazy. I don’t even know what I’m saying half the time.”
Charles put a hand on his shoulder. Erik could feel the warmth through his shirt; comforting. “You’re not crazy.” Charles smiled. “I think it’s beautiful, the way you listen.”
Erik chuckled. “Yeah, well. You’re probably the only one that thinks so. I always end up on rooftops, talking to myself. Just... out here on my own...”
“...well, I’m here.”
Erik turned to be once again caught up in Charles’ ocean blue eyes. Even in the dim of the dark they were the brightest he’d ever seen. “Yes you are.” He hadn’t realized it, but they had been slowly leaning towards one another. Erik blinked and realized they were mere inches apart. He had a short intake of breath as Charles bridged the gap, grazing their lips softly for a moment.
“Erik... you’re not alone.”