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XXXI

“Brett! Finally! It’s like you’re not even in this camp!”
“Why d’you complain? Don’t you like the additional personal space?”

After an amazing bubble tea from that one place Eddy had shown Brett before, bought with their not so hard-earned money, if they were being honest, they had slowly and very cozily strolled back towards the con, the still cooling night breeze ruffling their mop of hairs, prompting them to take deep breathers more than once, relaxing more and more in the other’s presence.
If it would have been for their conversation, the night would have taken no end. There seemed to be a deep well out of which they could scoop out new topics endlessly, dissecting them in their discussions while learning more and more about each other’s world views, values and preferences. Brett marveled over how familiar and safe talking with Eddy felt when there was so much more to learn from and about him and he soaked up every minute of it like a sponge hitting water the first time. Only when Eddy threw a glance at his watch showing the most prominent of Disney characters and shocked them both by revealing the time to be around midnight already, they’d decided to postpone whatever they had been talking about to any free time they were going to get tomorrow.
The steps which took Brett back to the hotel had been a tad too bouncy for a first year uni student, Brett had been well aware. See if he cared!

“Why are you not in bed anyway?”
“I can ask you the same thing, bro! Why are you back so late?”
Brett kicked away his shoes by the door and put down his violin case. “Got bubble tea with Eddy again. This shit’s legit, you need to come with next time."
“Two bubble teas in a day. Dude, you wanna die of diabetes by twenty-five or something? I thought you were practicing in some hidden practice room the con doesn’t know about and climbed out the window to get here”, Cole meant dryly, causing a laugh bubbling up Brett’s tired system. 
“We actually did practice beforehand. Performance practice.”
The other crossed his arms behind his head leaning against the headboard. “What does that mean?”
“We went busking by the pier. Got a shitload of money too and it was so much fun!”
Brett must have grown an additional head judging by the confused look Cole gave him. “What? It’s not that out of the world, right?”
“You went busking with Eddy Chen?”
“Yeah, why the hell not?”
“I don’t know… he doesn’t come across as the type who would do this.”
“Haha, yeah, he isn't really. I convinced him to”, Brett said and let himself fall down on his bed despite knowing it was a bad idea considering he had to force his exhausted ass to get up and brush teeth the next minute. 
Cole turned to him, his expression getting more incredulous the more he heard. “You convinced him… how long have you known each other exactly?”
“I’ve told you he’s a lot of fun. Anyway, what have you been up to?”
Brett’s friend proceeded to tell him about his evening filled with actual productive practice in a practice room and a beer afterwards with what was quickly becoming “their group”, consisting of the ten to twenty people from both cons Angelica always managed to gather for any sort of social event. They took a detour circling around what Brett had learned this afternoon but in the end, Cole returned to where they’d started and Brett didn’t feel like complaining at all funnily enough, at first at least.
“It’s nice he joined us for dinner”, he remarked.
“It is. I could punch Lauren though, she can be so bitchy sometimes!”
“Yeah! Man she was just too much! Eddy handled it well though, I think? Did you guys talk about what happened?”
“Yeah. He didn’t mind, fortunately.” Brett wasn’t going to lay out in detail what had bothered Eddy however. He knew Cole had noticed, but it wasn’t Brett’s place to share Eddy’s inner turmoil. 
“Eddy’s a nice guy”, Cole remarked instead.
“Mhm.”
“You’re spending an awful amount of time with him.”
“... I guess.”
Cole cleared his throat in a way that made all the hair on Brett’s neck stand up. 
“Have you spoken to Katie today?”
“The matter of fact I have”, Brett declared proudly, the lump in his throat however making no effort to vanish any time soon, “before dinner.”
“And? All normal?”
Brett rolled his eyes. “Yes, very normal! Have you not said anything I wouldn’t have noticed. Maybe it was all in your guys’ head anyway!”
Cole huffed. “Of course. And the fact that she actually told Angelica she had a thing for you, totally a product of our imagination.”
“Fuck you.”
“I’m proud of you though”, Cole yawned, sinking deeper into the mattress, “You didn’t run away this time. Good for you.”
“What am I, your dog?” Of course there was no way Brett was going to mention how short their conversation had been because of him staging a much needed bathroom visit.
“Sometimes you act like you are.”
“Fuck you”, Brett said again. 

And despite his friend’s remarks being situated in the realms between uncomfortable and amusing, the feeling of being let off the hook when Cole gave him a friendly wave before he turned around to sleep was somehow equal to whenever his parents had decided to stop interrogating Brett about his newest romantic encounters.

The next morning was reserved for rehearsing Korngold again, this time with the conductors deciding on the movements Brett and Eddy had to play. 
“You’ll both going attempt playing the second movement with the orchestra”, Mr. Jones announced with a way too wide smile for this early hour when Eddy finally arrived at the scene, hair all messy from his run here after what must have been a haphazard shower. The weird fuzziness inside Brett as soon as his vision had caught the very first glimpse of Eddy Chen hurrying into the concert hall was confusing to say the least, but Brett found a highly plausible explanation by making the upcoming performance responsible for that.
“Like this, we will be able to have some sort of first comparison. Of course, how you play today is not going to be a deciding factor for the audition on Sunday, so no need to worry.”

“No need to worry my ass”, Brett mumbled as they both took their seats at the first desk, tightening their bows. 
“You’ll be fine, Brett. It’s a slow movement anyway and since I’m doomed with my unemotional playing, it’s on you to save the day.”
“Stop bullshitting me! After what you pulled at our busking session you can play as unemotional as you want, I reckon. It’s still gonna be mind blowing!”
Eddy’s thoughtful expression made Brett stop in his tracks while the other seemed to deliberate on his next words. Who would have thought that Eddy revealing the following was going to be the highlight of Brett’s morning? “You do know that yesterday was the most fun I had while playing the violin, right?”

His notes could be as out of tune as they wanted to be now, there was no way Brett’s goofy grin was going to falter any time soon.

A/N: Hello guys :-)! Sorry for the late upload time! I'm skiing in the snowy mountains with thousands of people (trust me, you don't really want to switch places with me when you see the queues in front of the lifts and stuff AND the ticket prices XD) and don't have internet during the day, so the next uploads might be a bit later than usual. Wish you all a wonderful rest of the year and as always, thanks for reading!