INTERLUDE // Tubbo X Reader

12

As usual, you were the first one to arrive in the piano room, and you plopped down in your seat, switching on your keyboard and unfolding the folder that kept all the work you had done. Your fingers fluttered over the keys, playing a quick scale to warm up. Just sitting in front of the keyboard made you want to play the whole piece from beginning to end - or at least what was written of it. 

You were about halfway through - you kept stopping to make little notes in the space between the lines - when Toby walked in, plopping down next to you and pulling out his own part of the piece. He sounded a little accusatory when he said, "You started without me."

"Sorry." You said, stopping to make another note in one of the margins. "I just really want to get this all put together so we can start practicing it."

"Me too." Toby said, turning on his own keyboard. He played a couple phrases of his Animal Crossing song (now almost perfect) just go get back into the feel. "I feel like we could get it done today."

"Well, class is what, an hour and a half?" You said. "How many measures do we have left to write until we get to the end mark?

"Uh..." Toby flipped his sheet of the music over, eyes scanning over the remaining blank lines. " Eighteen." He said, looking back up to you. 

"We could do that." You nodded to yourself. 

It didn't take too much longer for the class to fill out the rest of the way, and soon enough Mrs. Mears was bustling into the room as well, setting her frog shaped mug of tea down on her desk and clapping her hands together, grabbing her chalk and scrawling the words work day across the board. She turned excitedly to the class, flapping her fingers at the students. "Go on!" She said. "I want you to use every second of this class on those pieces - they're going to be amazing!"

You did exactly that, turning to Toby and fiddling around on your keyboards together until the last eighteen measures of the son basically wrote themselves - a cascade of different notes that rounded off the upbeat jive that you had started with. It was a musical journey in one and a half pages - or three, if you put each side of the duet together. 

It might have been the best thing you had ever written, and it was a school project. 

You added the last couple notes to your pages, grinning as you penciled them in. It was done. All that was left now was the easy bit - small edits and playing the piece over and over again until your fingers borderline moved on their own. 

"We should give it a whole run through." You said excitedly. "Start to finish."

"Yeah." Toby said, equally as eager as you. He shuffled his sheet music again until he was at the beginning again. 

You did the same, nodding to him when you were ready. "I'll count us in?"

"Sure thing." Toby said. His hands hovered over the keys on his keyboard waiting for your signal. 

You tapped a steady rhythm with your foot and counted in, playing the beginning of your piece. Toby joined in a few counts later when his part of the song started. The pianos blended together, creating a more complicated sound than if you had just been playing alone, and letting the song go in more than one direction at once. It sounded complex, but more than that - it sounded good. 

Of course, it wasn't completely scot free - it was only the first run after all. There were a couple times when you messed up or missed a phrase. It wasn't perfect yet, but that would come with time. What mattered right now was that you could hear the intent for the piece - in your mind, you could already see it played perfectly. There was a solid idea here. 

You finished, letting the last notes ring out and turned to Toby with a wide smile on your face. "That sounded so good."

His eyes were bright as he turned to you as well. "I know." He said. "There's just this one harmony on your end that sounded a little weird."

You flipped the sheet of music back over, finding the one part that he was talking about. "Yeah, I noticed that too - maybe we could change it from a flat to just a normal B?"

Toby hummed, scooting his chair over slightly so that he could see your part of the duet. "Sure, try it out."

You played the phrase again, changing the note. Still, you could tell it wasn't going to sound quite right. You frowned, fingers hovering over the keys, running possible combinations through in your head. 

"How 'bout we try this." Toby said, leaning slightly closer so that he could lay his hand on top of yours, maneuvering your fingers through the phrase again - this time hitting an Eb instead of the B. It sounded much better, but you were more focused on the slight weight of his hand over yours, and the callouses you could feel from where your skin touched. 

Butterflies pooled in your stomach as Toby pulled his hand back, looking at you. You blinked down at your hand, still hovering over the keys, and then looked to him. He was looking at you, waiting for some kind of input on the change. "Um." You said smartly. "Sounds good."

"Nice." Toby said, grinning and scooting back over to his own piano. "There was another bit that sounded a tad off too, hold on, let me find it..."

You grabbed your sheet of music, making the change as you tried to ignore the heat rushing to your face. Maybe Maya hadn't completely been wrong when she'd said that all it took was a simple touch of the hand... or maybe playing the piano wasn't the only reason you looked forward to class so much.