the room was... noisy to say the least, instead of their usual art classes, paintbrush hosted a jam session with the few people who said they were interested in playing in the studio. Oj had given them this space specifically for arts and crafts, but Painty also ended up using it to keep their musical instruments.
Along with music, the room was full of sunlight through the few long windows along the far wall, this side of the room was a bit tidier, with the rest of it being full of shelves of art supplies, and tables with dried paint and markers, even a small stage for modeling. this corner of the studio, though, the carpet was more visibly un-stained by creation. Paintbrush tended to keep their things in order, including their guitars, drum sets, keyboard, and any other musical tools they could thrift.
Microphone was happily practicing on her bass, going between plucking through a song and getting distracted by creating new bass lines, paintbrush had an electric guitar strapped around their torso, standing next to her giving pointers. they went back and forth playing riffs, if they had kept going they might have a whole song new song by the end of the hour.
Oj was propped on a keyboard a bit ways away from them, it had been a long time since he last had played, but after he brought it up in passing, paintbrush convinced him to come and play for a while. Oj always had a hard time relaxing, but playing the piano was something that required focus and effort. And in a way, working hard at this gave him a gateway to take some time off.
Salt was... not exactly playing an instrument, but she did contribute to the noise by chatting to an unresponsive Oj, pepper was there because Salt was there. she sat at the other side of the room watching everything go down, mainly waiting for salt to have her daily Oj "fix" before they can go back to doing anything else.
For as much as she loved salt, following around Oj like lost puppies for however many hours salt wanted to, was not her treat, but As long as she hung out with salt, she really didn't mind what they did, they were best friends after all.
"Sooooo how long have you been playing piano Oj?"
"a few years." Oj's tone was monotone, his eyes didn't even look up from the keys as he worked through the song. But since Salt can't take a hint, she continued,
"That's a long time... do you know any like, Love songs." She batted her eyes at a clearly unenthused Oj. he finally looked up at her and cracked a forced smile.
"Actually, I do!"
Oj cracked his knuckles and looked back to the keys, and sang not-quite in tune, "I Would LOOove if you wOuld Leave. me. alone." with the last three words of his sonata, he slammed the keys.
"Mmmm I wouldn't reaaaaly call that a love song, more like, a bitter song." Salt said obliviously.
"Well maybe give some space and I'll come back with one later." OJ sighed as he got up, and started pushing Salt toward the wall where Pepper sat.
*Gasp* "Omg okay Oj, I can't like, wait."
Salt sat down next to Pepper, Salt kept her gaze forwards at Oj as he sat down at the keyboard again, and pepper kept her eyes on salt, hoping she'd look over to her soon.
Realizing she wasn't anytime soon, Pepper looked to the right, over to Microphone and Paintbrush, eavesdropping onto the guitar players,
"I've been doing better at this riff, I don't think I fully have it yet, but I'm faster at going all the way through!" Mic said.
"I mean for what you've done so far it's not bad at all! I think you just need to work your pinky and ring fingers more, they're your weaker ones as a baseline."
"you're telling me! it feels like my pinky is gonna fall off after I play."
"geez I remember feeling like that, I thought I was doing something wrong the whole time, turns out I just had weak-ass fingers for the longest time."
Mic laughed, it was nice to know she wasn't alone in the beginner process of having "weak-ass fingers"
Pepper leaned back up against the wall, and turned back to the left, she jumped when Salt's face was right in front of hers.
"You're like, jumpy today." salt joked
"Ye-yeah, I like, guess so." Pepper held her breath for a moment before Salt turned back over to watch Oj.
"Don't you think boys who play instruments are soooooo like, cute?"
"Uhhh, Yeah I guess."
Salt propped her head in her hands leaning onto the floor, eyes Still locked onto Oj, Pepper Waited for what Salt would say next, this is how most of their conversations went. Pepper thought of herself as a good listener so she didn't mind.
"OJ is so awesome on piano... the only way he'd be like, ANY cuter is if he played bass, bass strings are connected right to my heart, and so is like, OJ!"
But this, this comment, sparked something in Pepper, like she had finally been given a sign to start something new.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to my Rarepair fanfic, buckle up babey!!! this is being written while we're on the after-episode 14 hiatus, so I'm starving for content, and I have Rarepairs that are gonna drive me nuts if I don't make something for them. Expect chapters when I feel like it <3
YOU ARE READING
Learning Baseline Bass Lines - Inanimate Insanity
Fanfiction>ON HIATUS< Pepper has had a crush on Salt for the longest time, and after a afternoon of watching OJ play music in Paintbrush's studio, she gets an idea on how to make Salt finally see her as more than a friend. With the help of Paintbrush w...
