𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐄𝐲𝐞𝐳 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲 | 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐢 𝐎𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐚

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 | 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥, 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐛𝐨𝐲

When he walked in he could see her sitting at the piano, back turned to him gently prodding the keys.

He took silent steps towards the couch placed diagonal to the piano, sitting quietly.

It was rare that he got to watch her in her zone, so he took this chance to savor the moment. It was only when he watched her back slump and her hands drop to her lap that he gently moved into the empty seat beside her.

She jumped at the notice of his presence, "Fuck!" she muttered, clutching her chest, "you almost gave me a heart attack."

"Lock the door next time," he warned, "you alright?"

"Yeah." she hummed, "Now I am."

"That was Solas?" he inquired, head tilted as he stared at the girl who had yet to make eye contact with him. "Yeah," she answered, reaching up to grab the journal from the drawer.

"I like it, that's real nice."

"Thanks," she muttered distractedly scribbling down music notes that Notti couldn't understand. "Sorry," she hummed, "I need to write this down before I forget it."

"yeah." Notti drawled, reaching his hand up to press a random key.

She lifted her head, cocking it at the view of Notti studying the piano keys.

"I can show you the basics." She encouraged him, making him shake his head. "Nah, I wouldn't get it."

"Boo!" she taunted, "come here." she pulled him closer until they were side by side to the point that their elbows were touching. "This is D, then you have B, so go D, B, D" she instructed watching him press at the keys. "We only need to know eleven for this song." she hummed going through all eleven keys. Notti let her guide his hands over each movement.

"From here, you move to A7," she spoke quietly lifting his hand gently and splaying it over the key, she used her hand to cover his, her pointer finger gently pressing down onto his.

"Do you recognize the song Notti?" she asked, eyes drifting up to meet his.

Notti hadn't understood a word she said, his eyes were too busy watching how her tiny hand held his. "Hmm?" he asked, eyes shifting up to hers.

"You weren't listening huh?" she giggled, letting go of his hand.

"Nah," his voice was raspy, he cleared his throat continuing, "I was."

"Whatever, listen."

Notti gently pulled his hands into his lap watching her press the keys at a much faster pace than what she taught him.

"Close your eyes, have no fear, the monster's gone he's on the run and I'm right here, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy" she sang lowly, making Notti smile.

She had such a soft, angelic voice when she sang. Notti loved it.

The air between the two became tense again, much like earlier, Notti was sure that this would be his chance to air out everything he's been holding in, but the second he opened his mouth, the front door creaked open.

"Oh shit." Leati cursed, catching the falling grocery bag.

"Tama," Laney excitedly voiced. [dad]

"Hey, baby, a little help here." He motioned to the multiple bags of groceries sprawled at his feet.

"Notti, son!" He grinned, stepping over the bags to tug the sitting boy into his chest. "How you been boy?" he asked, ruffling his braids.

"He pops," Notti grinned, getting up to help with the bags, "I've been chilling."

"You should stay for dinner." Leati encouraged loading his groceries onto the counter.

"Yeah," Notti agreed, "I will."

"Oh, dad!" Laney suddenly remembered, "If it's okay, Eli wanted to shoot something at nine.

"Well, I'll start dinner now then, so you guys can eat before you go, huh?" he suggested pulling out a pot for his crabs.

"Okay." she hummed, "I'll be back. I'm going to go find an outfit."

When they were alone, Leati turned to the younger boy, "what's new?"

"Nothing really." Notti grinned, moving into the kitchen.

"Wash your hands for me." The man directed, "Talk to me."

Notti looked at Leati as a second father figure, it was easy to talk to him. "I'm having girl issues."

"Oh," Leati raised his eyebrows, "tell me more."

"I like her, but I don't know if she likes me back." He admitted, accepting the knife and vegetables Leati passed to him. He began chopping as Leati instructed him to do.

"In a situation like this one, all you can do is wait it out. Does she know you like her?"

"No," Notti blushed, eyes focused on the cutting board.

"Then how the hell do you expect somebody to admit feelings, Ethan." Leati laughed.

"True." Notti agreed, dropping the sliced veggies into the bowl.

"I say tell her, give it some time to marinate first, see if she reciprocates the feeling, it's nothing more embarrassing than liking somebody who doesn't like you."

If only Leati knew how much Notti already understood that statement.

⋆*⋆*⋆*⋆*

An hour later the group of four sat at the table, plates piled to the T as they each gathered hands. Leati led a small prayer before saying his amens prompting the kids to dig in.

Two plates sat in front of Laney, one with her rice and veggies, another with steamed crab legs for both her and Notti. She reached forward listening to everyone around her talk as she cracked open the biggest leg, she pulled the meat from the shell, passing it to Notti who damn near gulped it down.

"Having somebody crack you crab is crazy." Eli teased from across the table.

"Shut up." Laney defended, handing Notti another piece of de-shelled crab.

Notti took no offense to Elias and his teasing instead accepting the meat happily. Laney remained silent as Elias and Notti explained the viral situation to her dad, taking small bites from her food as she helped Notti. Every so often she would chime into the conversation but she was silent for the most part, only speaking when spoken to.

She laughed when Notti turned her direction, seeing oil smeared across his cheek."Come here." she tugged at his shirt, lifting a napkin from the table to wipe at his cheek, right beside his lips. "You eat like a little ass kid." she teased patting his cheek.

"Chill." he dragged laughing with her before he cleared his throat noticing that the father and son duo were deep in conversation. "Can I talk to you about something later? After the shoot?"

Laney could only hope it wasn't about the almost-kiss situation that happened earlier, "okay."

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝟏𝟓 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐡'𝐬 <𝟑 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞'𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐦! 𝐕𝐨𝐭𝐞 & 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭!