the rhythm our heart plays {breddy; twosetviolin fanfiction}

6

"Yeah no, thanks. Wouldn't wanna steal the attention from the bride and groom, bruised or not."

Eddy starts to feel a little antsy again when Brett doesn't let go of his arm and instead, pulls him towards the direction of the docks. "Oh whoa, look at that view...I kinda wanna capture this. Hold this," Brett shoves his near-empty bubble tea and box of fishballs into Eddy's hands before pulling out his phone. "Think we can use some of this footage for a vlog or something?"

"Yeah, and have our viewers shit on us for not practicing."

"Eh, we are practicing. Mentally. I've been fingering Tchaikovsky on my leg the whole plane ride here."

"Liar," Eddy laughs. "My drool-slicked t-shirt would like to have a word or two about that."

"Well your shirt can't talk, so hah!"Brett snaps some photos of the nightlife view and Eddy can't help but smile at that. This is nice. Having fun, dumb conversations like this. Spending time together like they don't have to care about anyone or anything else. Eddy's okay with things staying the way they are now, like this.

"Fancy spot, huh?" Eddy casually remarks as Brett continues to take pictures.

"Yeah, it's definitely a nice spot to take your date to."

And well, shit.

The shoulder rest drops and Eddy finally realizes what that nagging feeling tugging at the back of his mind was: a date! That's what it feels like. Is that what it is? But there are plenty of times where they hung out with just the two of them, and it's not like this is anything intimate. He's overthinking it. Get a grip, Eddy. He's definitely overthinking it.

"You...what? You have someone in mind that you wanna take here?" Eddy asks carefully. He just wants to clarify. He just wants to know if....what if...

Brett is silent for a moment and shakes his head. "Nah...I'm just saying," he shrugs and looks back at Eddy briefly. "But hey, if there's someone you know at the wedding who's single and looking, I'm down to meet them."

See? Overthinking. Eddy readily unclenches the tension from his shoulders and laughs, short and a little clipped. "Uh huh, any requirements I should know about?"

"Hmm...someone tall, I guess. Cute. A good sense of humor and a nice laugh. Hardworking, inspirational and..." Brett grins. "Bonus points if they don't play the viola."

Eddy's starting to wonder if maybe Brett is fucking with him or something. He's not sure if he should laugh or cry at this point. "So a Hilary Hahn or Janine Jansen?"

"You already know."

*

They get back home relatively late and decide to get ready for the night. There's still a few days before the wedding and before the rest of the family arrives, so there's plenty of time to meet up with them later and rehearse for their performance. He feels a bit bad that he has to drag Brett along with him to this, but Brett's just as much as part of the family at this point. His mother insisted on having Brett come, and Brett didn't seem to mind either, joking about how he's Eddy's obligatory plus one to the event.

But no, seriously, these pseudo-flirting remarks are starting to take a toll on Eddy's mental health and he's not sure how much more of this he can take.

It doesn't help that the universe seems to be dead set on making Eddy's life as emotionally turbulent as possible by shoving every cheesy romantic comedy trope in existence into Eddy's personal life.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," Eddy mutters under his breath, staring down at Brett who had miraculously tripped over his case and shoved Eddy all up against the wall and right into his personal space. The sound of blaring french horns blow rampantly in the back of Eddy's mind, a warning signal that's got Eddy completely alert and consciously aware of how close Brett is and how Brett's still got him pinned there and is making no attempts at getting out of his space.

Brett doesn't move. He's just staring at Eddy with an unreadable look and wow does that not make Eddy break out in a nervous sweat.

Eddy presses a hand against Brett's chest and tries to push him away. "Bro, this is kinda..."

"I uh..." Brett starts, wincing a little as he shifts the weight to his other foot. "Think I sprained my ankle. Really bad."

"And you had the audacity to warn me about playing at the wedding injured," Eddy teases, but he helps hold Brett under his arms and takes him over to their king-sized bed. Even while joking, he's still concerned. "Stay here, I'll clean it and wrap it up."

Brett thanks him as Eddy goes to find the supplies, luckily they had a small first-aid kit packed just in case of situations like these. With that in hand, Eddy comes over to kneel down in front of Brett to examine the foot. There's definitely a bruise and some light scrapes present, but luckily nothing serious. "Looks like you'll get away with just some swelling."

Brett sighs. "Well, that's a relief. I saw my life flash before my eyes back there."

"So dramatic," Eddy says, laughing as Brett attempts to kick him. Eddy isn't an expert or anything, but he manages to clean the scrapes and bandages relatively well while Brett observes with mild interest. Eddy holds the part that's slightly bruised and prays that it won't swell too bad tomorrow, or that would really suck for Brett with all the walking around they're going to have to do.

"Thanks," Brett says, and Eddy hums in response. "Not too shabby, I guess."

"Are you complaining?" Eddy grouses, smacking Brett's leg.

"Nah, you did a good job," Brett says, giving Eddy a genuine smile. Eddy pointedly looks away.

He feels emotionally drained, suddenly. Tired of thinking. Tired of everything. From the floor, he rests his head against Brett's thigh and sighs. Hesitantly, Brett rests his hand on Eddy's head and gently starts petting him like he would a large dog. Brett has always been fond of animals and Eddy idly wonders if he thinks Eddy is some kind of overgrown puppy or something. It feels nice, though, so Eddy doesn't protest. He doesn't really want him to stop.

"My legs are going numb," Brett says after a long while, but he doesn't stop petting him.

"Don't care," Eddy murmurs, leaning into the touch as Brett curls his fingers behind Eddy's ears and caresses down along his neck. Eddy glances up and sees Brett's gaze on him again, a quiet look that makes Eddy feel some kind of way. Eddy closes his eyes and wonders how long Brett will let him stay like this before kicking him off.

*

Eddy finds out later that it'll take quite some time before Brett starts to lose feelings in his toes and proceeds to pinch Eddy's cheeks to get him off. Eddy laughs and laughs, hoping that it would drown out the suffocating feelings away.