A Slice of Life

A Secret Recording

"So, we'll do this today?" Aleksei asked Jenna while nervously playing with the zipper of his bag.

"Yes," Jenna answered with a smile, "everything is in the right place. But don't forget to get Sam to sit in the right spot."

"I'll do my best."

Aleksei mentally pictured the music room, telling himself for the millionth time Sam needed to sit in the chair closer to the door, not the one in the back. How he was going to make him do it if Sam sat elsewhere? No clue. He really needed to come up with something.

Jenna wanted to reply, but stopped herself when Sam walked into the room, half an hour earlier than usual.

Sam had no clue he was interrupting anything, but saw Aleksei nearly literally jump in his seat. He stopped walking, lifting his eyebrows at the reaction, but shrugged it off before he went to grab himself a drink.

"What are you guys doing?" he curiously asked.

"We--" Aleksei fell quiet for a moment. Both because he hadn't thought of an answer and because Sam looked really amazing right now. He came home fresh from the gym with his hair still damp and messy.

"We were about to play the piano," he lied.

Unfortunately, Jenna seemed to have taken his silence as a sign that he wasn't going to answer and replied, 'homework' at the exact same time.

Jenna was quick to change their answer into 'musical homework', clearing her throat while she was visibly uncomfortable.

Sam's frown increased while he was looking back and forth between the two. If he didn't know Aleksei was gay, he'd be concerned about their behavior. If he'd ever find out Jenna was sneaking behind his back to steal his boyfriend, he'd have to kill her for trying. But since that couldn't be the case, he crossed his arms with a smirk on his face.

"Musical homework, huh?" Sam asked while he glanced at the empty table.

"Yes," Aleksei said, slipping himself into Sam's arm and pressing a kiss to his lips, hoping that'd distract him. Despite hating public displays of affection and being acutely aware of Jenna standing there. "And I'd like to play some music with you later, too."

"Hmm, will she be there too?" Sam asked in a whisper while his arms automatically moved to hold Aleksei close to him. It still felt a bit weird that Jenna knew about them and he did expect her to start making jokes. But when she didn't he felt himself relax.

"Not if you don't want her to be," Aleksei murmured in his ear.

"Take a guess if I want her there," Sam said, grabbing Aleksei's hand in his. "Can we play now? I heard a song today that I want to try out."

"Sounds good," Aleksei said, letting Sam lead him down the hallway. Aleksei glanced at Jenna over his shoulder, nodded at her, and mouthed a silent 'thank you', before closing the music room's door behind him.

Sam went to take his cello out of its case, taking a seat at the chair closest by. He took out his phone to search for the song he heard that day. It was a beautiful song and while he listened to it in the gym, he could already picture Aleksei and him play the song.

Crap. That wasn't the right chair. Sam wasn't sitting in the right place. Why didn't they just remove that other chair from the room so he'd have no choice? Aleksei silently cursed his and Jenna's lack of plotting skills.

Aleksei cleared his throat. "Sam, could you maybe... sit in the chair opposite the piano?"

Sam looked up from his phone in surprise. "Huh, why? I usually sit here."

"Uh..." Aleksei froze again. He'd kind of hoped Sam would just do as he asked without questions, but then again, that wasn't really in his personality.

"Uhm," Aleksei stammered again, mind racing to come up with an excuse. He finally thought of one while staring at Sam.

He didn't even need to fake his shyness, or blushing. "So I can look at you while I play."

Sam immediately melted, smiling at Aleksei. He was surprised over the sudden request. They'd been playing like this from the start. But on the other hand, if he moved to the other chair, he too could look at Aleksei while they were playing.

And he loved to watch Aleksei play.

Sam shrugged a shoulder, stood up and started moving to the other chair. "I hope I won't distract you from the music though," Sam joked, knowing he would probably have the same problem.

Yes! Internally, Aleksei was cheering. It was honestly hard to focus on playing, both because he could look at Sam and because he was nervous about whether things were going right. He made more mistakes than usual, but, looking at Sam made him feel like his music was still somehow better than usual. Like it had a little extra.

Sam noticed the mistakes Aleksei made, and he was struggling with his part too. It was a struggle not to look at Aleksei the entire time. If he would, he would probably stop playing the cello and just stare at the other boy.

Sam eventually closed his eyes for a few seconds, focusing on his own music, getting dragged away by the beautiful tune. Despite their mistakes in the beginning, Sam started to feel enchanted by the music, which had a little extra now that they faced each other.

Aleksei thought he'd maybe imagined their play somehow being better when they were looking at each other. That it was the heat of the moment. When he listened to the recording later, however, he found out that he hadn't been imagining things at all. The quality of the sound was crystal clear since Aleksei had gotten Sam to sit in the right place.

After listening to the clip five more times, Aleksei handed the tape to Jenna during their break at school.

"Will you take it from here?" he asked her.

"Yes," Jenna replied. She was more than happy to take it from there. "I already know the perfect place to send this to."

"Great, I'll hear from you soon."

Aleksei breathed out deeply. He hoped everything would turn out as planned. That Sam would be happy with his surprise, and that everyone would get to see and hear just how amazing Sam was.

Aleksei took his phone out of his pocket, suddenly feeling like texting Sam.

Aleksei: hey! Guess what?

Sam: what?

Aleksei: you're amazing! ^^

Sam: Not as amazing as you are <3

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