Virtuosity | Dreamnoblade

Chapter 3

Soon Techno was bathed in the bright lights of the grocery store. 'Thank god it's open 24/7,' he thought to himself. Pushing a shopping cart, he looked down at his grocery list. 'Eggs, honey, milk, cereal, pasta...' the list dragged on. Meandering through the store, he soon found himself at the checkout register, a single cashier left to man the station. In the dead of night, there weren't many others doing their own shopping at this hour. With no line, he walked up to the conveyor and began to unload his groceries. The cashier tried to make small talk, which he responded to for a bit, before a familiar sound came into his hearing. Instantly, he began listening intently, barely registering what the cashier was saying, only responding with nods and single words. Having finished packing his bags full of his groceries, he hastily paid and went on his way. The cashier noticed a familiar glint in the man's eyes, the look of love. She simply chuckled and shook her head, yearning for someone to look at her the way this man looked at whatever he was interested in.

Techno quickly made his way to where the piano sat, not wanting to miss too much of the beautiful piece being played. Rounding the corner, he was surprised at how many people had gathered around, listening to the masterpiece being played before them. "This must be three-quarters of the people in this mall," he muttered to himself. He was slightly annoyed. With this many people. He was unable to get close to the person playing the piano. How he wished he could see the face behind the beautiful playing. He wondered what the person would look like. Would they be young? Would they be tall? 'What if its some sleazy old man?' he thought to himself, near panicking. He had just realised how interested he was in this mystery person. What if he didn't like them? He didn't want to consider the idea of not being able to be friends with this person.

'Just listen to the fucking music you idiot,' he mentally yelled at himself. He recognised the piece being played. Nuvole Bianche, Italian for "White Clouds". The piece had so much emotion in it, the melody giving the picture of being in a field, looking up at the titular white clouds overhead. Techno felt himself drift off as he listened, imagining himself in a meadow, birds chirping, flowers all around him. He thought of a lake, perfectly still. He saw a mountain in the reflection of the lake, topped with snow, a forest surrounding it. He thought about running over the hills, looking to see what beauty awaited him. Cresting the hill, he saw a lone person at the bottom in a green jumper. The figure turned, a pristine white mask covering his face. Time seemed to stand still as they looked at each other.

Techno was suddenly pulled out of his daydream by the thunderous applause of the crowd around him, indicating the song had finished. He once again thought of waiting, in an attempt to see who the mystery pianist was. He thought about how beautiful they may be, but his mind once again harked back to how they could be some old man in his 80s. He decided he wanted to wait. He didn't want to know what they looked like, he wanted to savour the thought of the mystery person, and of his daydream.

Techno sat at his computer desk, Discord on his secondary monitor. He was in a call with Dream and a few others while playing Minecraft. He had joined the Dream SMP just a week earlier, and was talking with the group of friends while absentmindedly gathering resources.

"So, do you play piano Dream?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes, I do Techno," Dream responded.

"You should play something for us and the stream," Techno jokingly suggested. He undercut the request with laughter, trying to conceal the fact that he genuinely wanted to hear Dream play.

"Haha, maybe another time Techno," he responded. Techno felt disappointed at this, but he understood. He wouldn't want anyone else to hear his violin playing.

"Don't you play violin Techno?"

"Uhh, I used to a couple years ago,"

"Why don't you play for us, Techno?"

"I don't know about that one chief, it's late," Techno glanced at the time on his computer. 1:03am.

"Speaking of which, what's the time for you Dream?" Techno thought about it, it would be past 4am in Florida. How was he still awake?

"Uh, it's one- I mean, 4:03am." Had Techno heard correctly? It sounded like Dream was going to say 1am, which would mean he was here in California... Techno chalked it up to his own tiredness, but he couldn't get the thought of it out of his head. 'There's no way he is here in California, he would have said it on social media. But what if he is?' His mind ran wild, thinking of the possibilities.

Deciding he was too tired to think about it, he called it quits.

"Aight, I'm going to head off now, good luck with whatever it is you guys are doing," Techno said.

"Goodnight Techno~," Dream responded, Techno thought he could hear something in his voice.

"Goodnight Dream," Techno finished, almost bluntly, before quickly leaving the call. Heading to his bathroom to brush his teeth, he felt his cheeks redden.

Meanwhile, Dream was still sitting at his computer. Feeling his face heat up, it was in moments like these that he was glad he didn't have a face cam. Sighing, he ended the stream and turned his computer off. Getting into his bed, he closed his eyes. Soon, though, he found himself unable to fall asleep, one image stuck in his head as he tried to drift off into sleep. The last thing he saw before he fell asleep was a golden crown, jewels adorning it, fit for a king.