"Shuu?"
"What do you want?"
I regarded him from the rickety music room chair I sat upon, my homework in my lap. He was splayed out, as he always was at this hour, on the old sofa in the music room with an arm over his face.
"Can you play any instruments?"
"Of course I can. Can't you?"
"No, I can't. Father thought that instruments were a waste of time and money."
"But you signed up for a chorus class?" He turned his head in my direction but neglected to open his eyes.
"Yeah," I muttered, scrubbing out a mistake from my chemistry work. "I always wanted to be able to sing and dance but it seems I can only do one of the two for now. Never mind that. What instrument do you play?"
"The violin."
"Oh," I said shortly, floundering with my words to try and keep the conversation flowing. "May I hear you play?"
He sighed, "Come to my performance."
"Performance?"
"I occasionally play as a backup in the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. It's too much trouble to be a full time musician and moreover I'm still in school, so I can't."
Not that you do anything in school.
"When is it?"
"Next Thursday night."
"Then I have to come," I enthused, leaning forward in my chair.
"Mm," he hummed shortly then lapsed back into silence.
"But..." I stared pensively over at him, a frown on my face and my pencil eraser in my mouth. "You'll be playing among other musicians. I would love to hear you practice so I can hear you for myself."
"Right, your dull human ears can't distinguish each individual instrumentalist," he groaned, then slowly sat up. "I suppose it would be a good idea to look over the music."
"Look over the music... you haven't looked over it yet?"
"I know the piece by heart," Shuu murmured, reaching into a cabinet at the end of the sofa and retrieving a rather small black case. "I've played it in the past."
"Oh," I continued scribbling down my answers, watching as Shuu bent over the violin in his hands. It looked so small compared to his large form. His long, deft fingers flitted over the strings and the tuning modules with extreme familiarity. "What piece is it?"
"Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D major," he answered, then shot a skeptical glance my way. "You don't know what that means, do you?"
"I-I... no, sorry," I murmured, blushing.
"Tch, you're rather unsophisticated."
He placed the instrument at his chin, sitting upright and attentive on the sofa - posture to make even Reiji proud. He held the bow delicately, like he was handling china. And then the music began.
Shuu caressed the strings with his bow, making them sing a tedious yet graceful melody that wound on and on through the room. It shook and tumbled like water in a riverbrook, but then picked up and became tenuous and rather anxious like a flighty bird.
My ears were intoxicated by the sound and the image before me. A small clatter startled me, before I realized that my slack hand was now empty and my pencil was on the ground. Shuu's dark blue eyes slid toward me, appraising my awe before becoming enveloped in the swath of music again. His body swayed with the movement of the song, bending around and with the violin in such a sympathetic manner that it was hard to believe he was so distant at times.
When he finished, I sat there dumbstruck, my ears ringing forlornly in the silence.
"You'll come to my concert then," he murmured, a small smile on his face as he watched me awake from my stupor.
"That was... that... yes, yes of course..."
"Come here," he murmured, extending a hand to me. I put my work to the side and approached him tentatively, one of my hands curled up toward my collarbone uncertainly. He grasped my wrist and guided me onto his lap to which I started slightly. "Sit up straight, like that, lean into me..."
He lifted the violin and placed it into my hands, gently bringing it to my chin and placing my hands in the appropriate spots. His large hands engulfed my smaller ones, shadowing them. It was like being a child dancing by standing on her father's shoes as he twirled her around. Although my body was in contact with the instrument, Shuu's ability translated fluidly across my fingers to the violin.
"You're very relaxed like this, it's like you're in a trance," he murmured, guiding the instrument down to its case as I looked over my shoulder at him.
"I..."
He let out a low chuckle as I floundered for words. His feather-light lips traced small patterns on my neck, eliciting gentle shivers from my skin. When his fangs slipped under my skin, I sighed and leaned into him, allowing one of my hands to snake up and lace its fingers into his hair.