AN: This takes place in a Jazzband!AU where the quinx are actually musicians! (because 1. I'm a music nerd and 2. Quinx sounds like the word 'quartet' to me okay?). Yes I added a link to the song because I love it so much.
For those wondering...
Drums: Shirazu Ginshi
Synthesizer/piano: Sasaki Haise
Bass: Urie Kuki
Alto Saxophone: Aura Shinsanpei
Tenor Saxophone: You!
Baritone Saxophone: Mutsuki Tooru (I know, you'd think Aura would have Bari and Mucchan Alto, but Tooru loves the Bari because it's not very loud compared to the others, so if he screws up, people probably won't notice as much, plus no solos, so no big pressure. Aura likes the alto because for him, the mouth piece is easier to play with, compared to bari, which is way tougher to use.)
Trumpet 1: Yonebayashi Saiko
Trumpet 2: Higemaru Aura
Trombone: Hsiao Ching-Li
EXTRA: The guy screaming when the trumpet solo starts is DEFINITELY Shirazu.
You sighed, leaning back, letting go of the tenor saxophone and groaning. "I can't get it right! My timing's either too early or too late!"
"I'm sure you'll get it right, don't worry!" Mutsuki said, frowning at your despair. "It's a tough piece, I know, but if I can learn it, you can definitely do it!"
"You don't have the solo, Tooru. You're a bass instrument!" You said, slightly glaring. You knew he was just trying to cheer you up, but you were not having it. "God, have I ever said I hate The Chicken?"
"Multiple times." Your friend answered. "Come on, let's start from the beginning this time. Maybe you'll get into the funk better that way." He proposed.
You sighed once again and looking at the overly complicated notes on the sheet of paper. "I could just improvise, right?"
"I don't think so. The piece was specifically written so the chord would be just right. They're too complicated to just jam to it, you know." You swore you would kill Mutsuki with his bari sax if he kept bringing your spirits down.
"I'm gonna kill Haise with a trombone." You muttered, putting the mouth piece back in your mouth, wetting it before nodding at Tooru, and waiting four beats before playing.
••••
"Look, this is what we weren't getting right. You were playing in G major, but here the key changed to D major." Tooru said, his face way too close to yours. Having him leaning down next to you was making you concentrate even less on the music sheet in front of you.
"I see..." You sighed, his cologne hitting your nose and acting as an intoxicating aphrodisiac. What the hell, Mutsuki? "Thanks for the help, Tooru." You said, hoping he'd move away before you somehow loose it.
"Really, I can't believe you never noticed it." The green haired male chuckled, the air he breathed out hit your neck and gave you shivers. "The tempo even changed there and all, they're major signs of key changes." He teased. You could practically hear him smiling, which was oddly hot.
"Ah, shush, I'm too stressed for details." You muttered, glaring holes into the damned partition. Sure, it was a piece of art, but listening to it and playing it were two totally different things.
"Hm, I'll forgive you, it seems it's really hard indeed." Your friend said, not even moving an inch. "But even so, you're doing amazing. I wouldn't be able to play a single mesure of that thing."
"Thanks." You said, looking at him only to notice he was completely engrossed in your music sheet. "Hey, Tooru." You said. "Maybe study your part and not mine?" You teased, smirking.
He finally snapped out of his trance and faced you, blushing at the proximity between the two of you. He sharply inhaled but remained unmoving, instead decided to gaze into your eyes, apparently looking for something. You had a feeling you knew what he was hesitating on, and tested your theory by leaning forwards, stopping a few centimetres away from his face. Seeing as he wasn't pulling away, you were about to close the remaining distance but were interrupted by Shirazu, who violently swung the practice room's door wide open, causing both you and Tooru to pull away.
"Sassan says sectionals are done with for today. He wants us to meet up in the band room." The blonde says, oblivious to what he just interrupted, before turning away and leaving without bothering to close the door.
You nodded even though you knew he couldn't see you, and got up, lifting your music stand and leaving, Tooru on your heels, forgetting the incident that nearly happened.
••••
"Dude, we have less than a week left and you still can't get that mesure right!" Shirazu complained, leaning back and throwing his drumsticks in the air. "Have you even been practicing?"
You rolled your eyes and craned your neck, managing to catch a glimpse of the man. He was really trying to make you loose it, was he? "Shut up. You wanna try in my place? I'll he happy to jam for six minutes straight on the drums."
"Hey, it's tough keeping the beat at exactly 103.5554 BPM!" Ginshi complained while you rolled your eyes.
"How about you try a solo like this for like four minutes and a half?" You muttered, lifting your partition and showing him the complicated and insanely fast notes written on it, mixed with your handwriting in an attempt to help you remember certain details or theories you needed.
"You're just being a drama queen-"
"They're not!" Tooru countered, which made you raise your eyebrows in surprise. He usually wasn't the type to pick fights. "Have you seen their part? There are notes in there the world has never even heard before!"
Yeah, chicken sounds, damn it.
"Sheesh, touchy subject, Mutsuki?" Shirazu said. "Sorry, it's just that they've been complaining since we received the score..."
"For a good reason!" He said. Mutsuki swore if he didn't have a baritone saxophone strapped around his torso he would have challenged Shirazu for a fight. "They try really hard, you know? Don't give them more stress than they already have. If you bring them down, you bring the whole band down-"
"That's enough, Mutsuki." Urie said, not even trying to mask his annoyance. "More practicing and less talking."
"Hey, what about me?" You heard Higemaru complain from behind Tooru. "Have you seen the notes I have to play on this thing?" He raised his trumpet.
"Shut up or I'll whack you and it won't be an accident this time." Hsiao said, shifting so the end of her trombone was facing Higemaru. Aura visibly relaxed beside you, seeing as he wasn't the one who was going to get accidentally poked in the back with the brass instrument anymore.
"Yeah, and I'm the one with the solo here." Saiko added. "You don't see me complaining."
What a mess you all were.
"Okay guys, let's get back to playing, yeah?" Haise asked, shifting uncomfortably behind his synthesizer.
You all shut up and turned forwards, waiting for Sasaki's cue to start from the top once again. From the corner of your eye, you could see Tooru looking at you, probably wondering if Shirazu's comments had gotten to you.
You gave him a smile and a thumbs up as Haise counted down, putting your hand back down and wiggling your fingers, ready to play your ass off once again.
••••
Pacing up and down the hall, you shifted the reed in your mouth, taking deep but shaky breaths. Your whole band watched as all the calmness in your body seemed to evaporate.
"You'll be fine, (Y/N)." Saiko said, fiddling with the keys on her trumpet. "You sounded great yesterday."
"Yeah, but yesterday there wasn't a huge crowd watching us practice, was there?" You asked, your voice a bit too high pitched for your liking.
"Relax, (Y/N). I think you're making Aura nervous too." Hige added, glancing at the tall man who was nervously going over the piece, the keys of his alto saxophone clacking away, the reed in his mouth emitting a sound that made both you and Tooru cringe. He broke another reed, didn't he? He should really stop that habit of chewing it when he got nervous...
"Sorry," You said, halting to a stop next to Tooru. "It's just a really tough piece." You said.
"Who ever isn't nervous about it probably isn't human." Mutsuki agreed.
"Then I want to know what the hell Urie is." Shirazu said, nodding his head at the man who was nonchalantly humming the tune, fiddling with his bass, causing you all to laugh, which lifted a lot of weight off your shoulders.
In the end, it was okay if you screwed up. A lot of jazz people screwed up but managed to fix their mistakes by repeating them and convincing people they were indeed what they intended to play. You could do the same, no problem.
The loud applause that was echoing from the stage announced you that the band before you had finished playing their version of Sing Sing Sing, and that you were on next. Great.
Everyone started grabbing their music sheet (Aura got himself a new reed, no worries there, even though getting a new reed right before a performance is the worst thing possible) and lined up to make their entrance. Before you joined up with them, you felt someone grab your hand and tug you towards them.
Your back collided with what felt like a baritone saxophone, and you quickly took a few steps back.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" Tooru exclaimed. "I just wanted to talk to you!"
"It's okay." You reassured. "Is the saxophone okay, though?" You asked, giving it a once over to see if there were any bits or pieces sticking out. Luckily, everything seemed in place. You would have never forgiven yourself if you broke his saxophone right before a performance, or actually, if you broke his saxophone, period.
"It's fine, I think." He answered, looking down at it before returning his gaze on you. "I just wanted to tell you you'll be fine. I think you're a bit too tough on yourself, (Y/N). You play like a professional, and to everyone else, you sound amazing." He gave you an encouraging smile, which you reciprocated.
"Thanks, Tooru. You're great too. Break a leg." You said, grabbing his hand and giving it a squeeze before tugging him along towards the stage, where the others were waiting for their queue to walk in.
••••
Taking a deep breath through your nose, you couldn't fight the smile creeping on your face at the loud applause that rang out through the auditorium. It was the least you could let yourself do. The rest would have to wait until you were out of view.
Your band stood up, bowed towards the crowd and walked off, music sheet and instruments in hand.
"Holy shit." Shirazu breathed once he was out of view, walking backwards as the rest of the band walked. "Saiko nailed the high notes."
"And Higemaru was right on the dot. It was perfect harmony!" Haise added, watching the rest of the band walk out of the stage.
However, once you walked out, everyone grinned at you. Hell, even Urie had the smallest smile on his face, which wasn't as creepy as you imagined.
You shook a bit in place before jumping five feet in the air (which caused Mutsuki, who was behind you, to nearly fall over out of shock), emitting a shriek of victory and a few high pitched giggles. Were you proud of your performance? Fuck yes.
"We did it! It was perfect!" You cheered. You had never been this happy before in your life.
"You were great." Urie stated, which made you stop your celebration and turn to him with a bewildered look on your face. Did THE Urie Kuki just compliment you?
"Oh, wow." Aura muttered, apparently as shocked as you.
Everyone seemed to calm down at Urie's comment and simply started packing up. But that didn't stop a giggle or two or a 'remember when we played that part' from inserting itself in the comfortable silence once in a while.
Saying your band was satisfied with the results was an understatement. You never felt so proud of something in your entire life.
One by one, your friends started to leave and head back home, leaving only you and Mutsuki in the room after a while.
"Are you okay?" You asked, passing a cloth through your saxophone to try and get some spit out of there.
"Yeah, why do you ask?" Your friend answered, looking up from his own saxophone.
"You've been awfully silent since we walked off stage. Anything bothering you?"
"Oh, I'm just still under a bit of a shock." Tooru answered, a slight blush adorning his tanned cheeks.
"A shock?" You pushed, confused.
"You played really well. The first notes took me by surprise just because of the sheer amount of emotion you put in them." He specified, his blush worsening with every word he spoke. "Sorry, that's probably weird, but I'm just in a daze, so you don't need to worry."
You let a small smile show on your features at his compliment. "You weren't so bad yourself, those growl notes were great." You said. You couldn't just take compliments without giving some yourself, you just couldn't.
The boy's blush increased tenfold, looking down at his now dismantled saxophone, slowly closing the case and bashfully thanking you. Mutsuki got up and lifted the case to the door, stopping there and turning around to look at you, still putting away your warm ups and music sheet.
"Hey, (Y/N)." He called out, mustering up all the courage in his body to attempt what was the riskiest thing he's ever done in his life.
You turned around, oblivious to his plans and hummed, a sign telling him you were listening.
Tooru walked over to you, leaving his case behind. "I really want to give you a reward for your performance." He spoke, surprised when his voice didn't crack or shake, despite his nervousness.
"Sure, what would tha-"
Your question stayed stuck in your throat when a pair of soft, warm lips gently captured your own for a few seconds before pulling away, leaving you with an odd but pleasurable feeling on your lips, lingering there.
"Wow." You breathed, eyes lifting up to meet Tooru's, who was looking down at you with something you could only identify as adoration and admiration. "We should play The Chicken more often if that's the reward I get for it." You added, smiling at the now flushing boy.
"You liked it?" He asked hopefully. He was expecting a negative reaction, that's what he always imagined when he fantasized about it, yet he was hearing you suggest him kissing you again instead. Not that he was complaining in any way.
"Yeah, I did. I'm surprised you acted on your feelings before I did." You said, your own face turning red from the statement.
'Alright, Tooru, time to wake up.' Mutsuki told himself. Now, there was no way this was real. There is no way you actually return his feelings, right? Yet, he had to remember how close the two of you were, in that practice room, a few weeks back... And you were the one to lean in, too.
Holy shit, how had he been so blind?
"I... Uh, if we're both on the same page here, do you... Want to go eat something, sometime? Together?" The shy male proposed, avoiding your gaze.
"Yeah, I'd love to, but after a practice, not before. I hate the feeling of the reed on my tongue after I brush my teeth." With that, you grimaced, causing the green haired boy to laugh at your antics.
"Of course." He said, nodding. "You need help?" He proposed when he saw you hauling up your case and backpack.
"I'm fine, and you've got that monster of a saxophone to carry. I should be the one asking if you need help." You answered. Mutsuki shook his head, assuring you it was okay and the two of you exited the room together, taking your time to get to the artist exit of the building.
"By the way, Sasaki told me to tell you we're playing Leapfrog next."
You snorted, before going into a fit of giggles. "Oh my goodness, rest in peace, trumpets!" You said. That piece had such impossibly high notes!
"And you have a solo, too."
"Fffffuuuuccckk meee!"