forum Symphonies and Fireflies // OxO // Romance // closed

Started June 21, 2019 by @croccin-champagne

tune

Aika was tired, but the knot of dread and chaotic flurry of emotions was making it harder and harder to even focus on the violin in her hands. Her blindfold was back on, had been since after her round of chemo, but she knew her way around a violin by heart, to the point that it was as natural as breathing. It helped that she was just tuning it, too. Or, had been, before she'd found herself starting to slip, back down the hole that had appeared not too long ago and just kept getting deeper and darker.

She'd gotten an email from her dean. Dean Killian wanted to call her, sometime in the next few days, and Aika had a sinking feeling that nothing good would come of that phone call. So she'd pulled out her violin, from the case she kept just under her bed, and set to tuning it in an attempt to calm herself. Only, it really wasn't working too well. And nothing, not remembering the work she'd done with Rory's friends, or Gage's attempts at inviting her to join him and his friends in a game of poker, was helping at all.

Rory rubbed at his temples as he stood in the corner listening to The Boys argue over a laptop. They were fine-tuning some of the work they've done with Aika, and Rory wanted no part of the growing headache they were causing with their deafening voices. He glanced at the door, then glanced back at the group when he felt eyes on him. Tobias smiled knowingly and discreetly made a shooing motion towards the door. Rory smiled gratefully and slipped out, not even grabbing his coat in his hurry.

He tugged at his Monsta X t-shirt, already missing the warmth and comfort of his jacket, as he thoughtlessly wandered the hospital halls. After a few minutes of doing that, he asked a nurse where he could find a certain room. Once he found the room, he lightly knocked on the door and winced at the throbbing in his head. "Aika? It's Rory."

A voice cut through the cloud in Aika's head, and she caught the word 'Rory'-name, rather-just in time. Rory was here? She glanced around the sparse and very impersonal hospital room out of habit, despite the fact that she couldn't actually see anything, before returning her gaze towards where the door was. "Come in?" She called back, her hands returning to tuning without much thought. There was one chair in the room, one next to the bed that she'd never bothered to get rid of. Maybe some part of her hoped her father would visit finally, even though the other part of her, the voice in the back of her head, told her that was about as likely as a wish on a falling star coming true.

Rory opened the door, making sure she heard him, though he didn't even know she had her blindfold back on. "Don't mind me," he muttered as he headed over to the only chair and slumped into it with a heavy sigh. He leaned forward and crossed his arms over the edge of the bed, resting his head in his arms. He was so tired, though the fatigue was mainly mental. He loved his mates, he really did, but they sometimes got a bit too much for him to handle with a sane mind.

Aika tilted her head, following the sounds of his footsteps until he plopped down in the chair. "Tired?" Was all she said, and something about the tone of her voice made it obvious she wouldn't mind if he didn't answer. The cloud was slowly dissipating, which was slightly startling, considering how heavy of a presence it had been just a few minuted ago.

"You could say that," he mumbled. His head was buried in his arms, so his voice was slightly muffled. After a few moments of silence, he lifted his head to prop his chin on his arms so he could look up at Aika and let her hear him clearly. He finally noticed the violin and tilted his head slightly, but didn't have the energy to take a gander as to what she was doing with it. Tuning maybe?

"People tired or tired tired?" This was something Aika was good at. She didn't talk to many people, but when she did, talking to them about their problems and issues was always easier than anything else. She raised her violin up, resting it on her shoulder as she waited for his reply, and drew the bow across the strings to test them. She played a short bit of something, the music slightly somber but beautiful. She frowned though, setting the bow aside once more to continue fiddling with the violin.

He remained silent when she played a small bit on her violin, listening carefully to the music. He could tell just a bit more tuning was needed, but it was otherwise beautifully played. He was impressed with her ability, which was a recurring theme when he heard her play other instruments. "People tired—my mates specifically." Because of his exhaustion, Rory had slipped into his Korean accent without thought. By the time he realized it, he didn't bother to change it.

"They're loud. I'm not sure how you've managed to spend so much time around them, I think I might go crazy." Aika said, her voice soft as she spoke. There was nothing insulting in her tone, that was obvious. She liked Rory's friends, she really did, but imagining spending that much time around them was overwhelming itself. There's another accent. Interesting. She repeated the process with her violin, the frown returning once more as she returned to adjusting.

"Trust me, I've gone crazy more than once. I'm lucky I got off with just a headache this time—and that's only because Tobi shooed me out while the others weren't looking." He fell silent when Aika repeated the process with her violin. This time, he knew that he couldn't hear what she heard, because he didn't think anymore tuning was needed. Then again, he wasn't an expert on most instruments, just singing and some guitar.

"Just a bit more observant than the others, it would seem. You're welcome to hang out here, even take a nap, if you'd like." She offered, turning her face in his direction. She lifted her left hand from her violin, checking something with her right, before going back to tuning with a small smile.

"Thanks," he murmured, his eyes getting heavy already. He didn't want to take a nap in her room—that was bad manners when being a guest—but he couldn't fight against the onslaught of mental exhaustion. Dealing with his mates was difficult, especially during days like this, and it was nice to get some peace and quiet, save for the occasional violin sound, but that was bearable.

The muffled sounds next door grew louder, sounding like cheering and laughter, but Aika drowned them out as she tested her violin once more. She seemed satisfied with the sound, playing the same haunting and somber melody a bit longer than the other times, before setting the violin down. "Small talk, or quiet?"

"Talk," he said, even though his eyes were closed. "I like talking to you. I'm not being talked over unlike when I'm over there." He vaguely tilted his head in the general direction of his mates, then tiredly rocked his head back into place. "But fair warning, I might fall asleep at any moment."

"That's perfectly fine. I've got extra blankets in the corner if you need them." She said, shaking her head as the smile stayed in place. "Talk…how has your day been?" That was a good small-talk topic, right? She assumed so, considering how many times she'd heard it used before.

"Thanks," he said, then thought about her question. "Besides the obvious, The Boys and I've made some progress concerning the different music style. It's sounding really good—slightly different and odd, but good." It would seem he was a little more chatty than he thought he'd be.

"I take it that means they found a way out of that slump? That's good." She nodded, shifting on the bed and uncrossing her legs to stretch them out. At the same time, she reached up, pulling her hair into some semblance of a messy bun. "It was interesting, working with all of you."

"It was definitely interesting," he agreed. He glanced up at her, finally looking at her for the first time since he waltzed on it and practically threw himself into the chair. She had the blindfold back on, not surprising, and she was putting her hair into a bun. He didn't ask about the chemo, nor did he ask how she was faring with her medical issue, so he went with the safest topic. "So how has working with us been so far? Be as brutal as needed, I can take it."

"There's not a whole lot to be brutal about." She said honestly, tilting her head as she thought. "All in all, I was slightly surprised with just how much we actually got done. I've definitely worked with worse people, effort-wise. And all of you know what you're doing, which makes the whole process much easier." She huffed a laugh, shaking her head. She'd had to do group music projects before, and more often than not, ended up working with people that either had horrible work-ethic, no knowledge of what they were doing, or a mixture of both.

"Hm. I'm glad you had a nice change of pace, then. We're usually very dedicated to making good music, as opposed to just slapping something together to reach some sort of deadline. I get that there has to be some sort of deadline, but if that means we don't release as many songs as people would like, then so be it. Quality over quantity." Aaaaand that was probably the most he's spoken today, just in that reply. He could've just left it at the first sentence, but he felt compelled to elaborate on how his group worked.

Her smile strengthened slightly, and she nodded along as she listened to him talk. "That's good. It's always good to have goals like that." She smiled down at him, this smile a different one than her normal soft smile. It was friendlier, to start, and bespoke the comfort she felt just hanging out with him. "You're all really good, so I can't imagine hitting that quality is too hard, when you've got the inspiration."