Chapter Text
Daylight peeked through the window, waking up a certain orchestra conductor.
Danchou rubbed his eyes before opening them. He felt incredibly warm, what even happened? Did the temperature suddenly change? But the weather report stated that this week would rain a lot… Oh.
Thorpe laid on top of him, face hidden under Danchou's neck. Well, now he knows why it feels so warm.
“Thorpe…” he called out quietly, hands now patting Thorpe's neck. “Wake up my love…” This pathetic attempt at waking his boyfriend up only gave Danchou a grumble from said boyfriend, so he tried again. “My staaarr… Looooooove?”
“Mmhhnn… Morning Dan..”
“Good morning my star… can you get off… please?”
“Eh? Oh my, I- sorry, I don't even know when I- ugh..” he rolled over, now laying next to Danchou. “Sorry…” he gently kissed his cheek.
“It's fine, actually. Do you still want to practice in your house?”
“... What are you even talking about?” Thorpe questioned, looking confused for a second. “Ooh! The piano. Yes, I want to practice some more.” He sat up, legs dangling from the edge of the bed.
Danchou stared at his boyfriend for a while. The way his hair is all over the place, his eyes seeming to force themselves open, his arms stretching over his head, the grumble Thorpe lets out while doing so… It's all so pretty, Danchou could really spend hours just staring. But he eventually sat up himself, rubbing at his eyes once more before standing up and yawning.
𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི ꧁⎝ 𓆩༺✧༻𓆪 ⎠꧂ ྀྀི𓊆❤︎ྀི𓊇
“Do you think I should change something in this song?” Thorpe asked, burying his face in his hands and letting out a sigh.
“No, love, it sounds great! And even if something should be changed… The performance’s today, soooo…”
After waking up, both of them ate breakfast at Danchou's house before going to Thorpe's. The pianist has been playing the same song nonstop ever since the second he sat down in front of the piano he owns. Danchou couldn't help but admire him once again. His boyfriend is so hard working, so passionate…
Sometimes, he couldn't believe this man almost quit the art of music because of his own insecurities on the way he plays. Danchou remembered that time vividly; Thorpe looked so miserable. When he wasn't playing, he would be watching someone else do so with an envious look on his face. When he was playing, however, he seemed on the verge of tears. He didn’t dare touching music or anything related to it for almost a year. Danchou doesn’t know, exactly, what happened to bring him back to the piano. But he is glad it happened; because he just looks so… Free, he supposes.
“Yeah, you're right… Enough practicing, I do not wish for sore wrists before the performance even happens!” Thorpe announced, standing up suddenly.
Danchou chuckled “Of course I am right, do you not trust my judgment, Thorpe? You're so cruel…”
“Drama king… Anyways! I want to talk to you about something.”
“Oh? Yeah, sure. What do you want to discuss, love?” Danchou asked, sitting down on the sofa and patting the empty space next to him. Thorpe sat down, looking at him for a moment before speaking. “So… I am- I feel ready to make us official… Openly… To everyone. I just wanted to know if you are, too. I think I know your answer, but we are both in the relationship, and I don't want to make you uncomfortable or something like that…” he said, avoiding eye contact at some points but always making sure to look back at him.
“Really?!- I- sorry. I mean, really? You are 12,000% sure? If so, I couldn't be happier…!”
“Yes, more than 12,000% sure.”
𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི ꧁⎝ 𓆩༺✧༻𓆪 ⎠꧂ ྀྀི𓊆❤︎ྀི𓊇
As the curtains closed in front of the orchestra, all of the 25 people with instruments tried to be as quick as possible to pack up their things and leave the theatre’s stage. Danchou, however, rushed backstage.
“Thorpe! Are you ready?” He asked as soon as he spotted his boyf- favourite pianist.
“Yes! My looks are impeccable! The piano is clean and being taken to the stage! And I still remember exactly what notes to play!” Thorpe answered, hand on his chest proudly.
“That’s great. I will be watching from the audience. The theatre was kind enough to leave the first row secluded to our staff.C”
“Did they? I am glad. Oh, and you were amazing back there! You looked good, your hand was moving gracefully, everyone was following your lead…! It was awesome.”
“My, what a flatterer you are… Thank you! I’m sure you will be even better.” Danchou looked around for a second before quickly snatching Thorpe’s hand and pressing a kiss to his knuckles. He was also quick to let go of it.
“Dan- Danchou..?!” Thorpe whisper-yelled, face going slightly red.
“What?” he answered innocently, looking at him with the most oblivious face he could make.
“You know what- whatever… My solo is in a minute, I have to go.” He also looked around, feeling relieved that there was no one else around. “Love you” he whispered, before getting on the tip of his toes and kissing Danchou's forehead, rushing to the stage.
Danchou, however, froze in place. His face got fully red in a second, and he murmured; “Love you, break a leg my star.” He quickly ran to the audience and found a seat in the front row.
The stage was very pretty: a golden, big chandelier on the roof, shiny wood on the floor, and the piano in the middle. Thorpe sat down, stretching his limbs one last time before placing his hands on their designed spots.
The curtains opened again, revealing the sight to the audience. Thorpe indulged a little and peeked at the front row, and, as expected, his boyfriend was there! Ah, he couldn't wait to finish this and finally make them official to everyone. Of course, he is also looking forward to the spectacle itself, but that is more whatever…
After some seconds, the first few notes started playing. A melodic, calming sound filling the place.
After some more seconds, Thorpe could hear some fuss going on backstage. Not that he would pay attention, he has a song to deliver. Through his peripheral vision, he had the impression the curtains went down a little… Down? They aren’t supposed to do that. Well, whatever, he just didn’t pay attention, that didn't happen. The fuss backstage got a bit more messy. Gosh, what is happening there? Thorpe kept playing, deciding not to pay attention. Last time that happened, it was just the flute guy freaking out because a cockroach entered the flute. After ten notes, Thorpe could see a crew member on the side of the stage calling him, rushed. Weird. Well, the song is ending, 30 more seconds only. Whatever is happening can wait – he didn’t practice for nothing!
His life is not worth 30 seconds of a song.
He finally understood what was happening backstage, and why the crew member seemed so desperate to call him.
The golden, big chandelier was not on the roof anymore. Neither were the curtains that once were attached to the whole roof lighting system.
The song came to an early end, loud screams being heard instead.
Danchou could not believe his eyes. He was dreaming, right? Not dreaming, having a nightmare, right?
He quickly stood up, rushing backstage only to be stopped by some guards.
𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི ꧁⎝ 𓆩༺✧༻𓆪 ⎠꧂ ྀྀི𓊆❤︎ྀི𓊇
Danchou saw the police entering the theatre, he saw them doing their best to remove everything that buried Thorpe. He saw the bloody mess on stage. All that while he just stood there, shaking, not even being able to cry.
“I am sorry, sir, but… It was fatal. The pointy part of the chandelier hit that man right in the head. There is nothing we can do to save him, it was instant death. My condolences.” The Office said an hour later, hand on Danchou's shoulder. Now he was crying, sobbing, breaking down.
His boyfriend. His best friend. His prince. His star. His whole world. Thorpe was… dead? No, no, he couldn't be… The performance was supposed to end with a final note being played, Thorpe standing up and bowing to the audience. And after that, they would tell everyone that “we have been dating for a while now, we hope you are all fine with that!”. And after all that, they would go to Thorpe's place and hang out. This was not supposed to happen.
Was it Danchou’s fault? He was the one who insisted on making their show in this theatre, since it is so famous. He was the one who said that Thorpe could have a solo performance, “It will only add two more minutes, it will be fine!”.
That night, Danchou couldn't sleep. He cried till the morning, and just then did he fall asleep.
𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི ꧁⎝ 𓆩༺✧༻𓆪 ⎠꧂ ྀྀི𓊆❤︎ྀི𓊇
Two souls floated through the empty space of white nothingness. Each of them held their own heart.
The space between them, however, has gotten way smaller. Neither noticed, but their hearts started beating faster after the – soon to be – proximity.