Chapter Text
You could say that they were house sitting.
You could also say that they were just using this as an excuse to play Impulse’s piano and Tango’s electric bass guitar, while the said owners were away. But that’s besides the point.
Beef and Etho had been together for nearly a year now, and were currently house sitting for Zed, Impulse and Tango while the three were on a trip for the next month. Zed was a collector of trinkets and he asked Beef to take care of the house so that nothing got stolen on the rare chance of home robbery. And as silly as it might have sounded at first, Beef accepted and promised to make sure nothing was broken or stolen from the blonde’s shared home.
That leads to where Beef is now, calloused hands dancing carefree across glossy black and white keys as he freehands a tune that is much sweeter than what probably should be coming from him, seeing as he is just making things up from the top of his head. And despite the loose formatting of it all, and the messiness of the music that is coming from him, Etho is seated behind him and strumming a perfect bassline to compliment the simple strings of music. They’ve started to do this a lot recently: both playing music together, no words or conversation needing to be made as the flooding of sweet noise fills the air. Beef would usually start by improvising, and Etho would follow after with an accompaniment so perfect you’d think that they had rehearsed it all.
When the growing decrescendo of the piano makes its way to the ears of the prodigy seated on the couch against the wall, the younger stops abruptly and focuses his eyes onto the back of his boyfriend’s head. They don’t say anything, just sit there for a moment as the ending buzz of a dying F sharp major chord resonates in the large room before Beef finally loosens his posture, and turns his head to look over at Etho. His eyes are soft and he smiles with an equal weight, “Your talents always amaze me more and more everyday. Have I told you that?” It’s sappy and sickly sweet, and makes Etho’s stomach fill to the brim with butterflies as an undeniably affectionate love blooms in his chest.
But instead of vocalizing the flooding emotions which overwhelm him, he simply rolls his eyes lovingly as he chuckles to himself and readjusts his face mask, “You’ve told me once or twice.” Etho rises from his spot on the couch, resting the bass guitar back against its rest where he knows it won’t fall, and walks over to where Beef is still sitting at the piano.
Pale fingers tug on the back of Beef’s shirt sleeve, and the brunette scoots back on the piano bench so that Etho can climb onto his lap and straddle him so that their chests are pressed against each other. It took about 8 days for Etho to finally get comfortable enough to take his mask off around Beef, and yet took approximately 8 months into their relationship for Etho to start getting used to all the physical contact that he was given from Beef. But after all the constant brushing of hands and surprise forehead kisses, it has become Etho’s favorite sitting spot, sitting in Beef’s lap as his chin rested on the other’s shoulder.
Beef only hums now, no longer phased by the action, accepting his fate as he anticipates the way his legs are probably going to be falling asleep about 20 minutes into this, “Any song requests?” He mumbles as he plants a quick kiss on Etho’s ear. He can feel the other shrug, content with just about anything that is going to be played, as long as he is welcomed to stay seated here, which he always is.
The brunette plays a few stray chords to experiment, all quick and light, and Etho laughs at the unsureness of it all. Then he starts what has now become a memorized favorite, and he can practically see the face Etho is making as he buries his face into Beef’s neck, ‘Fur Elise’ filling the room. The tempo is all messed up, much too slow to be anything recognizable to the normal ear, but Etho wasn’t exactly just another listener and caught on immediately.
The white haired male ‘tsks’ light heartedly, scolding the older male jokingly with a gentle, “You and your Fur Elise”. There’s no weight in his words, and Etho knows that Beef associates the song with him now, so he bites his lip in an attempt to contain his dopey smile. “Careful Beefers, the town’s gonna think you only know this one song.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” Beef shoots back, speeding up the tempo and playing a couple wrong notes purposefully, just to get on Etho’s nerves because he knew how much of a perfectionist his prodigy of a boyfriend got when he would be playing classics for him. “Plus it’s not like I’m playing this for the whole town. I’m playing this for my lovely boyfriend who is once again trying to render my legs useless.”
The way Etho’s chest bubbles with a full laughter, makes Beef smile with pride, and the white haired male can only nod against Beef’s shoulder in defeat, “In my defense, I’m not the one that’s telling your legs to fall asleep in the first place.”
It’s Beef’s turn to laugh now, and he shakes his head as he cuts the song off short, his hands moving to rest on Etho’s sides and he pulls back so that he can make proper eye contact with the other. “I love you.” He smiles as he plants a quick kiss on Etho’s temple, and Etho scrambles to pull his face mask off so that he can get a real kiss, only making Beef laugh again before he is able to kiss him.
“I love you too.” Etho breathes out with a growing smile, crooked and genuine as he kisses him again.