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Seokjin usually has trouble sleeping.
Scratch that, Seokjin always has trouble sleeping.
Whether it’s because the rest of the members are lingering around in his head, his subconscious need to care for them, or because he’s just restless and, let’s face it, maybe getting old, he doesn’t know. But he always has trouble sleeping.
In light of this problem, however, he does have Yoongi.
It hadn’t always been a thing, Yoongi, being so important to him with this kind of issue. Yoongi already has enough to deal with, and Seokjin being unable to sleep shouldn’t be one of them.
But the elder walks into their shared room and hears a soft wafting chorus of notes.
“Oh- Hyung,” Yoongi hums as he stops playing. “Sorry, I was practicing. You’re going to bed, right? I’ll put it away-”
“Wait.” Seokjin’s voice comes out firm but soft and he holds up a hand to stop Yoongi from carrying away his portable piano to the closet. “It’s okay.”
“I- Are you sure? I can wear headphones, but the keys are pretty loud.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to use headphones.” Yoongi watches him as he gets into his bed and buries himself underneath the covers, facing away from Yoongi and closing his eyes.
“Do you want the light off?” Yoongi asks after a few moments, and Seokjin chuckles lightly.
“How would you play with the lights off?” he retorts, and Yoongi hums.
“Well, I have good memory of where the keys are. I can play blind.”
“Okay, if you want to.” Seokjin watches the room abruptly dim down, the clicking of the light resounding across the walls, and he closes his eyes.
Yoongi’s piano-playing is soft and quiet, the volume on the device having been turned down, and Seokjin listens intently. He doesn’t know how privy Yoongi is to playing or practicing in front of other people, but they’re friends. Surely, Yoongi doesn’t feel the need to be impressive.
As Yoongi’s song dies down, Seokjin speaks up.
“That was pretty,” he mumbles, mouth squished into his pillow. “What’s it called?”
“Uh...,” Yoongi hums back, and Seokjin hears a shrug. “I don’t know yet. It’s new.”
“It’s good. I like it.” Seokjin shuffles in his bed and mutters quietly as he sinks into his covers more, “Play more.”
And Yoongi obliges.
The next few songs are long (if they are three different songs - it could just be one really, really long song) and Seokjin feels on the brink of falling asleep.
“...Hyung?” Yoongi’s voice, deep and quiet, goes throughout the room. “Are you asleep?”
“Mm-hm,” Seokjin hums back. “Thanks.”
“...For what?”
“For playing piano.”
Even with the interruption, the remnants of the piano music run through his head, and he hears a soft, “Night, hyung,” before he drifts off.
That’s how it happens.
Yoongi plays piano at night as Seokjin drifts off to sleep.
It escalates after that. Seokjin agrees to let Yoongi put a stand-up piano in their room, in the empty space against the wall that was going to be for a table. A piano seems better, somehow.
Music coming from a real piano sounds immensely better than one from an electric one. Much more... natural, Seokjin thinks. And when Yoongi is the one playing it, it’s so much more deep and thoughtful than anything Seokjin’s heard.
One would think that would keep him up, but it’s as if the music plays out his worries and thoughts for him so he doesn’t have to think for the rest of the night.
It’s at one night that Yoongi jumps on the keys as Seokjin sits up in his bed and looks Yoongi over in the darkness, illuminated by the light from the window.
“Show me,” Seokjin hums as he stands up and walks over to Yoongi, sitting next to him on the small piano bench. “Show me the song.”
“Uh...,” Yoongi hums back, hands hovering over the keys. “W-Which one?”
“Any of them.”
Seokjin watches as Yoongi carefully places his fingers on the keys and starts pressing, black and white combined to make resounding chords. Seokjin thanks that it doesn’t resonate through their bedroom door and bother the rest of the dorm.
Seokjin lays his head on Yoongi’s shoulder and the younger misses a note, stopping completely as Seokjin chuckles.
“Hyung-”
“Keep playing, that was good.” He feels Yoongi look down at him and adjusts so he can still play with Seokjin on his shoulder, the notes even softer than before.
Seokjin feels himself drift off before the song ends.
When he wakes up, he’s in Yoongi’s bed instead, and briefly remembers falling asleep against the younger last night listening to his piano. He sits up to see his own bed empty.
“Hyung...,” another voice says and Seokjin turns to see Yoongi frowning into the blanket, eyes still closed and face scrunched in distaste. “What’re you doin’, it’s, like... Whatever-o’clock in the whatever. Go back t’sleep.”
“Yoongi-ah, did you put me to bed?” Seokjin asks, and Yoongi nods, reaching out an arm and pulling Seokjin back down onto his back, pinning him with it, the length reaching the end of Seokjin’s shoulders.
“Sure did,” Yoongi yawns out. “Y’were... I don’t know. Sleepin’, somethin’. Wouldn’t let go. Go back t’bed, okay, hyung? ‘s too early.” Seokjin looks over and when he sees Yoongi, he hears piano.
Seokjin carefully turns onto his side and tucks himself into the smaller, and Yoongi pulls him a little closer.
“I can hear it,” Seokjin mumbles quietly.
“Hear what?” Yoongi says, slurred and deep.
“The piano, I can hear your piano.” Seokjin adjusts so he can poke Yoongi’s chest. “Right here.” He feels and hears Yoongi let out a breathy chuckle.
“Tha’s a heartbeat, hyung,” he laughs quietly. “I think you’re thinkin’ of the head.” Seokjin feels a finger poke his forehead lightly and Seokjin hums.
“No, Definitely your heart.” Yoongi hums and Seokjin feels a hand press against his chest, as if trying to grab it and keep it close.
“‘s here, too, then,” he says, his arm relaxing completely, fingers just barely grazing skin. “Piano.”
“I can’t play piano.”
“”kay, ‘ll teach you.” Seokjin freezes. “Mm, ‘kay, time for sleep now, hyung.” Seokjin doesn’t have time to respond when Yoongi pulls him a little closer, his head down to Yoongi’s chest, and he feels a small kiss on the top of his head.
He can hear the piano clearly now.