Chapter Text
“So, if that is all, I’m gonna go. Wish you all the best.” Mona said finally, getting her bass case on her back. She closed the door behind her, no hard feelings at heart.
And just like that, the band no longer had a bassist until further notice.
Venti let himself fall to the floor completely, which was almost his usual place in the rehearsal room.
“What should we do now?” he asked his bandmates. Hu Tao was still on the drums, computer on her lap, while Albedo seemed to be also packing his stuff behind the keyboard.
“I have rehearsal with the orchestra now, if something comes up please send it to the group chat.” He said, and so he was also gone.
“We need a new bassist,” Venti told Hu Tao again, this time getting up to see what she was up to.
“Heard you the first time, I’m putting an ad on music groups I’m in.” She said while typing, Venti always admired how fast she was on that kind of thing Computer stuff that was, he only could manage music software and even then he typed like a 80 years old grandpa. “Have you asked Beidou? Maybe she knows someone at the venue who’s looking for a band or something.”
“I’ll send her a message. Would be good too if Albedo were here to help us out.” Venti pouted. He knew Albedo was busy with orchestra and other study related things, but this was an important matter too.
Their band wasn’t that unknown, they had thousands of listeners on Spotify, and venues were usually pretty full when they played, so finding another bassist shouldn’t be hard, right?
Or that they thought. He asked around people who he knew, but they all seemed already busy with their own stuff, so for online auditions they asked to attach a small video and send it to the band email address, and the next few days were spent on watching them when they had the time to do it, between classes, commune or practice.
At the end of the week each had picked out around 3, and decided they were going to get that number down to luckily 2 or 1. The process was so boring he wasn’t even sure it was the right choice, so at this point he was expecting a miracle to happen.
Only Albedo was missing, his keyboard already in the rehearsal room they have booked every week, so he shouldn't be too far.
Venti was about to get his phone out to check Twitter when the door opened. It was Albedo, and behind him there was another person they didn’t know.
“Who are you?” asked Hu Tao, jumping from her spot at the back of the room, startling the newcomers.
“Uh, this is Xiao, a flautist from my orchestra.” explained Albedo.
Venti thought he may have misheard him and instead of orchestra he meant handsome people factory or even a motorshop. He knew he shouldn’t judge others by appearance but the dyed hair, ripped jeans and combat boots wasn’t what he expected from a classical musician. He hoped he wasn’t staring too much.
“I’m also a bassist,” said Xiao, and Venti got taken aback by his voice. Suddenly everything about this man got interesting. “Albedo said the band was looking for one.”
Hu Tao seemed to notice Venti’s expression, so she quickly said “We sure are! Do you have your bass here?” Xiao showed his bass case at his back. “Then let’s hear you! Use one of the amps around here.”
Xiao got his bass out the case, it was mostly black with what seemed like some handmade green details. He connected it to one of the amps and looked at the others, Hu Tao and Venti making an expecting go ahead sign with their heads.
He started by improvising some stuff, and Venti noticed how relaxed Xiao seemed while playing, like he was feeling the vibrations through the floor. His hands moved swiftly across the fretboard, and Venti felt something he didn’t know it was possible.
“You’re in!” He said even before Xiao could stop playing.
“Wait, we haven’t discussed it yet,” Hu Tao protested. “He was really cool, but shouldn’t we talk about this first?”
“He doesn’t even know what type of songs we play.” Albedo warned.
“But you do learn fast, right?” Please say yes, Venti wanted to add.
“Mh, I do, I also listen to the band sometimes.” Xiao said, and began playing some notes of the bridge from one of their EPs. It was just a few bars, but the band clearly noticed which one it was, since it was one of the hardest.
They all looked at each other, and Hu Tao sighed. “Ok, you’re in.” and shot a look that said You better watch your gay ass for this one to Venti. Venti smiled in return, switching to look at Xiao.
“Welcome to the band!”
—
They all exchanged numbers and added to the group chat soon after, as well as the Drive with all their songs, mixes, music sheets and other band stuff. They still had a while until their next show, so that meant training Xiao to fit in the meantime.
Soon after though Venti realized breaking the ice with Xiao would be more difficult than he thought.
Both Xiao and Venti shared the route back from the rehearsal, so Venti tried to learn more about him. He had so many questions, one of them being if he was single. But maybe that would be for another opportunity.
“So, how did you find out about the band?” he asked, catching up to Xiao’s steps.
“Albedo told me during a break a while back and told me to see them sometime live,” Xiao explained. “It was really good.” That did not steal a heart throb from Venti.
“Ah, thanks! We do our best at shows!” He tried to regain composure with his usual smile. “How do you feel in front of an audience? Have you been in a band before?”
“I don’t know if the orchestra counts, but I’ve been in some bands until last year, performed a few times but it wasn’t our main thing. I also busked for a bit a few years ago,” Venti nodded. There was a pause as they watched the traffic light switch from red to green. “Can I ask you something?”
“Mh? Sure.”
“Do you write the songs for the band?” Xiao asked, looking directly at him. Venti wasn’t expecting to suddenly have those piercing eyes on him and almost knocked himself over by the train station entrance machines.
“Uh, yeah. Almost all of them, at least the lyrics. Hu Tao and Albedo do their parts and sometimes change stuff, so it’s not really just me, but I tend to start the concepts and we go from there.”
“Okay,” said Xiao, lost in thought. “Thanks.”
Xiao’s train came to the station, and they quickly parted ways, exchanging goodbyes.
Venti’s train came as soon as his brain came back down to Earth, but not enough for him to be able to catch it. So he now had at last another 15 minutes to repeat the conversation they just had over and over. And then some other 30 until his house. It was gonna be a fun ride.
He put on his headphones and started going through his own band’s Spotify playlist, thinking why would Xiao ask that question aside from pure curiosity. He was going to think about it forever.
Were the lyrics weird? If he listened to his own music he always tried to imagine as if it was the first time someone heard it, so he tried to do it. Maybe he was overthinking it.
What Venti didn’t know was that, meanwhile, Xiao was also going through the same thing.