Chapter Text
September 1st
Kurapika, 12:05pm
Kurapika roamed the halls of the music wing, peering in the windows and itching to find an empty room to finally play the instrument on his back. His faint grumblings were dulled by the various instruments producing sounds that bounced off the concrete walls.
Kurapika needed to get his ass in gear for the competition in a few months. He had already passed the preliminaries so all he needed to focus on was his next pieces and win this competition. That and actually finding an accompanist to play for him. After his brother and default accompanist, Pairo, had severely sprained his wrist Kurapika was forced to look for a new one. His options were short unfortunately. It was either hiring a professional that would abuse his wallet or using what his school offered, Chrollo. Kurapika will admit, Chrollo was an exceptional player that could certainly hold his weight, but Kurapika would rather die than be trapped in close quarters with Chrollo for more than an hour. He wouldn’t be able to handle the flurry of complaints and “critiques” Chrollo would spew at him. Just the thought of the greasy bastard made the violinist grimace.
As Kurapika turned the corner into the hall of neglected practice rooms, he finally settled on the room at the end, seeing that the other was already occupied. Flicking the lights on, he surveyed the tiny room to look for a place to uncase. The room was severely neglected with fraying carpet and minor stains on the wall. His nose scrunched at the sight but continued to walk towards the piano bench, seeing that it was the cleanest place to uncase. As he zipped open his case to prepare his instrument. He huffed at the lack of noise coming from his neighbor. They were probably a student skipping class or eating lunch inside, taking up a spot that could've been used by a musician that actually wanted to practice.
Pulling out his phone to open the tuning app and set on the wobbly music stand, ignoring Pairo’s several texts about how boring history is. As he pulled his bow across the string to tune, a sudden sequence of piano notes from the next room caused Kurapika to jump. Curious, Kurapika stood still to listen. Not many students at YorkNew High knew how to play the piano since it wasn’t offered as a class. It was nothing like Chrollo who was practically a perfect human metronome. It was aggressive, messy, and offbeat. This intrigued Kurapika.
Praying that it wasn’t Chrollo, Kurapika peaked from the edge of the window looking into the room. The man inside looked nothing like Chrollo, making him sigh with relief. Thank god. I’m not in the mood to listen to his taunting and teasing if I were to be caught. Instead he was tall and skinny, his knees barely fitting under the keys and having to hunch over. Kurapika scanned over the figure once more, focusing on his short brown hair. Though Kurapika didn’t speak with the majority of the students enrolled in the program, he did know who did and didn't belonged. However, his mind was drawing a blank with the man in the room pounding on the keys. It didn’t help that he was completely entranced by the mystery man’s performance. As he silently watched from afar, praying that no one would come across him stalking the person in the room and that the pianist wouldn’t turn around, he focused on the pianist’s movements. The pianist played as if his life depended on it, his feet frantically pressing at the pedals as the phrase ended while bobbing his head to the beat. His body swayed as he approached the more intense parts of the piece, his head jerking as he pounded the keys. It wasn’t until a few minutes in that Kurapika had noticed what piece he was playing, Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue. This piece was meant to play with much more grace and poise, but here was this mad man smashing the keys as if he wanted to pulverise the instrument. Kurapika scrunched his nose again from the rebellion, despite feeling himself being pulled deeper by this performance. Then as the piano lulled into a soft melody, Kurapika let out a breath he had not noticed he was holding. He scanned the inside of the room and settled on the music stand of the piano, clear of any music sheets. He raised his eyebrows. He must be very experienced to be playing a piece of this level and have it memorized after countless practices. Almost 10 minutes later, the swaying and soft playing indicated the end of the piece. He turned his face enough to the side for Kurapika to catch the pianist’s closed eyes… and his stupidly framed… glasses. He froze.
Shit. That’s the cute brunette from English.
In this moment of silence, Kurapika used his rush of adrenaline to barge into the room and yell out “YOU PLAY THE PIANO?”
Leorio snapped his head to the sudden noise that pulled him out of his peaceful silence and screeched. “JESUS CHRIST WHATTHEHELL.''
Kurapika approached him with unearned confidence and pointed his bow at Leorio a foot away. “How long have you been playing?”
The brunette looked terrified, and his face was starting to burn a deep red, “I-I don’t know. A while? Since I was 6? I was taught from a really young age from a neighbor. '' Leorio began to ramble even though the violinist ignored his life’s story.
Kurapika paused for a moment, “Do you know any other pieces?”
The brunette raised his eyebrows as he blinked a few times, “Uh I’m a little out of practice,” He raised an arm to scratch the back of his neck and looked Kurapika in the eyes. “Got any requests?”
“Surprise me. Just nothing overplayed.” Leorio nodded in response and Kurapika came closer to watch him get into position.
As Leorio began the first chords, Kurapika felt his face fall into a scowl. “Ha. Ha. Very funny. But The River Flows In You was not what I had in mind.”
The pianist chuckled “Just Kidding. I’m messing with ya.'' Kurapika felt his heart skip a beat hearing his laugh.
Snapping Kurapika out of his thoughts, Leorio’s giant hands stretched across several keys to begin the piece. It was simple at first but then his right hands began to fly across a large distance of keys, his left swiping perfectly at three keys at a time. Kurapika watched in amazement as the fluid movements perfectly struck the keys in time, his hands so stretched you could just feel the strain from far away. Hm. Must be nice having large hands to stretch across several keys. He watched as the pianist swayed, his brows furrowed in deep concentration. As the piece came to an end, Kurapika was still returning from the mess happening in his head.
Oh my god he’s cute AND talented.
He tried to compose himself before meeting the pianist’s eyes to speak again, “How good are you at sight reading?”
Leorio’s face fell and his mouth fell into a straight line. “Gee a bravo or some applause would be nice, considering I just played my arms off. ” The violinist didn’t budge, only raising a single eyebrow. With a sigh, Leorio relaxed his posture and crossed his arms. “Pretty good, I guess. Still rusty but I’m sure I haven’t lost my ability to read music. Give me a few days and I probably got most of the piece down.”
The violinist leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “Be my accompanist.”
Leorio stared at the blond as if he had grown two heads, his arms uncurling from his body to wave them in the air. “I-. Excuse me? Be your WHAT?”
Kurapika frowned at the pianist’s tone. “My piano accompaniment. I need one for the York New Concerto Competition at the end of the year.”
Leorio crossed his arms again and looked down at the stained carpet. “I don’t know. I have a lot on my plate right now.”
“I’ll split the prize money with you if we win. $5,000 each. Plus, it’ll look super good on college applications.”
The mention of money and college immediately caught the pianist’s interest. Leorio snapped his head up to meet Kurapika’s eyes “What piece are we playing?”
Kurapika’s smirk returned on his face hearing the pianist’s agreement. “We’ll be playing Sonata in A Major, D. 574. ”