Work Text:
There weren’t many days where the band room was completely empty. During work hours, people were either practicing or they were actively performing for the cartoon. This time, though, one of the Ink pipes in the ceiling had started leaking, and deciding to nip this in the bud before earning the ire of the music director, Reeve picked a day where the room wasn’t absolutely necessary and blocked it off. All instruments were delicately taken out and put in different rooms for storage, or some musicians found quiet corners to practice new songs.
When questioned why it was necessary, he just asked if they really wanted to piss off Sammy Lawrence by risking pricey instruments getting ruined by Ink. Needless to say, he wasn’t asked again.
It took him a while to find where the leak actually started, and it involved his favorite activity of crawling through the cobweb-infested spaces between walls. His headlamp helped light the way, but it didn’t stop the feeling of things crawling on him. However, as long as he didn’t create a new rumor of ghosts in the studio, he would count it as a victory.
Once the pipe was fixed, he had to make that same crawl backwards. It was about at this point that he was heavily considering talking to Joey for a pay raise.
Or he could just throw one of his new spider “friends” at him for all the good that would do.
The incandescent light of the studio was the literal light at the end of the tunnel that he could barely see, and when he crawled out into a back hallway, he heavily considered just laying there for a few minutes.
Until he felt something creeping up his leg.
Jumping up quickly and beating at the spot where there must have been something, it took him a few moments to realize he wasn’t alone.
The cartoon wolf was taller than Reeve even if you didn’t count the ears, and given that Reeve was still on edge, he tripped backwards and landed on his rear at the sudden sight.
Boris looked at him in concerned amusement. Reeve was fully aware that his clothes were covered in dust and webbing, and the hardhat was now sitting crookedly on his head. He was probably a sight.
“Go ahead and laugh, you got me,” Reeve said once his voice decided to work. He coughed a few times to get the dust out, but he was quick to start laughing.
That got a few laughs out of Boris before he asked, “What were you doing in there?”
Shakily standing up, Reeve answered, “Pipe maintenance. Didn’t want to risk flooding the band room by ignoring it. And of course, it ended up in the most inconvenient spot.” Finally deciding he didn’t need it anymore, he took off the hardhat so he could turn off the headlamp. “… What time is it?” He suddenly asked.
“Oh, it’s about six. Why?”
That answer drew a big sigh from Reeve. “Because I was told the room needs to be ready by eight in the morning tomorrow. And almost everyone has gone home by now, so that means I have to put everything back.”
“… They actually trust you to move the instruments?”
“Yeah, my mom taught me a few things, and I picked up a few tricks from the people in there.” He ran his hands through his hair a few times to dislodge any stubborn dust motes before saying, “Alright, I better get to it, see you around?”
“Oh, I can help!” Boris announced. Even though Reeve was much better at reading cat body language, even he could tell that Boris seemed almost excited over the prospect.
“Uh, I won’t say no to extra help, but don’t feel like you have to.”
“It’s fine, I help out in there a lot too!”
“Well, that’ll be great! Because I really don’t remember exactly where all those things went.” At this point, Reeve started walking through the halls to the band room with Boris tagging along. A few people working overtime were still running in and out of their offices, but he knew better than to bother them at this hour.
“Do you play any instruments?” Boris asked as they started gathering the smaller and easier to handle instruments.
“Ehh, I can sing, supposedly, and I know a little bit of piano playing. But I was more interested in the machines my dad worked with.” Reeve reminisced about his parents a bit before turning the conversation back to Boris. “What can you play?”
He apparently opened a floodgate that he didn’t know existed, for at this point, Boris talked about all the different instruments Joey had him play. Obviously he favored some more than others, but he seemed to like almost all of them.
The conversation lasted them until they were finally pushing the stand-up piano through the door, and once it was in it’s proper place, Reeve and Boris almost collapsed onto the bench. “Thanks for the help, I would have been here for hours trying to put it all back.”
“You’re welcome! In return, promise me you’ll play something?”
The random request threw Reeve’s mind for a moment, so it took him a few seconds to say, “I, uh, can certainly try. I can’t promise it’ll be good.”
“I don’t care, it’ll be fun anyway,” Boris said before standing up and stretching. “I need to check on the others. So, see you around?”
“Sure,” Reeve said with a smile.