Chapter Text
Annie stepped out of her friend’s small cabin, and was greeted with an onslaught of large, heavy droplets of rain. Each droplet was at least one of her fists big, and they were coming down in sheets. She waved a final goodbye to her friend, and shouted back into the cabin; “BYE EVA! I’LL SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!” She grinned as her friend shouted back a similar sentiment, and rushed out into the cold, wet clearing. She hugged her bear close to attempt to prevent him from getting wet, which failed in an instant, as the rain soaked through her dress and coat in an instant. She wiped the rain out of her eyes with a hand, and ran as quickly as she could along the path. As the rain grew heavier, it became harder and harder to find the path, and she eventually couldn’t see it at all. She was at least a mile away from home, maybe more, and the nearest shelter was a tree, which looked like it was about to snap. After a moment, the tree snapped in half. Annie kept running through the forest, hoping that she would find somewhere to stay until the rain blew over.
Before anything, Annie was cold. Her long hair was sopping wet, and, clutched in her arms was a stuffed bear. Water slowly dripped off of the bear’s matted fur, pooling in a small puddle at Annie’s feet. While Annie was used to being alone, alone at night was never something that she could easily handle. With the bear clutched tight in one hand, and her other hand shielding her face from the rain, Annie darted to the closest building she saw. The building’s facade towered over her tiny figure, and after a quick glance at the sky to prove that the rain wasn’t going to stop any time soon, Annie hauled the door open a crack, and slipped inside. The building served its purpose, the darkness not only shielding her from the rain, but shielding her eyes from seeing the disrepair of her stuffed bear. While the darkness blanketed her eyes, it did nothing for her ears, and as soon as she calmed down enough to fully understand where she was, soft piano music flooded her senses. She wrapped her arms around herself tightly, and curled up against the wall of the room, bear clutched in her arms. Slowly but surely, the piano music lulled her to sleep.
A bright light and a discordant note shocked Annie awake, and she snapped her eyes open. Before her, sat a man, -well she couldn’t really tell-, with his lean body clothed in exquisite patterns, and a porcelain mask clasped perfectly over his face, he was unlike anything that Annie had ever seen. His cream coloured cloak was embroidered with miniscule purple lotus flowers, and it flowed over his shoulders like a very expensive silken water. Despite the seemed perfection of the man standing before her, Annie saw that his cloak was blooming with blood around the edges, the reddish-brown stains splattered across the petals of the embroidered flowers. Behind his mask, the man’s eyes narrowed, and he cleared his throat.
“Do you have business here, child?”
Annie’s eyes widened, and she shook her head, clutching the bear closer to her chest. The man sat down on the floor to bring himself down to Annie’s height, and he cleared his throat again.
“Have you ever played the piano, child?”
She shook her head again, and the man stood up, then gestured to the door.
“Well, I can’t have you stay if you’re not here to learn piano, so, off you go.”
Annie stood up, and in a voice no louder than a whisper;
“Wait. I’ll learn to play.”
The man turned back to her, and cocked his head in interest. He cleared his throat, and patted the piano bench. Annie hopped up onto the piano bench excitedly, feet dangling over the ground. She sat her bear next to her, and looked up at the man expectantly. He looked at her from behind the mask, and cleared his throat again.
“If I am to teach you how to play piano, child, the bear must not be occupying my seat.”
Annie grinned, and moved her stuffed bear to her lap. The man sat on the piano bench next to her, and pointed to a key towards the middle of the piano.
“This is middle C. The first, most important thing of playing the piano is being able to tell what each note is on the piano. This is A, B, C, D, E, F, G.”
As he explained the piano keys, he pressed each one, and then had Annie do the same. Right before she pressed the first key, he quickly shook his head, and pointed to her hands.
“You want your fingers to be curved, not flat, and each press of the key should be a fluid motion.”
Annie adjusted her hands to what the man said, and pressed her hands to the keyboard. A loud, dissonant chord rang out from the piano, and she jumped in her seat. The man was looking at her in shock, and she cocked her head to the side.
“Did I do something wrong, sir?”
He shook his head, and moved to press his hands to the same keys that she had pressed not a moment ago.
“Have you ever played the piano before, child?”
She shook her head no, and picked up her bear from the top of the piano, and clutched the raggedy thing to her chest.
“No, sir. Nobody in my family regards music as anything useful.”
Jhin clicked his tongue disappointedly, and shook his head.
“Everyone should regard music as useful. If there is nothing else that I teach you, I hope that you will begin to regard music as one of the most important parts of life.”
Annie nodded, and held her hands up to the piano again.
“I never thought that music wasn’t useful, sir. I’ve just never had a chance to practise.”
The man pushed the piano bench back with Annie sitting on it, and stood up, then held out his hand to shake. She hopped up and stood onto the bench, then grabbed the man’s hand with both of her tiny hands.
“I am Khada Jhin. I will be teaching you piano until you are able to play as well as I am. What is your name, child?”
Annie shook his hand vigorously, and bounced up and down.
“I’m Annie, and this is Tibbers!”
Once she had finished shaking the man’s hand, she held out the stuffed bear. Jhin grasped one of the bear’s hands with delicate fingers, and shook its hand. Annie grinned gap-toothedly, and clutched the bear back to her chest. Jhin cleared his throat, and patted the bench for Annie to sit down again. He sat down next to her, and placed his hands on the keys, positioning his fingers to land on a simple C major chord. Annie placed her hands at the same position an octave higher. Jhin clapped as she pressed down the keys, the chord ringing out in his large hall.
“Excellent job, Annie. Now, move your hands a step higher-” She moved her hands a step higher. “-then another step higher-” she moved her hands another step higher, and higher and higher until she had moved up the C scale in triads. Her hands flowed across the keys like silken water, and Jhin clapped excitedly. He stood up from the piano bench and watched her go up and down the scale repeatedly. Her tiny fingers were curved over the keys, and the shaking of the piano made Tibbers bounce up and down from his perch on the closed lid. Annie turned back to Jhin, who was watching the girl with an expression of amazement beneath his mask.
“Child, are you sure you’ve never touched a piano before?”
Annie nodded, and bounced in her seat.
“Did I do it right, sir?”
Jhin nodded, and sat down again next to her.
“Please, just call me Jhin, child. Your hand position is excellent, and many of my students cannot achieve that level of fluidity even after decades of playing.”
Thunder rumbled, and lightning cracked above the hall, and Annie jumped in her seat, then grabbed Tibbers off of the piano and clutched the raggedy bear close to her chest. As soon as Jhin saw that the girl was scared, he placed his hands on the keys and began to play a soothing melody. He played an excerpt from Mussorsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition , the sound echoing throughout his hall of a home. As soon as he started playing, Annie looked up from her stuffed bear and started to relax. Jhin was playing from memory, and Annie watched his hands, transfixed by the fluid motions that produced beautiful music. Jhin finished his excerpt, and by some magic, the storm had cleared. Annie looked up at him wide-eyed, bear in her hands.
“Can you teach me how to do THAT?”
Jhin laughed, and smiled beneath his mask.
“In time, child, in time. I have been playing the piano for much longer than you have been alive, I’m sure.”
Annie frowned, and held her hands to her hips.
“No way! I’m a whole TEN years old!”
Jhin chuckled at her antics, and ruffled the young girl’s hair.
“I’m far older than ten, Annie.”
She huffed in annoyance, and hopped off the piano bench to look around Jhin’s hall. Jhin stood up as well, and followed the girl around his hall, boots clicking in perfect time on the wooden floors. Annie turned back to him, eyebrows raised.
“You live here?”
He nodded, and walked the girl to the end of the hall, then pointed to a small staircase leading to what appeared to be a meticulously organised loft.
“I live up there, this just happens to be my workplace.”
Annie peered her head to look at the loft, then turned back to Jhin, a wide grin on her face.
“COOOOL! Do you just teach piano all day, sir?”
He paused for a moment, then decided that it wasn’t right to tell his new protegee about what he did for a living. His eyes snapped over to his golden pistol, sitting alone on a table that had stacks of sheet music on it. The girl had a point, he did have enough money from executing hits over the years to stop the assassin business and teach piano full time.
“Yes, I do teach piano to make a living, child.”
Annie nodded, then peered out one of the windows. It had grown dark outside, and she jumped with the realisation that she was supposed to be home hours ago.
“I’m sorry sir, but I have to go. I was meant to be home hours ago, and the only reason that I’m here is ‘cause I got stuck in the storm!”
Jhin ruffled the girl’s hair, and held open one of his doors.
“Can you see the path, child? If not, I would prefer to walk you home so you don’t get lost and end up learning how to play the violin.”
Annie laughed, and jumped in one of the puddles outside of Jhin’s hall. She looked back at her teacher, and waved excitedly.
“I can see fine, sir! I’ll see you tomorrow!”
She laughed as she jumped in various puddles, getting absolutely soaked on her way home. Jhin smiled as he watched his young student run out into the light rain, and shut the door of his hall with a quiet thunk. He strode over to his piano, lifted the lid, and began to play the rest of Mussorsky’s Pictures . He slammed his hands on the keys with considerable force as he got to the ninth movement, Baba Yaga , and when he got to the last movement, The Great Gates of Kiyv , he leaned back a little, building the crescendo slowly until he was leaning forward over the keys, putting his all into the chords that rang out into the hall long after he stopped playing.