Work Text:
Miraculously, around 4 weeks after the crew brought the piano into the ship, they found a tuning key in a junkyard from one of the less inhabited planets they’ve visited for a restock of supplies.
Tommy swears this is proof that some God exists out there because just the day before, he discovered one of the piano keys had gone flatter than a fucking flat, and every time he pressed that key, it made him want to recite the Litany of the Divine Mercy. Atheism be damned.
The crew was a little confused and concerned about why he began to screech Hallelujah at the top of his lungs when he held the treasure but they ignored it. Perhaps it was another one of those weird human traditions.
Once they went back onto the ship, Tommy immediately ran to his room to tune his piano, hoping that he didn’t lose his perfect pitch. Which he did not, obviously. He’s a grade 5 pianist officially, but he knows he can play the piano at a higher level than that.
Tommy was practically crying with joy once he heard the flatter than the flat monstrosity of a key turn back to normal.
“What the hell are you doing, big man?” Tubbo peaks out from his door.
“I’m crying of fucking JOY, Tubs. That’s what I’m doing. My piano is fixed!” The blonde says.
“Was it broken? You could have told us, we could have fixed it… probably.” The bee boy shrugs.
“Ehhh, there’s nothing wrong with the piano per se, what was wrong was the tuning. I fixed the tuning. So it sounds much better.” Tommy explained.
“Oh! Kind of like how Wilbur gets frustrated when one of the [redacted] of his [redacted] doesn’t sound right.” Tubbo’s eyebrows rise up.
“I didn’t understand a single thing about what you said about Wilbur’s space guitar, big man.” Tommy gave him a dry stare.
“Yeah, I think Wilbur and I didn’t teach you that word yet, but honestly, you wouldn’t be able to pronounce it anyway. Different throats and all that.”
“Why would you word it like that. Different throat? What the fuck man!” Tommy wheezed.
“WELL, AM I WRONG?”
“No, no you are not. Now get the fuck out because I wanna enjoy my music with peace and quiet.” He pointed at the door.
Tubbo smirked. “What peace and quiet?”
Tommy huffed and picked him up and dropped him outside of his room before slamming the door shut.
“Hey! Fuck you man! Using your human strength against me! Phil, Tommy’s bullying me!”
“Hah! First time?” Tommy snorted hearing Wilbur’s voice.
He turned back to his beautiful and newly tuned piano and sighed in relief once he heard all the notes in proper tune and order.
Humming a tune, he played one of his favorite jazz pieces. Sing, sing, sing. Quite basic, but he needs a quick warm-up before playing anything bigger because after he played this piano when it was still in the shop, his fingers were cramping from the lack of practice.
So after that, Tommy made it his mission to regain the flexibility and strength his fingers once had for piano. He didn’t want to end up with arthritis, he’s not old like Phil. He’s a young but not old Big Man.
Yes, that’s him.
“When the music goes around, everybody goes go to town. But here is one thing you should know, sing it high and sing it low !”
He laughed when he sang low on a much lower note than the original.
“Sing sing sing sing, everybody start to sing like dee dee dee, bah bah bah dah- Now you're singin' with a swingggg.”
He made a glissando for a dramatic effect.
Then he paused as his hands stopped at the last few chords.
“Now you’re singing… with… a… swinggggg.”
Tommy slammed his hands on the keyboard and made a whoot. Man, he missed the thrill of just going Life in Vivace from time to time. He turned to the stuffed toy Tubbo made for him, Henry, and he grinned at it.
“So what do you think, big man? You liked my little play, eh?”
The stuffed toy did no movement. It kind of disappointed Tommy, knowing it wasn’t a real audience, but he was sure, that if the toy actually moved or talked, he would scream his balls out and request for a space exorcist or something.
“Right right, thank you for your applause, my dear cow. For this is just our opening number! Now, what song should I play next? Hmm…”
Tommy turns back to his piano keys and played with the notes until his fingers fell on an E and B.
He froze, suddenly recognizing the sound but not remembering when he heard it. “Could it be?” He muttered, playing with some of the keys once more, then suddenly, he remembers.
His mouth formed into a grin as he spoke the name of this familiar tune. “ Bohemian Rhapsody. Of course!” He tested out the chords he remembers from the song and checked if he can still play the whole thing.
He remembers when he was still some 14 year old boy in front of his piano practicing the songs from Queen when he should have been preparing his latest jazz piece for a performance last 2018. He was obsessed with the Bohemian Rhapsody movie. He kept watching it non-stop.
He stopped and stared at his piano for a few seconds before taking a small breath, and as he pressed the starting chords he released it through song.
“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landside, no escape from reality…”
Wilbur and Technoblade were walking down the halls when they saw Tubbo pressing his head against Tommy’s door.
“What are you doing?” Techno asked him.
“Shhh! Quiet! I’m listening to Tommy!” The apisaid glared at them.
“Listening to Tommy?”
“Shhhh! Just keep quiet!”
The two decided to sit against the door as Tubbo did and listen as well.
“Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see, I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy, because I'm easy come, easy go, little high, little low. Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me…”
Tommy sang.
Wilbur raised an eyebrow at the lyrics. “What is this song? Why does he sound depressing?” He asks Tubbo.
“I don’t know man, but it sounds pretty good to me. You missed the first song he sang though, it was much happier.”
Technoblade just grunts at the two.
“Mama…” Tommy began the next lyric. “Just killed a man.”
The three froze. “Heh?”
“Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he’s dead.”
Wilbur frowned, his eyes met Techno’s, and the piglin was frowning as well. “Did he tell any of you guys about this?” He asks.
“No?”
“What are you doing?” They turn to see Phil raising an eyebrow at them with Ranboo fidgeting with his fingers behind him.
“Phil-”
“Mama… life had just begun. But now I’ve gone and thrown it all awayyy.” Tommy shut his eyes as he played. “Mamaaaaa…. Ooohhhh. Didn’t mean to make you cry. If I’m not back again, this time tomorrow. Carry on… carry on… as if nothing really matters.”
Then he returned back to the few starting chords to go to the next verse.
Phil and the rest of the crew had their backs against Tommy’s door listening to his song. All concerned about why he’s singing about killing and all that.
“Too late, my time has come, sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time. Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go. Gotta leave you all behind and face the truthhhh.”
Ranboo gasped, his tail straightening out. “Is he going to leave us?” He asked worriedly. And now the rest of the crew began internally freaking out.
“Mama, oooh. I don't want to die, I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all!”
“Is he suicidal!? Why didn’t he tell us? We could have helped him!” Phil chirped worriedly for the fledgling inside the room.
There weren’t any more lyrics sung for the next few seconds. Just chords playing and making a tune. The crew enjoyed those few seconds because they were able to calm themselves down. Just enjoying the music playing.
And then the key and tempo changed.
“I see a little silhouetto of a man, scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the Fandango!”
A loud bang rang, making the crew flinch.
“Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening me.” Another bang. “Galileo! Galileo! Galileo! Galileo! Galileo, figaro- MAGNIFICOOOOO!”
Tommy made a crescendo.
“I’m just a poor boy, nobody loves me.”
Phil chirped worriedly, suddenly being embraced by the crew. “Does he really think that?” He asks.
He was immediately shushed and comforted by the crew.
Another bang again.
“He’s just a poor boy from a poor family. Spare him his life from this monstrosity!”
Tommy grinned as he played the chords.
“Easy come, easy go, will you let me go? Bismillah! No, we will not let you go! Let him go! Bismillah! We will not let you go! Bismillah! We will not let you go! Let him go! We will not let you go. Let him go! Never let you go. Let me gooooo, no no no no!”
Tommy laughed at the voice crack he made at that last part.
“Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia, let me go! Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for meee.”
Okay but concerning lyrics aside, the crew was actually surprised at how high Tommy can manipulate his voice.
“Holy shit???” Tubbo swore.
“That’s actually pretty impressive,” Ranboo notes.
Tommy makes another tempo and energy change. Much happier.
“So you think you can stop me and spit in my eye!? So you think you can love me and leave me to die!?” He growled out with a grin. “ Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby! Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here!”
He howled playing the notes, and the crew thought he was about to finish and then the tone became somber once more. Humming along with the piano.
“Nothing really matters, anyone can see… Nothing really matters, nothing really matters to me. Anyway the wind blows… ” Tommy finished the song, and it was silent for a moment before he screeches in joy.
“HOLY SHIT! HENRY, DID YOU SEE THAT? OH MY GOD, I SANG AND PLAYED BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY AFTER SO LONG AND I STILL KILLED IT! HOLY SHIT! I gotta show the crew! I bet they’d love the songs I’ll play with the newly tuned piano, dont’cha think? How about that, eh?”
He skipped to his bedroom door and was surprised to see the crew outside, staring at him with pure concern.
“Uh, what the fuck are you doing there? The floors are dirty for fucks sake, stand up!” He pulled them up, but they were still staring at him. “Whyyy are you all looking at me like that? Is there something on my teeth?” He began to lick his teeth to see if there are any chunks of food stuck in between his teeth.
Suddenly, feathered limbs wrapped around him.
“W-What the fuck!?” His cheeks reddened in embarrassment. “Hey Phil, are you nesting again? What’s up with you? Guys?” But the others except for Techno also latched onto him.
“Why didn’t you tell me you didn’t like it here? We would have let you go if you asked! We’re not trapping you or anything, are we?” Phil chirps frantically.
Tommy was silent for a moment. “Heh? What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Your song, Tommy. We heard your song.” Wilbur tells him.
“Ohhhh! Bohemian Rhapsody? You listened to me playing it?”
Tubbo and Ranboo nodded in the embrace.
“That makes sense. Uhhh, Phil, I just sang a song. It doesn't really mean anything. I don’t wanna leave, I don’t feel trapped. Don’t worry. I’m fine.” Tommy cooed, trying to replicate one of the calming chirps Phil does.
It works, somewhat, because Phil suddenly seems heavier in his arms. A little too heavy.
“Uh, Techno?” The piglin looks at the gesture Tommy gives him and he immediately picks Phil up.
Tommy’s still brushing through the avian’s feathers and shakes his head.
“I’m not going anywhere guys, don’t worry. It’s just a song. Okay?” He comforts the crew.
“So you don’t wanna leave?” Phil asks.
“I just said that.”
“Okay… okay…” The avian quickly calmed down. “Okay…”
Tommy smiled at his crew. It was stupid for them to think that he’d ever want to leave the only family he has. He will never leave them.
Never.