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“Spiky head.”
Just as quickly as he had started getting ready for the performance his attention was forced away, a familiar voice piercing the silence. For a moment he thought–or perhaps hoped–that he was imagining it. He wasn’t sure which one of them it was, but he had a pretty good idea from the tone of voice that the man had spoken in. Most people he had talked to about it found it to be surprising that he could roughly tell the two apart just based on their voices, but he always just put it down to having good hearing, a perk of being a musician he supposed.
Still, this was one of the last people he was expecting to show up at a music festival in general, let alone backstage while he was preparing for a performance.
“How’d you get in here?” He queried, continuing with getting ready. A slight clanging of metal could be heard as he picked up his choker, putting it on.
“Oh, well, you know. I just told them I happened to be a friend of yours, and they let me in.”
Piers had a skeptic look, shaking his head as he finally managed to get the choker on in place.
“Uh huh, so you paid them to let you through, basically?”
“I never said that I-!” He paused, as though he was trying to come up with a proper excuse that he could claim was what happened. Not that it would’ve convinced Piers at all, but he eventually just gave in. “Yes, that may be what happened.”
Piers rolled his eyes, something catching his attention. Well, it certainly confirmed to him which one of them it was, if the red was anything to go off of, but he definitely wasn’t wearing what Piers was expecting. His eye’s scanned the other mans body, the hair was the same, of course the hair was the same, even with how different everything was.
Shielbert clearly noticed, raising an eyebrow, an annoyed smirk stuck on his face.
“Is there a problem?” It was hard to tell from his expression and tone if he was genuinely offended, or if he just wanted to argue with Piers for the hell of it. Neither one seemed out of character. Piers shrugged, it wasn’t any of his business how the man dressed.
“Your family know you’re here?” He looked away, returning to donning the many metallic accessories he usually wore, barely even flinching from how cold they were in comparison to his body.
“Why would they?” He moved, sitting on the table that Piers had his things laid out on. “I am an adult, after all, it’s really none of their business what I do.”
“I just can’t imagine it’d be the kinda event that they’d approve of.”
“Maybe not, but as I said, I’m an adult. I don’t believe I need the approval of my family to go where I wish to go.”
Almost none of that statement was true, but Piers didn’t need to know that. He was spot on about the fact it wouldn’t be something they’d approve of, hence why he just didn’t tell them. It had been a nightmare to jump through all of the hoops he had to go through to actually get there while making sure they didn’t find out, between carefully planning a cover up story with Avery and all. As far as anyone knew, he was simply spending the weekend with Avery, and the story did have some merit to it, with that being where he was headed afterwards.
“What about your brother?”
Shielbert scoffed, leaning back and stretching, letting his hands rest on the table.
“Do you think Older Brother and I are glued together for every second of each day?”
“Yes.”
He wanted to force himself to be annoyed with the answer, but it was difficult to blame him for it.
“Well, unfortunately, you’re wrong. In fact, he isn’t aware that I’m here right now, and I don’t intend for him to find out.” He chuckled, tossing Piers the bottle of water that he was reaching for. “Older Brother isn’t exactly very fond of you in particular, so I don’t believe he’d appreciate me going to see you perform, even before the entire sneaking backstage to see you thing.”
Piers reached for his jacket, before he finally looked to Shielbert, getting another good look at what he was wearing. It wasn’t exactly a revealing outfit so to say, but he still had to raise an eyebrow for one reason in particular.
Piers shoved his jacket at Shielbert, stepping back only to adjust his hair.
“You look cold.”
“I am…Was.” He corrected as he slipped on Piers’ jacket. It was ever so slightly longer on him compared to on Piers, but that was probably for the best in this situation.
He slowly jumped down from sitting on the table onto the floor, looking at Piers.
“Thanks, I guess, Spiky head…” He muttered under his breath, hoping that Piers wouldn’t hear him.
“Oi, the name’s Piers.”
Shielbert leaned forward, fidgeting with Piers’ choker. He tugged on it slightly, pulling Piers closer towards him, close enough so that he could speak practically directly into his ear.
“I am aware. Is it so wrong for a friend to give you an affectionate nickname?”
“I s’ppose, but since when are we friends?”
Shielbert let go, stepping back and adjusting how the sleeves of the jacket were resting on him.
“I mean, we’re not.” He shrugged. “But I’d prefer to say I’m here on terms of us being friends rather than implying that I’m a fan of yours. Which, I’m not, by the way.”
Piers tilted his head back, trying desperately to bite back any words of annoyance he had. It wasn’t worth trying to argue with him. He had things to be doing, and he didn’t have time to waste.
“Would you mind if I listened from back here? I’m not exactly the biggest fan of being in crowds, as opposed to being the one a crowd is gathered for.” He sat himself on the table again. “Oh, and I should return your jacket before you go out.”
“Do whatever you want, I don’t care. And-” He looked back as he headed for the stage. “It’s fine, just give it back later.”
Shielbert smiled, waving at him from that table as he made his way onstage.
“Thank you, Spiky head~!”