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“CHEERS!” the crowd rings out.
After a few long weeks of endless performances and traveling, the Asta Orchestra's world tour had been finally concluded.
Today was the day they finally got to end off a long journey, and hopefully settle back into a new status quo. Or, after a night at the tavern at least, it wouldn’t be the Asta Orchestra without it.
They each take their respective drinks and spread out, some gathering in small groups to get some small talk, play beer pong, some getting more beers, and some opting to just relax on one of the many couches there instead.
And yet. Here Tsukasa stands.
A cup of water in one of those stupid red cups, awkwardly standing near a wall in one of the far corners like an idiot.
He should’ve known the orchestra long enough that he could at least TRY talking to them at least and make some small talk, and he has.
But just the thought of having to start up a conversation with someone right now makes him uneasy. Funnily enough, their orchestra motto was about communication.
It’s a wonder he even passed the audition to join in the first place, he sometimes thinks, but at least for him it worked out in the end.
He looks around, and spots some of his fellow orchestra members playing some sort of game on the other side of the tavern. It stings to see them having so much fun.
He wants to join, but doesn’t know how, and then ends up saying something really stupid out loud and embarrassing himself.
It happens everytime he tries talking.
And it’ll probably be the same in the future anyways, so at this point he’s basically stopped trying. Besides, he’s got nothing in common with any of them anyways.
The others in the orchestra were more people who were interested in fashion or playing games. He was a person who talked to animals instead of people and had a strange obsession with classical theater. There’s no point in him trying to talk if he can’t come up with anything to talk about.
The only real exception to this was Rui, who seemed to also share an equally mutual bond over theater.
Rui’s nowhere in sight though, so he drops the idea as soon as he gets it.
The rest of the group isn’t leaving until at least 2AM, and the next train doesn’t even appear for the next 30 minutes, so it’s not like he can just go back to the hotel.
He doesn’t want to stay here any longer.
It’s honestly kind of boring, standing by himself.
Really boring.
And lonely.
Really, really, lonely-
‘Maybe i’ll just camp out in a washroom or something until then.’
“Oya~? Tsukasa-kun? Just water tonight?”
Tsukasa yelps in surprise, “GAH! DANCHOU-SAN! Oh- where’d you come from-? Don’t scare me like that again!”
“You know you’re allowed to call me Rui off stage, remember? We’re celebrating a great journey today, aren’t we? Let yourself drop the formalities for once.”
Tsukasa lowers his hat a little bit more to hopefully hide himself a bit more.
“Right. I’ll keep that in mind then.”
Rui leans against the wall alongside Tsukasa, the two of them awkwardly standing next to each other for a little bit.
Deciding to try and not make the entire conversation completely silent, Tsukasa offers a small cheer towards Rui, to which he happily accepts with a smile.
Despite him being usually not a big fan of talking himself, he despises how quiet the silence is all the same, it’s a weird mix that he never gets used to even after he got more used to talking to others.
He looks at the clear drink Rui’s holding in his hand. “Water as well?”
“Ah- does it look like that? It’s not, I decided I’d go for a bit of vodka tonight, just to mix it up a little bit, I’ve heard the quality of it here is very good. Though I'm surprised you’re not grabbing anything for yourself tonight, light drinker?”
Tsukasa gets a bit startled, ‘Well, yes, BUT I DON’T NEED YOU TO KNOW THAT-’
“No, I just don’t like the taste of alcohol, I prefer to just stick with water for these types of events.”
Rui gives him a mischievous smirk, “oh? Is that so?”
“It’s not because at our last stop you got incredibly drunk and started-”
Tsukasa shushes him as fast as he can. “DO NOT MENTION THAT AGAIN!!” he yells out, attracting the attention of a few onlookers nearby, thankfully, no one seemed to be paying attention for more than a second.
His face goes slightly red with embarrassment, stepping back away from Rui who starts laughing in amusement.
“Hehe~ sorry, let’s get some fresh air, shall we?”
Rui held out the door for Tsukasa, before he led Tsukasa into a small little booth area outside the front of the tavern.
“Sure are a lot of stars out tonight, aren’t there?”
Tsukasa looks up at the sky, a sight so familiar yet different each time he looks up at it, he doesn’t say anything, preferring to enjoy the peace of a starry night for a little bit.
Just then though, in the corner of his eye, he spotted something very familiar.
“Is that…ah! So it is!”
“Tsukasa-kun? What’d you find?”
“Look up at the sky right now! Over there, once you connect some of those dots together you can make the constellation Taurus!”
Rui looks at him with wonder in his eyes. “Really? Tell me more.”
“Well, if you didn’t know already, the sign of a taurus is a bull, and it’s me and Saki’s zodiac sign! I remember the time when Saki brought out a book of constellations to show me when I was little and we ended up trying to find every different constellation there was! Which, speaking of that, on the topic of Saki-”
Rui decides to let him ramble for a little bit. ‘I’ve never heard him talk so much before… is Saki a close friend? Or perhaps family…’
‘Well, either way, I don't mind listening for a little bit. It’s nice hearing him talk about himself.’
“So then, it was then that me, Saki, and Toya all decided to write a play altogether! Of course, I was designated the prince and- oh! Rui? Are you still listening…? S-sorry- have I been talking too much? I didn’t mean to-”
Rui just stares back at him with a soft smile. “No, no, don’t worry about it at all, your voice is really pretty anyways so I don’t mind in the slightest~”
…
..
.
Their faces both go red.
“EH?! UH- t-thank you Dancho- I mean- RUI- sorry-! But- THANK YOU?? I’ve never heard someone say that before- I mean, I like my voice but still- thank you-!”
“Oh-! N-No problem, trust me, I do mean it when I say your voice is nice, you should let it out more.” Rui says, trying to make sure Tsukasa doesn’t get to see how red he is right now.
“...let’s move on from the topic, shall we-? Saki! you were mentioning someone named Saki, and Toya too.” He said, trying his absolute best to keep his cool.
“Oh… Oh! OH! Indeed I was! I- must’ve forgotten to tell you about them!” Rui watched as Tsukasa’s eyes lit up with stars once again.
“Saki’s my little sister! And Toya is basically a little brother to me as well! They’re the best siblings I could’ve ever imagined and they mean the world to me! Saki used to be in and out of the hospital a lot, but now she's completely healthy and she’s now starting up her own band with all her friends! And Toya has been traveling with a junior of mind named Akito, which- I send to send letters to the both of them-”
Despite what happened earlier, Rui couldn’t help but just look at his dear pianist again.
The person who he first saw shakily practicing at a bar and stuttered at every word was now speaking loud and proud about his family. It warmed his heart to see him like that.
They ended up talking for a long time after (mostly Tsukasa, surprisingly) and Rui got to know a lot about his family, the place he grew up in, lots of different things and details he’d never known about till now.
He sunk in each and every little word that came out, every little detail about the way he talked, how everytime he mentioned Saki or Toya his smile grew a tad bit wider, to how his hands were constantly moving as he rambled on, like he was performing a puppet show.
It was surprising… and yet so comforting at the same time.
…
‘...Maybe, just maybe.’
‘Maybe one day Tsukasa will talk about me like that to someone else, with that smile… the shine in his eye…what a dream…’
Perhaps one day, Rui will get the chance to say what he really thinks to his dear pianist.