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Till’s fingers wiggled, continuing to string the chords of his invisible, imaginary guitar. He was focused, enough to see the instrument in his hands and hear each note. Also enough to continue to act as Ivan wasn’t there, peeking at his notes over his shoulder.
This time, however, Till wasn’t just practicing his guitar. Along with the notes that played inside his head, the boy hummed a song, singing quietly the words as if to try to find out which one was going to sound the best. Of course, it would be best to sing it out loud, but how was he supposed to do it with Ivan nearly gluing his face to his?!
“It’s nice,” Ivan muttered, pouting slightly as he tilted his head to look at Till’s face, “I like your singing, Till.”
Despite the attempt of breaking the ice between them, Ivan was answered with nothing but silence. That didn’t stop him, of course, he was already glad he was allowed to be next to Till and hear him practicing his singing. But Ivan still craved that little interaction…
“You should sing a little louder, it’s hard to reach some notes mumbling like this…” Ivan leaned a little closer while making his suggestion, trying to not scare his crush away.
He slowly reached out, almost as if he was about to hug Till from behind, but-
“S-stop it,” Till hissed, already trying to lean away from Ivan, “your breathing is making my ear itchy.”
“I-itchy?” Ivan blinked, confused by the word. Wait, was this that thing that happened when people touched each other? He remembered someone else at the gardens talking about it, but what was it called again? Fickle? Tick?
Ah, whatever, Ivan thought, shaking his head. He needed to figure it out by himself. “Wait, I c-can help you sing higher notes!”
Till narrowed his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows, curious about what Ivan was talking about, but not wanting to admit it. “You are going to do something wei-AHAH!”
A loud - and, indeed, high-pitched - squeal left Till’s lips when Ivan wrapped his hand around his back and latched his fingers onto his crush’s waist, digging into it gently. “G-gehehet your hahands out of me, you freheheak!”
“B-but I just made your voice go really high! Don’t you want to practice, Till?” Ivan spoke in a hurry, barely containing his own excitement as he continued to tickle Till - even if he wasn’t really understanding what was going on.
Till also wasn’t familiar with this weirdly funny feeling that made him laugh against his well. He could barely process the electric sensation that traveled up his nerves when Ivan drummed his ribs like an instrument. Embarrassed, but loud, laughter soon began to draw attention to them.
Ivan felt his heart racing, beating against his chest like someone trying to break free. Till was smiling. He was making Till smile. He wanted this moment to last fore-
“I-IVAHA- Ivahahan!! S-stohohop it!!”
“O-oh, sorry,” he chirped, noticing how red Till’s cheek suddenly turned and how small tears began to cling to his lashes. “M-maybe we should… stay for the basic singing lessons… hehe…”
“Wha- ahh, whatever!” Till barked, pushing Ivan away from him while gritting his teeth, “j-just don’t- don’t do whatever this was! Ever!!”