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A little known fact about Boombox was that he knew how to play the piano, and an even less known fact was that he greatly enjoyed the sound of an old, out of tune piano. Not that anyone knew he could play the piano, but even if they did, they wouldn’t know his love for how the older pianos sounded when they’d been left alone for too long and the notes began to fall out of place, sounding off and wrong whenever they were finally pushed again to make music.
He’d taken a wild guess that there would be a piano in this old building near the phighting venue since it looked like an abandoned luxury hotel, not even bothering to check if his assumption was right before he picked up his gear and told Skateboard and Slingshot he’d meet them at McDonald’s soon-ish. Told them that there was just something he needed to check first and then he’d be right over. He practically sprinted over to the building after a fast goodbye, squeezing through the old doors that threatened to fall over with a creaking sound with every gentle push he gave. Lo and behold, there was a piano sitting there in the empty lobby, tucked away in a corner and doing nothing but collecting dust.
Bingo.
Boombox set his gear against one of the large pillars in the lobby before moving over to the piano, carefully brushing the dust away from the bench before taking a seat. It seemed sturdy enough, so he focused on brushing the dust from the fallboard, crinkling his nose up and resisting the urge to sneeze as it flew right up in his face. Thankfully, he didn’t sneeze despite the lingering itch in his nose, pushing the fallboard up to reveal the yellowed keys after.
Who knew how long this had just been sitting here? Maybe if he’d actually done his research on whatever this place used to be, he’d figure that out, but that really wasn’t important at the moment. What was important was seeing just how this piano sounded as Boombox carefully rested his fingertips against the keys.
He held his breath for a moment before pushing them down in the familiar order of notes, Clair de Lune, and he exhaled with a smile as the out of tune notes rang out from the piano. It sounded so out of tune, sounded perfect to him, and then muscle memory took over from there. Fingers resting and pressing down on the keys, he didn’t need sheet music to guide him through this one anymore. It was one of those songs that had engrained itself into his memory and his hands, always being able to come back no matter how long it’d been since he last touched a piano and let his mind drift away as he played, not needing to worry about missing a note here and there. It was on an old piano after all.
Sure, he might need just a little listening reminder here and there to remember how the song went, but after that? He was good to go, to play the piece like he didn’t even need that reminder in the first place. That might’ve been because he learned to play by ear, to simply guess until it sounded close enough or right enough to the pristine piano that floated from the speaker of his gear whenever he was practicing or fixing it up. He did like EDM and all the loud music he played during phights, but when he needed to focus on something or work on his gear, he settled for the quieter and softer songs, something classical, something like…
Clair de Lune.
It was one of those music pieces that just sounded nostalgic, especially when played on an older piano. It was one of the more difficult pieces he’d taught himself, and he remembered being so proud of himself when he first made it through the song without needing to stop and remember what note came next or what key he needed to push. Maybe he was more fond of it being played on an out of tune piano because that’s how he played it when he learned it, on an old, abandoned piano that everyone had forgotten about, like he was playing it now.
The idea of learning from a professional or getting close enough to a kept-in-tune piano to practice was unheard of for younger him, because he thought he’d never get to that. The first time he found an actual piano to play on, it honestly threw him for a loop because never had his playing sounded so crisp and clear. Boombox had gotten so used to hearing the sounds of a tuned piano coming from a speaker, not from beneath his own two hands. Thankfully, that had faded as he played on tuned pianos more every now and then, but he would always have a soft spot for the old pianos. The ones that sat in a corner, forgotten about, left to collect dust because nobody wanted to take it with them whenever the building shut its doors for good.
Boombox closed his eyes as his mind drifted to start thinking, the sounds of the piano floating in one ear and out the other as he played the song. It didn’t matter if he missed a note or messed up any because it was just him in here. Nobody would be out at an abandoned building this late. The sun was starting to set when he’d squeezed his way through since the phight was later, so by now people were either getting home or going to restaurants for dinner. There would be no reason for them to even come near here.
That’s just how things went, wasn’t it? It was how he was able to teach himself piano after all. Had people paid attention to the forgotten buildings and pianos, they would’ve barred off the doors for good, picked him up by the scruff and told him to never come back again. But they never really did, only when someone wanted to make something brand new and refurbish it, or when it was going to become a phighting venue.
If it wasn’t either of those two things, then they’d just be left to time and to rot until someone finally wanted it levelled and gone to build something new. As depressing as it was, it kinda was the truth and the cycle of how things went. Sometimes things were deemed too far gone and that the best thing to do would be to get rid of it all and give someone a chance to start all over with that area, make something new. To get even more depressing, Boombox figured that it could even be a way to describe some inphernals. Inphernals that got left behind and forgotten about, until something finally was able to draw someone in and get close to them, or they were left to fall to nothing and fade away until they were nothing but a memory to only a few.
Before he’d left home, Boombox wondered if he would meet that same fate of the buildings that were left to fade into obscurity. But then he got out of there, made a place for himself, and now he was somewhat sure that he’d gotten himself away from that fate with his image of the loud playgrounder that blared his music and got along with mostly everyone. Sometimes when he thought too much he’d doubt it and think that he was still stuck right where he was, at home with nobody looking at him or caring as they should.
Did it help that Skate and Sling were already friends before Boombox came along? No, but most times it didn’t even matter because they all fit together like a puzzle now. They hung out before, after, and the time in-between phights,doing whatever whenever just because they could and it felt freeing . Their jabs at each other never hurt because they knew it was all jokes and jests at the end of the day and that there was never any cruel intent behind anything they did. They all had their own respective bits, threatening to do things to get Skate evicted, freeloading off of Sling’s cafe, or making fun of Boombox’s ever growing crush on Medkit. That crush was going to be the death of Boombox, and not just because of the relentless teasing they gave him over it, but because of the crush itself .
He knew that Medkit found him annoying, even if the doctor hadn’t said it outright, he still could’ve figured it out because of how he reacted, the twitch of annoyance that ran across his face whenever Boombox ran up to him to say hi and start up a conversation. Body language gave a lot away, and Boombox had gotten really good at being able to read it. So even if Medkit tried to be nice and not tell him to his face that he was annoying, he still would’ve gotten the hint. But did that ever stop him from trying to spend time around him?
No, it didn’t. Even if the other constantly said how much of a headache he was, it was still time spent with Medkit because he could really only catch him right before and right after a phight. No time outside of phights were spent hanging around Medkit because no amount of wishing could make that one happen, unfortunately. He was extra elusive in that sense, all of his time was probably spent in Lost Temple, which Boombox would stick out like a sore thumb in because he didn’t belong there. He didn’t fit in and would probably get accused of stealing, or something like that. Whatever.
Despite how much this crush weighed down on him with the constant yearning he did and how much Skate and Sling talked about how agonizing it was to watch Boombox not confess, he would never tell Medkit how he felt. If he called Boombox annoying now, imagine what would happen if he told him that like liked him. He didn’t want to use the l-word on Medkit just in case things fell apart because it was easier to pick up the pieces of a crush than someone he l-worded. Boombox could already see it in his mind, the image far too clear because he’d pictured it a million times before. The annoyance turning to disgust, the already slim chances of seeing Medkit shrinking to no chance at all, and then the active avoidance - the way you would avoid going into an old, empty, abandoned building because it was broken and disgusting in there.
He paused for a moment, fingers hovering over the keys as he thought about that horrible outcome for a second too long. It all felt too real for a moment, the musty air wrapping around his throat like a hand closing in to cut off his airways, the heavy silence feeling like eyes staring down at him judgingly and waiting for his next move. Boombox swallowed and cracked his eyes open to stare down at the yellowed keys, finding himself lost in his own thoughts for a moment.
Yes, he could get lost in the music, but he’d get even more lost in his own head if he thought a bit too hard about the wrong things. It would be like a runaway train on its way off the tracks, because he’d start with one thought and then it’d lead to another, and another, until he was facing the worst possible outcome his brain could conjure up with nowhere else to go and nothing to do other than curl up pathetically in bed and pray he fell asleep.
Boombox stared down at his fingers over the keys for another moment before he grasped his bearings again, remembering where he was in the music and continuing to play. He shoved the thought of Medkit finding out that he liked him to the very back of his mind, focusing on the music spilling from the piano as he kept playing the piece. It seemed to keep it at bay well enough, but the nagging in the back of his mind let him know that he’d probably be thinking about it again tonight when he was alone in his apartment, curled up in bed pathetically and wishing that he wasn’t so stupidly crushing on Medkit. Oh well, nothing much he could do now. It was already there, and nothing could be done because he’d tried to get over it before, and it failed with a capital f.
Skate and Sling could just deal with him never confessing and keep their teasing ammunition, Boombox was never going to tell Medkit how he felt. He’d rather keep what little they had instead of risk it for something more. It wasn’t realistic, it would never happen. He knew not to get his hopes up for something impossible, he’d already done enough of that when it came to his mom. Hoping she would look at him, talk to him, remember he was there, just hoping she would do something , anything .
It never happened no matter how much he wished and hoped, and Boombox learned to never hope for the impossible again. It was nice to imagine what could be, but when it came down to facing it, he had to be realistic. There was no use in reaching for Cloud Nine if he knew he was just going to plummet down to rock bottom. He was a pessimist in that regard, but that’s because he knew things would hurt less if he wasn’t expecting the best outcome in the first place. Not that anyone would know that about him, that was something else he kept under lock and key. Imagine what that would do to his brand if people figured that out? His friendships?
His world would get completely flipped upside down, and he could probably say goodbye to everything as he knew it. Boombox had seen enough movies to know what happens when a big secret like that gets outed. Sure, it was only movies, but there still had to be some weight of truth to it because it all seemed to play out the same. Secret gets out, the character is treated differently, they get left alone, and so on and so forth. The only unrealistic thing is that eventually it would all get sorted out in the end and things went back to normal before the secret got spilled. There’s no way that it would work like that, especially if it was something as big as a crush or being someone who always anticipates the worst masquerading as an optimist.
Boombox’s fingers settled on the last keys of the song, sitting on the bench for a moment with his hands resting on the keys. For a moment, he thought that tears would start welling up in his eyes with all the spiraling thinking he’d been doing. But, he took a deep breath in and out before moving his hands to the fallboard and carefully lowering it over the keys, covering and shielding them from the dust that would inevitably settle over the piano again because nobody came to this building from the looks of it. It was just another empty building, left to stand until finally someone wanted to take over the space. He turned his head to the side to look out the window, seeing the still retreating sun from the large window close to the piano casting beautiful rays of light into the room, making the dust shimmer and shine like small specs of glitter. The dust was good for something after all, he supposed.
He stood up from the bench, stretching his hands out before bending down to swipe up his gear and hold it in one hand. Boombox didn’t even want to think about the flood of messages that were awaiting him on his phone because knowing Sling and Skate, they’d blown it up after he’d been gone for around 3 or so minutes because they got tired of waiting for him. No matter how many times he’d told them they could just go ahead and order their food when he lagged behind, they always insisted on waiting for him. He thought about the two talking about how they were going to starve to death the moment he was close enough to hear them, snickering at the image in his mind as he carefully squeezed through the door. It was all going so well when-
“What were you doing in there?”
Boombox froze momentarily at the familiar sound of Medkit’s voice, the green eyelights of his visor blinking at the doctor blankly and mimicking his expression beneath it before he flashed him a smile, the familiar twitch of annoyance rippling across Medkit’s face at the action.
“Nothing much really- just checking out the old piano that was in there,” Boombox freed himself from the doorway, pointing his thumb over his shoulder to the building that was now behind him, “Kinda a shame that it just got left behind like that, it looks expensive.”
…Wait, oh no. Oh no. If Medkit was out here... did Medkit hear him playing? Out of everyone that could’ve caught him playing the piano and reminiscing on too many things he shouldn’t have been since he was out and about, the last inphernal he wanted it to be was Medkit . His brand! His reputation! It would all fall to tatters and ruin if he didn’t salvage the moment and play it cool.
Boombox swung his gear by his side idly, the most obvious save being switching the topic and the attention from him to the other, “Now what were you doing out here?” He grinned, shifting his weight back onto his heels and swaying a bit, “I didn’t take you for the type to hang around old, abandoned buildings Med!”
“Because I’m not, I was taking a walk.” Medkit responded bluntly, unamused by the DJ’s idle movements and the nickname for him, “I could say the same about you.”
He shrugged, swinging his gear to the other hand and praying that the doctor had just gotten to the building and wasn’t around to hear him playing, because there would be no explaining that away. Unless Medkit believed in ghosts, he could whip up a ghost story in an instant if he needed to, honestly. He had to keep the conversation going though, just a little longer, to give Medkit an answer. “There’s lots of empty buildings in Playground to explore, urban exploration is honestly a pretty common hobby there.” It really wasn’t all that common of a hobby, but was Medkit really gonna try and dig into it? He didn’t think he would, because who would even fact check something like that? Something miniscule that seemed stupid to lie about.
“Anyway- I’ve gotta get going,” Boombox hoisted his gear onto his shoulder, using the position to hide the anxious tapping of his fingers against the metal. If this was any other time, he’d annoy Medkit until the other finally left, but he’d already kept Sling and Skate waiting long enough, and he’d rather not risk Medkit asking more questions about what he was doing in the building. He could only make up so many lies before things started to look fishy, and it was better to get out before that happened.
With another flash of a smile and a raise of a hand to say goodbye, Boombox jogged off with a “Seeya Meds!” He turned his head around before he could see the other’s reaction, hoping his heart would stop pounding against his chest if the other wasn’t in sight anymore. Medkit didn’t say anything about the music, Medkit had nothing to question him for, Medkit knew nothing.
As he liked the guy, Medkit really got his heart racing, which was becoming a bit inconvenient, honestly, because he knew his cheeks were probably flushing now thanks to it. At least he could pin it on the fact he was jogging over to McDonald's to not keep Sling and Skate waiting any longer than they already have been.
Boombox swallowed, moving ahead a bit further before pulling his phone out to see spammed texts from Sling and Skate. He rolled his eyes under the visor, a gesture he was sure it mimicked before texting them back, telling them it’d only been about 10 minutes and saying that they should’ve gotten their food already if they were so famished. Their dramatic replies of saying they were starving to death made him smile, and he knew everything he was thinking about would be pushed to the far back of his mind for a little bit, at least. He just needed to get there and act like nothing ever happened, and then he'd play it by ear from there.
In all of the time Medkit had known Boombox, never was the DJ the first one to leave their usually short conversations. Usually, Medkit had to practically pry himself away from the conversation to escape the continuous, loud talking the other always did. It was like he didn’t know when or how to be quiet, which is why what he saw when he looked in the window was so strange to him.
He really was on a walk, not intending to linger around the building and instead just wanted to kill some time before he began the drive back home from the venue to Lost Temple. But then he heard the music , Clair de Lune, a song he recognized so quickly despite the fact that the notes sound out of tune. Medkit hadn’t even known there was a piano in the building, and it piqued his curiosity. Even though he preferred the cleanliness of classical music, he had to admit there was some charm hearing it come from an old piano that’d been untouched for far too long. He stayed around, lingered by the door just to listen to the sound of an out-of-tune piano, until it abruptly stopped, right in the midst of the piece. That wasn’t where the piece ended, and against his better judgement to make sure nothing happened, he moved to the only clear window close to him to take a look inside.
The place looked about as musty as he’d expected at first glance, but what he didn’t expect was to see Boombox inside, sitting at the piano, almost frozen in time as he stared down at the keys with his hands hovering above them, his body language giving away the fact that he had thought about something unpleasant. It had caught Medkit off-guard to see the DJ sitting there so quiet and still, so unlike how he was in and outside of phights. It was like he was seeing a whole other side of him, a side of him he never would believe was real until he was seeing it with his own eye. He moved away from the window as he began to play again, taking a flabbergasted moment to think about what he’d just seen and was hearing right now.
Medkit knew it had to have been a phighter playing the piano since it was close to the venue and nobody else seemed to be around at the time, but he just didn’t know who it was or who to expect. But Boombox ? Loud, annoying, headache inducing, Boombox ? In all honesty, he was the last phighter in the entire inphinity Medkit would think would play a classical music piece on an old, abandoned, out-of-tune piano found in some empty, dusty building. If he was to be making music in an abandoned building, he figured it would probably be more akin to those warehouse raves, or something of the sort. Never did he expect it to be piano music, he didn’t even know the DJ knew how to play the piano.
He’d gotten so lost in thought about it that he didn’t even realize when the music had stopped and that Boombox was leaving the building, only snapping back out of his thoughts when he heard the creaking of the large door. There was no time to get away in time without getting caught, and it would be embarrassing to have Boombox call him out on his failed escape. So, he decided to call it out directly, act like he’d only just gotten there and didn’t know the other was in there playing the old piano mere moments ago. But then something was off. Boombox seemed more tense despite his idling motions and swaying, and the anxious tapping of his fingers against his gear didn’t go unnoticed. Before he could say anything else or ask more questions, he’d simply left of his own accord, not with Medkit telling him to leave him alone five times over like he normally had to do. The quickness of the interaction honestly had him wondering if he’d just imagined the whole thing because of how strange it all felt.
So, here stood Medkit in the musty old building, wrinkling his nose at the sheer amount of dust that permeated the air. He couldn’t understand how Boombox would even be able to sit at the piano and play, especially with all the dust that was on it. The piano bench was cleared of it, and so was the fallboard. Medkit now knew for certain that he didn’t imagine seeing Boombox sitting at the piano, that didn’t mean he could’ve imagined the playing of it. He carefully lifted up the fallboard and rested a finger on one of the keys, pushing it down and wincing at the painfully out of tune note that rang out from it. Why did it sound so much better when it was being played in the musical piece just minutes earlier?
But, nevertheless, that settled it. Medkit hadn’t imagined Boombox in here playing the piano. There was even a spot against the pillar where the dust was disturbed that outlined where his gear once rested. That then brought up a plethora of questions that Medkit had no answers to, and to get the answers to them meant talking to Boombox willingly. Even if he did do that (as awful of a torture as that sounded), he wasn’t sure the DJ would give him the answers he wanted. Boombox had gotten out of that conversation quickly and seemed to carry a level of anxiety to him that hadn’t been there before.
Medkit frowned as he thought back to the image of Boombox sitting at the piano, frozen and staring down at the keys. It was so… unlike him. He was used to seeing Boombox full of energy, causing headaches for everyone around him that wasn’t Skateboard or Slingshot because those two seemed to enjoy the loudness Boombox always carried with him. It felt wrong to see Boombox the way he was in there, it felt like something he was never supposed to see. He looked away from the piano and shut the fallboard with caution, fearing it would damage the piano if he wasn’t careful. Every time he looked at it, he pictured the DJ sitting there again, frozen, an indescribable look on his face. He couldn’t figure out what type of look it was, partially because he was so far away, partially because of his visor, but his body language told Medkit enough and that it definitely wasn’t a good look. Part of him was glad he hadn’t seen it, because he knew that would’ve been still in his head too.
Whatever it was, surely it was just a one-off thing, something that wouldn’t matter in the long run, but the encounter just kept lingering in Medkit’s mind. Even after he’d left and driven back home to settle in for the night, even after trying to keep his typical routine and carry on with his night like usual, it ended with Medkit lying in bed and unable to sleep, staring up at the ceiling as the music kept looping in his head while the image of Boombox sitting at the piano and talking to him after the fact cycled through his head. It was frustrating to lose sleep over something as trivial as this, but it kept nagging at him and wouldn’t drop no matter how hard he tried to scrub it from his thoughts. Maybe it was because he was so used to seeing the other as loud and nuisance that seeing him so quiet stuck out in his mind.
There was clearly something more to Boombox than the loud annoyance he presented himself to be, but Medkit just couldn’t figure out what it was. With a frustrated huff, he moved to rest his forearm on his forehead, angrily glaring up at his ceiling like it was its fault for him not being able to sleep. It repeated in his mind again, almost like it was on loop and he couldn’t figure out how to get rid of it. There was something more to Boombox, but he seemed to insist on being seen as loud and so, Playground-y. Medkit closed his eyes and hoped he’d fall asleep, and this would all be forgotten by the morning and treated like the bizarre one-time encounter it was. Besides, if it persisted, it meant he’d likely end up willingly talking to Boombox and asking about what he was doing in the building. Medkit finally ended up drifting off to sleep, and he prayed that it would all be forgotten when he woke up again.