Chapter Text
Once the temple of the Order of the Stone was built. Ivor took over the basement. He put up a maze of bookshelves so that he couldn’t be easily seen from the entrance. He also had his brewing area there and his nether wart growing station. In the beginning, the order would go down to talk to Ivor but they quickly learned that his brewing time was his own, and he wasn’t talkative during it.
Then Soren started joining him. He would sit in the armchair in the corner across from Ivor and write in his notebook. Neither of them talked to each other, or even acknowledged each other. But it was comforting to be in each other’s space.
Ivor was using his best ingredients to brew a potion of healing to prepare for the order’s next mission, when he realized Soren was singing to himself quietly. Ivor hadn’t noticed at first because he was so focused on his potion, but he paused now to listen as Soren mumbled lyrics along with his tune.
“You have a nice voice,” Ivor commented.
This broke Soren out of his trance, “Hm? Oh, thanks Ivor,” Soren looked up and smiled at him.
~~~
“Mph,” Soren hummed, a minute passed.
“Ugh,” Soren huffed.
Ivor looked up from his brewery book, “What’s wrong Soren?”
“My poetry simply refuses to cooperate.”
“I’m sure you’ll get it,” Ivor said, “your skill with words and all. I’d offer my help but we both know I’m not great with poetry.”
“I guess,” Soren sighed.
Years later Soren would tell Ivor off for attempting poetry.
~~~
That night, the order was eating dinner together, Ellegaard had made bread and Magnus had made his specialty, spicy tomato soup.
“I want a piano,” Soren stated, “somebody in town was selling one and I told her I’m interested. I can afford it but I don’t know where I’d put it.”
“You can put it in the basement,” Ivor said. HIs friends looked at him, surprised, “I mean, I don’t mind. I’m sure it won’t distract me from my studies.”
“Can you even play piano?” Magnus asked.
“Yes,” Soren said defensively, “When I was a child I would play piano and sing all the time. I even preformed a few times.”
“How will we get it to the basement?” Gabriel asked, the voice of reason.
“I’ve been thinking that too,” Ellegaard started, “I could probably make some sore of pulley system. We’d need to be careful though. Maybe we could make a hole in the roof instead of having to pull it down the stairs.”
“That’s good with me,” Soren smiled, “that’s great with me,” his smile grew wider
~~~
A few weeks later Soren, somehow, got his new piano to the top of the stairs. Ellegaard used her over-engineered machine to slowly bring it to the basement. Soren was no help during this process through as he just kept grinning and squeezing his fists together.
‘He sure is excited for this,’ Ivor thought, ‘I hope he’s good at piano. Having to listen to horrible music while making my potions would make me regret offering the basement as a music room.’
~~~
The next few days Ivor spent most of his free time organizing his bookshelves with Soren’s smooth jazz piano playing in the background. He was in fact, quite talented. Most days he would pause whatever he was doing and just listen to Soren sing and play. Once Ivor heard him say something about a Gary. But he was pretty sure they didn’t know any Gary’s.
“That’s it!” Soren exclaimed after he finished his singing.
“What?” Ivor looked at him, puzzled.
“Oh, um,” Soren looked at Ivor, then down to the piano keys, then back up at Ivor, “I’ve been writing a song,” he paused.
“Yes?” Ivor prompted.
“About my friends. About you guys. As a show of my appreciation? And I’ve been recording it so I can give the record to you all as a gift.”
“And what about just now?”
“Well I just got the take. That was the best I’ve ever played my song, and I got it on record,” he held up a music disc, smiling excitedly.
‘That’s sweet of him,’ Ivor mused, ‘sure a song isn’t very useful but it’s thoughtful of him to spend his free time doing this.’
~~~
“That’s stupid,” Magnus said gruffly.
“What? No it’s not,” Ivor defended, “it’s very thoughtful of him to take his time to do something for us.”
“Sure Ivor, whatever you think,” Magnus responded, walking away.
‘It’s a very nice song and even if they don’t appreciate it, I love it,’ Ivor thought before walking down the stairs to the basement, greeted by Soren’s piano like always.