Work Text:
The man, you used to know him. He was... Someone that you knew, someone you knew enough about for him to linger in your head, to be there in the back of your mind. Trying to claw his way to the front your memory.
After all, people don't just learn how to play the piano, do they? No one can just suddenly play it out of muscle memory. It's much more than that after all, you learned how to play didn't you?
Everyone has been smiling and saying how happy they are for you and Dess that she managed to teach you the piano, that you practiced together. You don't mind, you'll let Dess have it, and even if you did try to tell the truth, what are you gonna say?
You knew someone that taught you? Someone that almost feels like he was in your dreams when he was teaching you? His hand guiding yours into the right position. "Imagine holding an egg perhaps?" He'd say, because you KNOW that's what he said.
You can still imagine him sitting beside you, his boney hands in his lap.
You remember thinking he was a bit weird, scary with how he looked, but he was one of the nicest people you remember meeting. Your mom said something about him being good with kids and she was right.
You can't think of his voice, it only results in a headache from furrowing your brows so hard, because you know you'll never reach him. He's gone, forgotten. But.
You want to remember.
Remember him, what he taught you, what he did to always be there, he was just your music teacher, he had a job. Teaching you. And yet you don't know what you would've done if he wasn't there.
You want to remember.
Remember how encouraging he was, his scary smile was suddenly silly and you'd snicker at it. He always made it fun somehow. Angel knows you were a rowdy kid... Angel...
You hope you can remember him, you hope you can maybe see him again, but that's wishful thinking, no? By being too optimistic...
...
The forgotten man, he calls himself. He calls you by your name like he's barely holding it in yet clinging to it so tightly. His voice sounds so... Distant yet familiar. You can almost feel those same hands on top of yours, guiding your fingers to the right notes. The thing thankfully doesn't notice your hands clenching and you taking a deep breath.
He seems happy to know you'll remember him, and you will. You'll try, if this all doesn't end up with you 6 feet under that is. You'll try.
You want to try, want to so badly.
You will remember. You need to remember.
You made a promise.