Play!

XLIV

Way too fast they had to hurry to the concert hall. 
“You ready?”
“Dunno”, Brett panted, taking two steps down at once, “As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess. It doesn’t really matter, you gonna get the spot anyways.”
“Why are you saying that?”, Brett could hear Eddy’s frown in his tone. 
“Have you heard yourself back there? There’s no way I-”
“Brett!” Eddy held Brett back by his shoulder, forcing him to turn around and look into the taller’s earnest eyes, “You have no idea how good you sound, have you?”
Brett mirrored Eddy’s frown. “Uh, you’ve heard yourself, right? And you’ve heard me?”
“I have. And your playing is so sweet sometimes I’m positive my teeth will fall out if I listen to it for too long.”
“Not sure if that’s a good thing…”
“Listen to me, Brett! You’re really good. Like, real good! The emotions you bring to life with what you do on the violin is something I strive to do. Your technique is solid, your intonation clean, most of the time at least.”
“Thanks for your honesty”, Brett deadpanned. 
“What I mean to say is, I like your playing. I like listening to you and you’re able to capture people’s hearts with it, I’m positive.”

Eddy had said many nice words, but the ones actually sticking to Brett’s consciousness were simple. He liked Brett’s playing!

“Are you being serious?”, he doubted, because it did sound too good to be true. Brett knew he didn’t suck, but a guy as talented and hard working as Eddy praising him to a degree it gave him a low-key blush was more dreamworld material than something he’d thought would ever happen to him.
“There’s a reason they chose you, you know”, Eddy simply said and titled his head, features so impossibly kind Brett had to breathe in deeply so tears wouldn’t well up. 
“...Maybe.”
The hand on his shoulders gave Brett a warm squeeze. 
“A hundred percent!”

Did Brett really have a chance against Eddy on Sunday? Brett really wasn’t sure with how quick Eddy was improving his skills. It would be stupid to simply give up though.
So he smiled, “I won’t go easy on you.” 
“That’s what I want to hear!”, Eddy gave him a pat and back was his triumphant grin.

They managed to not be too late by a second or so.
“Chen’s rubbing off on you”, Mr. Thames remarked with a raised eyebrow when Brett and Eddy took their seats at the first desk. 
“Sorry Sir”, Eddy apologized. Brett snorted. 

“Alright! I hope you all had an interesting afternoon and learnt something new. Feel free to give us a feedback on what can be improved in the future”, Mr. Jones, standing next to the younger conductor on the podium, boomed, “We’ll be playing Korngold’s third movement tonight. Orchestra, try to follow Mr. Thames, but also the soloist as closely as possible. The tempo is quite fast, and there’s little room for rubato, but stay on track with everything they do.”
Nods and affirmative murmurs from the crowd. 
“Remember that we only have two days until the competition and the jury is going to listen to all of you, not only to our soloists. I’m positive you’re all going to do a fantastic job showing them what you’ve got!”

“Way to put on pressure!”, Brett whispered to Eddy as Mr. Jones stepped down. 
“What? Can’t handle it?”, Eddy jibbed and got a light punch on his arm back immediately.
“Ow! Hey, I need that to play, thank you very much!”
“Told you I’m not gonna go easy on you.”
“Mean! I’m gonna report you and they’ll disqualify you for bullying if you keep this up”, Eddy pouted, making Brett laugh. 
“Have you already decided who wants to go first?”, Mr. Thames asked, baton already in hand. 
Eddy looked at Brett. “You wanna?”
“Sure, why not!” At least like this, he wouldn’t have to play in a jumbled up state of mind after hearing Eddy’s performance.

The orchestra tuned, Brett tightened his bow, Mr. Thames lifted his baton and off they were! Brett quickly lost himself in the fast triplets, letting his fingers and muscle memory take over and carrying the melody with the orchestra from phrase to phrase with ease. The double stops were clean, much to his relief and the galloping-part a joy to play with an entire orchestra’s harmonies backing him! It was amazing and once again, Brett remembered why he loved all this so much, why he wasn’t going to give up just yet. The gear change into the sweeter, slower parts seemed to be seamless too, judging by how Eddy’s body was swaying to the music when Brett threw a quick glance at him, lifting the corners of his mouth while he had to remind himself of the numerous accidentals. Soon enough, the brass section gave their epic interlude and Brett thanked God he nailed most of the artificial harmonics and high trills before everything calmed down and thinned out into silence.
The final part Brett played just as powerful as he’d hoped and while the last double stop octave echoed through the hall and the applause slowly rose up from the musicians, Eddy beaming at him with eyes screaming “See? I told you!” was everything.

“Brett! Mate!”, Cole exclaimed before Brett’s bum touched his chair at the start of their ten minute break, “That was freaking amazing!”
“Thanks, man! You guys played very well too!”
“Not hard under the lead of such a capable concertmaster”, Brett’s friend meant and gave Eddy’s back a slap, “S’gonna be a tough job for the jury to decide on the soloist spot, I reckon.”
“Good!”, Eddy said, his smile radiating confidence, but also a certain softness when his eyes met Brett’s, stealing all the oxygen within a ten meter radius, Brett reckoned.
Damn that guy for looking so good whenever he smiled! 

And then, it was Eddy’s turn to stand on the soloist spot, tune his violin and look at Mr. Thames expectantly. Brett lifted his bow, along with the whole violin section and magic began. Eddy was on a whole other level, or so Brett felt. No note was out of tune, every bow stroke crisp and he was exuding confidence like all he’d ever done in life had been playing the violin like normal human beings were breathing. Once more, he highlighted the fun of the movement and Brett was positive Eddy’s playing held even more emotion than back in the practice room.
Oh but the sweet parts! Brett could listen for hours to Eddy letting the notes float around lovingly, lightly with a hint of bittersweetness. It was heart-clenching.

Yeah, Brett would bet his instrument that emotionless playing wasn’t something Eddy had to worry about in the future.

A/N: Hi guys :-) Sorry for the late upload time again. Was all day in the snow and had no time till now. Hope you're having a great weekend and as always, thanks for reading!