Demus Oneshots

Can I learn?

Requested by SunflowerFander. Gonna try to not make this identical to 'Piano Lessons' but no promises
WARNING: I can't write playing music for shit

Remus sat down at the piano, sighing and feeling mutinous. Sure, he liked being able to play an instrument but practice? Practice was boring. Like, insanely, he'd-rather-be-straight boring.

"Okay, let's try for 20 minutes today." He muttered to himself, setting a timer on his phone and opening his exercises book. "Track 14... here." Remus blew a breath up through his fringe. "Minor key in the left hand. Fun." He said sarcastically before starting to play. It was a simple exercise but a lot of work and that made it difficult and boring. Not a good combination.

Remus heard a little applause from the doorway and nearly jumped out of his skin. He swivelled around on the piano stool and let out a little sigh.

"Sweetheart, don't do that." He said and turned back to his book. Janus giggled a little.

"Sorry." He said. "You're just really good." He picked at a hole in his oversized jumper and looked at his feet. "Can I learn?"

Remus shrugged, trying to find the next exercise. "Sure, if you find the right teacher. And I mean, if someone can teach me to do anything, then-"

"Can you teach me?" Janus asked and Remus froze. He could barely play himself, what made Janus think he could teach any of this?

"Janus, sweetheart, sugar, Jan, baby, the love of my life," Remus began, "what makes you think I'm close to even beginning to be a good teacher?!"

Janus laughed, blushing from all the names Remus had called him. "Because you're Rem and you're the only one who'll put up with me."

Remus sighed dramatically. "Fine. Come on." Janus grinned and bounded over to the piano. "Ah ah, you're not sitting there." Remus said as Janus sat down next to him. Janus looked at him in confusion. Remus pulled Janus onto his lap and grinned.

"Rem, this isn't very professional for learning." Janus muttered, his face bright red. Remus shrugged and hugged Janus tighter around the waist and buried his face in Janus' shoulder.

"Maybe not. But it's comfortable, isn't it?" He asked, his tone muffled but still flirtatious. Janus elbowed him lightly.

"Can you just start teaching me to play?" He asked. Remus groaned.

"Fine." Remus took Janus' hand and put it over the keys. "Okay, so this is Middle C. Probably you're most important key. Give it a little play?" Janus played the key.

"There. Now, you always know where you are in your right hand. On a piece of sheet music, Middle C looks like," Remus paused half-way through the word 'like', drawing out the 'I' for as long as possible while he flicked through the book, "this." He pointed at a note. "That's a semibreve Middle C."

"Semibreve?" Janus repeated. Remus nodded into Janus' hair.

"Yeah. It's the note you hold for the longest. You hold it for a whole bar or four beats. Like so." Remus played a random note obnoxiously loud. "1, 2, 3, 4. There, that's a semibreve."

Janus held down a similar note. "1, 2, 3, 4." He grinned.

"Yup, like that." Remus said. "Okay, then you've got your minim, which is two beats." He held down the same note. "1, 2. And your crotchet, which is one beat." Remus played another note. "1. Oh, and then there's your quaver, which is half a beat."

Janus nodded, taking in all the information. "Now," Remus said, "can you say your ABC's?"

"Can I- Rem, I got an 8 on my English A-Level!" Janus said. Remus snickered.

"Yeah, but can you say your ABC's?" He asked.

"Yes!" Janus said indignantly. "A, B, C, D, E, F, G-"

"Stop." Remus said. "Those are all your notes." Remus played a note two tones below Middle C. "There's A," a note a semitone below Middle C, "B, then we've got Middle C, D, E, F, G, A again." He wrapped his arm around Janus' waist again. "Know what that's called?"

Janus shook his head. "That's an octave." Remus said. "Because it's eight notes above the original note. That's what you play when you play scales. Speaking of which..."

Remus leaned down and grasped at a book below the piano stool. But, because he had decided to drag Janus onto his lap, he was stuck and couldn't grab the book.

"Jan." Remus whined. Janus sighed and got off of Remus. He crouched down by the piano stool.

"Which book is it, Rem?" Janus asked, skimming through the books and looking at their titles.

"Grade 1 scales." Remus said. Janus grabbed the book and put it on the music stand on the piano. Remus grabbed Janus by his waist and pulled him down onto his lap again. He nuzzled his face into Janus' neck and grin. "Much better." He said.

Janus elbowed Remus lightly again, flushing pink. "Rem, don't even-"

"Not gonna do anything, not gonna do anything." Remus said. He opened the scales book and pointed at the C major scale. "We're gonna try and play this. First scale you learn, ever. No sharps or flats so you don't need to worry. Now, it's called a major key because when you play it," Remus played the tonic triade, C, E and G. "It sounds happy. We'll get into minor keys at a later date. Okay, let's try just going up to the first octave."

"There's more than one octave?!" Janus said, panicked. Remus nodded.

"Octaves are repeated all up and down the piano." He said. "But anyway, just from Middle C to C, I'll be here to guide you if you go wrong, okay?"

"Okay..." Janus said tentatively. He started playing the scale slowly and hesitantly, with Remus' hand hovering over his.

"See, here," Remus stopped him, "we put our thumb on the F. So it's thumb, finger, finger, thumb," Remus played the scale and Janus copied, "so we don't run out of fingers, see?"

Janus nodded and tried again. He managed to get to the top of the scale without any other hiccups.

"Hey, that was great." Remus said, pressing a cheek to Janus' cheek. "You did it."

"Hey, I'm playing piano." Janus said, delighted. Remus laughed and kissed Janus again.

"Yeah, you are."

This was cute. Kinda. I don't know, I can't write playing music for my life. Also, this one shot made me feel lonely and sad as a piano-player myself-
Bye,
Blaize