Kuroko no basket: sweeter than marshmallows

-09-

My violin sounds different when I started practicing again, my right wrist is way too tense and my bow is shaking during the long strokes. 

I've been practicing since the day my cast got off and it's not going as I wanted, I can barely make my doubles and it's been annoying me for about two weeks now. 

A small sigh leaves my lips when I start playing Pachabel's Canon in D, I follow the piano trough my headphones and play it with my eyes closed. I've played this one a million times, I can still remember the time where I just started playing the violin and that this was a hard song. Now it's the song I play when I don't succeed to play anything else. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with my right hand. This is most probably the most flexible it's ever been. I never did such an easy vibrato, it's like my hand is moving on my own and I just have to focus on my right hand, who's not doing what I want it to do. 

I finish the piece and look at the time, I've been practicing for about two hours now. I still have a couple hours to go. The basketball team didn't have practice today, so I claimed a music room to practice the violin. 

A sigh leaves my lips and I start playing scales, I hate doing scales. But it's a good warm up and a great way to check if your intonation is correct. Most people don't realize that warming up is a big deal when you play the violin. Your body needs to be warm and flexible if you want to make uncomfortable and unnatural movements with a piece of wood and a stick. 

The hours pass and I decide to end my practice session with one of my favourite pieces. Dream of Dreams. 

It's a beautiful slow and emotional piece with long notes and a lot of vibrato,  I play along with the piano on my headphones and close my eyes to really listen to the music. 

Murasakibara Atsushi.

Yeno-chin disappeared after class ended and I have absolutely no idea where she can be. I've been walking trough the abandoned school for a couple hours and haven't spotted a glimpse of her. 

To be honest it's starting to worry me, she always has bad things happening to her. Almost getting hit by a car, people pushing her down the stairs, being so tiny that everyone bumps into her...

A sigh leaves my lips, why do I even care where she is? 

She's an annoying tiny girl with way too much bad luck. 

I come to a sudden stop when I hear music playing from one of the empty music classrooms, when I watch what's going on I see Yeno-chin playing the violin. 

Her eyes are closed and she's playing a slow piece. 

Is this the first time that I've seen her play? I don't remember her playing before, probably because of her cast. 

She's good, she moves along with the music as she plays, never standing still. But she looks so... Calm, and controlled. 

I enter the room and sit down against the wall, she hasn't noticed that I'm here. I don't want her to stop playing. 

She's mesmerizing. I can't help but follow her every move, a small frown appears between her eyebrows when there's a part with a lot of long notes. Is it not going as she wants it to go? It sounds great to me. 

But I don't know a lot about music. I don't know anything about music for that matter. 

She stops playing and opens her eyes again, they widen when she sees me in the room and I stand up "heh... Yeno-chin you are really good." I watch how she cleans her violin with a small cloth and turns something on the stick, the hairs on it get looser and she proceeds to put both of them away in her case. Where there's another violin, an open one, electric? Are there even electric violins.. (Sacrilegious I know) 

"Thank you Mura-kun" she closes the yellow case and turns around to look up at me "why are you here?" 

"You disappeared." I really need to start thinking about what I'm going to say, I don't want her to think that I'm a puppy that follows her around. Because I'm not. Why did I go look for her though? Yea we are friends, I think.. We never actually said anything about being friends, I don't even know her first name. 

"I'm sorry.." She looks at the ground "do you want to get ice cream?" she asks after a short moment of silence. 

"Yeah, let's go" I exit the classroom. What is this feeling... Why am was I getting worked up when I didn't know where she was? Why was I... Scared, that something happened to her? 

I don't like this feeling. 

I continue to walk in silence while she talks about, well, a lot. About the upcoming matches in the regionals and the Inter high, about whether or not to make stew tonight, about the new hoodie she bought a couple days ago, and about the basketball team again. Is there a mute button on her? 

I put one of my chips in her mouth when she continues to blabber about school. She looks at me with surprise but continues to munch on the chips in silence. I hand her a couple once in a while and the bag is empty a lot faster than usual. 

Yeno-chin pays for the ice cream as usual and we are sitting at our usual spot at the bench nearby. 

I can't get her out of my head, the way she played the violin was something else. She looked like a completely different person. 

The popsicles disappear within minutes and Yeno-chin walks back to the bench after throwing the box away. 

"It's getting late..." She says after a while before standing up and grabbing her things "I should head home before it's getting too dark." She smiles at me "see you tomorrow Mura-kun!" 

I wave a bit at her and she walks away towards her house. 

I start walking a couple minutes later.