Painting Counties Blue! ○ Wilbur Soot × Reader

10

Was he teasing me? I ask myself as I sit at the bar with Ash. Lee has already left, quite a while ago. Wil's glass is between my hands as I clutch it, still lost in my head.

"Y/n?" Ash calls, poking my cheek. "Are you alright?"

I look up at him and into his dark eyes, ignoring the blue tinged reflections in his glasses, the lanyard chain hanging from either end. His eyes are darker than Wil's, almost black. I hesitate, processing what he said before replying;

"O-oh yeah, y-yeah, I'm fine" I reassure him, fiddling with my thumbs on the glass befoýre lifting it to my lips and glancing up towards Wil. He's glancing at me every few seconds, he looks restless.

"If you say so" He mumbles shrugging. I huff, gulping the rest of the whiskey down and hissing at the increased burning sensation from the huge amount.

Wil started picking out tune, and it seemed quite familiar. All of a sudden my hands start itching to be on my guitar. Ash looked at me.

"Do you know this song?" He asks, excitement present in his eyes. I nodded, placing Wil's glass on the counter behind me.

"Know how to play it?" He asks.

"Yeah, why-" suddenly he grabs my wrist and pulls me towards the stage.

Wil looks at us like we're crazy as we stumble up onto the stage, I grab some other performer's bass thats leaning against the wall along with a nearby aux cord.

I give him the guitar and plug the cord into the second channel of my amp as he throws the strap over his head. I pass him the other end of the cord. Wil continues playing, his0 voc0als still steady as the sound of two instruments being plugged in sound through the speakers, the crowd seems to go quiet as I silently count Ash and I into the beat, and at the first beat we jump into the tune and the crowd goes nuts.

It's surprisingly easy, I don't know what it is about these two, but our musical insight fits perfectly with each other's. The music doesn't stray offbeat once, even though the three of us are under the influence of alcohol.

I'm low-key vibing to the music, and I didn't know Ash was so great at playing the bass, in the middle of the instrumental chorus, the boys let me slip in a solo, and on the fourth beat, Ash supports me with a baseline before Wil comes back in with his acoustic, looping through the repetitive instrumental verse for eight beats then ending the song.

The crowd absolutely explodes, but I don't even care. I literally just had so much fucking fun, I can't even begin to explain.

Wil stands up, and turns around, his face bright.

"Guys. That was.. phenomenal. You both did so fucking well, I shit you not, that was so bloody great what the fuck. You both are proper legendary, I just had so much fun" He rambles and I can't help but smile.

It's now 6:05PM, and the next performer makes her way onto the stage. Wil has been performing for 40 minutes now and he looks a little pale.

The girl that steps up onto the stage goes straight to Ash.

"Look, that was.. cool, but I'd like my bass back now if that's alright. And my aux" she smiles passive-aggressively, glaring up at him through her facade.

Ash doesn't say anything, not even a sorry as he yanks the aux out of my amp from where he's standing, pulls the guitar up and over his head before shoving it at the girl, not bothering to provide her with so little as a half smile as he doesn't even grant her his gaze. I unplug my aux and wils, coiling them both up.

Ash takes them as I grab his other hand after shifting my guitar strap so my guitar is hanging upside-down on my back. Wil picks up my amp as he disconnects it from the pub's speaker system, grabbing my free hand as we walk to the side of the stage where our guitar cases are.

Wil slings his case onto his back as Ash picks mine up by the handle, holding the cords in the same fist.

"That was so good. I can't wait to start working with you guys" Wil mumbles as he leads us towards the bar, ordering a bottle of alcohol, and grabbing a number before leading us away to the far corner where no people lingered, most of them enjoying the performances.

He stopped at an empty booth in the very corner, dumping all of his stuff down, and slipping his guitar off, leaning it against the edge of the table. I let go of ashes hand and do the same.

Ash sits down inside the booth and hands Wil his aux, while putting mine on the table, and nudging my case towards me. I kneel on the floor, putting my things back where they go.

After everything is packed up, Wil leans the guitar cases against the wall before pulling me to sit in the booth, waiting for our drinks.

"So, assuming we're going to get drunk, how are you guys getting home?" I wonder, leaning back against the slippery cushion of the booth.

"Taxi. I don't live far" Ash answers, I nod.

"I live in Brighton" Wil replies, fiddling with corner of a serviette. I raise my eyebrows.

"Brighton." I repeat, receiving a nod from Wil.

"I came here because Lee said it would be a cool gig, which it was" He explained with a grin.

"Oh, fair enough, you can crash at my place if you'd like. Better to offer while we're still sober" I laugh.
"You too, if you need, Ash. I don't mind."

"Thank you" They both said in unison.

And the rest of the night was full of drunken laughter and merciless teasing.