Allegro con fuoco

XV

Oh. 
Eddy's body felt all weird, as he woke up. There was a hint of soreness, like a muscle ache or something, but more than that there was a languidness to his limbs. Like he could easily stay in bed all day. Maybe take Brett up on his offer from last night. But no such luck, of course. They had one more rehearsal, and then two concerts, one this afternoon, one this evening. Brett stirred next to him. 
"Hey." he whispered. 
"Hey. You good?"
Eddy smiled at his love. Always worrying about him, always caring, always wanting him to do well. 
"Very good."
"Not sore?"
"Will you stop worrying? You'll give yourself acid reflux."
Brett grinned. 
"About you? Never. Anyway, we have to get up, right?"
"Yeah. If we leave now we can actually have breakfast in the cafeteria."
"Well, two days out of the week is not that bad, right?"
"I say it's a win, to be honest." Ëddy smirked.
What was it about what they had done last night, that was giving him so much confidence? He had been the helpless one, but yet he had never felt stronger. Weird. But he felt it inside of him, still. In fact, this whole week had made him more confident, he knew that. 
"Let's go, then."

He walked a little gingerly, to be honest, but he tried to keep his paces even, normal. Still, when they came into the cafeteria to find Todd and Ian already there, digging into more rice balls, Todd's eyebrows raised infinitesimally. 
"Good morning." he said, not making the joke Eddy had half and half expected him to make. 
"Good morning. Looking forward to today?"
"Absolutely!"

It took the trip there, unpacking, rehearsing, and going out to lunch with the crew once more before Eddy started realising there was something wrong. 
Brett was quiet. And not his normal, I have nothing to say right now kind of quiet. No, he was withdrawn, and his eyes were distant. Fear started gripping Eddy's heart, because what the fuck was going on? 
Had he not liked what they did last night? And how on earth could he ask him? He could just picture it now. 
Hey, Brett, so, am I a terrible fuck, after all? 
Nope. He wasn't about to ask that. 
But that had to be it, right? Why else would he be so quiet, now? He kept trying to catch his eye, throughout lunch, and on the way back to the auditorium, to get ready for the concert, but Brett seemed completely oblivious. Eddy took a deep breath as they walked into the dressing room the four of them had been given for the day. One hour, and then they would have the first concert. Apparently to a sold out house. Would he even be able to focus like this? But he would have to wait to corner him, right? He couldn't take bad news, not right now, not when he was about to play first violin, and not the easiest part either. And he couldn't fuck Brett up before going on stage either. There was no way. 
"Guys, can we just run through the first pages?" Ian asked softly then, and Eddy nodded straight away. 
"Of course."
It would be good, to play. No thinking, just his fingers, finding their spots. 

He seemed to blink once, and then suddenly find himself walking on stage already. It wasn't a big auditorium, but it was indeed filled to capacity, and his heart started beating faster. Brett was there, beside him, taking his seat, but right now there was nothing but concentration on his face. And Eddy let himself go there, too, concert mode overtaking him and drowning out any worries he had. He sat down, smiled at the quartet and gave them his A. Then, when they were all tuned, he breathed in sharply and started.