Allegro con fuoco

LXX

They had wanted him to play, right? Lee had asked him to, right, in the shop? Sort of? And suddenly there was nothing he wanted more than do exactly that, join in with the musicians in their colourful clothes, improvise on the haunting melody that was speeding up now, celebrate the day the best way he knew how. He took one more quick bite of food, then another, shot a smile to his love with his mouth full of rice, and then he tightened his bow and made his way through the crowd. 

He had just gotten to the musicians when Lee appeared by his side.
"Oh, Eddy! You're going to play your violin? Thank you!"
"Yes! I thought I'd join in? If that's okay?"
"Of course it is, nothing would make me happier." Lee said and he folded his arms in front of him with gleeful eyes, already swaying from side to side to the beat of the boy on his drums. So Eddy nodded and put his violin to his shoulder, plucking the strings quickly to check they weren't monstrously out of tune. The guy with the flute had seen him coming and he smiled with his eyes now, a clear encouragement.
Okay. So why not? One more look around the crowd, and a few people were looking at him expectantly. A thrill pulled through him as he stepped next to the flute guy, put his bow to his violin and started playing along. 

Within minutes he was completely absorbed. Oh, but this was awesome! The guy with the flute was loving it too, he could see that in his face as they improvised a melody in thirds together. The drum was getting louder now, raucous almost, the kid was singing along here and there in a clear, pure voice, and more and more people around them were starting to dance. How different this was from a classical concert, where people would sit still and be quiet. Here he was part of the dance, part of the event, right at the heart of it in fact. He took a deep breath and tried to remember the moment, etch it into his memory. Just then he caught Brett's eye across the crowd. His love had left his food behind and had stepped on the dance floor next to Li, but he wasn't dancing much, he was just standing there in the crowd, chatting to their hostess, swaying a little, but all the while eyeing him with a wondrous look on his face. 
"You wanna join?" he lip synched, motioning with his chin, but Brett shook his head with a smile and simply kept looking at him like that from his spot, while chatting with Li and sipping at a glass of sugarcane juice. 

It must have been at least an hour later when he put his violin away and stepped out to eat some more and rest a bit.
"Hey." he said as he reached his love and sat down on the chair he had had earlier. "You didn't feel like playing?"
Brett grinned softly. 
"No. I thought I'd leave it up to mr Perfect Pitch to improvise. I suck at improvising, you know that as well as I do."
"What? Why? It's just a matter of going with the flow."
Brett grinned again. 
"Yeah, when you're as musical as you are it is. I was quite happy to stare at you from afar. Very happy, in fact."
There was something in Brett's eyes that made Eddy freeze instead of telling him that wasn't true. 
"Oh yeah?" he managed. 
Brett leaned forward and whispered in his ear. 
"I'll show you later how happy. Now. Eat."
Everything inside Eddy lit up like a Christmas tree at Brett's words and his feeling from earlier, from wanting to skip the party altogether, returned. 

But hey. Let's face it. He wouldn't have wanted to miss this for the world.