Perfect Match (Aesvic)

Chapter 15

Aesop's fingers kept swiftly moving from one key to another, filling the whole room with his favorite melody. His gray eyes closed once more, and his body rocked from one side to the other as if he was locked in the space between his own thoughts and the soft song of the piano.

The scent of wood and books was still present in the room. The wooden shelves had various floral motives engraved on them and carried the weight of countless books and ornaments, such as small sculptures, a dusty camera, and even a fully preserved lizard skeleton. All of the dead objects created the perfect audience for the lone embalmer and reminded him of the place he enjoyed the most—the morgue—in which he could feel peace and closure with the thing he adored and awaited.

Finally, the silence fell as the last note died out in the room. Aesop's hands hanged above the keyboard while his eyes opened partly, just enough for him to catch a glimpse of the morning sunrays sneaking in through the curtains. He stayed still as the clapping from behind him praised his work. He slowly turned around to look in the direction of the doors leading to the corridor.

Victor clapped his hands while leaning on the door frame, his eyes watching the embalmer with great interest. This small gesture quickly brought a small smile to Aesop's lips, but his expression was still hidden under the white medical mask he would wear at all times. Aesop gave Victor a little bow of his head, which the postman took as a thanks and a sign that his praise was pretty much welcomed in the eyes of the embalmer. Victor quickly reached into his bag and pulled out a notebook. The man's hand swiftly wrote something down and walked up to Aesop.

"Flawless as always :)" Aesop's eyes had read the note and looked up at Victors. This time he couldn't hold eye contact for long, so he nodded his head and turned to the piano again. He could still feel the warm presence of the man behind him, so he reluctantly and slowly moved in his seat, leaving some free space by his side. Victor's eyes widened in surprise, but he didn't waste a single second contemplating Aesop's behavior; he just sat down by the man's side and kept his soft gaze on him. His eyes wandered around Aesop's face and body, first appreciating his elegant side profile, then his calm eyes, which were now staring down at the wooden keys of the piano. He took a glance at his ear before letting his eyes fall to the slim and pale neck, at which he looked for a good moment before taking notice of the embalmers perfect posture and neat uniform. Soon his attention was turned to the gloved hand, which unexpectedly reached out to him. Victor looked up in confusion and blushed slightly as soon as he noticed the cold eyes staring right at him, catching him in the shameful act of staring.

"God, his eyelashes are so long..." Victor thought and continued to stare until embalmers eyebrows frowned.

Victor tilted his head a bit in a curious and confused manner, to which Aesop blinked blankly and took the notebook out of the postman's hands.

The sound of the pen's tip dancing against the paper surface only kindled the blonde man's interest, so he cautiously and shyly scooted a bit closer to the embalmer, who was surely taking his time writing something down. Victor leaned closer, trying to take a peek at the note, but Aesop didn't let him catch the smallest glimpse of a single word. Victor looked at him with a little frown of desperation, but seeing the man unbothered by his curiosity, he just turned to look at the ceiling instead. His hands were resting on his knees as he patiently waited for his companion to finish writing down his thoughts. As he waited, he would stare at the tiny particles of dust that would show as soon as the smallest rays of sunshine hit them.

Aesop glanced at Victor from time to time; this time he was the one trying to take in all of the postman's bodily "assets".

Finally, after a short while, Aesop cleared his throat and handed the notebook back. Victor's eyes widened as soon as he noticed how simple his own handwriting looked next to the fancy cursive of his interlocutor.

"Your praise is more than welcomed. I would say that my skill still requires polishing, yet your simple gesture made me believe that it is in fact enjoyable for individuals other than me."

Victor blushed a bit and glanced at Aesop, who was now intently staring at him, almost as if waiting for a response.

"I really liked it. It's the second time I hear you playing this melody, but I feel like it's only getting better." Victor wrote it down with a silly smile and showed it to Aesop, who stared at that smile of his before taking the notebook once more. The embalmers eyes narrowed as his hand wrote down his reply. The sincerity of the postman was really getting into his head without the smallest issue once again.

He turned the note around for Victor to see. "Thank you." the note said. Aesop's eyes were on Victor's face again, but this time he seemed more nervous. The air in the room seemed almost suffocating and heavy. He could feel an unknown pressure squeezing his chest again and making his ears ring. Finally, he raised his hand and took off his mask.

Victor's face filled with color as he saw the perfectly shaped lips stretch into a smile. Aesop quickly bowed his head with that gentle smile of his and anxiously looked back down as he put his mask back on. Now the ringing in his ear was replaced by the heavy thumping of his heart, which seemed to try and beat through his chest. Victor leaned closer and took the notebook out of Aesop's hand, brushing his fingers against the glowed hand on the way. His brown eyes tried looking into Aesop's once more, but he successfully avoided it like fire.

Scribbling again...

"You have a beautiful smile. I don't understand why you're trying to hide it." Victor wrote down and was about to show it to the silver-haired man, but he quickly stopped and threw in a few more words. "Don't hide it from me at least." was the small sentence he decided to add before turning the note back to Aesop.

As soon as he read the note, his lips parted to inhale nervously. He finally gathered enough confidence to look up at the figure in front of him. He wanted to say so much, but the manor's restrictions were keeping his mouth shut, saving him from saying too much or too little to pay for the postman's kind words. The nervousness in his chest did not back up, and the pressure continued to rise the more Victor smiled right at his face, which started to melt away the cold demeanor of the embalmer with an indefinable warmth. His mind was running wild with all the sentences he wanted to say, and his heart was telling him to take the notebook and write down every single word that flowed through the rough sea of thoughts in which he was drowning. Something as stupid as his own organs arguing against each other's choices made Aesop finally break. He stood up and quickly walked off while grasping the edges of his perfectly ironed, gray uniform and thinking about the idiocy of his own behavior.

Victor sat in silence after Aesop's unexpected departure. His brown eyes were calmly looking at the empty seat next to him. The man didn't feel bothered or sad—quite the opposite. His face was shining bright with a wide grin of proudness, since the last thing that he noticed about Aesop before he left was how incredibly red his ears got.