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“What do you mean you can’t let me go around by myself?”
They were walking towards the pier where they hoped to encounter lots of tourists willing to throw some coins into their open cases. 
“Sydney can be dangerous, especially for someone like you”, Eddy meant dryly, his dark brown hair whipping up and down with every step.
“What the hell does that mean?”, Brett frowned.
“Never mind.”

The pier was quite busy for a weeknight with dozens of families, couples and tourist groups mingling around, admiring the lights of the city which got reflected on the surface of the quiet sea. Brett and Eddy set up just by the waters, each taking out their instruments and bows.
“Damn! We forgot music stands!”, Brett said while tightening his bow. 
“You don’t know the piano part by heart?”, Eddy winked. 
“Not a prodigy-alert!”
“Don’t know it either”, Eddy laughed and propped up his violin, “only the solo-part.”
“Of course. The only thing required for a prodigy.”
“But what do we do? Both play solo?”, Eddy wondered with creased eyebrows. 
“Nah. Doesn’t work well with crowds. You know Czardas by Monti?”
“‘Course! What do you think?”
“I do the accompaniment, you play solo?”
A small grin graced Eddy’s expression, an excited one. “Switch in the middle?”
Brett smiled. “Sure!”

A short second of tuning caught the attention of some people close by and after a short nod, Brett placed his bow on the strings. And when Eddy came in powerfully on the G string, heads were sure to turn. 
Brett knew after countless times of busking with his fellow QYO mates in different constellations that Czardas was a good piece to show off a bit and draw people in despite the relatively low effort it required. But even he was caught off guard by Eddy’s playing, unable to withdraw his gaze from that being who produced a sound instantly enchanting Brett's ears.

There was weight in each note. A richness and fullness in every tone despite their outside location which blew Brett away and Eddy’s musicality drew a picture, a story so captivating Brett was convinced listeners couldn’t turn away even if they wanted. Only the fact that Brett knew this piece in his sleep kept his hands from lowering the violin and blankly stare at his busking partner like a total imbecile. He panicked a bit when he realized their switch coming up halfway through, because how on earth was he gonna compete to that?
Luckily, there was not much time to ponder on it and when it was his turn, Brett just let experience and muscle memory take over.
And it was great! Eddy knew to take himself back despite just having played the solo-part so jaw-droppingly and provided Brett with a solid base so he could shine, could let his music soar over the pier into the night.

“That was awesome!”, Eddy beamed, their bows still in mid-air after a grand ending downbow, applause raining on them and coins as well as notes finding their new homes in Eddy’s open case they’d put a few meters in front of them.
“Yeah! Gosh, mate! Your playing…”
It was this smile again, this unfeigned, wonderfully open smile that made Brett believe in a heartbeat what Eddy said next. “Yours too, Brett. It’s beautiful!”
Good thing there wasn’t much light, because Brett was pretty sure his cheeks flared up like some SOS-signal fires out in the ocean. But if Eddy said so, he couldn’t have sucked that bad, could he?

Next up were Spring, Summer and Winter by Vivaldi and with every piece they adapted to each other's playing and leading more and more, synching up in tempo, dynamic and musicality with ease. The crowd grew bigger until there was quite a circle standing around these two young musicians and even when they switched to Bach solo pieces which were less flashy, new passerbys stopped to listen. Brett was on cloud nine. Performing music he knew by heart with a guy he felt so comfortable with it was almost scary, what else did he want? Where else did he want to be?

So they drew it out as long as they could, until they didn’t know what to play anymore and just started from the top, until finally, two cops came up to them and asked them for a busking permit.

“Totally forgot about that!”, Brett huffed while packing up his violin.
“I didn’t even know you need one”, Eddy said, scooped their new earned money out of his case and haphazardly filled it in a compartment of Brett’s bag for now.
“This or you just change location every thirty minutes. We did that back in Brisbane. Don’t know if that applies to Sydney too, though.”
“What a hustle.”
“Life on the streets, man.”
Eddy laughed. 

“Hey Brett.” They were leaving the pier when he nudged Brett’s shoulder, making him turn to Eddy.
“This was really fun! Thank you.”
Brett’s gleeful smile got even bigger. “Told you you’d like it!”
“Guess I just have to listen to you, huh.”
“Of course! In all matters!”
“Of course. You're my senpai after all, I guess.”
“Ha! Only in age”, Brett waved at Eddy’s comment, “Your much better on the violin. And we’re in the same uni year, so…”

“But seriously”, Eddy’s tone changed from playful to genuine, “thanks, Brett. I really did enjoy myself.”
Brett’s heart swelled. “No worries. I had a lot of fun too.”
"So, bubble tea?”, Eddy asked with a wink. 
“You bet!”

A/N: Merry (belated) Christmas everyone! I hope you had some peaceful, fun and quiet time with the people you love. Wish you all God's blessing, all the best and thank you guys so much for reading my stuff, starring and commenting! It means the world!
Love, Author-san