Play!

XLII

Most of the students visiting the Sydney Opera House were indeed from the Queensland con, and Eddy. 
“You sure you don’t mind being here?”, Brett whispered to him when they started the tour through the building led by a young guy Brett hadn’t caught the name of who normally showed tourist groups around. 
“Nah, why?”, Eddy asked back with a surprised look.
“Because you’ve probably been here like a thousand times?”
“That would be a bit of a stretch. I’m not that familiar like the actual Sydney peeps are. Not from here, remember?”
“Ah, true.”
“Don’t worry”, Eddy smiled, his hand somehow landing on Brett’s shoulder. “I’m good where I am.”
It was a real lucky coincidence that they were at some backstage area surrounded by black curtains and little light, which helped cover up the colour Brett guessed his face showed by now.

But this building really was something else! Brett had actually never had the chance to go inside and while the architecture with the white, concrete shells was impressive to say the least, the concert hall was just as jaw-dropping. 
“Wow”, Brett made when they entered it through the stage entrance, just where all the famous soloists, conductors and musicians walked through whenever they were about to give an epic performance. Were they nervous as well while standing here? Looking at the massive audience filling up the hall, clapping at them? 
Would he, Brett, one day stand here too?

“As you can see, this is the concert hall and also the biggest hall the Sydney Opera House has to offer. There are over 2600 seats distributed over the stalls, circle, upper circle and the boxes. Since the technology is outdated, renovations of this hall are going to start in a few years.”
“Imagine playing in this fully sold out concert hall”, Eddy said with a dreamy expression, eyes roaming the massive place while the tour guide told them some facts about the apparently not-so-great acoustics (of a concert hall, how ironic), how they could adjust the panels depending on the type of the concert, size of the orchestra or whether the organ was being played or not.
Brett smiled as this time his hand found its way to Eddy’s shoulder. “You will one day. You’ll see.”
“Not if I can’t fix my emotionless playing”, the taller let out a deep breath. 
“You’re on the right track, you know.”
“Maybe.”

The tour continued to where sound production was located, featuring so many buttons Brett started to see random patterns all over the mixers. 
“Oh I’d be so unfit for this job!”, Nathan remarked, “I’d get all the roles reversed, cramp up the violas instead of the soloist!”
“Yeah, I could totally see that happen”, Brett agreed.

Their next stop was one of the backstage changing rooms for soloists which had trouble fitting in all the students, forcing them to invade each other’s personal space. Brett stood by the wall where he could see shit, but he’d likely never cared less, the reason being a certain someone standing so close to him his kind of sweet, fresh and really unique scent made Brett dizzy and his whole body wanting to lean in even more in that specific direction…

“That was quite insightful”, Eddy commented when they went back to the con to get some practice time in after splitting with the group. 
“Mhm”, Brett made, very much absentminded. 
“You’re ready for some practice?”
“Mhm.”

This time, they managed to get two keys and for once, Brett was thankful not having to share a room. His steps were heavy, echoing through the staircase as they very slowly carried him to the second floor. He dropped the key while trying to open the practice room, closed the door behind him and thus the world out for a moment and slumped down on the nearest chair first thing with his violin case still on his sweaty back, eyes glassy, almost watery. 

What in sweet Jesus’ name was going on with him?

Okay, it was normal to be excited about a new friend, wanting to spend time with him, finding him super interesting (because let’s face it, Eddy Chen was one of the most fascinating beings Brett had ever had the luck to encounter) and being awed by his exceptional playing. It was also totally common that he wished to be more with Eddy than all his other friends at the moment, right? (Yeah, keep pretending, keep making excuses…) Because Eddy was a loner and if Brett didn’t put in more effort into their friendship for now and also bring Eddy to all social events, that guy’d just be by himself all the time.
Of course! Brett was helping him to improve his playing too like this! Eddy needed the outside-the-practice-room experience, evidently, so he could draw from those emotions when playing the violin. 

Yeah. So it was all very normal. Normal new bro stuff! And Brett was a helper anyway, so him wanting to be by Eddy’s side all the time, making sure he was okay was very normal too, by all accounts! 
(And concerning the blushing several dozen times a day whenever Eddy Chen was so much as in eyeshot, the weird rhythms his heart decided to pump blood through his body in recently, the lack of concentration, the flinching whenever Eddy touched him, and be it just a friendly shoulder pat, the being moved to tears when receiving home cooked meals and free coffee despite him NEVER crying, the wanting to be closer, and closer, and closer… Brett was pretty sure they were all symptoms of his sickness or something).

Alright! Now since that was sorted out and Brett knew all was completely fine and dandy, he could finally move on to practice! The third movement was tricky, full of passages Brett had struggled with earlier this week and putting his whole focus on getting the fast sections clean and still connected felt very, very good. No thinking about Eddy or weird, fuzzy feelings, just him, his violin, his music, straight forward, how it should be. After two hours of concentrated practicing, his mind was much clearer and calmer. 

This hard-earned peace got disrupted by a simple, polite knock on the door. 
“Uh, yeah?”, Brett stuttered while recovering from almost letting his violin drop to the ground because of how startled he’d gotten and wondering since which fucked up traumatic moment he’d almost get a heart attack from nothing more than a sound.
“Brett?”, Eddy’s voice rang through the door before it swung open, revealing Brett’s smiling friend, “You done? Wanna go grab some dinner?”
“Yeah! I’m down!”, Brett exclaimed a tad too loud for it to sound casual but luckily, Eddy showed no reaction other than slightly raising his brows. The whole time when he put away his instrument, unwound his bow and grabbed his stuff, Brett could feel Eddy’s gaze on him, chasing away all remnants of cool and relaxation the practice session had given him and replacing it with giddiness and nervosity like he was a beginner handling his violin under the eyes of his stern teacher.

“How was practice?”
“Good!”, Brett meant and let the key fall into the metal box, “Yours?”
Eddy let his join Brett’s with a clank. “Good. Tried that conveying thing again, but it’s hard for me to hear if there’s any difference from my playing before.”
“Hmm… I can imagine. Wanna play some for me later? I guess you’re gonna anyway during evening rehearsals.”
“That’d be great!”, Eddy stated and grabbed Brett’s both hands with his, “You’d help me a ton! Before rehearsal? After dinner?”
“Uh…”, Brett pressed out, palms seemingly burning up where Eddy’s fingers touched him, “Yeah, sure!”