Keep It Together (OHSHC/Hikaru Love Story)

Chapter 17

I knocked on the door before opening it the next day. "Hello?" I asked as I stepped inside. Unlike how it usually was during school hours, the lights were on in the Host Club, and the white grand piano had already been pulled out into the center of the room. Shiro sat on the bench in front of it. "Hello, Shiro. Where's Tamaki?"

"He said he was gonna be a little late. You're supposed to get started with me," he said. He looked a little dejected. I set my bag down on one of the couches.

"Oh. How did lessons go this morning? What did he teach you?" I asked, sitting beside him.

"I just don't get it. He tried to teach me the piece, but I don't understand much of it," he frowned and pointed to the sheet music on the stand. I removed the music and looked it over. It was the song he needed to know to play with Hina. Que pensait-il? I thought to myself. He should know Shiro will never learn this way.

I nodded, "I would expect so. We need to work on this, but I just want to try something very simple first. You don't mind, do you?" He shook his head no. I thought at that point he was willing to try anything. I went back over to my bag and took out a single sheet and sat back down where I set it on the stand. "This is just a short lullaby."

He narrowed his eyes at it, "This isn't Japanese! How am I supposed to read it?"

I told him, "I'm not trying to teach you French. Music is a universal language. The piano notes are still the same, and I know you can sight read. Listen to it first." He huffed and nodded, leaning back from the instrument. I smiled a bit and began to play the music. "Vous êtes mon soleil/Mon seul soleil/Tu me fais plaisir quand les ciels sont gris/Vous ne saurez jamais, mon cher/Comment je t'aime/S'il vous plaît, ne prenez pas mon rayon de soleil."

"Can you play it again? You know, while singing in Japanese?"

"Okay. Remember: you need to be listening to the piano more than me," I said. He nodded, so I did it once more. "You are my sunshine/My only sunshine/You make me happy when skies are gray/You'll never know, dear/ How much I love you/Please, don't take my sunshine away."

"You remember," I heard Tamaki say. I turned my head to look at the door. Tamaki stood there in disbelief, and I was a little confused as to why.

"Oh, Tamaki. I hadn't heard you come in. I thought I should try to teach Shiro something simple to get him used to having his hands move on the piano since he was having a hard time earlier," I explained. I watched him walk over to the piano.

"I didn't think you would remember that song," he repeated. He had a distant look in his eye, like he was thinking deeply about something.

I frowned, "Of course, I do! Mama always sang this to us when we were little, not to mention, it was the first song I learned to play. Why did you think I wouldn't?"

He began, "I...." He relaxed and turned back to his regular self. "Never mind. Why don't you try playing it, Shiro?"

Shiro shook his head, "I don't know. I don't think I can get it right."

"You can be wrong. It won't make us upset, but you have to try to play it," I denied. He looked at me for a moment before taking a deep breath and mimicking how my hands were on the piano. I smiled a bit when he began to play the song. He took it slowly, trying to focus on the notes and sound. When he finished, Tamaki and I applauded him.

"That was perfect, Shiro! You'll be a master at the piano in no time!" Tamaki encouraged.

"Well, I'm not too sure about that, but you'll be able to play with Hina. You can't get discouraged so quickly. Learning an instrument or music piece just takes a lot of practice," I reminded him.

Shiro asked us, "Do you really think I'll be able to play with Hina before she moves away?"

Tamaki placed a hand on my shoulder as he promised, "Definitely! We're going to get you there, so don't worry about it."

I placed a hand over Tamaki's and agreed, "We'll prepare you for this. Two teachers are better than one, right?"

"Then, let's keep practicing. I want to learn as much as I can," Shiro decided, quickly turning back to the piano. "What am I playing next?"

For the rest of our time that day, we kept giving him short, easy pieces from our childhood. Tamaki played the songs as I sang the lyrics in the original and translated versions. Surprisingly, I found Shiro wasn't truly as rotten as he first seemed, and he never said anything again about me mixing my Japanese with French. He was a good student.

What I thought was even more surprising was that Tamaki could remember all of the old songs we used to play as kids. We were having fun with it, and we were even happier to be teaching Shiro them like Mama had taught us. It was like things hadn't changed between us.

It was the happiest I had been around him since we were reunited.