The Tune of Love (GaLe)

Bravo!

Shortly after we arrived back at the music room, the class started to appear. One-by-one, groggy classmates stubled in the door and took their seats, most closing their eyes to get some final rest before the teacher came. It was at this point that I could feel just how very real this was becoming. I was nervous. My heart was thumping loudly in my chest and I tried to calm myself with deep breaths. Gajeel, who had sat down next to me, smiled when he became aware of how nervous I was. This just made me pissed off. Who does that? When someone is genuinely panicking, who feels the need to laugh or poke fun at them? Though he wasn't doing either of those things, I could tell he wanted to. He didn't. Instead, he did a quick check of the room to see that everyone was occupied doing their own thing, then looked me in the eye, placed his large hand on my tiny shoulder and squeezed it reasurringly.
"Don't worry," he said.
"Look at all these people here," he nodded toward the others who were half asleep and almost unconscious.
"Do any of them look as prepared as we are? Do any of them look like their piece is as good as the one you wrote?" I observed the room as he had done, unsure of my answer.
"But what if they all stayed up composing and practicing late last night and that's why they're all tired but they actually know what they're doing really well because of the amount of hard practice they did last night?" I blurted out nonsensically.
"Levy," he sighed, "we have the best piece here and we will be getting the top marks, alright?" He removed his hand from my shoulder and laid his head on the table, his unruly black hair draped around him. To me, he looked more like a rockstar than someone that plays a calm song with a piano accompanying. Then, the teacher arrived, smiled at the class and strode to the front of the room in front of the whiteboard.
"Alright year 11, time to submit your work. All sheet music to the front here and then I'll work out the order in which we play, but first, any volunteers to go first?" Not even a second after he stopped talking did Gajeel shoot his hand up, head still face-down on the table. I panicked even more and tried to force his arm down before we were called on but it wouldn't budge. He lifted his head at my efforts and smiled again, "It'll be over quicker if we go first," he persuaded. And then it was too late, and the sheets were collected and we were up. My hands were trembling and I wasn't sure if I could even play, calmed slightly by the fact that the piano was off to the side and facing the wall so that, unlike Gajeel, I didn't have to see the audience's reception of our piece.
Time seemed to freeze for a minute and all was silent after I inhaled and my fingers touched the first note. After that, it was loud. The whole room echoed with a beautiful melody and the vocals lined up just right. Adrenaline pumped through my veins and allowed the music to flow just right. It was wonderful, glorious, sublime. It just felt so right. I felt a lot of things then but the most prominent would be pride. The hush that befell the class was enough for me to know that we were good. Until the final note was played, I had never felt better. I removed my hands from the keys and looked to Gajeel for approval, though he only glanced my way briefly. His eyes were much more focused on our teacher, who had apparently been wiping his eyes all through our performance. The whole class only stared in amazement, until Lucy stood, grinning from ear-to-ear she applauded, followed by the rest of the class, even Mr. Makarov. Although I was overjoyed to have been so well-received, I was also quite embarrassed. Gajeel wasn't. He jerked his head at me, signaling I join him in the centre of the room, so I did. I stood beside him, facing the gawking audience, then he did it. He snatched my hand with his own. I was so shocked and embarrassed that I tried to pull my hand away to calm the burning sensation in my cheeks but he held tight. He eyed me as to say 'calm down' before cracking a large grin and bowing, as did I. The second I was able to, I released his hand and scurried back to my seat, Gajeel taking his time but following suit.
Many more performances were made between ours and the Natsu-Lucy team's, none quite comparing to ours and with some actually being quite terrible, definately night-before jobs.

During one particular performance, Mr. Makarov approached us and whispered quietly,
"Stay back after class, I need to have a word with you two." To which I nodded and Gajeel made a sound somewhere between an understanding grunt and an irritated groan in response.
Then Lucy was out the front and I mouthed a silent 'good luck' to her before she began.
They were good. Better than us, maybe? But good, definately. Their vocal tones fit together well and I began to appreciate that Natsu and Lucy were away that day. If they hadn't have been, Gajeel and I would never have become this close and never have performed together, and I wouldn't be able to hear Lucy play so well with Natsu either. As far as I can remember, Gajeel and Natsu's music projects were never really good. They worked together poorly and their styles clashed in such a way that it was never pleasant. Individually, they had talent. Whenever Gajeel or Natsu played by themselves there was always something missing. Thinking of it while hearing this piece, I would say it's the soft and mellow tones of a woman's voice. Lucy had always been an excellent singer. She couldn't play piano like me, even though I was never the best at that either, but she could sing like nobody you'll ever hear. Gajeel had raw musical talent and a baritone voice to top it off, combined with my singing and okay-ish piano we sounded pretty damn good, and so did our friends' Na-Lu combination. Thinking this way, I began to feel these partnerships would be a better idea than our previous situation. Not just for this project, but for all projects to come. It was almost as if fate had drawn the four of us into these positions and as though this was meant to be.
I turned to face Gajeel, fate on my mind and Lucy's soothing voice in my ears, and all I could think of was that I never wanted to leave Gajeel's side.