Piano Man (Tradley au)

Chapter 17- Brad's POV

As cliche as it is, even though me and Tristan have only officially been together for a few weeks, it feels like much longer. It's like I've known him forever, though in reality it's only been a few months. But I for one haven't been this happy for ages, and Tristan obviously hasn't either. I'm just glad things are working out between us, as there's a weird background to all this.

I'm mainly working on building his confidence- being with Corey destroyed him, and I'm doing my best to put him back together. It's slow going, but I'm getting there. He's much less quiet and reserved than he used to be, though he's never going to be a loud extrovert. But that's ok- he's perfect and I love him just the way he is.

I'm alone at the moment, as Tristan's at work. He loves it so he says it isn't really work, but it still resembles much more of a proper job than my way of earning a living. But he's happy surrounded by books all day, and I'm happy playing my music for people late at night, so it works. I couldn't do his job, I need noise and people, but I guess opposites attract. It'd be boring if we all liked the same things.

Right now, I'm sitting at my piano trying to get this melody out of my head. It came to me completely randomly, and I'm trying to do something with it. I like the sound of it and it'd be a shame to waste it. Unfortunately writer's block has well and truly struck. Luckily I've got it written down, so I won't forget it. 

The sound of the door unlocking startles me slightly. It's just Tristan coming back, but I was totally out of it in my own thoughts. He's here most of the time, so I figured I might as well give him a key. "Hey!" I call. "How are you?"

Tristan sighs, though he doesn't look sad. "Man, what a day."

"What happened?" I ask, getting up and heading to the kitchen to make some tea. 

He laughs. "You know those days where literally everything pisses you off, even for no good reason?"

"I know exactly what you mean." I agree. "What in particular?"

He smiles. "I was in a bad mood all day. I had a lady shout at me this morning because she didn't want to pay a fine for her book being returned late."

"And that was your fault because?" I ask.

Tristan shrugs. "I have no idea. I mean, I don't make the rules. And then that put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day."

"Fun times." I say, returning with the tea and handing him his mug, which he takes gratefully. 

"Thank you." he says. "So, what did you get up to?"

"I tried to do something with a melody I came up with, but I didn't really get anywhere."

"Nowhere at all?" Tristan asks. 

I shake my head. "Nope. I wrote it down so I won't forget it, but I just couldn't think of anything."

Tristan then pauses before saying "Can I hear it?"

I'm slightly surprised by that, but I shrug. "Sure." I feel weirdly nervous- it's not like I've never played in front of him before. I guess it's just much more intimate, as it's just him and me rather than a bar full of people. 

I sit down at the piano and adjust my papers nervously before beginning to play. Out of the corner of my eye I see him listening intently. It's only a short piece, so it's not long before I hear Tristan clapping. "I liked that." he tells me. However, even though I smile, I don't properly respond as inspiration has suddenly struck. All of my feelings from my time with Tristan come rushing out and onto the paper- I'm almost writing subconsciously.

After 10 minutes or so, I turn back to Tristan. "Sorry." I apologise. "It just came to mind. I had to get it down before I forgot."

Tristan laughs. "That's ok, I don't mind. I liked the sound of it, though I do know almost nothing about music." 

"It needs tweaking." I say. "But I'm just glad to have got it out of my head." 

He smiles. "It's cool seeing the master at work."

"Hardly a master." I laugh. "But thank you." I go over to sit beside him and he continues telling me about his say. The more I listen to him, the more I recognise all the emotions I felt in that music. The smallest things he does make me happy, and I guess that's what I was trying to convey- constant happiness, even at the weirdest things. It's a strange feeling, but a good one. I just hope he feels the same. He deserves the world, and given how happy he makes me, the least i can do is make sure he's happy too. I owe it to him- he deserves it.

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This was not good 🙈 Please vote and comment anyway!

I also know nothing about music, so apologies for how wrong this is likely to be 😂 Though I added the link to my playlist for this story as an external link, hopefully it works 🙏🏻