World Tour

Paris, rehearsal day

The next morning they both felt the urge to get some real practice in. It had been only a couple of days since they had touched their violins, but it had been a lot longer than that since they'd really practiced by themselves. 
Eddy took out his violin and tuned it. He started with some scales, and then moved on to his beloved Sibelius concerto. He knew he'd get his tone going if he played that. 
Brett had taken out his violin and had started practicing in earnest as well. It didn't bother them at all to be playing at the same time. Musicians are well versed in focusing on their own playing through a cacophony of sounds. 

When Eddy was satisfied that his bowing was on point, his shifts were flowing freely and his tone was good, he put the violin back in its case and started getting ready to go to the venue. 

As he came out of the bathroom he felt two arms, closing around him from behind. 
¨Hey boyfriend. Feeling good about today?¨
¨I don't know!¨ Eddy said, turning around to hug him. 
 ¨I wonder about this venue... there's still a fair few tickets left!¨
They had spent a lot of time and effort planning this tour. It had almost killed them physically, first of all through the kickstarter campaign for which they went homeless for five days. It had taken them a bit of time to recover from that, both physically and emotionally.
But after that had come the stress of trying to plan something globally, cutting through all the red tape and learning how different countries handled things. 
Because they were on such a tight budget, they had had to do everything themselves. 
Paris had not been the easiest city to arrange, and the ticket sales had not been great. 
So Eddy was worried about this one. 

¨I know, my love. But it will be okay, you'll see¨, Brett said mildly. 
¨We've done everything we could.¨

Eddy kissed him deeply, before he broke away. 
¨Come on, let's go find a croissant and head out!¨

There was no other word for it. It was shit. The venue was not that nice, the people were very  unaccomodating and communication was tough. 
Eddy felt himself getting quite frustrated. Fuck's sake, why had they put all this effort into it if no one else wanted to put any in? 
When he felt so stressed he knew he might raise his voice, which is something he just did not do, he went off to the dressing room. 

He walked in and slapped his hand against the wall, hard.
¨Fuck this shit!¨ he half shouted. 
He slammed himself down on a chair and breathed deeply, scrunching his eyes shut, calming himself down. 
After a minute he shook his head at himself. Come on mate, get a grip. 

On his way out he ran into Brett, who had clearly come looking for him.
¨You good?¨ he asked. 
¨Yeah bro, I'm fine. Just needed a second to destress. No worries.¨
¨We'll get through this one.¨ Brett said. 
¨Yeah.¨

The silver lining was their new accompanist Sophie, who was French and would accompany them all the way through to the end of their tour. She was a delightful elphin like girl, who they both instantly took to. She had a charming accent and her playing was absolutely awesome. 
Eddy knew straight away they'd have to get her to do a Ling Ling workout on the piano. He could only stare and drool, as she played a Chopin concerto to get her fingers going.
She really knew her stuff too,  because she played the violin as well. It could not have been a better fit. 

They all got on the stage and painstakingly ran through everything several times, getting to know each other musically, ironing out all the details.
With their signature blend of real classical music and comedy they had to pay a lot more attention to the timing of everything than with any other concert. Sophie had to know exactly what they were doing at all times. 
Eddy had himself under control now. He was there to make music, simple as that. And when he looked at Brett he saw his focused face and suspected he was doing exactly the same. 

They put the work in.  

They would be fine.