Soul Mark (breddy fanfic)

Calm Before the Storm

Eddy went all out that night.

He was relaxed for the most part, being the center of the attention had always been a sport he enjoyed so much since he was a little, it almost funny how he was stressing about this concert so much, less than twelve hours ago, for right now, he could only feel the blood inside his veins rushing with adrenaline, but in the best way possible.
The excitement always came late with his performance, but maybe it was for the best.

Still, a small portion of it was because he knew that Brett would be watching, somewhere among the audience.

He tried searching for Brett's familiar face, but the blinding spotlight towards the stage prevented him to do so, even the conductor's hands were hardly perceptible from his point of view, blurring into a dim silhouette.

It was when the second movement began, and the oboe had this most delicate, softest solo moment,

his shoulder-rest dropped.

Eddy could feel his face heated up as the sound of the stubborn gadget whacked on the floor echoes around the stage, tainting the music.

Ouchie.

Eddy picked up his shoulder rest with as much dignity his self-esteem could conjure in the meantime, gracefully bending down his knees and picked up the shoulder-rest, sinking under the light.

Then his eyes caught a glimpse of his best friend, but he was not looking at him.

Instead, he was talking to someone beside him rather intimately, whispering directly into his company's earlobe, his hand lingered on the kneecap of the unknown person.

Eddy tried to ignore the feeling of his leaden heart sinking into his stomach as he doved into the next phrase.

----

"Oh My Gosh! His shoulder rest dropped! He must be so nervous right now! Aarsddfgghkhlll!" Brett let out a stifled cry the taller cellist's ear, slap the unlucky kneecap of the said person multiple times, eliciting a not-so-discreet chuckles from Hyung. The elderly women that sat behind their seats hush the two young men, muttering 'young men nowadays, has no ettiquete!' or something along the line.

"Calm down Brett! can't you see that your friend is more than capable to handel himself on the stage??" Hyung tried to reason with him.

"Well, you should have seen him last week, it was unnerving." Brett said as he followed the impulsive tug to moved his legs continuously, "I think it had rubbed off on me, the anxiety is" Brett murmured with a thumb chewed between his lips.

Hyung removed the poor thumb from Brett's mouth, and pat the restless leg to still. "Relax Brett, look! he's pulling himself together" The taller man pointed at the soloist on the stage, distracting Brett from his worries.

"He's nailing it Brett!" Hyung commented when Eddy played the quick runs.

Brett eyes widened at the performance "Did you just heard skids?? oh my-his bow, oh my, he will sulk i swear" Brett talked to himself.

"Sounds okay to me" The taller person leaned forward and cupped his ears with his curved palm to get a better sound. "Yep, that's alright, your friend doing great"

"No, he'd been struggling for that one passage since the beginning," He let out an exasperated sigh.
"he's so hard on himself sometimes" especially when it comes to his music.

Hyung gave the violinist a half smirk, a knowing one. "You really do care about this friend of yours, huh?"

Brett slumped down to his seat "yeah.." They've known each other for a long time, it's hard for Brett to stop caring about Eddy, for he'd been doing it since day one.

"I've known him for a long time, and he's kinda clumsy from time to time, his mother entrusted him to my care"

"Sure.." Hyung covered his smile under his palm. These clueless people.
"i'm sure that must be it" he let out a soft chortle. Yes, Brett was cute, but pining was always more adorable and amusing sight to see.

Brett threw him a sideway glance and resumed his attention towards the soloist. So far so good, it's almost near the end.

With the last set of semiquavers, Eddy closed the pages of Barber Violin Concerto, finished it well.

Brett almost couldn't keep his applause to himself, though he was saved from the embarrassment by his cellist friend.

After rounds of applause and formalities, the two musicians found their way to the soloist's dressing room, complete with a bouquet of pastel daisies in hand.

Brett knocked on the door and Eddy opened it immediately.

"Bro congrats! you did it!" The smaller man beamed at the soloist as he stick out his hand, offered him the flowers.

Eddy ignored the bouquet and opted for a hug instead. "yeah, i'm so glad it's over, i made a lot if mistakes! aaaaaaarrghh!!" Eddy screamed to the crook of Brett's neck, squeezing the smaller man with the force of his hug, Brett merely chuckled as he returned the hug.

"No, it was barely audible, really, you did a great job" a third voice replied.

Eddy quickly released the bespectacled violinist from his arms and offered a handshake to the third person, his face blossomed in red.

"Hi! sorry I didn't see you there! thank's for coming! I'm Eddy!" Eddy stammered to the cellist.

"Yes, I know, I'm Hyung" Hyung shake his hand with a smile plastered on his face. "Great performance"

"Yes! Eddy, he's my friend from the SSO fellowship, he's a cellist, graduated from Julliard this year." Brett introduced the two properly.

"Oooh, Julliard, what a Ling-ling!" Eddy nudged Brett on his side.

"Not really, I just practiced 40 hours a day" The three men laughed at their inside jokes, not one of them had suspected the gnawing thoughts Eddy cooked upon his mind.

Brett had shared their inside jokes with this person? that's fast. Eddy thought to himself, ignoring the previous image of Brett leaning to whisper in the cellist's ear that night.

Nah, what a joke,

Brett is allowed to have friends other than him. Of course.

But what if there's more to it?

-----

The next few days were cozy, to say the least.

Brett was getting ready to move out from their shared flat to join the SSO fellowship at Sydney, his things was already packed into neat boxes, ready to go.

Eddy demanded for Brett to keep him company until the day of the moving out, firmly stated that 'after four years of togetherness, it would be hard for him to not be around each other'

Brett corrected him 'it's three years' (for they would be parted on Brett's first year and Eddy's last year) but Eddy hugged him, still. Pulling him into one of their impromptu cuddle-session.

So Brett complied, it would be hard for him too, never leaving Brisbane for his whole life,

and Eddy. Eddy was warm and comfy, and Brett couldn't denied his warm presence, especially now.

While the two young musician getting comfortable around each other, someone's phone rang. It was Brett's phone, so the smaller musician reached out to look at the dialer's id.

It was Hyung.

Brett bolted outside to picked up the call.

*a/n* okay, bear with me folks, bear with me 😂

Comments and upvotes are much appreciated 😆