Work Text:
One night, she heard him playing the piano.
One night, she listens him play the piano.
One night, when Miss Fine had pushed him to the limit for the umpteenth time.
One night, when he had once again suffered the storm that was Maxwell around Miss Fine and the children.
One night, she had deigned to listen to him, to waste precious seconds that she would rather waste than understand, and everything had changed, because everything had to change one day.
Her fingers mediate between her most hidden thoughts and the most naked music. The whole forms something she could have criticized for a good week, but she'd rather hear the sound more often.
He didn't notice. Or he has, but he'd rather not say. Whatever, C.C. tries to tell herself. She doesn't have time to convince herself that she's already persuaded by this harmony that's as humanly false as it is clear.
Niles plays badly and falsely. He doesn't know how to play. Yet it touches her. Yet it lays them bare. Yet it binds them. Yet it's them.
It sounds them. It sounds bad, but it sounds perfect in its mediocrity.
The melody the man tries to create comes from pure sentimental intuition. The next notes are not thought of and the old ones are already forgotten, yet it has probably already become his favorite musical heartbeat.
Yet the air carries her not so high, but closer to Niles than she ever seems to have been. It's intoxicating, haunting, loving, ugly, sometimes even funny, and it sounds heavenly.
It sounds in C.C.
It whispers.
It mumbles.
It speaks.
It clears up.
It raises its voice.
It screams.
It yells.
It lives.
And C.C. just melted, just understood the biggest subtlety of them all. In love to hate each other and their bond. Enemies to love and cherish their bond.Everything seems complex, yet everything seems easy. No. Nothing seems. Everything is. They are. They already are. Even if they are not yet. Even if they have not yet been met. Even if they haven't been born yet. They already are, because the most beautiful music always comes from the most beautiful bonds.