@veritaphobic
There really was something so relaxing about sitting together like this. Despite the late hour, not many people had gone to bed yet. Dinner had been hours ago, though the hotel they stayed in offered snacks and drinks 24/7. Ouma had finished his third hot chocolate that night, finding himself wrapped up in a blanket, sunken into a leather couch in the middle of a small, comfortable lounge. Saihara-chan, the person he’d already had had dinner with, sat at the other end of the sofa, curled up in a similar way. They were surrounded by curious other faces, classmates and strangers alike, and all they had in common was that they sacrificed precious sleep in order to listen to the Ultimate Pianist giving a free concert. Who would have guessed that the hotel just had a piano standing around here, and it wasn’t like anyone dared to get between Akamatsu Kaede and her urgent needs to play the damn thing. Not that it wasn’t impressive, the opposite really. It had been beautiful, every single piece he’d listened to but... He glanced over at the detective, who seemed like he was completely in awe at this point.
...but it was just getting a little bored around here. Shuffling over, Ouma had to tug on Saihara-chan’s sleeve to get his attention back. Even though they had had so much fun during dinner, making fun of all his beginner mistakes as people desperately tried to keep him from falling as he slowly got used to his skis. It was almost adorable, how he’d been fidgeting and trying so hard, and how everyone encouraged him to keep going. He got the hang of it faster than Ouma wanted to admit, really.
“Hey, Saihara-chan”, he finally whispered into his ear during another round of applause. “How about going somewhere less crowded? It’s not like we’re not used to our little Piano Freak playing the same three songs over and over again, riiight~?”
