Midnight Manor, Sunday Afternoon

[pocketpretzels]

Watts and Steven were having guests over on Tuesday for dinner, and not being the sort to do anything by halves, had decided on a few different pies for dessert as well as different types of bread to accompany the main course. And since that was a lot of baking to get done in a single day, they were making the dough ahead of time.

"In to the freezer with that one now," Watts directed, nodding at the batch they'd just finished.

Comments

[pocketpretzels]

"All yours," Watts agreed. He pulled away in order to put the dough in a bowl and cover it, and then reached for Steven's hand. "Come," he said, gesturing towards the door.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven threaded their fingers together. "Piano now?"

[pocketpretzels]

"Piano now," Watts affirmed.

[hasaknightjob]

"You've not played before, right?" Steven asked. "Or am I remembering wrong?"

[pocketpretzels]

"You are remembering correctly," Watts assured him. "I've not played before."

[hasaknightjob]

Steven felt the sense of relief that always came when he confirmed he'd gotten a memory right. "First time then. Exciting."

[pocketpretzels]

Watts gave Steven's hand a gentle squeeze.

"The woman who came to tune it yesterday said it was in good shape overall," Watts reported.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven squeezed back, thankful for the reassurance. "That's good. Advantage to it being left alone so long, maybe?"

[pocketpretzels]

"Perhaps," Watts agreed as they entered the library. "There's all sorts of pieces and parts to a piano that I never really considered."

[hasaknightjob]

"Neither had I," Steven admitted. "Sort of like furniture, really."

[pocketpretzels]

"Like furniture?" Watts asked, as they approached the piano, and he gave Steven's hand one final squeeze before he let go to open the music folder resting on the piano.

[hasaknightjob]

"I think of pianos as being furniture, more or less," Steven explained. "Not much thought to their inner workings. Where would you like me?"

[pocketpretzels]

Watts looked at the piano bench. "There's room for two?" he suggested.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven looked happy at the idea, even as he double checked, "I won't be in your way?"

[pocketpretzels]

"Not for this," Watts said. "I'm just- familiarising myself with the keys, and the like." He gestured to the first page in the folder, which had a labeled diagram of the keyboard.

[hasaknightjob]

"In that case - " Steven sat down beside Llewellyn. Then he leaned over to kiss Llewellyn on the cheek. "This is nice."

[pocketpretzels]

"You say that now," Watts said, smiling at the kiss. "You may yet change your mind."

And one hand was tentatively reaching out, searching for the 'C' key and pressing down.

[hasaknightjob]

"You trust me to be here while you learn," Steven said. "I'd say that's very nice."

Steven gently rubbed Llewellyn's back for a moment to reassure him.

[pocketpretzels]

Watts closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth of Steven's touch for a moment before he continued, hitting the next note on the scale.

[hasaknightjob]

Since it didn't seem to be distracting him, Steven kept his hand on Llewellyn's back to encourage him. "Sounds good so far?"

[pocketpretzels]

Watts nodded, plucking out the next couple notes of the scale. "The tuner knew what she was doing."

Good thing, considering it was her profession and all.

[hasaknightjob]

"And you're not hitting the keys wrong?" Steven said. He didn't know if it was possible to hit keys wrong, but it didn't sound like Llewellyn was if that was the case.

[pocketpretzels]

"I do not believe so," Watts said, hitting the next note in the scale.

[hasaknightjob]

"They sound good to me," Steven said. "Scales, right? That's what it sounds like."

[pocketpretzels]

Watts finished off with the final three notes. "C Major," he confirmed. "Everything I could gather on beginner piano playing said to start there."